#the meryl streep version is like number two on my list

[biggestwilliamfinnfan]

is this relateable

[lastsonlost]

“‘Little Women’ Has a Little Man Problem.”

So reads the headline for��an article on Vanity Fair’s website this month about the latest screen adaptation of the beloved Louisa May Alcott novel. The film has been lauded by critics and ostensibly possesses many of the qualities awards voters look for: an A-list cast (including Saoirse Ronan, Timothée Chalamet and Meryl Streep); a respected actress-turned-director (Greta Gerwig); and beloved source material.

But so far it has been noticeably underrepresented during awards season — two Golden Globe nominations and zero Screen Actors Guild nods — and Vanity Fair described the audiences at early advance screenings as “overwhelmingly comprised of women.” One of its producers, Amy Pascal, told the magazine she believes many male voters have avoided it because of an “unconscious bias.”

While the box office numbers following its release on Wednesday suggest the movie has found a decent audience — it placed third, behind the new “Star Wars” and the latest “Jumanji,” on opening day — that unconscious bias has seemed to trickle down to the casual male viewer as well, if Twitter is any indication. The New York Times critic Janet Maslin recently tweeted her surprise at the “active hostility about ‘Little Women’ from men I know, love and respect.”

She also described the movie’s “problem with men” as “very real.” Someone tweeted in response: “It’s not a ‘problem.’ We just don’t care.”

In 2019, this attitude seems like history repeating itself. When Ms. Alcott’s book was first published in 1868, it was an instant success — it was favorably reviewed by many of the top magazines and has never gone out of print — but that made it an outlier. At that time American women’s novels were not most critics’ idea of “serious” writing. While their female British counterparts — Jane Austen and Fanny Burney, for example — were considered giants on the literary landscape, in the United States a different spirit ruled.

The predominantly white and male guardianship of the literary and intellectual high ground tended to view the essential American story as a solo confrontation with the wilderness, not a love triangle or intimate domestic saga. Nineteenth-century men of letters “saw the matter of American experience as inherently male,” the literary critic Nina Baym wrote in her 1981 essay “Melodramas of Beset Manhood.” It was a complete negation of women’s points of view, not just an artistic dismissal.

That doesn’t mean American women’s fiction wasn’t popular — like “Little Women,” Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” could barely keep up with demand after its 1852 publication. But that widespread appeal was used to slight the genre out of hand and further relegate it to the status of mere entertainment. As Ms. Baym noted, Nathaniel Hawthorne, for one, complained in 1855 about the “damned mob of scribbling women” whose inexplicably popular work he feared would hurt his own book sales.

There’s some truth in the notion that women strove to write works that would sell — Ms. Alcott herself said she wrote “Little Women” “at record speed for money” while men toiled away on epics like “Moby-Dick” that would fail to generate much income. This was in large part born of necessity; women had far fewer opportunities to earn decent money, usually forced to unskilled labor. Who wouldn’t write a book for money?

In some ways, we live in a different, more progressive era where recent onscreen stories by and about women have been highly regarded: the Emmy-winning “Fleabag”; the crowd-pleasing “Hustlers,” which outdid expectations at the box office and could lead Jennifer Lopez to her first Oscar nomination; “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” about a romance between two women in 18th-century France, which was nominated for the Palme d’Or, the highest prize at Cannes, this year. It’s not as if men have shunned these women-led stories.

It may be that on its surface, “Little Women” doesn’t seem as fresh and progressive, comparatively. Maybe men feel it’s too familiar — the book has been turned into a movie no fewer than seven times, including a little-seen version released just last year. But in an era when sequels and remakes clog the film landscape (many of them male-centered), it’s hardly an exception.

Or perhaps the movie’s marketing undersold just how inventive Ms. Gerwig’s adaptation — which takes many interesting creative liberties, such as ditching the linear narrative — is. The bucolic imagery in the trailer underlines the cozy, even slightly sappy aspects of Ms. Alcott’s book: the March sisters with their flowing locks and billowing gowns, looking as though they just stepped out of a John Singer Sargent painting. Knitting around a fire. Lots of dialogue centered around whom the young women will marry (in England, the second half of the book was called “Good Wives”). Some may feel the story is solely about getting a husband.

But the book has always been about more than this; in the character of Jo March (played in this iteration by Ms. Ronan), Ms. Alcott created a rebellious, tomboyish heroine eager for adventure. “I can’t get over my disappointment in not being a boy,” Jo declares in Chapter One. “And it’s worse than ever now, for I’m dying to go and fight with Papa. And I can only stay home and knit, like a poky old woman!” From afar “Little Women” may look like a standard 19th-century romance, but Jo is ready to subvert conventions from the start.

Ms. Gerwig’s film inhabits this spirit throughout. As in the book, the March sisters are intellectually curious, avid readers and artistically inclined, eagerly performing Jo’s melodramatic plays. Amy eventually goes to Europe to pursue a career in art, Beth excels at piano, Meg shows talent as a performer. In a pivotal scene late into the movie, Jo tries to describe to her mother what writing means to her and why she isn’t defined by wifely feelings. Women, she says, “have minds and they have souls as well as just hearts.”

There’s reason to believe this new “Little Women” has appeal beyond a predominantly female audience. Several male film critics have given enthusiastic reviews, and on Wednesday Ms. Maslin tweeted her belief that male opposition has receded now that the movie is out. “Men are loving it,” she wrote. “Even ones who said they wouldn’t go.”

Yet that this concern even existed to begin with is disheartening. If many men haven’t wanted to give it a chance because they don’t think it’s meant for them, we still have a way to go in considering all kinds of narratives about women to be deserving of thoughtful attention.

We can turn to a much-canonized American male writer, David Foster Wallace, for a vivid phrase not far off from Jo’s cry to her mother: Fiction writing “is what it is to be a [expletive] human being.” That’s what “Little Women” is — a plea for women to be seen as human beings.

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SO Let me see if I got this straight. People who are in fanatical support of a movie that has nothing to do with men, who's target audience isn't men and was never marketed to men seem to think it's mens faults but it bombed.

WHY DO THESE PEOPLE THINK MEN ARE OBLIGATED TO JUST GIVE UP THEIR MONEY?

Men that don't only one there Financial labor.

[cinenthusiast]

WARNING: The following contains heavy semantics. This is the equivalent of letterboxd users breaking down their dumb rating systems. OK, not as bad, but still! You have been warned!

I’m starting a new (and final) iteration of something I’ve done my whole life. A single list of my 50 Favorite Actors, covering the full scope of era and gender. I’ll make a new one from scratch each year as a kind of record. 50 doesn’t leave too much room for sudden or drastic evolution, but the long game is what I’m playing at.

All of my old lists (of any kind) used to be ranked. Frankly, fuck that. I’m all for ranking within narrow frameworks (Top Ten By Year, etc) but general lists like favorite actors and movies? Why do it? Numbers make the whole thing an arbitrary assessment, isolating the actors and films into a misguided hierarchy that doesn’t add any insight or clarity. Lists and rankings are such an oversaturated aspect of culture content as it is, and I’d like to avoid this feeling like just another ranking. The collective group is the thing, the totality of taste, interest, and meaning. Keeping this a singular entity (with one or two caveats) preserves this as a personal journal entry of sorts, a snapshot and not the end-all be-all. It’s a way of capturing my taste in film and the people in it. I’ve put a star next to my ten favorites, and I’ve got a separate long list of people I considered but ultimately didn’t add, and that’s the extent of it.

Growing up, I made favorite actor lists obsessively. When I was around six or seven I would play ‘School’. I was the teacher. My students? The likes of Tony Danza, Christopher Lloyd, Danny DeVito, and John Travolta. I had pages and pages of any actor whose name I knew (the entire casts of Angels in the Outfield and Addams Family Values were represented). I took very careful attendance to make sure everyone was present, calling out each name and imagining that yes, they were there. Each actor received a little check in their row of squares (I made sure I had the checkered graph paper to keep everything orderly and precise).

age 11

all of these were made at age 11

Then there were the dark days, the days when tween Katie made lists like Top Ten ‘Cutie-Patootie’ Actors (a reference to the Rosie O’Donnell Show, yes, the Rosie O’Donnell Show, seen above). As you can see, the kid from Dennis the Menace topped that one. I also had my constantly revised Top Ten Favorite Actors & Actresses. Five actors from the lists pictured above are also on this current one: Nicole Kidman, Jim Carrey, Winona Ryder, John Travolta, and Michelle Pfeiffer. They were major icons for me then, and they remain so now, 20 years after the fact. They are forever favorites.

the four quadrants, from 2006 (age 18)

What followed were continuously updated versions of this, covering half my lifetime: Top Blank (at varying points it was 20, 30, and 50) Modern Actors, Modern Actresses, Classic Actors, and Classic Actresses (‘Classic’ accounted for the Hollywood studio era). They were always divided into those four quadrants. I can timestamp the years by who was on them. Simon Pegg at the top? Must be 2008. Katee Sackhoff near the top? I must have been watching “Battlestar Galactica” then. You can find the 2012 versions on this site: here and here.

These categories created considerable grey area, swaths of actors that never really fit comfortably in their group. Those who either featured in films from both eras (Jack Lemmon) or were technically of the ‘Modern’ era but with careers that didn’t really transition into the current (Faye Dunaway). And those ‘Modern’ lists were always much more about the now. I never made room for these actors who qualified as ‘Modern’ but who could be pinpointed to the past. I wanted to feature the up-and-coming, people whose careers I was excited about now! Filmographies I could follow along with as they progressed.

This factor, which meant so much to me then, means nothing re: this new list. For one, I don’t follow current stuff to the degree I used to. 21st century film is less interesting to me (current TV far less so). But I’m really fond of a lot of actors working today, from relative newcomers to tried-and-true character actors to cemented A-listers. The group there was no room for, not by a long shot, were the relative newcomers. I’m an easy lay when it comes to loving actors. But with over a century of performers to choose from, it doesn’t leave much room for the young “oooh I love him/her/them, I can’t wait to see what they do next” ones.

But for the record, the fresher (2010 to present) faces that I’m most invested in are Adam Driver, Elizabeth Debicki, Tom Hardy, Lakeith Stanfield, Kristen Stewart, Jesse Plemons, Nicholas Hoult, and Jonah Hill (whose career trajectory I’m endlessly intrigued by, a man funnier than most of his peers, with the unstable depths of a Chris Penn, whose hyper-sensitivity about being taken seriously and joining the ranks of the prestigious show up on the screen).

The old lists, especially the 50-each ones that totaled to 200 actors, were actually more challenging than this list. Because with so much room, you’re fooled into thinking everyone can be represented. But they can’t; even those lists fill up quick. And now, with just 50 total, it gets down to essentials. There are the favorites, and then the ones who matter most. Oh, I love them? Cool, next! Oh, I love them a lot? Cool, next! Omgtheyaresoamazing? Cool. Next!

There are so many actors whose performances I consistently love or enjoy, that I always look forward to seeing and am often moved by. But there’s a difference between actors who frequently deliver great work, and actors who make something inherently more just by being there, that make me sit up in my seat because what they give either draws out extra engagement from me or they are so distinctive a presence that the fabric of the film/show is thereby altered. But none of this exists without the secret ingredient: that chemical thing that just draws you to one person’s talent and onscreen life more than another.

The factors are endless. Above is my next tier of favorites, the ones that I didn’t go with but thought about and in some cases agonized (yes, agonized) over whether to include or not.

What do you do when a specific stretch of someone’s work means more to you than most people’s entire careers? Most don’t make it (Patty Duke, Diane Lane, Juliette Lewis, Marlon Brando, etc) But a few do: pre-Dick Tracy Warren Beatty, Eric Roberts in the 1980’s, and Sandy Dennis in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

What do you do with the actors who are still alive but not working regularly, at all, or at the same caliber they used to? Most don’t make it (Nancy Allen, Tim Curry, Kathleen Turner, Fairuza Balk, Sheryl Lee, etc). But a few do: Jim Carrey, Shelley Duvall, Theresa Russell (a spot that could have been occupied by many that mean just as much to me, but I went with Theresa this time because it felt right), Eric Roberts, and John Travolta.

What do you do with the actors who mean a lot to you but whose careers were so brief that it’s hard to justify adding them over others? Unfortunately, almost all of those actors didn’t make it (Linda Manz, Paula Sheppard, Laird Cregar, Zoe Lund, James Dean, Pamela Franklin, etc). One does: Louise Brooks.

What do you do about the actors you love watching more than most but whose work you aren’t familiar enough with yet? None of them make it (Natasha Lyonne, Yaphet Kotto, Silvana Mangano, Helmut Berger, Dagmar Lassander, Tuesday Weld, etc). There are plenty of films from the 50 I’ve yet to see, but I’ve at least seen enough.

Then there are all the others, the really tough ones. I think about James Gandolfini more and more as the years go by. Harvey Keitel’s performances resonate a lot more as I get older (those defiant eyes, I can often feel him). I can’t believe I didn’t make room for Christina Ricci. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is the defining comedienne of my lifetime. There is only one Carol Kane, Donald Sutherland, Nicolas Cage, Joan Cusack, Parker Posey, Lily Tomlin, Crispin Glover. I get distinct pleasures from watching each of them. Some of my favorite immortals are Marlene Dietrich, Alain Delon, Judy Garland, Bette Davis, Buster Keaton, Cate Blanchett. I’m pretty sure I talk about Jude Law all the time. I will, and have, watched Jean-Claude Van Damme in anything I can find. In recent months I’ve rewatched a lot of key Samuel L. Jackson performances (Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction, Black Snake Moan, Django Unchained), and was newly reminded that he is one of our most compelling living actors. His pervasive and phoned-in presence in every imaginable franchise had led me to forget that. I’ve been hooked on Gene Wilder, Charles Laughton, Eva Green, Cillian Murphy, and still am. It goes on and on and on.

But this is the challenge of it, and the fun of it. My 50 favorites capture my fascination with stardom and long-range careers with eras & reinventions (ex. Crawford, Cruise, Fonda, Monroe, DiCaprio, Farrell, Taylor), physicality (ex. Chan, Ball, Phoenix, Reeves, Olyphant) & commanding physical presence (ex. Reed, Kidman, De Niro, Mitchum), blue moon charisma (ex. Pfeiffer, Russell, Walbrook, Cagney, Reed, Nicholson), the ones I feel a deep connection to (all of them but especially Carrey, Brooks, & Hoffman) & offbeat god-tier character actors (Dennis, Dourif, Roberts, Black, Duvall) I would take a bullet for.

I start to realize some of the people that aren’t even on this second list: Tilda Swinton, Kate Winslet, Robin Williams, Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Katharine Hepburn, Michael Shannon, Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Jeanne Moreau, Saorsie Ronan, Brad Pitt, Gena Rowlands, Dirk Bogarde, James Mason, Jeff Bridges, Ethan Hawke, Jeff Goldblum, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, Catherine O’Hara, Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Charlize Theron, Robert Redford, Julie Christie, Michael C. Hall, Michael Caine, Malcolm McDowell, John Hurt, Paul Newman, Anjelica Huston, Sigourney Weaver (every time I watch her in something I think about how much I love her. Her work in Alien 3 means a lot to me), Elliot Gould, etc etc etc. Hell, Peter Mullan is the only person on either list who appears in any Harry Potter film, and that franchise employed basically every British actor you can think of. Most of these actors have been on other lists in the past. Some you’d always be guaranteed to find there (Binoche, Deneuve, etc). As I type this I am realize I forgot Michael Stuhlbarg and John Hawkes in that second group. At the end of the day it just becomes about knowing who there was never any question about, and going with your gut on the rest.

