Tomorrow we’ll wrap the 2015 Summer of Blockbusters with 2WC’s final judgments on the last few months of movies. Today, I thought I’d take the opportunity to look forward.There’s plenty of anticipation to go around as the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is providing more than a few teasers and early impressions from films the rest of us won’t see for a while yet. Not surprisingly, the most thought-provoking thing I’ve seen come out of the festival (along with some great looking movies) is a headline featuring George Clooney. Here’s “Time” magazine’s version of the headline, although plenty of other publications put out their own versions:
George Clooney Wants Hollywood to Rewrite Men’s Roles for Women
I totally agree, and the numbers support the need for it. A recent study (cited in that same article) from San Diego State University found that just 12% of protagonists in top grossing films were women. Here’s the thing though, the reason George Clooney made that comment was because of Sandra Bullock, who approached Clooney about rewriting a male role in “Our Brand is Crisis” (of which Clooney is a co-producer) to be played by a woman. Needless to say, it happened because Sandra Bullock is a gift to us all. Similarly, Julia Roberts and Emily Blunt are starring in upcoming films, in roles that were intended to be played by men.
So why is George Clooney getting the headline credit here? First of all, I have nothing but the greatest respect for Mr. Clooney, I appreciate his seal of approval, and in no way hold him responsible for the way this story is being told. This is directed at those telling the story. Please tell me the publications at least saw the irony in publishing a story about gender inequality in film roles with a man in the spotlight.
Anyways, moving on to the films themselves, which I’ll warn star more than a few men (12%…I only have so much to work with), but I’m going to start with Ms. Bullock who looks absolutely incredible in a role that could have very easily been played by a man:
And, simply put, Emily Blunt looks bad ass in “Sicario”:
Some of the most delightful reviews coming out of TIFF are for the Matt Damon-led “The Martian,” and I am so glad. The preview for this insanely (in the best way) cast sci-fi flick (based on a book of the same name) was so jam-packed that it was either going to be amazing, or a hot mess in space (which still could have been amazing in its own right). Thank goodness it looks like it’s the former:
Another book to movie film that I’m hoping the filmmakers did justice (and premieres tomorrow at TIFF) is “Brooklyn,” and it’s looking good:
Finally, there was a lot of buzz when Tom Hiddleston, an English actor, was cast as country music legend, Hank Williams, but having seen the first clip, I think skeptics will be pleased:
…bi-daily smile…