Moonlight Gets a Release Date

Yesterday Mahershala Ali got invited to be an Academy member and now he has a movie that might get him nominated next year. Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight, based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue (what a great title, why change it?)  by Tarrell Alvin McCraney, is scheduled to open limited on Oct. 21. The movie tells the story of a young man who comes of age in 1980s Miami, focusing on on his quarter-life crisis, challenging environment and awakening sexuality. 

The ensemble cast includes many fantastic actors we’ve all loved and wished they’d get the movie showcase that their talents calls for. In addition to Ali we get Naomie Harris and Andre Holland. Playing the lead character, at different times of his life, are newcomers Trevante Rhodes and Ashton Sanders. The movie not only has good buzz (word is that Harris in particular is a revelation) but also excellent pedigree. One of the producers is Brad Pitt. The director Barry Jenkins was named by NYTimes as one of 20 Directors to Watch, a couple of years ago. His first film was the little seen but hugely admired Medicine for Melancholy (2008), a grittier less romantic but no less absorbing Before Sunset.

Not a lot is known about the film - there are even no pictures released. We have to make do with those three very attractive faces at different awards ceremonies in lieu of that. But it’s definitely one to keep an eye on and get excited about in these slow summer days of great weather and bad blockbusters. 

Are you ready for fall movies? (20th Century Women was also announced for 4th quarter). 

Clint Eastwood's 'Sully' Biopic Lands Its First Trailer

Daniel here. When news broke that Tom Hanks was cast as airline captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger – the real-life angel with jet wings who, in 2009, famously piloted an A320 to an emergency water landing on the Hudson River, saving the lives of all crew and passengers in the process – approximately no one was surprised. If you ever need to cast an IRL hero for the big screen, Hanks’ evergreen likeability automatically makes him the safest choice; personally, as much as I really, really, really, really, really, really like Hanks, I’d have loved to see William Hurt take the controls. Regardless, we now have our first trailer for Clint Eastwood’s Sully and down to its Oscar-nominated, underutilized actress propped as a wallpaper wife, it’s about what you've come to expect from a ripped-from-the-headlines biopic these days. To some, it seems the surest route to stoic is stale.

In lieu of our traditional Yes No Maybe So, a whole bunch of Maybe concerns... 

• How it will stretch two hours’ worth of drama from a single incident that in actuality didn’t last that long? How will it craft a compelling character arc for a figure of such broad-stroked, well, likeability. No points for originality, as it seems to take Flight’s plan of cross-examining his methodology and, briefly, toxicology. That said, its shards of PTSD and demythologizing its hero archetype through personal doubt look promising.
• While J. Edgar was a dud in the American History Eastwood department, some (including the Academy) found American Sniper’s mode of pointed patriotism to be persuasive. This could go either way.
• Eastwood’s scummy blue scrim has deservedly taken a lot of flack over the years and, for a few shots in the trailer anyway, cinematographer Tom Stern has opened a critical window for some light to make its way into the frame.
• As mentioned, The Lovely Laura Linney seems totally wasted here, issuing words of support to her husband and little else. As if that’s not bad enough, they gave her a hale bay wig to go with it. The Film Experience couldn’t be more thrilled with the movies’ recent showcases for senior actresses – Blythe Danner, Susan Sarandon, Sally Field, to name a few – but how about giving our middle-aged actresses some vehicles as well?

A firm “I hope to God I’m surprised” on this. Does it look like Eastwood's latest will take flight?

Welcome to the Academy, 683 of You!

With AMPAS under so much scrutiny this past season for their lack of diversity, they made several rule changes about membership and ruling bodies within the various branches. Here's the big power move. They've invited twice as many people as they are usually prone to invite. Invitations have gone out to 683 film professionals this year.

