Podcast: The Hate U Give, Burning, Border, Suspiria

Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl talk four new films now in theatrical release in select cities

Index (67 minutes)
00:01 The Hate U Give is heavy handed but moving. Amandla Stenberg and Russell Hornsby are very good in it
27:19 Spoiler warning about our discussions of Burning and Border (though in truth we don't get that spoilery. We still speak vaguely but if you wanna go in completely cold, skip!)
28:12 Burning starring Steven Yeun and directed by genius Lee Chang-dong
39:30 Discussion of Oscar's foreign film hopefuls and how they routinely ignores Asian movies
47:00 Sweden's bizarre submission Border and its multiple genres
53:15 Luca Guadagnino's remake of Dario Argento's Suspiria
64:00 Running times and wrap-up.

References / Further Reading
• Nathaniel's review of Burning & Border
• Dan's Review of The Hate U Give
• Chris's review of Wildlife 
• Carey Mulligan drag Instagram cuteness 
• Best Foreign Language Film Predictions

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

The Hate U Give and more...

Be More Link

• Glamour Amandla Stenberg goes au naturel with the body hair at the Rome premiere of The Hate U Give. Oh and also its their 20th birthday today. Happy birthday to them!
• /Film Release date shuffle. Wonder Woman 2 has been pushed back to 2020 so now it's the Terminator reboot (with the original stars) and a reboot of Charlie's Angels facing off in Wonder Woman's old Novemeber 2019 date
• Self Styled Siren anecdote of the week involves 1940s and 1950s star Jennifer Jones
• MNPP lots of photos of Cory Michael Smith to celebrate his coming out and his new film 1985

• MCN first Gurus of Gold chart of the season with the actressing awards and Best Picture
• Orlando Weekly Indiana Jones Land is probably coming to Disney World in the early 2020s with various parks dreaming up pitches
• Variety it's going to be a big year for traditional studios at the Oscars
• Coming Soon In demand Jean-Marc Vallée attached to a Yoko Ono / John Lennon biopic
• Variety Critics Choice nominees for Documentaries. I really can't with the randomness of 6-9 nominees (are there any rules) in 12 different categories. It's like CHOOSE. If you nominate everything there is zero drama and no reason to look at what's been chosen.
• THR How to Build a Girl about a young woman (Beanie Feldstein) becoming a rock critic is building an impressive supporting cast with Emma Thompson, Paddy Considie, and Chris O'Dowd all joining
• New Yorker lottery drawings in the age of plutocracy
• Next Best Picture a report on 'lone acting nominations'
• Deadline Be More Chill, opening soon on Broadway has already auctioned off its film rights. Meanwhile Hamilton still hasn't ironed out a deal for the film rights but its expected to be a $50 million sale

Exit Video
Hey look & listen, it's a brief soundbyte of a Mary Poppins Returns song in this "special look" that's basically pieces of the original trailer recut with a pieces of a song.

Review: The Hate U Give

by Dancin' Dan

Audrey Wells, the screenwriter of The Hate U Give, lost her battle with cancer the day before the film opened. A sad story, to be sure, but what a send off. The Hate U Give, adapted from the novel by Angie Thomas, is a marvel of a film, one that completely belies its "YA literature" categorization. Its wrangling with the complex issues faced by black Americans surely owes a debt to Thomas's source material, but Wells's adaptation, directed by George Tillman, Jr., brings the novel to the screen in a form that breaks out of any audience box that it might be put in. It may come from a novel for teens, and it may feature a mostly black cast, but make no mistake: This is not just a film for everyone, it's one of the best, most vital films of the year.

Teenage Starr (Amandla Stenberg) and her family live in the "ghetto" area Garden Heights, because her parents think it is important to be with their people (they themselves grew up there), and daddy Maverick owns a grocery store there. But she and her older half-brother Seven attend a private school in a wealthier, whiter neighborhood...

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Amandla Stenberg Comes Out

by Nathaniel R

Here's some sweet news for Pride Month, y'all, since it's not every day that a young rising star comes out of the closet. 19 year-old Amandla Stenberg, who first came to fame playing little Rue in The Hunger Games (2012), has just declared that she's gay in Wonderland magazine and on her own Instagram.

While she's not quite a household name, she is inarguably on the rise so this is a wonderful progressive move. Stenberg is headlining this summer's sci-fi young-people-with-powers flick Darkest Minds (co-starring Beach Rats hottie Harris Dickinson). What's more she'd already delivered her first film-carrying hit with Everything Everything (reviewed). (Everything Everything was the fourth biggest success last year among films directed by women, just after the Oscar nominated Lady Bird)...

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Review: "Everything, Everything"

by Chris Feil

It’s not summer without at least once piece of romantic counter-programming, and for the most part Everything, Everything is a cut above the last few years’ offerings. There is a surprising amount of imagination in this tale of teenage love, and more genuine feeling. Its sappier side is kept at a softer level throughout, more concerned with showing the intricacies of blossoming young love than pulling your emotional strings. The film is more organic and modest in its emotional beats, until it turns its back on its own strengths.

Newly eighteen Maddy (The Hunger Games’s Amandla Stenberg) has been homebound her whole life, suffering from SCID, a genetical disorder that makes her essentially allergic to the world at large...

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