It's well known to fans of "The Wizard of Oz" that actor Ray Bolger was originally cast to play the Tin Man and famed comedian Buddy Ebsen was cast as the Scarecrow. They swapped roles at Bolger's insistence, as Bolger had a personal attachment to the role; he was inspired to become an actor after seeing Vaudevillian Fred Stone play the part on stage when Bolger was a child. Ebsen was fine with changing roles, although he had to drop out of production due to makeup problems. The silvery Tin Man makeup contained powered aluminum and Ebsen breathed in big clouds of it, making him sick. At the time, many merely assumed Ebsen had an allergy. Ebsen was replaced with Jack Haley, and the makeup was altered to be a paste instead of a powder.
With the possible exception of "Star Wars," no film's production has been more meticulously recorded...
With the possible exception of "Star Wars," no film's production has been more meticulously recorded...
- 3/10/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
In 1976, Elvis Presley visited Colorado with his entourage and began peddling a story about a drug raid. Elvis took each member of his entourage aside and told them he had taken a trip to Denver so he could help the police. According to Elvis, he had tagged along on a drug raid and broken the neck of a drug dealer. When members of his entourage investigated this claim further, they found there was no truth to it.
Elvis lied about something he experienced on a drug raid
On a ski trip to Vail, Colorado, Elvis took a day trip to Denver. He bought cars for his friends in the police force and dropped them off. In conversations with his entourage, though, he claimed this was just a cover. The real reason for his trip was to help the police on a drug raid.
“He then told me in very confidential...
Elvis lied about something he experienced on a drug raid
On a ski trip to Vail, Colorado, Elvis took a day trip to Denver. He bought cars for his friends in the police force and dropped them off. In conversations with his entourage, though, he claimed this was just a cover. The real reason for his trip was to help the police on a drug raid.
“He then told me in very confidential...
- 1/12/2024
- by Emma McKee
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
The Criterion Channel is closing the year out with a bang––they’ve announced their December lineup. Among the highlights are retrospectives on Yasujiro Ozu (featuring nearly 40 films!), Ousmane Sembène, Alfred Hitchcock (along with Kent Jones’ Hitchcock/Truffaut), and Parker Posey. Well-timed for the season is a holiday noir series that includes They Live By Night, Blast of Silence, Lady in the Lake, and more.
Other highlights are the recent restoration of Abel Gance’s La roue, an MGM Musicals series with introduction by Michael Koresky, Helena Wittmann’s riveting second feature Human Flowers of Flesh, the recent Sundance highlight The Mountains Are a Dream That Call To Me, the new restoration of The Cassandra Cat, Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar, Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, and more.
See the lineup below and learn more here.
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam, 1988
An American in Paris, Vincente Minnelli,...
Other highlights are the recent restoration of Abel Gance’s La roue, an MGM Musicals series with introduction by Michael Koresky, Helena Wittmann’s riveting second feature Human Flowers of Flesh, the recent Sundance highlight The Mountains Are a Dream That Call To Me, the new restoration of The Cassandra Cat, Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar, Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, and more.
See the lineup below and learn more here.
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam, 1988
An American in Paris, Vincente Minnelli,...
- 11/13/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Last year, legendary filmmaker John Carpenter teamed up with Shout! Factory to host a kaiju movie marathon called Masters of Monsters, which consisted of the original Godzilla film, Rodan; Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster, and The War of the Gargantuas. That marathon was re-run earlier this month. Now the folks at Far Out magazine have dug up a 1996 article from Film Comment magazine in which Carpenter named The War of the Gargantuas as “the ultimate Japanese monster movie” – and included it on a list of his seventeen favorite “guilty pleasure” movies. It’s a fun list, so we have it included below, with thanks to this site.
Carpenter started out the Film Comment guilty pleasures article by saying, “I wasn’t raised a Catholic, so guilt never played much of a role in my life. We Methodists don’t worry about guilt all that much. In terms of cinema, however, guilt has always been very important.
Carpenter started out the Film Comment guilty pleasures article by saying, “I wasn’t raised a Catholic, so guilt never played much of a role in my life. We Methodists don’t worry about guilt all that much. In terms of cinema, however, guilt has always been very important.
- 11/7/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.Artists and Models.By rights, Martin and Lewis should have the kind of cultural footprint renders them permanent household names: the status that turns artists into Halloween costumes, as archetypal as cartoon characters and ancient gods. For ten years, from 1946 to 1956, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were a double act, and accurately describing how popular they were sounds like gross exaggeration. They were so big that the only fitting comparisons are to rock stars—and not just any rock stars, but Elvis Presley, or The Beatles. “For ten years after World War II, Dean and I were not only the most successful show-business act in history,” Jerry Lewis wrote with his trademark humility in Dean and Me: A Love Story (1984), “—we were history.” Their live shows were pandemonium. They reportedly made eleven million dollars in 1951 alone.
- 10/23/2023
- MUBI
I honestly never expected Steven Spielberg in a Criterion Channel series––certainly not one that pairs him with Kogonada, anime, and Johnny Mnemonic––but so’s the power of artificial intelligence. Perhaps his greatest film (at this point I don’t need to tell you the title) plays with After Yang, Ghost in the Shell, and pre-Matrix Keanu in July’s aptly titled “AI” boasting also Spike Jonze’s Her, Carpenter’s Dark Star, and Computer Chess. Much more analog is a British Noir collection obviously carrying the likes of Odd Man Out, Night and the City, and The Small Back Room, further filled by Joseph Losey’s Time Without Pity and Basil Dearden’s It Always Rains on Sunday. (No two ways about it: these movies have great titles.) An Elvis retrospective brings six features, and the consensus best (Don Siegel’s Flaming Star) comes September 1.
While Isabella Rossellini...
While Isabella Rossellini...
- 6/22/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Elvis Presley starred in 31 movies in his acting career. Not every single one was a critical darling, but many did well at the box office, giving Presley the status of one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. His movies earned over $284 million worldwide, and a few earned Elvis a pretty payday.
Here are the top 5 highest-grossing Elvis Presley movies 5. ‘Jailhouse Rock’ – $4 million Elvis Presley | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images
Jailhouse Rock is the third movie starring Elvis Presley. Directed by Richard Thorpe, the film centers around Vince (Presley), a convict who discovers in jail that he has the potential to become a star. While the movie received mixed reviews from critics, it was a hit with audiences and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
The film is also fondly remembered for its soundtrack, which included the song “Jailhouse Rock.” The titular tune reached No.
Here are the top 5 highest-grossing Elvis Presley movies 5. ‘Jailhouse Rock’ – $4 million Elvis Presley | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images
Jailhouse Rock is the third movie starring Elvis Presley. Directed by Richard Thorpe, the film centers around Vince (Presley), a convict who discovers in jail that he has the potential to become a star. While the movie received mixed reviews from critics, it was a hit with audiences and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
The film is also fondly remembered for its soundtrack, which included the song “Jailhouse Rock.” The titular tune reached No.
- 3/11/2023
- by Ross Tanenbaum
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
The 2023 Oscar nominees for Best Director are Todd Field (“Tar”), Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”), Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”), and Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”). Our odds currently show that Kwan and Scheinert – aka the Daniels – are most likely to win (16/5), followed in order by Spielberg (19/5), McDonagh (9/2), Field (9/2), and Östlund (9/2).
