Madonna from "Truth or Dare" to "MDNA"

It's hard to believe that the be all and end all of celebrity documentaries, Truth or Dare (1991) is already over 20 years old. Actual age aside, Truth or Dare is timeless not just because it captured one of the most famous women who has ever lived at the peak of her popularity, but because of how daringly it performed that capture. I'm sure it's impossible for anyone under 25 to imagine how shocking Madonna's behavior in the early 90s was. Believe it or not there was a time when the demistification of Celebrity was anathema to Hollywood.

You can argue that some of the magic went out of the movies the more access we had to the magicians on and behind the screen, but there was no stopping the intrusiveness of the information age. Madonna's acclaimed film and --  to a lesser extent though no one wants to give it credit -- her often reviled "Sex" book predicted all of it by revealing more and More and MORE (and then some more) of herself. Madonna has never been a great actress but she has given a genius film performance and this was it. (Her performances in Evita and the short film Star! are a distant second.)

If you're interested in influential landmarks in pop culture I urge you to read Rich Juzwiak's exhilarating piece on Truth of Dare (it's out on Blu-Ray for the first time) over at Gawker 

Madonna has rarely had her finger directly on the pulse—it took her years to dabble in electronica and new jack swing and French house—but over 20 years after its release,Truth or Dare is relevant as ever. (It's out on Blu-ray for the first time today.) It's as close to a memoir as Madonna has ever gotten, and it's brilliantly fitting that the music video master stuck with the trusted audio-visual format that catapulted her to success. Why write when you can be? Madonna's life banged the dust out of vérité entertainment, suggesting the documentary didn't have to be stuffy, that it could be wildly entertaining and overwhelmingly trashy... 

 But while we're on the topic of the Queen a few notes on MDNA after the jump...

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HMWYBS: "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"

In the "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series we invite everyone to choose their favorite shot from a movie and explain why. This week's film is the impossibly influential Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) which launched Disney's feature animation empire. Given that the Snow White myth is the subject of two new films Mirror Mirror (reviewed) and the upcoming Snow White and the Huntsmen (interview tease) we thought it was time to take a look way back.

So Heigh Ho Heigh Ho, it's off to work we go.

When I think of Snow White these days my first thought is no longer the movie itself but my first trip to Disney World just three years ago with friends. On the last day of the lengthy trip my friends realized I hadn't been to the part of the park that had the oldest rides, the ones that were considered more for children and it turned out to be my favorite part. My absolutely favorite ride was Peter Pan (such gorgeous dioramas) but I remember Snow White best because I was startled by the nightmarish imagery. This is for children?

In my  last two subsequent screenings of Disney's first classic, it all made sense. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) is much more adult in its terror than modern animated films ever dare to be, raising knives and clubs at its heroine, threatening her with non-consensual heart surgery, and throwing her into a haunted forest. It repeatedly threatens her with warped and clawed hands whether they're from trees, shadows, or evil queens disguised as old crones.

So it only seemed right that the iconic shot I'm choosing as best pans diagonally down from gnarled hands to a smoother one, the fairest of them all in point of fact. 

Witch: Don't let the wish grow cold!
Snow: Ohhhh. I feel strange.
Witch: Her breath will still
Her blood congeal...

Though the entire scene is filled with implied terror this shot actually averts its gaze demurely the way the film doesn't in other scenes, unexpectedly making Snow White's poisoning by apple much scarier. Our focus here is entirely on the evil Queen's evil as it were, as her breathing and hand motions and whispering all ecstatically await Snow's demise. It's very creepy and makes Snow's collapse feel not just terrible but inevitable.

But... 

In order to live happily ever after, we close with a happier moment. My favorite shot in the film if not my choice for "best" comes in the film's very first minutes as Snow sings "♪ I'm wishing... (I'm wishing) for the one I love ♫" and listens to her own voice echoing back to her. It's an unexpected image (who thought to shoot from the well's point of view?) and it's also richly prophetic. When I see this shot I think of the movie and character echoing ever after in cinema through every princess, every "I Want" song and every fairy tale fantasy. It started everything and ripples still. 

 Heigh Hoooooooo ♫ It's Off to Blogs You Go...
In honor of Happy, Sleepy, Bashful and the like, we're giving these blogs dwarf names befitting their awesome choices for best shot. Click around to see why I chose these names.

