What to get your ass out of bed for:
- Penn Cinema Initiative is sponsoring a showing of the Coen Brothers’ new movie Hail, Caesar! starring George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum and Josh Brolin on Thursday, February 11.
- As per usual, Kanye West is doing things in style by premiering his new album in movie theaters across America on Thursday, February 11. Conveniently, Cinemark is one of the participating theaters, so you don’t have to go far to get your Kanye fix. The event will also mark the premiere of the rapper’s new fashion line Yeezy Season 3. Get info here and buy tickets here.
- Take the opportunity to watch the Oscar nominated animated and live action short films while they play at the Ritz at the Bourse up until February 11.
What to know heading into awards season:
- #OscarsSoWhite: The Academy has finally gotten the memo and in a response to calls for more diversity, it has announced that it will double the number of its female and non–white members by 2020, add three new members to the board of governors and revoke the voting rights of members who have not been active in the last ten years. The outcry emanated from the fact that for the second year in a row, all twenty actors nominated for lead and supporting roles are white.
- This year’s Screen Actors' Guild Awards acted as a bit of a reproach to #OscarsSoWhite with Idris Elba being the star of the show. Elba won the supporting actor award for his performance in the superb Beasts of No Nation (and an award for his TV show Luther), even though he didn’t get nominated for an Oscar. Uzo Aduba, Queen Latifah and Viola Davis were among the other minority winners. The Hollywood Reporter has informative coverage of the SAG Awards as well as a provocative discussion of representation on the silver screen and why certain films get made and nominated, but not others.
What to stream:
- Parks and Recreation’s final season is finally on Netflix. Now we can at long last find out where Leslie and the gang ended up three years after the last season ended.
- Dope, one of the best films of 2015, is coming to Netflix on February 10. Watch it ASAP if A$AP Rocky, high school movies, good music or hilarious high–jinx are your things.
- Acclaimed new releases Amy and Chi-Raq have hit Amazon Prime Video in the past few days.
- Prestige television has found a home on FX as evidenced by the buzz and early acclaim for the limited-run series People v. O.J. Simpson and the exceptional style, acting and narrative techniques employed in Fargo’s second season (and who can forget FX’s ten-years-strong It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia?).
- This past Friday, Netflix officially announced that it’s rebooting Gilmore Girls for four 90–minute episodes. Amidst a barrage of revivals and nostalgia for television and characters of years past, the beloved show deserves to be brought back after its lackluster final season that was missing the touch of show-runner Amy Sherman–Palladino.
