The Big Link
Tuesday, July 18, 2017 at 5:15PM What happened these past two weeks that I need to know about? We haven't done a link roundup yet this month (due to the critics institute retreat I was attending) so I have no idea what happened in my absence. But let us not get further behind. Herewith some news stories as well as a few random good reads.
News
• IndieWire Sofia Coppola responds to the backlash regarding her adaptation decisions on The Beguiled
• Theater Mania Josh Lucas and Uma Thurman to star in a new Broadway political play opening this fall The Parisian Woman
• Audra McDonald is going on a North American tour so get your tickets! The six time Tony winner's voice is utterly sublime.
• NYT Kermit the Frog voice Steve Whitmire fired after three decades as the beloved felt frog
• IndieWire Greta Gerwig's Ladybird starring Saoirse Ronan will be released this fall. Awards push expected
• Variety Todd Haynes will get the Locarno Festival's lifetime achievement award
• Ryan Murphy teases fans with a bee covered image for the next season of American Horror Story
• Towleroad Thomas Dekker (Kaboom, Heroes, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) comes out after being casually mentioned (not by name) in a speech by queer TV genius Bryan Fuller at OutFest
Randomness
• Interview what's next for Tatiana Maslany when she finally wraps her demanding Orphan Black role?
• Awards Daily Jazz talks to Nicole Kidman about her Emmy nomination
• The Guardian will Star Wars The Last Jedi be an Empire Strikes Back retread or will it bring something new to the nostalgia-focused series
• Awards Daily I was polled for this critics roundup f the "best of the year so far" at the halfway mark. Get Out, The Big Sick, Logan, Baby Driver, and Colossal topped the list, three of which I voted for. I like Logan and Colossal just fine but labelling them "best" feels stretchy.
Reader Comments (23)
I really think this whole backlash towards Sofia and The Beguiled is just silly. What would you want from her? To create lame stereotypes just because the story needs a person of color? I think her approach to the story was the right choice as it was far more restrained than what Don Siegel did as it included the black maid being raped in a flashback.
Josh Lucas?! Wow, it feels like forever since I've heard his name. I could totally see him playing Colin Farrell's part in The Beguiled if it were made 10 years ago. Has Uma done much stage work? Her acting style seems like it could work really well onstage.
Why does Sofia Coppola have to apologize to the political correct police? This is her vision of the story - if people don't approve don't pay to see it.
It's a pity that Coppola left the African American slave out of the story. Her reasons are OK, but she was an interesting character in the Don Siegel version and in the book: ***SPOILER*** she could see things from a detached viewpoint, even seeing right through Clint Eastwood,
Saoirse Ronan: I was so looking forward to On Chesil Beach and now there's talk of this Lady Bird. According to this piece Lady Bird is coming out in the Fall and the imdb has no date for a US release of On Chesil Beach... Could they be doing this not to spoil her chances of an Oscar nod?
Sofia Coppola is all about the ethnic cleansing.
Let's put it this way.
/3rtful's comment is literally true. There were two non-white characters in the story. One was mixed race. The other was a black slave. She erased one and made the other white.
So when someone tweets that America was "built on ideas, not violence" and you wonder how the genocide of Native Americans, the enslavement of black Africans and the indentured servitude of Chinese can be erased remember the above. Remember how dismissive people can be. Remember that this is a continuum and Coppola has positioned her narrative to allow for that erasure.
I am being totally vague here.
But some people are never satisfied m
Hoping to see Audra McDonald in Chapel Hill, NC next March. Fingers crossed!
I would love to see Audra McDonald - it looks like she is showing in my hometown, but not in my current city of residence. She is absolutely amazing - it's bonkers she didn't get an Emmy nod for her fantastic rendition of "Climb Every Mountain" for "The Sound of Music Live", she was breathtaking.
I really don't agree with The Beguiled backlash. I wish people talked more about what they saw in the movie than moan about what they would like to see, or the politics. Reminds me of the La La Land backlash that was basically people of color who wanted desperately for Moonlight to win Best Picture and perceived the Oscar race as a white people vs black people one.
I read an interesting post about the plot of the Star Wars films being blatantly in the title. So clearly there will only be one Jedi left standing in the Last Jedi, but who will it be? Perhaps Luke or Rey will perish...or defect to the Dark Side. Or maybe we'll learn that Jedi are actually evil and Rey becomes something different. Heres hoping its not an Empire Strikes back retread tho. Doing inventive spins on the old plots wouldnt be an altogether horrible idea, but I long for a Star Wars film that is a true masterpiece like the first two.
@Knm
Stating "I wish marginalized voices would stop moaning about being marginalized" is staggeringly problematic. As a black person who loved both Moonlight and La La Land, I can recognize the backlash against La La was frustrating, but to argue that there was nothing there is blind.
"Stop talking about what you'd like to see.." Holy shit. You've just dismissed the whole idea of progress based on active steps.
Nathaniel, when did so many conservatives and white supremacy apologists start to peruse your comment section lol
Audra McDonald is a must see live, what a force of nature. Somebody give ther the O in the EGOT please.
Notice when the conversation about race is a black and white issue stateside everyone demands the inclusion of other nonwhite groups? This is a form of anti-Blackness. Were anyone genuinely interested in the disruption of the status quo you'd be championing any change that could come about from the protest and cries originating from black voices. Instead you resent that immediate agency is granted to other groups who remain silent to whiteness but want to police black protest.
Let us talk film. The same dialogue over and over
about racism goes nowhere.
@Arkaan both your comments are eloquently said. Even /3rtful's second post is well put.
It's horrible how ugly and dismissive some of these other posts are.
everyone play nice or i'll have to shut off comments on multiple posts.
Thank you, Nathaniel.
"Let us talk film. The same dialogue over and over about racism goes nowhere."
We're talking film. And right now, discussion about racism involved in it, it's a big part of it. And of course it's going to nowhere if the privileged don't provide an ear (exactly what you're doing).
Kris, the word "Jedi" is plural and singular like "sheep." I think Rian Johnson said it was meant to be plural for the film.
thats where youre wrong Arlo, the plural of sheep is sheeps. moose is meese. mongoose is mongi. etc. lol thanks tho and wow thats interesting throws a monkey wrench into m'theory and ups the mystery
@kris & @arlo - the foreign language posters also use plural articles and adjectives, e.g. the french title is 'Les Derniers Jedi', not 'Le Dernier Jedi', indicating a group of last Jedi, not a single one.