Celebrating "The Fifth Element"

by Seán McGovern

Occasionally I receive a text message from my mother that The Fifth Element is on television. Why she feels the need to tell me, I'm never quite sure. Possibly because my adoration for the film is palpable, or because she like many critics at the time believes that it "may or may not be the worst movie ever made." But The Fifth Element does not need to be defended. It can only be celebreated. As Valerian launches from the imagination of Luc Besson into cinemas everywhere, now is the perfect time to celebrate France's greatest foray into a very American genre: the intergalactic sci-fi action movie.

There's a blonde Bruce Willis, Leeloo Dallas Multipass and of course - Ruby Rhod - all after the jump...

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Brief Notes on Baby Driver and Spider-Man

by Nathaniel R

I'd be remiss if I didn't publicly thank Chris Feil for the extra work he did while I was away. Such a good hire. (Send him your love and follow him on Twitter!) Herewith 150 words each on two movies Chris already reviewed but I wanted to chime in briefly just cuz.

BABY DRIVER
As some of you know I just returned from the National Critics Institute. In one session we read a curated batch of stellar articles and we discussed in fine detail as a group what made them pop and resonate...

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"Difficult People" Returns Soon!

Chris here, pumped for the return of one of my favorites. Have you caught up to the delightfully inappropriate Diffifult People on Hulu? You have a few weeks to do so before the third season arrives on August 8.

The comedy series stars Julie Klausner and Billy Eichner as two acid besties trying to get ahead in entertainment and usually screwing themselves over with their own potty-mouthed self-absorption. Imagine The Mary Tyler Moore Show as told John Waters and you get pretty close to its sweetly caustic hilarity. The show has gotten most of its hype from its super cool and unexpected lineup of guest stars, but what really makes it special is the no-filter friendship at its core. That friendship you have where you can say literally any bitter truth and laugh at its stupidity? No pair on television embodies that better than Julie and Billy.

Take a look at the coming farce!:

Link Wood

THR Felicity Jones replaces Portman in a Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic
Vox How Tom Holland's dance training makes him a fresh Spider-Man
LA Times talks to 18 funny black actresses about their comic careers
Vulture Revenge of the Twink as slimmer male stars finally start getting action roles -- a nice switch over from the steroid set. For now at least

Pajiba five reasons why HBO's proposed Confederate series, from the guys behind Game of Thrones, is a terrible, disappointing, irresponsible idea
Vulture Bilge Elbiri ranks all of Christopher Nolan's movies. The new one, Dunkirk, is #1
IndieWire David Ehrlich ranks all of Luc Besson's movies so you don't have to. The new one, Valerian, is #6
My New Plaid Pants honors the current social media exhibitionistic streak of Zachary Quinto and his boyfriend
Playlist Jonathan Glazer (Birth, Under the Skin) working on his next film already. Yaaas!
Den of Geek People are still fantasizing about Christoper Nolan doing a James Bond movie including, apparently, Nolan himself. 
Leonard Maltin interesting article on film preservation -- what happens to the cannisters and film -- and the impending distintegration of the Hopalong Cassidy westerns
IndieWire reminds us on Dunkirk weekend, that Atonement already went to that infamous war plagued beach in that film's breathtaking 5 minute tracking shot

Off Screen
Show Score Radical Idea... what if stage shows kept the house lights on?
The New Yorker gives good satire on why Hillary Clinton should disappear from public life
Out Greyson Chance, who first came to fame with a viral video of a Lady Gaga cover when he was just 12 has come out at 19 years of age
GQ "it's time you stopped believing in 'dressing your age'"

Oh and Today is...
INTERNATIONAL NATALIE WOOD DAY
i.e. a holiday that should be real since July 20th is her birthday. She would have been 79 today... the same age as Diana Rigg, Jon Voight, Terence Stamp, and Richard Beymer who all still work. Imagine what kind of movies and TV projects Natalie Wood could have done in in the past 40 years. *sniffle*  I imagine she would have moved to TV early as so many movie queens did in the 1980s but I bet she would have had a movie comeback too, given that she was still so young when she died. 

BYO YNMS x 3: Shape of Water, The Snowman, Proud Mary

Having an entirely unproductive day. (It happens). But the trailers are coming fast & furious. Are you a yes no or maybe so on three following pictures. Do tell.

THE SHAPE OF WATER

YES - Sally Hawkins. This could well be magical. 
NO - Guillermo Del Toro tends to be more of a genius in concept than in execution
MAYBE SO - Hate it when trailers show the whole movie. In some ways this feels like a demented fan fiction version of the 10 minutes near the end of Ron Howard's Splash. Is there more to it than this?

THE SNOWMAN

YES - Tomas Alfredson is a very impressive director (Let the Right One In and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) who is pretty great and sustaining tension for a whole running time. He's gathered his usual array of impressive craftsmen in all departments
NO - Is any single subgenre more plagued by violence against women as its ignition or more overworked than the serial killer procedural?
MAYBE SO - How's the chemistry between Fassbender and Ferguson?

PROUD MARY

YAAAS - Taraji P Henson deserves a star vehicle
NO - Like the Kingsman series this looks like a pornographic fetish movie about guns and how cool it is to kill people... which... given the US addiction to guns and explosions in gun massacres each year, is really starting to feel like irresponsible movie behavior.
MAYBE SO - Who knows? This teaser is very very light on anything about the movie though we hear she's an assassin. We're guessing with a conscience. the movies are very obsessed with assassins who have that pre-existing condition.