Streaming Revisit: "Bound" is 25

Please welcome guest contributor Brent Calderwood... 

by Brent Calderwood

I first saw Bound in 2000 at a special screening at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, four years after its initial release. The audience was rapt, cowering in their seats or nervously laughing in all the right places. Back then, my college friends and I were so desperate for LGBTQ content that we’d hold house parties to watch pirated VHS tapes of the original ten-episode British series Queer As Folk, converted from imported PAL-format tapes by a friend of a friend in our school’s AV department. Given the dearth of queer representation, we convinced ourselves that we loved everything we saw no matter what, down to the neutered gay characters serving up puns on Will & Grace. Fast forward to 2021—would Bound live up to my memory and expectations?

I was nervous about how Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s debut would hold up 25 years after it was first released, but as it turns out I didn’t need to worry. The 1996 noir, which just began streaming on Hulu, remains as fresh and edgy as ever...  

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'in brightest day in blackest night, no link shall escape my sight'

• Screen Daily what can we expect to see at Cannes this year?
• Variety Taika Waititi will be back in front of cameras soon, not just behind them. He'll play the pirate Blackbeard for an HBO comedy series
• Deadline Florence Pugh to star in Sebastian Lelio's next film called The Wonder 
• /Film Cate Blanchett, Cheyenne Jackson, Haley Bennett, Gina Gershon and more signed on for videogame adaptation Borderlands (Blanchett is the lead)

Pixar artist worries, Cronenberg & Viggo reuniting, HBO's Green Lantern and more...

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Nicole Kidman as "Lucille Ball" and "Masha"

My fellow Kidmaniacs, we have so much to look forward to! By now you've probably seen this photo of Nicole Kidman on the set of Aaron Sorkin's next project, Being the Ricardos a week in the life of the stars of seminal sitcom "I Love Lucy". An earlier image of a much more orange wig is also floating around. People seemed to take offense at the very orange wig as if they had never actually looked at old photos of Lucille Ball. That hair was a COLOR... and a mood. No, a way of life. (This wig above is more subdued.) 

This week we also got the trailer to Nicole's next miniseries Nine Perfect Strangers  while playing some kind of shady self-help figure / cult leader? Neither have release dates yet but the miniseries is "soon". We suspect the other is a likely December release in theaters (or 2022 if Amazon is feeling confident about their next Oscar slate as is.)

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What's Oscar's all-time favorite Costume Design era?

by Cláudio Alves

The legendary Ann Roth is our reigning Best Costume Design Oscar queen, having won her second statuette for the jazz age designs of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. I'm ecstatic about her victory. Both because it's an outstanding artistic achievement and because hers is a filmography that undoubtedly deserves more than one Oscar. That being said, this year's Costume race (which I previously reviewed in depth) did remind me of a pet peeve I've long had with the category—namely, the overwhelming predominance of period films and the rarity of recognition for contemporary-set narratives. As usual, all of this year's nominees featured period costuming, with even the lone fantasy film, Pinocchio, basing most of its look in mid-19th-century fashion.

With all this in mind, I decided to do some research and find out what era is most common in Best Costume Design Oscar winners. From Ancient Egypt to post-war London, this category has rewarded many styles, though some do stand out as AMPAS' favorites… 

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Tribeca 2021 Can't Get Here Quick Enough

by Jason Adams

When the Tribeca Film Festival (2021 edition) kicks off in June -- it runs from June 9th through the 20th -- it will have been 25 months since my last rendezvous with the festival, way back in the spring of 2019. Some stuff has happened in the in-between, ya know? But we're still plugging along, thank the Movie Gods, and pretty excited to have this little slice of our routine slipping back into its slot. I've been here in NYC long enough that I was around for the first edition of the fest, founded in 2002 in the wake of the September 11th attacks, and already I can feel in the air a similar sense of celebratory survival. It's been a tough 25 months, but spring feels finally in the air. 

The entire line-up for the festival was announced last week -- including the Opening Night premiere of this year's big musical sensation-to-be In the Heights -- and you'll find all of the titles down below. But first I just want to highlight a small selection of five titles (because five's a good solid respectable number) that immediately leapt off the page and poked me in my eyeballs. And you can no doubt expect to hear my thoughts on these ones (and plenty more) once the coverage kicks up in June...

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