Today in Film History. Meow

It's Father's Day. Happy Father's Day. It's also Juneteenth. The day in which the nation commemorates the end of slavery in the mid 1860s (though like most holidays the actual timeline involves several days and months and years and lots of political manuevering -- see Lincoln and be reminded what a mess governing and policy making and constitutional debates always are). June 19th has another history civil rights event in 1964 with the passing of the Civil Rights Act (see Selma) so exercize your right to vote in November. People are always trying to deny people that right, and if everyone voted, we'd be in such better shape. Now on to cinema...

On this day in history as it relates to the movies...

Good god, woman. Let it go.1865 Dame May Whitty, two time Oscar nominee is born in Liverpool. Remember her all caps obsession with winning that damn flower contest in Mrs Miniver? 
1905 The first Nickelodeon (an early form of the movie theater) opens in Pittsburgh. By 1910 there are thousands of them and an estimated 26 million Americans visit them weekly. Can you imagine how popular film blogs would be - sniffle. The movies shown in them get longer and longer...

Click to read more ...

#Links

CriticWire this ongoing conversation about what critics should review is troubling/interesting
i09 seems we're getting a new Interview with the Vampire movie
Variety on what's holding Hollywood back from putting gay characters in franchises. I mean imagine if this hashtag were successful...
#GiveElsaAGirlfriend for Frozen 2. It's what the fans want and the narrative really calls for.
Pajiba omg. There's a kickstarter for a deck of "woman cards" which has awesome illustrations including Hillary, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Beyoncé

EW Congratulations to Colton Haynes, he of bolting from TV series just when everyone is falling in love with him (Teen Wolf, Arrow) and amassing a massive Instagram following. He is officially out of the closet after years of rumors and hints and non-denials
New Yorker Kiki & Herb are back after 8 years! My favorite cabaret act of all time
Final Girl looks back at James Whale's The Old Dark House. That's a fun ol' horror flick for Whale while he was warming up for Bride of Frankenstein (1934) 
TV Line I was never into the show Alias (Jennifer Garner has never done it for me with the exception of Juno) but if you were you'll probably like this oral history
Awards Daily Alicia Vikander sets up her own production company - first project is called Euphoria and Eva Greene is her screen-sibling co-star
Towleroad Channing Tatum introduces the Men of Magic Mike Live. (I thought they were doing this as a Broadway show but it looks more like it's going to be more of a Las Vegas revue thing.) 

Yes I will review Captain America: Civil War but until then...
Here are some articles on Avengers 3...
Games Radar 26 easter eggs for comic fans in the new movie
E! News 20 (fawning) questions you'll have after the movie 
Comics Alliance schools Emily VanCamp (Agent 13, Cap's current love interest) on the world of "Stucky" fan fic. How did she not know that fans obsess about Steve & Bucky being in love? 
Screen Crush all the Captain America: Civil War rumors that turned out to be false and the sites that published them. Haha. Another reminder of how useless the internet is when it comes to obsessing over things that don't exist yet!  

Finally because I couldn't unsee it...

When Posters Collide pic.twitter.com/Hej8wERYKi

— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) May 6, 2016

 

Best of April Watching ICYMI

We're mixing up the month-end ICYMI post to hopefully make it more enticing/interesting with random awards and different categories like so...

5 Most Discussed Posts
Current Stars Who Deserve an Oscar Nod - they've earned momentum
Q&A -Animals & late 80s/early 90s films
Posterized: Tom Hiddleston - where to post-Loki?
Posterized: Melissa McCarthy - she's having quite a career
Pfeiffer & Aronofsky - yup, they'll be working together 

5 Favorite Posts
Bob's Burgers & The Birds - Hitchcock references for the win 
The Furniture: The Force Awakens - that myth-making forest! 
Witness - So pleasurable to revisit this for the Best Shot roundup
Please Switch Off Your Phone - the actresses are actressing, for chrissakes 
April Showers Blue Valentine - oh I need to see this again

Best of Nathaniel's Random April Watching
Best Old Thing: Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood (1957)
Best New Thing: The Fits (2016)
Best Actor: Ben Whishaw in The Crucible on Broadway
Best Actress: Geraldine Page in The Beguiled (1971)
Best Supporting Actor: Idris Elba in The Jungle Book 
Best Supporting Actress: Jane Krakowski, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt S2
Best Miniature Thing: Katya Zamolodchikova's I'm Not A Doctor
Best TV Episode: Drag Race S8.E8 "RuPaul Book Ball" (with Untucked)
Best Cameo: Scott Gill's penis in John Barrowman's live chat 
Cutest: Keanu in all the commercials for Keanu
Sexiest: Tom Hiddleston in High-Rise (runner up: Tyler Hoechlin, Everybody Wants Some !!)
Funniest: Titus Andromedon, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt S2
Spookiest: Lady Asaji Washizu and The Silent Chamber in Throne of Blood

Congratulations are in Order!
Jose was quoted in the ads for the fashion documentary The First Monday in May after his interview here! How about that?

