Review: Allied's Old School Beauty

by Eric Blume

The lovely opening image of Robert Zemeckis’ new film Allied has Brad Pitt falling slowly and soundlessly into the North African desert via parachute.  As he walks across the spine of an endlessly long sand dune, the film evokes the luxurious opening of The English Patient and of course the granddaddy of desert films, Lawrence of Arabia.  And Pitt’s arrival into Casablanca, Morocco tees up memories of the Bogart-Bergman classic.  Zemeckis positions us exactly where he wants us to be:  open to the possibility of the pleasures of those highly-romantic, old-school pictures that we truly don’t see anymore...

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Girl, where do you link you're goin'?

Comics Alliance The Flash movie, starring Ezra Miller, loses its Dope director
MNPP Matthias Schoenaerts and Jane Fonda on set together!
The New York on The Handmaiden and lesbian historical fiction
EW will give us an extensive first look at Beauty and the Beast in the new issue

The Film Doctor on Woody Allen's Cafe Society - have you caught up with this on dvd?
i09 because once you are all about being on-brand, like Johnny Depp, you can't ever leave franchise-verse, he'll be joining the Potterverse for a Fantastic Beasts sequel
/Film speaking of Ezra Miller is giving a history of the Potterverse to promote Fantastic Beasts
Time Out Two time Tony winner Tammy Grimes (mother of Amanda Plummer) dies at 92
D List after a brief internet freakout Idris Elba denies that he's dating Madonna
Superhero Hype set photos from The Defenders (Netflix's answer to The Avengers) though for now its mostly just Jessica Jones in her trademark leather jacket, blue jeans, and perma-scowl

NY Times "Warren Beatty wants six hours of your time" a profile
Jezebel ,,,Rich Juzwiak on the write-around of that piece
I Like Things That Look Like Mistakes Kyle Turner on the camp value of Lady Gaga's "Joanne"
IndieWire you can now stream Michael Giacchino's Dr Strange's score in its entirety 
Reel Talk time for reunion TV to go? 

P.S. Jason's Polling Skills are Formidable
Two Sophie's Choices in a single day? Right here he asked us to choose between Juliet & Pauline, two such Heavenly Creatures, and at his own blog My New Plaid Pants, this showdown between topless begloved sex gods. How will you vote in both polls? 

Now Streaming (Prime): Rocky, Bond, and Brad as "Joe Black"

It's that time of the month again. Streaming! Here are the new titles on Amazon Prime. As is our practice we'll freeze frame some at random to see what comes up -- no cheating! Will you be watching any of these? Do you remember them?

Russian Coach: He's nothing, he's soft
Swedish Dolph Pretending to be Russian: He's not a man. He is like a piece of iron.

Rocky IV (1985)
Remember when America was totally obsessed with Dick-Measuring with Russia. Oh wait... we're back there again only with a really gross twist (sigh). Side note: Most but not all of the Rocky films are avaiable for streaming but the not all point kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it? See also: James Bond movies.

Speaking of...

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Tweetweek: Describing Yourself, Brangelina Fallout, Paulson Afterglow

people who think the movies are dead:

it turns out that *you’re* dead & the movies are alive

there’s a good Nicole Kidman movie about this

— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) September 20, 2016

20 years ago today, the world's first superhero ensemble movie hit theaters pic.twitter.com/o34t6vxCen

— Count Falcula (@RussellFalcon) September 20, 2016

More fun tweets from the past week including Emily Blunt, Sarah Paulson, Marion Cotillard, follow after the jump...

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Marion Cotillard Wishes Her Haters "A Swift Recovery"

Guillaume, Marion, and First Child a few months backMarion Cotillard has had it with all the press attention she's getting in the Brangelina divorce. Who knows how the rumors about her and Brad started but Allied (opening this Thanksgiving) surely provided the easy optics. The movie stars are playing impossibly beautiful / sneaky deadly / possibly double crossing lovers in Allied (2016) and you could describe Mr & Mrs Smith (2005), the film that brought us Brangelina, in much the same way.

Cotillard released the following pointed statement, which reads like the equivalent of an eye roll crossed with a death glare. She wants you to know that she's perfectly happy with fellow French film star Guillaume Canet, her longtime partner, and also: she's pregnant again with their second child.

The statement in full and a bit more after the jump...

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