Berlinale's would-be scandal "Rosebush Pruning"

by Elisa Giuidici

Incest, murder, and the airless cynicism of extreme wealth: Rosebush Pruning positions itself aggressively as this year’s Berlinale provocation. Very loosely inspired by Marco Bellocchio’s 1965 debut Fists in the Pocket, Karim Aïnouz’s English-language drama borrows the earlier film’s diseased family structure but transplants it into the sterile rarefaction of contemporary ultra-wealthy excess.

Bellocchio’s earlier Italian classic centered on a wealthy young epileptic plotting to eliminate his blind mother and siblings to “free” his older brother from domestic obligation. Aïnouz retains the architecture of that premise while shifting the social register upward. Here the patriarch is a blind, theatrically transgressive father (Tracy Letts), alternately possessive and imperious, presiding over four adult children (Riley Keough, Jamie Bell, Callum Turner, and Lukas Gage) already enriched by their late mother’s estate. Pamela Anderson’s absent matriarch - killed by wolves - haunts the film from its opening frames...

Click to read more ...

Gay Best Friend: Michael in "Billy Elliot" (2000)

In preparation for the next Smackdown Team Experience is traveling back to 2000.

The face of coming out to your crush, who's also a male ballet dancer.By: Christopher James

What do our interests say about our sexuality?  From sports to dancing, so many hobbies carry with them gendered expectations. Set in 1984 rural England amidst the coal miner strike, Billy Elliot follows one boy as he defies his family’s expectations of him and pursues dancing instead of boxing. Claudio recently gave us a beautiful write-up on Jamie Bell’s performance as the title character as part of his Almost There column. Needless to say, I second all the points he made in his article.

For the purposes of this column, we want to look specifically at what the film has to say about sexuality, specifically as it relates to Billy’s best friend, Michael Caffrey (Stuart Wells)...

Click to read more ...

Almost There: Jamie Bell in "Billy Elliot"

In preparation for the next Smackdown Team Experience is traveling back to 2000.

by Cláudio Alves

The ingrained sexism within Hollywood, in general, and AMPAS, in particular, has many consequences. One of them is the disparity of ages when men and women are recognized for their talents. Male actors tend to be rewarded later in life, while the industry often ignores women after they hit a certain age. You can even see this dynamic at play with underage actors. Only six male children have been nominated in Oscar history in comparison with over a dozen actresses.

Over the past two decades, several boy wonders have been ignored by the Academy, despite buzz in their years. There's Alan S. Kim (Minari), Jacob Tremblay (Room), Tom Holland (The Impossible), Thomas Horn (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close), Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland), and, of course, Jamie Bell. In 2000, the latter was definitely in the Best Actor conversation for the sleeper-hit Billy Elliot…

Click to read more ...

Link Sauce

• MNPP Jamie Bell is going to make a Fred & Ginger biopic with Margaret Qualley...
• TFE we're elated for Bell because if you recall our interview two years back he said playing Astaire was his dream role
• Variety Steven Soderbergh working on a Sex Lies and Videotape sequel with Andie MacDowell and Laura San Giacoma both returning. Yes, ma'am. Sold

More after the jump including live concerts to stream tonight, Wong Kar Wai, pandemic grief, Disney proejcts, and more Warner Bros/HBO Max fallout...

Click to read more ...

Review: Jungleland

By Abe Friedtanzer

There is a certain general structure that can be expected in films about fighters. A boxer or wrestler will be driven to succeed through sheer strength and commitment to their craft, and will usually have a firm supporter in their corner egging them on and ensuring that they don’t falter. Inevitably, an injury or some outside factor will threaten their physical ability, and that will be precisely the moment that everything is riding on their performance, including a large sum of money that will make or break their future. If that’s essentially the narrative framework, the richness of the characters and the performances is what’s needed to differentiate a specific film from the pack.

Let’s take a look at a new theatrical and VOD release, Jungleland…

Click to read more ...