Ask Nathaniel

I recently hosted a gay book club where we talked "Call Me By Your Name" (click for the cute pic) and the one guy who'd seen the movie refused to say anything about it. Argh. So that forthcoming adaptation is foremost on my mind. What's on yours? Give me some questions to answer, won'cha? Bonus points if the topics are romantic films and/or book adaptations. I'll select two handfuls to answer in forthcoming posts.

[Convalescence update: as some of you have heard I somehow threw my back out which accounts for the spare posting of late. It's hard to sit and type when you're in pain but I think I'm coming out of it now and dying to get back to movies. You can only watch so much This is Us and Younger and Defend--nah, that's too boring -- and eat so much ice cream and alternate so many heat pads and ice packs before you start to lose your GD mind.]

Emmy Review: Drama Supporting Actress

We've been reviewing various Emmy categories as the Academy completes their voting (ballots due Monday). Here's Spencer Coile...

It is an exciting change of pace to see the Drama categories actually become competitive this year. No race demonstrates this better than the Drama Supporting Actress category. After last year's batch of mostly Game of Thrones ladies (with Maggie Smith still sleepwalking her way to another victory), the six ladies this year feel fresh, new, and all worthy of discussion. Uzo Aduba is the only returning nominee (after missing the year before), so all six of the contenders in this category feel viable for the statue. Only one can be victorious...

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Soundtracking: "The Bodyguard"

Whitney: Can I Be Me debuts this Friday on Showtime. Chris Feil takes a look at the icon's biggest soundtrack...

The Bodyguard doesn’t deserve its iconic mega-selling soundtrack. Granted, most of us have never pretended that that the film was even a whiff as good as all that glorious vocal dexterity Whitney Houston lays into her six tracks. But rest assured: the movie itself is even worse than you remember.

Among its many sins, the most egregious is how it ignores its own musical assets. The Bodyguard exists in a world where you can enter someone’s home and just happen upon an extended dance sequence being shot for a music video - but it also presents a world where that isn’t anywhere near as fun as it sounds. It spends the first act under the illusion that we give a crap about five or six things more than we do about Whitney’s voice. Why go to the creative effort to cast one of the biggest music acts of the era (and in a quasi-musical!) if you don’t know how to use her?

No sweat for Whitney, even if her acting performance netted her some harsh reviews. As ever, her musical contribution remains untouchable...

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Emmy Review: Outstanding Period/Fantasy Costumes

by Nathaniel R

The television Academy split up the costume categories at the Emmys just a few years ago. Given that all awards bodies default to period work over contemporary work if they have a choice between the two (sigh) it's good that they did this. Now contemporary costumes will be able to actually win prizes! This period category, then, feels more like a continuation of the original Emmy category "Outstanding Costumes for a Series"

The nominees are...

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The Top 100 Comedies: Screwball Dames and Male Auteurs

by Seán McGovern

The limit of list culture is the absolute bias of the person compiling it (except of course the Dewey Decimal System which is without imperfection). To compile theirs, the BBC polled 253 film critics - 118 women and 135 men -  from 52 countries to determine what exactly are the "100 Greatest Comedies".

It's good to look at these lists to remind ourselves that since the majority of films are made by men, so too is the work that's considered both the funniest and the best. Right-on caveat aside, some great, female-centred comedies make the list: 2016's Toni Erdmann at 59; Mean Girls, which we can now call a modern classic, at 57; and Clueless (iconic) at a very healthy 34...

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