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Hello, dear readers. Michael C here to take a detour into TV blogging.
Is season four picking at the carcass of a once great show or just more greatness?
It has now been a full week since Netflix returned the Bluth family to us, which in Internet time means by this point I may as well writing about the final episode of MASH. By midweek the long awaited return of Arrested Development had already been watched, analyzed, celebrated, backlashed, and defended a few times over. [more...]
You Should Be in Sweden attends the Stanley Kubrick exhibit at LACMA. It ends in June so go see it! JazzT here's another enticing image from the exhibit. Oh Nicole. Any mask you'd like me to wear is fine Pitchfork Another new David Bowie video starring an Oscar winning actress. Marion Cotillard instead of Tilda this time Mother Jones a 17 year old coder invents a program to block spoilers on Twitter NY Post Producer Scott Rudin lashes back at NYT critic. These stories always embarrass me for the showbiz people - (remember when James Cameron wanted someone fired for the thumbs down on Titanic?). Being criticized is just part of show business. You always look silly when you freak out about it. It's an honor to be so well employed / watched that you are even susceptible to bad reviews, don'cha think?
Empire Dominic Cooper joins the cast of the new Dracula starring MNPP's favorite punching bag lust object Noted Homosexual Luke Evans. I'd be excited for this since I like looking at both of them but I'm so worn out on vampires. Which I never thought I'd say but here we are post the Aughts when vampires are more ubiquitous than they've ever been as if they're still trying to wrestle back the Ubiquity Crown from the hordes of brain-dead zombies who don't even know that they won some pop culture battle. Electric has an infographic comparing The Great Gatsby to the wealth of the stars of the movie Pajiba on Netflix's current strengths and weaknesses as it attempts to become both a distribution platform and a content creator Observations on Film Art Kristin wonders whether or not studios understand the power of fanbases and direct access to filmmakers they can get via Twitter and set visits and the like In Contention Ben Affleck's follow up to Argo doesn't betray any steroided auteurly confidence. It's just another Denis Lehane adaptation of the novel "Live By Night". It's almost like something he woulda signed on for before Argo. MNPP Today's mood via Barbara Stanwyck and Clark Gable
Oh and Also... James McAvoy on the set of X-Men Days of Future Past via Bryan Singer's active picture-snapping Twitter account. He tweeted this one with a Pacino-style "Serpico!" descriptor. When last we left the X-Men they were in the swinging sixties and Professor X had just been paralyzed and hate yet to go bald. Here we are in the seventies I suppose though it's probably not worth getting hung up on time periods since Days of Future Past (one of the great X-men arcs) is all about messing with them.
Variety are House of Cards and Hemlock Grove and other new instant watch series the saviors of Netflix? I sure hope so. I shudder to think of a world without Netflix and I've been very surprised at how gleefully people have watched its fall. Wake up cinephiles: there are so few services left that give us this much variety in movies. I mean do you really want to rely on Redbox if you want anything other than the latest blockbuster? Bold Hype Gallery I'm so sad to hear about this Scorsese Tribute here in NYC after the fact (and so annoyed that it was only up for three days -wth?) but look at these amazing paintings from the just closed installation, Inside Movies new pics of Jamie Foxx and Dane DeHaan in Spider-Man 5 (which is called The Amazing Spider-Man 2)
Awards DailyVertigo and Kim Novak are guests of honor at Cannes this May Advocate Darren Criss sings the gayest cover of "Call Me Maybe"... I bet you thought covers of that song were over? Hammer and Thump will Spring Breakers continue to change minds about Harmony Korine's shock-friendly filmography?
