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.

Joan Harris Appreciation

By Spencer Coile 

Whether she is slinging a cigarette around the office or barking orders at her fellow secretaries, Mad Men's Joan Holloway (later to become Joan Harris) is a character unlike any other portrayed on television in the 21st century. Caught up in issues of gender inequality in the workplace, a dead-end marriage, and an affair with her boss, Christina Hendricks managed to infuse this tough-as-nails supporting character on one of AMC's finest with enough nuance and grit to make her as memorable as its leading players, Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss.

And while each deserves celebration and posts of their very own, there is something so magical, so intriguing about Joan, that further attention must be paid...

Click to read more ...

150 Words on The Beguiled, The Big Sick, and Planet of the Apes

Three movies I didn't review when they were brand spanking new but opinions don't have expiration dates so why not share 'em, anyway? 150 words on each because you're busy and I'm busy, too. 

War for the Planet of the Apes
The freshest character in War for... is named  “Bad Ape.”  But really, who’s good? The final installment of the Apes reboot is, in essence, a war picture which means everyone is compromised. Yes, even noble Caesar (Andy Serkis) is tempted to do the wrong thing repeatedly. Bad Ape (Steve Zahn) gives the movie its only moments of levity but even those are pitiable, like the abused creature himself. The new film isn’t “fun” at all but proves a fitting capper to a surprisingly meaty trilogy. It’s a danger to interpret all current cinema in light of the apocalyptic choices of the US electorate of late but boy is this thing a compelling downer; you can argue that the final film is all about racism, evil lying fascists (Woody Harrelson), and the willful self-destructiveness of the human race. Let’s hope the series (if not our planet) wraps up right here. B

Click to read more ...

An Ode to Julia for Julia

To get to The Oyster Club in Mystic Connecticut, you take Main Street into Historic Downtown Mystic and turn left on Water Street. If you reach "Mystic Pizza," made famous in the 1988 sleeper hit of the same name that first won Julia Roberts attention, you’ve gone too far. If you start thinking about Julia Roberts on your way to a totally unrelated assignment, your first-ever restaurant review, you’ve also gone too far...

Click to read more ...