Music Video of the Day: Don’t Leave Me Alone by David Guetta, featuring Anne-Marie (2018, dir by Hannah Lux Davis)

Posted on August 24, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This video reminds me of … well, almost every recent futuristic dystopia movie that I’ve ever seen. You’ve got the large but kinda messy apartment. You’ve got the virtual reality. And you’ve got the really, really bright sun.

Seriously, have you ever noticed that? Futuristic dystopias are always either extremely dark and rainy or extremely bright. It’s like, in the future, people aren’t allowed to close the curtains or pull down the shades on a sunny day. I don’t know if I’d be able to handle that. Hopefully, the robots won’t take over anytime soon.

Anyway, enjoy!

Lisa’s Early Oscar For Predictions For August

Posted on August 23, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s time once again for my monthly attempt to predict next year’s Oscar nominations!

As always, these predictions should be taken with a grain of salt. BlackKklansman has emerged as a contender and there’s a few impressive trailers out there. If the Academy goes through with this stupid Best Popular Film Oscar, I’m going to assume that’ll knock Black Panther out of contention for Best Picture. For now, I’m going to hope that the backlash will cause the Academy to abandon the idea.

(For the record, it now appears that the whole Best Popular Film fiasco was due more to pressure from ABC than from actual members of the Academy. And, let’s just be honest — Best Popular Film sounds just stupid enough to be the idea of a television executive.)

So, as usual, these nominations are a combination of wishful thinking, wild guesses, and sincere intuition. If nothing else, they should be amusing to look back upon when the actual nominations are announced.

Be sure to check out my predictions for January, February, March, April, May, June, and July!

Best Picture

Beautiful Boy

Black Panther

BlackKklansman

Boy Erased

First Man

Green Book

If Beale Street Could Talk

Old Man and the Gun

Roma

Widows

Best Director

Damien Chazelle for First Man

Alfonso Cuaron for Roma

Barry Jenkins for If Beale Street Could Talk

Spike Lee for BlackKklasman

Steve McQueen for Widows

Best Actor

Christian Bale in Backseat

Steve Carell in Beautiful Boy

Ryan Gosling in First Man

Rami Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody

Robert Redford in Old Man and the Gun

Best Actress

Glenn Close in The Wife

Viola Davis in Widows

Felicity Jones in On The Basis of Sex

Keira Knightley in Colette

Saoirse Ronan in Mary, Queen of Scots

Best Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali in Green Book

Timothee Chalamet in Beautiful Boy

Russell Crowe in Boy Erased

Adam Driver in BlackKklansman

Michael B. Jordan in Black Panther

Best Supporting Actress

Claire Foy in First Man

Nicole Kidman in Boy Erased

Regina King in If Beale Street Could Talk

Margot Robbie in Mary, Queen of Scots

Sissy Spacek in Old Man and the Gun

Hollywood Souffle: WIFE VS SECRETARY (MGM 1936)

Posted on August 23, 2018 by gary loggins

cracked rear viewer

Gable’s back and Harlow’s got him , but so does Myrna Loy , with Jimmy Stewart along for the ride in WIFE VS SECRETARY. MGM boasted it had “more stars than there are in Heaven”, and this film is the very definition of “star vehicle”, a harmless soufflé of comedy, drama, and romance all wrapped up in a neat little package by veteran studio director Clarence Brown.

Publicity still for ‘Wife vs Secretary’

The plot’s as thin as Gable’s moustache: He’s a hard-driven publisher, and Loy’s his trusting, faithful wife. Harlow plays his loyal secretary and trusted aide-de-camp. She’s also quite beautiful (obviously, since she’s Jean Harlow!) and Gable’s mother tells Myrna she should get rid of her. Myrna laughs it off, but the seed of doubt has been planted. Jimmy plays Jean’s fiancé, who’s not too happy about being constantly cast aside by Jean’s work demands (and who can…

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Outlaw King Official Trailer

Posted on August 23, 2018 by Arleigh

Outlaw King

Who here has seen Braveheart?

I’m quite sure that a huge number of people have seen Mel Gibson’s second film as director which won him two Oscars: for Best Director and Best Film. While his career has seen it’s major up’s and down’s, he still has done some great work behind the camera as a director.

Now, what does this all mean to this new Netflix Original film coming out this year called Outlaw King? The answer is not much other than both film share a particular historical character in the Scottish king Robert the Bruce. In Gibson’s film he’s a supporting character whose motivations could be seen as very pragmatic and bordering on the villainous.

Outlaw King, by Scottish director David MacKenzie (who directed the great Hell or High Water), will tell the story of the legendary Scottish king Robert the Bruce who won Scotland’s independence from England where William Wallace ultimately failed to do.

I am going on a hunch that Outlaw King will treat Robert the Bruce in a more sympathetic light than how Gibson’s film portrayed him. This time around we have Chris Pine in the role of Robert the Bruce.

As seen in the trailer, it looks like Netflix’s several billion dollar spending spree has come not just luring prominent filmmakers and producers to the streaming site but also allow them the resources to make a film as lush and beautiful as any made under the remaining big studios.

Let’s hope Outlaw King is more on the level of Mudbound and less like Bright.

Suspiria (2018) Official Trailer

Posted on August 23, 2018 by Arleigh

suspiria-1

Where has the time gone.

In my absense, it looks like other people have flourished, but now I think it’s time to make a return and this time for good.

What better way to mark my return than to show and talk about the first official full-length trailer for what could be one of the more divisive horror remakes set to arrive in a couple months.