Spielberg is the only returning directing contender in the bunch, with eight past bids under his belt for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1978), “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1982), “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1983), “Schindler’s List” (1994), “Saving Private Ryan” (1999), “Munich” (2006), “Lincoln” (2013), and “West Side Story” (2022). He prevailed on both his fourth and fifth outings and shared in a Best Picture win as a producer of “Schindler’s List.” This new notice makes him the first back-to-back directing nominee since 2015 and 2016 champion Alejandro González Iñárritu (“Birdman” and “The Revenant”).
For the first time in Oscars history,...
Spielberg is the only returning directing contender in the bunch, with eight past bids under his belt for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1978), “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1982), “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1983), “Schindler’s List” (1994), “Saving Private Ryan” (1999), “Munich” (2006), “Lincoln” (2013), and “West Side Story” (2022). He prevailed on both his fourth and fifth outings and shared in a Best Picture win as a producer of “Schindler’s List.” This new notice makes him the first back-to-back directing nominee since 2015 and 2016 champion Alejandro González Iñárritu (“Birdman” and “The Revenant”).
For the first time in Oscars history,...
- 3/10/2023
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
It is my experience that one gets a far richer, stranger cinema education in pursuing the careers of actors, that group defined first by (assuming luck shines upon them) two or three era-defining films and then so much that dictates their industry—pet projects, contractual obligations, called-in favors alimony payments, auteur one-offs, and on and on. Few embody that deluge of circumstance better than Michelle Yeoh and Isabelle Huppert, both of whom are receiving spotlights in March. The former’s is a who’s-who of Hong Kong talent, new favorites (The Heroic Trio), items we can at least say are of interest (Trio‘s not-great sequel Executioners), etc.
Huppert’s series runs longer, and notwithstanding certain standards that have long sat on the channel it adds some heavy hitters: Hong’s In Another Country, Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Breillat’s Abuse of Weakness, Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come. And, of course,...
Huppert’s series runs longer, and notwithstanding certain standards that have long sat on the channel it adds some heavy hitters: Hong’s In Another Country, Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Breillat’s Abuse of Weakness, Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come. And, of course,...
- 2/22/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Superhero movies based on comics are currently the most successful and lucrative genre on the planet, and they have been for many years. But that's not enough for some people. For some reason, some of us have got it into our heads that films based on comics about Spider-Man and Batman also require Academy Award recognition — as though they haven't already won the ultimate popularity contest already, and they need to win this other, smaller popularity contest held exclusively by bourgeois Hollywood in order to be legitimized.
There was a bit of outrage when Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" was snubbed along with the immensely popular and populist Pixar sci-fi comedy "Wall-e," and the two movies' exclusion from the Best Picture race directly preceded the expansion of the category from five films to ten. But even though people thought the expanded Best Picture field might allow for more popular...
There was a bit of outrage when Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" was snubbed along with the immensely popular and populist Pixar sci-fi comedy "Wall-e," and the two movies' exclusion from the Best Picture race directly preceded the expansion of the category from five films to ten. But even though people thought the expanded Best Picture field might allow for more popular...
- 1/20/2023
- by William Bibbiani
- Slash Film
Elvis Presley’s handlers found the formula that would keep his stardom solvent through the 1960s in this well-confected, calculatedly vacant star vehicle that Everybody liked and enjoyed in 1961. The coolest celeb in America ended up in some of the squarest, least-hip films of the era. Why do we like it so? Cutting through the fog of nostalgia reveals the appeal. The Hawaiian scenery is a knockout, plus there’s good support from Joan Blackman and especially Angela Lansbury, who humbles herself to play an idiot mother caricature for Mister ‘Rock-a-Hula.’
Blue Hawaii
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Paramount Presents
1961 / Color/ 1:85 widescreen / 101 min. / Street Date November 15, 2022 / Available from / 39.99
Starring: Elvis Presley, Joan Blackman, Angela Lansbury, Nancy Walters, Roland Winters, John Archer, Howard McNear, Steve Brodie, Christian Kay, Iris Adrian, Hilo Hattie, Jenny Maxwell, Pamela Austin (Kirk), Darlene Tompkins, Jose De Vega, Frank Atienza, Ralph Hanalei, Gregory Gaye.
Cinematography: Charles Lang...
Blue Hawaii
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Paramount Presents
1961 / Color/ 1:85 widescreen / 101 min. / Street Date November 15, 2022 / Available from / 39.99
Starring: Elvis Presley, Joan Blackman, Angela Lansbury, Nancy Walters, Roland Winters, John Archer, Howard McNear, Steve Brodie, Christian Kay, Iris Adrian, Hilo Hattie, Jenny Maxwell, Pamela Austin (Kirk), Darlene Tompkins, Jose De Vega, Frank Atienza, Ralph Hanalei, Gregory Gaye.
Cinematography: Charles Lang...
- 11/8/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
ABC is celebrating Norman Lear’s 100th birthday with a television special on Sept. 22.
Variety was on hand for exclusive interviews with Lear and his starry guests as they made their way into the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel earlier this month for the filming of the show, “Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music and Laughter.”
Lear, who turned 100 on July 27, has famously credited laughing as the key to living a long life. He also told me that staying in the present is equally as important. “We don’t pay enough attention to the words ‘over’ and ‘next,'” he said. “When something is over, it’s over and we’re all onto the next. If there was a hammock in the middle, that would be the best description I could offer for living in the moment.”
Below, Lear’s friends and the stars of his most famous sitcoms recall meeting the icon for the first time.
Variety was on hand for exclusive interviews with Lear and his starry guests as they made their way into the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel earlier this month for the filming of the show, “Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music and Laughter.”
Lear, who turned 100 on July 27, has famously credited laughing as the key to living a long life. He also told me that staying in the present is equally as important. “We don’t pay enough attention to the words ‘over’ and ‘next,'” he said. “When something is over, it’s over and we’re all onto the next. If there was a hammock in the middle, that would be the best description I could offer for living in the moment.”
Below, Lear’s friends and the stars of his most famous sitcoms recall meeting the icon for the first time.
- 9/22/2022
- by Marc Malkin
- Variety Film + TV
Elvis Aaron Presley was a controversial and transformative figure in American music, and one of the most recognizable 20th century icons. He was also the star of a shocking number of financially successful but, mostly, not very good movies.
“The King,” as he has been called, made an initial attempt at serious acting in the 1950s, but his cinematic career was quickly derailed by a stint in the Army, and upon his return found he could sell the most tickets — and the most soundtrack records — by headlining generic, family-friendly musical fluff. There are hidden treasures in Presley’s filmography, but they are extremely well hidden, and before you find them, you might have to endure some of the biggest stinkers of the era. (Even Elvis himself wasn’t a fan of a lot of them.)
So let us be your guide, as we escort you through the treacherous waters of every single Elvis Presley movie,...
“The King,” as he has been called, made an initial attempt at serious acting in the 1950s, but his cinematic career was quickly derailed by a stint in the Army, and upon his return found he could sell the most tickets — and the most soundtrack records — by headlining generic, family-friendly musical fluff. There are hidden treasures in Presley’s filmography, but they are extremely well hidden, and before you find them, you might have to endure some of the biggest stinkers of the era. (Even Elvis himself wasn’t a fan of a lot of them.)
