On this day in history as it relates to the movies...

For no reason whatsoever that's what we're blogging at this moment! (Just humor me, okay? My back is in spasming pain.)

1865 - The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified, abolishing slavery in the U.S. but 151 years later the topic is still on everyone's minds: see TV's Underground (any of you watching this?), the exciting news about Harriet Tubman on the $20 and two new biopics about her in the works, plus recent and current Best Picture types (Lincoln, 12 Years a Slave and possibly Birth of a Nation) 

1891 - Carnegie Hall (then named Music Hall) opened in NYC so that one day "JUDY! JUDY! JUDY!" could be recorded for posterity

1914 - Movie star Tyrone Power was born and we still don't have a biopic 102 years later even though Zac Efron would be perfect in the role

1927 - Pat Carroll is born so that 62 years later we might enjoy the genius of her voice in The Little Mermaid 

1955 - Damn Yankees opens on Broadway and quickly becomes the movie Damn Yankees (1958).

1981 - Bobby Sands dies of a hunger strike in prison. His last days inspire a movie which is just extraordinary and introduces the world to the genius filmmaker/muse partnership of  Steve McQueen & Michael Fassbender (Hunger, Shame, 12 Years a Slave). 

2000 - Freshly minted Oscar winner, mesmerizing new screen presence, brother-kissing and blood-vial wearing Angelina Jolie marries Billy Bob Thornton further confusing / fascinating the world. That same day in movie theaters Gladiator opens which delights the world, Oscar voters, and drunk Elizabeth Taylor

Gladiator!  

The Family Fang

Eric here, covering actor Jason Bateman’s second directorial feature, The Family Fang.  Or, as we lovers of actresses like to better position it, the new Nicole Kidman! Nathaniel covered it in brief from Toronto but now it's in limited release.

The Family Fang is a bit of a reunion picture for Kidman:  it’s written by her Rabbit Hole writer David Lindsay-Abaire and brought together by that film’s same producers.  While Rabbit Hole ranks among the finest in the astonishingly large canon of Great Kidman Performances, she doesn’t get to scale the same heights here, mostly due to the limitations of the story and script.

Kidman plays Annie, a flailing Hollywood actress who returns home to take care of her injured brother Baxter (Bateman), who is recouping with their estranged parents (Christopher Walken and Maryann Plunkett) after a freak accident.  We learn at the start of the picture that Annie and Baxter were used, from birth, as participants in their parents’ live, staged performance art pieces (Annie was Child A; Baxter, Child B).  The parents caught on in art circles as avant-garde pioneers in the 70s, and the film traces their reunion all these years later...

Click to read more ...

Six Alternate Cinematic Realities More Desirable Than Trump's America

Daniel Crooke here. Just in time for the newest season of Game of Thrones, Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich’s presidential aspirations are officially, swiftly deceased – leaving the door open for a brave new world even more horrific than some of the worst doomsday scenarios we’ve seen on the big screen. Now that Donald Trump has ostensibly become the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, science fiction has officially become reality. When you consider the inherent havoc in a candidate who makes light of civilian casualties, discards women, ensures bigotry and violence, and endorses straight-up rights snatching – not to mention his microscopic, ahem, vocabulary – many cinematic dystopias and alternate realities once thought to be cataclysmically dreadful begin to sound imminently habitable if he were to actually be elected. Next to the fascist plunder-land of Trump’s America, living in these broken worlds would be downright nirvana.

Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

If a clown is going to be elected president, let’s make sure it’s Peter Sellers.

The Duke of Burgundy

Whether BDSM knocks your boots, a world full of lesbians is bound to involve less literal dick-measuring than this one.

Mad Max Fury Road

We’re already well on our way to oppressive weather patterns – from vicious sandstorms to severe drought – and the faux-chismo of Immortan Joe will already inhabit the Oval Office, so let’s wait it out in the desert until Furiosa starts her noble reign and maybe get to know a member of the Vuvalini along the way. Note: null and void if Hillary wins – we’ll have our own shiny, chrome leader and mediocre Trump will go the way of the People Eater.

Battlefield Earth

Better hair.

Children of Men

Trust me. Despite the governmental meddling, guerilla warfare, and international class struggles, living in a world with no children is much more hopeful than passing on Trump’s to the next generation. Plus stoned Michael Caine is exactly the kind of deadbeat loosuh we should keep around.

Planet of the Apes

Fictional tyrannical orangutan > real tyrannical orangutan.

Which otherworldly filmic universe would you rather inhabit than a planet of Trump?

Which Kristen Stewart do you fancy?

Modern, perhaps even supernatural, glam.......

Personal Shopper

....... or period ingenue?

Cafe Society

Cannes is 6 days away and it will be all about Kristen, with two films in the main selection. Information about the films screening keeps trickling in everyday, including these 2 photos. And today the full screening schedule was released. Our dates with Kristen are Wednesday May 11th for Cafe Society and Tuesday May 17th for Personal Shopper.

Which look do you prefer, modern or period? Woody Allen or Olivier Assayas?

Ask Nathaniel

Ask TFE's ringleader a question. I'll pick a handful or two to answer soon on the blog for the next Q&A column. (Remember questions that require top tens or book-length responses will be ignored for space & time reasons)