Five Sundance Films to Get Excited About

by Murtada Elfadl

Sundance announced its 2020 slew of films for the festival that kicks off in Park City on January 23rd. This writer is excited to start caring about a whole slew of new movies as the festival comes in at the thick of awards season when there’s almost nothing left to say about 2019 movies.

Julianne Moore as Gloria Steinem in The Glorias

Sundance provided some statistics on their selection this year...

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Review: Todd Haynes returns with "Dark Waters"

by Murtada Elfadl

You know you are in good hands when the actor chosen to come in and jumpstart the plot, give dimensionality to the film, or just wreck the audience hearts is Bill Camp. This is exactly who Todd Haynes chooses to do all three of these things in Dark Waters. Camp is a Virginia farmer who calls on a corporate lawyer he knows from the old neighborhood (Mark Ruffalo) to help him sue the big corporation that is killing his animals, his family and himself with the toxic waste they spill out in the water system and into the bodies of the unsuspecting.

This is just the tip of a big iceberg that Robert Bilott (Ruffalo) uncovers...

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Beauty vs Beast: Devils of the Details

Jason from MNPP here with a "Beauty vs Beast" first -- last week when we had you face down the leading ladies of The Devil Wears Prada for its 13th anniversary several of you took to the comments with a suggestion of another competition from this film that you desired, and I thought it fine enough to bring us back here just one week later. The film really is a four-hander -- venture outside of the Runway offices and it falls apart, but the casting done to fill out those fashion hallways was divine. So let's hit up those other two class acts...

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PREVIOUSLY The winner of last week's DWP competition was of course, with little surprise, Meryl Streep's De La Renta swathed demoness Miranda Priestley, with 84% of your vote. Said Val:

"Hathaway is wonderful here. The movie wouldn't work at all if her transformation wasn't believable, but let's be for real, in a movie with plenty of stars turns, there is very much one sun at the center. Streep makes Miranda's quiet wrath a thing of beauty. Minimal tricks (at least they aren't showing here), just a great actor clearly enjoying a great role."

Beauty vs Beast: Say it With Cerulean

Jason Adams of MNPP here with your brand new edition of our "Beauty vs Beast" poll -- not to over-Meryl us (does such a thing exist?) with two Meryl polls in the span of three weeks on top of her much-talked-about turn on Big Little Lies, but it was the 13th anniversary of The Devil Wears Prada back on June 30th and it suddenly struck me like a very expensive coat in the face that, blasphemy of blasphemies, we have never done a Prada Edition for this series. I KNOW!! Insert a gif of one of Miranda's withering glares here. Shameful. So let's see if the Anne-Hatha-lovers have any tricks up their designer sleeves...

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PREVIOUSLY Last week between bouts of Meryl we tackled another queen of screen Olivia de Havilland, and while she may not have taken down Ryan Murphy with her Feud-based lawsuit Livvy at least got one over on that other queen Monty Clift, taking 59% of your Heiress vote. Said joel6:

"Morris is a beauty and perhaps Catherine is too naive but that's her father's fault not hers. Morris is a low down gutter snake that gets exactly what he deserves and seeing Catherine serve it up to him is sweetness itself. Olivia de Havilland gave several great performances but this is the cherry on top of the cake! Wishing her all the best as an awesome 103 year old and as long as her health holds may she see many more birthdays!"

Review: The Hustle

by Samantha Craggs

The late great Gene Siskel had a litmus test: is this movie more interesting than a documentary of the same actors having lunch? In the case of Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson in The Hustle, the answer is a resounding no. The material keeps Hathaway at a fraction of her potential wattage, and Hollywood doesn't quite know what to do with Rebel Wilson yet.

The Hustle, in theatres now, is a remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, although the earlier film isn't required viewing. Hathaway plays Josephine Chesterfield, a skilled con artist with a too-affected British accent who uses her natural charm and willowy figure to swindle men out of money in a little French Riviera town. A police sergeant works with her – for a price, of course. And Chesterfield can pay it. She's made millions doing this.

In comes Wilson's Penny Rust, playing what we've come to know as the Rebel Wilson role...

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