Where has the time gone? "Super 8" is 10 today.

by Nathaniel R

the cast of Super 8

Remember Super 8? The sci-fi adventure was released ten years ago today. It was supposed to be a big Spielberg-size event (he produced it) and establish JJ Abrams as a successor. Things didn't quite work out that way, even though it was a decent-sized hit. Abrams retreated back into other people's franchises (Star Wars) where he'd begun as a film director (Mission Impossible and Star Trek). Super 8 grossed $127 million domestically (and another $100 million plus overseas) making it a success but probably not what Paramount was expecting stateside. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked and The Smurfs both outgrossed it, keeping it outside the top 20 of its year. Still the sci-fi adventure had its fans and people by and large loved the young cast. And who knows. Perhaps it reengineered pop culture's DNA enough that five years later audiences turned Stranger Things into a phenomenon. Both are about a quartet of nerdy young boys, and the girl they're in awe of / a bit scared by, dealing with otherwordly forces in the Midwest. They're even set just four years apart Super 8 in 1979 and Stranger Things begins in 1983. 

Super 8 is streaming on Paramount+ at the moment. We didn't have time to rewatch the whole movie though we skimmed to refresh the memory. Elle's "acting" debut in the movie within the movie is still a terrifically explosive scene. Anyway, we thought it might be interesting to see how the cast is faring today in their mid-twenties. Let's take them in billing order...

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Doc Corner: 'Summer of Soul' opens Sheffield DocFest

Sheffield DocFest runs from June 3-14. There are virtual selections available at their website. This is their opening night film.

by Glenn Dunks

“The Black Woodstock” goes the elevator pitch for Summer of Soul (…Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), a high-spirited documentary about the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969. “The Black Woodstock” was also the last-ditch effort of a title given by Hal Tulchin to a film he had made about the festival as he attempted to sell it to distributors and networks that had repeatedly turned it down even in the wake of the Oscar-winning success of Woodstock. Nobody wanted Tulchin’s film, which is a ridiculous idea in hindsight. Of course, it is hardly a surprising one for all the reasons you would expect.

Tulchin passed away in 2017 at age 90 and so never got to see Summer of Soul, the final product that has been directed by Ahmir-Khalib Thompson (aka Questlove). That is a shame. I suspect he would have loved it...

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Yes No Maybe So: The Eyes of Tammy Faye

by Nathaniel R

The Eyes of Tammy Faye was once the title of a popular 2000 documentary and now it's the title of a biopic about the rise and fall of televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, with the emphasis being on the more sympathetic Tammy (who is no longer with us, having died of cancer in the Aughts). For you youngsters out there they were VERY famous in the 1980s with their scandal and downfall happening in 1989. The movie is directed by Michael Showalter (The Big Sick, Hello My Name is Doris) and gives plum roles to Oscar nominees Andrew Garfield and Jessica Chastain as the famous fallen couple. Will it be great, terrible, a mix of both simultaneously or (most dangerously) blandly mediocre? Will it be up for all the Oscars or none of them? Let's give this the full Yes No Maybe So™ treatment after the jump...

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74th Cannes. Directors' Fortnight Selection

The Cannes festival runs July 6th through July 17th this year (departing from the usual May) due to taking a year off given COVID-19. After the Main Competition, Un Certain Regard, and Critics Week we have the announcement of the final section: Directors Fortnight. Let's investigate that new group of films though this is the list we have the least information about.

DIRECTORS FORTNIGHT
If a film has an asterisk it's a debut and thus eligible for the Camera d'Or.

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Mitchell Leisen: The forgotten legacy of a queer filmmaker

by Cláudio Alves

Sometimes, a writing project can take a life of its own, overwhelming you. That's what happened to me when trying to write about Old Hollywood director Mitchell Leisen. Initially, I pitched this piece to Nathaniel as a way of spotlighting an oft-forgotten talent whose best films feature in one of the Criterion Channel's latest collections. Later, as our 1946 journey began, the piece gained new value as a profile of the man who directed that year's Best Actress champion, Olivia de Havilland in To Each His Own. However, what most surprised me was how Leisen's story correlates with queer history and everything we celebrate and mourn during Pride month. 

As I went down a rabbit hole of research, the marvelous writings of Mark Rappaport, David Melville, Farran Nehme, and others revealed the complex case. That of an acclaimed queer artist whose legacy was systematically tarnished, if not downright erased, in a gesture of barely concealed homophobia…

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