Horror Actressing: Ronee Blakley in "A Nightmare on Elm Street"

by Jason Adams

Marge Thompson is such a weirdo. Less than ten years after her Oscar nomination for Robert Altman's classic Nashville the singer turned actress Ronee Blakley was playing the Mom in a slasher flick. Some might disparage that turn of events -- say she was "reduced to" playing the Mom in a slasher flick. I am not one of those people. Especially when you see the gloriously strange performance that Blakley turned in. There's nothing unmemorable about the final girl Nancy Thompson's momma -- she'll haunt your dreams!

A Nightmare on Elm Street is about the sins of the parents being visited, rather traumatically, upon their children, a symbiotic theme that Craven would come to visit time and again with his horror films...

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Soundtracking: Nashville

by Chris Feil

We don’t really think of Robert Altman’s Nashville as a musical. To be fair, it both is and it isn’t. As is trademark for the director, the film is focused on character first to reveal its themes, exposing a distinctly American disposition both in its specific social strata and in the grander national sense. But Nashville isn’t always interested in doing so through song. Even taking place in the country music world, music feels like an equal contributor to Altman’s portraiture as any of the ensemble members.

Viewers wanting Altman to languor in the thematic sway of a musical’s tunes will always have A Prairie Home Companion. Instead here he upends genre traditions much as he does general narrative ones. Musicals are a genre that even at its best can still feel the least spontaneous, and spontaneity is a definitive Altman trait...

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Barbara Harris (1935-2018)

by Nathaniel R

Barbara Harris in The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979)

Sad news yesterday. One of the nation's best and most underappreciated actresses Barbara Harris passed away at 83 from lung cancer. The Chicago native got her start as a teenager on local stages and was an original member of Chicago's famed Second City troupe. Her intermittent screen career sprang initially from her stage successes. Though her filmography is mostly in the 1970s, she made a few 80s movies before retiring including Peggy Sue Got Married, Grosse Point Blank, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Curiously for such a talented thespian of both stage and screen, she seemed somewhat ambivalent about her career, stating that she didn't miss acting after her retirement...

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Showbiz History: John Wayne's Oscar, Altman's Nashville, JLaw's Record

by Nathaniel R

John Wayne in "The Big Trail (1930)" and in "True Grit (1969)"

This day in history is a big one of Hollywood's most popular stars, John Wayne. His career began, as most did in the early days of Hollywood, with uncredited parts in silent films but he became a leading man once the talkies hit. Perhaps he needed that distinctive slow-crawl dirt road voice to stand out? He had his first leading role at just 23 years of age with The Big Trail. True stardom didn't hit, though, until Stage Coach (1939) after which, he was top-billed for the remainder of his career. On this very day in 1969 True Grit premiered in Los Angeles. The role of Rooster Cogburn would net him his third Oscar nomination and prove to be something of a career capper when he took home the Best Actor Oscar. (Jeff Bridges would later be Oscar-nominated for the same role in the 2010 Coen brothers remake). Not one to rest -- Wayne holds the record of most leading roles for an American movie star with *gasp* 142 of them -- the western icon kept right on working through The Shootist in 1976. On this same day in history in 1979, ten years after people first met Rooster Cogburn, Wayne died of stomach cancer. He remains one of the most iconic stars in Hollywood history.

What else was happening on this day in showbiz history? Find out after the jump...

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New Directors: Banana, Transpecos, Spa Night, and The Fits

One day I will figure out to keep up with the cinematic madness but April contained none of those days. A week ago the Nashville Film Festival wrapped and I have yet to share with you the prizes my jury bestowed! Not that you've been clamoring to read about films you've never heard of but one of the joys of film festivals is in the discoveries. Hence my great thrill to be asked to sit on the "New Directors Jury". Let's survey a handful of the competitors starting with the two winners, both of which made one step closer to theaters this week.

HONORABLE MENTION The Fits (2016)
I'm starting with this one because it's out very soon (June 3rd in NYC / June 10th in Los Angeles) and you absolutely shouldn't miss it. I'm already eager to see it again. We need directors with fresh voices and a unique gaze and we've got one in Anna Rose Helmer. The Fits follows a young girl named Toni (Royalty Hightower, pretty great) who spends her days helping her older brother with his job cleaning a boxing gym. She's fascinated by the boy rituals and the girl rituals which are happening just down the hall where a local dance squad rehearses in another gymnasium. Just when you think you've figured out the film's theme (there's certainly much to ponder in its gender dynamics) one of the dancers has a violent fit and faints and you realize Helmer has a lot more yet on her mind. There's no easy allegories here and maybe it's a little opaque but there's much to ponder in its metaphysical poetry, thoughtful camera work and editing and, above all else, its persistent fly-on-the-wall curiosity, the camera a soulful twin to Toni's ever-searching eyes. B+ (A-?)

Breaking News: The Fits got a poster (left) and a perfect moody trailer this week from Oscilloscope Pictures. 

More after the jump including an awards magnet which keeps winning festivals... 

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