So is it fair to infer that Universal and John Chu‘s Wicked (11.22) is a some kind of family-friendly delivery device for queer theology?
Cynthia Erivo‘s real-life sexuality and the metaphor of Elphaba Thopp’s frowned-upon outsider identity aside, Wicked has no openly queer characters, but “this hasn’t stopped fans from exploring several queer-coded elements and metaphors,” says one of the queer-authored essays I’ve been reading.
Elphaba has a thing early on for Jonathan Bailey‘s Fiyero Tigelaar, a “Winkie prince”, but the deeper, more profound friendship is between Elphaba (destined to become tHe Wicked Witch of the West) and Ariana Grande‘s Galinda Upland, who becomes Glinda the Good Witch (played by BillieBurke in The Wizard of Oz).
I’m presuming that square, middle-American moms and dads are most likely overjoyed that yet another family-angled entertainment from Hollywood wokesters will be selling queer theology to their kids. I for one am delighted on Sutton’s behalf.
Bill McCuddy: “Uhm…stick around until Episode 3 and thank me later.
“Leila George is Greta Scacchi‘s daughter, of course. Playing young Cate Blanchett. Thankfully Vincent D’Onofrio‘s genes were recessive.
“As a bonus she has Blanchett’s mannerisms down pat.
“How the episode 3 sex scenes got made in an era of on-set intimacy police, I have no clue.
“Do you know the old Orson Welles story? He’s lunching late in his life at his daily LA haunt (Ma Maison, I think) when an older lady from Kansas comes to the table. Wants to know about Citizen Kane. Orson had heard every question about Citizen Kane except this one, it turned out.
“’Mr. Welles, do you realize when Kane says rosebud there’s no one in the room to hear it? So how do we know he said it?”
“Welles allegedly turned ashen and said something like “No, I did not realize it, and don’t you ever tell another living soul.”
“The same thing is true about the damning book that Lesley Manville, playing Kevin Kline‘s late wife, has written in Disclaimer. One person is dead and the other person never told anyone. So how’d Manville know any of this? She didn’t.
I saw September 5 (Paramount, 11.29) at the Chuck Jones theatre in Telluride, and my immediate reacion was “a very decent portrayal of a grim, sobering tragedy…it holds you in as it recreates the 1972 details and atmosphere and whatnot.
“Does it get into the whys and wherefores on the part of Black September’s terrorism or any of the general political particulars? Nope — it focuses solely on the strategic calls behind the reporting by ABC’s Munich-based news team, who were stationed only about 100 feet from the Israeli Olympic team’s condo.
“I didn’t feel under-fed or cheated, but I wanted to feel more of the totality of the tragedy.”
From Peter Debruge’s 8.29.24 review: “The Steven Spielberg film that September 5 most resembles is The Post, in its flurry of trying to act responsibly amid the incredible pressures of a breaking-news environment.
“September 5 takes us behind the scenes of the 17-hour Munich ordeal, beginning shortly before the attack and cataloging key decisions until just after the tragic finale, when World of Sports host Jim McKay famously confirmed the chilling news, ‘They’re all gone,’ on air.
“[And yet] as an in-the-trenches account of how ABC Sports approached the story, the film focuses primarily on a young, ambitious producer (played by a period-appropriate-looking John Magaro), based on veteran sports broadcaster Geoffrey Mason’s memory of events.
“ABC Sports may have gotten the story, but it also got it wrong, prematurely repeating an unconfirmed report that the hostages were recovered safely.
“Moritz and Fehlbaum’s matter-of-fact script lacks the punchy pressure-cooker sparring quality of inside-baseball series such as The Morning Show or Aaron Sorkin’s Sports Night, which can leave one feeling like the real story is happening elsewhere — and it is, since there’s only so much that news crews can extrapolate from telephoto lenses trained on a faraway balcony.
“When shocking incidents happen live, our imaginations tend to fill in what can’t be seen with the worst. In this case, revisiting it half a century later, knowing what happened doesn’t preclude us from wanting to get a better understanding of the specifics. But this movie’s insights are limited to the newsroom, focusing on such minutiae as TV hosts using the words ‘as we’re hearing,’ versus the reality of what transpired during the climactic disaster at Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base.”
