Review: "Stowaway" on Netflix

by Matt St Clair

Shamier Anderson is the titular "Stowaway"

One common trope in space movies is daddy issues. Whether it involves trying to find one’s dad in space or a sad father dealing family issues, as this 2019 Vulture article points out, it's a constant in outer-space movies. That's been especially true of this last decade with First Man, Interstellar, Ad Astra, and Netflix’s very recent space venture The Midnight Sky. But a surprise development! The new space movie Stowaway, from writer/director Joe Penna, is the rare film to abandon that trend altogether. The central quartet have struggles but not one of them is a daddy issue. 

Commander Marina Barnett (Toni Collette), botanist David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim), and medical researcher Zoe Levensen (Anna Kendrick) barely touch on their respective home lives as they make their way to Mars for a two-year space mission...

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Linkovers

• New York Times "The artists have been rebuked. Now what about their art?"
• Gr8ter Days which years were the worst for celebrity deaths? A morbid obsessive list that's kind of eye opening. I mean 1977... ouch.
• Los Angeles Times Carol Burnett on the 50th anniversary of her classic show
• The Guardian Guy Lodge wonders about the relative sexlessness of Call Me By Your Name and Moonlight before it and whether that timidity is what it takes for an LGBT film to become a big Oscar player?

Much more after the jump including Justice League credits, Daniel Dae Kim, Michael Apted, Aquaman, an honor for Detroit and the first round of PGA nominations...

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Unlinkable

Awards Daily Jazz interviews Ali Fazal of Victoria & Abdul
Variety Rock star Tom Petty was reported dead today but reports may have been premature. Story developing but sounds dire
Coming Soon M Night Shyamalan's sequel to Unbreakable starring Samuel L Jackson and called Glass is now shooting
/Film Charlies Angels, a property which never truly dies but keeps trying to find new relevance, is trying again. They're talking up Lupita Nyong'o and Kristen Stewart for leading roles. Kristen's been doing amazing work lately but she is 100% wrong for Charlie's Angels which needs exuberant pop flair when she's all minimalist / sober as an actor. WTH?

Decider surprise! Gerald's Game, a Stephen King adaptation for Netflix starring Carla Gugino, is good
Coming Soon Daniel Dae Kim's stunt training for the Hellboy reboot
/Film Hocus Pocus moves forward as a TV movie remake - none of the original actors or filmmaking team are involved
David Poland on Blade Runner 2049 with no spoilers "It is Aliens to Alien" ... whoa, that's high praise
Billboard composer Danny Elfman interviewed about Superman's iconic theme (redeployed for Justice League) and his long collaboration with Gus Van Sant
Playbill Judy Garland's final concert, restored/remastered from 1969 will be released for the first time
i09 on why you should be watching the Exorcist TV series, back for Season 2
/Film Amazon still has a lot of work to do to catch up with Netflix and Hulu but they're diving into the sci-fi genre big time

stage of screen
Playbill a new musical version of Roald Dahl's The Witches (previously dramatizes wonderfully with Anjelica Huston as the High Witch in the 1990 film) coming to the National Theater of London
Gothamist more on the Pretty Woman musical coming to Broadway
Playbill the Mean Girls marquee is up on Broadway now. It's not just on Wednesdays when it's pink

funny haha
Electric Literature what 7 classic literary characters' dick pics would look like from Atticus Finch to Jay Gatsby (p.s. this is actually safe for work so go ahead and click if you're at your place of employment)

Tony Awards Presenters & Broadway Carpool

The Tony Awards hit this weekend with James Corden, former Tony winner and current star of The Late Late Show,  hosting. Sundays ceremony will feature performances from the following musicals: Bright Star, The Color Purple (adapted from the film), Fiddler on the Roof, Hamilton, On Your Feet (the Gloria Estefan musical) School of Rock (adapted from the film), She Loves Me, Shuffle Along, Spring Awakening, and Waitress (adapted from the film).

But which stars of stage and screen will be presenting and which actually belong there?  Since the Tony Awards are televised they tend to give TV & film stars the honors of presenting even though they really ought to pair them with stage giants to make the festivities more attuned to the actual honors being handed out. That minor quibble aside at least the stars chosen to present generally have some sort of Broadway connection.

This year's presenters in the order of how much Broadway stage cred they have after the jump... but first the utter delights of "Broadway Carpool" with James Corden & Lin-Manuel Miranda. Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Audra McDonald and Jane Krakowski absolutely kill it with the singing and comedy in the back seat once they get to Les Miz...

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Two Must Reads: Asian Actors Speak Out, and Method Acting's History

After two hit TV shows Daniel Dae Kim is Broadway's new King of SiamTwo Must Reads today that are a pleasure to highlight

The Hollywood Reporter published a piece called "Where are the Asian-American Movie Stars?" that's definitely worth a look. Kudos to fine actors like Maggie Q, Daniel Wu, Daniel Dae Kim, Ming-Na Wen and others for forging and holding down careers (it can't have been easy) and speaking out about the white-washing. The problem is not just that Hollywood doesn't get it but that they also don't make use of what they already have. There is plentiful camera-ready talent out there, but Hollywood mostly ignores Asian Actors.

The white washing is so egregious lately that even an upcoming animated film from China called The Guardian Brothers has an all non-Asian voice cast for its US release! What the holy f***? That cast includes Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, and quite frankly that pisses me off. They should know better. Neither of those perpetually working  Oscar winning goddesses need the exposure, the work, or the money that that job will offer.  

[More after the jump on this topic and Method Acting, too...]

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