Call Me By Your Release Date

By Spencer Coile

After it dazzled audiences and critics alike at this year's Sundance Film Festival, it is not altogether baffling that Call Me By Your Name, the latest entry from I Am Love and A Bigger Splash director Luca Guadagnino was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics before it even premiered at the festival. And for those eagerly awaiting Guadagnino's latest cinematic concoction, our countdown commences: the film's limited release date is scheduled for November 24, 2017, or Thanksgiving weekend.

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Beauty vs Beast: Witchy Women

Jason from MNPP here, tackling one of my favoirte movies of all-time for this week's edition of "Beauty vs Beast" -- unless it's Halloween-time I mostly try to lean away from horror films for this series but I gotta make an exception this week, for Wednesday marks the 40th anniversary of Dario Argento's fairy-tale giallo Suspiria getting released in Italy. I love that the movie came out just in time for Valentine's Day - with its lurid reds (not to mention a character being stabbed directly in the heart) it feels tremulously appropriate for the season.

It's also a timely moment to celebrate the movie because as you might've heard A Bigger Splash and I Am Love director Luca Guadagnino is currently right this minute in the process of remaking the film, with a starry cast including Tilda Swinton and Dakota Johnson and Chloe Grace Moretz. Oh and Jessica Harper, the star of the original film, will appear as well! If only Joan Bennett & Alida Valli, the wickedly cruel mistresses of the dance academy, were still around for cameos...

PREVIOUSLY One week ago we were still holding out hope for the hopeless, aka a ton of surprise Oscar nominations for Yorgos Lanthimos' The Lobster. But we're happy it got that one nomination at least, and that we got to give love to its two key supporting men - and of the two Ben Whishaw kicked John C. Reilly square in the chin, taking 70% of your vote. And I gotta go with what Nathaniel had to say:

"Team John always. I admire the committment, injuring himself for love. or rather "love""

20th Century Women & 21st Century Tweetweek

So much to cover today: Annette Bening in 20th Century Women, the Blade Runner sequel, and movie jokes about current politics after the jump...

There are few characters in film history that I personally relate to more than the inside out baboon in The Fly.

— Rich McCarthy (@Rich_McCarthy) October 5, 2016

Little known fact: Nicholson stopped acting to avoid a slew of ranked performance articles tied to a new project.

— Kristopher Tapley (@kristapley) October 5, 2016

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Chloe Moretz For "Suspiria"

Chris here with some casting news for one we're keeping an eye on: Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria remake.

Chlöe Grace Moretz has signed on to Guadagnino's passion project retelling, one that has been long in the making with directors (Darren Aronofsky and David Gordon Green) and stars (Isabelle Huppert) dropping off. The casting is curious considering that Moretz had quite recently dropped out of all upcoming projects to refocus her career. I guess that's a quick turnaround!

Horror redos haven't been the actress's sweet spot, with Carrie and Let Me In both being big misses (though consider me a fan of the latter) that didn't use her particularly well. This remake will also come with a higher pedigree than those previous efforts and she might welcome the challenge that will likely come with the ballet-focused film. But maybe the Guadagnino pairing foretells Moretz repositioning her career through the hands of autuers - don't forget that Olivier Assayas was maybe the first to "get" her in Clouds of Sils Maria.

Moretz joins a cast that includes Tilda Swinton, Dakota Johnson, and Mia Goth. What do you think of the casting?

Podcast: The Lobster, Sing Street, A Bigger Splash, High-Rise

With two not-worthy wide releases set to dominate Memorial Day Weekend, Nathaniel, Nick, and Joe catch up on recent quality limited-release movies we hadn't yet discussed together. Catch these in the theaters, please.

Index (42 minutes)
00:01 The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos)
11:18 High-Rise (Ben Wheatley)
15:45 Sing Street (John Carney) and a Keira Knightley tangent
22:37 Dakota Johnson & actress nemeses
24:35 A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino)
40:03 Venice detour & goodbyes

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? 

The Lobster & Sing Street