Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2092

These Food-Themed Accessories Look Good Enough To Eat

When heading out for a night on the town, you may find the toughest decision can be whether to go with the box of donuts or the stack of pancakes. This may sound like menu choices, but we’re talking outfit accessories—and it’s always best to go with your gut; your food gut. Rommydebommy’s etsy store is filled with delicious looking cakes and cookies, even savory tacos, and more—all of which are actually handbags that look incredibly realistic.

Rommy started making these realistic food accessories two years ago when she couldn’t find fun handbags in stores. She spends hours on the internet looking at food (like we all do) but she turns her browsing into research and gets inspiration for her creations.

I spoke to Rommy about her creative process, and she told me her goal is to always make the food incredibly realistic. “If I’m making a slice of cake, I make sure I use really soft sponge foam to get that cake effect,” she says. She takes into account how the food actually looks, then intricately replicates the shapes, colors and textures. The process takes days to weeks, due to all the details she creates by hand.

She makes more than just tasty totes: her men’s line of food bowties are hysterical. A perfect bowtie-pasta-bowtie just makes sense. Even her faux sour candy tie looks deliciously dapper. Women can also decorate their neckline with snack necklaces that resemble a handful of buttered popcorn or eye-catching sour gummy worms.

Rommy’s hard work pays off, because her creations look just like the real thing. She loves food, “It sounds strange but I don’t get hungry (looking at) all those cakes, pizzas, cookies, and ice cream. If I see a gorgeous, delicious, huge birthday cake, I switch it into a purse!”

Check out more of Rommy’s food accessories in the gallery below and online at Rommydebommy on etsy.

Would you carry a cake clutch for a night out? Let us know in the comments!

Images: Rommydebommy

SUPERMAN VERSUS THE KU KLUX KLAN Will Be Adapted as a Movie

Even among Superman fans, it’s a little known fact that the expression about the Man of Steel’s “never-ending battle for truth and justice” originated in The Adventures of Superman radio program, which also established Clark Kent’s alter ego as a “champion of equal rights, valiant, [and a] courageous fighter against the forces of hate and prejudice.” Superman lived up to that description on the show, and so did the people behind-the-scenes. Now, their story will be told on the big screen in an adaptation of Rick Bowers’ novel, Superman Versus The Ku Klux Klan: The True Story of How the Iconic Superhero Battled the Men of Hate.

According to Deadline, executive producer Marco Vicini and screenwriter Katherine Lindberg are bringing Superman vs. the KKK to the big screen in association with Lotus Entertainment and Paperchase Films. Bowers’ book and its adaptation will center on the 1946 Superman radio serial that featured the Last Son of Krypton’s confrontation with an analog of the Klan itself–called first The Hate Mongers Organization, and later the Clan of the Fiery Cross–at a time when the KKK was still at the height of its power.

The book tells both the history of the Klan and the story of Superman’s creation before getting into the serials themselves, but rather than focusing on Superman’s fictionalized version of the Klan, the story of the movie will follow a former Klan member who teams up with the producers of the Superman radio show and the Anti-Defamation League, while going back into the KKK as an undercover operative. It’s not clear if Warner Bros. will lend out the iconic Superman imagery for this film, but it’s not really necessary for a story like this. Superman’s heroics inspired the public, but the real heroes were the ones who dared to take on the KKK.

Are you excited to see the story behind Superman Vs. The KKK as a movie? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!

Images: DC, Warner Bros. Home Video

To BB-8 or not to BB-8? That Is the Question for the Newest Shakespearean STAR WARS Book

Forsooth, this be a fine day, whether you find yourself a humble moisture farmer or an ever so scruffy herder of nerf! The latest installment of Ian Doescher’s Shakespearean Star Wars books is available to pre-order and… it… looks… AMAZING!

