Beauty vs Beast: Gold Medal Mamas

Jason Adams from MNPP here trying to think cold on a 95 degree day in New York City - let's step back in time then to the cool months of this past winter, known around these parts as Awards Season, and onto the ice, for it is Margot Robbie's birthday today and we never did a "Beauty vs Beast" for I Tonya if you can believe it. I'm a little shocked myself that we never had 'em duke it out. So here, in one corner we have Tonya Harding (Robbie), who fits this boxing talk like a glove, and in the other corner her mother LaVona (a statue-snatching parrot-wearing Allison Janney), who... is also perfectly comfortable existing inside this metaphor of the boxing ring. 

free polls

PREVIOUSLY Last week's contest also tackled an antagonistic mother-daughter duo with Dolores Clairborne, and it was Dolores herself came up on top with a whopping 80% of your vote. Said W.J.:

"That film is a flat-out masterpiece, no joke. Awe-inspiring, fully realized performances all the way around, stirring cinematography and visual effects that stand the test of time. Glad to see it get some love."

Halfway Mark - Box Office Hits of 2018 (Thus Far) in Multiple Categories

by Nathaniel R

It's time for the annual "halfway mark" festivities. With the first six months of the year done, we are triggered to look back at one came before. To make this far more interesting than just "biggest blockbusters" we're listing the biggest hits of multiple categories. If we've written about them extensively, talked about them, or reviewed them, that's where the links take you.

Key: The totals are domestic as of estimates this weekend.Titles that still have life in them (i.e. are still in active release and not done or just about to leave) have up arrows next to them. OKAY THE LISTS. Ready? Let's go!

Click to read more ...

RuPaul's Drag Race season 10 ends with a flutter

by Nathaniel R

Months on end of turning looks and stunting pretty have now ended with Season 10's queen crowned. So why lead with a picture of Season 9's winner Sasha Velour? It's not just that she served the season finale's best look, but that her appearance was hardly necessary. Her long shadow was already blocking out all the light on this particular finale...

Click to read more ...

Links: Johnny Depp, Carmen Jones, Kathy Griffin, Julia Roberts, and More...

• Coming Soon Jim Carrey, James Marsden, and Tika Sumpter to star in Sonic the Hedgehog movie. It's set to be a live action / animated hybrid. Not sure if that means the stars are just mo-capped or what.
• i09 "even the Defenders action figures hate Iron Fist" LOLOL
• Variety first look at Julia Roberts in the Amazon series Homecoming. Apparently she still wants that Emmy. (Bonus points: Sissy Spacek is playing her mother and her dream man from My Best Friends Wedding Dermot Mulroney also co-stars)
• Awards Daily predictions for what will show at Telluride 

• Vulture lists the 55 essential Queer horror films. I've only seen 20 of them. How about you?
• Playbill lists 14 stage favorites you can catch at the movies this summer
• E!News Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black have a new son
• Towleroad Broadway actors redo "We are the World"... I wish I liked this more but it's too light on starpower (only a few legends in comparison to comparative within-their-field legends in the 80s single)  and weirdly makes that American Idol guy Constantine the focus)
• /Film a look back at Lagaan (2001), India's last Oscar nominee
• The Playlist Toni Collette, Kaitlyn Dever, and Merrit Wever (that's quite a trio!) will star in Unbelievable a film adapted from the Pulitzer winning article "An Unbelievable Story of Rape"
• Boy Culture reviews Kathy Griffin's comeback performance at Radio City Music Hall
• THR Jared Leto is going to play Morbius, the Living Vampire in one of those Sony attempts at making a Spider-verse of villain movies
• /Film Netflix ordered a martial arts series Wu Assassins to star Iko Uwais
• Playbill Carmen Jones with Anika Noni Rose taking over Dorothy Dandridge's famous role has been extended through August.
• ...we had our friend Erica review it right here. (I wish it were on Broadway so Anika could win a second Tony!) 

Johnny Depp painting by Matt Mahurin

This Past Week's Must Read (If You Missed It)
Meant to share this a whole week ago but if you haven't yet read Stephen Rodrick's totally absorbing, fascinating, and non-spiteful but damning profile of Johnny Depp, "The Trouble With Johnny Depp" you must. I've been thinking about it all week and mourning the Johnny that once was, from the Edward Scissorhands, Cry Baby, Donnie Brasco, pre-Jack Sparrow days.

Great Moments in Gay - Lady Bird

Here’s Ilich on Lady Bird (2017)...

Pride Month and its celebrations are so outrageously fun to participate in because they feel so earned. The titular pride almost never comes immediately after queer people identify, at least to themselves, as such. It’s often preceded by confusion and a paralyzing fear that interrupts as many opportunities of rational thought as it can. Queer people take their time navigating through awkward stages of a sort of grief that will hopefully lead to that realization that they are free to be themselves without fear, and definitely without shame. Hints of these stages are warmly depicted in Greta Gerwig’s endlessly satisfying directorial debut Lady Bird. Through Danny (Lucas Hedges) and his friendship with the film’s protagonist, Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), Gerwig’s script fleshes out the performances that many rehearse in the process of accepting their nature...

Click to read more ...