YNMS: Professor Marston & The Wonder Women

by Nathaniel R

Well, the timing couldn't be better. The producers behind Professor Marston and the Wonder Women must be pinching themselves that Wonder Woman has been such an inarguable smash hit.  It might -- though the public is stubborn about trying new movies out that aren't CGI based or sequels -- generate some box office interest in this biopic about the man who created the fictional Amazon princess. Luke Evans plays the Professor and the women (yes, plural) in his life are Bella Heathcote and Rebecca Hall.

Trailer and Yes No Maybe So™ breakdown after the jump...

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Susan Hayward in "I'll Cry Tomorrow"

SUSAN HAYWARD CENTENNIAL WEEK

"this story was filmed on location... inside a woman's soul!"
-I'll Cry Tomorrow's tagline.

by Eric Blume

I’ll Cry Tomorrow, a biopic of singer Lillian Roth, won Susan Hayward the fourth of her five Oscar nominations, in 1955.  The film starts with a young Lillian and her stage mother, played by Jo Van Fleet. Ten minutes in, though, Hayward gets a true star entrance belting out “Sing You Sinners” in a lengthy number with only four cuts.

It’s a fun introduction, partially because you try to place yourself in 1955, when part of the excitement (one guesses) was hearing Hayward sing for the first time, and it’s quite a boisterous number. Then Hayward was known mostly as a tragedienne (Hollywood star variety), it must have been a blast for audiences to see Hayward let loose (Hollywood star style) in a big production number where she gets to snarl and dance (Hollywood star style, as the musicality doesn’t come easily to her)... 

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All Eyez on Geronimo, Psycho, and the Pink Ladies

Happy weekend... almost. I'm in the Berkshires with a girlfriend and she informs me very emphatically that it's not the weekend until 5 PM. Why rush to the end of her vacation as its back to work with her on Monday. 

5 ways to honor this day (June 16th) in showbiz history

1995 Batman Forever opens in movie theaters to a then record-breaking weekend with new Bruce Wayne Val Kilmer and rising star Nicole Kidman as his love interest. Curiously it's the second most nominated Batman movie at the Oscars (3 nominations to The Dark Knight's 8). Isn't that strange?

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Cannes Days 7-8: "The Beguiled" and "Rodin"

Another day in May, more cheers and jeers for the competition films. Only five competition films are yet to screen: Fatih Akin's In the Fade (starring Diane Kruger), Good Time from the Safdie brothers, Sergei Loznita's A Gentle Creature, François Ozon's L'Amant Double  (with two of his favorites Marine Vacth and Jérémie Renier), and Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here (starring Joaquin Phoenix). 

Previously: Day 1, Days 2-4, and Days 5-6
And Don't Miss: Nicole in Cannes Pt 1 and Pt 2

So it looks like the frontrunners for the Palme d'Or, barring any of those five landing in a major way, are France's 120 Battements Par Minute, Sweden's The Square, or Russia's Loveless. But with Cannes and the mysteries of the group dynamics of juries, you never really know until the awards are announced. Pundits always forget that. People who assume that the Palme is a given for ___ are wrong nearly every year. That's half the fun.

Day 8 brings us one of the longshot possibilities for the Palme from the great Sofia Coppola...

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Yes No Maybe So: "Battle of the Sexes" (plus some Holly Hunter trivia)

By Nathaniel R

Keep talking, Bobby. The more nonsense you spout, the worse it's going to be when you lose.

One of this fall's potential crossover films, in that it has both crowd pleasing and awards appeal (should it be any good that is) is the retelling of the super-famous Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs tennis match from 1973. Though I was alive at the time, I was way too young to know anything about that. I grew up in the age of Martina Navratilova vs Chris Evert and John McEnroe vs Everyone, though, and that match was a common cultural reference point. And tennis was the only sport I really fell in love with. Why? Couldn't say for sure but I suspect it was because it has more easily understood interpersonal dynamics (just two people... or four) at war... only non-violently. My best childhood friend and I even played tennis regularly together. I never got very good but later in high school he made the team! Which is all a terribly long way of saying, tennis movies hold instant interest in theory. They don't make them very often and they're largely unsuccessful when they do. Don't believe me, try to name more than one or two! (I'll wait).  

So let's breakdown the first trailer to Fox Searchlight's Battle of the Sexes after the jump. Are we optimistic, worried, or somewhere inbetween?

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