#taken from If Beale Street Could Talk by Baldwin

[yokohamabeans]

I refuse to pay for extra storage on Google and so I must purge my files. 🤡 Found an early draft for the first chapter of Past-Tense Events, my Rindou fic that unfortunately never went beyond its prologue. It was supposed to set up the childhood friends-to-lovers-to-strangers plot of it.

Really doubt I can continue it, considering my extreme focus on ROAC, but I didn't want to waste what I've already written, so I'm just gonna dump this here...

Characters / Tags: Kid!Rindou, Kid!Ran & Reader

Childhood meeting. No romance, not even a friendship. Nothing much is going on here, in fact. Dumb kids being dumb kids. Rated 'G' for your Grandma 'cuz there'll be no problem if she reads this.

1994

Your father warned you about boys like them.

Right before teaching you how to put someone in an armlock. It’s one of the few things he’s taught you before he left for prison.

He said to you: look, kid, when I’m up in the slammer, it’s on you to protect the old bat, ya got me? If you see any wankers looking for funny business around grandma’s shop, you tell them we ain’t sellin’ and you twist their arm like this. Ya followin’? You do this to anyone who’s mean to you too. I’ll be out in no time, so you just hold the fort down for a bit, yeah?

(In hindsight: the sensibility of telling a seven-year-old to physically take on threats is at best questionable, but your father was neither the brightest nor most responsible man. He was hardly even a good man. You, however, cannot decide if he was a bad father—you simply don’t have enough memories of him to make a fair judgement. But about the little ones that you do: when you think of them, you think of them fondly.)

Shortly after your father gave that lesson, the men in blue came and pushed his head into their car. His words made you feel important and you wanted to be important, so you spent your time after school perched on a tall stool behind the counter of Yoshioka’s Fruit & Vegetables, eyes peeled all the way back for the trouble you were prepared for. You waited and waited, but no one brought any ‘funny business’ to the shop: as far as you knew, the same farmers still delivered to your grandmother and the same housewives still bought from her, despite their whispers about her son. Grandma ended up making more use of you as a cashier than a bodyguard. Days passed like a slow summer afternoon, and you were beginning to think that the wankers were never going to come.

Until one day, they do.

You were chewing on the tip of your pencil, trying to count all the notes and coins in the cash drawer, when the rough sound of metal on asphalt fills your ears. You peer over the counter: there are two boys standing outside, scowling so deeply that it shocked you. The taller one between them is bouncing the end of a steel pipe on the ground, and something about the way it glints makes the hair at the back of your neck stand up.

Wankers! You balk. They really are here!

“Oi, where’s your mom?” the shorter boy drawls. His hands are in his pockets, shoulders round in a slouch. Didn’t anyone tell him that is bad posture? “We’re here for the protection money.”

“Protection money?” you ask, voice loud from being behind the counter still. “What’s that?”

“Get your mom. She’ll know.”

You frown, brain whirring. Who does he think he is, ordering you around when he doesn’t even look any older than you? And everyone in the neighbourhood knows that you don’t have a mom—for a period of time it was the only thing anybody talked about. Even the kids at school know about it, which is why they speak to you as little as they politely can. This boy must not be from the area. You’d remember him if he was: you’ve never seen such angry eyebrows on anyone before. How are they so arched? They look like the McDonald’s sign! What kind of business do kids like him have with a grown-up, anyway?!

Funny business, that’s what!

“Noone’s in now,” you tell him cautiously. Your throat is dry because that is only partially true; your grandma is not in the shop but at home on the second floor above it, boiling soup for dinner. You’re praying that she stays up there. “Go away. We’re not giving you any money.”

“Ha?” he raises an eyebrow obnoxiously high, then turns to the taller boy. “Aniki, did I hear that right? Did she really say she ain’t gonna pay?”

The way he rolls his tongue reminds you of the way your father did (which grandma told you to never imitate because only ‘hooligans’ talked like that). Perhaps because of this, you are a tad bit less afraid of him.

“Yeah, you heard it right, Rindō,” the other boy, his older brother you presume, replies. You think you’re seeing double until you notice that his eyebrows are way less mean than the other’s. He raps the steel pipe in his hand harder against the ground. “And that’s a problem, isn’t it?”

“Go away!” you yell again, trying to drown the noise by chanting your father’s words in your head. “We ain’t got nothing to sell to you!”

“Look, girlie, it’s simple.” ‘Rindō’ growls, stepping into the shop. He’s two fruit-racks away and way too close for comfort. You don’t even realise you are backing off until your spine hits the wall behind you. “If you don’t pay your protection money, you don’t get protection! From us!”

Then, to your utter horror, he picks a tomato off a rack and flings it to the ground where it bursts in a bloody splat. You gasp at the audacity of this boy, struggling to grasp how anyone can be so offensive. Your face grows hot at the thought of your grandma finding out about the mess, then even hotter when you realise that Rindō is eating up your fear and anger with a grin. What an absolute wanker!

“We don’t wanna do this, you know,” his aniki says, swinging the pipe to rest it on his shoulder. “Just pay us the money and we’ll leave.”

“Stop it! Leave us alone!” Water breaks out of your eyes and it humiliates you. “Stop throwing my grandma’s tomatoes! They’re expensive!”

“Oh yeah?” Rindō sneers. Another tomato down. And another one. “Make me.”

So, you make him.

It all happens in a flash. You lose all senses to a mad rage, figuring you’d rather be angry than afraid and ashamed. You leap over the counter, snatch a carrot off its basket and lunge at the boy with everything you’ve got. Your scrawny body, electric with excitement, slams into his and you bulldoze him to the ground. “Get out of our shop! We ain’t sellin’!”

“What the fuck?!” he yells.

“I! Said! We ain’t sellin’!” You manage to get three hits in before the carrot breaks in half. Rindō starts to ball his fist underneath you, so, like how your old man always did, you grab his arm, push his cheek to the floor and swing your legs over his head and torso.

It is the smoothest armlock you’ve ever manoeuvred. Papa would’ve been proud.

“Rindō!” the other boy shrieks. He drops the pipe and digs his hands into his hair, petrified and completely lost about what to do while his brother is shouting and thrashing in pain under your grip. “Get off him! You’re gonna tear off his arm!”

“Get off me, damnnit!” Rindō yelps, his eyes dewing. A stream of what you’ll later learn to be expletives spews out of his mouth. “Get off! It hurts!”

You don’t hear him—you don’t hear anything at all, only the mission your father left you with. But it isn’t easy: Rindō is much stronger than you imagined. It’s taking every single muscle in you to keep him locked between your limbs. You don’t even remember breathing this hard when you performed the armlock on your dad! This Rindō may very well be stronger than him; you absolutely cannot let him go.

“Aniki! My arm! It’s breaking!”

“Hang in there, Rindō!”

“It’s gonna snap! It’s gonna snap!”

“Let go of my brother!”

"Aniki! Help!"

And you’re just screaming hysterically through the chaos.

[jzhwritingaboutlove]

Love is Courage (Week 5)

Baldwin portrays love in a very optimistic and positive light despite the often unjust, corrupt, and helpless world he often sets his story in. Love acts as a shield that protects people from the thorns of the world, a powerful force that helps people accept and embrace the hardship of reality when there is nothing they can do about the system. I find this discussion of racial and justice issues along with love to be fascinating.

If Beale Street Could Talk, echoing Baldwin’s approach to love, shows how in a time of racial injustice, a family and a couple stand together firmly to do whatever they can to help free Tish, who is falsely accused of sexual assault, making familial and romantic love a cure or buffer that people can rely on to face and live life resiliently. Indeed, Baldwin’s portrayal of love “hinges on its ability to signify interpersonal instability, moments in life when subjects are rocked by emotion, physical intimacy, and vulnerable moments that, in his work, are crucial to identity-making” (Freeburg 181). Love is the only constant among all other variables in life. We see such stability in the story from the very beginning when Tish announces to the family that she is pregnant and is welcomed by acceptance and support, even if her father takes some to process it. There is a sense of unconditional support and alliance in this family bond. The same spirit of unconditional support persists when Fonny is in trouble and is guilty until proven. The family, although well aware of how institutionally racist and unjust the US judicial system is, still actively seeks lawyers and even physically visits Puerto Rico in wish of finding Victoria, another victim of America’s social injustice, to help free Fonny. Tish also becomes a fragrance presenter, enduring blatant racialized sexual objectification to earn money to support the family through tough times. There is less of an attention paid to the likelihood of success and the outcome may be and more emphasis on how the family is willing to “‘dare everything’” for their loved ones, speaking to Baldwin’s characterization of love as something that is “crucial for growth and capturing the ‘universal sense of quest’” (Freeburg 182).

What I think If Beale Street Could Talk captures very well is that it highlights the innocence of Victoria’s conviction of Fonny as she is also a victim of the unjust system and racial discrimination, where she is taken to the country by a white husband and later on abandoned, leaving her to be equally, if not more frightened of the US police than Tish and Fonny, who at least have a strong family for support. This character thus also serves as a supporting example to corroborate the power of love. With love and the support it provides, people have courage to at least attempt to resist against the system, regardless of the outcome. Even in a system of tyranny, people can carve out a world of their own and try to seek freedom and self-sovereignty there within a household. What Baldwin seems to suggest is that with love, people can or at least feel like they can conquer the world, no matter how marginalized and disenfranchised they are in reality. 

