MCN Curated Headlines Archive for March, 2018
“I’m ambivalent about drama teachers and the classes that people go to. I think people’s instincts are crushed by bad drama teaching. I’ve watched it happen. It’s so often that the people who are actually the best are the ones who are thrown out of drama school because they’re idiosyncratic. They’re peculiar. They don’t fit any nicely tied-up box. In fact, they are the most interesting artists. I’ve known people who were thrown out of drama school for not conforming to what the school felt was going to be a viable option in the profession.”
Helen Mirren

No comment.
— Jeremy Saulnier (@saulnier_jeremy) March 31, 2018
“Pizzolatto is the sole writer on the series, with the exception of David Milch, who co-wrote the fourth episode.”
Jeremy Saulnier Exits “True Detective” Season 3
“Continuing down this path guarantees you will lose respect, readership, and ultimately your jobs. I am a journalist. I want you to thrive, I want you to survive. But I cannot allow you to survive by standing on my back.”
“White Critics: Please Stop Using [That] Word,” Encourages Regina Victor
“This new ‘Roseanne’ is a dream machine for someone like Steve Bannon, who worked so hard to convince potential voters that supporting Donald Trump didn’t mean they were prejudiced. It reinforces Trump voters’ defense against cognitive dissonance and gives them an idealized version of themselves that allows them to dismiss any fear that they might be intolerant. In essence, the reboot of ‘Roseanne’ has already added to the faux-populism that is Trump’s political ideology, and has given viewers a platform to further their own misconceptions of themselves.”
Jared Yates Sexton
“Thugs, buffoons, secret policemen who were attacking me as an artist, as an educational professional, as a programmer, but mainly as an artist.”
Longtime Professor Saul Levine Claims He Was Pushed out of Massachusetts College of Art and Design By Administrators Who Accuse Him of “Harming Students”

“Despite everything, I think that Europeans have lost a lot with the loss of Harvey Weinstein. You have to remember that there are French producers who we haven’t denounced — I won’t mention them; I won’t mention names, although I know three who are extremely respected — I don’t know why they weren’t denounced as well. They absolutely had their place. Long before the Me Too movement started, I was very upset when Jessica Chastain made statements against Last Tango in Paris. If you listen to her, that film should never have been made. To listen to her, Maria Schneider was raped. But Jessica Chastain wasn’t there, and it’s not true — I was on set. The scene was fiction.”
Asia Argento Addresses Catherine Breillat, With Text Transcribed From Now-Deleted Podcast

“Where once she was edgy and provocative, she is now absurd and offensive. Her views are muddled and incoherent. She is more invested in banal and shallow provocation than engaging with sociopolitical issues in a thoughtful manner. No amount of mental gymnastics can make what Roseanne Barr has said and done in recent years palatable… This fictional family, and the show’s very real creator, are further normalizing Trump and his warped, harmful political ideologies. There are times when we can consume problematic pop culture, but this is not one of those times.”
Roxane Gay On Roseanne
“Maybe he’s a scumbag, but nobody went to the police and said ‘Weinstein raped me.’ No, they wanted to earn $10 million. What do you call a woman who sleeps with a man for $10 million? Maybe I’m being crude, but she’s called a prostitute.”
Putin Spokesman Dubs Harvey Weinstein Accusers “Prostitutes”
As the best writer about film ever, she was central to the film conversation in her day, but polarized readers with strong opinions. She was inconsistent, backing her faves while she debunked Andrew Sarris’s auteur theory. He wasn’t as strong a writer but was equally pivotal.
— Anne Thompson (@akstanwyck) March 30, 2018
“There’s a part of me that’s going: ‘I haven’t touched it yet.’ I haven’t touched that exquisite thing, a really great performance. I don’t think I’ve done it, yet. What I’m looking for is that bit when it transcends acting. Where you feel like you’re literally looking through a window at someone else’s life.”
Paddy Considine
“The internet hates women. Everyone knows that by now, and nobody precisely approves, but we’ve reached a point of collective tolerance. It’s just the way of the world, and if you can’t handle it, honey, delete your account. Stop engaging online. Cut yourself off from friends, family, and professional contacts, shut down your business, blow up your social capital, stop learning, stop talking, just stop. Or else.”
Laurie Penny On Her Decade Past
“Whilst Arulpragasam says she’s completely over the whole incident, the film has clearly refreshed the frustrations she felt. “A middle finger, it’s like get a fucking grip. People were like, ‘oh you’re lucky you’re not in jail, give up all your profit, be this slave for the rest of your life’,” she stops herself before saying: “Oh god, I hope the NFL doesn’t sue me again for talking about it.” A voice comes from the nearby kitchen to suggest that this is a topic that shouldn’t be discussed. “Oh, I’m not supposed to talk about it, I’m going to eat crisps,” she says, diving into the bag.”
Maya Arulpragasam On MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A
“I think this 40 year old man is hitting on me,” she wrote. Rice, then 14, continued in her diary, “But he’s never perverted. He is also very nice. He gives me a lot of drawing tips.”
“The 1990s were a time of mental and emotional fragility for Mr. Kricfalusi, especially after losing ‘Ren and Stimpy,’ his most prized creation. For a brief time, 25 years ago, he had a 16-year-old girlfriend. Over the years John struggled with what were eventually diagnosed mental illnesses.”
Creator Of “Ren & Stimpy” Has History Of Underage Sexual Abuse
“It’s hard to call it offensive, exactly, and yet, it’s not devoid of a kind of opportunism. It’s not a crime, but it’s certainly something to unpack… The film’s use of Japanese language felt bizarre to me, even as a nonfluent (seriously, the opposite of fluent) Japanese speaker. Human characters speak Japanese throughout the film, but it is almost never subtitled,”
“What It’s Like to Watch Isle of Dogs As a Japanese Speaker,” By Emily Yoshida
“I love producing. But producing in Europe is different than producing in Syria. I’ve been producing in Europe for the last four or five years and so much that surrounds it today is bureaucratic and technical. Producing in a place like Syria was a revolutionary act, energizing, full of motivation and dreams. I think in Europe, a place like IDFA offers this. IDFA is about public benefit, the audience and the industry, dream-filled filmmakers, and curious viewers. After all, why do we make documentary films within such a complex web of challenges, if not for the dream?”
A Conversation With IDFA’s New Artistic Director Orwa Nyrabia
“Her style and poise was a legacy from the fashion school days. She always knew exactly which Levis were correct. She could make a trench coat look edgy. She could make huge hoop earrings look like the crown jewels.”
Tracey Thorn On The Return Of Sade
“The fundamental imbalance here is that studios have to play by basic rules of economics, physics and acceptable cultural norms, while the tech giants can create havens for Nazi propaganda and teen-suicide boosterism; run ads around jokes about beating up Rhianna; blow tens of billions on unwatched misfires and call it all data collection. Not to mention compromise the American electoral system, put tens of millions out of work. And as punishment for that? Get handed zillions more from Wall Street. While Hw’d is subject to taxes, regulation and antitrust regulation, Silicon Valley is given a giant hall pass on all of that and told, hey – if you break anything, just leave a note so we can clean it up for you. That’s a tough fight to win.”
Richard Rushfield