Links Don't Apply
Wednesday, December 20, 2017 at 11:32PM • Cartoon Brew the effects work in The Shape of Water
• Coming Soon The Lady Gaga / Bradley Cooper version of A Star is Born gets pushed back to October. Does this mean they think it has Oscar potential or just that it wouldn't be competitive in its previous May slot?
• The Awardist I Tonya's breakout star (the parakeet) tattle-tales on Allison Janney
• The Guardian on Jessica Chastain's emergence as a outspoken activist this year
• THR We forgot to share the news that SAG was having all female presenters this year!
• THR Their first ever "live roundtable"... honestly there are so many roundtables now I have literally not watched a one this year. Can't keep up!
• Variety MoviePass has passed the 1 million mark in subscribers
• Deadline Remember Warren Beatty's short-lived but long gestating Rules Don't Apply? It's now got legal trouble
• Deadline Sufjan Stevens was originally going to do more than just sing for Call Me By Your Name but narrate it too. (We love Sufjan but sooo glad the movie opted out of narration)
• EW Annette Bening on why she's no longer doing American Crime Story: Katrina
LIST-MANIA
• Film School Rejects best under-the-radar films you probably missed this year
• Variety top ten shots of the year via Kris Tapley
• Out R Kurt Osenlund's top films of the year including Saturday Church, Girls Trip, Atomic Blonde
• IMDb ten most popular movie pages for 2017: Blade Runner 2049, Split, Wonder Woman, etc
• The Playlist worst movies of the year. I was furious with them for putting the excellent Atomic Blonde on the list but this bit on Emoji Movie made me lol
Is it shooting fish in a barrel to put “The Emoji Movie,” a film for children that had no aspirations at any point in its creation other than to milk money out of those children’s parents, so high on this list? Perhaps. But in this case, the fish in the barrel are savage fucking piranhas that would devour everything you loved if they remain un-shot.
Reader Comments (21)
With a release date that early in the fall, I bet A Star Is Born goes to TIFF.
Jessica Chastain = outspoken activist
LOL
As someone who actually lived through Hurricane Katrina, I can appreciate Ryan Murphy thoughtfully changing his approach to it...but it's still a Ryan Murphy project so it's still going to be a shitshow, lol.
Having Atomic Blonde on that list is pure bollocks. It takes far more risks and ballsy filmmaking than the other 19 movies listed combined.
Chastain inspires me. When I watch her films, I understand why people need superheroes.
Speaking of, happy 80th birthday Jane Fonda!
Fascinated by Winslet and Chastain being at the same LA Times roundtable. What do they say to each other at the craft service table given Chastain's comments about working with Woody Allen? Not judging either, just dramatically curious.
Chastain praised Winslet on Twitter for her response to the HW story. That was October 9, a full week before #MeToo even started. Now Winslet has been burnt, along with Streep and a bunch of other actresses whose careers “compromise” them—and Chastain is getting praise for giving Winslet some side-eye during the roundtable.
I don't recall a time when Chastain has ever been dismissive of another actress. She consistently praises other women in the industry. She said after her GG nomination that she was inspired every day by her fellow nominees (including Streep). Whether or not she gave Winslet "side-eye" during the roundtable is a matter for interpretation and not at all clear if you watch the video.
Perhaps Chastain is correct, and speaking out has hurt her career. Ronan, Robbie and Bening are also being praised on social media for giving Winslet "side-eye" (again, debatable), but none of them are critiqued for such here.
That Playlist List: I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable putting The Emoji Movie #1. Oh, of a list of 20, it'd definitely be on there (probably even in the top 10), but I'd want the thing I designate as "worst movie of the year" to be something that actually tried to be a movie and failed.
Oh please, Winslet will be fine with the Lee Miller biopic and the sure-to-make-a-billion "Avatar 2".
It was actually Sufjan that talked them out of the narration.
Atomic Blonde deserves to be on that worst off list - just awful.
If it was up to me, Baby Driver should've been on it as well...
The Lee Miller biopic? Let's see if this doesn't end as another failed "This has Oscar buzz" (As some of the recent Winslet ventures). Sometimes, a film has too much "Oscar bait" for their own good. For Avatar billions, true a great and necessary BO boost, but then, beyond that, it's not like the original film really helped the careers of the cast in future prospects.
Anyway, for all the criticism related to Jennifer Lawrence and her crass and ignorance, it's not like Kate Winslet (And she had started two years ago tbh) or Naomi Watts (That infamous "Diana" press tour was something) were in upper grade. If any case, this shows how the stars (Even some of the favorites) can be really dumb and tone deaf when a PR isn't involved.
"The Golden Circle" was ridiculous fun- "The Mummy" was crap
The side-eye thing is even more ridiculous than the Larson not clapping thing. Grow up!
I had figured A STAR IS BORN would be Cannes opening night. I guess not. Shame. Would've been great to see Gaga on the red carpet at Cannes in a film that people are genuinely curious (if mostly in a morbid sort of way) about.
Star is Born was delayed because it needs more time in the editing room to salvage a certain person's performance...
@Angela Davis: I remember going to hear you speak. Thank you, Angela, for giving so much of your life to making the world a better place.
I love Jessica Chastain. Watching her, I feel like she lends me courage and confidence.
It lightens my heart to have both of you in the world. Merry Christmas to you both.
PS. I know that these aren't really the people posting. But my sentiments are real.
Leon
Winslet is still being offered interesting scripts with demanding parts and such a huge box office success will only help her get even more roles.
And for what we know, the Lee Miller biopic can go either away. After all the "Steve Jobs" success (Globe and Bafta win, almost a second Oscar) is only two years ago.
Of course you can see everything in a negative way if you try.
Dg: Hollywood is still partially a game of respect, even in the blockbuster scene. Right now, I'd guess the blockbuster scene is generally like this in terms of implied "respectability":
1. Lavish Period Epics.
2. Marvel Cinematic Universe
3. Odd auteur sci-fi or fantasy movies like A Wrinkle in Time next year or Blade Runner 2049 (yes, technically a revival, but Blade Runner was never a franchise) this year.
4. Revivals of generally well liked old-school franchises (your Fury Road's or Jurassic World's), new entries in eternally present long runners (James Bond) or riffs on eras of the same (Kingsman).
5. Pixar
6. Remakes of promising but not greatly executed one offs.
7. Fox's X-Men
8. The "Aw, do you really have to do that" (this is where I'd put stuff like the Avatar sequels, the Disney Live Actions" and other similar choices.)
9. DCXU (Yeah, sorry, Wonder Woman. You could help this move up a slot or two, but the DCXU is deep in the red.)
10. Dark Universe
Winslet's first foray into the blockbuster scene was a Lavish Period Epic, even if it was under the lens of James Cameron. Instead of checking out other directors to see if Cameron was just an unreasonable dick (which...yeah, I love James Cameron's early stuff, but he was almost certainly a dick), she retreated from "big movies" entirely. And when she came back to that space, she made very close to the worst call she could. What should have been one of the world's most important actresses marching back to tentpoles and showing that she understands that space, instead reads like a deeply diminished actress seemingly unaware of how the world has moved forward since she last made a tentpole, finding solace in a deeply diminished director. (I'm trying to be constructive. I love the idea of Winslet getting her "big movie" on after so long avoiding that space. But Avatar 2 is not a good move relative to that.)
All female presenters at SAG. Hmmm...will the Academy follow suit so they can avoid bringing Casey back to the stage?