I am talking about Suspiria by Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name, A Bigger Splash and I Am Love). The original film by Italian giallo maestro Dario Argento many horror fans consider a great example of the Italian giallo of the late 70’s and early 80’s. Just like most fandoms, whenever there’s talk about one of the classics being remade there’s levels of trepidation, anger and guarded optimism.

While I’m never one to look at remakes as ruining the originals. IF that was the case then we wouldn’t have excellent horror remakes such as Carpenter’s The Thing and, to an extent, Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead.

While I’m excited to see what Guadagnino brings to the table when it comes to his remake of Suspiria, I am also somewhat guarded in that the original film was such a surreal experience that remaking it note for note wouldn’t add anything new to the experience.

Here’s to hoping this is one horror remake that falls under the great side of the equation instead of the trash end.

Artwork of the Day: Argosy (by Hugh Joseph Ward)

Posted on August 23, 2018 by Dazzling Erin

by Hugh Joseph Ward

Music Video of the Day: Keep Good Time by Tommy Tucker and the Supernaturals (2009, directed by ????)

Posted on August 23, 2018 by Jedadiah Leland

Today’s video is Keep Good Time by Tommy Tucker and the Supernaturals.

Like the two previous music videos of the day, this video was filmed in Baltimore’s red light district, the infamous Block. As Tommy dances down the street, be sure to keep an eye open for The Hustler Club. The Larry Flynt-owned establishment is often credited with revitalizing the Block.

For me, the best part of this video is the nonchalant reaction that the people on the streets have to Tommy’s dancing.

Smile When You Say That: Randolph Scott in BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE (Columbia 1958)

Posted on August 22, 2018 by gary loggins

cracked rear viewer

The usually stoic Randolph Scott gets to show a sense of humor in BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE, his fourth collaboration with director Budd Boetticher. The humor comes from Burt Kennedy’s script, who did an uncredited rewrite of Charles Lang’s original, foreshadowing his own, later comic Westerns. The result is a good (not great) little film that’s not up to other Scott/Boetticher teamings , but still a gun notch above average.

This one finds Scott as the title character, crossing the border from Mexico to the unfriendly Agry Town, where it seems everyone’s an Agry, and they don’t cotton to strangers. Buchanan just wants to make a pit stop on his way back to West Texas, get himself a nice steak, a bottle of whiskey, and a good night’s sleep. But he runs into trouble at the saloon with young Roy Agry, who is gunned down by Juan de la Vega. Apparently…

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Guilty Pleasure No. 38: Shipping Wars

Posted on August 22, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Do you remember Shipping Wars?

It’s okay if you don’t. I have to admit that, up until yesterday, I had pretty much forgotten about it. Shipping Wars was a reality show that aired, for three years, on A&E. From 2012 to 2015, the show followed independent contractors as they transported various weird things across America. It was produced by the same people who did Storage Wars and, like that show, a good deal of emphasis was put on the various contractors competing against each other to get the biggest contracts and secure the most profitable paydays. As I said, I had pretty much forgotten about the show until yesterday. That’s when I came across a Shipping Wars marathon on the FYI channel and I was immediately reminded of just how addictive this stupid show could be.

A typical episode of Shipping Wars would open with all of the shippers (as they were called) hanging out in their trucks and staring at their laptops. All of them competed for shipments in timed auctions held on uShip.com. (Basically, the entire show was a commercial for uShip but I’m too much of a capitalist to care.) Typically, each episode featured two auctions. Once the shipper had won their auction, it was then up to them to transport their cargo to a new location without destroying it or arriving late. That may sound simple enough but it was rare that anyone managed to pull of either one of those requirements. That can only mean that it’s either really difficult to transport stuff or that all of the shipper on Shipping Wars were amazingly incompetent.

Of course, the camera crew would follow each shipper as they made their journey. The shippers who did not win the auction would randomly pop up to offer up sarcastic commentary on how their rival was doing. The commentary was notable for how thoroughly petty it often got. For instance, if a shipper got caught in a rain storm, you could just bet that someone would remark, “It looks like your approval rating’s about to go underwater.” If a truck got a flat tire, the commentary would usually be something like, “Way to check your tires before getting out on the road, dumbass!” What they shippers lacked in wit, they made up for in pure spite.

Spite defined most episodes of Shipping Wars. One of the remarkable things about that show is that absolutely no one ever appeared to be in a good mood. It wasn’t just the shippers who seemed to be terminally annoyed. The people shipping the stuff often seemed to have an attitude. The people who received the stuff almost always turned out to be jerks who tried to get out of paying the full amount that they had agreed to pay. And the shippers themselves were always in a thoroughly crappy mood. Roy Gabler, one of the most prominent of the shippers, was infamous for referring to almost everyone he met as being an idiot. Shipping Wars presents a portrait of America where everyone has a chip on their shoulder and absolutely no one ever bothers to say thank you. Since I hate the forced sentimentality of most reality shows, I’ve always appreciated the fact that literally everyone in Shipping Wars was just out for themselves.

The other fun thing about Shipping Wars was seeing some of the things that needed to be transported. One of my favorite episodes featured a wedding cake that was driven across country in an unrefrigerated trailer. Needless to say, the cake did not survive the trip. The previously mentioned Roy Gabler had an affinity for transporting weird things, like classic movie props and, in one episode, a water tower. Nothing fazed Roy. No matter what he was transporting, he was always equally annoyed.

Unfortunately, Roy died shortly before the start of what would be the show’s last season. Shipping Wars never recovered from the loss of Roy’s perpetually annoyed tone of voice and it was canceled in 2015. As I discovered last night, you can see reruns on FYI. Or maybe you can just go on uShip and ask if anyone’s willing to move a cursed house from Texas to Vermont.

That should get their attention!