Is Glen Powell This Generation's Next Movie Star?
Plus: Actors on Actors, Bad Boys, Hacks & More
Hit Man, a campy comedy with a tour de farce performance from Glen (with one ‘n’ — eyeroll emoji) Powell made its way to Netflix today.
Strangely, it only played in ONE (1) theatre in New York, so I’m sure it was hard to find elsewhere in smaller towns, and while I think it’s a very fun film, it’s also the the first time I’ve seen him show off his range1, seamlessly moving from camp comedy to drama, and I love this for him! But I couldn’t help but wonder, with the highly anticipated release of Twisters coming this summer, could/should he be a contender for one of Hollywood’s new movie stars?
I do think the title of “movie star” is overused when people really just mean “famous actor who acts in movies”. Movie Star should be reserved for actors of the Angelina Jolie, Jean-Claude van Damme, Tom Cruise, Will Smith and Julia Roberts caliber where their box office is inimitable. And while he’s been in some blockbusters (The Expendables franchise—which, not to be rude, but that whole franchise is expendable) and Anyone But You2 which surprised everyone at the box office, he isn’t a movie star YET.
What I will say is, he’s on the path to join Timothee Chalamet, who has proven himself as a box office draw and kind of the next Leo DiCaprio? Something that works for him that a lot of these other actors don’t be having (aside from Austin Butler, who I am newly fond of) Powell TRULY, has the charisma of Matthew McConaughey, maybe it’s just one of those things Texas boys have, but I would love to see him dominate/revive the romcom, and then go on to have his interstellar moment.
Honourable Mention
Bad Boys IV Is Good!
30 years into the franchise, the new Bad Boys film is better than ever, and for anyone who thought they were going to be able to cancel Will Smith, one of our last great movie stars—THINK AGAIN! And now that I mention it—it’s crazy to me that people made more of a fuss about Will slapping someone (a man) who deserved it, but so few people have made a PEEP about Shia Labeouf who kidnapped and tortured FKA Twigs, and Johnny Depp who—well, you already know—being at Cannes. That festival LOVES abusers!
Hunter Biden’s Crack Routine
Addiction is awful, and drug use has been the cause of so many lives lost too early, and I know it’s nothing to joke about but I have to marvel at the fact that Hunter Biden would smoke crack as soon as he woke up EVERY morning. Like that’s true dedication. And also, for someone who smoked crack EVERY morning, he’s still really hot? Like he would have made a great unhinged love interest for Olivia Pope on Scandal. Somebody call Shonda Rhimes.
Downtown Ketanji Brown
(That reference just dated me) As the justices are disclosing their finances it’s been revealed that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was gifted free Beyoncé tickets with a value of $3700, AND topped the book list with a $893,750 advance for her yet-to-be published memoir. It should be ME! It should have been me! Also, it’s nothing close to Clarence Thomas’s disclosure as a geriatric Sugar Baby.
Don’t Mention It
Hack-a-haters Be Damned!
For a strange part of the population3, the HBO Max show Hacks, (which you should ABSOLUTELY be watching) starring Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, currently in its third season “isn’t good” — this is both dumb and wrong. And while I know art is subjective, and some people may think it’s up for debate, it’s not! It’s a great show! SHUT UP! Shows can be more than one thing. Dramedies exist!
JLo’s J-Woes
For some reason, everyone is having collective amnesia when it comes to JLo. The media (and people who want attention) keep wondering where she went wrong, and it’s very simple actually—she can’t sing! She makes great music sometimes, Get Right and Play went triple platinum in my home, but her acting is where people enjoy her the most, and that incredibly narcissistic, self-funded “visual film” is where people were just like girl what the fuck? So of course her tour being cancelled was largely because of that, and maybe low ticket sales also have something to do with her marriage *ALLEGEDLY* imploding, or vice versa, but we don’t need to pretend like we don’t know why people dislike her!
Kim K ‘s “Actress” Era
Reality starlet Kim Kardashian, when she isn’t stealing other women’s clothing items fancies herself an actor, so much so that she joined Chloë Sevigny in Variety’s Actors on Actors series (along with the likes of Andrew Scott, Elizabeth Debicki who is 6’3, and Quinta Brunson) and while I applaud people for being multi-hyphenates, it would be like me being on Actors on Actors with Nicole Kidman just because I was in Zoolander 2. Also, she was talking about how hard life is now because you can’t pull up in a Rolls Royce to shop in Beverly Hills anymore without getting robbed. Girl shut UP!
Did I Forget To Mention
The world is in disarray and we’re in an election year, but also the second half of Bridgerton drops next week, are y’all watching that? I think Nicola Coughlan is a great actor.
I received a lot of book mail these last few weeks, so keep an eye out for that before the end of the month! But I’m currently reading a new book by Leave the World Behind author Rumaan Alam called Entitlement, set to be published in September, so—watch this space!
He was fantastic in Scream Queens, and Everybody Wants Some!! And for me, that was enough to prove his comedy chops, but that movie was so incredibly homoerotic
Y’all already know how I feel about this movie, and I generally love Shakespeare adaptations, but this was—whew. I’d rather see any movie but that one, but it wasn’t his fault, so let me stop.
The dumb part who would write pieces like this
I absolutely love Hacks and laugh out loud during each episode. Thanks for posting that link so I could let the author know how wrong he is. Love your posts, btw.
If you like Nicola Coughlan, take a look at this post by Sharon Sinclair-Williams to see Nicola take on an accent challenge. She’s a Galway girl, but can switch accents up brilliantly - https://open.substack.com/pub/bestbeforeenddate/p/faffing-friday-edition-seven?r=1ah09j&utm_medium=ios