NYFF: Isabelle Huppert as "Mrs. Hyde"

by Jason Adams

Isabelle Huppert walks out and stands in front of her classroom in Serge Bozon's Mrs. Hyde and she seems to disappear into the wall - the chalk on the chalkboard has more color than she does. She's paste in sensible shoes. We first meet her being harangued publicly by her students, and in a slow painful succession of scenes she's humiliated by everyone she comes into contact with. This is no Huppert Dragon Lady, then.

And then, voila, she's struck by lightning. And given what we drag into the movie theater with us, given this film's title, we think to ourselves, "Cue the dragon!"

So the most interesting thing about Mrs. Hyde is simultaneously its most frustrating thing - it's as if Bozon took it as a challenge to deny us what we came to this movie for.

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Beauty vs Beast: Listen to the Lady in the Radiator

Jason from MNPP here -- this Thursday David Lynch's cult masterpiece Eraserhead is marking its 40th anniversary! 40 years have passed and I still haven't seen anything like it. Even among Lynch's work it still feels singular - you know how there's the blue key in Mulholland Drive that opens the little box? Sometimes I feel like Eraserhead is the blue key. Everything flows through it. It's his beautiful brain's Rosetta Stone, but good luck deciphering it. Anyway let's celebrate the film with this week's round of "Beauty vs Beast" shall we...

PREVIOUSLY You guys gave James Marsden a very happy birthday week, giving his Enchanted performance a whopping 85% against Patrick Dempsey's. That's one of the soundest beatings I think we've ever had. Said PoliVamp:

"Prince Edward all the way. He's so enthusiastically sincere that, even if the sex was terrible, he'd still find someway to make sure you enjoyed it."

Smackdown '85: Meet the Panelists!

The Next Supporting Actress Smackdown is on Sunday - get your votes in by Friday night please. Please only vote on the performances you've seen. Your host has been backstage doing the difficult (but exciting) work of wrangling up critics, industry professionals, and writers to discuss these Oscar years with you. (Coming soon: 1944, 2017, 1970, 1994)

MEET THE PANELISTS
Here's a little bit about our exciting panel to prep you for our conversation as we finish up our screenings. We're heavy on new Smackdowners and Los Angelenos this time which is a fun development.

First Time Smackdowners

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The Furniture: Death by Excess in What a Way to Go!

"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber, is our weekly series on Production Design. You can click on the images to see them in magnified detail.

Any excuse to talk about What a Way to Go! is a good excuse. But the centennial of Ted Haworth is an especially excellent excuse. He was nominated for six Oscars, starting with Marty in 1955. He won for 1957’s Sayonara. Highlights from the rest of his career include Some Like It Hot, The Beguiled, and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.

But none of those movies could hold a candle to the astonishing level of creativity on display in What a Way to Go! The epic 1964 comedy of love and loss stars Shirley MacLaine as Louisa May Foster, a many-time widow and heiress.  Each husband, with one particularly tragic exception, begins the marriage as a near-pauper who wants nothing but love. But their passion inevitably leads them on a wild pursuit of wealth, which tends to end in a coffin. It should be noted, of course, that Louisa herself has little interest in cash.

There are far too many brilliant design elements to fit into a single column...

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What's Streaming from 1985?

by Nathaniel R

Most streaming platforms don't have great search capabilities. As we've long complained, they're much better for casual viewers who'll watch whatever is curated for them than devoted cinephiles who often give themselves projects (I know I'm not the only one!) to watch a certain set of films of some ilk, year, awards race of yesteryear or from some filmography. Since 1985 is our "year of the month" -- the Smackdown is just one week away! (have you voted yet?) -- I thought we'd play our streaming screengrab roulette game (wherever the scroll bar lands we take that photo - no searching for cool images or key scenes) with film titles from 1985 that are streaming currently on one of the major services. These weren't super easy to look up but here's what I found on Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. 

Will any of these random screengrabs inspire you to watch a movie? Please do speak out about anything related to any of these movies in the comments. It's more fun when you we're not just typing into the abyss.

Okay, ready here we go...

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