May. It's a wrap
Friday, May 31, 2019 at 8:00AM In May we were busy gazing forlornly at Cannes and also watching Fosse/Verdon intently. What were you up to? Here are a dozen highlights from the month that was so you can get caught up if you're rejoining us or if something grand slipped past you.
ICYMI
• Midnight Cowboy a 50th Anniversary look-back
• Game of Thrones "The Iron Throne" meltdown
• Pain & Glory at Cannes Pedro Almodóvar has another hit on his hands. And an Oscar contender?
• Posterized: Keanu Reeves Whoa. He's made 55 movies and he's 55 years old. How many have you seen?
• Top 10 Nicole Kidman Vanity Fair Covers The enduring beauty hit a milestone so we ranked them.
• Two new Hong Chau movies The Downsizing breakout made good on her promise at Tribeca
• Booksmart a great comedy. Go see it
• Aladdin a three-part retrospective of the 1992 animated classic. One of our three wishes at the moment is that you would comment more on this deep-dive.
• Y Tu Mamá También's Ending the latest episode of your new favourite series "The New Classics"
Most Discussed Posts
• Doris Day (1922-2019) A legend has left us after a long life / huge career
• Posterized: Anne Hathaway She's back with The Hustle. How many of her 27 features have you seen?
• Renée Zellweger as Judy The teaser shows her singing. What do you make of it?
Previously in 2019 Summaries
Best of April | Oscar Season | Best of January
COMING IN JUNE
We have not one but two Smackdowns coming this month (2001 and 1960) for a double-whammy. Plus Emmy FYCs as nomination voting begins and various movies/festivities for LGBT Pride Month. All that plus new movies: Ma, Late Night, The Dead Don't Die, Godzilla: King of Monsters, Rocketman, Yesterday, Men in Black International, and The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
Reader Comments (14)
I'm so glad you're back!
About the smackdowns, when you say 1960 do you refer to the 33rd Academy Awards (honoring the best film from 1960) or the 32nd (held in 1960)?
Wimsey -- we are *always* referring to film year here at The Film Experience. We don't believe in referring to Oscars by the ceremony date.
Glenn Close not winning and TFE not running for 48 hours. 2019 is killing me.
Nathaniel, I had the immense pleasure of seeing your boyfriend Max von Essen in Falsettos here in Chicago last night. Still floating on air from this wonderful, highly emotional production. Max's vocals were perfection. Nick Adams, the entire cast, just extraordinary. I didn't know the score at all, and it just got to me. Need to get this album!
We need a Yes No Maybe So for THE KITCHEN trailer that just dropped :-)
Thanks Nathaniel!
Who made the casting of the new Aladdin? Why did they choose an attractive actor(Marwan Kenzani, for those interested) to play the villain Jafar? Some are saying he's "hotter than the actor who plays the title-character, the hero of the story". Not that I am complaining, but within the context seems totally wrong. Jafar, unlikely Beauty & The Beast Gaston is expected to be a repulsive personage - not only in attitude but also in appearance.
1960! It'll probably come down to Janet Leigh vs. Glynis Johns, but I hope everyone will take notice of the exquisite Mary Ure, (Mrs. Robert Shaw), who died tragically young.
Feline-
OMG I thought I was the only person who felt this way. lol.
I saw Aladdin opening night and I kept thinking to myself, "Dang, Jafar is GORGEOUS" lol
1960 was on the list of not-doables, if I recall. Did Dark at the Top of the Stairs become available via streaming or a blu-ray release?
PoliVamp: in my search for Supporting Actress movies, Dark at the Top of the Stairs was one of the hardest, but I was finally able to track it down and stream it from a website with dodgy regards for copyright laws. I hope it hasn't been taken down. Why this film is so difficult to find I don't know, but I'll bet it has something to do with various people having conflicting rights to various aspects of the film - for example, the play its adapted from, the musical score, etc.
I finished watching 3 seasons of “Call My Agent”, the French tv series where famous French actors appear as themselves in each episode. Isabelle Huppert, Isabelle Adjani, Juliette Binoche, Nathalie Baye, Jean du Jardin, etc.
I’m sure The Film Experience must have talked about this one, since the premise is such fun, and the execution so well done.
Jafar is a queer icon like the rest of the Disney villains, and it’s only right that he’s beautiful.
I actually really like Shirley Jones' performance in Elmer Gantry, so I'm curious what the Smackdown will say about her (It hasn't aged as well as Janet Leigh in Psycho, but given that at the time I saw it I had only seen her in The Music Man and in a guest role in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, she really impressed me).
I wonder what you'll think of A Beautiful Mind now that you'll have to re-watch it (I remember you not being a fan). I will never understand how Jennifer Connelly coasted to an Oscar that year, but I also have a soft spot for that movie for several personal reasons and I did re-watch it recently (it works better as a quasi-thriller than it does as a biopic, but parts of it do work).