#or maybe the Helen/Miss Pauling drama

[jevilowo]

Okay everyone on here has spread their specific Spydad reveal headcanons. Let me present how I think it would realistically go down if they chose to go down that route in the comics:

Scout: hey yeh my dad's Tom Jones ain't that badass

Soldier: TOM JONES??? HEY I KILLED THAT GUY!!!

Scout (Denial): WHAT??? NO?? NUH UH!!

Soldier: *digs out newspaper that says Tom Jones is dead*

Scout: oh God, then...

Scout's Ma, inexplicably showing up: aw hey sweetie! *kisses Scout on forehead* ooh and you're here too, mon pe-teat shoe flour! *kisses Spy on cheek* have ya told him yet?

Spy: ....non

Scout:

NOOOOOO GOD DAMMMITTTTTTT!!!!!!

Spy: so you didn't-

Scout: OF COURSE I FRICKIN KNEW, STUPID, I'M NOT AN IDIOT! I JUST HATE YOU! FUCK!!

Soldier: ...SO DOES THAT MEAN SPY WAS SECRETLY TOM JONES THE WHOLE TIME?

And then they never elaborate on this again.

[crowdvscritic]

round up // JULY 21

‘Tis the season to beat the heat at the always-cold theatres and next to fans set at turbo speed. While my movie watching slowed a bit with the launch of the Summer Olympics on July 23rd, I’ve still got plenty of popcorn-ready and artsy recommendations for you. A few themes in the new-to-me pop culture I’m recommending this month:

Casts oozing with embarrassing levels of talent (sometimes overqualified for the movies they’re in)

Pop culture that is responding or reinterpreting past pop culture

Stories that get weEeEeird

Keep on-a-scrollin’ to see which is which!

July Crowd-Pleasers

1. Double Feature – ‘90s Rom-Coms feat. Lots of Lies: Mystery Date (1991) + The Pallbearer (1996)

In Mystery Date (Crowd: 7.5/10 // Critic: 6/10), Ethan Hawke and Teri Polo get set up on a blind date that gets so bizarre and crime-y I’m not sure how this didn’t come out in the ‘80s. In The Pallbearer (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7/10), David Schwimmer and Gwyneth Paltrow try to combine The Graduate with Four Weddings and a Funeral in a story about lost twentysomethings. If you don’t like rom-coms in which circumstances depend on lots of lies and misunderstandings, these won’t be your jam, but if you’re like me and don’t mind these somewhat-cliché devices, you’ll be hooked by likeable casts and plenty of rom and com.

2. The Tomorrow War (2021)

I thought of no fewer movies than this list while watching: Alien, Aliens, Angel Has Fallen, Cloverfield, Interstellar, Kong: Skull Island, Prometheus, A Quiet Place: Part II, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith, The Silence of the Lambs, The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and World War Z. And you know what? I like all those movies! (Okay, maybe I just have a healthy respect/fear of The Silence of the Lambs.) The Tomorrow War may not be original, but it borrows some of the best tropes and beats from the sci-fi and action genres, so much so I wish I could’ve seen Chris Pratt and Co. fight those gross monsters on a big screen. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 6/10

3. Dream a Little Dream (1989)

My July pick for the Dumb Rom-Com I Nevertheless Enjoyed! I CANNOT explain the mechanics of this body switch comedy to you—nor can the back of the DVD case above—but, boy, what an ‘80s MOOD. I did not know I needed to see a choreographed dance routine starring Jason Robards and Corey Feldman, but I DID. All I know is some movies are made for me and that I’m now a card-carrying member of the Two Coreys fan club. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 6.5/10

4. Black Widow (2021)

The braids! The Pugh! Black Widow worked for me both as an exciting action adventure and as a respite from the Marvel adventures dependent on a long memory of the franchise. (Well, mostly—keep reading for a second MCU rec much more dependent on the gobs of previous releases.) Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7.5/10

5. Liar Liar (1997)

Guys, Jim Carrey is hilarious. That’s it—that’s the review. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7/10

6. Sob Rock by John Mayer (2021)

It’s very possible I’ve already listened to this record more than all other John Mayer records. It doesn’t surpass the capital-G Greatness of Continuum, but it’s a little bit of old school Mayer, a little bit ‘80s soft rock/pop, and I’ve had it on repeat most of the two weeks since it’s been out. Featuring the boppiest bop that ever bopped, at least one lyrical gem in every track, and an ad campaign focused on Walkmans, this record skirts the line between Crowd faves and Critic-worthy musicianship.

7. Double Feature – ‘00s Ben Affleck Political Thrillers: The Sum of All Fears (2002) + State of Play (2009)

In The Sum of All Fears (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7.5/10), Ben Affleck is Jack Ryan caught up in yet another international incident. In State of Play (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7/10), he’s a hotshot Congressman caught up in a scandal. Both are full of plot twists and unexpected turns, and in both, Affleck is accompanied by actors you’re always happy to see, like Jason Bateman, James Cromwell, Russell Crowe, Jeff Daniels, Viola Davis, Morgan Freeman, Philip Baker Hall, David Harbour, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, Liev Schreiber, and Robin Wright—yes, I swear all of those people are in just those two movies.

8. Loki (2021-)

Unlike Black Widow, you can’t go into Loki with no MCU experience. The show finds clever ways to nudge us with reminders (and did better at it than Falcon and the Winter Soldier), but be forewarned that at some point, you’re just going to have to let go and accept wherever this timeline-hopper is taking you. An ever-charismatic cast keeps us grounded (Owen Wilson, Jonathan Majors, and an alligator almost steal the show from Tom Hiddleston in some eps), but while Falcon lasted an episode or two too long, Loki could’ve used a few more to flesh out its complicated plot and develop its characters. Thankfully, the jokes matter almost as much as the sci-fi, so you can still have fun even if you have no idea what’s going on.

9. Double Feature – Bruce Willis: Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995) + The Whole Nine Yards (2000)

Before Bruce Willis began starring in many random direct-to-DVD movies I only ever hear about in my Redbox emails, he was a Movie Star smirking his way up the box office charts. In the third Die Hard (Crowd: 10/10 // Critic: 7.5/10), he teams up with Samuel L. Jackson to decipher the riddles of a terrorist madman (Jeremy Irons), and it’s a thrill ride. In The Whole Nine Yards (Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 8/10), he’s hitman that screws up dentist Matthew Perry’s boring life in Canada, and—aside from one frustrating scene of let’s-objectify-women-style nudity—it’s hilarious.

10. This Is the End (2013)

On paper, this is not a movie for me. An irreverent stoner comedy about a bunch of bros partying it up before the end of the world? None of things are for Taylors. But with a little help of a TV edit to pare down the raunchy and crude bits, I laughed my way through and spent the next several days thinking through its exploration of what makes a good person. While little of the plot is accurate to Christian Gospel and theology, some of its big ideas are consistent enough with the themes of the book of Revelation I found myself thinking about it again in church this morning. (Would love to know if Seth Rogen ever expected that.) Plus, I love a good self-aware celebrity spoof—can’t tell you how many times I’ve just laughed remembering the line, “It’s me, Jonah Hill, from Moneyball”—and an homage to horror classics. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7/10

July Critic Picks

1. Summer of Soul (…or, When the Television Could Not Be Televised) (2021)

Even director Questlove didn’t know about the Harlem Cultural Festival, but now he’s compiled the footage so we can all enjoy one of the coolest music fest lineups ever, including The 5th Dimension, B.B. King, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, and Stevie Wonder, who made my friend’s baby dance more than once in the womb. See it on the big screen for top-notch audio. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 9/10

2. Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)

Robin Williams takes on the bureaucracy, disillusionment, and malaise of the Vietnam War with comedy. Williams was a one-of-a-kind talent, and here it’s on display at a level on par with Aladdin. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 9/10

3. Against the Rules Season 2 (2020-21)

Michael Lewis (author of Moneyball, adapted into a film starring Jonah Hill), is interested in how we talk about fairness. This season he looks at how coaches impact fairness in areas like college admissions, credit cards, and youth sports. 

4. Bugsy Malone (1976)

A gangster musical starring only children? It’s a little like someone just picked ideas out of a hat, but somehow it works. You can hear why in the Bugsy Malone episode Kyla and I released this month on SO IT’S A SHOW?, plus how this weird artifact of a film connects with Gilmore Girls.

5. The Queen (2006)

Before The Crown, Peter Morgan wrote The Queen, focusing on Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren) in the days following the death of Princess Diana. It’s a complex and compassionate drama, both for the Queen and for Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen, who has snuck up on me to become a favorite character actor). Maybe I’ve got a problem, but I’ll never tire of the analysis of this famous family. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 9.5/10

6. The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)

This month at ZekeFilm, we took a closer look at Revisionist Westerns we’ve missed. I fell hard for Roy Bean, and I think you will, too, if for no other reason than you might like a story starring Jacqueline Bisset, Ava Gardner, John Huston, Paul Newman, and Anthony Perkins. Oh, and a bear! Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 10/10

7. New Trailer Round Up

Naked Singularity (Aug. 6) – John Boyega in a crime thriller!

Queenpins (Aug. 10) – A crime comedy about extreme coupon-ing!

Dune (Oct. 1) – I’ve been cooler on the anticipation for this film, but this new look has me cautiously intrigued thanks to the Bardem + Bautista + Brolin + Chalamet + Ferguson + Isaac + Momoa + Zendaya of it all.

The Last Duel (Oct. 15) – Affleck! Damon! Driver!

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Nov. 11) - I’m not sure why we need this, but I’m down for the Paul Rudd + Finn Wolfhard combo

King Richard (Nov. 19) - Will Smith as Venus and Serena’s father!

Encanto (Nov. 24) – Disney and Lin-Manuel Miranda making more magic together!

House of Gucci (Nov. 24) - Gaga! Pacino! Driver! 

Also in July…

Kyla and I took a look at the classic supernatural soap Dark Shadows and why Sookie might be obsessed with it on Gilmore Girls.

I revisited a so-bad-it’s-good masterpiece that’s a surrealist dream even Fellini couldn’t have cooked up. Yes, for ZekeFilm I wrote about the Vanilla Ice movie, Cool as Ice, which is now a part of my Blu-ray collection.

Photo credits: Against the Rules. All others IMDb.com.

[joe-maristopher]

«WandaVision»: 8. Release your trauma

If you ask me what I think about the episode but briefly and without the details... It may seem strange but I will just quote the dialogue from Sponge Bob:

— SpongeBob, what are you doing? — I'm crying my eyes out.

I guess that's the number of tears I've shed all season (God, what's going to happen on the last episode?) you can moisten some part of the Sahara, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. In the modern russian language, you can find the expression "eat glass", as well as its variety. I don't know, if there is such a thing in english with the same emotional coloring, but in any case, now you know what russians can say, discussing something absolutely heartbreaking and at the same time so beautiful, so it is difficult to stop —  you can only just watch, if it's a movie or the tv-series, and cry. A somewhat complex explanation, in practice, it is difficult to convey the language shades when you use them intuitively.

Ah, Agatha. Let's talk about her first. 

