Linking on Empty

• Washington Post reviews a new book on Elizabeth Taylor & Montgomery Clift's friendship
• TFE <--- in case you missed it we discussed every one of Clift's films for his centennial this past fall
• Vulture To say we're thrilled to hear that Todd Haynes will be reuniting with Julianne Moore for his next film, is an understatement. It's a psychodrama called May December in which Natalie Portman will play an actress who is playing Moore's character in a movie based on her scandalous love affair.
• IndieWire Why Brooke Smith is running an Emmy campaign on her own without the studio's blessing (I mean she has a point about paying your dues. But we know from years of experience and category fraud that Hollywood cares very little about non-leads.

Queer horror, Jane Campion's latest, Harrison Ford, fav musicals, Sex and the City, and more after the jump...

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"Speed" Turns 25

by Lynn Lee

When Speed was first released a quarter century(!) ago, the premise seemed ridiculous: Bomb on bus is triggered to go off if the speed ever drops below 50 mph.  A bus in Los Angeles, no less.  At rush hour!  (Actually, it’s always rush hour in L.A., then as now, which only reinforces the preposterousness of the scenario.)  Nevertheless, Speed managed to suspend viewers’ disbelief – and their breaths – with a combo of taut white-knuckle thrills that didn’t require elaborate special effects and light humor that relieved but didn’t distract from the constant tension. 

A major hit both critically and commercially, it went on to win two Oscars (for sound mixing and sound editing) and elevate the then up-and-coming Keanu Reeves to full movie star status.  Now that Keanu seems to be having another “moment” in his long and eclectic career, it feels like an especially opportune time to revisit the movie that vaulted him on to Hollywood’s A list.

How does it hold up?

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Posterized: Keanu Reeves

by Nathaniel R

Whoa. Keanu Reeves turns 55 later this year and he's made roughly that many movies, too. Time sure does fly since he's still implanted in our consciousness as that stoner-like raven-haired looker of convenience store, surfing, and bus adventures. Figuring him out has always been an impossible trip. Keanu means "cool breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian but, that geographically specific well-known trivia aside, he's always been hard to visually or sonically place anywhere on the map OR within the pantheon of contemporary stars; Born in Lebanon and raised in Canada, though he's of Hawaiian/British/Chinese/Portuguese descent, and with a voice that conjures the early 80s and California. Who/what/where is he even other than on his own planet and his own unique star? 

Though it seems hard to imagine now, when he first came to fame he was a very unlikely candidate for longevity...

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Beauty vs Beast: Total Eclipse of the Drunk

Jason Adams from MNPP here with this week's dose of "Beauty vs Beast" fun. The great Kathy Bates is turning 70 on Thursday, giving you a couple of days to craft your love letters to her on Twitter - until then let's celebrate one of her great roles, the other Stephen King one, 1995's Dolores Claiborne. The film was underrated when it was released and the film remains underrated today if you ask me, but I think it's got a diehard contingent of fans - it's top-shelf King, mainly due to its two leading ladies, Bates as Dolores and Jennifer Jason Leigh as her estranged daughter Selena. And now I am the jerk who makes you choose...

bike tracks

PREVIOUSLY Last week we climbed on the city bus with Keanu Reeves and Sandy Bullock and then we quickly proceeded to run right the hell over Dennis Hopper - Keanu won the Speed poll with 74% of the vote! Those biceps... I totally get it. Said Tom G:

"Jack ends up with Sandra Bullock. He wins."

Beauty vs Beast: Pop Quiz, Hot Shots

Happy Monday! Jason from MNPP here with your weekly "Beauty vs Beast" fix - we're celebrating 1994  leading up to the Supporting Actress Smackdown and I figured I'd focus in on another great big hit from the year today (to compliment the Interview With the Vampire poll two weeks back), namely Jan de Bont's Speed. Which still holds up! I caught it on TV a couple of weeks ago and man, it still revs and roars. It's also got a stellar hero and villain pair - Keanu's buzzcut and biceps were The 1994 Fetish Du Jour, and Dennis Hopper is Dennis Hopper, the end.

polls

PREVIOUSLY I really thought that Jeff Goldblum's Finest Hour might put a dent in your acctressexual predilections but no, nope, not gonna happen, Laura Dern's Ellie Sattler still triumped in last week's Jurassic Park poll to the tune of 71% of your vote. Said chasm301:

"This movie is basically perfect and I would never pick against Laura Dern."