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We're celebrating the cinematic year of 1984 this month. Here's Chris Feil on Romancing the Stone...
One of 1984's biggest hits was Romancing the Stone, a quippy twist on a harlequin romance dressed up as a jungle adventure. The film was the first big box office success for director Robert Zemeckis, though he only ever fleetingly matched Stone's glee for the sexy - it's almost odd that this film comes from a director who's film are often mostly crotchless.
But more importantly, Stone gifted us with the first cinematic gold pairing of Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. The duo is perfectly matched for their complimentary wits and evident sex appeal, resulting in both sequel The Jewel of the Nile and The War of the Rose before the decade's end. They may have had more overt steaminess elsewhere (see: Body Heat and Fatal Attraction, et al.), but even this film's PG rating can't contain their fireworks together.
The blend of grand adventure, slapstick humor, and loin-grabbing passion begs the question "Why does sex at the movies always have to be so damn serious?" So in honor of the Stone's hot fun:
It's link time which also doubles as news catch up! (Yes, Oscar Chart updates are currently in progress. So more on that and the foreign submissions very soon)
Think Pieces, List Mania, Celebrity • Movie City News launches another "Gurus of Gold" season where all of us have named our current top 20 "general field" predictions. Yes, I'm updating my charts over the next three days! Manchester by the Sea and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk are expected leaders • Gawker Rich Juzwiack says goodbye to one identity through a George Michael lens. It's wonderful • MNPP Paul Bettany is vacationing in Ibiza • NYT talks to Kirsten Dunst about life after Fargo and her Emmy nomination • Mind of a Suspicious Kind Martin Scorsese's Silence is supposedly his longest ever (over 3 hours) but is it actually coming out this year?
• Cinema Enthusiast polled film twitter on their favorite films of 1982. The results are interesting but weird. The Thing at #1? Erm, okay. Star Trek II above Victor/Victoria? NO. I have to admit that I'm quite spotty on early 80s cinema though because I couldn't drive myself to the cinema back then. • Forbes on the easy-to-predict failure of the new Ben-Hur and how it's a fitting end to this particular summer • Little White Lies wonders if there still a place for eroticism in cinema while watching shorts in Montreal • i09 what went wrong with this summer's blockbusters • AV Club talks to Clea DuVall about past roles on the eve of her directorial debut with The Intervention • MNPP Dagmara Dominczyck's Patrick Wilson appreciation social media game • ...TFE we interviewed her once and she is stunningly gorgeous herself • Slate that nude Trump statue hitting various cities is not amusing to everyone • ...EW including actress/author Amber Tamblyn
News & Miscellania • The Guardian more trouble for Birth of a Nation. AFI cancelled screenings and Q&A • ... icymi TFE previous handwringing about this scandal and film • Forbes Jennnifer Lawrence & Melissa McCarthy top the annual highest paid actresses list this year. Two actresses outside of Hollywood made the list this year: Deepika Padukone (India) and Fan Bingbing (China). Figures include not just films but endorsement deals and such. The Zeéeeee apparently banked a lot for returning to her signature role in Bridget Jones's Baby since she almost made the list.
• /FilmBlade Runner 2 adds Jared Leto to the cast and Jóhan Jóhannsson as composer • Theater Mania Jennifer Holliday joining the cast of the Broadway revival of Color Purple. I guess they've decided to make Shug Avery the short-term award-winning star draw (they've already been through Jennifer Hudson and Heather Hedley) • Screen Daily undervalued British actor Andrew Scott has a lead role. He'll star in the thriller Steel Country • KotakuGhost in the Shell supporting cast photos leaked • Towleroad on Frank Oceans new video Nikes • Coming Soon Amazon developing a TV series based on The Departed. Hmmm. Isn't that an odd fit for long term storytelling. It would imply we can never move past the double crossing discovered stage • Playbill Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher documentary will premiere at the NYFF • Film Stage the first image from Euphoria with Alicia Vikander & Eva Green
Madonna Mania - It's Around This Summer For Some Reason (not complaning) • Boy Culture on a star studded Truth or Dare screening in NYC... • People ...Madonna even showed up super briefly! • Village Voice Michael Musto recalls his up and down relationship to the material girl through their very long contemporaneous careers
And I'll leave you with the new La La Land trailer. (If you missed our discussion of the first trailer, that's here.) This movie can't open soon enough!
For anyone still wondering what took Frank Ocean so long to release his follow-up to Channel Orange, a new theory lies within the pages of the R&B angel’s recently released "Boys Don't Cry" zine to accompany his new album Blonde: perhaps he was blowing through his conscientious Blu-ray collection. Demonstrating an eye for the visionary and the visually dazzling – and inadvertently challenging the hot buzz on that BBC critics’ poll and last week’s #7favfilms on Twitter – Ocean scribbled down a list of his 100 favorite films of all time, and his choices make it clear that he’s as much a student of the cinema as he is a singer of stirring emotionality.
A few standout selections. He’s clearly got love for the go-for-broke auteurism of Herzog and Jodorowsky, reflected in his own sonic adventurism, but he flexes his sensitive side and interest in rehashing the past with a Bergman classic like Wild Strawberries. As a David Lynch devotee, his inclusion of the polarizing and patriotically perverse (and, for my money, perfect) Wild at Heart makes me want to paint the town as red as Diane Ladd’s face. A small smattering of silent films make the list but the absences are just as compelling. PTA makes three appearances on the list but Ocean opts for Hard Eight over the far more beloved Boogie Nights. And despite its undeniable genius, it’s a relief to see a Best Of list with a Hitchcock mention that isn’t Vertigo. Mostly, though, I'll take the obvious crossover omission of Boys Don't Cry in favor of including American Beauty as a sly hint that he, too, is a fervent member of Team Bening.
As we look back at 1984, please welcome new contributor John Guerin to talk about a famous Oscar triple...
In 1984, 60% of the Best Actress category was farm wives
In May 1985, after scoring Oscar nominations for playing distressed farmwives in Country and The River, Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek testified before the U.S. House of Representatives and urged senators to help aid farmers during a devastating agricultural crisis. After a toxic combination of faulty economic policies, mounting debts, high interest rates, and a declining Midwest population, American farmers were experiencing financial hardship unseen since the Great Depression. Both Country and The River offer visions of farm families under such pressures, pitting family and community against unyielding forces of nature and government.
Can you remember the last time an actress testified before Congress after starring in a politically-minded film?
Thursday, August 25, 2016 at 1:15PM 
One of 1984's biggest hits was Romancing the Stone, a quippy twist on a harlequin romance dressed up as a jungle adventure. The film was the first big box office success for director Robert Zemeckis, though he only ever fleetingly matched Stone's glee for the sexy - it's almost odd that this film comes from a director who's film are often mostly crotchless.
