Let My People Link
Thursday, February 4, 2016 at 8:09PM The Daily Beast the Coen Bros on diversity vs the Oscars. But they don't take kindly to complaints about Hail, Caesar!'s whiteness
Decider Joe Reid ranks the top 50 performances in Coen Bros movies. Much to argue with but also to agree with. The #1 is indisputable.
i09 Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) signed as the male lead of X-Men spinoff tv series Legion who may or may not be insane
Variety Jake Gyllenhaal's Boston Marathon bombing movie is a go
Decider "Let My People F***" amusing piece on the conservative sexual morality of the Duplass Brothers filmography
IndieWire Viggo Mortensen's new film Captain Fantastic, which sounds intriguing, will open on July 8th. It co-stars Frank Langella, Kathryn Hahn, and George Mackay (who played the young photographer in Pride)
Theater Mania Mark Rylance, fresh off his Oscar nomination, returns to the New York stage with Nice Fish (and possibly Farinelli and the King)
THR Bel Powley and Martin Wallström who both broke out this past year in Diary of a Teenage Girl and Mr Robot, respectively, will costar in WWII drama Ashes in the Snow
Playbill Oooh, look. They're putting up the marquee for American Psycho on Broadway. Benjamin Walker, currently in theaters in The Choice (and who is a singing charisma machine onstage) is playing Patrick Bateman
Interview Peter Dinklage interviews Paul Dano
DANO: I just did this film, called Youth, that Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel and Jane Fonda are in. And I have to tell you, Michael Caine is so happy. Happy and healthy. I think he enjoys life. I think he's 82 now, and I have no clue if I'll be working at that age, but it was amazing and inspiring to see him bring it, because you know that the search never ends. I talked to Jane Fonda about acting and about what we want to work on, and I was like, "Jane Fonda and I are talking about how to be better actors."
DINKLAGE: It never stops.
DANO: Which I also find so beautiful and healthy to see in people who have had so much success. They still have skin in the game.
Reader Comments (27)
Speaking of stage, Andrew Garfield is playing Prior Walter in 'Angels in America' next year! Yay! In The West End, but still... yay!
Any one else watching BBC version of War & Peace? Paul Dano is doing very well in a lead role, even getting good reviews from Russian critics.
I like his comments about Caine and Fonda - you have to be a grounded person to last that long.
How is number 1 on that Coens' list indisputable when it isn't Michael Stuhlbarg?
Frances McDormand in Fargo is the most overrated Best Actress win of all time.
Viggo on my birthday?? *golf claps*
Joe's Coens list is so spot on. I LOVE the high inclusion of Michael Stuhlbarg - I feel like his performance gets disregarded so easily because people don't like the film.
Did you see that the BBC is developing a series for Julie Walters to reprise her "Brooklyn" character? They may bring back some of the same boarding house residents, too, althugh of course it's too early to say for sure.
@Dave - YES - I saw that this morning, Empire says that the production co. are building the series around the Mrs. Keogh (Julie Walters) character and hope to sign her on. fingers crossed for this.
Am I the only one who can't figure out the Decider site to read Joe's list? I get the intro and then I'm stranded... I've hit Goodman's Walter face about 100 times.... DAMMIT DONNIE!!!
The second I read the comment trashing Frances McDormand in Fargo I just knew it had to be from 3rtful, I didnt even have to check the name ;)
Peter -- LONDON TRIP! who's with me?
Amir & Chris -- really? I would never place him that high. But maybe it's because I don't like him that much as an actor overall. Perhaps it's leftover from the time I saw him play Hamlet on stage and just hated the production. I did think he was good in Steve Jobs, though.
Nathaniel - I don't agree with Amir that he should be #1 (rightfully belongs to MacDormand) but yes I am a huge fan of A Serious Man and Stuhlbarg in it. I remember hearing about that Hamlet production and how bad he was though.
3rtful that's the first thing you have said I AGREE WITH,IT BAFFLES ME HOW SHE WON AGAINST SUCH SELLAR COMPETITION NOT TO MENTION PEOPLE NOT NOMMED IN 96.
Nathaniel- I think he should have got a best supporting actor nod for Steve Jobs.
Michael Stuhlbarg for the win. Fantastic performance!
(But Frances is still the best)
Joe's ranking of Coen brothers' film performances is great - altho I almost didn't read it because it annoys me so much when you need to click a hundred (or 50 :P) times to get through a list.
