RIP Angelo Badalamenti

“Today, no music.”

Those were the words of David Lynch this morning following the announcement that composer and lyricist—and Lynch’s longtime friend and collaborator across a variety of mediums—had died at age 85. The death of Angelo Badalamenti is another heartbreaking loss for those like myself for whom Twin Peaks is something like a religion. Coupled with the 2022 deaths of Julee Cruise, Al Strobel, Kenneth Walsh and Lenny Von Dohlen, it’s been a tough year...

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The New Classics: Amélie

By Michael Cusumano 

I worked at The Ritz art house theaters in Philadelphia when Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie was released in 2001. My location was the smallest in the chain so we’d never get the hotly anticipated indie titles. However, when it came time to program Amélie somebody goofed and decided it would be a good fit for my location. We couldn’t pack the mobs in tight enough. Jeunet’s giddy Parisian carousel sold out screenings for nine months straight. I watched a lot of theaters empty out in my years at the movies, but there was something about the beaming smiles on Amélie’s crowds as they stumbled out of the darkness that stands out in the memory. 

Since then the knock against Amélie is not that its highs aren’t real, but that they are sugar highs. Empty calories. Like a five-course meal sculpted entirely from marzipan. I get it. It’s easy to imagine skimming across the surface charms of Jeunet’s Paris like one of Amélie’s skipping stones without ever engaging the intellect. I can only reply that Amélie engages my intellect...

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Today's 5: Frances Ha, Howard Ashman, Mr Dietrich...

Humpday for all your office drones. Need a distraction? Quick boost? Here are 5 anniversaries and a suggestion as to how to honor each. Try 'em out and see if they make the day go faster.

May 17th History

2013 Frances Ha finally opens in theaters after an excruciating wait from its rave reviews at festivals the fall prior. It was everything we hoped for and then some and did well in our annual awards right here. 

In its honor today: dance and leap run like Frances, especially when you're on the way to the ATM...

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Life of Link

GQ John Smedley's Ian McLean has really good taste. Check out his shoutouts to Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett
Stale Popcorn Jean Valjean and Fantine strike a pose 
In Contention on the various screenplays that are ineligible for the WGA and can't therefore get the Oscar bump. As usual there are a lot of them rendering the WGA fairly ineffective as both a predictive precursor and as a competitive prize since it's dealing with so few of the year's movies!

Cinema Blend Alicia Vikander (A Royal Affair, Anna Karenina) is a starlet in demand now. Once you've seen both of those movies, you'll demand her too!
Jean-Pierre Jeunet shares his storyboards from Life of Pi back when Fox was considering him to direct it years and years ago. Interesting inside glimpse of filmmakers grappling with movies they didn't make.
NPR on the hunt for Bin Laden and the accuracy of Zero Dark Thirty. Was it really a woman at the center?

"I think it's a literary device. It's not inaccurate, but it's not wholly accurate," says writer Peter Bergen, who himself has spent many years tracking bin Laden. 

Movie|Line turns out that a very disturbing NC-17ish scene towards the end of Django Unchained (MILD SPOILER: Django is hung upside down completely naked and receives two malevolent visitors) was even more cruel in an earlier cut --  Samuel L Jackson says his character burned Foxx's nipples off.
Celebuzz celebrates the shortest male stars from Jason Statham to Daniel Radcliffe in an infographic
Fox Searchlight you can pretend you're an awards voter by downloading FYC booklets!