Gawker - God Save the Queen (Deep House Mix)

By Fran Hoepfner

Sony Pictures Classics

Much overwrought hype has been made for A24, the near-decade old film production company that also makes beautiful blu-rays and the occasional beach towel. I have no beef with A24 — on the contrary, they’ve made quite a few movies I enjoy. But the ceaseless fandom and genrefication has all become a bit much, culminating today in a list over at Vulture that ranks all of the company’s film ventures since their inaugural 2013 Roman Coppola swing and miss, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III. I had a question, and not just about the placement of Joanna Hogg’s Souvenir films below Midsommar. Mainly I was curious about the rankings of other art house and independent studios left by the wayside due to their lack of flashy merchandising.

Enter: Sony Pictures Classics. Doesn’t your whole body go up in chills when you see that bright blue screen? This past spring, I entered a raffle the company hosted, giving away bucket hats to celebrate the release of their film The Phantom of the Open, and I won. Continue reading

By Olivia Craighead

It’s not for lack of trying

Look at Idris Elba’s filmography and you’ll see a graveyard. In each burial plot is a film that at one point was surely going to be the one to turn him into a proper movie star. Here lies Beasts of No Nation. He Didn’t Even Get an Oscar Nom.

Elba has all the trappings of the perfect movie star. Like the stars that came before him, he’s handsome, charismatic, a little rugged, and very talented, everything you could ever want in a leading man. So why isn’t he one? It is certainly not for lack of trying — the man works constantly, has collaborated with some of the most A-list directors and actors, has been floated as the new James Bond for what feels like a decade, and is generally very famous. But something, somehow, is not adding up. Because here is the thing — when Idris Elba stars in a movie, it’s usually bad.

Do not yell at me about Pacific Rim. I know you love Pacific Rim, but if that were the broad consensus we’d be on Pacific Rim 4: Even More Kaijus by now. In general, when Elba has been in a good movie, it has been in a supporting role, and even those are few and far between. In fact, you could argue that Elba has been in about four good movies in the last decade (I’m counting Zootopia) and he hasn't been the true lead in any of them. Continue reading

By Kelly Conaboy

In a tattoo sense

Sylvester Stallone’s wife is a dog now. It’s sort of my dream. I say to my dog every day, “Please, please would you marry me. I’ll take care of you and kiss you and love you forever,” and of course I’ll take care of him and kiss him and love him forever regardless, plus he’s my prisoner, so what’s he gonna do. But still, it would be nice to make things official — just as Sylvester Stallone has with his dog wife.

Yes, according to the Daily Mail and our own truth-telling eyes, Sylvester Stallone has covered up the large upper arm tattoo that used to depict his wife’s face with a large upper arm tattoo of his dearly departed dog Butkus’s face, making them legally wed. Butkus, a bullmastiff, was also Stallone’s co-star in both Rocky and Rocky II. He left us in 1981. Continue reading

By Claire Carusillo

Four brave members of a quaternary marriage speak out (and reproduce!)

A new and improbable type of polycule has dropped: the “quaternary marriage” between Brittany and Briana Deane and Jeremy and Josh Salyers. The two sets of identical twins met at the annual Twins Day Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio, and now they all live in a house together and own a short-term rental estate, according to a profile by the Washington Post. The two sets of twins got engaged on February 2 (02-02 — the “perfect date,” according to Brittany) with identical rings, got married side-by-side-by-side-by-side, and had babies five months apart from one another. Brittany and Josh’s son is named Jett, and Briana and Jeremy’s son is named Jax. By a twist of fate and through the magic of human DNA, babies Jax and Jett are both brothers and cousins. That’s called a set of “quaternary twins.”

The two couples’ shared four-way Instagram is something to cherish, behold, and to belly laugh at. For one, they do a lot of sitcom-style mistaken identity bits. Continue reading

By Claire Carusillo

A former Buckingham Palace DJ says the rockin' granny loves to get down, but has one non-negotiable request

We all know the Queen has shaken a hand or two at the celebrated Palace of Holyroodhouse summer garden party. But did you know she also took a pill in Ibiza?

Or so says a DJ who has produced hits for that little English rose Madonna and has played parties at Buckingham Palace. William Orbit, a 65-year-old DJ whose production credits include P!nk’s smash hit “Feel Good Time” from Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, told the Daily Mail that Old Lil goes absolutely mental for disc jockeys and smooth-stylin’.

She’s “evidently fascinated” with DJs, Orbit told the Mail. Continue reading