Linking Neverland

• /Film the Wicked movie has a new release date, December 22nd, 2021. We'll believe that once we see actual casting news or a start date for filming. So should we start talking about the 94th Academy Awards yet. LOLOLO no. No we shan't.
• Library of America Sheila O'Malley's great essay on East of Eden (1955)
• Deadline Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect, True Blood) gets a leading sitcom role. Yay, it's about time since she's always hilarious. The comedy is about a church choir that gets a new director (Bradley Whitford)

• IndieWire interesting quotes from indie filmmakers trying to diversify their crew to have more gender parity and multiculturalism and the obstacles they do and don't face.  
• LA Times women over 70 are killing it right now: Glenn Close, Betty Buckley, RBG, Rita Moreno, Jane Fonda, etc
• AV Club Black Panther's Michael B Jordan is attached to a film adaptation of the popular new fantasy epic Black Leopard, Red Wolf set in an alternate reality Africa. (Hmmm, can he also make movies called Black Tiger, Black Jaguar and Black Lion for a full set of big cats?)
• /Film Aquaman's gross has gotten so big that Warner Bros is going to do a spin-off horror film The Trench set in the kingdom of the film's most memorable sequence
• AV Club Steve Buscemi learns about that viral 'deepfake' video of his face superimposed on Jennifer Lawrence's body
• Pajiba explains the whole Jeff Bezos vs National Enquirer business. My god what a mess (but a fascinating one)
• MNPP's obsession with Armie Hammer really does make us love Armie Hammer more
• Towleroad Ellen Page drags Chris Pratt over his homophobic church
• Variety controversial Michael Jackson Sundance doc Leaving Neverland premieres on HBO on March 3rd 

Oscar Shorts Alert
Don't forget that all 15 Oscar-nominated short films are now in theaters. If they're not in your city, they'll be available On Demand on February 19th.

Tweetweek: Fav Things About the '90s and Pride Month Begins

omg. 

Seeing Zooey Deschanel without bangs or glasses made me accept that maybe people couldn't figure out that Clark Kent was Superman. pic.twitter.com/fQKfXDSimv

— Heroic Girls - #MoreThanCute (@HeroicGirls) May 28, 2018

 More after the jump including "favorite thing about the 90s", a great Roseanne replacement suggestion, and the beginning of the gayest month of the year...

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Beauty Break for National Donut Day!

by Nathaniel R

a snack with a snack

Please enjoy this photo-gallery, especially curated for you by The Film Experience, of celebrities eyeing or in the process of devouring delicious round fried confections...

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Review: Lean on Pete

by Eric Blume

Andrew Haigh, the director of the new film Lean on Pete, is a major, major talent.  He pulled a career-best (and Oscar-nominated) performance from Charlotte Rampling in his last film 45 Years, made a splash a few years before that with the lovely two-hander Weekend, and his big HBO show Looking was for my money one of the best gay anythings ever made.

Haigh has a particular talent with actors, and also for establishing moments of quiet power within a story. What's more he trusts that that power is enough.  These talents are firmly on display in Lean on Pete, the story of 16 year-old Charley (Charlie Plummer) who finds himself completely alone alongside the eponymous, discarded quarterhorse...

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A First Trailer for Haigh's "Lean on Pete"

Chris here. Andrew Haigh's adaptation Lean on Pete made it all through the fall festival season with only a few stills to entice us. But now we have a gorgeous new trailer to feast our eyes upon ahead of the film's March release. You might recall that the film's young star Charlie Plummer won the young actor Marcello Mastroianni prize at the Venice Film Festival - looks like we've got one of 2018's major breakthroughs, as he has the plum role of the kidnapped John Getty in Christmas's All the Money in the World.

After the impressive triple punch of Weekend, 45 Years, and HBO's short-lived Looking, we are ready to line up to anything Haigh delivers. But this story of a boy escaping home with the horse he tends to seems like an interesting narrative progression for the writer/director, and his keen emotional insights seem to be perfectly calibrated to study a troubled teen. And he looks to deliver some of his most gorgeous visuals

With this and The Rider, Chloe Zhao's horse-centric festival darling and Indie Spirit nominee, it looks to be a big spring for horses on the indie scene. Insert your "Andrew Hayyyyy" joke here. What do you think of this first trailer?