Linkables

Pajiba the highest grossing modern movie stars who've never made a sequel - interesting that there are so many!
The Wrap Chris McQuarrie to direct Mission: Impossible V. It'll be tough to follow Ghost Protocol so good luck
Art of the Title looks at neon Spring Breakers
Gold Standard Harry Hamlin on his Emmy nomination for Mad Men
Towleroad Spike Lee speaks about charges that he's homophobic based on his movies
Twitch Harvey Scissorhands is back! He wants 20 minutes cut from Snowpiercer. Hey, as long as they aren't Tilda Swinton's scenes... 

Salon takes Jay-Z to task for disrespecting Harry Belafonte and asks that hip hop's political sensibilities grow up a little
My New Plaid Pants Dominic Cooper posing for his life
i09 'Break the glass, Sam Rockwell, Break the glass!' He may be joining the new Poltergeist movie
Film Dr 10 shallow pleasures of 2 Guns
Cinema Blend on the generic-looking boxy head poster for Don Jon... undoubtedly a tough movie to sell... though I'm not sure I follow the assertion that the midwest can't relate to porn addictions. LOL. Speaking of the internet (and thus the world's) porn addictions...
Boy Culture have you seen this Ryan Gosling strip scene from The Place Beyond the Pines that's making the rounds? Gosling's disgust at being asked to strip in the clip is his rebuke to the internet pervily watching it!

Lee Daniels' The Butler: New Title, New Poster, Same Movie

Have you seen the new poster for Lee Daniels' The Butler? Here it is. 

new poster and old poster

I like it and here's why: It looks more like a Lee Daniels movie than that stately original poster. The first poster could have been for any movie that was going the prestige FYC route. It could have been a film made by anyone, and probably someone less crazy than Lee Daniels. That's a safe assumption, statistically! Whether you love or hate his movies -- three to date: Shadowboxer, Precious, The Paperboy -- you have to admit that they're non-generic. They don't feel like they were made by committee. At all.

The silly war over the period drama's title concluded too quickly for me to finish my "Suggested Alternate Title" joke post (since I was doing mock posters. I promise it was funny. sniffle) but PERSONALITY is why I like the new poster and the retitling to Lee Daniels' The Butler. 

 The more people hear your name, you know? It's why hip hop artists say their name so much in their songs. It's why Tyler Perry puts his name before every title. It might be vanity, sure, but it's also savvy business. Once your famous enough you can do this even if you aren't the director which kinda sucks for the guy who did that job - see Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) which is actually a Henry Selick movie! 

Lee Daniels presents... OprrraaaaaAAHHH

poll by twiigs.com

I've always wondered why studio marketing doesn't try to push director's names more. In this modern era where even amateurs understand the basics of personal branding, the studios are not capitalizing on or trying to build fanbases for their directors which seems like both a dumb and a dick move. Even a director as constantly successful as James Cameron often gets the "From the Director of..." without his name attached in commercials which is just stupid if you ask me. Everyone who has a unique vision, even if a lot of people hate that vision, should be trying to build a fanbase. 

A Link Odyssey

The Flick Filosopher "my back let me show you it" on the faceless objectification of women in movie posters
Pacific Standard investigates what's going on with all those shlocky monster movies on Netflix Instant Watch. One studio is just churning them out by the dozen!
Splash Page Andrew Garfield wonders why we can't have a gay Spider-Man 

Vulture does some mathematical analysis from 1989-to-Now and, nope, Hollywood just doesn't make movies about women anymore
Deep Dish (site is NSFW) picks the best (& worst) of the season. A lot of Nashville, American Horror Story, and Downton Abbey but Don & Betty win "best sex" for Mad Men. I concur.
Hollywood in this week's Truly Tasteless News, they are already planning a movie about the Boston Marathon Bombing. It might be well-written -- the guys from The Fighter are onboard -- but still... a little time to heal people. 

Finally, Jose from Movies Kick Ass never cared much for Stanley Kubrick while still respecting him (he and I are similar that way) but Jose was finally converted to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by way of this week's big screen viewing at BAM in Brooklyn as part of their Big Screen Epics series. And how!

Coincidentally I was also there and the size of the screen, the beauty of the theater (thanks BAM) and the immersion of the sound also made me a new and real convert. It was as if I'd never seen the film before. Suddenly so many movies... so many movies seem like they owe their best moments and even their existence to it. (Hi, Tree of Life!) I suddenly need to reevaluate every Kubrick on the big screen. In fact, the only film of his I've seen in the size it deserves is Eyes Wide Shut (1999)... though in that case, size didn't matter. I was unmoved. 

Randomness: Wolverine and The Railway Bling Ring

Here's a collection of items that I couldn't be arsed* to talk about separately so I'm grouping them together. Join the conversation in the comments.

What is this?

It's the Pinoy poster for Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring. I hate the font and I have no idea why they've redressed Emma Watson in trashy whore drag (she does not wear this in the movie) but I love the idea of designer labels sharing billing with the stars. That's more than a little clever. Do you like? [Thanks to Ipe for bringing this to my attention]

Here's the latest promotional image from The Wolverine.

Post Man of Steel it is suddenly tremendously weird that Wolverine has less body hair than Superman, though he's still much veinier. Given my love for Hugh Jackman you'd think I'd be looking forward to this movie but it's literally the superhero movie of 2013 that I've thought the least about which I blame fully on the terribleness of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. If this one is only twice as good it will still be bad so they'd better step it way way up. 

Remember that long stretch of time in 2012 when my podcast mates started claiming that I had made up the existence of Quartet with Maggie Smith? That the movie did not, in fact, exist. Well it finally opened proving me right and even though it was quite bad it was a minor hit (Maggie's renewed drawing power) but each year there's a movie like it that feels half imagined. Here's the latest promotional image from the stealth Railway Man which may or may not exist given its lack of distributor or release date and the full calendar of its stars.

I hate that hair on Nicole Kidman but given all the greatness she's delivered lately via ad campaigns, on red carpets, in The Paperboy and on my freaking telephone, we will follow her anywhere... yes, even into frumpy hair and possibly dull "supportive spouse" roles. 

Posterized: The Almodóvar 19

It was with great shame Friday that I realized I'm So Excited had landed and I hadn't done that  Entire Retrospective of Pedro Almodóvar's Filmography that I suggested I'd be doing all spring. And here we are in July. My plans are always much larger than the hours filling each day as you know.

I know a lot of people aren't crazy about the new picture I'm So Excited (reviewed) which is a very silly raunchy gay comedy but I laughed a lot. (LAST DAY TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY CONTEST TODAY!) I'm going again with friends this weekend because what better way to celebrate America's Independence than... uh... catching a Pedro movie! Support your world class auteurs so that all movies without superheroes don't end up going straight to VOD by 2017.

Herewith the Almodóvar Filmography with a few notes...

How many have you seen?

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