Review: Aretha biopic "Respect"

by Patrick Ball

The scene is a packed movie theater in Oakland, California on Christmas Day, 2006. The film is Dreamgirls. We’re finishing up the iconic musical number “Listen”, a solid 75-80% into the movie. Beyoncé’s Deena Jones hits the last passionate note and the audience loses it, clapping and hollering, and a woman stands up and screams “You GO, EFFIE!” That was how powerful Jennifer Hudson’s Academy Award winning performance was, that this woman was ascribing every fabulous moment in the movie to her and her character, even when another character/actress was onscreen.

Hudson has had a bumpy road as a film actress since then, but is back in a big way in Respect, the long awaited Aretha Franklin biopic...

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Showbiz History: Aretha, Mame, and Florence Pugh

5 random things that happened on this day, January 3rd, in showbiz history

1897 Marion Davies born in Brooklyn. The 1930s film star is best remembered in history as the mistress of tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Multiple films have featured their relationship including current Oscar hopeful Mank (2020).

1952 Dragnet begins airing in its regular time slot Thursdays at 9:00 PM on NBC (a couple of weeks after the pilot airs). The influential series -- which basically created the #1 tv genre, the procedural, will run for eight seasons, be relaunched in the late 1960s for another four seasons and spawn three movies. The last of those was a comedy in 1987  starring Tom Hanks just before Big served as the bridge between popular comic actor and serious actor, netting Hanks his first Oscar nod. Two short-lived one season attempts to revive Dragnet were attempted in 1989 and 2003 respectively...

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Curio: The Art of Kadir Nelson

Curated by Nathaniel R

Since we rebooted Alexa's old series Curio we've been focusing on specific movies or themes but this week we want to spotlight a famous artist who is getting another well-earned round of attention at the moment, with big magazine covers celebrating the Black Lives Matter movement for both The New Yorker and Rolling Stone. His name is Kadir Nelson. The 46 year old painter, who's won numerous awards in his career has done album covers, stamps, book covers, magazine illustration, and children's books. He sells limited edition lithographs, prints, and autographed books at his shop but you can also purchase his books at Amazon and other retailers at regular prices if you don't have a big budget for art.

His art focuses on African-American history but he doesn't do much movie-related art. That said he did work on two movies, Steven Spielberg's Amistad (1997) and the animated feature Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) early in his career. We scoured his Instagram for a few movie/tv related pieces after the jump...

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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

Soundtracking: Amazing Grace

by Chris Feil

In the year and change since Aretha Franklin has passed, it feels as if she never left, much as it often does when an artist’s legacy feels as eternal as hers. It’s not just that the Aretha songbook has remained as omnipresent in our culture as ever, but her place remained as cemented this year with the successful release of Amazing Grace. The concert doc captures the live recording of Franklin’s highest selling album of the same name, her first that was fully in the gospel genre that fostered her otherworldly gift. But perhaps what made the film feel even more special in the months after her death isn’t just the opportunity to witness her at peak powers, but also to see fragments of a more personal side revealed.

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