Monday, November 14, 2016 at 12:30PM Chris here with something you may not be noticing at the movies lately. Whether they freak you out or make you giggle (or even a little of both), tentacles are so in right now. With the growing presence of squirmy appendages in world cinema and blockbusters, you'd think we'd get a Cthulhu franchise by now. Let's take a look at some of the examples:
Monday, November 7, 2016 at 3:30PM LA Times talks to Tarell Alvin McCraney who wrote the original play that became Moonlight
Variety JA Bayona's A Monster Calls has become his third consecutive #1 of the entire year at the Spanish box office. He also won the film year there for The Impossible and The Orphanage. He hasn't had as much luck stateside but since he's helming the next Jurassic World movie that'll presumably change
THR three Asian action stars (Tony Jaa, Tiger Chen, and Iko Uwais) will star in the next film from the director of John Wick
Playbill Audra McDonald getting a "special moment" pre-transformation in Beauty & the Beast
MTV "Rachel McAdams, blink twice if you need to be saved from your own career"
Jezebel More LGBTQ character on TV than ever before finds new study
i09 First teaser for Netflix's Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events with Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf - looks fairly generic at the moment. We'll see.
Towleroad Rami Malek to play Freddie Mercury in a biopic with Bryan Singer. We'll believe this one when we see it because there's been a rumored Mercury biopic as often as...
TFE ...Janis Joplin biopics (ICYMI)
Variety now that Oscar has its producers Michael de Luca & Jennifer Todd, they're talking about the search for a host - Jimmy Kimmel's name keeps coming up
Antagony & Ectasy a terrific analysis of The Handmaiden
Awards Daily the first look at Jessica Chastain as an artist among Indians in Woman Walks Ahead (She's determined to win that Oscar, guys. So many chewy roles lined up)
MNPP Kathy Bates will be playing Bette Davis BFF Joan Blondell in Feud
World of Reel has the perfect gif reaction to Jaden Smith's Doctor Strange review
Comics Alliance Benedict Cumberbatch's secret secondary role in Doctor Strange (spoilers)
Deadline They're moving forward with a JRR Tolkien biopic called Middle Earth
Off Cinema 4 Fun
Boy Culture remember's Divine's awesome "Shoot Your Shot"
Huffington Post amusing 10 suggestions for dealing wtih Election Anxiety including volunteering, masturbation, and preaching to your choir
OH AND REMEMBER TO VOTE TOMORROW! Take it away Rachel Bloom
Sunday, November 6, 2016 at 10:32PM 
We're back to weekly podcasts! This week Nick and Nathaniel revisit a summer favorite that's now on DVD and have divergent feelings about The Handmaiden despite their mutual Park Chan-wook history.
Index (41 minutes)
00:01 A Heavenly Creatures revisit
05:10 The Handmaiden and that time Nathaniel and Nick watched a Park Chan-wook together
25:00 Almodóvar's Julieta and Farhadi's The Salesman
34:00 Doctor Strangé & Captain Fantastic briefly to wrap-up
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?
Referenced in this conversation:
Nick's Isabelle Huppert e-mail hack | Nathaniel's photo op with Viggo Mortensen | A recent rewatch of Witness | Alama Drafthouse Night Out | 1994 Oscar Races
Friday, October 21, 2016 at 5:20PM 
Go see something this weekend and report back!
New York and LA
Two incredible new films have arrived: Moonlight and The Handmaiden. I'd argue the latter is Park Chan Wook's best film yet. You absolutely must not miss either of them though I wish distributors would stop releasing films that can appeal to the same audience at the same time (I mean the last few weeks haven't had ravishingly artistic auteur films with queer storylines, so why two at once?). I wrote up a little snippet on The Handmaiden at Towleroad and we've previously reviewed Moonlight tag team style right here. I believe that both plan to expand into more cities next weekend. Both coasts also get an Icelandic mystery called Autumn Lights and NYC gets the indie porn drama King Cobra (with Christian Slater, James Franco and more)
Multiple Cities
Expanding into several more cities this weekend: the Holocaust related courtroom drama Denial (reviewed), Mexico's violent Oscar submission Desierto (reviewed - you've been warned), and cinephile favorite Kelly Reichardt's latest Certain Women with Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, and Michelle Williams (reviewed). Ewan McGregor's debut directorial effort American Pastoral hits Chicago, Minneapolis, and Dallas.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 8:30AM Chris here, with some creepy trailers from auteurs for better (Chan-Wook Park and Zhang Yimou) or worse (M. Night Shyamalan). Let's take a look at the coming chills, from the kinky to the twisty to the digitally enhanced:
The Handmaiden
• We've been getting fall festival lineup announcements and hopefully this will pop up somewhere. After a well-reviewed debut in Cannes, we're betting at least on NYFF.
• "... And Stoker" is the most "And Peggy" response to director Chan-Wook Park's filmography.
• Too bad that Oscar is often afraid to get naughty - the design elements look immaculate, especially the cinematography from Park's frequent collaborator Chung-hoon Chung.
• The Handmaiden reenvisions Sarah Waters's novel Fingersmith across the globe and time periods. If only other literary adaptations could be so bold in their interpretations.
Check out what creepiness Shyamalan and Yimou have coming with their more famous stars after the jump...
