Links: Banderas, Cho, Parsons, Jones, Holtzmann, and More

TV
Vulture provides an A-Z glossary of all of Stranger Things mad sci-fi referencing  from Alien (1979) toVideodrome (1983)
Comics Alliance American Gods, Bryan Fuller's adaptation of the Neil Gaiman book, gets its first logo and a promotional image 
EW Impromptu Smash reunion. Katharine McPhee invited Megan Hilty on stage with her Sunday night at a LA jazz club - and yes they sang Smash songs.

Movies
Playbill Fences sets its release date for December 16th
Antagony & Ecstasy looks back at His Girl Friday - the Rosalind Russell role was a male role in the source material.

The Root Leslie Jones of SNL & Ghostbusters fame was hounded by racists on twitter - they're feeling so bold these days thanks to the GOP -- fans rallied behind her
Salon "Free Jillian Holtzmann" on why Sony isn't saying that the most popular new Ghostbuster character is a lesbian
AV Club talks to John Cho about Star Trek, gay sulu, and Asian representation in cinema
The Guardian Antonio Banderas to play Gianni Versace in a biopic. The Versace estate is not pleased calling it "fiction" 
Coming Soon Fifty Shades Darker set photos
The Guardian on film franchises with the most episodes: Jungle Jim, Godzilla, and a few more
Awards Daily wonders if the political turmoil will turn the Oscars nostalgic rather than brave (see also 1968 Best Picture winner Oliver!) 
Towleroad Twenty year-old actor Ross Lynch is going from Disney Channel fame to serial killing? He'll play Jeffrey Dahmer, pre-murders, as a troubled teen in a new film.
Variety Sigourney Weaver will be honored for her career as this September's San Sebastian film festival 

...and Anton Yelchin's parents sent a beautiful message to friends and fans and the industry...

Beautiful. Anton Yelchin's parents thank Hollywood in ad @THR: 'Grateful for your unconditional love of our son' pic.twitter.com/01yn7owcL5

— Janice Min (@janicemin) July 18, 2016

Theater
Playbill Jake Gyllenhaal to headline the revival of Burn This. The original hit production in 87/88, which went from Off-Broadway to Broadway for a year-plus long run, won praise for Eric Roberts (Theater World award), John Malkovich (Drama Desk Nomination) and Joan Allen (Tony win)
NYT Estelle Parsons health scare prompts closing of her new play. Send healing vibes her way. She's a national treasure. If you haven't yet seen Season 2 of Grace & Frankie it closes beautifully with an arc about her guest starring role as "Babe," a larger than life friend of the pair who's throwing herself a big going away party. Parsons has done a lot of work on TV but weirdly despite being a highly esteemed actor with an Oscar win and 5 Tony nominations, she's never received an Emmy nomination. 

Miscellania
Huffington Post Jennifer Aniston tears into the media for their obsession with women's bodies and whether or not she's pregnant 
Wicked Gay Blog Dolly Parton working on a dance album with a track called "I'm a Wee Bit Gay" 
The New Yorker "Donald Trump's Ghostwriter Tells All" a harrowing profile 
Logo My Way hosted a contest to redesign the embarassing Trump Pence logo - Love some of these entries
Pajiba on the shitshow that was the RNC's first night with its plagiarized First Lady speech 

Doc Corner: 'Miss Sharon Jones!'

Glenn here. Each Tuesday we bring you reviews and features on documentaries from theatres, festivals, and on demand.

Barbara Kopple is an old-fashioned filmmaker who is free of flash. Whether she is documenting the lives of everyday people or celebrities, she has a knack for zeroing in on subjects whose lives demand closer inspection. We saw this in Shut Up & Sing about the Dixie Chicks and her Oscar-winning debut masterpiece Harlan County, USA, even in A Conversation with Gregory Peck, which we looked at recently. And we see it again in her latest film, Miss Sharon Jones! What could have been a simple tribute doc becomes something much more poignant by pointing her camera at a subject who’s trademark energy and spirit has been pointedly struck down my destructive cancer and its ramifications on those around her.

