Greetings, my dears! This is what I have for your consideration this week……

Michelle Ruiz discussed how awards shows are dying a slow an painful death on the 6th for Vogue:
“There is an air of irrelevance underlying them, a sense that we are all strangely and awkwardly out of time (somewhere in the early 90’s, maybe), trapped by an antiquated, overlong, wooden format, and clawing aimlessly at sagging ratings. To watch the Globes or any of the others is to fidget on the couch, refresh Twitter, grab another Rice Krispie treat and ask oneself: are we really still keeping up this charade?”

Also on the 6th, Maya Tribbitt representation is more important than diversity over at Medium:
“Hollywood is so focused on cramming racial diversity into a single film that they often miss the point of representation and inclusion.
I feel strongly about diversity and inclusion but I am growing to dislike the word diversity.
To me, diversity initiatives seem like a challenge to studio executives to pick one of each ethnicity, gender or nationality to have roles in random shows or films.”

Luke Hicks begged Robert Downey Jr. to return to acting in stuff besides Iron Man on the 7th for Film School Rejects:
“It’s been 10 years—going on 11—since you simultaneously joined and launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Iron Man was novel, bold, snarky, and immersive, and it makes sense that you gravitated toward it. In 2008, you were one of the most exciting actors to watch.“

On the 8th, Matt Zoller Seitz gave us 15 facts about The Sopranos for its 20th anniversary, and I learned that Maxim still exists:
“For our new book The Sopranos Sessions, celebrating the 20th anniversary of TV’s most influential drama, we sat down with the show’s creator David Chase for a new series of interviews covering the story from beginning to end. Even though we’d covered the series religiously as TV critics for Tony Soprano’s favorite newspaper, The Star-Ledger, Chase still told us a lot of things that surprised us.”

Jourdain Searles explained why In the Cut in this century’s most underrated erotic thriller on the 9th for Thrillist:
“In the Cut is a story about women being hunted, from their vantage point for once. Shots depicting Frannie being watched mainly serve to highlight how women have to navigate the world under the gaze of men. Frannie is always looking over her shoulder, constantly assessing her surroundings. She knows she is being watched, yet continues to pursue pleasure on her own terms. In the end, once Frannie has faced her worst fears, In the Cut rewards that bravery.”

Enjoy!