Go See "The Wife"

by Nathaniel R

TFE's Blurb Whore triumphs are few and far between -- we don't seek them out and Rolling Stone we are not -- so I was surprised and delighted to see my quote on the poster for The Wife  in the top right under her above her eye. The quote is from our TIFF review last fall

She's spectacular. Put simply, it's the best work Close has done in over 20 years. 

Sadly I've been unable to find this particular poster online, but for snapshots from screenings that people have drawn my attention to...

Click to read more ...

Links: The Wife, Anika Noni Rose, Kiss the Boy

• Oscilloscope Musings Interesting piece about Zach Snyder's Suckerpunch and how it reflects various old movies, especially the musical Gold Diggers of 1933
• Cartoon Brew on the making of a new animated feature Big Fish & Begonia, now in select cities
• Deadline Jumanji (2017) broke a long held record just barely toppling Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002) to become Sony's all time biggest domestic hit

lots more news and entertainment tidbits after the jump including Omar Sharif, Glenn Close, Melissa McCarthy, Anika Noni Rose and Keiynan Lonsdale...

Click to read more ...

Glenn Close and the next Best Actress competition

by Nathaniel R

Glenn Close is "The Wife"

Happy news to share or remind you of if you've already known (this is not a 'breaking news' specific post, just newsy). Sony Pictures Classic is NOT waiting until the dread last weekend of the year to release the new Glenn Close vehicle The Wife.  (Post Christmas releases in Los Angeles and New York rarely work for Oscar hopefuls but studios have been loathe to give them up, hoping that Oscar fever will rescue their commercial prospects despite not putting the effort in of releasing them before Christmas). The post Christmas pray-for-a-midnight-miracle attempt is what doomed Annette Bening's chances two years in a row for Best Actress nominations (20th Century Women and Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool were released on December 28th and December 29th respectively in 2016 and 2017).

No, The Wife is trying the summer player / Best Actress momentum game (which works out more often than New Years Eve hopefuls). The film hits theaters in limited release on August 3rd and will platform from there. I think it's the best work she's done in a couple of decades so I'm hoping y'all like it too. Whether or not her perpetual "overdue" status paired with what we're assuming will be strong reviews (at least for her if not necessarily the film) will lead to a nomination or win will depend a lot on her as yet unknown competition; it's not the undeniable kind of ferocious big meaty star turn but more of a finely calibrated character study. But who will that competition be...

Click to read more ...

Glenn Close as "The Wife" - Now a 2018 Release

Dearest Glenn Close Maniacs and Film Experience Readers (two groups which seem to have much crossover), this just in: Sony Pictures Classic has acquired The Wife for release. After a quick check in with SPC from yours truly they have officially confirmed that they're planning a 2018 release with no qualifying run for this season's Oscar race. 

This is either great news or terrible news depending on how you look at it. On the bright side, Sony Pictures Classics has several Best Actress candidates already (Annette Bening, Daniela Vega, etcetera) so why risk diluting their campaigns with another? What's more Best Actress is already a bloodbath (see the charts -- just updated to remove the Glenn Close equation) with more contenders than can possibly be happy with their fate come Oscar nomination. On the downside, sometimes you can lose heat if you wait a year for release and there's no guarantee that next year will be any less competitive. But if you're worried there's no chance for Glenn next year, do not. Blue Sky with Jessica Lange sat on the shelf forever and still ended up getting her an Oscar. Crash and The Hurt Locker both won Best Picture after waiting it out for the next calendar year after their festival debuts. Losing "buzz" or heat is a danger but not an inevitability.

But in the end, whatever happens, great performances are their own reward and Glenn Close nailed this one - see our TIFF review if you missed it. 

TIFF: Glenn Close is "The Wife"

our ongoing adventures at TIFF. An abdriged version of this review was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad.

Film festivals nearly always provide curious dialogues between films that you weren't expecting. On the same day on the exact same screen at TIFF I managed to see two films about female writers and the male writers in their lives who take up all the oxygen (and praise) in the room. Who would have thought that a film about the origins of Frankenstein (just discussed) and a star vehicle for Glenn Close in Stockholm would have so much in common? 

THE WIFE (Björn Runge)
Joan Castleman (Glenn Close) is a longsuffering wife who would bristle at that very description. She's married to a famous novelist Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) and their homophonic names are no coincidence. The silver-haired couple have been together for nearly half a century and are inseparable if not quite interchangeable...

Click to read more ...