In Blog No One Can Hear You Link
Tuesday, May 6, 2014 at 10:26AM MNPP "Do Dump or Marry" with the cast of Neighbors
Shadowplay "everything that's wrong with Stanley Kramer..." (Judgment at Nuremberg)
Cooper wishes a happy birthday to silent god Rudolph Valentino with beauteous gifs
Pajiba a righteous rebuttal to Shailene Woodley's ignorant anti-feminist comments
In Contention I should have linked this on my Star Wars day post but Kris did a history of Oscar and George Lucas' galaxy far far away
HuffPo Emma Stone and Gabourey Sidibe on their own body image and ignoring the haters ("too skinny" / "too fat")
Kenneth in the (212) loves Desperately Seeking Susan (as do I). You can visit the locations as they exist now in NYC
small screen
Variety the rumors were true. Lisa Kudrow's brilliant biting showbiz satire The Comeback is returning to television. Albeit for a tiny six-episode run
Kevin P. O'Keefe terrific retrospective on the brilliant pilot episode of Glee all those long long years ago...
On a whim, I rewatched the pilot episode of Glee – first aired five years ago this month – just to see if it was as good as I remembered it. If anything, it’s better. In fact, it’s great. Yet watching Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and co. fresh-faced, unaffected by the ills that would befall them and the show over the next five years, is strangely heartbreaking. It’s a bit like watching a horror film backward.
I am so confident that show would have a gorgeous place in history if they had only wrapped it up with Season 2.
AV Club Ancient Egypt is hot right now in Hollywood what with Ridley Scott's Exodus in production and new series from HBO and Fox going there, too. Spike TV joins the parade with a new series Tut.
Comics Alliance how did I never hear that cheesy Electro Woman and Dyna Girl from Saturday Mornings in the 70s got its own unaired TV pilot in the Aughts?
Today's Must Read
The Daily Beast looks back at Battlestar Galactica and charts what ineffable fanservice quality it had at the time that helped reshape pop culture. Really good piece which touches on a lot of genre films and tv that pop culture currently or still worships.
must see
I somehow missed this recent BuzzFeed gallery on movie posters improved with animation. Some are annoying with all the choppy looping reset feel that comes with most gifs. I like the subtler ones like the tense Sigweavie breathing of Alien or the elegant rippling Atonement but my favorite is probably this one for Fight Club. Pointedly cinematic... literally.
Moving posters for motion pictures are the future. Learn to love them.
Reader Comments (10)
Do Franco, Dump Rogen, Marry 17 Again Efron (not as fond as the bulked up version). I'm interested in you calling Glee's Pilot brilliant. I think I remember you reviewing it and, like the linked article today, saw a lot of flaws but also a lot of potential (I feel like you gave it a B+ or something. I healthy tally, but not brilliant worthy). I was wondering whether its brilliance for you has increased because of how the show and characters grew over time? I'd like to hear your repeat viewing thoughts. I think the opinions of Shailene Woodley (and Cameron Diaz and Kirsten Dunst...) get way to much play and shouldn't be taken too seriously. Yes they are public figures and should think before they speak, but also, they live in such an isolated world completely alien to the daily experiences of most women in the country. When they go to work people are employed to keep them happy and tell them that they're great. If they have a spat with a co-worker they get support in the thousands. They can cling to definitions of feminism that make sense for 12 year old because while they may on occasion have to deal with casual, up close and personal everyday discrimination coming from people they know, see everyday, rely on and trust (as frustrating as I'm sure they must be, online trolls just don't count), they are also reinforced positively in ways that far outpace the negativity. That is such an extreme and rare form of social privilege and isolation. As one of the other articles you linked to a while ago pointed out, cool girls get to be cool girls because they are NOT like other women. Let's stop reinforcing their importance (and recognize that if they were men, no one would have cared about their comments so much anyway...).
Dying to see the new Comeback episodes -- i was just watching the first season eps yesterday On Demand.
catbaskets -- the pilot definitely DIDN'T improve because of the series. which largely squandered its potential and became ttoally unwatchable in record time I think (by the third season at least). it just grew on me over time. I watched it a lot. it has the makings of an all time great series and pilots must be viewed on potential. Unfortunately the series is pretty awful. Now this comes from someone who tuned out immediately after that terrible "car crash cliffhanger" moment in whichever season that was. I never looked again. But every time i've read about the show it confirms my worst fears that it jsut got worse and worse and it was already doing a steep nose dive in quality every few episodes.
Thank you so much for the link to the Stanley Kramer article. He's always been an intriguing figure to me. Some of his movies really bug me, especially Ship of Fools, which I consider to be unwatchable. I think he really nailed it with On the Beach and Inherit the Wind, and I really admire Judgment on Nuremberg. But this article is hilarious in capturing just what happens when Kramer's two worlds collide--high-minded social consciousness hurtling headlong into Hollywood myopia. For better or worse, Stan was the master.
Today I'm going to have that image of Judy singing The Trolley Song in that witness box in my head all day. Yikes.
In Shailene Woodley's defense, she's young...ish. Also, we're socialized and brainwashed by the media (which is largely male dominated) to think that that is the definition of feminism. She's wrong, but she didn't get that definition out of thin air. We live in a world where people like Rush Limbaugh are coining terms like "Feminazi" that are largely going unchecked and unexamined for their misogyny. And it's frightening the number of people you encounter who still think that feminism = hatred of men or that misandry is a thing that needs to be addressed (it's not). Woodley is wrong, but what's scarier is she's in large company in her wrongness. A friend of mine this morning sent me a link to a Perez Hilton article and the sentiment is basically "girlfriend's got a point" which...I mean, the less said about Hilton and the idea that such a misogynist would ever think he's qualified to have a conversation about a working definition of "feminism," the better.
TPKIA -- i hear what you're saying and i agree that the problem is pervasive. But I heartily DON'T believe that that excuses Shailene's ignorance. You're a public figure now girl. Show some responsibility and get some education.
Totally. Agreed 100% Nathaniel. And I'm glad she's being taken to task for it. It's like Tara said on Buffy.
"Tell me if I said something wrong. Otherwise I know I'll say it again, probably often and in public."
Words to live by.
re: Glee pilot
It was good, but I think the show squandered so much even within the first season (that whole pregnancy) that I don't think it would've been thought of as great. Plus Ryan Murphy stole Pushing Daisies' emmy for best direction.
Meh, Glee was already shit by the second half of Season 1. It's no worse now than it was then. In fact, Seasons 4 and 5 are significantly better than Season 3, which I do think was the worst season. But the show's always been a hot mess.
I remembered watching the pilot a few times every week until the real premiere in the fall. It's also heartbreaking watching the quality of the show declining based on the promise of the pilot. I recently reached it again and the ending is still touching.