But these 50 (ok, 52, I cheated, the truth is out!), the ones I ultimately chose, are the actors whose work collectively means more than the rest, my ultimate favorites: the ones I can lose myself in, and then find myself in. Who are yours?

1st Annual 50 Favorite Actors list WARNING: The following contains heavy semantics. This is the equivalent of letterboxd users breaking down their dumb rating systems.

[spryfilm]

“Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” (2018)

Musical

Running Time: 114 minutes

Written & directed by: Ol Parker

Featuring:  Lily James, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Pierce Brosnan, Andy García, Dominic Cooper, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Jessica Keenan Wynn, Alexa Davies, Jeremy Irvine, Josh Dylan, Hugh Skinner, Cher, and Meryl Streep

Tanya: “Be still my beating vagina.”

Critical Commentary:

This week sees the release of “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” (2018) the sequel to the 2008 “Mamma Mia!” which at the time was a massive global hit that consisted of a large ensemble cast, written and directed by women based on the stage musical of the same name. Now ten years later while not being the hit the original was it has garnered some very positive critical acclaim with an even larger cast coupled with it also being a prequel as well as a sequel of sorts, which is an interesting narrative gamble as well as possibly confusing for audiences. Now written and directed by Ol Parker who has a track record in these kinds of comedy/dramas brings something a little different, that is a narrative complexity that is present mainly because it is trying to be original and a step on from the previous movie which works well enough, although the flashback scenes are a little overdone seemingly covering up the absence that a star like Meryl Streep creates. Which leads to the largest difference in this sequel the almost complete absence of Meryl Streep which is underplayed in marketing materials but is obvious from the outset, she does make an appearance at the end of the movie which is welcome but feels more like lip service than a real role. However by the time the end credits roll the feeling is that “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” is a completely worthy follow up as well as an antidote for the cultural, economic and most importantly political malaise that we find ourselves in, this is as advertised a true feel good movie with sun, smiles, music, laughter and love, I defy you not to have a smile as you watch this, especially with other people in the same room.

Written and directed by Ol Parker who is best known for writing “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” (2011) and its sequel “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” (2015) here he takes similar narratives but adds music as well as a far larger cast, which to be fair is a massive undertaking when dealing with some of the biggest movie stars of the past four decades. Parker wisely recognises that audiences are coming for a few key elements, a story that reinforces the original, some dancing and songs from ABBA’s catalogue that viewers know off by heart and can either tap their feet or even sing along, which some screenings offer, to me that sounds like real fun. “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” does rely on a large element of brand recognition as well as nostalgia, for the past, yes, but more importantly for the feeling that the previous movie brought out in people which of course this one succeeds at accomplishing, again Parker as a smart writer knows this as well. The larger question is how the narrative holds together switching between time periods at what can be a frenetic pace with the use of parallel cutting so as to highlight moments of plot, music or even geography which do work well, but there is so much happening I did feel it was a little overlong, which it isn’t but to me feels that way, I have no doubt though that for some it will not be long enough.

The movie begins with Sophie Sheridan who is preparing for the grand reopening of her mother Donna’s hotel, following Donna’s death a year earlier. She is upset because two of her fathers, Harry and Bill, are unable to make it to the reopening and she is having trouble in her relationship with Sky. The story then switches 1979; a young Donna graduated from Oxford’s New College with Rosie and Tanya, and prepares to travel the world. From here we visit both time periods with music playing a big part in the narrative, we are introduced to new characters as well as plot points from the previous movie being expanded on as well as of course the obligatory big final number that seems to take up the final act of the movie.

In terms of performance this is a huge cast with many A-list actors involved, the previous movies cast are all returning along with a few more, including Cher, as well as Andy Garcia who are both wonderful, Garcia in particular is always great to see on the big screen and is having something of a resurgence thanks to supporting roles in a great many projects big and small in a variety of genres. There have been some younger actors cast to play versions of other older actors, for me the stand out is Hugh Skinner who makes an immediate impact as a young Harry who threatens to steal the movie away from whoever he shares scenes with, this for me was the highlight of the cast as well as the movie, he has expert comic timing as well as expert special awareness for what is occurring around him. Of course the singing as well as dancing ability is of most importance and as you expect from the previous movie it is the women who are the standouts, with Lily James the newest main cast member doing an outstanding job and proving why her three previous roles have been unmitigated success, Collins is proving to be the real deal in terms of young actresses.

The strength of this movie is its happiness factor which may sound flippant but after a long two years of seemingly brutality in the media, much cynicism as well as the erosion of peoples rights it is a breath of fresh air to see a movie that is all about singing, dancing, family and friends who all get along and actually want to be together, there are no real dark pasts or indecision just people living lives on a Greek Island with really little care or seriousness. Of course it is a very white middle class movie that offers nothing of real culture or substance, there are little people of other cultures, in fact culture has been appropriated, if this does not bother you then this will be a fun time to be had as well as repeatedly viewed I am sure along with the original movie.

When I watched this movie I was not expecting much but I had a good time watching it, while its not the most original or significant of the year or decade it does offer something that will reveal itself when watched and I have to say the more people watching at the same time the better.

Technical Commentary:

The 4K UHD release of “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” comes packaged in your standard two-disc 4K UHD amaray case.  Within that case is the standard 4K copy of the movie as well as the standard Blu-ray copy.   There is also a digital copy redemption pamphlet that’s been included as well as a slipcover that’s been made available during the original pressing that features the same artwork that’s included on the case.

Video:

Despite being an upscaled 4K release, “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” ultimately shines best with its utilization of Dolby Vision.  Giving its viewers a bright and vivid color presentation that really offers a detailed look into the scenic views.  While the majority of the movie really didn’t have much that stood out over other parts, I will certainly say that the scenery in which the story takes place really stood out the best with me personally, and really helped with the fun to be had with the various dance numbers.

Audio:

Bundled with a Dolby Atmos audio track, the 4K UHD release of “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” really does a decent job at offering an all out immersive audio experience. The musical numbers really sounded great through my home theater system, almost as if I were sitting there at a live show.  The dialogue is spoken cleanly, ensuring that the characters could be heard without having to adjust the volume levels as it progressed.

Special Features:

Enhanced Sing-A-Longs

Deleted & Extended Songs & Scenes

Mamma Mia! Reunited

Playing Donna

Costumes And The Dynamos

Curtain Call

The Story

Today Interview With Cher & Judy Craymer

  (L to R) Young Rosie (ALEXA DAVIES), Young Tanya (JESSICA KEENAN WYNN) and Young Donna (LILY JAMES) in “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.” Ten years after “Mamma Mia! The Movie,” you are invited to return to the magical Greek island of Kalokairi in an all-new original musical based on the songs of ABBA.

4K Blu-ray review: “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” (2018) "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again" (2018) Musical Running Time: 114 minutes Written & directed by: Ol Parker…

[netunleashed-blog]

