#Betty Gilpin Lover

[hot-celebrity-lover]

Another of Betty Gilpin, Ain't She Absolutely Gorgeous? 💋💋💋👌🏼

[the-hopeless-haze]

Hugh Laurie and Betty Gilpin need to get together and make the most heartwrenching homoerotic friends to lovers series the world has ever seen. If anyone could do it it would be these two

[lintzforever]

Wife’s Forever ❤️

Photo: @alisonbrie

[emetophobiareview]

The Hunt

SAFE! Woman foams at the mouth around 21 minutes in after eating a powered donut. Some blood out of the mouth.

[cinematicct]

Isn’t It Romantic (2019)

💗

This original romantic comedy stars Rebel Wilson as an architect named Natalie who is very cynical about love… until she finds herself in a world where everything plays out like a romantic comedy after a violent mugging.

The supporting cast includes: Adam DeVine as Natalie’s best friend/co-worker Josh, Liam Hemsworth as a billionaire named Blake, Priyanka Chopra as a model named Isabella, Betty Gilpin as Natalie’s assistant Whitney, Brandon Scott Jones as Natalie’s neighbor Donny and Jennifer Saunders as Natalie’s mother.

The outstanding Rebel Wilson delivers a fresh, satirical performance as a woman whose brash attitude and low self-esteem gradually changes during her time in the romantic fantasy world. Adam DeVine is absolutely perfect as a goofy, supportive BFF since he and Rebel Wilson previously appeared in the Pitch Perfect franchise. Liam Hemsworth gives an excellent performance as a rich, handsome client who seems polite, but pays no attention to Natalie’s needs. Priyanka Chopra is an interesting representation of someone whose good looks seem to be drawing Josh away from Natalie.

The story is set in New York City in two different versions: the real world and the romantic world. The movie starts with a dull color tone in the practical scenes, whereas the fantasy scenes present a cheery, colorful atmosphere. Natalie’s friends even appear completely different in the rom-com world: Josh is still friendly, but he immediately falls in love with Isabella (who claims to be a yoga ambassador) upon meeting her for the first time, Blake speaks with a comedic Australian accent, Donny is a flamboyant homosexual and Whitney has suddenly become Natalie’s enemy. It is then that Natalie tries to set things back to normal by trying to get a certain someone to fall in love with her.

The movie itself pays homage to the classic rom-com stereotypes. For example, in the fantasy world, Natalie’s apartment has a huge closet in which some of her gowns resemble the ones worn by Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. At the same time, since the film is PG-13, it tends to censor every sexual activity and curse word Natalie would shout out loud.

The interesting thing about the story is it even manages to relate to those who dislike romantic comedies. As such, one can either be on the same level as Natalie or change their minds after watching the film.

The movie features two classic pop songs that are used for some big dance numbers: Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)”, which takes place at a karaoke bar, and Madonna’s “Express Yourself”, where the cast does their own singing.

Finally, the true message is you don’t need romance to feel complete, but to be more open and love yourself as you are. With all that said, I highly recommend this lighthearted, hilarious movie to every rom-com lover and hater.

[tothemaxxx]

My Favorite Films and Performances of 2020

“I wish I could’ve seen it on the big screen.”

It was a strange year, and even stranger year of movie watching. In 2020 I saw only one of my top films in a theater, which is crazy (like much else over these past months). But the experience of keeping up with the movies this year was a reminder that great filmmaking can transcend the specifics of the viewing experience. In your living room, in bed, projected onto the side of a garage, streaming on Twitch, broken up into multiple sittings, maybe even on your phone (desperate times)… if doesn’t matter as long as it connects with you. A great film has the power to soothe and transport, to alter your perspective, to re-wire your brain. So while I didn’t get on a single airplane last year, I definitely went places. And I’m grateful for these changes of scenery. For the time-travel as well; last year in my house, we found great comfort in revisiting a bunch of old favorites. It was also an opportunity to finally watch a number of those older films that had someone evaded us… a year of catching up, now or never. We were members of a weekly movie club for some months — that was cool. Another pleasant silver lining was the emergence of virtual film festivals, which have been a fantastic opportunity. I hope that they can continue in some form when this pandemic is in the rearview. Because, you know, getting to Park City is a real schlep. All this to say: like you, I’ll always remember 2020. In this truly crummy year, the movies really helped.

I’m including some of the film festival stuff that’s coming out a little later, because the boundaries between 2020 films and 2021 films feels blurry to me without proper theatrical releases.

TOP 5, loosely ranked. I love these deeply.

1. LOVERS ROCK, Steve McQueen

2. NOMADLAND, Chloe Zhao

3. ANOTHER ROUND, Thomas Vinterberg

4. TIME, Garrett Bradley

5. MARTIN EDEN, Pietro Marcello

--------------------

The rest of the Top 25, in alphabetical order. I loved these.

À L’ABORDAGE, Guillaume Brac

BACURAU, Kleber Mendonça Filho

COLOR OUT OF SPACE, Richard Stanley

THE FATHER, Florian Zeller

FIRST COW, Kelly Reichardt

I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS, Charlie Kaufman

JASPER MALL, Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb

LUXOR, Zeina Durra

ALEX WHEATLE / EDUCATION / MANGROVE / RED, WHITE AND BLUE, Steve McQueen

THE NEST, Sean Durkin

NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS, Eliza Hittman

NEW ORDER, Michel Franco

THE PAINTER & THE THIEF, Benjamin Ree

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD, Armando Iannucci

POSSESSOR, Brandon Cronenberg

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, Emerald Fennell

RELIC, Natalie Erika James

SAINT FRANCES, Alex Thompson

SOUND OF METAL, Darius Marder

THE TRUTH, Hirokazu Koreeda

--------------------

I also enjoyed (some more than others):

Apples, The Assistant, Babyteeth, Bad Education, Black Bear, Blow the Man Down, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Butt Boy, The Climb, Da 5 Bloods, Deerskin, Emma, The Father (Bulgaria), Greed, His House, The Hunt, I Used to Go Here, I'm No Longer Here, Impetigore, The Intruder, The Invisible Man, Kajillionaire, La Llorona, Let Them All Talk, Lost Girls, The Man Who Sold His Skin, Mank, Never Gonna Snow Again, News of the World, One Night in Miami, Palm Springs, Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time, Rebecca, She Dies Tomorrow, Shirley, Slow Machine, Sorry We Missed You, Soul, Spree, Straight Up, A Sun, Swallow, Tenet, Tesla, Tommaso, The Traitor, The Trip to Greece, True History of the Kelly Gang, Uncle Frank, Under the Open Sky, The Vast of Night, Vitalina Varela, Wendy, The Whistlers, Wildland, Young Ahmed

--------------------

And these documentaries!

American Murder: The Family Next Door, The American Sector, Assassins, Beastie Boys Story, The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, Bloody Nose Empty Pockets, Boys State, Brainiac: Transmissions After Zero, Circus of Books, Class Action Park, Collective, Crip Camp, David Byrne's American Utopia, Dick Johnson is Dead, Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds, The Go-Go's, Gunda, Miss Americana, MLK/FBI, The Mole Agent, Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado, My Psychedelic Love Story, Mystify: Michael Hutchence, Narrowsburg, On the Record, Other Music, Sisters with Transistors, Spaceship Earth, The Way I See It, Whirlybird

--------------------

And these shorts:

Bye Bye Body (which I edited), Fit Model, Friday Night Pizza for Daddy, Hard Cracked the Wind, The Human Voice, John Was Trying to Contact Aliens, Michael's Preference West, What Did Jack Do?, World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime

--------------------

My favorite performance of the year:

Frances McDormand as Fern in Nomadland

--------------------

Favorite ensembles:

À l’abordage, Another Round, Bad Education, Babyteeth, Bloody Nose Empty Pockets, Blow the Man Down, Emma, First Cow, Kajillionaire, Let Them All Talk, Lovers Rock, Mangrove, Mank, One Night in Miami, The Personal History of David Copperfield, Promising Young Woman, True History of the Kelly Gang

--------------------

More memorable (and in some cases under-discussed) performances:

Christopher Abbott as Colin Tate in Possessor and as Gabe in Black Bear

Idir Ben Addi as Ahmed in Young Ahmed

Riz Ahmed as Ruben Stone in Sound of Metal

Daniel Algrant as Kelvin Kranz in Let Them All Talk

Maria Bakalova as Tutar Sagdiyev in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Haley Bennett as Hunter Conrad in Swallow

