Here’s the trailer for The Lobster!
It’s a film in which a government forces single people to a resort where they are transformed into animals. (Like a lobster, for instance.) The film caused quite a stir at Cannes earlier this year and personally, I can’t wait to see it for myself!
Beasts of No Nation.
Could this film be the one that nets Idris Elba his first Oscar nomination? And, considering that it will be premiering on Netflix at the same time it gets its limited theatrical release, will Beasts of No Nation change the way the films are distributed? We shall see!
Beasts of No Nation will be released on October 16th.
Over on Through the Shattered Lens Presents the Oscars, we are reimagining Oscar history, one year at a time. Today, we take a look at 1920. Prohibition goes into effect, women finally get the right to vote, Harding is elected President, D.W. Griffith finally gets some recognition, and Fatty Arbuckle is the most popular man in Hollywood!
William S. Hart, the Third President of AMPAS
1920 was a year of many changes.
On January 16th, the 18th Amendment went into effect and prohibition became the law of the land. Suddenly, it was illegal to transport and sell alcohol in the United States. As social reformers rejoiced, the government grew and ordinary citizens started to hoard whatever liquor they had. (Selling alcohol was illegal but drinking it was not.) Perhaps the people happiest about prohibition were the gangsters who now had a totally new market to exploit.
On August 26th, the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed and, finally, all women were granted the right to vote. And it came not a minute too late because it was time for the United States to elect a new president. Weary after the nonstop drama of 8 years of Woodrow Wilson, the American electorate turned to Warren…
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4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films is all about letting the visuals do the talking.
4 Shots From 4 Films
Mirrormask (2005, directed by Dave McKean)
Enter the Void (2009, directed by Gaspar Noe)
Pina (2011, directed by Wim Wenders)
Post Tenebras Lux (2012, directed by Carlos Reygadas)
In case you were wondering what the first YA adaptation of 2016 would be, apparently it’s going to be The Fifth Wave. It features Chloe Grace Moretz fighting aliens and it’s due to be released on January 15th, 2016!
Check out the trailer below!
Here’s the trailer for The Danish Girl, a film that everyone is expecting to be a major Oscar contender.
They’re saying that Eddie Redmayne might be the first actor since Tom Hanks to win two consecutive awards for best actor.
(By they, of course, I mean my next door neighbor and the cashier who took my money at Victoria’s Secret this weekend. Seriously, they are Oscar crazy!)
Plus, Alicia Vikander is in it. She’s in like a 100 films this year. (You may have seen her in Ex Machina and if you didn’t, you missed a great film.) She will definitely be nominated for something. It’s just a question of what. If The Danish Girl is a big Oscar contender, it could very will be the film that gets her a nomination.
Hey, did anyone else ever do high school theater and get violently admonished for loudly yelling “MacBeth!” while wandering around backstage in her underwear? Or was that just me?
Anyway, here’s the first U.S. trailer for the upcoming Shakespeare adaptation, MacBeth! This version stars Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard and, judging from the trailer, it certainly looks dark and gloomy.
Watch it below!
(Credit: Gracja Waniewska)
Last night, we were all stunned by the news that director We Craven had passed away after a battle with brain cancer. If you want to see a great tribute to Craven, check out this 4 Shots From 4 Films that Arleigh posted on his birthday. If you want to read a great reflection of Wes Craven and his career, check out this tribute from Ryan the Trashfilm Guru.
As for me, I’m going to share an anecdote and then, I’m going to pay tribute to Wes with a six trailer salute.
First, the anecdote. I can still remember the first time that I ever watched Last House On The Left. It was a film that I had mixed feelings about. On the one hand, as a horror lover, I could not help but be impressed by the terrifying performances of Fred Lincoln and David Hess. I could not help but by moved by the way Hess’s haunting song, Now You’re All Alone, was used in the film. And, as low-budget and exploitive as the film may have been, I could see that Wes Craven was more interested in critiquing sadism than in celebrating it.
At the same time, it was still an unpleasant film for me, as a woman, to watch and the addition of some clumsy humor pretty much confirmed that Craven was still finding his way as a filmmaker. It was one of those films that I knew, as a horror fan, I had to watch but I wouldn’t say that I enjoyed it.
However, that night, I did end up watching the movie twice. I watched it a second time so that I could listen to the commentary from Wes Craven and producer Sean S. Cunningham. And — oh my God — both of these guys were so funny and charming! Craven, especially, seemed to enjoy pointing out scenes that didn’t quite work and the frequently awkward dialogue that he had written. Craven and Cunningham both came across as being two of the nicest guys in the world and it was indeed an experience to hear them cheerfully talking while these absolutely vile images were flickering by onscreen.
And really, that taught me an important lesson and it’s one that I remember to this day. Whenever I hear some judgmental know-it-all claiming that only a sick person could direct or write a horror movie, I remember that charming Wes Craven audio commentary.
And now, here are six trailers for six of Wes Craven’s films.
Wes Craven, R.I.P.
Last night, I watched the latest Lifetime film, Fatal Flip!
Why Was I Watching It?
With a name like Fatal Flip, I was thinking that this film might be another Lifetime cheerleader film. And, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, one of my favorite Lifetime films of all time is Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal. I figured I could watch the movie and then ask Dazzling Erin whether or not Fatal Flip was an accurate portrayal of the dangerous world of cheerleading.
What Was It About?
Well, it quickly became obvious that Fatal Flip had absolutely nothing to do with cheerleading. Instead, it turned out that Fatal Flip was about the dark side of house flipping.
