SLO Film Fest: Wolves, Sharks, and that "Delicate Balance"

Nathaniel R reporting from the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival

After a delightful trip back to 1969 iconography and disturbing peek back at 1933 fascism, the San Luis Obispo's 25th festival threw us directly into the immediate now with three engaging documentaries exploring very real, very urgent problems with our ecosystems, relationships with animal life, and the dehumanizing dangers of globalism and late stage capitalism. That may sound depressing, and it was to an extent, but all three films were suffused with enough passion and optimism to make their bitter pills easier to swallow.

The shortest and "lightest" of these with Collin Monda's hour-long documentary The Trouble With Wolves, which is locked but not quite finished (needing funds to complete its rights clearances and such). It's a surprisingly nuanced look at the success and aftershocks of a 1995 federal program to reintroduce gray wolves to the US via Yellowstone National Park.

Click to read more ...

SXSW: "X & Y"

Abe Fried-Tanzer reporting from SXSW

X & Y's stars Mikael Persbrandt and director Anna Odell

If you’ve ever wondered what the Scandinavian version of a Charlie Kaufman movie would look like, here’s your answer. The Oscar-winning writer of such imaginative explorations of inner machinations within the movie business as Being John Malkovich and Adaptation and director of Synecdoche New York. The latter serves as the best comparison for this film, featuring a copy of New York City built inside a warehouse designed to have life truly imitate art, or rather the other way around, for his new play. Synecdoche is broader and more tinted with science fiction than this film, but those who have seen it will see an immediate parallel...

Click to read more ...

SXSW: Elle Fanning has "Teen Spirit"

Abe Fried-Tanzer reporting from SXSW

It feels like every other movie these days is directed by a famous actor. There are a handful of them at SXSW this year, including Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart (reviewed) and Logan Marshall-Green’s Adopt a Highway starring Ethan Hawke. Both of those make sense given the type of films those actors have starred in, which match up decently with what they have made behind the camera. Max Minghella’s Teen Spirit, on the other hand, is a less expected debut.

Minghella is probably most recognizable from his starring role as the kindhearted Nick on The Handmaid’s Tale, and he also had a memorable part in The Social Network, among other things. His father was the late Oscar-winning Anthony Minghella (The English Patient). That piece of trivia makes the subject of Max’s first film even stranger since it doesn’t track with that kind of serious prestigious filmmaking either...

Click to read more ...

[Drum Roll] It's the Film Bitch Awards Medals Ceremony

It's the most painfully drawn-out nomination process followed by the swiftest awards ceremony of all. It involves your host Nathaniel slapping gold, silver, and bronze medals on the winners in the Film Bitch Awards chart! A Star is Born (10), The Favourite (9), and BlacKkKlansman (8) which all made the top ten list here, led the total medals count. It may surprise you to hear that Lady Gaga (5 for A Star is Born) and Rachel Weisz (4 between The Favourite / Disobedience) won the most medals for an individual performer,  since we didn't actually nominate either of them in the traditional 4 acting categories! But we have lots of "special" categories to reflect how we really experience the movies.  

Awards Pg 1: Picture, Director, Screenplay, Animated Feature
Awards Pg 2: The Four Traditional Acting Categories
Awards Pg 3: Visuals 
Awards Pg 4: Sound and Music
Awards Pg 5: Additional Acting Categories
Awards Pg 6: 'Characters of the Year' Prizes
Awards Pg 7: Best Individual Scenes (AND TRIVIA ABOUT THE AWARDS) 

AND WITH THAT, MY FRIENDS, FOLLOWING THE OSCAR WRAP-UP, THE FILM YEAR IS COMPLETE. ON TO 2019, ALREADY IN PROGRESS! We're currently at two festivals (SXSW and San Luis Obispo) and of course we've been discussing Avengers and Captain Marvel  and gems currently in theaters like Ash is Purest White, Transit, and more.

Aidy Bryant in "Shrill"

By Spencer Coile 

Aidy Bryant has been stealing scenes left and right for years now. From a brief stint on Girls, to a supporting role in The Big Sick, to her notable (and Emmy nominated) work on Saturday Night Live, Bryant has been diligently carving out a space for her voice to be heard. Fortunately for long-time fans, 2019 is the year where she has fully paid her dues and doesn't have to steal the scenes anymore since they're centered on her.  

Shrill, on Hulu today, is the adaptation of Lindy West’s memoir of the same name. Following timid journalist Annie (Bryant), the series explores what it means to be a plus-size woman living in a world that has excluded them from the cultural conversation...

Click to read more ...