So something kind of wonderful happened on last night’s Tony Award telecast. Amidst the wonderful opening number and raucous atmosphere, history was made: two women (Pam MacKinnon and Dianne Paulus) won the directing prizes, Cyndi Lauper became the first woman to win for Best Original Score without a writing partner, and four out of the eight acting winners were African American. Wait, what? Yes, the Tonys became the anti-Oscars, with women and minorities just winning every damn where. It was a wonder to behold not only for the sheer weight of the occasion, but because it didn’t feel out of place or momentous, just felt like the right people won. After doing the latest Awards Circuit podcast where in the subject of race came up and spurned on by a colleague’s great analysis of sexism within the Academy, I wanted to share my thoughts on why I think Hollywood is severely behind in terms of equality.
I thought about doing this piece as a standard review but I’m tired and I don’t particularly feel the film demands much attention for its strengths. Sure Now You See Me is a fairly entertaining film that keeps you enthralled till the end through it’s fun performances and high octane action. I gave it two and a half stars and I’ve no doubt many people will come away from the movie with higher grades than that. However, what interested me the most about the film were it’s short comings, specifically how the magic was portrayed, so I’ve decided to focus on that.
One of the best things about the advent of this here internet is that it opens the airwaves for dialog and opinions of people you would never have heard of without it. It’s how I ended up writing for Awards Circuit and also how I discovered the Operation Kino podcast. For those of you un familiar with OpKino, it’s a podcast that features four film writers, Da7E from Latino-Review, David Ehrlich from Film.com, Katey Rich from Cinema Blend, and Matt Patches of Hollywood.com. On a recent Tuesday episode, they spoke about scarcity in art and it’s merits. It was a fascinating discussion, a topic I’ve often thought about and it seemed like an interesting place to start a discussion.
Today has been such a heavy Teen Wolf day with that trailer that was released earlier today and now we’ve got news that one of the actors might land a high profile role. In demand actor Dylan O’Brien is apparently close to landing the role in Glimmer, a scifi thriller about a group of teenagers who discover a portal to past. When one of them changes history, the effects start to snowball with tragic consequences. DreamWorks is apparently shooting for a January start date in order to allow for some scheduling flexibility.
Full disclosure before I start this review, I have never much liked The Great Gatsby in any form. The previous movie versions are dreadful and the book, while thematically fantastic never leaps off the page given the character’s unlikability and voice over type narration. However, I tried to purge my mind of these feelings when I sat down for my screening. That wouldn’t be hard as the movie’s marketing was so good and the visuals so lush, I found myself anticipating the film far more than I thought I would be. And while Baz Luhrman’s glamorous remake of The Great Gatsby manages to make love to your eyes balls with it’s period costumes and dazzling production design it is unfortunately it’s the cinematic equivalent of blue balls, leaving you disappointed and unfulfilled.
On the heels of the recent news that Guys and Dolls was getting a big screen remake with C-Tates and JGL and the Tony nominations, I decided to give this week’s top 10 a Broadway flavor. Movie musicals come and go in terms of public consciousness but given the success over the past few years, we might be entering a new age where musicals are being made regularly again. So I now present to you the top 10 Broadway musicals that haven’t made it to screen yet.