New Movies for Penelope Cruz, Robert Pattinson and more

by Murtada Elfadl

TIFF is not only about the films that are playing there. It’s also about the deals for the films that we might see next year or the year after. Or maybe never hear of again if they don’t secure financing. We’ve already told you about the Matthias Schoenaerts-Margot Robbie starrer Ruin. Here are three other film - or packages if we were to use the vulgar industry term - that are at TIFF looking for financing:

Phyllis Nagy directing Gemma Arterton as Dusty Springfield

The film is titled So Much Love and Carol’s screenwriter is also writing it. Set in 1968, when at the peak of her popularity, Springfield travelled to Tennessee to record the album Dusty in Memphis. An official synopsis reads:

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Miami, Miami, You're Got Style

by Jason Adams

Hard to believe that it's been six whole years since Harmony Korine's last film, the pink and orange hued romp called Spring Breakers, came out - harder still to believe that he hasn't made another movie since. And maybe hardest to buy - this here first trailer for The Beach Bum, Korine's return to movies starring Matthew McConaughey, makes it seem an awful lot like Korine is copying himself? At the very least it looks like it's set in the exact same world that James Franco's Alien lived in - Southern Florida Neon Skeeze.

Still like Spring Breakers it looks fun and maybe even dangerous in equal measure. And McConaughey seems to be having a blast (all the thongs are giving me visions of Magic Mike) plus it looks like Korine's providing some outside-the-box roles for folks like Zac Efron and Jonah Hill. And bless anybody that gives Isla Fisher something to do. So we'll be there when it opens on March 22nd 2019. What do y'all think?

Posterized: Movies About Nun

by Nathaniel R

Sally Field as "The Flying Nun"... but that's a TV showThough we hate that every movie wants to become a 'universe' now, box office pundits predict that The Nun -- part of The Conjuring series -- is going to be huge. And, hell, we kind of love nun movies because we didn't grow up Catholic so it always seems like a fun or exotic other to us with peculiar hangups and fashion sense. Perhaps Catholics don't like nun movies quite as much or go into them with far more complicated baggage?

There are LOTS of B movies about nuns -- particular of the naughty variety (whether that's horror films or sexual films) but we're looking at only the more known titles here. (And surely there are a TON of foreign films about nuns that we're unfamiliar with though we've included a few famous ones in the list below.) 

This list is dedicated to Sally Field The Flying Nun, and Ann Dowd's nun in the short-lived TV series Nothing Sacred (both of whom we love) because this list is about nun movies.

OK, let's survey the posters. How many of these 39 nun movies have you seen?  If we've discussed the movie, it's linked up below... 

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Queer TIFF: "Rafiki"

by Chris Feil

Already famed for being banned in its home country of Kenya for having a positive outlook on its lesbian lovers, Rafiki is a mostly conventional coming out and of age tale. That is if you wish to divorce it from its very specific context in African cinema. A teen love story less interested in breaking narrative molds than it is environmental ones, Wanuri Kahiu’s debut stands out by presenting queer people within its own vision of contemporary Nairobi. While its expected beats and the familiarity of its narrative trajectory present some limitations to our enthusiasm, the film comes alive mostly by creating a palpably real world.

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Showbiz History: Rita & Orson, Keira's Karenina, and an Emmy boycott

6 random things that happened on this day, September 7th, in showbiz history

1940 Dario Argento is born in Rome. He goes on to fame as the director of stylish thrillers and horror movies, and to father actress/director Asia Argento. We're about to get the remake of his best known feature Suspiria.

←  1943 Movie stars Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles marry (though various internet sources seem to disagree on the date, sometimes September 9th is cited). They're both fresh stars in their twenties at the time having broken out in 1941 with The Strawberry Blonde and Citizen Kane respectively. The marriage will last for five years. I've urged you many times over the years to see the trans documentary Prodigal Sons which has an amazing connection to Welles & Hayworth...

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