An interesting argument in the reading is how Baldwin also suggests that one reason behind America’s brokenness is white people’s inability to love, or that there is the “absence of love, truth, and responsibility between family members, or broader still, between the citizenry of the United States” (Freeburg 184). I am not completely sold on this argument in that I do not think the type of love Baldwin describes is easily formed. To some extent, this sort of daring love might only be able to appear under the extremely unfriendly context that marginalized groups like racial minorities face because this love might be the only thing they can hold onto. In the film we see how when it is clear that Fonny cannot be released, Tish distracts him and diverts his attention to her and the baby, asking him if she has missed him, using their love as a painkiller to numb and release the helplessness and despair that engulf Fonny. When Fonny worries and panics, Tish says that “there’s no point in thinking about it like that” (Freeburg 191). Love helps them learn acceptance as there is no other way to be rid of injustice anyway. Rather than being in low spirits and devastated, they should come back stronger and march forwards. Yet, if we think about what other groups like white people experience, would love ever be referred to in such a context? No, because they would never even experience such injustice in the first place, making it unnecessary for them to rely on love as a source of stability and power. Privileges and rights that the system grants and guarantees are enough for them to live a happy life and there is not much for them to quest for. The compassion we see in the Jewish man who sells the house to Tish and Fonny, also comes from a character who comes from a culture that is known for having a tight community for they have also come out of many injustices and suffering in the past. There is a level of similarity that the two groups share.

In this sense, it can probably also be argued that love serves as a vehicle to escape, to get away from the many bad news that people have to hear every day. This sort of indestructible love and the courage born within are products of the fact that these groups of people already have nothing to lose. It is not one individual but rather a whole population that faces such hardship. The love, whether romantic or familial, “helps them face the sensations of hell and loneliness that they cannot control” as love “is what they create and renew by facing their own shifting levels of power and powerlessness” (Freeburg 191). 

[natehoodreviews]

If Beale Street Could Talk ★★★★½

[This piece was originally published for the monthly newsletter for the First Presbyterian Church of Delray]

“The Holy Ghost will cause that child to shrivel up in your womb,” the mother hisses at the terrified young woman. It echoes like a gunshot in the tiny Harlem apartment where the Rivers family had invited the Hunt’s over to announce that their nineteen year old daughter Tish would be having their son Fonny’s child. There had never been much love between Tish and Fonny’s mother, the imperious Mrs. Hunt, but nobody could have predicted the cruelty, the inhumanity, the evil of her response. “I guess you call your lustful action love,” she continues,” I don’t. I always knew that you would be the destruction of my son. You have a demon in you—I always knew it.” The poison sprays from her lips as she curses the young woman she’s known her whole life—the same woman who grew up with her young Fonny as a sister, sharing the same schools, the same baths, the same love and affection from their community. Yet now, blinded by her zealotry and horror towards Tish having a child out of wedlock, all she can see is a harlot. And so she screams and rages to destroy this already scared young woman in a cloud of righteous fury.

There are many poignant layers to Barry Jenkins’ revelatory adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel If Beale Street Could Talk: the ghettoization of African-American communities, the victimization of black male bodies, the devaluation of black female ones, the possibility of love and hope despite inhabiting a broken, racist world. Yet it’s this difficult, nauseating scene in the Rivers family’s living room that speaks to one of the more under-appreciated undercurrents of the film: the difference between religion that restricts and religion that restores. On the one side, we have the “holy roller” Mrs. Hunt and her equally judgmental daughters who rage against Tish’s getting pregnant in this, their only scene. The set-up closely mimics the Pericope Adulterae, or the story of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery from the seventh and eighth chapters of the Gospel of John: they’re quick to persecute the woman, but are happily oblivious to the fact that it takes two to tango and that the man is equally at fault. In fact, Mrs. Hunt explicitly says in the same breath that she damns Tish that God has already forgiven her son. This is Christianity stripped of all the compassion and mercy that separates the message of Jesus from all the other world religions.

But it’s far from the only depiction of faith in If Beale Street Could Talk. There are two other scenes where characters pray, and they’re both notably at tables before meals. The first is when Fonny meets up with an old friend named Daniel after he’s released from a two-year prison stint for a crime he was wrongly accused of. Daniel spends much of his visit reliving the dehumanizing trauma of his incarceration as Fonny silently sits and listens. The second time is when Tish visits Fonny in prison with their young son after Fonny decides to accept a plea deal for a shorter sentence on a false rape charge. Both scenes see damaged, wrongfully accused men reaching out for closeness with loved ones, and both end with meals provided by Tish, the first a sumptuous feast of pork and cornbread, the second a paltry handful of snack cakes. Yet both are spiritual healings made explicitly religious by Tish’s insistence on praying before they eat. Here we see the holy communion of believers sanctified by the grace of a God who watches and listens, who shares in our pain and suffering.

As Christians, we are called to address the brokenness of the world and not flinch from it, to love the sinner while hating the sin. We all have a choice, then: will we love or judge; will we heal or punish; will we be Christians of the living room, or Christians of the kitchen table?

[idontrememberthetitans]

The Best Films of 2018

Top 10 Films of the Year:

1.       ROMA (Netflix)

If I harbored any doubt that Alfonso Cuarón was among the greatest filmmakers/storytellers of this (or last) century, it was forever dispelled with Roma. Cuarón’s hyper-naturalistic memoir reveals the thorny relationships between employers, caregivers, and those who receive care. It possesses a kind of clarity, maturity, and tenderness that only comes with distance and time. As it communicates the innumerable intersections of and parallels between ethnicity, class, and gender, it neither rushes nor exaggerates and romanticize, which is quite commendable considering just how visually rapturous Cuarón’s execution is. Moreover, he does so without pontificating or criticizing. Some of the film’s detractors claim it’s an elitist exaltation of domestic workers; I find that assertion unfair, for it would require a larger conversation about who is able to represent whom. I believe Cuarón respectfully illuminates and savors the mundane for therein lies the clandestine miracles of life. It’s clear he has so much love for the ghosts of long ago. Roma is a paean celebrating and lamenting all the pains and pleasures that usher us through any given year.  (Watch the trailer.)

2.       COLD WAR (Amazon Studios)

Sexy, sad, and everything in between, Paweł Pawlikowski’s Cold War chronicles a nearly two decade-long love affair between Wiktor - an accomplished music director - and Zula - a rising singer - in a world in threat of extinction. The film examines the violation of cultural identity and the mechanism of war which thwart any attempt to preserve authenticity. Epic and tactfully sparse in equal amounts, the film is comprised of unbearably terse episodes peppered over fifteen years. Thus, we are only privy to fragments of the characters’ tumultuous timeline together. Within the interlude – between each passionate episodes - Pawlikowski brilliantly employs subtext and chilly atmospheric tension to sustains the pair’s longings – and subsequently preserves our infatuation with them. Cold War is a rich love story swathed in bitterness. By the end, we can’t help but envy, pity, and mourn each part of Wiktor and Zula’s hot-blooded romance. (Watch the trailer.)

3.       THE TALE (HBO Films)

The Tale is a work in progress. I say this without insult but unrestrained admiration. Documentarian Jennifer Fox’s devastating filmic memoir about childhood sexual assault is personal exercise in understanding deeply entrenched trauma. Much of the film’s approbation notes its nuanced handling of difficult thematic material and Dern’s towering yet understated performance, but Fox’s haunting lyricism – the way she manifests a cinematic conversation between her present self and her younger self from dispersed memories  – makes this film a formal and aesthetic triumph just as much as a cultural watershed.

Initially, I questioned how “accurate” the film’s conclusion was. Did the events unfold with the same amount of understated poetic justice? Did Fox have the opportunity for confrontation and vindication as depicted? I realize that asking for explication undercuts the power of Fox’s investigation and exemplary subjectivity. The film itself is an act of introspective healing. As harrowing as The Tale is, it is essential viewing. (Watch the trailer.)

4.       THE FAVOURITE (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

I’m still quite ambivalent towards the film’s nauseating photography, but make no mistake; The Favourite is the best writing and acting you’ll witness this year. While Lanthimos other films (Dogtooth, The Lobster, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer) are the superlative statements on the auteur’s résumé – perhaps in part because he also penned them – his dark, stomach-churning talents certainly lend themselves well to this gleefully filthy farce. The deliciously dicey sexual politics between the characters provides a scathing critique of class, decorum, regal period pieces, and the current political climate on a grand scale. The trio’s absurd antics keep the film alive with color and candor, but film’s lasting impact comes with the glimmers of profound sadness laced within Olivia Colman’s performance as the sovereign. Colman, one of the finest living actors, carefully vacillates between her character’s illogical command and her surprising frailty. The Favourite typifies the best kind of satire: deliciously catty as it plays out with a melancholic sting in its aftermath. (Watch the trailer.)

5.       HEREDITARY (A24)

Balance is key in life – and because we’ve relished the delectable delights of Mary Poppins Returns and Paddington 2, a hearty dose of uncompromising nihilism is also imperative. Hereditary more than excels in that role. It is a grotesque descent into unimaginable horror led by Toni Collette in a game-changing performance. Following films like Antichrist (2009), Babadook (2014), The VVitch (2015) and this year’s equally terrific and terrifying The Haunting of Hill House series, Hereditary marks an apex in the horror subgenre exploring the connection between loss and dread. It’s aware of the genre’s robust history. Consequently much of its success lies in its perceptive ability to draw from other classics like Rosemary’s Baby, Don’t Look Now, and The Exorcist while continuing to probe the complexities of grief and unconscious shame. (Watch the trailer.)

6.       YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (Amazon Studios)

Had the titles not already been taken, You Were Never Really Here could have easily be called “Making a Murderer,” “Gone Girl,” or “Vengeance Is Mine.” Lynne Ramsay’s follow-up to We Need to Talk About Kevin follows a damaged antihero hired to rescue trafficked girls. Her The story’s presentation is so lean and alienating that it’s difficult to ever form a comprehensive understanding of merciless world the characters inhabit. The violence is graphic, however Ramsey rarely shows the actual acts as they are committed. Instead, she takes us through static terrains in the wake of horrific brutality. Her juxtaposition of overwhelming ambient noises creates a particularly affecting cacophony. Surreal, distressing, yet oddly tender and uplifting, You Were Never Really Here confirms once again that Ramsay is an artist of the highest order. (Watch the trailer.)

