S25.E03: Anne Hathaway, Rebel Wilson, Jodie Comer, Daniel Radcliffe, Mabel.

[Athena]

Quote

Together on Graham’s sofa tonight: Oscar winner Anne Hathaway and the hilarious Rebel Wilson, playing con artists in new comedy The Hustle; Jodie Comer, returning as Villanelle in Killing Eve; and Daniel Radcliffe, lending his voice to new animation Playmobil: The Movie. With music from Mabel, who performs her current single Don’t Call Me Up.

[Ailianna]

I really dislike Rebel Wilson, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Daniel Radcliffe.  I certainly hope he's not being billed below her, and that he gets more time than she does.  He's funny and charming without being crass, and crass seems to be her only thing.

[Bruinsfan]

I was surprised to find her not annoying at all in Isn't It Romantic?. Perhaps the key is letting her be the star rather than the sidekick, so she's not devoting all her efforts to pulling focus from the headliners?

[Ailianna]

But that doesn't change how she acts when she gets on this chat show, however.  Her personality--at least as shown on this show--has been crass.  I've never seen a movie with her in it, because she has turned me off so thoroughly when she appears on GN.

[MissLucas]

I think she's finding her groove. I never thought her annoying but sometimes a bit much. I enjoyed her this time - especially when she put her legal degree to good use.

[Brookside]

I thought I liked Rebel Wilson, but she's lost me with her inability to stop watching the monitor.  Kind of like the new Tom Cruise.

[atlantaloves]

Wait, was Rebel really being serious about having a law degree, I thought she was kidding. I enjoy her, not her movies, but I think she is naturally funny. It was a pretty good episode, much better than last week which was a total bore.  

[dubbel zout]

I thought it was really clever (and obviously successful) that Wilson used sexism as the basis to change the MPAA rating, and wow, did she do a deep dive into that. Good for her.

Jodie Comer's RL accent is not at all what I expected. She's amazing.

The Big Red Chair story was a good one, and the woman's expressions sold it.

[MissLucas]

28 minutes ago, atlantaloves said:

Wait, was Rebel really being serious about having a law degree, I thought she was kidding.

Me too but then I checked her Wikipedia page - she has a Bachelor of Laws.

[Irlandesa]

18 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

I thought it was really clever (and obviously successful) that Wilson used sexism as the basis to change the MPAA rating, and wow, did she do a deep dive into that. Good for her. 

Yeah. I could have listened to her whole argument, I think.

[Ailianna]

3 hours ago, MissLucas said:

Me too but then I checked her Wikipedia page - she has a Bachelor of Laws.

Which does not allow her to practice law in the US.  She COULD NOT have been the actual attorney, although I'm sure they were willing to use her celebrity to help sway the "jury" (not a court jury, keep in mind).  It's a board of industry professionals, not members of the community.  In fact, it doesn't look like they use actual attorneys very often for any of these appeals, so her bragging on having a law degree is more of what I see as her inability to not be the center of attention.  It's like having a criminal justice degree--it's just an undergrad degree.  Anyhow, she's also definitely not the first to get a rating changed, though it's not common (though it's apparently not common to appeal either).  Under 5 minute fo Google-fu have turned up articles talking about The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Last Vegas, and neither claimed to be the first.  

The MPAA has adopted rules that provide a right to appeal rating decisions before an Appeals Board that includes, among others, representatives of the film-distribution member companies of the MPAA, representatives of theater-chain members of the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO), and representatives of up to four independent distributors or producers.  And apparently there are very few appeals because there are other options to get a different rating, if it's important to the film.  I also think that her sexism argument won because we are in the #MeToo era, more than about her legal acumen.  Not that the argument isn't probably provable, with examples such as the ones she was using, but looking at examples where they ignored similar arguments, I think the evolving social climate did more than she did.

She also interrupted EVERYONE's stories to add in her own thoughts about everything.  Can't she just be still for a minute and let someone else talk?  She went on and on about her thoughts on Jodie Comer's series, before Jodie even got to say anything. Ugh.  She may well be very insecure (I've heard people say that before about her--I wouldn't know, as I don't know her as a person).  But, she's way overcompensating and is obnoxious in dealing with it, if so.

