Merrily We Roll... and Roll... and Roll... Along

by Nathaniel R

Real life theater friends Ben & Beanie, doing a musical theater movie adaptation together. But they won't be done with it for another 20 years

While The Film Experience was in the pro-Boyhood camp in 2014 we were never among its biggest fans. It was hard to be in that club given the massive stanning for a movie that was winning Best Picture prizes left and right in its year. But today we love it more than we ever have now that it's given the king of longform cinema, Richard Linklater, the funding and confidence to attempt the coolest or most foolish movie musical ever. As you may have heard he's now embarking on an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's most beloved flop Merrily We Roll Along to be filmed over the next 20 (gulp!) years...

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August. It's (Nearly) a Wrap

That went quick! We're about to leaving the summer behind so herewith 15 highlights from August...

• 200 Oldest Living Screen Stars since we've updated the list
• Doc Corner: One Child Nation Glenn thinks it might be the Oscar frontrunner
• Underrated Ed Norton Performances beyond that Oscar nomination triple
• We Met Marsha Mason she's still working but mostly on stage
• Tarantino & Oscar They do have some blindspots
• Sigourney Weaver in Copycat Jason's new series on Horror Actressing
• Moulin Rouge! on Broadway reviewed
• Over & Over: Julie & Julia Ginny kicks off our new series on movies we each watch a lot
• Hobbs & Shaw get Sean all hot & bothered in his seat
• AGLIFF Nathaniel's trip to Austin for a very fun festival
• Dino De Laurentiis the team had a lot of fun doing this retrospective of the prolific producer's various eras from Bitter Rice through The Bible and on to King Kong and Dune

Most Discussed
• Yes No Maybe So: Bombshell  What an actressexual tease!
• Where'd You Go Bernadette you love talking Cate Blanchett
• Favourite Hitchcocks He has so many great ones, it's hard to narrow it down
• Yes No Maybe So: Little Women Greta Gerwig offers up a very now cast for the perennial classic

COMING IN SEPTEMBER
Nathaniel and Chris hit the Toronto International Film Festival, We all watch the Emmy Awards. We'll also celebrate nw films like The Goldfinch, Ad Astra, Downton Abbey, Judy, The Laundromat,  and It Chapter Two, with lookbacks to Blue Sky (1994) and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) just for the hell of it. Any requests?

Will Brazil finally return to Oscar's spotlight with "Invisible Life..."?

by Nathaniel R

Brazil has arguably had a rough go of it with the Oscars. Though they've been nominated four times they have yet to win, and at least a couple of their "misses" are pretty major. Lately they've also been beset by political problems at home which has extended into their arts. Note the shunning of the intimidatingly great Aquarius (2016) in its year due to the righteous politics of both the film and its creative team.

But perhaps this year's awards season will hold a happy ending to Brazil's 21 year Oscar drought? Their candidate this year is the Un Certain Regard winner at Cannes, The Invisible Life of Euricie Gusmao (based on the novel of the same name, pictured left) a 1950s period melodrama about two sisters. The film is directed by Karim Aïnouz (previously best known for Madame Sata and Futuro Beach) and co-stars the legendary Fernanda Montenegro (Central Station) who has some Oscar history herself...

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Oscar Trivia, Weekly: Double Oscar winners... How long does it take?

For today's utterly random weekly Oscar trivia, how about two-time acting winners? For the purposes of this list we're ignoring the rare third wins (that list only includes six people: Streep, Hepburn, Nicholson, Bergman, Brennan, and Day-Lewis) and focusing on the gaps between the first and second Oscar wins. What is most common for the double-dippers?

Marlon Brando's two wins...

ALL THE DOUBLE-WINNERS
+ GAPS BETWEEN OSCAR WINS 
FROM LONGEST TO SHORTEST

01
Helen Hayes (38 years: The Sin of Madelon Claudet to Airport)

02
Katharine Hepburn (34 years: Morning Glory to Guess Who's Coming to Dinner)

03 
Frances McDormand (21 years: Fargo to Three Billboards)...

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Doc Corner: 'Vision Portraits' and 'Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins'

By Glenn Dunks

Aware that people with vision impairments may likely read this review, I have included accessable captions underneath the images. In my day job I regularly have to work to accessibility guidelines and I think it's something we should all think about.

I’m not going to lie. There really isn’t all that much connecting the two films I’m going to talk about today other than they’re both being released around the same time and I wanted to give them some attention. And, truly, what are we even doing here if we can’t throw a wee bit of love to movies that would otherwise go completely under the radar?

Film poster for Vision Portraits showing Rodney Evans' face against colourful lights that are out of focus.I have no doubt that Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins will find an appreciative audience. She was, after all, a famous writer with dedicated fans right up to her death in 2007. I am less convinced that Rodney Evans’ delicate and partly autobiographic Vision Portraits would manage the same. It’s small, you see. Small in the sense that it doesn’t call attention to itself. Small in the sense that it tells its story with grace and humanism and allows its audience to depart with a mind full of contemplation. It is a morsel of a documentary (it is 78 minutes long), but one that should open its viewers to ideas that it would otherwise likely have little reason to consider.

Evans’ film is certainly the most interesting of the pair thematically and stylistically...

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