Last day for our summer fundraiser - reader requests!

Thank you to those who donated in our summer fundraiser. Though we didn't earn enough to get to Venice for the festival the donations will help keep the roof over TFE's head. If you donated one of the following amounts we'll be in touch for your requests...

$50 - Choose a topic for an upcoming post
$150 - A long piece on the movie or actor or topic of your choice
$200 - "Supporting Actress Smackdown Special". Pick one movie with multiple supporting actresses in it and we'll do a mini Smackdown debating those performances!
$400 - For you high rollers out there, order up a whole theme week of your own choice. Daily posts on that topic! Could make a fun gift for yourself or someone you love with their favourite movie/star/thematic element/genre whatever. (Unless you give us a date a month in advance we'll pick the week)

If you've already donated those amounts, which a few of you have, email us to make your request!

Weekend Box Office: How was your (holiday) weekend?

by Nathaniel R

Fourth of July is historically a huge box office weekend and as such, it's strange that only one other new wide release film, the low profile period rom-com Mr Malcolm's List, tried to compete with the Minions: The Rise of Gru.  Naturally then, the animated franchise installment swept the table with a record-breaking gross....

Holiday Weekend Box Office July 1st-4th  🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	PLATFORM RELEASES
MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU	THE FORGIVEN

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Linkin' along

Today's must read: Megan Garber at The Atlantic has a fascinating piece on sexual dignity and freedom (in current pop culture like Good Luck To You Leo Grande, Grace & Frankie, and Hacks) and the fall of Roe v Wade (in current reality)

More after the jump including BIFA awards changes, Todd Haynes long banned Superstar, Steven Yeun's role in Nope, Jodie Foster's new role, and the Pride cover for British Vogue featuring actresses Cynthia Erivo, Cara Delivingne, and Ariana DeBose...

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25th Anniversary: "Face/Off"

by Nick Taylor

Yeah, that’s right motherfuckers, we are talking about ci-ne-MA! We’re celebrating the 25th anniversary of Chinese action auteur John Woo’s third English-language film, the 11th highest grossing film of 1997, a lone Oscar nominee in the now-subsumed Sound Editing category (may her memory be eternal) that was inevitably bulldozed by Titanic. It's one of the most voluptuously insane movies Nicolas fucking Cage has ever appeared in; Face/Off, where they take the face OFF.

Anyone who knows me knows I’ve been proselytizing about this film for years, ever since I first saw it with my sister Melina and some friends of our  about 8 years ago. The 25th anniversary was an ideal opportunity to pop in the Blu-Ray Tommy got me for Christmas and finally share (he might say inflict) its majesty with him. Our roommates even joined us, and I had so much fucking fun watching them experience it for the first time...

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Through Her Lens: 2013 (The 86th Oscars)

A series by Juan Carlos Ojano. Introduction / Explanation

Steve McQueen became the first Black director to helm a Best Picture winner for 12 Years a Slave (2013), telling the harrowing story of African-American freeman Solomon Northup who was kidnapped in 1841 and was sold to slavery. McQueen also became the first Black producer to receive a Best Picture award. Meanwhile, the film’s biggest competition was Gravity, a science fiction-thriller film set in space. Winning seven Oscars, the film was directed by Alfonso Cuarón, becoming the first Latin American to win the Best Director Oscar.

While having these two films as frontrunners is a win for representation at the Oscars,  female directors were still left out of the conversation for majority of the awards season.  Out of the 289 films included in the Reminder List of Eligible Films in 2013 (86th Academy Awards), only 32* (11.1%) were directed/co-directed by women...

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