Tribeca 2022: David Lynch is The Man Behind the Curtain in "Lynch / Oz"

by Jason Adams

Like many of you I have deeply embedded childhood memories of watching The Wizard of Oz on television as a child. And probably also like many of you the film was presented to me as a generational hand-off, a passing of the cinematic baton. My mom was a lifelong fan, and now twas my turn to become the latest Friend of Dorothy (if she only knew). That yellow brick road stretches in one ear and out the other across eighty entire years of movie-lovers, mother to son to son to daughter and on to every Auntie Em adjacent, with something in there for everybody. I can trace my love of Horror Movies right to it – how many nightmares have those short-jacketed cater-waiter flying monkeys stormed through? Others, probably you, can trace your love of the Movie Musical from sepia-toned Kansas where Judy first regaled us of rainbows...

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What's a Vamp Gotta Do

by Jason Adams

It's been a lousy couple of weeks for Vampires and the people who love them -- first there was Morbius, full stop. Then there were those pretty iffy-looking photos from the upcoming AMC series adapting Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire. And then this week the bloodsuckers we love to watch suck have taken two more great big hits...

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Lady of the Flies

by Jason Adams

Let's take a break from Movie News to take a look at an exciting television project that's just been announced that's gathering together a pair of our favorite people -- Destroyer director Karyn Kusama has worked on TV before, most notably directing some of the finest episodes of the great Halt and Catch Fire, but she's about to Executive Produce and direct the pilot episode of a show for Showtime called Yellowjackets, which sounds like a Lord of the Flies and Alive riff. And taking it from merely exciting to "Put It In My Face Right Now!" is today's fresh word that Friend-of-TFE and Massively Under-appreciated Actress Melanie Lynskey is taking the lead. Says Variety:

"The project tells the story of a team of talented high school girls soccer players who survive a plane crash deep in the Ontario wilderness. The series chronicles their descent from a complicated but thriving team to warring, cannibalistic clans, while also tracking the lives they’ve attempted to piece back together nearly 25 years later.

Lynskey will play Shauna Sheridan, one a handful of survivors of the plane crash. 25 years later, Shauna is on a mission to reclaim her agency — her life — while doing everything in her power to keep her darkest secrets safe."

Funny enough back in July it was announced that Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino was in talks to actually adapt Lord of the Flies itself for a new film -- for a time there was a rumor he was switching genders from William Golding's book, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. Still it seems pointed that stories about groups of reasonable people turning savage are the next big thing -- sounds like Life In 2019 to me!

10th Anniversary of Jennifer's Body

By Spencer Coile 

Jennifer’s Body was never meant to find mainstream success. A film about women, made by women, and starring women - a campy flick about a possessed teenage girl who kills men after she seduces them, no less - was somehow expected to fulfill every man’s fantasy. At long last, we would finally witness Megan Fox naked on-screen. Rejoice, for she would also be kissing her co-star, Amanda Seyfried, for our enjoyment. Indeed, the male gaze was directed firmly at Jennifer’s Body, waiting to see if it would disappoint.  

And sure enough, it did. Critics were quick to call it empty and vapid, hardly anyone bothered to see it, and Jennifer’s Body was quickly forgotten. But is any of this surprising? Despite their undeniable cultural cache in 2009, both Megan Fox and screenwriter Diablo Cody were experiencing an ongoing backlash that reeked of sexism. And quite plainly: many weren’t ready to see, let alone enjoy, a film about male fear controlled entirely by female sexuality. 

But perhaps for those same reasons, Jennifer’s Body is claiming the cult status it was always destined to have. 

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Watch at Home: On the Basis of "Destroyer"

by Nathaniel R

Links go to our reviews or interviews

New Blu-Ray / DVDs
• Mirai - an Oscar nominated beauty from 
• The Mule -Clint Eastwood's 37th (!!!) feature
• On the Basis of Sex -Failed Oscar bait
• Vice - Inexplicably successful Oscar bait but not-so successful in theaters. It was the second lowest grosser among the Best Pictures globally (only Roma behind it) and second least well reviewed (only Bohemian Rhapsody behind it). 
• Welcome to Marwen - Robert Zemeckis crash and burned with this visual fx curiousity about a man who deals with trauma by creating dolls of his war experience. It grossed just $12.7 globally...

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