Bob Hope to Ella Fitzgerald

The Irony in "Transformers: The Last Knight"

By Spencer Coile 

Since 2007, we have all come to expect the same qualities from Michael Bay's Transformers franchise: lengthy action sequences, stilted performances, and nonsensical storylines. With his latest entry into the world of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and co. with Transformers: The Last Knight, it seems as though Bay has thrown all logic out the window (alongside characterization). Heralding back to Medieval Ages and tracing the origin of the transformers to the days of Merlin, Bay dips his artistic vision in the realm of magic, surrounding his audiences with a silly and convoluted story of redemption and surrealism. 

The movie is not particularly good...

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Bening to Lead Venice Film Festival Jury

Chris here. It may not make up for missing out on an Oscar nomination for some of her best work in 20th Century Women, but Annette Bening is getting a global cinema honor of a different sort. The legendary actress will be president of this year's Venice Film Festival competition slate.

Bening will be the first woman to serve over the Venice jury in over a decade, the last being Catherine Deneuve's jury awarded Jia Zhangke's Still Life in 2006. What's heartening is that it was a conscious choice from festival director Alberto Barbera to represent female voices in film, one that rival festivals have struggled to achieve. He states:

It was time to break with a long list of male presidents and invite a brilliant talented and inspiring woman to chair our International competition jury. I am extremely happy that Annette Bening has accepted this role, which she will carry out by virtue of her stature, her intellect and the talents she has manifested over the course of her career, in Hollywood, Europe and on the stage. Hers is a career marked by always interesting, often daring choices. A sophisticated and instinctive actress, able to portray complex shadings of character, Annette Bening brings to her roles an understating, a warmth and a natural elegance that makes watching her films a wonderful and ever enriching experience. I welcome her to Venice.

Here here on Annette's gifts, but we'll see if that pro-diversity sentiment carries over into their selected films, however. Which means we can start speculating on what film's Venice will be serving Annette (and which she'll give a "yes and no"). This certainly puts her upcoming adaptations of The Seagull and Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool out of the running, but we will hopefully hear word of an opener in short time.

Hidden Streaming Gem: "Miami Rhapsody"

Hello! Robert here. The other night as I was enjoying my long Fourth of July weekend I was in the mood for a movie; something I hadn't seen, something light and funny, something for a summer night on the couch with a bottle of rosé. After clicking around on HBONow for a few minutes boy did I ever find what I was looking for: a gem of a '90s pseudo-intellectual rom-com called Miami Rhapsody. Won't you take a journey back in time with me and explore this strange little film?

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Soundtracking: "A Mighty Wind"

HEY WHA HAPPENED?! It's Chris Feil's weekly soundtrack series!

Christopher Guest’s A Mighty Wind begins with the death of a music producer, so it makes sense that the film ruminates on a supposedly dead musical genre. Folk music is a fit for Guest’s idiosyncratic eye, with the nuances in musicality or artistic personalities making easy fodder for his world of self-serious oddballs. Wind explores the breadth of the folk genre in three distinct groups: the narrative-based acoustics of The Folksmen, the chearfully disposed harmonies of The New Main Street Singers, and the placid romanticism of duo Mitch and Mickey. Though the film plays these characters with typical Guest behavioral farce, it does take their music seriously...

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