7.       EIGHTH GRADE (A24)

Bo Burham’s Eighth Grade a wonder to behold – that is, if you can endure an utterly distressing experience to endure. Eighth Grade’s young heroine, Kayla, navigates the frightening contours of adolescence. During my initial viewing of Eighth Grade, it felt like a slideshow of memories from the most repellent stages of childhood. I only allowed myself to recognize it all at a distance – perhaps a self-induced safety mechanism – as if all of it existed in a half-remembered past.  Revisiting the film months later, it felt startlingly indicative of not only my eighth grade year but every year of life. If we cut through the handful of distinct aches of puberty, I’m really not so different now than I was at age thirteen – though Kayla is perhaps a bit less polished. What’s more, Kayla’s anxieties, comforts, and hopes function the same way mine do now. Burham’s film brims with compassion, so it’s easy to see - and feel - that eighth grade wasn’t that long ago. (Watch the trailer.)

8.       IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK (Annapurna Pictures)

Fear begets fear... until it eats the soul. Barry Jenkins’ adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel is a exquisite study of how fear - internalized and externalized - leads to systematic racism and discrimination. As Baldwin and Jenkins reveal, the only remedy to combat this fear is love – and there’s so much of it in and around Beale Street. (Perhaps Donnie Darko’s Jim Cunningham and his simplistic binary theory were actually prophetic?) It’s difficult to examine Jenkins’ expertise without acknowledging his stylistic and thematic influences – specifically Wong Kar-wai and his intoxicating visual romanticism and Douglas Sirk and his flair for weepy melodrama. Yet even as glimmers of other great works shine through Beale Street, Jenkins contributes his own unique voice to the pantheon of Cinema. Using Baldwin’s poignant prose as a template, he blends the conventions of great American stage plays with docudrama tenets to craft a vast universe of feeling. Furthermore, If Beale Street Could Talk is evidence that Moonlight certainly wasn’t a fluke. (Watch the trailer.)

9.       MARY POPPINS RETURNS (Disney)

It feels inappropriate to include such an imperfect movie among intimidating achievements like Roma and Cold War. Even with all its excessive schmaltz, saccharine sentiment and scenery-chewing cameos, Mary Poppins Returns represents a kind of homage I feared was entirely lost. Not so; I learned nothing’s gone forever, only out of place. Sure, the film’s nostalgic structure (or lack thereof), design, quips and songs are all aggressive imitations of a perfect cinematic and cultural touchstone, but the whole ordeal is just so beautifully flattering it’s impossible not to melt in its warmth. It reverently and earnestly reminds us just how lucky we are to have a classic like Mary Poppins to return to. It sends up and throws back to the pinnacle of the expansive (and now unforgivably carnivorous) Disney kingdom. As demonstrated here, indulging nostalgia from time to time can be quite healthy. Unlike most current family movies that pander to the lowest common denominator, Mary Poppins Returns transcends cynicism, pop iconography, and humor ingrained in the present moment. Although much of the film’s success is due to the collaboration of a surplus of talent, the film belongs to Emily Blunt. She, in fact, IS practically perfect as she evades mimicry and adds nuanced wit and benevolence. (Watch the trailer.)

10.   MADELINE’S MADELINE (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Madeline’s Madeline, an experimental coming-of-age thriller, is a film for those who care deeply about grueling and convoluted “artistic process.” It deftly walks a tight rope between satire and an earnest exploration of psychosis and performance – not unlike Bergman’s Persona or Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. Co-Writer/Director Josephine Decker fashions a platform for the fascinating newcomer Helena Howard; she reveals a rare kind of brashness and vulnerability in the title role. Alongside Howard, Molly Parker and the ever-brilliant Miranda July put their trust in Josephine Decker’s peculiar process. As such, they elevate and legitimize Madeline’s nightmare. There is palpable malice woven through the confounding narrative, though it is impossible to discern its primary source. Thematically, the film picks up the baton where Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York left it, but Decker uses a film language loaded with obtuse codes and metaphors. Aesthetically, the film is something else entirely – more dangerous and anomalous than we’re comfortable seeing. And for that reason, it’s quite difficult to shake. (Watch the trailer.)

Another Praiseworthy 10 (in alphabetical order):

BEN IS BACK

BLACK PANTHER

BLACKkKLANSMAN

BURNING

CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

THE DEATH OF STALIN

LEAVE NO TRACE

SHOPLIFTERS

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

A STAR IS BORN

Best Direction:

1.       Alfonso Cuarón for ROMA

2.       Paweł Pawlikowski for COLD WAR

3.       Lynne Ramsay for YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE

4.       Barry Jenkins for IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

5.       Yorgos Lanthimos for THE FAVOURITE

Best Adapted Screenplays:

1.       IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

2.       BLACKkKLANSMAN

3.       BURNING

4.       CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

5.      BLACK PANTHER

Best Original Screenplays:

1.       THE FAVOURITE

2.       SHOPLIFTERS

3.       EIGHTH GRADE

4.       THE DEATH OF STALIN

5.       EIGHTH GRADE

Best Leading Actors:

1.       Bradley Cooper in A STAR IS BORN

2.       Ethan Hawke in FIRST REFORMED

3.       Joaquin Phoenix in YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE

4.       John David Washington in BLACKkKLANSMAN

5.       Lucas Hedges in BEN IS BACK

Best Leading Actresses:

1.       Toni Collette in HEREDITARY

2.       Olivia Coleman in THE FAVOURITE

3.       Emily Blunt in MARY POPPINS RETURNS

4.       Laura Dern in THE TALE

5.       Yalitza Aparicio in ROMA

Best Supporting Actors:

1.       Timothee Chalamet in BEAUTIFUL BOY

2.       Steven Yeun in BURNING

3.       Richard E. Grant in CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

4.       Adam Driver in BLACKkKLANSMAN

5.       Josh Hamilton in EIGHTH GRADE

Best Supporting Actresses:

1.       Natalie Portman in VOX LUX

2.       Emma Stone & Rachel Weisz in THE FAVOURITE

3.       Regina King in IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

4.       Amy Adams in VICE

5.       Emily Blunt in A QUIET PLACE

Best Cinematography:

1.       ROMA

2.       COLD WAR

3.       IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

4.       AT ETERNITY’S GATE

5.       SUSPIRIA

Best Film Editing:

1.       SUSPIRIA

2.       BLACK PANTHER

3.       FIRST MAN

4.       ASSASSINATION NATION

5.       WIDOWS

Best Sound Design:

1.       YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE

2.       FIRST MAN

3.       A QUIET PLACE

4.       ROMA

5.       SUSPIRIA

Best Production Design:

1.       SUSPIRIA

2.       MARY POPPINS RETURNS

3.       THE FAVOURITE

4.       BLACK PANTHER

5.       READY PLAYER ONE

Best Costume Design:

1.       MARY POPPINS RETURNS

2.       SUSPIRIA

3.       THE FAVOURITE

4.       BLACK PANTHER

5.       IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

Best Original Scores:

1.       Marc Shaiman for MARY POPPINS RETURNS

2.       Ludwig Göransson for BLACK PANTHER

3.       Alexander Desplat for ISLE OF DOGS

4.       Justin Hurwitz for FIRST MAN

5.       Nicholas Britell for IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

Best Original Songs:

1.       “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from MARY POPPINS RETURNS

2.       “Shallow” from A STAR IS BORN

3.       “Suspirium” from SUSPIRIA

4.       “All the Stars” from BLACK PANTHER

5.       “Treasure” from BEAUTIFUL BOY

Best Animated Features:

1.       SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

2.       ISLE OF DOGS

3.       THE INCREDIBLES 2

4.       MIRAI

5.       RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET

Best Acting Ensembles:

1.       MARY POPPINS RETURNS

2.       SHOPLIFTERS

3.       BALCKkKLANSMAN

4.       THE DEATH OF STALIN

5.       A STAR IS BORN

2018′s Most Important Films:

1.       THE TALE

2.       SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

3.       BLACK PANTHER

4.       INSTANT FAMILY

5.       CRAZY RICH ASIANS

To commemorate Ingmar Bergman’s 100th Birthday (and a sold-out Criterion Collection boxset of 39 of his films), let’s recall his greatest works:

1.       PERSONA

2.       THE SEVENTH SEAL

3.       CRIES & WHISPERS

4.       WILD STRAWBERRIES

5.       SHAME

6.       FANNY & ALEXANDER

7.       AUTUMN SONATA

8.       THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY | WINTER LIGHT | THE SILENCE

9.       SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE

10.     THE VIRGIN SPRING

[nzenuniverse-blog]

Tonight We Drink to New Life

On Sunday, January 6, 2019, esteemed actor Regina King echoed the sentiment of her character, Sharon Rivers, when she issued an oral call to arms to her fellow movie and television makers to produce media with half the sky, and drink to a new life, which includes women in active roles both behind and in front of the camera. What a last day of Christmas, always and forever day of the epiphany gift that would be to the world if that truly happens. Watching the trailer for “If Beale Street Could Talk” the film, which has so far garnered award nods from the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review and the Golden Globes, for Regina King in her role as the mother of Tish Rivers. The story follows the plot of the wrongfully incarcerated Alonzo “Fonny” Hunt, portrayed by actor Stephan James, an innocent who has been effectively framed by a white police officer for the rape of a Puerto Rican woman in the neighborhood of Harlem, while at the same time Hunt receives news that his childhood friend and soon-to-be-wife, the 19-year-old Tish Rivers, portrayed by actor KiKi Layne, is pregnant. To quote from the Atlantic article, writer Hannah Giorgis surmises, “If Beale Street Could Talk chronicles their gentle romance, as well as the strained fortitude of the Harlem families who support the two and help Tish prepare for the baby who arrives while Fonny is in carceral limbo.”

Watching a mini behind the scenes doc featuring members of the film's cast and crew recently published exclusively to the Huffington Post, can give one chills as it powerfully describes some of the significance relative to this adaptation of Baldwin's work with particular regard to the power of the love not just between the protagonists, but also the love of the black families of Harlem coming together in the face of this heinous crime to live by example the maxim “it takes a village” For instance director Barry Jenkins describes the power of intellectualizing current political circumstances through the characters narratives.

