Michael B. Jordan unveils our new cover; Sundance walkouts over captions; a Missing secret subplot; saving classic films. All in today’s Movie News Rundown.
New Cover: Here’s our fantastic new cover story on Michael B. Jordan making his directorial debut with Creed III, superbly written by Last Dragon fan Trey Williams. (The article explains the Last Dragon thing.) And here’s Michael B. Jordan debuting our cover on Instagram:
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Magazine Dreams: As the cover story notes, Jonathan Majors plays Adonis Creed’s opponent in this one, and Majors is currently getting well-deserved reviews for his intense performance in the Sundance film Magazine Dreams, about a troubled bodybuilder who dreams of a magazine cover. Here are my thoughts on the film and why I think Jonathan Majors will get an Oscar for it, if you care about that sort of thing — the art is its own reward.
Related: Magazine Dreams is getting some of the wrong kind of press because Marlee Matlin and other Sundance drama jurors walked out of its premiere after the festival failed to provide working captions for the deaf and hearing impaired. Matlin, of course, was the first deaf Oscar winner, and starred in CODA, last year’s Oscar winner for Best Picture, which premiered at Sundance. But don’t blame Magazine Dreams for the mistake.
Why? While Variety notes that some Sundance filmmakers have refused to offer open captions, citing costs and time, Magazine Dreams director Elijah Bynum is not one of them. “No, no, of course not,” Bynum told IndieWire. “We had been told that we were going to have a device that would allow anyone hearing impaired to have the captions. Those devices, or a single device, I’m not sure, malfunctioned last night. And I’m told that we’re doing a private experience where that’s going to be figured out. And hopefully open captions, so we don’t have that problem again. It was quite disappointing to hear about that.”
Sundance Responds: “Our goal is to make all experiences (in person and online) as accessible as possible for all participants,” says Sundance CEO Joana Vicente. “Our accessibility efforts are, admittedly, always evolving and feedback helps drive it forward for the community as a whole.”
Laughing in Each Other’s Mouths: Here’s Margeaux Sippell in Park City with this story of how Cat Person stars Emilia Jones (also of CODA) and Nicholas Braun (Succession) bonded over a “horrible kiss” scene.
Ugh: Anne Hathaway, star of the Sundance film Eileen, recalled a PR junket when she was 16. “One of the very first questions I ever got asked when I started acting and had to do press was, ‘Are you a good girl or a bad girl?’”
Speaking Of: You know who got even worse questions at an even younger age? Brooke Shields, who was regularly cross-examined about the sexuality of her early roles in films like Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon by older male interviewers who also couldn’t stop talking about how pretty she was. Expect many jaw-drop moments if you haven’t seen the Sundance doc Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, coming soon to Hulu. Shields explains here why she gave up creative control of the film.
Other Sundance Films: We’ve watched several terrific Sundance movies over the last few days, including the docs Judy Blume Forever and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. More on all of them soon! We also highly recommend the goofily fun love letter to analog Kim’s Video, about the disappearance of a cult video store’s irreplaceable collection of weird, classic and unforgettable films.
Saving Classic Films: IndieWire‘s Eric Kohn wrote this thoughtful piece about protecting Turner Classic Movies in an era of streaming cuts. He fears that its model of modestly promoting film history may not survive the corporate cut throatery of the modern age.
Missing: Did anyone catch the missing-person drama Missing over the weekend? Great, right? Did you catch all Marvel-like subplot unfolding at the corners of the screen? No? Let the filmmakers explain:
Main image: Our spring cover, featuring Michael B. Jordan, director of Creed III.
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