25th Anniversary: Prince of Tides (1991)

by Eric Blume

Twenty five years ago, director Barbra Streisand delivered her big-screen adaptation of the Pat Conroy novel The Prince of Tides for Christmas.  The film went on to win the Best Actor Golden Globe for Nick Nolte, as well as seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture (but famously not a Best Director nod for Streisand).  

Looking at the film now, The Prince of Tides feels like a remnant from a lost Hollywood genre:  the mainstream, gimmick-free adult drama.  Streisand’s instincts lean to the commercial, and she’s fully devoted to the film’s rather banal psychobabble that purports how one good solid cry can heal a childhood rape.  The script may be as deep as a raindrop, but it has its strengths as well, and they’re strengths that align with Streisand’s own...

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New on DVD: Goat

By Sean Donovan

Goat has an important discrepancy between its advertising and the final film we end up watching. The poster, released just before the film’s 2016 Sundance in-competition premiere, specifies a clear focal point and it is male nipples. A man’s tight nipples exposed as other clothed men gather around him pouring liquor down his chest. Any hunch as to what sizable market population Goat is trying to advertise to? If you need more clues, how about the fact that this film was produced by queer cinema legend Christine Vachon, features the star of Pride Ben Schnetzer, and the straight male pop star Nick Jonas (confusingly labeled a gay icon by Out Magazine), and the man who wants to be gay icon so much it hurts, James Franco, in a dual role as producer/supporting actor? No more clues needed: Goat is hunting for THE GAYS. 

The opening credits more or less bear out the promise of this advertising, set as they are to a slow-motion montage of bouncing shirtless men. Yet the resulting film is a very dark, gritty experience, lacking even the typical scenes of sexualized rowdy excess that one usually finds in films about fraternity bros...

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Showbiz History: Irene Dunne's Near-Record, Brittany Murphy's Untimely Death, Scream's Release

Today in showbiz history if you need something to celebrate with the world ending* and all...
*too dramatic? That's what it feels like lately, is all... 

1812 "Grimm's Fairy Tales" is published. They never stop influencing popular culture thereafter. 
1880 Broadway gets the nickname "The Great White Way" when it's first lit up by electricity
1892 Phileas Fog completes his trip 'round the globe in the novel Around the World in Eighty Days (later adapted to the screen)
1898 Irene Dunne, one of the greatest actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age was born on this day in Kentucky. She went on to five leading actress nominations (my favorite is The Awful Truth, 1937) without ever winning.

WHY THAT'S A BIG DEAL IN OSCAR HISTORY IS REVEALED AFTER THE JUMP...

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Jake Comes Back Singing

by Eric Blume

Playbill recently announced that one of our very favorite Oscar nominees/hunks/great actors, Jake Gyllenhaal, will reprise his four-day stint from October as French painter George Seurat in Steven Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George for an official ten-week Broadway run.  Previews begin February 11th.

I was able to catch Jake in the initial staged-concert run of the show, and he’s a sight to behold...

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A "Blade Runner 2049" Teaser is Here!

Chris here. Denis Villeneive has scored his biggest box office hit with Arrival (it's inching close to $100M) but he could score an even bigger hit next year with Blade Runner 2049. The sequel is bound to spur steady curiosity and shrieks of sacrilege from the original's faithful over the next year, but Villeneuve should be the force that unites both factions. And to ease (or maybe exacerbate) those thoughts, we have our first look at the visuals with the just released teaser! We'll save the full YNMS for a more revealing trailer, but I have some thoughts...

• That's a lot of voiceover for a teensy trailer. Uh oh, did they not learn from the original's struggles?
• Denis Villeneuve and Roger Deakins, reunited and it feels so good.
• Ryan Gosling gives good coat. With all that mood and stoicism, this teaser plays like Only God Forgives but, you know, not terrible.
• We see you on that piano, Ryan. La La Land crossover fanfiction!
• With these mostly dusty hues, it's a relief to know that this might be a decades late sequel that doesn't borrow too much from its original, no?
• Deckard seems to have gone all McMansion while in hiding. Maybe Sean Young is lurking somewhere after all.

What do you think of this first look?