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Top o the monday morning to you.

• NPR there's a new Marlene Dietrich exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in DC so check it out if you're passing through or live there. They say it's "dazzling"
• /Film John G Avildsen (RIP). The director of cultural phenomenons Rocky and the Karate Kid has passed away at 81. He'll always be remembered for those two pictures but we have to also thank him for trash cult fav A Night in Heaven as well as launching the career of Susan Sarandon in Joe (1970)
• THR Comedy Actress roundtable with Emmy Rossum, America Ferrera, Minnie Driver, Kathryn Hahn, Issa Rae, and Pamela Adlon

More after the jump including controversy in Oscar's animation branch, Patti Lupone, Captain Underpants, Lambda Awards, etcetera...

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"Rough Night" and the State of Comedy

by Eric Blume

My assignment for TFE was a review of the movie Rough Night. But since I was not raised in a barn, nor raised by wolves, my mother once told me if you can’t find something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. So we’ll keep it short on Rough Night itself.  It’s actually depressing how bad this movie is, a twist on a rather good mainstream movie called Very Bad Things, back in the Cameron Diaz days of 1998.  That Peter Berg film had a bit of an edge as it followed several guy friends on a bachelor party who find themselves in a dead hooker situation.  Rough Night is the distaff version of this tale, but the inept script, bad performances, and bland direction make it a tough sit.  The film’s five actresses (Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Zoe Kravitz, Jillian Bell, and Ilana Glazer) are winning, talented ladies and deserved a far better vehicle.

Sitting through Rough Night your mind may wander, as did mine, to the state of mainstream comedy in the cinema these days...

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Box Office: Cars 3 road blocks Wonder Woman 1... temporarily.

By Nathaniel R

Rule #1 of Hollywood: If it's making money, keep sequelizing it. Yes, even if it's as much of a lemon as Pixar's Cars franchise, basically the sole significant weight dragging down their otherwise blissful quality to quantity ratio (Sigh). But the world keeps buying so they'll keep selling. Cars won't have much time at the top of the charts, though, since another long-in-the-tooth franchise that's a blight on the cinemascape (Transformers) arrives Wednesday with its 5th installment. With so many lackluster sequels out this summer it's no wonder that people have been so thirsty for Wonder Woman, which at least has the benefit of being a "first" in multiple ways. Charts are after the jump...

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Emmy FYC: Master of None, Season Two

By Spencer Coile 

The first season of Master of None was met with universal acclaim from critics and audiences. Telling the quasi-autobiographical story of Dev (Aziz Ansari), the series follows this wannabe actor and his numerous friends as they gallavant through New York City, eating pasta and searching for love. What made the first season of Ansari and Alan Yang's concoction so fascinating was the way in which they infused elements of culture, race, and sexuality into their storylines. The dialogue was unique to many other shows with similar plotlines; there was a level of specificity and a lived in quality that surpassed more traditional sitcoms.

Master of None recently returned to Netflix and met no sophomore slump. The second season has not only matched the quality of the first but surpassed it. How well does this bode for the series' Emmy chances?

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Today's 5: Kerry Butler, Isabella Rossellini, Waterloo, and More...

Five mood boosting assignments for you this morning. Celebrate this day (June 18th) in showbiz history with us!

2010 I Am Love and Toy Story 3 both open in US theaters. When it rains it pours sometimes with quality at the movies (sadly we also get droughts). The former, an Italian masterpiece starring Tilda Swinton as a foreign trophy wife caught up in an affair and family drama, was the Best Film of the Year (according to yours truly) and the latter a Best Picture nominee and colossal hit for Pixar. Sadly they're sullying its legacy with a sequel even though it reached such a perfect circle-of-life conclusion. Sometimes you need to let perfect things go.

In their honor today: Reminisce about your favorite scene from each. Such great great pictures, right?

More after the jump including a Broadway great and ABBA's breakout smash...

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