25th Anniversary: Quiz Show (1994)

Best Picture nominee Quiz Show (1994) was released 25 years ago. Here's Anna with a look back...

The year is 1958 (it should be 1956; Redford condensed the three-year scandal into one). Households across America tune in to watch Twenty-One. Everyone is fascinated by the wisdom from reigning champion Herb Stempel (John Turturro). Well, almost everyone; producers Dan Enright (David Paymer) and Albert Freedman (Hank Azaria) as well as the show’s sponsor think it’s high time for some new talent on the show. Enter Columbia University instructor Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes), who had auditioned for their other show Tic-Tac-Dough. And this is when Enright tells Herb to take the fall, which he reluctantly does. But how long until keeping the truth becomes too much for Charles?

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TIFF Review: "Gloria Bell"

by Chris Feil

Naturally, English language remakes of already great (and recent, at that) foreign language treasures are a dubious business. But Sebastián Lelio’s revisiting of his own Gloria, formery led by the immaculate Paulina García, presents a convincing alternative to other misguided or less effective attempts. Now titled Gloria Bell and starring Julianne Moore, this version is one not only worthy of its predecessor, but an equal that may even edge it out ever so slightly...

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The Timeliness and Timelessness of "Landline"

By Spencer Coile 

During a pivotal scene in Gillian Robespierre's Landline, just out on DVD, a familiar song begins to play. Curious to figure out what it was, I quickly Shazamed it on my phone to discover that it was Angel Olsen's 2016 song "Sister." It is an epic song -- almost eight minutes long, discussing the longing nature of wanting to change. I was initially delighted to hear a song that resonated with me back when years ago. But why was a tune from the late 2010's playing in a film that takes place in 1995? 

Landline is a film that is all about time. It is rooted firmly in the mid-90's with plenty of political, social, and pop culture references (Jenny Slate's Dana remarks that her and her fiancé rented Curly Sue from Blockbuster and that "it's a good film"). The use of "Sister," however, speaks to the film's transcendence from a period piece to one that is equally as relevant in 2017...

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Three Games for the News: Denzel and the Mias

by Murtada

News is coming at us so fast from the 70th Cannes, currently unspooling, that we can hardly keep up. Let’s then take a moment then to ruminate on a film that might screen at the 72nd edition in May of 2019...

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John Turturro Set To F--- With The Jesus

In the 7-10 split of having your cake and eating it too, John Turturro is trying for a spare. Which is to say, after nearly two decades of zealous celebration over his scene-stealing (and very small) performance in The Big Lebowski as the crotch-swaddling bowling-ball licker Jesus Quintana, he's doubling down on that legacy and directing a feature film that stars Jesus at the wheel. After a few years of Turturro's titters, he's finally making his own spinoff movie, Going Places, and he's already in production.

Currently starring in HBO's The Night Of, a very different kind of crime story, Turturro reprises his role as Jesus Quintana alongside a cast including Bobby Cannavale, Susan Sarandon, and Audrey Tautou. Notably absent from this project are the original creators of the role themselves, the Coen Brothers, but perhaps they'll attach their names as producers as they have for their last grand-brainchild, FX's Fargo.

If you could give any iconic supporting character their own standalone movie, who would you choose?