As illustrated by Bradley Cooper. Literally this time since I'm so hungover.

Talk amongst yourselves as I convalesce. What's on your cinematic mind?

From Tommy Lee Jones directing himself and The Swank we turn to another far more accomplished actor-turned-director. Clint Eastwood has won four Oscars in his career from two films (Unforgiven & Million Dollar Baby) but the 83 year old director has had a bit of a rougher run than usual in recent years, critically speaking. He's back with Jersey Boys based on the Broadway jukebox hit about the Four Seasons.

Let's divvy up our reactions to the trailer.

YES
• There will be a lot of music 
• Counterprogramming in the blockbuster realm of summer movies could help with critical reception so that's a smart move.
• Newish handsome actors in plum star-making position (if the movie is good and they ace it)
• Clint went from two-a-year to radio silence for two years. Maybe the time off did him good? This is, the longest break he's ever taking from directing since between The Gauntlet (1977) and Bronco Billy (1980). Maybe the time off will rejuvenate him...

NO

•... because Changeling/Gran Torino (2008), Invictus (2009)  Hereafter (2010) and J. Edgar (2011) were a dire quintet with hard-to-miss quality drops-off between each.
• The moment when Clint Eastwood's name comes up and it's paired with a suddenly plaintiff piano note is almost self-parodic considering his somber repertoire and his unfortunate desire to score all of his own movies. Something must have drawn him to this topic but have he and his chief accomplice (other than himself) Tom Stern smothered the joy from the Four Seasons music?
• People narrating directly to camera like they're still on the stage. Pass me the advil. Or revolver. Insufferable 
• Do we need more film celebrations of goodfellas bro-centric style Jersey? 
• If this is a hit, maybe Clint Eastwood will feel emboldened to remake A Star is Born with Beyoncé as he'd originally hoped. And nobody needs that remade. Again. (Three times would have to be enough right?)

MAYBE SO
•  Jersey Boys is a traditional biography (with a ♪ beat) and Clint is Clint so traditional forms ever so slightly tweaked (Unforgiven, Letters From Iwo Jima, Million Dollar Baby) are exactly what produces his best work.
• There doesn't look to be as much color and joy as one would expect from a pop culture musical but it doesn't look as inky, heavy and self-serious as recent Eastwood flicks and that has to be considered a smart change of pace at this juncture.
• Doesn't look like an Oscar play (not that that couldn't happen) which is something of a surprise.
• It's kind of a relief not to see famous miscast faces or at least it's a treat to get new faces, since the musical is about new stars. John Lloyd Young, playing Frankie Valli, won the Tony on stage. It's been a long time since a Tony winner was afforded the opportunity to transfer with their star-making vehicle. Not that you can't biff it if you stick with the original cast (see: Rent for a "why not to do that") but it doesn't happen enough not to celebrate it when it does. One can only assume that Meryl Streep turned down the role of Frankie Valli.

After Ellen "Return of the Lesbian Villain"
/Film Sharon Stone does Mrs Robinson at The Graduate live-read
KCRW Tilda Swinton guest DJ special. She's a fan of Marilyn Manson, Björk & Bowie. We could have guessed as much!
Vanity Fair Daniel Radcliffe does the Proust Questionnaire 

What is your greatest regret? I’m 24! I think it’s a little early for all that

Pajiba Cameron Diaz vs Kiki Dunst in the battle of the vapid remarks
AV Club Tony Kushner working on another Steven Spielberg project The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara. Sounds intriguing but anything that keeps Tony away from writing that Viola Davis as a politician movie is a problem for me
Judgmental Maps NYC by stereotype
Variety a new memoir on Ethel Merman. When is she getting a biopic for chrissakes?
i09 Why were there so many giant insect movies in the 1950s? 
/Film on potential superhero crossover movies. Only when the mega-corporations are out of ideas/money 

Today's Watch
The Normal Heart trailer. Will this be yet another TV movie that we have to wonder how it would have fared at the Oscars had it been released theatrically? At the very least the doctor role would've resulted in a nomination no matter who played it. That's the part once slated for Barbra Streisand decades ago with Julia Roberts taking over for Ellen Barkin who won the Tony on Broadway (why wasn't she asked to reprise it given her connections to Ryan Murphy?) so expect Julia at least to be up for the Emmy.

