Tuesday, September 12, 2017 at 5:15PM by Nathaniel R
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1985 is our "Year of the Month", as we work towards the Supporting Actress Smackdown (Sunday October 1st!). We'll be periodically peppering the blog with takes on showbiz from that year. But first a "TOTALLY 80s" overview of the year that was in movies, music, theater, and tv after the jump...
Thursday, August 24, 2017 at 9:00AM On this day (August 24th) in showbiz-related history...
1890 "Father of modern surfing" and part time movie actor Duke Kahanamoku born in Hawaii. We've written about him before. Where's his biopic?
1967 The Whisperers premieres in London. It's about an old poor woman living in solitude who is beginning to lose her grip on reality. Dame Edith Evans sterling work was instantly lauded - she won Best Actress at Berlinale and from such disparate groups as the NYFCC, NBR and the Golden Globes. She landed her third and final Oscar nomination in the Best Actress lineup (sadly only the winner, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner's Hepburn, was less than superb in that shortlist!). At the time Evans was the oldest Oscar nominee of all time in any acting category having just turned 80 years old. That record has since been undone but she's still the third oldest lead actress nominee after Jessica Tandy for Driving Miss Daisy (also 80, who won) and Emmanuelle Riva for Amour (who was 85). Have you ever seen The Whisperers? It's haunting and quite a time capsule of contemporary British cinema of the time. [And check out Nick Davis' 5 star review of this legendary performance]
1985 Huey Lewis and the News hit #1 with their theme from Back to the Future "The Power of Love". The music video had a cameo by the car and Christopher Lloyd's "Doc" though it was mostly just the band playing in a bar. Best Original Song was one of the film's 4 Oscar nominations (it won for sound effects editing). In case you haven't yet heard, 1985 will be our "year of the month" in September as we build to the next Smackdown.
2012 Remember that movie where Michael Shannon was evil (wait, that's not helpful) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt was a bicycle messenger (now that's more specific). Premium Rush opened on this day. Isn't it weird how some movies, like that one, feel much more ancient than they actually are while others from years earlier feel fresh as daisies?
Happy Birthday to Them!
← Oscar Winner: Usurper of Kathleen Turner's and/or Sigourney Weaver's Best Actress statue. More generously we must admit that it's super impressive that Matlin trailblazed by refusing to be a one hit wonder, turning that splashy debut into such an unlikely but full career. She's been working ever since!
Oscar Nominees: Ava DuVernay (13th), Anne Archer (Fatal Attraction), Ronee Blakley (Nashville), Robert Pulcini (American Splendor)
Cool Talents: Actress Elizabeth Debicki, Wit Stephen Fry, Auteur Takashi Miike, Novelist A.S. Byatt
80s Touchstones: Steve Guttenberg (Cocoon, Can't Stop the Music, and so many more) and Gordon Wanecke (My Beautiful Laundrette!)
Tuesday, April 12, 2016 at 6:58PM Because we'll be seeing what various cinephiles around the web think of Peter Weir's Witness for "Best Shot" tonight here's an entirely rando top ten list of 1985, direct from my brain. Or, rather, from web archives or my brain. Which means it's an unholy amalgam of things I loved when I was young and things I love now after many watches over the years and things I possibly would only love ironically now because I loved them when I was young.
1985 silliness after the jump...
Tuesday, November 24, 2015 at 12:10PM Alexa here, anticipating Thanksgiving. Every year I imagine hosting a dream Thanksgiving feast, with a table filled with friends, movie marathons instead of football, and Marilyn's stuffing recipe. Someday, perhaps my dreams will come true, but in the reality we will just blast Adele and hope for the best.
Here are some movie-loving serving items I've bookmarked in the meantime after the jump...
Tuesday, April 28, 2015 at 2:30PM Alexa here. Recently, Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles held a show called Postcard Correspondence that featured more than 100 artists creating postcards inspired by pop culture. Many created location-themed cards (like this Aurora, IL print for Wayne's World) or character-themed cards (especially loved this Satine postcard by Nan Lawson) but one set really caught my eye for its originality: letterpress dog portrait postcards by Evan Yarbrough.
Evan created a series of canine letterpress-printed portraits from movies and television, like this lovable Einstein portrait celebrating Back to the Future below. For those dog lovers out there, after the jump see more Evan's designs...
