DVD/Blu-ray: Pick a Disney Prince, Redistribute Mad Men Emmys

Eight questions for the comments related to this week's DVD and BluRay releases. Please do play along with your answers. The more the merrier. We want to see inside your movie brain!

Who is the hottest raven-haired Disney Prince?

Li Shang (Mulan)

Eric (The Little Mermaid)

Aladdin (Aladdin)

Kocoum (Pocahontas)

Naveen (The Princess and the Frog)

Poll Maker

Aladdin the Disney classic is rereleased
Q1 Rank the raven-haired Disney Princes* 
Aloft Starring Jennifer Connelly who is five years older than Cillian Murphy and plays his mother.
Q2 Can you explain Jennifer Connelly's career post-Oscar?
Dope the Sundance hit about geek teens obsessed with 90s hiphop. Very funny if too long / scattered
Q3: Favorite 90s hiphop artist?
The Gallows in which a high school play is the key catalyst for horror
Q4: Aren't they all? 
San Andreas Disaster strikes California
Q5: The Rock is on his way to rescue you. Describe the scenario!
Tomorrowland In which optimism about the future via Americana of the past struggles to make a grand movie in the present. 
Q6: On a scale of 1 to 10 how much do you hate it when characters narrate their own adventure direct to camera? 

TV Seasons: Wayward Pines (S1), The 100 (S2), Bates Motel (S3), The Following (S3), Mad Men (Final Season) 
In 8 seasons Mad Men won just 16 Emmys. Which sounds like a lot until you realize that of the other three dramas which are tied for first place with four wins, it's almost the least awarded (Hill Street Blues: 26; The West Wing: 26; LA Law: 15). Hell Game of Thrones which has only won Drama once and been on fewer seasons than Mad Men already has 26 Emmys so maybe it'll be the most Emmy-winning ever by the time it completes its run.
Q7: f you had to redistribute Mad Men's 16 Emmys in house where would they go? 

S1: Six Emmys - Drama Series, Writing, Art Direction, Cinematography, Hairstyling, Main Title Design
S2: Three Emmys - Drama Series, Writing, Hairstyling 
S3: Four Emmys - Drama Series, Writing, Casting, Hairstyling
S4: Two Emmys - Drama Series, Hairstyling
S5: Zero Emmys
S6: Zero Emmys
S7.1: Zero Emmys
S7.2: One Emmy - Lead Actor

*Yes Kocoum counts. He was supposed to become the chief which is basically the ruling class which is the Princes.

Link It On

Lenny Amy Poehler interviews her teen fan, the Tony nominated Sydney Lucas who was so brilliant in Fun Home: The Musical (she just left the show *cries*)
AV Club in terrifying news: Disney is fast-tracking a Cruella de Vil picture from the 50 Shades screenwriter called simpley Cruella
The Guardian interviews Benicio del Toro on Sicario and music as part of his acting process

Playbill Broadway and music giants are uniting on December 3rd in NYC for a Centennial tribute to Frank Sinatra: slated to appear are Bernadette Peters, Sutton Foster, Sting, and Christina Aguilera. More names TBA
Comics Alliance & Superhero Hype celebrate the best Cosplay at New York Comic Con this weekend - that Marvel Girl is something else. Straight outta the X-Men pages I tell ya.
Boy Culture cuteness - Carol Channing with teddy bear
Pajiba yes, Natalie Dormer is aware that people think Kermit the Frog's new pig girlfriend Denise looks like her
Detroit News my hometown paper interview Tippi Hedren (The Birds, Marnie) for some reason so check that out
Awards Daily Sasha on Aaron Sorkin and the art of the symbol in Steve Jobs 
Variety MTV's adaptation of Terry Brooks "The Shannara Chronicles" is coming in January. I read a couple of those books a million years ago and none of this even sounds/looks vaguely familiar. But maybe I just don't remember it?
Variety ...and BBC is doing "The Last Kingdom" because YA fused with fantasy is hot right now after the cultural dominance of Hunger Games / Game of Thrones the past handful of years.  

