Thoughts I had while staring at that new Bridge of Spies Poster

Manuel here. I had to check but it strikes me that for a film that ranked #8 in TFE’s collective “We Can’t Wait!” list, we haven’t really discussed the upcoming Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg film, Bridge of Spies. I saw this poster displayed at my local multiplex and well, I had to share some of my thoughts on it.

• Floating head? Noooooo!
• It is a bit of an improvement over that floating head/flag one from a few months back.
• Hanks does give good furrowed brow.
• Red and black and white makes for a clean design and the typography clearly alludes to the film’s Cold War themes but this poster really isn’t helping you figure out the plot other than reminding you that Hanks is (yet again) playing an “honest man." To be fair, from the trailer, it looks like a hard one to boil down to a simple plot synopsis.
• Why isn’t Spielberg’s name more prominently displayed? Even those Daniel Day-Lewis-heavy posters for Lincoln had the “A Steven Spielberg” line a tad more visible.
• No “Academy Award Winner”? (but then Hanks has never been one to brag)
• At least the bottom of the film aims to remind you of that other Hanks/Spielberg’s collaboration, Catch Me If You Can, and its amazing opening titles. Still one of the best Spielbergs and just think of its young actressy roster: Amy Adams, Ellen Pompeo, Jennifer Garner, Elizabeth Banks, even a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her Amy Acker!
• That bottom half is also slightly Hitchcockian (and by that, I mean it’s a Saul Bassian riff on North by Northwest, no?)
• It’s also giving off The International vibes. 
• Are the red I's… bridges? I’m baffled by that design choice but maybe that’s why I’m not in movie poster designing business since I’d have squeezed in Amy Ryan into this poster and somehow made sure to remind you that Mark Rylance and Billy Magnussen are also in it.

Does this poster boost or dim your excitement?

1995 Bonus Podcast !

We're spoiling you with two podcasts this week. We'll talk Ant-Man and Southpaw tomorrow night but here's an extra bonus episode in which Nathaniel, Nick, and Joe each recommend a 1995 film they remember loving that they'd like to revisit or wish that more people would talk about. The conversation wanders, as it does, to the Best Actress race, Scorned 2 ??? "Meryl's third Oscar!" talk (duh), and the films of Michael Mann ???

Contents (45 minutes)
00:01 Mia Kirshner in Atom Egoyan's Exotica 
04:30 Kathy Bates as Stephen King's Delores Claiborne
07:45 Lili Taylor of The Addiction
10:55 Random loved titles: Babe, Nixon, etcetera
14:10 Actresses of 1995 outside the Best Actress nominees: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Toni Collette, Holly Hunter, Parker Posey, Rene Russo, Ashley Judd, and more...
31:11 Get Shorty
34:30 Michael Mann films and Heat

Ashley Judd in "Heat"

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes.  Continue the conversation in the comments...

1995 Bonus Chit Chat

What Did You See This Weekend?

I had a busy movie weekend with Southpaw (better than it should be), Ant-Man (fun but also *shrugs*), a second viewing of Tangerine, and a double-podcast recording session (coming soon). Last night I nearly slipped into a coma of boredom when accidentally catching a half hour of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. (As I type this The Boyfriend is watching The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One but not even Julianne Moore can get me near that. The appeal of that franchise continues to escape me -- not scary, not moving, dull action sequences -- and since it does I'm not sitting through a padded four-hour finale.)

Pixels high concept was so review and quality-proof that it seemed likely to explode just from brand(s) familiarity alone (like, oh, Jurassic World). But nope. Slightly lower on the list Jake Gyllenhaal had his best opening where he was the main draw since Jarhead in 2005. (I'm not  counting Prince of Persia since the video game was the main draw and no one seems to remember that movie just 5 years later, including Jake Gyllenhaal). 

What did you see this weekend?

BOX OFFICE
Early Estimates. July 24th-26th Weekend
01 Ant-Man $24.7 (cum. $106) 
02 Pixels $24 NEW 
03 Minions $22 (cum. $261.5) Tim on the Minions phenom
04 Trainwreck $17.2 (cum. $61.5) Podcast
05 Southpaw $16.5 NEW 
06 Paper Towns $12.5 NEW
07 Inside Out $7.3 (cum. $320.3) Podcast
08 Jurassic World $6.8 (cum. $623.7)
09 Mr Holmes $2.8 (cum. $6.4) 
10 Terminator Genisys $2.4 (cum. $85.6) Review

Ask Nathaniel (and Sundance Delayed)

It's time for another Q&A round. Ask some questions in the comments, get some answers. Maybe. I'll choose a handful or two to answer for Tuesday. 

Meanwhile: Sundance Delayed
Last night I took my two besties to Tangerine and they both l-o-v-e-d it. We had such a good time (and I finally figured out what the title refers to though I'm not saying because it's such a good easter egg in the movie). Hopefully some of you have seen it by now. It was just as hot the second time, so funny, so lived-in, so authentically seedy LA, so high energy, so sneakily moving. We discussed it on the podcast last week in case you missed it.

Isn't it weird how randomly festival titles hit movie theaters?  Several films from this year's Sundance have arrived or will arrive by the end of August (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Lila & Eve, Strangerland, Tangerine, Dope, Grandma) but we're still waiting on hard-to-get tickets from January's fest like The Witch (which A24 bought if I recall) and also had several titles from 2014's fest emerge with tiny or VOD releases in 2015. And if Xavier Dolan's Tom at the Farm arrives as currently scheduled in August, we'll even have a title from TIFF 2013. I wish distributors wouldn't be so weird and wishy washy about their pickups and release dates but what can you do? 

Best Actress Fall Film Calendar

Manuel here to help you sort out your actressexual film calendar with some key release dates. The following list is prompted by the news that Sandra Bullock’s political drama, Our Brand is Crisis is set for an October release date. Based on the 2005 documentary of the same name, the film was written by Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and was directed by David Gordon Green and features TFE favorite Ann Dowd in the all star ensemble.

With that, our growing list of “Fall films featuring a recent Best Actress Oscar winner that might find their way into awards season” ballooned to an even twelve and well, it's time to share. Yes, some of these will be longshots (word is not good on Dark Places, though hopefully some critics and voters remember Charlize's work in Mad Max Fury Road) but it’s exhilarating to see so many juicy and high profile actress-centered projects coming our way!

In chronological order after the jump... 

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