Welcome back for another episode of Did You Know?: Horror Edition. As we draw closer and closer to the major award shows of the season, I thought I’d dig a little deeper and try to uncover some horror trivia in relation to the Golden Globes and/or The Academy Awards. What I learned was that the horror genre has actually received many accolades and awards attention in film history. However, when it comes to the two major award ceremonies, it’s the Globes that has an easier time giving horror performances/films the win than the Oscars do. Maybe it’s the age bracket, maybe it’s that Academy voters simply cannot write down a win for a performance that makes them revolt when re-visualizing in their mind. With that said, below you will find the “Did You Know” of the week in honor of 31 Days of Horror…
Read more on Did You Know?: Horror Edition, Episode Two: Globes Love, Oscars Snub…
Categories: Article Tags: Bes Supporting Actress Oscar, Did You Know Horror Edition, Did You Know?, golden globes, Janet Leigh, Linda Blair, Marion Crane, Oscars, Regan, Shirley Jones, Tatum O'Neal, The Academy Awards, The Exorcist, William Friedkin
 There was a time when a film directed by William Friedkin was met with excitement, but that was a very long time ago. It was for The French Connection (1971) that Friedkin won the Academy Award for Best Director, a brilliant and tough crime thriller based on a true story about a couple of New York narcotics officers trying to bust a massive French drug operation. Friedkin took to the streets with his cameras and gave the film a documentary-like feel, gritty and real the streets so close to us we could almost smell them, the characters like those one saw every day walking the streets of New York. The main character was Popeye Doyle, portrayed superbly by Gene Hackman in a performance that won him an Oscar as Best Actor, a cop unafraid to bend and break the rules if it means nailing the top men with the drugs. Fearless, even reckless, Doyle is single mindedly devoted to busting this ring in thousands of pieces. The film was met with rave reviews, strong box office and five Academy Awards, a Best Picture award among them. Read more on Killer Joe (**½)…
Prepare yourself for a very long month where The Dark Knight Rises will more than likely dominate the box office. Christopher Nolan’s final film in his acclaimed trilogy made an estimated $162 million last weekend, and is on track for a $75-$80 million intake for its second go-around. The only other major new release, The Watch, can best be summed up by this image:
No, ladies and gentlemen, that is not a Pokémon being released — though admittedly, that would certainly be a lot more entertaining than what this generic comedy-meets-science fiction romp will be offering us — but is instead an alien device that tries its best to bring cows back to movie relevancy a la the glory days of Twister. In other words, The Watch probably won’t offer you anything new that you haven’t already seen before in any comedy, science fiction, apocalyptic, Jonah Hill/Vince Vaughn/Ben Stiller movie. So why are moviegoers going to flock to this film? Because Jonah Hill is just so likeable and endearing, even when he physically assaults a woman in a department store (see: 21 Jump Street) and thinks silencing his mother means caressing his fingers over her lips (if this sounds as gross as it does, it’s because it is). Oh, it also has Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn, and while they may be “So 5 Minutes Ago” as opposed to Jonah Hill’s “Currently Trending” status, plenty of film goers still can’t seem to get enough of these golden guys of comedy (okay, that came off harsher than I meant it to). The film may have a difficult time surpassing the $30 million mark this weekend, as the reviews so far have been predominantly damning. Opening in 3,168 locations, I’m projecting a soft yet not terrible $25 million debut. Richard Ayoade and Rosemarie DeWitt co-star alongside the comedic trio. Read more on Weekend Openings (July 27-29)…
Categories: Weekend Openings Tags: Ben Stiller, gina gershon, Jonah Hill, Killer Joe, Matthew McConaughey, Paul Dano, Richard Ayoade, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ruby Sparks, Step Up Revolution, the dark knight rises, The Watch, Vince Vaughn, William Friedkin, Zoe Kazan
 June is poised to be a big month for SoCal residents and film lovers. Not only will the Hollywood Museum host an exhibit for, but the Los Angeles Film Festival will be underway with some pretty impressive special guests. William Friedkin, whose film Killer Joe will screen at the festival, has been chosen to serve as the guest director of the film festival. The Hollywood Reporter has also learned that Danny Elfman, recording artist Raphael Saadiq, amd Michael Voltaggio will participate in the festival as artists in residence.
