Lunchtime Poll: Which scene in a movie made you imagine a whole other movie?

by Nathaniel R

Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood was difficult to write about. That's what happens with dense movies. Naturally, then, my review left out something major. It was only after publishing it that I realized I hadn't even mentioned the extended scene that is the movie's most impressive on a filmmaking level. I'm talking about the significant detour when Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) visits Spahn's Movie Ranch. He used to shoot a TV show there a decade earlier but it's now Manson Family territory, thanks to the retired and now blind George Spahn (Bruce Dern)...

Click to read more ...

Review: Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

This review was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad...

We want you... to see this movie so we can talk about it.

[Spoiler-free review] Here’s the best way to know that you’re inside an auteur’s movie. It’s impossible to imagine it having been made by anyone else. Quentin Tarantino’s 10th feature film (creatively referred to as his 9th, presumably to give him a retirement out after his various “I’ll quit after 10 films!” proclamations) is a fable about Hollywood. The movie begins in 1968 and ends in the summer of 1969 when the very pregnant actress Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski’s new wife, and her house guests were all brutally murdered by the Manson family. Any number of filmmakers could have made a movie about that infamous year in California, but only Tarantino could have made Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood. 

Historical events, real ones at least, have never been as sacred to Tarantino as the history of the movies. Whenever he’s dipped into “history” -- Django Unchained, Inglourious Basterds-- it’s been as emotionally loaded prefab worlds from which to spin his own idiosyncratic yarns.  In this regard Once Upon a Time is no exception. To this viewer, though, his latest movie feels closer in spirit to Pulp Fiction...

Click to read more ...

Links: Madonna, Ghostbusters, James Bond, Emmy Campaigns, etc...

• EW six different cover stars for Entertainment Weekly's "50 Years of Gay Pride" issue: Wilson Cruz, Anderson Cooper, Melissa Etheridge, Janet Mock, Neil Patrick Harris, and Ruby Rose
• Coming Soon Sigourney Weaver confirms that the original cast will return for a Ghostbusters 3
• Travel + Leisure a movie theater in Switzerland has beds instead of seats now for movies. Want

More after the jump including Emmy campaigning, Madonna's "Dark Ballet" and Brad Pitt's honorable cease & desist...

Click to read more ...

"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" Teases

by Nathaniel R

After two absolutely hideous photoshopped posters (we can't even post them they're so ugly) we were beginning to worry about Quentin Tarantino's Manson-era Hollywood tale starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt (as a famous actor and his stunt double) and Margot Robbie as Roman Polanski's late wife Sharon Tate. But the teaser has restored hope...

Click to read more ...

Showbiz History: Mary Tyler Moore Debut, Charlie Chaplin Exile, Brangelina Split

10 random things that happened today, September 19th, in showbiz history

1913 Frances Farmer born in Seattle. She becomes a movie star and is eventually committed to an asylum as told in the movie Frances (1982) -- See, American Horror Story wasn't the first time Jessica Lange won awards for living in an asylum. 

1927 Happy 92nd birthday to Tony winner and Oscar nominee Rosemary Harris! We thank her for all her fine performances and for bringing another great actress, Jennifer Ehle, into the world...

Click to read more ...