Best Amazon Prime movies: the best films to stream in July 2018

http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=5201 Best Amazon Prime movies: the best films to stream in July 2018 - http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=5201 Amazon Prime's movie selection keeps getting better and better. While it's rival Netflix focuses on original content, newer movies and TV shows (something that Amazon does admirably at too), Amazon does a good job of keeping its movie streaming catalogue loaded up with classics and award-winning flicks. Having said that, there are lots of films in its library that are boring, mediocre and really, really rubbish. The cream is there, but there's a lot to dig through first.That’s why we've done all the hard work for you. We've scoured all of the movies on offer for anything and everything that's worth watching on Amazon Prime.We've collected together more than 100 movies that you can stream on Amazon Video (that’s the movies and TV streaming section of Amazon Prime) right now. Expect a mixture of recent releases and timeless classics, as well as films that are suitable for the whole family.     [Update: Amazon Prime has recently added The Wrestler, Darren Aronofsky's touching and heart-breaking movie about a wrestler (played by Mickey Rourke) who despite being too old and ill for the ring tries to cling onto the success he had decades before. Dark comedy classic Death Becomes Her has also landed on the streaming service, which stars Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis.]We all know that streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video can turn an occasional movie-watching hobby into hours (and hours and hours) of endlessly flicking through film options. It's also worth bearing in mind that for every award-winning work of art on Amazon Video, there's lots of B-movie trash that isn't even worth putting on to ease away a Sunday morning hangover.Although we do love the odd guilty pleasure now and again, in this list we’ve created you'll only find the best picks. So let's dive straight in. Get your free 30-day Amazon Prime trial New Entry:  This dark comedy stars Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep who are on a mission to stay young, beautiful and full of life forever. As you'd expect, that wish comes with pretty disturbing consequences, especially when you're buying a creepy elixir from a witch, played brilliantly by Isabella Rossellini. New Entry: This touching and (and at times heart-breaking) movie from Darren Aronofsky is about a wrestler (played by Mickey Rourke) who despite being too old and ill for the ring tries to cling onto the success he had decades before while trying to rebuild his relationship with his daughter. New Entry: The Mummy Sure Tom Cruise and co. tried to remake the 1999 version of The Mummy, but it just didn't have the cheesy charm of this original. If you haven't seen it already, it's a fun and at times actually quite creepy, classic adventure tale about awakening an ancient Egyptian mummy. Rachel Weisz and Brendan Fraser are kooky and lovable as the lead characters and the sequel, The Mummy 2, isn't half bad either. New Entry: The Theory of Everything Managing to be both beautifully heart-warming and heart-breaking at the same time, this biographical movie follows the early life of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. It's been adapted from the book Travelling to Infinity: My Life With Stephen, written by Hawking's ex-wife Jane. It particularly focuses on his time at Cambridge University, his relationship with Jane and his ALS diagnosis.  New Entry: True Romance It's not your standard love story, but True Romance stands up as one of the greatest in Hollywood history. Take two unlikely lovers, a bunch of crooks, drugs, guns and arguably the best script Quentin Tarantino has ever worked on, and you've got a cult classic if ever there was one.When comic book nerd Elvis falls in love with Alabama, the beau of a big time drug dealing pimp, the two have to race across country in an attempt to avoid the mob from whom they've accidentally stolen a suitcase of cocaine from. With violence around every corner, will they ever be free to just enjoy each other's company? Here's our Best Amazon Prime TV ShowsRival check: These are our best movies on Netflix UKAnd here are the best shows on NetflixThe best Netflix sci-fi movies you can stream right nowThe best horror movies you can scare yourself silly with Logan Lucky Brothers Jimmy, played by Channing Tatum, and Clyde, played by Adam Driver, plan to carry out an elaborate robbery during the Charlotte Motor Speedway. It's an action-packed comedy with a stellar cast, alongside Driver and Tatum, Daniel Craig, Hilary Swank, Katie Holmes and Sebastian Stan all star. Steven Soderbergh reportedly came out of retirement in order to direct and distribute Logan Lucky, if you wanted anymore proof it's definitely worth a watch. The Last Stand Arnie plays a small town sheriff on a border town who has to go head-to-head with a fugitive on the run from the FBI. It's not the best movie on offer, but if you like action, one liners and edge-of-yer-seat thrillers then it's one for you.   The Hurt Locker Kathryn Bigelow is one of the best action directors around, so it’s no surprise that The Hurt Locker won her the Best Director award at the Oscars - the first time a women won the accolade. What is surprising, though, is just how nuanced the film is. Given it’s about disposing of bombs, the tension is in the quiet moments, rather than when the explosions start.  Full Metal Jacket Stanley Kubrick's classic take on the Vietnam War follows the journey of Private Joker Davis, from his gruelling training regime all the way to marine status. It looks at the ups, downs, horrors and psychological damage of war. Free Fire Set in Boston in the late '70s, Free Fire is a fantastic, inventive film that mostly takes place in a warehouse. Because of the limited scenario, it's thanks to Ben Wheatley's effortless and stylish direction and the superb ensemble cast - and lots and lots of gun play - that Free Fire never becomes boring. The Man From U.N.C.L.E The Man From U.N.C.L.E is by no means a faithful adaptation of the TV show of the same name (the characters remain but everything else has changed) but it is a super-stylish crime caper from Guy Ritchie. It looks great, thanks to its '60s setting, and the cast are superb. Henry Cavill (a Brit playing an American CIA agent) finally shows the world the charisma he lacks as Superman, while Armie Hammer (an American playing a Russian) is fantastic as Cavill's KGB opposite. Alicia Vikander (a swede playing a German) shows off her funny side, while Elizabeth Debicki (a french woman playing someone who is not French) is great as the villain of the piece. It's a tad overlong and convoluted but a great, underrated watch. Heat Heat is widely regarded as Michael Mann’s best film. And it also has the classic combo of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino at the height of their acting powers. De Niro’s Neil McCauley is planning one last heist before retirement and Pacino’s Lieutenant Hanna has to stop him. A story of two flawed alpha males on each side of the law, their relationship is one of both enmity and respect. This isn’t your average by-the-numbers crime thriller. End of Watch Before David Ayer was assembling a Suicide Squad and creating one of the most abysmal comic-book movies ever, he made this highly original film that’s shot documentary style and focuses on a couple of cops whose job it is to patrol South Central LA and keep the peace. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña are superb as the pair who risk life and limb to do their job. Given Ayer grew up on streets not dissimilar to what’s being portrayed in the movie, End of Watch is a searing and honest portrayal of an area of America few would dare venture. The Wave Norway isn’t renowned for its disaster movies, but with The Wave and Troll Hunter it is making a decent name for itself. The Wave is about a tsunami that hits the country when a Norwegian fjord collapses. Given the relatively low budget, not much disaster is actually seen. Instead we are let to deal with the individuals who are trying to survive the wave. As disaster movies go, this is one of the more interesting to watch. Get your free 30-day Amazon Prime trial Pawn Sacrifice Tobey Maguire plays American chess legend Bobby Fischer in this dramatic biographical film. It follows the true story of the 1972 World Chess Championship when the troubled genius Fischer battled Soviet Grandmaster Boris Spassky, played by Liev Schreiber. Perfect if you're looking for a gripping Cold War drama.  There Will Be Blood Award-winning US drama There Will Be Blood tells the compelling, chilling and at times very, very emotional tale of a silver miner-turned-oilman desperate to make a fortune during California's oil boom in the late 19th century. Critics loved the movie and Daniel Day-Lewis, who plays the lead role, landed himself a BAFTA, Oscar, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, NYFCC and IFTA Best Actor award for his performance. Wowee!  Last Flag Flying Based on Darryl Ponicsan's book of the same name, Last Flag Flying is Richard Linklater's latest movie starring Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston and Laurence Fishburne. That stellar line-up play three veterans who reunite after one of their sons is killed in the Iraq War.  The Florida Project Indie critical hit The Florida Project is one of the newer films on Amazon Video. It follows a summer in the life of six year-old Moonee, a joy-filled child who lives in a motel just outside Disney World. And the struggles of her mother as she tries to makes ends meet. The film is directed by Sean Baker, one of today’s most interesting indie film-makers. He also made 2015’s Tangerine, a low-budget hit shot entirely using iPhone 5 phones. Borg Vs McEnroe  Perhaps one of the most iconic tennis matches of all time has been immortalized in this drama from director Janus Metz Pedersen starring Sverrir Gudnason as Björn Borg and Shia LaBeouf as John McEnroe. This isn't just about the tennis though, as the drama follows how the legendary duel at Wimbledon affected the men's lives too. A Clockwork Orange We could argue all day about which of Stanley Kubrick’s films is the best. But A Clockwork Orange is up there with 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr Strangelove and The Shining, no doubt. It’s an adaptation of Stanley Burgess’s novel of the same name. A Clockwork Orange follows Malcolm McDowell’s Alex and his gang of Droogs. They stalk the streets, committing acts of “ultra-violence” and talking in an affected argot. A description like this doesn’t uncover the unsettling and weird appeal of this 1971 classic, though. You’ll have to watch it. Falling Down William Foster is a man falling apart. He’s divorced, fired from his job, a middle-aged white man who feels like a victim of the world. So he takes to the streets with an uzi, terrorising ordinary people. Falling Down was a powerful film in 1993. The current issues of US gun policy and racial division make the movie seem as vital as ever. Michael Douglas plays the lead role, and some consider it to be the best performance of his career. Magnolia You’ll need to set an evening aside for this one. Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 Magnolia is a sprawling three-hour epic of the interconnecting lives of disparate people living in the San Fernando valley, Calfornia.Some criticise it for being overlong and melodramatic. But if you can submit to this film you’ll find it powerful and moving, an insight into human nature. “Do not expect subdued taste and restraint, but instead a kind of operatic ecstasy,” said movie reviewing legend Roger Ebert. Goodfellas An unalloyed classic among gangster films, Goodfellas isn’t to be missed. Ray Liotta is Henry Hill, a young man who idolises the gangster lifestyle and rises up through the ranks under the guidance of De Niro’s menacing but charismatic James “The Gent” Conway.There are guns, drugs and the downfall of powerful figures. It’s all laced with black comedy, and director Martin Scorsese's masterful movie-making doesn’t waste any of Goodfella’s two and a half hour run time. Dial M for Murder We're sure you've heard of this one. Dial M for Murder is a Hitchcock classic starring Ray Milland and Grace Kelly. Milland plays a man who suspects that his wife (Grace Kelly) is having an affair and blackmails an old friend to murder her. What follows is a thrilling crime drama that's a true classic.   The Lost City of Z Largely overlooked upon its release, The Lost City of Z is in fact a fascinating tale, with Charlie Hunnam playing real-life British explorer Percy Fawcett. At the turn of the 20th century he ventured into the heart of the Amazon, and discovered an unknown, advanced civilisation. It become a great passion, understanding this culture, with Fawcett returning multiple times to demystify a people previously considered "savages", before Fawcett himself mysteriously disappeared. If you're adverse to films starring Robert Pattinson (co-starring here) after his Twilight days, don't let that stop you from giving this wonderful film a go. Jackie Jackie is all about Natalie Portman. Her portrayal of Jackie Kennedy, days after the assassination of her husband and president of the United States John F Kennedy, is a masterclass of acting. She has studied footage of Jackie and got her mannerisms and speech imprint spot on. The film is a stark and intimate look and the former First Lady and is a rollercoaster of emotions. It's endlessly watchable and it's all because of Portman who earned (and subsequently missed out on) a well-deserved Best Actress Oscar nomination. Silence Martin Scorsese has been in the movie business long enough to do whatever he wants. Silence is his him at his most uncompromising. A difficult sell after the fleeting fun that was Wolf of Wall Street, Silence is a meditative, hard-to-watch movie about pilgrimage. Starring Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver as two monks who go on a journey to find a place where Christians are put to extremes to prove their love for god. It's a trying movie and one that takes the utmost concentration. It's not quite the masterpiece Scorsese was seeking, given he's been mulling the story for decades but it's a worthy, if meandering watch. Moonlight Moonlight is stunning film. Split into three parts, the movie charts the life of Chiron, a black man growing up in Miami. It's heartbreaking and uplifting in equal measure and just so happens to be the lowest-ever budgeted movie that has won the Best Picture Oscar. While the acting is superb in all three of the sections - it's the storytelling that really shines and shimmers here. It's captivating, brooding stuff. Manchester By The Sea It's hard not to write about Manchester By The Sea without stepping into spoiler territory so here's the broad strokes: Casey Affleck stars as a Boston janitor who has to take care of his brother's son after his brother dies. What ensues is a heartbreaking movie. Its backdrop is a snowy Manchester in Massachusetts, something that echoes the characters in the movie. This isn't a film that wraps up neatly in a bow in the end - it's much more closer to fractured, complicated business that is real life. Lion Lion sounds like a movie that's been manufactured for awards season but it's much cleverer than that. It's based on the true story of Saroo Brierley, a child from India separated from his family when he was just five years old and adopted by a couple from Tasmania. The story follows Saroo in his younger years then flips to him as an adult on the lookout for his real parents. Dev Patel is brilliant as the adult who goes on a journey to find out his true heritage. While it all sounds a little melodramatic, it really isn't - director Garth Davis  of Top Of The Lake fame manages to make a movie that's not too overly dramatic but really rather moving. I, Daniel Blake Some 40 films into his career, you would expect director Ken Loach's talents to be on the wane but I, Daniel Blake may well be his masterpiece. It's a superb study of the class system in the UK, and what happens when someone tries to be a better person despite bureaucracy stopping them from doing just that. Yes, it's political but Loach doesn't play this part of it up - it just naturally seeps through because of the frustrations the film presents. Essential stuff. The Impossible The Impossible is what Tom Holland was doing before he became Spider-Man, starring in a true tale about the devastating tsunami in Thailand. He is one of three sons of Naomi Watts and Ewen McGregor's characters and part of a compelling character study of what happens to people with natural disasters strike. Director JA Bayona proved he is a talent to look out for with The Impossible. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which he is helming in 2018, should cement that fact. Room Brie Larson stars in this heartfelt study of human endurance. Larson is Ma. She has been imprisoned in a small shed for years, having to bring up her little boy Jack (a great Jacob Tremblay) in isolation. The film follows their story to the bittersweet end. For a film that’s mostly shot within the confines of a small room, director Lenny Abrahamson manages to eek out pathos in the mundane but it’s the acting of the two leads that’s the real reason to watch the heart-rending movie. Apocalypse Now Apocalypse Now is a rare gem of a movie. Born out of chaos, where leading actors had to be replaced, medical problems blighted the shoot and Marlon Brando went somewhat off piste, it’s a miracle there was any film at all to show for the shoot, let alone one of the greatest movies ever made. Based loosely on Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness, the film follows a soldier’s descent into hell as he tries to track down the elusive Colonel Kurtz, a decorated war veteran who has seemingly gone mad. From the amazing visuals, to the sweeping score, to the acting chops of the main cast, Apocalypse Now is a terrifying masterclass in filmmaking. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy John LeCarre’s superb spy novel is given a decent adaptation, thanks to Let Me In director Tomas Alfredson’s measured, careful take on the source material. Gary Oldman is superb as George Smiley, the veteran spy catcher brought out of retirement to find an Russian mole in the ranks of the MI6. Even if you know who the mole is, the way the film unfurls this information is utterly captivating. Spotlight A deserved winner of the Best Film Oscar, Spotlight is a searing look at investigative journalism at its finest - trying to uncover the truth of child abuse within the Catholic church. The film is a true testament to real journalism and throws shade at online clickbait and its erosion of proper investigative news gathering. Oh. The King's Speech Another Oscar winner seemingly grown in a petri dish for the sole purpose to win awards, The King's Speech is one man's struggle to get over a speech impediment and subsequent fear of public speech - it just so happens this man is also the king of England. For all its faults, it tugs on the right strings and is very watchable. The Deer Hunter The Russian roulette scene may be what most people think of when someone chats about Deer Hunter but the movie has so much more to offer. It shows the horrors of war during and after the Vietnam conflict, shining a light on what a situation like that does to a person and their relationships. It's a gruelling but sometimes beautiful watch. Mulholland Drive What started off as a failed TV pilot ended up being one of David Lynch’s most accomplished films. As with any Lynch movie describing the plot won't do Mulholland Drive justice. What starts off as a portrayal of a woman seeking fame in Hollywood ends up being a nightmarish look at the duality of personality and what happens when reality turns into a fever dream. Captain Fantastic It’s great to see Viggo Mortensen back as a leading man and Captain Fantastic suits his eclectic sensibilities down to the ground. It’s a film about a family of homeschooled children who have lived off-grid with their eccentric parents. When their mother dies, they come back to civilisation with a bump. Mortensen is superb as the grizzled patriarch and the casting of the kids is spot on. In a film full of surprises, perhaps the most surprising thing about Captain Fantastic is its writer-director Matt Ross. He plays Gavin Belson in Silicon Valley! Get your free 30-day Amazon Prime trial Interstellar Even when Christopher Nolan missteps, he still manages to hide the stumble with a highly orchestrated dance routine. Interstellar is overblown and weighed down by its own importance but, boy, is it an epic watch. Matthew McConaughey stars as Cooper, a farmer and former test pilot who helps on a mission to save the people of Earth, which is ravaged by lack of land resource. The mission involves going to space and entering a wormhole and exploring a new planet that may have the means for sustaining human life. The film falls in on itself as it nears its conclusion but it’s a bold, measured ride into the unknown with some of the best visuals Nolan has created. Just don’t go expecting a masterpiece, however. The Island The Island may not be new, but it's new to Amazon Prime Video and it's a sci-fi action movie with a fairly smart, interesting plot. Directed and co-produced by Michael Bay, it follows the story of Lincoln Six Echo (played by Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two Delta (played by Scarlett Johansson), who are trapped on an island for pretty dark and scary reasons. As you can guess, they escape and try to figure out the nature of their existence and why they're been kept captive. Colossal Fancy something a bit offbeat and wacky to watch today? This Anne Hathaway-starring film features an unemployed young writer who finds out she's the reason a giant monster is causing havoc on the other side of the planet. The film also stars Jason Sudeikis and Dan Stevens, and it's ready to watch on Amazon Prime now. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring  It’s the movie that started two decades of Gollum impressions and Gandalf quotes. The Fellowship of the Ring is the first third of the Lord of the Rings saga, starting in the Shire. It dramatises all the delicious backstory that makes fantasy epics seem so grand.We only get the standard theatrical cut of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring on Amazon Video, and neither of the two films that followed. But this three-hour cut is worth revisiting. While visual effects have improved a lot since this film’s release, its grand vistas filmed in New Zealand are still quite something to witness. Inception A dream with a dream within a dream. When Inception arrived it did so with a similar impact as The Matrix, a decade earlier. It made you think, but was wrapped around a blockbuster shell that demanded to be seen on the big screen. But, hey, lots of us have big screens in our living rooms these days.Leonardo DiCaprio is a thief who enters people’s subconscious to plant ideas in their minds. But when the border between the dream world and reality has been broken, how can you tell which you’re in? Inception had all the makings of a high-concept hokey mess on paper but Christopher Nolan turned it into one of the best action films of recent decades. Gremlins We know you know Gremlins. This is the film that tells the story of a young man who receives a Furby-like creature as a pet and fails to follow every instruction with regards to its care. What results is an army of destructive, evil Gremlins set on destroying a small town at Christmas. It's a festive classic. Arrival Like aliens and whiteboards? Get you a movie that can do both. Arrival was an astonishing science fiction film, released towards the end of 2016, and making its way to Amazon Prime Video before it's even landed on cable or satellite TV in the UK. Based on the novella 'Stories of Your Life' by Ted Chiang, and directed by Sicario director Denis Villeneuve (whose next task will be the long-awaited sequel to Blade Runner), it's a fantastic film exploring love, loss, communication and the lengths we should all be prepared to go to in order to understand, accept and value the differences between us. Super 8 If you bypassed this sci-fi movie from J.J. Abrams when it was first released in 2011, it's definitely worth watching now. It'll especially appeal to those who really got into Stranger Things, as well as those with a soft spot for classic coming-of-age adventure movies, like E.T. and The Goonies. There's a lot of great character development, mystery, action, sci-fi and, of course, lots of lens flare because it's a J. J. Abrams movie after all. Looper One of the more interesting sci-fi movies of the past decade and a huge reason why director Rian Johnson got the Star Wars: Episode VIII gig. Looper focuses on the timey wimey tale of a bunch of hitmen, whose job it is to send people from the future into the past to kill them. Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are superb in the film, which manages to take complex ideas and boil them down into an entertaining popcorn thriller. Attack The Block Star Wars alumni John Boyega got his first break on this great UK indie, as did newly instated Doctor Who Jodie Whittaker. Attack The Block is the first movie by Joe Cornish - of Adam and Joe fame - and it’s an absolute corker. Aliens have come to earth to wreak havoc and it’s down to a South London gang to make sure their neighbourhood doesn’t become a disaster zone. Full of warm wit and fantastic humour - not to mention some startling special effects - the movie mashes together a number of genres together and has a whole lot of fun doing it. Source Code You wait years for a sci-fi movie that’s influenced by Groundhog Day to come along and then two appear at once. Yes, Source Code has a similar time-repeating plot to Edge of Tomorrow but it’s less bombastic and more thoughtful in its approach. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as the soldier who only has eight minutes to stop a bomber on a busy train, before time resets and he has to do the whole thing again. Duncan Jones does well in the director seat, managing to make a plot device that could grow old rather quick really work. Get your free 30-day Amazon Prime trial Legend It’s by no means a perfect movie, but Legend has two fantastic central performances�� both played by Tom Hardy. Hardy is both Ronald and Reggie Kray, the notorious twins that ruled half of London’s underworld in the Sixties. Legend is about their rise and subsequent fall, shot through the lens of Reggie’s relationship with Frances Shea, the ever-brilliant Emily Browning. While Legend doesn’t offer anything different to the, er, legend of the Krays it’s still a brutal and occasionally funny watch. Jackie Brown Quentin Tarantino's 1987 crime thriller is about a stewardess called Jackie Brown who smuggles money from Mexico to L.A. for a big arms dealer. She gets caught, but strikes a deal with the agents to help them bring down her boss in exchange for her going free. Of course there are other plans afoot and a dramatic thriller unfolds about crime, deceit and corruption. It's got all the twists and turns of a Tarantino flick with some stellar acting from Pam Grier, who plays Jackie Brown, as well as Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Keaton.  Swordfish This slick and stylish thriller is about a mystery man who hires a hacker to steal billions from a government bank account. An FBI computer crime specialist is one step ahead and gets involved in the action too. It's got a stellar cast with John Travolta and Hugh Jackman in the lead roles supported by Halle Berry. It's fast-paced, thrilling and full of plenty of twists and turns.  