Movie Reviews and Previews This year’s honest Oscar ballot is a doozy The “brutally honest Oscar ballot” is an annual tradition, when The Hollywood Reporter gets anonymous Oscar voters to show their asses explain their vote process to us mere plebes. Sometimes, this peek behind the curtain is interesting, but mostly it’s just infuriating as often the honest voters expose the By Sarah • Feb 06, 2020 09:41 am
Movie Reviews and Previews A Quiet Place Part II gives fans what they want A Quiet Place Part II dropped a new teaser on Super Bowl weekend, which is more high-strung drama and stress. We got a reference to “Dad” in the first trailer, and the new TV spot actually shows John Krasinski returning, for at least the part of the movie that is By Sarah • Feb 05, 2020 11:30 am
Movie Reviews and Previews F9 brings #JusticeForHan at last Jason Statham started out in the Fast/Furious universe—dubbed “The Fast Saga” because everything is a goddamn saga now and I BLAME YOU, MARVEL—as a villain. His character, Shaw, killed a member of the original Fast Family, Han, played by Sung Kang. Han died in a crash in By Sarah • Feb 04, 2020 03:49 pm
TV Updates Marvel+ is here …to tee up the Young Avengers? An actual surprise drop on Super Bowl Sunday was an unexpected teaser for the first slate of Marvel TV shows coming to Disney+. “Marvel-Disney+” and “Marvel Studios TV” are both a mouthful, so let’s agree to call this new venture “Marvel+” and move on, yes? This is not the By Sarah • Feb 04, 2020 10:34 am
Maple Leaf Of course Keanu is in the SpongeBob movie Keanu Reeves is everywhere, up to and including the Oscars this weekend. It should come as no surprise, then, that Keanu is in the new SpongeBob movie, Sponge on the Run. Even less surprising should be the news that Keanu is playing a piece of mystical tumbleweed. I mean, of By Sarah • Feb 04, 2020 09:38 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Mulan: The Least Disney Movie Ever Mulan dropped its final trailer yesterday, and it does not look like a Disney movie AT ALL. Mulan looks like a straight-up wuxia action fantasy, in the vein of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Forbidden Kingdom. I am a little worried Mulan will suffer for not appealing to fans By Sarah • Feb 03, 2020 03:22 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Everyone is against Maverick Maverick: Legend of the Skies (aka Top Gun: Maverick, the lesser title) had a spot during the Super Bowl that shows off heavy breathing and everyone being Out To Get Maverick (Legend of the Skies). We see more of that amazing flight footage while getting voice-over from Miles Teller as By Sarah • Feb 03, 2020 02:58 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Black Widow’s OTHER family The Super Bowl has become a major drop day for movie trailers and this year, even with a couple studios sitting it out (Sony and Warner Brothers), is no different. Over the course of game day—spiraling ad costs have driven some studios to slate their TV spots in the By Sarah • Feb 03, 2020 02:30 pm
Taika Waititi Taika reclaims the gold Taika Waititi was a surprise winner at the BAFTAs, claiming Best Screenplay (Adapted). Jojo Rabbit has been frequently nominated this award season, but Team Jojo hasn’t been winning of the big prizes (though editor Tom Eagles did win an “Eddie” award for best comedy editing from the American Cinema By Sarah • Feb 03, 2020 12:27 pm
Equality Issues Joaquin Phoenix calls out #BAFTASoWhite Joaquin Phoenix is the undisputed Best Actor of the 2019/20 award season, cleaning up everywhere he goes, and the BAFTAs were no different. Since he is the undisputed champ, he actually prepared an acceptance speech in advance of his latest win. His Golden Globes speech was clearly unprepared, the By Sarah • Feb 03, 2020 10:08 am
Style Taika with one week to go The Oscars are next weekend. Final voting opened yesterday and closes on Tuesday. Despite not being a frontrunner—TIFF’s Peoples’ Choice award will not align with Best Picture this year—Taika Waititi is still campaigning for Jojo Rabbit. Last night he made an appearance at the 92nd Street Y, By Sarah • Jan 31, 2020 12:53 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Blake Lively in The Rhythm Section Super Bowl weekend is typically the softest box weekend of the year, and that is not expected to change this year. If January is a graveyard for unwanted movies, then Super Bowl weekend is an abandoned house on a dead-end road with a mysterious locked room in the basement and By Sarah • Jan 31, 2020 12:04 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen I’m going to revise an opinion. I came down pretty hard on the 2015 Guy Ritchie movie, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Since then, however, Ritchie has made King Arthur— bad—and Aladdin— bland—and now The Gentlemen, which is a return to Ritchie’s technical By Sarah • Jan 28, 2020 04:28 pm
TV Updates The Goop Lab is mercenary and cynical snake oil I walked away from Gwyneth Paltrow’s first In Goop Health summit thinking it was a borderline snake oil convention, mostly harmless on the surface but with some predatory, potentially damaging undertones. The Goop Lab, however, is In Goop Health times a thousand. In Goop Health, it turns out, was By Sarah • Jan 28, 2020 01:45 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Watch Bambi’s mom die for real Disney’s live-action remakes have been wildly successful—the only real miss is Pete’s Dragon, which remains the best of the lot, as an actual film and not just an exercise in IP management—so it is not surprising that a new version of Bambi is in the works. By Sarah • Jan 27, 2020 02:49 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Team Bond is working hard I have not been super enthusiastic for the latest James Bond movie, No Time to Die, which is partly because the Bond movies of the Daniel Craig era are not dependably good, but also because I did not care for the serialization offered by Spectre—why does everything have to By Sarah • Jan 22, 2020 03:06 pm