John Boyega as Leroy Logan in Red, White and Blue

Rob Brydon as Rob Brydon in The Trip to Greece

Jessie Buckley as Young Woman in I’m Thinking of Ending Things

Nicolas Cage as Nathan Gardner in Color Out of Space

Salif Cissé as Chérif in À L’abordage

Sheyi Cole as Alex Wheatle in Alex Wheatle

Cleopatra Coleman as Trina in The Argument

Carrie Coon as Allison O’Hara in The Nest

Michael Angelo Covino as Mike in The Climb

Willem Dafoe as Tommaso in Tommaso

Charles Dance as William Randolph Hearst in Mank

Catherine Deneuve as Fabienne Dangeville in The Truth

Katie Findlay as Rory in Straight Up

Sidney Flanigan as Autumn in Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Johnny Flynn as George Knightley in Emma

Julia Garner as Jane in The Assistant

Robbie Gee as Simeon in Alex Wheatle

Chris Giarmo as himself in David Byrne’s American Utopia

Betty Gilpin as Crystal Creasey in The Hunt

Ethan Hawke as Hank in The Truth

Kris Hitchen as Ricky Turner in Sorry We Missed You

Anthony Hopkins as Anthony in The Father

Jonathan Jules as Dennis Isaacs in Alex Wheatle

Sandra Guldberg Kampp as Ida in Wildland

Joe Keery as Kurt Knuckle in Spree

Udo Kier as Michael in Bacurau

Orion Lee as King Lu in First Cow

Delroy Lindo as Paul in Da 5 Bloods

Peter Macdissi as Walid "Wally" Nadeem in Uncle Frank

Matthew Macfadyen as Wilcock in The Assistant

George MacKay as Ned Kelly in True History of the Kelly Gang

Yahya Mahayni as Sam Ali in The Man Who Sold His Skin

Luca Marinelli as Martin Eden in Martin Eden

Tuppence Middleton as Sara Mankiewicz in Mank

Mads Mikkelsen as Martin in Another Round

Wunmi Mosaku as Rial in His House

Elisabeth Moss as Cecilia Kass in The Invisible Man

Kelly O'Sullivan as Bridget in Saint Frances

Shaun Parkes as Frank Crichlow in Mangrove

Robert Pattinson as Neil in Tenet

Paul Raci as Joe in Sound of Metal

Kadeem Ramsay as Samson in Lovers Rock

Gayle Rankin as Marissa in The Climb

Tanya Reynolds as Mrs Augusta Elton in Emma

Tyler Rice as Detective Russell Fox in Butt Boy

Andrea Riseborough as Hana in Luxor

Cecilia Roth as Marta in The Intruder

William Sadler as the Grim Reaper in Bill & Ted Face the Music

Kenyah Sandy as Kingsley Smith in Education

Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn as Martha Trenton in Lovers Rock

David Strathairn as David in Nomadland

Michael Stuhlbarg as Stanley Edgar Hyman in Shirley

Swankie as Swankie in Nomadland

Tilda Swinton as Woman in The Human Voice

Kristin Scott Thomas as Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca

Steve Toussaint as Ken Logan in Red, White and Blue

Alec Utgoff as Zhenia in Never Gonna Snow Again

Jairaj Varsani as young David Copperfield in The Personal History of David Copperfield

Ben Whishaw as Uriah Heep in The Personal History of David Copperfield

Sharlene Whyte as Agnes Smith in Education

Letitia Wright as Altheia Jones-LeCointe in Mangrove

Ramona Edith Williams as Frances in Saint Frances

Kôji Yakusho as Masao Mikami in Under the Open Sky

Youn Yuh-jung as Soon-ja in Minari

Helena Zengel as Johanna Leonberger in News of the World

--------------------

Favorite pre-2020 films I saw for the first time in 2020:

Blood on the Moon, But I’m A Cheerleader, Crooklyn, Cure, Daughters of the Dust, The Death of Dick Long, Deep Cover, The Draughtsman's Contract, Eyes of Laura Mars, Give Me Liberty, Greener Grass, Hardcore, High Hopes, The Last Party, Long Day's Journey into Night, Maiden, One Day Pina Asked, Persona, Right Now Wrong Then, Right On!, The Seventh Victim, Slightly French, Synonyms, Tammy and the T-Rex, Variety, The Watermelon Woman... and a tip of the hat to Coppola's new The Godfather Part III recut, The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone

[tuseriesdetv]

Noticias de series de la semana

Renovaciones

Comedy Central ha renovado South Park hasta su trigésima temporada. Además, Paramount+ ha encargado catorce películas.

Apple TV+ ha renovado Physical por una segunda temporada

Disney+ ha renovado The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers por una segunda temporada

Showtime ha renovado The Chi por una quinta temporada

Adult Swim ha renovado Tuca & Bertie por una segunda temporada

Roku podría producir una película de Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist y quizás más temporadas

Sky Comedy ha renovado Bloods por una segunda temporada

Disney+ ha renovado Star Wars: The Bad Batch por una segunda temporada

Cancelaciones

Apple TV+ ha cancelado Little Voice tras su primera temporada

Amazon ha cancelado Panic tras su primera temporada

HBO Max ha descartado Overlook. Se venderá a otra plataforma.

Noticias cortas

Britt Robertson (Cheyenne) y Michelle Forbes (Margaret) no estarán en la segunda temporada de Big Sky.

Matthew Willig (André the Giant) será regular en la segunda temporada de Young Rock.

Wyatt McClure (Billy) será regular en la quinta temporada de Young Sheldon.

Fichajes

Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother, A Series of Unfortunate Events) protagonizará y producirá Uncoupled, en la que Michael pensaba que su vida era perfecta hasta que su marido se marcha tras diecisiete años.

Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother, Stumptown) sustituye a Betty Gilpin en el papel de Ann Coulter en Impeachment: American Crime Story.

Ellen Burstyn (The Exorcist, Requiem for a Dream) volverá a interpretar a Bernie Stabler, la madre de Elliot (Chris Meloni), en la segunda temporada de Law & Order: Organized Crime.

Sam Waterston (Grace and Frankie, The Newsroom), Kurtwood Smith (That '70s Show, Resurrection), Anne Archer (Falcon Crest, Ghost Whisperer), Dylan Minnette (13 Reasons Why, Awake), Bashir Salahuddin (GLOW, Looking), Alan Ruck (Succession, The Exorcist), Mary Lynn Rajskub (24, The Girlfriend Experience), Hart Bochner (Too Old to Die Young, Die Hard), James Hiroyuki Liao (Unforgettable, Prison Break), Nicky Endres (One Day at a Time), Camryn Mi-Young Kim y Andrew Leeds (Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, A Million Little Things) se unen a The Dropout. Interpretarán a George Schultz, secretario de Estado; David Boies, abogado representante de Elizabeth (Amanda Seyfried); Charlotte Schultz, esposa de George; Tyler Shultz, biólogo que trabaja en Theranos; Brendan Morris, ingeniero eléctrico de Theranos; Jay Rosan, miembro del equipo de innovación de la sede de Walgreens en Chicago; Lorraine Fuisz, esposa de Richard Fuisz (William H. Macy); Larry Ellison, millonario interesado en Theranos; Edmond Ku, jefe de ingeniería de Theranos; Ana Arriola, diseñadora de Apple reclutada por Elizabeth; Erika Cheung, graduada en Berkeley que empieza a trabajar en Theranos; y Roland, sabelotodo lameculos del CFO de Walgreen.

Ron Cephas Jones (This Is Us, Luke Cage) y Vinnie Jones (Galavant, Snatch) serán recurrentes en la segunda temporada de Law & Order: Organized Crime como Leon Kilbride, un congresista que sabe jugar sus cartas; y Albi Briscu, un gangster europeo.

Leslie Jones (Saturday Night Live, Ghostbusters) y Nat Faxon (Friends From College, Ben and Kate) se unen como recurrentes a Our Flag Means Death.

Sam Elliott (The Ranch, A Star Is Born) y los cantantes Tim McGraw (The Shack) y Faith Hill protagonizarán Y: 1883, la precuela de Yellowstone. Serán Shea Brennan, cowboy con un inmenso pesar que tiene la tarea de guiar a un grupo de Texas a Montana; y James y Margaret Dutton, patriarca y matriarca de la familia Dutton.

Luis Guzmán (Black Code, Oz) será Gomez, el padre de Wednesday (Jenna Ortega), en Wednesday.

Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights, Titans), Dominic Fike y Demetrius "Lil Meech" Flenory Jr. (Black Mafia Family) se unen a la segunda temporada de Euphoria. Se desconocen detalles.

Michelle Forbes (The Killing, True Blood) será recurrente en la cuarta temporada de New Amsterdam como Veronica Fuentes, una fixer que tiene la tarea arreglar las cifras del hospital.

Kerry Bishé (Halt and Catch Fire, Narcos) será Austin Geidt, empleada número cuatro de Uber, en Super Pumped.

