Almost There: Nancy Kwan in "The World of Suzie Wong"

by Cláudio Alves

Arthur Dong's documentary Hollywood Chinese, about the complicated history of Chinese and Chinese American lives on the big screen, serves as a starting point for one of the Criterion Channel's new collections. Spanning over a century of American filmmaking and 24 films, this curated program highlights issues of representation, racism, erasure, and more. At the same time, it serves as a chance to illuminate the cinematic contributions of marginalized artists who found unlikely success in Hollywood. They were people like the Chinese-American cinematographer James Wong Howe, Taiwanese director Ang Lee, and Hong Kong-born American actress and dancer Nancy Kwan.

In 1960, Kwan made her film debut in Richard Quine's The World of Suzie Wong, became an overnight star, and surely came closer to that elusive Best Actress Oscar nomination than most performers of Asian descent…

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Too Many Links

We haven't done a link roundup in a several days in a quiet week at the site (apologies - I've been sick) so a few of these you might have already read but they're worth noting in case you haven't!

• Esquire Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows) writes about his coming out journey
• Action Figures was it a good idea to let your cat watch Neil Gaman's Sandman on Netflix?
• Deadline Brendan Fraser (The Whale) getting a tribute at TIFF (the Oscar campaign is already in motion)
• Deadline Elijah Wood and Lauren Ambrose (double-yay) joining the cast of Yellowjackets for season two

A smart project for Jason Momoa, more callousness from HBOMax, season 2 of Feud (six years later), Harry Styles, and more after the jump...

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Weekend Box Office: Dragon Balls, Beasts, and Orphans

by Nathaniel R

Despite a roaring rampaging lion's face off with Idris Elba it was a quiet box office weekend. That said both the anime film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, and the horror flick Orphan First Kill performed above expectations...

Weekend Box Office  August 21st-23rd 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
BEAST	ORPHAN: FIRST KILL

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Would you rather?

Jena Malone is expressing herself!Because we need an excuse to waste time following way too many celebs on Instagram, our biweekly poll. Would you rather?

• do bonding activities w/ your partner like Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody do? 
• visit elephants with Lupita Nyong'o?
• fall asleep in a compromising position with Kate Beckinsale?
• get all dressed up with LaKeith Stanfield?
• indulge in soft sleepy sensual stretches with Jena Malone?
• parachute out of a balloon with Pom Klementieff?
• relate to JLo with Sandra Bernhard?
• flip around with Aaron Taylor-Johnson?
• take a private jet ride with Keke Palmer?
• travel to Greece with Molly Ringwald?
• eat birthday cake with Michelle Yeoh?
• befriend a cat with Garret Dillahunt?
or
• have a pilates session with La Pfeiffer?

Pictures are after the jump to help you decide.

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Emmy Category Analysis: Lead Actress in a Drama Series

By Abe Friedtanzer

Previous winner Zendaya in her standout episode of Euphoria

Though none of last year’s Lead Drama Actress nominees were eligible this year, the shortlist for 2022 is actually pretty close to what this category was like two years ago albeit with a different actress from The Morning Show in contention. Two Emmy seasons ago, Zendaya was the big winner for her buzzy freshman show, and now her fiercest competition is also in a buzzy freshman show. Melanie Lynskey is hot off a win from the Hollywood Critics Association. While it’s possible that the other four will factor into the race, it feels like a race between those two.

But let’s dig deeper. Brief descriptions of the nominees below - click on the episode titles for spoiler-filled reviews…

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