Exit Question: Is it just me or does the type here inadvertently imply or perhaps subliminally predict that Matt Bomer and Taylor Kitsch will one day be Oscar nominated actors?

I totally forgot it was Good Friday today. Herewith a #faithbased edition of complete the sentence because that's trending now.

"My favorite Biblical movie is ________________ because _______________."

I really wish _________ would make a bible movie because _________ ."

 

 YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO IN THE COMMENTS. I'll get us started. 

waterworks all month long... this one's from the vaults

Tonight's shower is provided by mother nature rather than traditional indoor plumbing. That's appropriate since Thelma & Louise (1991) is elemental: all wide open spaces, blazing sun, dusty earth and women as hard driving forces of nature.

While the film belongs to Susan Sarandon's Louise, Geena Davis's Thelma is the maddening/adorable one. Among her many exasperating yet endearing qualities is her uninhibited horniness for one J.D. (early Brad Pitt). In the still above, Louise has booted the caddish hitchhiker out of their car since the friends are getting hotel rooms for the night. J.D. struts away into the rain shower, fully confident that Thelma's eyes are still on him. He even kicks up a boot heel, a private little show for her, as the car drives away.

There he goes. I love watching him go.

Wrangler butts drive her nuts... or something.

If you've seen more than two or three movies in your lifetime you'll know that this lustfully observed exit will not be J.D.'s exit from the movie. But Thelma apparently hasn't seen so many movies. She's surprised (and thrilled) when he comes a'knocking on her hotel room door later that same night.

J.D. is such a skilled charmer that the outcome of his neighborly call is never in doubt. The aw shucks grin is ease itself. He even knows just how to pose in the pouring rain so that the water runs, just so, off his cowboy hat. This 'I'll get out of your hair now' wet puppy act is all pretense. He's no puppy but a dog. He knows he's getting out of the rain. He knows he's getting into her bed.

Do you remember the first time you saw Brad Pitt in a movie? This was mine. 
 

Our coverage of the TCM's 2014 festival in Los Angeles wraps with Anne Marie on legendary editor Thelma Schoonmaker

Thelma in the editing bay...

Thelma Schoonmaker is surprisingly calm. Not just calm, calming. As I sat listening to her twice at TCMFF--first at the introduction for A Matter Of Life And Death, next at an hourlong interview--I marveled at the three-time Oscar winning editor's stillness. Considering she is the preferred collaborator of Martin Scorsese, an infamously energetic director, one would think she'd need reservoirs of energy to tackle the boxing matches in Raging Bull or the tense chases in The Departed.

Schoonmaker wasn't at TCMFF to speak about herself, though. In the years since the death of her late husband, Michael Powell, she has been a driving force between the preservation and restoration of Powell's films. Michael Powell, with his partner Emeric Pressburger, is the man behind Archer Filmmakers, who made some of the greatest British films of WWII and the postwar era. The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, and A Matter Of Life And Death are part of what Schoonmaker credits Scorsese with dubbing, "the longest period of rebel filmmaking at a major studio."

A Matter Of Life And Death is also surprisingly calm, considering it's a hallucinatory story about a man's fight to stay alive. The remarks Schoonmaker made before Sony's new DCP screening mostly pertain to the productionof the film. Powell & Pressburger had been commissioned by the British government to make a film to help along straining British/US relations as the war ended. Powell's remark: "didn't we already win a war together?" Nonetheless, he and Pressburger delivered a romance between a British pilot and an American, though it also became a meditation on the afterlife, medicine, postwar life, and epilepsy.  The main character (David Niven) survives a plane crash he wasn't supposed to, and as a result falls in love. When an angel comes to earth to collect him, he demands a trial, since the situation has changed. The story itself is lovely, but it's made all the more incredible by the shocking decision to film Heaven in black and white, while pushing the envelope for just how bright Technicolor could be. The sun is lemon yellow, the roses are shocking pink, and the result is a film now earning its rightful place as a masterpiece.