So let us be your guide, as we escort you through the treacherous waters of every single Elvis Presley movie,...
- 6/24/2022
- by William Bibbiani
- The Wrap
Sometimes it’s like they read your mind—or just notice upcoming releases as you do. Whatever the case, I’m thrilled that the release of Terence Davies’ Benediction played (I assume!) some part in a full retro on the Criterion Channel this June, sad as I know that package will make me and anybody else who comes within ten feet of it. It’s among a handful of career retrospectives: they’ve also set a 12-film Judy Garland series populated by Berkeley and Minnelli, ten from Ulrike Ottinger, and four by Billy Wilder. But maybe their most adventurous idea in some time is a huge microbudget collection ranging from Ulmer’s Detour to Joel Potrykus’ Buzzard, fellow success stories—Nolan, Linklater, Jarmusch, Jia Zhangke—spread about.
Criterion Editions continue with Bertrand Tavernier’s Round Midnight, Double Indemnity, and Seconds, while Chameleon Street, Karen Dalton: In My Own Time,...
Criterion Editions continue with Bertrand Tavernier’s Round Midnight, Double Indemnity, and Seconds, while Chameleon Street, Karen Dalton: In My Own Time,...
- 5/19/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Before the academy expanded the Best Picture race in 2010, the winner of that award almost always picked up the Best Director prize as well. But since then, these two awards have aligned at only seven of the dozen ceremonies. We thought that we’d see another case of double-dipping this year with Jane Campion winning for both directing and producing “The Power of the Dog.” But now it looks like “Coda” will claim the top prize of Best Picture, with Campion consoling herself with being the third woman to win Best Director.
Why the change?
When the decision was made to increase the number of nominees for Best Picture, it was also decided to bring back the preferential ballot that had been used by the academy until the mid 1940s. The rationale was that by ranking the nominees, the winner would be the film that had the broadest level of support.
Why the change?
When the decision was made to increase the number of nominees for Best Picture, it was also decided to bring back the preferential ballot that had been used by the academy until the mid 1940s. The rationale was that by ranking the nominees, the winner would be the film that had the broadest level of support.
- 3/27/2022
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
In film history, the anthology genre is the most challenging. Episodic films often have several directors and screenwriters which gives them an inconsistent tone and quality. But the genre’s pitfalls haven’t stopped such filmmakers including Akira Kurosawa (“Dreams”), the Coens (“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”), Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez (“Sin City”); Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese (“New York Stories”); and Joe Dante, John Landis, George Miller and Steven Spielberg (“Twilight Zone: The Movie”).
Wes Anderson joined them with his latest film “The French Dispatch,” which received a nine-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. The comedy brings to life three stories from an American magazine published in a fictional French city and features his stock company of actors including Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson.
If you are a fan of the genre, here are the best anthology movies that...
Wes Anderson joined them with his latest film “The French Dispatch,” which received a nine-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. The comedy brings to life three stories from an American magazine published in a fictional French city and features his stock company of actors including Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson.
If you are a fan of the genre, here are the best anthology movies that...
- 10/30/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
The cast of Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast,” including Caitriona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench, will follow young Jude Hill’s lead on the road to the Academy Awards. Variety has learned exclusively that Focus Features will campaign Hill for lead actor consideration during the awards season, with the rest of the cast going for supporting recognition.
Balfe and Dornan’s category submissions have been a question mark since the film’s debut at Telluride, riding the line between leading and supporting characters. Balfe, in many ways, has the more accessible and resonating role of the cast. Aside from delivering a beautifully orchestrated turn, it can easily be packaged with all the “Oscar clip” bells and whistles that you see in award-winning contenders. Her star has been growing for years now; she appeared in best picture nominee “Ford v Ferrari” (2019) and has gained a massive following as Claire Randall...
Balfe and Dornan’s category submissions have been a question mark since the film’s debut at Telluride, riding the line between leading and supporting characters. Balfe, in many ways, has the more accessible and resonating role of the cast. Aside from delivering a beautifully orchestrated turn, it can easily be packaged with all the “Oscar clip” bells and whistles that you see in award-winning contenders. Her star has been growing for years now; she appeared in best picture nominee “Ford v Ferrari” (2019) and has gained a massive following as Claire Randall...
- 10/11/2021
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Years in the making! The glory of MGM on parade! Enough studio resources to film twenty pictures were expended on this paean to showman Florenz Ziegfeld. It’s really Metro Goldwyn Mayer’s Technicolor valentine to itself, showing off the studio’s enormous stable of musical talent, along with various of its comic performers. Arthur Freed and Louis B. Mayer’s notion of ‘something for everyone’ results in weird stack of grandiose musical numbers and mostly weak comedy. The biggest draw is the incredible color cinematography that peeks through in three or four jaw-droppingly elaborate musical spectacles. The picture is a workout to find the artistic limits of the Technicolor system.
Ziegfeld Follies
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1945 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 117 110 min. / Street Date June 15, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: (alphabetically): Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, Victor Moore, Red Skelton, Esther Williams. Also...
Ziegfeld Follies
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1945 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 117 110 min. / Street Date June 15, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: (alphabetically): Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, Victor Moore, Red Skelton, Esther Williams. Also...
- 7/20/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
For his first re-teaming sans Ginger, Fred Astaire hot-foots it to MGM and the waiting tap & sweep partner Eleanor Powell, already a terrific box office draw in her own right. These were the days when the caliber of talent in Hollywood justified the exalted, glamorous aura of star status. The story is a backstage mixup with sidebar singing and joke acts, decent dialogue and not much else. But when these two alight on a dance floor — not just ‘a’ dance floor but an enormous expanse of glittering glass — Hollywood hits a too-glamorous-to-be-real peak. The music by Cole Porter includes Begin the Beguine. Just-okay George Murphy is the third wheel on this musical bicycle, with Frank Morgan serving as fuddy-duddy comic relief.
Broadway Melody of 1940
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1940 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 102 min. / Street Date April 13, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, George Murphy, Frank Morgan, Ian Hunter, Florence Rice, Trixie Firschke,...
Broadway Melody of 1940
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1940 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 102 min. / Street Date April 13, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, George Murphy, Frank Morgan, Ian Hunter, Florence Rice, Trixie Firschke,...
- 5/1/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
For someone who follows the awards season with a close, particular eye, you read the tea leaves of a cinematic year based on precedent. What have the Oscars done in their history that warrants such a prediction or outcome? Statistics are heavily scrutinized and precedents are meant to be broken under the right circumstances, as we’ve seen in recent years.
Always expecting the unexpected, I took a look at some of the longest-standing Oscar stats, expecting to be proven wrong at some future ceremony; but when it comes to the age of nominees, these records are likely never to be broken under Hollywood’s current behaviors.
The youngest lead actor nominee was 9 years old.
This record has been owned by Jackie Cooper, who was nominated for lead actor for Norman Taurog’s classic comedy “Skippy” (193o-31) at the fourth Oscar ceremony at the age of 9. This declaration of Cooper...