For further information, see the aforementioned Atlantic article that chronicles the movie's Apollo Theatre premiere which details how the Baldwin family was reluctant at first to the adaptation of the novel but came around when they understood the cultural vision for the film's narrative. And their reluctance is understandable, because a novel, much like a poem, has infinite dexterity for readers' imagination to grow with, but once the imagery travels through the tunnel of adaptation to film, though films can be recast and revised in certain skilled hands, the images have immortally become initially impressed on the public imagination thus altering forever the author's literary vision.

In dark and scary times such as these Baldwin's words which declare “Neither Love Nor Terror Make One Blind: Indifference Makes One Blind” echo a glimmer of the cultural significance of Regina King's call to action last Sunday. It has been 34 years since the collective consciousness birth of the Bechdel Test via comic artist Alison Bechdel who in 1985 published “Dykes to Watch Out For” in The Rule. Are men so indifferent to the insult of their inaction that communicates to women their stories are irrelevant? Why has it taken so many generations for the #metoo movement to galvanize political will for real change in action?

Film has historically been an elitist model masquerading as a popular artform. It very much mirrors the oligarchy masquerading as our democracy in action in this manner. As the top down traditional studio model continues to disintegrate, as movies continue to erode from their once singular dominance as the cultural face shaping mainstream public consciousness, it is an important contemporaneous moment to speak to why Madame King's platform invocation at the Golden Globes is so culturally significant.

If one is to research the Bechdel test at any length, the patriarchal biases for why the systemic problem persists are well documented . Finances, and the mistaken perception that female leads and narratives fail to drive sales are prolific examples. In the top 100 grossing films of 2012, women accounted for 4.1 percent of directors, 12.2 percent of writers and 20 percent of producers, according to a 2013 study by Stacy Smith, an associate professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. Of 4,475 speaking roles in those films, 28.4 percent were women. Smith says when more women were involved in the production of a film, it was more likely to have female cast members. In short, when one gender dominates the creative process for a picture, that comes out on the screen.

When one thinks about these examples combined with the preface of the disintegrating studio system, one can consider the argument that as the independent studio system emerges as the viable option for television and film as an industry, then these questions of a laissez-faire resolution to the Bechdel test issue will be met in a classical sense, as in supply meeting demand. To state this idea in another manner, in a similar way to how financiers predicted a complete crash in the disintegration of the hard copy book model of industry at the emergence of the online retail market; though diminished, people who love books will always really love books and those people want the tactile feel that an electronic copy can never deliver. Extend this to the concept of cinema as a community, though DVDs are dead as a doornail, people who really love cinema will always really love cinema and those people will go out to see the film in its theatrical release because they understand the larger scope of everything involved in the nexus of art and commerce involved in the production of a quality film like “If Beale Street Could Talk” A specific example herein could be the film “Springbreakers' put out by the studio A24 based in NYC. It is likely that this studio chose to produce this film aware of the intent to reach an audience which already had an awareness of the Bechdel test and would be the type of crowd that would like to entertain a conversation about a film that addresses the complexity of patriarchy and matriarchy because they follow the work of a director like Harmony Korine, an actor like James Franco, and/or a hottie artist like Selena Gomez, and thus much like an artist who puts work up in a new gallery exhibition and trusts that the right people will show up and that's it, there is an argument that in a similar way that studios who are conscious of the niche audiences they are creating artwork through film for will take a local economy laissez-faire approach to their individual solution to more female representation, both in front of and behind the camera.

[garxxondeux]

DAMN

FEMINISM WEARS A THROWBACK JERSEY BAMBOO EARRINGS & A FACE BEAT FOR THE GOD’S.

FEMINISM IS DA BRAT, MISSY ELLIOT, LIL KIM, & ANGIE MARTINEZ, ON THE “NOT TONIGHT” TRACK.

FEMINISM SAYS AS A WOMAN IN MY ARENA YOU ARE NOT MY COMPETITION.

AS A WOMAN IN MY ARENA YOUR LIGHT DOESN’T MAKE MINE ANY DIMMER.

“Dear Missy, I did not grow up to be you but I did grow up to be me and to be in love with who this woman is to be a woman playing a man’s game and not be apologetic about any of it If you ask me why representation is important I will tell you that on the days I don’t feel pretty I hear the sweet voice of Missy singing to me pop that pop that, jiggle that fat don’t stop, get it til your clothes get wet I will tell you that right now there are a million black girls just waiting to see someone who looks like them.”

POP CULTURE IS THE EXTENUATION OF BLACK MILLINIEL CIVIC ENGAGEMENT:  

THE BLACK CULTURE ON SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINES THE ACTUALIZATION POTENTIAL FOR PRODUCED ART, WITH MAJOR INFLUENCE FROM #BLACKTWITTER.

THE ART FORM OF EXPRESSION THAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA IS A SOURCE FOR COMEDY AND GIFS.

SOCIAL DEBACHERY OF THE SORT, CARDI B VS. NICKI MINAJ.

WHAT’S TRENDING: ROBERT MUELLER’S OVERWHELMINGLY LONG-DRAWN INVESTIGATION.

& MOST IMPORTANTLY #BLACKHISTORY365.

TODAY ON TELEVISION SPEAKING BLACK EXCELLENCE AND HOW WE STRATEGIZE TO POWER.

LEADING STARS SUCH AS DIANA ROSS, MAYA ANGELOU, JAMES BALDWIN, KERRY WASHINGTON, BEYONCÉ, BOB MARLEY, BARRY JENKINS… EPITOMIZE & INFLUENCE OUR CREATION OF BLACK ARTS.

THE STRENGTH OF IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK,ACTUALIZES THE BLACK FAMILY DYNAMIC, IN ALL ITS FACETS. REGINA KING’S ROLE OF MOTHER REDEFINES THE STRONG BLACK WOMAN PICTORIAL.

PREVIOUSLY PORTRAYED IN VIOLA DAVIS’S FENCES,THE MOTHER WHO CARES WITH GRACE THEN LEADS WITH STRENGTH AFTERWARD. EXASPERATED BY CAPITALISM THE BLACK FAMILY BROKE THE LAWS OF JUSTICE TO ENJOY THE SOUND OF JAZZ. THE DYSFUNCTION OF AN AGE, GAVE LIGHT TO JAZZ & NEW MOVEMENT TO THE HOME. THIS EXPRESSION OF LOVE HAS NO LIMIT; THAT IS WHERE BLACK EXCELLENECE IS MET, ON IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK.”

“WISDOM IS TRADITIONALLY A FEMALE CHARACTERISTIC. INTUITION, WITHIN THE SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY, IS SAID TO BE FEMALE, OF THE MORE YIN VARIETY. THE IDEA THAT STRENGTH IS BEAUTY IS A CONTRADICTION! IF STRENGTH WERE DETERMINET OF BEAUTY IN WESTERN SOCIETY SPECIFICALLY, AN ENTIRE ROLE OF GENDER REVERSAL WOULD BE EMINENT. THE IDEAL OF WESTERN BEAUTY ARRIVED FROM THE EAST. PLACING A SPITEFUL EUROCENTRIC LENS UPON THE CONCEPT OF BEAUTY. VIEWS SUCH AS THIS HAVE DESTROYED WHAT POSITIVE INNER BEAUTY THERE IS FOR BLACK WOMEN, DOWN TO STRENGTH.

NEGATING WHAT A MORAL MIND IS; A SHAPELY HEART OR EXHUBERENT SOUL WOULD BE; WHICH IS TO EQUALIZE THE STANDARD.

RE-COG-NITION IS UNNECESARY IN THE REFORMATION OF THIS LOWLY ACT.

“THE MOST DISRESPECTED PERSON IN AMERICA IS STILL THE BLACK WOMAN! THE MOST UNPROTECTED PERSON IN AMERICA IS THE BLACK WOMAN! THE MOST NEGLECTED WOMAN IN AMERICA IS THE BLACK WOMAN!”

– MALCOM X

:ODE TO #BEYCHELLA

THE RIGHT TO REGRESSION:

“UNAPOLOGETIC BLACKNESS IS THE QUOTIENT OF BLACK EXCELLENCE.

THE DEMEANOR OF EXCELLENCE IS UNDEFINED.

TRUE BLACKNESS IS, OMNIPRESENT AND THE SPACES WE OCCUPY HAVE A MAGNIFICENCE. THE BUYING POWER OF THE BLACK DOLLAR HAS INCREASED. THE ARRAINMENT HAS TAKEN ITS PLACE & HISTORY IS SETTLING IN. THE TRUTH SHALL SPEAK. PRESEDENCE IS IN ITS PLACE.

“STOKELY CARMICHAEL EXPLAINED THE FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH THAT POWER & RACISM WORK COHESIVELY TO SUBVERGE THE WORKING CLASS INTO DEPRESSION WHILE STIMULATING THE CAPITALISTIC GAINS OF THE PROLITERIATE’S OWNERSHIP!”

“ALMOST FROM ITS BEGINNING, SNCC SOUGHT TO ADDRESS ITSELF TO BOTH CONDITIONS WITH A PROGRAM AIMED AT WINNING POLITICAL POWER FOR IMPOVERISHED SOUTHERN BLACKS. WE HAD TO BEGIN WITH POLITICS BECAUSE BLACK AMERICANS ARE A PROPERTYLESS PEOPLE IN A COUNTRY WHERE PROPERTY IS VALUED ABOVE ALL. WE HAD TO WORK FOR POWER, BECAUSE THIS COUNTRY DOES NOT FUNCTION BY MORALITY, LOVE & NONVIOLENCE, BUT BY POWER. THUS WE DETERMINED TO WIN POLITICAL POWER, WITH THE IDEA OF MOVING ON THE MASSSES COULD MAKE OR PARTICIPATE IN MAKING THE DECISIONS WHICH GOVERN THEIR DESTINIES & THUS CREATE BASIC CHANGE IN THEIR DAY-TO-DAY LIVES.”