Think about it! She lived for herself, studied, tried, drank power from others (I understood her flashback this way), poked her nose where she was not asked to, and then she sensed a huge power. The nugget. A young woman, who has never learned magic, but uses it! What a slap in the face! No wonder she has a  crush on Wanda, or whoever's running her has a crush on Wanda. And Agatha makes Wanda not just a Scarlet Witch, she forges a real villain. Re traumatization is not psychotherapy, you know, it is a way to bring a person to a certain point. The very journey of Wanda in her memory reminds me of Dickens, and also gave a lot of interesting things. Plus, added reasons to cry (for me and other empathic human beings).

Sooo..

 I can say "I was right!", if we talk about Wanda and sitcoms. Mostly, I was. This is not just a sitcom, it means more!

 The fans' dream came true, even two: The Stone strengthened/activated Wanda's original powers. But! Wanda wasn't called a mutant. Wanda was called the Scarlet Witch (a friendly reminder: it is a mantle, technically, it can be passed to someone else, if, for example, Wanda dies).

The Mind Stone showed the beautiful vision. There's no need to even analyse it. You can just watch and admire. Wanda, without realizing, also made a reference to it, changing into a Scarlet Witch costume for Halloween.

 Thank you, now we know why Vision doesn't remember anything. *sobs*

I really, really miss our Vision, alive and healthy. The main part of the MCU ended for me with his passing, no character in MCU/or Marvel can activate the range of feelings and interest that I have for Vision.

His conversation with Wanda in the flashback... It was so touching! How much do we know. what lies between AoU and CW or between CW and IW? We fill the blanks with fanfiction, but we are left with a feeling of emptiness, because the canon does not give us any information, focusing on other things. We love a small gift, this little piece of the event mosaic between AoU and CW. Vision is very "young" here, Avengers  just finished with Ultron, and it seems that they have not yet moved to the Base, or have just moved here. Vision learns to live with his "family" and his experience is mostly theoretical, but he already has philosophical conclusions. His combination of "youth" and wisdom delighted me at AoU and delighted me here. I even stopped crying for a moment, thinking about what he said. That was gold! God, what a journey from AoU to IW...

The lab scenes are exhausting. In terms of emotions they are heavy. I was morally destroyed, first, when Wanda walked into the lab and saw all this, and then, when Wanda said that line, the reference to IW.

And then I was completely crushed when I saw Vision's markings on the map/property form. And coming there was a point of no return for Wanda. Absolutely heartbreaking. Elizabeth won that, she have be proud of herself.

However.

I still want to know how Hayward pushed the idea and got the rights to the Vision's body, I have a feeling, it could be left unanswered. The question is important. Vision died in Wakanda, his team was bearby, alive. Where did they send the body? Why didn't they make sure that no one touched it, if, for some reason, they didn't try to restore it? Or Tony tried, failed, abandoned the idea, and left the body in a storage room somewhere? Seriously, what the hell?

I give Hayward credit, of course. I don't think he's from HYDRA or anything, he's just a paranoid asshole with his own plans, and he lied about having his body stolen to make Wanda a villain for everyone.  He hates super powered individuals. Besides, he clearly wanted Wanda to do the hard work for him. He knew she could? The question is, does someone control Hayward?

I can see how we can get Vision back again as soon as the two Visions are sorted out — we take the blueprints and stuff from Hayward, we take Shuri and her Vision research, we take Helen Cho, we lock them all up in Wakanda, and we wait for the result, the acceptable result. Yes, this is the idea for fix-it.

I am looking at the comics:  Vision has died more than once and he could be restored, although once he was dead for a very, very long time. Will Vision return to MCU? It's hard for me to accept — we'll see him for the last time next week. On the other hand, if Vision remains dead, then this violence against him from Marvel will stop. I am fed up with comics and drama, I want a happy ending or something, yes, I wanna see more of Wanda/Vision as a couple. Just fuck Marvel if they are planning to ship Wanda with Voodoo in DS2!

Also, White Vision is a strange and frightening, despite the fact I saw a shot with White Vision before episode's release. Maybe, I remember who he is, I'm familiar with comics here quite well, but  his difference from Vision is already striking. And I'm not even talking about the colour. Hayward has got someone, who will kill easily, and nothing will change in his face. No wonder Heyward wants to send White Vision against Wanda. Actually, White Vision should have his own story arc, but honestly, I don't want to. I've had enough of comics. The only thing, whose voice will White Vision use to speak? Did Hayward wake Ultron up there by any chance?

Well, series makes ends meet, gradually pulls what is happening to the final, but it is too early to relax.

p. s. Paul Bettany is a notable troll, if speaking about a certain actor, he meant himself all this time. p. s. s. Paul Bettany may say again he doesn't believe in chemistry between actors, but I will disagree with him again. He and Olsen are igniting and beautiful.

[yeetusweenus]

Big Brother Tumblr Tag Game

Rules:

If you are tagged copy and paste the rules and all questions

Answer the questions

Tag 3-5 people to also complete the questions

Tagged by @birthdaykeesha , thanks Justine 💞

About You (feel free to not answer all of these if you aren’t comfortable doing so)

1. Name or nickname? Uly

2. Age/Age Group? 21

3. Zodiac Sign? Virgo

4. Favorite Color? Green

5. Favorite Animal? Sugar Gliders

6. First Season of BB you remember watching? BB15 (sadly)

7. Would you ever want to go on BB, if so, what type of player would you be? YES, omg I daydream every now and then though the reality would probably be much more different. In all honesty, I’d probably be a floater who tries to be in everyone’s good side and hope my social game is good. I’ll probably be evicted mid-jury if i’m lucky

8. Are there other CBS shows you’d want to go on, and if so, why? Survivor omg, another source of daydreams for me. I might end up getting medevaced if i do though

9. What other Reality shows do you watch? Just Survivor, BB, and RPDR honestly, though I used to watch some others like Masterchef, etc.

10. All time favorite houseguest? This is difficult so i’ll just say Da’vonne since she’s who I currently love rn

About the Show

1. What is your all time Favorite twist? I love the Ika shredding letters one and also the Loveita/Kelsey room from BBCAN (even though Kelsey came back instead of Godveita)

2. What is a twist that you like, but kind of flopped? The saboteur twist i thought was really interesting but it just didn’t pan out since miss Annie was evicted first

3. If you were the new Grodner and had to remake the show, what would you keep the same? Nothing LOL except like the general skeleton of the game probs (like HOH and vetos would still exist) 

4. What would you change? Casting is probably the main one, less archetypes, more BIPOC, more LGBTs, etc. Make the show last less days also.

5. What’s your all time favorite comp? Don’t clock me but I love the knockout quiz comps like i love the whole procedure and when it pans out correctly, it leads to so much drama (see BB12)

6. What’s your all time favorite competition? In terms of a specific competition, I like the majority rules comp that Jen won 

7. All time favorite punishment? Paulie’s baking punishment will never not make me LOL. Michelle’s unitard is also a classic and watching her flip out with it on was funny as well

8. If you could bring any houseguest back to be in the house (not to play the game) who would it be and why? I’m going to go with Britney or Da’vonne, they’re both really fun personalities

9. If you could bring any houseguest back to play, who would it be? Candace and Helen from BB15, as well as Dom and Kemi. All deserve a second chance in my opinion

10. What is your most memorable episode? For me, it would be the episode of Miichelle winning HOH in 10

11. If you could have any reality star from any other show on BB who would it be? I would love someone from Survivor, maybe Michaela or Abi Maria? LOL

12. What’s your favorite BB series outside of normal BBUS (normal BBUS does not include CBBUS or BBOTT) BBCAN2 for sure

13. Favorite Julie Chen sign off? I don’t remember ASNDKFNKLAF I’m seriously blanking

14. Is there anything from old BB that you would bring back, why or why not, and if yes, what would it be? Maybe the lack of twists and more genuine casting.

15. If you were in the BB house and you won HoH what album would be in your HoH basket and who would you want to receive a letter from? I would probably have Emotion by CRJ or folklore by TS. My letter would be from my sister probably <3

16. Favorite Alliance? Libra, Keesha, and April.💕Also Candace, Helen, and Elissa

17. Funniest BB moment? Paul losing twice :)

18. Favorite first boot? Annie from BB12 was iconique 

19. Least favorite houseguest? Pail. Cody is getting really close as well.

20. Favorite BB couple? Uhh, pass? Maybe Ika and Dem idk

This or That

1. Old School BB or New School BB? Old for sure

2. Julia or Liz Nolan? Neither tbh ASDBKFKJASB

3. Vaness Rousso or Jun Song? I didn’t watch Jun’s season so I have to pick Vanessa 👁️👄👁️

4. Cody Calafiore or Cody Nickson? Again, neither AKSJJAJSJSJ idk if this is cheating

5. Swaggy or Bayleigh? Bay 💯

6. Janelle or Kaysar? Kaysar!!

7. Orwell or the rubber duck? Who?AKKSJAJSJ Im dumb I don't get the ref

8. Hacker twist or Pandora’s Box? Pandora's box

9. Nicole A or Nicole F? Don't make me choose y'all I-

10. Dan or Will? Dan

11. Bathroom with Bathroom sand (BB18) or The Fidget Spinner Wall (BB20)? Bathroom sand was iconic lol

12. The Hive or The Spy Grils? Spy girls

13. PB&J or Slop? PB and J, slip looks rancid

14. Nerdy Guy archetype or Quirky Girl archetype? Quirky girl gave us Bridgette so-

15. The cursed liztin gif or the Maven (BB19) cum rag? AKJDJAJSJEJ DELETE THIS NEPHEW (I choose Maven tho 👀)

Tag Questions

1. First Season you blogged? I lurk all the time but this would be the first season I blog !!

2. Favorite season to blog? Can't answer this one since it's my first ajhejahs

3. Favorite Bloggers? I have to many AJDHJAHSH but bathroom-sand, maxdoesbb, pretty much anyone I follow tbh they're all Hilarious

4. Favorite tag cryptid (i.e. djmrod, the confession accounts, the bayler stan account, stella) that one Kaycee stan I forgot his name

5. Build an ideal alliance with people from the tag. I'd build an alliance with all the thirsty ones so we can bond over our thirst-

6. Favorite content creator (gifs, videos, posts). @ keesha 💕 she has good gifs

7. Person in the tag that you like but are too nervous to talk to? Don't make me expose myself AKJDJAJSJEJ

8. Have you played in any tag games (like bbdiscords, orgs, etc.,) if so what was your favorite experience? Nooo but I want to though I'm too shy

9. Favorite gate? Selfiegate and truth gate for sure

10. What opinions do you have that you feel would be unpopular in the tag? I dont care that Christmas broke her ankle AKSJJAJSJ There I said it

11. Have you thirst followed anyone after a selfiesgate? 👀 I plead the fifth

12. Whose someone in the tag that has stopped blogging bb that you miss? I haven't seen twerking-down-the-highway liveblog this season :(

13. Favorite holiday people have called Christmas? My Birthday made me cackle 🤣

14. If you could steal any url whose would it be? The Keesha or jaysar one 😭

15. Favorite tag meme? (i.e. Paul;s mistake, victim noises, claling chr*stmas anything but her name, etc.,) Calling Christmas felon or criminal KAJSJAJSJSJ it's what she deserves

Tag 3-5 people (or more or less)

I tag

@64560 @neeleyjakkson @glisteningwind @dc-gay but if anyone else wants to participate feel free 💕

[cctinsleybaxter]

2019 in books

The year’s contenders for the good, the bad, and the rest. I used to make a list of the ten best books I read all year, a tradition encouraged by my mom as far back as high school, but out 2019′s twenty-six mediocre offerings it didn’t really come together. Instead I’ve decided to break my ‘honorable mentions’ category into three subsections that I hope you’ll enjoy. In order of when read, not in order of affection:

Honorable mentions [books I liked; 3+ star material]

The Fifth Season by N.K Jemisin was given to me as a Christmas present last year, and I wasn’t sure how much I would like it since I don’t really do high fantasy. Rules need not apply; I loved the world building and narrative structure, and the characters were so much better than I’m used to even when their arcs seemed familiar at first glance. I guessed what was going on with the formatting maybe a little too quickly, but even then it was emotionally engaging and I was eager to keep reading and see what happened next. Haven’t devoured a book that way in years.

