Amazingness Nicolas Cage swears Yesterday a trailer dropped so unexpected and random that the comedy continuum skipped a beat. The History of Swear Words is a new comedy series coming to Netflix on January 5, which features Nicolas Cage as the host, walking us through the history of half a dozen swears including “sh- By Sarah • Dec 10, 2020 12:04 pm
Best Of 2020 My Favorite Things of 2020: Podcasts Usually at this time of year, I’m working on my top 10 films for the year, but this year we’ve decided to follow the time-shifted schedule of awards season, which means my top 10 won’t be out until February, congruent with the eligibility cut-off for By Sarah • Dec 09, 2020 03:00 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Kirsten Dunst, Emma Stone, and Alfred Molina return to Spider-Man Spider-Man 3 (version 2) is filming now, and the multiverse cast for the movie continues to grow. Joining Jamie Foxx in reprising a villain role is Alfred Molina, who played Doctor Octopus waaaaay back in 2004 in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 (aka still the best live-action By Sarah • Dec 09, 2020 11:06 am
Business of Hollywood The Soderbergh Oscars Yesterday, the producers of the 93rd Academy Awards were announced: Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher, and Steven Soderbergh, who, yes, dressed like a member of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band for his press release photo. Welcome to the team, @JesseCollinsEnt, @StaceySher and Steven Soderbergh! Meet the 93rd #Oscars producers. By Sarah • Dec 09, 2020 09:39 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Small Axe: Red, White and Blue asks a haunting question In Red, White and Blue, the latest installment in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series (Mangrove was the first and Lovers Rock is the second), John Boyega plays Leroy Logan, the son of Caribbean immigrants living in London. His father, Kenneth (Steve Toussaint), is a sort of call-and-response By Sarah • Dec 08, 2020 02:54 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried in Mank David Fincher is too technically proficient as a director to make a really bad movie. Even his less interesting efforts will have something worth looking at, and Mank is certainly one such case. A biopic of screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, Mank is an odd Fincher misfire. It’s based on a By Sarah • Dec 08, 2020 02:29 pm
Business of Hollywood Warner Brothers’ inevitable HBO Max fall out Last week, Warner Brothers announced they will releasing their entire 2021 slate of films simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max (in America, the only country with HBO Max). This was obviously huge, unprecedented news, and in my original write up, I said, “it is crushing to production partners like By Sarah • Dec 08, 2020 09:58 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Oscar Isaac takes on the video game curse Oscar Isaac is the latest A-lister to take the video game challenge and try to make a video game adaptation that doesn’t suck. Slowly but surely, Hollywood seems to be figuring video games out—Tomb Raider didn’t completely suck—but they still remain tougher to adapt than By Sarah • Dec 07, 2020 01:44 pm
Maple Leaf Wonder Woman stress Lainey emailed me this morning about being “stressed” about how she is going to watch Wonder Woman 1984 later this month. For Canada, the stress is real. With no HBO Max and not ideal circumstances for going to movie theaters right now, how to see WW84 is a stressful situation. By Sarah • Dec 07, 2020 01:10 pm
Equality Issues Hawkeye brings Echo, a deaf Native superhero, to the MCU As we previously discussed, the real reason to care about the Hawkeye-centric Disney+ series is not because of Jeremy Renner, but because of Kate Bishop. Now we have another reason to mildly anticipate Hawkeye, and it’s still not because of Jeremy Renner, but because of actress Alaqua Cox, By Sarah • Dec 04, 2020 01:47 pm
Game of Thrones Our first look at the new Game of Thrones dragons Game of Thrones-ish, that is. The prequel spinoff of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, is set to begin production in 2021. To whet our appetites—and rinse out the bad taste left in many mouths by the GOT finale—HBO tweeted the one thing they know will By Sarah • Dec 04, 2020 11:17 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Warner Brothers Drops a Bombshell Yesterday, Warner Brothers dropped the absolutely gobsmacking news that in 2021 they will release ALL of their movies day-and-date with streaming and theatrical. That’s right, ALL of their 2021 movies will drop on HBO Max the same day they open in theaters, including Judas and the Black By Sarah • Dec 04, 2020 10:10 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal A heavy metal drummer with four years of sobriety under his belt, Ruben (Riz Ahmed) is doing pretty okay. He and his girlfriend, Lou (Olivia Cooke), form a duo called Blackgammon and they live in their vintage Airstream, driving to gigs and rocking out. Until, that is, Ruben’s hearing By Sarah • Dec 03, 2020 11:40 am
TV Updates Hailee Steinfeld is the good Hawkeye One of my biggest disappointments with the MCU is Hawkeye. It started out promising—back in 2010, Jeremy Renner was one of the new rising stars, hot off The Hurt Locker, and his cameo in Thor seemed to nail the tone of the wise-cracking ace archer, Clint Barton. But By Sarah • Dec 03, 2020 10:23 am
Business of Hollywood Charlize Theron’s power moves Earlier this year we discussed Charlize Theron’s rise as a power producer, and now she is making power moves, setting up a production deal with HBO and HBO Max. Through her Denver and Delilah banner, Theron will produce film and television projects for HBO/Max, along with her co- By Sarah • Dec 02, 2020 02:51 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Benedict Cumberbatch’s singularly awful accent A trailer dropped yesterday, and I cannot stop thinking about it. The Mauritanian is about Mohamedou Ould Salahi, who was accused of being the chief recruiter for 9/11 and held in Guantanamo Bay for years without charges being filed. Ultimately, his case went to court, where many of the By Sarah • Dec 02, 2020 11:28 am