Always expecting the unexpected, I took a look at some of the longest-standing Oscar stats, expecting to be proven wrong at some future ceremony; but when it comes to the age of nominees, these records are likely never to be broken under Hollywood’s current behaviors.
The youngest lead actor nominee was 9 years old.
This record has been owned by Jackie Cooper, who was nominated for lead actor for Norman Taurog’s classic comedy “Skippy” (193o-31) at the fourth Oscar ceremony at the age of 9. This declaration of Cooper...
- 3/1/2021
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Cary Grant and co-star/missus Betsy Drake do honor to the ‘family picture’ genre — with a filmic boost to child foster programs that offers a positive message, avoids most clichés and generates some sly fun too. What we see resembles real life, even if Cary Grant should never be shown washing dishes. Betsy Drake’s take-charge mother sets family policy as she opts to take in first one and then two foster children. It’s also the film debut of little George Winslow, before he picked up the ‘Foghorn’ nickname. Plus there’s a cute dog and some kittens that offer a sex education lesson. The recent biography of Cary Grant should renew interest in this entertaining and socially admirable show. It’s warm & fuzzy yet not at all saccharine.
Room for One More
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1952 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 95 98? min. / Street Date January 26, 2021 / available through the WBshop / 19.99
Starring: Cary Grant,...
Room for One More
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1952 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 95 98? min. / Street Date January 26, 2021 / available through the WBshop / 19.99
Starring: Cary Grant,...
- 1/30/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Groundbreaking ideas seem in short supply at the moment. This summer’s streamer hits drew big audiences but did not resonate in terms of novelty. Charlize Theron returns as a lethal and immortal mercenary in The Old Guard. Tom Hanks again calmly captains a World War II warship in Greyhound. Most of the “new” original series on Peacock and HBO Max had to first prove themselves in the UK before being granted their U.S. visas.
The brave new world of streaming thus is reaffirming a rule that Hollywood learned a century ago: If an idea is billed as new or, even worse, as “important,” run for cover.
All this may sound war-weary, but it’s worth review at a moment when Hollywood is celebrating (or should be) an anniversary that produced one of its most embarrassing flops – a movie that was aggressively heralded as both new and important. It...
The brave new world of streaming thus is reaffirming a rule that Hollywood learned a century ago: If an idea is billed as new or, even worse, as “important,” run for cover.
All this may sound war-weary, but it’s worth review at a moment when Hollywood is celebrating (or should be) an anniversary that produced one of its most embarrassing flops – a movie that was aggressively heralded as both new and important. It...
- 7/23/2020
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
This article marks Part 3 of the Gold Derby series reflecting on films that contended for the Big Five Oscars – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted). With “A Star Is Born” this year on the cusp of joining this exclusive group of Oscar favorites, join us as we look back at the 43 extraordinary pictures that earned Academy Awards nominations in each of the Big Five categories, including the following 11 films that scored a pair of prizes among the top races.
At the 4th Academy Awards ceremony, “Cimarron” (1931) made Oscar history as the first motion picture to ever score nominations in the Big Five categories. On the big night, the western took home the top prize in Best Picture, as well as the Oscar in Best Adapted Screenplay (Howard Estabrook). Not as successful were the picture’s director, Wesley Ruggles, topped by Norman Taurog (“Skippy”), and the leads,...
At the 4th Academy Awards ceremony, “Cimarron” (1931) made Oscar history as the first motion picture to ever score nominations in the Big Five categories. On the big night, the western took home the top prize in Best Picture, as well as the Oscar in Best Adapted Screenplay (Howard Estabrook). Not as successful were the picture’s director, Wesley Ruggles, topped by Norman Taurog (“Skippy”), and the leads,...
- 10/11/2018
- by Andrew Carden
- Gold Derby
The Caddy screens at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood) Friday August 3rd. The movie starts at 7:30.
The Caddy is a Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis comedy from 1953. It’s directed by Norman Taurog and also stars Donna Reed & Barbara Bates. Also featured are some leading professional golfers of the time.
This is one of the most beloved Martin & Lewis movie that sticks rigidly to the formula that made them so popular. Jerry causes mayhem but always endears in doing so, while Dean croons and catches the eye of the ladies. Plot is told in flashback as the popular duo, now big musical hall stars, shows how they got together courtesy of golf. Cue some goofing around on golf courses and chaos unbound as Jerry upsets the upper class toffs of society. Cue carnage in a department store and chaos on the golf course.
Dean sings the Oscar nominated “That’s Amore,...
The Caddy is a Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis comedy from 1953. It’s directed by Norman Taurog and also stars Donna Reed & Barbara Bates. Also featured are some leading professional golfers of the time.
This is one of the most beloved Martin & Lewis movie that sticks rigidly to the formula that made them so popular. Jerry causes mayhem but always endears in doing so, while Dean croons and catches the eye of the ladies. Plot is told in flashback as the popular duo, now big musical hall stars, shows how they got together courtesy of golf. Cue some goofing around on golf courses and chaos unbound as Jerry upsets the upper class toffs of society. Cue carnage in a department store and chaos on the golf course.
Dean sings the Oscar nominated “That’s Amore,...
- 7/30/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Blu ray
Kino Lorber Home Video
1938 / 1.33:1 / Street Date July 10, 2018
Starring Tommy Kelly, May Robson, Marcia Mae Jones
Cinematography by James Wong Howe
Directed by Norman Taurog
Though Hemingway suggested “all modern American literature” comes from Huckleberry Finn, a case could be made for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as the great American campfire tale.
David Selznick’s picaresque film version of Mark Twain’s bucolic farce plays out through the producer’s rose-colored glasses – an elegy to “the beautiful past, the dear and lamented past.” The brisk adaptation by screenwriter John Weaver (only 91 minutes) is a laundry list of Tom’s greatest hits – his graveyard vigil with Huck Finn, the pirate escapade, the hair-raising cavern finale – all are adventures ingrained in the collective unconscious of most sentient human beings – even those who never cracked a book.
Directed by Norman Taurog, a man who specialized...
Blu ray
Kino Lorber Home Video
1938 / 1.33:1 / Street Date July 10, 2018
Starring Tommy Kelly, May Robson, Marcia Mae Jones
Cinematography by James Wong Howe
Directed by Norman Taurog
Though Hemingway suggested “all modern American literature” comes from Huckleberry Finn, a case could be made for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as the great American campfire tale.
David Selznick’s picaresque film version of Mark Twain’s bucolic farce plays out through the producer’s rose-colored glasses – an elegy to “the beautiful past, the dear and lamented past.” The brisk adaptation by screenwriter John Weaver (only 91 minutes) is a laundry list of Tom’s greatest hits – his graveyard vigil with Huck Finn, the pirate escapade, the hair-raising cavern finale – all are adventures ingrained in the collective unconscious of most sentient human beings – even those who never cracked a book.
Directed by Norman Taurog, a man who specialized...
- 7/28/2018
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Actress Deanna Lund died on June 22 at her home in Century City of pancreatic cancer. She was 81.
Lund played one of the seven castaways trying to survive in a world of large, unfriendly people on the 1960s ABC series Land of the Giants. Her Valerie Scott was a selfish party girl on the Irwin Allen-created series, which aired for two seasons, from September 1968 until March 1970.
