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Tuesday
Jan192016

Well "Hello, Dolly!" ...Again (Feat: Channing, Pearl, Bette, and Babs) 

Bette on the Tonight Show in 2014Bette Midler basically gave the game away in a tweet last night but today it's official: The Divine Miss M will be taking over Carol Channing's signature role Dolly Levi in a Broadway revival of "Hello, Dolly!" due in the Spring of 2017. Carol Channing made a huge enduring career out of the role, of course, playing it three different times across four decades on Broadway and touring with it, too. Barbra Streisand tried to wrestle the role away from her in the movie musical adaptation in 1969 -- there are multiple catty anecdotes about this in the trivia-filled gossipy book "Roadshow! The Fall of the Film Musicals in the 1960s" that do not paint a pretty picture of Babs --  but despite the plentiful Oscar nominations thrown that movies way, it didn't really stick and no one thinks of Dolly as anyone's but Channing's.

Babs, Bette, Carol Channing & Pearl Bailey after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Tuesday
Jan192016

Newish: A Walk with the Teenage Martian Outta Compton

It's time for the irregular 'newish for home viewing' list. If you've been trying to catch up on 2015 hits & misses (no judgments -- we're all for movie consumption of multiple kinds and whenever people can get to them) it's worth noting that a lot of things hit DVD, Blu-Ray, and Streaming over the past three weeks. Here are some highlights. (Links go to related articles here).

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Monday
Jan182016

Contrarian Corner: The Big Short

For this edition of Contrarian Corner, we'll have to redub it "Conflicted Corner". Lynn Lee discusses her mixed feelings about the Oscar's primary dark horse.

In this year’s Best Picture raceThe Big Short is the one title that virtually no one saw coming very far in advance.  Which is appropriate for a movie about an event that only a handful of people predicted. And while it’s fallen back a little in the shadow of The Revenant’s nomination-leading surge and Globe wins, it’s still very much in play for Oscar’s big prizes. With five nominations (fpicture, director, supporting actor, adapted screenplay, and editing) under its belt, as well as a strong performance both at the box office and the Critics Choice Movie Awards, who knows?

The Big Short's ascendance hasn’t gotten it much love here at TFE, where the prevailing reaction has been a mixture of incredulity and disdain.  I get it, especially if you’re mourning the omission of better films from Oscar’s best picture lineup.  And yet, dare I say I’m neither surprised nor dismayed at its inclusion, and on the whole am pleased at its success?  Yet also oddly conflicted.

Frankly, I enjoy The Big Short, while recognizing its limitations...  

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Monday
Jan182016

Beauty vs Beast: Stabbin' in the Woods

Jason from MNPP here with this week's round of piping hot "Beauty vs Beast" action -- I find myself in a strange position this awards season. Alejandro González Iñárritu, a director whose films have time and time again made my skin crawl thanks to their blowsy self-regard, has gone and made a movie that I don't entirely loathe? I don't know that I can be much more open-hearted towards The Revenant than that, but there are big, short, spot-lit movies gunning for Best Picture that I find oodles more offensive than this silly thing. Heck if the bad taste of Birdman hadn't poisoned the well last year I might, dare I say, be even slightly less ambivilent. (But it did, it did, it did poison the well. Damn you, Birdman.) But which uglied up tough guy carved out a horse carcass in your heart?

PREVIOUSLY Well I guess it's for the best that we did Todd Haynes' Carol last week before the Oscar nominations, because now that it's been snubbed for Best Picture and Director it will never be heard from again. (Kidding, people, put down the pitchforks.) While some of you admitted to slightly less-than-lesbian longings for those sturdy Harge (Kyle Chandler) shoulders, it was Sarah Paulson's performance as Carol's salty best friend Abby that you ultimately locked arms with. Said Paul Outlaw:

"Sorry, Harge. I can't help you with this."

Monday
Jan182016

Links 

Your Evening LOL
Elite Daily "A Letter From The Oscar Board On Why Carol Was Totally Snubbed"

Link Love
This Had Oscar Buzz Joe Reid's hilarious tumblr of lost (on-paper) dreams
MNPP Pic of the Day Tom Hiddleston welcomes you to High-Rise... without pants
Coming Soon Steve Coogan and John C Reilly will headline the upcoming biopic Stan & Ollie about the movie comedy duo Laurel & Hardy - any guesses as to who pretends to be supporting for the Oscar campaign?
CHUD on the major changes from book to screen for The Revenant (obviously spoilers) including its completely different ending

Twitter Assassins Creed starring Michael Fassbender is a wrap. It's still nearly a year from theaters though (Dec 21st) 
Variety Anne Hathaway to headline the sci-fi comedy The Shower which is being described as 'a cross between Attack the Block and Bridesmaids.' Hmmm
Variety apparently Connie Nielsen has replaced Nicole Kidman as the Queen of the Amazons for Wonder Woman. (Is this really Connie Nielsen in the photo? She looks nothing like her old self) 
Salon Glenn Frey, lead singer of The Eagles, has died at 67. 2016 is not letting up.
The Guardian David Lang, Oscar nominated for his Youth song "Simple Song No. 3" talks about musicians he loves from Adele to Shostakovich   

#OscarsSoControversial
Stereogum because no Oscar year is complete without a Best Original Song controversy now there's online hubbub that Lady Gaga only contributed a few words to tbe Diane Warren song that won her an Oscar nomination "Til It Happens To You"
The Gold Standard is rooting for The Big Short's political aisle crossing to take home the Oscar -- I am stunned to hear that they're recommending it on Fox News since Repubs are so anti-regulation and the movie shows how important regulations are at preventing horrific abuses of the system. Did they misunderstand the message of the movie?  
Will Packer (Executive Producer of Straight Outta Compton) slams the Oscars on facebook 
Spike Lee boycotting the Oscars over the lack of black actors nominated 
Variety John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood) isn't upset about it, citing that time will sort things out as it did with Oscar snubs Do The Right Thing and Singin' in the Rain, telling Variety:

It’s like every year people complain. People even complain even when we have a lot of nominations. It is what it is. I’ve been in the game for 25 years. You never know — it’s the luck of the draw for you. To me, I’m not surprised. I’m not disappointed either, as much as other people are disappointed.

...I know there are other works that will be recognized by a more diverse Academy and I know there will be other years when work that is really deserving doesn’t get recognized.

 That last sentence is the truest sentence ever spoken about the always volatile Oscars -- unlike the Emmys they have an entirely new crop of work to judge each year. Sometimes they make good calls. Other times...