It's Almost Tony Time!

Hey, everybody! It's Dancin' Dan, here to fulfill the award show-shaped void in your life with coverage of the 2013 Tony Awards! I will be back here tomorrow at 8 PM sharp (Eastern time) to watch the festivities with you and cheer on my favorites: Pippin, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and...

GAH! Even after seeing both Kinky Boots and Matilda quite recently, I still don't know which I'm rooting for! This is a very rare event for me in terms of award shows in general, and Best Musical at the Tonys specifically. Last year, for example, I was adamant that Once needed to win over its chief rival, Newsies (interesting that the frontrunners for Best Musical both this year and last year have movie predecessors - although technically Matilda is based on Roald Dahl's novel, not Danny DeVito's film version). But this year, both Kinky Boots and Matilda are such good musicals, that I don't think I can choose. Matilda sometimes trips over its ambitions a bit, but is still amazingly effective and ridiculously entertaining. Kinky Boots, meanwhile, is far better than it had any right to be all the way down the line. Even after hearing the good reviews (you can read Nathaniel's right here), I was still surprised by just how good it was, which only speaks well of it.

If I absolutely had to cast a ballot, I would probably give Best Musical and Best Book to Matilda, and give Cyndi Lauper Best Score for Kinky Boots. But even as I wrote that, I did so with a heavy heart, because Tim Minchin's lyrics for Matilda are so delicious, and Harvey Fierstein's book for Kinky Boots is impeccable, bettering just about everything from the film. All I know is, whatever they do announce as the big winner, I will be pretty happy (just so long as it isn't Bring It On), which means it was a pretty good year for Broadway musicals!

Things are much easier on the Play side of things. Tracy Letts gave one of the greatest performances I've ever seen on stage in the revelatory revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which should win Best Revival hands down, and good as Richard Greenberg's The Assembled Parties is, Christopher Durang just about topped himself with V&S&M&S, a comic tour de force of rare depth.

What are you rooting for at the Tonys this year? Tell us in the comments! And be sure to join me here tomorrow evening for Broadway's Big Event. Neil Patrick Harris will be hosting again, so you at least know the show will be lots of fun!

Birthday parties at the movies

Hi everyone, it’s Tim. Our host and founder might be gone for a little while, but the women and men of Team Film Experience will still be around to keep the lights on, even without Nathaniel’s guiding hand to keep things on track. For example, you can expect to see my four-part series, "Michelle Pfeiffer: Decent, But She’s Sure No Renée Zellweger", beginning next week.

Kidding! Happy Birthday, Nathaniel, here's Michelle being all smoldering.

Anyway, as Nathaniel mentioned, it’s also his birthday, and in his honor, I’d like to go on a little tour of some of the all-time best cinematic birthdays.

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blowing out the candles, flying overseas

I woke up with a totally horrid summer cold ~ happy birthday to me! But I can't let that stop me. Due to a manic expediting of an expired passport, and an otherwise stressful week, I haven't prepared anything fancy to say goodbye with and haven't curated a selection of guest bloggers (whoops) as is my normal way since I'm always afraid you'll leave me if the blog is empty for a week... but flights wait for no blog! I'm off for a week overseas.

The blog isn't quite 'going dark' -- that's too dramatic and technically complicated -- but will return to full glory starting on Monday the 17th.

We'll call this a Summer Hiatus though there might be a surprise post or two  - no promises. Much Ado About Nothing, Violet & Daisy, Man of Steel, and The Bling Ring are all opening while I'm away damnit

But sometimes you just gotta unplug. We'll catch up when I get back and am creatively recharged for another great film year and Oscar race!

Yes, No, Maybe So? "Malavita"... Which is Now "The Family"

It's not every month, hell, it's not every year when we get the trailer to a new Michelle Pfeiffer movie so naturally we have to talk about Malavita again. Or, I guess, The Family as it's been rechristened before release. It's always a pity when a movie ditches a really specific title for one that could work for thousands of movies and thus stakes no claim on personality whatsoever.

Perhaps the trailer itself has personality. Let's watch and discuss.

[watches]

Okay. Only watch that if you're the kind of person who doesn't care about spoilers. IF you are this kind of person i envy you because the movie studios don't care about them either - they love shovin' them into trailers. I get the sense you're basically seeing the whole movie here.  But we gotta break it down anyway as we do because...

LA PFEIFFER IS BACK

YES

• Michelle Pfeiffer saying "merci"
• This might be funny. It's kinda tough to tell in the trailer because so much of comedy depends on good editing and trailers never have a sense of that since they're cutting entirely different scenes and dialogue together for their specific 2 minute effect
• The return of Michelle Pfeiffer's Married to the Mob accent "we're not in Brooklyn anymore"
• Michelle Pfeiffer driving that car with those sunglasses
• Tommy Lee Jones has been on a real roll lately. Does this end the party or continue it?
• and Michelle Pfeiffer as fire starter. Bring it bitch. 

NO

• After Silver Linings Playbook, I'd like to believe that Robert DeNiro is back to acting rather than cashing in but a mob comedy is probably not the place to believe that.
• Whenever trailers show this much of the wink-wink laughs and action, I worry about "those are all the best parts" and there's a lot of ways in which this might be super offensive (xenophobia, "hurting people is hilarious!" immaturity and so on) rather than funny. 

MAYBE SO

 

• Luc Besson, in the director's seat, isn't totally reliable.
• The casting of the kids looks great visually but Dianna Agron coasts a lot on her looks and when you're playing Pfeiffer's daughter... well, she better take it up a notch. Pfeiffer never did that and good lord she could have coasted for decades with the ones she got.
• Also: Can you believe my restraint that I only used one photo of Pfeiffer to illustrate this?

Here's the trailer if you don't mind spoilers.

Are you a Yes, No or Maybe So?

Beauty Break: Actors & Pups

I am a crazy cat lady but I like dogs in short doses and I especially like seeing movie stars with their pets. Seeing people with their pets (or other people's pets) adds a level of adorable realness that you just can't get any other way. Even movie stars pick up poop and clean catboxes!

Tom Hardy and puppy kisses

This dog doesn't need to watch movies to know how kissable Tom Hardy is! 

Brad, Leo, Josh, Clark and more after the jump...

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