"Where is Kyra" wins raves for La Pfeiff

True story: I started our new "Pfandom" series specifically for two reasons. The second was to cheer myself up in these awful democracy-losing times. The first though was to welcome our pfavorite, Michelle Pfeiffer, back. The twitter debate rages on what we shall call this year ("The Pfeiffersance? Michellaisance?" any other suggestions?). The first of her pfour roles this year is the title character in Where is Kyra?, which just premiered at Sundance. I will not be reading any reviews as I'd like to experience it pfresh but my understanding is that it's Oscar nominated cinematographer Bradford Young (Arrival) and Michelle herself winning the raves while people are less jazzed about the movie itself? Regardless, TFE's official stance is that it's very unfortunate that Pfeiffer did not show to support her movie. Director Andrew Dosunmu (Mother of George) had to go it alone. If she doesn't leave home to promote her movies this year,  the comeback may be rather less than glamorous and successful. But what can you do? She's an elusive creature. 

If you don't have my aversion to reading reviews before you see a film, reviews are now available at Village Voice, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Screen Daily, Ion Cinema, Playlist, and Yahoo! Movies.

Best Pic Battles: Opening Lines

Here are the opening lines of each Best Picture nominee. Can you guess which one belongs to which film? 

A. "14....15...16... Prime."

B. "QUIET!"

C. "______ Come on, come on. Get up. Come on, quickly!"

D. "A lot of stuff he just doesn't understand about the world that I understand. That makes all my actions when I move through the world -- I do things better because I can see it all laid out like a map." 

E. "Can you help me out, man?"

F. "Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting god, creator of the ends of the Earth."

G. "It's another hot sunny day today here in Southern California, temperature is 84 for downtown Los Angeles"

H. "I used to think this was the beginning of your story."

I. "____, you ought'a stop that lying." 

Try to guess. Go ahead and tell us how you did once you check the answers after the jump / scroll down!

Click to read more ...

Link by Day

Coming Soon Beauty and the Beast has an original song called "Evermore," sung in the film by Dan Stevens and in the end credits by Josh Groban. Uff, I've never liked Disney's "do overs" in the end credits. They're always worse than the in-film version
Variety Beauty and the Beast also got character posters
MNPP a pic of Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal we'd never seen before!
The Playlist on 30 breakouts of the Sundance Film Festival 
David Poland La La Land backlash and why you should give the movie its due

 

Boy Culture celebrities pay tribute to Mary Tyler Moore
MTV Teo Bugbee on Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People (1980) 
The Daily Beast Lois Smith has a breakout role at 86 in Marjorie Prime
Film Mixtape Chris Feil's top fifteen of the year
Art of the Title looks back at Madonna's Who's That Girl (1987) opening credits. Loved those
/Film Sing already set for a sequel for Christmas 2020
Unicorn Booty 100 intriguing LGBT artists, characters, and people to watch
Awards Watch shares the GALECA winners with prizes to Moonlight, The Dressmaker, Christine, The Handmaiden, and more 
Gurus of Gold rank the Oscar nominees in order of likelihood to win... 
Film School Rejects The Flash movie is going back to the drawing board. No script. No director.
MNPP on 'the tell' in tense films and Asghar Farhadi's crazy skill with them in The Salesman 
Variety Ben Affleck's Live by Night is a big financial loss for Warner Bros  

Gird Your Loins for a "Devil Wears Prada" Musical

Chris here, with exciting Broadway adaptation news. Yes, we've maybe begun to move past eyerolling whenever our favorite movies are cashgrabbed into a stage musical and are occassionally excited about some prospects. The Devil Wears Prada seems like a more natural fit for Broadway (and long rumored). It also just landed some quite credible talent: composer Elton John and scribe Paul Rudnick.

If you're worried about an instant classic like Prada being bastardized, look no further than how Elton John turned Billy Elliot into both a financial and creative success on the stage. Paul Rudnick has given us such gay classics as Jeffrey, Addams Family Values, and In & Out, so don't expect the hilarity to be diminished either. While there is not an arrival date yet, the announcement of their involvement is all we need to confirm that this adaptation is really happening and will be a gay old time.

Get ready for lots of speculation on who will step into Meryl Streep's Priestley shoes, though we imagine it is too early to speculate on casting (or how Tony-ready Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci's former roles will be). It is however fun to fantasize about how Elton will musicalize the pages of Runway magazine. I personally can't wait for numbers like "That's All", "The Cube of Cheese Diet", and "(My Esteemed Colleague) Jacqueline Follet".

What Prada moment are you most excited to see musicalized?

Resident Evil ...Again.

by Brian Zitzelman

One of the strangest things about Oscar month is that the movies that open during it are usually the opposite of prestige. Tomorrow sees the release of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, the allegedly last installment of this long-running franchise. With more than a decade's worth of subpar critical reviews, it's nonetheless more notable than it might seem upon first glance.  

Superhero movies aside, R-rated action franchises haven't especially been booming in the twenty-first century, or even in the post Arnold/Stallone/Willis dominated run of the 80s to mid-90s...

Click to read more ...