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TUES JUNE 28th
To Catch a Thief (1955, Alfred Hitchcock. US. 106 minutes)
Something light & summery as the weather keeps on heating up. Join Cary Grant and Grace Kelly on the French Riviera. Winner of Best Cinematography at the Oscars. [Netflix Instant Watch  | Amazon | iTunes]

Nicole Kidman Reuniting With Jane Campion

While we've been pounding the drum for our Emmy hopefuls in the past week, we got some new television casting news to obsess over: Nicole Kidman has signed on for the second season of Top of the Lake.

The previously rumored casting is most exciting for the reuniting of our beloved star with her The Portrait of a Lady director Jane Campion at long last! This coming season will jump forward in time with Elizabeth Moss's detective returning for a brand new case, so it's fair game on what role Kidman will play in the investigation. But a lack of details is the tiniest of complaints when you are reuniting a pair that collaborated on what is some of the most underrated work for them both.

Game of Thrones's Gwendoline Christie is also joining this season, but this won't be Kidman's first actress heavy dive into long form television. Next year, she also has HBO's Big Little Lies coming with both Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern. That's hours of Kidman to soak up, not to mention her upcoming films How to Talk to Girls at Parties and Lion (and Genius out now), so rejoice away!

This second season of Lake has been longing gestating since the miniseries first debuted in 2013, winning Moss a Golden Globe and becoming a Netflix staple. If you haven't caught up to it, now's the time for a binge watch before one of our favorites signs up.

It’s only 'It’s Only the End of the World'

Josh here, reflecting on the backlash against Xavier Dolan now he’s seen It’s Only the End of the World at the Sydney Film Festival

In what must be a true sign of success, Xavier Dolan was booed and savaged by critics at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year when his latest film It’s Only the End of the World premiered. The reaction was swift not just against his film, but against the filmmaker himself. Dolan address this, and reacted strongly to The Playlist which remarked “It's simply impossible to believe that a story this stridently self-pitying could not refer, more or less explicitly, to writer/director Dolan himself… It suggests a level of martyred self-involvement on Dolan's part that is tantamount to a persecution complex”. This was just one of many vicious reactions online and especially on twitter, against the film but then, in turn, against Dolan for defending himself against criticism.

The apparent taboo of a filmmaker reading, and responding to a critic was a major sore point. As though a critic should get the final word. It’s hard here not to recall the brilliant monologue from Ratatouille...

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Beauty vs Beast: Spaceman Blues

Jason from MNPP here - it's time for another "Beauty vs Beast" y'all! Today's we're talking Pixar because of two reasons -- first off their sequel Finding Dory is out this weekend, prepped to splash magic across the summer box office. And next off it's the 63rd birthday of Tim Allen today, whose greatest role (give or take a Galaxy Quest) came divorced from his physical being, his essence siphoned into Pixar's patented pixels and then tossed into the greatest toy box there ever was with 1995's Toy Story. Can you imagine a world with Buzz Lightyear or Woody the well-meaning cotton-stuffed cowpoke? I thought not. But try to remember that once upon a time they were more at each other's throats than anything else, and then take your sides...

PREVIOUSLY Last week we stormed onto the primary-color-coated set of the soap opera satire Soapdish, maneuvered ourselves between the divas and dimbulbs, and asked you to choose between the Queen Bee and the Crazy Bitch - well with 60% of the vote once again Celeste Talbert (Sally Field) has made her way to that podium. Said Sawyer:

"'What am I, 70, David? Why don't you just put me in a walker? Buy a goddamn walker and put me in it!' #celesteforever"

Who should join Angelina Jolie in the Murder Cast?

Murtada here. Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express is being remade by Kenneth Branagh. He will direct and play the lead part of Belgian detective Hercule Poirot who’s investigating a murder that happens on the famous train as it is making its way across Europe. The novel has been adapted several times, most famously into an Oscar winning film in 1974 by Sidney Lumet and an all star cast, led by Albert Finney as Poirot. Angelina Jolie was announced as Mrs Hubbard, an American loquacious socialite, played in 1974 version by Lauren Bacall. It’s good casting as the part calls a star with lots of presence.

Even though I haven’t read the Christie novel, I have seen the movie version and a 2010 British TV version with Jessica Chastain right before she hit it big. The story lends itself to an all star cast as basically every character gets an intro, one big scene and gets to participate in the finale. And everyone has a secret of course so the parts are juicy and fun and not too taxing on the actors. Hopefully lots of entertaining actors will sign up.

Who would you cast? Our suggestions for some of the characters after the jump...

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