The Periodic Table by Primo Levi has been on my list for a while; as a memoir told through short stories it’s hit-or-miss, but so worth it. I especially loved getting to read his early attempts at fiction, and the chapter Phosphorus regarding his first real job as a chemist in 1942 (his description of his absolute disgust at having to work with rabbits, the feel of their fur and the “natural handle” of the ears is a personal favorite.) This excerpt is one I just think about a lot because it’s full of small sweet details and so kindly written:

“[my father] known to all the pork butchers because he checked with his logarithmic ruler the multiplication for the prosciutto purchase. Not that he purchased this last item with a carefree heart; superstitious rather than religious, he felt ill at ease breaking the kasherut rules, but he liked prosciutto so much that, faced by the temptation of a shop window, he yielded every time, sighing, cursing under his breath, and watching me out of the corner of his eye, as if he feared my judgement or hoped for my complicity.”

Slowing Down from Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin is a one-page short story, but I’m including it because it’s the best in the book and one of the better stories I’ve read in general. I won’t spoil it for you since it’s more poem than anything else (and you can read the whole thing here.)

A Short Film About Disappointment by Joshua Mattson deserves to be lower in the order because it’s like. Bad. But I couldn’t help but have a self-indulgent kind of love for it, since it’s a book about white boy ennui told through movie reviews. It definitely gets old by the end (one of those things where you can tell the author lost steam just as much as his leading man), but parts of it are so well-written and the concept clever. 80+ imaginary movie reviews and psychosomatic possession by your traitorous best friend. 

The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway has one of the greatest twists I’ve ever read in a novel, and no that’s not a spoiler, and yes I will recommend it entirely on that basis. It does its job as a multi-year sci-fi epic; reminds me a lot of Walter Moer’s early stuff in that it’s a bit Much(tm) but still a good mixture of politics and absurdity and absolute characters. Tobemory Trent was my favorite of the ensemble cast (but also boy do I wish men would learn how to write women.)

My Only Wife by Jac Jemk is a novella with only two characters, both unnamed, a man describing fragmented memories of his wife. It has me interested in Jemck’s other writing because even though I didn’t love it she writes beautifully; reading her work is like watching someone paint. The whole thing has a very indie movie feel to it (no scene of someone peeing but there SHOULD be), which I don’t think I’ve experienced in a story like this before and would like to try again. 

Mentions [books I really wanted to like but my GOD did something go wrong]

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou is the most comprehensive history we have of Elizabeth Holmes and her con-company Theranos. It’s incredibly well-researched and absolutely fascinating, but veers into unnecessary pro-military stuff in one chapter (’can you believe she tricked the government?’ yes i can, good for her, leave me alone) and carries an air of racism directed at Holmes’ partner and the Pakistani people he brings onto the company. Carreyrou works for WSJ so I don’t know what I expected.

Circe by Madeline Miller was fun to read and goes down like a glass of iced tea on a hot day, but leaves a bit of an unpleasant aftertaste. It says a lot of things that seem very resonant and beautiful but ultimately ring hollow, and the ending is too safe. Predictable and inevitable. 

I was also bothered about Circe’s relationships with Odysseus and Telemachus as a focal point, not because they’re father and son (Greek mythology ethics : non-committal hand gesture) but because it’s the traditional “I used to like bold men but now I like... sensitive men.” Which as a character arc feels not unrealistic but very boring. You close the book and realize you’re not nine and reading your beat-up copy of Greek Myths, you’re an adult reading a New York Times Bestseller by a middle aged straight white woman.

Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor could have been the best thing I read all year and I’m miserable at how bad it ended up being. The concept is excellent; a thirteen-year-old girl goes missing in a rural English village, and every chapter chronicles a passing year. I knew it would be slow, I like slow, but nothing happens in this book and it ends up it feeling like Broadchurch without the detectives. Plus, McGregor, you know sometimes you can take a moral stance in your story and not just make everything a grey area? Especially with subplots that deal with things like pedophilia and institutional racism?

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor is about a twenty-something who moves from Iowa to San Francisco in the 90s and explores gender and sexuality through shapeshifting. It was something I really thought I would like and maybe even find helpful in my own life, but I couldn’t stand a single one of the characters or the narration so that’s on me! It does contain one of my favorite lines I’ve read in a long time though:

“And anyway, weren’t French boys supposed to be like Giovanni, waiting gaily for you in their rented room and actually Italian?”

Dishonorable mentions [there’s no saving these fellows]

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchinson was supposed to be a fun easy-to-read thriller and what can I say except what the jklfkhlkj;fkfuck. It very quickly goes from ‘oh hey I read books like this when I was 15’ to ‘oh the girl who intentionally gets kidnapped by a wealthy serial killer is accidentally falling in love with his son and can’t stop talking about his eye color now huh.’ I felt like I was losing my mind; why did grown adults give this 5 stars on Goodreads.

The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips is supposedly surrealist horror fiction about working an office job in a new town, and reminded me of that rocky third or fourth year when I really started hating Welcome to Night Vale. All spark no substance, and even less fun because you know it’s going nowhere. I’ve also realized this past year that I cannot stand stories about women where their only personality trait is the desire to have children. People will throw the word ‘Kafkaesque’ at anything but here it was just insulting. 

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai alternates point of view between Yale, a gay man living in Chicago in the late 80s and watching his friends die, and Fiona, the straight younger sister of one of those friends now looking for her erstwhile daughter in 2018. It was nominated for the 2018 Pulitzer, and part of my interest was in wondering how we were going to connect the plot lines of ‘the personal cost of the AIDS crisis’ with ‘daughter lost to a cult.’

The answer is that we don’t. The book is well-researched and acclaimed beyond belief, but it is SUCH a straight story. Yale’s arc is fueled by the drama of his boyfriend cheating on him and infecting them both, Fiona is painted as a witness to tragedy and encouraged to share their stories with her own daughter. “You’re like the Mother Theresa of Boys Town” one of the men complains bitterly of her, and the claim goes undisputed. It’s a story that makes a lot of statements about love and families and art that I feel we’ve all heard before to much greater effect.

[tartantardis]

Big Finish? Big start!

This blog is normally my old Doctor Who-related interviews, but hey, it's my blog, so I can do what the hell I like with it.

I had a fantastic time over the weekend, with the Big Finish live stream on the BBC YouTube channel, listening to great audios, accompanied by some gorgeous videos (created by the super talented Tom Webster), and best of all, there was the live chat.

I won't claim to understand or get memes. I just didn't find "fruit juice", "plum pudding", "shed", etc, funny. Maybe it's just my age...

Anyway, something I noticed were the large number of newbies, who had never heard Big Finish audios before, and were looking for somewhere to start. So, I might as well suggest a few full cast adventures, given that I know a wee bit about Big Finish...

Fourth Doctor

It's easy enough to pick up a Tom Baker release. His stories with the late, great Mary Tamm have a loose theme linking four of the stories, but really, any of them are good to go with (Especially The Auntie Matter). Personal favourites? Oh, I don't like to pick out too many, because I'm friendly with so many of the writers. Perhaps I'll make an exception and single out one, Wave of Destruction, as it's got the Doctor, Romana and K9, my favourite TARDIS team on TV. And it's coming soon to vinyl! Also, the Lost Stories box set is great, with two stories that were imagined for TV, but never made. I'd also recommend the Fourth Doctor novel adaptations.

Fifth Doctor

The Fifth Doctor range... oh, there's some great stuff in here. Spare Parts and Loups-Garoux spring to mind (Marc Platt x 2!), and there's plenty of stand-alone stories that you can dip in and out of. The Fifth Doctor box set is a good place to go, with Adric, Nyssa and Tegan, with one story set in the immediate aftermath of Castrovalva and the regeneration. Also, I'd recommend Creatures of Beauty once you get the hang of Big Finish audio drama - it's confusing, with a non-linear structure. And I rather like it. There’s also The Eye of the Scorpion, which introduces a new companion, Erimem, an Egyptian Pharoah. 

Sixth Doctor

Colin Baker's Doctor is wonderful on audio, given a chance that he was never allowed on TV, to shine, be compassionate, show his brilliance... and without the need to see the coat. There's some great new companions for the Doctor - Evelyn Smythe, Flip Jackson and Constance Clark, as well as Frobisher from Doctor Who Magazine given a voice (The Holy Terror - brilliant). The One Doctor is great fun, with the Doctor and Mel, and I rather like ...ish - a clever story based on wordplay for the Doctor and Peri. The Hour of the Cybermen is another favourite - featuring the return of David Banks and Mark Hardy as the Cyberleader and Cyber Lieutenant from the 80s!  I also recommend The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure (four linked stories that reveal just what happened to cause Colin to regenerate).

Seventh Doctor

There's a lot to go through with the Seventh Doctor. For example, the Lost Stories, starting with Thin Ice (not to be confused with the Peter Capaldi story) follows on from the end of the TV series, as planned out by script editor Andrew Cartmel. Or there's the Big Finish direct continuation, which takes Ace on a journey, and introduces a new companion, Hex (Philip Olivier - a gentleman and a great laugh in real life, and a fantastic companion). Highlights? Bang-Bang-A-Boom (a Eurovision spoof), The Harvest (Hex's introduction), UNIT: Dominion (a box set with a future Doctor), and Damaged Goods (a brilliant adaptation of Russell T Davies' New Adventures novel from the 90s).

Eighth Doctor

Oh, crikey. This is the one where it can be a bit difficult. With Paul McGann's Doctor, all you need to know is that it's one man and his TARDIS to start with. There's a couple of obvious joining points - Storm Warning is one of my favourite Doctor Who stories of all time, in all media (thanks Alan Barnes!), as it introduces us to the breathless, brilliant and bouncy Charley Pollard (NOTE: CharlEY, not CharlIE). Or, move on a bit, and there's Blood of the Daleks, bringing us Lucie bleedin' Miller (NOTE: LucIE, not LucY). There's a few other easy jumping on points - the trilogy with Mary Shelley (especially the fantastic The Silver Turk - Marc Platt again!). Dark Eyes is great, but it gives away the ending to the Lucie run, and introduces another fab companion, Liv Chenka. Ravenous picks up from the end of Doom Coalition - with the Doctor and Liv searching for their missing friend Helen. Also, give Shada a go - it's great fun!

