Podcast: Wonder Wheel, Wonderstruck, BPM, and Last Flag Flying

Nathaniel welcomes NYFF buddies and regular TFE voices Jose Solis and Murtada Elfadl to talk highlights from the fest, some of which are in theaters now! 

Index (43 minutes)
00:01 Intro, NYFF, and The Mountain Between Us tangent
02:50 Steve Carell and Bryan Cranston in Last Flag Flying
07:00 Mixed feelings on Wonderstruck
14:30 Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel starring Kate Winslet and Justin Timberlake
22:10 The Rider, Western, Lady Bird - a year of great female directors
30:00 France's BPM (Beats Per Minute)
34:21 Thelma, Faces Places
41:00 Wrapping up

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

NYFF Highlights

YNMS x 3: Wonder Wheel, Crooked House, Replicas

Time to catch up on recent trailers that slipped pass us in a difficult week. Ready set - go for discussions on the latest star vehicles for Kate Winslet and Keanu Reeves and a new Agatha Christie movie Crooked House.

The trailers with quickie YNMS breakdown are after the jump...

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Podcast: Oscar Afterglow... or is that Sleep Deprivation?

Katey phones in from Los Angeles to talk Oscar night with Nathaniel and Joe in New York and Nick in Chicago. What a crazy night that was, huh? Some of us didn't sleep much. We talk about that shocking messy finale, the history-making decision to name Moonlight Best Picture, debate which celebrity was having the most fun on the big night, judge the musical performances, name the craft wins we were confused by, and answer the age old question: junior mints or twizzlers?

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

P.S. The podcast will return at the end of the month for a new season. If we get a few more patron saints this week I'll buy a professional mic. 

89th Oscars, Reactions. Season Finale

Oscar's Musical Numbers Fly Among the Stars

Dancin' Dan here, and I am thrilled to say that after years of mostly rather dully staged performances, the great Oscar musical numbers of the past are back.

We had planned a ranking of this year's performances, but they were all of such high quality that, feeling magnaminous, I'm unwilling to declare one better than the other.  Instead, a review of the musical numbers as they happened during the ceremony, in all their glory.

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Oscar Night Performances: Lin-Manuel Miranda and More

By Nathaniel R

With just 16 days until the Oscars more news hits each day. We now know that all five Original Song nominees will be performed on the broadcast but we can safely expect at least two of the songs to be significantly altered.

Lin-Manuel Miranda will perform Moana's "How Far I'll Go," which is a solo, with Moana herself Auli'i Cravalho so one wonders what kind of arrangement we'll get for the song as a duet. Nevertheless it's a safe bet to say that this will be a highlight of the show since the song is rousing and everybody loves Miranda...

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