The spot-on titled William Shakespeare’s The Force Doth Awaken brings the events of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens to life with all the iambic pentameter you knew was missing in the theatrical version. The latest in what’s becoming a long line of, let’s say, “Bard-ified” Star Wars stories was brought to our attention via a recent post on io9 and we just can’t help but love the Elizabethan version of BB-8 on the cover. Starwars.com interviewed the book’s designer and art director, Doogie Horner, who commented on giving the fanciest of droids the cover and how they initially considered Rey and/or Kylo Ren for it but didn’t want to take away their distinct styles from the film.

For anyone wondering just how the book combines Shakespeare with a galaxy far, far away–the official description says it all:

Experience The Force Awakens as a Shakespeare play, complete with Elizabethan verse, Shakespearian monologues, and theatrical stage directions! As the noble Resistance clashes with the vile First Order, Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, Kylo Ren, and BB-8 are pulled into a galaxy-wide drama—in iambic pentameter! Star Wars fans and Shakespeare enthusiasts alike will enjoy the authentic meter, reimagined movie scenes and dialogue, and hidden Easter eggs throughout. Chewbacca speaks! Leader Snoke gives a soliloquy! And the romance of Han Solo and Leia Organa takes a tragic turn that Shakespeare would approve of. All with woodcut-style illustrations that place Star Wars characters into an Elizabethan galaxy. The story may take place in a galaxy far, far away, but you’ll be convinced it was written by the Bard.

There’s a lot to unpack there but just in case you skimmed… CHEWIE SPEAKS!

Our only hope is that people take these books and put on real theatrical versions. In fact, we need the likes of Sir Patrick Stewart and Lin-Manuel Miranda to spearhead this effort.

What are your thoughts on The Force Doth Awaken? Let’s discuss in the comments below!

Image: Penguin Random House

GAME OF THRONES Author George R.R. Martin’s Marvel Fanboy Past Is Revealed

Long before George R.R. Martin was a successful author, known primarily for his A Song of Ice and Fire series which is the basis for HBO’s Game of Thrones, he was just a hardcore nerd like the rest of us. In fact, Martin was a Marvel Comics fanboy going way back to the beginning of the Marvel age of comics in the early ’60s, back when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were making history together, and creating books like The Avengers, Thor, The Incredible Hulk and The X-Men.

But the crown jewel of the publisher at the time was none other than The Fantastic Four, a comic which was the heart and soul of the Marvel Universe. Martin was such a huge fan–particularly of the Thing–that in 1963, at the age of 15, he wrote a fan letter to Marvel, which got printed in the letters column in the back of the book.

Back then, a reader’s name and entire home address was published with the letter, a practice that was kept until the ’90s (we once lived in more innocent times, kids). Decades later, eagle-eyed fans noticed that young George R. Martin of New Jersey was the same one who would go on to create magical worlds of his own. Only with an added ‘R’ to his name.

Martin’s letter originally showered tons of praises on Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s issue #17 of Fantasic Four from 1963. A scan of he letter has been turning up online a lot for the past few years, but now the famed author himself has brought it out again as part of an upcoming History Channel documentary about comic books called Superheroes Decoded. In the clip below, (via io9), you can listen to him re-read his own letter:

George was a pretty darn articulate kid…no wonder things turned out the way they did for him! You can see more of George R.R. Martin professing his love for comic book heroes in the documentary Superheroes Decoded, which airs Sunday, April 30, on the History Channel.

Did you ever have your letter published in the pages of a comic book back in the day? Let us know down below in the comments.

Images: History Channel / Marvel Comics

Let’s check in on Mr. Martin’s current output.

LOGAN is Coming Back To Theaters in a Black and White Version

Earlier this year, Hugh Jackman‘s final Wolverine movie, Logan, hit theaters with its stunning mix of action and emotions on its way towards becoming one of the biggest hits in the X-Men franchise. Now, like the man himself once said, Logan is heading back to theaters “one more time.”

Logan director James Mangold has revealed that a black and white version of his film will be re-released into theaters for one night only on Tuesday, May 16.

Suggestion. Hard core B&W loving LOGAN fans should not make any plans on the evening of May 16th.

— Mangold (@mang0ld) April 28, 2017

Mangold confirmed that the black and white version of Logan will be included on DVD and Blu-ray, and he added that the entire film was “regraded & timed shot by shot” for this edition.

