• Do you feel guilty (like me) about missing White God, Hungary's acclaimed drama about a pack of wild dogs?
• Were you puzzled when Susan Cooper was embarrassed by her crazy cat lady disguise in Spy?
• Would you put on a bee suit to hang with Mr Holmes?
• Would you adopt Paddington after he defiled your toothbrushes?
If you answered yes to any of those questions you might be an animal person or a crazy cat lady like your host Nathaniel. This list (updated from a halfwaymark celebration) is for you!
Nooooo. I almost forgot to share the National Film Registries new titles. Each year they add 25 pictures that are deemed historically, culturally or aesthetically important. Each year I suggest that we should watch all the titles together. Well, the ones we can find at least. Perhaps we'll actually do that for 2016 -- you never know! Getting a spot on the National Film Registry is more symbolic than active. It does not guarantee preservation or restorations but it does suggest that these films should all be preserved and/or restored.
The 2015 additions are:
Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894) - watch it now. it's six seconds long... the earliest surviving copyrighted film
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906) -watch it now. (7 minutes) from a short Winsor McCay comic strip
A Fool There Was (1915) -watch it now. (66 minutes) Theda Bara tempts a married man! It's always the woman's fault, don't you know
Humoresque (1920) - not the Joan Crawford film inspired by this story!
The Mark of Zorro (1920) -watch it now (88 minutes) the Douglas Fairbanks version
Black and Tan (1929) -watch it now -(15 minutes) short jazz film with Duke Ellington
Dracula (1931) - the Spanish language version
Our Daily Bread (1934) - King Vidor's socialist drama
The Old Mill (1937) - animated short Oscar winner
Hail the Conquering Hero (1944) - Preston Sturges comedy
The Story of Menstruation (1946) - documentary short
John Henry and the Inky-Poo (1946) - animated short Oscar nominee
Winchester '73 (1950) -western with Jimmy Stewart and Shelley Winters
Imitation of Life (1959) - Douglas Sirk's awesome melodrama
Seconds (1966) -thriller starring Rock Hudson
Portrait of Jason (1967) - LGBT documentary
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968) - a documentary about filmmaking
The Inner World of Aphasia (1968) -documentary about aphasics
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (1975) - a biographical doc
Being There (1979) - the Hal Ashby dramedy with Peter Sellers
Ghostbusters (1984) - the comic blockbuster currently undergoing a gender flip
Top Gun (1986) -you feel the need. the need for speed
Sink or Swim (1990) - documentary about formative childhood
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) - that insanely beloved prison drama
LA Confidential (1997) - the awesome neo noir
Big thanks to Matthew Rettenmund of Boy Culture for pointing out this insanely cool bit of trivia about the list:
Of special note: Mother and daughter Lupita Tovar (the world's oldest living actress at age 105) and Susan Kohner were in the Spanish-language Dracula (1931) and Imitation of Life (1959), respectively.
You may recall that Mexican actress Lupita Tovar recently took up the throne or oldest living screen star after the death of Luise Rainer. The super cool thing to know about Lupita Tovar is that she is the grandmother of Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz, both filmmakers (Paul wrote and directed Grandma this year) so her cinematic legacy lives on.
Though the titles are selected by the National Film Preservation Board and Library staff, the public can nominate titles here if you wanna get a jump start on their 2016 list. The movies have to be at least 10 years old so no "OMG THE FORCE AWAKENS WAS AMAZING!" because they will shut that right down.
Towleroad a Russian distributor is planning some law-defying cinephilia -- they're going to release Carol despite Russia's absurdly homophobic "anti-propaganda" law Marvel 2016 is Captain America's 75th anniversary so they'll be the new film Captain America: Civil War as well as a 2 hour TV special "75 Heroic Years" to air on ABC on January 19th Pajiba clears up what the word "spoiler" means since the internet is always confused about it MNPP Save the date - new Michael Fassbender picture on Oct 13th, 2017 Comics Alliance forget what we said earlier about Nicole Kidman co-starring in Wonder Woman. Apparently they coudln't work out schedules. The'll presumably be looking for another iconic star in Kidman's age range for the Queen of the Amazons
List-Mania Associate Press and Rolling Stone have best albums lists for 2015. Adele's "25" and Madonna's "Rebel Heart" make both of the top 10s i09 best comics and graphic novels of the year Film Comment picks the 20 best undistributed films of the year. I haven't seen even one of them which is strange given multiple festivals this year THR the Women Film Critics Circle goes all in for Suffragette with 7 (!!!) awards. This is a group I'd love to sing praises to except so often their ideas about gender seem reductive / surface level. I like Suffragette just fine but in no way does its topic (women's voting rights) make it a better film about women than say Carol or Brooklyn or even less high profile pictures like Grandma or I'll See You In My Dreams or Mustang you know? They also say super strange things like this:
The Invisible Woman Award (performance by a woman whose exceptional impact on the film dramatically, socially or historically, has been ignored): Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
How, exactly, has a performance with that much Oscar buzz from a new star the media is fawning all over having a wildly successful ubiquitous breakout year count as "invisible"?
