Review: "Solo - A Star Wars Story"

by Chris Feil

Han Solo isn’t exactly a character that has our affections enmeshed in his origins. As played in the original Star Wars saga by peak hunk Harrison Ford, Han is about 50% swagger, 30% smart ass, and 20% emotional walls. He’s a crucial element, but one whose history isn’t essential to the story we all know and love - so in tracing his beginnings, Solo - A Star Wars Story needs a strong point of view to be more than a spin on the hampster wheel. It’s sadly almost there...

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Blueprints: "The Handmaid's Tale"

As we approach Emmy season, Jorge will take a look at the scripts of the pilot episodes for television’s hottest contenders...

Voiceover narrations are usually a way for characters to express things to the audience that they would not be able to learn otherwise, mainly inner thoughts with a heavy helping of story exposition. It’s an easy way for us to understand the emotional place of the characters and fill in the blanks of what we’re seeing. 

But what if voiceover were to be used for a time when characters need to express things that not only cannot be said otherwise in the story, but are actually forbidden to be spoken at all? The Handmaid’s Tale portrays a world in which society has become so repressed that the only way for the protagonist to freely speak her mind is, well, in her own mind…

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Q&A: Buffyverse Actors, The Isabelles, Actresses We Don't "Get"

by Nathaniel R

This is always so much fun. Why do I go so long inbetween "episodes"? You asked a bunch of questions so here are a bunch more answers. Continue the conversation with your own answers to these questions why don't you? We thrive on community here not just blabbering at you. 

So let's get right to the Reader Qs, shall we?

RYAN T: Just got back from vacation where I visited Italy for the first time. Alas no epic romance Call Me By Your Name style... but it did make me wonder: what are some of your favorite Italian films?

NATHANIEL: I have never been to Italy. AND I have never had an epic vacation romance. I FEEL CHEATED! I could definitely use some boning up on Italian cinema and am happy to take suggestions from all of you.

I'm afraid my answers in this regard are very "basic cinephile" but here are the 8½ I'd probably list as my favorites...

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I ❤️ Chewbacca

I'm not sure I've ever said so but it's important that you know. For the past few years he's been played by a 6'11" Finnish guy named Joonas Suotamo so now he's even more "ihana".

Months of Meryl: The River Wild (1994)

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

 

 #21 —Gail Hartman, a rafting expert whose distracted husband and disgruntled son will soon turn out to be the least of her problems…

MATTHEW: The River Wild opens with the rather surprising sight of Meryl Streep rowing a kayak with steely determination and brisk athletic prowess down the lengthy expanse of the Charles River. Watching Curtis Hanson’s waterborne caper for the first time in 2018, I asked myself with stunned curiosity the same question that surely rolled through the minds of ‘90s audiences upon the film’s release: How exactly did she get here? The River Wild is a light rip-roarer that could have easily ended up as little more than a forgettable IMDB entry in the filmography of Sigourney Weaver or Geena Davis or Linda Hamilton were it not for someone’s out-of-the-box idea to transform one of our most famously worldly and erudite thespians into a hard-bodied, take-charge action heroine...

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