"Knowing Jack, it might be some pretend place"
Wednesday, February 26, 2014 at 4:04PM Intelligent Life effortless performances. Oscar don't like 'em
TV Line Looking gets a second season. The great supporting cast (save Scott Bakula. Hmmm) promoted to "series regular" - this is terrific news. The show isn't necessarily great but it's good and a lot of great shows only finally harness their true potential in Season 2.
Cinema Blend Netflix & Marvel's Daredevil series is starting production this summer. I've always felt that superheroes belong more on the small screen (it's more episodic like comic books) so I'm totally excited for this. And also because the movie was so dreadful. The only way is up.
In Contention Martin Scorsese and shifts in Oscar for the past decades
krupyeahstephensondheim this hilariously titled tumblr has a surely bootlegged snippet of Meryl Streep singing in Into the Woods
Playbill first look at Disney's Aladdin on Broadway
Hollywood Reporter Sandra Bullock's pay day for Gravity now over $70 million... probably heading towards $100 when all is said and done. Wow.
Yahoo Movies Anna Kendrick says musicals "are f***king hard" and needs a break from them. She's got three of them coming out in the next 12 months or so (a career pivot we've discussed before).
me me me
Deadline Ava Duvernay of the great Middle of Nowhere will be directing the new Martin Luther King bio Selma starring David Oyelowo. This is all kinds of great news for two talents TFE has been rooting for for the past couple of years. (You may remember I talked to David Oyelow briefly at the Critics Choice Awards and he loves that movie. As well he should)
Multimedia Composition This is one of the nicest compliments I've ever been paid. College students are learning to be better critical thinkers about the movies with my Hit Me With Your Best Shot series as inspiration. Please to note. Details on Season 5 of "Hit Me" are coming this weekend! Any suggestions?
VF Hollywood & Awards Daily Oscar bloggers talk about predicting the big race. Wish I'd been invited but it sounds like they had an interesting conversation even without my genius
finally...
if you haven't yet read about this conversation Anne Hathaway had about Brokeback Mountain you must. She credits that telephone call scene with her entire career. Yes! That movie is so perfect. Across the board perfect.
Reader Comments (17)
I saw this
by Emma Thompson on the BBC last night, which I imagine is the speech she would have given if she had won the Oscar. They really ballsed up not nominating her because her presence is one of the few things that have lit up this awards season.
Looking renewing and Meryl singing and Hathaway spilling! Oh my!
zacary -- good news day, huh?
Daredevil show: Completely right move. I'm not entirely sold on Superheroes being entirely "more appropriate for TV" (presumably live-action), which is increasingly turning into a budgetary thing than a content and narrative flow thing. (And I'm not too against that.) Of the big 500+ issue ones (where you could see there being enough good content to pluck the best, leave the rest), I'd say Batman (an actually well rendered, age accurate starting out, Bat Family in Live Action would be SO AWESOME) and Daredevil make sense, but no one else really does, mostly for budgetary concerns.
Sandra Bullock and Jennifer Lawrence must've been saints in another life, I'm convinced. Ha!
Spot on.
PS: Your site is taking longer than usual to load using Firefox, at least.
She's fantastic in that scene. I love that one of her fingers has a tiny stain of nail polish. It's so realistic. Movies are always too tidy.
I seriously think you should consider Liza with a Z. Every shot is magic.
Regarding Looking, Scott Bakula has decided to sign on to a new NCIS franchise. New Orleans, I think? Good for him for raking in the money, but I am disappointed at how the story of his character and Dom will inevitably end due to that casting.
You always ask for suggestions for hit me with your best shot and I always recommend the movie/performance you MUST see above all, because this series is the only way we can suggest older movies... I am not saying the name of the movie now because I don't want to jinx it.
THAT movie aside, I was discussing with a friend the movies of Woody Allen and he was very sure of how uninspired Allen is when it comes to visuals, and I strongly disagree with him. To have one of his movies here would be a very good way to prove a point (because of course I am not wrong, am I?).
the hathaway article about BROKEBACK, PRADA and Streep is *amazing* thanks so much for linking :)
cal -- but i have actually used some of your suggestions before!
That definitely sounds like Streep and I gotta say I'm impressed by how good she sounds (she is a woman of many many talents apparently), I really wanna hear the new song now.
Apparently Oscar winners need to take notes from Sandy B. Good for her on cashing in on that Oscar love at the right time (and improving her cred while doing it).
"I am disappointed at how the story of his character and Dom will inevitably end due to that casting."
@Flickah - Not necessarily. Cable shows, especially one that has so few episodes as this show, should be flexible enough to get Bakula in a few episodes if they wanted to. He's not a main character after all. Think Alison Brie on Mad Men or Margo Martindale in The Americans.
Bia , Jennifer Lawrence gives another bland , flat , and tentative performance that is out of her range , in American Hustle . It felt like she was trying to emulate Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny , but with a shoddy Long Island accent . Sadly , Lawrence has become the new Julia Roberts - another actress that is overpraised for playing herself in all her films with little depth . Sarah Paulson from 12 Years of Slave and Margot Robbie ( star making performance in The Wolf of Wall Street ) deserved Jennifer's Oscar nomination slot . Sarah & Margot owned every scene they were in , with grace and effortlessness .
That Brokeback Mountain piece proves what I heard years ago , that Anne Hathaway auditioned for both Lureen and Alma from Brokeback Mountain , and she killed with both auditions ( beating out some famous names , like Michelle Williams and Rose Byrne ) . Ang Lee and the producers gave her the option to choose the Alma role and the Lureen role . A casting director told me that Anne Hathaway is excellent at screen tests and auditions , that is why she keeps winning her coveted roles .
For Hit Me With Your Best Shot, my only request would be that most of the films are available through online streaming services. I'd love to participate, but it can be tough to get the right DVD at the right time.
My favorite kinds of movies for HMWYBS are always the ones that you might not think about as visually interesting until you watch them with that specific focus in mind. So maybe something like Soapdish or Cry-Baby? If you want to wrestle with Blue Is The Warmest Color again, I think that's a film that's fun to approach visually because its so (deceptively) simple. I also love when the classics get featured. There's an amazing (and amazingly underseen) Frank Borzage film, History Is Made At Night that would be a great "Hit Me" pick. Titanic rips a lot from it. My perennial choices for this feature have always been A Room With A View and The Last Of The Mohicans--two gorgeous and popular films that never seem to get their due. In honor of 12 Years A Slave's Oscar win (positive thinking!), maybe a Hunger revisit would be nice. But hey, if Gravity wins, there's always Y Tu Mamá También to check out again. And all of those are available on Netflix or Hulu streaming :)