ICYMI
The first 10 days of October were so crazy busy: final reports from NYFF, the opening of The Martian and a sneak of Carol, wild acclaim for Steve Jobs and the opposite for Pan on their shared opening weekend, that we're sure you've missed some choice goodies. Be sure to check out the Hail Caesar! teaser, our interview with Victoria star Laia Costa, Photograph 51 with Nicole Kidman hitting the stage, and a list of Ridley Scott's favorite actors.

The biggest news for us here at The Film Experience was the announcement of the 81 movies in competition for Best Foreign Film. We've already interviewed directors from or reviewed 11 of them: Argentina's The Clan, Austria's Goodnight Mommy (now in theaters), Colombia's Embrace of the Serpent, Dominican Republic's Sand Dollars, France's Mustang, Germany's Labyrinth of Lies (now in theaters!), Hungary's Son of Saul, Norway's The Wave, Portugal's Arabian Nights Volume 2, Sweden's A Pigeon Sat on a Branch, and Taiwan's The Assassin with more to come. 

Reboot the World. Bring it On
Remember when Bring It On (2000) made our top ten list of Best High School Movies Ever Made? Don't you wish that they hadn't made all those terrible straight-to-dvd sequels for Bring It On so that the world could demand an actual Bring It On sequel? EW reunited the principle cast for their latest issue.

Eliza Dushku, Gabrielle Union, and Kiki are still sexy. And cute. and popular to boot. Okay maybe less popular (sigh) but still awesome. And to quote our friend Joe Reid:

Congratulations to Jesse Bradford, Nobel Prize winner in the field of Could Get It 

Video Du Jour
I'm sorry but Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman on the same couch being embarrassed about their childhood names? The Graham Norton Show is always a delight for actressexuals. Please someone gif the part w/ Meryl's glasses askew or any of Nicole's dorky grimaces.

And, because, a bonus video: Julianne Moore cracking us up doing Taylor Swift lyrics on "the Late Late Show"

Always the years.
Always the love.
Always The Hours Ladies.

Posterized: Joe Wright's "Pan" and Peter Pan Movies

Jackman and Wright talk on setYou have to admit that Joe Wright was asking for it. He went and titled his Peter Pan epic, Pan, which is functioning like a command for the nation's critics who have done so mercilessly. It probably didn't help that he uglified one of our most handsome movie stars (no one needs to see Hugh Jackman going the Johnny Depp route). Worse, he truly stepped in it early on by casting the very white Rooney Mara in one of the few iconic roles meant for a Native American actress. (This issue has been discussed at very high volumes in the past few years since moviegoers and the media are sick to death of Hollywood's white-washing. But Hollywood is still wearing ear plugs.)

Will you see his latest despite the reviews?

And how many Peter Pan related movies have you seen? (More on Peter and Joe after the jump)

Click to read more ...

HBO’s LGBT History: Curb Your Enthusiasm (1999-2011)

Manuel is working his way through all the LGBT-themed HBO productions.

Last week we looked at Tanaz Eshaghian’s documentary Be Like Others, an unflinching portrayal of trans people in Iran. In many ways, it falls right in line with HBO’s commitment to sparking and hosting button-pushing conversations on contemporary issues like they’d done before with Common Threads, Rosie’s All Aboard! and Middle Sexes. But you know what else HBO is known for? Hilarious comedy, which is what we’ll be discussing today.

When I talked about the gay stereotypes that litter HBO comedies, a handful of you pointed to the “Larry vs. Michael J. Fox” (HBO Go) episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm as a helpful complement to that discussion. The plot of the eighth season (and potential series) finale follows Larry’s escalating cold war with upstairs neighbor Michael J. Fox (“Just having Parkinson’s doesn't give you carte blanche to take advantage of the non-Parkinson's!”) while the B-plot has him meeting Greg, the seven-year old son of Jennifer (Ana Gastayer), the woman he’s been seeing. As Greg is an avid fan of Project Runway and a swishy one at that, Larry decides to get him a sewing machine for his birthday which all but appalls his mother:

Jennifer: He is a happy, healthy, normal seven year old boy. What is the matter with you?
Larry: Ehh, I think he might be gay.

