Follow Team TFE, please!

Hello, with Oscar season closing up, there is generally some attrition in readership but we're here all year long so dont desert us. In fact, follow more of us on social media won'cha? We have an Instagram and a Newsletter that you should sign up for since they'll start up again about a week from now once we've recovered from Oscar exhaustion. A big thanks to the team here which keeps your host Nathaniel (c'est moi) alive because daily content requires more than just one voice. 

I thought we'd highlight eight team-members today. Get to know us better...

Hi neighbor!

CHRIS FEIL (sample tweet - very Chris)
As one of our most frequent contributors and intermittent podcast guest, you know Chris well. He writes the "Soundtracking" column and just co-wrote a piece with Joe Reid that you really have to read over at Vulture. 
Instagram | Twitter | Letterboxd | "This Had Oscar Buzz" | Rotten Tomatoes

Bri and I can only relate to women in film (dunno why), so please enjoy our Extremely Long and Incredibly Glenn Close episodes of Broad Appeal about the 2 actress categories at the #Oscars.

SEÁN MCGOVERN (sample tweet - very Seán)
You'll know Seán from film festival coverage here (Berlinale and more), his actress podcast 'Broad Appeal, as well as a Smackdown appearance.
Instagram | Twitter | "Broad Appeal" Podcast

Official holiday portrait

MURTADA ELFADL (sample tweet - very murtada!)
You already know and love Murtada from the podcast. He also does reviews, interviews, festivals
Instagram | Twitter |  YouTube Interview

The Craft (1996) 🥀 #witchesoffairfax

GINNY O'KEEFE
New contributor so we're excited to see what she'll bring us.
Instagram | IMDb 

THE CORPSE BRIDE (2005) | dir. Tim Burton

JORGE MOLINA (sample tweet - very jorge!)
You know Jorge from his Mamma Mia! obsession and the screenplay series "Blueprints"
Instagram | Twitter | Letterboxd

Lovefest trashfest

SPENCER COILE (sample tweet - very spencer!)
If you see a Spencer byline here, it's usually for a review of something currently streaming at you
Instagram | Twitter | Letterboxd 

There were worse ways to spend four months, although the view is somewhat spoiled this weekend by storms

GLENN DUNKS (sample tweet - very Glenn!)
Glenn is our longtime collaborator and currently stationed in Australia. He writes "Doc Corner" here at the site
Instagram | Twitter | Letterboxd | Rotten Tomatoes

She hates me. #catsofinstagram

DEBORAH LIPP
Deborah has been on hiatus but hopefully she'll be back now. She loves James Bond movies and Mad Men and ran the now departed but much beloved Mad Men site "Basket of Kisses" which got frequent attention from Matthew Weiner and the actors themselves.
Instagram  

THAT'S NOT ALL OF US -- YOU CAN READ MORE TEAM BIOS ON THE  "ABOUT" PAGE  BUT THAT'S ENOUGH SELF-PROMOTION FOR NOW.  I'm aware that we need more women and more writers of color! Working on expanding the team as the site grows. We're always looking for new contributors especially those with the following five things:

1. Strong accessible writing skills
2. Unique takes on current / classic cinema and the arts in general
3. Interest or obsession with the Oscars
4. Passion for movies that bleeds into their every day life in some demonstrable or engaging way.
5. Commitment to contribute once bi-weekly

Beauty Break: Ten March 1st Babes

by Nathaniel R

Welcome to March! 2019 can officially begin (heh-we're on the film calendar, not the calendar-calendar). Today is Javier Bardem's 50th birthday. Happy half-century to one of cinema's most striking faces!

To help get us going this morning -- we're off to a slow start -- here are the ten beautiful (aka favorite) people born on this day (March 1st) in no particular order whatsoever...

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Blueprints: Standout sequences in Original Screenplay winners

by Jorge Molina

Last Sunday, in a ceremony filled with joyful surprises, heartbreaking disappointments, and Emma Stone’s shocked tears, Green Book won Best Original Screenplay.  Instead of driving into Peter Farrelly, Brian Currie and Nick Vallelonga’s screenplay, let’s take a look at the last ten years of winners of Best Original Screenplay (2008-2017), and a standout sequence in each. Because somehow Viggo Mortensen folding a pizza in half and Mahershala Ali learning how to eat fried chicken are now among their peers.

The King's Speech, Django Unchained, Her, Birdman and more are after the jump...

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Review: "Greta"

by Chris Feil

As a palette cleanser for the sour taste left in our mouths from the Oscar season, director Neil Jordan has a chocolate-covered acid truffle to offer. Intergenerational stalker thriller Greta is here to deliver in a pinch, an unpretentious treat with pedigree and casual self-awareness. It’s the cinematic equivalent of an airport paperback in the best possible way, all schlocky upsides without the unrefined downsides.

Chloë Grace Moretz stars as Frances, a young woman in New York City grieving the recent death of her mother. In a chance moment of good samaritanism, Frances finds a handbag bag on the subway and returns it to its rightful owner, Isabelle Huppert’s Greta Hideg. Greta’s abandonment by her own daughter sparks a sudden friendship of complimentary loneliness between the two. But once Frances learns that their meet cute was a calculation on Greta’s part, things quickly escalate into obsession and very ominous hats.

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Interview: Christian Petzold on 'Transit', melodramas and the influence of Fassbinder and Ackerman

by Murtada Elfadl

Transit, opening this weekend in limited release, is the latest from the gifted German director Christian Petzold (Barbara, Phoenix). It is a haunting modern day adaptation of Anna Seghers 1942 novel "Transit Visa". The film stars Franz Rogowski (Happy End) and Paula Beer (Never Look Away, Frantz) as would-be lovers desperate to escape an occupied France. We got a chance to interview Petzold in January when he visited New York for a retrospective of his work by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. When we meet he informs us that he’s been up for more than 24 hours because of a flight delay, so he might struggle to find the words in English. But that's not what happens. There’s a translator but she only chimes in a couple of times in our half hour conversation. Perhaps delirious from no sleep, he’s in the mood to talk.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity...

Murtada Elfadl: How did you come to the decision to clash the contemporary setting with the period story. Can you talk about the choice for that dissonance?

CHRISTIAN PETZOLD: I started to write the script as a typical period picture, everything was set in 1942. I was with my son on a father / son journey through California and the writing was coming easy to me --  everything going well is not a good sign. My Mac notebook was destroyed by the sun when I left in the car. I didn't have any back ups. Actually I was relieved that everything was destroyed. Period pictures are mostly museum pictures as if you are going on a journey to old times, you get to see Sherlock Holmes or Keira Knightley in costume. I thought I’d have to cast Ben Kingsley in my movie...

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