When Thelma sat down for her more personal interview the second day, she explained that it wasn't always considered so. She spent about half of the interview talking about her own illustrious career in mostly self-effacing ways. She stated emphatically that she doesn't display her editing Oscar for Raging Bull because it's too painful that she won and Scorsese didn't. Her enthusiasm picked up when speaking about Michael Powell, and how they met and influenced each other. Scorsese had met Powell in England in the 1980s after the Archer Filmmakers had sunk into anonymity. With Scorsese's help, Powell had gotten his latest film, Peeping Tom, into festivals, where it had started being noticed again. Powell became a mentor to Scorsese and Schoonmaker, even suggesting that DeNiro recite On The Waterfront in the iconic ending of Raging Bull, since his thought was that one American artist should reference another. Eventually, Powell became more than a mentor to Schoonmaker. When they married, he was in his 70s and she was in her 40s. Even now, she spoke of him with a quiet affection and intelligent excitement she reserved for no one else. She's been a widow longer than she was a wife, but she has been an active widow, promoting her husband's legacy and fighting to have his films restored and distributed so they could continue to inspire filmmakers like her. 

After A Matter Of Life And Death, Thelma Schoonmaker stood outside the screening room, idly chatting and looking at the crowd. I rushed up and gushed to her quickly that her husband's films were a direct influence on my career path. I was a ball of nervous energy, but when she shookmy hand, she stared me straight in the eye and warmly thanked me, and the frazzled energy sapped out of me. I walked away in a daze, reminded that some of the most important work in film is done by the quiet collaborators.

Anne Marie works in film preservation and writes TFE's weekly series "A Year With Kate" and her own personal blog "We Recycle Movies". You can follow her on twitter here.

Oooh, it's another new image from Ryan Gosling's Lost River (formerly titled: How To Catch a Monster) and I love this macabre club entrance that Christina Hendricks is standing in front of.

Does this image remind anyone else of the abandoned amusement park in Joe Wright's Hanna ? 

Maybe all images of redheads with bobs and big animalistic mouthdoors would naturally be in dialogue with one another. Never mind.

If you haven't read the official synopsis it goes like so:

....weaves elements of fantasy noir, and suspense into a modern day fairytale. Set against the surreal dreamscape of a vanishing city, Billy, a single mother of two, is swept into a macabre and dark fantasy underworld while her teenage son discovers a secret road leading to an underwater town. Both Billy and Bones must dive deep into the mystery, if their family is to survive. 

None of us have any idea if Gosling will be a good director or not but it'll be exciting to find out. The film will premiere at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section. One thing that's hugely puzzling, though, is that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Iain de Caesteker plays a character named "Bones" who I've been led to believe is Billy's teenage son, though the synopsis is a bit confusingly written in this regard. Caesteker is 26 and Hendricks is only 38... so he's too old to play a teenager and she's definitely too young to play his mother so I hope people are confused about who the son is. 

Unless you count the LEGO Movie's probable Best Animated Feature bid and the Sundance bow of Love is Strange (I'm still hopeful - it's playing Tribeca right now) 2014 hasn't seen much in the way of Oscar contenders just yet. Recent trailers are changing the collective shrug to raised eyebrows - between The Homesman (previously discussed), Jersey Boys (if you're feeling very generous), the Cannes lineup announcement and these two trailers from past nominated directors Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher) and David Fincher (Gone Girl) the body is ready for the first wave of Oscar predictions. We'll manage them before April wraps.

