Hit Me With Your Best Shot: "Moonlight"

by Nathaniel R

Little and Juan framed by nature

A truth: No matter how much you love a movie on first viewing, what makes it become a classic, a masterpiece even, is less predictable. That's in how it endures and oft times whether it can keep giving you new information. Aging, even for non-living things like a movie which is already "complete," before it begins that process, is tricky. But after a handful of screenings of Moonlight over the past nine months, it's quite obvious that the film (not to mention its surprise Best Picture win) will age spectacularly well. A prediction: We're just barely getting to know its marvel.

The Hit Me With Your Best Shot series initially started as an idea to honor Cinematography but film is so collaborative and complex that that's not how it turned out. It's ended up being more of a mise-en-scène appreciation ... sometimes the images that grab you are lighting based, other times it's the perfect marriage of a sound and picture, and then there are performances so indelible that they even become the primary iconic visual. Because Moonlight is rich in all of its moving parts, I opted to just look at the first act (for now). And I did something I never do: I watched it with the sound turned off... 

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Kidman in Cannes. Part 2.

Hello mortals,

It is me, your ruler and Empress Nicole Kidman here to remind you that perfection is attainable if you work real hard to attain it *giggles* OK, not really, I was born with it.

However, I was sent from my galaxy to share my perfection with you and improve your existence through my many servants across time and space. As I go about being all perfect and stuff at Cannes, I'll leave you with the meek Jose who will tell you stories of my achievements and miracles.

Toodles! 

*vanishes in a cloud of lavender scented glitter*

Thanks your highness! Last time we saw Nicole she was pleasing John Cameron Mitchell, Elle Fanning and Sandy Powell by making her first Cannes appearance in Rodarte. Since then there have been a whopping three reports of Kidmanifestations at the French Riviera. Now let us turn our pages to the second chapter of the holy book of Kidman at Cannes.  See the holy apparitions after the jump...

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Zach Snyder and the Separation of Art and Artist

by Ben Miller

Many outlets are reporting the news that director Zack Snyder is stepping down from directing the upcoming Justice League in order to be with his family following the suicide of his daughter, Autumn, in March. This news has unfortunately prompted some insensitive reactions online. This brings to light an interesting separation between the artist and the art they create.

Snyder has his fair amount of detractors.  I was impressed by his debut with Dawn of the Dead and got caught up in the zeitgeist that was 300.  But, I have been less than thrilled with his contributions to the superhero genre in Watchmen, Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

This has birthed a persona of the man – Zack Snyder, director.  His personal life and character has been shielded by a believed persona of what we feel this man is like, just because of the films he makes.  We assume that the CGI heavy and slow-motion leaning visual style says more about the man than anything else...

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The Movie That Twitter Made Happen

Chris here. Remember a few weeks back when this tweet referencing Rihanna and Lupita Nyong'o made the rounds and gave us all a good delighted gasp?:

Rihanna looks like she scams rich white men and lupita is the computer smart best friend that helps plan the scans https://t.co/PhWs1xd3nj

— WHOOPHERASSKOURTNI (@1800SADGAL) April 18, 2017

The fun continued as Lupita and Rihanna chimed in with their enthusiasm, bringing along multi-hyphenate talents Ava DuVernay and Insecure’s Issa Rae. Well, it wasn't just playful chatter between celebs over Twitter - this project just became real...

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Doc Corner: Awards Hopefuls 'Abacus' and 'Last Men in Aleppo'

by Glenn Dunks

First off, apologies for the sporadic columns over the last two months. My day job for this time period has been behind the scenes of a film festival and there’s something about working 14 hours a day that just makes coming home and doing more writing somewhat less alluring? As a soft apology, here is a look at two films. They have next to nothing in common other than that we may see their names pop up here or there come award season.

The first is Steve James’ Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, a film about an institution – the Abacus Federal Savings Bank of Chinatown, not even one of the top 2000 banks in the country if I saw the stats correctly – that became the only American bank to be criminally indicted in the wake of the financial sector crisis of 2008. The modesty of its subjects, both corporate and human, clearly rubbed off on James who has crafted a standardly assembled yet no less enthralling documentary about what is now a particularly peculiar footnote in the history of American law...

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