Getting your first big pull quote on your birthday week = priceless #criticslife #thefirstmondayinmay #annawintour

A photo posted by Jose Solis (@josesolismayen) on Apr 13, 2016 at 4:31pm PDT

Ongoing conversations
Tribeca - Manuel & Jason celebrated the highs / warned us of the lows
Actor Month -Viggo, Willem, Matthias, Andrew, and many more
April Showers - Gone Girl, Sicario, Margaret, Law of Desire, Carrie, Pee Wee's Big Holiday

April Downers
If we hadn't lost Chus Lampreave, and Ronit Elkabetz and had to say Farewell to Prince it would have been much much better month. But sometimes it snows in April. (Runners Up: The steep steep quality decline for "The Flash" of late which is so much mopier and with the slowest storyline --Zoom & Earth 2-- imaginable for a show about super-speedsters. And, of course, that Snatch Game episode of RPDR.)

How was your April?

P.S. Yes, yes, I'm finishing up the April Foolish charts today. Only the acting categories remain.

Tribeca 2016 Review Index

Tribeca Film Festival wrapped this weekend and I want to hear a huge round of applause for Manuel Betancourt and Jason Adams who filed so many reports. The festival's main narrative competiton was juried by Anne Carey, Chris Nashawaty, and the actors James Le Gros, Mya Taylor and Jennifer Westfeldt. Additional juries handled documentaries, new directors, and international narrative features.

this Persona-riff won Best Actress for Mackenzie DavisFestival Winners Reviewed
Dean (Manuel) -Best Narrative Feature
The Fixer (Nathaniel) -Best Actor Dominic Rains 
Always Shine (Jason) -Best Actress Mackenzie Davis
Women Who Kill (Jason) -Best Screenplay Ingrid Jungermann 
Contemporary Color (Jason) - Documentary Cinematography Jarred Alterman and Documentary Editing Bill Ross
Madly (Manuel) - Actress in an International Feature Radhika Apte in "Clean Shaven," a segment in Madly 

Other Films Reviewed
All We Had (Manuel)
Califórnia (Manuel)
Charro de Toluquilla (Manuel)
Detour (Jason)
Elvis & Nixon (Jason) *now in theaters*
Equals (Jason)
Everybody Knows...Elizabeth Murray (Manuel) 
Fear Inc (Jason)
High-Rise (Nathaniel)
Holidays (Jason)
Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Jason)
A Kind of Murder (Jason)
King Cobra (Jason)
The Meddler (Manuel)
Memories of a Penitent Heart (Manuel)
Mother (Nathaniel)
Obit (Jason)
Rebirth (Jason)
Special Correspondence (Jason) *now on Netflix*
Strike a Pose (Manuel) 
Wolves (Jason) 

P.S. We'll have more on Strike a Pose (2016), the documentary about Madonna's dancers from Truth or Dare (1991) that Manuel reviewed, in a couple of weeks. You know we can't pass up the opportunity to celebrate Truth or Dare's 25th anniversary in style so we'll have a "blonde ambition" theme week (May 8th-13th) with Madonna madness and other cinematic blondes to mix it up. (We're now waiting impatiently for news about a proper release for Strike a Pose) 

Linkman v Superblog

The New Yorker pays tribute to Garry Shandling who passed away suddenly on Thursday
Salon remembers the polarizing response to David Lynch's Blue Velvet 30 years ago
Lee Pace Network they did a "posterized" of sorts on Lee Pace's filmography only with gifs - how many have you seen? I've only seen 7 but he sure is nice to look at
Washington Post fascinating story on Hollywood's latest beauty trend: expensive post-production digital retouching 
Vulture interviews RuPaul
/Film so sad but HBO's Togetherness starring Mark Duplass and Melanie Lynskey has been cancelled. 
Playbill awwww. Hairspray and Smash composer and 5 time Oscar nominee Marc Shaiman got married. Patti LuPone, Nathan Lane, Bette Midler, and Whoopi were guests! 

Meta Humans
MTV Teo remembers Batman Returns "There is only one true Batman movie, one Batmovie to rule them all." Amen.
Comics Alliance Marvel & Disney join other companies planning to boycott business with the state of Georgia if the governor doesn't veto the recently passed anti-gay law 
Vulture asks celebrities to pick Batman or Superman in a fight. Michael Shannon's, the former general Zod, answer is the greatest 
Film Freak Central amazing free associative depressive review of BvS by Walter Chaw 
Terry's Fabrics suggests you decorate your room w/ Batman or Superman accoutrements (to make sure you have nightmares about the movie lasting even longer?) 
Comics Alliance thinks Wonder Woman's MVP status in the new film is not enough to justify the treatment of the other female characters 
i09 you can explore Batman's lair using Google Street View.
YouTube LOL. Sad Affleck hearing about the Batman v Superman reviews
EW Warner Bros DC universe movies schedule through 2020 

Today's Watch
Batman v Terminator from Captain McKay. A fun little stop motion short using actual action figures. And it fits with Easter's ressurection theme, kinda, too.

ICYMI
The Oscars channel on YouTube added a ton of clips and speeches from last month's ceremony a couple of days ago