The Link Of...
Saturday, September 3, 2016 at 3:00PM • THR got the first look at Fences. Photos of Denzel, Viola and Stephen McKinley Henderson
• Awards Daily surveys the rave reviews for Nocturnal Animals
• Playbill there's another musical about the life of Tennessee Williams on the way. The developmental concert is when I'm away at TIFF argh.
• /Film Riz Ahmed sees his Rogue One action figure for the first time (he's so skinny & British -- it's freaking me out a little post The Night Of...!)
• Coming Soon Tom Holland visits a children's hospital dressed as Spider-Man
• AV Club interviews Rob Reiner about his well loved filmography
• MNPP if you live in NYC please note that there's a Paul Verhoeven retrospective coming in November to celebrate the release of Elle. Naturally Showgirls and the other Hollywood films will be accounted for but so will his Dutch offerings. Can't wait to see Turkish Delight finally with Rutger Hauer!
• EW Tyler Hoechlin talks about becoming Superman for the CW's Supergirl
• Fusion crunched the numbers on the ballots for the BBC 100 greatest of the 21st century list to come up with an all female directors ranking. I'm a little stunned, given that ultra specific scenario that A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is so low on the list (only #59) and Bright Star can't even manage the top 20 (tied for #21)
•... the original list icymi
Controversy
• Los Angeles Times powerful op ed from Gabrielle Union about sexual consent, rape culture, Nate Parker, and Birth of a Nation. She plays a rape victim in his film
• Variety Mark Ruffalo responds to the criticism of the casting of Matt Bomer as a trans woman in his new project. "Please have a little compassion. We are all learning" oh Jesus. Is Hollywood in so much of a bubble that they're still years behind everyone else? I find this hard to believe especially for the politically actives types like Ruffalo so it's hard to have compassion for people purposefully benefitting from the status quo.
Just For Fun
• Vice analyzes the exact amount of banter in the photo of those Eton schoolboys about to meet Putin. I LOL'ed and LOL'ed. Bloody well done
Video o' the Day
Check out this neat montage celebrating Stop-Motion in film - it's very short and due to that it gets to our lifetimes way too quickly but it still brought back so many fun movie memories.
Reader Comments (15)
Will you guys have a podcast before going to TIFF? While at TIFF? Post TIFF? Been a while :(
Jared Leto just won an Oscar for playing a transgender person not that long ago. Of course Hollywood is still learning. It sounds like you might be in a bubble.
The vast majority of people in the states are still learning, including those living in supposed liberal havens like southern California.
"Is Hollywood in so much of a bubble that they're still years behind everyone else?"
Donald Trump is a viable Presidential candidate. Hollywood is, if nothing else, well ahead of a good portion of the country on issues like this.
Neither of the above responses adequately address the the wholesale absence of trans people from stories about trans people. Also, Leto received plenty of criticism and questions at the time, so you weren't paying attention if you didn't expect this.
What bothers me most about casting Matt Bomer is that it's so LAZY and uninspired. Oh, look, Matt Bomer is a Hollywood-familiar, attractive, cis, white, gay man who was already in The Normal Heart, he'd be perfect to play a trans prostitute (cliche alert!).
Stop motion is true movie magic
dammit Mark Ruffalo! what do you mean you're still learning? just hire a fucking trans actress. jesus christ it's not complicated, what compassion do I need to give you for being an almost 50 year old man who cannot figure out that simple ass solution. "have some compassion". have your people look for trans actors if its a trans role, jfc, it's not a difficult concept.
In a more joyful news which was all over Chinese papers and websites, Asian actress Shu Qi married longtime boyfriend Stephen Fung. Lots of beautiful pictures of two very beautiful people here:
http://women.asiaone.com/women/relationships/shu-qi-and-stephen-fung-announce-marriage-after-denying-long-time-romance
One thing I don't understand (and i totally accept I might be missing something) - everyone is showering Jeffrey Tambor, a straight cis actor, with praise and awards for playing a trans woman, right now. What's the difference between that and Bomer?
BD - I'm also not sure we're at a point where an openly gay actor in an actual movie (especially a lead/co-lead role) is ever 'lazy' casting. Ian McKellen aside, it's basically an event.
Also, this is a tiny movie, they probably wanted some kind of 'name', and there's basically only one trans actress (Cox) that's really a 'name'. (I understand that's not a great excuse, just that it's probably a business decision rather than something borne out of anti-trans sentiment).
And some people go overboard with 'criticism'-someone accused Ruffalo/Bomer of being responsible for murders of trans women-a very serious(and ludicrous) accusation. (I think stuff like that put Ruffalo in a rather unfortunate defensive mode.)
Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair says he hears Davis is going supporting in Fences.
Jeffrey Tambor is not meant to be fully passable in Transparent, having only been taking hormones for a short period, and they do lots of pre-transition flashbacks
And they actually feature trans people and tackle trans issues.
Klemen -- what BD said. TRANSPARENT has been great at showing a broad range of trans experience (and the transitioning process) and using trans actors in some of the roles.
I think Viola Davis will be duking it out with Amy Adams (she has 2 fabulous films out according to reviews). Unless Fences open to critical disappointment. I wonder if both of them do get nominated, how will it play out and who will be more deserving if both performances nominated r equally sublime?
@Jaragon
Ink?
Everyone needs to see Mary&Max. It's pure bittersweet bliss.
For Ruffalo to say "it's time" we start having this conversation is really, really disappointing. As others pointed out, there was a lot of backlash for Leto in DBC. This conversation started a long time ago. For Ruffalo to act as if his film is now creating a much needed, enlightening conversation comes off as a back-patting humble brag. I'm not saying this means I'll never support him again or anything - he still means well and is otherwise very engaged and progressive - I'm just so surprised how he dropped the ball on this one.