That is a lot of new members, percentage-wise, for a group known for their exclusivity that for a long time was hovering around 6,000 members. According to Academy graphics 46% of the new invitees are women which is a smart move given that Hollywood has struggled in the gender balance department forever despite the fact that civilization has always been half women. (It might have been smarter to make it 75% for a few years to make up for lost time at eliminating the silly gender disparity but we applaud any efforts to work towards a better 50/50 balance.) 

41% of the new invitees are people of color...

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Olivia @ 100: Airport '77

Don't get on the plane! It's a Disaster Movie!Team Experience is looking at highlights and curios from the filmography of Olivia de Havilland for her Centennial this Friday. Here's guest contributor Sean Donovan...

Airport ’77, the third film of the Airport franchise, capitalized on the immense success of the 70s disaster movie craze in the twilight of its years. Just one year later in 1978, the critical and box office failure of Irwin Allen’s The Swarm showed how much audiences had sobered up, no longer excited by disaster movies and more interested in openly mocking them, based on their cheesy acting and overwrought destruction (a movement chronicled by Ken Feil in his worth-the-read book Dying for a Laugh: Disaster Movies and the Camp Imagination). So if something feels lacking and obligatory about Airport ’77- in which a botched hijacking lands a Boeing 747 in the ocean, the passengers struggling to get back to land safely- that’s only because the film presents a crew of movie stars eager to cash their checks and get out as quick as possible. 

Among them is our honored centennial, Ms. Olivia de Havilland! And who can blame her for dipping into the disaster movie depths?

Her generational cohort Shelley Winters scored an Oscar nomination for being the token old lady to brave disaster (at the age of 52, but that’s Hollywood), in the genre-defining The Poseidon Adventure. Older actresses like Helen Hayes, Gloria Swanson, and Myrna Loy had already wandered into the Airport franchise, Hayes walking away with an Oscar for her efforts. As an aging member of Hollywood royalty in the 1970s, it seems one of your duties was to class up a trashy disaster film with your mere presence... 

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Judy by the Numbers: "I Love A Piano"

Anne Marie is tracking Judy Garland's career through musical numbers... 

Easter Parade has becomea perrenial holiday favorite. Inevitably, the lighthearted musical appears on TCM Easter Sunday marathons, sandwiched between Ben Hur (1959) and King of Kings (1961). However, despite the annual dominance of this Judy Garland/Irving Berlin musical, the movie nearly stopped before it began. A combination of bad luck, souring relationships, and weak ankles nearly prevented the production from getting off the ground. Fans of the film have one person to thank for its resurrection: Fred Astaire.

The Movie: Easter Parade (1948)
The Songwriter: Irving Berlin (music & lyrics)
The Players: Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Ann Miller, Peter Lawford, directed by Charles Walters

The Story: The production of Easter Parade was plagued from the start. Though Irving Berlin enthusiastically agreed to expand upon his hit Holiday Inn for a new Judy Garland vehicle, the rest of the cast and crew was harder to secure. Originally, MGM sought to replicate the Freed unit partnerships that had already been proven box office success: Judy Garland and Gene Kelly, directed by Vincente Minnelli. But Judy and Minnelli were fighting, so she demanded that he be replaced with Charles Walters, a choreographer-turned-director on his second feature film. Then, Kelly broke his ankle playing football. Then Cyd Charisse broke her ankle. With two of three stars out of commission and a neophyte director at the helm, Easter Parade needed a big win. Then out of retirement waltzed Fred Astaire.

While the replacement of Gene Kelly with Fred Astaire saved the film, it also provides a window into how well-tailored numbers were tailored to their musical stars. Though "I Love A Piano" starts with the now old familiar standby of Judy Garland standing by a piano and singing to her beaux, it also moves into the high-energy, bright dancing style of Gene Kelly. Adapted to Fred Astaire, this dancing style loses none of its energy, but shows hints of ballroom influence in the lifts and mirrored taps of two partners arm in arm. Astaire doesn't simply stand in for Kelly; he makes the film his own. As a result, Astaire's retirement would turn out to be temporary; he kept on dancing for another 20 years.