Salutations applications and welcome to a new episode of the Awesome Friday Podcast! This week we’re taking a closer look at two new films: First, director Adrian Lyne’s new film Deep Water starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, recently released on Amazon Prime here in Canada and Hulu in the US, followed by Richard Linklater’s latest animated nostalgia piece, Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood.
Join us!
Continue reading “Podcast: Deep Water & Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood”
The Golden Globes are my favourite award show. The combination of humour and sincerity that can only be achieved when A-List celebrities, precious auteurs and television “we’re just happy to be here” actors are shoved sardine-like into a hotel ballroom and given as much booze as they can (or can’t) handle. An extra hat-tip this year to the Beverly Hilton who forgot to turn on the AC making melting orange spray tan the look of the evening.
This year, however, wasn’t quite the shitshow that the Globes can sometimes be. Amy Poehler & Tina Fey did a solid ten and then, as happens every year, twitter questioned where they went for the next 2 hours. The audience seemed to laugh hardest at how they introduced Amal Clooney to America:
“Amal is a human rights lawyer who worked on the Enron case, was an advisor to Kofi Annan regarding Syria and was selected for a three person U.N. commission investigating rules of war violations in the Gaza Strip.
So tonight her husband is getting a lifetime achievement award.”
Quickly followed by massive gasps at their series of Bill Cosby rape jokes & pill/pudding pop impressions. Fun fact re: Amal, she actually sewed her own gloves the morning of the Awards. And when Ryan Seacrest interviewed the couple on the red carpet she pointed out the “Je Suis Charlie” button on her bag “in solidarity with the people of France”.
It wouldn’t be the last time the recent Charlie Hebdo tragedy was mentioned. In fact the Hollywood Foreign Press Association President talked about how important free speech is whether it be North Korea or Paris to a standing ovation. Helen Mirren, nominated for her role as a French chef in the 100 Foot Journey, wore a fountain pen pinned to her lapel.
The evening overall seemed to be sending a message of diversity. Breakout star Gina Rodriguez won Best Actress in a TV Musical or Comedy for her leading role on Jane the Virgin, a show which fluidly slips between Spanish & English. In her acceptance speech she said how she was grateful to represent “a culture that wants to see themselves as heroes”. (The title for this piece “I Can & I Did” came from how she paid tribute to her father.) Maggie Gyllenhaal won Best Actress in a Miniseries for the Honourable Woman, a show in which she played an arms dealer trying to reconcile things between Israel & Palestine, and gave quite the feminist speech.
The Amazon show Transparent won for Best TV Series, and the star Jeffrey Tambor won for Best Actor in a TV Musical or Comedy. A show about a Transgender person aired on a non-cable service won twice. And everyone cheered. The movie Pride was nominated (and I suspect, introduced for the first time to North American audiences) about UK gay activists who raised money to help during the Miners’ Strike. Matt Bomer got to thank his husband after winning best Supporting Actor in a Made for TV Film (the Normal Heart), which was about the AIDS epidemic.
Common & John Legend won for Best Original Song ‘Glory’ from the film about Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights movement, Selma. Downton Abbey star Joanne Froggatt won a best Supporting Actress award for her work during a storyline about rape. Eddie Redmayne won best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama about the life of Stephen Hawking (the Theory of Everything) and becoming paralyzed from ALS. Julianne Moore won Best Actress (Still Alice), beating all the younger nominees, in a role about a women with early onset Alzheimer’s. And Richard Linklater won Best Director for Boyhood (which also won Best Picture) for filming an indie movie over 12 years.
The message from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association this year was clear: Be different. Be brave. Be you.
I’ve always found it pretty fascinating to get a glimpse inside the head of a writer and here Buzzfeed provides insights from 18 writers on the task of writing a movie.
> All aspiring writers have experienced the conception of a story, that little atom of an idea that explodes into a vision of a journey in a big bang “aha!” that rattles the brain. But the difference between the daydreamers and actual filmmakers starts right after that revelatory moment, when the disparate strands of an idea either begin to take shape — and, at some point, migrate over to Final Draft — or just fade away.
> BuzzFeed spoke with some of the industry’s top writers and directors to learn how they develop a tiny germ of an idea into award-winning screenplay. They discussed everything from how they get started, to how to sit down and write, and how to balance dialogue and structure.
And they talked to:
* Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise trilogy, Dazed and Confused)
* Paul Feig (Freaks and Geeks, Bridesmaids, The Heat)
* Diablo Cody (Juno, Young Adult)
* Richard Curtis (Love Actually, About Time, Four Weddings and a Funeral)
* Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said, Please Give)
* Michael Weber and Scott Neustadter (500 Days of Summer, The Spectacular Now)
* David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer, Role Models)
* Rian Johnson (Looper, Brick)
* Jeff Nichols (Mud, Take Shelter)
* Lake Bell (In A World)
* David Gordon Green (Prince Avalanche, Pineapple Express)
* Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha)
* Mark and Jay Duplass (Jeff Who Lives At Home, Cyrus)
* Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (The Descendants, The Way, Way Back)
* Brian Koppelman (Rounders, Oceans Thirteen).
That’s a pretty impressive list and there is some great stuff in [the article which you can read here](http://www.buzzfeed.com/jordanzakarin/how-to-write-a-movie-according-to-screenwriters).
It was 18 years ago we first spent the night with Jesse and Celine watching them fall in love, and 9 years later that we spent the day with them reconnecting and rekindling the relationship they never ended up having. Now, another 9 years on we get to spend another day with them to see what it’s like now that they are together.
I rather liked the first two movies in this series. I don’t know many people who grew up in the 1990s who don’t, actually. It’s also just been interesting having snapshots of this relationship at different points so I’m actually pretty excited to see what’s going on in this third instalment.
Anyone else?
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