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The world of “Bottoms” isn’t always the most coherent (better not to apply any logic to why a high school football mascot has a felt dick); but being a teenager isn’t the most rational experience. One of the film’s great strengths is how director and co-writer Emma Seligman creates a flexible reality for the world of its perennial losers Pj (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri). The two heroes start a self defense club in an effort to get laid, and what starts as a hilariously thin ruse culminates with in the girls punching, kicking, and pounding a rival football team to death in order to save doofy jock Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine) from sprinklers filled with pineapple juice.

“It was like ‘Scott Pilgrim’ in a John Hughes world,” said Seligman when they were a guest on IndieWire’ Filmmaker Toolkit podcast.

The climatic fight scene is a perfect...

Stuntwoman Deven MacNair didn’t set out to become Hollywood’s foremost expert in rape choreography. When she arrived in Hollywood following a career as a professional wrestler and second generation “Glow” Girl, she initially wanted to do Buster Keaton-esque physical comedy or maybe a Disney movie, she revealed in last year’s harrowing La Weekly piece about the […]

The post Stuntwoman Deven MacNair on Becoming Hollywood’s Rape Choreography Expert in the #MeToo Era [Interview] appeared first on /Film.

Evangeline Lilly, who stars as the Wasp in Marvel’s upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp, revealed that she flayed the skin off both of her forearms during a stunt that went wrong several years ago on the set of Lost. “There were open wounds, pus-y and oozing,” she said during a panel discussion Wednesday night on the Fox lot about women in the stunt business. “I looked like a mutant. My mom said, ‘You’ll never be able to wear an evening gown again!’”

Lilly also made it clear that the accident was no accident, accusing an unnamed stunt coordinator — who she described as “misogynistic” — of punishing her for defying his wish to have a stuntwoman do the stunt. It involved rolling off a thick tree branch high above the ground and hanging on for dear life, though there was no risk of falling because she was safely harnessed to the branch.

Stuntwomen will take center stage at a panel discussion and networking mixer to be held at Fox Studio on May 16. The panel, which comes in the wake of recent reports about “wigging” – the age-old practice of stuntmen donning wigs and women’s clothes to double for actresses – will address bias in the underemployment of women and people of color in the stunt industry.

“I recently signed on to direct my first action film and when I started looking into female stunt coordinators, I was alarmed by how few there were,” said director Alethea Jones, who will moderate the event. “I realized that I could advocate for women in stunts by appealing to the people who do the hiring – my directing peers, producers, and studios.”

“The push for gender parity needs to happen at all levels, both in front of and behind the camera,” said director Leah Meyerhoff, founder of Film Fatales,...

Updated with Time’s Up statement, 1:10 Pm: Deven MacNair claims that the Time's Up movement has turned its back on her. The Hollywood stuntwoman, who launched a one-woman crusade against "wigging" – the age-old practice of stuntmen donning wigs and women's clothes to double for actresses, said that she’d asked for the group’s assistance but was told that her case was “outside the scope of their work”. "Really? It's outside the scope of their work?" Deven told Deadline…...

Updated with Time’s Up statement, 1:10 Pm: Deven MacNair claims that the Time's Up movement has turned its back on her. The Hollywood stuntwoman, who launched a one-woman crusade against "wigging" – the age-old practice of stuntmen donning wigs and women's clothes to double for actresses, said that she’d asked for the group’s assistance but was told that her case was “outside the scope of their work”. "Really? It's outside the scope of their work?" Deven told Deadline…...

Guy Clayton, the special effects coordinator on MGM's The Domestics, says he feels responsible for the "wigging" incident that led to a sex discrimination complaint filed with the Eeoc by stuntwoman Deven MacNair, because he told “the powers that be” that he could get the special effects ready on short notice. MacNair, however, isn't having any of it. "How many excuses are we going to hear?" she asked. "They said I was too big to double the actress, that I'm a horrible…...

Guy Clayton, the special effects coordinator on MGM's The Domestics, says he feels responsible for the "wigging" incident that led to a sex discrimination complaint filed with the Eeoc by stuntwoman Deven MacNair, because he told “the powers that be” that he could get the special effects ready on short notice. MacNair, however, isn't having any of it. "How many excuses are we going to hear?" she asked. "They said I was too big to double the actress, that I'm a horrible…...

Exclusive, updated with SAG-AFTRA statement, 9:06 Am: A sex-discrimination charge filed with the Eeoc by stuntwoman Deven MacNair has Hollywood's stunt community wigging out, with one veteran stuntman claiming that the industry's most dangerous profession – which saw two stunt-related deaths last year – "is now in chaos" and "spiraling out of control." Others, however, scoff at the notion, arguing that the change coming to the stunt community and to the industry at large…...

Over at La Weekly, lead film critic April Wolfe has rolled out a deeply reported and utterly fascinating look inside the professional world of stunt choreographers — and other cast and crew — who are tasked with enacting rape scenes on the screen. The story focuses primarily on the toll such work takes on even the most dedicated of professionals, with the added caveat that many of them are eager to see the kind of widespread industry change that would make this particular set of skills far less in demand.

Business, however, is booming. As Wolfe writes about choreographer Deven MacNair, one of the main voices in the story: “She picks up the phone when producers call with a potential scene. She has continued to pick it up — rape scenes are everywhere. MacNair is grateful, always positive, ready to do what’s asked of her. At the same time, she — and others...