Review: "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"

by Nathaniel R

Presenting a task as impossible as hiding a futuristic country for centuries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Imagine having to follow up the phenomenon of Marvel's Black Panther (2018) which, like most explosive zeitgeist events, had ultra precise perfectly timed ingredients and arrived at the exact moment in culture when all of them would be most appreciated. Now imagine having to follow that up without its charismatic leading man, lost to cancer at the young peak of an already impressive career. Director Ryan Coogler was in an unenviable position. It's no surprise, then, that the sequel to Marvel's most popular solo adventure is a bit wobbly on arrival. Never mind that the sequel must bear the weight of all the absurd expectations and make sense of T'Challa's absence while trying to find new legs on both land AND at sea. Thank god for the latter. Whatever the movie's faults, it's not from attempting a simplistic retread...

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Cannes Gown Round 9: Red & Black Song

It's a DOUBLE-SIZED poll tonight/this morning (depending on when you're seeing this) since the stars have been out out en masse for various premieres. One question begs to be asked: Do stylists and designers all have meetings cross-clients to decide on the trends for each major festival...not just general trends but day-to-day shifts. If not why is it all of a sudden blacks and reds? Earlier in the festival metallic gowns and pink were all the rage. The fashion hive-mind has such mood swings!

You know what to do!

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You can still vote on the earlier polls. Vote again if you'd like.

Cannes Diary #8: Reshaping the world through voices or silence

by Elisa Giudici

TORI & LOKITA

Speak up for yourself and change the world. The problem is that sometimes that the most vulnerable people have no voice, enduring violence and betrayal in silence. Sometimes a forgotten language is found again. At other times silence is a radical choice made. Today, an immigrant story from the Dardennes, and a vivid true story from Agnieszka Smoczyńska, the director of The Lure...

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Emmy FYC: The cast of "Small Axe"

by Cláudio Alves

As Christopher James mentioned in his overview of the Limited Series Emmy race, much of the discourse surrounding Small Axe has focused on categorization. Is it TV or cinema? To be perfectly blunt, I don't care. Indeed, it's been pretty disheartening to see how so much energy was spent debating this matter instead of simply appreciating the work. To me, the five Small Axe films are a miracle of audiovisual expression and historical narrative, perchance Steve McQueen's most important masterpiece. When it came time to write these Emmy FYCs, I jumped at the chance of singing the anthology's praise. Honestly, the only problem was singling out just one element to promote.

While I could just as happily have written about Shabier Kirchner's luminous cinematography or the sensuous textures of Jacqueline Durran's costumes, I've decided to focus on the actors…

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Links

• IndieWire offers up a guide to explaining various characters and events in Mank
• FilmSchoolRejects 20 movies to watch if you loved Mank
• Instagram Elliot Page (Juno, The Umbrella Academy, Inception) has come out as trans
• HuffPost Ariana DeBose is making her (movie) name with the musical resurgence: Hamilton Live, The Prom, and West Side Story

More after the jump including ranking the films of David Fincher, EW's Entertainers of the Year, an imaginary Ratatouille musical, new Emmy rulings, and more...

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