Open Thread
Friday, April 24, 2015 at 7:32PM
You've been awfully awfully quiet this week.
What's on your cinematic mind? What movie, actor or director have you been thinking of a lot lately? Don't be shy. Tell us everything.
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Friday, April 24, 2015 at 7:32PM
You've been awfully awfully quiet this week.
What's on your cinematic mind? What movie, actor or director have you been thinking of a lot lately? Don't be shy. Tell us everything.
Friday, April 24, 2015 at 6:00PM
Tom Holland for Spider-Man?We all know that eventually the superhero bubble will burst. But until then, they will dominate cinema. Still, even in their new golden age of popularity, there is a growing semi-intangible resistance out there to caring about each and every one of the films. I've been feeling that about Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice especially and it's a little strange that the Fantastic Four reboot has been so non-buzzy since the internet loves talking superheroes like little else. (Both films recently got new trailers, t'was time to discuss)
Spider-Man
Not that this indifference or in some cases outright hostility affects the box office mind you. Everyone seemed to hate The Amazing Spider-Man 2 last summer but it didn't stop the movie from making $708 million globally and it certainly hasn't dampened enthusiasm at Sony or Marvel for Spider-Man as a cash cow. They're already busy recasting Spider-man for the third time in less than 14 years. They've supposedly narrowed it down to five actors...
Friday, April 24, 2015 at 2:00PM The Hot Docs 2015 Film Festival started in Toronto yesterday. Our Canadian correspondent Amir is on hand to cover the proceedings.
The best film of last year’s Hot Docs festival was Robert Greene’s Actress, a rich and moving film about the life of The Wire’s Brandy Burre. It went on to become one of the most praised films of the year; and it’s easy to imagine the same level of acclaim for this year’s buzziest title at the festival, the similarly actor- centric Listen to Me Marlon. As the title suggests, British director Stevan Riley’s film is about Marlon Brando, and it defies any expectation one might have going into a documentary about a deceased actor.
That this film has been made is something of a miracle to begin with. Brando apparently recorded more than 200 hours of audiotapes about himself, of which none has been available to the public heretofore. Riley has been granted access to these by Brando’s estate and has assembled and edited them for the voice-over narration of his film. There is no new footage and no interviews shot for this film, only archival material from Brando’s performances, his television interviews and some behind the scenes footage and rare videos of his personal life. The result, a raw and immensely personal look at the actor’s life, is absolutely mesmerizing...
Friday, April 24, 2015 at 11:00AM Some say it's better than the real thing.”

With those words we are introduced to Buffybot, a robotic replica of everyone’s favorite Pointy-wielding, banter-spewing blond vampire slayer...
Manuel continuing our Artificial Intelligence theme week.
Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer remains one of the best examples of how to use superpowers, monsters and villains as generative metaphors for such varied things as puberty, high school, sexual assault and the systemic misogyny that pervades our contemporary world. This latter issue is at the center of “Intervention” the 18th episode of Buffy’s fifth (and I’d argue best!) season. [more]
Friday, April 24, 2015 at 9:19AM Manuel here encouraging you to gawk at Jake Gyllenhaal in the new poster for his boxing film Southpaw (which got the YES/NO/MAYBE SO treatment a couple of weeks ago when we first saw how ripped our darling Jakey had gotten for this Antoine Fuqua film).

It’s a stunning poster.
I’m literally left with no words; I have nothing else to add. Do you?