As if the episode’s use of Parkinson’s disease as comedy fodder wasn’t enough, the episode’s continued pushing of Greg as a gay kid (he’s “pre-gay” Larry notes) is classic Larry David: awkward, borderline inappropriate but for that all the more hysterical. It also features one of the few examples of pre-teen homosexuality in our HBO history. Jennifer’s own anxiety that Larry might be thrusting homosexuality on a kid who is barely seven years old mirrors much of our modern ideas of homosexuality. Kids can be effeminate. They can be sissies. They can be pansies. They can enjoy Project Runway. But that, we are told, in no way means they’ll grow up to be gay. Even in that sentence construction, we espouse the belief that homosexuality is something for grownups, irrevocably tied to same-sex desire and thus tied to hormones, puberty, and of course, sex.

What does Greg love about Project Runway? "The fashion!"

The radical humor of the episode lies in not shying away from calling that myth out; indeed, young girls are encouraged to think of their future husbands thus inscribing in them a heterosexuality that, at a young age, need not be tied to their sexual preferences; why should gay kids be treated any differently, with their gayness both signaling but not encompassing actual sex? True, it falls on pretty well-worn stereotypical territory, but for those of us who were called out as sissies and pansies for our aversion to sports and penchant for “feminine” cultural objects, Greg’s unabashed swishiness is particularly refreshing to see. That his mother seems to want to not even consider thinking about what that may mean for his sexuality and that Larry’s own approach to the issue begins with a question of whether raising Greg will be somewhat difficult for Jennifer (given, you know, how he is and all), would warrant more unpacking if the episode didn’t give Greg so much autonomy and confidence. Plus, with sewing skills like that - he singlehandedly crafts a throw pillow with the fabulous design Larry taught him about (the swastika) - you know he’ll be fine.

Fun Awards Fact: Michael J. Fox was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy for his portrayal of himself on the show. He was also nominated that same year for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama for his work on The Good Wife. He lost both his bids that year, though I’m sure he found solace in his five previous Emmy wins.

Next week: We’ll continue talking about HBO Comedies as we revisit the two big screen adaptations of arguably the most talked-about HBO comedy of all time: Sex and the City. So bring your Cosmos, wear your Jimmy Choos and be prepared for plenty of puns!

In Appreciation of Regina King

Kieran here to take a moment to praise the talents of the great underappreciated, enduring and (as of Sunday evening) Emmy-winning actress, Regina King. It was truly a wonderful moment when Taraji P. Henson, still reeling from that moment of Terrence Howard creepery, excitedly announced Regina King as the winner. The Emmys can often feel like a yearly recitation of the same list of names, but wins like Regina King's are what make awards shows that honor acting great. Like Melissa Leo or Octavia Spencer, it's always heartening to see hard working, talented and enduring character actresses finally get recognition.

My earliest memory of King was in Boyz N the Hood (227 is a little before my time) where she brought a welcome side-eye skepticism and levity to that male-centric outing, great as it was. I haven't seen the film in a couple of years, but her lines easily remain the most memorable and quotable. I feel similarly about her performance in Ray, a film that suffers from its trite biopic structure but comes to life most when King's Margie is on screen. She's consistently great, shoring up projects and roles that often don't deserve her, frankly.

King has worked steadily for the past three decades but prior to her nod for American Crime, she had never been nominated for an Emmy. Or a Golden Globe. Or a solo Screen Actors Guild Award (she was nominated with the cast of Ray in 2004). Or an Oscar. Given the breadth and longevity of King's career, this is a little shocking. She's clearly under-appreciated, even by me. I failed to cite her as one of my ten favorite Emmy nominees, though she was great on American Crime and wholly deserving of the win.

Hopefully seeing Regina King win an Emmy will prompt directors and producers, many of whom I'm sure she's already worked with (seriously...check out her IMDb. The woman never stops working) to unlock their imaginations about what she's capable of. She's shown her versatility in a wide range of genres and in roles of all sizes. The time has long passed for King to have her moment in a great leading role worthy of her talents.

What's your favorite Regina King performance? What director would you like to see her paired with? Discuss in the comments.