On Be Kind Rewind

‘Once, walking down Kilburn High Road in 2017, I surprised myself by knowing all of the Oscar nominations Nicole Kidman had received. My roommate and I had watched Eyes Wide Shut the night before and discussed it as we headed out to run errands on a warm Saturday in spring. Casually, my friend asked if Kidman had ever won an Oscar and, without hesitation, I reeled off the four films she’d been nominated for: Moulin Rouge, The Hours, Rabbit Hole, and Lion. The film names came from somewhere deep within my brain, and it required no effort to conjure them. As we passed the market and walked toward the tube station, I spoke about Kidman and the Oscars. I knew she’d won for Leading Actress in The Hours, but of the three women in the film, she had the least screen time. I knew that when her name was called, the presenter, Denzel Washington, referenced the fake nose she wore in the movie to embody Virginia Woolf better. I knew her first nomination a few years before her win had come in the wake of a highly publicised divorce from Tom Cruise and had acted as a signifier that Kidman was far more than Cruise’s wife. I wasn’t sure how I knew all this, but I did. ‘

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