You Will Be Linked

The Atlantic drive-in movie theaters are having a moment. Not that there are many of them around. 
Variety Anne Hathaway to star in the adaptation of the memoir French Children Don't Throw Food
The New Yorker "pandemics and the shape of history"
MNPP Dolly Parton will be reading to children every Thursday on YouTube
Variety in the land of stars getting creative during the shelter in place, Emilia Clarke is offering a virtual dinner for charity for coronavirus relief. You get to cook with her and eat with her if you're selected.
/Film Genius: Queen of Soul starring Cynthia Erivo as Aretha Franklin delayed til later this year (in related news Respect starring Jennifer Hudson is moving to 2021. I think we know who loses in an acting cage match between the two, even if they won't be competing at the same awards show.)
Boy Culture the last time various household name artists charted on the top 40
Coming Soon remember the days when Netflix never cancelled any of their shows? Those days are long gone. October Faction and V Wars are both cancelled after their first seasons (though Locke & Key gets to stay for a second round)
Deadline Sony moves all their big ticket 2020 movies to 2021 in one swoop. 
Deadline Oscar-nominated songwriter Adam Schlesinger ("That Thing You Do") of the band Fountains of Wayne in a medically induced coma due to coronavirus

Exit Music
James Corden gathered up Ben Platt and the current touring company of Dear Evan Hansen to sing "You Will Be Found". Lovely song. It starts around 2:30

Almost There: Ben Affleck in "Hollywoodland"

by Cláudio Alves

Ben Affleck may be one of Hollywood's A-listers, but he's not quite respected as an artist. More precisely, he's not often celebrated for being a performer, having otherwise received plenty of acclaim for his work as a director and producer. Just look at his awards history. He's gotten very little love for his acting skills but won two Academy Awards, for writing Good Will Hunting and for producing Argo. Had he been nominated for directing the latter, as it was widely expected, he'd probably have added another little golden man to his collection. It's difficult to feel bad for the fellow, but, at the same time, Affleck's reputation as a subpar actor isn't completely warranted. 

While it's true his range is narrow, when cast in the right role, Ben Affleck can be quite impressive. You'll find no better example of that than 2006's Hollywoodland…

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Watch at Home: 1917 Again.

A biweekly look at what's new for home viewing...

New on DVD or Blu-Ray
• 1917 - Sam Mendes continuous shot war epic took home 3 Oscars. We shudder to think how reduced it will be via motion-smoothing on the nation's TVs.
• Clemency -Too somber to win legions of fans but this death row drama has amazing performances
• Come to Daddy - Elijah Wood sure does make a lot of indies, doesn't he?
• The Current War - After years of sitting on a shelf and then a swift wide release, we're definitely curious...

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Toshiro Mifune @ 100: The Hidden Fortress

Team Experience is celebrating the Centennial of Japan's great movie star Toshiro Mifune for the next few days. Here's Nathaniel R...

Raised as an American child (through no fault of my own) in the era when the original Star Wars trilogy first captured the world's hearts, it's perhaps unsurprising that I knew Star Wars before any of its influences. Though my innate interest in cinema led me eventually to "Akira Kurosawa's greatest hits" somehow The Hidden Fortress (1958), always escaped my eyes. I knew of it mainly only as 'that movie that everyone says inspired George Lucas's space opera.' 

It would be foolish to pretend with snobbish cinephilia that the original Star Wars film doesn't improve on its then 19 year-old inspiration, but The Hidden Fortress deserves more than this footnote status; minor Kurosawa is still Kurosawa...

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Deneuve on Criterion

by Cláudio Alves

Catherine Deneuve is one of the most beautiful people to ever step in front of a camera. Since the 60s, she has dazzled moviegoers in projects that span from conventional fare to the craziest experiments. While it's true she may not be a performer of astounding tonal flexibility or chameleonic aptitude, many directors have known how to utilize Deneuve's ice queen persona to great effect. Demy made her into a paragon of youthful romance, Buñuel captured a dangerous masochism in her eye, Polanski made her sing rhapsodies of madness while Téchiné gave Deneuve opportunity to modulate her expression into painful naturalism. She is a muse to many an auteur and it's easy to see why – her face must have been made for the big screen by the cinema gods.

If you want to peruse her cinematic glories, The Criterion Channel is currently streaming a marvelous collection of 16 Deneuve films. Here are five highlights from the collection…

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