So many grim nuggets in
@rachsyme
’s revealing piece about the aggressive globalization of Netflix, but this section really shot an arrow into my heart
the thing about charlie kaufman is that his movies are *about* the tendency of men to project their wishes, anxieties, resentments, desires onto the women around them. don't confuse that with movies that accidentally do that very thing!
Someone conspired to create my worst nightmare of a CINDERELLA remake, and I couldn’t even fit in my review that James Corden, playing a mouse, calls his penis his “front tail”
Sure MIDSOMMAR has fairy tale elements but it is very realistic because when Ingemar claims to have dated Connie her response is “we went out once and I did not know it was a date”
Richard Jenkins said that he didn’t use the 8 page backstory
@RealGDT
wrote for his character in THE SHAPE OF WATER. When he lost the Golden Globe, GDT leaned over and said “maybe if you’d used the backstory...”
#Sundance2020
@dankois
the viral Juilliard video is also a very elegant way to signal her losing control over time in that the original scene is shot in one long take and the video is a mess of editing
I just learned that the movie PURPLE HEARTS is called that because she is blue ... he is red ... and together they reach across the aisle and make ... purple
@rachsyme
I've been waiting for someone to pull a Janet Malcolm on this dubious streaming behemoth, and there's nobody better than Rachel to step into Malcolm's shoes
Surreal news: I produced the official
@HBO
podcast celebrating the 20th anniversary of THE WIRE.
We've been busy interviewing the cast/crew and working with our incomparable host,
@methodman
, to do this extraordinary show justice. Trailer's here:
The very best anecdote for today is Nisha Ganatra's story of hiring a DP on TRANSPARENT. She reviewed reels; the men's looked better than the women's. Inviting in one of the women anyway, she learned that the DP had shot her whole feature with one bounce board and a flashlight.
I got to know a bunch of the brilliant
@TCM
folks when I produced the second season of their podcast, “The Plot Thickens,” a few years back. They are the beating heart of classic cinema. I’m gutted. I hope those responsible are ashamed.
HIS THREE DAUGHTERS: this one’s for the girls with daddy issues who take it out on their siblings. I laughed, I cried, my favorite from Azazel yet
#TIFF2023
Awkwafina wins
#GothamAwards
Best Actress and says “I never win anything. I can’t even win an argument in the Instagram comments.” OSCAR RACE I HOPE YOU’RE LISTENING
In my professional opinion (I’m a critic, not a physician), THE SON tackles adolescent depression about as deftly as an estate lawyer performing open-heart surgery. My review of Florian Zeller’s leaden follow-up to THE FATHER:
I profiled the brilliant
@AVRockwell
for
@BostonGlobe
. Everyone go see A THOUSAND AND ONE, which has one of the best scores I've heard in years. Out this weekend!
I’m also an American who hated every aspect of my experience abroad. My name is Emily, and when my boss in PR had to back out of a work trip at the last minute, I decided to move to Paris despite not speaking any French…
I wrote about the Sandman’s excellent job in UNCUT GEMS, which taps into his well of nervous energy and gets you high enough that the rest of his dumpster fire filmography vanishes in a puff of smoke:
A dream come true: For
@nytimes
, I profiled Mia Hansen-Løve. We talked about the porous membrane between art and life, and the time she chopped her hair off after a boyfriend jilted her.
Two years ago today, I turned 27 (yay) and went into quarantine for a pandemic (boo) but today I’m 29 and could not be more grateful for all that I have and more excited for all that’s to come
Still thinking about EMA, which is Larrain at his most electric—Almodovar by way of Refn with ingenious editing + a dance sequence I can’t get out of my head
#TIFF19
just because a new movie says the name of an older movie in dialogue ("hope you're not pulling a 'my best friend's wedding' here!") does not excuse it from staging a worse version of that movie, particularly when the original movie was ALREADY deconstructing the rom-com genre!
A blockbuster book, an all-star cast…what could possibly go wrong?
Season 2 of
#ThePlotThickens
takes you behind the scenes of the tumultuous production of THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES.
Sign up for email updates here:
WHITE HOUSE PLUMBERS premiered tonight — and so did Ep 1 of our companion podcast hosted by
@OliviaNuzzi
. Listen below, or just scrub to the end to hear the post-credits Easter egg that I still can’t believe HBO let me keep in
I've seen some talk about Netflix's new doc MONEY SHOT: THE PORNHUB STORY, so here's my review. The doc wisely centers the porn performers seeking autonomy in a capitalist industry. Their safety/success should be our
#1
priority.
EILEEN is gorgeous, lively and startling, and wholly fascinating as a book to screen adaptation in that the plot events are the same, but the moments Oldroyd chooses to punctuate are different. Here Eileen is less gross, less hateful, and more simply a creature starved for love.
I walked out of BOOKSMART beaming for all the 14 year old girls who get to grow up with this as *their* movie. I wish my best friend and I’d had it in high school, it would’ve been our bible
Top 10 of 2022:
Pleasure
Tár
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Eternal Daughter
One Fine Morning
Happening
Funny Pages
Aftersun
Crimes of the Future
The Fabelmans
If you, like me, are basking in PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE being available on Hulu, may I also suggest Celine Sciamma's lovely one-take short PAULINE, which I wrote about for
@nytimes
' shorts series today