Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.
NEWS
The Academy of the Muses
- The announcement for what films have been selected for the Cannes Film Festival won't come for more than a month, but early speculation is rife. Critic Neil Young not only has a prediction of what'll be in this year's festival, but also the odds on which of those films will win the coveted Palm d'Or. Currently in the lead? Argentine director Lucrecia Martel's long-awaited Zama.
- For those lucky enough to be able to afford to live in London (or travel to it), the Tate Modern will host A Night with Apichatpong Weerasethakul, a 14-hour event with the director in person featuring "ghosts, dreams, stillness and sleep." We'll certainly dream of attending.
- The latest issue of Film Comment is on newsstands, and some of it has been posted online, including Nick Pinkerton on David Bowie's music videos, Michael Koresky on queer cinema, and the magazine's Readers' Poll for top 50 films of 2015.
- Speaking of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the lineup for its annual must-see series Art of the Real has been announced, and includes such provocative features as Roberto Minervini's The Other Side, the world premiere of Ben Rivers' What Means Something, and Notebook favorite The Academy of the Muses. The series this year is supported by MUBI.
- Programmer and critic Tony Raynes has a new monograph out from the BFI on Wong Kar-wai's beloved In the Mood for Love. David Bordwell takes a look at the new book over at his blog.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING
- What will Japanese maverick Takashi Miike do next? The trailer for his latest film, Terra Formars, looks to be a mad sci-fi extravaganza.
- The Museum of Modern Art and Film Society of Lincoln Center have released a trailer for their upcoming edition of New Directors / New Films, which includes movies recently featured on the Notebook like Short Stay and Eldorado XXI.
- Meanwhile, on the other American coast, Cinefamily in Los Angeles has recently launched a tantalizing survey of iconic American independent cinema, Underground USA.
RECOMMENDED READING
- Three recent reviews we love, beginning with Neil Young (again) at RogerEbert.com on Terrence Malick's finally-released Knight of Cups:
"That said, those who found “Tree” and “Wonder” too elliptical, too whispery, too grandiose, too “Malicky” will want to steer well clear of this elliptical, whispery, grandiose enterprise, which conjures sharp shards of narrative and assembles them not into a coherent, conventional narrative, rather a glittering kaleido-mosaic."
- Next, in the Village Voice, Melissa Anderson tears into the Tina Fey vehicle Whiskey Tango Foxtrot:
"Fey's movies, WTF especially, not only reveal how limited her acting range is but also lead to extreme cognitive dissonance, as they're often the kinds of pandering cultural products her TV shows would skewer. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, like 30 Rock before it, brilliantly calls attention to the pathologies and absurdities of white privilege (the earlier show giving us the immortal phrase "white nonsense," delivered by Sherri Shepherd's Angie Jordan)."
- Finally, Jonathan Romney in the newly released issue of Film Comment has one of the best write-ups of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's hypnotic Cemetery of Splendour:
"A theme central to Apichatpong’s work is that of the secret world hidden behind the visible one, whether historical, political, or metaphysical. What Apichatpong gives us in Cemetery is the sense of an immediate magic that dispenses with special effects (as used in 2004’s Tropical Malady and 2010’s Uncle Boonmee…) to more directly address the imagination—to make us re-imagine what’s in front of our eyes."
- Speaking of the (inevitably) hot-button Knight of Cups, comedian Thomas Lennon's report from his experience on the set of the film, during its Hollywood mansion party sequence, provides comic and essential insight into Malick's mysterious process:
"“Sometimes we would go outside, where the party was growing with more people,” Lennon said. “Sometimes Malick would stop and introduce a new cinematographer: ‘Guys, this is Marta, she’s an up-and-coming DP from Mexico City and she’s going to film the scene for a while.’ And sometimes Christian would take a GoPro and shoot something.”"
- With Spotlight's Academy Award win, the New York Times has pulled up from its archives reviews of newspaper movies from the era when they were far more common, the 1930s and 1940s.
EXTRAS
- Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive look at the Mondo-designed poster for Richard Linklater's upcoming film, Everybody Wants Some.
- And finally, actress-turned-director Ida Lupino on the set of her iconic 1953 desert noir, The Hitch-Hiker, with actors Edmong O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy.