Movie Reviews and Previews Anderson + Cumberbatch + Dahl Wes Anderson is on a roll. With The French Dispatch out in 2021, and his next project, an ensemble film called Asteroid City, already in post-production and expected later this year, Anderson is already prepping his next-next project, a Roald Dahl adaptation for Netflix, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. The news comes By Sarah • Jan 07, 2022 02:36 pm
Business of Hollywood State of the Awards Season Union Hello, it is I, Chicken Little, to tell you a little more about how the sky is falling! We’ve already covered the fata morgana that is Spider-Man: No Way Home’s success and the box office, and now we need to talk about AWARDS SEASON. Oh, did you think By Sarah • Jan 07, 2022 11:11 am
Movie Reviews and Previews There won’t be another Denzel Denzel Washington is on the cover of this week’s Variety, promoting his two-fer as both the star of The Tragedy of Macbeth and director of A Journal for Jordan. For Macbeth, he’s a heavy favorite for an Oscar nomination; if it happens, it would be his ninth nomination By Sarah • Jan 07, 2022 10:42 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Intro for January 7, 2022 Dear Gossips, As the pandemic rages into its third year—THIRD! YEAR!—Hollywood continues to fret about the box office and movie theaters. The billion-dollar success of Spider-Man: No Way Home has some cheering that theaters are back, baby, but others take a more measured view. In The New York By Sarah • Jan 07, 2022 09:29 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Pam & Tommy won’t do that The full trailer for Hulu’s Pam & Tommy series is here, and besides leaning on a Meatloaf song for a winky meta-joke about the era, this looks like Craig Gillespie working very much in the vein of I, Tonya, reframing an infamous moment in a famous woman’s life By Sarah • Jan 06, 2022 09:30 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Can Chris Evans dance like Gene Kelly? Chris Evans has been trying to will himself into a musical for a while, and with his Little Shop of Horrors remake stalled (for now), he has put together another project that will let him do a little singing and dancing at last: he’ll star as Gene Kelly. One-upping By Sarah • Jan 05, 2022 09:29 am
TV Updates Keanu in the White City? There is movement at last on the long-gestating adaptation of Erik Larson’s book, The Devil in the White City, produced by Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio. This is, indeed, GREAT news to kick off 2022, as true crime aficionados have been waiting for this adaptation since DiCaprio acquired the By Sarah • Jan 04, 2022 11:46 am
What Else What Else Internet Boyfriend Benedict Cumberbatch is using his Power of the Dog awards campaign to talk about toxic masculinity, calling “not all men” a “childish defensive position”. A white guy said something reasonable about gender politics? Prepare for the internet meltdown in three…two…one… (Celebitchy) Madonna is upset with Tory By Sarah • Dec 28, 2021 03:55 pm
TV Updates Wheel of Time never quite turns After the three-episode premiere of Wheel of Time, I was looking for some immediate issues to get resolved over the rest of the first season. Guess what? They don’t get resolved! Wheel of Time instead turns into a frustrating series that is intermittently compelling, but much of the time By Sarah • Dec 28, 2021 02:38 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Tom Holland’s Test With Spider-Man: No Way Home riding high at the box office—it’s the only billion-dollar film of 2020 AND 2021—Tom Holland now faces the hurdle that has been difficult for other Marvel actors to clear: proving his box office mettle outside the MCU. Uncharted opens in February, which By Sarah • Dec 28, 2021 11:44 am
Movie Reviews and Previews The Top Ten Films of 2021 After last year, 2021 feels like a more normal year in film. Just a reminder that for 2020, we adjusted to the extended Oscar eligibility calendar, so there are some films from early in the year that are on the 2020 list, like Barb and Star. So, if you’re By Sarah • Dec 28, 2021 11:12 am
Movie Reviews and Previews The Bat and The Cat A new trailer for The Batman dropped yesterday, this time heavily featuring Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman. While fully acknowledging that Michelle Pfeiffer’s performance as Catwoman in Batman Returns is immortal, I like the vibe of Kravitz’s Catwoman. I especially like her and Batman pushing each other’ By Sarah • Dec 28, 2021 10:27 am
Intro for December 28, 2021 Dear Gossips, As we float through the liminal space of the last week of the year, there is something to keep in mind about 2022—it’s the year the Paramount consent decrees dies in the US. At 12:01 AM on January 1, 2022, movie distributors will be able By Sarah • Dec 28, 2021 09:09 am
Movie Reviews and Previews The Matrix Resurrections: a radical reclamation of mythology Twenty-two years after its debut, The Matrix is a landmark technical achievement in cinema memorable for its mind-bending use of philosophy, but it’s also remembered for its less than acclaimed sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, and for how its “red pill” terminology has been coopted by By Sarah • Dec 23, 2021 01:23 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Doctor Strange and Doctor Strange meet in the multiverse The post-credit scene on Spider-Man: No Way Home is a teaser for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which has now been released online. It’s fine. It doesn’t feel especially like a Sam Raimi movie, but it does feel like a teaser for a movie that is By Sarah • Dec 23, 2021 12:02 pm
TV Updates Hawkeye is the low stakes hangout Marvel needs Hawkeye wrapped up yesterday, and it ended as it began—fun, light, not super invested in the larger lore of the MCU. Sure, we have a new Hawkeye in Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), and Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) is off to reinvent herself as something more like a hero, and By Sarah • Dec 23, 2021 11:09 am
