Film Bitch Awards - Heroes, Villains, Action, and More...

by Nathaniel R

We promised to finish up the 2019 Film Bitch Awards so we're doing that. Who talked us into so many categories? Oh that's right, no one but our own movie-loving madness. There's probably a cure for it but we're happy to stay addicted. 

HEROES, VILLAINS, DIVAS, and SEXPOTS
The character awards are now complete with honors for titular characters from Harriet and Diamantino and Joker and Us (just making sure you're not skimming but titular works there, too, right?) among other films like Synonyms, Toy Story 4, and Hustlers. As to the latter we realize that Jennifer Lopez factors quite heavily into all six of Hustlers nominations thus far but sometimes you ARE the movie, even if the movie itself is quite good. And, because sometimes moviegoing pleasure is perverse, we even found a way to "honor" Cats...

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2019's Best Screen Animals

Different lists each for our "Year in Review"

We had hoped to put the entire cast of Cats on this list of the big screen's best animal characters but alas... very few of them are worthy to ascend to the Heaviside Layer let alone our year end list of the best big screen animals! This list is dedicated to bunnies as those beady-eyed cuties had a rough year at the movies. They were used solely for unsettling mood, multiplying sybolism and raw meat (gross) in Us and later popped up as an instrument of toxic masculine shaming in Jojo Rabbit. Bunnies deserve better in 2020! Which filmmaker will answer the call and treat them well onscreen?

Without further ado let's talk the screen animals we fell hardest for at the movies this year.  

11 Dumbo (elephant)
Here's the thing. Tim Burton and Screenwriters and (presumably) Disney corporate were so intent on expanding the movie (it's 48 minutes longer than the original Dumbo!) that it keeps pointing to everything but the star mutant attraction. Dumbo is as adorable as his ears are big but he's a supporting player in his own movie. They lost the thread or Dumbo could've topped the list.

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Podcast: Booksmart, Ma, Diamantino, and Rocketman

by Murtada Elfadl and Nathaniel R

 

Index (53 minutes)
00:01 Drama Desk Awards (plus Tony buzz)
10:00 Rocketman w/ Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Bryce Dallas Howard
25:40 Olivia Wilde's Booksmart w/ Kaitlyn Dever & Beanie Feldstein
34:00 The thoroughly bizarre Diamantino
39:10 Octavia Spencer in the horror flick Ma (plus Missi Pyle!)
48:00 Randomness: summer movies, Nathaniel's bday, upcoming Smackdowns

Mentioned (Extra Credit Reading!)
• Rocketman vs Bohemian Rhapsody Vulture Quiz
• New Yorker Ma Essay by Doreen St. Félix
• TFE Nathaniel's Review of Rocketman
• TFE Murtada's interview with the Diamantino directors 

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Rocketman, Ma, Booksmart

Interview: 'Diamantino' directors on queer influences, genre twists, and Pekingese puppies

by Murtada Elfadl

The balancing of many different tones differentiates Diamantino, which just opened in theaters after a hit run at Cannes last year. It's a satire, an allegory, a rom-com and a fantasy -- all of those things in one yet it all jells. Co-directors Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt kept all these different balls in the air. The story is absolutely bonkers. Let’s see if we can get it straight with the help of the official synopsis: 

Portuguese soccer hunk Diamantino (Carloto Cotta, Tabu) blows it in the World Cup finals, he goes from superstar to laughing stock overnight. His sheltered worldview is further shattered after learning about the European refugee crisis and he resolves to make amends by adopting an African refugee – only to find that his new “son” is actually an undercover lesbian tax auditor investigating him on the suspicion of corruption. From there, Diamantino gets swept up in a gonzo comic odyssey involving cigarette-smoking evil twins, Secret Service skullduggery, mad science genetic modification, and a right-wing anti-EU conspiracy.

This doesn’t even include the fluffy giant Pekingese puppies that make the best co-stars. Critics, including this writer, have been in love since the film premiered at Cannes last year winning the Critics' Week Grand Prize. We recently had the chance to speak to the co-directors in New York. The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity...

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Queer TIFF: "Diamantino"

by Chris Feil

Plenty of the quasi mainstream queer movies are quickly labeled as not queer enough, the queer intelligencia (however rightfully) upset if gay life is reduced for the straight masses. Yeah, Diamantino has never heard of any of them, nor is it all that interested in your intellectual approval either.

And still it delivers something batty enough (and honestly flat out sweet enough) to knock potential naysayers off of their pretentious perch while delivering something foaming with queerness to fill all of its corners. Get ready for a fantasia of giddy gender confusion to glitterbomb the square conformity delusion, all set to Donna Lewis' "I Love You Always Forever". Diamantino is an absolute gas.

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