Showbiz History: Gyllenhaal's first win, The Witch's release

5 random things that happened on this day, February 19th, in history (as it relates to showbiz)...

1942 /1945 Two historic and tragic days in the history of Japan & US relations. In '42 President FDR ordered Japanese-Americans into internment camps. This shameful moment is rarely dramatized in English-language movies outside of documentaries (surely because Hollywood doesn't love looking at America's own sins) though its shown up in a few like Go For Broke (1951) about Japanese-Americans serving in the US Army at the time and 1990's Come See the Paradise about an interracial family during the war. Later in '45 the US marines invasion of Iwo Jima begins. We recently saw it dramatized, from the Japanese perspective, in Clint Eastwood's Best Picture nominee Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)...

Click to read more ...

Puzzling it out with Dreamworks

by Nathaniel R

During quarantine my roommate and I spent hours doing this 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle from Dreamworks. Part of some swag box for their anniversary I believe...

Click to read more ...

30 Days Until Oscar

30 is...

...the running time of Wallace & Gromit's Oscar winning shorts A Close Shave (1995) and The Wrong Trousers (1993)

...the number of features directed by Steven Spielberg from Sugarland Express (1974) to The BFG (2016)

...the age of Bette Davis and Hilary Swank when they won their second Best Actress Oscars for Jezebel (1938) and Million Dollar Baby (2004) respectively

...the year of Best Picture winner All Quiet on the Western Front

... and the age at which you get all dressed up to be "terminated" in Logan's Run (1976). For the good of society!

Links

I apologize straightaway for the slower-than-usual posting the past few days. it's just been one of those weeks. co-miserate with me in the comments.

Pajiba "Goodwin's Law: Celebrity Edition" starring Susan Sarandon, Lars von Trier and more celebrities whose exaggerating mouths get them into trouble.
Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal tons of W&G items up for auction starting on November 1st. I love Wallace and Gromit.
EW Joss Whedon plots his return to the web with the apocalyptic Wastelanders.
In Contention I know you've heard this but it's worth noting that the NYFCC, arguably the most important of the 17 million critics awards out there, have taken the crazy crazy "first!" position in awards season by jumping to (gasp) November.

Animation Magazine that animated marvel Persepolis is still shaking things up years later.
Self Styled Siren remembers Barbara Kent (1906-2011), another silent film star who has left this earth.
Awards Daily is excited for the new Diane Keaton memoir. So am I but I'm honestly surprised as she seemed so the don't-kiss-and-tell type.
Scanners good piece on cinephilia and our separate lines in the sand when it comes to horrific imagery, whether of the standard horror or pyschologically disturbing variety.

Keyframe Nick Davis on Derek Jarman's Blue.  

Indeed, it’s hard to escape an undertow of privation while watching Blue, not just because its premise is the imminent demise of a great filmmaker (still absurdly undervalued by all but the most self-selecting audiences,) but because its form is austere enough to come across as like a mid-level gallery gimmick."

just 4 fun
Skedrawdles "it's a cloud eat cloud world."
Towleroad "It Getteth Better"
Hark, a Vagrant! Spider-Man vs. Kraven.