Crimson Peak: An Ecstasy of Gothic Style

by Cláudio Alves

Some films age like fine wine, others like milk. Guillermo del Toro's predecessor to one of the weirdest Best Picture winners ever is closer to grape juice than dairy. If you don't believe it, check out Crimson Peak, which is newly available on HBO Now. The film wasn't particularly well-received upon its 2015 release, but the years have been kind to it, highlighting its best elements while dulling the impact of its less impressive aspects. Its intoxicating visuals are of particular magnificence, resurrecting the iconography of classic Hammer-style horror philtered through the showmanship of Guillermo del Toro's imagination. Some may say this is a case of style over substance, though nothing couldn't be farther from the truth. After all, Crimson Peak is a production where style is substance…

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Carol 2 is finally here…

by Murtada Elfadl

Not exactly. But look at these pictures of Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara on the set of Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley. Don’t they remind you of Carol (2015)? The period costumes, the snow and winter setting, Cate’s gorgeous blond wig? 

The internet lost its mind for a couple of hours...

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Horror Actressing: Maribel Verdú in "Pan's Labyrinth"

by Jason Adams

As long as there have been haunted houses there have been housekeepers keeping them, and the role of the housekeeper in a horror film is a tried and true one that film-makers can and have spun off a dozen different ways. There's the strange and sapphic Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson) in Rebecca; there's the seemingly good-natured but with a hell of a secret Mrs. Mills (Fionnula Flanagan) in The Others; and there's the bluntly unfriendly type typified by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley) in The Haunting who gets to speak the immortal line, "In the night. In the dark."

Guillermo Del Toro, would of course be familiar with all these tropes, which is why I think his spin on the role with the great Maribel Verdú in Pan's Labyrinth is so fascinating...

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Venice is First. And Opens with "First Man"

by Nathaniel R

First Man star Ryan Gosling and living legend Vanessa Redgrave were the toasts of Venice at the opening of the 75th annual Venice Film Festival...

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Bingelinking

Since we haven't done a link roundup in too long, here are way too many of them for your clicking pleasure and general infotainment.

Screens
• Cartoon Brew Freshly Oscared Guillermo del Toro is taking active role in Dreamworks Animation going forward
• Vulture "I ate like Olivia Pope for a week, and didn't die" - a hilarious journal/tribute to Scandal in its last season
• NYT a profile of Rachel Weisz. It opens with beauty tips, pregnancy, and lesbian sex and I shuddered thinking we were going to get a deluge of thinkpieces about editors assigning sexist men to write about actresses but we are saved from the thinkpieces because it turns out it's a Maureen O'Dowd article
• Playbill Amazon is launching a new short form series After Forever about a 50something gay couple tomorrow. Lots of theater folks are in it

More after the jump including Michelle Pfeiffer's Janet van Dyne, Isle of Dogs charity mission, Drag Race revelations, auctions of the unwanted (Ghost in the Shell and Weinstein Co), and lots of Avengers and Westworld... 

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