Review: "The Fault In Our Stars"

This review originally appeared in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad

Shailene Woodley is everywhere. Which... well, I hope you like looking at her face. Not content to be the face of the post-Hunger Games YA dystopia fever (Divergent), she's also continuing that other everygirl thread in her career. She reads more like a girl next door, someone you know, than a STAR!; pretty but not intimidatingly gorgeous, relatable not charismatically mysterious.  She's specalized in earnest portrayals of ordinary teens getting their first taste of the tough stuff in life: death and desertion (The Descendants), disease and disappointment (The Spectacular Now). Hazel Grace Lancaster, her character in The Fault in Our Stars, doubles down and has to deal with all of it. 

Hazel is a 16 year old with thyroid cancer that has spread to her lungs. She needs an oxygen tank to breathe, which she drags behind her like a depressing carry-on she wishes she could check. Though she's outlived the initial prognosis she's acutely aware that she'll never grow old. Inbetween flashes of well earned self-pity and sarcasm, she worries about her parents (the well cast Sam Trammell and Laura Dern, who is reliably excellent) and how they'll survive her death. She attends a cancer support group for teenagers, at her mother's prodding. Mrs Lancaster hopes it will lift Hazel's depression and help her make friends.

Enter the Dreamboat Boyfriend... 

Click to read more ...

Streep Honors Fonda at AFI

To your left you'll see Meryl Streep speaking about Jane Fonda at the AFI ceremony in her honor which will be broacast on television next Saturday night. (A post birthday weekend treat!)

It's funny because I strike this exact same pose of joyous reverie and 'I can't even believe this exists' prayer-eyes enthusiasm when I speak about Jane Fonda's best work! (In fact, maybe we should do Fonda once we're done with Seasons of Bette?)

Meryl Streep is one of many stars that showed up and there are already several articles floating around about the highlights but I shan't read them because I like to watch these things like a virgin and pretend it's live television and we're all experiencing it together for the first time. But it's true I cheated a little to watch this sneak peek of Meryl talking about her first onscreen appearance in Julia (1977), a debut I've written about previously.

But here's one more Streep photo with the best caption lolz.

The Tribute special will air Saturday June 14th at 9 PM ET/PT on TNT with encores on TCM.

Thoughts I Had... While Looking at the Poster for "Miss Julie"

Presented in the order they appeared without self-censorship...

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Audrey Hepburn in Green Mansions (but better dressed which is weird to say about anything Audrey)

That neck purse looks very uncomfortable

Oh how cute, all three stars are Golden Globe winners.

I hate when Cate Blanchett chops Samantha Morton's head off in 'Elizabeth: Full Throttle'

That's a pretty wide stance... is she running? Doesn't the whole play take place in a kitchen? The posters already panicking "open it up. open it up"

Period frizz is the enemy: See also La Pfeiff in that age that was innocent.

 Liv Ullman is flawless in Bergman movies. I did see her last directorial gig Faithless (2000) and I liked it as an actor's showcase but not more than that.

Green is my favorite co-- no, second favorite color. Purple.

I wish this were directed by Jane Campion but then she's always the first choice with ladies in bulky dresses out in the elements

This is the French poster to your left. Which to prefer?

Redheads are so hot right now. If Ariel were alive and still had her legs she'd probably compete for Isla Fisher and Amy Adams's parts. But not for Jess's.

I saw a play with Sienna Miller once called After Miss Julie which is just basically Miss Julie for Brits instead of Swedes with some politics. So I've never understood why there's another one. But then I've never seen Miss Julie performed and am no expert on it. And this has Jessica Chastain so level up. 

I forgot to say anything about Colin Farrell.

Orange you glad it's my birthday?

For my birthday, Netflix gave me a whole new season of Orange is the New Black to binge-watch. Such a thoughtful gift! And you are all the beneficiaries.

yeah, obviously i can't do the laverne cox one

A reminder that, since there's no fighting the dominance of OITNB this week -- I felt so left out during House of Cards binge-watch week but that show is just not for me. I am Spacey Intolerant in large doses -- we'll be covering it on a one-off episode of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" on Tuesday night. You're watching anyway, so pick a shot and write about it!

