New Posters: Beauty & The Beast, Light Between Oceans, Goat

Thoughts on three new posters as they came to me after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Tweetweek: Citizen Kane, Odd Marquees, New Arrivals

I have to begin this week's tweet roundup with this amazing find from Scott Feinberg - a press clipping about Citizen Kane on Oscar night and the room reaction to every mention of the film.

Portion of NYT dispatch from 1942 Oscars ceremony pertaining to CITIZEN KANE's poor showing ("boos and catcalls") pic.twitter.com/tNs3hmREGe

— Scott Feinberg (@ScottFeinberg) July 7, 2016

Crazy, right? The politics of the moment are always so hard to properly contextualize after the fact when it comes to art that endures.

More entertainment tweets ahead but first a joyous announcement from our friend and podcast mate Katey Rich...

Click to read more ...

Happy 60th Birthday Tom Hanks!

Is there such thing as the male America's sweetheart? If there is then Tom Hanks would surely have to be him. The general public love him, your mum loves him, cinephiles love him, his co-stars love him, and cinematic history definitely loves him. To say Happy Birthday let's say T-Hanks for 5 of the best characters he's gifted us after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Halfway Mark: Best Actressing of 2016 (Thus Far)

Previously at the Halfway Mark: 
• 5 Favorite Pictures and imaginary Oscar scenario
• 11 Costume Design Honors from couture to the puritanical with swimwear on the side
• Cinematography & Production Design Sunset Song, etc...
• Heroes & Villains from Deadpool to Shere Khan
• 23 Male Actor Honorees in 5 categories

Cue fireworks. It's the grand finale. Our brief Halfway Mark Review honoring the best of the 50+ movies we've seen that have been released between January 1st and June 30th, is now at its end. But don't worry. The listing impulse fully never goes away and there's more excitement soon as we'll start updating the Oscar charts tomorrow. Naturally we're ending with BEST ACTRESS if five categories -- the same categories we previously did for the men.

If I had a ballot (hey, I do... albeit not an AMPAS ballot) here's what I'd honor from the year thus far -- January through June releases only though I've seen some July & August titles. [Disclaimer: The most noticeably actress-led film I haven't yet seen this year is The Meddler so please dont read anything into the absence of Susan Sarandon.]

Best Actress in a Leading Role

• Sally Field as "Doris" in Hello My Name is Doris
  Doris is a CHARACTER but Sally never fails to humanize her written eccentricities making sure that she's the endearing source of the laughter rather than its target.  
• Tilda Swinton as "Marianne Lane" in A Bigger Splash
  The "vocal rest" was her idea -- imagine an actor purposefully losing all their lines! -- and the result is you see Tilda's face and body alone capturing and reflecting the drama and auteurist impulses
• Anya Taylor-Joy as "Thomasin" in The VVitch
  That angelic face is sensually attentive and her behavior innocent but mischievious. So many possible Masters (God, Lucifer, Herself, General Teen Hormones, and Restlessness)
• Rachel Weisz as "Short Sighted Woman" The Lobster
  What a tricky tone to master, but she's in control. Her voiceover is beautifully at odds with her meekly submissive than overtly romantic screen self
• Mary Elizabeth Winstead as "Michelle" in 10 Cloverfield Lane
  Sells shifting (dis)belief in this strange new reality while doing right by primal horror. Nails the only real in-script details about this character -- whip-smart instincts and a "Flight or Flight" response

Choices in 4 more categories after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Will Justin Bring Sexy Back to Woody Allen Movies?

Eric on strange casting news. Justin Timberlake will be joining the cast of Woody Allen’s upcoming 2017 film (as yet untitled). He'll join Kate Winslet, Jim Belushi, and Juno Temple. If that isn’t one of the weirdest casts for any movie, let alone a Woody movie, I don’t know what is.  It’s funny imagining those four people in the same room together, let alone the same film. 

Woody has had the most unpredictable decade, delivering some of his best (Blue Jasmine, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Midnight in Paris, Match Point) and some of his worst (Irrational Man and Magic in the Moonlight), and you just never know what you’re going to get...

Click to read more ...