Dame Judi Dench loves a feline theme

by Murtada Elfadl

The new trend in celebrity videos is about hand washing and social distancing. But trust a revered Oscar winner to add a dash of poetry. Dame Judi Dench appears in a short clip with her friend and fellow actor Gyles Brandreth as they lather up their hands for the required 20 seconds. Instead of singing a song or reciting a famous monologue they recite the opening verses of Edward Lear’s beloved poem The Owl and the Pussy-Cat.

Ever the showwoman, Dench even begins purring and nuzzling up to Brandreth when they reach the line “What a beautiful pussy you are.” Nice homage to your current movie, Dame Judi, but perhaps not keeping with the current guidelines for social distancing.  

A Public Service Poem - from Judi Dench & Gyles Brandreth pic.twitter.com/jocgJtjvVd

— Gyles Brandreth (@GylesB1) March 15, 2020

 Now that Cats is available at home, have you watched yet and what do you think of the Dame’s feline moves?

Luis Bunuel's "Tristana" is 50...

by Eric Blume

Fifty years ago director Luis Bunuel's Tristana, his second collaboration with Catherine Deneuve, opened. It went on to become  a 1970 Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee.  While it lost the statue to Elio Petri's excellent Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion from Italy, it's fascinating to look back at Bunuel's fourth-to-final film and see it still standing strong.

In many ways, Tristana is one of the more straightforward and accessible Bunuel films, but "straightforward Bunuel" is thankfully still pretty fucked up...

Click to read more ...

Doc Corner: The Top 100 Documentaries of the Decade

By Glenn Dunks

For those paying attention—and no offence if you haven’t—I have been counting down my top 100 documentaries of the decade. Okay, so it’s technically 110. Shut up, I couldn’t help myself. Check out the list with snap comments for each title on Twitter, or the list is also on Letterboxd. But if you don’t want to make a single click then after the jump you'll get the whole list with chosen highlights and links to full reviews. And just in case you were wondering... number 101? Exit Through the Gift Shop.

Click to read more ...

Links

The Guardian wonders if dog actors are a thing no more after Call of the Wild. This makes us sad. Though wild animals as CGI makes sense, dogs actually love training/performing/playing with humans.
/Film Bong Joon Ho has floated the idea that he'd like to make a musical. Unlike /film, we don't approve given his comments. We've been saying this since the days of the early Aughts 'filmmakers who are non-fans or embarrassed by the musical form SHOULD NOT make them.' Periodt.

after the jump more on the coronavirus and Hollywood, Lyle Waggoner RIP, and more...

Click to read more ...

Watch at Home (as if you had other options currently)

Happy St Patrick's Day!  It hasn't really felt like that holiday without bars open, has it? 

Time for our bi or tri-weekly listing of new titles to DVD and BluRay... plus a little new-to-streaming thrown in for good measure. Given that most of us are trapped at home withe coronavirus pandemic blu-rays and streaming are necessary. 

New(ish) to Blu-Ray and DVD
• Black Christmas - horror remake
• Bombshell - Oscar winner for Best Makeup
• Charlies Angels - another iteration
• Dark Waters - Todd Haynes legal drama
• Jumanji the Next Level - hit sequel
• Queen & Slim - polarizing crime romance
• Richard Jewell - Eastwood dud
• Spies in Disguise - animated
• Uncut Gems - critical darling
• 5B - a doc on the AIDS crisis in 1980s San Francisco.

New to streaming recently
We've freeze-framed a few titles at entirely random places...

Click to read more ...