All About Awesome

As we prepare to award various mediocre films, critic A.O. Scott draws our attention to an amazing one: Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1950 masterpiece All About Eve, probably top 5 in the Jezebel Film Canon.

The story of the aging diva Margo Channing and the conniving up-and-comer Eve Harrington is such a contrast to the petty squabbles of Bride Wars et al that’s it worth seeing again if only as an antidote. Sure, Bette Davis is a tour de force, Anne Baxter is despicable, George Sanders’ jaded journalist Addison DeWitt is iconic. But more than great performances and sparkling dialogue — and the movie won 6 Oscars, including Bestie — this is a “women’s film” in the right way: of smart women, played by smart women. Shake the martinis, light the Lucky’s and fasten your seatbelts: it’s going to be a bumpy night. [NYT