Both of these trailers have been around for a bit and both blissfully play more like teasers despite their length; the job of a trailer is to sell a future ticket, not to make you feel like you've already seen it so you don't need one.  Foxcatcher's traiser was actually released last year and then swiftly pulled before we could get to it but it recently resurfaced and Gone Girl has been kicking around for a week but I've heard your plea to discuss so a couple of quick notes follow

GONE GIRL

Yes. What's not to love really? Remarkable use of music and uncomfortable juxtapositions in the montage. Plus, Rosamund Pike's gorgeousity turning to the camera just in time for the vocals of "She" is just a marvelous 'we're-making-a-star here' relief given that her career, though healthy, deserves more fame and a richer choice of scripts. That final shot of her in the water is so disturbing. (Yikes). And though they aren't prominently featured in this trailer the supporting cast is really good with a lot of underused faces like Sela Ward and Missi Pyle. 

No. I got nothing though I guess I hope Fincher takes a break from crime thrillers soon and that greenish color palette which was fun for a couple of films but three in a row. It's approaching Eastwood's inky black and Soderbergh's yellow as a default rather than an artistic choice.

Maybe So. Casting Ben Affleck as your leading man has to be considered kind of risky, right? Aristically speaking. He's not the terrible actor some say he is but neither has he ever proven himself a great one. 

FOX CATCHER

Yes. Another minimalist peak at a crime drama, this one being a horrible and super weird true story. It has a very good chance of being riveting given the cast, the story and the writer/director (Bennett Miller of Capote and Moneyball fame). The "A coach is..." speech here is beautifully judged as a teaser framing device, especially with that pathetic shuffle into the gym with the pistol out. Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum seem like a pretty great trio to hang a movie on. And did I just spot Vanessa Redgrave?!? ( "Yes, please" times so so so many.)

Also Yes. Channing Tatum in a singlet

No. I dread any potential "sweepers" in any of the acting categories -- just on principle because there are ALWAYS more than four great performances in a film year -- so though I've long thought Steve Carell was an Oscar calibre actor (I nominated him right here for Little Miss Sunshine) I don't relish seeing him win everything because he went the prosthetic and vocal affectation route. He looks good in the trailer, don't get me wrong. I just know that no matter how brilliant he is, he'll be wildly overpraised merely because of this and the meat of the role. 

Maybe So. I suppose the ultra specific details of this tale might not help it with accessibility for the masses, or even to feel potent thematically. But we'll worry about that later if it happens.

Are you a Yes, No or Maybe So ?
And does the strength of your answer coincide with your faith in their Oscar play? 

Since we already named our favorite Bible movies, it's time to turn the conversation over to the most integral part of Easter celebrations: Bunnies! Rabbits. Hares. Whatever you'd prefer to call the hoppy delights.

You will find neither Winnie the Pooh's "Rabbit" or Alice in Wonderland's "White Rabbit" on this list because, frankly, they're way too annoying. 

10 E. ASTER BUNNYMUND (2012)
Because he sounds just like Hugh Jackman 

<-- 09. WERE-RABBIT (2005)
Because he's the only lagomorph who doesn't answer to "Bugs" to ever win an Oscar

8 more awesome movie bunnies after the jump

Amir here, with the weekend’s box office report. It’s Easter weekend and we have proof of it in the box office top ten. When was the last time three films with such strong religious overtones as Noah, God’s Not Dead and Heaven Is for Real were simultaneously in the top ten best selling pile?  The latter film was the new entry this weekend and shockingly grossed more than $20m, helping itself to the third spot behind holdovers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Rio 2. Can you think of any film with a more unappealingly on the nose title? The 3-minute trailer is an excruciating exercise in patience in its own right but I understand I’m not the target audience. I’m sure the people who saw it in droves enjoyed it. Right? Maybe. Possibly. Fuck, seriously? Is this film for real?

