Reading List: The Lammy Winners

by Nathaniel R

Looking for summer reading to occupy your non-movie theater / beach time? The 31st Annual Lambda Literary Awards were held this monday for the best in LGBTQ writing. NYC performance icon MX Justin Vivian Bond (Can You Ever Forgive Me, Shortbus, Kiki & Herb) was the MC and we've listed the winners of their 24 regular categories after the jump. If you've read any of these books do tell if they'd make intriguing movies... 

Click to read more ...

The Bening AND La Pfeiffer? In the same movie !?!

by Nathaniel R

Have you heard that news that Annette Bening and Michelle Pfeiffer have signed on as the leading ladies of a new feature film? If you've heard that news than you'll understand that I, Nathaniel, am typing this from heaven as I must have died and gone there for this to be true. Last thing I remember I was on a plane back to NYC (more on where I've been shortly) and then I was dead. Death by actressexuality. What a way to go. 

The future film what done me in is called Turn of Mind and it's based on the novel of the same name by Alice LaPlante. Gideon Raff (best known for creating the Israeli series that TV's Homeland is based on) will be directing the thriller with Doug Wright (Quills)  doing the screenplay. Annette Bening plays Dr Jennifer White, a retiree suffering from Alzheimers and suddenly accused of killing her longtime best friend Amanda (Michelle Pfeiffer) and unable to remember whether she actually committed the crime...

Click to read more ...

The Hugo Award Nominees 2019. Plus 75th anniversary Retro Prizes

With the weather warming up are you looking for spring & summer reads? For those of you who enjoy sci-fi / fantasy novels, you can always get recommendations each year from the Hugo Awards... though we wish these recommendations each year leaned a little more fantasy (the balance is definitely pro sci-fi with a few fantasy sprinklings). The nominations were determined by 1800 valid nomination ballots from members of the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon). If you'd like to be a nominator for 2020, you could join WorldCon this year.

Since this is a film site we'll start with their "dramatic presentation" prizes. 

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• Annihilation, directed and written for the screen by Alex Garland, based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer (Paramount Pictures / Skydance)
• Avengers: Infinity War, screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (Marvel Studios)
• Black Panther, written by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole, directed by Ryan Coogler (Marvel Studios)
• A Quiet Place, screenplay by Scott Beck, John Krasinski and Bryan Woods, directed by John Krasinski (Platinum Dunes / Sunday Night)
• Sorry to Bother You, written and directed by Boots Riley (Annapurna Pictures)
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, screenplay by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman, directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman (Sony) 

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

Click to read more ...

Will the Oscar Success of "If Beale Street" Spur More Adaptations of James Baldwin's Work?

by Murtada Elfadl

 

Black authors have not been adapted the same way as their white peers because financiers don’t put their money behind black authors.
-Barry Jenkins accepting Best Director at the Spirit Awards 

Regina King understood what she was representing at the Oscars. Not just her film, If Beale Street Could Talk, and all the people who worked on it but also the legacy of James Baldwin. She mentioned him on the red carpet on her way to the ceremony. Fittingly, she also started her speech with him...

Click to read more ...

'Can You Ever Forgive' everyone ignoring Marielle Heller?

by Nathaniel R

Marielle Heller is, we suspect, a real deal cinematic treasure. Her debut film, the sexually charged, inventively imagined Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015) showed a ton of promise. Her second feature Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), while more modest at first glance, was yet more complex and successful.

We think she ought to have been one of the Best Director nominees with Oscar this year, which is why she's in our Film Bitch Awards Best Director lineup...

Click to read more ...