-     BROTHER STOKELY CARMICHAEL: POWER & RACISM

MY ANTITHESIS TO GAIN POLITICAL POWER IS SEPARATE FROM CAPITALISM.

OUR COLLECTIVENESS CULTURALLY IS FORSEABLE OF THE FUTURE, TO PREVALENT EYES.

EQUALITY IS A SIMPLE CONCEPT TO ALIGN. EQUALS SET BALANCE TO THE DESTRUCTION & HUMILITY TO BOTH SIDES. SETTING ASIDE THE POWER ON THE FAR LEFT & STRATAGEM OF THE RIGHT THEN COME COMMON TO MORALITY, LOVE & UNDERSTANDING.

RACE IS MERETRICIOUS:

THE SEPERATION OF PAN AFRICA BASED UPON JEWELS IS DEGRADATION UPON THE REALISTIC FORMAT. RE-MARKING OF INDIVIDUAL AFRICAN TERRITORY WAS DEVISIVE INTO THE STRUCTURING OF THE WESTERN WORLD! “IT IS MORE THAN A FIGURE OF SPEECH TO SAY THAT THE NEGRO COMMUNITY IN AMERICA IS THE VICTIM OF WHITE IMPERIALISM AND COLONIAL EXPLOTATION(CARMICHAEL, STOKELY SPEAKS:FROM BLACK POWER TO PANAFRICANISM, 36).”

IN CONCLUSION:

“NON INTEGRATIONISTARE ANTOGONIZING PROGRESSION. ADLIBING THE MINUS & PLUS SYSTEM IS THE PROFIT MARGINALIZTION OF AN UNEDUCATED WHOLE.” OUR COLLECTIVENESS CULTURALLY IS FORSEABLE OF THE FUTURE, TO PREVALENT EYES.

THIS IS IN REFERENCE TO EDUCATION. ENCOURAGING THE APTITIUDE OF BLACK PEOPLE SPECIFICALLY IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS EXPOUSÉ.  

BIBLIOTECH 1. CARMICHAEL, STOKELY. “POWER & RACISM.” CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT VETERANS, 1966, www.crmvet.org/info/stokely_p-r.pdf. 2. Carmichael, Stokely. Stokely Speaks: from Black Power to Pan-Africanism. Chicago Review Press, 2014. 3. HAZE, ASHLEE. FOR COLORED GIRLS (THE MISSY ELLIOT POEM). YouTube, YouTube, 29 Dec. 2015, youtu.be/o-dM0j3Qygg. 4. Clavo, James. A SCHOLAR, A GENTLEMAN. @EUPHORICMARC

[omgstupendousbouquetbasement]

Eighteenth Tribeca Film Festival Opens in Harlem With 'The Apollo'

The 18th Tribeca Film Festival moved uptown on Wednesday for an opening night that honored an elder New York institution: the Apollo Theater. Roger Ross Williams' "The Apollo" premiered at the iconic Harlem music hall whose 85-year history is chronicled in Williams' documentary. The movie and setting added up to a gala tribute to the 125th Street mecca of African American culture, where everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to James Brown to Chris Rock has come to forge their legacies. "The story of black people in America is the story of the Apollo," Williams said in an interview ahead of the premiere. Tribeca isn't the first New York film festival to uproot to the Apollo for a special event. Lincoln Center's New York Film Festival came there last year to debut Barry Jenkins' James Baldwin adaptation "If Beale Street Could Talk." But Tribeca, the festival founded by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, has made a habit of celebrating the city's cultural institutions on opening night through documentaries about "Saturday Night Live" and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "In these disturbing times, when the administration is promoting divisiveness and racism, we're making a statement by being here tonight that we reject it," said De Niro, a well-known critic of President Donald Trump, introducing the film on the Apollo stage. "No, you don't! Not in this house, not on this stage!" "The Apollo," which HBO will air in the fall, survey's the theater's expansive history but also its vibrant present. It follows the production of Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Between the World and Me," a production that Apollo president Jonelle Procope says perfectly reflects the theater's mission for the future. "We want to develop this new 21st century performing arts canon that focuses on telling the African American and African diaspora stories," said Procope. "We are really the only performing arts organization in the country that is from a performing arts standpoint focused on the African American narrative. Our legacy is to create opportunities for emerging talent and nurture their talent and let them push the envelope." Opened in 1914 as a burlesque theater, the Apollo began catering to the black community in the 1930s. Its famed Amateur Night, begun in 1934, has been the first introduction of countless stars, including Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder (introduced as a 12-year-old "genius") and the Supremes. Amateur night remains the signature Apollo show: a crucible through which endless performers have had to pass to confirm their talent. Anyone lacking will hear it from the audience. In Williams' film, Dave Chappelle is seen saying his Apollo experience was the best thing that ever happened to him. "After that, I was fearless," says Chappelle. "I grew up in the black church and there's a very similar dialogue that happens, the call and the response," said Williams. "The Apollo, in a sense, is church. It's a sacred space and a gathering of community in Harlem." The Apollo's history can be staggering. Through its doors have come Duke Ellington, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Smokey Robinson and Richard Pryor. James Brown recorded one of the most revered live albums at the Apollo. "When we first watched the film, I had this gut-wrenching emotional reaction. I was just crying like a baby," said Williams. "The journey that black people have taken in America is a painful and difficult journey and our music is one of the tools we use to talk about that pain, to talk about that oppression, to escape from that pain. Our musical journey is a powerful one." With such an overwhelming legacy, the Apollo has striven to be more than a museum. After falling on hard times in the 1970s, it was named a state and city landmark in 1983. It was purchased by New York State in 1991 and turned into a nonprofit theater. Its long-running variety show "Showtime at the Apollo" was most recently rebooted on Fox last year. Now, for the first time in its history, it's plotting an expansion. The Apollo Performing Arts Center plans to in the fall of 2020 open two adjacent theaters, two doors down from the Apollo. One will seat 99, the other 199 — much smaller spaces than the 1,506 capacity Apollo. Procope said the new theaters will allow the Apollo to program more expansively, add master artist residencies, host more speaking series, delve deeper into dance and create new streaming and podcasting possibilities. "I think people understand where we've been," said Procope. Soon, she says, they will see where the Apollo is going. from Blogger http://bit.ly/2vnvW7z via IFTTT

[drcisko]

Barry Jenkins - If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) An infinitely better movie than most of those nominated for Best Picture in the Oscars, If Beale Street Could talk is Jenkins' follow-up to Best Picture winner Moonlight. This is only his third film and much as in Moonlight there is a clear voice coming through the images, the characters and the whole feeling that you get while watching the movie. Jenkins is anything but an action director, the film is slow paced, the characters are for the most part gentle with deliberate dialogue taken from the James Baldwin novel, the story develops slowly and through flashbacks which build layers of emotion into the film itself. All this slow and deliberate pace is what makes the movie so great, like a good meal that you have to eat slowly in order to savor it. The photography, dialogue and camera movements are so beautiful that you don't mind the pace, it becomes part of the whole experience. Of course there is a plot here, not so much a story with a beginning, middle and end but a sequence of unfortunate events which illuminate the social condition of what are lower-middle class African-Americans, who in spite of not being exactly poor or involved in crime (at least of the violent kind) or dependent on drugs, as is the stereotype in so many films, still suffer from institutional racism. The acting is beautiful throughout as well, Regina King definitely deserved her Oscar, but Stephan James is also pretty phenomenal, as is most of the cast. (4.5/5) #cinema #cinephile #barryjenkins #ifbealestreetcouldtalk #reginaking #stephanjames #kikilayne #movie #moviereview #film #filmreviews #filmposter #movieposter #poster #drama #review (at Lisbon, Portugal) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvaeEzdFuPm/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1pcyk4hrzpmhz

[mrmichaelchadler]

Home Entertainment Consumer Guide: March 28, 2019

3 NEW TO NETFLIX

"Kung Fu Hustle" "The Lives of Others" "A Separation"

8 NEW TO BLU-RAY/DVD

"Aquaman"

At its best, James Wan's "Aquaman" is a live-action cartoon, complete with armies astride seahorses and sharks. It has a fantastic cast, including great supporting work from Nicole Kidman, Patrick Wilson, and Willem Dafoe. It's refreshingly goofy from a company (DC) that too often takes itself way too seriously. Really, the only problem with "Aquaman" is one common to the genre: bloat. There's no reason for this movie to be 2.5-hours long, and you can feel its charm washing away as the length sets in. My kids were excited for about an hour and it almost felt more like an obligation to finish it. I recommend watching it in installments. And focus on the fun stuff. 

Buy it here 

Special Features Going Deep Into the World of Aquaman Becoming Aquaman James Wan: World Builder Aqua Tech Atlantis Warfare The Dark Depths of Black Manta Heroines of Atlantis Villaneous Training Kingdoms of the Seven Seas Creating Undersea Creatures A Match Made in Atlantis Scene Study Breakdowns Exclusive Sneak Peek of Shazam!

"Detour" (Criterion)

An acknowledged classic of Poverty Row, Edward G. Ulmer's 1945 noir is as pitch black as the genre comes. Restored recently after years of people watching degraded copies, "Detour" has probably never looked this good. As expert Noah Isenberg explains in an excellent special feature, "Detour" was made for almost no money in roughly a week, depending on who you believe. It's a stunning piece of work, containing one of the best femme fatale performances of all time from Ann Savage. Ulmer and Savage's take on the role is instantly mesmerizing. Gone are the typically glamorous looks of the femme, replaced by grit and sweat and dirt. Savage's character feels threatening in such a perfect way that we know the minute our protagonist crosses paths with her, he's doomed. 

