In the Links

• The New Yorker Kathleen Turner is singing... yes, singing, at Cafe Carlyle for a week or so. OMG I'd love to cover that for y'all but that place is pricey.
• Film School Rejects the troubled history of the film adaptation of Lin-manuel Miranda's In the Heights may finally be ending with Warner Bros snatching up the rights
• MNPP on the trailer for the art slasher flick Knife + Heart premiering at Cannes

 

• The Guardian thoughtful piece by Xan Brooks about provocative cinema, Cannes, and Lars von Trier in our new age of moralizing
• Playbill California readers take note. At the upcoming Hollywood Bowl production of Annie, Megan Hilty, Ana Gasteyer, and Lea Salonga star. Fun casting! And those voices!!
• Boy Culture Trinity Taylor makes over Nico Tortorella who now identifies as gender fluid, or as he says 'sort of cisgendered but not so... CISSY
• AV Club Jordan Peele producing a series set in the '70s about Nazi-hunting in NYC. What now?
• DListed obsesses over a strange Cannes moment with John Travolta and 50 Cent
• MovieMaker profiles Geena Davis's Bentonville Film Festival 
• W Magazine interviews Brie Vinaite on her busy post-Florida Project life
• Film School Rejects "How Marvel Broke Storytelling" a good piece on exactly what the problem is with how they've trained audiences and deferred endings
• Playbill This is so heartbreaking. Just a few months ago Tony-winning actress Ruthie Ann Miles (The King and I) lost her daughter (to a driver who hit five pedestrians including Miles) and now due to complications from that tragic event she's lost her unborn child
• ExtraTV silly bro clip of Josh Brolin talking about his naked ad for Fish Love

Exit Video
Here's the trailer for the series finale movie of Sense8. Sad that this singular series from the Wachowski sisters and J Michael Straczynski is ending but glad we'll have closure.

The 25 Youngest Men Ever Nominated for Best Actor

by Nathaniel R

Timothée Chalamet photographed by Craig McDean for Interview magazine

With the fine coming of age romantic drama Call Me By Your Name now in limited release, audiences can join critics in swooning over the revelatory work of Timothée Chalamet's as the preternaturally sophisticated but hormonally confused Elio. He won the Gotham Awards "Breakthrough" award last night. Should his incredible performance earn him an Academy nomination for Best Leading Actor, he will be the third youngest man to ever receive that honor (he turns 22 the day after Christmas)...

Only Mickey Rooney and Jackie Cooper were younger in their Oscar races and both happened in Oscar's first dozen years (!) when the Academy's habits and fetishes and aversions were still being sorted out. They quickly turned against really young actors. While many women have won Best Actress in their 20s, it's only happened once for a man. The youngest leading male winner is currently Adrien Brody who won his Oscar for The Pianist (2002) just three weeks before he turned 30.

But who are the youngest male leads ever nominated? Read on for the dewiest 25. Tell us how many you've seen and who is your favorite...

YOUNGEST LEAD ACTOR NOMINEES

Click to read more ...

Now Streaming (Prime): Rocky, Bond, and Brad as "Joe Black"

It's that time of the month again. Streaming! Here are the new titles on Amazon Prime. As is our practice we'll freeze frame some at random to see what comes up -- no cheating! Will you be watching any of these? Do you remember them?

Russian Coach: He's nothing, he's soft
Swedish Dolph Pretending to be Russian: He's not a man. He is like a piece of iron.

Rocky IV (1985)
Remember when America was totally obsessed with Dick-Measuring with Russia. Oh wait... we're back there again only with a really gross twist (sigh). Side note: Most but not all of the Rocky films are avaiable for streaming but the not all point kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it? See also: James Bond movies.

Speaking of...

Click to read more ...

Beauty vs Beast: What is the Word?

Jason from MNPP here, on the verge of admitting something that might get me lynched a la Frankenstein's Monster round these parts -- I have never seen Grease. Yes, that Grease. The movie Grease. I think I'd get less incredulous looks from my fellow movie buffs (especially of the homosexual sort) if I were talking about grease-the-liquid when I say that, but I speak of the 1978 movie starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta.

Oh I have seen bits and pieces, it's really quite unavoidable (I would know, I have tried!), but a full-on straight-through sit-down til Sandy & Danny ride off on their hot-rod chariot into the sky? Nope. Five minutes of it gives me the hives and the heebie-jeebies, folks. Send your hate mail to, well, I guess to the comments of this post. Anyway it's Olivia Newton-John's 68th birthday today and we know our host Nathaniel's a big fan (and hey, I love that "Physical" video) so here's your Grease-themed "Beauty vs Beast." Also you could all probably come up with better Pros & Cons for each character than I could so feel free to share those in the comments... alongside your vitriol, of course...

PREVIOUSLY I have to say I am really proud of you guys for our last edition - in our face-off between Tommy Lee Jones and Best Supporting Actor winner Javier Bardem for No Country For Old Men, you bucked the Oscar trend and gave your prize to Tommy Lee with 55% of the vote. He gets my vote too. Said Nick T:

"Every single time I've watched this I've loved Tommy Lee Jones more and more. Ed Bell and Marge Gunderson would have the loveliest conversation."

Sterling K Brown: A Star is Born

As we continue celebrating actors this month, here's Murtada on a new one to cherish. He's our TV MVP this week...

Sarah Paulson brought both pathos and steeliness to spare to her portrayal of Marcia Clark. Courtney B Vance was fiery bluster, daring viewers to take their eyes off him as Johnny Cochran. John Travolta was so infinitely alien as Robert Shapiro that he proved fascinating to watch. Almost every single performance was top notch*. What an ensemble.

And yet the clear standout is Sterling K Brown as Chris Darden.

The finale cemented what everyone watching The People Vs O.J. Simpson suspected throughout the past few weeks; we have a new fantastic actor to be excited about. The calm authority he brought to Darden’s closing argument alone should earn him a lot of accolades. Yet he wasn’t finished. At the post-verdict press conference, he goes about delivering a heartfelt speech and then in a split second he realizes words don’t matter, that’s when Brown breaks our hearts. He walks towards the Goldmans with a hunched back and overcome emotions, his body clearly telling us that’s a defeated man. No that’s not all of it. He then earns more of our admiration in his final standoff with Vance. Again bringing an eerie calm to Darden’s final testament.Through him the show delivers its statement about our current world.

Then there’s his final scene scene with Paulson; clasping hands as they walk away as Nina Simone begins to sing. Throughout the series Brown displayed palpable chemistry with his co-stars. The rat-a-tat of give and take acting with both Vance and Paulson, so riveting to watch. But also more. Didn’t you swoon when he took Paulson into his arms for a dance? Their chemistry is already generating both headlines and obsessive fandom! He’s not only a great actor but perhaps a matinee idol? Those don’t come along that often. I bet a lot of us would look at Brown the way Paulson’s looking at him in the photo above if we got the chance.

We shall be seeing a lot more of Sterling K Brown, starting with the Emmys in September. Have you watched the finale?

*I would’ve said all if it wasn’t for Cuba Gooding Jr.