Soundtracking: Nashville

by Chris Feil

We don’t really think of Robert Altman’s Nashville as a musical. To be fair, it both is and it isn’t. As is trademark for the director, the film is focused on character first to reveal its themes, exposing a distinctly American disposition both in its specific social strata and in the grander national sense. But Nashville isn’t always interested in doing so through song. Even taking place in the country music world, music feels like an equal contributor to Altman’s portraiture as any of the ensemble members.

Viewers wanting Altman to languor in the thematic sway of a musical’s tunes will always have A Prairie Home Companion. Instead here he upends genre traditions much as he does general narrative ones. Musicals are a genre that even at its best can still feel the least spontaneous, and spontaneity is a definitive Altman trait...

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CONSIDER - Actresses of 2019, First Half

Here's our penultimate 'halfway mark, year in review' post for you. The 19 performances by actresses we treasured most at the movies thus far this year. 

We hope you'll sound off on these and share your own favourites in the comments... and we hope this list serves as a reminder to Oscar and Globe and SAG voters to keep lists of things that impress you all year so that at the end of the year you aren't just voting for the 5 things you just saw. Before we begin I should note that I sadly missed the three following female-led films and will catch up with them when given the chance later in the year: Her Smell, Little, and The Souvenir. Okay here we go...

7 LEADING ACTRESSES
(Jan 1st - June 28th releases)  

Jessie Buckley as "Rose-Lynn" in Wild Rose
Yes, the movie basically hands her the "star-making" reviews on a platter. It's ALL about watching her sing and emote. But the performance has lovely nuances, lived-in feeling, and own-worst-enemy fire. And that voice. Good god.  

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Review: MidSommar

by Chris Feil

Ari Aster’s sunbleached hellscape MidSommar opens with a horrific tragedy, a shocking act that has nevertheless long been grimly foretold for Dani, a depressed collegiate played by Florence Pugh. What unfolds for her in the rest of the film feels as projected by the warning signs around her and as cataclysmic. No, not the ominous surroundings of her European countryside getaway. She’s in a relationship doomed to collapse.

Though Dani’s imminent breakup with Christian (Jack Reynor) gets stalled by this horrible event, she suddenly finds herself slipping into his vacation plans with his begrudging friends. Promised a once-in-a-lifetime folk traditions in the isolated home village of one of his bros, the group descends upon the Hårga of Hälsingland looking to get a little stoned and enjoy some cultural tourism. Once there, Dani’s already established isolation in the group (and her relationship) intensifies from her grief and the increasingly strange rituals in which they participate. Lines are crossed early, but for reasons that feel insignificant in the end, they still stick around.

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Showbiz History: Swimming Pool, The Secret of Nimh, and Margot Robbie

8 random things to celebrate from this day (July 2nd) in showbiz history 

<--- 1953 Children's book author Roald Dahl (James and the Giant Peach, The Witches, etcetera) and future Best Actress Oscar winner Patricia Neal (Hud) are married in New York.

1971 The original Shaft, an influential film in the blaxploitation movement and one of its biggest hits, opens in movie theaters. The next Spring "Theme from Shaft" takes the Oscar for Best Original Song. 

1980 Airplane!, a spoof of the then fading "disaster" genre, premieres. It becomes a smash hit and the fourth biggest grosser of 1980...

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The New Classics - Meek's Cutoff

The New Classics is a weekly series by Michael Cusumano, looking at great films of the 21st century through the lens of a single selected scene. 

Scene: Emily takes charge
The lost pioneers in Kelly Reichardt’s Meek’s Cutoff travel with a bird in a cage dangling from the back of a covered wagon. It is a token of happier days, when nature was an ornament that decorated your home, not a force that drained the life from you with its punishing distances and barren terrain.

More than a sad joke, the little yellow parakeet also functions as a poignant symbol for the codes of society the pioneers carry with them into the wilderness, codes which become increasingly absurd in the context of their predicament. Lost, dying from thirst, and led by a guide who is either a charlatan or a mad man, the wagon train’s men still make sure to isolate themselves from their wives when discussing strategy.

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