Beauty vs Beast: The King and... Who?

Jason from MNPP here. Tomorrow is the 97th anniversary of the great Yul Brynner's birth, and while there are several options we could tackle for this week's "Beauty vs Beast" (The Ten Commandments being the most obvious) I decided to go with the most awkward for me - 1956's technicolor musical The King and I, because I feel like we could use a colorful musical right this minute. There's just one problem, which is what renders this "awkward" - I haven't ever seen The King and I. Whoops!

I know the basic gist - Deborah Kerr plays a school-teacher who moves to Siam and she and the King (Brynner) teach each other about their different cultures and fall into something like love. But specifics? Notsomuch. So here's the deal - I will go home and watch The King and I this week, pinky swear, and you guys tell me in the comments what your "Pros" and "Cons" are for each character in place of me listing them. Deal? Deal!

PREVIOUSLY Last week we went looking for the best Wingman of the Top Gun bunch, and as I figured might happen the current anti-Cruise zeitgeist carried Iceman (Val Kilmer) up into the stratosphere with 52% of the vote. Tom Cruise, your career is in the Danger Zone! Said Travis:

"I'm just very concerned for the well-being of anyone that would vote for a tiny troll over the delicious Iceman."

The Furniture: The Magnificent Amberson Mansion

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

by Daniel Walber 

Much has been written about the making of The Magnificent Ambersons, the conflict between Orson Welles and RKO, Robert Wise’s studio-mandated shorter version, Bernard Herrmann’s refusal of credit, and the loss of much of the original footage. It’s a fascinating story.

However, this column isn’t about that. There remains plenty to celebrate in the version that was released to theaters, 75 years ago today. At the top of that list is the Amberson mansion, a triumph of design that should stand next to Citizen Kane’s Xanadu. It’s like a Victorian ancestor to the great palace of Charles Foster Kane, a previous iteration of wealth’s excesses. But the story of The Magnificent Ambersons is not about a meteoric rise in fortune, but what comes after.

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What Did You Watch This Weekend?

Blockbuster audiences flocked to Spider-Man: Homecoming this weekend to the tune of $117M (making it the second-highest opening for the character behind the largely reviled Spider-Man 3), while Sundance darling A Ghost Story had a strong limited debut in four theatres. Meanwhile, The Big Sick expanded further and continues to do gangbusters - it goes nationwide this coming week. Did you catch any of these three? Something else?

Have you started you mid-year catch up, like Spencer did with Gore Verbinski's A Cure For Wellness? I also recently caught up to Xavier Dolan's It's Only The End Of the World, which landed oh so quietly on US Netflix. Is there any hidden gem you've caught on any streaming platforms?

Tell us about your cinematic weekend!

Demented Beauty in "A Cure for Wellness"

By Spencer Coile 

We have successfully reached that lull in the film year, where many of us are playing catch-up with the films we weren't able to see earlier in the year. It is both daunting and exciting. There is so much to see, but sometimes, a film will come along and take our breath away -- in scope, in storytelling, in its sheer visual spectacle. Perhaps it is a mix of everything. 

Gore Verbinski's A Cure for Wellness is not a perfect movie. Its characters are paper-thin, the twists and turns oftentimes feel haphazard, and the writing leaves much to be desired in the suspense department. However, as I caught up with the critically divided feature, I couldn't help but be swept up into this world that Verbinski created. In many ways, it is so different from anything I have seen this year that it was easy to forgive and forget some of the film's flaws, because it is so beautiful. And rather than dive into a critique about the movie and nitpick everything it does wrong, it might be more beneficial to share with you some of the film's most elegantly shot moments -- to demonstrate the sheer artistry taking place. 

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Review: "Spider-Man: Homecoming"

by Chris Feil

It’s another go around the spider’s web again. With Spider-Man: Homecoming, the second reboot in under a decade, Peter Parker cashes in some MCU cache in attempt to regain audience enthusiasm after a string of disappointments. The good news is that director Jon Watts (Cop Car) and team have delivered a distinct revamp that may be far off from the cinematic heights of Sam Raimi’s first films, but is still one of the most entertaining. As we last saw him in Captain America: Civil War this is our youngest Spider-Man yet, and he may not be ready for his crime-fighting responsibilities yet.

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