Doc Corner: David Lynch and the Allure of 'Blue Velvet Revisited'

By Glenn Dunks

The massive DOC NYC festival continues this week in New York City until the 16th, showcasing over 250 films and events. We have one more capsule collection to go up the coming days to close out the festival, but today we're entering the wonderful and strange world of David Lynch in Blue Velvet Revisited, which screens tonight at Cinepolis Chelsea at 9.30pm.

I don’t know about you, but 2017 hasn’t been the strongest year for movies in my eyes. Part of that may have to do directly with the product itself. But a more significant part is that quite literally no movie I have seen this year has had quite the gravitational pull of Twin Peaks. The return of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s classic 1990s television series was maligned by many, but found a dedicated collection of fans for whom it was 18-hours of pure Lynchian madness, the likes of which have been frustratingly missing from our lives since the magically-coiffed master packed up his lawn chair on Sunset Boulevard after trying to milk a much-deserved Oscar campaign for Laura Dern’s performance in Inland Empire in 2006. The series was, simply put, working on a whole different level to every movie I’ve seen in the last 12 months.

Lynch’s mystique is almost as famous as his film and television projects...

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110 days 'til Oscar. More Lord of the Rings?

It's only eleventy days until Hollywood's High Holy Night. If you aren't familiar with "eleventy" think back to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001).

That whole Oscar winning trilogy kicks off with the celebration of Bilbo Baggins eleventy-firth birthday or 111th birthday in human years. Eleventy can refer to 110 or numbers much larger; one stops counting after awhile...

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"Get Out" to Be Considered Comedy at Globes

Chris here. Is it time yet to start pondering the Golden Globes comedy field? One quick bit of potentially major news is that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has just officially designated Get Out to compete as a comedy. While this is probably music to team Get Out's ears, I'd argue that it's the appropriate choice - the film is sharp satire first, serious scares second to this viewer. But yes, this gives the film a major leg up to win a major trophy this season in a less competitive field.

This could also mean stronger chances for lead actor Daniel Kaluuya and possibly Allison Williams (who is strangely being campaigned as a lead) for Globes consideration as well. The stiffest competition will probably come from Lady Bird, but what other contenders should we be thinking about? Will The Disaster Artist register beyond James Franco's performance? Could hits like Girls Trip or Baby Driver land in the Best Picture Comedy lineup with less competition? Give us your 2017 Comedy thoughts in the comments!

Interview: Dir. Hana Jusic on How a Best Actress Winner Inspired Croatian Oscar Submission 'Quit Staring at My Plate'

By Jose Solís. 

Marijana, the heroine of Quit Staring at My Plate, doesn’t know she’s allowed a life away from her controlling family. Even though she has a full time job, and is of age, she gives her mother all her wages, spends more than half the day working, and dutifully sits at the dinner table as her parents and unemployed brother criticize her lifestyle. Then one day Marijana finds a sidejob that takes her the furthest she’s been from home in a very long time, and her many awakenings begin. Anchored by a breakthrough performance by Mia Petricevic, the film plays like a moral fable seen through an unsentimental lens. In her first feature film, director Hana Jusic proves that not only does she have an eye for talent (the story of how she found Mia is film worthy) but she also has the kind of confidence in her voice that the world craves. I spoke to Husic about creating Marijana and how two Oscar winning performances inspired the world of her film.  

Read the interview after the jump. 

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Happy 50th to Underappreciated Steve Zahn

by Nathaniel R

"Bad Ape" is still one of the best movie characters of 2017. He comes courtesy of the ambitious War for the Planet of the Apes, various visual effects technicians, and Steve Zahn who brilliantly embodies him. On the actor's 50th birthday a quick list of our 5 favorite Zahn performances over the years. He's one of Hollywood's most reliable (and most adorable) character actors and still has never really gotten his due. 

01 "Sammy Gray" in Reality Bites
02 "Glenn Michaels" in Out of Sight
03 "Lenny Hase" in That Thing You Do!
04 "Bad Ape" in War for the Planet of the Apes
05 "Fuller" in Joy Ride

P.S. Also celebrating birthdays today: actors Whoopi Goldberg, Gerard Butler, Xiaoming Huang, Frances Conroy, Chris Noth, Joe Mantegna, and Shawn Yue, cinematographer Conrad W Hall, and director Gary Marshall; And though they are departed they are not forgotten: author Robert Louis Stevenson, and actors Hermione Baddeley, Oskar Werner, Madeleine Sherwood, and Jean Seberg, and 5 time Oscar nominated set decorator Hal Gausman (Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Untouchables, etcetera)