How To Link Your Flagon
Wednesday, June 4, 2014 at 10:21AM I'm going to need a stiff drink tonight. (Should I blame the unpleasant Zorba the Greek?). Why is this week so hard? It's my birthday week!
In Contention loves How To Train Your Dragon 2 and ranks all of Dreamworks Animation. God there's some dross in there but Prince of Egypt is way way too low
Variety on Jonah Hill's blooming career and recent homophobic slur
AV Club looks back at Montgomery Clift in Red River (1948). My favorite Western
Gawker The Chicago Sun Times apologizes for a recent bit of transphobic nonsense regarding Laverne Cox (Orange is the New Black) that they MUST have known was unwise. People will publish anything to get clicks these days.
Playbill Bradley Cooper in The Elephant Man on stage this fall
Scene Magazine interviews Jonathan Groff on his Looking / Frozen gay ascendance (great photos)
Metro a woman wants a divorce from her husband because he didn't like Frozen
MNPP ooh, a Tilda Swinton image (very conservative look for her) from Trainwreck
The Bizness
Variety interviews the Academy Chairman of The Emmys on changes and controversies including 10 episodes vs. 22 and half hour versus hour shows
Empire Inception reunion: Tom Hardy in talks to join Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant (previously discussed)
Coming Soon Roland Emmerich's Stonewall finalizes its cast adding Jonathan Rhys Meyers and more
CHUD catches you up on who is directing what for Marvel including horror director Scott Derrickson taking on Dr. Strange
Awards Daily Jupiter Ascending pushed to February 2015
Today's Watch
"Philip Seymour Hoffman on Happiness"
This animated short, part of PBS's "Blank on Blank" series uses an interview conducted with the late actor from 2012.
Reader Comments (11)
Ok yes, that Frozen story is crazy, but I'm sorry, that's totally the kind of crazy thing that I could see myself doing. "What do you mean you don't like Soapdish?!? WE'RE OVER."
I hate how attracted to Tilda Swinton I am outside of her natural alien form. She's ravishing. And I love Amy Schumer, a very intelligent funny lady.
TB -- i love it. comment of sheer fabulousness.
So can we officially say that Jupiter Ascending is going to be a huge flop? I feel bad for the Wachowski's; I think they're movies aren't as terrible post-Matrix as everyone else seems to think.
The (arguably) most important moment in Gay History, and we get Roland Emmerich? Will there be Stonewall Explosions at the climax? Were Michael Bay and Uwe Boll too busy?
I don't know if I'd call Groff an "icon" just yet, but I'm glad he's finding so much success. I'd be really happy if he got an Emmy nom for Looking. As for Jonah Hill, I didn't even know of the incident until today, but his apology seems genuine.
Also, Red River just shot up my list of movies to see. I have a bit of an aversion to the Western genre (at least when it comes to classics), but seeing that you like it is encouraging.
YES to Red River. Monty and John Ireland pulling out their dicks and comparing them—metaphorically speaking (sorry, folks)—is one of the best scenes ever in a Western.
The thought of Bradley Cooper playing a role once inhabited on Broadway by David Bowie is mind-boggling.
I'd also say Bee Movie and, especially, Turbo and Megamind are too high.
Bee Movie: Ugh. Naked bestiality. Y'know, for kids! Seriously, even Shrek the Third wasn't focusing on disgusting sexual undertones, so how does this wind up above that?
Turbo: This, not Shark Tale, is the closest they've gotten to an imitation of the Pixar "style." Shark Tale takes the rough PREMISE of Finding Nemo, but it's far too pop-culture reference oriented to be imitating their style. Turbo, meanwhile? It's a mostly POINTLESS and restrained Ratatouille knock-off as opposed to a full blown satire. I see where the cohesive Dreamworks movie would have been, namely in eliminating the "Nitrous makes him a living car" nonsense and instead make it a satire of caffeine and energy drink fiends through his super-powers coming from the energy drink we see him imbibing in an early scene and ONLY through that drink and ONLY being super-speed, but we didn't get that. Is there the possibility that pitch I just tossed for an alternate Turbo would have sucked? Yes, but anything can suck. My big problem is that if that expansion of the rough concept sucked, it would have been more uniquely Dreamworks in HOW it sucked, not just Diet Pixar.
Megamind: They could de-construct anything (superheroes are massively, lavishly ludicrous, after all) in a funny fashion, including the comics ridiculous weaknesses (Green Lantern was weak to YELLOW after all) and actual resurrections. But instead (and anyone who's seen the movie knows what I'm talking about), they wuss out and give us an ultimately toothless examination given by people who had clearly ONLY seen the movies.
Totally with Paul Outlaw and Nathaniel and everyone re: Red River. I love when I'm with Paul Outlaw. And Nathaniel.
I hosted the recent group meeting for People Who Just Don't Get Jonathan Groff at my apartment, and nobody came. I had to eat all the Wheat Thins and drink all the Sprite by myself.
I was totally uninterested in Groff until Looking came along (have you watched, Nick?) and suddenly his charisma popped and he was doing tricky tonal things and clicking with co-stars and committing to small moments etc. etc. etc. Huge turnaround IMO.
Nick, you are always with me. (New York, New York...)
@ Jake: I agree with you about Groff's work on Looking. I just wish I found the character more interesting, or that he wasn't the ostensible lead of the series. I'm much more interested in his boss, his almost boyfriend and his friend the chef.