Ed Douglas (photo via BadAss Digest)Finally... And Quite a Lot Importantly. [soapbox] Though I'm loathe to remind my fellow US citizens that we live in a selfish self-sabotaging world where 50% of the country thinks "we're all in this together" equals weakness (or, even more misguidedly,"evil") and thereby punish themselves and others by fighting against universal healthcare, I must. Ed Douglas, who writes for Coming Soon and who has been nothing but sweet to me my whole career (others say the same which proves he's a truly nice guy), was recently diagnosed with leukemia. Like many film journalists he is without healthcare so if you have it your heart or pocketbook to donate, join the fundraising effort. The goal was raised from $10,000 to $50,000 due to the immediate and very heartwarming response from the cinephile community but if you've ever seen a hospital bill you know that that kind of money can be gone in all too quickly (another reason we need to cut out the parasitic middle man known as the insurance industry whose profits are directionally proportional to blocking our access to healthcare... or just jacking up the prices for it if they can't find ways to block it) and just pay for healthcare for everyone. [/End soapbox].
Details our friend Kurt interviewed Stoker baddie Matthew Goode Salon on the depiction of Hitchcock's misogyny and voyeurism in recent biopics Yahoo I missed this incredible make you feel super old news: Ralph Macchio is now as old as Pat Morita was inThe Karate Kid (1984).
Guardian celebrates the worst mothers in film history from Now Voyager through Suddenly Last Summer to The Others - pretty solid choices among this collection of 10 Cinema Blend Danny Boyle apparently not interested in being the next James Bond director /Film collects reactions to the first 30 minutes of Star Trek Into Darkness, shown in rough cut format Awards Daily the press release for Black Nativity, a new Kasi Lemmons picture starring Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson and Forest Whitaker. Ooh, I hope it's good. On other note: how weird is it that Angela Bassett is the only member of that trio without an Oscar? NPR interview Rita Moreno on her career in musicals, movies and tv and her Oscar win...
I was sure that Judy Garland would probably win, because she was up for Judgment [at] Nuremburg.It was a straight role, not a musical. And I was so amazed and so surprised. Never even dreamed of doing a just-in-case little speech — 'and I want to thank Robert Wise and Jerry Robbins' — nothing! I didn't even work on anything like that, so when I got up there I did this memorable nonspeech. I said, 'I don't believe it!' And there's this pause, and then I say, 'Good lord.' And then I'm trying to think of something, and then I finally say, 'I leave you with that!'
I ran into the wings and I started to cry."
Hemlock Grove trailer
There's a lot of horror-themed tv shows on the way (this, Psycho-inspired The Bates Motel, and Hannibal) are you a Yes on any of them? Or perhaps a No or Maybe So
Pajiba on the fall of the once brilliant Orson Scott Card. How is this the same man that wrote Ender's Game (coming soon to a movie theater near you)? New York Times "Nora Ephron's Final Act" this piece about her death was written by her son. Gothamist chooses the 12 Best Movie Theaters in NYC. Solid choices though I do think Film Forum and Lincoln Plaza are just so uncomfortable seating-wise, and the latter isn't one-of-a-kind like Film Forum so I try to never go there.
Vulture a sitcom smackdown between Sex & The City and 30 Rock. As someone who loves both shows, I thought this was a fascinating comparison but the readers got really super ultra angry CHUD on the upcoming werewolf Netflix series Hemlock Grove. (I do think it's interesting that Netflix is moving into production but I fear for audiences. After years of getting a lot of things for free the model seems to be moving towards having about 14 different subscriptions to see all the stuff you wanna see.) In Contention I've tried to write about everything that's going on with Steven Spielberg a million times this week (He's so busy! Those Lincoln losses must have lit a fire) but I'm giving up and now linking you over to Tapley who will explain it all.
two thing that are not happening In closing I'll just be let it know that I think it's very smart that Sam Mendes has opted to pass on directing Bond 24 which is wise since the series might not be able to top Skyfall given the billion dollar gross and the 50th anniversary hoopla and the Oscar stats which more than doubled the franchise's entire history with the Academy! I think it's very sad that Disney is not developing any handdrawn animated feature.
Monday, June 3, 2013 at 9:00AM 
Is season four picking at the carcass of a once great show or just more greatness?