The War Doctor

Oh, it's easy enough. Pick up box set one, Only The Monstrous, and off you go! Easy! Sir John Hurt is wonderful, with that rough as gravel voice bringing new depths to the character we only briefly met onscreen.

The Tenth Doctor

Pick one up. Seriously, any of them. If you know your Tenth Doctor on TV, then that's all you need. Adventures on audio with either Donna or Rose - that's all you need.

[fourteenacross]

natasha, pierre, and the great comet of 1812 - 8/12/17, 2pm

MY LAST TRIP TO GREAT COMET :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

I wish I was going to be in town for the last show :\ It’s the day before I get back from Atlanta, but if I was going to be in town, I would 100% have moved heaven and earth to get there.

We bought these tickets awhile back, after seeing Dave in June. We had already been planning to see Oak but hadn’t settled on a date or a seat type, so we used that performance to gauge where we wanted to sit, and literally minutes after I thought, “Oh, we need to buy those tickets today now that we know where to sit” the day after, they announced Ingrid was going the cast during the time period we were looking at so...yes.

(After our third time seeing the show, I was reaching the point where I was like, “I LOVE the entire cast but I’d LOVE to see some of the understudies live!” but I honestly couldn’t imagine anyone but Brittain playing Sonya, but I love Ingrid Michaelson, so that was a nice way to ease into the idea.)

Anyway, some time later we convinced two of our other friends, @charmingpplincardigans and @chiasticbees, to join us. This was a boon for me because August is CRAZY so we were doing this trip in one day and Naomi doesn’t drive, so that would have been...a lot of driving for me. But yeah, this was all long before the drama and the show posting its closing notice, so the trip went from “Yay, we’re going to see Oak and Ingrid and maybe we’ll go again in September or October to see the OBC one last time before contracts are up” to our last time seeing the show on Broadway.

I have a lot of feelings about that, which I’ll vomit at the end.

I weighed like, five different travel options and we ended up leaving Boston around eight, driving to White Plains, parking at the train station, and taking the MetroNorth into Manhattan. I went to school outside of White Plains and the exit for the train station is not long after 15 in CT ends, so it was also just good timing/placement in the length of our trip. We made okay time despite needing to stop to pee fifty times and had enough time to grab lunch at GCT before the show.

Naomi and I sat on the Banquettes on stage right in the second row, right on the end. We’ve sat on stage with a view from basically every angle, now, which was cool, but I do wish we’d had a chance to see see it from front mezz or the orchestra, too. But, that aside, they were excellent seats which we chose in advance because Pierre stands there to sing part of “Dust and Ashes.” Unfortunately, we had THE WORLD’S WORST SEATMATES, a bunch of middle-aged and older women who were just flat out rude. There were seven of them with three seats in one row and four seats in another row and they weren’t sure which seats they had. The first two of them showed up at, like, fucking 1:55 and gave the usher a hard time, and each time a few more of them trickled in, they gave the usher an even harder time. They kept insisting she was putting them in the wrong seat and no matter how many times she told them “you do not have a ticket for the seat you’re sitting in,” they would not listen and got pissy with her. They were also pissy that they were being rushed, even though by this point the cast had come out to give out pierogis and do the pre-show “don’t put your feet in the aisles, turn off your cellphones” talk. They also talked CONSTANTLY during the show, a running commentary on their thoughts which would have been bad enough in a traditional seating arrangement, but when you’re three feet from the actors whispering “That performance didn’t do anything for me” loud enough for the whole stage to hear is just rude.

ANYWAY, enough vitriol about them. Before the show we did a lot of soaking in of the stage and set with the knowledge that this was our last time :( And then the show started!

Denée: So good, as usual. I’ve seen Denée every time I’ve see the show and even though I really wish I could have seen Shoba’s Natasha, I can’t say I’m disappointed because she’s SO good. She’s so funny and sweet and naive and a beautiful perfect angel. I love the way she performs her narration to the audience, like we’re her confidante. “No One Else” is extra breath-taking when it’s happening a foot away from you, for sure, and “Pierre and Natasha” was just....ugh, I want to start ugly crying just thinking about it. What a star. What a presence. I hope she has a million wonderful things waiting for her in the future.

Grace: God, I’m gonna miss Grace McLean raining hellfire down on the stage. What a voice! What an attitude! Especially compared to her as...her. Like, meeting her at the stage door a bunch of times, she seems so tiny and quiet and it’s hard to reconcile her with Marya, who fills the entire room. 

Lucas: Lucas gets more over the top each time I see him and I love it. We saw Blaine as Anatole in June, and I LOVED Blaine’s Anatole, but I’m glad I got to see Lucas one last time. He’s just so MUCH and he does every part of it so well. He and Oak had AMAZING chemistry.

Amber: I stg she turned up the energy on “Charming” times a zillion. She was also hanging out in front of our section a lot and I don’t think I’ve ever noticed Helene and Dolokhov mocking the rest of the opera goers in the background, especially Marya once she starts talking to them. That way she flips back and forth between bitchy & holier-than-thou and honestly invested in her friends and family is amazing. She also is just so broken in the last few numbers, it’s heartbreaking. She collapsed basically on top of our feet. (Also, she and Grace made out like, six feet away from me and I was QUITE PLEASED.)

Nick: We saw Azudi as Dolokhov last time and he was great but, as with Lucas, I’m glad I got to see him one last time :\ Nick is like, our secret favorite because we saw him at a talkback at ART back in the day and were instantly charmed. He’s really excellent and balances being an almost maliciously amused asshole with genuine anger and regret super well. I also just love his voice and wish he had just a little more to do.

Courtney: Gelsey’s on vacation, so we saw Courtney as Princess Mary. This seems like a ridiculously hard role to understudy given all the weird vocal things that Gelsey does as Mary, but Courtney did a great job. Her Mary was a little more innocent than Gelsey’s and a little more frazzled. Gelsey plays her as already having given herself over to the knowledge that this is her sad life now, whereas it felt like Courtney’s Mary was still clinging to hope and those hopes just got dashed over and over again.

Nicholas: His Andrey is SO cold. I’ve only ever seen him as Andrey, but compared to some of Blake DeLong’s choices on the original cast album, his Andrey comes off as icy and angry, which I like a lot, but is just so sad. I was right around Bolkonsky for parts of “The Private and Intimate Lives of the House” and he was such an awful, creepy asshole. (Which is obvs a compliment XD)

Paul: A delight! He and Ingrid were right next to us during “The Duel” and it was great.

Ingrid: I was SO pleasantly surprised! I mean, I knew that Ingrid had a theatre background, but I think I wasn’t expecting to love her Sonya so much, both because Brittain is one of my favorite parts of Great Comet and because I don’t really think of her as an actress, but she was phenomenal! Her Sonya was more frustrated and betrayed and jealous in Act 2 than Brittain’s, and very visibly put out in Act 1, whereas I feel like Brittain’s Sonya just sort of lets herself get pushed around by Marya and is miffed, but goes with it. Also, her Sonya was possibly even gayer than Brittain’s? It’s hard to tell, but WOW. Her voice was beautiful, of course, but god, I’m still stuck on thinking what a fantastic actress she was. That confrontation in “Sonya and Natasha” especially. Amazing. I’m so glad I got to see her.

Oak: I am SO glad I got to see Oak as Pierre, seriously. He was fucking incredible. I mean, hashtag I love all Pierres, so I was predisposed to loving him anyway, but he really blew me away. Being two feet away from him while he did “Dust and Ashes” was like a fucking spiritual experience, for sure. His Pierre was different from all the other Pierres I’ve seen--there were parts that I liked more than some of the other guys and vice-versa. I would say that his Pierre was more...sad and longing. Groban’s Pierre is angry and Scott’s is frustrated and Dave’s is given up and despairing, but Oak’s is on his way to that Malloy-esque despair but hasn’t hit rock bottom yet. It’s such an interesting choice and I LOVED it. It added a sort of poignancy to “Dust and Ashes” in the opposite way of Malloy’s--Malloy’s “Dust and Ashes” has that poignancy because his Pierre has hit rock bottom and is seeing the light for the first time and just awed by it. Oak’s Pierre is saved from hitting rock bottom by that moment in “Dust and Ashes.” A different interpretation, but just as meaningful. He was also SO funny in “The Duel” and “The Opera.” His little thumbs-up to the audience on “No, I am enjoying myself at home this evening” was hilarious and his parts in “The Duel” were so mellow and goofy--way goofier than any other Pierre I’ve seen. I totally dug it. I will say that his “Whaaaat?”s were not QUITE up to Malloy’s and Groban’s, but they were passable. And, fucking, “Pierre and Natasha” was SO beautiful. He had such amazing chemistry with Denée in that moment and he was so obviously in over his head and reeling. I think this was the first time that “Pierre grew confused” clicked as a picture perfect reflection of the performance being given. He had such a desperate, human emotion on his face--he really wanted to connect with Natasha and was honestly upset that he couldn’t seem to do it. And his spoken lines were SO beautiful. They’re up there with Dave’s as forever favorites. “The Great Comet of 1812″ was just wonderful beyond words. The slow revelation that his Pierre is settling into was a perfect reflection of that moment in “Dust and Ashes” that he decides to live, so soft and deep in counterpoint to the frenzy of before. Those last two verses were SO beautiful, and the look on his face as he slowly lowered himself to the ground...my heart.

ENSEMBLE: 

During “The Ball” I couldn’t pay attention to Natasha and Anatole because the lady couple was dancing right next to our seats and their chemistry was crackling enough to be totally distracting to me, a person easily distracted by queer ladies.

Nick Gaswirth was over by us at the start to do some of the pre-show talk and I noticed for the first time that he has glitter in his mustache and I love him a lot.

I got a letter from Cathryn Wake who is cute as a button, tho I always feel like a creepy old lady when I say that because I think she’s like, twelve.

Kennedy Caughell was also right up in our business a lot and she’s also the cutest.

So was/is Lauren Zarkin. And Ashley Perez Flanagan and just everyone, okay? I love everyone in this 19th century Russian supper club.

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

God, I’m sure there are a million things I’m forgetting. “The Duel” is still one of my favorite things to ever happen on stage. Everything about that song makes me so happy. And I can’t believe there are people who can keep themselves from bouncing along to “Preparations”/”Balaga”/”The Abduction” because it’s all so frantic and great.

As I mentioned before, all of that careful planning to get good Pierre seats meant that we were inadvertently in the seats that Anatole sits in during “The Abduction” and I spent a looooooooong awkward moment with Lucas Steele’s arm around me as we stared unnervingly at each other and I tried not to burst into hysterical laughter.

I had like, this awful deep lovely moment at the end of the show, just staring at the comet as the discordant music swells, thinking about how this was my last time seeing the show, how there were a finite number of shows left, how so many people aren’t going to have a chance to witness this wonderful thing live. I’m still so deeply saddened by this. I know I should feel lucky that I got to see it as many times as I managed and I know I will feel lucky later, but for now I’m still stuck in feeling sad. 

