WHAT TO GET YOUR ASS OUT OF BED FOR
- Daniel Craig's latest outing as James Bond, SPECTRE, hits theaters Nov. 6. Everybody's talking about this film as if it's going to be Craig's last as Bond: when asked if he would return to the role, Craig responded, "I’d rather break this glass and slash my wrists,” which is certainly not a positive thing to say. Craig has also (rightly) attacked the character he plays, reminding his audience, “But let’s not forget that he’s actually a misogynist." For her part, Monica Belluci has been referring to herself as a "Bond Woman" as opposed to a "Bond Girl." But if the swirl of press clips surrounding this movie doesn't excite you, be sure to catch Christoph Waltz as the Big Bad named Oberhauser, Léa Seydoux as the mysterious Madeleine Swann and Ralph Feinnes in his first full turn as M.
- Indie darling Room gets its nationwide release this week. The movie follows Brie Larson as Ma and Jacob Tremblay as her son, five–year–old Jack, as they escape a room they've been trapped in for Jack's whole life and as he familiarizes himself with the outside world. Both Larson and Tremblay are getting considerable Oscar buzz; now that the movie has finally hit wide release, we can actually go see what might be the performances of the year.
WHAT TO BRING UP IN FILM CLASS
- This isn't film news, but I'm too nerdy to not talk about it: CBS announced on Nov. 2 that they would be teaming up with Alex Kurtzman to bring Star Trek back to the small screen. It will be available exclusively on CBS All Access and, unless someone beats them to their January 2017 premiere, will be the first television show to debut exclusively online. There's room to be nervous though—Kurtzman produced the first two revival Trek movies, the first of which was good but the second of which was thoroughly "meh."
- Speaking of online content delivery systems, that may be the place to go for actors looking to push out a passion project. Both Bradley Cooper's Burnt and Sandra Bullock's Our Brand is Crisis had disastrous opening weekends: Cooper's movie only made back about one quarter of its production budget, while Bullock's barely made back 15% of its budget. Nobody's going to the movies to watch star–driven niche films anymore, and if that trend continues, look to see more people taking Cary Fukunaga's approach by releasing movies online through Netflix or HBO GO.
WHAT TO STREAM
- I'm going to throw a more random one out there: Have y'all been watching Doctor Who? For the uninitiated, the show is 52 years old, it's about a humanoid alien called the Doctor (Doctor Who? Exactly!) from a race called the Time Lords and it follows the Doctor as he travels around through both time and space with some companions, saving the day wherever he goes. If you're still with me, this past weekend's episode, "The Zygon Invasion," was one of the more interesting ones I've seen. It was one of the first times the show veered away from philosophical questions to say something about an actual political reality—in this case, of all things, ISIS. TL;DR: watch a TV show about an outer space alien traveling through time and space, because it's good.
- It's very interesting to see the results when artists who typically work with one medium transition to another. Showtime's The Knick director Steven Soderbergh and lead actor Clive Owen have mastered the switch. We're almost at the halfway point of the second season, and the show that many people thought was the best of last year has only gotten better.