Alex (Dominique Swain) and her boyfriend Jeff (Michael Steger) max out their credit cards so that they can buy a colonial house that they plan to fix up and then sell for a profit. At first, Alex and Jeff are convinced that they can fix up the entire house on their own but then it turns out that Jeff is kind of a whiny little wimp.
Fortunately, while at the hardware store, Jeff meets Nate (Mike Faiola). Nate knows everything about home improvement. He also wears a lot of plaid. Anyway, Nate agrees to help Jeff and Alex fix up the house. And, because this is a Lifetime movie, neither Jeff nor Alex have any problem with Nate moving in with them.
However, Nate has secrets of his own. For instance, there’s the woman who he previously sealed up in a wall. Plus, he has a beard which, in the world of Lifetime, is always a huge red flag.
And, of course, he wears a lot of plaid…
What Worked?
The whole film was about redecorating a house so I definitely enjoyed that. One of the fun things about watching a movie on Lifetime is that a lot of attention is always paid to the interior of everyone’s house. Fatal Flip took that tendency to its logical extreme.
What Did Not Work?
Obviously, a movie like this always requires a certain suspension of disbelief. But seriously, Fatal Flip took it just a little too far. Nate was so obviously unhinged that it was impossible to believe that anyone could be stupid enough to not realize it.
Add to that, a better title for the film would have been The Plaid Killer. Because, seriously, when it came to Nate, it was nonstop plaid.
“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments
Much like Alex, I also enjoy making houses look nice and salable. (Though I do have to say that I’m kind of surprised that she never changed the wallpaper in the living room. Seriously, that was bothering me through the entire film.)
Lessons Learned
House flipping is not as glamorous as HGTV would have you believe.
What’s an Insomnia File? You know how some times you just can’t get any sleep and, at about three in the morning, you’ll find yourself watching whatever you can find on cable? This feature is all about those insomnia-inspired discoveries!
If you were suffering from insomnia last night, at around two a.m., you could have turned over to Flix and watched the 1998 film Frogs For Snakes.
And if you were suffering from insomnia, watching Frogs For Snakes would probably have been a good idea because this film is amazingly dull. In fact, I am not sure that I have the words to express to you just how tedious Frogs For Snakes truly was. It may be necessary for me to go back to school and learn how to speak in a dead language in order for me to express the boredom that I felt while watching Frogs For Snakes.
And yes, I realize that I’m talking about an obscure film that was released nearly 20 years ago and it might seem kind of petty to, at this late date, make a big deal about how terrible this film was.
But seriously, Frogs For Snakes was really, really bad. In fact, it was disturbing to think that a film this bad could have actually been made. It was even more disturbing to consider that this film was apparently given a theatrical release and, all these years later, still pops up on cable so that it can proudly display its overwhelming mediocrity.
Now, I’m going to tell you what Frogs For Snakes is about and you’re going to think, “That actually sounds like it might be kind of interesting.” Don’t be fooled! The film may sound interesting but it’s not.
Frogs for Snakes takes place in a stylized, neo-noir version of New York City. Eva Santana (Barbara Hershey) is an aging actress who claims to have quit the business, though it’s clear that it’s more a case of the business quitting her. She talks about leaving New York and raising her son in a better environment. However, until she gets around to leaving, she’s making ends meet by working as a waitress at a diner owned by the kind-hearted Quint (Ian Hart). And, of course, when she’s not waitressing, she’s working as a debt collector for her ex-husband, a loan shark named Al Santana (Robbie Coltrane).
That’s right, this actress has a gun and she uses it frequently. However, because Eva is good at heart, she rarely kills anyone. Instead, she just shoots them in the foot and tells them to pay back their loans while they lay on the floor and scream in agony. (All that agonized screaming got pretty old after a while.)
As for Al, he’s not just a loan shark. He’s a theatrical impressario. He’s planning on putting on a production of David Mamet’s American Buffalo. He promises his driver a role in American Buffalo on the condition that the driver assassinate Eva’s new boyfriend (John Leguizamo, of course).
Soon, actors all over New York are literally killing to get a role in Al’s play. Meanwhile, Eva just wants to retire and get out of New York but first, she has to do one last job for Al…
In between all the killing, the characters frequently launch into monologues that have been lifted from other films. John Leguizamo does a Brando imitation. Lisa Marie (Tim Burton’s ex, not yours truly) delivers the cuckoo clock speech from The Third Man. A suggestion for aspiring filmmakers: if you’re going to make a bad film, don’t remind your audience that they could be watching The Third Man instead.
Anyway, the plot sounds interesting but none of the potentially intriguing ideas are explored. I imagine that the film was meant to be a satire of Off-Broadway ruthlessness but ultimately, the film is just another tediously violent indie film from the 90s. This is one of those movies where nobody can do anything without spending an excessive amount of time talking about it beforehand and, when things do turn violent, it’s the worst type of quirky, sadistic, drawn-out, “look how crazy we are” violence.
There’s a scene towards the end of the film where Al shoots a group of people in a bar. This is intercut with clips from the Odessa Steps sequence from Battleship Potemkin. As Al leave, he shoots the TV showing Battleship Potemkin and, I have to say, that really annoyed me. Seriously, just as a bad filmmaker should not remind people that they could be watching The Third Man, he shouldn’t invite them to compare his film to Battleship Potemkin unless he’s willing to back up the comparison. When Al shot the TV, I found myself hoping that Sergei Eisenstein would pop up and shoot him.
Frogs for Snakes is one of the worst films that I’ve ever seen. It may, in fact, be the worst but I would need to rewatch Ted 2 before I said that for sure. But, if you have insomnia, Frogs For Snakes will at least put you to sleep.
Previous Insomnia Files:
