Belinda the rain is falling. Belinda your link is calling ♪ ♫

The Onion "I only like movies where the whole cast dances in the end credits"
Pajiba Hayley Atwell continues to enjoy her Agent Peggy Carter awesomeness even without news of a renewal yet
Esquire an interview with Chris Evans who talks his friendship with the other Chris and his insane Marvel schedule
NY Times Actress Jayne Meadows (1919-2015) RIP
In Contention the moment Michael Keaton knew he would lose the Oscar
Interview talks to Sam Shepard, still acting, writing, and being cool 

Sesame Street The Aveggies: Age of Bon Bon. The Avengers spoof peaks early with the line reading "What happened to my asparagus!?" which sent me into lolz
The Dissolve looks back at Ang Lee's Hulk (2003) 
Variety looks at Netflix streaming data. Daredevil S1 being the biggest immediate hit but House of Cards having a longer tail for streaming. Or something? What does it all mean? It's meaningless without Orange is the New Black data if you ask me.

Happy They're Working But... Sigh
Film School Rejects Wild Tales Damian Szifron's next project is... writing The Six Billion Dollar Man reboot movie for Peter Berg. Frustrating because he can direct circles around Berg if Wild Tales is any indication
Jezebel Viola Davis to star in a Harriet Tubman biopic. Sadly for the Viola Needs An Oscar Fan Club (President: Nathaniel R) it's for HBO and she'll probably already have an Emmy by then

Beefcake
MNPP Why does Zac Efron have a huge bumblebee on his crotch -- What the hell?
Boy Culture Joe Magianello Magic Mike XXL Poster. Co-sign on the blog post title! 
MNPP sharing gifs and the trailer for the Magic Mike ripoff Chocolate City 

Bruce Jenner (in half shirt) and friends in Can't Stop the Music (1980)Former Beefcake
Kenneth in the (212) dedicates "Belinda" (i had totally forgotten about this song but used to love it) to Bruce Jenner
Boy Culture on Bruce Jenner coming out as a... Republican. 

The unfolding Bruce Jennfer story is another reminder, like the superb documentary Prodigal Sons by former high school football star turned trans documentarian Kimberly Reed, that external presentation does not always equal internal truth. Bruce became famous as such a traditionally masculine person in the late 70s, gold medal athleticism and all, which is I think why this whole thing surprised so many people. Including myself. In case you missed it we revisited Bruce Jenner's 1980 movie Can't Stop the Music this very month last year.  

Speaking of Hit Me With Your Best Shot.... does anyone know what happened to the guy RJ who ran "(Home) Film Schooled"? The blog vanished some time ago without a trace but there was good writing there!

Bright Star is Brightest Thursday Night/Friday Morning...
Because of a forgotten scheduling conflict involving, um, superheroes (mom, they're oppressing us again!)  I had to postpone Jane Campion's poetic flowery romance for 'BEST SHOT' which was originally tonight. But here are 4 early entries for A Fistful of Films (which you have to agree is one of the best blog titles ever), Lam Chop Chop, Coco hits NY, and Zitzelfilm to whet your appetite for its visual splendor. 

MTV Movie Awards: The Winners

Manuel here, pretending he’s still part of the demographic for the MTV Movie Awards. Amy Schumer (“Half of you don’t know me and half of you think I’m Meghan Trainor” she quipped at the start of the show) hosted the show which might just as well have been called the “Shailene Woodley” awards. After Jennifer Lawrence and her Hunger Games dominated the past couple of years, unlikely movie star Woodley emerged as the clear winner last night. On top of her MTV Trailblazer award, her film The Fault in Our Stars (the first non-franchise film to win the Movie of the Year award since Wedding Crashers in 2006!) took home 3 awards. Indeed, original and non-franchise films pretty much dominated, even as the show seemed intent on reminding us that Furious 7, Avengers Age of Ultron and plenty more of summer sequels are out or on their way.

I wish I could find that J-Lo reaction to Schumer's Gone Girl/latina joke because it was EVERYTHING. Oh wait...

In other news, Bradley Cooper may be 3-for-0 at the Oscars, but he won “Best Male Performance” over presumed favorites Chris Pratt (whose Marvel film went empty-handed), and Faults own Ansel Egort, Meryl Streep won her very first popcorn award and Zac Efron won “Best Shirtless Performance” for his beautifully psychopathic performance in Neighbors which sounds about right, don’t you think?

Check the full list of winners below

Click to read more ...

Forget About L()ve

"2014 is OVER, Nathaniel" - everyone.

I'm aware, thank you. But you know how it is. We have to wean ourselves off of each delightful film year. And we still have to finish our annual Film Bitch Awards and then we're done. Pinky swear. Speaking of the pink... time to surrender it.

Romance isn't what it used to be in the movies. Even when movies have romance at the core somewhere like American Sniper or Divergent or whatever, it's often presented like a mandatory plot point rather than with any real passion; something to check off for all quandrants rather than get lost in. That makes our Best Kiss, Best Sex Scene, and Sexpot of the Year categories sometimes hard to manage but we press on.

Sex is so integral to life that you'd think the movies would want to claim it a little more rather than ceding it to Netflix originals, Showtime and HBO. When movies do go there they're often surprisingly prim (50 Shades of Grey) or arthouse grim. For the latter see Nymphomaniac, both volumes. Or rather: don't. Unless you're willing to fast forward a lot. It would have been infinitely better as one 90 minute film: faster, funnier, and more focused. [NSFW More...]

Click to read more ...

Podcast: Neighbors & Godzilla

On this week's podcast Katey Rich (Vanity Fair) returns from her wedding and Nick Davis (Nick's Flick Picks) moderates a Neighbors discussion with Joe Reid (The Wire) and Nathaniel R, (The Film Experience) while deciding whether or not to see it. Then we all talk Godzilla and Gareth Edwards' rising star in the director's chair with shades of Spielberg & Cameron.

Somehow the Cannes film festival, Grace of Monaco and the ladies of Steel Magnolias invade the manly lizard conversation. 

00:01 Katey's wedding & our weekends
03:00 Neighbors vs. 21 Jump Street (2012)
07:00 "I wish it had more jokes" - Nicholas Stoller and modern comedy
09:45 Zac Efron's "surface area"
15:00 "Assjuice," accents, gay panic
22:45 Godzilla and mass destruction
25:30 Character or Monster Driven - Which Is it?
30:00 Aaron Taylor-Johnson vs. Charisma
35:00 the sheer gorgeousity of Gareth Edwards' filmmaking
44:30 Does anyone under 40 have nostalgia for Godzilla?
49:00 Detours to the South of France and Louisiana

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download the conversation on iTunes. Continue the conversation in the comments... and who would you play in a staged reading of Steel Magnolias?

Further Reading Related to This Podcast
Richard Lawson on Zac Efron's dark side
Peter Knegt on the gay pandering of Neighbors
Nathaniel on The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby

 

Godzilla & Neighbors

Beauty Vs Beast: To Covet A Heart

JA from MNPP here, with perhaps one of the least cut-and-dry editions of our "Beauty Vs Beast" competition yet -- in honor of Cate Blanchett being awesome at Cannes let us compare and contrast the beauties and the beasts (mostly the beasts) within the two wicked school-teachers at the heart of 2006's Notes on a Scandal.

Let's get our moral compromise on...

poll by twiigs.com

Well which is it gonna be, folks? The flighty pederast or the cruel closet-case? Choices, choices, choices. And please let us know what your reasons are for choosing what you choose in the comments. It's an up-hill battle loving either of the ladies.

PREVIOUSLY Last week we we were riding in hot on the back of Zac Efron (full stop) ... and Seth Rogen in the comedy-hit Neighbors - where did your loyalties fall? At 60% of the vote we kept it high and tight and Hollywood pretty with Efron, although Seth definitely put up a good fight - he's got surprising stamina, that one. MeIAmMariahTheElusiveChanteuse (aka Greatest Name Ever) captured the crude center of the conundrum:

"My heart is saying Seth, but my hole is saying Zac. So conflicted."