Malick Goes to IMAX

Leave it to Terrence Malick to always keep us guessing when his next film will drop. Recently we got word that his long-rumored documentary Voyage of Time would finally be dropping this fall and on massive IMAX screens to boot - before the star filled Weightless that he shot back-to-back with this year's Knight of Cups. Like his movies, I guess the release schedules and post-production meander as well.

But even without Weightless's star power, Voyage will pack wattage of its own. Ennio Morricone will be scoring the film, reuniting him with the director after almost forty years since they collaborated on Days of Heaven. And there may not be recognizable faces on screen among the eyepopping visuals, but Brad Pitt narrates (Cate Blanchett is set to narrate the extended, non-IMAX version that is also rumored).

If you have your doubts about another Mallick meditation on existance, consider that this version will be running at a swift forty minutes. Without a narrative to distract from the auteur's transfixing visuals (albeit this time without Emmanuel Lubezki behind the camera), this one should give us precisely what we want from him without the frustrations of his recent work. Check out the just released trailer and imagine it on a huge IMAX screen:

Voyage of Time opens in IMAX on October 7. What other Mallick film would you see in IMAX?

He Loves Link

Reminder: You can watch the live stream of Broadway's She Loves Me tonight (one of the major Tony nominees this year) on "Broadway HD" for only $9.99 this evening at 8:00 PM EST (though I'd get there before 7:50 PM). The show stars Laura Benanti and Jane Krakowski, two national musical comedy treasures, and some talented men, too. It's the first time in history that a Broadway show has been livestreamed and since Broadway shows aint cheap $10 is practically free. If you check it out, let us know what you thought. Our review icymi.

Links
Variety looks back at the waves made by The Devil Wears Prada 10 years back
Vox has a very sound theory as to why the blockbusters suck this year - the disappearance of second acts in the three act structure
Shout Factory Carrie (1976) is getting a spiffy new Blu-Ray for her 40th anniversary
Birth.Movies.Death on the making of Clash of the Titans. Harry Hamlin was a handful! 
IndieWire how YA stars have emerged as the saviors of American indie films 
THR A24, perhaps emboldened by their first Oscar wins last year (Room + Ex Machina) is really hitting it hard for 2016. They've already released a few notable titles this year with more to come. Now they just picked up Mike Mills 20th Century Women. Can they win Best Actress two years in a row? 
Gold Derby Alison Janney and Julia Louis-Dreyfus will both make history on Emmy night if they win
Birth.Movies.Death on the recent Cap is Hydra comic storyline and how serial storytelling works (it's only the response to serial storytelling that's really changed.) 
Pride Source a fun LGBT themed interview with our new Tarzan Alexander Skarsgård
Boy Culture today is the 30th anniversary of Madonna's "True Blue" album
MNPP Miles Teller in leopard print thong for Bleed For This 

Daniel Craig and Jason Isaacs in the London 1993 production of ANGELS IN AMERICAThis Week's Must Read
"Angels in America: The Complete Oral History" Let us all thank Slate profusely for this retrospective of Tony Kushner's two-part masterwork. Some of my favorite quotes from it.

George C. Wolfe [Director]: I think so much of what I did on Part 1 was keeping the hype out of the room and letting everybody play and discover. Because the hype was monumental, the hype was ridiculous, but you can’t work from hype, and you can’t create from hype. God knows you can’t discover anything new.

Joe Mantello: For a lot of us, that production was like going from zero to 100 in our careers, going from being unknown to the play everyone was coming to see.

Marcia Gay Harden: I’d walk through the West Village, and people would come up to me and say, “I took my parents to see the play, and then I told them I was gay.” Or: “I took my parents to see it, and then I told them I was dying.” And we would cry on the street. That happened once every couple of weeks.

Rocco Landesman: Personally, I think the show is a bit long, particularly in Perestroika. I was lobbying for cuts and got none of them. Tony was very gracious. He would hear me out politely and do what he wanted to do, which was not cut. It was like a conversation with August Wilson but worse.

And on Harper Pitt's very last transcendent bit in the play, her flight to San Francisco...

Marcia Gay Harden: I’m tingling right now thinking about it. The synchronicity of the immune system of the Earth, and that can be healed by the people who are suffering with the holes in their own immune system, the tragedy of the souls of those who have been hurt forming a web of protection around the Earth. It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever said—or read—in my life.

Mary-Louise Parker: We shot it in an airplane hangar, and I was really trying to rein in my emotion. I just didn’t feel I quite reached it. I went to lunch, and I was so distraught, and I went to Mike [Nichols, who directed the miniseries] and said, “Can I do it again?” They were literally taking down the wall, and he said, “Oh, my child,” and turned to the crew and yelled, “OK, put the wall back up!”