The Killing of a Sacred Deer Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos or The Lobster and Dogtooth fame, The Killing of a Sacred Deer is an intense psychological horror movie based on the Greek play Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides. It follows the story of a successful cardiac surgeon (played by Colin Farrell) who befriends a mysterious teen. As you'd expect from a psychological horror from Lanthimos, this is hardly an easy Sunday afternoon watch. You've been warned. The Handmaiden Describe a movie as erotic and it usually conjures up something that's utterly not sexy like 50 Shades of Grey or the Lego Movie. The Handmaiden, though, is erotic and shimmers as a result. Directed by South Korean's finest, Park Chan-wook, the movie is masterful in its suspense and when sex is shown - and it's a lot of the time - it's used to bolster the characters and the story, rather than for pure titillation. The Handmaiden is yet another new release that's headed to Amazon Prime Video - we're not sure why it keeps getting all these 'just released on Blu-ray' movies but we're happy that it's happening. Shutter Island Nothing is as it seems in Martin Scorsese's chilling Shutter Island. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a marshal who investigates the disappearance of a patient at Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital. The hospital is one renowned for bizarre experiments on its inmates which ups the freaky ante somewhat. Then things get really scary and a lot more obscure when a hurricane cuts the island off from the mainland. This is definitely a film you will want to watch again, probably straight after you watch it the first time. Munich Steven Spielberg ratchets up the tension to near breaking point in Munich - a wonderful movies that charts the Black September aftermath. The movie follows the assassin's whose job it was to rid the world of those who created the atrocities that saw a number of Israeli athletes killed at the Munich Olympics in 1972. Girl On The Train It's difficult to talk about Girl On The Train without giving a twisty plot point or two away. So, let's just say that Emma Blunt is great in this tense thriller that does justice to the hugely successful book. The only issue we have is the whole plot has been transposed to an American town. We prefer the distinctly British setting. Other than that, prepared to be both shocked and entertained. Hell Or High Water Taylor Sheridan is a man of many talents. Not only has he starred in hit shows such as Sons of Anarchy and Veronica Mars, he's also penned some of the finest thrillers in recent years. First there was the superb Sicario and now Hell Or High Water, for which he was nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar. It's easy to see why, this is a taut, tense film about two brothers who turn to bank robbery to help their family. Starring Chris Pine, Ben Foster and Jeff Bridges, the film is a fast-paced modern take on the Western. Chloe Director Atom Egoyan is not one to take the conventional route when telling his tales - and Chloe is no different. Starring  Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfried and Liam Neeson, it’s about a seemingly normal couple who resort to using a sex worker to test the trust in their relationship. This turns out to be a very bad decision. The film is a remake of the superior French drama Nathalie but it’s a decent thriller that manages to walk the line between gratuity and maturity well. 99 Homes This is a devastating film. Based on the true events of what is still a recent economic disaster in the US, 99 Homes is about Andrew Garfield’s Dennis Nash, someone whose home faces foreclosure. To make ends meet he starts working for the real estate company - and the villainous Michael Shannon - that caused him and his family to lose his home. It’s a convoluted but brazen look at what can happen to a person when they are on the brink of losing everything. Fish Tank Andrea Arnold’s second movie was the one that cemented her as one of the UK’s best filmmakers. Fish Tank stars Katie Jarvis and Michael Fassbender as a teenager and the boyfriend of her mother. An uneasy relationship is struck between them both that goes from bad to worse. This is one of Fassbender’s first starring roles and watching it back, it’s easy to see why he’s such a big star now. The Place Beyond The Pines This is most definitely a movie of two halves - in that something significant happens midway through that changes both the pace and tone of the movie considerably. For some, the shift is too much but it really does work. Ryan Gosling plays Luke, a fantastic stunt motorcyclist turned bank robber who’s trying to do the best for his family. Eva Mendes is his estranged partner, while Bradley Cooper crops up as Avery, a good cop that’s trying to make the best out of some terrible situations. Brilliantly acted and expertly told, The Place Beyond The Pines is a powerful movie watching experience. Get your free 30-day Amazon Prime trial Submarine Richard Ayoade has proved over two feature films that he is a director to watch. While The Double was a fascinating Gilliam-esque comedy thriller, his first movie was much more in keeping with the French New Wave, despite being set in the depths of Wales. It’s set in 1980s Swansea and focuses on the relationship between a teenage loner and a girl who seems to share his passion for doom and gloom. Craig Roberts is fantastic as the loner - a role that won him plaudits and the starring role in Amazon Prime’s fantastic TV show Red Oaks. Clueless Is this the perfect film? You wouldn’t notice from Clueless’s bubblegum sheen, but its plot and characters are based on those of Emma by Jane Austen. This is no period piece, mind, but one of the best romantic comedies of all time. Alicia Silverstone is Cher, a pampered teen who gives the new girl in school, Tai, a makeover. She thinks it’s Tai that’s “clueless”, but finds it’s her who needs to re-think her life. That’s the cheesy movie poster version anyway. As usual, Paul Rudd oozes charm, playing Cher’s half brother. And the script is razor-sharp. Few movies hold up to repeat viewings over the years as well as Clueless. Anchorman Not every film on your must-see list needs to be from the IMDb top 250. Anchorman is a deeply silly Will Ferrel vehicle from 2004. He plays chauvinist, incompetent TV anchor Ron Burgundy who starts to fall apart when a female anchor joins his team.    On first sight it seems the pairing of comedy greats Steve Carrell, Ferrel, David Koechner and Paul Rudd that makes Anchorman work. However, just as Spinal Tap skewers something real, elements of Anchorman’s setting in the world of local news TV ring true. Practical Magic Starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock as two witch sisters who use their magical powers in a quest to break a curse and find love. A pretty standard romantic comedy elevated by an excellent cast, this is one worth watching if you're in the mood for something light-hearted. Addams Family Values While the first Addams Family was a fun but flawed reboot of the old TV show, Addams Family Values is a subversive gem. Comedy sequels are rarely better than the first movie but what Barry Sonnenfeld did with Values was make it far more twisted than anyone expecting. Whether it's cooking strippers alive (Lurch), various attempts by Wednesday and Pugsley to kill their newly born brethren or the constant references to Morticia and Gomez’s sex life it's a whole lot of ooky fun. Mindhorn A once-famous actor in the '80s tries to resurrect his career in Mindhorn, a superb pastiche of cop shows of old. Julian Barrett is on top form as the titular Mindhorn, whose desperate attempt to become relevant again means he unwittingly finds himself in a murder investigation on the  Richard Thorncroft. Goon As underrated movies go, Goon is pretty much on top of the list. Wrongly brushed aside as another farcical American Pie style movie, because it's got Seann William Scott in it, Goon is much more than that. It's funny, yes, but it's also an affectionate look at the underdog, filled with some pretty big scenes of violence and a number of tender moments too. There's a sequel in the works, which is fantastic news, as Goon is a little-watched gem. The School Of Rock This shouldn't work. Jack Black as a high school teacher teaching kids to play music sounds like it has 'straight to video' written all over it but School of Rock is a whole lot of fun. Director Richard Linklater and writer Mike White take most of the sickly sweet moments  out of the movie and leave a fun, riotous movie that is a brilliant showcase of Jack Black's talents. The film has been a big hit since its launch and has recently been turned into a stage production, sans Jack Black though - he's still raking it in through his movies. Toni Erdmann This is a superb movie. It's so good that a US remake has already been announced. Toni Erdmann is about an estranged father trying to reconnect with his daughter in a rather bizarre way: by pretending to be her boss's life coach.  It's a surreal movie, packed with embarrassing moments and some surprising empathy. Ted Ted shouldn’t work. It’s a comedy about a man and his childhood toy, which just happens to be alive. That man is the normally dour Mark Whalberg, the toy is voiced by Seth MacFarlane and sounds strangely like Peter Griffin in Family Guy. But it does work - it’s occasionally laugh out loud, funny throughout and proves that Whalberg does comedy best when he’s just playing a more earnest version of himself. Unfortunately all of this come untangled in its disappointing sequel, but the original Ted is well worth a watch. Four Lions It’s a shame that Chris Morris doesn’t do more stuff as when his new projects come along they always change the game in some way. Four Lions finds humour in one of the most serious subjects: terrorism. For a film shot in 2010, it’s still surprisingly current. It follows docu-style British jihadists who are trying to conjure up a terror plot. The problem is, they’re idiots. Starring, among others, Riz Ahmed, Four Lions is funny, frank and endlessly controversial. But it’s done in such a way that you can’t help but admire the movie. Moonrise Kingdom Wes Anderson's style is so unique that he’s following some of his director heroes - David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick etc - and becoming an adjective. If a film is Wes-like, then it’s filled with childhood wonder, symmetry and quirk. Moonrise Kingdom is packed with all of this and is about two children who escape from a town in the US, only to be tracked down by a search party. It’s a wonderfully innocent movie drenched in melancholy but funny with it. Bruce Willis, Edward Norton and Bill Murray all star but its real stars are the children - played by Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward. In The Loop It’s a shame that The Thick Of It never hit the big screen. What with Brexit madness and the UK government a mess of contradictions, a movie starring Malcolm Tucker swearing them all into shape is sorely needed. In The Loop is the closest thing we’ve got. It’s a strange movie as it takes strands from The Thick Of It and ports it to the US. This means the film is a hybrid of The Thick of It and the US show Veep. What we do get though is Malcolm Tucker (a never-bettered Peter Capaldi), full of vim and vigor, spinning his way through the choppy waters that is US politics. It’s not perfect, but as satires go it’s one of the most searing. Get your free 30-day Amazon Prime trial Where the Wild Things Are We tend to feel protective when movie producers get their hands on texts from our childhoods. However, Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are captures the wonder and adventure of Maurice Sendak’s children’s book, on which it is based. Max is a young boy who finds himself in the land of the Wild Things. They’re the big furry creatures you’ll have seen if you’ve ever walked down the children’s lit aisle at a bookshop. Max becomes their leader, and the film follows their adventures. Where the Wild Things Are is a little darker than you might expect, earning a PG rating. However, it is also a useful exploration of anger, with greater depth than many a family film.  Rango When Gore Verbinski set sail for The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise everyone thought we would never see him make an indie film again but then came Rango. A brilliant, subversive animation, Rango is an LSD-tinged Western where all the characters are animals or lizards. Johnny Depp plays Rango, a chameleon who leaves his family home and ends up in the strange town of Dirt. Brilliantly, nutty stuff. Your Name A surprise 2016 hit that saw a rare mainstream overseas success for Japanese anime, Your Name is a supernatural high-school-romance-come-body-swap disaster movie. Yep – there's a lot going on here, as a teenage boy and girl find themselves inhabiting each other's bodies, slowly unravelling the mystery surrounding their condition – and that of an awful disaster. J J Abrams of Lost and Star Wars fame is said to be looking into making a live-action version, such was the success of the animation – but it'll take something to top the magnificent original. The Red Turtle Will the magic ever dim at Studio Ghibli? The lyrical animation powerhouse delivers yet again with The Red Turtle, the story of a man shipwrecked on a remote island, inhabited just by turtles, crabs and other critters. What appears a simple story slowly peels back to reveal hidden depths, with Studio Ghibli's inimitable attention to detail in animation remaining the industry benchmark. Batman Beyond - Return of the Joker  Everyone loves it when Batman meets the Joker but this movie does it with a twist. The Batman that meets the joker here is Terry McGinnis, a new Batman mentored by an ageing Bruce Wayne. McGinnis is equipped with new-fangled tech to make sure the Joker and his gang don’t end up running the city, but it also takes some old-school advice from Bruce Wayne to save the day. Superman - Doomsday Based on the controversial Death of Superman storyline, this animated movie is all about Doomsday - the hideous creature that puts an end to Superman. Although it’s faithful to the comic-book series from which it is adapted, it is all a little rushed. But great animation and voice talent - Adam Baldwin is superb as Supes and James Marsters is menacing as Lex Luthor - make this film a must watch, especially if you are annoyed with the treatment of Superman in the recent DC movie universe. Batman - Mask of the Phantasm When people argue about the best Batman, Kevin Conroy’s name never comes up. But it really really should. He’s been voice acting as Batman for a number of years and one of the best ways to hear his dark, dulcet tones is by watching Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. This animated movie pitched Batman against another masked vigilante - one that wants to bring Gotham City to justice. If that wasn’t enough, The Joker makes an appearance too. The film is a must for those who grew up on Burton’s Batman and had their faith restored with Chris Nolan’s interpretation. If it wasn’t animated, Mask of the Phantasm would be hailed as one of the best Batman movies. It’s certainly the best Batman animated movie. Bridge to Terabithia This isn’t the film that was advertised but it is still a great children’s movie. When it was promoted back in 2007, you would be forgiven that this is a fantasy epic. While there are those elements, they only make for a section of the movie. The rest is a sad, gripping tale about the relationship between two school friends who deal with the darkness in their lives by creating the imaginary world of Terabithia. Son of Rambow One of the most endearing coming-of-age movies you are likely to see, Son of Rambow is about two children growing up in the ’80s who are obsessed with Rambo. So much, they decide to make their own version of the movie with the help of their friends. What ensues is a fun, inventive film about the magic of childhood friendship and imagination. Directed by music video supremo Garth Jennings, Son of Rambow is a trio of love letters: one to the Eighties, one to home videos and the other to the cartoon violence that was born out of an era where Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Willis ruled the box office. Get your free 30-day Amazon Prime trial Lost In Translation Lost in Translation is a superb, dreamlike movie that wonderfully captures feeling of alienation and loneliness you can feel in a city you don’t belong in. The city in question is Tokyo, the lonely people are Bill Murray as an ageing actor and Scarlett Johansson as a college graduate left to her own devices by her photographer husband. The chemistry between Murray and Johansson is electric, both endearing and hilarious, as is the soundtrack and the way the film slowly creeps up on you in an wonderful way. Gone with the Wind Today your best chances of seeing a film that pushes past the three hour mark are from Bollywood epics or ultra-slow art house films. But 1939’s Gone With the Wind is a four hour romance story. When Harry Met Sally this is not.Our lead is Scarlett O’Hara, a name so famous you’d swear it was the actor (Vivien Leigh), not the character. Gone with the Wind follows her life, around the time of the US civil war, on a plantation in Georgia. And, supplying the romance, her knotted affairs with Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) and Rhett Butler (Clark Gable). Its portrayal of slavery and the deep south may jar for the modern viewer, but this remains a classic watch. Before Sunrise Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise is a simple, beautiful romantic movie about an American man who meets a French woman and they spent the whole night walking around the city together. Because they both don't think they'll see each other again, they end up sharing a lot about their lives, their fears and everything in-between. But it turns out they do see each other again (erm, spoiler alert?) because Linklater followed the movie up with two others, Before Sunset and Before Midnight. The Big Sick Loosely based of the real lives of the film's stars, Emily V Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani play an interracial couple who have to deal with Emily becoming ill and how cultural differences affect the couple. The film has been nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards 2018, but it's already on Amazon Prime ahead of this year's big ceremony. Vicky Cristina Barcelona Woody Allen managed to assemble a cracking ensemble for Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The film is a fun look at friends Vicky Cristina (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) as they travel to Barcelona and meet a mysterious artist, played by Javier Bardem. It’s all sex and sultriness until his unhinged ex-wife appears. She’s played by Penelope Cruz with such magnetism that you are drawn to her and kind of forget the rest of the characters. It’s not Allen at his best but even his ‘good enough’ films are a cut above most. Blue Valentine There’s a deep, maddening love portrayed in Blue Valentine that is so powerful it ends up being destructive. With that in mind, this isn’t the movie to put on if you don’t want you and your loved one to question your own relationship. It’s a brutal, raw movie that focuses on the relationship between married couple Dean and Cindy, played by Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams respectively. They are two people in love, pushed apart by circumstance. The story flits back and forth in time, so with each tender moment you get anguish. Powerful stuff. Carol Todd Haynes is one of the world's most fascinating directors, who loves to mine different eras for inspiration. While he courted the ’70s with Velvet Goldmine and I’m Not There, it is perhaps the ’50s where he has managed to use the tensions of the era to create superb character dramas. Carol is just that, a romantic tale between two women - Rooney Mara is the clerk that falls in love with Cate Blanchett’s character who is unhappy in a marriage of convenience. The anxieties and problems Haynes highlights in his earlier movie Safe are back with Carol. In this movie, though, everything has been given a more sumptuous sheen. Knight of Cups Thank goodness we live in an era where Terrence Malick is back and making movies on a regular basis. Knight of Cups is as dreamlike and fractured as you have come to expect from the revered director. As with all his movies, it’s clear he shot way more footage and didn’t decide on what film he was making until he hit the edit suite, but that’s part of its charm. Here we see Christian Bale as Rick, a writer who flits between Vegas and LA with six different women. Vegas is perfect Territory for Malick, a desert of neon suits his filmmaking style. While the supporting cast Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman and Freida Pinto all add gravitas to the film. Once Writer-director John Carney’s debut is a low-budget joy that’s since been turned into a very successful play. The plot is slight: a busker and immigrant spend a week in Dublin falling in love and making music together. But it’s the songs that make the movie. Each one is a gem, sprinkled throughout the movie to give it a musical quality. Carney’s latest Sing Street is well worth a watch, too. Get your free 30-day Amazon Prime trial Amy The Amy documentary is a hard watch, one that will have you fighting back tears. The talent on show is blighted by the talent that is thrown away. The doc showcases Amy Winehouse in her early years, using archive footage of the star that shows just how much of a talent she was. There are talking heads with her family - including her husband - as well as good friends of hers. Dark Days This documentary may have gained prominence thanks to its DJ Shadow soundtrack, but it’s the subject matter that makes Dark Days such a must watch. Shot and directed by Marc Singer, Dark Days shines a light on those who live in underground tunnels under New York. Criminally, this was Singer’s only foray into documentary filmmaking but at least he created a classic. Gimme Danger Jim Jarmusch uses music in his movies to fine effect, so it makes complete sense that he is the one to helm a documentary about The Stooges and their enigmatic frontman, Iggy Pop. The Stooges may not have hit the heights of, say, The Rolling Stones but they’re an important piece of the rock puzzle. This doc does well to uncover what made the band tick, complete with recent talking heads with members of the band. The Beatles: Eight Days A Week A-list director Ron Howard took a break from feature-filmmaking to direct this documentary about the most famous band ever. It’s a slick production, meshing old interviews, archive footage and new interviews with the surviving members together to create a vivid look at a band in their pomp to their rather sour end. Man on Wire Forget the rather disappointing 3D movie and instead focus on this riveting documentary about a French high-wire artist who decides to one day scale one of the towers World Trade Center and walk across to the other one using just a tightrope. It’s utterly absorbing Man on Wire features an in-depth interview with the person that did the stunt, Philippe Petit. The way he tells the story of how he got past security to walk the Twin Towers is as engrossing as any heist movie. Marley Bob Marley’s music is as strong today as when it was released back in the ‘70s. His politics are as strong as they are now, his protest songs have lost none of their vibrancy. Which is why Marley is such a brilliant watch. It tells the tale of how Marley brought his music to the masses, his love of football and his life living in both London and Jamaica - all of which are brought brilliantly to life by interviews with friends and family and archive footage. Get your free 30-day Amazon Prime trial Kill List Director Ben Wheatley adds the right amount of realism and menace to Kill List - a film that is never quite what it seems. On the face of it, it’s a kitchen sink drama about a hitman and his latest assignment to kill three people but as the story unravels so does the hitman’s life (played in earnest by the brilliant Neil Maskell). It flirts at being a family drama, teases you that it’s a crime saga then hits you with the most relentless horror that you’ll be watching the end behind your hands. Great stuff. The Faculty This teen horror flick comes straight from the minds of the Scream and Scream 2 creators, so expect nerds, jocks and lots of teen drama with plenty of gore and frights thrown in for good measure. But in our books there's something a bit different about The Faculty that makes it a not-so-guilty guilty pleasure. Whether it's the compelling cast (with Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett and Famke Janssen), dark yet ridiculous tone or parasitic creatures from another planet, it's a fun flick for the weekend.  Constantine You can rarely go wrong with an action horror starring Keanu Reeves and Constantine is one such movie. Reeves takes up the role of John Constantine, a man who can see half-breed angels and demons who stalk the Earth disguised as humans. Driven to attempt suicide by his visions, Constantine is returned to the land of the living and must use his gift to protect humanity an earn his place in Heaven.   The Shining We know what you're thinking. Why has The Shining only just arrived on Amazon Prime Video? Well, worry not. Stanley Kubrick's classic movie about family, isolation and plenty of unnerving, bloody horror is now available to stream on Amazon Prime. The film is a true classic for a whole host of reasons, from Kubrick's ambitious film-making to spectacular performances from the cast and a score that makes your skin tingle. It's always worthy of a re-watch, just go and check all the doors and windows are locked first before you really get stuck in. Train To Busan South Korea has slowly but surely marked itself out as a country that's producing some fantastic filmmakers. Interestingly, two of the best movies from South Korean directors of recent times have been based on trains - Joon-ho Bong's Snowpiercer (which criminally never got a UK release) and Sang-ho Yeon’s Train To Busan. Train To Busan is a brilliant zombie horror movie. By having most of the action take place on a train, we see what it's like when a zombie epidemic takes hold in close confines, complete with cloying claustrophobia. It's part action movie, part love story, all character study, showing that a situation such as a freaking zombie outbreak can bring out the best and the very worst in people. Hell House LLC Well this was unexpected. The name Hell House LLC doesn't exactly scream 'must watch' but despite its rather Grindhouse-esque title, this is a brilliant slice of horror. The plot is simple: a group of friends who create haunted house experiences for Halloween find a house to convert that's seemingly filled with real-life ghosts. The movie is their footage spliced together, with police reports and the like. The found footage genre is rather stagnant now but Hell House manages to breathe new life into it, mustering up some genuine scares that will have even the most hardened horror fans watching from behind their fingers. Its final scenes don't quite match what went before it (or make much sense) but this is one of the best horror films to come out in years. Sinister Sinister is that rare horror film: it has brains, A-listers and is still really scary. Ethan Hawke is a true crime writer. After finding a box of what he thinks is footage of murders committed by a serial killer, things start to go very bad in his life. Director Scott Derrickson may have recently made the more family friendly Doctor Strange, but with Sinister he proves that he is just as adept at garnering scares as he is guiding the Marvel universe. Pontypool A low-budget chiller that takes place in a small town in Ontario, Canada (bet you can’t guess its name) and follows the exploits of a talk radio team who are reporting on strange goings on in the town. It’s essentially a movie about zombies but distilled through the eyes of a small, yet vocal, group of people. Its budget may well be small but its ambition is big and that’s what makes Pontypool such a fun watch. I Saw the Devil This serial killer cat-and-mouse movie is one of the most visceral around. Starring Old Boy’s Min-Sik Choy as the killer, the film is graphic in its content - Its tale of revenge is uncompromising - but is a fantastic watch. It’s also one of the best movies from director Jee-woon Kim who has a platinum line-up of films, including A Tale of Two Sisters, A Bittersweet Life and to a lesser extent his sole US movie, The Last Stand. Get your free 30-day Amazon Prime trial Source link

