Review: Captain Marvel

An abridged version of this review was previously published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad

by Nathaniel R

Captain Marvel‘s “Vers” (Brie Larson) can’t remember a thing about her past life. She has only known this: training with her mentor Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) and fighting with her fellow Kree warriors in Starforce. 

Their mission is to wipe out the evil shape-shifting alien race known as The Skrulls. Though Vers can’t recall her origins, Marvel Studios has their origin template memorized by now, 21 films into their world-conquering juggernaut franchise. It’ll involve:

• comic sidekicks (☑️☑️☑️)
• training sequences (☑️)
• losing an early battle (☑️)
• questioning old beliefs (☑️☑️)
• forming new alliances (☑️☑️)
• and the hero/heroes finally coming into their own, more powerful than they were before (☑️)

Cue end credits. But we'll get to those in a minute...

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Tweetweek:

 After the jump... Cate Blanchett trolls Thanos, bitter Oscar texting, Regina King line readings, stealing Jude Law's identity, and much more...

I’ve decided to make Meryl Streep AUDITION for my movie. Boy how the tides have turned!!!

— billy eichner (@billyeichner) February 7, 2019

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The Links of Grindelwald

• Feedspot This is nice. The Film Experience has been listed as one of the top 40 movie podcasts.
• AV Club the Random Roles series grills Sarah Jessica Parker about her defining roles
• THR goes deep on The Favourite's power plays
• Rotten Tomatoes Ouch. Reviews for Fantastic Beasts 2 are brutal
• Pop Sugar the casting of Nagini in Fantastic Beasts was controversial but here's where you've seen the actress before
• Stephen Colbert Jude Law discuss fan nicknames for Dumbledore. Very cute

• Awards Daily Rob Marshall "wanted to bring a gift of hope into this climate" with Mary Poppins Returns
• /Film the effort to save Filmstruck has now gotten some big name directors behind it
• The Playlist opinions are divided in Hollywood about whether Netflix's theatrical play with Roma is playing by the rules or a con
• Variety ...speaking of. Italy is cracking down on streaming service with new laws about theatrical windows
• Film School Rejects Kiersey Clemons (Hearts Beat Loud) lines up a biopic which could take her career to the next level
• Coming Soon the Jack Reacher franchise is dead for now. They hope to reboot in TV series form with an actor who is more faithful to the character (who is 6'5"... nearly a full foot taller than Tom Cruise!)

Today's Must Read
• Critics Notebook "The End of Endings" I bow to this great piece. And I worry like ∞

Stage Diversions
• EW Tom Hiddleston will star in a revival of Harold Pinter's 70s classic Betrayal in the West End in the spring
• Playbill Caroline or Change returns to NYC at the Astoria Performing Arts Center next summer. I saw their production of Follies last season and it was really strong so I have high hopes that they'll do this great musical justice. I still think if they ever make this into a movie, whoever plays Caroline will win the Oscar. 
• Playbill Broadway grosses for the week: New shows Network with Bryan Cranston and Tatiana Maslany and To Kill a Mockingbird with Jeff Daniels are already hits, playing to 100% capacity. The emptiest houses are unfortunately for the Go-Gos musical Head Over Heels (which we loved but which has been struggling to find its audience). Head Over Heels will be one of the Thanksgiving performances at the Macy's Day Parade so we'll see if that helps get them through the holidays. 

Yes No Maybe So: Captain Marvel

by Nathaniel R

Hey look, it's our first official image of Brie Larson from Damien Chazelle's First Ma---- oh, that's not right. It's Brie Larson as First Woman to lead a movie in the MCU. Captain Marvel hits theaters on March 8th, 2019, or as we like to call it, two weeks after the Oscars and two months before Avengers Infinity War Part 2.

After the jump the first trailer and a quick Yes No Maybe So breakdown.

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Quick Links

• Coming Soon Ant Man and the Wasp has wrapped filming. Apparently there's a scene on a beach between Pfeiffer and Douglas
• Decider 10 movies you should stream right now to prepare for awards season
• The Guardian apparently Feud is just making its way to the UK so there's a new Susan Sarandon interview where she defends her baffling political decisions of the recent past

• Rotten Tomatoes Jude Law has nabbed the male lead of Captain Marvel opposite Brie Larson
• Los Angeles Times John Lasseter, Disney/Pixar's long time chief creative officer, is taking a leave of absence from Disney after complaints of inappropriate behavior with female employees
• Playbill what are the plays that Broadway revives the most often? The top 12 features well loved playwright's like Tennessee Williams (though I was surprised by his second most revived), Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill, and of course Edward Albee's masterpiece Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
• Variety Rance Howard, the character actor and father of Ron Howard, has passed away
• Gr8ter Days David Cassidy, 70s teen idol of the Patridge Family has passed away
• Variety The Seen and Unseen, which you'll remember I raved about at TIFF, has won two new prizes this past week, splitting the Grand Prize at Tokyo FilmEx and winning the APSA for Youth Feature. 

Exit Video
Have you checked out the new webseries "Power Couple"? We must thank Joe Reid for recommending it. The concept is simple and hooky (famous pairings through history) and the execution by Sudi Green and Matt Rogers is brilliant. My favorite thus far is Caesar & Cleopatra but they've also done Britney & Justin (with an amazing 50 Shades riff on negotiation) and Evil Queen & Magic Mirror.