This show has really been the thing that’s helped me limp through this year. The first time I saw it on Broadway was right before opening, less than a week after the election. I needed this show at that moment. I was already annoyingly crazy about it and had been evangelizing since seeing it at ART, but this was a thing that I held onto in the months to come. I wanted to have it for so much longer and I’m just so mad that the rest of the world didn’t give it a chance. It’s so weird and wonderful and strange and beautiful and there’s really nothing else like it. There’s no experience on Broadway that’s as fun as this show is, and I wish I could have escorted everyone I know into the theatre to push them down and make them listen and watch. So much of it is lost in translation from stage to audio and it’s so, so much more than what you hear on the cast recording.

I don’t know. I cried at the end, like I always do, and I cried during “Sonya Alone” and “Dust and Ashes” and then, as we were walking out, I started crying again realizing that I was leaving the Imperial as it currently stands for the last time. Something about that set, that theatre, is comforting and has been since last November. All wrapped up in red velvet and beautiful lights, it feels small and cozy and comfortable. It feels, I think, the way Mimi wanted it to feel--like an escape from the world outside, a pocket of music and life and exuberance and peace hidden away from everything going on in the larger world. Show aside, just being in that theatre felt safe, in a weird way, and even when the show tours I doubt they’ll be able to replicate that feeling. 

I’m making myself sad thinking about this again. I know I’ll always have those memories to fall back on (more or less, depression has largely ruined my memory and regularly punches holes even in experiences that are dear to me), but I’m selfishly depressed that I’ll never be able to run away to 19th century Russia again.

Anyway, thanks to the cast, to Dave and Rachel, to Mimi and Bradley and Paloma and Sam, to ART, to everyone who brought this thing to life and gave it to me. I won’t forget it.

[globalmediahome]

Golden Globe 2020 winners: Netflix takes a back seat in a night full of surprises

Maybe the greatest astonishment was that gushing didn't overwhelm the manner in which individuals anticipated. Considering Netflix earned an aggregate of 34 designations in both film and TV, its two successes can apparently be viewed as a shutout. None of Netflix's greatest titles, including The Irishman or Two Popes, won any honors. On the acting side, Marriage Story's Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, and The Irishman's Al Pacino and Joe Pesci all missed out to rivals in their individual classes. Despite the fact that they lost today around evening time, there's constantly a decent possibility things will be distinctive at the Oscars one month from now. At that point there were a couple of other enormous amazements. Disney was totally closed out of the movement class, despite the fact that it earned three of the five selections for Toy Story 4, Frozen 2, and The Lion King. Jennifer Lopez missed out for her presentation in Hustlers to Laura Dern for the entertainer's work in Marriage Story, however the two exhibitions were widely praised. Elton John's unique tune "I'm Gonna Love Me Again" from Rocketman additionally beat out Taylor Swift's unique track for Cats, Idina Menzel's "Into the Unknown" in Frozen 2, and Beyoncé's "Soul" in The Lion King.

BEST MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA

1917 The Irishman Joker Marriage Story The Two Popes

BEST MOTION PICTURE, MUSICAL OR COMEDY

Dolemite Is My Name Jojo Rabbit Knives Out Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood Rocketman

BEST DIRECTOR, MOTION PICTURE

Bong Joon Ho — Parasite Sam Mendes — 1917 Todd Phillips — Joker Martin Scorsese — The Irishman Quentin Tarantino — Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA

Cynthia Erivo — Harriet Scarlett Johansson — Marriage Story Saoirse Ronan — Little Women Charlize Theron — Bombshell Renée Zellweger — Judy

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE, MUSICAL OR COMEDY

Ana de Armas — Knives Out Awkwafina — The Farewell Cate Blanchett — Where’d You Go, Bernadette Beanie Feldstein — Booksmart Emma Thompson — Late Night

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN ANY MOTION PICTURE

Kathy Bates — Richard Jewell Annette Bening — The Report Laura Dern — Marriage Story Jennifer Lopez — Hustlers Margot Robbie — Bombshell

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA

Christian Bale — Ford v Ferrari Antonio Banderas — Pain and Glory Adam Driver — Marriage Story Joaquin Phoenix — Joker Jonathan Pryce — The Two Popes

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE, MUSICAL OR COMEDY

Daniel Craig — Knives Out Roman Griffin Davis — Jojo Rabbit Leonardo DiCaprio — Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood Taron Egerton — Rocketman Eddie Murphy — Dolemite Is My Name

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN ANY MOTION PICTURE

Tom Hanks — A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Anthony Hopkins — The Two Popes Al Pacino — The Irishman Joe Pesci — The Irishman Brad Pitt — Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood

BEST SCREENPLAY, MOTION PICTURE

Noah Baumbach — Marriage Story Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won — Parasite Anthony McCarten — The Two Popes Quentin Tarantino — Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood Steven Zaillian — The Irishman

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE, MOTION PICTURE

Alexandre Desplat — Little Women Hildur Gudnadottir — Joker Randy Newman — Marriage Story Thomas Newman — 1917 Daniel Pemberton — Motherless Brooklyn

BEST ORIGINAL SONG, MOTION PICTURE

“Beautiful Ghosts” — Cats “I’m Gonna Love Me Again” — Rocketman “Into the Unknown” — Frozen 2 “Spirit” — The Lion King “Stand Up” — Harriet

BEST MOTION PICTURE, ANIMATED

Frozen 2 How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World The Lion King Missing Link Toy Story 4

BEST MOTION PICTURE, FOREIGN LANGUAGE

The Farewell Les Misérables Pain and Glory Parasite Portrait of a Lady on Fire

BEST TELEVISION SERIES, DRAMA

Big Little Lies The Crown Killing Eve The Morning Show Succession

BEST TELEVISION SERIES, MUSICAL OR COMEDY

Barry Fleabag The Kominsky Method The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel The Politician

BEST TELEVISION LIMITED SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

Catch-22 Chernobyl Fosse/Verdon The Loudest Voice Unbelievable

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES, DRAMA

Jennifer Aniston — The Morning Show Olivia Colman — The Crown Jodie Comer — Killing Eve Nicole Kidman — Big Little Lies Reese Witherspoon — The Morning Show

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES, MUSICAL OR COMEDY

Christina Applegate — Dead to Me Rachel Brosnahan — The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Kirsten Dunst — On Becoming a God in Central Florida Natasha Lyonne — Russian Doll Phoebe Waller-Bridge — Fleabag

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR A MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

Kaitlyn Dever — Unbelievable Joey King — The Act Helen Mirren — Catherine the Great Merritt Wever — Unbelievable Michelle Williams — Fosse/Verdon

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, LIMITED SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

Patricia Arquette — The Act Helena Bonham Carter — The Crown Toni Collette — Unbelievable Meryl Streep — Big Little Lies Emily Watson — Chernobyl

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES, DRAMA

Brian Cox — Succession Kit Harington — Game of Thrones Rami Malek — Mr. Robot Tobias Menzies — The Crown Billy Porter — Pose

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES, MUSICAL OR COMEDY

Michael Douglas — The Kominsky Method Bill Hader — Barry Ben Platt — The Politician Paul Rudd — Living With Yourself Ramy Youssef — Ramy

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR A MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

Christopher Abbott — Catch-22 Sacha Baron Cohen — The Spy Russell Crowe — The Loudest Voice Jared Harris — Chernobyl Sam Rockwell — Fosse/Verdon

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, LIMITED SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

Alan Arkin — The Kominsky Method Kieran Culkin — Succession Andrew Scott — Fleabag Stellan Skarsgard — Chernobyl Henry Winkler — Barry Source Read the full article

[screenandcinema]

Coming Attractions November 2019

As usual, we present monthly previews of new movies being released. These are the movies what will be hitting your local cinemas this month:

November 1st

Terminator: Dark Fate - In 1984, it was promised “I’ll be back” and then in 1991 that promise was delivered on. Then again in 2003, 2009, 2015 and now 2019. The Terminator franchise has been struggling to survive termination for some time now. James Cameron who co-wrote and directed the first two installments and missed out on the last three is back as a producer to hopefully return Terminator to its former glory. Terminator: Dark Fate posits itself as a direct sequel to 1991′s Terminator 2: Judgement Day and attempts to ignore the non-Cameron installments. Word is that Dark Fate is set to launch a new trilogy of films, which is exactly what was said about 2009′s Terminator Salvation and 2015′s Terminator Genisys, neither did, of course. Maybe Dark Fate will mark a path forward for Terminator or just another disappointment at the box office which will lead to another inevitable attempt to relaunch the franchise sometime in the next few years.

Motherless Brooklyn - Edward Norton writes, directs, and stars in this adaptation of a novel of the same name. Motherless Brooklyn marks Norton’s first time behind the camera since directing one of my personal favorites 2000′s Keeping the Faith. Bruce Willis, Gug Mbatha-Raw, Alec Baldwin, Willem Dafoe, and Bobby Cannavale co-star alongside Norton in this noir-esque film about a private investigator in 1950s New York with Tourette syndrome.

Harriet - Cynthia Erivo of Widows and Bad Times at the El Royale stars as Harriet Tubman in this upcoming biopic. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to generally favorable reviews with a heavy-share of praise falling on Erivo’s performance of the heroic abolitionist. Leslie Odom Jr. and Janelle Monáe costar.

The Irishman - Opening in limited release today and coming to Netflix on November 27th is Martin Scorsese crime epic The Irishman starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci. Clocking in at almost three-and-a-half hours long this is one movie you will probably be happy to watch at home with the remote and pause button nearby.

November 8th

Midway - Disaster-artist Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) directs this upcoming war film just in time for Veterans Day weekend. While Michael Bay’s 2001 film Pearl Harbor told the story of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Doolittle Raid that followed, Midway not only revisits Pearl Harbor and the Doolittle Raid but extends the story to - you guessed it - the Battle of Midway. And it is 45 minutes shorter than Bay’s epic. So you get an extra battle in less time. Not too shabby.

Doctor Sleep - Ewan McGregor stars as the adult Dan Torrance (he no longer goes by Danny) in this adaptation of the novel of the same name by Stephen King which itself was a sequel to his novel The Shining. According to director Mike Flanagan, the film acts as both an adaptation of the novel as well as a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of King’s The Shining. Okay, so to recap. Doctor Sleep is a movie based on a book that is a sequel to a book that was adapted into a famous movie and this movie is sort of a sequel to that too. 

Last Christmas - Paul Feig directs this romantic holiday comedy starring Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding. Everything tells me that is a giant twist in this movie that will either make or break the film for people. Now all I can do is wait and see. (I THINK SOMEONE IS A GHOST)

Honey Boy - If the Dark Fate and Doctor Sleep explanations weren’t confusing enough, try this one. Honey Boy, written by Shia LaBeouf, is the story of a child actor’s difficult relationship with his father and is based on LeBeouf’s own life with LeBeouf starring in the film, not as the child actor, but instead as his own father. Honey Boy premiered at Sundance earlier this year to rave reviews. Get excited Even Stevens fans.

November 15th

Ford v Ferrari - My highlight of November has to be James Mangold’s Ford v Ferrari starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale. Ford v Ferrari tells the true story of how the Ford Motor Company worked tirelessly to compete with perennial winner Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans - one of the most prestigious automobile races in the world - in 1966. So excited to see this one in theaters.