[andrewysanders]

Everything You Wanted to Know About the Something’s Gotta Give Beach House

It’s been nearly 10 years since I first featured Diane Keaton’s classic beach house from Something’s Gotta Give. And even though it’s been 15 years since the movie came out, it continues to be one of my most popular posts, week after week. Clearly, I’m not the only one who still loves it!

I took a look back at that post recently and wished it had bigger, better photos, along with more details about the sets, and realized it was time for an update. Along with tons of new photos, I’ve got a fun look at the sets behind the scenes and scoop on the real house where the exteriors were shot. If you’re a die-hard SGG House Fanatic, then this one’s for you!

Diane Keaton’s “Something’s Gotta Give” Beach House in the Hamptons

First up, let’s take a look at how the beach house looked onscreen.

This overhead shot gives us a better look at the porch, surrounded by hydrangeas:

In the next photo you can see the porch wraps around the side, too:

The SGG Entry Hall:

The interiors were filmed on a Warner Brothers soundstage.

 In the DVD commentary they talk about how cold and rainy it was during filming, but you’d never know it. (Affiliate link.)

The painting behind them is by artist Kenton Nelson.

You can buy some of Nelson’s posters and limited edition giclee prints here, but even those aren’t cheap!

The SGG Living Room:

The house was featured in Architectural Digest, which provided us with some great stills of the sets (above).

Nancy Meyers, who is known for turning houses into the stars of her movies, wrote and directed SGG.

She described this one as “Every woman’s dream house.” Yep, pretty much.

Jack Nicholson collects and appreciates art, and he suggested they look into the “beach art” of Edward Henry Potthast. A reproduction/version of his Rockaway Beach painting shown above “is the centerpiece of the room. You don’t see it much, but its presence is felt,” Meyers says.

Production Design was by Jon Hutman (The Holiday). Set Decoration was by Beth Rubino (It’s Complicated).

The sofas looks white with blue trim in some shots, but they were actually a “delicate eggshell blue linen.”

Joni of Cote de Texas said of the famous striped rug in this room:

“Nothing quite says Something’s Gotta Give more than the blue and white striped rug. To duplicate this look in your space, there would have to be a blue and white dhurrie — otherwise, it would just be a pretty room.”

You can find replicas of the rug and similar versions for sale at Aspen Carpet Designs.

The original rug was reportedly an antique that was too large for the room, so they cut it in half and sewed it together to fit. If you look closely in some of the photos you can see the seams where the stripes don’t match up. One lucky blogger bought the rug at an auction, and you can see how it looks in her house today.

The Guest Room:

Jack Nicholson plays Harry Sanborn, who has to recover in Erica’s guest room after a heart attack.

He was originally dating her daughter Marin (Amanda Peet). Nancy Meyers says it was important to make it clear to audiences that the two of them had just started dating and hadn’t “done anything” yet. Marin clears out pretty quickly after he has his heart attack and leaves her mom alone in the house with him.

Erica’s Bedroom and Writing Space:

In the DVD commentary, Nancy Meyers talks about the set:

“There’s not a lot of room for other people in the house. There’s only one guest room. It’s a big kitchen because she likes to cook. Even though I don’t show her bathroom, it was important to me that it not have two sinks. And her desk was in her bedroom because it wasn’t a place for romance.”

Linda Merrill tracked down source info on some things like that pretty little table by the door you can find here.

Locations Hub talks about the painting on Erica’s bedroom mantel, which is from Kenton Nelson’s “Swim Party” series.

Curious about the paint colors? I’ve lost track of the number of questions I’ve gotten about them over the years.

Set Decorator Beth Rubino says they aren’t anything you could get from a paint store, though. They were custom-mixed colors that were designed to look good onscreen. The lighting is different on a set than it is in a house, so even we used the same paint, she says, it wouldn’t look the same. Darn it.

You can listen to an interview with Rubino about the sets on The Skirted Roundtable.

Erica is a playwright who has her desk in the big, windowed alcove of the bedroom:

A writer’s room wouldn’t be complete without bookshelves — and lots of books.

Rubino ordered 3,000 of them for the sets from New York’s Strand Book Store.

To get the details right, Meyers contacted playwright Donald Margulies and asked him to list everything he has on his desk.

The SGG Dining Room:

The dining room has a sisal or seagrass rug, which became a big trend.

The slipcovers for the dining room chairs were made with Lee Jofa’s Bordeaux Toile (now discontinued).

Set Decorator Beth Rubino saw built-ins like these in a friend’s dining room and duplicated them for the movie.

It inspired a lot of people to collect and display their own ironstone.

Also love that swinging door with the round window that separates the dining room from the kitchen:

The SGG Kitchen:

Ahh, the “Something’s Gotta Give” kitchen. The star of the whole dang show!

How many white kitchens with hardwood floors, subway tile, and black countertops do you think this one spawned?

It seemed like such a new look at the time. Those soapstone countertops! Those retro drawer pulls!

Fifteen years later, all you have to do is scroll through Pinterest to see the lingering effects this set had on our kitchens.

They faked the look of greenish-black soapstone by painting MDF and faux-painted the floors to look like dark wood.

Keanu Reeves was charming as her younger love interest. He’s on the movie poster in Japan because he’s so popular there.

Apologies to Diane for this weird screenshot, but I was determined to get a pic of that kitchen wall:

Frances McDormand had a small but memorable role as Erica’s sister:

I’ve heard people say they’ve taken screenshots like this of Jack Nicholson in his underwear to show kitchen designers what they wanted. Little did he know when he filmed this scene that he’d be appearing on design blogs in his boxers for years to come!

They outfitted the kitchen with a stainless-steel Sub-Zero refrigerator and a Wolf range.

Meyers told AD, “The house had to reflect Diane’s character, who is a very successful, accomplished New York playwright in her mid-50s.”

“She is also a divorcée, following a 20-year marriage, who built her Hamptons house as a gift to herself — no compromises — just her total vision of a peaceful life.”

Jon Hutman received a well-deserved Oscar nomination for Production Design for his work here.

The DVD is worth buying if you’re a fan for all the special features, including a deleted scene with Harry singing “La Vie En Rose” to Erica in a karaoke bar. Part of this scene was used in the trailer, and he sings the same song during the end credits. Plus, it’s pretty cheap right now! (Amazon affiliate link.)

Diane Keaton scored an Oscar nom for Best Actress for her role as Erica Barry and won a Golden Globe.

The SGG Pool:

That’s how the pool looked in Arch. Digest (above). But this is the only time we see it in the movie (below):

(Photo credits: Bob Marshak, Architectural Digest and Columbia Pictures.)

Harry’s Townhouse:

We get a glimpse inside Harry’s bachelor pad in the city, a 19th-century townhouse on East 78th St.

According to IMDb, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) lived here in The Devil Wears Prada. Here’s a screenshot from that one:

Harry brags he was once engaged to Diane Sawyer. Meyers says they got her permission before including it.

Behind the Scenes Set Tour with Amanda Peet:

They built a fake front porch on the soundstage for close-ups.

Peet says that she wished she could live in this set after filming, she loved it so much.

Per AD’s article about the house:

Nancy Meyers’s most pressing conundrum was how to keep her film, an hour of which takes place in five rooms, from feeling like a stage play. “It’s about depth of field, constantly looking from room to room, out a window, believing the beach is beyond,” Meyers explains. “In one scene, where Jack is in the bedroom and Diane stands in the doorway, you see past her into the living room and kitchen. You shouldn’t feel claustrophobic.”

No pretty chandelier to be seen in these shots, where the scenes required more lighting than that!

Here you can see the track that allowed the camera to circle the round table:

There are built-in bookshelves everywhere, including this hallway leading to the kitchen:

In this screenshot from the tour you can see the ceilings are beamed and vaulted in the kitchen:

Rubino says, “Diane’s character loves to cook, so we had to have a practical, functional kitchen.”

In the video tour (found here), Peet introduces us to the people in charge of the props. (Affiliate link.)

Meyers says that as fun as it was to create this house for the movie, it was “horrible” knowing it had to be demolished after filming. She wasn’t able to watch them do it.

