Links: Spike Lee, Denise Cronenberg, Amanda Seyfried, etc...
Thursday, June 18, 2020 at 9:48AM Must Read
The Guardian has a really fun Spike Lee interview in which he answers questions from famous actors and directors. Spike always brings joy and we couldn't be more pleased about the career resurgence. People, I personally saw Girl 6 and Bamboozled and Chi-Raq in movie theaters. They all flopped but my ticket $ was in there! So naturally it's been thrilling to watch this recent return to prominence / audience goodwill. Though I admit I was surprised when raves started pouring in for Da 5 Bloods since his last (and only other) war picture (Miracle at St Anna) did not go over well at all.
More links after the jump including a tragic Cronenberg loss, a Bollywood suicide, Dick Tracy budget overrages, Little Women in Japan, and more...
• /Film David Fincher is still very demanding of his actors. Amanda Seyfried had to do 200 takes of one scene for Mank
• Screen Daily Bet you didn't expect to hear Little Women box office news in June of 2020 but it just opened in Japan and will soon cross the $100 million mark in international markets
• Little White Lies fun piece on Gremlins 2 and Dick Tracy opening on the same day in 1990
• / Film Elijah Wood to star as the FBI agent who interviewed Ted Bundy on death row. The film is largely set in the interrogation room (We're probably going to be getting a lot of two-character or talking head movies like this in a year or so given COVID-19)
RIP
• The Star Denise Cronenberg, the sister of famed auteur David Cronenberg, has died at 81. She designed the costumes for most of his pictures from The Fly (1986) onward.
• AP Bollywood star Sushant Singh Raput (Chhichhore, MS Dhoni The Untold Story) commits suicide at age 34. He has one film, a remake of The Fault in Our Stars called Dil Bechara as yet unreleased.
• The Wrap K-Pop star Yohan has died at only 28. No cause of death has been announced
• Deadline Dame Vera Lynn, a British singer dies at 103. Her World War II era hit "We'll Meet Again" has been featured in lots of movies.
Off Cinema
• Vox how the Cooper Black font became ubiquitous in pop culture
• McSweeneys "Damn, Brian Got Hot Over Quarantine"
• The New Yorker Barry Blitt depicts heads exploding over the Supreme Court ruling on LGBTQ rights
Amanda Seyfried, David Cronenberg, Elijah Wood, Mank, RIP, comedy, links
Reader Comments (11)
I sure hope Mank is brilliant. I don't want Amanda Seyfried wasting her time doing 200 takes for a dud. (It sounds a little like a flattery movie. I always enter those with a bit of queasiness.)
I though the Spike Lee link was about his Woody Allen statement and rectify, which I tried to follow but got lost.
Also, has TFE had a post about Casablanca being blacklisted? I'd be very interesed on your point.
- not sure if the verb in English is blacklisted, correct me if it is not.
Spike Lee rectifying is a downer.
Girl 6, Bamboozled and Chi-Raq... they're all bad!
I’m very sorry to hear about Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. He was a very charming and promising young talent. RIP
Spike Lee has made as many bad movies as he has made good ones- not too mention a few that are very over rated
Chi-raq is terrific and I will defend that movie as one of the most vital, necessary American movies of the decade.
Denise Cronenberg is an underrated costume designer and certainly was a big reason why I enjoyed her brother's films. She will be missed as this is probably been a tough few years for Cronenberg as he had lost his wife a few years ago and just couldn't get financing for anything.
I'm so eager for Mank as it's David Fincher w/ music by Trent & Atticus of NIN!
Bamboozled is a masterpiece. It's Lee's SALÒ. Totally deserves it's Criterion edition. There was a big flurry of activity in Film Studies for a year or two after it first came out and I'm glad to see it's being remembered all these years later.
Concur with Dan H: BAMBOOZLED is a stone cold masterpiece. Said it before on this site and will continue to say it whenever I get the chance.
The last 15 minutes of BlacKKKlansman are more offensive than all four hours of Gone with the Wind.
Clarification, the last 15 minutes of the story proper. The coda is the best part of the movie.