Buy it here 

Special Features New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray Edgar G. Ulmer: The Man Off-Screen, a 2004 documentary featuring interviews with actor Ann Savage and filmmakers Roger Corman, Joe Dante, and Wim Wenders New interview with film scholar Noah Isenberg, author of Edgar G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins New program about the restoration Janus Films rerelease trailer PLUS: An essay by critic and poet Robert Polito

"I Wanna Hold Your Hand" (Criterion)

Robert Zemeckis has been working with American nostalgia since his first film, 1978's "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," now available on a bonus-packed Criterion release. The film itself is a sweet comedy about not just Beatlemania but those years in which one had the time and energy to commit their lives to something like a band. A cousin of "American Graffiti," this ensemble piece is about a bunch of teenagers trying to get to "The Ed Sullivan Show" on the night that The Beatles would make TV and music history. It's a light-hearted comedy that doesn't hit every mark but is also truly hard to dislike. And it's particularly interesting as a stepping stone in the careers of both Zemeckis and Spielberg, who get together with Bob Gale for a fantastic special feature on this release about the making of the film. 

Buy it here 

Special Features New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Robert Zemeckis and cowriter Bob Gale, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray New conversation among Zemeckis, Gale, and executive producer Steven Spielberg New interview with actors Nancy Allen and Marc McClure Audio commentary from 2004 featuring Zemeckis and Gale The Lift (1972) and A Field of Honor (1973), two early short films by Zemeckis Trailer and radio spots PLUS: An essay by critic Scott Tobias

"If Beale Street Could Talk"

This might be the final great film of 2018 to be released on Blu-ray. There are some interesting films that came out the final few weeks of last year still to hit the market ("The Mule," "Bumblebee," others) but this is the last essential movie, one that you really need to see before you can close the book and move on to 2019. Barry Jenkins' adaptation of James Baldwin's book has been written about so many times since its TIFF debut, on this site alone, that there's not much I could possibly add to the conversation. Read my TIFF review. Read Odie's brilliant 4-star review. Read about it in our ten best. Read my interviews with Barry Jenkins and the stars of the film, KiKi Layne and Stephan James. I hold this movie very close to my heart and will for the rest of my life. It's gorgeous, riveting filmmaking and a true must-own on Blu-ray, especially given it has a commentary track by Jenkins himself. 

Buy it here 

Special Features Deleted Scenes Featurette: If Beale Street Could Talk: Poetry in Motion Audio Commentary by Barry Jenkins

"Mary Poppins Returns"

Everyone involved in this movie should give Emily Blunt a gift. Her prodigious charm is really the fuel that keeps this film moving (with no offense to Ben Whishaw and Emily Mortimer, who are always good). Blunt gets the film over its several dull passages, although even she can't save original songs that sound fine in the film but that I dare anyone to hum a section of outside of it. Like so many of the Disney live-action films, there's a magic missing here - the magic that allows a movie to live on in imagination when you're done watching it. This one is better than some (I'm still angry about "Alice in Wonderland" and "Beauty and the Beast") but that's mostly just because those movies didn't have a performer as charismatic and committed as Emily Blunt. For the record, my five-year-old STRONGLY disagrees. He loves this movie. But even he can't sing a song from it. 

Buy it here 

Special Features Deleted Song — "The Anthropomorphic Zoo" The Practically Perfect Making of "Mary Poppins Returns"  Seeing Things From a Different Point of View": The Musical Numbers of "Mary Poppins Returns"  Back to Cherry Tree Lane: Dick Van Dyke Returns  Practically Perfect Bloopers  Deleted Scenes Play Movie in Sing-Along Mode 

"Perfect Blue"

Satoshi Kon is an interesting enigma in that his name isn't as much of a household one as Hayao Miyazaki or Brad Bird but those who do know his work absolutely adore him. Kon's ambitious, visually breathtaking style is arguably never more brilliantly realized than in this 1999 masterpiece FINALLY getting a Blu-ray release for its 20th anniversary. That it took this long for a movie that so many people love to even get an HD release is telling in terms of how Kon's reputation doesn't seem to be at the level he deserves. 

Buy it here 

Special Features BRAND NEW REMASTER OF THE FILM NEW Lectures by Satoshi Kon featurette NEW Into The Blue featurette - New Interviews Original SD Version of Feature (Japanese mono Dolby Digital 2.0 with English subtitles) Angel of Your Heart Recording Sessions Angel of Your Heart Full English Version Theatrical Trailers and TV Spots—includes new trailers from US and UK re-releases Cast and Crew Interviews

"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse"

For months, it felt like Disney's "Incredibles 2" was the runaway favorite to take the Oscar for Best Animated Film. Who could have guessed that an animated superhero movie, which is usually the genre of straight-to-DVD fare, could be good enough to topple the highest grossing animated film of all time? Make no mistake -- this is no ordinary superhero movie. This is no ordinary animated movie. It may only be a few months old, but it feels like a classic already, a movie that I know I'll see at least a dozen times over the course of my lifetime. It gets richer and feels more ambitious each time I see it. This is a very strong edition of the HECG and I hope you got a nice refund from the IRS because this one is a must-own too. It also comes with some fantastic special features, including a cut of the film that includes several scenes that never got past the sketch phase re-cut into the movie. 

Buy it here 

Special Features We Are Spider-Man Spider-Verse: A New Dimension The Ultimate Comics Cast A Tribute to Stan Lee & Steve Ditko The Spider-Verse Super-Fan Easter Egg Challenge Designing Cinematic Comics Characters Heroes & Hams Alternate Universe Mode: In this all-new viewing experience, discover alternate scenes, plotlines, characters, and more with the filmmakers as your guide. "Sunflower" by Post Malone and Swae Lee "Familia" by Nicki Minaj & Anuel AA (feat. Bantu) All-New Original Short "Spider-Ham: Caught In a Ham" 

"Wanda" (Criterion)

I'll admit to not remembering having heard of Barbara Loden's "Wanda" until the Criterion edition showed up in my mailbox. It's a stunning movie, a bleak de-glamorization of the criminal life. A blue-collar woman named Wanda can barely make ends meet and has her kids taken away in a divorce. She basically stumbles into the life of a petty criminal, and the two form a strange, mesmerizing Bonnie and Clyde duo. He's abusive. She seems constantly uncertain, almost as if she could just wander off the face of the Earth. It's Loden's only film and it's a fascinating piece of work, almost akin to Cassavetes in its dirty, sweaty, naturalistic style. It's a shame Loden never got to make another movie, but I love that this one is getting appraised again a half-century after it was produced. 

Buy it here 

Special Features New 2K digital restoration by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, The Film Foundation, and Gucci, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray I Am Wanda, an hour-long documentary by Katja Raganelli featuring an interview with director Barbara Loden filmed in 1980 Audio recording of Loden speaking to students at the American Film Institute in 1971 Segment from a 1971 episode of The Dick Cavett Show featuring Loden The Frontier Experience (1975), a short educational film about a pioneer woman’s struggle to survive, directed by and starring Loden Trailer PLUS: An essay by film critic Amy Taubin

from All Content https://ift.tt/2TCB4ON

[kartiavelino]

REVIEW: ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’

If Beale Street Could Speak is the most recent film by Oscar-Profitable filmmaker Barry Jenkins (Jenkins gained an Academy Award for 2016’s critically acclaimed Moonlight) and is predicated on prolific author James Baldwin’s fifth novel of the identical title. Baldwin penned Beale Street, a love story set in Harlem, New York, within the 12 months 1974, however along with his adaptation of the novel for the massive display screen, Jenkins accomplishes one thing fairly spectacular – he revisits Black historical past, taking us again to a time when racism and social injustice dominated the day, inadvertently highlighting what remains to be occurring in current day. With this movie, Jenkins presents not simply a poignant love story, however a robust take a look at these forces which have conspired all through historical past to carry in regards to the demise of Black love and the Black household. Because the film opens we see 22-year-old Alonzo, or Fonny (performed by Stephan James), and 19-year-old Clementine, or Tish (performed by Kiki Layne), in a mutual state of love-induced bliss. James starred in 2014’s critically acclaimed Selma and gave a high quality portrayal of Jesse Owens in 2016’s Race, and his expertise on movie creates a pleasant stability between him and his on-screen counterpart or love curiosity, newcomer Kiki Layne. These two actors do an incredible job embodying the sensation and physicality of two younger individuals, younger lovers who’re on the verge of discovering one thing daring and exquisite. By them, we get to expertise what if looks like to be the place they’re – in the beginning of a love story with all of the potential of a cheerful ending. The storyline of Beale Street isn’t fast-paced and fluid. Fairly, it’s wealthy and savory, demanding time to digest. Fonny and Tish’s love doesn’t require phrases as a result of their understanding of one another and connection to one another goes past what will be stated. Nonetheless, within the opening scenes of the film Tish asks Fonny, “Are you prepared for this?” When Fonny replies, “I’ve by no means been so prepared for something in my complete life,” we’re given a second to rejoice the wonder that’s Black love, the great thing about us. Nevertheless, that celebratory second may be very short-lived and ends all too rapidly because the film unfolds and the 2 are pressured to navigate a world dominated by forces they’re too younger to totally perceive, however that may form and affect the course of their lives and depart an indelible mark on their valuable love story. Beale Street is as a lot about household as it’s about love, and Jenkins takes time and care creating moments the place we get to discover the intricacies and sophisticated dynamics throughout the Black household. We instantly fall in love with Tish’s household – her mom (performed by Regina King), her father (performed by Colman Domingo) and her sister (performed by Teyonah Parris). Fonny’s household isn’t so “lovable” however they create ardour and fireplace to display screen as an attention-grabbing distinction to Tish’s kin. Actress Aunjanue Ellis (from The Assist, Delivery of a Nation, and Infamous) has just one scene, but it surely’s a robust one, and with it we come to study loads about our male protagonist, Fonny. Michael Seaside (Soul Meals, Ready to Exhale and the just-released Aquaman) performs Fonny’s troubled father and actresses Ebony Obsidian and Dominique Thorne supply robust performances as Fonny’s sisters. Beale Street is full of highly effective moments that offer you license to mirror and refocus by permitting the digicam to linger on their faces in silence. Very like he did in Moonlight, Jenkins creates postcards of Black life with highly effective stills that develop into etched into our psyches – Tish being held and consoled by her father; Fonny and Tish’s fathers coming collectively in a bar and brooding over their children’ futures; Tish’s mom and father dancing and loving on one another of their meager front room; Fonny and Tish making love for the very first time; and in a masterclass in conveying concern, Fonny’s reunion along with his longtime good friend Daniel (Brian Tyree Henry), simply launched from jail on a bogus auto theft cost, and the revelation he shares with Fonny about what he noticed behind bars, “Man, this nation actually don’t like n*ggers.” Explorations of this nature, and this depth, are the bricks that James Baldwin used to construct a rare literary profession with written works comparable to Beale Street, One other Nation, and Go Inform It on the Mountain. In some ways, filmmaker Barry Jenkins, who wrote and directed this movie adaptation of Baldwin’s work, has taken up that very same torch and embraced that very same mission. With a view to accomplish one thing transferring and memorable, Jenkins weaves collectively a mosaic of wealthy photographs and intimate conversations that work collectively to create a robust assertion about Black love, and Black life, and the forces which have traditionally conspired to destroy it. Certainly, Beale Street is a love story, however it’s coloured by exterior forces intent on destroying it. These forces are nonetheless at work as we speak, in 2018, and though the film is gorgeous, its bigger goal is to beckon us to look at ourselves as a society and as a nation. That examination and exploration is ugly and ugly, however in a time after we are nonetheless being murdered and the murderers are going free, after we disproportionately comprise the inhabitants of a jail system designed to re-enslave us, and a time the place white individuals are emboldened by a president to spew hate messages and act out violently, Beale Street is a related story that’s highly effective in its retelling. If Beale Street Could Speak is in theaters now. http://feeds.bet.com/~r/Betcom-Celebrities/~3/KUKCuTuT_Ac/beale-street-review.html The post REVIEW: ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ appeared first on My style by Kartia. https://www.kartiavelino.com/2018/12/review-if-beale-street-could-talk.html