Ian Anthony Dale (Hawaii Five-0, Murder in the First) y Laurie Fortier (Hemlock Grove, Unsolved) se unen a la undécima y última temporada de The Walking Dead. Serán Tomi, miembro del grupo recientemente descubierto; y Agatha.

Keir Gilchrist (Atypical, United States of Tara), Elizabeth Marvel (Homeland, House of Cards) y Tom Pelphrey (Ozark, Iron Fist) se unen como regulares a Love and Death. Interpretarán al pastor Ron Adams, la pastora Jackie Ponder y Don Crowder.

Raza Jaffrey (Code Black, Smash) y Sennia Nanua serán Francois Guise y Rahima en The Serpent Queen.

Ella Rumpf (Grave, Freud) participará como invitada en la tercera temporada de Succession. Se desconocen detalles.

Julie Halston (Bitsy) estará en And Just Like That..., el revival de Sex and the City. Christopher Jackson (Hamilton, Bull) y LeRoy McClain (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Respect) serán Herbert Wexley, exitoso banquero de Manhattan y esposo de Lisa Todd Wexley (Nicole Ari Parker); y Andre Rashad Wallace, exitoso músico y marido de Nya Wallace (Karen Pittman).

Poppy Liu (Hacks, Sunnyside) se une como regular a Dead Ringers. Será Greta, encargada del servicio en casa de Elliot y Beverly (Rachel Weisz).

Eiza González (From Dusk Till Dawn, I Care a Lot) está en negociaciones para unirse al reparto de The Three Body Problem.

Beth Lacke (High School Musical: The Musical: The Series), Stephen Louis Grush (Longmire) y Cass Buggé (Disjointed) se unen como recurrentes a Lightyears. Serán Chandra, antigua alumna de Irene (Sissy Spacek) insatisfecha con su trabajo en una residencia de ancianos y con la vida en general; Nick, un solitario sin habilidades sociales que lleva un negocio familiar de cortinas y tiene una inesperada conexión con Stella (Julieta Zylberberg); y Jeanine, esposa de Byron (Adam Bartley) recién llegada a Farnsworth y vecina de Irene y Franklin (J.K. Simmons).

Byron Bowers (The Chi) será Herman, un director de Hollywood que se encuentra en París promocionando su película, en Irma Vep. Tom Sturridge (Sweetbitter, The Hollow Crown) sustituye a Jerrod Carmichael en el papel de Eamonn, exnovio de Mira (Alicia Vikander).

Daniel Augustin (David Makes Man), Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut (Homeland, Cruel Summer), Amandla Jahava y Jaboukie Young-White (Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens) serán recurrentes en Rap Sh*t como Maurice, amigo y colega de Shawna (Aida Osman); Fatima, compañera de clase y amiga de Cliff (Devon Terrell); Jill, amiga de la universidad de Shawna que trabaja en Spotify en Nueva York; y Francois Boom, antiguo compañero de clase de Shawna y productor.

Richard Roundtree (Family Reunion, Being Mary Jane) y Terri J. Vaughn (Insecure, Greenleaf) se unen como recurrentes a la segunda temporada de Cherish the Day. Serán Mandeville "MV" St. James, exjuez y padre viudo de Sunday (Joy Bryant); y Anastasia, futura exmujer de Ellis (Henry Simmons).

Justice Leak (Raising Dion, Powers) será recurrente en The Staircase como Tom Maher, compañero de David Rudolf (Michael Stuhlbarg).

Martin Bobb-Semple (Pandora, Free Rein), Karim Diané (StartUp), Sara Thompson (The 100, Burden of Truth), George Ferrier (Dirty Laundry), Miles J. Harvey (American Vandal) y Zenia Marshall (Date My Dad) serán recurrentes en One of Us Is Lying como Evan Nieman, novio de Bronwyn (Marianly Tejada); Kris Greene, nuevo estudiante con lazos con Cooper (Chibuikem Uche) y Nate (Cooper van Grootel); Vanessa Clark, mejor amiga de Addy (Annalisa Cochrane); TJ Forrester, novio de Vanessa; Lucas Clay, hermano pequeño de Cooper; y Keely Moore, novia de Cooper.

Melissa Saint-Amaud (Ozark) será Claire Brockman en Long Slow Exhale.

Alfie Fuller (Little America) participará en la cuarta temporada de The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Se desconocen detalles.

Christie Clark (Carrie), Austin Peck (Austin), Thaao Penghlis (André), Leann Hunley (Anna), Greg Rikaart (Leo), Chandler Massey (Will), Zachary Atticus Tinker (Sonny) y Eileen Davidson, que ha interpretado a varios personajes; también estarán en Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem.

Pósters

       Nuevas series

Hulu ha encargado Tell Me Lies, basada en la novela de Carola Lovering (2018), que sigue una relación agitada y tóxica durante ocho años. Lucy Albright (Grace Van Patten; Nine Perfect Strangers, Maniac) y Stephen DeMarco se conocen en la universidad, donde decisiones aparentemente mundanas tienen consecuencias irrevocables. Escrita y producida por Meaghan Oppenheimer (Queen America). Produce Emma Roberts (First Kill).

Hulu encarga la comedia This Fool, antes conocida como Punk Ass Bitch, en la que un macarra de Los Ángeles (Chris Estrada) vive aún en casa de sus padres, trabaja en una organización sin ánimo de lucro que ayuda a la rehabilitación de pandilleros y se esfuerza para ayudar a cualquiera menos a él mismo. Con Michelle Ortiz (Mr. Mom) y Frankie Quinones (The Dress Up Gang). Escrita y producida por Estrada junto a Jake Weisman, Matt Ingebretson y Pat Bishop, creadores de Corporate. Producen Fred Armisen (Portlandia, Forever) y Jonathan Groff (How I Met Your Mother, Black-ish).

Syfy encarga Reginald the Vampire, dramedia en la que el mundo está habitado por vampiros bellos, en forma y vanidosos. Reginald Baskin (Jacob Batalon; Spider-Man: Homecoming, 50 States of Fright) es un héroe improbable que tiene que lidiar con todo tipo de obstáculos: no puede estar con la chica que le gusta, tiene un jefe bully en el trabajo y el jefe de los vampiros lo quiere muerto. Adaptación de los libros 'Fat Vampire' de Johnny B. Truant. Escrita por Harley Peyton (Twin Peaks, Channel Zero).

Amazon encarga The Lake, su primera serie original canadiense. Es una comedia en la que Justin (Jordan Gavaris; Orphan Black, Take Two) vuelve a casa tras romper con su pareja, con quien vivió en el extranjero durante muchos años, con la esperanza de reconectar con su hija biológica (Madison Shamoun), a la que dio en adopción en la adolescencia, pero descubre que su padre dejó la idílica casa del lago en la que él pasó su niñez a su hermanastra Maisy-May (Julia Stiles; Riviera, Dexter). Completan el reparto Jon Dore (How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)), Carolyn Scott, Natalie Lisinska (Orphan Black, Mary Kills People), Travis Nelson, Declan Whaley (Criminal Minds) y Terry Chen (The Expanse, Jessica Jones). Escrita y producida por Julian Doucet (Killjoys, Bomb Girls).

eOne adaptará The Turnout, la próxima novela de Megan Abbott (2021). Las hermanas Durant, dueñas de una escuela de ballet y con una historia familiar problemática, contratan a Derek, un contratista, para reformar el estudio. Una de ellas comienza una aventura con él que amenaza sus lazos familiares y expone secretos de la familia.

Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation, Legion) y Ramón Rodríguez (Gang Related, Iron Fist) protagonizarán el piloto de Olga Dies Dreaming, adaptación de la novela de Xóchitl Gonzalez (2021), en Hulu. Trata sobre dos hermanos nuyorriqueños con una madre ausente y políticamente radical y una vida entre la élite de Nueva York tras el paso del huracán María. Olga (Plaza) es una wedding planner cuya fachada oculta un interior oscuro, su búsqueda de la perfección se ha convertido en un compulsivo mecanismo de supervivencia, cree que nadie la ve como una igual y que su éxito es una ilusión y trata de escapar de su pasado todo lo que pueda. Prieto (Rodríguez) es un congresista orgulloso de su origen puertorriqueño que creció con el papel de patriarca y mantiene esta fachada ante sus votantes y sus oponentes. Escrita por Gonzalez y dirigida por Alfonso Gómez-Rejón (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, American Horror Story).

HBO Max desarrolla Sag Harbor, adaptación de la novela de Colson Whitehead (2009) en la que Benji Cooper, uno de los pocos estudiantes negros de una escuela de secundaria de élite de Manhattan en 1985, escapa de los Hamptons cada verano para ir a Sag Harbor, donde una pequeña comunidad de profesionales afroamericanos han construido su propio mundo. Escrita por Daniel "Koa" Beaty. Producen Beaty, Whitehead y Laurence Fishburne (Black-ish).

