How To Get Away With Linking

/Film Keith Stanfield of Short Term 12 fame will play Snoop Dogg in the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton. He also has a key supporting role in Selma. So glad things are going his way
Buzzfeed Must read list of 17 black women who deserve their own biopic. God, if we could get even half of these projects greenlit there'd finally be roles for our best black actresses to fight over. I'd replace some of the dream names with better actresses though. Where's my Lorraine Toussaint and Kimberly Elise?
In Contention icymi images from Selma have been going around. Can't wait to see this movie 
Playboy interviews the one and only Terry Gilliam on Zero Theorem and his past pictures

Playbill in light of all the 'was it or wasn't it cut from the movie?' discussion around Into the Woods' songbook, here's a list of famous numbers that were cut from their film versions like Cabaret, Dreamgirls and so on
Gawker has an amusing objection to Clive Owen hawking vodka
MI6 the new James Bond film is looking for a memorable assassin called "Hinx" -- muscular and over 6'2" and will have some major fight scenes. 
Bam Smack Pow a twitter account called Josh Trank gave us our first look at what Jamie Bell will look like in Fantastic Four (i.e. not like Jamie Bell at all. Ugh. Why you wanna cast him in a role where we can't see his face. Sigh) but it turned out to be a prank
Moviefone talks with Joseph Gordon-Levitt about Sin City: A Dame To Kill For and tries to ask about that proposed Sandman adaptation, too

Tweet of the Week

View from my car on the way to work....uh....pressure? pic.twitter.com/28iZ4JyyRz

— Viola Davis (@violadavis) August 23, 2014

 Love you Viola! We do. We do. 

Gay Gay Gay
The Guardian MPAA is homophobic. What else is new. If you have gay content you're obviously always R. Even without sex scenes. See: Love is Strange. 
The Advocate explains why there needs to be more gay sex on television. Looking can't do it alone!   

Cinema and Real Life
The Stake on what we can learn from sci-fi movies and TV about the militarization of police forces 
Salon is the medium's obsession with Robin Williams suicide rough on those struggling with depression? That'd be a yes.

Off Cinema But Of Interest
i09  incredible photo tribute to the cats who served in World War I. I had no idea about this. I now feel personally cheated that there's never been a good cat moment in a prestige war movie.
AV Club have you heard there's a transphobic Congressmen messing with Laverne Cox's Wikipedia page. Shameful. (And while we're on the subject of Orange is the New Black stars, I'm thrilled that Lori Petty will be joining Season 3. I guess she'll get transferred to Litchfield or something)
Salon interviews Sinead O'Connor on her new record and why she won't sing some of her early work anymore 

Jamie Bell & Jamie Bell

2 new Jamie Bell films this year. 28 spankings for Jamie Bell. 462 days until Jamie Bell turns into a giant orange rock monster.

Obligatory Superhero Update: "Fantastic Four" & "Doctor Strange"

I didn't think I was going to have anything to say about the recently announced Fantastic Four reboot cast that I hadn't already said in previous posts. But then they forced my hand with the Jamie Bell casting. If you don't frequent mainstream click-baiting movie blogs (most of which live for superhero movie news) the news goes like so:

• Mr Fantastic, Reed Richards (stretchy scientific genius) - Miles Teller
• Invisible Girl (Mr Fantastic's wife, Sue Storm) - Kate Mara
• The Human Torch (Sue's brother) - Michael B Jordan
• The Thing, Ben Grimm (Reed's best friend) - Jamie Bell  

Click to read more ...

Yes, No, Maybe So: Nymphomaniac

I have been remiss in my Von Trier worshipping duties. He was once basically vying for Nathaniel's Favorite Working Director since I loved everything he made from 1996 through 2004. But in roughly those same years Almodóvar was peaking and Lars lost the Battle of the Auteurs. In the past nine years I have gone off Lars a little though Melancholia (2011) came thisclose to reginiting the passion. If it had only been tighter! I've tried to rewatch it a few times because I think it's a near masterpiece but the padding and wandering repetitions really undermine its potency and actively make me angry since it could have been one for the all time lists!

Which brings us to Nymphomaniac which is NOT keeping it tight as if to spite me. It's the story of a very loose woman, played by glutton for punishment Charlotte Gainsbourg (3 films with LVT now), and it's reportedly 5 hours long. (One wonders what it is that editors actually do on an LvT picture beyond lining up the scenes and calling it a day.)

So let's do a Yes No Maybe So on the very very very NSFW trailer so don't click on the "click to read more" link if nudity offends you since there will be screen captures... Okay, prudes and whores, let's do this!

Click to read more ...

Free Bong!

JA from MNPP here. I assume you guys been following the burgeoning brouhaha surrounding the new movie Snowpiercer from South Korean director Bong Joon-ho? The film is Bong's first English-language feature (you should definitely seek out some of his previous work like Mother or Memories of Murder, if you are unfamiliar) and stars Chris Evans, Jamie Bell and Tilda Swinton amongst others, and is set in a post-apocalyptic future on board a train barreling through the wintry wilderness. The film's gotten some seriously positive reviews at some film festivals (and if any of you have actually seen the movie out there, please do share) over the past few months...

... which apparently means little to The Weinstein Company, who snapped up the distribution rights to the movie for half of the globe only to immediately decide that twenty minutes or so needed to be lopped off of it. There's been some back and forth about it in the press, and Bong's tried to remain diplomatic about it. Until now, that is - Variety's reporting that he's furious, and telling audiences now that the cut that most of the world will end up seeing will not be his cut.

I'll point out that it's impossible for me to hide my tone here - I've spent years watching Harvey Weinstein snap up horror movies with magnificent festival buzz only to hide them away and botch their release, so I've had some time to build up these resentments. They are deep and I can't be counted upon for a level head here. I'm just glad we live in a connected world of technological wonder where I'll be able to see Bong's film the way it was intended as soon as it's released in South Korea, and therefore bypass putting a penny into the Weinstein's pockets. That said, I recognize I haven't seen the film - maybe Harvey knows best? What do you guys think about this?