Happy 50th to Julia Roberts!

by Nathaniel R

The biggest female movie star of the 1990s hit the half-century mark today. Happy 50th pretty woman. Herewith my personal votes as to her ten best screen performances. Yours? How will you celebrate this milestone?

1. Erin Brockovich (2000)
2. My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)
3. Closer (2004)
4. Pretty Woman (1990)
5. The Normal Heart (2014)
6. August: Osage County (2013)
7. Notting Hill (1999)
8. Duplicity (2009)
9. The Pelican Brief (1993)
10. Mystic Pizza (1988)

170 Documentaries to Compete for the Oscar (Yup, That's a Lot!)

By Glenn Dunks

Turkish cats, white supremacist terrorists, underground artists, climate change activists, controversial politicians, hackers, ballerinas and YouTube celebrities. These are just some of the subjects of the ONE-HUNDRED-AND-SEVENTY films that have been submitted for the Best Documentary Feature Academy Award. Yes, that 170 figure is a record and no, you probably haven't heard of a lot of them. Not even I had, and I write a weekly column on the subject.

We have tried to cover as many as possible, but trust me there's only so much we can do! Of course, on one hand, the number of titles listed here is daunting and massive. On the other hand, I must admit that a number this large actually somewhat puts my guilt at not covering enough to rest. It's simply too many! And it ought to be even longer! It's disappointing to see award season-worthy titles like In Transit, All This Panic and Antarctica: Ice and Sky not even submitted, but that's how this thing always goes.

I have included links to any TFE reviews, but also included bite-sized snippets to give you a snapshot and even a few one-sentence reviews for films I have seen and will not be doing a full write-up on. Nobody can say we don't attempt to cover as many as possible!

The Academy's doc branch will soon whittle this list down to 15 soon before we find out, as always, what the five nominees will be on Oscar Nomination Morning...

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Tweetweek and the Wonder Women

Hooray. SquareSpace has fixed their Twitter problem so now tweets can be displayed properly again. Essentially we like doing these roundups for two reasons. One, it's easy to miss good stuff on twitter in the presence of an endless stream of stuff.  Two, some of you don't use twitter and are probably more sane for it but you shouldn't be denied seeing amusing, insightful, or otherwise shareable brief thoughts on topics both deafening and underdiscussed.

And while we're on the topic of underdiscussed... 

Thoroughly enjoyed Rebecca Hall as a sexy stick in the mud in Professor Marston & the wonder women. pic.twitter.com/N6L9a9Lpf6

— Murtada (@ME_Says) October 20, 2017

Wholly agree with Murtada on this one! I'm sad that we didn't give Professor Marston and the Wonder Women its due here at TFE. Maybe when it hits DVD or streaming we can all dig in together? Surprisingly solid with Hall acing her complex leading role (as per usual).

After the jump topics from Mindhunter through Into the Woods to Call Me By Your Name and beyond...

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"Lady Macbeth" and the Men Who Love Her

By Spencer Coile 

Even at a quickly-paced 89 minutes, Lady Macbeth is unafraid to work slowly and dilligently. Based on Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Reskov and directed by William Oldroyd, this is a meticulously made tale of sexual repression and desire. It follow Katherine (Florence Pugh), a young woman married off to a man twice her age. Caught in a loveless, sexless marriage, she plots a better life for herself and then ensures, by any means necessary, to achieve her goal. 

The film (out now on DVD) is a dizzying narrative of deceit and treachery. Despite taking place in a stuffy 19th century English household, its twisted web of sex, love, and murder smolders. I would be lying if I said I didn't find myself screaming "Ohmygod!" over and over again throughout the film. Lady Macbeth evolves into something far messier, more suspenseful, and ever more intriguing than what first meets the eye... 

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La Pfeiffer and the Original Song Oscar Race

by Nathaniel R

Here's some rather surprising news: Michelle Pfeiffer sings the closing credits song of Murder on the Orient Express. The song is called "Never Forget" which we never in danger of doing for anything Pfeiffer. Though opinions vary about how well the goddess sings, we personally love it when she croons. Case in point: Grease 2 (1982), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), The Prince of Egypt (1998), and Hairspray (2007). Listen it's not her fault that her character in Up Close and Personal (1996) was supposed to be a bad singer or that "Miss Baltimore Crabs" is Hairspray's worst song!

"Never Forget" is written by two-time Oscar nominee Patrick Doyle, a regular on Kenneth Branagh films, who also composes the score. La Pfeiffer is, of course, not the sort who would deign to sing in front of the whole world on Oscar night so they will reassign the vocals if the song is nominated.

Regardless the Original Song category is beginning to show its possible contenders so we've updated that chart and still suspect the leader is The Greatest Showman's catchy "This Is Me" - which was recently performed in NYC by Keala Settle & Darren Criss.

We eagerly await the full eligibility list of 80ish songs we've never heard from 40 movies we've heard of and 20 movies we didn't know existed before this always surprising list hits.