Highlights from Middleburg's "Coffee & Contenders"

by Nathaniel R

Clayton Davis, Jazz Tangcay and I created this annual panel at Middleburg together (I named it!) and now we're a regular event early in the morning at the beginning of each fest.  The new venue, outside in a tent, is a big improvement over our initially cozy but cramped space while the crowd is the (wonderful) same. Here are highlights from the public discussion this morning as well as the private discussions before and after the event (it all blurs together at film festivals which are so social)...

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International Feature: Indonesia, Malawi, Malta, and Slovakia submit

More entries announced!

INDONESIA
Indonesia will send Kamila Andini's Yuni a drama about a teenage girl who rejects a marriage proposal. But the proposals keep coming and culturally she's supposed to accept...

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Gay Best Friend: Peter Steinberg (Oliver Platt) in "Three To Tango" (1999)

A series by Christopher James looking at the 'Gay Best Friend' trope

Oliver Platt's boredom-induced hairstyle is far from the worst part of "Three to Tango."

Why did every member of Friends want to do a gay themed movie as their attempted jump to film stardom? Lisa Kudrow earned awards attention in the sublimely tart The Opposite of Sex, while Jennifer Aniston’s charm and chemistry with Paul Rudd nearly made The Object of My Affection work (okay, maybe not). Matthew Perry’s dreadful vehicle Three To Tango feels like the nadir of the Friends theatrical launching pads, gay-themed or otherwise. With a script forged in gay panic, the instantly dated comedy is short on charm and laughs. However, it has casts a bizarre spell as a hate-watch. It’s an insensitive film that is a strange reflection of 1998 attitudes towards the LGBTQ community and what types of vehicles could launch a film career.

For the purposes of this column, our entryway into this movie is through Oliver Platt’s Peter Steinberg. He’s the openly gay architect partner of Oscar Novak (Perry). Through a series of bizarre miscommunications that would’ve been vetoed by the Friends writer’s room, everyone starts to think Oscar is the gay partner and Peter is the straight one...

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Would you rather?

Would you rather?

• Befriend lizards with Thandiwe Newton?
• Play "Clue" with Margo Martindale?
• Flip for Simu Liu?
• Adjust Jake's wardrobe with Costume Designer Daniel Orlandi?
• Visit Paris with Gemma Chan?
• Play "Who Am I?" with Madonna?
• Apply Daniel K Isaac's nipple guards before the marathon?
• Sail the open ocean with Jake Gyllenhaal?
• Pick pumpkins with Meg Ryan?
• Spot Dax Shepard while he's changing a tire?
• or Enjoy a care package with Teyonnah Parris?

Pictures are after the jump to help you decide.

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"Oh, a moving painting. But with sound."

I was painting a painting about four foot square. It was mostly black but it had some green plant and leaves coming out of the black. And I was sitting back, probably taking a smoke, looking at it and from the painting, I heard a wind and the green started moving. And I thought, 'Oh, a moving painting. But with sound.' And that idea stuck in my head, a moving painting.

David Lynch on discovering his calling at art school in Philadelphia in David Lynch - The Art Life (2016) currently streaming on HBOMax