• "Shiny" (Animation Revelation) 
• "Flirty" (Cinesnatch)
• "Fabu" (Awww, the Movies)
• "Slippery" (Antagony & Ecstacy)
• "Dainty" (Okinawa Assault)
• "Juicy" (The Tomas Experience)
• "Bitchy" (Dial P For Popcorn)
• "Dreamy" (Encore Entertainment)
• "Grumpier" (Serious Film)
• "Thirsty" (Film Actually)
• "Moody" (Pussy Goes Grrr)
• "Vanity" (The Film's The Thing)
• "Purity" (Movies Kick Ass)

Next on "Hit Me"...
April 18th Serenity (2005) and/or "Firefly" (2002)
With two Joss Whedon related movies about to hit theaters (The Avengers and Cabin in the Woods) let's look at his feature film directorial debut. If you've never seen Firefly, the series on which this is based you can substitute the tv pilot for the feature if you want (one time only!). Both are available on Instant Watch.
April 25th Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
I've been itching for Gong Li lately and rather shockingly I've never seen this major film in her career. Nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars.
May 2nd Pariah (2011)
I thought we'd do something brand new on DVD (we never do that!). Mostly because I'd like more people to see this moving LGBT indie.

Happy Birthday, Louise Lasser

"I wish you had done this twenty years ago.Now I'll have to get another fucking face-lift!"

JA from MNPP here. Because I'm too young to have seen Mary Hartman Mary Hartman or the Woody Allen movies she starred in (she's brilliant in Bananas) until recently, whenever I think of Louise Lasser my first thoughts are of her scenes in Todd Solondz's masterpiece Happiness (watch the above scene here), and also that time she dyed Ellen Burstyn's hair - "If this is red, I wanna know, what's orange?" - in Requiem For a Dream. What do you think of when you think of Louise Lasser?

Thirteen Links About Eleven Things

Antagony & Ecstasy remembers Whit Stilllman's great comedy Metropolitan (1990)
Monkey See Kevin Kline and a puppy because... well... Kevin Kline and a puppy!
Empire Ben Kingsley will provide the mustache twirling for Iron Man 3
Telegraph Tim Robey sees an expo reel from Ridley Scott's Prometheus 
MNPP who wore it best? 'cubist memory disintegration' with Colin Farrel & Jake Gyllenhaal

Movie|Line sums up all the "will Gary Ross direct The Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire?" serialized drama that's been syndicated all over the internet. I've ignored it until this recap because who has time for meaningless speculation that reverses itself each day?
World of Wonder "The Hunger GAYmes"
Coming Soon Woody Harrelson joining the cast of Out of the Furnace (the new film from Crazy Heart director Scott Cooper) as the villain
Cinema Blend still more Woody news. He's signed on for a cable series with his BFF Matthew McConaughey that sounds like a prestigey version of Cold Case. Why? His film career is going so well at the moment... stranger still is that Cary Fukunaga who has directed two terrific movies (Sin Nombre and Jane Eyre) and needs to keep stoking the early fires of his screen career has signed on to direct it.

The Mary Sue Tim Burton may be lining up another stop motion movie Night of the Living
24 Frames no full frontal this time for Jason Segel in Five Year Engagement
Flavorwire has an interesting list of the best platonic boy/girl friendships on tv. It is an underexplored realm.
Playbill Margaret obsessives take note. Kenneth Lonergan's next play "Medieval Play" opens in May. It's a story of two French knights described thusly.

A story of friendship, love, noble feats of arms, indiscriminate brutality, the progressive refinement of medieval table manners and the general decline of the chivalric ideal at the onset of the Great Papal Schism of 1378.

So in other words he's going to keep shoving as many ideas as possible into his narratives.

Which Book Would *You* Grab From This Wicked Library?

Snow White's Evil Queen needs to expand her literary horizons don't you think?!

poll by twiigs.com

• Why'd you choose the book you chose? 
• What do you expect to find inside?
• And what the hell did Disney have against Astrology in the 1930s? Horoscopes aren't evil!

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937) was so fun to watch again. I could do a massive post like those  101 Dalmatians or Toy Story look backs. Have you watched Snow recently? Tonight is HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT and it's not too late to join in. The post will go up at 10:30 PM. Pick your shot and join in!