Something Link-ed This Way Comes
Friday, October 2, 2015 at 12:15PM The Movies
• How does The Intern stack up to previous Nancy Meyers releases at the box office? It's a bit too early to tell but I totally didn't know and was a bit surprised to realize that they were nearly all bigger hits overseas than in the US [Box Office Mojo]
• Sasha Stone comes up with a new sneaky way to define leading roles as supporting. She's calling them "anchors" as in "anchors to the lead," not "the other lead." Hee. Of course she doesn't mean Anchor as Category Fraud but a rose by any other name... [Awards Daily]
• Singing the praises of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and their upcoming slate for cinema-voracious New Yorkers. And really, sing these praises at full volume. [MNPP]
• Not everyone loves the new Macbeth [Shadowplay]
• "The people behind [Sicario] understand that what makes a great thriller is not the abundance of shootings, murders or jump scares and plot twists - it's the fear that something horrible can happen at any moment." [Cinematic Corner]
Off Screen
• Oh god. File under totally depressing: If even Meryl Streep doesn't understand what feminism is, the earth is doomed. One of the most successful things conservative thinkers ever did is fooling progressives (and women of any political stripe) into thinking it was a bad word [Refinery 29]
• I mean... Keira Knightley is awesome but shouting marriage proposals at her while she's trying to make her Broadway debut last night. Not cool, drunk stalker! [Playbill]
• "Homophobia unites people of different Christian faiths" - Dan Savage, hero, on the Pope/Kim Davis mishegoss [MSNBC]
• I missed this report last week but The Tony Awards might be leaving their regular home - considering different theaters [NYT]
• "The last time I saw Madonna was on September 6th, 1989, during the live telecast of the MTV Video Music Awards. I was in my parents basement with my mother..." Love these personal essays about stars when people can pull them off. Must Read. [The Hairpin]
Scream Queens
• Is Nick Jonas too into queerbaiting his fans? [Towleroad]
• Are any of you watching? It's such a mess, strains for laughs and (worst of all) revels in its misogyny (Murphy and his writers really need to stop putting words like "gash" into the girls mouths to demean other girls) to the point where you know it's not parody but just actual feeling disguised as parody. I'm only in it for Jamie Lee Curtis (fun but she's been better) and recent Emmy nominee Niecy Nash (making the very very very most of a small role - what a gift she is!). This quote from Towleroad's recap of the third episode made me LOL:
“Chainsaw” ...crammed in so many obvious red herrings, I think it qualifies as an aquarium.
Image of the Day
Michael Fassbender as MacBeth. I will never for the life of me understand what is taking so long with this movie (remember how long ago we saw the first images -- I swear it was 2013 -- or even why they're going to distribute it like a poor stepchild movie. (sigh).
click to embiggen
"Critics Choice" Ch-ch-changes
It's worth noting that the BFCA, of which I am a member -- yes, I'm still bragging about sitting with Jessica Chastain last year -- is making a major change. They're fusing their fairly new TV arm (which currently holds their ceremony in May each year) with their cinema body for one conjoined show starting in January that's 3 hours long. I don't understand what that will mean for current TV shows (two awards for their favorites in just a seven-month span?) but this will obviously make the Critics Choice Awards far more like their sworn enemy* the Golden Globes. Obviously to make this successful the BFCA will have to axe some of their odder categories from their ever-expanding roster but that was okay because things were getting seriously weird there in their attempts to cover everything but NOT officially categorize anything (resulting in weird 'it's an action movie but it's not... it's a comedy but it's not... it's a drama but... no, scratch that we don't say "drama" about anything --that's the default!')
I have to admit that it seems odd to have two separate organizations do one event together. Just let us vote on both, and not have to be part of two organizations! Just change the name to Broadcast Critics Choice Awards, dropping the pesky film or tv separations.
* I'm kidding though for all the heat the Golden Globe take from US journalists, it's perpetually hilarious that US journalists always want to be more like them.
Reader Comments (24)
Conservatives: Fooling progressives into thinking the word feminism actually means Marstonism since 1950.
Sasha is not talking about that. She says that supporting performances need the heat of a bigger performance of a best picture nomination to get noticed. Example: Helena Bonham Carter would not get a nomination in a million years for The King's Speech without her anchors: the movie itself and Colin Firth.
Hello, MacBeth.
Looking forward to hearing more news about Keira Knightley's performance than just her skill at ignoring stalker types. Therese Raquin is a fascinating novel, it should make for a rich theatrical experience-I think she may be brilliant in this role.
I like that Meryl Streep calls herself a humanist rather than a feminist. Frankly, I've always had a problem with the term "feminism", not because I disagree with what it stands for, but because the etymology of the word itself favors women, even if it's defined as "gender equality". It's hard to stand behind a word whose etymology favors one gender over the other, no matter how many people define it as "gender equality", it makes the movement vulnerable to being abused by those who would like for women to become the new men. What Meryl Streep says does make her a feminist under the definition that many give to the word, but I'm guessing she's not comfortable with the word itself, and I see exactly where she's coming from...
As someone who just stood front row at the Rebel Heart Tour in Boston, allow me to weigh in on this Hairpin piece:
The essay turns on the hope that maybe, this tour is different. And it is! She had an absolute ball, and the closer (Holiday) is the most dynamite, euphoric, authentic, life-giving thing I've ever seen on a stage. It made me want to dance and shout and cry and spread the word. It's baffling and genius that through the shaky promotion for Rebel Heart, Madonna's had this move up her sleeve. She has such contagious fun the entire time. It was revelatory to see her, for the first time in a long time, truly #unbothered.