Fechas

Deceit se estrena en Channel 4 el 13 de agosto

La segunda temporada de Ladhood se estrena en BBC Three el 15 de agosto

La segunda temporada de Code 404 se estrena en Sky Comedy el 1 de septiembre

La sexta temporada de Queen Sugar se estrena en OWN el 7 de septiembre

Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. se estrena en Disney+ el 8 de septiembre

The Lost Symbol se estrena en Peacock el 16 de septiembre

La cuarta y última temporada de Dear White People llega a Netflix el 22 de septiembre

Dopesick se estrena en Hulu el 13 de octubre

La segunda temporada de The Great se estrena en Hulu el 19 de noviembre

The Lord of the Rings se estrena en Prime Video el 2 de septiembre de 2022

Otras imágenes

Tráilers y promos

La casa de papel - Temporada 5

Impeachment: American Crime Story

Stranger Things - Temporada 4

Dear White People - Temporada 4 y última

The Great - Temporada 2

Y: The Last Man

Dopesick

Truth Be Told - Temporada 2

Queen Sugar - Temporada 6

Yellowjackets

Cobra Kai - Temporada 4

Diary of a Future President - Temporada 2

[nellwritesstuff]

alias: nell

discord: nellbell#6685

age: 20+

timezone:cst

pronouns: she/her

favorite marvel characters: lady sif, karen page, jessica jones, the punisher

favorite faces: betty gilpin, caitrona balfe, sydney sweeney, gemma arterton

favorite writing tropes: enemies to lovers, found families

what 80s song best describes you (and why?): everybody wants to rule the world - it’s a certified bop, and i like being a boss. 

favorite 80s sci-fi/horror/fantasy/action movie: gremlins! 

favorite movie from 1990-1991:the witches

favorite song from 1990-1991: everything i do (i do it for you). 

what are you most looking forward to on SUNDRY: everything! i have been so hyped since i heard about sundry! 

a gif or image of the gen x (80s/90s) pop culture icon that is your kindred spirit: 

[delayedcritique]

A DOG’S JOURNEY REVIEW

“An emotional appreciation for our furry best friends that its predecessor fell short of accomplishing.”

BY COLLIN DELADE

A DOG’S JOURNEY unapologetically caters to massive dog lovers. Every moment of joy and entertainment in this film requires a knowledge and love for having a dog. Just like its predecessor, A DOG’S PURPOSE, this sequel is aiming to strictly entertain dog owners. If you are not a fan of dogs or the concept of their loyalty transiting over multiple generations, then this is not the movie for you. As I am a massive dog person, this review will be in the perspective of someone in the film’s intending target audience.

A DOG’S JOURNEY is the latest dog movie continuing the story of the reincarnating Bailey (Josh Gad), as he looks after his owner, Ethan (Dennis Quaid) throughout his life. As Ethan welcomes his granddaughter, CJ, into his life, her mother (Betty Gilpin) wants to irresponsibly take her away. As Bailey’s current life is coming to an end, Ethan assigns him to look after CJ throughout his new lives. Once Bailey returns once again in a new body, he sets out to find CJ and guide her to greatness.

This concept of a loyal dog returning back to a new life to look after their owner is such a unique and adorable concept. I truly appreciate this idea of a loved one, human or animal, returning in a different form to look after you. While A DOG’S PURPOSE introduced the concept, A DOG’S JOURNEY advances it and adds much more emotion to the story. One problem with the first film was how much it jumped around from person to person with the single connection being Bailey’s confused memory. For a collection of short stories, it was a sweet little story. As a feature film, though, it had very little to get invested in.

For this follow-up, the filmmakers appropriately kept the focus on one character, CJ. Instantly, I am more invested in seeing this story of Bailey protecting her than in the first film’s random storyline. Making this story even better is how likable and charming CJ is portrayed. Both as a child (Abby Ryder Fortson) and as an adult (Kathryn Prescott), CJ is a great leading character to follow. Along with the main character being likable, the vocal talent of Bailey is improved this time around.

While Josh Gad was right in the original, this sequel has him much more invested and motivated through his vocal talents. I truly believed the urgency and passion through Bailey trying to protect CJ. Considering this sequel as a true continuation of the original story, this journey is genuinely emotional when looking at it as a whole. While the tone and direction towards the supporting characters are generic, the story of Bailey’s journey will require some tissues by the conclusion.

As strong as I feel about the two main characters, the rest of the cast is strictly divided as pure and evil. When a good character comes in that the audience is meant to love, every ounce of their soul is innocent and identifiable without a single negative bone in their body. When an evil character comes in that the audience is meant to hate, they will deliver all their lines and emotions as an over-the-top Disney villain. All the characters are so identifiable good or evil that one of them unnaturally switches between the two like a light switch. While the story goes deep with covering disturbing themes like child neglect and sexual assault, the characters are too poorly written to truly reflect the humanity that the subject matter needs to fully work.

While the majority of the film was divided between being great with CJ and Bailey and being generic with the one-note supporting cast, the conclusion will make everyone with a heart tear up. As a moviegoer that rarely cried at a movie, I was leaving in tears, by the way, everything wrapped up Minding my personal taste and how I connected to the story, I still believe that this is a delightful ending to this extended story.

I would advise parents with small children that this family film is much more mature than the advertisements has been showing. Not only does the movie cover mature and disturbing themes, but young kids might not react well to the conclusion. It’s not something that’s going to scar them, but it will leave for some questions on the ride home.

A DOG’S JOURNEY is such an enjoyable movie for dog lovers like myself. There is so much improved upon from the last film while still keeping the adorable dogs as the main attraction. This is an absolute must see for dog owners, whether as a night out at the movies or as a simple movie night at home.

8.5/10

[hot-celebrity-lover]

Betty Gilpin, Ain't She Absolutely Gorgeous? 💋💋💋👌🏼

[douxreviews]

American Gods - ‘Git Gone’ Review

"That was vulgar. I’m a vulgar woman. Anger and grief have… have really just made me vulgar."

American Gods gives us the Gospel According to Laura, and answers a few questions to boot.

OK, it's cheating just a little bit to end two episodes in a row with the exact same cliffhanger, but wow, what a trip it was getting there the second time around.

So, at the end of the previous episode, Shadow enters his motel room to find his recently deceased wife, Laura, sitting on his bed waiting for him. Expectations, then, were that we'd pick up at that same point and get to see their inevitable confrontation over the whole 'died while orally servicing his best friend' situation. But 'Git Gone' takes a different path, and instead goes back to before the show even began and tells the whole thing again, but this time from Laura's perspective.

This is by no means the first show to do an episode dedicated to re-staging things we've already seen, but from the perspective of one of the other characters, but there's a reason that shows like to do it, and it's not just the cost savings of re-using existing sets. The primary virtue of this setup is that it allows you to fill in a lot of character information, while revealing information about events you've already seen that we didn't know at the time. Case in point, we've already heard the phone conversation between Shadow and Laura in 'The Bone Orchard'. but now we know that she literally had his best friend naked on their bed while she was talking to him. That changes how we feel about Laura during that conversation a lot.

So, let's talk about Laura.

For the first three episodes, Laura has essentially been a woman in the refrigerator. It's an insidious trope, which can be boiled down to the idea that stories tend to treat female characters as someone to kill so that the important character, i.e. the man, can be properly motivated to do whatever the story needs him to do. It's a pleasant relief then to find out that, no, Laura has been having a fairly eventful story of her own, and her untimely death was only the middle part of it.

The thing that 'Git Gone' makes clear about Laura is that she is fundamentally self-destructive. The very first decision we see her make is to attempt suicide in her covered hot tub by breathing in the titular bug spray, and that appears to have been brought on by nothing more than the casino she's working at telling her that she can't shuffle the cards by hand anymore, but she likes shuffling cards so she's super sad about it. She's clearly smart and perceptive; it takes her all of three seconds to understand the con that Shadow is trying to pull at her blackjack table. She's also basically kind, since her response to his con is to point out the casino's security measures and what they'll do to him when he's caught, then takes his bet and tells him to finish his drink and go home while he can. But when Shadow approaches her afterward and tries to ask her out in a reasonably polite fashion she's not interested. She only becomes interested in him once he starts getting stalker-ishly creepy. The same is true of their sex scene. She's bored out of her mind when he's being a courteous lover, and slaps him full in the face for no other reason than to see what he'll do. That's just not a safe thing to do to a guy you just picked up after he attempted to rob your casino, and whom you know absolutely nothing about. Which is why she does it.

