Noirvember: Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

It's Noirvember. Here's Bill Curran on a Robert Aldrich's neo-noir

The world turned upside down, inside out. Film noir depends on following innate impulses to that most ultimate, unthinkable, irrational end: death. Noir explores that nasty thing called "human nature, revealing (and revelling in) the elemental urges that really make us tick. Noir unmasks the mechanics of this crazy world with some variation on a guy, a girl, and a gun. Upending sexual-patriarchal dynamics, leveling the tenants of justice and who is responsible for carrying it out, filming what we do in the shadows in the half-light: when you flip the script on taste and convention, you can learn a lot about how topsy-turvy this whole mess called Earth can be. 

Kiss Me Deadly stews in and subverts these genre contradictions more brazenly than almost any other film noir before or since, perhaps because it is, in the end, about the dawn of the end of the world. Gonzo and sophisticated in equal measure, from the backward title scrawl to the A-bomb finale, this loose 1955 adaptation of the Mickey Spillane novel could be called the first neo-noir and what the Cahier du cinema crowd dubbed, "the thriller of tomorrow.”

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Kelly Macdonald and other Oscar-Less Wonders

by Kyle Stevens

I was finishing up the new season of Black Mirror --which is alternately smart and smarmy, somehow managing to exaggerate reality to the point of smugness rather than satire-- when, lo and behold, who should pop up in the finale but Kelly MacDonald. And she's magnificent in it. Not being a Boardwalk Empire watcher, I hadn't really thought about her since her spectral turn as Rowena Ravenclaw in the Harry Potter movies. Then I remembered just how good she was in No Country for Old Men, Gosford Park, and even Nanny McPhee. I surprised myself by starting to fantasize Oscar-winning roles for her -- as one does. 

But there are so many worthy actresses without the big award. So to get our minds off the horrors of this past week, let's retreat into some good old-fashioned actressexual playtime. Who are your top five working actresses you'd love to see win an Oscar?

Off the top of my head, and in no particular order, mine are:

1. Annette Bening
2. Maggie Cheung
3. Sally Hawkins
4. Isabelle Huppert
5. Kelly MacDonald

CAVEAT: I've not said Viola Davis, because her status will probably change soon!

Doc Corner: From the Chiffon Jungle to the Great Outdoors at DOC NYC

Last week we looked at a group of films among the mammoth collection of titles playing Doc NYC. The festival continues and so we're looking at a few more films, taking a sort of cinematic road trip from the big city, down the highway to the Rocky Mountains and then back again.

The “chiffon jungle” is what the subject of Otis Mass’ debut film, The Incomparable Rose Hartman, a fashion and pop culture photographer whose images are as iconic as they are striking, labels her home of New York City. A place where fashion is as integral to daily life as breath is to life. Feel to free disagree, but as the first person to understand the appeal of the decadent backstage of celebrity life and master it into something truly artful, Hartman soon built a reputation that put her subjects at ease and made her none synonymous with New York’s cultural scene in a more extravagant way than the likes of Bill Cunningham. Whether she was photographing the models backstage and on the runways of  Donna Karen, Caroline Herrera or Halston, or capturing the more candid, celebratory side of celebrities like Jerry Hall, Andy Warhol, Grace Jones, Liza Minnelli and Cher at Studio 54, her work is justifiably as iconic as it is extraordinary...

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YNMS: "Ghost in the Shell"

by Chris Feil

Coming with a wave of whitewash casting controversy and mini teases over the past month, Ghost in the Shell finally has a teaser trailer. The Rupert Sanders directed manga adaptation opens in March, and you can expect to hear more and more takedowns on the casting of Scarlett Johansson as an asian character before then - especially Disney screws up with their coming Mulan revamp. But will the film offer anything to draw our attention beyond the controversy, as much as we do love Johansson?

Take a look at the spooky opulent teaser below and check out our Yes No Maybe So analysis after the jump...

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Beauty vs Beast: Before the Beasts

Jason from MNPP here with this week's "let's retreat into fantasy for sanity's sake" edition of "Beauty vs Beast" -- you probably saw some people, maybe you were one of them, sharing a Harry Potter meme this week in the wake of the US election. It is timely, what with the next entry in the Potterverse, the first of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them series, opening - we'd probably have had Muggles Inc. on our minds anyway.

But JK Rowling's fictional creation helped us sort through the Bush years and so it's no surprise that a horcrux joke or two would make their way into the conversation. The series was always explicitly political. And so let's turn our eyes to the endless battle between Good and Evil one more time today to seek out some small comfort among friends...

PREVIOUSLY One week ago we lived in a different place (what would you give to go back there right about now), one where I felt fine making a bold Hillary Clinton prediction (it was my arrogance that ruined everything, no doubt) while joking about Alexander Payne's Election - well the blonde political spitfire Tracy Flick at least got her landslide, with over 70% of the vote. Said Row-bin:

"This is one of two movies I actually enjoy Matthew Broderick in, but Tracy Flick is one of the best realized performances I've ever seen out of Reese Witherspoon. She's so unapologetic in knowing what she wants and is such a great example of well-roundedness in a character."