Riley Keough is our queen!

by Cláudio Alves

Nepotism is alive and thriving in modern Hollywood. Just look at the enviable careers of Margaret Qualley, Maya Hawke, Emma Roberts, Dakota Johnson, and more. Another name to add to that list would be Riley Keough, daughter of Lisa Marie Presley and Dany Keough. Naturally, she's also the granddaughter of none other than "The King of Rock 'n' Roll" himself, Elvis Presley. 

Keough, like many current rising stars, was already born with a foot in the door and the benefit of her celebrity lineage in an otherwise tough business to break into. However, she has more than proven herself once inside. We'd go so far as to say that she's one of her generation's brightest rising stars, having shown excellence in a variety of tones, genres and acting styles across an already enviable young filmography...

Click to read more ...

Lost Podcast / Last Jedi

Surprise! The following podcast was lost after a recent move but has been recovered. This podcast was recorded over the Christmas break but the SAG part at least is hyper relevant to this weekend with the Screen Actors Guild Awards hitting tomorrow. 

Nathaniel welcomes a particularly grouchy Nick Davis and new guest Teo Bugbee who had just pulled an all nighter to see Star Wars The Last Jedi. We discuss what the hell Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro are doing in it before moving on to SAG's "Outstanding Ensemble" nominees (and other ensemble films we like, too). 

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Lost Podcast Last Jedi

Links: Car Eyes, Sad Batman, Oscar Guesswork, Inspiring Denzel

General Linkage
i09 Mad Mad Fury Road meets Pixar's Cars
AV Club ignoring that nobody on god's green earth could possibly want to relive the election fiasco of 2016, Megan Ellison and Mark Boal (Zero Dark Thirty) are developing a miniseries about it right now. Too soon.
Interview Mag there's going to be a biopic of Sammy Davis Jr. They have casting suggestions including Elijah Kelley as Sammy and Delroy Lindo as his father
Cinesnark has an ode to Keanu Reeves, calling him 'the last great movie star.' I personally think the demise of the movie star is a myth (that's been being told my entire lifetime... and yet my lifetime has had plenty of new movie stars in it) but I tend to like pieces like this anyway because worshipping movie stars is fun
The New Yorker looks at the silent film Different From Others, reportedly the first gay romantic drama on film

MNPP Tom Cullen has been at the gym and has a movie coming out co-starring his love Tatiana Maslany
Screen Crush Ben Affleck rumored to want out of the Batman game. I mean... he does look miserable doing it, so why not? Batman is the star not the actor playing him anyway. Notice how many faces he's already worn since 1989 and he's still just as popular
Tracking Board Mahershala Ali is joining Channing Tatum and Tom Hardy for a new crime drama called Triple Frontier

Oscar Stuff
Feinberg Forecast Feinberg is predicting 10 Oscars for La La Land, losing only 3 categories
Variety on the backlash to La La Land and why "exuberance" matters. I co-sign this post. I hate when films are deemed "not important enough" as that leads to comedies and family films and adventures and romances and all sorts of genres that produce classics being regularly overlooked at the Oscars
Write Out of LA is, on the other side, all in for the La La Land backlash 
Variety Netflix sharing Ava DuVernay's with classrooms, community groups, and book clubs
Variety Moonlight took the USC Scripter prize for adapted screenplay
Indie Wire Anne Thompson says Moonlight is "guaranteed" one Oscar win. Guaranteed feels like too strong a word for me when both of its potential wins (Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actor) have to face off against a surging Lion which took both of those categories at the BAFTAs
... oh and BAFTA wins and gowns in case you missed those posts here! 

In Case You Missed It
Denzel Washington gave an inspiring speech at the NAACP Image Awards. I'm still torn as to whether he'll pull off a third Oscar win for Fences but I'm rooting for it, since it can't be Viggo!

A "Moana" Sneak Peek with Lin Manuel-Miranda

We're just 25 days from Moana hitting theaters and more fresh looks have been coming. This past week I had the opportunity to see a few scenes and hear Lin-Manuel Miranda speak about the film afterwards. Curiously the scenes they showed us weren't "song scenes" despite the pairing of those two things.

We mostly saw scenes involving Moana herself, voiced by the joyful Auli'i Cravalho, the teenage discovery Disney chose to voice their latest princess. Baby Moana, before Auli'i Cravalho takes over, is just about the cutest thing ever and there's a long scene of her discovering the ocean that is not unlike the adorability of Pixar's wonderful short from earlier this season, Piper, albeit with less fear because Moana is immediately in love with the ocean. 

They also showed us a complicated ocean action sequence that the exuberant Venezuelan animator who hosted the event revealed was inspired by Mad Max Fury Road. Later when Lin-Manuel Miranda spoke we learned that he got the job before Hamilton (!) and when he was composing for Maui the demi-god he used The Rock's wrestling videos, of all things, to get a sense of his vocal range.

I was reminded of that when this new clip emerged very recently featuring The Rock singing in character as the demi-god who accompanies Moana on her journey. (In one of the clips I saw last week we also got a sense of how fun his magical tatoos are, including "Mini-Maui"  who you can meet here for yourself.)

Are you counting down the days? Or are you still a Zootopia or Red Turtle fan for the Oscar?

Six Alternate Cinematic Realities More Desirable Than Trump's America

Daniel Crooke here. Just in time for the newest season of Game of Thrones, Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich’s presidential aspirations are officially, swiftly deceased – leaving the door open for a brave new world even more horrific than some of the worst doomsday scenarios we’ve seen on the big screen. Now that Donald Trump has ostensibly become the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, science fiction has officially become reality. When you consider the inherent havoc in a candidate who makes light of civilian casualties, discards women, ensures bigotry and violence, and endorses straight-up rights snatching – not to mention his microscopic, ahem, vocabulary – many cinematic dystopias and alternate realities once thought to be cataclysmically dreadful begin to sound imminently habitable if he were to actually be elected. Next to the fascist plunder-land of Trump’s America, living in these broken worlds would be downright nirvana.

Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

If a clown is going to be elected president, let’s make sure it’s Peter Sellers.

The Duke of Burgundy

Whether BDSM knocks your boots, a world full of lesbians is bound to involve less literal dick-measuring than this one.

Mad Max Fury Road

We’re already well on our way to oppressive weather patterns – from vicious sandstorms to severe drought – and the faux-chismo of Immortan Joe will already inhabit the Oval Office, so let’s wait it out in the desert until Furiosa starts her noble reign and maybe get to know a member of the Vuvalini along the way. Note: null and void if Hillary wins – we’ll have our own shiny, chrome leader and mediocre Trump will go the way of the People Eater.

Battlefield Earth

Better hair.

Children of Men

Trust me. Despite the governmental meddling, guerilla warfare, and international class struggles, living in a world with no children is much more hopeful than passing on Trump’s to the next generation. Plus stoned Michael Caine is exactly the kind of deadbeat loosuh we should keep around.

Planet of the Apes

Fictional tyrannical orangutan > real tyrannical orangutan.

Which otherworldly filmic universe would you rather inhabit than a planet of Trump?