Award Season Campaigning Oscars getting better Not perfect, but better. The Oscar nominations this morning got it mostly right, recognizing films we expected—The Shape of Water, Three Billboards, Dunkirk, Call Me By Your Name—films we didn’t—Logan and The Big Sick—and films we feared would be overlooked, like Mudbound and Get Out, By Sarah • Jan 23, 2018 11:40 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Chris Hemsworth in 12 Strong In what is hopefully the last gasp of his typical Hollywood action career, before he fully embraces his destiny as a comedy grunt, Chris Hemsworth stars in 12 Strong, a movie so patriotic and mediocre you’d think it was directed by late-era Clint Eastwood. But it’s not, it’ By Sarah • Jan 19, 2018 03:05 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Does anyone care about Tomb Raider? Lainey emailed me about the new Tomb Raider trailer and my response was: “I am so unmoved by these trailers.” The first trailer at least had Walton Goggins with his hair halfway standing up, but this trailer shows us even more Goggins, and I am sad to report, his hair By Sarah • Jan 19, 2018 11:10 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Sundance Preview 2018: 10 to Watch The Sundance Film Festival kicks off today, during an uncertain period in the industry. Theatrical exhibition is dying, Fox is disappearing into the Disney fold—indie arm Fox Searchlight is operating “business as usual” this year, but it could very well be their last—and Netflix, driver of big deals By Sarah • Jan 18, 2018 10:00 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Justice for Paddington 2 Paddington was a nice surprise in 2015, and that movie and its sequel, Paddington 2, have something in common besides the eponymous bear—criminally bad marketing campaigns. Warner Brothers rescued Paddington 2 from The Weinstein Company late last year, but then they just sort of set it adrift, dumping it By Sarah • Jan 17, 2018 03:55 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Taraji P Henson > Liam Neeson There has been some discussion about Taraji P. Henson’s new movie, Proud Mary, and how, despite poor reviews, it actually did okay on opening weekend, and how it deserved more of a push than being unceremoniously dumped in the winter boneyard, as it was. By the way it was By Sarah • Jan 17, 2018 02:50 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Counterpoint: He Won’t Get Far The first trailer for Gus Van Sant’s new movie, Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot—maybe the longest title since The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford—was released yesterday. It looks very good. The movie stars Joaquin Phoenix as cartoonist John By Sarah • Jan 17, 2018 10:38 am
Business of Hollywood This Hot Bitch at the airport Here are some photos of This Hot Bitch, Sharon Stone, at the airport. I would like to draw attention to her outfit, because I was just arguing with someone about “appropriate” travel-wear, and I feel like Stone is modeling the perfect travel outfit. Comfy pants, comfy sweater, but doing it By Sarah • Jan 16, 2018 11:36 am
Top Reads This is a conversation about consent Over the weekend, a story about Aziz Ansari was published, in which a woman referred to as “Grace” recounted her date with Ansari, which ended in his apartment and a moment far too many women know: A round of touch-roulette where you try to decide the least awful places and By Sarah • Jan 16, 2018 09:41 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Liam Neeson(s) in The Commuter Last summer, director Jaume Collet-Serra scored with the sleeper hit The Shallows, the Blake Lively vs. A Shark movie that is ridiculous, but in that fun, schlocky way that is entirely watchable. That movie was a nice break from the Liam Neeson Revenge Man movies he had been making to By Sarah • Jan 12, 2018 04:15 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews At last, a Black Widow movie Marvel was always going to make a Black Widow movie, eventually, because at a certain point it just becomes money left on the table. Following Wonder Woman’s success in 2017, now is apparently when the money is on the table, and Marvel wants their cut. (They’ve talked enough By Sarah • Jan 11, 2018 11:09 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Almost time for Black Panther (Lainey: this post was supposed to go up yesterday but I had to be a dick. Black Panther tickets went on sale. The film has already set a record for advance ticket sales which is why, like an asshole, I didn’t want to post about it because I was By Sarah • Jan 10, 2018 01:08 pm
Douchebags The Michelle Williams/Mark Wahlberg pay gap Today in Burn It All Down News, USA Today is reporting that for the eleventh-hour All the Money in the World reshoots, Mark Wahlberg was paid $1.5 million, while Michelle Williams was paid less than one thousand dollars. Yes, that’s right, Michelle Williams, who received a Golden Globe By Sarah • Jan 10, 2018 09:35 am
Movie Reviews and Previews The Batch is back Since The Current War was vamoosed from award season because of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, it’s been a relatively quiet time for Benedict Cumberbatch. He had that cameo in Thor: Ragnarok, but even with the (allegedly) final episodes of Sherlock airing in early 2017, it felt like a light By Sarah • Jan 09, 2018 09:56 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Boneyard Horror #1: Insidious: The Last Key It’s January, so you know what that means: Welcome to the boneyard where all the worst movies are sent to die! A fair number of the cinematic bodies dumped in the winter boneyard are horror movies, and indeed, this year’s first burial is Insidious: The Last Key. Before By Sarah • Jan 05, 2018 10:27 am
TV Updates Lena Waithe’s own words Last year, Lena Waithe became the first black woman to win an Emmy for writing in a comedy series, for her work on Master of None’s stellar “Thanksgiving” episode. This year, Waithe is launching her own show, The Chi, on Showtime. According to her profile in the New York By Sarah • Jan 04, 2018 12:08 pm
