Link Show
Monday, March 24, 2014 at 4:14PM Madwomen and Muses quits on Hannibal and objects to its treatment of women
The New Yorker on technological anxiety and the uselessness of unplugging
Entertainment Weekly Character actor James Rebhorn (Homeland) dies at 65
TFE over the weekend, we talked to Alfre Woodard about her favorite roles
Grantland great piece on that brilliant and prescient sitcom The Comeback from Lisa Kudrow (which might itself be coming back)
Movie City News if you don't mind a lot of spoilers, here's David Poland on Noah
AV Club ohmygod. The Breakfast Club's actual detention was exactly 30 years ago today.
Cinema Blend Jurassic World concept art
Variety a contrary opinion: 'why Divergent is better than The Hunger Games'
i09 first teaser for the TV remake of Rosemary's Baby
Pajiba ranks the cameos in Muppets Most Wanted
And in case you haven't heard the new season of American Horror Story will be called "Freak Show". So naturally I have to wonder if Sarah Paulson will be the bearded lady or a two headed creature or some such.
Are you ready?
...for Hit Me With Your Best Shot: LA Confidential (1997) tomorrow night? Joining us?
Today's Watch
I don't know if you've seen this web interview series "RuPaul Drives" The episodes always features a sublebrity of some kind in the car with Ru. This is the best episode yet primarily because John Waters gives good quote and interview shows are always dependent on the special guest. I so wish he'd make movies again! (They seem to agree that Female Trouble and Serial Mom are the fan's favorites)
And no, I haven't forgotten that I was supposed to be writing up RuPaul's Drag Race each week. I'm just three weeks behind now. Sigh. I'll post something tomorrow for sure to catch up on it.
Reader Comments (10)
James Rebhorn was a great character actor. It's kind of sad that he never got a lead like Richard Jenkins did in The Visitor.
The comeback of The Comeback is such a good idea. I hope that now that is a cult show it can last more than one season.
Thanks for sharing my rant on Hannibal, Nathaniel! I never replied to what you said on Facebook but I completely agree with how you feel in regards to how the show handles death and the problematic nature of that.
And why is that pointless remake of "Rosemary's Baby" taking place in Paris? Are all the best Satanist french?
So happy about The Comeback -- so curious how it will work though. They should've never canceled it!!
Anybody watch Hannibal? I don't disgaree with everything in that post, but it's pretty significantly underselling the degree to which Bryan Fuller and company engage directly with a the criticisms she levels. I think it's a highly disturbing show in which some of the most upsetting murders have happened to interesting, well developed, three dimensional female characters, but that doesn't make it sexist. When I read stuff like this, I just don't know what version of this show would satisfy the author. I suspect it's a matter of the genre, and the execution, coloring perceptions of content, rather than the reverse, but who knows? Anyway, I think Hannibal is a great show, unflinching and mind bending and disturbing as hell, and I can't really believe that its airing on a major network.
Well, we'll have to agree to disagree because I feel Byran Fuller and co. have created a beautiful but ultimately empty show (save for some moments with Gina Torres and I do find Will interesting). Hell, I didn't even touch on the problematic portrayal of mental illness.
Like I said in the post, it isn't a matter of the women dying that makes it sexist or fridging. It is how they die and how the narrative treats that death that I find problematic. I love a lot of films/shows/books in which women die (The Fall is a good example, also I am obsessed with classic noir and the writings of Megan Abbott). So this isn't a matter of genre this is a matter of execution and whose voices ultimately matter.
God. THE COMEBACK. Lisa Kudrow deserved such a bigger career than the one she's got.
I don't get why she isn't held in higher esteem in american television, like Julia Louis-Dreyfus. For me, the two most consistently funny women (Amy Poehler is on her way to become the 3rd) to ever appear on a TV screen in the last 20 years.
That Ru/ John Waters clip is so good. I saw Waters at a show a few years ago and someone asked him about making another film and he implied it's very difficult for him to get funding these days which blows my mind. He said ' there is no money, even David Lynch is releasing music albums now'
I actually read in an interview that Sarah Paulson said she's learning a special skill for season four. Knife throwing? Burlesque? Contortionism? Who knows. All I know is I want a chant of "One of us! One of us!" at some point during the season.
Yay for the comeback of The Comeback.
However, it does worry me that TV is starting to take the cinema's lead and deal in comebacks, reboots (Dallas), and crossovers. Is this the start of a bad movement?