Blueprints: Emmy Nominees for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series

Full swing into Emmy season! Jorge looks at drama series first...

ICYMI: the nominations for the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards. 

Let’s take a look at the six shows that made the cut for Writing in a Drama Series. As in the Directing categories, writing categories highlight individual episodes rather than overall series, which makes it not uncommon for one show to have multiple nominations. However once "Breaking Bad" and "Mad Men" were off the air, this category has not had any doubling up! This year every slot once again went to a different show, from newcomers, to established favorites, to people in their last round of eligibility.

Let's see the elevator pitches and the stats (we love a good round of statistics) after the jump... 

Click to read more ...

Emmy Nominations for 2018: Glow, Mrs Maisel, Game of Thrones, and the Snubbing of Mindhunter

Happy 70th, Emmys! The big awards night won't be held until September 17th (hosted by Colin Jost and Michael Che) but the nominations were announced this morning. The Emmys have so many categories that beware when you see any site that says "full list of nominees." Even the major news outlets (like Variety and all the massive circulation papers) do this while leaving out a shit ton of categories. In other words don't believe it when anyone says "full list". The only place that regularly shares that is the Emmy site itself. Here's the PDF. 

The behemoth, once again, is "Game of Thrones" which, after a year off, returns again to its throne of "Most Nominated Show" just barely edging out "Saturday Night Live," "West World" and "The Handmaid's Tale" all of which received 20 or more nominations. I was particularly happy about plentiful nominations for "GLOW" though it's worth noting that these nominations are not from the show as we know it right this second but from season 1 a full year ago. 

After the jump the major stuff and a few other categories that we're interested in... 

Click to read more ...

Bergman Centennial: Persona and the Problem of "Motherliness"

Team Experience will be celebrating one of the world's most acclaimed auteurs this week for the 100th anniversary of Ingmar Bergman's birth. Here's Lynn Lee

Persona has been called the Mount Everest of film critics, and no wonder.  For a film that clocks in at a lean 84 minutes and turns on a deceptively simple premise – a celebrated actress (Liv Ullmann) falls mysteriously silent and is consigned to the care of a chatty, insecure nurse (Bibi Andersson) – it contains multitudes.  In the 50-plus years since its debut, its potential meanings have been explored from almost every conceivable angle, be it existential, metaphysical, psychological, psychosexual, queer, feminist, the role of art and the artist, or just the film’s pure cinematic texture and experimental devices.  But Persona is a slippery beast: just when you think you have a theory as to what it’s “about,” it melts and reformulates into something else entirely.

Click to read more ...

YNMS: Mary Queen of Scots

by Chris Feil

As promised yesterday, the Mary Queen of Scots trailer has arrived. Think of it like the less demented and much more traditional flip side of an actressy coin to the antics of that trailer for The Favourite. Becauseonce again we've got some heavily costumed fireworks on our hands.

And what take does this version of the oft rehashed history have to offer? The film jumps off from the amicable relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, played respectively by last year's Best Actress nominees Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan. Then begins a rivalry for the throne, but this film plays handily with the underpinnings of affection both women have for one another and the men underneath their power forcing their hands. As your middle school history books will tell you, it doesn't end well for all parties.

This is one of our more anticipated Oscar players of the season, so all eyes are on what Ronan and Robbie have in store as their awards stars continue to go upward. But will the movie have the goods? Take a look at the new trailer and we'll break down the Yes No Maybe So...

Click to read more ...

Months of Meryl: Adaptation. (2002)

John and Matthew are watching every single live-action film starring Meryl Streep. 

#28 — Susan Orlean, a New Yorker writer drawn to the eccentric orchid poacher she is profiling.

JOHN: “Why can’t there be a movie simply about flowers?” asks perspiring screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) to film executive Tilda Swinton from across a table at a posh Hollywood restaurant. “I don’t want to cram in sex or car chases or guns.” One could imagine that Meryl Streep, who has resolutely avoided nudity, drugs, and violence throughout her career, has contemplated this same question. As Susan Orlean, Streep’s outwardly demure and professional demeanor is irreversibly shaken by the oddly captivating John Laroche (Chris Cooper), a Florida orchid hunter, nursery owner, and part-time porn site operator. To watch Streep, at age 53, fire guns, appear nude (read: blatantly Photoshopped) on Laroche’s site, straddle him, and, most incredibly, snort an orchid-based narcotic, getting high and humming along to a phone dial tone, is to experience a dizzying yet satisfying whiplash.

Click to read more ...