I'm not a fan, as you can probably tell.

On the other hand, LOVE Daniel Radcliffe, and enjoyed him, as well as Anne and Jodie.  Unfortunately, not enough to put up with watching the 4th person on the couch again to see their parts over.

[MissLucas]

Actually I never thought she had been the only attorney present but that it pretty much went down as you explained at great length - that's just common sense . But it was still funny and she still has a law degree. 

[theatremouse]

3 hours ago, Ailianna said:

Which does not allow her to practice law in the US.  She COULD NOT have been the actual attorney, although I'm sure they were willing to use her celebrity to help sway the "jury" (not a court jury, keep in mind).  It's a board of industry professionals, not members of the community.  In fact, it doesn't look like they use actual attorneys very often for any of these appeals, so her bragging on having a law degree is more of what I see as her inability to not be the center of attention. 

I didn't read it that way at all. I didn't think she was in any way suggesting she was acting as an attorney, nor that the jury in this context represented an actual jury. I thought the point was mainly to bring up how she won with the sexism argument, as having done so furthers  part of their point in doing the movie in the first place. She likely represented the film because she was the producer. The "putting the law degree to good use" struck me as a completely offhand remark and barely relevant to the anecdote. Possibly explains her methodology for her argument in the first place, but she was bragging about how they won and got the sexism acknowledged. She seemed proud of having it overturned, not because she personally did it, but because it was good to have at least on this one occasion quashed the double-standard.

[Stuffy]

Yeah Jodie didn't get to finish talking about her bafta nomination before Rebel interrupted, and then Graham got distracted by a Daniel Ratcliff story he was trying to remember. 

[attica]

On 4/27/2019 at 7:38 PM, Ailianna said:

Which does not allow her to practice law in the US. 

And you don't need to have passed the bar to appeal to the MMPA -- they are not a court of law, for heaven's sake. They're not a federal agency, even. They're just a small association staffed with stodgy old white dudes who have been accorded a power that theater-owners accede to, even though they don't actually have to. They don't change ratings much, because doing so would clue folks in that they don't actually have real authority -- being rigid props up the illusion.  (TV content warnings do a better, more comprehensive job informing viewers what they can expect, with a lot less prudish judginess.)

Edited April 29, 2019 by attica

[dubbel zout]

The MPAA is made up of stodgy old white dudes and stodgy white moms. Watch the Kirby Dick doc on the association—it’s hilarious and annoying in equal measure. The disconnect between violence and misogyny is particularly aggravating.

[TexasGal]

On 4/27/2019 at 2:30 PM, dubbel zout said:

Jodie Comer's RL accent is not at all what I expected. She's amazing.

I thought the same.  I was so amazed I found the YouTube clip of her talking about accents and sent it to a friend who is also a Killing Eve fan.  I was shocked when she started talking. 

On 4/27/2019 at 6:38 PM, Ailianna said:

On the other hand, LOVE Daniel Radcliffe, and enjoyed him, as well as Anne and Jodie.  Unfortunately, not enough to put up with watching the 4th person on the couch again to see their parts over.

I love how people keep finding Daniel Radcliffe Time Traveler pictures.  And, it is kind of freaky how many really look like him.  Cracks me up that he just says "I really look like a lot of old women." 

[Ailianna]

10 hours ago, attica said:

And you don't need to have passed the bar to appeal to the MMPA -- they are not a court of law, for heaven's sake. They're not a federal agency, even. They're just a small association staffed with stodgy old white dudes who have been accorded a power that theater-owners accede to, even though they don't actually have to. They don't change ratings much, because doing so would clue folks in that they don't actually have real authority -- being rigid props up the illusion.  (TV content warnings do a better, more comprehensive job informing viewers what they can expect, with a lot less prudish judginess.)

