April. It's a Wrap

We're so ready for sunshine and summer movie season! But let's wrap up April first ICYMI... not the whole month but the highlights. We work hard providing fresh content daily so we don't want you to miss anything. There's always something new. And... uh... old. Maybe we went a little overboard on the sudden Joan Crawford fetishizing this month but it happens. The actress fetishes. It's best to just let them play out. They're not going to be ignored, Dan.

Most Popular
Y'all seemed to like the Team Top Ten for Best Sci-Fi films Parts 1 and Part 2 i.e. before and after the populist dam-bursting of 1977's Star Wars & Close Encounters. That sci-fi madness came with a robust Artificial Intelligence fascination that's also going on at the multiplex (Avengers / Ex Machina). The other most popular feature was the return of the Ask Nathaniel Q&As for which I am flattered and must thank you for your participatory enthusiasm (another belated one very soon). It was fun to talk favorite crazy characters, missing Buffy & Battlestar Galactica, and dream screen-to-stage plays. Regarding the latter: I'm now fully obsessed with my Contact idea; I'm brilliant!

Oscar Predictions
The first wave which we affectionately call April Foolish Predictions because it's dumb to start so early are up. Dig into the charts and discuss (The remainder hit tomorrow)

Monthly Playlist
Our listening pleasures this month were showtunes. Margaret eased on down the road with her amazing and creative dream-casting of The Wiz's upcoming remake. Plus, it's Tony Season so Broadway is naturally on the brain. We're rooting for "Fun Home" based on the life of cartoonist Alison Bechdel. Aside from the showtunes we got our fingers tapping to Dolly Parton's immortal earworm "9 to 5".

"Last Night I Dreamt I Went To Manderley"
You didn't sign the guestbook so we don't know if you enjoyed the amenities and conditions of your 5 day stay with us but we had a ball serving you Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca all the same: Day 1 a meet-rude courtship; Day 2 your new home and old (bitter) staff; Day 3 ooh, lingerie; Day 4 a costume ball mistake; Day 5 a trial by fire. We're eager to do this relay-revisit again but we need to find the right movie that's entertaining in all of its subsections.

Other Key Posts
The Walk -can you handle the vertigo?
Jane Campion - Anne Marie revisited 5 of her features
Taxi Driver - is it actually about the movies? I think so
Michelle Pfeiffer - she's shopping around a TV sitcom
Movie Amigurumi - we want every one of these brilliant crotchet dolls
Art Movies - these 5 paintings deserve the Woman in Gold movie treatment (only, uh, better movies) 
Furious 7 - Michael reviewed the behemoth hit and didn't disappoint

Getting worked up over the lack of realism on display is like chastising a toddler smashing his Tonka trucks together because, actually, that’s not how to use a cement mixer properly. 

Hot Piece(s) o' the Month 
Hathaway as Miley - that lipsynching! Cox as Daredevil - those lips!

Coming in The Lusty Month of May
Favorite sex scenes, Orson Welles Centennial tribute, rising actor David Dastmalchian, Avengers-mania, and a 1979 retrospective to coincide with the Supporting Actress Smackdown.

March. It's a Wrap

March was busy busy busy once we wrapped up Oscar. Three series returned: Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Ask Nathaniel, and Posterized. Anne Marie spent a month w/ Ida Lupino, Manuel and Nathaniel said goodbye to Looking, the TCM festival and Mad Men premiere, and the finale of the Film Bitch Awards 2014. Whew.

Most Popular
Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella met plenty of silly outrage criticism for its actually thoughtful gender politics, but the handsome and well-reviewed production made a lot of money, continuing both Disney's fairy tale hot streak and Downton Abbey's star-making power. And FWIW, Kenneth Branagh probably needed this. The Sound of Music was also on the world's mind as it hit its 50th, prompting events, handprint ceremonies, and our own favorite things... by which we mean "shots".

Oscar Watching
Cinderella started the race for Costume & Production Design competitions but the talk this month was whether the Academy would go back to 5 Best Pictures.

Monthly Playlist
The phenomenon that is "Empire" concluded its first season and got everyone talking Emmy for Best Actress. Madonna made her best record in 10 years with "Rebel Heart" inspiring us to imagine a video album crafted by favorite auteurs. Three final hot tracks for the March play list: The "Firefly Theme Song" as interpreted by the cast of "The Flash," an all male version of Chicago's "Cell Block Tango," and Carly Rae Jepsen's "I Really Like You" feat. Tom Hanks.

7 Other Key Posts
We Can't Wait - Our 15 Most Anticipated Movies of 2015 
The Rise and The Fall - of Dreamworks Animation, a retrospective investigation
Pretty Woman at 25 - an ode to Julia Roberts' infectious laughter 
Run All Night - away from Liam Neeson's increasingly tired ass-kickery? 
Richard Glatzer RIP - the co-director of Still Alice passes away 
Posterized: Judi Dench - a true late bloomer, becoming a star in her 60s 

Hot Piece(s) o' the Month
Sophia Loren in Yesterday Today and Tomorrow (1963) and Jake Gyllenhaal in the Southpaw (2015) trailer 

Coming in April
Ex-Machina and artificial intelligence, The Woman in Gold, Tony Awards talk, the films of Jane Campion, Daredevil on Netflix, the return of 'Mad Men @ the Movies', Clouds of Sils Maria, and a celebration of Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca.

We Can't Wait 2015. The Complete Series

In the We Can't Wait series, just wrapped, we looked at our team's most anxiously awaited movies for the 2015 film year that's just begun. ("It's March!" you cry. It's okay. You're new. Our calendar goes Oscar to Oscar.) For the curious, the team decided and yours truly (Nathaniel) looked at the list -- essentially a top 20 at that point -- and voted only on the finalists... which amounted to a couple of "executive saves" I suppose you could say. Here's to hoping that all 15+ of these movies provoking Pavlovian drooling in our corner of the cinephile blogosphere satisfy.

