A Great Big Weekend in Movie Theaters

What a delicious crop of movies to take us through the weekend! I'm tempted to just sit in the theater and play hooky from the blog till Monday. Two highly anticipated sequels in 22 Jump Street and How To Train Your Dragon 2 (the latter of which I've seen and loved) will surely crush the box office but there's a whole mess of movies worth seeing in arthouses right now, many of which we've already written up from festivals. If you're in the big cities here are just a handful of many choices.

I like this poster• Hellion (Sundance review) starring Aaron Paul as a grieving widower who's losing control of his sons. Juliette Lewis plays his sister-in-law
• Borgman The Netherland's Oscar submission last year
• Obvious Child (Sundance review) a romantic comedy that's getting a lot of attention due to its filthy mouth and abortion plotline
• The Rover (Cannes review) David Michôd's follow up to his outstanding debut Animal Kingdom is another crime drama. This one stars Guy Pearce again and Robert Pattinson.
• A Coffee in Berlin - this comedy was a huge hit in Germany. It used to be called Oh Boy! 
• We Are the Best - a girl band 80s-set movie from the great Swedish director Lukas Moodyson (Together, Lilja 4ever). I've only heard wonderful things and I have to stop putting it off.

Are you going to the movies this weekend? I'm off to see Edge of Tomorrow right at this moment (I'm late I know) due solely to the surprise of those extremely positive reviews. The premise, at least as delivered in the trailer, held zero interest so if I hate it I'll have to seek vengeance on the nation's film critics somehow. 

Yes No Maybe So: Birdman

How did we end up here? In this dump. You were a movie star, remember?

Surely one of the year's most intriguing features in concept and casting alone, is Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu's Birdman. The director collaborating with the great cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (fresh off his Oscar win for Gravity) trains the movie camera on the best Batman (I'm with Seth Rogen's in Neighbors on this one) as he plays a has-been movie star famous for playing a character named "Birdman". Now he's on stage years later trying to rejuvenate his career.

Concept and casting alone were enough for a "maybe so" tilting yes. And then came advance word from test screenings that the film really delivers across the board in performance so "yes". And then came the teaser which begins with a 41 second continuous shot like its asking me to marry it. So now I'm at 'Yaaaaas! I will. I will. I do!"

Making the traditional Yes No Maybe So a more lopsided formality than is healthy after the jump...

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Tim's Toons: How to animate your dragon

Tim here. This weekend sees the release of How to Train Your Dragon 2, the first of just two major animated features coming out this summer (and having to imply that Planes 2: The Plane Fight Fire Now is a “major” film tastes like ash in my mouth). More importantly, it’s the sequel to a four-year-old film that’s broadly regarded as the best movie DreamWorks Animation has ever made. And there have been many appreciations advanced through the years as to why How to Train Your Dragon is so good – a comic tone that never trumps the basic sincerity of the story, John Powell’s gorgeous, Celtic-tinged score, the first actual decent animation of normal humans in the studio’s history – I can tell you pretty easily why it’s my own personal favorite: it’s the best movie about cats ever made.

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Throwback Thursday FYC: 1964 Oscar Ads

The only ones I could find. We'll start with three pre and post-nomination ads aiming for the actual gold. This first for Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eater is possibly just a poster but those sometimes double as FYC's when they're focused enough and this one is.

Three more ads and Oscar trivia after the jump...

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ICYMI + Goldfinger

June is flying by and if you aren't here every day you're bound to miss something good. Here's a few posts just for the helluvit that you won't want to have missed that are already buried on pages 3, 6 or number whatever of this continually updated blog.

Sarah Paulson Reality Check - she thinks she'll keep getting stiffed for Supporting Actress and knows from Category Fraud
Disney Heroines - gorgeous old school paintings of Mulan and more
The Fault In Our Stars - reviewed through watery eyes
Miss Julie Posters - what'cha think?
Beauty vs. Beast - white swan versus Black Swan... the closest battle yet 

and for dessert
Maleficent Cake  - what do you suppose it tastes like?

and if you really haven't been here in a while...
First Oscar Predictions of the Year  and all the updated Oscar Charts

COMING SOON: Tuesday Night (June 17th) on Hit Me With Your Best Shot
James Bond in Goldfinger (1964)

We've never done a Bond film in this series and this one right here, 50 years old now, is universally regarded as one of the tippity-top entries in the franchise. Plus, it fits neatly into our '64 party and is available for instant watching on both Amazon and Netflix. I wonder if anyone will look beyond that gold corpse? You want to join in this week, I know you do.

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