Soundtracking: "Chi-Raq"

by Chris Feil

Few filmmakers understand the power of the soundtrack as well as Spike Lee. The full force iconography of Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” in Do the Right Thing is an integral part of the American cinematic lexicon. But there’s also the era authenticity of Summer of Sam, the haze of jazz over Mo Better Blues, and the largely undiscovered but brilliantly precise filming he did of Broadway’s Passing Strange. It’s a wonder that the closest he’s come to a true musical is Chi-Raq.

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Netflix in August: The Aviator, Her, Silverado

Time to play Streaming Roulette. Each month, to survey new streaming titles we freeze frame the films at random places with the scroll bar and whatever comes up first, that's what we share!

Remember when Netflix used to get recent movies and classics? Now they seem to be exclusively in the business of streaming things that are between 5-20 years old only... with the obvious exception of their original programming, cheap foreign tv series, and straight to streaming indie stuff that wasn't cut out for theatrical.

LYRA!

The Golden Compass (2007)
Have you ever read this book? It's fantastic and bold. The movie is sadly a compromised rendition but it's still a bit tragic that they didn't finish filming the trilogy. Nicole Kidman was a sensaysh "Mrs Coulter" at least. Whatever happened to Dakota Blue Richards? Remember what a surprise it was when this one beat the first Transformers movie to the Visual FX Oscar?!

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Bye, Fantasia

by Jason Adams

The 2018 edition of the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal just finished its three-week run on August 2nd, and yours truly covered it here from my perch six hundred whole kilometers away thanks to the wonders of the internet and the great generosity of the fest's programmers. We introduced the fest right here, listing what looked of interest. And now down below here's a round-up of what we eventually reviewed (you can click on the film titles to read each review):

Fleuve Noir -- Vincent Cassel and Romain Duris circle each other suspiciously (with sexy results!) in this off-beat crime-thriller from Julia director Erick Zonca

Knuckleball -- A kid fights off home invaders in a super dark twist on Home Alone 

Blue My Mind -- Add mermaid to the list of movie puberty hells getting the updated girlhood spin in this beautifully acted and photographed Swiss flick

Cold Skin -- Lovecraft meets Old-timey Lighthouse Keeper Sweater Porn

Chained For Life -- This movie (within a movie) starring Jess Weixler about our culture of beauty fetishization is a real trip and a half

Cam -- Madeline Brewer from The Handmaid's Tale proves she's no one-eyed fluke in this candy-colored Lynchian spin on online sex-work (PS Cam just got picked up for release this fall so stay tuned!)

Podcast: Mission Impossible - Eighth Grade!

An intimate convo this week as Nathaniel R welcomes Murtada Elfadl to the podcast. (Apologies for the oddly imbalanced sound - still fiddling with the equipment, wondering why we're so cursed!)

Index (42 minutes)
00:01 Desiree Akhavan's The Miseducation of Cameron Post
10:10 Mission: Impossible - Fallout and Tom Cruise's ego
21:05 Eighth Grade, Bo Burnham, and authenticity
33:00 Sorry to Bother You and LaKeith Stanfield
39:00 August is a really good month for movies for once!

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

M:I - Eighth Grade

353 Days Until "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"

Behold. It's the first image of Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The film is still a year off, as it won't hit theaters until July 26th, 2019. The release date was originally August 9th, a tasteless choice as that will be the 50th anniversary of Sharon Tate's grisly murder at the hands of Charles Manson's followers. Tate was famously married to Roman Polanski and 8 months pregnant at the time (Tess, an Oscared hit in 1980, was dedicated to Tate, who had hoped Polanski would adapt it to screen). No signs of pregnancy in this photo so perhaps the film will not go there directly (we hope not).

The lead characters are a fictional actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double (Brad Pitt)...

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