Awards Season, Reviews / 09.09.2019

If there was one inclusion on the Toronto Film Festival schedule this year that stood out as an intriguing addition, it was undoubtedly Hustlers; a film which, on its surface, appears like something more at home in a summer blockbuster season than amongst a litany of awards season hopefuls. With its ensemble female cast stacked with big names of both the film and music world and a narrative centred on the exploits of a group of strippers, you may be expecting a film devoid of any substance. You'd be...

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Awards Season, Reviews / 08.09.2019

Most of us were likely begrudgingly subjected to reading the work of Charles Dickens in our school years. And cinema sure has mined most of his bibliography since the dawn of the medium. His semi-autobiographical work David Copperfield has itself been adapted numerous times over the years, most notably MGM's big-budget 1935 adaptation, which scored three Oscar noms including Best Picture. It begs the question of why offer up yet another incarnation of this classic tale. Enter writer/director Armando Iannucci to serve up one of the year's most delightful treats...

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Awards Season, Reviews / 20.06.2019

"It's a family film." That's how genius South Korean co-writer/director Bong Joon-ho introduced Parasite, his latest acerbic and satirical treasure that genuinely brought the house down at its Australian premiere at the Sydney Film Festival. After taking aim at classism, consumerism, and capitalism in his two previous films, Snowpiercer and Okja, Bong once against shoots straight at the heart of these achingly relevant themes. The result is nothing short of a cinematic masterpiece. While Parasite may not be surrounded by the lashings of metaphorical meanings from the sci-fi settings...

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Awards Season / 25.02.2019

Well, it's all over for another year, and one of the most topsy turvy awards seasons is finally behind us. In the end, the hostless ceremony itself was far from the cataclysmic disaster many had predicted. If only the same could be said for several of the winners. There were shocks and surprises aplenty, with many us finding our final predictions tallies languishing somewhere in the teens. After the season we've had, it's the ceremony we should have been expecting. But there's still much to celebrate, so before...

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Awards Season / 24.02.2019

It seems the days of smooth preseasons are well and truly gone. It's been another rollercoaster of an awards seasons, and not just because the Academy has made all sorts of baffling and idiotic decisions with their ceremony that's left us all highly anxious for what we're about the experience. For the umpteenth year, we head into the ceremony without a clear Best Picture frontrunner and no one has any concrete idea what film may actually win. Of course, that's rather exciting. In past years where an unstoppable force...

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Awards Season / 23.02.2019

We've reached the end of The Jam Report's closer look at each of our eight nominees for Best Picture, and it seems only fitting we close on perhaps the most divisive nominee of the bunch. With critical and audience reaction split right down the middle, Adam McKay's Vice has equal servings of supporters and haters. Many celebrated its adoration this awards season. And just as many have denounced it. With nominations across the board, can McKay go all the way this time? Let's take a look. Why it could...

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Awards Season / 23.02.2019

One of our earliest frontrunners this season was Bradley Cooper's directorial debut A Star Is Born. After its dazzling debut at the Venice Film Festival and a roaring box office result, it leapt to the front of the pack. Since then, its campaign has all but fallen over and, despite eight Academy Award nominations, few are predicting it to fulfil its initial potential of taking Best Picture. But hold your horses. In a crowded year of contenders without a clear and obvious winner, anything could still happen. Let's...

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Awards Season / 23.02.2019

A genuine work of art. A magnificent achievement in cinema. A film that leaves its audience in a state a delirium of wonder and delight at what they’ve just experienced. We've arrived at the pinnacle of Best Picture nominees this year. Alfonso Cuarón‘s masterful Roma is in a class of its own and could make history by taking home the Academy's top award. But it's got plenty of hurdles to overcome to get there. And, as much as many would love to see it rightly awarded, it's far from...

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Awards Season / 22.02.2019

Oh, boy. Here we go. We've reached the Best Picture nominee that's victory will cause a Film Twitter riot unlike any seen before. Yes, it's time to take a closer look at Green Book, the film that's caused all sorts of anger and fury this awards season. With as many supporters as haters, the film has become a genuine force to be reckoned with this year. Like it or not, it's a strong frontrunner, and we all have to accept the very real possibility of it taking home...

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Awards Season / 21.02.2019

The next film on The Jam Report's closer inspection of this year's Best Picture nominees is The Favourite, the deliciously twisted and naughty period piece from master of the absurd Yorgos Lanthimos. With key nominations across the board and rave reviews from critics, the film has managed to fly under the radar and could be the one Best Picture option many are foolishly ignoring. After years of American films taking out the Academy's top prize, could Best Picture be heading back over the pond once again? Let's take a look. Why...

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