Glenn Close as "The Wife" - Now a 2018 Release

Dearest Glenn Close Maniacs and Film Experience Readers (two groups which seem to have much crossover), this just in: Sony Pictures Classic has acquired The Wife for release. After a quick check in with SPC from yours truly they have officially confirmed that they're planning a 2018 release with no qualifying run for this season's Oscar race. 

This is either great news or terrible news depending on how you look at it. On the bright side, Sony Pictures Classics has several Best Actress candidates already (Annette Bening, Daniela Vega, etcetera) so why risk diluting their campaigns with another? What's more Best Actress is already a bloodbath (see the charts -- just updated to remove the Glenn Close equation) with more contenders than can possibly be happy with their fate come Oscar nomination. On the downside, sometimes you can lose heat if you wait a year for release and there's no guarantee that next year will be any less competitive. But if you're worried there's no chance for Glenn next year, do not. Blue Sky with Jessica Lange sat on the shelf forever and still ended up getting her an Oscar. Crash and The Hurt Locker both won Best Picture after waiting it out for the next calendar year after their festival debuts. Losing "buzz" or heat is a danger but not an inevitability.

But in the end, whatever happens, great performances are their own reward and Glenn Close nailed this one - see our TIFF review if you missed it. 

Best Actress: The Shape of Sally. The Mouth on Frances.

by Nathaniel R

Sally says "Hi!" (I apologize profusively that my camera cut off her cute wave to all of you via this TIFF photo)It's getting hot up in the Best Actress race. The fall festivals have thrust a dozen or so women toward potential red carpet glory but how will time and general reviews and audience response and campaigning sort them out? It's nail-biting! At least until the first awards are handed out at which point things always narrow down too quickly.

But for now -- and it's early still (our annual refrain) -- it's appearing like it might be a battle between Sally Hawkins in The Shape of Water (which has won consistently strong reviews and the Golden Lion in Venice) and Frances McDormand who stars in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, the surprise winner of the Oscar bellwether "audience award" at TIFF. It's fun to think about the performances in tandem since Sally plays a literally mute woman and Frances a foul mouthed woman who will not be silenced...

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TIFF: McDormand Dominates in "Three Billboards..."

by Chris Feil

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri unfolds in typical fashion for writer/director Martin McDonagh: unspeakable violence provides a backdrop to profanity of everyday people. Here McDonagh provides us one of his most righteous heroes in Mildred Hayes, a mother grieving the brutal murder of her daughter and the local police’s inability to bring justice. Verbal fireworks and bloody consequence is to be expected.

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TIFF: Glenn Close is "The Wife"

our ongoing adventures at TIFF. An abdriged version of this review was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad.

Film festivals nearly always provide curious dialogues between films that you weren't expecting. On the same day on the exact same screen at TIFF I managed to see two films about female writers and the male writers in their lives who take up all the oxygen (and praise) in the room. Who would have thought that a film about the origins of Frankenstein (just discussed) and a star vehicle for Glenn Close in Stockholm would have so much in common? 

THE WIFE (Björn Runge)
Joan Castleman (Glenn Close) is a longsuffering wife who would bristle at that very description. She's married to a famous novelist Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) and their homophonic names are no coincidence. The silver-haired couple have been together for nearly half a century and are inseparable if not quite interchangeable...

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Tilt Your Head, Pfeiffer!

by Murtada

Mother! is my most anticipated film of the fall. And it’s so good that we don’t have to wait that long for it. Just 14 days from today it will be everywhere. The obsession is real, and for the last few days it has become very specific.

Of course it has to do with Michelle Pfeiffer. There’s a new clip making the rounds where Pfeiffer intimidates Jennifer lawrence about having kids...

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