Review: The Current War (Director's Cut)

by Tony Ruggio

After more than a year of pre-release hell at the scissorhands of Harvey Weinstein and his terrible deeds, The Current War has finally seen the light of day. Tackling the industrial war over electricity between famed inventor Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and business magnate George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon), it’s a good story well told. Well, after a rough first half, anyway. The epic narrative is rushed and contracted in the early going, before evening out and focusing more on character in the final stretch.

The breakneck pacing actually does the film a disservice, as we barely get to spend time with Edison, Westinghouse, or their creations before director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon barrels forward to the next moment in history. Classical themes of greed, power, and loss are threaded like any other biopic of powerful men, but the greatest subtext lays therein, where the two men differed so greatly...

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TIFF: Eating the Rich with "Knives Out"

by Chris Feil

When Rian Johnson announced a star-studded murder mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie, you didn’t think it would just be a straightforward genre exercise, did you? As he has shown in films such as Looper (and to an extent Star Wars: The Last Jedi in its brilliant eschewing of franchise dogma), Johnson delights in subverting our expectations of genre ever so slightly. Knives Out film is no exception, not only turning the ensemble comedy into a rollicking eat-the-rich satire, but also taking the standard whodunit plotting and repositioning it with exciting reinvention. Even if your tastes consider the book mold stodginess of Christie to remain delicious, Johnson’s modern narrative take should satisfy even purists.

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Michael B. Jordan, HBO Book Burner

Chris here. Michael B. Jordan is getting the kind of adoration for his Black Panther anti-hero that makes Oscar types start whispering before they get locked in jail for bringing up next year before the current ceremony. (*whispers* but seriously when can we start that conversation?) However, it might not be too early to start some Emmy talk. You might have missed the quiet casting announcement awhile back, but the actor is about to headline a new adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 from indie darling director Ramin Bahrani and HBO.

Between Black Panther, this, and the fast-tracked Creed 2 arriving later this year, we'll be loving Jordan all year long...

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Charlize's Birthday Share

Look at all these people who share Charlize Theron's birthday! Our favorite Atomic Blonde isn't even the only South African Oscar winner born on this day. It's quite a day in showbiz history all told. Which of these luminaries will you celebrate today inside your hearts?

Jeanne Moreau as Mata Hari in 1964

1876 Mata Hari, exotic dancer / spy / juicy role for both Greta Garbo & Jeanne Moreau
1884 Billie Burke, Glinda the Good Witch herself (also an Oscar nominated actress for Merrily We Live, 1938)
1901 Yuliya Solntseva, actress/director (the only female to win Best Director at Cannes until Sofia Coppola this summer)
1902 Ann Harding, Oscar nominated actress (Holiday, 1930)
1914 Ted Moore, Oscar winning cinematographer from South Africa
1927 Carl "Alfafa" Switzer of Our Gang fame
1942 Garrison Keillor of A Prairie Home Companion
1942 BJ Thomas, singer of the Oscar-winning "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head"
1942 Caetano Veloso, singer of the sublime "Cucurrucucú Paloma" which is heard in several movies including two Oscar winners: Talk to Her and Moonlight
1943 Alain Corneau, French writer/director 
1944 John Glover, enduring character actor

1944 David Rasche, undervalued funny character actor (Veep, In the Loop, Burn After Reading)
1960 David Duchovny, aka Fox Mulder
1963 Harold Perrineau, TV regular (currently on Claws)
1965 Jon Jon Briones, stage and screen actor (last seen in revival of Miss Saigon)
1971 Rachel York, Broadway regular and TV actor
1974 Michael Shannon, scene-stealer / Oscar nominated actor

Elizabeth Debicki with Luca Calvani in "The Man From UNCLE"

1974 Luca Calvani, italian actor (The Man From UNCLE)
1975 Charlize Theron, fierce icon / Oscar-winning actress
1978 Alexandre Aja, horror movie director
1979 Eric Johnson, actor (The Knick/ 50 Shades franchise)
1982 Abbie Cornish, Bright Star who seems to have disappeared!

BYO YNMS x 3: Shape of Water, The Snowman, Proud Mary

Having an entirely unproductive day. (It happens). But the trailers are coming fast & furious. Are you a yes no or maybe so on three following pictures. Do tell.

THE SHAPE OF WATER

YES - Sally Hawkins. This could well be magical. 
NO - Guillermo Del Toro tends to be more of a genius in concept than in execution
MAYBE SO - Hate it when trailers show the whole movie. In some ways this feels like a demented fan fiction version of the 10 minutes near the end of Ron Howard's Splash. Is there more to it than this?

THE SNOWMAN

YES - Tomas Alfredson is a very impressive director (Let the Right One In and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) who is pretty great and sustaining tension for a whole running time. He's gathered his usual array of impressive craftsmen in all departments
NO - Is any single subgenre more plagued by violence against women as its ignition or more overworked than the serial killer procedural?
MAYBE SO - How's the chemistry between Fassbender and Ferguson?

PROUD MARY

YAAAS - Taraji P Henson deserves a star vehicle
NO - Like the Kingsman series this looks like a pornographic fetish movie about guns and how cool it is to kill people... which... given the US addiction to guns and explosions in gun massacres each year, is really starting to feel like irresponsible movie behavior.
MAYBE SO - Who knows? This teaser is very very light on anything about the movie though we hear she's an assassin. We're guessing with a conscience. the movies are very obsessed with assassins who have that pre-existing condition.