Podcast: Battle of the Sexes, Beach Rats, and mother!

Nathaniel, Nick, Joe and Chris try and catch up with movies the podcast hasn't covered

Index (42 minutes)
00:01 Battle of the Sexes
12:00 mother!, interpretations, Q & A culture
28:30 Michelle Pfeiffer and Darren Aronofsky
34:00 Beach Rats
39:15 silliness and sign-offs

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 sink's not braced yet!"

Tweetweek: Michelle & Miscellania

For this final* edition of Tweetweek, something more focused. Every once in a blue moon (okay, totally frequently) I do a search for "Michelle Pfeiffer" on twitter just to see what people are saying. It probably won't surprise you to hear that in the Off Years of her career, which are most years given how infrequently she works, it tends to be references to Grease 2, Scarface, and her iconic Catwoman with a light seasoning of other famous movies tossed into the mix.

Lately it's been mostly mother! and we're here for the web's enthusiasm about the RePfeiffal. I mean even RuPaul felt the need to chime in. We wish his prediction hadn't felt so quickly like wishful thinking (given the cold slap of audience response to the difficult movie) but it's not for lack of a great performance!

More Pfeiffer and a few random other topics after the jump like the Kingsman  franchise, Jessica Chastain's ubiquity, and Victoria & Abdul's leading man...

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Review: Darren Aronofsky's "mother!"

This review contains mild spoilers from the first half of the film since everything is essentially a spoiler given the cryptic promotions. The review was previously published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad. 

“Baby?” is the first line spoken in Darren Aronofsky’s new film mother!  but not its first image. The film begins with a defiant girl burning in a house consumed by fire. Javier Bardem collects a gem from the ashes. He places it on a shelf with other less brilliant but similar gems and we watch as the house restores itself from blackened ash. What to make of this rebirth… or is it a timelapse reversal of the destruction? Are we seeing the future or the past?

Cut to Jennifer Lawrence, waking up suddenly in bed. Where is her husband?

Baby?

While Lawrence is the star she’s a cypher-like presence in this particular film (new for her) a mostly passive figure to whom the action happens... We learn very little about her marriage besides the fact that he is a writer and she spends her time restoring their massive home.

Then a knock on the door…

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The hyped mysteriousness of "mother!" pre-release

Ongoing adventures at TIFF

During Oscar season awards journalists often receive little bits of swag in the mail, cupcakes when Jennifer Aniston was trying to get nominated for Cake, a lux coffee table book on Los Angeles when La La Land was in the race, a stuffed Olaf during the Frozen year. That sort of thing. My favorite mail came from the creative and memorable campaign for Black Swan. The first thing to arrive was a black envelope with no return address. Inside were three black and white feathers. That was it. No message, no card, no return address, no explanation. Creepy. By the time the season was in full swing and the movie was familiar a mirrored music box was the perfect curio to arrive. 

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Mother! has arrived ~ La Pfeiffer in Venice

by Nathaniel R

Mother! arrives in movie theaters in just one week and people are calling it "insane". So YOU are if you think I'm reading any festival reviews before laying mine own Pfeiffer-deprived eyes upon it. Oh sure I've watched the trailer and the head-tilt clip a million times (good call, Murtada) but that's enough until the whole 121 minutes unspools before me.

Nevertheless we must celebrate the RePfeiffal which gets its first big red carpet outing in Venice. I mean just look at her...

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