I'm burying the lede...

What are you giving me for my birthday?* 
ME! ME! ME! This is the last time I'll ask for prezzies for at least a few months but please know that it's a full time job to offer you all this content each and every day 365 days a year and the occasional movie advertisements, particularly during Oscar season, only go so far towards expensives and a living wage. I realize that perhaps you think me greedy to ask for a cup of coffee per month  and I remember in high school and college (the age of many readers as far as I can tell) sometimes it's hard to find two dimes to rub together so perhaps $1 a month is a better compromise? I'd only need 600 more of you to pay rent. New York City is a demanding bitch, sometimes.

I ♥ TFE. Keep it Coming

one dolla! : $1.00 USD - monthly cup o joe : $2.50 USD - monthly popcorn : $5.00 USD - monthly happy b-day bitch : $12.00 USD - yearly happy b-day bitch : $25.00 USD - yearly

If you don't want to be locked in to a monthly donation, consider a one time gift - like, oh, a penny for every time you looked at an Oscar chart over the past five years? If you are so poor that filmmakers would salivate over the opportunity to make a poverty porn Oscar bait biopic of your life, I expect no pennies. But please share and comment and tweet your love for your favorite articles which is another way to keep the site strong.

MWAH!

The Fundraising Plea has come to an end. This is that moment on NPR when it's safe to start listening again without guilt! We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Links

Vulture Peter Dinklage's high school yearbook folder -- Mullet!
The Playlist Darren Aronofsky might not be ready to lead apocalyptic floods behind. But this time it's for TV with a Margaret Atwood adaptation
The Wire a definitive ranking of Tom Cruise's leading ladies post-Kidman
MNPP Bradley Cooper gets the hose again
THR ewww, Forrest Gump is going IMAX for a 20th anniversary rerelease. 'and that's all i have to say about that' 

Above Average every superhero movie (by which they mean mostly Spider-Man) in one take
TMZ George Jung penned a sequel to Blow while in prison (he just got out). TMZ calls the Johnny Depp movie of Blow a classic. Um... just because something is now 'old' does not make it classic. 
Critic Wire smart piece re: the ongoing story / speculation of why film critics are losing their jobs 
Guardian Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Dreamgirls) will direct a live action version of Beauty & The Beast for Disney. The Mouse House is getting hilarious with their regurgitation. How long until we have new versions of all of their product every other year to feed the machine?
Empire first image from Michael Mann's new crime thriller (with Chris Hemsworth & Viola Davis) which is either called Cyber or Black Hat
The Wire on the Harry Potter paraphenalia cameos in The Fault in Our Stars, which is from a different movie studio
Boy Culture congratulations to Matthew Rettenmund, another friend with a new book deal. Everyone's getting 'em lately. His book, called Starf*cker is memoirish about celebrity obsession. (And he's met a ton of them.)

And if you're wondering why there's no link to the story of Lupita's new project that's because it deserves its own article...

Finally...
WNYC published the transcript of a piece about performance artist Lucy Sexton called "I Married The Gay Father of My Child". The reason I'm sharing it here is that her husband is the Oscar nominated director Stephen Daldry of Billy Elliott, The Hours, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close fame. (Occasionally in the past when I've celebrated "out" artists in Hollywood, people have objected to his inclusion because 'he's married!')

Are you a different sort of wife in this marriage than you were in your first marriage?

Sure. Basically the most important difference being that the first marriage started from a romantic place and this did not. So, the purpose and intent is to build a family based in love, and that’s the most important thing. So, there’s a certain freedom. Your identities don’t mesh in the same way.

He can do what he does. I can do what I do. We both have careers in the arts, which take us all over the place and we’re both a very good team about supporting each other with that. I don’t mean to make it sound cold, but I think it’s a great working unit. That’s how it feels.