[mrmichaelchadler]

Brian Tallerico's Top Ten Films of 2018

It’s that time of year when critics take a look at dozens of different pieces of art and try to put them in the same box. There’s something inherently odd about pitting films against each other, but it’s also a way to draw attention to things you love and want to share with more people. It’s often a way to consider themes in art, but I was struck more this year by what my top ten says about my personal taste more than overall motifs in the world of moviemaking. I spoke to Barry Jenkins earlier this month, and he commented on how he’s attracted to what he calls genuine filmmaking. That’s clearly a through-line in my picks too, none of which were made purely to garner awards or fatten wallets. They are deeply personal films from masterful filmmakers, across the spectrum of genre and style. What do Boots Riley and Debra Granik have in common other than a deep passion for what they do? They share that passion with us, and lists like this, at their best, amplify it just one step further. I saw around 250 films released this year. This list could be different with rewatches or even just over time. It’s always subject to change. But, as of today, these were my favorites of a very good year:

Runner-ups: “Black Panther,” “Blindspotting,” “First Man,” “First Reformed,” “Hereditary,” “Lean on Pete,” “Mission: Impossible - Fallout,” “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse,” “Wildlife” and “Zama”

10. “Sorry to Bother You”

It’s the rare film that can feel both completely current and ahead of its time. Boots Riley’s incredible social satire, anchored by a performance from Lakeith Stanfield that is only getting a fraction of the year-end attention it deserves, is the best debut of the year (and it was a strong one for debuts with this, “Hereditary,” “Minding the Gap,” “Eighth Grade,” and more). Riley’s film echoes his music in its blending of different styles and influences into something that feels both defiantly new and classically funky. It is often hard to tell when you’re in a year what movies from it that people will be watching five or even ten years from now. I would bet money they’ll be watching this one.

9. “You Were Never Really Here”

Lynne Ramsay’s award-winning “thriller” (the quotes because there’s not really one genre appellation that feels like it captures everything this movie does) is such a perfectly calculated work of art that it’s easy to take for granted the first time you see it. Every choice here has been carefully considered by a master craftsman, but that attention to detail is offset by an organic, emotional, borderline dangerous performance in the center from Joaquin Phoenix, doing what I consider the best acting work of the year. Phoenix is mesmerizing, capturing a man who has to access his trauma to do his very unusual job, and someone who dives deeper into his own nightmarish abyss each time. It’s a challenging, unforgettable film, and a testament to the overall quality of the year that it’s this far down the list.

8. “Shoplifters”

Hirokazu Kore-eda is one of our best living filmmakers, a man who personifies the Ebert principle of cinema as an empathy machine. He makes movies about real people, using them to encourage conversation about complex issues like masculinity, justice, and the definition of family. His Palme d’Or-winning latest is arguably his masterpiece, a film that reconsiders so many of his previous themes, but also works purely as heartbreaking melodrama. He spends 90 minutes getting his viewers deeply involved in the life of a family on one of the lowest rungs of society, and then challenges how we feel about them with stunning revelations in the final act. Directing some of the best performances in his catalog (Ando Sakura’s work here may be the most underrated of the year), this is an example of a master working at the top of his form.

7. “Annihilation”

What’s the cinematic equivalent of an earworm? You know those songs, or even ad jingles, that burrow their way into your brain and don’t go away? You think of them at random times, humming them to yourself without even knowing you’re doing so? Alex Garland’s latest is the movie version of that, a movie I saw early this year that will not go away. The images, the themes, the faces, the horrors—there’s something about "Annihilation" that has lodged itself in my memory in a way films rarely do. Part of the reason for that is how open the film is to interpretation, relying on imagery instead of plot twists. Those are the movies that last. We may remember a line or some shocking twist from films we like, but it’s the images from the movies we love that sneak up on us. “Annihilation” will be doing so for decades.

6. “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”

I smile every time I think of Joel and Ethan Coen’s latest Western anthology, which is somewhat ironic given it’s a movie about death. Maybe that’s part of the game. After all, the final segment in Netflix’s film is about bounty hunters who distract their targets with stories. We’re all just distracted by the stories of life, many of my favorites told by the Coens, on our way to shuffling off this mortal coil. These stories work on their own or taken as an entire piece, elevated by the Coen’s incredible attention to detail in every element of the production, including Bruno Delbonnel’s stunning cinematography, one of Carter Burwell’s best scores, and a simply perfect ensemble. I wrote more about the excellence of this film here, and I’m still smiling.

5. “Widows”

Every once in a while, there’s a movie that gets dismissed as pulp by the critical Illuminati. What’s funny is those pulp movies more often find their way into the cinematic firmament than the most buzzed Oscar bait. I'm not worried about the future of "Widows." It didn’t help Steve McQueen’s masterfully entertaining and enlightening examination of corruption and agency in Chicago that it was horrendously advertised, leaving viewers who might like it at home and those who probably wouldn’t angry in their theater seats. Suffice to say, “Widows” was mishandled, but I am as confident in anything on this list that “Widows” will find a loyal, devoted audience over time. Great movies always do.

4. “Burning”

My top 2-4 are relatively interchangeable, all films that did what is so much harder and harder to do every year—broke through our increasingly diffused attention span. With the amount of distractions in this tech-heavy world, it’s getting more difficult even for film critics to “give themselves over” to a movie. For me, I’m often distracted by the other work I have ahead of me—pieces I have to write or editorial duties at this site. Our brains seem to increasingly be asking “what’s next?!” And so there’s something breathtaking about a movie that is powerful enough to push out the “next” with the “now.” Lee Chang-dong’s masterful thriller does exactly that, weaving a mesmerizing tableau for over two hours and then throwing you back into the world, dazed and marveling at what you just watched.

3. “Leave No Trace”

I had a similar reaction to Debra Granik’s poignant drama when I saw it in Sundance. All the other films in Park City faded away as I became deeply invested in the lives of two strangers. Granik’s compassion for these two people is contagious. We feel for the young Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie) and her PTSD-afflicted father Will (Ben Foster) in ways that is rare in cinema. We want Tom to be happy. We want Will to find stability. We want them to be their best selves, and yet Granik doesn’t even remotely judge Will for his trauma or Tom for her increasing need to leave him. It’s that rare subgenre of the character study that isn’t designed to make some grand statement about all of humanity but fully capture the lives of the people in its center. Will and Tom feel real. We know them and we root for them. And we don’t forget them.

2. “If Beale Street Could Talk”

I couldn’t possibly capture why I love Barry Jenkins’ adaptation of James Baldwin’s “unfilmable” novel more completely than Odie Henderson did in his brilliant review, so just read that first. My top two films of the year—and this clearly reflects a personal preference in what I’m looking for lately—blend the lyrical and the realistic. The story of Fonny (Stephan James) and Tish (KiKi Layne) is tragically real in its injustice and examination of broken dreams. And yet there’s also a poetry to Jenkins’ filmmaking that’s simply beautiful. There is poignant tragedy here, of course, but there’s also overwhelming joy. The joy of a family, of love, of hope, and of filmmaking artistry. It’s the rare movie that I feel will shift ever so slightly every time I watch it, offering me something new to appreciate and adore.

1. “Roma”

That last sentence also holds true for Alfonso Cuarón’s masterpiece, the best film of 2018. So many movies lately feel like they “take” from their audience, whether it be with lazy filmmaking or CGI extravaganza that leave you more exhausted than exhilarated. “Roma” gives and gives. I put so much of myself —what I value in both film and criticism—into my review that I’m not sure what else I could say other than I walked out of this movie on a high that films rarely give me any more. Perhaps it’s a reflection of the state of the form or just getting older and busier, but that “spark,” that “movie magic” doesn’t come along like I wish it would as often as it did when I was younger. I was floating after “Roma.” I still am.  

