"Wonderstruck" and "Mudbound"

Lynn Lee continuing our Middleburg Film Festival adventure

Dee Rees and Mudbound cast earlier this year. © Daniel Bergeron

It’s always a little weird to attend a talk with a director before seeing the film they’re being interviewed about.  That’s what happened with Mudbound, which concluded a day that began with a very engaging conversation between director Dee Rees and Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday and festival founder Sheila Johnson’s presentation of the 2017 “Visionary” award to Rees.  Rees was charming, articulate, and impressively self-possessed, and had many interesting comments on the directorial choices she made in Mudbound, which I wasn’t sure whether I should keep in mind or set aside while watching the film that night.  Rees made clear that she resists being pigeonholed as a director of color, female director, or female director of color, an aversion reflected in her somewhat bland mantra “let excellence be the standard.”  At the same time, she agreed that the current system is structurally biased against prioritizing excellence and needs to be opened up...

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Julianne in Venice: Suburbicon, Woodshock, Three Billboards...

by Nathaniel R

This lovely photo was taken by longtime Film Experience reader Ferdi in Italy where the Venice Film Festival is ongoing. Isn't she a vision in gauzy red? One more photo of Julianne and more about several Oscar hopeful festival premieres after the jump...

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A First Look At "Suburbicon"

Chris here. With fall festival lineups beginning to be revealed, that means some of the upcoming films that have been shrouded in secrecy are beginning to lift the veil. One such film that we've seen next to nothing from is George Clooney's Suburbicon, which will be among the Venice and Toronto lineups.

Thus far we've only had the starry cast (Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Oscar Isaac) and a script by Clooney, his writing partner Grant Heslov, and the Coen brothers to stoke our curiosity - with a brief plot synopsis about home invasion to have us scratching our heads as to what the actual tone of this thing would be. Now there is a trailer that... leaves us with more questions about the tone.

Take a look at the trailer and I have some burning questions after the jump...

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Julianne Moore & an Unexpected Adjective

Chris here, reminding you that Julianne Moore is an Oscar winning actress because it doesn't get old. Perhaps I should also remind that she still likes to have fun in a silly action movie or two. This fall she joins a thoroughly bizarre cast for the Kingsman sequel, hopefully getting some screentime with buddy Colin Firth. But her character-revealing poster for the film is an odd one, emblazening the actress with a cheeky smile and one word: "deluded". Is this movie throwing shade toward the goddess or our blind fandom? Either way, how dare they. In the comments, tell us another adjective you would use to highlight Julianne!

Part Two: 70 Best Gowns of the 70th Cannes Festival

Nathaniel R delivering your very last Cannes 2017 post *sniffle* If you missed Part One, that's here featuring Andie Macdowell, Eva Longoria, Michelle Yeoh, Berenice Bejo, Juliette Binoche, Kristin Scott Thomas, Isabelle Huppert, Fan Bingbing, Monica Bellucci, Uma Thurman and more. A few of those ladies show up again in Part Two!

70 BEST GOWNS OF CANNES 70 
(Part One: 36-70 / Part Two: 1-35 is after the jump)

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