Friday, June 13, 2014

Week in review 6/9 - 6/13

Actress and activist Ruby Dee, best known for her portrayal of Ruth Younger in A Raisin in the Sun (younger viewers will know her as American Gangster's Mama Lucas, a role for which she earned an Oscar nomination), passed away on Wednesday. She was 91.

Last week, we mentioned civilian dissenters in Thailand have begun using the three-fingered salute from The Hunger Games in their public protests of the country's military regime. This week, Thailand made entertainment news headlines once again when its government banned a screening of dystopian drama 1984. Protestors have reportedly made a public show of reading the George Orwell novel off of which the film is based, and even displayed a poster decorated with the face of General Prayuth hovering above the phrase, Thailand 1984.

If Hollywood is spilling over into the realm of the real overseas, viewers at home are clamoring for more reality in their Hollywood fare. That, anyway, is what The Hollywood Reporter is calling The Fault in Our Stars ripple effect: an increase in more "grounded" films for teens. In other words, vampires are officially out. The fate of this summer's dystopian The Giver remains uncertain.

As does the fate of Warner Brothers, which has stumbled in the wake of its Harry Potter string of successes. The studio is behind recent missteps Blended and Edge of Tomorrow. They've pushed the latest from the Wachowskis, Jupiter Ascending, to next winter. Clint Eastwood's adaptation of the Broadway show Jersey Boys isn't tracking particularly strong, and the adaptation of YA novel If I Stay might be opening too close to the similarly weepy The Fault In Our Stars to distinguish itself in the minds of its target audience. There is hope, however, in July's Tammy, a vehicle for the likable Melissa McCarthy.

Uncertainty abounds for name-brand movie stars as well, so claims Variety's Peter Bart in his link bait-y titled though nonetheless interesting piece, Movie Stars Have Become an Endangered Species. For a longread into which  you can truly sink your teeth, however, we suggest Laura Bogart's thought piece on female villainy and strength, I Spit on Your Fairy Wings, and Your Little Dog, Too!: On MALEFICENT and Other Films.

Thoughtful characterizes the Pixar filmmakers' approach to their latest project, Inside Out, which takes for its setting the brain of an 11-year-old girl transitioning from childhood into Hollywood's favorite new demo, young adulthood. What we would assume is terrifying territory appears to be gracefully interpreted by Pete Doctor, who says he was inspired to better understand the female brain after watching his own daughter change from a carefree kid into a moody teen. We're in.

Entertainment Weekly will likely review the film once it's been released, but will anyone read it? The Awl's Anne Helen Petersen charts the rise and fall of the controversial publication.

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