The sequence of scenes where we see Shadow grow happier and happier while she grows sadder and sadder tell us everything we need to know about Laura. She likes Shadow, but he's nice. And when Laura has something nice in her life, Laura is immediately compelled to destroy that thing. That's why she suggests the casino heist that gets Shadow sent to prison. That's why she starts sleeping with Robbie while Shadow's away. Note the way that Laura only slept with Robbie the second time because he had accepted her statement that they shouldn't. Note also how she was clearly just as bored during her sex with Robbie as she had been that first night with Shadow. It was never about the sex, it was about inviting things into her life that would cause as much damage as possible. When Audrey mentions that she wishes Robbie looked at her the way Shadow looks at Laura, you can feel how little Laura values it. How much she needs to destroy it, in order to prove to herself that she doesn't deserve it. Honestly, season one doesn't give us much in terms of Laura's early background information, and the book gives even less, but note that Laura's mother appears to be at their wedding and her father isn't. I suspect there's a lot of interesting backstory there, and I hope we get more of it in the future. People this self destructive don't just happen for no reason.

And hey, we mentioned Audrey a moment ago. Audrey, and I'll make no bones about this whatsoever, is my absolute favorite character in the show, despite only being in two episodes of the first season. The scene between Audrey and Laura in Audrey's bathroom is absolutely the centerpiece of this episode. That scene works on every conceivable level. It's simultaneously hysterically funny, heartbreakingly sad, and the weirdest thing you're likely to see on television. And it all comes down to the fact that both Betty Gilpin as Audrey and Emily Browning as Laura play the absolute emotional truth of the moment, despite the fact that the moment is a zombie with diarrhea on the toilet in front of the woman whose husband she died while blowing. Oh, and she stopped by to borrow craft supplies. The whole thing is basically, what if The Walking Dead was a production of the Hallmark Channel, and those two actresses make it work. Audrey is confronted with the woman she thought was her best friend but was sleeping with her husband. Who died while betraying her. When Audrey speaks the line 'I found out my husband was cheating on me and dead in the same sentence' you absolutely feel how much pain she's in, and it feels real. Despite the zombie diarrhea and the craft supplies, it feels like genuine emotional damage that she has no idea how to work through. It's amazing.

Then Audrey gets her craft supplies, sews her friend's arm back on for her, and drives her where she needs to go. Because she has no idea how else to respond to the situation. And if anyone is capable of getting through the following exchange without falling in love a little with Audrey, then that person has no soul. As Audrey is sewing her dead friend's arm back on and discussing the way that friend slept with her husband:

Laura: "I feel terrible about it." Audrey: "Oh, F*ck your feelings."

Quotes:

Laura: "Is this your first time trying to rob a casino?" Shadow: "A casino? Yeah." Laura: "Well, you’re really not very good at it."

Shadow: "All l know is there’s more than I know."

Laura: "There’s no farm upstate for old dogs."

Laura: "I have a perfect plan. You will never get caught." Cut to Jail Laura: "How did you get caught?"

Laura: "I lived my life. Good and bad. Definitely not light as a feather."

Audrey: "…Laura?" Laura: "Hey Audrey." Audrey:

Laura: "Audrey. Audrey. Don’t call the police." Audrey: "Get out of my house, you zombie whore!"

Ibis: "Don’t move. You’re still tacky."

Bits and Pieces:

-- Nice fake-out at the beginning with the Egyptian theme casino. The casino's name was 'The 26th Dynasty' Apparently that was the last Egyptian dynasty before they were invaded by the Persians. I don't know if that's at all important, but information is always nice.

-- Mrs. Fadil's post-death scene with Anubis last week served the important function of letting us understand what was happening to Laura this week. It's a little weird that Laura would be the province of an Egyptian death god though. They hand waved it last week with Mrs. Fadil remembering the old stories, but all we get here is that Laura is Anubis' concern because of the manner of her passing. That seems like a curiously specific thing for an Egyptian god to care about. Maybe she had to sign a release when she started working at the casino or something.

-- The hot tub is a visual metaphor for nothingness and oblivion. Watch the episode with that in mind and it opens up a world of interesting interpretations.

-- Do people leave their TVs on for the cats while they're out? It made total sense that it was the death of Dummy the cat, who Laura claimed to not even like, that drove her completely off the rails and into the affair with Robbie.

-- I'm not sure why, but the Egyptian eyes on Laura's work uniform bow tie really freaked me out. Like, to an irrational degree.

-- Laura's dialogue, 'When you die, you rot,' is shown over the images of her and Shadow's wedding. That was a nice directorial touch.

-- I liked the visual cue of Shadow leaving his wedding ring on the statue of the Eifel Tower when he went to the gym. That's a real thing, I take off mine myself to work out.

-- Three episodes later, we find out that it was Laura who killed all of Technical Boy's henchmen and saved Shadow from the lynching. Wow, zombie Laura is apparently quite strong. And can kick you in the balls so hard your entire spinal column flies out the top of your head, which was a funny sight gag.

-- Mr. Jacquel, a.k.a. Anubis, told Laura that after this was all over he would complete his task and send her to oblivion. So now Laura has a matching doom over her head to go with Shadow's promise to let Czernobog smash his head in when it's all over.

-- I'd have liked to have known what happened to Audrey after she and Laura encountered Jacquel and Ibis. I assume she just dropped Laura off and went back home, but it would have been nice to see it.

-- Absent entirely this week - Wednesday, Mad Sweeney, Bilquis, Media, Technical Boy, Czernobog, The Zorya sisters, and Mr. World.

A great episode that gave us a lot of character work and some intriguing answers, but at the expense of paying off the previous episode's cliffhanger.

Three and a half out of four hot tubs.

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water.

[emetophobiareview]

The Grudge (2020)

Safe-ish. Around 15 minutes in woman g*gs, coughs, covers her mouth, and bends over but doesn’t V after running out of house. Around 30 minutes in little girl covers her mouth and black liquid comes out while man is on the phone talking about her. Around 1 hr and 7 minutes in black goo drips out of character’s mouth and into women’s mouth while she’s laying in bed. Some blood out of the mouth. Some intense coughing.

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: MOVIE REVIEW: Coffee & Kareem

(Image by Justina Mintz for Netflix)

COFFEE & KAREEM— 1 STAR

The posters for Netflix’s latest action comedy Coffee & Kareem (which is silly already because it would never see a theater, with or without a pandemic shutdown) have been trying to splash its stars Ed Helms and youngster Terrence Little Gardenhigh in classic poses, fashions, and fonts from Beverly Hills Cop, 48 Hours, and Die Hard. The crack marketing department is really trying to get your nostalgic attention for the violent and raunchy R-rated cop movie of old with this PhotoShop power play. Catch a whiff right here:

Those posters clearly catch the eye, but once Coffee & Kareem attempts to evoke the promotional notion that it is worthy of standing next to classic giants like those three films as a homage or even as an lesser riff, it’s asking to bomb. 

LESSON #1: DON’T PRETEND TO BE SOMETHING YOU’RE NOT— When you fail, even intentionally, you become one more shitty cop movie from a generation ago. Does someone get an award somewhere from some lofty agency of aficionados when you make a shitty cop movie precisely as shitty as the old shitty cop movies this shitty cop movie emulates and remembers? Is that a Razzie or something else?

James Coffee is a mustachioed and divorced peace officer in the city of Detroit who naively loves Hall & Oates, upholding the law, helping people, and, yeah, yeah, yeah, the straight do-gooder wussy stuff you would expect. He is a complete dolt, played by the actor with the most locked-in doltish gear in the business in Helms. With a salt-grained hint of spice, James is bedding Taraji P. Henson’s hot, black, and widowed nurse named Vanessa. She is the mother of Kareem, her pudgy and fast-talking teenage son, played by the feature-debuting TV actor Gardenhigh. 

In more than the usual “so many words,” Kareem doesn’t like where Coffee’s nightstick has been. He plots to pay off a popular juvenile convict named Orlando (RonReaco Lee) to rough the dorky cop up to scare him away from his mom on a day when Coffee is picking the teen up from school. Orlando is, coincidentally, a collar Coffee embarrassingly lost which resulted in office chiding from his superior (Betty Glipin, recently of The Hunt) and a traffic duty demotion from his captain (a gray-bearded David Alan Grier). 

In propositioning the former hood, Kareem (and a tailing Coffee) are caught at the scene of a cop execution, one that Kareem records on social media. In the cross hairs of their own at-odds foolishness, the titular duo find themselves mixed up in dirty cops, tasers, drug deals, media-spun kidnapping confusions, gun play, constant racial and homophobic faux pas, and a heap of danger that will get them both in boiling hot water with Vanessa, let alone iced-down toe-tagging coroners and other higher authorities.

