Curio: "Stranger Things" Owns Fandom Right Now

Do you miss our Curio series? I miss Alexa who loved to compile fan art for us. So in honor of that departed series, which we will perhaps revive whenever it occurs to us like, uh, right now, a tip of our hat to the Duffer Brothers for creating such a fansation with their Netflix series Stranger Things. My own feelings are kind of mixed on the series -- especially in regards to the need for a second season (I like my loose ends, thank you very much) -- but I can't disagree that it's totally addictive.

It's not just internet artists adopting the series everywhere you look but restaurants, too.

As AV Club reports a pizzeria did several days of Stranger Things specials. Check out those awesome menu options above. This wasn't even all of it. I'd have been torn between ordering the Telekine Sauce or the The DemoGorgonzola

comic by Brandon Chapman

The twitter account Sketch Dailies which encourages internet people to draw a specific topic each day has held a whole week in honor of Stranger Things with different character topics by day. So check those out if you're so inclined. If you love illustrators as we do, it'll offer you abundant choices of artists you could be following on the internet right now.

Related TFE Posts:
Kieran's Top 10 Things About Stranger Things
Daniel's Favorite Homages Within the Show
Nathaniel's Best of David Harbour (Chief Hopper)

Ten Favorite Things About Stranger Things

Kieran, here.  There’s something to be said about earnest storytelling in television.  It often comes packaged in projects that are deeply flawed, but somehow those flaws contribute to what make the show a singular experience. Such is the case with Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” which premiered a week ago to much fanfare and online discussion.

Though “Stranger Things,” created by Matt and Ross Duffer very blatantly poaches elements from some very familiar markers it doesn’t resemble anything else on television at the moment. The aforementioned earnestness of this series about supernatural and…well, stranger things happening in 1983 small town Indiana could have easily served as a liability, but becomes one of the show’s greatest strengths. 

All of my defenses were up going into my viewing of “Stranger Things”. 80s-era Spielberg holds little personal resonance as it does for others. I’ve never seen The Goonies. I have a really sensitive gag reflex when it comes to inauthentic portrayals of children in movies and film. I was suspicious in the beginning, but "Stranger Things" won me over...

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The Link Jar

NewsTalk How Cartoon Saloon became a major draw and how those Oscar nominations helped
Playbill Stephen Schwartz says Wicked (the movie) will have several new songs. Geez, it already has a ton of songs. I guess he wants that Oscar.
MTV Frankie & Johnny is Garry Marshall's best film

Variety Idris Elba responds to those endless Next James Bond rumors
Coming Soon Star Wars: Episode VIII (as yet untitled) wraps production. It's due in theaters in December 2017 as these things take time in Post-Production
The Playlist the teasers for all the new Marvel/Netflix TV series: Iron Fist, Defenders, Luke Cage
Towleroad an interview with the stars of Looking 
Comics Alliance Wonder Woman gets her own US postage stamps for her 75th anniversary this year 
AV Club Brie Larson spoils Room for dumb people on Twitter 
The Retro Set looks back at Judy Garland in her final film I Could Go On Singing (1963)
The Guardian celebrates the five great screen moments for Penelope Wilton (of BFG & Downton Abbey fame)
EW Justin Timberlake talks about his theme song to the upcoming Trolls movie 

Finally....
I was going to write a piece about Kirsten Dunst choosing to direct the feature film adaptation fo Sylvia Path's famous novel "The Bell Jar" with Dakota Fanning in the starring role. But Indie Wire's Kate Erbland beat me to it and said basically everything I wanted to say. I love this part.

Dunst’s ability to dive deeply into depression was not just confined to her work in “The Virgin Suicides,” she also captured rich, worldly ennui in Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette” and terrifying, world-ending fear in Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia,” for which she won Cannes’ Best Actress award... Even in her younger years, Dunst was uncannily able to translate bone-deep sadness to the big screen in fascinating ways, like she did as a child in “Interview With the Vampire.” And while most fans of Michel Gondry’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” remain hung up on Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet’s work in the film (and rightly so), Dunst’s own subplot about lost love (and lost memories) is one of the film’s most heartbreaking elements.

My only fear here with this project is that it's too on the nose for Dunst. Like Terry Gilliam's desire to make a Don Quixote Picture; haven't they already been making these pictures, figuratively speaking, for their whole careers?

Jake and Tilda Serving Fashion on the 'Okja' Set

Category is: behind the scenes sci-fi satire realness.

Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer follow-up Okja already has one of the coolest casts since... well, Snowpiercer. And if the set photos from New York this weekend are any indication, the film itself will be even more outlandish than Joon-ho's last - at least as far as the cast is concerned.

The film returns Joon-ho to monster movie territory, but chaos and destruction to entertain when you have Tilda Swinton in and Jake Gyllenhaal in costumes like these? I don't know if Tilda is playing Taylor Swift and Jake is Rooster from a safari production of Annie, but this first look tells you everything you need to know about why you should be excited about Okja.

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Stream This: Mustang, The Big Short, Hello Dolly, The Painted Veil

In the effort to stay au courant we're going to try to do "new to streaming" weekly, alternating between Netflix and Amazon Prime sometimes, big lists, sometimes highlights. This will also give us a chance to link to previous coverage of the old films that are "new" again via the power of the internet. But first a last chance notice...

Last Chance Netflix (Expires July 16th)

-Y'all were watching I take it. Did you see us fight?
-No.
-Trap." 

Serenity
I've been curious to watch Serenity (and Firefly for that matter) again to see if you can easily chart Joss Whedon's growth from self-created warm-up to Studio-hire mega-success in The Avengers. He was always good at selling team dynamics, though. That was clear from the earliest episodes of Buffy. We previously covered Serenity in Season 3 of Hit Me With Your Best Shot. I miss Whedon as TV creator on his own urges -- Agents of SHIELD just did not do it for me.

New to Netflix
We've freeze framed nine more titles totally at random to share whatever popped up for your amusement. Here we go...

-Lot of smug looking people here.

- It's like someone hit a piñata filled with white people who suck at golf."

The Big Short (2015)
Remember when this was suddenly a major Oscar player last season. That took me off guard even though I was at the actual premiere. It won Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars. Serious films with funny memorable lines are often popular in those categories.

I've decided to join the human race again.

Hello, Dolly! (1969)
Babs. Babs. You're really overworking this monologue...

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