Now that the list is fully up, I wonder how much of the next Oscar battles for Best Actress & Supporting Actress we've inadvertently prophesied what with Blanchett, Streep, Moore, Page, Cotillard, Winslet, Swinton, Rampling in juicy leading roles and Mara, Paulson, Chastain, Wasikowska, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judy Davis and Dakota Johnson all featured (we assume) prominently in these 15 features, too. (yes, first our Oscar predictions arrive in April)

What movies DIDN'T we cover for the summer and following prestige season that you're most excited about? And which movies on our list did we properly whet your appetite for? 

Lady MacBeth (Marion Cotillard) and her would be king (Michael Fassbender)

We Can't Wait
#1 Carol in which Blanchett ♥ Mara and her husband does not ♥ that
#2 Ricki & The Flash in which Streep rocks out / returns home
#3 Macbeth in which Fassbender seeks the crown whilst Cotillard tries to remove that damn spot and though we've had enough Shakespeare they're both too irresistible to deny
#4 Mad Max: Fury Road in which all post-apocalyptic hell breaks loose
#5 The Lobster ...who knows but electic cast and Dogtooth director intrigue
#6 Crimson Peak in which del Toro goes Gothic with scrumptious cast
#7 45 Years in which Andrew Haigh (Weekend) directs Rampling ♥ Courtenay
#8 Bridge of Spies Spielberg + Hanks  ÷ The Coen Bros
#9 Taxi in which Jafar Panahi continues to make movies despite the ban
#10 Freeheld in which Moore ♥ Page and they reenact a true LGBT rights story
#11 A Bigger Splash gets the I Am Love team back together for erotic drama
#12 The Dressmaker in which Kate Winslet seeks revenge... with fashion!
#13 The Hateful Eight  in which it's Tarantino so... our best guess (we don't read bootleg scripts) is sausage party mayhem + elaborately poetic shit-talking. One thing that's an absolute certainty: not enough actresses. Contrary to Hollywood's entire western genre, women made up half of the population back then, too.
#14 Knight of Cups in which we view Hollywood sellouts through a Malick prism?
#15 Arabian Nights  in which Miguel Gomes (Tabu) makes a 6½ hour political fable

Related Sidebars & Prologues

You didn't see that coming?"

Animated Films 
Tomorrowland
Jake Gyllenhaal & Franchise Returns
Avengers: Age of Ultron 
Magic Mike XXL

Best Limited or Cameo Role. The Men

It's time for the final two categories in this year's Film Bitch Awards, the Limited or Cameo roles. Which is to say the actors who have only two scenes or less or who are continually backgrounded but for like one spotlight scene. It's an inexact science for sure and the line becomes blurry sometimes with supporting. [Breaking news: a former nominee in these limited/cameo categories whose star is rising will be guest blogging next month for a special day! More on that soon.]

This may sound silly to more casual readers but I agonize over these categories nearly as much as their Oscar correlatives. In fact the entire reason that I still haven't posted the women -- I had planned to post both at once naturally -- is that I haven't narrowed it down to 5 yet. I'm stuck at 8 and don't want to lose any of them.

So first up, the men...

Though Wild and Selma (nominee Henry G. Sanders as "Cager Lee" pictured above), offered plentiful options, and Two Days One Night was undeniable (kudos Timur Magomedgadzhie, left) the possibilities actually weren't obviously abundant. Perhaps this is because men dominate movies so thoroughly that the very small parts tend to be played by women and maybe there's a slight possibility that this actressexual doesn't notice the men quite as much who fill out the frame in group scenes. But let's not distract ourselves from the business at hand:  Here's the nominee and finalist lists.

Film Bitch Awards... Openings, Endings, and Titles

Three of the final five Film Bitch Award categories announced. Click over for the nominations!

When I think of my wife I always think of her head. I picture cracking her lovely skull, unspooling her brains, trying to get answers.

BEST OPENING SCENE
Did you find any opening scene as perfectly bold as Gone Girl's recently? It's instantly classic as kick-offs go. Still horrified two months later that Gillian Flynn didn't get an Adapted Screenplay nomination. WTF. Her work was stronger than any of the nominees in her category (the good stuff was in Original this past year obviously). But that wasn't the only entrancing first minute of a film. Under the Skin's "creation" (?) anyone?

BEST ENDING 
Spoiler alert! Movies have endings. Some more satisfying than others. Which were your favorites this year? Were you a bawling but optimistic and newly invigorated civil rights champion at the end of Selma, Pride, or Love is Strange? Was that desert gaze into an open future the perfect ending for Boyhood? Were you chanting USA ironically with the bloodthirsty crowd at the end of Foxcatcher or gazing up with Emma Stone in Birdman or Reese Witherspoon in Wild?

CREDIT SEQUENCES 
I didn't nominated The Grand Budapest Hotel here but I do love that tiny dancing Russian at the tail end of the credits and his exuberant dancing (i wish I had a gif of the confetti throwing part). That's basically a documentary of what happens in my apartment every time I finish an article. As for this category, it shouldn't surprise you to see Captain America: Winter Soldier's bold black white and red pop art as a nominee but do you remember those hilarious cast photos from Neighbors in the closing credits? I almost forgot them which would have been a tragedy. 

I mean...

 

Two categories left (acting in limited or cameo roles) so stay tuned for that and the gold silver and bronze medals this week as grand finale to 2014's film year. Hooray!

(And now I'm off to do that little dance backstage. Byeeeee.)