Sunday in the Link with George

This link roundup was intended for last night, hence the title. We cannot be bound by time here at TFE

• Jake Gyllenhaal omg he's joined instagram and on his second post he's singing Sondheim with Annaleigh Ashford. L-O-V-E
• Vulture a fun interview with Patrick Wilson on Aquaman and much more
• Talkhouse Bruce LaBruce on underknown Canadian Christmas thriller The Silent Partner
• MNPP Stephan James eight times
• Jezebel Oscar-nominated actress/ sometime director Sondra Locke (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter) has died but the obituaries are all about her turbulent relationship with Clint Eastwood

• THR Netflix is making a Dark Crystal prequel with Taron Egerton, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Nathalie Emmanuel as the lead gelflings
• AV Club more Emmy rule changes around what counts as a TV movie 
• Deadline Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan to star in a lesbian romance
• Variety Lumiere award nominations from France (not to be confused with the Césars which are the Oscar equivalent but announce later)
• The New Yorker a convincing pan of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (and you don't see that every day!) that ends with a recommend list of other 'high-feminine mythmaking' worth checking out
• Polygon talks to Phillipa Boyens about the best moment in Return of the King for its 15th anniversary

Finally...
The IndieWire Critics poll has been released. I continue to be dumbfounded that critics support, nay, EMBRACE, category fraud as if they, too, have no respect for any actor who isn't the lead of a movie. You'd think critics (of all people) would be the check and balance on this sort of anti-art gamemanships. It's dumbfounding because they have nothing to gain by kowtowing to the whims of publicists and the egos of movie stars, rather than voting with integrity. They get access either way. I know as one such critic who everyone knows rejects category fraud wherever I see it. As with SAG, 60% of the Supporting Actress list is leading ladies. If you're wondering why Bradley Cooper missed the Best Actor list please know that for some reason he was left off of the pulldown list during voting. I wrote him in but I imagine a lot of people would not have gone to the trouble, not for any nefarious reason but because he slipped their mind when they did not see him on the list of choices. I do not support these kind of shenanigans! But the winners are Roma, Alfonso Cuarón, Olivia Colman, Ethan Hawke, Rachel Weisz (for best leading supporting actress), and Steven Yeun.

Beauty vs Beast: Sugar & Spice & Everything March

Hello and happy Monday everyone, Jason from MNPP here with another edition of our "Beauty vs Beast" series - Louisa May Alcott's book Little Women just turned 150 this year and it's hotter than it's ever been. There was a BBC version with Maya Hawke and Emily Watson and Angela Lansbury that aired here in the US in the spring. Then this very weekend there's a modernized retelling hitting theaters. And then of course the one sucking all the air out of the room - Greta Gerwig's all-star edition set for next year, whose cast is so stacked we'd be here all day if I try listing off everybody - just look at the IMDb page.

Anyway a lot of us (even if we're excited to see all of those actors in one place and under her direction) aren't entirely sure why Greta's making this new version - not when there's Gillian Armstrong's perfectly lovely 1994 adaptation already, anyway. Winona Ryder as Jo, Christian Bale as Laurie, Susan Sarandon as Marmee, Kirsten Dunst as Amy, Claire Danes as Beth (cough cough)... these are the people I picture when I picture Little Women. And then one second later I immediately remember Amy burning Jo's manuscript and I see red...

picture polls

PREVIOUSLY I'm not sure if it was mostly Riz Ahmed Lust or if it was just that Jake's character is so (deliciously) despicable, but y'all surprised me and went and gave Riz/Rick your prize on last week's Nightcrawler contest with nearly 60% of the vote. Lou's a loser!

Anyway maybe it's just simply what Nick T said:

"Rick's just a nice cute guy who doesn't even know he's in over his head and Jake's a mean ol' lizard. Easy call."

And the Skies Are Not Cloudy All Day

by Jason Adams

At several key moments in Jacques Audiard's hymnal The Sisters Brothers time stands still and we watch a curtain gently shift to and fro in the breeze, mid-day sunlight coloring in its folds, making shade where none just was. Take a moment to smell the roses, the film whispers, because hey you never know if and or when you might get shot right in your face... 

Click to read more ...

Months of Meryl: Rendition (2007)

John and Matthew are watching every single live-action film starring Meryl Streep.  

#37 —Corrine Whitman, the ruthless head of U.S. intelligence.

MATTHEW: If the one-two punch of A Prairie Home Companion and The Devil Wears Prada in 2006 represent a high-water mark for Meryl Streep then 2007 might very well be the single oddest year in the actress’ career. How else to explain Streep’s decision to accept secondary and even tertiary parts in four independent-to-midrange projects that not a single Streep enthusiast has ever had the inclination to hold up alongside her most acclaimed or memorable works? Streep spent part of the prior year accepting prizes for Prada and, most excitingly, playing one of the all-time greatest characters in theater history on the outdoor stage of the Delacorte. During that period, Streep also found time to dip her toes into the murky waters of post-9/11 cinema for a second time, following up her monstrous mommy in Jonathan Demme’s The Manchurian Candidate with an equally vile political puppeteer...

Click to read more ...

"Sister Brothers" Trailer + Updated Oscar Acting Charts

by Nathaniel R

Quip Quip Bang Bang. ← I probably should've saved that sentence for the eventual review of The Sisters Brothers but here we are with the trailer upon us just as we're trying to update the Oscar charts. The western comedy (?) is adapted from the novel by Patrick DeWitt which is about two assassins Eli (John C Reilly) and Charlie Sisters (Joaquin Phoenix), who are sent to a man named Warm (Riz Ahmed), who is accused of stealing from the Sisters' boss The Commodore (Rutger Hauer, unseen in this first trailer). More after the jump... 

Click to read more ...