Charlie’s Angels - Hello Angels. As the theme has been this month, bear with me. Apparently, this newest installment of the Charlie’s Angels franchise is a continuation of both the 1976 television series that aired on ABC for seasons and the two feature films of the early-aughts starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu. But unconnected to the 2011′s ABC series that was canceled after four episodes aired. Elizabeth Banks writes, directs, and stars in this adaptation as one of the film’s three Bosleys with Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska as the titular Angels who are trying to save the world, I assume.

The Good Liar - Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen star in this thriller revolving around a seasoned conman and his latest prey. Bill Condon, who previously worked with McKellen in both 2015′s Mr. Holmes and 2017′s Beauty and the Beast directs this adaptation of a novel of the same name.

The Report  - Adam Driver stars in this real-life drama about the investigation into the CIA’s use of torture following the September 11th attacks. The film will begin streaming Amazon Prime on November 29th.

November 22nd

Frozen II - Finally, the sequel to the breakout hit of 2013 is here. The first film, Frozen, went on to the highest-grossing film of 2013 (beating Iron Man 3) and held the title of the highest-grossing animated film of all-time until it was dethroned this summer by The Lion King, not too mention the winner of two Academy Awards. And now six years later, Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff, and of course Sven, are back for a new adventure that will likely involve snow, ice, and saving Arendelle again. Count me in.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood - Tom Hanks stars at Fred Rogers in the biopic co-starring Matthew Rhys as a reporter sent to interview the famed children’s show host. I honestly don’t remember watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood as a kid even though new episodes of the show were produced until I was well into high school, but I’d watch Tom Hanks in almost anything. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September to near-universal acclaim

21 Bridges - Mark my words, Chadwick Boseman’s “We got twenty-one bridges in and out of Manhattan. Shut them down. Three rivers. Close them. Four tunnels. Block them. Stop every train and loop the subways. Then we flood the island with blue” speech in this upcoming action thriller will soon be as iconic as Tommy Lee Jones’s similar speech from The Fugitive.

November 27th

Knives Out - Rian Johnson writes and directs this whodunit starring the ensemble cast of Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2049), Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, and Christopher Plummer. If that isn’t enough to get you to buy a ticket, I don’t know what it is.

Queen & Slim - Melina Matsoukas makes her feature film debut in this romantic thriller with a script from Emmy winner Lena Waithe (Master of None). In Queen & Slim, an unfortunate run-in with the police on their first date puts the  titular couple, played by Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith, on a Bonnie and Clyde-esque journey.

Now for a quick look ahead to December, my top picks for next month are Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, 1917, and Jumanji: The Next Level.

-MB-

[fake-script]

Looking forward to the 7 issue, the mercs, Miss P, Zhanna, Saxton and Mags are fine now but, what is going to happen?

So, this is just questions, thoughts, a few predictions and a ton of unnecessary big images (I was like “ahh these are not so big” and, uhm, now I’m too lazy to make new ones… after all using the images from the cbr archive was not a good idea for this… Sorry).

Besides, is a mess, purposely. Sorry again. I tried to be funny btw.

First: The airplane was out of fuel as Jerry said, and crashed, how they are gonna leave the island? Well, they have to so that’s not a big problem I guess.

(Bonus: Heavy❤ )

Continuing, is Gray and the Classic team is completely dead (Supposedly*), the only antagonists who remain are these two:

Egocentric Charles Darling…

and an aggressive cute pie Olivia Gray.

The firsts appear in comic of Darling was in “Birdwell’s perfect plan” and is mention that he is the hunting mentor of Saxton Hale, but Saxton “gave it all up for Her” (Administrator, Mags?). In “A cold day in hell” Darling requires to Saxton get in Australium, in exchange to give Mann. Co back to Saxton.

But, Darling definitely knows too much:

… and he is presumable a descendant of Bette Mann’s father, William Darling. Bette was the mother of the Mann triplets (x).Probably Darling aspire more than just immortal suffering animals, and still by discard is a plausible antagonist.

About Olivia Gray, her father is dead and we do not know where is her… On the island maybe?

(Where are you?)

The problem of course, she unlike Darling, is just a child who recently lost her father, and even maybe she does not even know yet. No one can “fight” her, as she against Saxton in the firsts pages of “Ring of fire”…

Anyway, here is an essay I found on reddit that summarizes well what we know about the plot and have some theories, not necessary right. A good read.

Taking about people we do not know where they are, is Fred (C!Engineer) alive on the island…?

…Or did Spy killed him?

Spy KILL ENGIE DAD or not? Hang on, I back to that a bit later. Let me talk about Dell.

We know he is with the Administrator since long time helping her, and that he has a new hand or covered the gunslinger with a realistic cover. The gunslinger it looks like a skeleton robotic hand after all.

(See that line in his arm)

But! He wears blue. Jay confirmed that the mercs are not clones in non-game fiction, and the rest of the mercs we has been seeing are from RED.

Also, we can see another Engie in the front of “The Naked and the Dead”

What…? This has been noted before. There is no other double-merc, so to speak. 

Engie was hired to TF industries in 1965 as proved in the sentry manual (well that said in the wiki but I can find in the manual where is said that Dell Conagher designed it), but from the calendar in some maps the teams for RED and BLU companies respectively (both subsidiaries of TF) was assembled later in 1968.

In “Loose Canon” is seen BLU Engie with Blutarch, but is obvious that Redmond do the same thing, maybe asked by the Administrator who also requires an immortality machine.

Can be, in the comic, Dell the exception to the no-clones rule to work in each team? Is he is so valuable. Twins? That could be the answer? I just confused as all I guess. Or Dell like to wear blue too. Or the damn front is like that to confuse … Nah. I bet that RED Engie appears in the next issue and that could be dramatic or something.

So, what now … Dad? Dad Issues? What I am saying.

It was confirmed that Spy is Scout dad, but, what if, and just that, what if Scout already figured out? (images from more recent to old).

Just a joke of the writers?

If he is so dead why he believed Tom Jones is his father? Just emotion of the moment? He was dying…

What a weird dream, ah?

Even is he completely believe that Tom Jones is his father, I beat that the lie is going to collapse in the next issue, or in other words, they really are going to have the conversation.

Could (one?) Engie reveal the truth (assuming all the mercs knows or at least mostly, including Heavy, Sniper and Engie too in this case of course) angry because, the person who escaped from his responsibility and thus Scout childhood, killed his father, Fred Conagher…? Oh boy.

I hope so Fred is alive, and the team just takes him with them, but in other hand I like drama.

Taking about (assured) dead parents, I do not think Sniper forgot that his parents were killed.

(I mean, both? They were not young people but … or I’m just exaggerating)

Anyway, the only other person who knows where were lived Sniper’s parents was the Administrator (The director rest in a mine peace).

She may have ordered to kill his parents to force he finds his birth parents, and therefore the last cache of Australium? I do not know, Miss Pauling and the mercs could just go to New Zealand without Sniper … Weird. Anyway I expect the answer.

Taking about the principle, if the mercs are fine, and besides what I have been pointing, perhaps this is an opportunity to the writers to talk more in retrospective about the mercs. More details, maybe a flashbacks, another’s revelation like Spy being Scout father…

We know (not completely) their names, except Spy and Pyro. We barely know these two. By discard, is very likely we are going to know about they, specially Pyro who we virtually we know nothing. It does not have to be a total reveal, but anything we got I beat is going to be by the hand of Dell, by interactions or something like that.

(Hi Scout! Hi Demo!)

The only other character we practically do not nothing is her:

Helen. She is like the incarnate plot, 

Is not that true? Right?

Thanks for reading, have a good day. Also, sorry for my English and my lazy writing.

[newyorktheater]

“Great Society Primary: Week Five Results”

The announcement of the latest very unscientific results from the nightly poll conducted in the lobby of Lincoln Center, is a marketing gimmick for “The Great Society” that strikes me as at best useless, and maybe even harmful, although I couldn’t say exactly why.

But it is surely nowhere near as damaging as the theatrics required in our electoral politics, which has its most vivid expression in events like tonight’s third televised 2020 Presidential Democratic debate.

Later this week, The Broadway Advocacy Coalition will also mix politics and theater, it hopes more fruitfully, in an event it is calling  Theater of Change Forum: Public Launch, which will combine performances with discussions on how to “merge the areas of storytelling and advocacy into an integrated practice.” Performers and speakers will include:Ariana Afsar (Hamilton), Britton Smith (Be More Chill), Ben Wexler (Jonathan Larson Award winner), Mikayla Bartholomew and Columbia Law School professor Elora Mukherjee.

Then on November 8 at  Kraine’s Theater, David Lawson will reprise his “The 2020 Book Report,” for which he read all the candidates’ political memoirs.

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The Week in New York Theater Reviews and Previews

  Joaquina Kalukango and Paul Alexander Nolan (

Slave Play

When I saw “Slave Play” Off-Broadway last December, it felt like the work of a novice playwright – promising, provocative, and well produced, but too derivative, too long, too full of ideas that were not fully or clearly developed. It needed work….Much to my surprise, I liked it less on Broadway.

It would be unfair to sum up “Slave Play” as soft-core S&M porn followed by pseudo psychological insights about race in America – unfair because it’s other things as well….

Cora Vander Broek, Ian Barford and Chantal Thuy

Linda Vista

Can an underemployed middle-aged jerk be a babe magnet?   That’s a question theatergoers are likely to ask about Wheeler, the central character in Linda Vista, Tracy Letts’ latest play on Broadway. Some women will surely ask the question rhetorically and in disgust; some men, full of hope.

Indeed, your ability to get past that question – and, more generally, your willingness to entertain yet another middle-aged white guy comedy – is a gauge of how much you will appreciate this showcase for some impressive acting and very funny writing.

The Wrong Man

“The Wrong Man,”  a sung-through musical starring the spectacular Joshua Henry,  may remind people of “Hamilton” in its catchy rap-inflected eclectic score and jerky hip hop choreography, but it is nearly the anti-“Hamilton” in its lack of real-world resonance.

Now, I don’t need a show to be socially conscious or rooted in history in order to enjoy it. But if you’re going to enlist a black actor to portray a man framed for murder, it seems like a missed opportunity that the creative team is presenting a story that has no more relevance than a folk tale.

Preview: Notes on My Mother’s Decline

On some nights, “Notes on My Mother’s Decline” feels as much like a memorial service as a show. Although the two characters in Andy Bragen’s play are not named, the writer makes it clear that they are based on himself and his late mother, Eugenia M. Bragen. For more than half a century, Tracy Bragen, as everyone called her, lived just down the block from the Fourth Street Theatre, where Notes on My Mother’s Decline is currently running. At the performance I attended, two colleagues of hers from Baruch College, where she taught English for some 40 years, were in the audience. “The real Tracy was a real Southern belle, with a heavy Southern drawl,” one of them told me.

  The Week in New York Theater News

Diahann Carroll in House of Flowers at the age of 19

Nine of Broadway’s 41 theaters will dim their lights in memory of Diahann Carroll on Wednesday, October 16th at exactly 7:45pm.

