TCM Film Festival: Final Diary - Xanadu

By Christopher James

Have you ever watched a movie and realized it was instantly going to be part of your personality? Last weekend at a midnight screening of Xanadu, I thought I was merely filling a critical hole in my gay camp movie repertoire. The Olivia Newton John 1980 roller skating musical was a bomb when it first opened. Yet, through hit songs like “Magic” and “Xanadu,” the film hung around long enough to become a cult classic. Obviously the term “roller skating musical” doesn’t inspire much confidence in a film’s storytelling prowess. Xanadu isn’t a “so bad it’s good” curio piece. Instead, it’s an ambitious, messy, misunderstood masterpiece about the ebbs and flow of art and taste...

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Links (The Queens Remix)

Today's link roundup is for the fabulous women of showbiz...

• In Style Melanie Lynskey (yes, she's everywhere lately) is this month's cover profile
• ET talks to Diane Keaton about The Godfather (though the occassion was her new movie Mack & Rita)
• Coming Soon Margaret Qualley (who is much in demand) and Geraldine Viswanathan (from the Hugh Jackman film Bad Education) have the leading roles in Ethan Coen's first solo movie, which is about a lesbian road trip

More after the jump including Olivia Newton-John, Prey's Amber Midthunder, Cyndi Lauper's next movie-to-musical project, plus Beyonce & Madonna...

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Olivia Newton John (1948-2022)

by Nathaniel R

Olivia receiving an award in 2019 for her philanthropy. [image via.]

Heaven is one angel stronger today. The iconic 1970s superstar Olivia Newton-John passed away earlier today at age 73 after her fourth bout with cancer. Our thoughts here at The Film Experience go out to her surviving loved ones, husband, siblings, and daughter. More pointedly they go out to her legion of fans since yours truly counts myself among them. If you're in that group, you're surely hurting, too. You see, dear reader, Olivia was my first love. Like everyone who came of age in the 80s, the trio of Grease and Xanadu and "Physical" were impossible to escape. Nor did young Nathaniel want to! I can't remember where I even first learned her name or heard her sing. She was just always part of the world...

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All That Link

• A24 virtual two week engagment of Minari starts 2/12. Tickets now on sale!
• Vanity Fair's awesome annual Oscar special -- you'll remember I wrote a piece on Parasite last year for it! -- is arriving for subscribers. The cover story on Chadwick Boseman is available now even if you don't subscribe
• HuffPost on Michelle Pfeiffer's underrated skill as a comic actress
• AV Club a review of Mark Harris' new film biography book Mike Nichols A Life

More after the jump including Britney Spears, Pleasure, Olivia Newton-John, Borderlands, and still more showbiz obituaries (what is happening lately?)

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Showbiz History: Andrei Rublev, Avatar 2, and a reunion for the stars of Grease

4 random things that happened on this day, December 16th, in showbiz history

1966 Andrei Tarkovsky's classic Andrei Rublev premieres in Moscow but an actual release for moviegoers was blocked by the Soviet censors. The years will be kind to it and its reputation grows. It goes to Cannes in 1969, finally opens in the Soviet Union in 1971 (to sold out houses) and reaches US arthouses in 1973...

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