Sad news: Bob Hoskins, the character actor you’ve seen in everything from “Snow White and the Huntsman” to “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” has announced his retirement from acting due to his battle with Parkinson’s disease.
It’s distressing to watch so many gifted actors run up against the limitations of their physical bodies as they age.
At least Judi Dench is still able to work despite her failing eyesight; meanwhile, Angela Lansbury‘s nearly eighty-eight, but she’s got engagements booked through at least the next year.
Speaking of people who seem eternal, Joan Rivers caused quite a scuffle yesterday, chaining herself to a shopping cart in a CostCo parking lot in protest over the chain’s refusal to sell her new bestseller, I Hate Everyone … Starting With Me. The seventy-five-year-old has been a fixture in the comedy world since the early 1960s.
Watch out, Costco: Anyone who’s seen “A Piece of Work” (the 2010 documentary about her career) will tell you that her recent stunt is just one tiny card in a huge filing cabinet of ideas.
Steven Padnick at TOR has put his finger on what’s wrong with every adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Portraying the evil Mr. Hyde as a separate entity with a mind of his own destroys Stevenson’s more sinister critique of Victorian morality.
Valerie Martin’s Mary Reilly is just about the only homage that gets it exactly right (the flick it became? Not so much).
Two interesting and viscerally upsetting new trailers for you: First is “The Loft,” an American remake of a 2008 Belgian flick about a group of wealthy men whose shared crash pad becomes the scene of a grisly murder.
The second is “Antiviral,” a body-horror flick by Brandon Cronenberg (that’s right, following in his dad’s footsteps).
After watching them back to back, I’m officially no longer interested in sex, healthcare, or lunch.
