Today marks the final day of the first half of 2014. That flashed by, didn't it? Here are five highlights from this past week while you wait for this afternoon's Smackdown (squeeeeeeeee!)
• Ten Best Dragons - from Toothless to Vermithrax
• Test Interview - filming dance sequences
• What's Wrong With Musicals? - it isn't the talent pool
• What If... The Academy had loved Do The Right Thing 25 years ago? Fight the Power!
• Welcome to the Academy - 271 new invites went out... and, as always, some are headscratchers and some are deliciously welcome
COMING IN JULY
Oscar Chart Updates are in progress and we'll post tomorrow when we start "Halfway Mark" festivities surveying the Best of the Year (thus far).
What else? July's Year of the Month is 1973... so get to watching / rewatching some of the movies from that vintage especially Paper Moon, The Exorcist, Cries and Whispers, and The Way We Were. 'A Year with Kate' will hit The African Queen and The Rainmaker... and I'll try to catch up with Seasons of Bette. We'll also return to the "Best Shot" party and wish Sandra Bullock a happy 50th. AND (Who, ME? Overplan?) it's Reader Appreciation Month so we'll start spotlighting some of you again.
PLUS ENTICING NEW MOVIES: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Tammy, Land Ho!, Boyhood, Happy Christmas, Magic in the Moonlight and Lucy chief among them.