Set in the year 1983, 20th Century Fox's Land of the Giants revolved around the crew and passengers of the spaceship Spindrift, which on the way to London crashed on a planet whose humanoid inhabitants were hostile and unbelievably huge. The show was extremely expensive to make, costing a reported $250,000 an episode.
The sexy Lund had appeared as a redheaded lesbian stripper opposite Frank Sinatra in Tony Rome (1967) and as Anna Gram, a moll working for The Riddler (John Astin), on ABC's Batman, leading...
Lund played one of the seven castaways trying to survive in a world of large, unfriendly people on the 1960s ABC series Land of the Giants. Her Valerie Scott was a selfish party girl on the Irwin Allen-created series, which aired for two seasons, from September 1968 until March 1970.
Set in the year 1983, 20th Century Fox's Land of the Giants revolved around the crew and passengers of the spaceship Spindrift, which on the way to London crashed on a planet whose humanoid inhabitants were hostile and unbelievably huge. The show was extremely expensive to make, costing a reported $250,000 an episode.
The sexy Lund had appeared as a redheaded lesbian stripper opposite Frank Sinatra in Tony Rome (1967) and as Anna Gram, a moll working for The Riddler (John Astin), on ABC's Batman, leading...
- 6/26/2018
- by Roger Newcomb
- We Love Soaps
Films by Charlie Chaplin, Cecil B. DeMille, and Buster Keaton are among the “hundreds of thousands” of books, musical scores, and motion pictures that will enter the public domain on January 1, according to The Atlantic. All of the works were first made available to audiences in 1923, four years before the introduction of talkies. Due to changed copyright laws, this will be the largest collection of material to lose its copyright protections since 1998.
Artists looking to incorporate black-and-white era throwbacks into their modern creations will have lots of new options. The Atlantic consulted unpublished research from Duke University School of Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, which shared with IndieWire a list of 35 films that will soon become available to all.
“Our list is therefore only a partial one; many more works are entering the public domain as well, but the relevant information to confirm this may...
Artists looking to incorporate black-and-white era throwbacks into their modern creations will have lots of new options. The Atlantic consulted unpublished research from Duke University School of Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, which shared with IndieWire a list of 35 films that will soon become available to all.
“Our list is therefore only a partial one; many more works are entering the public domain as well, but the relevant information to confirm this may...
- 4/9/2018
- by Jenna Marotta
- Indiewire
It used to be pretty much an Academy Awards norm that the film that won Best Picture also took home the Oscar for Best Director. In recent years that has changed, largely due to the preferential ballot that has been implemented for Best Picture voting. These two categories have split in four of the past five years, with “Birdman” (2014) and its director Alejandro G. Inarritu being the last time they lined up. Currently “The Shape of Water” is in first place to win both categories on Gold Derby’s Oscar charts, so might things get back on track this year?
See 2018 Oscar nominations: Full list of Academy Awards nominees in all 24 categories
A year ago Damien Chazelle won Best Director for “La La Land” while “Moonlight” took Best Picture, becoming the fourth time this decade that the Oscar split occurred. In 2015 Inarritu won Best Director for “The Revenent” (his second...
See 2018 Oscar nominations: Full list of Academy Awards nominees in all 24 categories
A year ago Damien Chazelle won Best Director for “La La Land” while “Moonlight” took Best Picture, becoming the fourth time this decade that the Oscar split occurred. In 2015 Inarritu won Best Director for “The Revenent” (his second...
- 2/8/2018
- by Robert Pius
- Gold Derby
Everyone is (rightfully) focused on Greta Gerwig possibly becoming only the second female Best Director Oscar winner, but that won’t be the only benchmark she’d set with a victory: She would also become the fourth youngest directing champ ever.
Gerwig will be 34 years and 212 days old at the March 4 ceremony and would displace “American Beauty” helmer Sam Mendes, who was 34 years and 238 days old when he won 18 years ago, for the No. 4 slot. She’d be behind “La La Land” director Damien Chazelle (32 years and 38 days), who ended the 86-year “youngest ever” reign of “Skippy”’s Norman Taurog (32 years and 260 days) last year. “Two Arabian Knights”’ Lewis Milestone, who was 33 years and 228 days old when he won one of night’s two directing awards at the first ceremony, is the third youngest champ. Milestone has the distinction of holding two spots in the youngest top 10, which currently is:
1. Damien Chazelle,...
Gerwig will be 34 years and 212 days old at the March 4 ceremony and would displace “American Beauty” helmer Sam Mendes, who was 34 years and 238 days old when he won 18 years ago, for the No. 4 slot. She’d be behind “La La Land” director Damien Chazelle (32 years and 38 days), who ended the 86-year “youngest ever” reign of “Skippy”’s Norman Taurog (32 years and 260 days) last year. “Two Arabian Knights”’ Lewis Milestone, who was 33 years and 228 days old when he won one of night’s two directing awards at the first ceremony, is the third youngest champ. Milestone has the distinction of holding two spots in the youngest top 10, which currently is:
1. Damien Chazelle,...
- 2/1/2018
- by Joyce Eng
- Gold Derby
On August 20, 2017, Jerry Lewis took a pratfall off this mortal coil, presumably knocking an unwitting dowager on her keister and sending a surprised cop into an open manhole on his way out. The durable enfant terrible was all of 91 years when he finally left the building though he had been making spirited public appearances as recently as January of this year.
For the inquisitive Jerry fan, Shawn Levy’s 1997 King of Comedy: The Life and Art of Jerry Lewis, remains the first and last stop for the straight scoop on America’s premiere nudnik. Levy, who endured the full fury of the comedian’s legendary wrath to get his story, is as admiring of his subject’s accomplishments as he was repelled by his whiplash mood swings. The hard knock apprenticeship in the Catskills, the Freudian-fueled soap opera of his partnership with Dean Martin, the boastful sex-capades, they’re all there and then some.
For the inquisitive Jerry fan, Shawn Levy’s 1997 King of Comedy: The Life and Art of Jerry Lewis, remains the first and last stop for the straight scoop on America’s premiere nudnik. Levy, who endured the full fury of the comedian’s legendary wrath to get his story, is as admiring of his subject’s accomplishments as he was repelled by his whiplash mood swings. The hard knock apprenticeship in the Catskills, the Freudian-fueled soap opera of his partnership with Dean Martin, the boastful sex-capades, they’re all there and then some.
- 8/26/2017
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Hampton Fancher at the reflecting pool with Henry Moore's Reclining Figure (Lincoln Center) 1963–5 Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Hampton Fancher, the beguiling subject of Michael Almereyda's Escapes and co-screenwriter of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and Denis Villeneuve's upcoming Blade Runner 2049, shared some memories of Jerry Lewis, who died at the age of 91 this past Sunday, August 20, at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada.
We started out with Michael Pfleghar's film Romeo Und Julia 70 where Hampton interviewed Jerry Lewis, went onto the connection to Joan Blackman and Hal B Wallis for Norman Taurog's Visit To A Small Planet, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's In A Year With 13 Moons (In Einem Jahr Mit 13 Monden) and You're Never Too Young with Dean Martin and Lewis, a gurney in Frank Tashlin's The Disorderly Orderly and a rabbit in Geisha Boy, meeting Jack Benny and Buddy Hackett,...