Also, I feel like I've dwelled on Nancy Meyers too long lately. But what is with studios giving her movies $80-$90 million production budgets? Even when they're hits they're only making an additional $20-50 million. Those stakes are needlessly high and stupid wasteful for movies that could be made for so much less.
I'm enjoying Scream Queens so far. It's staying pretty clearly on the parody side of the line so far for me, and I'm laughing more often than not.
Thanks so much for the link!
Richter Scale- I agree! By calling herself a humanist in no way demeans her many efforts...equal rights amendment for congress, National Women's history women's museum in Washington D.C., and her constant criticism of the Hollywood machine. She has done more for women than most, including her Suffragette co-stars.
Cal -- i get it but her examples were almost all this year's lead actresses pretending to be supporting so it ends up giving it a gross double meaning. yet another way people for "lessen" lead performances to make them "smaller" than lead performances.
jamie & richter scale -- oh i agree. meryl's many righteous efforts to make the world a better place aren't lessened by this. it just unfortunately reinforces the fear so many young women have of the word which they should absolutely be embracing. You can't have humanism until you first get a world where women aren't treated as property or "helpmeets" or lesser than or defined by their men.
Hayden - that's awesome. i was way too poor this year to afford Maddy in concert but i've seen her many times. she's so great on stage.
Nat: No thoughts on my first jab?
Hayden -
I saw Madonna in Philly a few nights before the Boston show and I can concur with you :)
She was actually very funny and I don't think I've ever seen her interact with the crowd as much as she did this tour... She was in town the same night the Pope was coming and she had so many funny little anecdotes about him.
This was hands-down my fav tour and yes she seemed to be loving every second of it!
volvagia -- regret to inform i have no idea what that is.
Nat, David—It was my first time seeing her, even through I know all her DVD's by heart. People who say (based on YouTube footage) that this tour doesn't have the scale, polish or dancing of other tours are underestimating the charm and personality she's giving in the room. Also, her voice is in incredible shape at the moment.
Humanism already has a definition and it's not feminism. If you're uncomfortable with elevating women in a world that systematically devalues them then maybe that's a personal problem.
What is with privileged actors sticking their feet in their mouths lately?
Stopped reading the Sicario article when the author bashed Jessica Chastain's perf in Zero Dark Thirty. Tool.
Sasha Stone's article woulda made a lot more sense if she hadn't chose such blatantly lead-and-hiding-it performances. I get what she's going for but "audience surrogate/inherently less interesting co-lead" is so not supporting. Ethan Hawke, really?
And the BFCA thing just bothers me because out of the three TV preliminary awards that was the only one that didn't have any weird layover between years that the Globes and SAG suffer from. Now every single Emmy preliminary is going to be eight months before the broadcast? I'm sorry but that's just weird, especially in an awards show where nomination morning already has a bizarre set of surprises, not to mention awards night.
My only advice for Meryl is to (next time) remind people that humanism encompasses feminism, and you can be both. Of course she supports equal pay and equal rights for women, I don't think anyone disputes that.
Macbeth is out now in Australia and the UK. Yet again, blame the Weinsteins.
I've liked the BFCA TV stuff in the past, actually. I mean, they gave Busy Phillips a statue for Cougar Town! But like Nick, I liked that the encompassed the general definition of the TV year. I guess such a thing doesn't exist any more, but it's a bit disappointing to have one of the few award shows that appeared to think more of less for itself (unlike their film award show - sorry, Nat) now pushed into the regular funnel of award season. I wonder if like the BAFTA Awards it will just mean they fall into line with the rest of the award.
I am enjoying Scream Queens, likely against my better judgement. I do think the absurdity of its parodic nature keeps it firmly on a side I can handle. It reminds me most of all of Popular (my favourite Ryan Murphy project) in the way it just goes so far into flamboyant absurdity that you kinda can't take any of it seriously. I am getting way too much enjoyment out of Nasim Pedrad and Neicy Nash. Curtis, less so. I don't know if *obvious* conniving bitch is one of her strong suits. And I like that it's going there in terms of actually killing people and showing the blood. Unlike the Scream series in which nobody appeared to ever actually die.
wait, nat, you saw carol, right? can you let us know your thoughts / reactions? i know TFE had a review but it wasn't from you - i want to hear what you thought. thanks!
I remember in "Entertainment Weekly's" box office report, they were flummoxed at "The Parent Trap" budget (what did they spend that $55 million budget *ON*???, they asked, and they weren't wrong -- Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson couldn't have cost that much, and Lindsay Lohan was not Lindsay Lohan). Maybe it's nothing new for Nancy Meyers.
I am unabashedly loving "Scream Queens". It's not perfect, but Niecy Nash is stealing that damn show.
This Nick Jonas "queerbait" issue has been happening ever since his first of many underwear shoots. Queerbait is the new clickbait. I'm kind of over it. Here's the thing. As sexy as he is, you can also use sex sells as an extent. "Jealous" was a big hit not because of his six-pack abs, but because THE SONG WAS ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD. You can't hear pectoral muscles on the radio.
glenn -- you don't have to say "sorry" to me about BFCA's habits. I constantly bitch about them myself. I know their TV wing is considered "dubious" by some but it is nice that they don't appear to be trying to predict things.
BD - Thank you. Feminism is merely called feminism because we don't NEED "meninism" in a world that values men over women. Feminism is for equality and it's called that because females are oppressed in this male society. To skirt around that is insulting, and just silly.
Also, yeah...I called out Nick Jonas' queer baiting long ago. He's also half naked on the cover of gay magazines n shit, getting all these thirsty twinks to buy his music and stuff. It's so tacky and gross.