Daily Archives

July 12, 2019

Big Drama on Big Little Lies

-Indiewire just published a bomb of an article to lead us into the weekend. According to their sources, HBO and David E. Kelley took the show away from Season 2 director Andrea Arnold (who was told she had free creative reign) without warning and got executive producer (and Season 1 director) Jean-Marc Vallée to reshape her footage and do reshoots to align it with his Season 1 style. The optics on this are BADDDD. As the article states: “A show dominated by some of the most powerful actresses in Hollywood hired a fiercely independent woman director – who was now being forced to watch from the director’s chair as scenes were shot in the style of her male predecessor.” Arnold is an Oscar, BAFTA and three-time Cannes jury-winning director and it feels like HBO used her auteur cred for publicity, only to turn around and say “but let’s make sure men decide the final product.” Diversity and inclusion doesn’t just mean hiring token new people; you need to allow them to succeed. Otherwise, it’s just hollow, performative BS.

-This goes a long way to explaining why, after the first few episodes where we were all wrapped up in the “OMG it’s Meryl” buzz, this season has felt really disjointed and off. Last week’s episode was especially messy. I watched that montage from the last 5 minutes twice and still felt like I didn’t get it. There are only two episodes left and really, what’s this season *about*?

–Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, who publicly supported Arnold’s vision, are exec-producers on the show — which is leading to lots of questions about if they knew what was happening and if they were overruled.

-Anyway, I saw Arnold present her sprawling (and very weird) American Honey at TIFF a few years back and despite its 3 hour runtime and the Shia LeBeouf of it all, I was totally charmed. This scene of Shia dancing to Rihanna in a Kmart to impress a girl remains one of my fave meet-cutes.

-I’m not really sure what type of movie Gunpowder Milkshake is going to be, but judging by their bts videos, no one has ever had more fun making a film than Michelle Yeoh, Angela Bassett, Carla Gugino, Lena Headey, and Karen Gillan.

-How To Get Away with Murder is ending this season – -which means Viola Davis is free  of it!

–Sophie Turner just ended the #BottlecapChallenge.

–Ed Sheeran just confirmed that he’s a married man. In case you were wondering.

-This is a really fun article about how much effort it took to recreate an 80s mall for this season of Stranger Things.

-I wasn’t online yesterday so I missed Jason Momoa getting ridiculed for his “dad bod.” Dads, if this is how you look, feel free to slide into my DMs.

–R. Kelly was arrested on federal sex charges Thursday night nearly five months after he was released on bail.

–Kumail Nanjiani had to cancel his appearance on last night’s Conan through no fault of his own (he was stuck filming Silicon Valley) with a 1/2 hour to go before showtime, so Conan ended up interviewing his assistant — who was a delight!

–Jeremy Renner has released a video for his new song and it’s as bad as you assumed it would be.

-Buckingham Palace confirmed that Meghan and Harry will be on the carpet for the Lion King premiere on Sunday. Beyonce is also attending. The photo possibilities!!

-The more I see from the Beverly Hills: 90210 revival, the more I don’t really understand — but I’m still here for it.

–Milla Jovovich menaces Emma Roberts in Paradise Hills trailer.