Admittedly, some fans may not see the appeal of Logan going in this direction. It is largely an aesthetic choice, but the black and white visuals can also amplify the mood of the film. This is a pretty bleak tale about the last days and the trials of Logan and Professor Xavier. It’s not the future that mutants would have wanted for themselves, but the movie does offer a few glimpses of hope. And really, we would be up for seeing it again on the big screen just to watch X-23 in action. She deserves her own movie after this!

Are you excited to see Logan pop its claws in black and white? Let’s get savage in the comment section below!

Images: 20th Century Fox/Marvel

BLAME Dives Into Teen Angst, Taboos, and THE CRUCIBLE (Tribeca Review)

The premise of Blame, the feature debut of writer/director/actress Quinn Shephard, sounds like the stuff of tawdry late night television: two teen girls battle for the attention of their handsome drama teacher, and the lead role in the school’s production of The Crucible. You might suspect campy dialogue, overwrought teen angst, and soft-core leering at nubile young women in fetishized school uniforms. But Shepard brilliantly subverts these expectations, delivering a tenacious and tender teen drama that’s rich with scandal and sex appeal yet nuanced, never losing sight of its feuding heroines’ humanity.

Blame begins by introducing two very different young women. Awaking in a bedroom messily splashed with abrasive colors and pages hastily torn from magazines, Melissa (Nadia Alexander) is brash and volatile, barking at her stepfather, before sliding herself into micro-mini skirts and plunging v-necks that demand all eyes be on her. She’s the mean girl always on the prowl for a fight. Then there’s introverted Abigail (Shephard), whose bedroom is all soft pastels, primly hung prints, and dainty glass animals, including a fragile unicorn that she cradles with care. She favors turtlenecks, long skirts, and walks with a limp. But when its revealed that she left school last year after a breakdown in psychology (that earned her the sinister nickname “Sybil”), you begin to suspect there’s more to this demure girl than meets the eye.

As it’s revealed The Glass Menagerie was required summer reading, things becomes more clear. Lost and lonely, Abigail is searching for herself like many teen girls do, through exploring different personas, in her case characters from plays, liking the limping Laura from the Tennessee Williams classic, or the duplicitous vixen of Arthur Miller‘s The Crucible. As the class assignment shifts from one to the other, Abigail ditches the limp, and begins dressing like a sexy Wednesday Addams cosplay, black long-sleeved dresses punctuated by stark white collars and dark lipstick.  Substitute drama teacher Jeremy Woods (Chris Messina) has no idea what trouble he’s spurred by bringing the play of witch hunts and repressed passions to a classroom of theater kids thirsting for both.

Impressed with Abigail’s commitment and talent, Jeremy encourages her with private, after school rehearsals. And the lines of their relationship dangerously blur. Meanwhile, Melissa stews with jealousy, and vows revenge, pulling insecure cheerleader Sophie (Sarah Mezzanotte) into her scheme. Yet Shephard doesn’t make Melissa an outright villain. The fascinating first-time filmmaker rejects simple black and white definitions of good and bad, to explore how everyday people can end up doing stupid and even cruel things.

 

With scarlet-ombre locks and a defiant glint in her eye, Alexander bursts onto the screen with a dazzling arrogance, instantly establishing Melissa as a Queen Bee not to be messed with. She conquers cafeteria tables with gossip and snarking, and is quick to shut down anyone who’d push back against her bullying, including Sophie’s childhood pal Ellie (Tessa Alertson). But as Abigail thrives under Jeremy’s attention, Melissa’s confident facade begins to crack. Her anger edged with envy and a growing insecurity bursts forth in a shocking finale with a heartbreaking reveal.

Alexander’s powerful and layered performance won her an acting award at the Tribeca Film Festival, where Blame made its world premiere. But every performance in Shephard’s debut is notably strong. Mezzanotte tackles tender teen moments of infighting with friends, peer pressure, and a disastrous first time with an aching openness. With earned eyerolls and a sparkling emotional awareness, Alertson steals scenes as the sidelined bff, while providing a mature counterpoint to Melissa’s trouble-making gossip.