Hampton Fancher, the beguiling subject of Michael Almereyda's Escapes and co-screenwriter of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and Denis Villeneuve's upcoming Blade Runner 2049, shared some memories of Jerry Lewis, who died at the age of 91 this past Sunday, August 20, at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada.
We started out with Michael Pfleghar's film Romeo Und Julia 70 where Hampton interviewed Jerry Lewis, went onto the connection to Joan Blackman and Hal B Wallis for Norman Taurog's Visit To A Small Planet, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's In A Year With 13 Moons (In Einem Jahr Mit 13 Monden) and You're Never Too Young with Dean Martin and Lewis, a gurney in Frank Tashlin's The Disorderly Orderly and a rabbit in Geisha Boy, meeting Jack Benny and Buddy Hackett,...
- 8/26/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Escapes at the IFC Center: "It's like that Thom Andersen movie Los Angeles Plays Itself. This is not a portrait of a place but a portrait of a person." Photo: Ed Bahlman
Escape artist Hampton Fancher reveals beating out Jean-Pierre Léaud and the pathway that led him to star in Michael Pfleghar's Romeo und Julia 70, opposite Tina Sinatra. Norman Taurog's Blue Hawaii starring Elvis Presley and Joan Blackman, Teri Garr, Brian Kelly and Flipper surface. Michael Almereyda makes a Skinningrove (his film on photographer Chris Killip) connection to a scene with Harrison Ford in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and remarks "it's called Escapes for a reason as almost every episode involves a near-death experience."
Hampton Fancher starred with Tina Sinatra in Michael Pfleghar's Romeo Und Julia 70
When do you think you know a person? What does this knowing entail? A face, a name, a voice,...
Escape artist Hampton Fancher reveals beating out Jean-Pierre Léaud and the pathway that led him to star in Michael Pfleghar's Romeo und Julia 70, opposite Tina Sinatra. Norman Taurog's Blue Hawaii starring Elvis Presley and Joan Blackman, Teri Garr, Brian Kelly and Flipper surface. Michael Almereyda makes a Skinningrove (his film on photographer Chris Killip) connection to a scene with Harrison Ford in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and remarks "it's called Escapes for a reason as almost every episode involves a near-death experience."
Hampton Fancher starred with Tina Sinatra in Michael Pfleghar's Romeo Und Julia 70
When do you think you know a person? What does this knowing entail? A face, a name, a voice,...
- 8/6/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)
This week’s question: In honor of the bone-crunching “Atomic Blonde,” what is the greatest movie fight scene?
Read More‘Atomic Blonde’: How They Turned One Amazing Action Scene Into a Seven-Minute Long Take Erin Oliver Whitney (@cinemabite), ScreenCrush
I’ve got a soft spot for wuxia so the “best fight scene” immediately evokes Zhang Yimou in my mind. I could list every fight in “Hero,” sequences so spellbindingly beautiful and graceful you forget you’re watching violence. The bamboo forest battle from “House of Flying Daggers” is another all-timer, a mesmerizing fight that almost entirely takes place in the air. And the bone-crunching, table-smashing...
This week’s question: In honor of the bone-crunching “Atomic Blonde,” what is the greatest movie fight scene?
Read More‘Atomic Blonde’: How They Turned One Amazing Action Scene Into a Seven-Minute Long Take Erin Oliver Whitney (@cinemabite), ScreenCrush
I’ve got a soft spot for wuxia so the “best fight scene” immediately evokes Zhang Yimou in my mind. I could list every fight in “Hero,” sequences so spellbindingly beautiful and graceful you forget you’re watching violence. The bamboo forest battle from “House of Flying Daggers” is another all-timer, a mesmerizing fight that almost entirely takes place in the air. And the bone-crunching, table-smashing...
- 7/31/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Turner Classic Movies continues with its Gay Hollywood presentations tonight and tomorrow morning, June 8–9. Seven movies will be shown about, featuring, directed, or produced by the following: Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Farley Granger, John Dall, Edmund Goulding, W. Somerset Maughan, Clifton Webb, Montgomery Clift, Raymond Burr, Charles Walters, DeWitt Bodeen, and Harriet Parsons. (One assumes that it's a mere coincidence that gay rumor subjects Cary Grant and Tyrone Power are also featured.) Night and Day (1946), which could also be considered part of TCM's homage to birthday girl Alexis Smith, who would have turned 96 today, is a Cole Porter biopic starring Cary Grant as a posh, heterosexualized version of Porter. As the warning goes, any similaries to real-life people and/or events found in Night and Day are a mere coincidence. The same goes for Words and Music (1948), a highly fictionalized version of the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart musical partnership.
- 6/9/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
"I want to thank Justin (Hurwitz) who I have known since I was 17 for riding with me on this," said Damien Chazelle, who won Best Director for La La Land tonight. Having just celebrated his 32nd birthday last month, Chazelle now ties as the youngest director ever to win for Best Director. The last 32-year-old to win was 86 years ago — Norman Taurog for the film Skippy in 1931, although technically, Chazelle was older than Taurog by about a month. Chazelle developed the…...
- 2/27/2017
- Deadline
“La La Land” director Damien Chazelle on Sunday became the youngest Best Director in Oscar history. The 32-year-old filmmaker breaks a record that’s held for 86 years. While Chazelle is 32 years and 38 days old, the previous holder of the youngest director title was Norman Taurog, who won for “Skippy” way back in 1931 at the age of 32 years, 260 days in 1931.
Chazelle has racked up multiple prizes for his work on the modern-day muscial “La La Land,” including the Golden Globe, the BAFTA and the DGA awards. The film also came into...
Chazelle has racked up multiple prizes for his work on the modern-day muscial “La La Land,” including the Golden Globe, the BAFTA and the DGA awards. The film also came into...
- 2/27/2017
- by Thom Geier
- The Wrap
Damien Chazelle has danced his way into the record books.
At the 89th Academy Awards on Sunday night, the La La Land director took home the trophy for Best Director, making him the youngest filmmaker ever to win the award.
Chazelle first thanked his fellow nominees, Mel Gibson, Barry Jenkins, Denis Villeneuve and Kenneth Lonergan “for what incredible filmmakers you are and for inspiring me with your work every day.”
“I want to thank the people who helped me make this movie, my crew, my team, everyone at Lionsgate for taking a chance on it. Ryan and Emma for bringing it to life,...
At the 89th Academy Awards on Sunday night, the La La Land director took home the trophy for Best Director, making him the youngest filmmaker ever to win the award.
Chazelle first thanked his fellow nominees, Mel Gibson, Barry Jenkins, Denis Villeneuve and Kenneth Lonergan “for what incredible filmmakers you are and for inspiring me with your work every day.”
“I want to thank the people who helped me make this movie, my crew, my team, everyone at Lionsgate for taking a chance on it. Ryan and Emma for bringing it to life,...
- 2/27/2017
- by Derek Lawrence and Mike Miller
- PEOPLE.com
Director of Hollywood-set musical starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone becomes youngest ever to win the award
•Follow the Oscars live!
Damien Chazelle has won the best director Oscar for La La Land, making him the youngest ever, at 32 years and 38 days, to win the award.
