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Did any of you watch the premiere of RuPaul's Drag Race Season 4? I'm always wanting to write about it because, more than most performers, drag stars love to mash up pop cultural influences including movies. It's not only the typical Gay Films that get referenced but camp classics of all sexual persuasions (Waterworld classifies as a straight camp classic, right? I mean it's dreadfully serious about itself but it's terrible) and even regular classics, albeit usually the feminine ones. The theme of the first episode was the apocalypse and the first part of the contest was a photoshoot in which the queens were sprayed with "toxic waste" while Ru shouted out instructions. At one point Ru yelled "give me Karen Silkwood!" I can't picture The Great Lady Streep watching this sort of thing but I bet she would have chortled.
Despite all the cultural referencing its evident (sometimes) that many queens are merely parroting the past without actually knowing what they're referencing. So I tend to gravitate towards the smarter queens who are a little more savvy about drag as art and understand gay culture's magpie qualities
WillamIt's dangerous to choose favorites early on in competition shows but I love Willam (Willam Belli) because he seems smarter than the room and could actually back up the bravado and name dropping. He's got a long list of film and TV credits.
I'm a successful drag queen. I'm not some bitch who has to show for a dollar."
"I've worked with Oscar Winner Diane Keaton," Willam bragged in the after show. Not just Diane Keaton, bitches. Oscar Winner being a title like Dame, see.
Clara and soldiers in "WINGS", the first Best Picture winnerThe Film Doctor offers 7 notes on J Edgar (mostly in relation to two time jumping powerful men classics it attemptes to emulate: The Social Network and Citizen Kane... both recently discussed right here.) I particularly like thought #7. ⇚ Rope of Silicon the first Best Picture winner Wings is finally coming to DVD/Blu-Ray. Yay. Loves that movie, I do. Coming Soon Tim Burton may be doing an adaptation of the children's book Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children after The Addams Family.
Little White Lies interviews Paul Feig on the success of Bridesmaids. Hollywood Reporter on 7 films that could be looking at SAG Ensemble nominations: Bridesmaids, Midnight in Paris, and The Artist are the more comedic possibilities but will SAG take comedy seriously this year? Super Punch Calling all artists who read The Film Experience. Super Punch is hosting a James Bond art contest if you're 007 inclined. Animation Yes, it's true. They're going to make an action movie set in the world of Legos.
Go Fug Yourself Lisa Rinna at The Muppets premiere. LOL. Grantland Mark Harris on the multiple Davids and three Goliaths (Leo, Brad, George) of the Best Actor race. In Contention the Vanessa Redgrave AMPAS tribute Pajiba on classics of Lady Porn and the men of The Immortals.
Not since the costuming department of “Mad Men” got ahold of Christina Hendricks has a pair of mammaries been so lovingly showcased. In fact, the accentuating bronzer is liberally applied not only on Henry Cavill’s heroic bosom, but also Luke Evans’ grimly clenched ab muscles and Stephen Dorff’s morally questionable obliques.
If only their budget on the show was as high as their advertising budget ;) "Go forth and be sickening!" LOL. Quick head count: how many of you watch this show? Am I speaking to deaf ears whenever I mention it?
Audra McDonald rehearsing for "Porgy & Bess"Theater geeks who read The Film Experience (there be crossover!) might have been wondering what happened to the stage door column. The truth is we just haven't been seeing much. This is never a question of "nothing to see" but always a matter of finances and for one quarter of each year the the not-so-small matter of Oscar Mania keeping us busy with pre-recorded actors instead of live ones. But when I'm not seeing it I enjoy it vicariously through avid theatergoing friends and through blogs. My favorite is The Broadway Blog so if you're into theater, check it out. Here's four quick film / theater crossover tidbits I wanted to share.
AUDRA in Rampart I practically shrieked with surprised delight when Broadway baby Audra McDonald showed up in Oren Moverman's Rampart. She just kills her one scene role as Woody Harrelson's latest conquest. Woody's bad cop gets good love from multiple ladies and as Woody was sucking on her toes (no, really) I kept thinking, 'Audra is a star on any platform: small screen, big screen, stage, boudoir... (ahem. in this movie).' I'd love to see her in the current revival of Porgy & Bess and am hoping the opportunity presents itself.
CHARLES BUSCH does Katharine Hepburn. Late this month, legendary drag artist Charles Busch is doing a one night only reading of Matthew Lombardo'snplay about Katharine Hepburn, Tea at Five. The tickets are too steep for me but Busch is always wonderful when he's channelling the classic divas... and Lombardo has an actressexual's taste for them too having written the Kathleen Turner vehicle "High" and the Tallulah Bankhead play Looped. I'm curious how Charles Busch will be as Kate the Great (pictured left) given that my favorite Busch channeling is Greer Garson -- that voice! Old Hollywood and Theater History aficionados might also enjoy Mr. Busch's name droppings in this New York Times article about his apartment renovation.
BIG FISH Were you aware that Tim Burton's 2003 movie is becoming a stage musical? The story, or to put it more accurately stories, does seem like a natural fit for musicalization. It's already heightened and fantastical which musical theater can really feed on. The score will be by Andrew Lippa but the best part of the news is that Michael C. Hall, though not officially announced, is intended for the lead role in 2013. He's got a wonderful singing voice and he's needed to do something other than Dexter for a few years now. Not that he hasn't found a surprising amount of ways to keep that particular performance lively despite the death-dealing but enough's enough -- love the show but I really think they'd be wise to wrap up; time for a little song and dance break!