Coffee & Kareem surges for maximum sarcastic sacrilege out of all involved. Lovers of good roasts laced with compound obscenities will have much to love. Especially with Terrence Little Gardenhigh, this is way past Kids Say the Darndest Things. The savage vitriolic humor he spews, whether it’s scripted or ad-libbed, is snappy for sure and also vile beyond comprehension at some points. The second best stinger in the hive is Betty Gilpin busting balls like they were loaded in a Whac-A-Mole machine. 

LESSON #2: MEN OF ALL AGES ARE HORRENDOUSLY INSECURE— Thanks to the profanity, the loudest and bluntest message this movie has is trying to present all of the possible the insecure posturing males attempt when trying to think and be tough. They exaggerate. They lie. Their mouths get them in trouble. They get called out on it, and they furiously flail and fail. That’s not exciting. That’s sophomoric.  

Returning to the opening rant, where Coffee & Kareem treads on greatness and fails miserably in trying to be tacky tribute to comedy gold is in the stakes department. As irreverent as Eddie Murphy or Bruce Willis ever got in their iconic wiseacre roles, their movies had actual peril and imposing boundaries. There was either an authority figure peer or an indomitable villain (often both) that always grounded the kite-flying humor back to the grit that was a tried and true cop movie. With that edge, the humor was wiser and the body counts mattered because one of them could, at any point, become the protagonist or someone they or you cared about.

Zero of that level of sharpness or heft exists in Coffee & Kareem, directed by Stuber helmer Michael Dowse, who knows his way around the 80s with his career peak Take Me Home Tonight. The closest you get is Taraji P. Henson staring holes through ignorance, shouting more F-words, slapping tastes out of mouths, and whipping ass in her fleeting Pam Grier-esque moments to dominate. That was never going to Gilpin’s rival or any of the gun-toting henchmen. Instead, the best you get is some partial heart from the range-less Ed Helms connecting with the kid and the attempt of sacrificing his well-being to save who he comes cares about. That’s weak sauce here.

At around the one-hour mark with just about 30 minutes remaining in this economical one-nighter, Coffee reaches a point where he bemoans Kareem “Just pull over and stop. Let them kill me. I’m done.” Boy, after the hour that was already had, filled with dumbfounded narrative and creative choices, fake trauma, and forgotten consequences, he ain’t kidding. Pass the bullet and the remote. 

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#868)

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[weekendwarriorblog]

Weekend Warrior Home Edition – April 3, 2020 – Slay the Dragon, Tape and More

Well, things sure have gone to hell since I last wrote this weekly column that I’ve now been doing in some form or another at one place or other for over nineteen years! For the first time in those 19 years and probably a good 80 or 90 years before that, there were no movies in theaters. In fact, there were no movie theaters. Because of this, the last two weekends have been the first in history with ZERO BOX OFFICE. It’s kind of tough to write a column about the box office and theatrical releases when there are none, n’est ce pas?

So I’m going to try to evolve for the time being, and we’ll see how that goes. I’m not too thrilled about having to watch movies as screeners, let alone writing about movies that will probably never get a theatrical release, but I’ll try to make the best of it. (Oh, and Disney’s Onward, which opened in theaters less than a month ago will be available ON DISNEY+* tomorrow.) (*corrected)

This week’s “Featured Movie” that you absolutely must see, especially if you’re reading this from one of the “red states” and feel like government just isn’t doing things the way you’d like them to do, is Barak Goodman and Chris Durrance’s political documentary SLAY THE DRAGON (Magnolia).  It covers how gerrymandering is being used in census years (like this one) to maintain a Republican majority in local and state government.  Goodman’s doc begins in Michael Moore territory of Flint, Michigan and shows how gerrymandering was used to create a Republican majority that led to the town getting water from the nearby Flint River which contaminated the pipes and leaked lead into the system.

The film does a good job explaining gerrymandering in an easy to understand way by following a few specific cases of people fighting against the policies.  Counties and voting districts in different states aren’t just a straight grid on a map. Instead, the districts are drawn up to cause an unfair advantage to a party. This was especially true of the REDMAP program instituted in 2008 by the GOP after Barack Obama was elected President to make sure Republicans could dominate Congress as well as politics on a state level.  

Much of the film deals with Katie Fahey’s group Citizens United that has decided to take on the politicians with its grassroots campaign to allow the people’s voices and votes to start counting. (One of the programs that grew out of REDMAPping was that thousands of voters were not able to vote since a few states passed a law that ID was required to vote, thereby keeping black and brown voters from the polls.)

Yes, it’s a rather complicated situation but it’s one that people in the primarily liberal states like New York, California and others really need to know about, since it’s why we have a reality TV host as our President right now as well as why we have a Republican Senate that just prevented him from being impeached. All of the bigger politics goes back to the individual state politics and how gerrymandering and REDMAP unfairly sways the vote against those who win on the state level in census years (essentially every ten years including 2020). Originally, this was going to get a theatrical release in March but now it will only be available on digital and On Demand, so you can find out how to see it on the official site.

I also want to give a little extra attention to Deborah Kampmeier’s TAPE (Full Moon Films), which skipped its theatrical release instead to do an interesting “virtual theatrical run,” playing every night On Demand via CrowdCast. It’s available every night at 7pm eastern followed by discussions with the filmmakers and then will be on Digital and VOD on April 10. Again, these are changing times, but this is a haunting and powerful thriller based on true events, starring Anarosa Mudd as a woman trying to catch a sleezy casting agent (Tarek Bishara) who is preying on actresses and one in particular, played by Isabelle Fuhrman (Orphan). Both of their performances are pretty amazing, Mudd playing a shaven-head whistleblower and Fuhrman playing an ambitious young actress who think she’s finally gotten her much-needed break, but finding out there’s a lot darker side to the business than she expected. While a lot of people have raved about The Assistant as a response to #MeToo, this is a much starker and direct look at the abuse of power to take advantage of young women. The movie is not going to be for everybody, because it takes some time before you realize what Mudd’s character (who could just as easily be Rose MacGowan) is up to, but the way how things play out in the film makes it unforgettable. It’s a fantastic new movie from Kampmeier, who famously had an underage Dakota Fanning have a rape scene in her earlier movie, Hounddog.

A movie that was released last week that I didn’t get to write about (but it’s still available On Demand and Digitally, as many movies currently are) is Lorcan Finnegan’s VIVARIUM (Saban Films), starring Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots. It’s a virtual two-hander in which they play a couple who look at a house in a suburban housing complex where every house looks the same. They soon learn that they can’t escape and things get weirder and weirder from there. I can’t say I loved the movie, because it just got weirder and weirder, almost to a fault at times.

Polish filmmaker Malgorzata Szumowska’s THE OTHER LAMB (IFC Midnight) is another movie about a religious cult, this one a group of women that live in a remote forest commune led by a man they call “Shepherd” (played by Michiel Huisman from Game of Thrones and The Haunting of Hill House). It follows a teenager named Selah (Raffey Cassidy) who begins to question her existence when she starts having nightmarish visions. This was okay, but I really have hit my limit in terms of movies about religious cults. They’ve just been overdone.

Mike Doyle’s rom-com ALMOST LOVE (Vertical) is about a group of middle-aged friends trying to navigate love and relationships with a cast that includes Scott Evans, Kate Walsh, Patricia Clarkson, Augustus Prew and more. Some of the characters are having marital issues, others are dating or getting into early feelings of possible love. It’s a nice distraction from all the serious stuff going on in the world today.

A great music doc now On Demand, digital and other formats (Blu-ray/DVD) is Brent Wilson’s STREETLIGHT HARMONIES (Gravitas), which takes a look at the early doo-wop vocal groups of the ‘50s and ‘60s that predated and formed the basis for Rock & Roll, Rhythm & Blues and other music genres as we know them today. It deals with acts like The Drifters, Little Antony and the Imperials, The Platters, and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. It includes interviews with some of the more recent acts influenced by it including En Vogue and N’Sync as well as Brians Wilson and McKnight. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this despite doo-wop not being my preferred music style. (For the sake of transparency, I helped out with a little bit of publicity on this film.)

Also, Olivier Meyrou’s fly-on-the-wall doc Celebration (1091) is a movie that was commissioned by Yves Saint Laurent’s former lover and business partner, Pierre Bergé, more than ten years ago but was shelved for being too revealing. It was filmed over the course of three years where Laurent was at his most frail and mostly separated from the world as we get a look inside one of the last great haute couture houses. It’s now available On Demand and digitally.

