20:20 (Pt 1) Prodigious Bribes, Wonky Spells, Silent Judgment

Thirteen years ago (gulp) we launched a series called 20:07 which was immediately popular and imitated around the web (back when everyone had blogs, natch). In the series we froze a movie at just that spot, a punny play on time stamps vs the year we were living through. Occassionally we revisited the series with a different timestamp in other years due to our ongoing fetish for freezeframing movies at random. But we haven't done it in forevs. So since half the internet believes that, like, 'no movies came out in 2020' let's revisit 2020 releases that happen to already be streaming and freeze them at 20:20* just because. If you enjoy or if it piques your interest, we'll keep going for a whole 2020 release library ;).  The movies were chosen at random. How many of these 11 pictures have you seen? (We're going to have to start bingeing 2020 releases ourselves in order to catch up in time for the Film Bitch Awards. This will be the first year where those awards don't exactly line up with the Oscars, eligibility wise, since we want to stick to calendar year since that's what we've always done. 

* timestamp is not exact. DVD counters were exact but streaming tends to be difficult to read exact time stamps due to backwards counting on some sites, the lack of frame by frame ability, time stamps disappearing with pausing, pre-movie ads, and the like depending on the service, so these are "approximations". 

Always wondered what Grandma kept in those locked closets. Turns out it was full of medicinal herbs and elixirs and old books about ancient healing.

THE WITCHES (Robert Zemeckis, US) 
Warner Bros. Original release date: Oct 22nd. Streaming on HBO Max

I was such a fan of the 1990 version and Anjelica Huston's amazing performance as the Grand High Witch that I haven't yet had the heart to watch this remake despite sturdy Octavia Spencer not to mention Anne Hathaway camping it up. Have any of you watched this yet? 

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Horror Actressing: Anjelica Huston in "The Witches"

by Jason Adams

What's your favorite flavor of witch? Do you prefer a goth punk madwoman like Fairuza Balk in The Craft? A sexy hyper-stylish artiste like Tilda Swinton in Suspiria? A cackling crone like Margaret Hamilton in The Wizard of Oz?

What if I told you you didn't have to pick just one? That there exists a witch out there already that snatches a dash of this, a dash of that, until her cauldron bubbles over with the cartoonish bombast of Cruella de Vil meets Helena Markos. I think you'd nod, say duh, throw your head back and holler, "Anjelica Huston as the magnificent Grand High Witch forever, darling-kk!!!"

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Link like the world isn't on fire

Variety - helpfully lists 10 standout moments from the MTV Movie Awards so we dont have to worry abotu missing it. Black Panther took the bulk of the prizes with Tiffany Haddish hosting
Towleroad - Interview with the director of McKellen: Playing the Part
IndieWire - 64 established and emerging film critics reflect on their favorite piece they've written -- our very own Chris Feil is in the mix! 
MNPP -Tyler Hoechlin seven times

Variety - Jennifer Lee (Frozen) and Pete Docter (Inside Out) are replacing John Lassetter at Disney and Pixar respectively
Guardian - Fun interview with Christopher Plummer on acting, replacing persona non gratas, and making peace with The Sound of Music.  
Coming Soon - this week in news absolutely no one needs: Robert Zemeckis to remake Roald Dahl's The Witches. There is literally no way to top Anjelica Huston's Grand High Witch so why?
/Film -AMC's A-List is going to compete directly with Movie Pass for those frequent moviegoer subscription dollars 
Variety - LGBTQ actors haven't had much luck securing Emmy nominations outside of the comedy fields. Will this change soon? 
New Yorker - funny piece on confessing that you met your partner in real life and not online! 

You guys. It's getting harder and harder to concentrate on movies and you know that's a nightmare for us when movies are our great love. But every day that goes by as America slides towards concentration camps, complete inhumanity, and fascism, Amy Poehler's questionnaire from last week at THR becomes ever more needed and brilliant. Here's the Q&A since the article is long and not about this:

Joan Fontaine Centennial: The Witches (1966)

by Jason Adams

Tell me if you've heard this plot before: a closed-minded outsider with a sordid spiritual history comes to a rural UK village where they slowly unravel a plot involving each and every member of the town being in on the ritual sacrifice of a virginal young woman, with a twist. You're thinking The Wicker Man, right? Well seven years before Christopher Lee did his exuberant little dance beside that infamous flaming totem Joan Fontaine got there first in 1966's The Witches, an actual Hammer production (I always think The Wicker Man is from Hammer, but it ain't) that really doesn't get the love it earns...

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Top Ten Tweets: from Death Becomes Her to Dracula Untold

No, I'm not desperate for material. I'm not!

It's just that certain other more substantive articles are taking me longer than I expected because I over do it, don'cha know. In case you haven't noticed today, our season premiere, is a special "top ten day" - lists all day!

It is no secret that I love twitter. So much truth, fun, satire, insight, and silliness in 140 characters for when your attention span is very very short. You should follow the team on twitter: Nathaniel, Michael, Anne Marie, Jason, Glenn, Amir, Abstew newbies Manuel & Margaret (...and Matthew should he ever resurface)

10 BEST TWEETS OF THE WEEK
 aka random tweets that Nathaniel loved

The one thing that is more threatening to me than ebola is the proliferation of YouTube celebrities into mainstream culture.

— Robert Kessler (@robertkessler) October 13, 2014

We should remake DEATH BECOMES HER using only this year's Best Actress contenders.

— Jordan (@veilleuxwho) October 12, 2014

8 more: Clooney, Mean Girls, Dracula after the jump

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