Once Upon a Link in Hollywood

• Variety intereesting news about Disney's alternate compensation plan for TV creatives (the television landscape is changing but pay structures haven't and are essentially still based on the old and outdated 22 episodes per season model)
• Vulture HBO has denied the IndieWire charges of what went down on Big Little Lies season 2 in terms of Andrea Arnold and the final edit
• The New Yorker another piece on Big Little Lies and its prescient season 1 finale and season 2 as a metaphor for the Hollywood fallout from #MeToo

After the jump Jennifer Lawrence, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, motion smoothing, Lord of the Rings casting, and more...

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Remembering Rutger Hauer (1944-2019)

by Nathaniel R

"All those moments will be lost like tears in the rain."

Thus went the immortal words of Roy Batty, in Blade Runner (1982) as he breathed his last, betrayed by the cruel brevity of life. Rutger Hauer improvised one of cinema's all-time greatest death scenes when he was just 38. The actor, who turned 75 this past January, has now passed on, dying at his home in The Netherlands after a short illness.

Rutger Hauer first came to worldwide fame in 1973 as the star of Paul Verhoeven's Oscar-nominated sexually provocative Turkish Delight (the most successful Dutch film of all time). More buzzy international hits from his home country followed. Hollywood soon came calling as they usually do when someone who can speak English fluently has multiple imported hits...

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YNMS: "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood"

by Lynn Lee

It’s here!  The trailer for the much-anticipated Mister Rogers movie, starring Tom Hanks as everyone’s favorite neighbor, dropped Monday…and a million Gen-Xers wept tears of pure nostalgia.  But what does the trailer reveal about the film that we didn’t already know?  Not a whole lot, as it turns out.  Let’s break it down...

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Doc Corner: Oscar-nominated 'Streetwise' and its 35-years-later sequel

By Glenn Dunks

For a film about teenagers living rough, squatting in dilapidated and abandoned hotels or homeless on the streets, there is a remarkable amount of poetic beauty in Streetwise. The work of director Martin Bell (American Heart) was born out of a Life exposé called “Streets of the Lost” by his photographer wife (also noted as a film still photographer) Mary Ellen Mark and journalist Cheryl McCall and it is the latter pair’s continued relationship with the runaway teenagers who populate its intimate yet sprawling narrative that was so essential to Bell being given the remarkable access that Streetwise offers.

Originally released in 1984 and now restored for its 35th anniversary, Bell’s documentary was nominated for an Academy Award. And it probably would have won, too, had it not been for The Times of Harvey Milk. So not quite as egregious of a loss as I had assumed as I sat stunned through the end credits of the 35th anniversary restoration. Re-released in tandem with a belated sequel, Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell that is also directed by Bell, the power of Streetwise remains with its all too relevant story of teenagers on the streets of Seattle known at the time as the most liveable city in the world...

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Big Little Lies MVPs: Episode 2.7 "I Want to Know"

Previously: Episode 1 (Nathaniel) Episode 2 (Spencer) Episode 3 (Lynn) Episode 4 (Nathaniel) Episode 5 (Eric) Episode 6 (Chris)

by Nathaniel R

Parting is such sweet sorrow. But so is sticking together. With the seventh and final episode of Big Little Lies -- beware SPOILERS ahead all throughout this post-- we're in some ways directly back where we ended last season, with the Monterey Five, all in harmonious agreement. This time around, though, it's a bit grimmer if you stop to think about what might occur after they all confess. We don't mean the threat of a possible third season (which we don't actually think will happen) but the narrative possibilities inside our own heads. Exactly how do you conspire to lie about manslaughter and get away with it? Did Celeste keep her children only to lose them? Did Madeline save her marriage only to lose her freedom? Etcetera. 

But we're jumping right to the finale and we need to backtrack again for the best moments and fine performances of the finale...

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