Open Thread

What's on your cinematic mind? Do tell in the comments! I was mostly thinking about three things today...

1. Why it is that some great film stars transfer so superbly to the stage and others do not? 
2. The way you never can tell if a film is going to linger or not because sometimes films you loved you dont find yourself thinking about a lot afterwards and other films you were a little cool on might keep popping back into your brain - do you know what I mean?
3. Melissa's cat in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Bradley & Gaga's dog in A Star is Born, and Viola's dog in Widows. I love when movie characters have pets. I think way more movie characters should have pets. Real people have pets so why not movie characters?

Isle of Dogs and Japanese culture: Riff, love letter, or appropriation?

by Lynn Lee

A friend on Facebook recently asked me, after I posted a positive response to Isle of Dogs, what I thought about the controversy over Wes Anderson’s alleged cultural appropriation of Japan.  My initial answer was that it bothered me a little bit, but not enough to mar my enjoyment of the movie.  Later I realized that I’d just implicitly accepted the charge that there was cultural appropriation and, as an Asian American, felt mildly guilty that it didn’t bother me.  But on further reflection, I’m not sure either of those knee-jerk reactions was warranted.  It’s more complicated than that.

The question of cultural appropriation can be broken down a few different ways...

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And the Links Go To...

Team Experience has been sharing favorite moments from Oscar night  but we must slowly ween ourselves off of Oscar (*sniffle*) and back to the new year in progress. Link time! 

• Vulture The Oscars should always be long (I love this piece with all my heart)
• Liza Donnelly her collection of live drawings from Oscar week

Miscellaneous Screen
• Indie Wire how fun is this? A theater in San Francisco is hosting a screening of Isle of Dogs in which moviegoers can bring their dogs into the theater!
• Deadline apparently there are competing projects about Sharon Tate and the Manson murders. Tate's surviving families are supporting a version starring Kate Bosworth and they're upset with the other two projects (one of which is Quentin Tarantino's)
• AV Club hilarious story -- a teen broke her retainer biting down on it while thirsting for Michael B Jordan in Black Panther. He's now offered to buy her a new one
• MNPP Jason reminds us that David Robert Mitchell (of It Follows promise) has a new movie coming out starring Andrew Garfield
• The Muse how many more non-hits can Jennifer Lawrence's career withstand?
• Straight Outta Crouch End A fascinating take on A Fantastic Woman and its references to Orpheus and Eurydice.

Off Screen
• Vox on MoviePass's fuzzy business model
• Slate Russell Crowe holding a "divorce auction". Do the items paint a "strange and mesmerizing portrait"?
• Out Actress Cynthia Nixon is laying the groundwork to run for Governor in NY
• TodayTix "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" on Broadway has $40 lottery tickets -regular seats are hundreds of dollars so competition will be fierce. Friday morning entry only!
• NYT "The Shed," a newperformance space in Manhattan is looking to mash art-forms up from film directors staging concerts to collaborations between actors, poets, and opera stars? Sounds exciting.

woof woof. It's your daily Oscar trivia

by Nathaniel R

101 DAYS DALMATIANS until Oscar. For today's Oscar trivia did you know that neither the Disney animated classic of 1961 nor the live action Glenn Close starring remake in 1996 earned Oscar nominations?

Everyone knows that the Academy didn't have a Best Animated Feature category until the 21st century began but prior to that Disney's beloved animated classics were often honored in Original Song. But "Cruella de Vil," the hit single that dog-loving composer Roger writes in the film, the one that earns him enough cash to feed and care for 101 pups in that film's happy ending was not so nominated...

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Review: The Mountain Between Us

by Eric Blume

I know what you’re thinking:  you’ve watched the trailer for The Mountain Between Us, the new movie where Kate Winslet and Idris Elba are stranded in the mountains together after a plane crash.  And since you’re a smart moviegoer, you probably thought, 'okay the trailer looks a little bit terrible, but it’s Kate!  And Idris!  They’re so sexy and talented!  Surely the movie itself can’t be that bad?'

I’m sad to report, it truly is...

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