Jon Abrahams directs and co-stars in Clover (Freestyle Digital Media) opposite the great Mark Webber, playing bumbling Irish twins trying to pay off their father’s debt to local mob boss Tony Davolo, played by Chazz Palminteri. Things get more complicated when a teen girl named Clover (Nicole Elizabeth Berger) shows up and the brothers need to protect her from Tony’s “hit-women.” Looks like a fun dark comedy.

Unfortunately, Saban Films didn’t offer advance review screeners of the action sequel, Rogue Warrior: The Hunt (Saban Films), directed by Mike Gunther, but it stars Will Yun Lee.  I’m not sure if this is a sequel to 2017’s Rogue Warrior: The Hunt, but I haven’t seen that either. It involves the leader of an elite team of soldiers being captured by terrorists, so his team needs rescue him. Oh, and Stephen Lang (Avatar, Don’t Breathe) is in it, too.

STREAMING AND CABLE

This week’s Netflix offerings include the streaming network’s latest true-crime documentary series, HOW TO FIX A DRUG SCANDAL, directed by Erin Lee Carr (Dirty Money), which covers the 2013 case of Sonja Farak, a crime drug lab specialist who was arrested for tampering with evidence but also accused of using the drugs she was supposed to be testing.  (It’s on the service as of this writing.)

Stuber and Good director Michael Dowse helms the action-comedy COFFEE & KAREEM, starring Ed Helms as police officer James Coffee, who begins dating Taraji P. Henson’s Vanessa Manning while her 12-year-old son Kareem (Terrence Little Gardenhigh) plots their break-up. Kareem hires criminal fugitives to kill Coffee but instead ends up getting his whole family targeted, so the two must team up. Also starring Betty Gilpin, RonReaco Lee, Andrew Bachelor and David Alan Grier.

Also on Friday, Disney Plus will stream two Disneynature docs, Dolphin Reef and Elephant, in honor of Earth Day taking place later this month. Previously, one or both of these movies might have been released theatrically but hey, earth is going to hell right now.

Now playing on Hulu is the latest installment of Blumhouse’s “Into the Dark,” Alejandro Brugué’s Pooka Lives, which ties in with “Pooka Day” (no idea what that is) but apparently, Pooka is a fictional creature like “Slender Man” that was created on Creepypasta  by a group of friends that goes viral but then manifests into creatures that become real. It stars fan faves Felicia Day, Will Wheaton, Rachel Bloom and more.

Next week, more movies not in theaters!

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or send me a note on Twitter. I love hearing from readers!

[spotlightsaga]

Kevin Cage of @spotlightsaga reviews... GLOW (S01E09) The Liberal Chokehold Airdate: June 23, 2017 Ratings: @Netflix Original // Privatized Ratings Score: 7.5/10 // GIVEAWAY CONTEST WITHIN!!! TVTime/FB/Twitter/Tumblr/Path/Pin: @SpotlightSaga **********SPOILERS BELOW********** 'GLOW just released two of the best episodes of 2017 w/E7 'Live Studio Audience' and E8 'Maybe Its All the Disco', and by no means was 'The Liberal Chokehold' anything but a great episode, but it didn't quite achieve the greatness that the two that preceded it did. Bash (Chris Lowell) finally returns for his & Sam's big pitch to the Network Executives. Apparently he'd been on a big bender for 2-Weeks, explaining his sudden absence. Not surprising considering his sudden money issues that he's really only shared with Carmen during her freakout at their first show. Bash is a good guy, he really wants to realize this dream, not just for him but for everyone involved. At this point he's let people down and he's feeling the pressure... But his rich, trust fund life, and card carrying privilege coming to a sudden halt, led to the one thing he knows how to do best... Self destruction. Arriving at the meeting late, sweaty, and tweaked out of his mind... He sure as hell fits the part. Talk about a mess, this guy looked like me after a bender at on tweak at the age of 19... Not exactly picture ready, if you know what I mean. When Sam Sylvia (Marc Marlon) is embarrassed and shocked at your mess, you're beyond a simple jittery 2-Day, drug spree. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I hammer this quote home like a fn' Anti-Anti NA Slogan, a 'Harm Reduction' specialists mantra to live by, 'If you're going to be a mess, at least be an organized mess. And if you can't do that, then don't be a mess at all.' All out, bender babies like Bash are always the ones that almost achieve something great and then flush it down the toilet at the last second. Luckily for Bash (and Sam too), he has some of the most determined women to stand by his side. These women have worked hard to get where they are and they will be damned if 9 Grand & a comes out rich bitch is what takes it all away from them. They hold a car wash, but that's a bust. $287 is a long way from a near 10k goal. Bash's Mom, Birdie (Elizabeth Perkins) is the shining bitch of the episode. With all the love and camaraderie brewing & bubbling within the ranks of the women of GLOW, it was definitely time to introduce a villain of sorts. Then again, Birdie really isn't a villain in the truest sense of the word... She's more like a bitchy, Reagan-worshiping, LA socialite, who's stuck in the past with a stick up her ass. However, she's got money and she's got friends... And she's throwing one helluva fundraising soirée. Hell or high water, Bash and the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling are going to find a way to take advantage of Birdies high end, West Coast, check book challenge! Creators Liz Flahive & Carly Mensch take over the writers room and create some excellent comedy through Birdie's hilariously transparent 'mission' to end the 'crack epidemic' amongst the 'poor, unfortunate minorities' (as if no one else was affected)... And Lynn Shelton, one of my favorite tv directors as of late (popping up heavily on shows like Netflix's 'Love', NBC's 'The Good Place', & Hulu's 'Casual') makes sure the episode flows into a cascade of crazy. Bash sneaks in all the GLOW Girls to the Gala by convincing the door man (who he clearly knows very well & vice versa), that the women are part of a fictional group called 'W.A.D.' (Wrestlers Against Drugs - specifically Crack, you know, to fit the theme). He has each of them take center stage, talking about their completely fabricated experiences with Crack-Cocaine & how the worlds greatest Sports Entertainment acronym & pro-wrestling saved their lives, before introducing his increasingly impatient mother, Birdie. All the women give it a great go, but it's Jenny aka Fortune Cookie (Ellen Wong) who delivers her entire speech in the rare language of 'Khmer', except for the word 'Crack', that's used at just the right times to ring the great vibrating gong of comedy. For a good juxtaposition, Ruth Wilder (Alison Brie) goes last and delivers a speech straight from the heart. She's really talking about her recent transgressions with Debbie (Betty Gilpin) and Debbie's husband, Mark (Rich Sommer). Clearly it's something she's been needing to get off her chest. And even though she replaces key words with 'Crack', Debbie hears the message loud and clear and the speech kills at Birdie's Right-Wing, Reagan-inspired, Anti-Crack Rally. The whole thing has Liz Flahive's fingerprints all over it, and that's a good thing. It's signature feel may not take 'GLOW' to the great heights the previous episode did, but it really assists in defining the show... Cementing its core identity as a tv series. Bash's takeover is successful, but Birdie isn't having it. She takes back all the checks that the crew earned for W.A.D, but gives Bash a much better gift... A venue... 'Annnd you can't beat that!' Btw, WWE fans, I've been using that quote for several GLOW reviews and no one has caught it yet. I'm shocked really. Take out 'beat' and replace it with 'teach'... And what's that spell... S...A...W...F...T... SAAAAAAWWWWWFT! Meh, fahget about it. Though, for the first person who gives us the correct answer on TVTime in the comments section and then likes our Facebook page @SpotlightSaga, giving us the correct answer as to where that quote comes from *on both pages* (so I know you're listening), I'll send you a lil' something, something in the mail. Facebook fans, same goes for you, if you beat TVTime'rs and post the correct answer on @SpotlightSaga's FB page in the comment section on this article, then join TVTime and give us the correct answer in the comment section for this episode via @SpotlightSaga on TVTime.com ... Then you get the goods! Consider it our first Spotlight Saga giveaway, and yes it will be wrestling related! Before we get all 'giveaway happy', which I'm totally excited and eager to do, we've got one massive story arc that blindsided a whole lot of Glow Netflix fans. Spoiler Alert, though we should be far past those by now... As these are simply companion pieces. Justine (Britt Baron) is not in love or infatuated with Sam, despite what Sam's inflated ego led him, and tricked most of us, into believing! Justine walked in on Sam's 'One-Man Pity Party' and decided it was time to drop the truth bomb. Justine is Sam's daughter and now suddenly all the 'jealousy' and 'weird obsessions' with Justine attempting to get close to Sam make total sense. Not only is Sam terribly embarrassed over what just went down with Justine, but he's also under the impression that GLOW was all for nothing, and his film 'Mothers and Lovers' was already made... A PG version called 'Back to the Future', and double spoiler alert for Sam; there's 2 sequels, making three total films & a cartoon series in the same vein of what he thought was an original idea! Well, it either wasn't original or someone jacked his time traveling brainchild, and took out all the John Waters inspired smut. And really, that's totally possible considering he'd been trying to make the film for an entire decade. Gotta be careful throwing around ideas in Hollywood! But that's not the real problem is it? You got a heartbroken daughter and a deadbeat dad. Well isn't that just the story of all of our lives?

