Day: March 17, 2015

I would say that Michael Fassbender‘s resemblance to Steve Jobs is pretty close to nil. He looks as much like Jobs as Dustin Hoffman looked like Robert Redford when they were costarring in All The President’s Men. His casting as the late Apple genius is analogous to….oh, Matthew McConaughey playing the title role in Steven Spielberg‘s Lincoln but minus the beard and the stovepipe hat? Director Danny Boyle, currently filming the Aaron Sorkin-authored, Scott Rudin-produced drama about Jobs that will open on October 9th, has obviously decided against giving Fassy a Jobs-like nose or floppy Jobs-like hair. Boyle had a Jobs look-alike when Christian Bale was on the train, but that flew out the window when Bale abandoned the role. I can roll with Fassbender/Jobs. I was down with Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan so why not? Forget the physical resemblance (which is superficial anyway) and focus on who Jobs was deep down, and particularly how he thought and dreamt and achieved. Steve Jobs costars Seth Rogen, Kate Winslet, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg and Katherine Waterston.

It’s generally understood that Universal won’t stop making Fast & Furious films until they stop being hits so the Furious 7 slogan is obviously insincere. Unless, of course, it refers to the fact that Paul Walker is no longer available. Naaah, that couldn’t be it.

Focus Features will distribute Sarah Gavron‘s Suffragette, a history of the women’s suffrage movement from (I gather) roughly ’03, which is when Emmeline Pankhurst (played by Meryl Streep) founded the Women’s Social and Political Union, to the start of World War I in 1917. The drama, which has the aura of another Selma (and that doesn’t imply excitement on my part), will open sometime in the fall (a likely Venice/Telluride debut) and be part of the award-season chatter, I’m sure. When peaceful protests for women’s right to vote proved fruitless, certain WSU activists “became known for physical confrontations (smashed windows, assaulting police officers) and later arson,” says the Wiki page. The story of Carey Mulligan‘s Maud, a working-class woman involved in the militancy, “is as gripping and visceral as any thriller, [and] also heartbreaking and inspirational,” says the boilerplate description. Question: Why is Garvon standing in the second row and off to the left? The movie is her baby. She should be sitting dead-center between Streep and Mulligan.

(l. to. r.): Sufragette director Sarah Gavron, Helen Pankhurst (great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst), Laura Pankhurst (great-great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst), Alison Owen (producer); front row (L-R): Abi Morgan (screenwriter), Anne-Marie Duff (“Violette Cambridge”), Meryl Streep (“Emmeline Pankhurst”), Carey Mulligan (“Maud”), Helena Bonham Carter (“Edith New”), Faye Ward (producer).

Last Thursday I wearily predicted that yet another round of Amy Schumer-related bashing would kick in with the approach of last Sunday’s SXSW “work in progress” screening of Trainwreck. Limited apologies, re-phrasings and walking it back to some extent haven’t mattered to dodo bird journos like Indiewire‘s Ryan Lattanzio or, it appears, to Schumer herself. She got into the groove of playing the victim who won’t let sticks and stones, etc. As I reminded last week these attacks have been going on for over a month now. The hyperbolic haters won’t quit.

Despite last-ditch ceremonial testimonials from Chuck Norris and Jon Voight that no one cares about, Israel’s hawkish prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will probably be slightly edged by Issac Herzog in today’s Israeli elections. If Herzog prevails forming a new government will be tricky. The polls close at 10 pm or 1 pm Pacific — a little more than an hour from now. Why is the audio so weak on the Norris video? How is it that Norris’s hair was light honey brown 30 years ago but has darkened as he’s gotten older? His career peaked during the Cannon action-movie run in the early to mid ’80s so who cares, right? The bottom line is that Norris has been a staunch conservative all along and the wacko right needs all the support it can get.