Chazelle was the strong favourite for the prize, though he faced tough competition in a lineup that included Manchester by the Sea director Kenneth Lonergan and Moonlight director Barry Jenkins. The previous youngest was Norman Taurog, who won for Skippy at the age of 32 years and 260 days in 1931.
Continue reading...
•Follow the Oscars live!
Damien Chazelle has won the best director Oscar for La La Land, making him the youngest ever, at 32 years and 38 days, to win the award.
Chazelle was the strong favourite for the prize, though he faced tough competition in a lineup that included Manchester by the Sea director Kenneth Lonergan and Moonlight director Barry Jenkins. The previous youngest was Norman Taurog, who won for Skippy at the age of 32 years and 260 days in 1931.
Continue reading...
- 2/27/2017
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Damien Chazelle made Oscars history when he took home the award for best director Sunday night.
"This was a movie about love, and I was lucky enough to fall in love while making it," the 32-year-old director said to his girlfriend, Olivia Hamilton, after thanking the film's stars Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and John Legend while onstage.
The La La Land helmer broke an 85-year-old record to become the category's youngest winner ever. On Oscars night, Chazelle was 221 days younger than the previous record-holder, Skippy's Norman Taurog, who was also 32 when he won in 1931.
He is also only the second director ever...
"This was a movie about love, and I was lucky enough to fall in love while making it," the 32-year-old director said to his girlfriend, Olivia Hamilton, after thanking the film's stars Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and John Legend while onstage.
The La La Land helmer broke an 85-year-old record to become the category's youngest winner ever. On Oscars night, Chazelle was 221 days younger than the previous record-holder, Skippy's Norman Taurog, who was also 32 when he won in 1931.
He is also only the second director ever...
- 2/26/2017
- by Jackie Strause
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Anybody who wins an Academy Award is bound to think of it as a historic night, but there’s also some real history that could be made on Sunday night at the Dolby Theatre. Here are a baker’s dozen landmarks that could happen at the 89th Oscars show. 1. If Damien Chazelle wins for directing “La La Land,” he’ll become the youngest Best Director winner in Oscar history. On February 26, Chazelle will be 32 years and 38 days old. The current record holder as the youngest Best Director winner ever is Norman Taurog, who won for “Skippy” at the age of...
- 2/25/2017
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The 89th Academy Awards are almost here, and with it come several opportunities for history to be made. Some chances may be long shots (how awesome it would be if Bradford Young won Best Cinematography), but others are as close to sure things (Damien Chazelle and Barry Jenkins would both make history as Best Director winners).
Below are six ways this year’s Oscars could make history. The ceremony, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, airs Sunday evening at 8:30pm Et on ABC.
Read More: Final Oscar 2017 Predictions: ‘La La Land’ Will Win Nine of Its 14 Nominations
1. Damien Chazelle Could Become the Youngest Best Director Winner
“La La Land” is only Damien Chazelle’s third feature behind the camera, and he seems destined to take home the Oscar for Best Director. At only 32 years old, the filmmaker would become the youngest director in history to win the gold. The current record holder is Norman Rae Taurog,...
Below are six ways this year’s Oscars could make history. The ceremony, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, airs Sunday evening at 8:30pm Et on ABC.
Read More: Final Oscar 2017 Predictions: ‘La La Land’ Will Win Nine of Its 14 Nominations
1. Damien Chazelle Could Become the Youngest Best Director Winner
“La La Land” is only Damien Chazelle’s third feature behind the camera, and he seems destined to take home the Oscar for Best Director. At only 32 years old, the filmmaker would become the youngest director in history to win the gold. The current record holder is Norman Rae Taurog,...
- 2/25/2017
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Late in the Oscar season, at the moment when voters actually fill in their ballots (the deadline is February 21 at 5 pm), it all comes down to what movies they have actually seen. What did they love the most, and is freshest in their minds? Which film aligns with the zeitgeist, delivering the message that 6,000 voters want to send?
The five directing nominations tend to line up with the strongest Best Picture contenders, although snubbed director nominee Ben Affleck did win Best Picture win for “Argo.” However, that underdog story became a narrative in itself that drove “Argo” to the win.
This year, the narratives include the aftermath of#OscarsSoWhite and the election of Donald J. Trump. Which will stick?
Here’s how the Best Director and Best Picture races are shaking out.
“La La Land” is the magical, romantic, modern-yet-retro musical about artistic passion created by wunderkind Damien Chazelle and his gifted collaborators,...
The five directing nominations tend to line up with the strongest Best Picture contenders, although snubbed director nominee Ben Affleck did win Best Picture win for “Argo.” However, that underdog story became a narrative in itself that drove “Argo” to the win.
This year, the narratives include the aftermath of#OscarsSoWhite and the election of Donald J. Trump. Which will stick?
Here’s how the Best Director and Best Picture races are shaking out.
“La La Land” is the magical, romantic, modern-yet-retro musical about artistic passion created by wunderkind Damien Chazelle and his gifted collaborators,...
- 2/17/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The 2017 Oscar Nominees: Everything you need to know about the Best Director raceThe 2017 Oscar Nominees: Everything you need to know about the Best Director raceAdriana Floridia2/9/2017 9:45:00 Am
The Best Director race is very diverse and exciting this year.
It's also very close. With La La Land's Damien Chazelle and Moonlight's Barry Jenkins up against each other, it could easily go either way. At this rate it looks like a neck and neck race between these two contenders, as both films are the favourite to win the Best Picture Oscar. The other three men in the category, Manchester by the Sea's Kenneth Lonergan, Arrival's Denis Villeneuve and Hacksaw Ridge's Mel Gibson are all worthy contenders as well. It's also rather impressive that four out five of these directors are first time nominees.
We're breaking down the Best Director race below!
Damien Chazelle, La La Land...
The Best Director race is very diverse and exciting this year.
It's also very close. With La La Land's Damien Chazelle and Moonlight's Barry Jenkins up against each other, it could easily go either way. At this rate it looks like a neck and neck race between these two contenders, as both films are the favourite to win the Best Picture Oscar. The other three men in the category, Manchester by the Sea's Kenneth Lonergan, Arrival's Denis Villeneuve and Hacksaw Ridge's Mel Gibson are all worthy contenders as well. It's also rather impressive that four out five of these directors are first time nominees.
We're breaking down the Best Director race below!
Damien Chazelle, La La Land...
- 2/9/2017
- by Adriana Floridia
- Cineplex
(Courtesy: Getty Images)
By: Scott Feinberg
The Hollywood Reporter
When I ran into La La Land‘s 32-year-old director Damien Chazelle at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Friday, I told him that I’d like to start calling him “Skippy” since, as he well knows, he is poised to become the youngest best director Oscar winner ever at the 89th Academy Awards on Feb. 26, breaking a record held for the last 85 years by one Norman Taurog for his direction of a 1931 film called — you guessed it — Skippy.
Read the rest of this entry…...
By: Scott Feinberg
The Hollywood Reporter
When I ran into La La Land‘s 32-year-old director Damien Chazelle at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Friday, I told him that I’d like to start calling him “Skippy” since, as he well knows, he is poised to become the youngest best director Oscar winner ever at the 89th Academy Awards on Feb. 26, breaking a record held for the last 85 years by one Norman Taurog for his direction of a 1931 film called — you guessed it — Skippy.