I don't know what he's thinking but what I'm thinking every time I see Michael Cerveris (the bald one, playing Juan Peron) is that time in early 2008 when I listened to my Broadway revival cast recording of Sweeney Todd (in which he starred) after having recently seen Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd and just tearing up. The amount of nuance and drama and acting notes and beauty asinger/actor can put in to a musical performance as opposed to an actor who learns to sing a few bars.... I tell you the difference is astronomical. Hollywood is tone deaf.
Oh, and uh, Elena Rogers plays Eva Peron... will Madonna send her hydranges?
EXIT MUSIC
Audra McDonald singing Jason Robert Brown's "Stars and The Moon"... love this song.
I met a man without a dollar to his name
Who had no traits of any value but his smile
I met a man who had no yearn or claim to fame
Who was content to let life pass him for a while
And I was sure that all I ever wanted
Was a life like the movie stars led
And he kissed me right here, and he said,
`I`ll give you stars and the moon and a soul to guide you
And a promise I`ll never go
I`ll give you hope to bring out all the life inside you
And the strength that will help you grow.
I`ll give you truth and a future that`s twenty times better
Than any Hollywood plot.`
And I thought, `You know, I`d rather have a yacht.`
In Contention has an important addendum to the misleading 'Sean Penn hates The Tree of Life' stories circulating the net. The Daily Beast It's recently come to my attention that Drew Droege (of "Chloë Sevigny" drag fame) has written musings about playing Chloë and meeting the real icon. She did not throw a drink in his face but kissed him and laughed. Love that. Little White Lies has an interview with Conan's Jason Momoa in which the actor offers to scare the shit out of the reporter by doing the Haka.
Serious Film "Bridesmaids stands alone" in 2011's box office charts. Movie|Line remembers Kristen Wiig's supporting bit in Adventureland
Cinema Blend is Germany next for world traveller Woody Allen's filmography? P.S. Did you hear that Judy Davis joined the cast of his current Rome picture? (Yay)
Oooh... new posters for Martha Marcy May Marlene from EW. Misterioso!
Do you like? John Hawkes eyes peering out on the one to the left are spooking me! Remember how intense his stare was in Winter's Bone? I haven't tried it but those are actual working QR codes on the movie poster -- should take you right to the trailer if you have a QR scanning app on your phone.
Brad Pitt still has magic hair in his late 40s. The shirt is by Alexander McQueen.Scott Feinberg discovers a funny irony in the Drive press notes. Today Movies on the funny women breakthrough of this, 'The Summer of Raunch' Fandor gets the great South Korean film Poetry tomorrow, so make sure to watch it. This is a sampling of reviews. I was quite honored to be named a "standout" review, and keeping such fine company. Michael Musto predicts the Tony nominees for Best Actress in a musical a year in advance. We'd say that's too early but then we'd be huge hypocrites (hello, Oscar fanaticism) New York Magazine on Brad Pitt's Moneyball pitch. He's comparing his character arc, or lack of one (hmm....interesting) to 70s films, explaining that it's a drama about process and his character challenging the way things have always been done.
I thought of The Conversation: How do you tap a phone? Or Thief, with Jimmy Caan: How do you crack a safe? And I saw in it a guy who had an obsessive quality like Popeye Doyle.
I don’t really like big character-arc epiphanies. What I most loved about those seventies films is that the characters were the same at the end as at the beginning. It was the world around them that had shifted."
I believe I've expressed my love for Raven of RuPaul's Drag Race before. I loved her ferosh wit and confrontational showmanship long before she owned me for good with her "I'm giving Michelle Pfeiffer Bitch" competition moment. Now, she's the main attraction (if you ask me) of Drag U, the spin off show with TV's most absurd premise: drag queens do makeovers on biological women. It's really quite quite perverse when you think about it. It's essentially telling women that their men will be hotter for them if they look more like drag queens! Is this show trying to create a whole future generation of trannychasers?
Earlier this year on Drag Race Season 3 movie-geeks everywhere were horrified to realize that half of the young drag queen contestants on the show had never heard of the high school classic Heathers (1989). This basic pop culture fail did not automatically eliminate them from the show even though there ought to be laws against that! So the self proclaimed Heathers of the competition banded together like true Mean Girls to belittle their pop-history-deficient competition. But Raven, queen bee of Drag Race Season 2, shows everyone how it's done on the season premiere of Drag U.
Manila tries the formerly successful mean girl moves on Raven. Manila starts throwing her shade at Raven and her makeover subject...
Manila: That's not sexy. Raven: Why are you so concerned with Miss Denise. Should I call you Heather? Manila: You wish you were a Heather! Raven: Actually I don't. I'm a Veronica.
It's such a simple smackdown but it shuts Manila right up. See, everyone knows that Veronica > the Heathers. She's very.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 12:14AM 
Did any of you watch the premiere of RuPaul's Drag Race Season 4? I'm always wanting to write about it because, more than most performers, drag stars love to mash up pop cultural influences including movies. It's not only the typical Gay Films that get referenced but camp classics of all sexual persuasions (Waterworld classifies as a straight camp classic, right? I mean it's dreadfully serious about itself but it's terrible) and even regular classics, albeit usually the feminine ones. The theme of the first episode was the apocalypse and the first part of the contest was a photoshoot in which the queens were sprayed with "toxic waste" while Ru shouted out instructions. At one point Ru yelled "give me Karen Silkwood!" I can't picture The Great Lady Streep watching this sort of thing but I bet she would have chortled.
WillamIt's dangerous to choose favorites early on in competition shows but I love Willam (Willam Belli) because he seems smarter than the room and could actually back up the bravado and name dropping. He's got a long list of film and TV credits.
