The Golden Globes are shady AF
The Golden Globes are shady AF
And Obama and Springsteen team up for podcast series
What to know
The HFPA has no Black members but plenty of eccentricities | LA Times
The HFPA is shady as fuck! While the 94-member Golden Globes org has many members of color, there are no Black people included, which explains why its TV nominees are almost all white this year. The notoriously insular org also includes numerous elderly people, one of whom may be deaf and legally blind. If you care about “Awards Season,” you should wish for the Globes to lose its influence.
Barry and Bruce team up for best boomer podcast ever | The Verge
Tell your dad, Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen got a podcast. The boomer icons will chat it out over 8 episodes of Renegades: Born in the USA exclusively on Spotify. The music streaming platform has invested a lot in podcasts in recent years for shows exactly like this. I don’t listen to podcasts in the Spotify app itself, but will make an exception for these two.
NYC movie theaters can reopen at 25% capacity | Variety
NY Gov. Cuomo will allow NYC movie theaters to reopen on March 5 at 25% capacity and no more than 50 people at a time. Variety notes that having a big market back in play might motivate the studios to start releasing their bigger films. While vaccine rollout is still slow, consider this a hopeful early sign of things returning to normal. Unfortunately, Broadway theaters will remain closed as producers are uncertain they can turn a profit with reduced capacity.
Marvel’s Fantastic Four doesn’t have a writer or a script yet | ComingSoon
WandaVision has sparked a lot of bold Marvel theories, including one that Fantastic Four patriarch Reed Richards could show up in Westview. I’m here to tell everyone to knock it off. We are ways away from the MCU Fantastic Four and now, as confirmed by one Deadline reporter, we know the movie doesn’t have a script or a writer yet, let alone a lead actor. So don’t bet on any Fantastic Four characters showing up soon.
Zack Snyder isn’t getting paid to make the new Justice League cut | ComicBook
I’m on record as having very little interest in the #SnyderCut, however this is a pretty novel thing Snyder is doing. I guess this mega superhero movie is a bit of a passion project for him. Apparently this also helped him take back creative control and have negotiating power. Pretty slick, Snyder. Oh no, am I becoming a #SnyderCut person? What is happening?
Also...
The 39 Steps is getting a modern miniseries reboot with Benedict Cumberbatch … Good on ya Grenadine Pumpkinpatch! 🌎
Nick Jonas will pull double duty on SNL this weekend … but can he out sexy Regé Jean Page? I doubt it 🔥
Netflix can now automatically download shows it thinks you’ll like … why do I have 100 episodes of Runway Babies on my phone all of a sudden? 🍿
Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead is coming to Netflix May 21 … it’s the zombie heist movie you never knew you wanted and probably still don’t 🧟♂️
Daft Punk officially call it quits … harder, better, faster, stronger, over 🤖
Mila Kunis will be the Luckiest Girl Alive on Netflix … and we’ll be the luckiest viewers alive 🍀
Yes, that was Kathryn Hahn singing on Friday’s WandaVision … it was Kathryn Hahn all along 🎶
The Twisted Metal video game series is becoming a TV show … if you ever wished for Mad Max to have a baby with Walking Dead, you’re in luck 🤡
Jenny Slate, Charlie Day, Gina Rodriguez, and Manny Jacinto join romantic comedy I Want You Back … sounds like they’re putting the comedy back in romantic comedy 🌹
The Great Gatsby is getting an animated feature adaptation … there are a lot of things I want in this world, this isn’t one of them 🍸
What to watch
Few movies this year have wed form and function as brilliantly as Nomadland, now on Hulu. In her adaptation of the non-fiction book, director Chloe Zhao fuses documentary and narrative filmmaking (like a dramatic Sacha Baron Cohen movie) and emerges with a masterpiece. Zhao’s naturalistic approach and Frances McDormand’s humanistic, subtle performance meld perfectly with the earthy source material. The way they made the movie is in a feedback loop with its themes of loss, letting go, and finding yourself. Zhao is an extremely intentional filmmaker and uses non-actors, real locations, and what appears to be improvised dialogue to bring an engrossing level of verisimilitude. Very little suspension of disbelief is needed to take in and feel moved by Nomadland, because a lot of it is real.
Cinematographer Joshua James Richards deserves a special shout out for photographing sweeping vistas, bustling factory lines, redwood forests, and abandoned mills with equal aplomb and gravity. Some movies will motivate you to open up IMDB, Nomadland will have you checking Google Maps.
It’s no surprise that Nomadland is the front-runner for Best Picture, nor is it a surprise that the best drama and best comedy of the last year (Borat 2) use similar techniques. When the real world has become stranger than fiction, just make fiction more like the real world.
For all past ‘what to watch’ recommendations, see the full list here!
New notables this week:
Superman & Lois s1 premiere (Feb 23) — CW superhero drama, starring Tyler Hoechlin, Elizabeth Tulloch, Jordan Elsass | 85% RT
Punky Brewster (Feb 25) — Peacock sitcom reboot, starring Soleil Moon Frye, Lauren Lindsey Donzis, Quinn Copeland | No RT yet
The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Feb 26) — Hulu drama feature, starring Andra Day, Trevante Rhodes, Garrett Hedlund, Natasha Lyonne | 63% RT
Tom & Jerry (Feb 26) — HBO Max family movie, starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Michael Peña, Rob Delaney, Colin Jost | No RT yet
The Golden Globes (Feb 28) — NBC award show, starring Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, celebs in remote locations
Before you go… Runway Babies is not a real show. Yet.
Thanks for reading! If you like this and aren’t already subscribed, please consider signing up or forwarding this email.
As always, Tuesday and Wednesday editions are free, while the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday editions are accessible via monthly or the more-affordable yearly subscription. You can subscribe or upgrade via the ‘Subscribe Now’ button below.
Thoughts? Reply to this email or hit me up @alexrab on Twitter.
About the author: Alex Rabinowitz has led the way on social media and story packaging at media outlets big and small. With his acclaimed Tumblr site PopCultureBrain.com, Alex became a leading figure in emerging social networks and entertainment news. Sourced by many top destinations, including New York Magazine, BuzzFeed, and Videogum, Pop Culture Brain was featured by BuzzFeed and TIME as the best pop culture blog on Tumblr. Alex's writing has appeared on The Huffington Post, GQ.com, Mic, and Time Warner Cable.