What it was like to watch Tenet in Toronto: A little nervewracking, a little weird, a lot enjoyable. “For 45 years, the summer blockbuster has given us something to orbit around, a Movie Event, a common reference point, a conversation starter. On a good year, we get several. But since the pandemic took over our lives, the virus has become the only conversation.” Until now, maybe, depending on where you live. – BuzzFeed
Author: ArtsJournal2
Writing About A Movement, Not A Moment
What we think we know about the fight for women to get the legal right to vote is only a sliver of the history – and of our present. “There’s a lot of that still hanging in the balance. And so, I guess my answer is that I hate to think of it solely as a fight, but I think that the question of women’s equality is far from complete.” – NPR
Rewriting Irish Dancing’s Weirdly Strict Gender Rulebook
Trans dancers are challenging the conventions. Hayden Moon says it’s not easy: “I’d spent years learning to be high on my toes and not make any noise and never let my heel touch the ground, doing all of these very pretty kicks and leaps and jumps. And then all of a sudden I was getting told by my dance teacher that I wasn’t loud enough.” (And that’s the least of the challenges he’s faced in the Irish dance world in Australia.) – Dance Magazine
What Happens If Studios Decide They Truly Don’t Need Movie Theatres?
First of all, this timeline is a terrible one; can we jump to another one? But basically, this all hinges on how Tenet performs in theatres versus how Mulan performs on Disney+. – Vulture
Chadwick Boseman, King In ‘Black Panther’ And Jackie Robinson In ’42,’ Has Died At 43
The actor, who also played James Brown in Get on Up and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall, was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016, but had never spoken publicly about the diagnosis, and kept on working during much of his treatment. “Boseman’s Panther became an icon for children of color, coming at a time when representation was only just beginning to become a priority in Hollywood.” – The Hollywood Reporter
‘Unhinged’ Made $4 Million Its Opening Weekend, And That’s Seen As A Major Success
With cinemas in many of the big U.S. metros still closed and many potential customers still unconvinced that multiplexes are safe from the coronavirus (despite the efforts of the National Association of Theatre Owners), Hollywood sees the box-office results for the new Russell Crowe road-rage thriller, the first major U.S. release since March, as good news. Says the CEO of the movie’s distributor, “We’re breathing a sigh of enormous relief.” – Los Angeles Times
The Race To Collect The History We’re Living
There’s a lot going on right now. “Archivists, curators, and librarians nationwide are assembling the record of how the pandemic is impacting their communities in real time, collecting everything from makeshift masks to journal entries to protest signs. Their mandate is both urgent and sweeping.” – Wired
Stand-Up Comedians Aren’t Finding The Whole Situation Very Funny Right Now
Should stand-up comedians play drive-in gigs, participate in Zooming, try to start YouTube channels or wait, somehow, for live audiences to return? It’s a bit of a mess for them, and sitting down to tell stories on camera … well. “It’s not really stand up per se. Don’t get me wrong, it’s really good and people have recorded really funny stuff. [But] It’s not quite live comedy. It’s filling a gap until we can get back on stage.” – BBC
The Grim Silence Of The Present Makes For An Eerie Vacation
The NYT‘s classical music critic isn’t truly enjoying his time off because there hasn’t been very much time on. “The shutdowns have been devastating for American classical music, given its dependence on patronage — which has been eroding of late — and the lack of meaningful government support, which still props up institutions in Europe. It’s depressing to read all the social media posts by accomplished freelance artists who have been without work for months and can have a bleak view of the future.” – The New York Times
How Roman Holiday Took Audrey Hepburn And Catapulted Her Into The Stratosphere
Hepburn wasn’t well-known in the U.S. before William Wyler cast her against Gregory Peck in the bittersweet rom-com. But “her star rose so quickly after this movie. That is crazy. This movie comes out in the summer of ’53 and by September of that year, she’s on the cover of Time as this new discovery, she wins the Academy Award for this early in ’54. And three days after she picked up that Oscar, she picked up a Tony for a different role on Broadway. … So, you know, in a very short period of time, she really is launched into this kind of princesse stratosphere of stardom.” – Slate