With the addition of hundreds of new members to the Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, we’re entering a new age of the Oscars.
Sure, perennial favorites like Meryl Streep still find a way to earn
nominations year after year, but a new generation of actors and actresses are
becoming Academy stars in their own right. After his breakout performance in
Call Me By Your Name, Timothée Chalamet is widely expected to be back in the
thick of the race with Amazon’s Beautiful Boy, while pretty much everyone knows
that Emma Stone and Jennifer Lawrence will return to the Dolby Theatre in no
time. And even though they may have fallen short of a win in last year’s race,
there will be many nominations in the future for Saoirse Ronan and Margot
Robbie. They’ll be picking up where they left off with Mary Queen of Scots,
which promises to be one of the Oscar heavyweights of 2018-19. Earlier this
week, Focus Features released the first trailer- watch it below!
Okay, so advertising your movie by associating it with Darkest
Hour probably isn’t the best way to catch my attention. But then again, I’m not
the target audience for Mary Queen of Scots, and if you’re reading this,
neither are you. This looks like pure Oscar bait, which isn’t necessarily a
good or bad thing. We’ve lumped all historical epics and costume dramas into
this category simply because of their prevalence at the Oscars, but there’s
good Oscar bait and there’s bad Oscar bait. It’s really impossible to tell if
we’re in for a legitimately good film or a familiar excursion based on a rather
brief trailer.
Nonetheless, Mary Queen of Scots has given us a few reasons
to be excited. First, there’s the duo of Ronan and Robbie, perhaps the most
enticing cinematic pairing of 2018. These are two dynamite actors, both of whom
have done phenomenal work in the past. Seeing them face off should be worth the
price of admission alone. The film itself looks like Braveheart with a lot less
Mel Gibson and a much stronger feminist angle, finding much of its drama from
the conflict between Ronan’s Mary and Robbie’s Elizabeth in a male-dominated world. It looks
gorgeous and it feels topical, so even if this particular genre isn’t my forte,
I’m interested to see what lies ahead.
Mary Queen of Scots will arrive in limited release on
December 7. Look for the film to premiere on the festival circuit in late
August and early September.
Image: Focus Features
Comments
Post a Comment