Read more on William Friedkin to serve as Guest Director at LA Film Festival!…
 On the heels of the news that ‘Killer Joe’ will officially be coming out in theaters this summer with an NC-17 rating, we now have a Trailer to share with you all. It looks like William Friedkin hasn’t lost a step with age (and is wearing that rating rather proudly overall), and you can see for yourself by watching the trailer after the jump. I know festival reviews of the flick were somewhat mixed, but I like what I saw here, especially from Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, and Juno Temple. Decide for yourself below, but I know I’ll be seeing it in July…
Read more on ‘Killer Joe’ gets a Trailer!…
 When William Friedkin’s new film ‘Killer Joe’ was slapped with the NC-17 rating, two immediate reactions followed. As is often the case, one was confusion over why it got such a restrictive rating (most people seem to believe that it’s undeserved, more in the vein of ‘Blue Valentine’ bizarrely getting it than ‘Shame’ getting it), while the other was to wonder if the film would be cut or not to secure an R rating. Well, Deadline is reporting here that the movie is going to indeed be rated NC-17 when it hits theaters in July. After the jump, I’ll share my thoughts on the current state of the NC-17 rating, but for now…I’m glad Friedkin and the studio are sticking to their guns with this noir starring Matthew McConaughey and Emile Hirsch. It’s rather rare these days.
Read more on ‘Killer Joe’ will be releases as an NC-17 film!…
There's still room at the table for the masters!
One can easily imagine Paul Thomas Anderson, the Brothers Coen, Kathryn Bigelow, David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky or Alexander Payne sitting in theatres in the seventies and eighties and watching the work of the masters of their generation, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, William Friedkin, Terence Malick, or Francis Ford Coppola. The aforementioned artists revolutionized American cinema, paving the way for new fresh ideas and younger directors to emerge in the business and work their magic. Just a few years earlier, Coppola, Allen, Scorsese, Spielberg, and Friedkin were students themselves in cinemas, enjoying the works of john Ford, William Wyler, Chaplin, Elia Kazan or David Lean. The previous generation always impacts the generation to follow, but the impact of the directors of the seventies has been staggering. During TIFF this year George Clooney referenced the work of Alan J. Pakula and Sidney Lumet as having been hugely influential on his career, both as an actor and a director. Many films of the last few years have felt like seventies pictures, in their daring and storytelling, in the manner they allow the actors to evolve the story, giving us substance over style. Read more on Directors of the 70′s: Still Showing ‘Em How It’s Done…
Categories: Article Tags: Clint Eastwood, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Hugo, Killer Joe, Martin Scorsese, Midnight in Paris, Roman Polanski, Steven Spielberg, Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life, Twixt, war horse, William Friedkin, Woody Allen
 An early rise allowed me to see one film everyone is talking about, or, more specifically, one of the performances everyone is talking about. Suffice to say I came away underwhelmed, not because I did not think it was a considerable achievement, but because I think it has been surpassed and often. There seems little doubt that the performance will earn the actress in question an Oscar nomination, but I worry that it might turn into one of those years where they award that damned thing for work done fifteen or twenty years ago. It’s not that it is a bad performance, most certainly not, but neither is it a great one.
Read more on John’s TIFF Diary: Day Five…
Categories: Article Tags: Andrea Riseborough, Carey Mulligan, Emile Hirsch, Glenn Close, Killer Joe, Madonna, Matthew McConaughey, Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Oscar hopefuls, Rodrigo Garcia, Shame, Steve McQueen, Thomas Haden Church, Toronto International Film Festival, W.E., William Friedkin
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