With his shirt sleeves rolled to his elbows, Messina is perfectly cast as a lust-inspiring teacher. And rather than play Jeremy as a predictably loathsome predator, Messina–and Shephard’s script–dare to show a side that’s more lost and thoughtless than domineering or malicious. Make no mistake, Blame does not excuse Jeremy his trespasses, but neither does it damn him out the gate. To do so, would be to reject the very complexity of human emotion and reason that Blame so beautifully and daringly explores.

But Shephard is owed the greatest praise for Blame. As a performer, she creates a fascinating enigma of a girl, whose complicated truth blossoms through classroom confrontations, private moments of lustful idolatry, and tear-streaked confessions. As a writer, this infuriatingly talented 22-year-old constructed a clever parallel to the taboo romance of The Crucible to explore teen passion, and critique grown men’s responsibility in toying with this powerful force. As a director, she crafted a film that’s moody, raw, enthralling, and haunting. While things become undone as Blame barrels toward its final act–with jarring plot developments and clunky pacing–this too seems fitting, like the film is breaking down along with its dual heroines.

All this collides into a finale that is simple, challenging, and elegant. All this reveals that Shephard is an emerging auteur to watch.

4 out of 5 burritos.

Images: Reel Enigma

Kristy Puchko is a freelance entertainment reporter and film critic. You can find more of her reviews here. Follow her on Twitter! 

BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY Is Far More Than Just an Actress’ Biopic (Tribeca Review)

The Hollywood story of Hedy Lamarr is one of fame, fortune, scandal, and thwarted ambitions. But the 1940s starlet is getting a revamped third act, with the provocative documentary Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, which reveals the glamour girl’s hidden streak of genius.

Written and directed by first-time filmmaker Alexandra Dean, Bombshell explores the stranger-than-fiction life of Lamarr. As a Jewish girl raised in Vienna, Hewig Kiesler was encouraged to appreciate art and invention. By age five, she’d begun tinkering with music boxes. By 17, this daring bohemian starred in the notorious German drama Ecstasy, wherein she not only appeared naked, but performed cinema’s first simulated female orgasm. The 1933 film was denounced by the Pope and banned by Adolf Hitler. Years later, it tainted Lamarr’s reputation in Hollywood. Yet by today’s standards, this pioneering representation of female sexuality seems tame, though no less groundbreaking. Lamarr was often ahead of her time.

Through interviews with Lamarr’s surviving family, friends, and Hollywood historians, she’s revealed as a woman who lived, loved, and struggled behind the face that made her an icon. Lamarr’s story proves a perfect exploration of the double-edged sword of beauty. On one hand, it got her a string of husbands and the attention of Louis B. Mayer, who helped her escape Hitler’s grasps for Hollywood’s dazzle. But it also brought her a marriage to a suspicious Nazi-collaborating brute, a career where her looks was valued more than her talent, and the infuriating assumption that she must be as dumb as she was beautiful.

Lamarr was at war with her persona, famously quipping, “Any girl can look glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.” It’s this quote that kicks off Bombshell, but her greatest achievement was one of astounding ingenuity. During World War II, this Austrian Jew hiding out in Hollywood with an ambiguous screen name was determined to help the war effort. And so, she put her underestimated mind to the problem of English torpedoes being easily dodged by German subs, inventing frequency hopping. With the help of charts and animation, Bombshell explains its finer points–the key thing is that Lamarr’s revolutionary concept became the base of technology that led to secure forms of communication like wifi, Bluetooth, and military satellite feeds. For decades, Hedy’s invention was ignored; after that, her role in its creation was.

Often, historical figures can feel opaque and unknowable, as if they were marble statues, and not flesh-and-blood humans. But Bombshell gives audiences incredible access to the complicated Hedy Lamarr. Her children–now in their 70s–recall stories of her both as a warm mother who loved to cuddle them at bedtime, and later as a strung out junkie, hooked on the “pep pills” and “Vitamin B shots” (a.k.a. mislabeled meth) that starlets of her era were given to keep them going and perky. But they look back now with a sophisticated hindsight that forgives their mother her faults, and revels in her virtues.