Yes, Greg Kinnear. Your son sees dead people (in the afterlife)

01 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER $26.6 (cum. $201.5) Review
02 RIO 2 $22.5 (cum. $75.3) 
03 HEAVEN IS FOR REAL $21.5 (cum. $28.5) 
04 TRANSCENDENCE $11.1 *new* 
05 A HAUNTED HOUSE 2 $9.1 *new*  
06 DRAFT DAY $5.9 (cum. $19.5)  
07 DIVERGENT $5.7 (cum. $133.9) Review
08 OCULUS $5.2 (cum. $21.1)
09 NOAH $5 (cum. $93.2) Podcast &  Jon Stewart on Noah - a must-see icymi
10 GOD’S NOT DEAD $4.8 (cum. $48.3) 

Transcendence was a failure of epic proportions and managed a 10% return on investment, which is disastrous in any industry. This is either due to the fact that the film’s title is only subtly religious or because Johnny Depp is no longer a draw. The latter is most likely the case and I can’t help but indulge in a bit of schadenfreude. In the 11 years that have passed since Depp delivered something resembling a performance, he’s made billions of dollars and the box office returns of Dark Shadows and The Lone Ranger weren’t nearly dire enough to be considered punishment.

At the arthouse Under the Skin edged past the million dollar mark and The Grand Budapest Hotel is now a single day away from beating Moonrise Kingdom as the top grossing Wes Anderson. Only Lovers Left Alive, however, has failed to draw in audiences, though its screen average is the third best behind Heaven Is... and John Turturro’s weird, Woody Allen-starring passion project, Fading Gigolo.

I spent my weekend cozying up to some Cannes classics, but I will be out soon to catch Disneynature’s Bears, because those things look cute as buttons. What have you watched this weekend?

... But they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say 'Shit, it's raining!”

Isn't that a great line from Cold Mountain? It's profound down-home truth and blunt poetry at once.

Realizing you're your own worst enemy is tough business. Even if you've realized it countless times before. Many have you have asked whatever happened to the 2003 Supporting Actress Smackdown and if you don't mind a little navel gazing you can click for more on the why and the new hopeful when...

SEASON PREMIERE
Ready for another year of the podcast? The gang is back: Nathaniel R, (The Film Experience), Joe Reid (The Wire), Katey Rich (Vanity Fair) and Nick Davis (Nick's Flick Picks) reunite to discuss this unusually robust auteur spring at the movies. 

This week's topics: Darren Aronofsky's peculiar muddy vision for Noah starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly & Emma Watson; Jonathan Glazer (Birth) and Scarlett Johansson's Under the Skin; and Wes Anderson's biggest hit The Grand Budapest Hotel. Did we want to check in and stay?

Under Noah's Skin at the Budapest Hotel
00:00 Noah (story diversion, auteur vision, character work)
18:45 Under the Skin (visual storytelling, interpretation, Scarlett)
29:00 Noah and Under the Skin (in communication)
36:30 The Grand Budapest Hotel (inside & outside friction, accepting Wes, art direction)
44:30 Ralph Fiennes and the movies Oscar buzz
49:00 Other movie recommendations: Le Week-end and Blue Ruin.

You can listen to the podcast at the bottom of the post or download the conversation on iTunes. Continue the conversation in the comments.me, I Heart Huckabees, Taxi Driver, King of Comedy, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Children of Men, Y Tu Mama Tambíen, 

Our Tribeca coverage begins with Glenn on two similarly titled indies

Alex is in crisis in both About Alex and actor Chris Messina's directorial debut Alex in Venice. Both films are indie dramas about the complexities of modern relationships, though one is decidedly much better than the other. While both Alexes are broad-strokes comparable to similar films that have come before, Jesse Zwick’s About Alex has trouble feeling like anything more than a cheap imitation. Populated by a cast of predominantly TV actors (Maggie Grace, Aubrey Plaza, Max Greenfield, and Jason Ritter as Alex) and featuring a lot of nonsensical moments and illogical characters traits that could easily be the result of the first time feature writer and director’s inexperience, About Alex just doesn’t congeal into anything substantial. It lacks the generational pull of its most direct cinematic cousins, like Lawrence Kasdan’s Oscar-nominated 1983 classic The Big Chill (or maybe the generation on display is just not as interesting). The ensemble chemistry that lifted Joe Swanberg’s recent Drinking Buddies out of the sea of low-budget, mumblecore imitators is also missing. [more...]