About Stuhlbarg, I liked him quite a bit on A serious man but it's not their easiest movie to watch. I did think he was good in Trumbo despite the "TV-movie-ness" of the film. He really looks like Edward G Robinson! And he was great in Steve Jobs . I find it unfortunate that he's only actor of the whole cast (save the 3 actresses playing Lisa at different ages) that didn't get a credit in most promotional material for the movie. After all the movie's based on 3 product launches and Jobs's interaction with the same group of 5 people in all 3 timeframes: the characters played by Winslet, Daniels, Waterson, Rogen AND Stuhlbard. Bad negotiation on by his representation maybe? He's far from a star or a household name but neither is Waterson (who's actually not in the last section of the film) or Fassbender for that matter!
McDormand is one of my favourite Oscar wins of all time. You just know that performance would have been relegated to the supporting category if the film was made today.
Jake-I always have the same issue with that site, especially if I'm on my phone, so you're not alone.
I REALLY don't want to give in to click-bait x50. Who's #1 if it's not Michael Stuhlbarg? The only performances I've seen that can maybe rival his are Tim Blake Nelson and Oscar Isaac.
McDormand's win is very inside baseball. It was the sole major category they could award Fargo. Frances also knew (at least then) it would be her only time for serious Best Actress consideration since she usually is a bit player doing ensemble work in the movies.
Brenda Blethyn is my choice. But Emily Watson inspired Nicole Kidman to take the path paved with auteurs.
That Coen brothers interview is really frustrating.
"By making such a big deal, you’re assuming that these things really matter. I don’t think they even matter much from an economic point of view."
Yes, they do. It's been proven that movies that win Best Picture, Best Actor and/or Actress (and maybe Director? But I can't remember) see boosts in their box office.
"The Oscars are not that important.” Yes, they are. They can determine which movies are preserved and which aren't, which ones enter the cultural conversation and which don't. Of course, an Oscar doesn't guarantee this, and not winning/being nominated doesn't guarantee the movie will be ignored, but it can make a big difference.
Also, they can say they aren't important because they get to take for granted that they grew up seeing people like them constantly winning and being celebrated. They don't even have to think twice about how that affected their idea of what's possible for them professionally.
"You don’t sit down and write a story and say, ‘I’m going to write a story that involves four black people, three Jews, and a dog,’—right? That’s not how stories get written. If you don’t understand that, you don’t understand anything about how stories get written and you don’t realize that the question you’re asking is idiotic."
This is incredibly condescending. No one is saying that's how anyone writes a story or how anyone SHOULD write a story. All people are asking is: a) what stories are being told and what stories are being ignored? b) why do so many of the stories getting told default to white casting when it's not relevant to the character or story?
Once again, just like Matt Damon's controversial remarks last year, it's more white guys saying "Yeah, diversity is important, but that's for someone else to deal with, not us. We're fine. Not our problem."
I would have included F. Murray Abraham in Inside Llewyn Davis on that list of the best performances in Coen Bros films. (Actually, I think he deserved an Oscar nomination for that performance, brief as it was. ILD is such a great film, and it turns on Abraham's big scene.) But as a major Coen fan, I think #s 1 and 2 are absolutely correct.
I'd probably put William H. Macy at #3. Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading would rank really high for me, too - I just love that performance, it may be my favorite Brad Pitt role.
@ DJDeeJay
Thank you.
Kinda put a bad taste in my mouth about Hail Caesar! which I'm seeing next Friday, followed by (in an a propos coincidence) Race (the Jesse Owens story).
@Paul Outlaw - I want to see Hail Caesar! too. Now I'm a little conflicted so we'll see if I actually make the effort.
Great work on that Coen piece, especially love the high-inclusion of Mr. High-Hat!
Still, and I love Frances McDormand in that film, but I am not sure it's an unquestionable #1. That says more the Coens' work and those they've worked with, but Bridges, Isaac and for me Hunter in Raising Arizona are all on par.
Wow, the Coen bros. sound like dicks. "Yes, diversity is important, but not in OUR movie!" Put them down in the "tone deaf responses" category.
UGH. Add The Coens to the list of liberal white people who I wish WOULDN'T speak openly about diversity. Also it always seems kinda hypocritical when Oscar winners (and they've won multiple times) say the Oscars don't matter. Yet you showed up to accept every single one of them didn't you?
@Akash - totally agree. I was thinking the same thing.