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[mrmichaelchadler]

The 20 Most Exciting World Premieres of TIFF 2018

For a few years now, there’s been a creeping sense that the Toronto International Film Festival was losing a bit of its luster due to major films premiering the week before in Venice and Telluride. For example, last year’s Oscar-winning “The Shape of Water” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” started their award-caliber momentum not in Canada but in Italy. Sure, there are always some major films that bypass Europe and Colorado to start in Toronto (“I, Tonya” did last year, for example), but could TIFF regain some of that power this year? It looks like that might be the case. Yes, there are films doing the earlier fests that will matter this year including “A Star is Born” and “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” (and we will hit those from multiple festivals) but the slate of World Premieres at TIFF 2018 is the best in the five years that I’ve been going. Alphabetically, the 20 films we’re most excited to cover for you, and come back for full-length reviews, dispatches, interviews and more by yours truly, Monica Castillo, Tomris Laffly, and Vikram Murthi.

“Beautiful Boy”

Fans of Timothee Chalamet’s Oscar-nominated breakthrough in “Call Me By Your Name” hope he builds on that with this year’s “Beautiful Boy,” based on a true story. Chalamet co-stars with Steve Carell, an actor clearly hoping for a big, possibly Oscar-inclusive Fall, with this entry and “Welcome to Marwen.” There are rumors in the ether that this was turned down by Venice—not a good sign—but let’s hope they just got this one wrong.

“Ben is Back”

Speaking of hot young actors who appeared in “Lady Bird,” Lucas Hedges is not even remotely close to letting the opportunities afforded him by his “Manchester by the Sea” Oscar nod pass him by. Hedges appeared in that Best Picture nominee in 2016 and landed two more in 2017 (Gerwig’s film and “Billboards”). Could he make it a hat trick in 2018? He appears in three TIFF films, one of which is actually premiering at Telluride (“Boy Erased”) and arguably looks the most promising of the three, and he’s in Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, “Mid90s,” which you’ll find further down this list. “Ben is Back” has a mysterious plot summary that’s really right there in the title. Hedges’ son Ben returns to Julia Roberts’ mother Holly after an extended absence. Watch for our review and we’ll offer some more hints on what happens next.

“The Death and Life of John F. Donovan”

Cannes golden boy Xavier Dolan couldn’t hold his latest until next year’s festival, choosing instead to World Premiere his English-language debut at his home country’s #1 festival. Love or hate the Quebecois enfant terrible of the cinema scene, you can’t deny the cast he’s assembled here, which includes Natalie Portman, Jacob Tremblay, Bella Thorne, Thandie Newton, Sarah Gadon, Kit Harrington, and Susan Sarandon. We’ll be there day one.

“Fahrenheit 11/9”

Anyone else surprised that it took Michael Moore almost two whole years to release his first film explicitly about the 2018 election and the unrest it unearthed in this country and around the world? One of Roger’s favorite documentarians, Moore is unapologetically releasing this Trump takedown in time to influence the mid-term elections in November. I’ve been a little cold on his last few works, but this project feels like it could bring back the heat of his best projects, films like “Roger & Me” and “Bowling For Columbine.”

“Gloria Bell”

Sebastian Lelio made waves last year with two films at TIFF 2018, the acclaimed “Disobedience” and the future Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, “A Fantastic Woman.” A late announcement to this year’s line-up he returns with what could easily be another Oscar vehicle for star Julianne Moore in this remake of Lelio’s own 2013 film, which starred Paulina Garcia (and you really should see if you haven’t yet). A Moore star vehicle is always worth a look—after all, “Still Alice” premiered here in 2014 and earned one of the best living actresses her first Academy Award.

“Green Book”

Peter Farrelly, the auteur behind “Dumb & Dumber” and “Hall Pass,” may not seem like an obvious choice for a TIFF dramatic premiere, but here we are. The filmmaker helms this true story about a white bouncer driving a black pianist on a tour in the 1960s in the South. Hopefully, this is not mere manipulation but a film with something to say about race 50 years ago and today. The most promising thing about it? The two leads are played by Oscar winner Mahershala Ali and shoulda-been-an-Oscar-winner-by-now Viggo Mortensen.

“Greta”

He may not get the attention he did in the years after “The Crying Game,” but we’re here to tell you that a Neil Jordan movie is always something to which cinema fans should pay attention. Even some of his recent, less-seen films like “Ondine” have been interesting. And this thriller pairs the filmmaker with the timeless Isabelle Huppert, who plays a widow who befriends a younger woman, played by Chloe Grace Moretz. That’s about all we know and that’s all we want to know. A Neil Jordan thriller starring Isabelle Huppert? Sign us up.

“Halloween”

Is it really time for another remake of arguably the best horror film of all time? It hasn’t really been that long since the two Rob Zombie movies, has it? And what more could really be added to the original saga? Wait, you say Jamie Lee Curtis is returning? And David Gordon Green is directing? And Danny McBride is co-writing?!?! What the HECK is this going to look like? Even if it’s a failure, it’s almost certain to be an interesting one. Yeah, we can’t wait either.

“Her Smell”

Alex Ross Perry reunites with the star of his best film, “Queen of Earth,” Elisabeth Moss, for this mysterious project that casts the “Handmaid's Tale” Emmy winner as a “self-destructive punk rocker” (there are really no other kinds of rockers in movies). Perry found a different angle of Moss’ repertoire in their previous collaboration, and we’re hoping he does the same here.

“High Life”

Just as Xavier Dolan is doing with “Donovan,” Claire Denis, the recipient of this year’s Ebert Tribute, bypassed the European festivals for Toronto as the place to launch her English-language debut, which has one of the most intriguing plot summaries we’ve ever read: “A father and his daughter struggle to survive in deep space where they live in isolation.” The father? Robert Pattinson. The cast also includes Juliette Binoche, Andre Benjamin, and Mia Goth, but it’s the potential that it feels like Denis could tap in Pattinson that makes this one of the most exciting projects of TIFF 2018.

“Hold the Dark”

Jeremy Saulnier made waves with his previous two thrillers, “Blue Ruin” and “Green Room,” and he’s back with another adventure to the dark side in this adaptation of William Giraldi’s book by regular Saulnier collaborator Macon Blair. The star this time around is the phenomenal Jeffrey Wright, joined by Alexander Skarsgard, Riley Keough, James Badge Dale, and Blair in this thriller set in in the icy elements of the Alaskan wilderness. We can’t wait. (Note: Dale is also in another TIFF World Premiere called “The Standoff at Sparrow Creek,” which we’ll be covering. Nice to see him doing so well.)

“If Beale Street Could Talk”

How do you follow up the best Best Picture winner in years? What could Barry Jenkins possibly do after “Moonlight”? We’ll find out early next week when this adaptation of the James Baldwin novel hits Toronto for this highly-coveted World Premiere. It’s hard to put into words how excited most cinephiles are for this flick, so we’ll just the trailer do the talking for us:

“In Fabric”

Peter Strickland’s “The Duke of Burgundy” made waves at TIFF back in 2014, and it’s taken four years for him to return with a just-as-kinky follow-up, this one about a cursed dress. There are echoes of Argento and Hammer in what promises to be one of the most divisive and truly strange World Premieres of TIFF 2018. It feels like one of the films this year that people will be talking about, love it or hate it.

“Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy”

Justin Kelly’s recent output has been a little mediocre (sorry, “I Am Michael” and “King Cobra” fans) and I wasn’t a big fan of the documentary “Author: The JT Leroy Story” about the fascinating story of JT Leroy, but there’s something about this that feels like the perfect blend of filmmaker and subject matter that has us intrigued. Of course, that intrigue is enhanced greatly by the participation of Laura Dern and Kristen Stewart in the lead roles. Like most logical people on Earth, we love both of them.

“The Land of Steady Habits”

Speaking of women we love, it’s been too long since Nicole Holofcener had a new movie, but her latest drops on Netflix before TIFF is even over, landing on the service on 9/14. The writer/director of “Enough Said” and “Please Give” directs Ben Mendelsohn, Edie Falco, Bill Camp, Elizabeth Marvel, and Connie Britton—an ensemble that could be called Actors We Love. We’ll have a full review and an interview with Holofcener right after the World Premiere.

“Loro”

Hiding in the Masters program is the latest dramedy from the writer/director of the Oscar-winning masterpiece “The Great Beauty.” Paolo Sorrentino’s latest reunites him with star Tony Servillo, the man who anchored his best films, “Beauty” and “Il Divo.” His last film, 2015’s “Youth,” was something of a disappointment, but this feels like an obvious bounceback flick, especially since it’s about Silvio Berlusconi, and Sorrentino excels at capturing insecure men in positions of extreme power.

“Mid90s”

Jonah Hill’s directorial debut is what sounds like a personal project in that it’s about a 13-year-old kid in L.A. in the titular decade when, well, Hill would have been a 13-year-old kid in L.A. Hill wisely avoids the likely draw of casting his celebrity buddies for an ensemble of largely fresh faces, allowing his involvement to be the major draw. Can he transition from being in front of the screen to becoming a major player behind it? We’ll know soon.

“Outlaw King”

The Opening Night film has been a movie that could most politely be described as “meh” over the last few years. Think “The Judge,” “The Magnificent Seven,” and last year’s “Borg vs. McEnroe.” But this year’s entry holds more promise than any of those because it’s directed by a Scotsman who has yet to make a bad film, David Mackenzie, the director of “Hell or High Water” and “Starred Up.” Reuniting Mackenzie with “Hell” star Chris Pine, this is a period piece about Robert the Bruce defeating the English army. Could this be Pine and Mackenzie’s “Braveheart”? Or will it fall victim to the TIFF Opening Night curse?

“Skin”

There are a few films at this year that seem to be speaking to the moment of race relations in 2018, including the aforementioned "Green Book," the adaptation of “The Hate U Give” and this drama about a skinhead (Jamie Bell) who decides to leave his life of hateful violence behind. Co-starring Danielle Macdonald, Bill Camp, and Mike Colter, and produced by the always-interesting Oren Moverman (“The Messenger”), this is one of those projects that feels like it could easily sneak up on people in Toronto.

“Widows”

There will be no sneaking for Steve McQueen’s long-anticipated follow-up to “12 Years a Slave.” Again, much like we did with Jenkins’ film above, it feels like the trailer can do all the hyping we possibly could in words. This movie looks incredible. Let’s hope it lives up to the 2:24 below:

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