It's Been 20 Years Since ‘The Phantom Menace' Opened

Watching “The Phantom Menace” in a theater for the first time, back in the summer of 1999, was one of the most painful cinematic experiences I’ve ever had to endure. Just painful. No, I was not a “Star Wars” aficionado but I got caught up in the hype, who didn’t? We all desperately wanted to love it, but the end result was, quite frankly, boring. George Lucas tried to expand and build up a new world of characters, but we ended up getting Jar Jar Binks. and Jake Lloyd as the young Anakin Skywalker, the latter a badly miscast and badly written character.

There had been suspicions for many years that George Lucas may not have been the filmmaking genius that he was. Yes, he started off his career with “THX-1138,” “American Graffiti,” and 1977’s “Star Wars” but the creative juice he may have shown in those films was all but over with the three prequels he wrote and directed in 1999, 2002 and 2005.

Lucas’ conception of story is second-to-none, but, as we’ve seen it with his work in Star Wars and Indiana Jones, his directing and writing has always been better handled by the likes of Lawrence Kasdan, Steven Spielberg and especially Irvin Kershner in “The Empire Strikes Back,” still the best SW film ever made. I thought 1983’s Richard Marquand-directed “The Return of the Jedi” was entertaining and probably used as the blueprint by Lucas to develop “Revenge of the Sith.” The problem with Lucas is simple; whenever he inserts himself into writing and hands-on work on the production of a film, although highly commendable, his mad ambitions tend to get the best of him and completely crumble out of control.

Corrected: Thanks to Richard Lanier. The correct years for the prequels were 1999, 2002 and 2005. Jake Kasdan didn’t write any scripts for Lucas but it was his father Lawrence Kasdan (of “Big Chill” fame) that did. And finally, Lucas did not direct “Return of the Jedi”; Richard Marquand did.  Yikes, I knew all of these things. Blame it on this morning’s jetlag or blame it on sheer incompetence, whatever the case, big thanks again, Richard.

Yes, 1999 Was Probably the Best Decade at the Movies of the Last 20 Years

Brian Raftery‘s “Best. Movie. Year. Ever: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen” is making the rounds at bookstores, it came out two days ago. The film media have been hyping it up, including Vulture, which ran an entire chapter from the book on “Eyes Wide Shut.”

And so, the inevitable question one must ask is this: Are we heavily overhyping 1999?

Being John Malkovich, Election, The Matrix, Fight Club, American Beauty, The Limey, The Sixth Sense, Magnolia, The Straight Story, Eyes Wide Shut, Three Kings, The Insider, The Blair Witch Project, Bringing Out the Dead, Boy’s Don’t Cry, Go, The Iron Giant, Toy Story 2, South Park, Office Space, The Talented Mr. Ripley, American Pie, Bowfinger, Dick, 10 Things I Hate About You, Arlington Road, Man on the Moon, The Dreamlife of Angels, Romance, Payback.

So, no, we are not overhyping 1999. It truly is the bees knees. Best movie year ever? Probably not. But best movie year of the last two decades, no doubt about it. Is there any other year that comes remotely close? Maybe 2007 or 2011.

Cannes 2019 Official Poster Pays Tribute To The Late Agnès Varda

The just-released Cannes ’19 poster has the late Agnes Varda shooting her first film, La Pointe Courte, sometime in the summer of ’54. Well done, Cannes.

JJ Abrams consulted with George Lucas to help craft ‘Episode IX'

There were rumors, months ago, that George Lucas had been consulted for Episode 9 to help make it a satisfying conclusion for all fans, including the ones that were turned off by “The Last Jedi,” and there were many of those.

That, my friends, is no longer a rumor. Director JJ Abrams has confirmed [via IGN] that he spoke to Lucas during the creative process and hinting that it was Lucas who came up with the idea to have Palpatine return in “The Rise of Skywalker.” Abrams claims that Lucas was the person who came up with the idea to put Palpatine in The Rise of Skywalker, but given that Abrams brought up Lucas while discussing the fallen Emperor, it may well have been him.

“This movie had a very, very specific challenge, which was to take eight films and give an ending to three trilogies, and so we had to look at, what is the bigger story? We had conversations amongst ourselves, we met with George Lucas before writing the script,” Abrams revealed. “These were things that were in real, not debate, but looking at the vastness of the story and trying to figure out, what is the way to conclude this? But it has to work on its own as a movie, it has to be its own thing, it has to be surprising and funny and you have to understand it.”

Cannes 2019: Jay Roach's ‘Fair and Balanced' to Premiere Out of Competition? Iannucci as well?

Cineuropa has always been one of the more reliable European outlets for Cannes rumors. Today they posted their annual preview of the fest, which is set to take place May 14th through May 25th.

Yes, most of the Cineuropa article is comprised of rumors we’ve been reporting for a few weeks now, but there is surprisingly new intel to be found:

• Jay Roach's Roger Ailes biopic "Fair and Balanced" is rumored to premiere out-of-competition.

• Armando Iannucci's "The Personal History of David Copperfield” also seems to be headed towards an OOC slot.

• A major find for American cinema will be director Danielle Lesowitz’ debut, "Port Authority," which is rumored to be part of the Un Certain Regard section of the fest.

• Rumor has it that Pablo Larrain’s “Ema” will not make it to Cannes because…wait for it…Netflix is in the midst of finalizing a deal to buy it. Ouch.

I have also been told that the new Cristi Puiu is 199 minutes. Also, Marco Bellocchio’s new movie has major ‘Godfather’ vibes.

23 SOLID BETS for competition:

BACURAU | Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles
PORTRAIT DE LA JEUNE FILLE EN FEU | Céline Sciamma
PAIN AND GLORY | Pedro Almodóvar
RADEGUND | Terrence Malick
OH MERCY | Arnaud Desplechin
ABOUT ENDLESSNESS | Roy Andersson 
AHMED | Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
PARASITE | Bong Joon-ho
THE BEANPOLE | Kantemir Balagov
UNTITLED | Brillante Mendoza
IT MUST BE HEAVEN | Elia Suleiman
FRANKIE | Ira Sachs
THE DEAD DON´T DIE | Jim Jarmusch
MANOR HOUSE | Cristi Puiu
MATTHIAS & MAXIME | Xavier Dolan
FIRE NEXT TIME | Marti Diop
SATURDAY FICTION | Lou Ye
THE TRAITOR | Marco Bellochio
SIBYL | Justine Trite
SORRY WE MISSED YOU | Ken Loach
UNE FILLE FACILE | Rebecca Zlotowski 
THE WHISTLERS | Corneliu Porumbuiu
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD | Quentin Tarantino

RUMORED POSSIBILITIES:

GLORIA MUNDI | Robert Guédiguian 
LA CORDILLÈRE DES SONGES | Patricio Guzmán 
THE NEST | Sean Durkin
NOMADLAND | Chloe Zhao
WICKED GAMES | Ulrich Seidl 
MIENTRAS DURE LA GUERRA | Alejandro Amenabar
WENDY | Benh Zeitlin
FIRST COW | Kelly Reichardt
THE LIGHTHOUSE| Robert Eggers
WAVES | Trey Edward Shults
COOK, FUCK, KILL | Mira Fornay
GUEST OF HONOR | Atom Egoyan
ETRE VIVANT ET LE SAVOIR | Alain Cavalier
C'EST EXTRA | Guillaume Nicloux 
THE THOUSAND MILES | Sylvain Chomet