Amanda walks us through the living room, past the Swedish Mora clock we all wanted to have (affiliate link).

Down the hallway that leads to Erica’s bedroom:

When Rubino told AD that Nancy Meyers was “very involved in the visual process,” approving every fabric and detail, Meyers laughed and said, “That’s code for ‘She’s a pain in the butt.’”

“But if you’ve spent a chunk of your life writing a character and someone puts them in the wrong clothes, or in a bed with sheets you know she would never own, it’s as if someone’s written dialogue. Sometimes you pick up more from what you’re seeing than hearing.”

Ever wondered how awkward it must be for actors to film love scenes? Um, yeah. I’ll stick to blogging.

Here’s how the back of the house and pool looked behind the scenes — not quite as glamorous, ha:

The Real SGG House:

The entrance to the the real house where exteriors were shot is gated (via Locations Hub).

Real estate agent Tim Davies listed the house in 2014. Sadly, this was the only interior photo:

The walls of windowed doors are similar to what they recreated for the sets, but I prefer the way they decorated it for the movie. If I bought this house, I’d have it replicated as closely as possible!

One site reported that it has 8 bedrooms, 11.5 baths, and 7,700 square feet. But another said 9 bedrooms and 9,625 sq ft. Regardless, it’s bigger than it looks onscreen! And there’s an entire second story we never see in the movie, even though there’s a staircase in the living room (set).

According to Curbed:

The gorgeous Shingle Style house at 576 Meadow Lane in Southampton, whose exteriors were featured in the 2003 movie “Something’s Gotta Give,” has been sold to James Tisch, CEO of Loews Corporation, for $41M. The house was built in 2000 by Mediabistro.com founder Alan Meckler.

 It sits on nearly 2 acres of oceanfront property. Pretty sweet!

The beach scenes were filmed elsewhere, at the Flying Point Beach in Water Mill (near Southampton).

I tried to answer most of the questions I’ve gotten about the house over the years, but if I’ve forgotten something, you can follow the links I’ve provided throughout this post for more information. It’s been so long since the movie came out that it’s pretty tough to track down individual pieces like lamps and sheets that I know some of you have asked about.

I hope you enjoyed revisiting the “Something’s Gotta Give” beach house with me. If you’re still here, 2 billion photos later, then I think you’ve earned your status as an “SGG Superfan.”

Nancy Meyers said that since so much of the movie’s action takes place inside the beach house, she knew the design would have to be interesting enough to hold our attention and keep us from feeling claustrophobic. I’d say since we’re still talking about it 15 years later, mission accomplished! 

P.S. Visit my Houses Onscreen page to see more houses from Nancy Meyers movies, including:

The post Everything You Wanted to Know About the Something’s Gotta Give Beach House appeared first on Hooked on Houses.

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[wionews]

Worked very hard to get the extra zeroes on my pay cheque: Priyanka Chopra

She is an inspiration to many, but she wears her many achievements lightly on her shoulders. On Tuesday, as Priyanka Chopra took center stage as a speaker at The Penguin Annual Lecture, crowds cheered, applauded and hung on to every word that she said. And she spoke about her career, her journey to the top, how she took risks to get Hollywood projects and why she chose not to make a public statement on Padmavati controversy in India. The lecture that Priyanka Chopra delivered was motivational as the actress gave pointers on how to become a better version of one's own self. The lecture was followed by a chat session where a senior journalist asked her point of view on raging issues of 2017. 

Here are the highlights of the evening: 

On racism Priyanka studied in America for a brief period and stated that she did face racism back in school. "Racism exists in a big way all over the world. Yes, I faced it in a big way when I was in high school. People used to me 'brownie'. They used to call me 'curry'. When I used to pass by they used to say 'can you smell the curry?'At that age you are vulnerable and you wonder what is wrong with me. 

Priyanka Chopra gave a motivational lecture on Tuesday in the capital. (Twitter)

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On more South-Asian representation in Hollywood

Priyanka believes that there should be more South-Asian representation in the International entertainment industry. "South-Asian actors in international entertainment are still a novelty. At the after party at Emmys this year Riz Ahmed, Aziz Ansari and I were standing in one corner and eating. There were around 400 people in the room and we just realized that there were only 4 of us, South-Asians there. Aziz pointed out that 8 years earlier there was just one." Priyanka said, "We are making steps., .whether it's me, Riz, Aziz, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan- all the people who have gone out there and been successful with their work internationally, I pray and hope that that work bursts open the door for more talents from South-Asia. Because we deserve it. We are 1/5 the of the world's population and we should have better representation."

On Harvey Weinstein's of Bollywood

Steering clear of taking names, Priyanka admitted that she had lost out on projects because she never succumbed to power. "Yes, I have been thrown out of films because someone else has been recommended. A girlfriend of the actor or the director was recommended instead- that’s an abuse of power. I couldn’t do anything about it because I did not have the power nor did I cater to the whims and fancies of certain powerful men, so I did lose out on projects."

On doing Hindi films again

"My last releases -Bajirao Mastani and Jai Gangajal- were two and a half years back. When did Hrithik's last film release? Why aren't the boys asked such question, why only actresses?" said Priyanka when she was asked why she is not featuring in Hindi films anymore. "I am still working. I need time to take up the right project- just like actors. Actors tend to take long breaks before signing new films, they aren't asked so much,"pointed out the actress. 

On being the only woman on Forbes Top 10 power list.

"I am very proud that I have reached a position where I can stand shoulder to shoulder with my male counterparts and feature in a Top 10 list in India but why aren’t there other women on that list?" asked the actress. "There are very few females, not just in India, but all over the world, who get to break that glass ceiling and get duly compensated for their work. Which comes as a certain entitlement for men," she added. 

Actress Priyanka Chopra on Tuesday said she was proud to "stand shoulder to shoulder with her male counterparts" as the "Baywatch" star weighed in on the gender pay gap in Bollywood during an event in New Delhi. (Reuters,ANI)

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For not making any public statement on the raging Padmavati controversy

Priyanka said she had spoken to both Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Deepika Padukone when the controversy broke out but did not want to make a statement publicly about it because she felt her statements would be misconstrued. "I can have an opinion but I should not be pushed to a corner and made a scapegoat (for it)." The actress also pointed out that in America, actors like Meryl Streep could speak against the country's President because it was 'culturally different' from India. "We have certain boundaries here and we must respect that."

On marriage

'Mere layak ladka milna chahiye (I need to find a man who deserves me)" the actress quipped as she was asked about settling down. "My mother told me this long back that I should only be with a man who respects what all I have accomplished in my life.But I do want to get married and have cricket team of children."

Priyanka speaking at The Penguin Annual Lecture in New Delhi on Tuesday evening. (Twitter)

×

On the importance of training our boys right

"We live in patriarchal societies all over the world. We as citizens need to change our mindsets and teach our sons that respecting a woman makes you a real man, not when you tease one. When our sons know that, is when the generational change will come. It won't happen overnight, though. There shouldn’t be a world where women survive, there should be a world where women thrive."

On being unapologetic about her pay scale

Priyanka said she was very proud of the extra zeroes on her pay cheque. "I have worked very hard to get the extra zeroes on my pay cheque," said the actress and demanded the women need to be given the right remuneration for the work they do. "The boys are never asked this question. Their zeroes are ridiculous. Have you ever seen the zeroes that they get on their cheques? We should be celebrating that at least there's one girl who has gone out there,"pointed out Priyanka. "It was funny because there are so many people who talk about the kind of numbers that I apparently get for certain minutes of my time," she said, taking a dig at reports that she charged Rs 5 crore for her five-minute performance at the Zee Cine Awards earlier this month in Mumbai.

Hollywood vs Bollywood

Priyanka pointed out that culturally the two industries are different but the passion is the same. "We have the same producers, ADs working on the set. But culturally they are very different. They are very punctual. Everyone comes to the set on time, which I have a problem with," the actress added. 

On being a 'desi girl' at heart

Priyanka pointed out that it is very important for every individual to know his roots. "Always remember where you came from. I am a proud Indian, an Army ki beti, daughter of two Doctors with middle-class upbringing and ginormous families. We've seen good and bad times and that is what made me who I am," said the desi girl. 

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[pcwpolwrestling]

Trump Delivers the State of PCW: 2/28- PCW Extreme Political TV

Kellyanne Conway- watching PCW from the comfort of her couch

LIVE FROM WASHINGTON D.C.‘The Voice of PCW’ Johnny Suave and low level reporter at the New York Times trying to make a name for herself Colleen Crowder stand in front of where PCW CEO Donald Trump will be delivering the ‘State of PCW’ speech in mere moments.

In the background, assorted members of the PCW Executive and Competition Committee enter the building.

Johnny Suave: Hello. Johnny Suave here live in Washington D.C. Tonight, PCW CEO Donald Trump will give his first official speech to the PCW Executive and Competition Committee. He’s expected to outline his plan to get PCW back up and running full speed into the future.

Colleen Crowder: Actually Johnny, our narrative is that Trump will once again unleash a negative, divisive, screed and blame everyone for the abject failure his reign has been.

Johnny Suave: I do know this much- only one person in that room tonight will go home and bang a Super Model.

Colleen Crowder: I can’t believe you just said that.

A group of Progressive Alliance women enter wearing all white.

Johnny Suave: Hey great! The Good Humor people are here.

Colleen Crowder: That’s not funny either. That’s sexist and our narrative says that-

Johnny Suave: So, as the show that was taped Saturday night runs, we’ll be back later on with the aftermath of Trump’s speech.

Colleen Crowder: Hey! Don’t interrupt me-

Aaaaaaaaaaand cut.

**

PCW Champion William Daniels Bryan in action against Butch Fullmer

THE SHOW Johnny Suave (voiceover): Two weeks ago on PCW Extreme Political TV, it was a big night for the Sports Entertainment Corporation- even though there was a few bumps along the way. A.J. Alabama and Stevie ‘War’ Eagles coexisted enough to pick up a big win over the Green World Order and win a shot at the PCW title.

(REPLAY-PCW EXTREME POLITICAL TV- FEB 15TH) […Meanwhile back in the ring, Alabama has Rube set up for his finisher.

Colleen Crowder (v/o): No!

Alabama lifts him up and then whips him back to the mat.

Johnny Suave (v/o): ALABAMA SLAM! ALABAMA SLAM! HE GOES FOR THE COVER- WHAT?

Alabama goes to hook the legs but Eagles runs over and knocks Alabama aside.

Johnny Suave (v/o): STEVIE ‘WAR’ EAGLES JUST PUSHED ALABAMA OFF RUBE!

Colleen Crowder (v/o): Disqualify them!

Johnny Suave (v/o): Enough with that!

Eagles hooks the legs himself. Martin makes the count. One. Two. Three.

Martin calls for the bell.

Johnny Suave (v/o): The SEC win! The SEC win!

Colleen Crowder (v/o): It’s a miscarriage of justice, Johnny! This is not right!

Kimber Marshall manages to find a clear spot in the ring.

Kimber Marshall: Your winners and NEW number one contenders for the PCW Tag Team titles- A.J. Alabama. Stevie ‘War’ Eagles. The ESSSS-EEEEEE-CEEEEEEEEE!

Martin tries to raise both arms but Alabama pushes him away and shouts at Eagles. Eagles shouts something back and both men bump into each other like two Rams slamming their horns together. Mr. McMann gets into the ring and literally has to pull Alabama away from Eagles…]

Johnny Suave (v/o): Tonight, they face the PCW Tag Team Champions…American Patriots’s Starz N. Stripes, Magnum P.O.’d, and their new friend…

(REPLAY: PCW EXTREME POLITICAL TV- FEB. 15TH) [Back on the stage, the PCW Tag Team Champions Starz N. Stripes and Magnum P.O.’d with their new valet, the loud and proud, blonde conservative firebrand Tori Loudman have come back out.

Tori Loudman: Hey corporate stooges! Tori Loudman here and I have to say I’m pleased to see the Green World Order crash and burn tonight along with the Young Jerks. My friends here Starz N. Stripes and Magnum P.O.’d have just one thing to say to you- A.J. Alabama and Stevie ‘War’ Eagles. Congratulations on your win tonight and we’ll see you in two weeks.

Starz and Magnum each hold up their PCW Tag Team Title belt.

Tori Loudman: Oh. And one more thing for you losers in the GWO and the Young Jerks and Professor McCarthy and whatever rock he’s hiding under. Suck on this…

Joy Villa

Johnny Suave (v/o): IT’S JOY VILLA IN HER DONALD TRUMP DRESS!

Colleen Crowder (v/o): Oh my God. I think I’m going to throw up.

Johnny Suave (v/o): Joy Villa showed a lot more guts and courage showing up at the Grammys in that dress then Meryl Streep did delivering an anti-Trump rant in front of Hollywood celebs who hate him.

Colleen Crowder (v/o): You take that back! Meryl Streep is the voice of our times. She is an American institution, dammit!]

Johnny Suave (v/o): Professor McCarthy and his left wing fundamentalist Flock continue their war against the Les Miserables and Charlie Blackwell.

(REPLAY-PCW EXTREME POLITICAL TV- FEB 15TH)[Professor McCarthy: Tonight, I’m here to enlighten all of you and, especially, talk with the Heartland Champion, for now, Charlie Blackwell. You see, Blackwell hails from a most despicable group of people called the Les Miserables…the so-called people’s group. The very scum who are responsible for the fact that Donald Trump is PCW’s CEO.

Lee, GreenPete, Peta and all the Young Jerks gives a thumbs down to Trump.

Professor McCarthy: The Les Miserables claim to speak for the people. Which is false. Because we speak for the people because the people aren’t smart enough to speak for themselves.

The GWO and the Young Jerks all nod in agreement.

Professor McCarthy: Because they are unenlightened and need to be told what to think, what to believe, what to say, and who they should support. Charlie Blackwell, you and your populist bottom feeders have upset the natural order by supporting a vile and unworthy person to be our CEO. And then, to make it even worse, Blackwell has the gall to interfere in our peaceful demonstration…

Johnny Suave (v/o): *koff…koff bull-*BLEEP* koff…koff**

Professor McCarthy: …to keep the equally vile and unworthy Betsy DeVos from entering the building in Jamestown, New York over the weekend and THEN utter false statements towards Elizabeth Warren after she boldly ‘persisted’ against the tyranny brought down by the American Patriots and Mitch McConnell. Views such as the ones Blackwell holds should be and need to be shouted down at every turn. Right?]

Johnny Suave (v/o): And speaking of Charlie Blackwell, the Heartland Champion got a challenge out of the SEC’s Gator Bates last time on Extreme Political TV.

(REPLAY: PCW EXTREME POLITICAL TV-FEB 15TH) […Side headlock by Blackwell.   Bates spins out and tries to shoot the legs.  Blackwell evades and hits a Kick to Bates’s shin.

Johnny Suave (v/o): Blackwell has come so far since he first made his debut in Dream Wrestling back in 2009. He has really turned into a complete wrestler.

Blackwell connects with a right hand to the head and backs Bates into the corner then drives his shoulder into his belly. Running bulldog by Blackwell drives Bates’s head face first to the mat. No hesitation, Blackwell wraps his arms around Bates’s neck and locks up a leg.

Johnny Suave (v/o): KATAHAJIME! KATAHAJIME!

