best picture race continues to narrow, Variety staffers take a look at some of the individual scenes that made us laugh, cry and think — sometimes at the same time.“Being the Ricardos”(Amazon) Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) pulls Madeline (Alia Shawkat), the only female writer on Ball’s “I Love Lucy,” out of the writers room for a little one-on-one discussion about a scene that Lucy has been trying to make funnier — or at least make logical, and therefore funny.
Like Madeline, Lucy is a smart, funny, strong women in the early 1950s — a unicorn in this man’s world in which they have mastered “work-arounds.” This scene from writer-director Aaron Sorkin is an honest yet sharp and somewhat frustrating talk about the TV character, the way the character is treated on the show and what type of comedy works.
The scene is brave enough to open up all sides of the challenges each woman faces, explores her mindset and the compromises that Lucy has made, what she tells herself to keep going even if a new type of feminist thinking is right outside the studio lot, and makes her accomplishments all the more iconic.— Carole Horst “Belfast”(Focus Features) There are way too many brilliant moments in Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast,” from Jamie Dornan’s Pa singing “Everlasting Love” at a wake to that emotionally heartbreaking end scene with Judi Dench.
However, the moment that never fails to make me chuckle is with Buddy, played by the brilliant young star of the film, Jude Hill.
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