Film intelligence: Cannes do

Every week there are dozens of film news stories. Every week, we read them all and bring you the five most important ones in the single most important blog post you’ll ever read (today [at this moment]). This week: the south of France, a bus in the Bronx, and heavy competition for Jobs.

People can’t seem to stop remaking CARRIE

“They’re all gonna laugh at…who?”

There are some truly horrid things out there that just won’t die. One is the soon-to-be-remade (again!) CARRIE, Stephen King’s exceptionally underrated debut novel (if this were required reading in every American high school, there would probably be no ‘bullying crisis’) and the brilliant 1976 Brian de Palma screen adaptation with Sissy Spacek, masseur-loving John Travolta and Piper Laurie. Laurie, it’s worth noting, made the honorable mentions in our Top 10 Mothers In Legendary Films list for Mother’s Day—and come to think of it, she deserved her own maniacal place in the list itself for this Oscar-nominated role.

Legal download: The art world on demand

The world of film is changing. For one thing, there’s not much actual film anymore. The future is digital; more and more, it’s streaming on our computers, too. Every week in Legal Download, we survey the landscape of online movies to bring you a snapshot of what’s available. This week, we paint a picture of VOD movies about the art world.

THIS WEEK’S THEME: Movies About Art

DO I NEED THIS?: Pursuing happiness at the mall

Photographer and film maker Kate Schermerhorn seems obsessed with the notion of happiness: in addition to her previous documentary AFTER HAPPILY EVER AFTER (which, as you’ll probably guess, focused on marriage), she’s also the author of the photography book America’s Idea of a Good Time (which explores our “pursuit of happiness” broadly). If you’re going to dig into such a topic, and particularly its most American incarnations, you’re going to end up at the mall: we love acquiring stuff so much that we now refer to shopping as “retail therapy.” But how happy do the things we buy make us, and what are the larger costs associated with those moments of pleasure?

A hard-wired road trip: SMALL, BEAUTIFULLY MOVING PARTS

America has a great history of road movies. We’ve been able really corner the market because, well…we have more roads, but also because our culture puts a premium on finding oneself. And there is no better way of “figuring your shit out” than going on a long road trip. These sorts of films usually end up featuring an awesome twosome (THELMA AND LOUISE), because watching one person drive around the USA can be pretty boring. But, in SMALL, BEAUTIFULLY MOVING PARTS, while we’ve got an awesome twosome, we only really see one road-tripper. She just happens to be pregnant with her co-pilot.

Top 10 MILFs (Moms In Legendary Films)

Mother’s Day might be upon us, but no, we are not going the cheap route and talking about the MILFs you’re used to (although we do love Jennifer Coolidge in everything she does; even AMERICAN PIE). This list is dedicated to a far more select—and somewhat more matronly—group, namely Moms In Legendary Films. Absolutely everyone out there has something to say about how to be the best mom (as evidenced by the latest cover of TIME, which proclaims “Are You Mom Enough?” and displays a rather distinctive approach). That’s why it’s best to fall back on these sterling examples of maternal heroism (and in some cases, villainy). Whatever the case may be, parenting can be a real bitch, and these women are definitely Mom enough.