1963 Convo Pt 1: Liz-Mania and "Tom Jones"

Nathaniel welcomes guests Teo Bugbee, Keiran Scarlett, Séan McGovern, and Brian Mullin. We just wrote about the Supporting Actress nominated performances of 1963 but now it's time to zoom out on the films themselves and the year in question.  

Smackdown '63 Companion Podcast Part 1
(42 minutes)
In which the panel plays "tag yourself" within Best Picture winner Tom Jones while discussing Tony Richardson's cinematic eccentricities in the early '60s, the movie's politics and preference for anarchy and the Academy mindset given the political tragedies of the year. We also discuss Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton mania (Cleopatra + The VIPs). With brief asides to: Maggie Smith, Vanessa Redgrave, Benny Hill, that awkward supporting actress presentation at the Oscars, and more.

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Smackdown 63 Conversation - Part One TOM JONES

Review: The Glass Castle

This article was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad

‘This would be easier to take on the page.’

That thought kept striking me from odd angles all during the new movie THE GLASS CASTLE  now playing nationwide. In 2005 the writer Jeanette Walls turned the rags of her childhood into adult riches with her memoir “The Glass Castle.”  The book won several awards and sold millions of copies. It was translated into dozens of languages. The big screen, however, has a tricky vocabulary and grammar all its own.

The Glass Castle flashes back-and-forth between adult Jeanette Walls (Brie Larson), a gossip columnist ashamed of her oft-homeless parents (Woody Harrelson and Naomi Watts), and her memories of her difficult nomadic childhood...

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Poster for "Call Me by Your Name"

by Murtada

Call Me By Your Name, Luca Guadagnino's already wildly acclaimed gay romantic drama, was just announced for TIFF. It will probably play NYFF, too, on its way to a limited release on November 24, the sweet Thanksgiving spot for Oscar hopeful movies. And now the gorgeous poster for one of our most anticipated films of the year, has been revealed. See it in all its glory (plus more news about the film) after the jump...

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Barry Jenkins to Adapt James Baldwin

Chris here. Barry Jenkins is staying quite busy post-Moonlight: he directed the best episode of Netflix's already spectacular first season of Dear White People, has started developing a limited series adaptation of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad for Amazon, and now has another film in the pipeline. Jenkins will begin filming an adaptation of James Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk this fall with Annapurna producing. The novel takes place in 70s Harlem as young Tish works to prove the innocence of her falsely accused fiance Fonny.

This obviously makes for an thrilling pairing, but no one is more excited than Jenkins, stating:

James Baldwin is a man of and ahead of his time; his interrogations of the American consciousness have remained relevant to this day... To translate the power of Tish and Fonny’s love to the screen in Baldwin’s image is a dream I’ve long held dear. Working alongside the Baldwin Estate, I’m excited to finally make that dream come true.

This news is exciting on many fronts, not least of which is that it will be the first major screen adaptation of Baldwin's fictional work. With Jenkins working with Baldwin's estate, their stamp of approval is further affirmation that Beale Street is in good hands. The writer/director wrote the screenplay at the same time he worked on his Oscar-winning screenplay for Moonlight, so the overlap has to guarantee as much emotionally intuitive care for his characters, right?

And if you haven't yet seen last year's Oscar-nominated documentary on Baldwin and his work, I Am Not Your Negro, it is streaming now on Amazon Prime!

Susan Hayward in "My Foolish Heart"

SUSAN HAYWARD CENTENNIAL WEEK

by Timothy Brayton

Yesterday, Eric did an extraordinary job of tackling Susan Hayward's performance in I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), which I think a lot of us might agree was her all-time best performance. Today, I'd like to offer up what I consider to be her most Susan Haywardiest performance: as the good girl-turned-wretched alcoholic in 1949's My Foolish Heart, the film that netted Hayward the second of her five Oscar nominations.

It's a story tailored with laser focus on letting the lead actress show off Everything with a capital "E"...

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