You kino gmade my point for me.  I was trying to say how it's not actually court, and not a lawsuit, and not actual lawyering.  She certainly made it sound like it was a real court though, with how many times she used the word "jury".  She definitely seemed to be pumping herself up more, by her choice of language and her claim that she was the first--one of the first--more important than it was--to have a rating changed.  You don't have to agree with my conclusion, but it sounds like you agree with the fact that her undergrad LL.B. isn't necessary for her to appear and argue before this board.

[dubbel zout]

Wilson might have exaggerated a lot of the procedure, but I think her main point was that her undergrad law degree gave her the tools to successfully lobby for a ratings change. That's impressive enough, IMO.

[Phishbulb]

On 4/27/2019 at 7:38 PM, Ailianna said:

Anyhow, she's also definitely not the first to get a rating changed, though it's not common (though it's apparently not common to appeal either).  Under 5 minute of Google-fu have turned up articles talking about The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Last Vegas, and neither claimed to be the first.  

There's a pretty thorough list here.  It's happened like 12 times in the last 7 years, so fairly rare I guess. Some of the movies it happened with barely got a theatrical release- the comedies "Yoga Hosers" and "Barely Lethal". I guess the most notable case was last year when Clint Eastwood's movie "The 15:17 to Paris" got arbitrated down from an R to a PG-13. 

It's kind of hard to tell what the "first" movie to have this happen with was. The PG-13 rating's only been existence since 1984. From what I can tell from this list, the first movie to get arbitrated down from an R to a PG-13 was the Mel Gibson movie "The River" which came out in December of 1984. This was followed by the movies "Mask" and "Desperately Seeking Susan" in 1985.

Before that, you had movies that managed to get their rating lowered from an R to a PG like "Poltergeist", "Tootsie", and "Terms of Endearment".

Weirdly, the MPAA's website (filmratings.com) doesn't even mention an appeal for "Mean Girls", the movie Rebel cited. I do remember on the commentary track on the DVD Tina Fey talking about how they had to change some things to get a PG-13- changing "have you had your cherry popped?" to "have you had your muffin buttered?" (the latter seems DIRTIER, to be honest) and also "masturbated with a hot dog" to "made out with a hot dog". 

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 4/29/2019 at 8:42 AM, dubbel zout said:

The MPAA is made up of stodgy old white dudes and stodgy white moms. Watch the Kirby Dick doc on the association—it’s hilarious and annoying in equal measure.

It's called "This Film is Not Yet Rated" and it's a real eye-opener.

.

On 4/27/2019 at 6:38 PM, Ailianna said:

It's like having a criminal justice degree--it's just an undergrad degree. 

I didn't get too into the weeds looking into this, but one of the Wikipedia pages describes the LL.B. as "a qualifying law degree for the purposes of admission as a lawyer in Australia."  So it's not the same as a criminal justice undergrad degree.

After World War II, lots of veterans went to law school on the GI Bill, and they came out with an LL.B. and no undergraduate degree at all.  They got licensed to practice law.

So if the degree that Rebel Wilson has is of the type that is required in order to become licensed as an attorney, I'm good with calling it a law degree.

I'm not good with her interrupting all the time, and thank you, @Brookside for explaining that she's always looking at the monitor because I've always been bugged by that and didn't realize it was the monitor she was looking at, which makes it even more annoying.   But like @Bruinsfan, I liked her in Isn't It Romantic.  Suffice to say I have mixed feelings about the woman, but my final verdict is that it would be okay with her not coming on this show again.

A possibly unpopular opinion, but I think people are getting lazy with the Daniel Radcliffe time travelers.  It's getting to where a pair of round glasses is about all that is necessary, while the original one really was spot on.

[peeayebee]

I wasn't thrilled with this ep. I like Daniel Radcliffe, but I hated that he kept scratching his beard. Rebel Wilson is much better than in previous appearances. I don't care much for Anne Hathaway. I love Killing Eve. I too was surprised by Jodie Comer's accent. I haven't yet started S2.

Aside from the Time Traveling Radcliffe photos and the Big Red Chair, I didn't particularly enjoy this one.