What's the Best Film Title of All Time?

I posed this question on Twitter the other day and got some interesting responses. The question popped to mind because The Film Society is hosting a Rainer Werner Fassbinder retrospective this month and I've always worshipped the title The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972). It's just unbeatably evocative and memorable. Hollywood prefers more generic titles of course; recently John Carter of Mars, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, How To Catch a Monster, and Can A Song Save Your Life were abbreviated and drained of all specificity and interest.  

Here were some responses I received to challenge those "bitter tears" from awesome people like Shane, Clara, and Conor ...

I have to admit they're true contenders. Maybe you'd like to add a film title to this honored list?

Mean Girls: 1) Choose Your Seat and 2) Scribble in the Burn Book

Mean Girls Anniversary Week 

Two comment party questions for you this lovely Friday.

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THE CAFETERIA
I love how detailed the North Shore High's social structure is and that Janis & Damian ('the coolest people you will ever meet') make a map for Cady.

1. Was your High School as regimented? And which table would we have found you sitting at? My table was more "the brains" but I don't see that here so I definitely would have been with seated at either of the "Band Geek" tables (all my friends were in band), sexually active and otherwise. 

THE BURN BOOK

it seems kind of unsanitary to leave lip prints all over a book.

2. What would people have written about you in high school? Or were you one of the mean girls who did the writing? 

JANIS: What does it say about me?
CADY: You weren't in it.
JANIS: Those bitches! 

Channing "Gambit" Tatum and Your Favorite Superheroes

I've been quite blocked today (apologies) so I'd like to turn the time over to you for an open discussion. With news coming that Channing Tatum would love to play Gambit in a movie (poor Taylor Kitsch. It's not his fault everyone has tried to scrub X-Men Origins: Wolverine from their memory) Fox will surely be jumping all over that to make it happen.

Though the superhero movie boom will surely die out as all movie trends do eventually, we have no idea how long it will last so we'll just try to enjoy it while it does rather than bristle against it.

The other day on Facebook Stan Lee posted a 'name your five favorite superheroes' thread and I answered more quickly than I knew I could. Without thinking about it five names popped right into mind: Nightcrawler, The Human Torch, Storm, Spider-Man, and The Scarlet Witch. Other than Sam Raimi's perfect Spider-Man 2 I haven't had much luck getting my favorite characters translated to my taste on the screen though, so I've tended to enjoy characters I didn't much at all care for in the comics the most onscreen. Like Captain America. Speaking of... my eyes bugged out seeing a brief glimpse of The Scarlet Witch in that film and I'll be curious to see how Joss Whedon and Elizabeth Olsen dramatize her in The Avengers: Age of Ulton. But still, I hate those post-movie tags which are the heighth of pandering narrative inelegance. They're very much like "next week on..." TV tags

But I'm curious. Name your five favorite superheroes in the comments.  I perused through some answers on Facebook and was surprised to see that very few people chose heroes beyond the truly iconic household name ones - batman, superman, spider-man, and wolverine were constantly name-checked.

ICYMI, Which *I* Did

Hello my beautiful cinephiles. Nathaniel, back from my rejuvenating weekend. It's possible that you haven't missed me since the team has been doing a great job but I missed you. 

For my annual post-Oscar getaway I took my first cruise. On the left you'll see me finishing up some cherry & umbrella accented cocktail. That said I wasn't very boozy at all because cruises are cheap but they find other ways to charge you (aka alcohol). I brought no internet screens because cruises are cheap but they  find other ways to charge you (aka wi-fi at 75¢ a minute!). The break was good for my eyes and soul so I'm excited to talk movies again (where do we even start?). The break was not, however, good for my skin; I am an unholy mess of three colors (blinding white, near-bronze, and cherry red) because I am not accustomed to sunlight. Sunscreen is, as ever, an imperfect science when applied by human hands. Right before I left Florida I caught a brief bit of news that they were expanding their insane "stand your ground" law rather than repealing it as they should so it's a good thing I made it out alive. (Florida's politicians and electorate seem determined to remake Florida in the image of a lawless saloon in a Western with gunfights at every plot point. Shameful.)

If you've been elsewhere like me, catch up as I just did on the week's offerings...

The Great Beauty an Oscar-winning sensory experience from the Criterion Collection
One From the Heart and Dracula - Celebrate Francis Ford Coppola's 75th
Heath Ledger would have been 35 this year. What might have been?
Michelle Williams on Broadway in the Sally Bowles role in the revival of Cabaret
Jezebel and Bringing Up Baby - revisiting two Old Hollywood classics 

Divisive Listings
10 Greatest Working Cinematographers - our opinionated team chose two consensus giants (Lubezki & Deakins) up top, but the other eight are more surprising. It's interesting how few of them have won an Oscar, right?
Many Faces of Jude Law - more a chameleon than he's given credit for but people never seem to agree about him... 

And finally...
Things were super. Marvel's patriotic hero Captain America was a consistent talking point in review, the greater context of the Marvel Universe (how many have you seen?), and the box office where he unsurprisingly reigned. Scarlett Johansson is bereft of actual superpowers as The Black Widow but she makes up for that in the Lucy trailer. 

Open Thread & Vacation Time

What's on your cinematic mind? I was worried you were all thinking about the exact same thing that we had neglected to write on until I realized the comments were malfunctioning. FIXED. So now that you can comment again, please fill it up the blog with your movie-addled thoughts. I'll be reading them and letting them marinate for inspiration as I soak up the sun... 

I'm always totally burnt out post-Oscar, so it's time for my annual off the grid rejuvenation. Only a long weekend but it'll help. I plan to be in the water as much as possible and when I come back I'll hit the ground running, tie up all loose ends (the smackdown I know I know) and get to those April Foolish Oscar Predictions so we can start all over again. In the meantime I know the team has some goodies planned for you.

xoxo - Nathaniel