Well played, Fincher

This e-mail exchange between directors Mark Romanek and David Fincher was posted on Romanek's Instagram account:

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Mary Poppins Returns Teaser

by Murtada

Self promotion and corporate synergy hit a high on the Oscars telecast Sunday. Disney which owns ABC and is releasing Mary Poppins Returns next Christmas, made sure that the stars of the film were presenters on the show. Not only that but host Jimmy Kimmel mentioned both Emily Blunt and Lin Manuel Miranda in his jokes, and both got invited to that misbegotten visit to nearby screening of another Disney film, A Wrinkle in Time. Finally the film’s first teaser was released during one of the commercial breaks...

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Review: A Wrinkle in Time

by Chris Feil

With an authentic sense of wonder for the human spirit in its blood stream, A Wrinkle in Time adapts Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved classic with the air of intense responsibility. Directed by Ava DuVernay, this interdimensional tale of adolescent self-affirmation casts its holistic intentions on a massive canvas that remains deeply personal. It’s a CGI space hug resolute in empowering the viewers that find themselves diminished by their environment and maybe even Wrinkle’s cinematic contemporaries.

Newcomer Storm Reid plays Meg, a solemn preteen mourning the disappearance of her astrophysicist father (played by Chris Pine) and coping with the cruelty of pretty-girl bullies. Her despair and the naivete of her younger brother Charles Wallace (an adorable and teensy Deric McCabe) summons three otherworldly mystic Mrs.: Reese Witherspoon as the shady and effervescent Mrs. Whatsit, Mindy Kaling as the quote-happy Mrs. Who, and Oprah Winfrey as the all-knowing Mrs. Which. With her brother and a newfound friend, Meg portals across the universe under the guidances of the Mrs. to rescue her father from the evil forces of the invading It that trap him.

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Months of Meryl: Falling in Love (1984)

John and Matthew are watching every single live-action film starring Meryl Streep. 

#10 —Molly Gilmore, a married woman who, against her better judgment, falls in love with a married man.

JOHN: Falling in Love is my favorite movie. Well, not exactly. I only just watched it for the first time, so I can’t exactly gauge the extent of my affection. But I’ll repeat: Falling in Love is my favorite movie. It’s hard not to fall in love (sorry) with a movie where Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro have an affair in 1983 New York City, aided by best pals Dianne Wiest and Harvey Keitel. After a chance encounter at the beautiful Manhattan bookstore Rizzoli on Christmas Eve, the two meet again months later, care of the blessed Metro North, and eventually have their desires and marriages tested. One could say it’s a Mazursky-inflected Deer Hunter reunion, minus the wit, or The Bridges of Dobbs Ferry, minus the tension. But Falling in Love is an almost lovingly clichéd brief encounter featuring two unexpectedly nuanced lead performances. It’s cinematic comfort food of the loveliest order.

Streep is Molly Gilmore, a graphic designer with a stiff doctor husband (David Clennon) and a dying father (George Martin), and nearly nothing else of a backstory to report. In our last entry I noted that Streep as Karen Silkwood is ostensibly the closest character to her own personality that she had yet played, but Falling in Love quickly bucks that distinction...

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Blueprints: Post-Oscar Stat Madness!

Here we are. The Oscars are over. After six months (this was a long season!) of never ending think pieces, desperate For Your Consideration ads, and prediction anxiety, we can finally take a breather.

So, before we’re ready to start doing it all over again (because, let’s be honest, despite everything, we love this), let’s decompress a little. And if you’re like me, there’s nothing better than a good list of stats and numbers to clear your mind.

As a pallet cleanser, and as a farewell to Oscar season for now, here’s are some statistics and data about the screenplay categories. Where we were before Sunday, where we are now. And how far we have yet to go.

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