Bates taps immediately. Keels calls for the bell…]

PCW EXTREME POLITICAL TV Taped at Hack’s Rusty Nail Saloon this past Saturday Night Wauseon, OH Tuesday February 28th, 2017 Hosts: Johnny Suave and Charlie Blackwell

The first shot of the show is at the front entrance of Hack’s. There’s a line of political VIP’s, political cronies and friends, celebrities, and high rolling big money supporters of both the American Patriots and Progressive Alliance who are angry because they’ve been told there’s no seats up close to the ring that are available. They are yelling and shouting at the poor person in the ticket window and PCW Owner Dawn McGill.

McGill shouted right back at them and held her ground.

‘The Voice of PCW’ Johnny Suave welcome everyone to PCW Extreme Political TV- live from Hack’s Rusty Nail Saloon in Wauseon, Ohio. Suave had a few comments about what was going on outside.

Johnny Suave: “There are a lot of pissed off big shots waiting outside who aren’t going to get in because there are no open seats near the ring. Why? Because ‘Red Solo Plastic Cup’ Ray McAvay, Heartland Champion Charlie Blackwell, and PCW Champion ‘Prairie Populist’ William Daniels Bryan purchased all the seats around the ring to hand out to their Les Miserables- people who normally wouldn’t be able to afford a seat in that section.”

The Les Miserables section serenaded the people inside Hack’s, and the Washington D.C. beltway elites stewing in line outside, with a rousing version of ‘One Day More’ from the classic Les Miserables musical- which only proceeded to piss them off even more.

Following PCW CEO Donald Trump’s removal of low level reporter at the New York Times trying to make a name for herself- Colleen Crowder from the broadcast team for this show over the weekend, Heartland Champion Charlie Blackwell joined Suave at the broadcast table. Charlie had his take on the ticket situation.

Charlie Blackwell: “I’m having a hard time feeling any sympathy about a class of people who usually get catered to…who think they’re entitled to just walk up and be handed a front row ticket to watch us work…who think they are ‘who they are’ that they get to abide by different rules then the rest of us. So, if you’re asking if I feel any sense of sorry for them- ah…no. No I don’t.”

Blackwell then added that in supporting Trump over the Progressive Alliance’s Hillary Clinton, they’ve demanded fundamental change and that’s what they expect.

Charlie Blackwell: “Change is non-negotiable.”

The Les Miserables rose up as one and cheered Blackwell. Then the crowd booed when Professor McCarthy and his Flock walked to ringside. The Flock included the Green World Order (‘Extreme Vegan’ Brock Cole Lee, GreenPete, Radishing Rick Rube, PeaceNick, and Peta from PETA) the Young Jerks (Zenk Cryger and Ron Idahola with their valet Anna- who doesn’t do nothing more but continually drop a series of f-bombs), Codee Pink, and Emily S. List.

Professor McCarthy repeated his threat to any member to the Progressive Alliance that if any P.A. member tried to co-operate with CEO Trump or reach across faction lines to work with the American Patriots that they would take the offenders out themselves.

Professor McCarthy: “We don’t need to work with the American Patriots. We need to shout them down and shut them up.”

McCarthy lectured the Les Miserables that they’re listening to the wrong people and that’s why PCW is the trainwreck it is right now and why Donald Trump is the PCW CEO. He then singled out Charlie Blackwell and objected to him being a part of the broadcast team.

Professor McCarthy: “The unenlightened need to be told what to think, what to believe, what to say, and who they should support and Charlie Blackwell and the populist bottom feeders of the Les Miserables have upset the natural order by supporting a vile and unworthy person to be our CEO.”

He called on the Flock to shout Blackwell down until he stood down and left the broadcast area. Suave rolled his eyes.

Johnny Suave: “Perhaps you should just get the flock out of here!”

Again, the Les Miserables stood up and roared. The GWO and Young Jerks all shouted at them to shut up and tried to shout them down.

Then Colleen Crowder- low level reporter at the New York Times trying to make a name for herself, and Dan Miller- low level reporter at the Washington Post trying to make a name for himself, came out. Crowder and Miller got into a tiff with CEO Donald Trump the night before at an impromptu press conference…

REPLAY: 2/24- PCW HOUSE SHOW[… question came from the floor about Trump’s upcoming ‘State of PCW’ speech coming up this Tuesday night but before he could answer, Crowder and Miller walked in and created a scene. Crowder accused Trump and his press PR person Sean Spicer of trying to ‘censor’ them by only allowing press people who are favorable to him……Spicer they invited the ‘pool’ and everyone was represented. Crowder and Miller persisted. Trump finally told her: “Fine, you’re off the broadcast team for the next PCW Extreme Political TV show (that was taped Saturday night).]

Crowder demanded her spot back- Sauve told her no.

Colleen Crowder: “Then you leave me no other option then. I will just have to…persist.”

Johnny Suave: “Whatever. Persist all you want, we’re going to the SEC-CSPN news desk.”

Crowder continued to persist…and objected as the show cut away from the broadcast table.

Sports Entertainment Corporation-Corporate Sports(Entertainment) Programming NationBackstage at the special set built just for the SEC by CSPN, Reese Anderson and Rebecca Morris interviewed the SEC’s A.J. Alabama and Stevie ‘War’ Eagles before their match against the PCW Tag Team champions Starz N. Stripes and Magnum P.O.’d. Also on hand, ‘Sports Entertainment Genius’ Mr. McMann and the SEC mouthpiece Phil Finebaum.

Anderson started off with the big question- can Alabama and Eagles co-exist in the ring and become champions and joked about the #1 contender’s match where both men seemed to be at odds with other. Before Alabama can answer, McMann piped up and objected to the question. McMann then channeled his inner Mark Cuban (taking down the Bleacher Report over a tweet) and threatened to get on the phone and raise holy hell with CSPN’s CEO Mark Splitter unless the question was immediate retracted.

Anderson apologized…(because in the end, it’s not about journalism but it’s about partnership…koff…koff…corporate branding) and then tossed a softball question up about the match. Alabama responded with a perfectly generic canned answer about how he and Eagles may support different college football teams that hate each other but in PCW they are on the same team.

Eagles basically repeated the same semi-rehearsed answer to Rebecca Morris. Then Mr. McMann had a final sign off.

Mr. McMann: “Tonight, the Sports Entertainment Corporation takes home the two biggest prizes in PCW- the PCW Title and the PCW Tag Team Title.   The SEC takes its spot on the throne and PCW will be assimilated.”

Johnny Suave: “If he starts talking funny and shouting ‘Assimilate! Assilmilate! Assimilate!’ like a demented ‘Broken’ Matt Hardy I’m leaving.”

===========================

MATCH #1- PCW TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH

American Patriots ©

Starz N. Stripes –HT: 6′ 3″ WT: 250, HOME: Ottumwa, IA / FIN: American Stars and Fuji Bar

Magnum P.O’d HT: 6′ 3″ WT: 235 HOME: Honolulu, HI / FIN: Porsche Plunge

Tori Loudman- Blonde Conservative Firebrand

Valet: ‘Blonde Conservative Fireball’ Tori Loudman

Sports Entertainment Corporation

A.J. AlabamaHT: 6′ 4″ WT: 246 / HOME: Tuscaloosa, AL / FIN: Alabama Slam

Stevie ‘War’ EaglesHT: 6′ 3″ WT: 245 / Auburn, AL / FIN: Eagle’s Claw

MGR: Mr. McMann

============================

SEC mouthpiece Phil Finebaum joined Suave and Blackman at ringside.

Johnny Suave: “The key to the match will be if A.J. Alabama and Stevie ‘War’ Eagles can stay focused on the task at hand- winning the PCW tag belts. However, Starz and Magnum have experience to burn and Starz has hit his stride again- showing some of the same form that won him the PCW title back in 2008. And don’t discount the presence of the Blonde Conservative Fireball Tori Loudman at ringside.”

Charlie Blackwell: “I agree about Starz getting back to form. Working tag matches at this stage of his career agrees with him. However, Alabama and Eagles have youth on their side and gasoline in their veins. But I think Starz and Magnum are still too much for them at this point.”

Phil Finebaum: “The SEC has the best collection of talent in PCW. The SEC transcends politics. Like my friend Phyllis from Mulga said: You’re not one iota better than anybody else in the country. Especially Alabama. So keep your mouth shut and you better tone that coach down you got. Because I’m going to tell you something, they are going to find him and see his true colors and when they do Katy bar the freaking door. Roll Tide, Roll.”

Johnny Suave: “What the hell is she talking about?”

 MATCH RECAP:

1st Minute:Starz waited as Alabama and Eagles argued who would start the match. Alabama finally played the national championship card (2016, that is) and ran out to the middle of the ring to hook up with the two time PCW champion. Alabama used his strength to force Starz back and took a side headlock.

2nd Minute:Alabama smacked Starz with two open right hands. Irish whip by Alabama sent Starz into the ropes. He took a swing at Stevie ‘War’ Eagles- who ducked and held Starz for Alabama- who came flying towards him with a right forearm shiver. Except Starz ducked and Alabama clocked Eagles instead and sent him flying off the ring apron. Starz backslide for a two count.

3rd Minute:Again, Alabama whipped Starz across the ring- this time Eagles grabbed a foot and Starz fell face first. Alabama came off the second rope and dropped a leg on Starz. Right hands to Starz before the referee called for a break. Alabama rammed Starz’s head into Eagles’s boot stretched on the top turnbuckle. Eagles tagged in. Double team whip and backdrop. Eagles hooked the leg but Starz kicked out at two.

4th Minute: Starz made the tag to Magnum P.O.’d. Magnum came out to brawl and rocked Eagles with a pair of right hand bombs. Boot to the gut and then a swinging neckbreaker took Eagles to the mat. Magnum with a wheelbarrow into a bulldog. Whip to the ropes by Magnum and Eagles bounces Alabama off the ring apron. Eagles turned his back on Magnum and to check on his tag partner and paid for it with a knee driven into his back. Magnum tagged Starz in.

5th Minute: Starz with the go behind. Eagles rolled him up for 1. Spinning kick to the chin stunned Starz and Eagles tagged Alabama back in. Alabama steamrolled Starz with a shoulder block. Dropkick. And another. Starz ducked a clothesline but caught a crossbody on the return. Cover by Alabama for 1…2.NO! Alabama with a kick to the head. Spinning kick. Starz head-butted Alabama and rolled outside.

6th Minute:After conferring with Magnum, Starz back in. Alabama missed a clothesline. Starz kicked the knee and took out Alabama’s leg. Then Starz hit a knee drop and connected with the running dropkick in the corner. Starz covered- Alabama kicked out at two. Magnum tagged back in- Alabama scrambled back to the SEC corner and tagged Eagles in.

7th Minute: Eagles and Magnum exchanged right hands. Magnum sent Eagles to the ropes and the blonde conservative fireball Tori Loudman tripped him up. As Eagles fell, Alabama tagged himself back in and chased Loudman off the ring apron.   Starz went top turnbuckle and caught Alabama in the chest with a Missile Dropkick. Magnum missed with a high crossbody to Eagles and went flying out of the ring. He ended up at the feet of SEC wrestlers Butch Fullmer and Gator Bates- bad placement. Fullmer and Bates laid in the boots.

8th Minute: Starz by himself. Alabama dumped him down and Eagles came off the second turnbuckle with a legdrop. Side slam by Alabama followed by a tilt-a-whirl powerslam. Eagles followed up with an elbow drop. Again Loudman on the ring apron. Again Alabama tried to get his hands on her but Loudman hopped back down. Magnum back in the ring. He charged across and drove a double ax-handle into Alabama’s back. Alabama back kicked Magnum in the groin, spun around with a backfist. Starz came off the top turnbuckle again and clotheslined Alabama to the mat.

9th Minute:Magnum sprung to action and rolled up Alabama. One…two…Alabama countered. One…two…no…Magnum reversed right back…then Alabama…then Magnum. One…two…three. The referee called for the bell and we had a winner.

But who?

After several seconds of uncertainly, Kimber Marshall appeared to have the referee’s decision and headed to the ring. But she was intercepted by…hold on…world famous actor Warren Beatty?

Beatty waved Kimber off and told her that he would make the formal announcement. Kimber shrugged and Beatty climbed into the ring.

Johnny Suave: “Okay. What the hell is Warren Beatty doing here?”

Charlie Blackwell: “I thought that seemed pretty random myself.”

Beatty looked at the card and declared- the SEC- Alabama and Eagles the new PCW Tag Team Champions.

Johnny Suave: “NEW CHAMPIONS! HOLY CRAP!”

Phil Finebaum: “Now see? That’s the kind of star power the SEC brings to PCW.”

Alabama and Eagles fist bump and celebrate with the other members of the SEC. McMann celebrated the SEC’s first title of any sort in PCW…

Johnny Suave: “Wait a minute. The referee is talking to Beatty in the ring.”

…that is until the referee told Beatty he’d made a mistake.

Confusion.

Kimber Marshall then read out the actual winner of the match.

Kimber Marshall: “The winners and STILL the PCW Tag Team Champions- Starz N. Stripes and Magnum P.O.’d!”

WINNER AND STILL PCW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS: The American Patriots- Starz N. Stripes and Magnum P.O.’d at 9:31

Mr. McMann went nuts and screamed at the referee. Bewildered, Alabama and Eagles had no clue what to do or think. The referee took his leave with McMann shrieking at him the entire way back.

PCW backstage interviewer Paige McGillicutty joined the champions in the ring and talked about the match.

Starz told the PCW crowd that Alabama and Eagles were young, strong, and they knew they posed a definite threat. Magnum P.O.’d, on the other hand, said there are times when human beings really shouldn’t take advantage of another… but this wasn’t one of them. Magnum added if it weren’t for Mr. McMann pushing them into the limelight before they’re ready, Alabama and Eagles wouldn’t be near the top of the tag team pyramid.

SEC mouthpiece Phil Finebaum hopped into the ring.

Phil Finebaum: “This is wrong. It may not be illegal by PCW standards, such as they are, but to me the American Patriots got one over us and it blatantly disregards the spirit of a match where Alabama and Eagles dominated the entire time.”

The crowd booed in return. Finebaum told them to ‘shut up’ and called them a bunch of cult-like zealots.

Phil Finebaum: “Enjoy your so-called victory. We’ll see what happens the next time you get in the ring with them.”

**

PROFESSOR McCARTHY AND HIS FLOCKBack for a second time on the show, Professor McCarthy and his Flock are in a back room. McCarthy has his good book- the good book that tells us things that are correct or incorrect to say, think, or believe. Also there, the GWO, the Young Jerks, and the new leader of the Progressive Alliance Tom Perez with wrestlers ‘The One Man Hollywood A-List’ Stone Chism, The Ultimate Social Justice Warrior, James the Jeep Worker, and Union Jack Taylor.

McCarthy showed a video of a match from a February 24th house show.

(REPLAY: The Bi-Partisan Dream Team: Blue Dog D (Progressive Alliance) and RINO-The Wonk Machine (American Patriots) vs. Average Joe and Brad Company)-Both teams were delivering a nice match for the PCW fans until Professor McCarthy and his Flock also came to ringside. The GWO and Young Jerks attacked Blue Dog D and referee Davey Keels had no choice but to disqualify Average Joe and Company.

McCarthy decreed that this should be a warning to anyone who dares step out of line from the approved orthodoxy in the good book that tells us things that are correct or incorrect to say, think, or believe. Blue Dog D had to be shouted down because he chose to be a part of the Bi-Partisan Dream Team with American Patriot RINO- the Wonk Machine.

