Sharp Objects: Episode 4 "Ripe"

by Murtada

I was excited for this episode of Sharp Objects as it was billed as "Camille and Richard finally go on a date." They sort of did, in the Sharp Objects way by visiting Wind Gap murder scenes. But the episode also gave us a glimpse into Adora and Alan’s marriage and a memory involving Alan and Camille. I don’t think we’ve ever seen the latter two characters have any meaningful interactions before last night.

At the end of last week’s episode we saw Camille fleeing Wind Gap after her confrontation with Amma. However this time we start with her changing her mind and coming back. Images of dead girls fill the screen, we get it Jean Marc Vallèe, that's why she’s coming back. The constant cutting between now and the Camille's memories feels played out to me despite the story's dependence on memory. It was fresh and exciting when we first saw it 4 years ago in Wild (2014). Get some new tools, Vallèe!!

I’ve decided to let go of trying to look for clues to the mystery of the killer and just enjoy the performances and the eerie atmosphere that the series built.

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Podcast: Smackdown '43 Companion

Nathaniel R welcomes the panel Yaseen Ali (cinephile), Kristen Lopez (critic), Rebecca Pahle (critic) and Kieran Scarlett (screenwriter) to discuss 1943 at the movies with recommended favorites and our favorite switch-the-actresses around game. We had previously reviewed the supporting actress nominees.

We talk about the three actresses (Claudette Colbert, Veronica Lake, Paulette Goddard) in WW II women's picture So Proudly We Hail. The running time slog of For Whom the Bell Tolls which doesn't showcase Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman well, the hit play turned message movie Watch on the Rhine and its place as a "homefront" movie when the war barely touched our soil, and religious epic The Song of Bernadette which won Jennifer Jones the Best Actress Oscar. 

You can listen to the 1 hour podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

So Proudly We Hail Bernadette on the Rhine

And now presenting the Cabaret girls...

...each and every one a wirgin. 

Life is a CABARET is life, old chums.
A three day retrospective at The Film Experience (Aug 1st-3rd)

Box Office Possible - Fallout

by Nathaniel R

The Mission Impossible franchise (in movie form at least) is 22 years old and just won't quit (and neither will Tom Cruise) having its best opening weekend yet with film #6, Fallout. It's also Cruise's second biggest opening weekend ever after only War of the Worlds (2005). My personal favorite of the M:I franchise is Ghost Protocol from 2011. Yours? 

Weekend Box Office Estimates (July 27th-29th)
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
Mission: Impossible - Fallout	Blindspotting
1.🔺 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT  $61.5 *NEW* REVIEW	1. 🔺 BLINDSPOTTING $1.3 on 523 screens (cum. $1.7)
2. MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN $15 (cum. $70.4) REVIEW	2. 🔺 EIGHTH GRADE  $1.3 on 158 screens (cum. $2.9) CAPSULE REVIEW
3. THE EQUALIZER 2 $14 (cum. $64.2)	3.  🔺THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS $1.2 on 433 screens (cum. $6.7) REVIEW
4. HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3 $12.3 (cum. $119.2)	4.  LEAVE NO TRACE $499k on 289 screens (cum. $4.6) TRAILER DISCUSSION
5. 🔺 TEEN TITANS GO! TO THE MOVIES $10.5 *NEW*	5. 🔺 DON'T WORRY HE WON'T GET FAR ON FOOT $351k on 266 screens (cum. $860k)

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Smackdown 1943: Gladys, Paulette, Lucille, Anne, and Katina

Presenting Oscar's Chosen Supporting Actresses of the Films of 1943.

A cruel nun, a flirtatious nurse, a gypsy rebel, a harried mother, and a wealthy hostess. It's not the elaborate start of a joke, but the nominated characters from the Best Supporting Actress race of 1943.  There was only one returning nominee (Gladys Cooper) but in the 1940s all newbie lists were common since the supporting categories had been around less than a decade! Anne Revere and Cooper would eventually become three time Supporting Actress nominees (Only 23 women in history have accomplished that feat, Octavia Spencer the most recent to join the list just last season) but for Paulette Goddard, Katina Paxinou, and Lucille Watson this was their one and only time in Oscar's golden embrace. 

THIS MONTH'S PANELISTS   

Here to talk about these five nominated turns and either agree with the Academy or crown a new retrospective winner are, in alpha order: Yaseen Ali (cinephile), Kristen Lopez (critic), Rebecca Pahle (critic), Kieran Scarlett (screenwriter) and Nathaniel R (your host here at TFE). Readers (hey, that means you!!!) form the collective final panelist each month. Okay, time for the main event... 

1943
SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN 

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