Our Tribeca Film Festival coverage continues with Abstew on Gabriel...

Something is not quite right with Gabriel (Rory Culkin). But please, don't call him that. It may be his own name, but just the sound of it is enough to set him on edge. And who knows what he might do? He prefers Gabe. Only his mother (played by Dierdre O'Connell) can get away with calling him by his given name. Well, his mother and one other person. [More...]

JA from MNPP here wishing you a very happy Mutant Monday, which is the brand new holiday that comes right after Easter Sunday, as of right this second, says me. Why am I making up this brand new holiday here off the cuff (besides more holidays meaning more days off from work, of course)? Well... because it suits my immediate purpose of course, which is to turn James McAvoy's birthday (which yes, is indeed today, he's turning 35) into an epic celebration! And by epic celebration I mean to have this week's edition of "Beauty Vs. Beast" ask one of my favorite questions...

Who do you prefer between the heads of X-Men: First Class? The Dudes of Future Past? Charles Xavier please do meet Erik Lehnsherr...

X:Men: Days of Future Past hits in about four weeks, but you've only got one week to answer this question, and please do take to the comments to tell us why you're picking which side. Speaking of...

PREVIOUSLY ON Last week was another birthday, that of the great Robert Carlyle, and we spun ourselves back to the year 1996 to tackle a Trainspotting showdown... who did you choose? You chose good health low cholesterol and dental insurance, you chose life, you chose Renton (Ewan McGregor). With 3/4s of the vote! Maybe it would've been more of a battle if I'd listened to par though...

"With all due respect to Renton, the true beauty in Trainspotting is Sick Boy."

Vulture psychologically astute piece by Kim Morgan on Lindsay Lohan's reality show 
The Front Row on the lost generation of indie film and filmmakers from the 1990s
New York Times Rubin "Hurricane" Carter dies at 76. Did you ever see that Oscar nominated Denzel performance in The Hurricane?
/Film Quentin Tarantino continues work on The Hateful Eight, his "leaked" first draft of a Western

imgur fascinating compilation of screenpaps from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. That list of culturally important things people have told Captain America to google and how it changes in each country 
Variety we haven't checked in with crazy Takashi Miike lately. He's making a Yakuza Vampire flick now 
i09 Wonder-Con happened this weekend which means fun creative cosplay photos. (I miss loving geek culture which I haven't for a long time really... I loved it before "geek" became a compliment).
i09 Dudes in distress, saved by damsels from Wonder Woman's Steve Trevor to The Hunger Games Peeta
Variety Cannes Critics Week sidebar revealed
Film School Rejects on the anniversary of Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr and audience resistance to movies that comment on moviegoing
Out Matt Bomer talks The Normal Heart 
Variety The Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon sequel Green Destiny - is happening later this year. But since it doesn't have Ang Lee or any of the original stars (through necessity plot-wise, really) other than Michelle Yeoh... how much of a sequel will it feel like to people. 

Amuse us. Add dialogue or a caption to these two new stills from Macbeth starring two much obsessed over actors, Michael Fassbender as the would be King and Marion Cotillard as his Lady with that damn spot.

I'll announce the winners of this and the previous contest on Wednesday

The evening waterworks continue. Here's Andrew on a particularly gloomy shower.

