Beauty Break: "Crazy Rich Asians" Covers THR

Chris here. While August is usually a slow winding down of the summer movie season into unfortunateness, one of this summer's most anticipated is still to come: hit lit adaptation Crazy Rich Asians! We fans of Kevin Kwan's extended family book series already know why you should be very excited about this Jane Austen-esque delight, but allow me to quickly illuminate you what's in store: an ever rare romantic comedy, set in the glamorous and opulent lifestyle of the filthy rich, and most crucially, the first American studio film led by an Asian American cast in decades.

The film is currently sitting poolside on the cover of The Hollywood Reporter, which gives us a moment to luxuriate in its gloriousness...

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Cabaret Pt 1: 'You have to understand the way I am, mein herr.'

Three-Part Mini-Series
Occasionally we'll take a movie and baton pass it around the team and really dive in. If you missed past installments we've gone long and deep on Rebecca (1940), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966),  Rosemary's Baby (1968), Silence of the Lambs (1991), Thelma & Louise (1991), and A League of Their Own (1992). Now... Bob Fosse's Cabaret (1972) which is showing this weekend at the Quad Cinema in NYC - Editor

Team Experience is proud to present a three-part retrospective deep dive into Bob Fosse's Cabaret (1972), winner of 8 Oscars, and one of the most singular films ever made. Though it takes place on a stage it's entirely cinematic in a way many film musicals --even the ones that don't involve actual stages -- ever even think to be.

Part 1 by Nathaniel R

00:01 Cabaret begins in total silence with white text credits on a black screen. Countless movies begin this way, but not musicals. There is no bright and colorful title card, no overture to prep you for its famous song score. Cabaret takes place at the dead end of the Weimar era in Germany, and emerged onscreen at the dead end of the musical genre's dominance of movie culture. This is not lost on the genius dancer/choreographer turned film director Bob Fosse, who throws us immediately into a dark and dingy underworld... as if we've already eaten pomegranate seeds and sealed our fate...

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Soundtracking: "Shame"

by Chris Feil

There is reinvention of a golden standard and then there is what Shame does with “New York, New York”. Carey Mulligan’s Sissy interrupts the life her sex addict brother Brandon, played by Michael Fassbender, initiating his decent into rock bottom. But when he goes to see her perform in some anonymously upscale bar, her rendition of Frank Sinatra’s musical calling card similarly halts the film’s syncopated rhythms. Sparsely orchestrated, Sissy goes off-melody and off-tradition, singing an unexpectedly fragile version that McQueen uses to link the emotional brokenness between siblings. Decidedly not the triumph we are used to hearing in a Sinatra horn section...

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July. It's a Wrap

July was the month of Emmy nominations, Ingmar Bergman's Centennial, Mamma Mia! melodies, old and new. It was also the month I failed to convince you to watch Harlots (your loss!). Here are 16 highlights from the month as we say goodbye to July.

Miscellania
• Almodóvar and Penelope - filming collaboration #6, Pain and Glory 
• Yes No Maybe So: Aquaman - another DC tragedy or wet fun?  
• The Dark Knight - a rewatch for its 10th anniversary 
• Rear Window -it's still perfect; We checked. 
• Best of 2018 - thus far at the halfway mark in all categories 
• Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood - Good dish or unethical or both? 

Most Discussed
• Amy Adam's 3 Best - Everyone has an opinion!
• Cats to become a movie - How on earth will that work? 
• Months of Meryl: The Hours - Streep unravels exquisitely
• Yes No Maybe So: Boy Erased - will it be one of the year's best?

Oh and 1943 was our Year of the Month
• Casablanca Quotes -Fun to hear all the different choices for "best," wasn't it?
• Mattes, Moons, and Mountains -on For Whom the Bell Tolls' production design
• Supporting Actress Smackdown -Katina vs Lucille vs Gladys vs Paulette vs. Anne 
• Vintage '43 - Magazine covers, happenings, and box office hits
• Soundtracking: Girl Crazy - Judy & Mickey & the American songbook
• The Seventh Victim - a 'polite' horror movie 

COMING IN AUGUST
New Films: Christopher Robin, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, BlackKklansman, Crazy Rich Asians, and The Happytime Murders. The podcast will return to a weekly schedule and we'll have a three part West Side Story retrospective for Leonard Bernstein's Centennial. Otherwise 1972 will be our Year of the Month and since Nathaniel has more time than usual (loss of a financially stabilizing side gig *sniffle* please donate to the site -- see sidebar!) expect a deeper dive into that particular film year. We'll start with Cabaret tomorrow! 

Doc Corner: Musical Chairs with Whitney, Elvis and Ryuichi Sakamoto

By Glenn Dunks

We’re playing a bit of catch up this week in the lead up to the hectic fall festival and award season. Nathaniel already looked at a bunch of recent indies and mainstream blockbusters. Now it’s my time to look at a trio of recent documentaries all about musicians: Whitney, The King, and Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda.

Why can’t we get a documentary about the one and only Whitney Houston that truly works? Kevin Macdonald’s Whitney follows on a year after Nick Broomfield and Rudi Dolezal’s Whitney: Can I Be Me, an appalling film that Whitney easily supplants if only by default. Macdonald, an Academy Award-winner for One Day in September (a personal favourite, but he is probably best known as the director of The Last King of Scotland) brings a glossy sheen to Whitney that was missing in that earlier title, but it still falls short of giving Houston the treatment she deserves.

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