Good Links Revolt

Autostraddle "How to Dress like Cate Blanchett's Oceans 8 Character Who is Definitely Queer, Right?"
Comics Alliance Pixar's Coco gets concept art and a voice cast - Gael García Bernal! 
Sydney Morning Herald Australia's own version of the Oscars goes big for Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge with 9 wins from its 13 nominations.
The New Yorker "the fate of cinephilia in the age of streaming"

 

Awards Daily interviews the production design team on Loving 
EW Ryan Reynolds as Entertainer of the Year
Boy Culture Hunky Van Williams, discovered by Liz Taylor of people, who came to fame on TV's The Green Hornet has died at 82. His last movie role was as homage to his friend and co-star Bruce Lee in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)
The Wrap Madonna raises $7 million for Malawi with a little help from Sean Penn who she offers to marry again
THR Harsh words for Amazon with the cancellation of Good Girls Revolt 

The World Has Lost Its Mind
Twitter protesters of the lack of gender equality in the Australian film industry dressed as sausages at the AACTAS. "End the Sausage Party!"... they were not talking about the animated movie.
Daily Beast Sofia Vergara sued by her own embryos 
Time has released their Person of the Year stuff. I shan't type his name anymore ever (vomiting ∞). Beyoncé was apparently runner up. So that makes the second strong woman he who shall not be named has grossly defeated in this awful no good terrible when will it end year (except for at the movies. So many good movies) 

List-Making. Tis the Season
Vulture David Edelstein's top 16 includes 20th Century Women and The Fits
Vanity Fair Richard Lawsom's top 10 includes Jackie, The Lobster, and Fire at Sea
Time Stephanie Zacharek's top 10 includes The Shallows, Loving, and Paterson 

And we'll end with David Ehrlich's annual Top 25 Video Countdown. It's always a pleasure to watch this even if you don't agree on the films or their ranking though this year is a far more worthy selection than last year's!

'Life' Trailer Drops

Manuel here bringing you the trailer for the latest addition to the newly revived outer space genre.

After Cuaron's Oscar-winning film, Interstellar, The Martian, and even this year's Arrival, you can bet NASA is very happy with the way Hollywood has begun again telling grounded stories about heading out into space (you know, aside from the franchises and sequels that take place in galaxies far far away and tackle the final frontier)...

Click to read more ...

The Furniture: Deadpool's Junk

"The Furniture" is our weekly series on Production Design. Here's Daniel Walber on Deadpool, now available on DVD and Bluray

We tend to think of superhero movies as showcases for visual effects. Marvel, for example, has always been stuck in that one particular category at the Oscars. It can be hard to untangle CGI from physical sets, particularly when they're strung together by a deft editor. And if identifying individual elements can be difficult, assigning credit often seems even harder. As such, production design isn’t usually at the forefront of our constant national conversation around the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Yet sometimes, even in the murky waters of big budget spectacle, the physical set outshines its digital embellishment. That’s certainly the case in Deadpool, a superhero action movie that was perhaps forced into more terrestrial creativity by its low budget of $58 million. For context, Captain America: Civil War cost about $250 million. Inevitably some of the film looks a bit cheap, particularly when it comes to the CG. Despite the low budget, the studio still clearly felt some pressure to put on the same bombastic show of digital force that comes at the end of every one of these movies. It's a bummer, frankly, because the physical set could easily have stood on its own.

This final clash between Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Francis (Ed Skrein) takes place at a vast junkyard. [more...]

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On Deadpool's Overhyped Sexuality

Social justice warriors argue that "Straight White Male" ought not to be a default setting and they're right - it's a wide & diverse world. Arguably nowhere is this default more set in stone than in superhero movies.

I actually rushed out to see Deadpool this weekend because it promised to be something different in this regard. This, despite no real desire to see the movie since the hard obnoxious sell felt like flop sweat (though it sure as hell worked and no flopping occurred). I didn't end up reviewing the film but this piece I wrote for Towleroad is as close as I got. It's called "Pansexual Antihero or Gaybaiting Joke?" because the buzz surrounding the smart ass mutant's sexual desires is empty.

Here's an excerpt but I hope you'll read the whole thing...

Deadpool fits comfortably in the X-verse, being a mutant, but also by selling the troubled 'otherness' that is the X-Men's chief inclusive draw for moody adolescents and beyond. He's neither hero nor villain, but an amoral guy who discovers he has cancer. His superpowers are unlocked through a sadistic experiment to rid himself of the cancer which leaves him badly disfigured but incapable of being killed. This anti-hero has been described as "omnisexual" by the writer of his comic and the media has consistently referred to him at "pansexual". But is he either of those things, or just a typical straight guy who loves a good dick joke?

extra random thoughts about the movie after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Deadpool lands on huge pile of money. Makes crude jokes about paper cuts, probably.

Breaking News: Superhero fatigue has NOT set in after all, goddamnit. The extreme negativity that greeted the arrival of Fantastic Four 3ish and Avengers 2 last summer suggested that we were on the brink but along comes Deadpool proving everyone still wants the spandex supers... even B list supers from Fox (!). Warner Bros and Marvel are probably breathing sighs of relief given that Clark vs Bruce and Steve vs Tony are opening soon and have budgets so gargantuan they'll need the continued fervor to sustain them. But more on those later. The crowd I saw Deadpool with seemed really into it but more on that later. More. Later. More. Later. God, it's like a movie trailer in here tonight --- "COMING SOON!"

WIDE BOX OFFICE
01 Deadpool $135 new
02 Kung Fu Panda 3 $19.6 (cum. $93.9) 
03 How To Be Single $18.7 new
04 Zoolander 2 $15.6 new 
05 The Revenant $6.9 (cum. $159.1) Costumes, Cinematography, Production Design 

LIMITED RELEASE
excluding previously wide
01 Where to Invade Next  $1 new 308 screens Review & 2nd Opinion
02 The Lady in The Van  $.5 (cum. $1.9) 130 screens Review
03 45 Years $.4 (cum $2.7) 237 screens Podcast
04 Carol $.1 (cum. $12.1) 141 screens Top Ten List 
05 The Danish Girl $.08 (cum. $10.7) 88 screens Interview Alicia

I took in both How to be Single and Deadpool and also emptied my DVR (hey, it was freezing in NYC) so I'm caught up w/ Younger, Teachers, The Fosters, The Flash, and I also sampled SyFy's The Magicians and liked it... and not just because Arjun Gupta is the prettiest.

You?