Yes No Maybe So: A Tale of Love and Darkness

Manuel here checking in with Natalie Portman. We know her Jane Got A Gun project has been battling some sort of curse of bad luck every since it began shooting (after endless behind-the-scenes kerfuffles, it apparently comes out next February) but her other project from this year is A Tale of Love and Darkness, her directorial debut.

The film premiered at Cannes to muted (one might say mixed?) reactions. And while it has yet to be picked up for distribution, we finally got a first look at the film in the form of a(n English-subtitled) trailer. Yes, the film is entirely in Hebrew, so Portman (née Neta-Lee Hershlag) gets to show off yet another set of skills, ones slightly less contestable than her ballet-dancing ones.

And so, while I know exactly where I lie, I’m going to go ahead and give it the YES/NO/MAYBE SO treatment in full.

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Ask Nathaniel

Let's do another Q & A round. You know what to do in the comments. Bonus points for spooky creepy scary supernatural movie themed questions that get us in the mood for Halloween

Bridge of Martian Spies with Crimson Goosebumps

Family movies continue to be a fairly safe bet for box office glory as Goosebumps took the top spot despite an extremely competitive weekend. Perhaps its secret was that it had no direct competition except for the month old animated picture and, vaguely if you're stretching, the new del Toro picture. People are calling Crimson Peak a flop but that's unduly harsh. With a budget of only $55 million he didn't overspend and, despite media's interest in him, and expectations always saying otherwise he's never been a mainstream director. His biggest hit Pacific Rim certainly didn't earn more than double the gross of any of his other pictures globally because it was awash in del Toro idiosyncracies. It was a straight up, giant robots fighting monsters movie and easy to mistake for Transformers vs Godzilla if you squinted.

Box Office charts and more on the new films after the jump...

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Golden Globe Musical or Comedy: a thin field or just a mysterious one?

Last week was a good one for Gold Derby. Not only did Ryan Murphy elevate their brand status by ____ them to death with an Oscar on American Horror Story but their story that David O. Russell's Joy would go Drama at the Golden Globes got a lot of "whoa, really?" press. I'm sure it's true-ish now but people are so exciteable about any "news" that I'm always finding myself in the position of splash of cold water realism. Truth: there are few certainties this early as it's only October and there's lots of wiggle room still for campaigns and precursor ponderings and such. Films are still entering (The Big Short) and exiting (I Saw The Light) the 2015 calendar and some switcheroos of fate/precursors/campaigning happen at all junctures on the way to Oscar: remember when My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Gangs of New York were suddenly Original Screenplays (oy); remember when Oscar decided abruptly that all the precursors were wrong and Kate Winslet was a leading lady in The Reader (they were right of course but it was super gross how all the precursors and media were all "Yay, category fraud!!!"); or when Whiplash was determined to be Adapted too late for its FYCs to urge voters to vote that way.

So let's assume that Joy is out of the Golden Globe Musical or Comedy and let's assume The Martian is in (though obviously things could change on either front). And after shedding whatever tears must be shed that the Coen Bros Hail, Caesar! is not opening in time to own this category, we move on.

Is the field thin or just mysterious to our eyes in October? Let's take a look after the jump...

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London Film Fest Hoopla: Cate Blanchett, The Witch, Female Directors

The BFI London Film Festival wrapped up yesterday and with festival wraps (well, the juried festivals) come awardage. The big news for our actressy purposes was of course Galadriel receiving her BFI fellowship from Gandalf. More hoopla after the jump...

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