[newyorktheater]

This scene from Hamilton with Philippa Soo and Lin-Manuel Miranda you can soon see online

Mary-Louise Parker in The Homebound Project 2, starting Wednesday

Christopher Fitzgerald and Bill Irwin in In-Zoom last week

Hamilton Off-Broadway in February, 2015 with original cast members top left to right: Phillipa Too as Eliza Hamilton, Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr, Bottom left to right: Okieriete Onaodowan , Lin-Manuel Miranda, Daveed Diggs, Anthony Ramos. Below is a video of the new Leslie Odom Jr.

Stageworthy News of the Week:

Quickly following last Tuesday’s announcement that Broadway will remain shut down until at least Labor Day,  Disney announced that “Frozen” would not return once Broadway resumed (“Three Disney productions will be one too many titles to run successfully in Broadway’s new landscape,” said Disney Theatrical president Thomas Schumacher, making it clear that “The Lion King” and “Aladdin” plan to be back.) The producers of  both the revival of “Plaza Suite” and “MJ the Michael Jackson Musical” also rescheduled their planned Broadway runs to Spring, 2021.  Shortly thereafter, the Hollywood Bowl then canceled its summer season for the first time in its 100-year history, followed by the announcement that  Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937, would move its music festival online.

If Summer’s live entertainment seems to have gone the way of Spring — kaput — online arts have stepped up. Disney had better news this week for theatergoers: its online channel Disney+ will show the “live capture” of the original Broadway production of “Hamilton” starting on July 3rd,  which is 15 months earlier than initially scheduled. This is the show I found breathtaking and groundbreaking when I reviewed the Off-Broadway production in February, 2015 and in some ways appreciated it even more four years later.

Maybe the streaming of “Hamilton” will change theatergoers’ view of online theater (and increase their viewing of it)

Poll: Since the shutdown, I have seen

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) May 14, 2020

A Call for Rent Suspension

Alarmed by the permanent closing of Shetler Studios and Secret Theatre on the same Day, The League of Independent Theater, an advocacy group, is calling for a virtual town hall May 28 at 1pm ​ to call upon elected officials to suspend commercial rents.  On the page in which one can register to attend, the league further explains:

“Since the beginning of the PAUSE in New York, small arts venues have been at a standstill, unable to generate any revenue while public events remain on hold for the greater good. Meanwhile, rents are due each month with no relief. As theater space after theater space announces permanent closures, the League of Independent Theater and IndieSpace are calling on elected officials to take action and protect small businesses and performance venues throughout the city.”

The Week in Theater Awards

The 70th Annual Outer Critics Circle Awards featured for the first time honorees, rather than nominees. (There will be no subsequent selection of winners.)

The American Theatre Critics Association (of which I am a member) also announced its awards, which are given to playwrights with professional productions anywhere in the United States EXCEPT “the five boroughs of New York City” (although the winners often subsequently get a production here)

Brava @ellmarlew #SteinbergATCA Award + $25k for touching play How the Light Gets In about getting over grief, @BostonCourt

Citations + $7,500 each to Chandler Hubbard, Animal Control @firehouserva

Lee Edward Colston II, #firstdeepbreath @VictoryGardens#ATCA@Theatre_Critics pic.twitter.com/PPKUGzslxe

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) May 13, 2020

Bravo @DanMcCabePlays for winning @Theatre_Critic‘s #OsbornAward for the play about hip-hop & musical theater lovers, “The Purists,” @huntington. pic.twitter.com/HfntsVNgBX

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) May 13, 2020

Remaining awards calendar:

May 19: Off Broadway Alliance Awards, whose nominations were announced April 28, will announce winners at 11 a.m. via Facebook, with a reception planned for sometime in the Fall. May 31: The 65th annual Drama Desk Awards, whose nominations were announced last week, will announce its winners on NY1 TV program On Stage at 7:30 p.m

The Week in Online Theater Reviewed

To Master The Art Review: Julia Childs Again, This Time Online

Frankie and Will, a comedy about Shakespeare during the Plague

Symphony Space Selected Shorts

André De Shields as Elder Qualls in “A Father’s Sorrow,” part of Covid and Incarceration

Ato Blankson-Wood performed “Elder’s Sun,” written by Lemon Andersen, based on conversations with Yusef Qualls, a poet and artist currently serving a life sentence without parole in Michigan

Rebecca Naomi Jones, in “June” by Lynn Nottage, based on conversations with the sister of Lulu Benson, an incarcerated woman who died of COVID.

COVID and Incarceration Review: Viral Monologues Goes to Prison

Significant Other

The Week in Other News

. @nycgo has created The Coalition for NYC Hospitality & Tourism Recovery & named as co-chairs @Lin_Manuel + the heads of @AMNH , @studiomuseum, @NYHTC, and restauranteur @dhmeyer. The hope is to restore NYC as a world-wide draw once it emerges from COVID-19 pic.twitter.com/Nhoih3ls4r

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) May 13, 2020

Broadway on Demand, another new online platform, launched on Sunday. “Currently free to all Basic Subscribers,” there will be “paid events” (including forthcoming streaming of the Broadway musicals “Allegiance” and “Bandstand”) and a paid subscription for “premium content.”  There is a daily live schedule, which features such new programs as a daily ballet class with Tyler Peck and incorporates some theater-oriented shows that already exist elsewhere, such as Stars in the House, and The Producer’s Perspective interviews. There are some glitches yet to work out, such as requiring that you sign up having read the terms of use, but when you click on the link to “terms of use,” it says “page not found.”

For a list of ongoing online theater platforms and new series, please check out Where To Get Your Theater Fix Online

The Daily Call That 200 Arts Groups in NYC Hope Will Help Them Survive. (quote below from Lucy Sexton, of New Yorkers for Culture & Arts) https://t.co/XTqurWNc93 pic.twitter.com/aPoUiMGIeK

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) May 12, 2020

What’s Ahead

Please check out my May 2020 calendar of theater openings for details on some thrilling shows this week, including The Bombshell concert, A Streetcar Named Desire, Our Lady of 121st Street, Love Letters….and

The Homebound Project, second edition. Following up on its impressive first edition, this collection of original plays to raise funds for No Kid Hungry, is on the theme of “sustenance,” will run from May 20 to May 24th and features: Uzo Aduba in a work by Anne Washburn Utkarsh Ambudkar in a work by Marco Ramirez Nicholas Braun in a work by Will Arbery Betty Gilpin in a work by Lily Houghton Kimberly Hébert Gregory in a work by Loy A. Webb Hari Nef in a work by Ngozi Anyanwu Mary-Louise Parker in a work by Bryna Turner Christopher Oscar Peña in a work by Brittany K. Allen Taylor Schilling in a work by Sarah DeLappe Babak Tafti in a work by David Zheng Zachary Quinto in a work by Adam Bock

Playground Zoomfest

The nation’s largest fully digital new play festival, based in San Francisco, continues through June 14, with a total of 25 real-time live streamed performances .

I like how @stratfest is cataloguing the Bard’s plays online — “isolation,” minds pushed to the edge” — as if tailor-made for our odd era.

King Lear: streaming until 5/14 Coriolanus: until 5/21 Macbeth: until 5/28 The Tempest: coming 5/14′https://t.co/OqND1YCWVh pic.twitter.com/SCnbGMILKF

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) May 11, 2020

Lincoln Center Dance Week

AAADT_Revelations

5/30 Ballet Hispánico New York City Ballet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 5/31 American Ballet Theater 6/1 School of American Ballet 6/2 New York City Ballet, Coppélia 6/3 NYC Ballet, Tribute to Balanchine 6/4 Alvin Ailey, Chroma, Grace, Takademe, Revelations

The Week in New Videos

“Stubb Kills a Whale” from the original A.R.T. production of Dave Malloy’s Moby-Dick, directed by Tony winner Rachel Chavkin

Ramin Karimloo plays Eidelweiss from The Sound of Music

A new look, a new kid. A funny finish

Thanks for having me @latelateshow! pic.twitter.com/gwrQBLIiK1

— Leslie Odom, Jr. (@leslieodomjr) May 14, 2020

Hamilton Streaming! Indie Theater Screaming. Summer kaput. Stageworthy News of the Week: Quickly following last Tuesday’s announcement that Broadway will remain shut down until at least Labor Day…