Linky Snicket

LA Times talks to Tarell Alvin McCraney who wrote the original play that became Moonlight
Variety JA Bayona's A Monster Calls has become his third consecutive #1 of the entire year at the Spanish box office. He also won the film year there for The Impossible and The Orphanage. He hasn't had as much luck stateside but since he's helming the next Jurassic World movie that'll presumably change
THR three Asian action stars (Tony Jaa, Tiger Chen, and Iko Uwais) will star in the next film from the director of John Wick
Playbill Audra McDonald getting a "special moment" pre-transformation in Beauty & the Beast

 

MTV "Rachel McAdams, blink twice if you need to be saved from your own career"
Jezebel More LGBTQ character on TV than ever before finds new study
i09 First teaser for Netflix's Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events with Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf - looks fairly generic at the moment. We'll see.
Towleroad Rami Malek to play Freddie Mercury in a biopic with Bryan Singer. We'll believe this one when we see it because there's been a rumored Mercury biopic as often as...
TFE ...Janis Joplin biopics (ICYMI)
Variety now that Oscar has its producers Michael de Luca & Jennifer Todd, they're talking about the search for a host - Jimmy Kimmel's name keeps coming up
Antagony & Ectasy a terrific analysis of The Handmaiden 
Awards Daily the first look at Jessica Chastain as an artist among Indians in Woman Walks Ahead (She's determined to win that Oscar, guys. So many chewy roles lined up)
MNPP Kathy Bates will be playing Bette Davis BFF Joan Blondell in Feud
World of Reel has the perfect gif reaction to Jaden Smith's Doctor Strange review
Comics Alliance Benedict Cumberbatch's secret secondary role in Doctor Strange (spoilers)
Deadline They're moving forward with a JRR Tolkien biopic called Middle Earth 

Off Cinema 4 Fun
Boy Culture remember's Divine's awesome "Shoot Your Shot" 
Huffington Post amusing 10 suggestions for dealing wtih Election Anxiety including volunteering, masturbation, and preaching to your choir

OH AND REMEMBER TO VOTE TOMORROW! Take it away Rachel Bloom

HOLY SH*T (You've Got To Vote) from Funny Or Die

Box Office: Doctor Strange, A Man Called Ove, and More...

What did you see this weekend?

The bulk of the moviegoing nation went to either Doctor Strange (reviewed) or Trolls as expected. Doctor Strange's nearly 85 million is a major success for Marvel Studios, though weaker than the Guardians of the Galaxy launch it was quite a lot stronger than the Ant-Man launch. It's already earned over $325 million globally. When is Marvel going to have their first flop? It seems a long way off, doesn't it? 

The top 10 wide and limited charts and notes on other pictures after the jump... 

Click to read more ...

Review: Doctor Strange

A slightly abridged version of this review was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad

For a franchise sprung from the fantastic realm of comic books, Marvel movies have not been particularly exciting on a broad visual level.

Sure, they’ve consistently managed iconic little visual beats within setpieces and that's no small thing. But they’re never suffused their films with eye-popping aesthetics as a matter of atmosphere. (The two exceptions to this rule are Guardians of the Galaxy‘s garish cosmic cartooonishness and Thor‘s brassy mythological kitsch). The Marvel film is more likely to stage its action setpieces and earnest conversations in vast empty spaces like sterile corporate buildings, parking garages, airport tarmacs, or mountain ranges. Given this predilection, the second half of Doctor Strange is absolutely jarring in a welcome way, never failing to give you plenty to gawk at...

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Comic-Con Trailer Round Up

Chris here with some post-Comic Con excitement. We've already shown you the two standouts of footage revealed at Comic Con (Wonder Woman and Kong: Skull Island) but they didn't suck all of the air out of the room. This year felt like the first in a long time to be jampacked with buzzy titles, from early first looks, deeper dives, and "Gotcha!" surprises. Here's some of the footage (and first thoughts) you might have missed:

Justice League

• Jason Momoa as Aquaman is the standout, striking the right balance of brooding and fun that BvS never struck.
• ... but haven't we been promised that Justice League would be a less morose affair? An amped up rock tune is not a levity factory - turn the volume off and unfortunately this looks like more of the same.
• If it brings more of Ezra Miller's charm to the masses, will it all be worth it anyway?
• No hinting at Superman's inevitable return, so thankfully no long-game tease of what we already know, killing any tension in the actual film.

Fantastic Beasts, a new take on King Arthur, and more after the jump...

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Doctor Strange is a Tease

Here's your Doctor Strange poster. He's looking very transparent with a hint of Asgardian rainbow bridge psychedelica. We'll wait for a full trailer to do the Yes No Maybe So but this teaser suggests a mishmash of two Chris Nolan pictures (Inception and Batman Begins) with The Matrix mentor-student head trip ("I know kung fu!") filtered through Marvel's clean and/or sterile (depending on how you like it) design aesthetic. We hoped to not be reminded of other movies for something with "Strange" in the title but alas...

Also: Why is Benedict Cumberbatch so suprised that Tilda Swinton gives him an out of body experience? That's just what happens to the audience every time she shows up onscreen.