Mr. Robot's Season 2: Leap forward, or sophomore slump?

by Lynn Lee

USA’s Mr. Robot wrapped its second season this past week, just after star Rami Malek landed his first Emmy for best lead actor in a drama.  The timing couldn’t be better: with the show already renewed for a third season, it should help maintain the buzz factor and maybe pick up more curious viewers.

And yet, among existing fans, season 2 has been remarkably divisive...

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The Magnificent...Two

Movie Stars still matter. As long as they're real movie stars and not just "leads". Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks both became famous in the 1980s and they continue to be two of the most reliable leading men thirty-ish years after their first hits. So nothing about the success of The Magnificent Seven and Sully is complicated or surprising. Congrats to those perennials. Here are the weekend box office charts:

TOP TEN WIDE
01 The Magnificent Seven $35 NEW Review
02 Storks $21.8 NEW 
03 Sully $13.8 (cum. $92.3)  Review
04 Bridget Jones's Baby $4.5 (cum. $16.4) Review
05 Snowden $4.1 (cum. $15.1)
06 Blair Witch $3.9 (cum $16.1) Review & Remembering Blair Witch (1999)
07 Don't Breathe $3.8 (cum. $81.1)
08 Suicide Squad $3.1 (cum. $318.1) Review & Worst of Year
09 When the Bough Breaks $2.5 (cum. $26.6)
10 Kubo and the Two Strings $1.1 (cum $45.9) Review

TOP TEN LIMITED
(Excluding Previously Wide)
01 No Manches Frida $740K (cum. $10.3)
02 The Beatles: Eight Days a Week... $397K (cum. $1.4)
03 The Queen of Katwe $305K NEW 
04 The Hollars $273K (cum. $729K)
05 The Dressmaker $180K NEW
06 Don't Think Twice $132K (cum $4) Review 
07 Hunt for the Wilderpeople $78K (cum. $5) Review
08 Cafe Society $57K (cum. $10.9) Review 
09 Greater $55K (cum. $1.8)
10 Indignation $25K (cum $3.3) Review

While the inspirational drama Queen of Katwe didn't exactly sell out its shows this weekend at 52 locations, word of mouth has been so strong on that picture that we can expect it will expand well once that word of mouth has a chance to be heard. The Dressmaker wasn't quite as big a draw in select cities but Kate Winslet and the movie's wackiness (anyone longing for the days of hit Australian comedy imports of the 1990s should run to the theater) should help keep that one afloat for a bit.

What did you see this weekend?

Drag Race All Stars E5: RuVenge is a Dish Best Served With Love...

By Nathaniel R

How is RuPaul's Drag Race doing it this season? Eight years into the RuVerse and despite a trainwreck of a first attempt with All Stars, All Stars Season 2 is arguably earning its rather instant rep as "Best Season Evah, Yaaaas." The first season, an ill considered 'doubles' event was echoed if you will in Episode 5's "Ru-Venge" narrative in which the eliminated queens were brought back and chose comedy partners from the remaining queens. Somehow even this unmistakable reminder of Season 1's slog of watching divas drag basic bitches around like dead weight behind them transcended the concept.

It helps I think that RuPaul is playing with the format more than ever. Usually when stars have nothing left to prove they coast. Ru did win a long deserved Emmy recently and dont you forget it. (Logo won't let you, bless.) But America's favorite Drag Superstar is making fun of coasting itself while pushing her own envelope playfully.

RuPaul scrapbooking instead of working. Hee.

The funniest meta bit in each episode is hearing what RuPaul and the judges will be doing while the competition Queens deliberate who should be sent home (since they've taken over the judging duties) -- this week it was scrapbooking. Ha! It's a delightful inversion of the "work" of a reality show panel with the open secret being that the Queen Mother and her Squirrelfriends have always been having a fucking ball. What is "work"? Oh, yes, you mean "WERQ!" 

awkward hugs, villain edits, and NSFW Alaska after the jump...

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Instagram Proof (Debi, Tatiana, Lupita)

Instagram Proof

...that Tatiana Maslany actually IS a clone

...that Lupita Nyong'o can't blend into the background no matter how hard she tries

...that despite Madge's history of shortlived celebrity friendships, she'll always love Debi Mazar

Blowing the lid off: Finally, the proof that @tatianamaslany is in actual fact a clone.

A photo posted by Tom Cullen (@tom_cullen) on Sep 24, 2016 at 11:52am PDT

Kitenge Sunset. @queenofkatwemovie #Queening #Kitenge #QueenofKatwe. Crowned by @vernonfrancois.

A photo posted by Lupita Nyong'o (@lupitanyongo) on Sep 23, 2016 at 4:14pm PDT

HELLO! #ADELE .. last nite,AMAZING Thanks @Madonna for the great bday tkts 💋👀❤️

A video posted by Debi Mazar (@debimazar) on Sep 24, 2016 at 9:19am PDT

Links: Separating Artists from Art, Studying Jake Gyllenhaal, Letting the Seven Samurai Go

Playlist on the complicated issues of "separate the art from the artist" in today's social media court of public opinion and 24/7 news cycles and Birth of a Nation's release
Gold Derby titles their article "OFFICIAL" and then claims to have inside intel on "hints" that Silence is actually opening this year despite no poster, trailer, release date, etcetera. This is not what the word "official" means. It will only be official when Paramount makes a statement. I'm hopeful, as the film has been in post forever, but it's definitely not official yet.
MNPP Jason offers to teach a course on "The Nudity of Jake Gyllenhaal 101" and we would like to audit the course -- Jake is always having nude breakdowns in showers.

The New Yorker has an interesting take on Bridget Jones's Baby's refusal to engage with some of the elements of the genre it helped define
Variety Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal will co-star in a movie called Wildlife based on the novel by Richard Ford about a boy witnessing his parent's marriage falling apart. The fun (?) part is that it's cowritten by real life couple Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano who we hope aren't falling apart. Dano will also direct
AMPAS they've uploaded all the speeches from the 2016 Student Academy Awards if you're interested. Perhaps one day some of these men and women will win normal Oscars? Does anyone have any stats on that?
E! Online congratulations to Idina Menzel who is engaged to her boyfriend Aaron Lohr (who had a bit part in the movie Rent) 
Interview talks to Zachary Quinto about Snowden and more 
I Like Things that Look Like Mistakes Kyle Turner on Sia's new video "The Greatest"
The Stake on the many remakes of Seven Samurai with The Magnificent Seven in theaters 
The New Yorker looks back at the obsessive photographer behind iconic 50s magazine Physique Pictorial  - was he the early Robert Mapplethorpe or the gay Hugh Hefner? 
Boy Culture Madonna reads ageist commenters to filth on her Instagram account. I have loved this woman so much and for so long that I find a kind of regular joy that she's so endlessly superior to all the litte minds that have been trying to bring her down for the past 32 years. But on the other hand, probably best for celebrities not to acknowledge all the people that hate them. Don't give them that power!
MNPP Thursdays Ways Not To Die' memorializes generic Christoph Waltz villain in The Legend of Tarzan