Charlize Theron in "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion"

by Tim Brayton

As part of our celebration of the career of Charlize Theron, I'm revisiting the performance of hers that first made me clearly aware that here was a woman whose career would be worth keeping an eye on. Unfortunately, it's a crap film, one of the worst she's ever been in: I speak of the 2001 Woody Allen project The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, a sluggish, mirthless throwback to the screwball comedies of old that is, by some reports, Allen's own least favorite of his career. I can't quite bring myself to agree with that assessment, but it's certainly right down there near the bottom.

In fact, Theron's performance as bored, spoiled rich society woman Laura Kensington is easily the best thing about the film, if not indeed the only good thing about it, period. I'm very happy to report that her work holds up, even without the sense of newness...

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Poster for "Call Me by Your Name"

by Murtada

Call Me By Your Name, Luca Guadagnino's already wildly acclaimed gay romantic drama, was just announced for TIFF. It will probably play NYFF, too, on its way to a limited release on November 24, the sweet Thanksgiving spot for Oscar hopeful movies. And now the gorgeous poster for one of our most anticipated films of the year, has been revealed. See it in all its glory (plus more news about the film) after the jump...

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First & Last: Macro Micro

Here are the first and last images of a major motion picture.

Can you guess the movie?

A First Look At "Suburbicon"

Chris here. With fall festival lineups beginning to be revealed, that means some of the upcoming films that have been shrouded in secrecy are beginning to lift the veil. One such film that we've seen next to nothing from is George Clooney's Suburbicon, which will be among the Venice and Toronto lineups.

Thus far we've only had the starry cast (Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Oscar Isaac) and a script by Clooney, his writing partner Grant Heslov, and the Coen brothers to stoke our curiosity - with a brief plot synopsis about home invasion to have us scratching our heads as to what the actual tone of this thing would be. Now there is a trailer that... leaves us with more questions about the tone.

Take a look at the trailer and I have some burning questions after the jump...

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Beauty Break: Dog-Loving Natalie Wood

by Nathaniel R

You can find a few photos of the legendary Natalie Wood as a pint-sized actress with cats, but once the child star came into her own in Hollywood as a regular-aged movie star she was inarguably a dog person.

Her most common photo accessories for a time were her white poodle Fifi and her silver poodle Morningstar. Curiously I've never seen them in a photo together (by all accounts she had multiple pets but perhaps these two only overlapped in the late 1950s with Morningstar hogging the camera by the early 60s?).But they were hardly her only four legged Best Friends in her 43 years on earth. 

After the jump more furry beauty shots...

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