Lange Gets Legendary

NY Magazine's "The Cut" has treated us with a marvelous photo collection of Jessica Lange as eight pioneering women. The Sandro shoot was likely inspired by Lange’s upcoming Joan Crawford role in Feud.  You’ll see Lange in top form (and significant makeup) as ladies like Frida Kahlo, Mae West, and Janis Joplin. The Cut article also includes side-by-side photo comparisons of the original photographs that inspired the portfolio, as well as a one-minute video piece of the shoot itself (which contains a few of Jessica’s patented, glorious hate glares).  

It all feels inspired and particularly timely, hot on the heels of the Womens’ March and tantalizingly close to the hopeful pleasures of watching Lange go toe-to-toe with Susan Sarandon as two other major figures of Hollywood.  It’s also a surprising and curious concept for a shoot, since Lange, while one of our best and certainly most live-wire actresses, isn’t known for transformation …so it has a particular kick. 

Which of the photos is your favorite?  Her Diana Vreeland more resembles Cherry Jones(!), and her Marlene Dietrich conjures good and bad memories from AHS: Freak Show.  But I love the I’m-smarter-than-all-of-you energy she captures in her Gloria Steinem, and her Georgia O’Keeffe captures the inherent intelligence of the original subject but seems to cross over to what is markedly Lange:  a deep well of sadness, fearlessly looking at the journey ahead.

Laura Dern Week: Rambling Rose (1991)

by Jason Adams

When it came time to choose a performance to honor here for Laura Dern Week I was a bit flummoxed - how does one on narrow it down? She's one of my favorite actresses, maybe the most favorite. So I did what any (semi)sane person in such circumstances would do: I made our host Nathaniel choose for me. I gave him two choices - I am pro-choice! One was my favorite performance of hers as Ruth in Alexander Payne's brutal abortion comedy Citizen Ruth, which I've written about a million times. And there was the one I said I had never seen before. Nathaniel went for freshness...

... but I realized ten minutes into 1991's Rambling Rose that I had actually seen it before. And I hadn't liked it! I'd blocked out the whole damn thing, actually. But a funny thing happened this time around - I found myself charmed.

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DVD Review: Trolls

Tim here. Today marks the DVD/Blu-ray release of Trolls, the 33rd feature film and only the second musical made by DreamWorks Animation, and a recent Best Original Song Oscar nominee (and if I may say so, the wrong song got honored, but whatever).

We haven't talked about the film much at all here at TFE, and this seemed like the best possible reason to correct that lapse. For a lapse it is: despite its 100% boilerplate plot, vaguely inspired by a line of toys that haven't been popular in more than two decades, and its wall-to-wall "pop songs and dance parties" structure, Trolls is, like, pretty good, y'all. It is, undoubtedly, assembled according to some Modern Kiddie Cartoon Mad-Libs: a crabby outsider, from a community dominated by one personality trait, finds himself in the position of being forced to save the day when catastrophe hits. By the end of the movie's trim 92 minutes, we've learned that real happiness was inside of you all along, and true beauty comes from confidence in being yourself.

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Pictures from the Oscar Luncheon

by Murtada

The question on a lot of people’s minds after the SAG Awards is how political are the Oscars going to be. If there was any doubt in anyone’s mind, Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs put that to rest. Addressing those gathered for the traditional luncheon, she alluded to the banned Muslim nominees, Asghar Farhadi and others, by pointing to the empty chairs:

Today we celebrate you. Your work and your achievements, but everyone knows there are some empty chairs in this room which has made Academy artists, activists. There is a struggle globally today over artistic freedom that feels more urgent than at anytime since the 1950s. Art has no borders. Art has no language and doesn’t belong to a single faith. No, the power of art is that it transcends all these things. And strong societies don’t censor art. They celebrate it.

By calling the nominees “activists”, Boone Isaacs is sanctioning political speeches at the ceremony which could make for an interesting show. Still the mood was not somber at the luncheon, and many nominees took the time to socialize. Isabelle Huppert and Michelle Williams caught up at the cocktail hour. Others did that even while taking their places for the annual class photo. More favorite moments after the jump.

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Doc Corner: 'Oklahoma City' As Relevant as Ever

Like many of the best documentaries, Barak Goodman’s Oklahoma City isn’t just about one thing. In fact, despite its title exclusively and definitively referencing the bombing of a federal building – the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil until 9/11 – Goodman’s compelling and ultimately very chilling and concerning film is about a larger swathe of domestic terrorism, detailing how the events of April 19 1995 were the inevitable culmination of an out-of-control spiral of white nationalism and anti-government revolt.

Despite the enormity of the event, the events of Oklahoma City have not been detailed on screen very often. For what reason that is, I’m not sure, but that absence of films (non-fiction or otherwise) would already be enough to allow this Sundance-premiering film extra weight and deserved attention. But in a depressing coincidence, and the reason Goodman’s film is as relevant 22 years later as it is, the wait to make a film has allowed the circumstances of the day, elements of the case that may have been forgotten or lost amid the debris, to hold a greater significance.

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