a long time ago in a galaxy far far away... Vogue a grown Star Wars fan remembers her adolescent obsession with the series and debates whether or not to go to the new film Vanity Fair looks at the origins of Star Wars - an indie film no studio wanted to make Movie City News the 5 things David Poland hated about Episode 7 (SPOILERIFFIC obviously). Agree completely on #1 (oy!) and sort of on #2 and #3. Don't understand #4 or especially #5 as I loved the Darth Vader obsession -- a great dark mirror to our own Star Wars fixations only embedded organically into the actual narrative. The Incredible Suit 'froths at the cock' (sorry) for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Funny review
David Poland on why certain films overperform or underperform come Oscar time. Much of this is both true and frustrating. Why couldn't Warner Bros see what they had in Creed for example? Comics Alliance on the fan campaign to make Iron Fist an Asian hero in the new tv eries. So far Marvel/Netflix has rejected the idea which is just maddening since the origin story is pretty racist in modern context. The Envelope interviews Julianne Nicholson who was so so good in Black Mass Word and Film An interview with actress Ileanna Douglas (we've missed her) about her new memoir "I Blame Dennis Hopper: And Other Stories From a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies"
The Guardian Peter Bradshaw picks his favorite films in multiple categories Variety Guy Lodge's top ten list. It won't surprise you to hear that it's a good read. And Joy and Magic Mike XXL are on it keeping things provocative. Pajiba John Krasinski is on his way to a Chris Pratt like reinvention. Trying to keep up with wife Emily Blunt perhaps? Variety Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette reprised their famous roles at Jason Reitman's live reading of True Romance. How fun. The Playlist says Jennifer Lawrence is going to play Robert De Niro's dad in the next David O. Russell film. Now they're just purposefully antagonizing us now, right? Awards DailySpotlight takes the Las Vegas Film Critics prize for Best Picture Daily HeraldMad Max Fury Road takes Best Picture from the Chicago Film Critics Association AV Club Sean Penn to play Andrew Jackson in an HBO miniseries. Sadly it is not a remake of the Broadway musical "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" but we'd rather see that! ...albeit with its original Jackson, Benjamin Walker in the lead role
Off Cinema Rolling Stone Readers Poll of the 10 best songs of the year: Adele, Madonna, Drake and more Boing Boing Matt Haughey is a genius -- he started photoshopping dildos where guns were in photos of GOP candidates and it's both funny and satirically pointed The Daily Beast best TV shows of 2015: UnReal, The Knick, Empire and more...
Star Wars ♫ give me more Star Wars...Nothing but Star Wars ♬ don't let them end... Thrillist unearths a time capsule of photos from the premiere of The Phantom Menace (1999). Dakota Johnson is just a baby! Pajiba "a serious discussion of which original trilogy Star Wars character is best in bed" Hilarious. The gif game is strong with this one. (I agree with the rankings pretty much but I'd still do Luke.) Screen Crush on the diversity of casting in The Force Awakens
Today's Watch Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) honored Kirk Douglas on the floor for his 99th birthday! It's always shocking when someone in Congress does something cool but apparently this Cohen fellow is a good guy with a strong civil rights record so there you go. But mentioning a screening of Trumbo in DC? That movie's reach has been such a surprise this month.
ICYMI we sang the praises of New Zealand actor Dean O'Gorman who plays Kirk Douglas in the movie here.
Daily Mail Tim Burton's type is hilariously permanent. Now he's on to Eva Green who fits it like a T New Yorker The brilliant Emily Nussbaum on sexual consent and PTSD on Jessica Jones and its Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 6 reflections DGA Chris Nolan interviews Quentin Tarantino about The Hateful Eight which will now enter wide release on January 1st instead of the 8th. Slate reflects on what the Star Wars franchise is given that it's not "sci-fi" Variety has a few old FYC and congratulatory ads for Star Wars from the 70s. Good stuff Vanity Fair today's celebrities all want to be Han Solo
News The Black List If you've got some free time you can wade through Hollywood's favorite unproduced scripts. List was just announced today. ColliderMad Max Fury Road may return to theaters in a black & white version -- Miller's original intention before they opted for super saturated color. Variety Brad Pitt's satire War Machine wraps shooting in the United Arab Emirates. Tracking Board Warner Bros is moving forward with a Speedy Gonzalez feature, date TBD. (He was my second favorite of the Looney Tunes as a child, after Pepe Le Pew... but they both have cultural stereotyping issues. How will they walk that line?) Variety Melissa McCarthy is nearly free of Mike & Molly
List Mania Slant picks the 25 best films of the year from 45 Years through Chi-Raq and on to Mad Max: Fury Road. But since Carol is way down at #19... What? Los Angeles TimesBrooklyn tops Kenneth Turan's otherwise alphabetical top ten Indie Wire critics poll for the year with Mad Max & Carol fighting for supremacy. Fassbender & Rampling take the acting prizes Pajiba celebrates the best 'comfort movies' of the year - not particularly challenging but great watches from your couch in your jammies: Cinderella, The Intern, and more... AV Club on the best film scenes of the year including Creed's continuous shot boxing match and lots of interesting and unexpected choices -- yay for including "Summer in Ohio" from The Last Five Years
Today's Watch If you've got a free two hours you can watch all six previous Star Wars movies at once? It's an art installation.Click on the image if you wish to do this craziness.
Wednesday, December 23, 2015 at 11:00AM 
Personality Assessment. Go...
