Spiegel Stuff: The Mother! of All Awards Movies?

Vanity Fair

ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY and AWARD NEWS, compiled by REBECCA KEEGAN

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

It's Wednesday, and I've just left the Grand Canyon, a last moment of peace before I dive into the bottomless pit of awards season.

Hello from one of the natural wonders of the world, where we're bracing ourselves for the Toronto International Film Festival, parsing the reviews for Darren Aronofsky's Mother!, and shrugging at the clown in It.

MOTHER MAY I

Well, the time has finally come when we learn if Mother!—Darren Aronofsky's new horror thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence as Javier Bardem's terrorized wife—is worthy of its exclamation point. According to critics who saw the film at the Venice Film Festival this week, the answer seems to be . . . maybe. V.F.'s Guy Lodge describes boos at the press screening, but also writes, "the longer I sit with Mother!, the more moved I am by its madness—after the initial, head-lolling rush of watching it transpire." The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy says the Rosemary's Baby-like tale "definitely grabs your attention and eventually soars well over the top to make the bold concluding statement that, for some creators, art is more important than life." Time magazine's Stephanie Zacharek is less impressed, writing, "It tries so desperately to be crazy and disturbing that all we can see is the effort made and the money spent." Audiences will get to decide for themselves sooner than later; Mother! arrives in theaters September 15.

BEEP-BEEP, RICHIE

V.F.'s Hillary Busis writes:

Everyone knows that It is a story about a killer clown. But what if . . . it weren't? I'm suggesting such blasphemy after seeing New Line's splashy new adaptation of what may be Stephen King's most terrifying novel, which is a great movie—at least, until the clown shows up. I'm sympathetic to Bill Skarsgård, who plays the clown in the new movie; Tim Curry's a tough act to follow, especially as Pennywise, a creation that gave an entire generation of kids coulrophobia in the early 90s. But Skarsgård makes little impression as a creature that's supposed to be the embodiment of all fear—and the film does him no favors by slotting him into scene after scene of computer-generated nonsense. The bright side: the film's young cast is stellar, especially in their ensemble scenes, which have the easy chemistry of another great King adaptation (that would be Stand by Me). Keep an eye particularly on standouts Sophia Lillis and Finn Wolfhard, both of whom also have big TV series in the near future (Wolfhard's got Season 2 of Stranger Things, while Lillis plays a younger version of Amy Adams in HBO's Sharp Objects).

NORTHWARD, HO!

V.F.'s Katey Rich writes:

What do Tonya Harding, Ted Kennedy, and John McEnroe have in common? They're all subjects of biopics debuting this week at the Toronto International Film Festival, which kicks off Thursday and will present hundreds of films from around the world—many of which will, inevitably, enter the fall awards season immediately after. For a look at what's to come, V.F.'s Richard Lawson previewed the lineup, which includes the aforementioned biopics, Aaron Sorkin and Brie Larson's directorial debuts, a movie in which Kate Winslet and Idris Elba may or may not hook up on a mountain, and much, much more. Full coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival kicks off on VF.com Thursday.

GOING FOR GOLD

V.F.'s Yohana Desta writes:

It's always Oscars season somewhere. Though we're still months away from the true start of awards mayhem, various countries around the world are already polishing up and locking in their Oscars picks for next year. In Japan, the lucky title is Her Love Boils Bathwater, a drama about a terminally ill woman directed by Ryota Nakano, which has already won several awards in the country. Over in Norway, the official selection is Thelma, the otherworldly lesbian drama helmed by Joachim Trier; per The Hollywood Reporter, the Norwegian Oscar committee praised it as a film that "fascinates, touches, and revolts." In the Netherlands, Layla M., a drama about a teenage Muslim girl who becomes radicalized, then questions her decision, is the winning pick; the rights were recently snatched up by Netflix. And over in Hungary, the Oscar selection goes to On Body and Soul, a slaughterhouse drama that picked up top honors at Berlin. And the entries will keep coming up until the fateful day in winter when official nominees are announced.

BE BOLD, FREEFORM

V.F.'s Laura Bradley writes:

On Tuesday night, The Bold Type aired one of its best episodes yet—which happened to also be its season finale. The Freeform dramedy has yet to be renewed for its second season, which means Tuesday's brilliantly written and acted entry could be its last—unless Freeform takes a deep breath and makes the bold move to give this show time to find its audience. We're hoping they do. The Bold Type has yet to establish a strong upward trajectory in ratings, but it's garnered a small collection of loyal fans in the critical community—including Variety's Maureen Ryan, who has also advocated for a second season. The dramedy is a refreshingly optimistic addition to a TV landscape that can so often tip toward bleakness, mirroring an increasingly chaotic and fatalistic world. We need a show like The Bold Type to remind us that cynicism doesn't have to be the default—so here's hoping Freeform bets on its best new asset with the same confidence that the women of Bold Type would bet on themselves.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, RESIST

V.F.'s Katey Rich writes:

The movies currently debuting at film festivals and gearing up for the fall awards season were largely filmed either before or during the 2016 election—but that doesn't mean they can't reflect modern politics. Between George Clooney's Suburbicon, which the director calls "a very angry film," and Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton's Battle of the Sexes, which retells a true story in which the smart woman triumphed over the loutish man, the fall movie season will be full of parallels to the Trump era. But can these films really keep up with a political landscape that seems to change by the hour? I wrote about the tricky situation Hollywood finds itself in this fall—eager to address the state of the country but, thanks to the sheer logistics of film production, always a little bit behind the news.

That's the news for this sunny day in Arizona. What are you seeing out there? Send tips, comments, and Navajo rugs to rebecca_keegan@condenast.com. Follow me on Twitter @thatrebecca.