There’s a bittersweetness that threads through the documentary, recognizing the many ways this remarkable woman was eaten away at by a society that demanded she be ever cheerful, glamorous, and dumb. It wore on her. Through the talking heads with her loved ones, her story envelops the audience with empathy, and seduces us with her sheer resilience. Sure, she suffered battles with addiction, a string of ugly divorces, attacks of self-doubt that led to botched plastic surgeries and last days reclusion. But Lamarr was also the daring trophy wife who fled her abusive husband with an escape plan that included a body double, a disguise, jewelry sewn into the lining of her coat, and a bicycle to spirit her away. She was nonetheless the intrepid refugee who challenged Mayer for more money on her contract when most were happy for a ticket out of war-brewing Europe. She was still the inventor who toyed with chemistry, engineering, and housewares design until her final days in 2000.

But for all the details these interviews bring to Bombshell, its most impactful comes from Lamarr herself. In 1990, the largely forgotten film star made one last ploy to earn recognition for her greatest invention. Speaking with Forbes magazine writer Fleming Meeks over the course of four cassette tapes, the then 76-year-old Lamarr unspooled her tales of inventions and sexist dismissals, and her bitterness that the U.S. Navy used her frequency hopping but never compensated her for it. She was fading, scraping by on a paltry union pension, and still dreaming that her legacy would be as an inventor, not an actress. She was ferocious and inspiring to the last.

Bombshell becomes not just a stupendous tribute to Lamarr, but also a tribute to every brilliant woman ignored, thanking them even if they never snagged the spotlight, and inspiring a new generation to go looking for theirs.

Rating: 4 out 5

Images: Reframed Pictures

Kristy Puchko is a freelance entertainment reporter and film critic. You can find more of her reviews here. Follow her on Twitter! 

Bandcamping: The Best Underground Albums of April 2017

It looks like those of us in the northeastern part of the country are done with the false alarms, and we can confidently say that finally, it is spring. With the changing of the seasons comes a change in the music we listen it (it does for me, anyway). Spring music is meant to be an injection of happiness to break us out of our cold winter husks, and in that regard, the hard-working artists of Bandcamp have delivered.

This month’s edition of Bandcamping brings mainly indie rock, of the high-energy and mid-tempo varieties, so soundtrack your shorts-wearing ventures outside, so check out our picks below, beginning with:

5. Love Eggssss by ssssnakes

Love Eggssss by ssssnakes

Genre: punk, indie rock, alternative rock

If you like: The Dead Kennedys, The Men, Cloud Nothings

This’ll kickstart your day better than any cup of coffee can. This UK-based punk group just dropped a collection of songs that are kinetic, but also reigned in enough to make some sense. Punk can be hard to get right without sounding anachronistic, but ssssnakes are perfectly composed as they turn it up well beyond 11.

4. Love Life EP by Boys Will Be Boys

Love Life EP by Boys Will Be Boys

Genre: indie rock

If you like: Ariel Pink, Mac DeMarco

This Latvian group has the art of relaxation down to a science, in a way that would make slacker rockers like Mac DeMarco proud. The songs move you, but not too quickly, because let’s just chill out for a second, man.

3. Endless Nights and Dreamlike Mornings by Abrdeen

Endless Nights and Dreamlike Mornings by Abrdeen

Genre: indie rock, indie pop

If you like: Real Estate, Best Coast, Tennis

Slow-paced classic pop is lovely for easing into spring, and Canadian group Abrdeen goes the Tennis route by taking that influence and bringing it to modern times. The sound is timeless, yet it avoids sounding redundant. Think well-aged, not old.

2. The Family Plots by The Family Plots

The Family Plots by The Family Plots

Genre: indie rock, indie folk

If you like: Owen, Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens

Remember the mid-2000s, when you could just be an indie folk band without facing accusations of being contrived? That’s a time The Family Plots hearkens back to, and it’s a real delight. The songs are organic but atmospheric, and through and through, the Virginia group’s debut album is an easy listening delight.

