AHS: Hotel Teaser

My name is Manuel and I have a theory:

American Horror Story Marketing > American Horror Story Show

This latest teaser is but a mere 30 seconds but can you imagine the full season of the upcoming Jessica Lange-less American Horror Story season keeping you as enthralled? [More...]

But then, Ryan Murphy has always been better at teasing than satisfying. His newest iteration of the horror anthology series (Hotel) premieres on October 7th and so we got this titillating teaser to whet our appetite. And boy did it! Highlights after the jump...

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Review: Magic Mike XXL

This review was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad. It is reprinted here with in the Director's Cut version. i.e. it's longer this time...

When Magic Mike opened three years ago it was something of a risky proposition. Male stars exploiting their bodies for a young male star’s dream project loosely based on his own stripping career which he felt no shame about? Who would have guessed? Cut to three years later: Magic Mike and Friends (minus The Kid and Dallas “alright alright alright”) have returned to movie theaters with much teasing and blockbuster fanfare to a relatively new pop cultural context they helped create: male objectification is increasingly the norm. Just ask Chris Pratt, the ascendant superstar of the moment (Guardians of the Galaxy, Jurassic World) who has acknowledged that his new body was key to his ascendance and that he’s all for it… the objectification.

This wondrous new world of happily exposed man-flesh makes Magic Mike XXL feel curiously demure. Usually sequels go for more-more-more but XXL (the title is a misnomer) downsizes even as the stages get larger. There’s less plot since it’s essentially a road trip movie but most curiously there’s much less nudity even if the women this time around seem a lot more eager to see it.

This withholding is smart and funny at the beginning of the film in a sensational opening dance number starring Mike alone in his workroom. [More...]

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Oscar Non-News, Taye Hewdig-Diggs, and Link Roundup

Before we get to the link roundup a bit of Oscar Housekeeping. There are no significant changes to the rules this year so we're stuck with "somewhere between 5 and 10 nominees" in terms of Best Picture (I'd been hoping for a set number, no matter what that set number was, as I like the awards to have proper comparative pleasures in the grand scheme of history). Wisely though in minor changes, the visual effects category gets an expanded finalist list before nominations (smart), and  the shorts category get longer finalists lists to choose from and the number of nominations per category is set at a concrete five (it's usually five but sometimes it's less depending on how voting goes, currently). I do like the consistency but I wonder why they're still holding out on Makeup and Hair -- EVERY FILM USES IT which is more than you can say for a lot of categories. The makeup branch should get 5 nominated slots like every other Oscar branch category. Sucks to be them.

Links
MNPP Flaunt and Jason try to convince us to love Aaron Johnson. Hey, no one else will.
A Fistful of Films reviews Inside Out from a parental perspective and cries all the way through it 
Dissolve David Tennant takes over a Robin Williams voice role in the animation adaptation of Chew. I didn't actually know they were making this but that comic, which a friend of Anne Marie's turned me on to, is SO good and weird. So I'm excited for this 
Towleroad somehow I missed this Magic Mike XXL clip of Matt Bomer singing. When perfect gets more perfect it's just so not fair, you know?
Kenneth in the (212) RIP Dick Van Patten. Remember "Eight is Enough"?  
Mike's Movie Projector looks back at Dirk Bogarde in 1960
Movie Mezzanine looks back at The Blues Brothers (1980) -- I knew so many people who loved this movie growing up but I never "got" its appeal
The Hot Blog David Poland talks Inside Out's "Bing Bong" 

Screen to... Other
Theater Mania 45 years after Love Story (1970) Ali McGraw and Ryan O'Neal are working together again -- they'll tour with the play "Love Letters" which had a short run on Broadway recently with rotating older celebrities
AV Club Fight Club (1999)... for kids? 
Playbill Michael C Hall (Dexter) will star in a new Off Broadway David Bowie musical based on The Man Who Fell To Earth this fall. It's called "Lazarus"
Deadline Emmy winning Laurie Metcalf, so brilliant currently on the underseen sitcom Getting On has replaced Elizabeth Marvel in the upcoming Broadway adaptation of Misery (1990). So she does the Bruce Willis hobbling honors now

Showtune to Go...
The first photo of Taye Diggs as Hedwig has been released to excite you for his theatrical run in one of the great roles! So naturally our Showtune to Go this time is a Hedwig toon.

HMYBS: Magic Mike (Part One)

Channing Tatum, Joe Mangianello and Matt Bomer have been hitting the campaign trail hard (no pun intended) to build excitement for Magic Mike XXL (2015) and for our little corner of the world, we'll "help" by revisiting the original with the less hilarious title of Magic Mike (2012). I love the title Magic Mike XXL but it's a relief that XXL is not a true Roman Numeral because think of all the sequels we would have missed between 2012 and 2015 if it were?

Among the campaign efforts from the beefcake cast thus far, are online vines, marching in LA's pride parade, and Channing Tatum's highly enjoyable Reddit AMA today, which included these two moments which just delighted me (as well as a stealth dig on Jupiter Ascending).

But I digress. Due to our very complicated schedule this week (I've been busy corralling future guests as well as talking with Ann Dowd who has the whole day tomorrow to talk to you about the love of acting and The Leftovers) this is only Part One of the Magic Mike celebration and if you want to play along we'll do another roundup on Friday. But for now please to enjoy these articles from the early bird Best Shot Participants.

Magic Mike (2012)
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh; Cinematography by: Steven Soderbergh as "Peter Andrews"; Written by: Reid Carolin; Starring: Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, Olivia Munn, Alex Pettyfer, Matt Bomer, Adam Rodriguez, Kevin Nash, and Joe Mangianello

MAGIC MIKE BEST SHOT(s) - PART ONE 
Click on any of the 7 photos to read the corresponding blogpost

Pre-2012, Tatum was one of my least favorite actors. But in Magic Mike he finally had a vehicle that showed off his natural easy charisma...
-Sorta That Guy

Not only is it incredibly amusing, it reflects on the movie’s views on using bodies, sexuality, and images as commodities...
-Coco Hits NY

It was here that the McConaissance peaked...
- The Entertainment Junkie 

True Story:  In the summer of 2012, I saw Magic Mike with my sister in a movie theater in Anderson, South Carolina... 
- Drink Your Juice, Shelby

 

There's something very Lynch-ian about this particular frame... the haunting, mysterious lightning and the positioning of Ken in a doll package...
-Hofverberg *first submission* 

While the film is very much focused on its male characters, I found myself appreciating Cody Horn's seemingly maligned performance much more on a re-watch... 
-Film Actually 

 

Are they checking each others' moves or lost in a reverie of their own reflections?
-Me Says 

CONTINUE ON TO PART TWO - NINE MORE SHOTS (Some NSFW)