Tribeca 2017: "Sweet Virginia"

Nathaniel R reporting from the Tribeca Film Festival

Christopher Abbott and Jon Bernthal develop an awkward friendship in "Sweet Virginia"

Sweet Virginia begins with an unnerving burst of violence in the bar of a small Alaskan town. Initially the carnage and resulting grief feels as senseless as all violence does. What a world. But this being a slow burn neo-noir, we know from rich movie history that the killings won't prove to be random. Caught up in the aftermath of the crime are two newly widowed women (Imogen Poots and Rosemarie DeWitt) who aren't as grief stricken as they should be, the non-local murderer (Christopher Abbott) who decides to hole up in town for a bit, and the owner of the local motel "Sweet Virginia," a retired rodeo champ (Jon Bernthal) who, as it turns out, has been carrying on an affair with the widow for years prior to the picture...

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Annette Bening v. Hilary Swank: 2018 Edition

By Spencer Coile 

For those desperately hoping that Ryan Murphy will bring Annette Bening Emmy glory for her role on the second season of American Crime Story, think again. Hilary Swank has been cast in the new FX limited series, Trust, which will be helmed by Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle... 

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50th Anniversary: the 20th Annual Cannes Film Festival

by Nathaniel R

Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave at Cannes '67Fifty years ago on this very day over in France the 20th annual Cannes Film Festival opened with the French film I Killed Rasputin directed by Robert Hossein. The jury was headed by the influential Italian director Alessandro and featured both Shirley Maclaine and Vincente Minnelli, two of our favorites.

When the festival closed that year the awards were spread out (as they should be) with lots of countries winning something. The Palme d'Or went to Michelangelo Antonioni's brilliant Blowup at the end of the festival (a film we tried to interest y'all in a few years ago to crickets. *sniffle*). Check out Vanessa Redgrave's frankly awesome full-body get-up on the red carpet with her then brand new lover Franco Nero (of Camelot fame). They finally married 11 years ago!

Both of the acting prizes went to young actors...

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Paul Verhoeven Sticking To Dark Habits, Making Erotic Nun Movie

Paul Verhoeven is a walking, talking trigger warning; it’s not difficult to imagine him sitting behind an Inside Out-style control center smashing his fist on every red button in sight, cackling with perverse glee as he crawls under your skin like a psychologically disturbed porcupine with a bad case of rabies. Fresh off the especially spiky heels of last year’s Elle – his infamous “rape revenge comedy” that catapulted légende française Isabelle Huppert onto the stages of American awards ceremonies, better late than never – Variety reports that the Dutch provocateur plans to grind out a 17th century nunsploitation flick entitled Blessed Virgin as his next feature, replete with Sapphic undertones and hellish visions of religious erotica; a series of descriptors that should surprise approximately no one when it comes to all things Verhoeven.

After all, this is the same director who obliterated the military-industrial complex with giant man-eating space bugs, exposed the American entertainment industry with pole-licking showgirls, and, yes, drove a hatchet through the contemporary French bourgeoisie with a number of problematic sexual assaults.

Based on the book Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy, Blessed Virgin tells the sordid true tale of Sister Benedetta Carlini’s subversive exploits as the Christ-communicating, same-sex bedding abbess of an Italian nunnery. Going straight from one hyper-religious sister to another, Elle star Virginie Efira is set to reteam with Verhoeven to play the lead. Do Paul Verhoeven’s (intentionally) problematic visions delight or disgust you? 

Tribeca 2017: Pilgrimage

Jason Adams reporting from the Tribeca Film Festival

There is a real interest at times in wrestling with faith and violence and the intersection of the two in Pilgrimage, director Brendan Muldowney's post-Crusades action film starring Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal, that is reminiscent of Scorsese's Silence. Unfortunately Muldowney's ultimately a bit too infatuated with the violence - in the squalor of grinding organs and bashing heads - at the near obliteration of anything concrete to say about faith. Of course what is faith but a question mark? Some spilled brains?

It's the 13th Century in Ireland and a band of not-so-merry monks are living along the remote coast protecting a most holy relic, and also doing some light gardening....

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