Posterized: Michelle Yeoh
Friday, August 17, 2018 at 4:00PM by Nathaniel R
It's a new season of our series Posterized in which we look back at the entire careers of various actors and directors. Last week Spike Lee joints. Today, Malaysia's finest: Michelle Yeoh. The fifty-six year old Asian superstar is currently grande dame'ing it through the romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians, giving the movie nearly all of its dramatic bite through her excellent nuanced underplaying of the intimidating and at times outright cruel potential mother-in-law.
Yeoh's career is harder to track here in the US since not all of her films are released here. Nevertheless, let's do our posterized retrospective. We've pruned just a bit for lack of quality posters or obscurity but this is nearly everything starting with her first leading role in 1985 in Yes, Madam! (which has apparently been retitled Police Assassins), a dual-lead action vehicle with American actress Cynthia Rothrock (of late 80s B movie fame). Anyway... on to the pictorial survey.
How many of these 34 Michelle Yeoh projects have you seen? Was it more than you expected? The posters are after the jump...
Podcast: BlacKkKlansman plus (sigh) a New Oscar Category
Friday, August 17, 2018 at 2:00PM This week Nathaniel R, Murtada Elfadl, and Chris Feil talk Oscar changes and Spike Lee's new joint.
Index (1 Hour and 2 minutes)
00:01 Spike Lee's new joint BlacKkKlansman. He's still got it. Also we talk about how he uses Gone With the Wind, and Birth of a Nation.
15:30 Oscar's recent announcement about the "popular achievement category" and all the problems we imagine it will cause. We are not pleased but we do offer our own fixes to issues of audience's being more into the Oscars.
40:00 Film Festival excitement TIFF and NYFF plus The Favourite, and Peterloo rumors.
47:00 We return to Spike Lee and list our three favorite scenes in BlacKkKlansman.
54:00 Fall film chatter: On the Basis of Sex, Mary Queen of Scots, and The Miseducation of Cameron Post versus Boy Erased
60:00 Goodbyes!
You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you?
Scarlett's Black Widow Dough and 2018's Highest Paid Actresses
Friday, August 17, 2018 at 12:01PM I always find Forbes annual list of highest paid actresses suspect because when you dig into it you realize the huge sums aren't necessarily for acting but for being spokespersons for various products or fashion houses. Of course that requires the celebrity that comes from acting hence the fusion of commerce and art. With some mainstays of the list, like Jennifer Aniston who is on it every year, the money is largely for commercials with the films being commercials for her celebrity to keep the commercial endorsement business going. With others the money is largely the frequent hit films (Melissa McCarthy). Franchises definitely help: Cate Blanchett and Scarlett Johansson both made Marvel money this past year, Angelina Jolie's big number is her upfront pay for Maleficent 2, and Gal Gadot's is her sudden cash-in on her new celebrity from helping to make Wonder Woman such a massive global hit in 2017.
The 2018 list goes like so...
- Scarlett Johansson $40.5 million
- Angelina Jolie $28 million
- Jennifer Aniston $19.5 million
- Jennifer Lawrence $18 million
- Reese Witherspoon $16.5 million
- Mila Kunis $16 million
- Julia Roberts $13 million
- Cate Blanchett $12.5 million
- Melissa McCarthy $12 million
- Gal Gadot $10 million (first time on the list)
On the list last year but didn't manage it this time: Emma Watson, Emma Stone, Amy Adams, and Charlize Theron.
If you controlled the world which 10 actresses would be showered with money for 2018?