Professor McCarthy: “Again, any Progressive Alliance member who tries to co-operate with #not my CEO Trump or tries to reach across faction lines to work with the American Patriots will pay a steep price. We don’t need to do business with the American Patriots. What we need to do is shout them down and shut them up.”

McCarthy also added that if he saw anyone standing up and cheering during CEO Trump’s address, there would be grave consequences.

The next person on the list is Heartland Champion Charlie Blackwell. Professor McCarthy again blamed Blackwell and the Les Miserables for Hillary Clinton losing the match at Extreme Election Night 2016 and found the fact that the Les Miz had both the PCW title and the Heartland title unacceptable.

Professor McCarthy: “These people need to be put in their place. Charlie Blackwell is out there on PCW’s official broadcast. He has no business doing that. He’s not qualified. He hasn’t been properly vetted. You just can’t put anyone in that seat- especially someone who claims he’s speaks for the people. Which is not true- WE speak for the people because the people are too stupid to speak for themselves. Colleen Crowder presented an appropriate point of view and has been censored by PCW because she persisted. We will not stand for that.”

Professor McCarthy then said the benediction.

Professor McCarthy: We all know what the unenlightened need to do.

McCarthy’s Flock: Shut up and do what they are told to do!

Professor McCarthy: Exactly. Independent thought, such as the ones espoused by Mr. Blackwell, runs counter to our approved doctrine. The unenlightened need to-

McCarthy’s Flock: Believe what they are told to believe. Think what they are told to think. Read what they are told to read. Listen to what they are told to listen to.

Professor McCarthy: And why is that?

McCarthy’s Flock: Because they are incapable of making acceptable choices for themselves.

BLACK SWAMP PIRATESKimber Marshall introduced the Black Swamp Pirates to offer their rebuttal to Professor McCarthy with a song from Heartland- The Musical.

Lead Singer: Hey Professor McCarthy, believe this!

He raised his hand with the middle finger extended.

(Country sound with heavy guitars)

♫ “Don’t talk for yourself We’ll do the talking for you Don’t speak for yourself We’ll do the speaking for you”

♫ “Washington Beltway elites- they have all the answers Washington Beltway elites- the system works for them For us in flyover country and the Heartland- the system doesn’t work at all The conservative side says that they’re for Main Street USA But they’re actually working for Wall Street USA They want our support They want our vote Then they want us to shut up And do as we’re told They know better- that’s what they say But things haven’t gotten ‘better’ for us every day”

♫ “Don’t think for yourself We’ll do the thinking for you Don’t have your own beliefs We’ll instill beliefs for you”

♫ “Washington Beltway elites- they have all the answers Washington Beltway elites- the system works for them For us in flyover country and the Heartland- the system doesn’t work at all The liberal side says they’re for the Working man and woman But they’re all about the Political correctness plan They want our support They want our vote Then they want us to shut up And do as we’re told They know better- that’s what they say But things haven’t gotten ‘better’ for us every day”

♫ “The media claim- they’re Fair and independent What the television says- they’re Biased and they have their own agenda”

♫ “Washington Beltway elites- they’re all in bed together Washington Beltway elites- the system works for them The media doesn’t care about flyover country The media doesn’t have time for the Heartland. Advocacy news Instead of presenting the facts Hollywood news Instead of presenting the facts They want our support They want our vote Then they want us to shut up And do as we’re told They know better- that’s what they say But things haven’t gotten ‘better’ for us every day They know better- that’s what they say But things haven’t gotten ‘better’ for us every day”

**

LES MISERABLES ENTRANCE♫ “Do you hear the people sing? – Singing the song of angry men?”

The camera pans up to the Les Miserables section at ringside.  PCW Champion William Daniels Bryan high fives Ray McAvay while ‘No Frills’ Chris Escondido stands up from their seat.

♫ “It is the music of the people. – Who will not be slaves again!”

Also rising from their seats, Tequila Sheila, General DeBauchery- who looks like a bizarre combination of the AWA’s Colonel DeBeers and Lt. Aldo from Inglorious Basterds, sporting a black captain’s hat right out of World War II, smoking a cigar and grinning obnoxiously, Al Cahall- sporting six pack abs…oh…that’s a six pack in front of his abs and the man smoking a cigarette in violation of several anti-smoking ordinances…as usual, Nic Koteen.

♫ “When the beating of your heart – Echoes the beating of the drums – There is a life about to start – When tomorrow comes.”

McAvay stands up and edges towards the aisle.  Bryan, Tequila Sheila, and Escondido follow.  Then General DeBauchery, Cahall, and Koteen.  Before McAvay and Escondido start to descend down the steps towards the rail separating the stands from the floor, McAvay turns around and gestures to the Les Miserables to join him.

♫ “Will you join in our crusade? – Who will be strong and stand with me? – Somewhere beyond the barricade – Is the world you long to see.”

The Les Miserables rise up from their seats and line up behind him and Escondido as the pair start their way down towards the ring.

♫ “Then join in the fight – That will give you the right to be free!”

The camera spots Stormy and Starbrite, both sporting the brand new PCW Ray McAvay “Show Up. Punch In. Shut Up. Get to Work” baseball jersey, marching along with the other Les Miserables as McAvay and the procession head down to the ring.

♫ “Do you hear the people sing? – Singing the song of angry men. – It is the music of the people. – Who will not be slaves again!”

McAvay, Bryan, Escondido, Tequila Sheila, and the rest reach the bottom of the steps.   One by one, they climb through the railing down to the floor and march towards the ring.

♫ “When the beating of your heart – Echoes the beating of the drums – There is a life about to start – When tomorrow comes.”

====================

MAIN EVENT/PCW TITLE MATCH

William Daniels Bryan- ‘The Prairie Populist’ © w/the Les Miserables HT: 5’10″ WT: 180, HOME: Platte, Nebraska / FIN: Cattle Mutilation/Crane Kick

Butch Fullmer w/ Mr. McMann and the SEC HT: 6′ 2″ WT: 240 / Knoxville, TN / FIN: Volunteer Slam

======================

Again, SEC mouthpiece Phil Finebaum joined Suave and Blackwell to call the match.

Johnny Suave: “William Daniels Bryan is in peak condition and he’s been unstoppable since PCW restarted up again. The SEC withstanding, I think Butch Fullmer has a tall order her to knock off the champion. He’ll have to hope that the game plan he’s used to get to this match will work its magic again against the PCW Champion.”

Charlie Blackwell: “I have to go with WDB. He’s been too tough and it’s going to take a Herculean effort to knock him off his perch.”

Phil Finebaum: “You’re both full of crap. Butch Fullmer wins this one in a walk.”

MATCH RECAP:

1st Minute:Fullmer plodded forward. Bryan circled to his left. Collar and elbow tie up. Fullmer tried to use his strength but Bryan sidestepped and spun him around. Kick to both legs by Bryan. Fullmer threw a wild right hand that glanced off the top of Bryan’s head. More kicks by Bryan. More wild right hands by Fullmer.

2nd Minute: Drop toe hold by Bryan grounds Fullmer. Three quarter facelock on the deck kept Fullmer there. Stepover into an armlock by Bryan then a transition into a stepover toehold.

3rd Minute:Fullmer tried to use his power to get himself free. Mr. McMann now on the ring apron imploring Fullmer to get to the ropes. Bryan went back to a three quarter facelock.

4th Minute: McMann shouted at the referee for a break. Bryan continued to keep Fullmer off his feet and kept wearing the youngster down. Fullmer desperately tried to get to the ropes. McMann screeched at him to get to the ropes.   But Bryan wasn’t going to let him get to the ropes.

5th Minute: Finally, Fullmer willed himself over and grabbed the bottom rope. Break. Another collar and elbow tie up- nope. Armdrag takedown by Bryan. Fullmer right back up and right back into another armdrag takedown. Again Fullmer hopped back up and charged at Bryan. Bryan sidestepped and whipped Fullmer at full speed into the corner turnbuckle. He smacked into it and rebounded back out to the middle of the ring.   Belly to back suplex by Bryan.

6th Minute:Bryan rolled him on his stomach, tucked Fullmer’s arms under his armpits, and rolled into a bridge- Cattle Mutilation. Fullmer tapped out right away.

WINNER AND STILL PCW CHAMPION: ‘Prairie Populist’ William Daniels Bryan @ 6:14

Johnny Suave: “And it’s back to the drawing board for the SEC. Two matches. Two losses. This was a wrestling lesson here tonight.”

Charlie Blackwell: “I really can’t add anything more than that.”

Phil Finebaum: “………”

LIVE BROADCAST FROM WASHINGTON D.C.

Suave is outside as Trump’s speech ended.

Immediately, the door opened and the Progressive Alliance ran out the door. Literally. Ran out the door.

Colleen Crowder sprinted out the door. She looked pissed.

Johnny Suave: Well, your thoughts?

Colleen Crowder: He…he sounded…not like he was supposed to sound.

Johnny Suave: What do you mean?

She put her hands on her temple and shook her head.

Colleen Crowder: No. He wasn’t supposed to sound like that. The tone.

Johnny Suave: I see. Well, apparently here’s a couple pictures from inside that apparently says it all.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Keith Ellison, Nancy Pelosi (Progressive Alliance)

Colleen Crowder: It wasn’t supposed to be like this. This is so against our narrative.

Johnny Suave: Well, it’s now time for the Progressive Alliance to offer their rebuttal. So here is former Kentucky governor Steve Breshear.

Colleen Crowder: THAT’S NOT FUNNY!

Colleen threw her microphone down and stomped off.

Johnny Suave: And that’s going to do it for tonight. Johnny Suave for the departed, and low level reporter at the New York Times trying to make a name for herself- Colleen Crowder-

Colleen Crowder (off screen/shouts): SHUT UP!

Johnny Suave: “And we’ll see you next time.

[oselatra]

Farther down the road

Director John Miller-Stephany’s first season at the helm looks promising.

The Arkansas Repertory Theatre is stable enough to have built a new Education Annex and recruited John Miller-Stephany as its newest director. It didn't get there by ignoring its audience. Leaders like Bob Hupp and founder Cliff Fannin Baker seem to have sensed that the Little Rock audience is not a homogenous thing — that the same polished performance from Ethan Paulini in "Elf" in 2014 sent the crowd around me into wave after wave of uproarious laughter while I sat, eyes cut sideways, wondering if seasonal depression could be triggered by 90 minutes of exposure to punchlines like "Elfish Presley." They've known when they could push the envelope a little and when they needed to bring in the high kicks and the schmaltz, and they didn't underestimate how many different types of experiences audiences were looking for, programming "Angels in America" in the same season with "Little Shop of Horrors" and putting a production of Matthew Lopez' "The Whipping Man" next to "Mary Poppins."

The Rep's 2017-18 season, starting in August, is the first to be programmed by Miller-Stephany, and after a review of his selections, it's safe to say that there is something for everyone who believes that theater has a power — that spectacular theater shouldn't merely provide us with a break from the socio-politically charged environs of the newsfeed, but should fire off our synapses so that we return to the real world around us with an ever-so-slightly modified lens. That's a pretty tall order, but this season is absolutely up to the task, whether that comes by way of Carson McCullers or ABBA.

The season opens with "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter," to be performed Aug. 23-Sept. 10. Carson McCullers' debut novel, which she described in a letter to a publisher as the story of "five isolated, lonely people in their search for expression and spiritual integration with something greater than themselves," has been the subject of paintings, a movie and, in 2005, a play. Citing a longtime fondness for Southern writers, Miller-Stephany said he was "particularly thrilled to have The Rep produce the area premiere of Rebecca Gilman's brilliant adaptation of Carson McCullers' stirring masterwork."

Next up, there's "The School for Lies," David Ives' snarky rewrite of Moliere's "The Misanthrope," which was already pretty snarky to begin with. It's performed completely in rhymed couplets, and that will either soothe the bite of scripted vulgarities like "fecophile" or drive the nail of insult in even harder. Think: French aristocracy gets smack-talked, rap battle-style, but with words like "clitoris" and "LOL." "The School for Lies" runs Oct. 11-29.

Springtime is a favorite season for premiering new compositions, perhaps because the holiday that precedes it tends to be bubbling over with rewrites, sequels and 150 competing interpretations of Handel's "Messiah," and we're ready for something new and fresh when the thaw sets in. (Or, in 2017's case, the unsettling arrival of February mosquitoes.) In a refreshing move, lyricist Maggie-Kate Coleman, playwright Jeffrey Hatcher ("Tuesdays with Morrie," "Compleat Female Stage Beauty") and composer Andrew Cooke (on staff at The Rep's Education Department) have created a new chamber musical based on O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi," to premiere Nov. 29-Dec. 24. "This beloved and ageless Christmas story has been copied, adapted and parodied countless times since it first appeared in print in 1905," Miller-Stephany said. "Although there are a number of stage versions available for licensing, my colleagues and I are eager to create a brand-new musical specifically for The Rep's loyal holiday audience."

And, if you're a David Sedaris fan, it's a good year to be in Little Rock. In addition to the humorist's appearance at the Robinson Center April 21, The Rep has added Sedaris' "Santaland Diaries" as a second holiday production, to be performed in the company's Black Box Theater Dec. 6-24, concurrently with "The Gift of the Magi." Curtain times for the two productions are staggered in case you want to make it a double feature.

The Rep begins 2018 with "The Call," a drama from Tanya Barfield that Miller-Stephany said "urges audience members to thoughtfully examine their established positions — both at home and as citizens of the world." The drama explores the complexities of infertility and adoption, the plurality of black identities and first-world ideas of how to define a family, and it will probably ask more questions of the audience than it will answer for them. It's exciting — and maybe even crucial — that this play is being put on in a red state where the words "family planning" can prompt kneejerk reactions on either side of the political spectrum, and where conversations about nonconventional approaches to parenthood can be stigmatized or hushed altogether. "The Call" runs Jan. 24-Feb. 11.

Joe Strummer, Brian Eno and Madonna have all confessed to a love for ABBA, and you can add Miller-Stephany to that list. "I love ABBA's music," he said, "and every once in a while, it's important to just let go and have fun." To that end, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus' politely libertine jukebox musical "Mamma Mia!" runs March 14-April 8, 2018. It's a confection of a pop piece that probably doesn't require Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried to delight, especially with "Dancing Queen" and "Lay All Your Love on Me" in the mix. Don't fight it; you're gonna go, and you're probably gonna love it.

The Rep performed Yasmina Reza's Tony Award-winner "Art" in its 2001-02 season, and Reza's "God of Carnage" rounds out the 2017-18 season with a dark depiction of conflict resolution-gone-wrong, two couples wrestling with the socially tense aftermath of a playground scuffle between their two children. Miller-Stephany called it a "laugh-out-loud comedy of adults behaving badly," saying, "Perhaps civilization is truly only skin deep." Cliff Fannin Baker, who might very well know what Little Rock audiences yearn for better than anyone else, directs.

Single tickets for shows at The Rep range from $30 to $65, and season subscriptions begin at $132. Tickets for the 2017-18 season, or for the two remaining productions in the current season — "Jar the Floor" and "Godspell" — are available by calling The Rep's Box Office at 501-378-0405 or by visiting TheRep.org.

Farther down the road