All That Link
Tuesday, July 8, 2014 at 12:08PM It's been so long since we had a link roundup! You were all partying over the long weekend anyway. But we're back to normal. Please to enjoy these fine, discussable or just fun posts around the web...
Antagony & Ecstasy looks back at Thelma & Louise now that Susan Sarandon is on the road in Tammy's crime spree
VF Jennifer Lawrence meets Emma Watson
Leigh Alexander on internet sexism - the dos and don'ts
BuzzFeed Matt McGorry and Samira Wiley from Orange is the New Black recreate Matthew McConaughey movie posters. Love.
WSJ Taylor Swift fancies herself a journalist suddenly and writes about the future of fandom, music careers and record sales
AV Club on that potato salad kickstarter
Deadline on new controversial strict rules for documentary eligibility at the Oscars. I understand the arguments against the new ruling but I would also like to caution documentarians to think about what they're asking for. The Oscars are larger than your particular craft and they really are supposed to be about CINEMA (i.e. things that play in theaters) so shush. These kinds of rulings may hurt at first but there should be a difference between television and movies. Television has its own awards for you to win if your film is great. Don't be greedy. I do agree with one complaint though: what's fair for docs should also be fair for features so Oscar needs to tighten up its eligibility rules across the board.
Hey, Look
It's the first image of Don Cheadle as Miles Davis in a forthcoming biopic. Filming has just begun. I guess Cheadle hasn't moved to TV for good (i *really* hate House of Lies) but at this point he seems far more likely to win an Emmy than an Oscar. The movie is apparently more about his marriage than his music. The best news about the project by far is that it gives Emayatzy Corinealdi a follow up leading role to her great work in Middle of Nowhere. She plays Miles first wife Francis Taylor.
Bob Fosse and Roy Scheider at Cannes for "All That Jazz"Fosse Fosse Fosse
Sound on Sight has an excellent retrospective of Bob Fosse's astounding but weirdly forgotten cinematic career from Mynt Marsellus. I wish Marsellus hadn't hedged on his ending - Fosse absolutely is equal to the other far more famous auteurs cited (Coppola, Scorsese, Spielberg, etcetera). They are only better remembered / respected I'd argue because they:
a) have comparatively gigantic filmographies
b) are still alive and working twenty-seven years after Fosse's death (Fosse was older than all the other crucial 70s breakout auteurs save Robert Altman and Fosse also died relatively young at only 60)
c) made their best films in genres that are more typically male than the film musical and thus escaped the pervasive destructive sexism that tends to devalue all rich work in more traditionally "feminine" fields like musicals, romances, and melodramas. We see this all the time in film criticism. Still.
Reader Comments (15)
I kind of hate House of Lies too, if on a more symbolic level because I've never watched an episode. Bleep you House of Lies, you stole Emmy noms from going to Danny McBride or Charlie Day.
Thank you for the highlight Nat! Although I would argue that the five best films from Scorsese, Coppola, and Spielberg are better than the five from Fosse I'll grant that I hedged on my ending a bit.
Eh, Coppola may have a "gigantic" filmography, but there's A LOT of perceived dross on it. EVERYTHING he directed Pre-Godfather, One From the Heart, Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, Captain EO, Gardens of Stone, Life Without Zoe, the weak link of New York Stories, The Godfather Part III, Jack and his so-far last picture Twixt. Even Scorsese's bad movies (The Age of Alienating Third Person Narration and Gangs of Girl Trouble) had critics on his side because I guess formative, narrative structure and blocking problems can be excused if enough prestige is tossed at the camera.
I didn't even know a Miles Davis (!!!) biopic with Don Cheadle (!!!) in the works, but damn that's awesome. And check out the rest of that cast (!!!). Stellar.
The only thing that gives me pause is the whole star-director thing. Hopefully, limiting the movie to a specific time period means a more flavorful scene-piece and less scatter-shot idolatry.
Yeah I'm giddy about Emayatzy Corinealdi getting cast in this. I was starting to wonder if we are ever going to see her again.
All the rules tightening and no interest whatsoever from the governing board to eliminate category fraud. Amen.
Taylor Swift just Taylor Swift-ed all over that WSJ op-ed. Comparing musicians and their fans to different romantic relationships? Check. Unrelenting, uncontroversial optimism? Check. Casually mentioning her famous actor friends? Check. Oh, and this:
"And I'd also like a nice garden."
If I ever get a chance to write for a major news publication, please don't let me end an article with such a twee statement.
In the meantime, if you need me I'll be attempting to defend my generation's intelligence from the latest wave of WSJ subscribers who read this and decide we're a bunch of optimistic morons. #NotAllMillenials
Has anyone else seen the Whitey Bulger documentary yet?? I think its a Oscar contender
I just want to slap everyone who donated to the potato salad guy. What morons.
the THELMA& LOUISE piece was spectacular. There is a movie I can just sit down and watch until the end no matter what part I catch it at. So happy the stars received matching Oscar noms... a classic
I realize Bob Fosse had a short film directing career, but I'd say he scores 100% i.e. 5 out of 5. No one else mentioned has pulled that off, so it's another way to look at it. If you throw in his TV and Theatrical work, maybe he was the best ever? Take that Scorcese! :-)
I"m with Dave in AB. Fosse may have only directed 5 films, but look at the 5. He is the only one mentioned who had HUGE success in every medium he approached. And I dare any of the others to direct a brutal, self examination like All that Jazz. I would love to see what he would have done with Nine or Les Miz not to mention Sweeney Todd.
He scored Oscar noms for his actors in all but one and that one got a GG nom for Roberts. He was brilliant and is sorely missed.
Susan Sarandon gives me the chills in Thelma&Louise. What a performance!
Bob Fosse was a genius. I symbolically get on my knees every time I say his name.
T&L is a true anomaly for Ridley Scott, but the way he uses the landscape to evoke such freedom, then menace. Brilliant.
Joel Grey did very much deserve his Oscar and Cabaret is one of the greatest movies, not just in the musical genre. As for Coppola, let's not gloss over the fact that if it wasn't for Robert Evans kicking and dragging Coppola towards the epic storytelling potential, The Godfather would have been a 90 minute slice of life story as Coppola had wanted.