Speaking of sex at the movies. Lainey’s all het up for The Boy Next Door, I’m just relieved I don’t have to sit through it. No amount of top-notch fake f*cking can make up for a poorly made movie, sorry. Like I told Lainey last night, all commercials for The Boy Next Door make me want to do is watch Out of Sight. Lainey was like, “They’re two different things!” Yeah, and one of them is good. But sex at the movies is a hot topic right now—Lainey’s not the only one missing movies that make us horny. Fifty Shades of Grey is supposed to be the second coming (ahem) of The Last Tango in Paris, and according to the avalanche of fevered texts I got late last night, The Bronze, which just premiered at Sundance, is joining the dog pile (AHEM).
The Bronze is a title I was interested in for its potential for writer/star Melissa Rauch, but the first reviews from Sundance have been pretty unforgiving. At best it’ll be a niche comedy for people who like raunchy weirdo humor, like an R-rated Blades of Glory. But every single person I know at Sundance felt the need to text me to tell me all about the crazy gymnast sex scene between Rauch and Sebastian Stan, aka Marvel’s Winter Soldier. It’s apparently a cross between a physics-defying action scene from Fast & Furious and the batsh*t absurd puppet sex from Team America. Think I’m exaggerating the interest? Vulture dedicated an entire article to it. Everyone’s obsessing about the gymnast sex.
The Bronze is not likely to be a breakout hit a la Bridesmaids (as distributors were hoping), which means that, for the time being, Stan will remain best known for the Winter Soldier (with a secondary helping of “that guy who did the crazy sex scene” in certain circles). That’s the benefit of a franchise, though, especially one as successful as Marvel. You can shake off the losses more easily, knowing you’ve got another guaranteed hit just around the corner. And Stan’s piece of the Marvel pie is getting bigger—the Winter Soldier is a major character in Captain America: Civil War. Variety interviewed Stan about his future with Marvel and Stan claims to be completely out of the loop. Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. Marvel doesn’t force people to lie on their behalf, but at the same time, they haven’t been subtle about Bucky Barnes’s future.
Stan’s future is looking similarly promising. There’s been a definite uptick in the quality of work he’s getting post-Captain America: Winter Soldier. Besides The Bronze, he’ll appear in Meryl Streep’s Ricki and the Flash later this year, and he’s currently working on Ridley Scott’s The Martian. And all the while, he’s moving toward the center of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So, sex scene aside, if this one movie doesn’t work out, Stan has plenty of potential left on his plate.
Attached - Sebastian Stan at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.