  MJ (renamed from Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough) “inspired by the life of Michael Jackson” will open Aug 13, 2020 at the Neil Simon Theater. Book is by Lynn Nottage, but it’s co-produced by the Michael Jackson Estate

    Helen Shaw is the new critic for New York Magazine, a George Jean Nathan winner whose astute reviews have been published in  Time Out, Village Voice, and 4Columns.org and who wrote an especially savory critics bestiary for American Theatre Magazine.

Here is an exchange, from a new interview with her, also in American Theatre, by its editor Rob Weinert-Kendt

But will you still have the freedom to write about the weird stuff you love? Will your editors let you cover Clubbed Thumb and the Brick and whatever international piece comes to Montclair Peak Performances, etc.? I don’t know. The editor I’ll be reporting to is Chris Bonanos, and he has very catholic taste. Also I don’t hide those interests—I’ve never put that light under a bushel. Certainly if I start to cram in shows that take place in actual working sewers that are Beckett plays spoken backwards, I won’t be surprised if my editors are leery. But in the conversations I’ve had with them so far, they sounded very excited by the idea that dance is a part of theatre, and performance art, and drag. The silos don’t need to stay closed. My impression from them is, you know, they cover New York, including the weirdest and glitziest and chintziest things. They have a Cheap Eats issue, and “cheap seats” is not that far from that.

It strikes me that you turning your attention to Broadway happens to come at a time when not just Pinter is on the Main Stem but also Jeremy O. Harris and Heidi Schreck. And where did Heidi come from? Clubbed Thumb. If you’re thinking about the future of the form, the future comes really fast, and if you want to be guiding people through that you have to pay attention. Here’s my actual goal: to be the Anthony Bourdain of theatre in New York. I want to say to readers: You have no idea that you want to go to this weird corner and eat these spicy noodles, but trust me, you’ll love it. If I could do one millionth of that for theatre, I’d be happy.

  Maria Dizzia will star in the first two stops of the national tour of Heidi Schreck’s  What the Constitution Means to Me — Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum (January 12 through February 16, 2020) and in Chicago at the Broadway Playhouse (March 4 through April 12, 2020)

The eighth annual Bad Theater Festival will run October 16 to 19 at The Brick, As The Brooklyn Paper explains “This year’s 19 out-of-the-box productions, each between five and twenty minutes long, represent a variety of genres, with an emphasis on the ridiculous. In one eight-minute comedy-horror piece, playing during the opening block on Oct. 16, Frankenstein’s Monster and his Bride go to marriage counseling. Also: a love story between a bat and a human, an interactive dating show where attendees compete for the love of the “filthiest woman alive, a drama about rezoning law, and show entitled “The Cockroach of Broadway.” ach between five and twenty minutes long

  Rest in Peace

Sam Bobrick, 87,best known for creating the television series Saved By the Bell, but he also wrote four Broadway plays: Norman Is That You? No Hard Feelings. Murder at the Howard Johnson’s. Wally’s Cafe.

  #Stageworthy News of the Week. Theater as Politics, Politics as Theater. Bad Theater Festival. The announcement of the latest very unscientific results from the nightly poll conducted in the lobby of Lincoln Center, is a marketing gimmick for "

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND – MAY 18

After a couple slower weekends with no new movies grossing more than $20 million, we get the second doozy of a summer sequel in Fox’s Deadpool 2, which will try to recapture the magic of the 2016 movie that became one of Fox’s biggest hits to date, just behind Avatar and a couple of the Star Wars prequels. So let’s get to that one first…

DEADPOOL 2 (Fox)

The second big release of the summer is this sequel to the action-comedy that grossed

$363 million domestically after opening with $132 million over the Presidents Day weekend in 2016. The original Deadpool was quite an eye opener for Fox and other studios, because it was the first absolutely ginormous R-rated blockbuster in quite some time, and it was only one of three R-rated movies to gross over $300 million.  That success helped pave the way for Fox to allow filmmaker James Mangold to make the R-rated Logan, which would become the highest-grossing spin-off from the X-Men franchise after Deadpool with $226 million. What do we learn from this lesson? Superhero movies are still frequented by 17 to 34 year old males who don’t like their action watered down.

Ryan Reynolds had been talking about playing Deadpool for years, but his appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a disappointment for the fans of the character.  Undaunted, Reynolds continued to push to get an R-rated Deadpool movie made, teaming with Zombieland creators Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to write and produce Deadpool. That drive to make the movie proved wise, and that writing team has been reunited for the sequel, joined by director David Leitch, who directed the first John Wick movie and last year’s Atomic Blonde.  (Leitch is also attached to direct the Fast and Furious spin-off starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham’s Hobbs and Shaw.)

Besides changing many minds in Hollywood about R-rated fare, Deadpool really turned things around for Reynolds who had been floundering after the back-to-back disappointments of X-Men Origins and Green Lantern, although the former did considerably better than the latter. Reynolds still had a few hits after that including the action-thriller Safe House with Denzel Washington and the DreamWorks Animation family film The Croods, but there were some definite misfires. R.I.P.D. was one of the bigger ones, an expensive FX movie that grossed just $33 million, an amount that was actually pretty good for his drama Woman in Gold with Helen Mirren. Self/Less and Criminal both bombed, and sadly, the excellent Mississippi Grind, directed by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden of next year’s Captain Marvel, didn’t get much theatrical attention. 2016’s Deadpooldoubled the domestic gross of Reynold’s biggest previous film, and that might have helped his 2017 action-comedy The Hitman’s Bodyguardwith Samuel L. Jackson, which grossed $75 million after a $21 million opening, based on a $30 million budget. It definitely seems like Deadpoolhas made Reynolds a bankable star once again.

As you can read in my review, I really enjoyed the movie, and reviews have generally been decentfor a non-Marvel comic book movie, and that will help drive up the excitement for this event movie that could see it bringing in $20 million or more in Thursday previews and probably $60 million or more when that’s compiled into Friday’s box office.

Deadpool 2 is opening in 4,332 theaters, which is the widest release for an R-rated film, which is no surprise, because Fox’s marketing has really been on point, driving up anticipation for the movie that should help it gross $150 million or more this weekend. Earlier in the summer, I thought it might open even bigger but had to bring my expectations down to something more realistic.

And that just leaves us with the week’s Deadpool 2 counter-programming…

BOOK CLUB (Paramount)

Somewhat of an anomaly in terms of counter-programming is this comedy from Paramount that is targeted specifically towards the older women who were probably out in force last Sunday for Mother’s Day. This one stars Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen, so if you’re a woman over 50, this probably is your Avengers: Infinity War.  

It’s the feature film debut of Bill Holderman, who made the film independently before Paramount decided to get behind it, which will probably end up being a wise move since there’s so few movies for women over the next month.  Sure, there’s last week’s Life of the Party and Breaking In, but neither movie received decent reviews or audience ratings, so they probably will fall away, and this film’s warm and fuzzy story about older women finding their sexuality through reading E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey might seem like a solid bet. (No, I have no idea why Universal, who made the movies based on James’ books, didn’t pick this one up for a possible DVD box set somewhere down the line.)

It’s odd that this movie didn’t open over Mother’s Day weekend, as it might have done very well, but it’s still in pretty good shape to make around $10 million depending on whether the cast gets out there for talk shows, which they seem to be doing. Essentially, it’s up for third place against last week’s openers Breaking In andLife of the Party with Global Road’s family film Show Dogs acting as a possible surprise spoiler.

SHOW DOGS (Global Road)

In a summer that’s surprisingly devoid of family and kids films, Global Road will try to get in one more family film before Disney-Pixar’sThe Incredibles 2next month. This one involves talking dogs (always popular with the kiddies), and it’s directed by Raja Gosnell (Big Momma’s House, The Smurfs), who has a lot of experience with talking dogs between Scooby-Dooand Beverly Hills Chihuahua, both which were huge hits.

There’s certainly a young audience out there for Show Dogs, which features Will Arnett and the voices of Alan Cumming, Stanley Tucci, Gabriel Iglesias (who seems to do more voice work than actual acting), Ludacris and Shaquille O’Neal, as well as Rupaul and Natasha Lyonne, which might make this the craziest cast ever put together for a family film. (Maybe second to Disney’s G-Force?)

Even though the fledgling Global Road (formerly Open Road) is releasing the movie into over 3,100 theaters, there just doesn’t seem to be much buzz around the movie, so business might be spread out thinly among them, but who knows? The only thing even remotely approaching a “family friendly” film are the two Marvel movies currently in theaters, and there’s a definite vacuum at a time when family films could thrive. Even so, Show Dogs– not to be confused with the Cuba Gooding Jr. hit Snow Dogs-- is likely to end up with between $8 and 9 million, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it explodes with the weather getting warmer and bored kids needing something to do. (Or rather, parents needing something to keep those bored kids entertained.)

POPE FRANCIS: A MAN OF HIS WORD (Focus Features)

Opening moderately into 350 theaters is this new doc by Wim Wenders about the current pope, which is more about following him around on his day-to-day then telling his life story. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival over a year ago, but Focus picked it up as part of their recent incentive to release more docs. (They also have the Mr. Rogers doc Won’t You Be My Neighborcoming out next month.) Depending on whether the Catholic Church backs the movie and helps promote it might help determine how well it does, but I think an opening between $1 and 2 million is doable, putting it somewhere in the bottom of the top 10 or just outside with Magnolia’s RBG, which will expand into the same number of theaters. (I was supposed to see this on Monday but flaked out on the screening, though I’ll be making up for it on Thursday night at a special preview screening, so I might have some thoughts later this week.)

This week’s Top 10 should look something like this…

1. Deadpool 2 (20thCentury Fox) - $153.2 million N/A 

2. Avengers: Infinity War (Disney/Marvel) - $29 million -53%

3. Book Club (Paramount) - $9.2 million N/A

4. Breaking In (Universal) - $8.8 million-50%

5. Life of the Party (New Line / WB) - $8.4 million -54%

6. Show Dogs (Global Road) - $8.1 million N/A

7. Overboard (MGM/Pantelion) - $5.5 million -45% 8. A Quiet Place (Paramount) - $4.2 million -35%

9. I Feel Pretty (STXfilms) - $2 million -38%

10. Rampage (New Line / WB) - $1.6 million -56%

-- Pope Francis: A Man of His Word (Focus) - $1.5 million N/A

LIMITED RELEASES

For those who aren’t quite religious enough to see a Pope Francis doc but still want to alleviate any post-Easter guilt, there’s Paul Schrader’s excellent dramatic thriller First Reformed (A24), starring Ethan Hawke as a Catholic pastor who runs the First Reformed Church in Upstate New York that’s getting ready to celebrate its 200thanniversary. When he meets a young pregnant woman (Amanda Seyfried) whose husband is having issues, he throws himself into helping them, but things get dramatically worse as he gets involved. I’ve been hit or miss on Schrader’s films in recent years, but First Reformed is his best movie in a very long time. It’s definitely a slow build of a movie, but the tension Schrader creates building up to the amazing ending makes me want to see it again.

I can also recommend Dominic Cooke’s On Chesil Beach (Bleecker Street), a period drama starring Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle (both of whom appeared in last week’s The Seagull), which is an adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel of the same name. The young actors play Florence and Edward, two youngsters who meet and fall in love, but whose wedding night is disastrous, to say the least. We watch the two on their wedding night with flashbacks to when they first meet, and it’s a pretty heavy-duty drama, rather difficult to watch at times, but Ronan and Howle are amazing in it.