The early parts of Kopple’s film are actually a lot like its subject: hectic. A rough start that shows signs of a filmmaker at uncharacteristic odds with how to tell her story. In these early passages we get our only instances of awkward narration, out-of-place talking head testimonial that never appear again, and an all-too brief history lesson that isn’t thorough enough to add anything of any real consequence. The editing is skittish, bouncing around the story, cutting off performances, and taking unnecessary diversions. Was Jones not allowing herself to be truly seen on camera? Who knows, but it thankfully doesn’t last when at the 30-minute mark Kopple’s camera remains fixed on Jones as she performs “The Eye is On the Sparrow” in a gospel church. It doesn’t cut, it doesn’t flinch, it just lets Jones’ miraculous voice and performance physicality take over. The film is never the same. [more...]

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Jake and Tilda Serving Fashion on the 'Okja' Set

Category is: behind the scenes sci-fi satire realness.

Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer follow-up Okja already has one of the coolest casts since... well, Snowpiercer. And if the set photos from New York this weekend are any indication, the film itself will be even more outlandish than Joon-ho's last - at least as far as the cast is concerned.

The film returns Joon-ho to monster movie territory, but chaos and destruction to entertain when you have Tilda Swinton in and Jake Gyllenhaal in costumes like these? I don't know if Tilda is playing Taylor Swift and Jake is Rooster from a safari production of Annie, but this first look tells you everything you need to know about why you should be excited about Okja.

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Oscar Chart Updates: Visuals, Sound, Animation & Documentary

Mos of the Oscar charts are now updated but for foreign film and the acting categories. We'll get to them soon enough but otherwise we've finished the July shifts. 

Things to wonder about right at this moment... (discuss in the comments, plz)

• If The Legend of Tarzan can make any headway towards a Costume Design consideration for Ruth Myers since there's so few "showy" period or fantasy costume films this year outside of the many competing works of Colleen Atwood?
• When we will get our first look at images or footage from the WW II drama Allied (with Brad Pitt) or the sci-fi drama Arrival (with Amy Adams)?
• If Florence Foster Jenkins has any strength in it beyond Meryl? (Costumes? Hair and Makeup? Score?)
• If Marvel Studios will finally break through in tech categories (like Batman films sometimes do) or if they'll continue to snag just one or MAX two nominations for their most popular films like Civil War?
• If Fences, The Founder, and Loving, which all take place across roughly the same time period will be too "muted" in terms of visuals to snag craft nominations or if Oscar will love their possibly modest naturalism?
• Why we've heard so little about How to Talk to Girls at Parties release strategy? Is it going to be pushed back?
• Will Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton goodwill get him an Oscar for Moana despite what sounds like strong competition in the song category? 
• If Finding Dory's massive box office haul we'll be enough to edge smaller originals out of the animation race even though they're sometimes stingy with sequels?

NEW CHARTS
INDEX | PICTURE | DIRECTOR | SCREENPLAYS |
VISUALS | AURALS | ANIMATION & DOCUMENTARY 

Stream This: Two Mia Farrow Greats, Hannibal (S3), Terminator 5, Etc...

In the effort to stay au courant we'll alternate between Netflix and Amazon Prime for streaming news each week. And we'll freeze frame select titles at random places just for fun and see what image comes up. You know how we do. 

LAST CHANCE AMAZON PRIME

Amazon Prime has a far better movie selection than Netflix on a month to month basis but they are officially the worst streaming provider in terms of providing dates of expiration on their movies/tv shows. Sometimes the titles don't expire after they're marked for expiration and sometimes they vanish even if they haven't been marked. Sometimes without warning they suddenly cost money when they were once free. And they don't do press releases to announce expiring titles like the other services. So it's all rumors in a way. But supposedly they're losing these titles (among others) at the end of July and they're all worth checking out...

There's no reason why you shouldn't have complete confidence in your chances to come out of this alive and in one piece." 

Airplane (1980)
This smash comedy mocked the disaster epic genre and started the spoof craze. That spoof genre peaked early - maybe even here. It's kind of unreal how fast and quick the visual and verbal gags come. 

7 more freeze frames after the jump... 

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