FourFour on Andrew Haigh's Weekend, one of this year's must-sees. I'll have an interview about this one up tomorrow. It opens in extremely limited release (for now) on Friday.
Gold Derby wonders if Brad Pitt has two Oscar nominations in him this year.
Moving Image Archive Someone stole Norma Shearer's jewels! OMG there are a ton of 30s stars in this short film: Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper, Irene Dunne, Loretta Young, Laurel and Hardy and the list goes on and on.... Fun! with terrible jokes !!
The First Lady of MGM in "The Stolen Jools" (1931)
Nicks Flick Picks chooses his favorite Best Actors and Actresses thus far this year. Strong choices but even stronger twitter length writeups; I don't know how he does it.
The Self Styled Siren has some words on NYFF films and a few interesting one in extremely measured defense of I Don't Know How She Does It? but I love this prickly bit on the casting...
...offers nothing to much to look at except Christina Hendricks and Pierce Brosnan (who are wasted with prodigal carelessness)
Just Jared first pics from the set of Steven Soderbergh / Channing Tatum stripper drama Magic Mike. For some reason I never believed this movie would actually happen (just like I didn't believe The Avengers would happen) but they're both always snapped on set now so... what do I know?
Monkey See on why you should all be watching the sitcom Raising Hope
L Magazine Dan Callahan (always worth a read) on the worlds of Vincente Minnelli, one of TFE's favorite directors!
Mission Hot Mama uses Michelle Pfeiffer to illustrate makeup tips to help you look younger. (Another thing that helps people look younger is using photos from a few years ago like that one. I kid. I kid. She's amazing at 53. Now, if only she'd get out more.)
Awards Daily You may have been surprised as I was to learn last year that the majority of visual effects artists in Hollywood aren't unionized like so many other craftsmen. They don't have great working conditions and things have been getting worse. Even though most of the top grossing films are visual effects driven they aren't paid all that highly (relatively speaking) either. Here's the press release of a Bill of Rights from the Visual Effects Society.