Jim Carrey stars in Alexandros Avranas’ thriller Dark Crimes (Saban Films), playing a police officer named Tadek who begins to similarities between an unsolved murder and a crime from a book by writer Krystov Kozlov (Marton Czokas), so he begins tracking the writer and his sex-club worker girlfriend (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Carrey is kind of mixed when playing non-comedic roles, but this is also his first starring role in a feature in a very long time, so maybe it’s worth a look? It opens in select cities and will be On Demand after a month-long run on DirecTV.

Göran (The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975) Olsson’s doc That Summer (IFC Films) acts as a prequel to the Maysles’ iconic documentary Grey Gardens, as it assembles some never-before-seen footage of Edith and Edie Beale and their Long Island home, which once saw the likes of Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger and Truman Capote pass through it.

Another intriguing doc is Saving Brinton (Northland Films), a portrait of Mike Zahs, an eccentric Iowa collector who discovers a number of rare showreels from William Franklin Brinton, including footage of Teddy Roosevelt and some of Georges Melies’ early work, part of the collection of moving pictures that Brinton brought to the Heartland.

The Hollow Child is a supernatural thriller from Jeremy Lutter (Reset), which Vertical Entertainment just picked up out of Cannes last week. It stars Jessica McLeod as troubled teen Samantha who wants to expose a supernatural imposter and rescue her foster sister. Here’s an intriguing trailer for it:

I’m kind of intrigued by Champion, the Korean arm-wrestling movie being released by Well Go USA and starring Ma Dong-seok (Train to Busan). It’s the feature debut of director Kim Yong-wan, and it’s a sports comedy (influenced by Sylvester Stallone’s Over the Top) about a Korean adoptee who becomes an arm wrestling champion. It is also opening almost a year to the date of ANOTHER movie called Champion. Go figure.

Apparently Matthew Portfield’s narrative Soller’s Point (Oscilloscope) already opened in Baltimore last weekend, but it opens in New York this Friday and L.A. on May 25. It stars McCaul Lombardi as Keith, a 24-year-old living with his father (Jim Belushi) on house arrest in Baltimore after his release from prison as he tries to create a new life. It also stars Deadpool 2’s Zazie Beetz, so if you’re in New York, you can do a double feature!

Ian (King Corn) Cherney’s doc The Most Unknown (Abramorama / Motherboard) is an experiment which follows a group of scientists as they explore new fields and places, and it’s probably no surprise that filmmaker Werner Herzog was an advisor on the film being that it crosses over with his own interests in science.

Netflix has a really great movie streaming this weekend called Cargo, an Australian post-Apocalyptic film starring Martin Freeman, which I saw at the Tribeca Film Festival. Directed by Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke, this is an amazing film set in the Australian Outback that’s so different from The Walking Deadand all the other zombie movies being made in its wake. Like the show, it does deal more with the living than the dead, but it has such an interesting array of characters. You can read more about it in my Tribeca mini-review here.

Netflix is also offering the South-African romantic dramedy Catching Feelings from Kagiso Lediga (who also stars in the film), which I know absolutely nothing about.

Me? I’ll probably be spending most of my weekend at the Metrograph, seeing the movies in the Sylvia Chang retrospective, some more Kubrick, Hitchcock’s The Birdsand Ghost Dogfrom Jim Jarmusch.

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: Chicago Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Its Picasso Sculpture, a Gift Many Residents Didn’t Want

The restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication (photo by Jake Silby/Hyperallergic)

CHICAGO — A baboon with wings, a bull-moose hybrid, an Egyptian revival sculpture, and even a vampire.

Fifty years after its public unveiling, the untitled Picasso sculpture that sits in the center of Daley Plaza continues to elicit a wide range of interpretations from mystified passersby. The 50-foot-tall steel figure certainly caused a ruckus when it was first dedicated on August 15, 1967: Many people were simply baffled by the abstract sculpture; others showed up with signs that deemed it a “colossal booboo” and “an insult to Chicago’s greatness.” One urged, “Let’s give it back now!!!” Not exactly an ideal welcome for what the modernist master intended as a gift to the people of Chicago.

Protestors at the 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture, photographed by Robert W. Krueger (photo courtesy Chicago Public Library – Northside Neighborhood History Collection)

No protestors turned up yesterday afternoon (though that would have made for a fun spectacle), when the city restaged the sculpture’s dedication to celebrate the 50th anniversary of an oddity that’s gradually grown into a beloved Chicago icon. The aforementioned interpretations were among those I received from individuals in the crowd, which numbered in the hundreds — just a fraction of the approximately 50,000 people who packed the streets in 1967.

Among them was Bonnie Diamond, who was a little girl when her parents took her to what was then known as Civic Center to witness Mayor Daley pull away the giant, blue veil with a grand flourish. She had appreciated the sculpture upon first sight.

“It was very exciting,” Diamond told Hyperallergic. “It was just wow. We didn’t really know what it was and had never seen anything like it. Now I’m not sure what I think it is, but I always thought it was a horse with angel wings.”

Unveiling of the Picasso in 1967 (photo courtesy Barbara Bogosian, used with permission)

Much of the anticipation back then stemmed from photographs of the statue and its maquette that the press circulated widely as part of the city’s publicity campaign. Everyone, it seemed, had an opinion on the Picasso — a hulking, modernist vision that had no apparent connection to Chicago or its history, unlike other commemorative statues that dotted the city streets. The choice must have seemed particularly curious considering the Spaniard had never set foot in the Windy City.

The restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication (photo by Jake Silby Hyperallergic)

Readers of the Chicago Tribune wrote in days before the dedication, with a number calling it a “monstrosity” and some decrying the city’s showing of the work of a Communist. Others were enthusiastic and even proud, although many fixated on what exactly the stern-faced creature was supposed to be.

“The Picasso piece depicts a baboon, without a doubt,” a skeptical Helen Mckee wrote. “Picasso has perpetrated a hoax.” One Mrs. Joseph Savler suggested that the piece represented a phoenix, “the bird which like Chicago was consumed by fire and arose from its ashes in renewed beauty and freshness.” And area person P.K. Thompson was adamant about their guess: a giant sea horse.

Still others believed it represented Picasso’s pet Afghan hound, Kabul, an argument that photojournalist David Douglas Duncan laid out in a Chicago Tribune Magazine article. It was published months after the dedication and illustrated with an elegant portrait of the long-nosed canine.

Today, most people believe that Picasso meant for the figure — with its knob-shaped face, eyes and nostrils like donuts, core of radiating lines, and gradually widening stem — to represent an abstracted woman. What is certain, however, is that his sculpture paved the way for modern art to play a significant role in Chicago’s city planning, which had until then largely focused on functional public structures.

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture (photo courtesy City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs)

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture (photo courtesy City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs)

“The Picasso really changed the way public art began to appear within the city,” public historian Paul Durica told Hyperallergic. “What’s interesting is that, over the past 50 years, it’s more or less become part of the city’s built environment — people don’t really look at it as a work of art anymore. This anniversary is an opportunity to once again try to approach it as a work of art and think about its meaning and value to the city.”

Durica conceived of the dedication restaging, which also celebrated artists and cultural organizations in Chicago. The 1967 program had featured performances, readings, and speeches, and for yesterday’s event, locals stepped in to represent them with largely new material. Participants included the Chicago Children’s Choir, artist Avery R. Young, and Gwendolyn Brooks’s daughter, who recited the poem her mother had read 50 years ago.

The only thing missing was the drama of the original event: the Picasso was not kept under any veil but left exposed and untouched as celebrations unfolded around it. Instead, artist Edra Soto led a symbolic unveiling, asking people to cover their eyes with pink fans she’d designed and then remove them after a few seconds. It was a creative alternative to what may have proved a complicated endeavor, but I imagine it would have been quite striking to see Rahm Emanuel (who was present) whip away a cloth and watch it slowly billow in the wind as the gigantic Picasso was revealed, glinting in the sun and gazing fixedly forward.

The restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication (photo by Jake Silby/Hyperallergic)

The restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication (photo by Jake Silby/Hyperallergic)

The 162-ton work — which has turned from bright orange to dark gray, thanks to years of weathering — exists because of Chicago architect William E. Hartmann, who wanted to commission an artist to create a monumental work to serve as the focal point of the plaza. And he wanted none other than Picasso — Hartmann considered him “the greatest master alive.” He visited the artist at home in Mougins to propose the idea, which the city’s Public Building Commission had approved. To persuade Picasso, as well as familiarize him with Chicago culture, Hartmann brought along gifts including a White Sox uniform, a Native American war bonnet, a Chicago fire department helmet, and photographs of Ernest Hemingway and Carl Sandburg.

Picasso not only agreed to the task but also refused payment for it; he wanted his work to be a gift to the people of Chicago. He also gave the 42-inch-tall maquette to the Art Institute, where it remains on view today. His design was realized by the United States Steel Corporation at a cost of $300,000, which was covered by three different charitable foundations.

The theme of yesterday’s events was in keeping with the spirit of the artist’s generosity: “Everybody’s Picasso.” But that idea was briefly contested when the sculpture became the subject of a copyright controversy. In 1969, the Letter Edged in Black Press filed suit against the Public Building Commission, which claimed it had copyright on the sculpture. The art publisher had commissioned Claes Oldenburg to reproduce the Picasso and was fighting licensing fees, arguing that the sculpture was in the public domain, as the artist had given it to the people. The commission maintained that the deed of gift was a copyright grant that Picasso had given to the department. The next year, a judge ruled in the publisher’s favor.

The restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication (photo by Jake Silby/Hyperallergic)

Today, even if you haven’t seen the Picasso in person, you’ve likely seen it on screen, thanks to cameos in films like The Blues Brothers and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It’s become a marker of the city’s center, an unmistakable and familiar home base.

When the late Chicago Tribune arts editor Edward Barry wrote about the sculpture’s origin story days before its unveiling, he concluded with a grand premonition.

“For decades, possibly for generations, Chicagoans will dispute about this huge semi-abstract head of a woman — or is it something else? — which will be like a brooding presence in the center of the city,” Barry wrote. “It will be derided, defended, laughed at, and — who knows? — maybe eventually loved.”

From the array of people sitting on the Picasso’s granite pedestal and enjoying lunch to the children who slide down its sloping base every day, you can see that he turned out to be exactly right.

The restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication (photo by Jake Silby/Hyperallergic)

The restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication (photo by Jake Silby/Hyperallergic)

Pablo Picasso, “Maquette for Richard J. Daley Center Sculpture” (1964), on view at the Art Institute of Chicago (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture (photo courtesy City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs)

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture, photographed by Robert W. Krueger (photo courtesy Chicago Public Library – Northside Neighborhood History Collection)

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture (photo courtesy City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs)

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture, photographed by Robert W. Krueger (photo courtesy Chicago Public Library – Northside Neighborhood History Collection)

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture (photo courtesy City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs)

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture (photo courtesy City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs)

The post Chicago Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Its Picasso Sculpture, a Gift Many Residents Didn’t Want appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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