FYC The Next Academy President Will Be...

As you may have heard rumors are afoot about who will replace Cheryl Boone-Isaacs when her term as up as President of AMPAS and Laura Dern's name keeps popping up. Cheryl Boone-Isaacs presided with a mostly clear head over a difficult stretch of Oscar history but she can't run this year (four consecutive terms is the limit, each term is 1 year). Despite the excessive campaigning that goes on at Oscar time for nominations, the Academy doesn't like any active campaigning when it comes to this role.

In other words, don't count on David Lynch showing up with his cow on Los Angeles streets to campaign for Laura Dern as he did when she starred in INLAND EMPIRE (2006). The rumored frontrunners for this prestigious but unpaid position are...

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Tribeca 2017: Ashley Bell's one for the ages in Psychopaths

Coming at ya it's Jason Adams reporting from the Tribeca Film Festival again...

Psychopaths is kind of what Natural Born Killers would have looked like directed by David Lynch... or at least that's what Psychopaths wants you to think it is, and it wants you to think that really really hard. It's not quite up to all of that, but then anything that was up to all of that would've blown my brains through the back of the movie theater, so perhaps it's for the best. I like what's left of my brains and I want to keep them inside my head...

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Tribeca 2017: My Friend Dahmer

And here's Jason Adams reporting again from the Tribeca Film Festival.

"Even more, they were boys, with their cars, summer jobs... oh my god... are you one of them?"

Sufjan Stevens sings that to the victims of John Wayne Gacy Jr. in his song titled after that serial killer, an attempt at finding some sort of empathy or a modicum of understanding buried beneath the front porch of a gay man's home turned graveyard. And now, taking a similar path through darkness towards more darkness, comes My Friend Dahmer, an adaptation of Derf Backderf's graphic novel about the writer's experiences going to high school with Jeffrey Dahmer...

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Drag Race S937: Madonna & 'Snatch Game' Do-Overs

Nathaniel R stepping in for Chris Feil, our usual lipsynch queen, who has the weekend off which gives yours truly a chance to funk with his "current rankings" in Drag Race's 9th season. [Insert evil cackle here].

I didn't know when I offered to sub that I'd be paired with the do-over of the Madonna runway. Since Madonna is my all time favorite celeb and the last episode devoted to the Queen was arguably Drag Race's most embarrassing (how could they allow their entire cast to act like the big M had only ever come up with 4 looks when she popularized giving yourself a makeover every single damn time you showed up to werq? [You can't see me but I'm stroking the chip on my shoulder. Shhhhh baby. There, he quiet now.]

No mini-challenge and no Pit crew again? May I suggest a mini-challenge...

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April Wraps

April was a little odd for your host here offscreen and onscreen... well, April was a bit of a dead month wasn't it? We're giving it a gentle shove out the door this morning though there's a full day of it left tomorrow. But we still found cinematic pleasure where we could, whether that was covering the Tribeca Film Festival or making those Foolish annual first Oscar predictions. 

A dozen highlights of April... 
Betty Buckley Interview - on Split and her new CD. She's not a nostalgist
Corporate Afterthoughts in Toni Erdmann - all those oddly "decorated" spaces
Fast and Furious Rankings - Ranking the similarly titled movies
A Star is Born - yet another version. Thoughts on the first image of Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga
Jonathan Demme's Favorite Actors - an appreciation and farewell 

Cannes Lineup / Jury - excited to experience the world's most glamorous fest in May? 
Grindhouse 10 Years Later - looking back on the double feature that looked back 
Three Fittings: Fantastic Beasts - on that surprise Oscar win for costume design 
Big Little Lies / Kidmania - 7 hours of awesome / Nic retakes her throne
Marsha Mason a look back at her career for her 75th birthday 

COMING IN MAY
Cannes glamour, New seasons of Twin Peaks and Sense 8, reviews of new releases like Alien Covenant, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Baywatch, new to DVD discussions of The Red Turtle, Get Out, and Oscar wining The Salesman, anniversary celebrations of Sister Act and Ladyhawke, and a week long Pedro Almodovar Party. Plus more episodes of all your favorite series including Three Fittings, The Furniture, Pfandom, and The Smackdown. Maybe even Hit Me With Your Best Shot (we're trying to decide).