The Top Tens Begin... Neon Demon?

Everyone will have to have their say about which films are the "best" of the year and that starts, bizarrely, right now even though it's still November. First up is the famed Cahiers du Cinema, which is the oldest film publication still running stretching back to the early 1950s. 

Since they're in France, they have a different timetable on releases so TFE's primary 2015 obsession factors in -- Why Carol, it's so good to see you again! But because they are Cahiers du Cinema and generally choose at least one polarizing but largely hated picture, Neon Demon is up near the top. 

Their Top Ten List
1 Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)
2 Elle (Paul Verhoeven)
3 The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn)
4 Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
5 Slack Bay (Bruno Dumont)
6 Julieta (Pedro Almodóvar)
7 Staying Vertical (Alain Guiraudie)
8 La Loi de la jungle (Antonin Peretjatko)
9 Carol (Todd Haynes)
10 Le bois dont les rêves sont faits (Claire Simon)

What do you make of the list? The two I wasn't familiar with are both French and haven't played much elsewhere. Les bois... is a 2 hour plus documentary about people in the woods, cruising for sex, living there if homeless people, etcetera. Jungle is a comedy set in French Guiana which is in South America.

Beauty Break: Adele Covers Vanity Fair

Chris here with some diva worship - nothing like detoxing from the spooky excess of Halloween with something truly otherwordly. Before she (likely) earns another heap of grammy nominations for her third album 25, Adele is on the December cover of Vanity Fair.

Per her hilariously glib usual, Adele gives great quote in the interview, off-the-cuff with everything from her post-partem depression to money to finding levity in a tour of "miserable" songs. And the buried gem of the article is her aspiration to play Mama Rose "like when I'm 50."

I mean, with combined powers her voice, chutzpah, and intensity: why not? After all, Adele is a likely future EGOT - an Oscar for Skyfall, 10 Grammys (and counting) and an Emmy nomination already on the books, so Tony could easily be in the cards for her songwriting or this Gypsy pipe dream. In fact, it's a little surprising her sense of humor hasn't yet brought her some comedic bit part or sketch piece - she'd have been a hoot in the string of cameos in last summer's Ab Fab movie!

Take a look at the gorgeousness from the photo spread:

Click to read more ...

Moonlight's Trevante Rhodes on acting

With Moonlight adding more cities today after its impressive NY/LA first weekend, the cast and crew continue their press tour. In a conversation with Interview Magazine the film's breakout Trevante Rhodes revealed that until recently he didn’t think of himself as an actor. Rhodes, who plays the adult Chiron, had parts before Moonlight in Terence Malick’s yet to be released Weightless, and on HBO’s current hit series Westworld. However he didn’t fall in love with acting until he filmed a pivotal scene in Moonlight with Naomie Harris as his mother.

We cried every take. It was real to me. It was being in it with Naomie, who's incredible. In Chiron's mind, that was the first time she told him that she loved him in 15, 20 years, genuinely. Before that it was to get money. She looked at me in my eyes and told me that she loved me. What kid doesn't want to hear that from a family member who's been shitty to them their entire life? I was just being Chiron then, which was a blessing, because it was such a beautiful moment.

Now that he’s an actor, whose career would he like to emulate?

I told my team, "If at all possible, I know it's tough, but I want Jake Gyllenhaal, Eddie Redmayne, Michael Fassbender"—I want to encapsulate all that. And I want to be the black version.

You can read the whole interview here.

The Greatest Magazine Cover of 2016

... good luck trying to top it, magazine editors. 

Beauty Break: Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt covers the New York Times Magazine in which he wears as assortment of Giogio Armani gear and talks to Man Booker prize winning author Marlon James about Brexit, Trump and Mel Gibson. And of course gives great face while doing it.

As far as magazine celebrity profiles go, this is a very innocuous one. Pitt comes in as a nice and affable guy, but doesn't really offer any interesting tidbits. Except for what he says about Mel Gibson. In the course of discussing a potential film he wants to make about Pontius Pilate, he says that his movie "certainly won’t be for the ‘Passion’ crowd". Then for good measure, adds about Gibson's box office juggernaut:

 “I felt like I was just watching an L. Ron Hubbard propaganda film.”

Brad Pitt, nice guy, movie star, expert at throwing shade.