Tony Kushner: It’s the best paragraph I’ve ever written.

Gird Your Loins. The Devil Wears Prada is 10!

Gird your loins.

We really had meant to do The Devil Wears Prada anniversary up big but the month got away from us. Today, 10 years ago, The Devil Wears Prada opened in theaters as counterprogramming and blew up, becoming one of 2006's biggest hits and endearing La Streep to a whole new generation of fans. Sadly she didn't win her third Oscar then (it would have solved so many problems later on. Plus, more importantly, she deserved it!). Because time slipped away from us, and tales of our incompetence do not interest her, we present this classic from the old site on this special occasion.

Ten Best Miranda Priestley Line Readings

My flight has been cancelled... "

10. How incredulous and put-out she sounds without even raising her voice. The way she says "school" when referencing her kids recital which she's desperate to attend is giggle worthy, too. So childish. Translation 'How could such a thing happen to the center of the universe... me?'

There you are Emily. How many times do I have to scream your name?"

09. 'Actually my name is Andrea.' Oh shut it Hathaway. She doesn't care. She will call you what she likes and you'll come running...

Click to read more ...

Moonlight Gets a Release Date

Yesterday Mahershala Ali got invited to be an Academy member and now he has a movie that might get him nominated next year. Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight, based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue (what a great title, why change it?)  by Tarrell Alvin McCraney, is scheduled to open limited on Oct. 21. The movie tells the story of a young man who comes of age in 1980s Miami, focusing on on his quarter-life crisis, challenging environment and awakening sexuality. 

The ensemble cast includes many fantastic actors we’ve all loved and wished they’d get the movie showcase that their talents calls for. In addition to Ali we get Naomie Harris and Andre Holland. Playing the lead character, at different times of his life, are newcomers Trevante Rhodes and Ashton Sanders. The movie not only has good buzz (word is that Harris in particular is a revelation) but also excellent pedigree. One of the producers is Brad Pitt. The director Barry Jenkins was named by NYTimes as one of 20 Directors to Watch, a couple of years ago. His first film was the little seen but hugely admired Medicine for Melancholy (2008), a grittier less romantic but no less absorbing Before Sunset.

Not a lot is known about the film - there are even no pictures released. We have to make do with those three very attractive faces at different awards ceremonies in lieu of that. But it’s definitely one to keep an eye on and get excited about in these slow summer days of great weather and bad blockbusters. 

Are you ready for fall movies? (20th Century Women was also announced for 4th quarter). 

Clint Eastwood's 'Sully' Biopic Lands Its First Trailer

Daniel here. When news broke that Tom Hanks was cast as airline captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger – the real-life angel with jet wings who, in 2009, famously piloted an A320 to an emergency water landing on the Hudson River, saving the lives of all crew and passengers in the process – approximately no one was surprised. If you ever need to cast an IRL hero for the big screen, Hanks’ evergreen likeability automatically makes him the safest choice; personally, as much as I really, really, really, really, really, really like Hanks, I’d have loved to see William Hurt take the controls. Regardless, we now have our first trailer for Clint Eastwood’s Sully and down to its Oscar-nominated, underutilized actress propped as a wallpaper wife, it’s about what you've come to expect from a ripped-from-the-headlines biopic these days. To some, it seems the surest route to stoic is stale.

In lieu of our traditional Yes No Maybe So, a whole bunch of Maybe concerns... 

• How it will stretch two hours’ worth of drama from a single incident that in actuality didn’t last that long? How will it craft a compelling character arc for a figure of such broad-stroked, well, likeability. No points for originality, as it seems to take Flight’s plan of cross-examining his methodology and, briefly, toxicology. That said, its shards of PTSD and demythologizing its hero archetype through personal doubt look promising.
• While J. Edgar was a dud in the American History Eastwood department, some (including the Academy) found American Sniper’s mode of pointed patriotism to be persuasive. This could go either way.
• Eastwood’s scummy blue scrim has deservedly taken a lot of flack over the years and, for a few shots in the trailer anyway, cinematographer Tom Stern has opened a critical window for some light to make its way into the frame.
• As mentioned, The Lovely Laura Linney seems totally wasted here, issuing words of support to her husband and little else. As if that’s not bad enough, they gave her a hale bay wig to go with it. The Film Experience couldn’t be more thrilled with the movies’ recent showcases for senior actresses – Blythe Danner, Susan Sarandon, Sally Field, to name a few – but how about giving our middle-aged actresses some vehicles as well?

A firm “I hope to God I’m surprised” on this. Does it look like Eastwood's latest will take flight?