15 random things that happened on this day, May 31st, in history as it relates to showbiz...
1279BC Ramasses II becomes Pharoah in ancient egypt. He grows up to look like Yul Brynner in the 1950s. yum.
1057 Lady Godiva takes a naked ride. 898 years later Maureen O'Hara fills her shoes...er... saddle (she weren't wearing no shoes) in an G-rated wig in Lady Godiva of Coventry (1955)
1790 President George Washington signed the first US copyright act into law...
In May we were busy gazing forlornly at Cannes and also watching Fosse/Verdon intently. What were you up to? Here are a dozen highlights from the month that was so you can get caught up if you're rejoining us or if something grand slipped past you.
ICYMI • Midnight Cowboy a 50th Anniversary look-back • Game of Thrones "The Iron Throne" meltdown • Pain & Glory at Cannes Pedro Almodóvar has another hit on his hands. And an Oscar contender? • Posterized: Keanu Reeves Whoa. He's made 55 movies and he's 55 years old. How many have you seen? • Top 10 Nicole Kidman Vanity Fair Covers The enduring beauty hit a milestone so we ranked them. • Two new Hong Chau movies The Downsizing breakout made good on her promise at Tribeca • Booksmart a great comedy. Go see it • Aladdin a three-part retrospective of the 1992 animated classic. One of our three wishes at the moment is that you would comment more on this deep-dive. • Y Tu Mamá También's Ending the latest episode of your new favourite series "The New Classics"
Most Discussed Posts • Doris Day (1922-2019) A legend has left us after a long life / huge career • Posterized: Anne Hathaway She's back with The Hustle. How many of her 27 features have you seen? • Renée Zellweger as Judy The teaser shows her singing. What do you make of it?
COMING IN JUNE We have not one but two Smackdowns coming this month (2001 and 1960) for a double-whammy. Plus Emmy FYCs as nomination voting begins and various movies/festivities for LGBT Pride Month. All that plus new movies: Ma, Late Night, The Dead Don't Die, Godzilla: King of Monsters, Rocketman, Yesterday, Men in Black International, and The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
There is an architectural quality to Jill Magid’s debut feature. Appropriate since it is about architect Luis Barragán. Not that that has stopped bio-docs about artists before lacking an ounce of artistry, but Magid has transferred her talents over well to the cinematic artform; among all of the wonderful things that The Proposal has going for it, it’s one of the most beautiful documentaries of the year.
This is hardly surprising given cinematographer Jarred Alterman is one of the most exciting names in the field and whose work on Bisbee ’17 and Contemporary Color were among those films’ most valuable assets.
Barragán, who died in 1988, remains Mexico’s most celebrated and acclaimed architect and with this film it is not hard to see why. “The artist among architects”, he was called.
• NYT Which Cannes films and performances will factor into the Oscar race. Kyle Buchanan thinks Parasite and Pain & Glory are the biggest foreign threats but Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the big one. • Hugh Jackman singing Happy Birthday to Sir Ian McKellen with a whole staidum backing him. Awesome • Variety Owen Gleiberman surveys his Cannes experience and how well the movies filled the big screen • Variety Chris Hemsworth is the coverboy at the moment so here's the big profile • The Sheila Variations on Joseph Cotten's active listening in Gaslight (1944)
• Variety so far Netflix is the only studio to speak out on Georgia's attack on abortion rights which could threaten the massive amount of filmmaking that goes on in that state. • Out for a blu-ray release of To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, John Leguizamo is talking about his character Chi Chi Rodriguez • Town & Country we missed this news during Cannes but congrats to Jennifer Lawrence who is now engaged • IndieWire surveys critics on the best movies that played at Cannes. Parasite comes out on top just as it did with the jury, but Portrait of a Lady on Fire (which only took Screenplay at Cannes) was the runner up. • Variety more Cannes prizes. FIPRESCI chooses The Lighthouse (from the director of The VVitch) • /Film a piece on Quentin Tarantino's female characters in light of a tense moment at Cannes when he was asked about Margot Robbie's lack of dialogue in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Tony Season • NYT fun piece on "mysteries" of this Broadway season including how tall is the tall man in Hadestown, how does Santino Fontana sing like a woman in Tootsie, and how does one do partner dances while in a wheelchair? As for that 'tall man' in Hadestown. We first noticed him in Frozen and we ran into him on the subway over the weekend and he was as sweet and gorgeous as can be while towering over us. • ... Timothy Hughes is his name and you can follow him on Instagram • Stagecraft Rosemary Harris will get a lifetime achievement at this year's Tony Awards. But her previous Tony has a typo on it! • Playbill Wesley Taylor (Smash) who recently won the Chita Rivera Award for Outstanding Male Dancer is engaged to marry Isaac Powell (last seen in Spongebob Squarepants) • Playbill Fresh out of high school, Renée Rapp, who won this year's Jimmy Award (that's the highest honor for High School students in musical theater) is stepping into the role of Regina George in Mean Girls for her Broadway debut this summer.
And look here's a video about Dianne Wiest's latest play Off Broadway. It's a monologue play from Samuel Beckett
Pixar's Up was released 10 years ago on this very day (the counterprogramming at movie theaters was Drag Me to Hell so you had a vertical choice that day). It seems hard to imagine it now, given that animated films rarely have the Oscar impact these days that they did in a very brief window in the Aughts, but it was nominated for 5 Oscars: Picture, Screenplay, Sound Editing, Score, and Animated Feature, winning the latter two.
Q1: Would you have voted for it in any of its Oscar categories?
Q2: If you could be dragged away by balloons today to your dream destination, where would it be?
Friday, May 31, 2019 at 11:23AM 
