Sundance: 'Call Jane' is worth answering

By Ben Miller

Handsomely filmed and admirably performed, Oscar-nominated Carol screenwriter Phyllis Nagy makes her feature film directorial debut with Call Jane. Elizabeth Banks stars as Joy, a traditional suburban Chicago housewife in the 1960s. Joy has a loving but busy lawyer husband Will (Chris Messina) and a 14-year-old daughter Charlotte (Grace Edwards). Joy is newly pregnant, and keeps having dizzy spells and passes out in her kitchen. Her doctor diagnoses a congenital heart blockage that threatens her life, unless the pregnancy is terminated - the only treatment...

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Here's Your Sundance 2022

by Jason Adams

The main line-up for the 2022 edition of the Sundance Film Festival was announced this afternoon -- can I get a huzzah? Running from January 20th through the 30th they'll be screening 82 feature films and assorted other cinematic ephemera over the course of those ten days -- they're keeping themselves to the middle space in between in-person and virtual for their 2022 edition, with everything premiering in person in Utah and then subsequently screening via their (truly outstanding) online platform for those of us who can't make it to the mountains, for whatever reason. Like, for instance, the still-happening pandemic, which is certainly my own personal reason for only attending virtually again this time, and which it would be irresponsible for me to not recommend you all take into account. (That said their safety protocols seem very much on point, so your own mileage may vary.) 

I've got the entire press release with the word on everything announced today way down below -- and you can check out each title even more thoroughly on the fest's website, of course -- but I figured before that megaton of information I'd go ahead and poison your opinions with my opinions, highlighting ten movies that are immediately leaping forward onto my face for one particular reason or another.  

Sharp Stick -- Lena Dunham's new movie, her first in over a decade, will surely, as with everything Dunham-related, invite enthusiastic conversation from all angles. That's one way to say it! People sure do have opinions on her and her work, and the story here... 

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Cate Blanchett is Mrs. America

by Murtada Elfadl

Intensity is coming to Hulu. Cate Blanchett level intensity. Uzo Aduba, Sarah Paulson, Rose Byrne intensity. The cast assembled for Mrs America, the F/X Hulu series that recounts right wing activist Phyllis Schlafly’s fight against the feminist movement of the 1970s is chock full of all your favoriter character actresses. Elizabeth Banks, Margo Martindale, Tracey Ullman and Melanie Lynskey are also in the cast. There are some men too, namely John Slattery, James Mardsen and Insecure’s Jay Ellis. The official synopsis reads... 

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Review: Charlie's Angels (2019)

Box office and reviews have been tough on the new Angels. I guess today the contrarian corner is a theme here at TFE. Tony likes it! - editor.

by Tony Ruggio

We'll start with where I'm coming from: I’m no fan of the original series. The early-Aughts adaptations were mostly forgettable save a dance or two from Cameron Diaz and Sam Rockwell. But these 2019 Angels are surprisingly fresh and fun. It’s an IP brought back from irrelevant hell and updated with verve.

About the three new Angels. Elizabeth Banks is clearly in love with Kristen Stewart, and who can blame her? Stewart is a charisma machine as the weird, spunkiest Angel of the bunch. She's so good you almost wish she took movie star roles more often. You also forget there was once a time when she got gruff for playing mopey all the time. Those days are long gone...

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Good Morning, Charlie!

By Spencer Coile  

It’s been 18 years since the film remake of Charlie’s Angels was released and 7 since the failed television reboot aired – not to mention over 40 years since the original television series premiered. But as time has shown us in the past few years, nostalgia sells. And so we have news of a new Charlie’s Angels.

With Elizabeth Banks set to direct and star in the film and the three leads rumored to be played by Lupita Nyong’o, Naomi Scott, and Kristen Stewart, our anticipation escalates. A story about strong women told by women! Although casting is still in the works, the film is rumored to be looking at the summer of 2019.  

Does this news excite you, or have you had enough of reboots? Who will voice Charlie (fingers crossed on Judi Dench or Viola Davis)? But perhaps most importantly, is anyone else a huge fan of 2003’s Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle?