Blueprints: "Juno"

This week Juno celebrated its tenth anniversary, so Jorge takes a look at how Diablo Cody’s iconic dialogue was inflicted with meaning by the cast.

Juno first hit theaters ten years ago as a low budget indie hopeful. It ended its run as a major box office hit and Oscar favorite. It was the movie that put Ellen Page on the map, boosted Jason Reitman’s career, and gave us arguably the definitive Jennifer Garner performance. 

Screenwriter Diablo Cody won the Oscar for her debut screenplay, and she instantly became a recognizable name, the way many directors but few writers are. And not without merit. One of Juno’s biggest legacy is its quick-witted, snarky dialogue that, many times since then, has tried to be replicated...

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Blueprints: "Mean Girls"

Hi everyone, Jorge here. Welcome to the first installment of Blueprints, a new weekly series where we'll discuss the relationship between the pages of a script and the finalized cinematic products. To start things off, an audience-favorite and one of the most quotable films of all time.

 

Tina Fey’s cult-classic satire on teenage girlhood, cliques, and cheese fries has quickly become an indispensable presence inside the ranks of Most Quotable Films lists. Behind-the-scenes recognition has fallen more on the writer than on director Mark Waters (brother of Heathers’ helmer Daniel Waters; for those keeping tabs on your clique movies). Almost every single line has become a chant for people to drop on each other, so much that Quote-Along screenings of the film have become widely popular.

But what is it about Mean Girls that made it not only memorable, but practically irresistible to mouth along to?

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Happy New School Year!

Each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal."

Dancin' Dan here wishing you a happy start to the school year, on behalf of Team Experience.

Has there ever been a high school movie as universal as The Breakfast Club? It's not a surprise that it's (apparently) still shown in schools to middle and high school students, given how clear and needed its message is: We may seem different to each other, but deep down, we're all going through the same shit. And if we really listen, we can help each other get through it.

Who did you most want to be friends with the first time you saw The Breakfast Club? While I always related most to Anthony Michael Hall's good boy Brian, I always most wanted to befriend Ally Sheedy's Allison, because I loved how she playfully taunted the others when they stared at her freakish behavior. She seemed like the most fun. PLUS: Pixie Stix sandwich.

Interview: Nicholas Galitzine in "Handsome Devil"

An abridged version of this interview was previously published at Towleroad

Nicholas Galitzine is a star on the rugby field in "Handsome Devil"

by Nathaniel R

The third time is the charm. Just three years and three films into his acting career, Nicholas Galitzine has what looks like a breakout role. John Butler's Irish dramedy Handsome Devil centers around the unlikely friendship of a new student Ned (Fionn O’Shea) and the star athlete Conor (Galitzine) at a rugby-mad boarding school. Their friendship is encouraged by their teacher Mr Sherry (played by the fine Irish actor Andrew Scott of Pride and Sherlock fame) but the rugby team isn’t wild about it. Conor is a wonderful showcase for Galitzine’s talent, and in more ways than one. The role also allows the actor to use what he calls his "separate passion,” music.

Screen International named Galitzine one of their “Stars of Tomorrow” in 2015 as part of their annual feature promoting the UK’s most promising actors. Their prediction is looking sound. Galitzine, for his part, isn't taking it for granted. He appears both eager to test his range and grateful for his opportunities. He calls acting "the best job in the world" and admits that "I've been very lucky so far".

Our interview follows after the jump...

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Cannes Look-back: "The Class"

As we await the Cannes closing ceremony with all its awards glamour, let's take a look back at a previous Palme winner which has connections to a competition entry this year.  Here's John Guerin...

The Class, Laurent Cantet’s 2008 Palme d’Or winner, left me both exhausted and inspired. An autobiographical chronicle of François Bégaudeau’s first year of teaching French language and literature at an inner-city high school in Paris, The Class is an entirely self-contained glimpse into the daily challenges, joys, dead-ends, nuisances, amusements, and tensions in one especially spirited classroom. Although The Class is spatially confined to the school building, the currents of the outside world frequently wash ashore and brush up against Bégaudeau’s attempts to lead a discussion of the imperfect tense or find meaning in The Diary of Anne Frank or do just about anything constructive.

Cantet and Bégaudeau, with the assistance of co-writer and editor Robin Campillo (director of the underrated 2013 Eastern Boys and this year's Queer Palme winner 120 Beats per Minute), smartly avoid clichés of the Exasperated Teacher genre and opts instead for ambivalence over didacticism; there is no breakthrough in Bégaudeau’s attitude from frustration to satisfaction, there is seldom a transformation of student rancor into exuberance, there is no “saving” exactly, but the film doesn’t descend into cheap cynicism either... 

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