1. Play Till You Win by Cassandra Jenkins

Play Till You Win by Cassandra Jenkins

Genre: indie pop, Americana

If you like: St. Vincent, Wilco

Although the standout track and album opener “Candy Cane” sounds like quirky St. Vincent-branded indie rock/pop, beyond that lies a cohesive tribute to the Americana music from which all modern forms spawned. The engaging songwriting blends styles both contemporary and vintage.

Honorable Mentions

Friends by Max Psuja

Genre: electronica

If you like: Aphex Twin, Four Tet

Tides by Static Shore

Genre: indie pop, electronica

If you like: modern Daft Punk, Hot Chip

That’s all for April, but until next time, let us know in the comments which of these albums were your favorites, what we missed, and what we should look forward to. If you missed out on March, check it out here (and the complete Bandcamping archives are here).

Conan O’Brien Does Not Care for VR Game WILSON’S HEART

If there’s one thing Conan O’Brien wants to see in a video game, as his “Clueless Gamer” segments have proven time and time again, it’s sex. In the intro of his latest segment, he asserts, “All VR is going to take us one place: Virtual reality sex. That’s the point of VR.” Without linking to anything in case we have youngsters (or our parents) reading this, we’ll just say that he has a point, and he’d actually find plenty of virtual reality sex if he knew where to look.

But that’s not why we’re here today: O’Brien played a VR video game and it was good, clean, wholesome fun! On Thursday night’s Conan, he strapped into an Oculus Rift and tried Wilson’s Heart, and as O’Brien is wont to do, he spent the whole time making hilarious observations and not getting all that far into the game.

His most astute note: Upon realizing that the game is in black and white and you control a 63-year-old man in a hospital, he says, “Wait a minute: I thought the whole point of virtual reality was to enhance reality, and you’re saying I’ve entered a world where I’m color blind and I’m an old man? Wow, that’s fantastic!”

It’s always hard to tell if a game is actually good by watching O’Brien play it, but he at least managed to prove that Wilson’s Heart is a pretty fun clipboard dropping simulator. Have you gotten a chance to try a VR game yet? If do, did you have more fun than O’Brien did? Give us a shout in the comments and let us know!

Featured image: Team Coco/YouTube

Now you can be a VR Neomorph!

Cosplay Friday #208 – STAR WARS Celebration Highlights

It’s hard to believe Star Wars Celebration Orlando took place two weeks ago. I feel like the ultimate gathering of Star Wars fans happened yesterday. Since I’m still being fueled by the energy of the event and still catching up on pictures and news (like the little Jyn Erso who gave Death Star plans to Leia cosplayers), I decided this edition of Cosplay Friday should be all about Celebration. Fans bring their finest to the event, and it’s where you can see costumes featuring all sorts of characters from legacy to the obscure. Photographers answered my call for costume pics with some beauties.

To kick things off, how about this Leia:

Leia Organa (A New Hope) | Photo by Mike McCoy

Star Wars Rebels era Captain Rex:

Captain Rex (Star Wars Rebels) | Photo by Luke Walker

Grand Admiral Thrawn:

Grand Admiral Thrawn | Photo by Nate Buchman

The galactic cosplay continues in the gallery below. You’ll find another Two Tubes, Hera Syndulla, Rey, Matt the Radar Tech, a Bothan, and so much more. Be sure to follow the links in the captions to see more shots from each photographer.

Do you cosplay or take photographs of cosplayers? Then I want to see your work so we can talk about highlighting your creations in a future Cosplay Friday gallery. If you’re a photographer, maybe we could focus on your images from a single convention. If you’re interested, please get in touch with me at alratcliffe@yahoo.com and send photos you’d like me to feature–the more high-res the photos, the better. Be sure to provide credits for the cosplayers or photographers for each image because giving credit is good manners–bonus points if you include links to relevant Facebook pages or websites. Though I wish I knew all the nerdy franchises, I don’t, so please let me know who or what is being cosplayed.

Featured Image: Luke Walker