Tribeca 2021: "Werewolves Within" is a Full Moon of Fun

by Jason Adams

The alchemy of the Horror-Comedy is a notoriously tricky mix -- add too many snips and snails and nobody's laughing; too much sugar and spice and you can make a person's face being torn off smell like a bouquet of roses. Neither of those extremes are necessarily bad -- I like roses! -- but you want to somehow straddle both extremes at once, goosing the gore-hounds while tickling the easily-terrified. Basically you're asking a damn lot of yourself and your audience, but when the routine really lands it'll be 10s from every judge, and Werewolves Within, Josh Ruben's new horror-comedy (based on the VR game) that just premiered at Tribeca this week, lands... well 9s. Let's say 9s.

Werewolves stars Veep's Sam Richardson (who somehow mixes cheerfulness with a deadpan dullness that always delights) as Forest Ranger Finn...

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Would you rather?

Would you rather...

• Enjoy an ice cream cone with Debi Mazar?
• Return to the Met with Helen Hunt?
• Quarantine with Cheyenne Jackson?
• Learn to drive a truck with Juliette Binoche?
• Make an Italian dinner with Sir Anthony Hopkins?
• Go horseback riding with Colman Domingo?
• Do an Escape Room with Gina Gershon and Jamie Lee Curtis?
• Scuba dive with Brie Larson?
• "Audition" for Cruella 2 with Alec Utgoff?
• Welcome in the summer with January Jones?

Pictures are after the jump to help you decide!

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Vintage '47: What was going on in showbiz that year?

by Nathaniel R

Let's look at some cultural background on the year 1947 before we reach the new Smackdown event in exactly one week (have you voted yet?). Light entertainments were very popular but Post-War America and by extension Hollywood was feeling a dark undertow and anxiety. Cinema went deep into noir territory (men really didn't know who to trust or what to make of women after they'd becoming working girls during the War and the anxiety definitely showed onscreen) and offscreen things were treacherous. The infamous witchhunt for Communists began in Hollywood, cutting off the careers of many talented actors and filmmakers who wouldn't 'name names', beginning with "The Hollywood Ten". 

Great Big Box Office Hits:
A now long-forgotten picture, Welcome Stranger (reteaming the Oscar-winning stars of Going My Way) was one of the year's very biggest attractions. The best-seller turned rom-com The Egg and I was also a huge success. Other light entertainments that were audience favourites included all star comedies like Life with Father (currently streaming!) and The Bachelor and Bobby Soxer, and the Betty Grable musical Mother Wore Tights. But Oscar drifted towards more serious fare... 

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Links

Tik Tok "Pull the lever, Kronk" - a genius bit of Emperor's New Groove lipsyncing
Hulu Lady in a Cage - don't forget to watch as we're discussing it on Monday night. And boy is there a lot to discuss!
Matt Reeves pics of the new Batmobile in The Batman (2021)
Coming Soon Superhero Christian Bale will now be a supervillain. He's facing off with Natalie Portman and Tessa Thompson in Thor: Love and Thunder (2021)...

More after the jump including Jacob Elordi, SXSW, The Eternals, Twenties, Chris Evans, and more...

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Drag Race: "The Evil Twin Ball"

by Nathaniel R  

Asia and her evil twin North Korea

Oopsie. When Drag Race took a week off we took two weeks off of watching it. It's almost time for the new episode and we forgot to watch it last Thursday (!) so herewith very very quick notes on the 11th episode of the season in which the Queens were tasked with exposing their inner saboteur...

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