OTD: Who's "Bad"?

on this day (August 31st) in history as it relates to showbiz

1897 Thomas Edison patents his movie camera the "kinetograph"

1987 Michael Jackson's video "Bad" directed by none other than the master Martin Scorsese premieres. It is 18 minutes long (!) because Martin Scorsese never saw a lengthy running time that didn't make him salivate. The short gave Wesley Snipes one of his earliest gigs prompting the short's switch from black and white to color as Wesley riles Michael up with a "you ain't bad!" burn.

Princess Diana, Brokeback Mountain and more after the jump...

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Good riddance, August!

Uff. what an unpleasant month this is / that was! The world continued to go insane, people are still denying climate change despite more and more frequent tragedies like what's happening in Texas and, on a more personal level, at TFE HQ your host Nathaniel threw his back out most severely. As a result the blogging was less prolific. Now that recovery is finding some momentum (crosses fingers) expect a return to normalcy after the Labor Day holiday. First up: The Toronto International Film Festival, our favorite annual event that isn't awards show related.

ICYMI a dozen highlights From August
• Grace & Frankie's Costumes  - Emmy nominated and deservedly so
• Best Actress in a Limited Series - the hottest Emmy category. Who to vote for?
• Sunset Blvd Musical Movie Rumors - the most discussed post of the month
• Best Screen Owls oh, the randomness!
• Soundtracking: The First Wives Club - you don't own them!
• Girls Trip and Atomic Blonde - the funnest August double feature
• Yes No Maybe So: mother! - Only two weeks to go!
• Smackdown 1963 lots on Liz, Poitier, Tom Jones, and Lilies of the Field
• The Furniture Arthurian legends through the years
• Beauty vs Beast Hercules vs Hades - it's a close race so vote
• Stage Door: Angels in America - Nathan Lane and Andrew Garfield take on the giant roles this time
• Doc Corner: Whose Streets? Now playing and could be a contender

Coming in September
A look back at the 1985 film year with the Smackdown dropping on October 1st, Darren Aronofsky's mother!, the first significant waves of Oscar buzz, Emma vs Steve in Battle of the Sexes, Jake Gyllenhaal in Stronger, and more Difficult People

Review: "Good Time"

By Spencer Coile 

2017 has quietly become the post-Twilight year of Pattinson & Stewart. After Kristen Stewart dazzled in Personal Shopper, Robert Pattinson was given a leading role worthy of his talent in the Safdie Bros. film, Good Time. Taking place throughout the span of one night, Pattinson's Connie scrambles to get his brother Nick (Benny Safdie) out of jail after a fumbled bank heist. 

As far as plot is concerned, that is all you need to know. The Safdie brothers then let this story unfold in such quick, confident ways that all you are left to do is sit back and grip the sides of your chair...

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"78/52" Trailer teases method behind madness of Hitchcock's "Psycho"

by Daniel Crooke

Arriving just in time to slice and dice screens during the Halloween season comes Alexandre O. Phillipe's documentary 78/52, named after the 78 shots and 52 cuts that comprise the primal terror of Psycho’s infamous shower scene. A frame-by-frame deconstruction of the sequence, the myth, and the way it changed moviegoing culture forever, 78/52 debuted to warm reviews at Sundance earlier this year and will no doubt be a sweet seasonal treat for fans of Alfred Hitchcock, legacy horror, and the precise construction that goes into the craft of filmmaking.

Aficionados and genre experts such as Guillermo del Toro, Jamie Lee Curtis, Karyn Kusama, and Danny Elfman provide their own insights in the documentary...

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Soundtracking: "The Big Chill"

Chris Feil's weekly series looks at the use of music in movies

The Big Chill is one of the definitive films about the baby boomer generation, marking their coming of a certain age where life begins to look a lot less like what they were promised. And this is a generation that was promised an awful lot. It’s appropriate then that Lawrence Kasdan packs the film with tunes that contrast a youthful optimism with more complicated tones of soulful longing.

Many of the songs featured in the film would become soundtrack staples to the extent that they became movie cliches. Off-hand you can probably think of a half dozen films that also featured “The Weight” by The Band or “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night. But what The Big Chill got right - and first, mind you - about much of this music is how it was the tapestry of that generation...

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