April Showers: Joe Manganiello ♥s Pee Wee

You know what we haven't discussed yet? How totally delightful Joe Manganiello is in Pee Wee's Big Holiday (2016). The new film, Pee Wee Herman's first movie since 1988 (!) has been been streaming for a couple of weeks but it's a great fit for April Fool's Day because it feels so impossible that it happened at all. 

Because Pee Wee is Pee Wee and his work has always been skillfully aimed at both adults and children with equal panache, it's often filled with hilarious sexual innuendo that sails over the head of tiny tots but is playful enough not to spoil the exuberant innocence of the comedy for adults who are in on the jokes. Pee Wee Herman's Playhouse, the beloved series that ran for five seasons in the late 80s and early 90s was no stranger to the occasional hunky visitor but for the new film the hunky visitor graduates to full co-star level, courtesy of a very game and funny Joe Manganiello playing "Joe Manganiello". [A few spoilers ahead...]

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Remember When...

...Julianne Moore posed as other famous movie stars?

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Midnight Special Coda

Here's Murtada with a spoilery deconstruction of one scene in Midnight Special. 

The coda after the ending of Jeff Nichols’ Midnight Special is between two characters that are not the family at the center of this sci fi story. The interaction between Joel Edgerton and Adam Driver made me realize why the movie left me emotionally cold. I cared more about these peripheral characters than the main characters, or the story. At least for a minute or two...

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Posterized: Tom Hiddleston

Photography by Charlie GrayWelcome to Actors Month. We'll try to concentrate on the men for the next 30 days just for a change of pace. (Though obviously Actresses are never far from our hearts so we won't ignore them entirely).  So let's kick things off with Tom Hiddleston. I Saw the Light, a biopic of Hank Williams expands into over 700 theaters today. While I can't recommend the film which is DOA without any of its own energy or insight and contains every single rise and addictive fall trope from every music biopic ever produced.

BUT at least Tom gets to sing (every note in fact) and he has a fine voice so hopefully we'll hear it again in a future film?

The internet's ex-boyfriend (he's been replaced by Oscar Isaac we hear) has been famous for just five years now having risen to fame very quickly via Thor (2011) and his rendition of lying Loki. 

He has made 14 pictures. How many have you seen?

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Never felt so LIVE!

Filmed stage productions are becoming more and more common with The National Theatre in London finding great success streaming their high production shows across cinemas all over the world. Cinephiles and theatre goers are big overlap on the venn diagram. A live TV production seems like the next logical step. As recently reported, Aaron Sorkin’s play-turned-film A Few Good Men is getting the live TV treatment in 2017 on NBC. This follows in the successful footsteps of live musicals The Sound Of Music, Peter Pan, The Wiz and Grease but is certainly an ambitious task without the razzle dazzle of musicals or the tomfoolery of live comedy to smooth over the awkward edges live TV can contain.

Whilst these filmed non-musical stage productions have found success, particularly when big names are headlining, there is always something missing that makes in an incomparable experience to being in the theatre with them. By tailor making the work for at home audiences, this could be overcome. An Aaron Sorkin script seems the perfect vehicle. The pace of his scripts in the hands of a strong cast is edge of your seat viewing, and anyone familiar with his work on stage on screen will be excited by the prospect of seeing those character sparks fly live. There’s no word on cast yet, but so far NBC have (mostly) done a good job of casting their live productions, and have a particular knack for picking up and coming stars.

Should this prove fruitful, there’s an array of plays and films that could be all the more tantalising with the electricity of live performance. Let’s speculate after the jump on some other plays and even films that could make the transition after the jump...

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