Chita Rivera Awards, Cher, and Film Choreography.

by Nathaniel R

Isnt It Romantic?

Did you know that Oscar once had a category for dance? Well, "Dance Direction" to be particular. Which is not quite choreography but close. The category was held for three years and discontinued after the 1937 Academy Awards. Despite the first three to four decades of Oscar ceremonies arriving in a time when movie musicals were plentiful, the Academy Awards never instituted a choreography category. The sole example, apart from Dance Direction was a special Oscar for Jerome Robbins for West Side Story (1961), a redundant trophy in a way since he also shared the Best Director Oscar win due to his choreography and dance direction on that immortal classic (currently being remade). 

At any rate, the Chita Rivera Awards, which sprung back to life three years ago (they were once called the Fred and Adele Astaire Awards)  DO give awards to movies for their dance sequences in two separate categories, in addition to their primary focus which is honoring Broadway and Off Broadway achievements...

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Tribeca 2019 "Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project"

Team Experience reporting from the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. Here's Jason Adams...

I always think of Amy Poehler's funny line on SNL about "soggy board-games and cat skeletons" when I think on the concept of hoarders. Sad people beside blackened sinks. But what if the hoarder's instincts turn out to be less a mental illness -- something more, grander? Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project uncovers that exception in a woman who obsessively recorded 35 years of news programming, from the Iran Hostages through 9/11 and up to Sandy Hook. And in the process the film argues that, as with superstition being science we just haven't yet confirmed, perhaps some of Marion's documentarian's madness wasn't madness, but prophecy...

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Happy 50th to Renée Zellweger

by Eric Blume

It seems crazy, but today marks the 50th birthday of Oscar-winning actress Renée Zellweger.  Zellweger is a bit of a divisive actor (even within this site!), but I loved her the second I first saw her onscreen, loved her through her big decade of success, and will proudly love her forever.

I fell for Zellweger for the first time the way most of America did:  as assistant Dorothy Boyd opposite Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire in 1996.  Even though that film features Cruise’s best performance (he should have beat Geoffrey Rush for the Oscar), I walked away from Jerry Maguire thinking, who the hell is Renée Zellweger?  It takes major presence and considerable skill to not be blown off the screen by a star like Cruise at his most commanding.  Not only did Zellweger hold her own, she brought out new things in him: a comic warmth, a quality of genuineness, something softer and more open.  He listened to her and didn’t anticipate everything, because she was off-center...

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Outer Critics & Drama Desk Nominations

by Nathaniel R

Eva Noblezada and Reeve Carney star in the wildly acclaimed "Hadestown"

Two big theater awards to cover at the moment, the Outer Critics Circle and the Drama Desk Nominations. Like the Drama League, previously covered, they're Tony precursors of a sort, the difference being that the Tony Awards only cover Broadway and all of the theater precursors also cover Off-Broadway. Among the musicals Hadestown led the Outer Critics nominations with 12 while at the Drama Desk Oklahoma! led the pack with 12 nominations. The stage adaptation of Tootsie did very well with both groups in runner-up position in terms of most nominations.

Complete honors for each awards group are listed after the jump...

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Doc Corner: Beyonce's 'Homecoming'

By Glenn Dunks

Reviewing a concert film can be tricky. The lines between what is merely a good concert with good music can become blurred with what is a good film. A concert film can quite easily be one and not the other (I will save you the examples), but to decipher what is what is an equation that it is all too easy to flub the maths on.

In the case of Beyoncé’s Homecoming, the numbers are a bit easier to put together as the film is more up front about its craft – tricky use of editing (those yellow/pink switches!!), the use of retro cinematography filters (Coachella ain’t Woodstock), scripted narration and so on. However, even when trying to filter out the rhetoric that often comes along as baggage with her, it’s easy to see that Homecoming belongs among the list of great concert documentaries.

It’s a joyous and exciting collage of sound and image from a moment in cultural history, a captivating two hours and 17 minutes.

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