The Piano is a moody movie. Moody as in unpredictable and volatile, and moody as in suggesting melancholy and mystery. Even before the story really gets underway the film's atmosphere is one of unease. And it's because it's not just the story that's moody but visually, too. As Stuart Dryburgh's camera observes the rough, muddy ranches of New Zealand the harsh exteremities of the terrain seem to be not just incidental but direct representations of the similarly implacable characters.

This is but one of the numerous ways in which the Gothic influence on The Piano shines through, where landscape informs elements of plot and characters. The Piano checks off a number of the prerequisites for Gothic drama: impulsive, sometimes tyrannical men, women in distress, heightened emotion, a mysterious atmosphere, a somewhat isolated locale, stormy weather and muddy terrains. 

Of the influence of the Gothic in the film, Jane confesses...

Alexa here to share some arts and crafts for your Tuesday. I recently came upon a story about the strange world of bootleg movie posters from Ghana and I've become a little obsessed. In the 80s and early 90s, when VHS tapes from Hong Kong, Bollywood and Hollywood started making their way to Ghana, mobile cinemas were set up to screen films on the fly.  Promotional posters were needed quickly to get people into the theaters but there was a catch: the artists knew little about the films before making the posters. Armed with titles and their own imaginations, the poster artists created versions of these films stuffed with more violence and pulpy thrills than the films themselves.

More false advertising after the jump

Our Tribeca Film Festival coverage continues with Glenn on Mala Mala

Christine Vachon is a national treasure. That is a fact. Without her then it’s highly questionable whether queer cinema would even exist in the somewhat minor capacity that it does. Seeing her name appear in the credits of Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini’s Mala Mala was a refreshing surprise because it’s rare to find documentaries with subject matter like this coming from such a major name, and yet also not at all surprising because the film has a beautiful polish to it that comes from having the resources that a name such as Vachon’s allows. It was also the film’s exceptional good fortune to get a connection to RuPaul’s Drag Race, too, giving the film a pop culture connection that can only help its important subject matter reach a wider audience.

Mala Mala is a documentary that looks at the trans and drag communities of Puerto Rico. Focusing on several key members of the island nation’s community, it proves to be a funny, sad, poignant, and ultimately refreshing experience. I certainly wasn’t aware of Puerto Rico’s sizable community and their struggles and for that the film provides a valuable service. Even better, however, was that the filmmakers didn’t shy away from their subjects’ bad sides with some working as sex workers and others having very strong, unflinching thoughts about what it means to be trans. As a film that chronicles the efforts to get government equality for transgender men and women it proves to be a rousing one, but it is these darker corners that give it the power necessary to possibly become something akin to Paris is Burning for a new generation.

That groundbreaking 1990 documentary by Jennie Livingston lingers over the proceedings of Mala Mala like a vogueing ghost. Featuring former Drag Race contestant April Carrion (the reveal of what would have been her “Snatch Game” persona is a hoot) as she jets off to compete, it’s hard not to think of the Houses of Paris is Burning and the massive steps made in pop culture acceptance of not only gay and drag culture, but LGBTIQ people in general. Mala Mala doesn’t reach the stunning, soaring heights of that earlier film, but the two would make an outdragous double feature.

Even when the film falls into standard doc practices like talking heads, Mala Mala stands out from the documentary crowd. Exceptionally lensed with a vibrant use of color and framing as well as frequently hypnotic imagery, this is one of the most gorgeous docs in some time. The sound work, too, is wonderfully done, full of pulsating music that recreates the evocative sounds and beats of Puerto Rican drag life. This is most certainly not another drably assembled work of non-fiction (like, say, other Tribeca doc titles such as The Newburgh Sting and Regarding Susan Sontag), but an exciting fusion that suggests its debut directors have the smarts to potentially go far. Christine Vachon would be wise to take Sickles and Santini up on their shimmering, almost sensual promise as exhibited in Mala Mala, a vital new film in the constantly evolving landscape of queer cinema.

April Carrion (RuPaul's Drag Race) at the Tribeca premiere