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Book VS Series: Sharp Objects

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Gillian Flynn's novels are easily some of the most difficult contemporary stories to adapt. She's one of the most hardcore voices out there that dives deep into her anti-heroines' psyche, often weaving their experiences into a disturbing, no-holds-barred thriller. Even after the successful adaptation of Gone Girl (and the forgettable flop  Dark Places ) , one never knows how her rage-filled worlds will come to life. With three generations of complicated female characters tackling everything from misogyny to self-harm and abuse, her original debut novel Sharp Objects becomes a damn fine mini-series. This post deals with themes of the book and show - self-harm, abuse, rape, etc - and contains spoilers - you've been warned.

Dell on Movies Against The Crowd Blogathon

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Dell on Movies is hosting the fifth year of his blogathon Against the Crowd, where bloggers share their unpopular opinions about movies "everyone" seems to love or hate. The blogathon sounded like a lot of fun, and not something I've participated in before. It was interesting to rummage through different genres, trying to find movies I thought were universally loved or hated and then find out my assumptions were completely wrong. I'm pretty surprised I actually found a pairing that fit a genre.  If you want to see the full blogathon and the rest of the entries,  check out Dell on Movie's blog here ! The blogathon guidelines: 1. Pick one movie that "everyone" loves (the more iconic, the better). That movie must have a score of 75% or more on rottentomatoes.com. Tell us why you hate it. 2. Pick one movie that "everyone" hates (the more notorious, the better). That movie must have a score of 35% or less on rottentomatoes.com. Tell us why yo...

UPDATED: Is Wonder Woman 1984 Going Meta? and Other Thoughts about the Non-Sequel

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Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures We have another year to go before Patty Jenkin's highly anticipated return of Wonder Woman hits theaters November 2019. As more production stills and filming locations surface online, I'm already wondering what in the world is going on in this sequel - a surprising return? nods to George Orwell? Kristin Wiig as the villain? Here are some theories of what may be coming in Wonder Woman 1984.  Spoilers and theories are included beyond this point - you've been warned!

Ranking the Mission: Impossible franchise

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Tom Cruise was already a breakout star in the 1980s with movies like Taps ,  Risky Business , Top Gun , and Rain Man  under his belt. Heading into the '90s, Cruise was on his way to take over the box-office and change the action genre forever with a little movie called Mission: Impossible . Starring as IMF agent Ethan Hunt in 1996, he started a franchise that twenty-two years down the road is still going strong. Honestly, it just doesn't feel like a proper summer at the movies without Cruise headlining this thrilling franchise that just keeps getting better and better.  With the release of the sixth movie   ( read my review here ), I'm ranking the Mission: Impossible series.  How would you rank the franchise so far? Feel to let me know in the comments!

5 (Real) Ideas to Fix the Oscars

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Award shows should be an exciting affair, and generally, they are for the people who they’re geared towards – Grammys ring in devoted music lovers, Tonys for the theatre crowd, Oscars for cinemaphiles, and so on. However, over the past several years  the Academy Awards has felt pressure to increase its ratings despite movie fans accepting the ceremony format (excluding the lack of diversity, of course) the way it is. With making the Oscars more dynamic in mind, the Academy Awards's planned some big changes . Two, in particular, set fire to the film community: the show's running time will be limited to three hours period (by filming the technical winner's speeches during commercials and then aired as a montage). And, creating a new separate category for Popular Film instead of acknowledging blockbusters with other Best Picture nominees. While their new ideas certainly had good intentions, it's not difficult to notice that the Oscars ceremony continues to gloss over...

Why It’s Okay To Lean Onto Fandom in Troubled Times

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Every day there are always more shocking and disturbing headlines highlighting what’s going wrong in the world. Not that tragic, controversial, or destructive incidents haven’t been occurring since the beginning of time, but now with social media, the spotlight singles out every event at the same time: gun violence, net neutrality, police brutality, incompetent governments, Families Belong Together, horrific allegations of abuse and sexual assault - to name a few. As technology captures every minuscule or massive piece of news, the world never stops watching and reporting, moving faster than humans can process one event from the next. The news has become so rampant and extreme, reality is a blender of all of our scariest dystopias because life is becoming a real dystopia . One day it’s The Handmaid’s Tale . The next day it’s 1984. Or Brave New World or Animal Farm.  Combining them all together can feel like we're in a never-ending episode of Black Mirror , so much so we...

Top Nomination Picks for the 70th Emmy Awards

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Summer is winding down, but the new season of television is just around the corner. Which means it's almost the biggest time of the year for TV land. On September 17th, 2018, the Emmy Awards will celebrate actors and series nominated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.  Will Donald Glover make history again?  Will underdogs like The Americans have a chance to sweep? I thought it might be fun to share my top picks of major award categories ( check out the full list of nominees here ). Who do you hope will win at the 70th Emmys? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!