Read the rest of this entry…...
- 2/5/2017
- by Carson Blackwelder
- Scott Feinberg
When I ran into La La Land's 32-year-old director Damien Chazelle at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Friday, I told him that I'd like to start calling him "Skippy" since, as he well knows, he is poised to become the youngest best director Oscar winner ever at the 89th Academy Awards on Feb. 26, breaking a record held for the last 85 years by one Norman Taurog for his direction of a 1931 film called — you guessed it — Skippy.
The likelihood of that happening was firmly established last month when Chazelle's original musical scored...
The likelihood of that happening was firmly established last month when Chazelle's original musical scored...
- 2/5/2017
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Damien and Emma in Venice, Fall 2016Happy birthday to Damien Chazelle, who turns 32 today! He's already an Oscar nominee for writing Whiplash (2014) and he will easily boost his tally this coming Tuesday when he may well nab two nominations for writing and directing La La Land. If he wins Best Director he'll become the youngest person to ever win, beating a record set way back in 1931 by Norman Taurog for Skippy... who was 32½ when he won.
If you aren't dancing for joy at La La Land's success (and you should be... an original musical heading towards a blockbuster gross is great for the future of the genre!) here are other people and things you can celebrate today. Celebrate something since life isn't worth living otherwise in this brink of the apocalypse world.
Other Things To Celebrate...
1809 Edgar Allan Poe is born in Boston and life was harsh from the...
If you aren't dancing for joy at La La Land's success (and you should be... an original musical heading towards a blockbuster gross is great for the future of the genre!) here are other people and things you can celebrate today. Celebrate something since life isn't worth living otherwise in this brink of the apocalypse world.
Other Things To Celebrate...
1809 Edgar Allan Poe is born in Boston and life was harsh from the...
- 1/19/2017
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
‘La La Land’ and ‘Moonlight’ (Courtesy: Dale Robinette; David Bornfriend/A24)
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
Nothing is certain at the Oscars, and that absolutely applies to the best picture and best director categories. While it is common for films to win both of these trophies in a given year, sometimes they can go to two different works. There’s a chance that La La Land and Moonlight could split these categories at the upcoming ceremony — but how often does that happen?
Both of these films are considered frontrunners in both the best picture and best director category at the upcoming Oscars. This site’s namesake, The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg, lists La La Land — written and directed by Damien Chazelle — and Moonlight — written and directed by Barry Jenkins — as the top two contenders in both categories in his latest check-in on the race. The two films have been...
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
Nothing is certain at the Oscars, and that absolutely applies to the best picture and best director categories. While it is common for films to win both of these trophies in a given year, sometimes they can go to two different works. There’s a chance that La La Land and Moonlight could split these categories at the upcoming ceremony — but how often does that happen?
Both of these films are considered frontrunners in both the best picture and best director category at the upcoming Oscars. This site’s namesake, The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg, lists La La Land — written and directed by Damien Chazelle — and Moonlight — written and directed by Barry Jenkins — as the top two contenders in both categories in his latest check-in on the race. The two films have been...
- 12/24/2016
- by Carson Blackwelder
- Scott Feinberg
Damien Chazelle (Courtesy: Gabriel Olsen/Getty Images for AFI)
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
At this point, Damien Chazelle is poised to potentially make history by becoming the youngest best director winner in the history of the Academy Awards. While the Oscar nominations for the 2017 ceremony haven’t been announced yet — those will arrive on January 24 — all signs are pointing towards this filmmaker taking home the coveted golden statuette. Will it happen?
Chazelle — who also wrote the modern-day musical starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling — has already won the Critics’ Choice Award for best director and is nominated for top honors at both the Golden Globe Awards and the Satellite Awards, too. The film itself — considered the biggest threat in the best picture race at the Academy Awards this Oscar season plus many others — has already won a slew of accolades from film festivals and critics alike.
By the time...
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
At this point, Damien Chazelle is poised to potentially make history by becoming the youngest best director winner in the history of the Academy Awards. While the Oscar nominations for the 2017 ceremony haven’t been announced yet — those will arrive on January 24 — all signs are pointing towards this filmmaker taking home the coveted golden statuette. Will it happen?
Chazelle — who also wrote the modern-day musical starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling — has already won the Critics’ Choice Award for best director and is nominated for top honors at both the Golden Globe Awards and the Satellite Awards, too. The film itself — considered the biggest threat in the best picture race at the Academy Awards this Oscar season plus many others — has already won a slew of accolades from film festivals and critics alike.
By the time...
- 12/14/2016
- by Carson Blackwelder
- Scott Feinberg
Neurotic coward Eddie Cantor decides to defend an amusement park against gangsters, and nothing but fun ensues! Ethel Merman has a small role here, but we're more than entertained by Parkyakarkus, Brian Donlevy, William Frawley, Jack Larue. Plus Sally Eilers, the Goldwyn Girls and a terrific forgotten talent, billed in this movie as Rita Rio. Strike Me Pink DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1936 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 100 min. / Street Date August 4,, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman, Sally Eilers, Parkyakarkus, Rita Rio (Dona Drake), Brian Donlevy, William Frawley, Jack Larue, Gordon Jones, Helen Lowell The Goldwyn Girls. Cinematography Merritt Gerstad, Gregg Toland Film Editor Sherman Todd Original Music (Alfred Newman) Dance Director Robert Alton Special Effects Gilbert Pratt, Ray Binger, Paul Eagler Written by Francis Martin, Frank Butler, Walter Deleon from the story and novel Dreamland by Clarence Buddington Kelland Produced by Samuel Goldwyn Directed by...
- 11/5/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Anne Marie is tracking Judy Garland's career through musical numbers...
There's a musical number I should be showing you for this week's post. It's the last musical duet between Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland captured on film, as part of her guest appearance in the Rogers & Hart biopic Words and Music. It's a fun but slightly awkward number. Despite the joy of seeing Mickey & Judy reunited after half a decade apart, there's also a sense that they're almost too mature for their mugging. They're still sweet together, but the frenetic energy of youth has been replaced by practice. Contemporary audience must have agreed to some extent, since the Judy Garland number that made a hit off this movie was not her nostalgic reunion but rather a signature brassy belter.
The Movie: Words and Music (MGM, 1948)
The Songwriter: Richard Rogers (music) and Lorenz Hart (lyrics)
The Players: Mickey Rooney, Tom Drake,...
There's a musical number I should be showing you for this week's post. It's the last musical duet between Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland captured on film, as part of her guest appearance in the Rogers & Hart biopic Words and Music. It's a fun but slightly awkward number. Despite the joy of seeing Mickey & Judy reunited after half a decade apart, there's also a sense that they're almost too mature for their mugging. They're still sweet together, but the frenetic energy of youth has been replaced by practice. Contemporary audience must have agreed to some extent, since the Judy Garland number that made a hit off this movie was not her nostalgic reunion but rather a signature brassy belter.
The Movie: Words and Music (MGM, 1948)
The Songwriter: Richard Rogers (music) and Lorenz Hart (lyrics)
The Players: Mickey Rooney, Tom Drake,...
- 7/6/2016
- by Anne Marie
- FilmExperience
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