Cláudio's Best Shot Pick: Fire Island (2022)

The next episode in our series, 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot,' arrives Thursday night. This week's film is Andrew Ahn's Fire Island, which recently premiered on Hulu. You still have time to participate! In the meantime, here's Cláudio's entry:

For the past decade or so, numerous filmmakers have tried to revive the romantic comedy with varying degrees of success. And yet, it seems that the romcom's heyday will never return. Still, there's plenty of nostalgia for those days gone by when mid-budget projects of this ilk were a mainstay of any studio's output. Nowadays, every such exercise feels like an exception to the rule, a precious rarity, and a throwback. Maybe that's why the modern romcom refuses to stick, as it often comes off as a retrospective homage rather than its own thing. Or else it's too focused on justifying its existence, wanting to appear cool and hip with such alarming vehemence it ends up forgetting the basics that make these movies work.

By centering identities rarely depicted in mainstream cinema, appealing to classic literature tropes, and getting a director with a strong point of view, Fire Island avoids most of these pitfalls. It succeeds where others have stumbled, and even if it doesn't revive the romcom's Golden Age, it's pleasant summer entertainment…

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Judy Garland @ 100: "A Star Is Born"

Team Experience is revisiting nine Judy Garland movies for her Centennial. Here's Cláudio Alves on the star's first Oscar nomination.

A Star Is Born is Hollywood's favorite legend about itself, a mythic middle point between propaganda and self-critique filmed four different times from the 1930s to the 2010s. Five, if one considers George Cukor's What Price Hollywood? since that was likely the basis for the '37 version. Though flexible, the story remains mostly unchanged throughout its interpretations. Norman Maine, an alcoholic star on the decline, meets Esther Blodgett and immediately falls in love, with the woman and her undeniable talent. Opening doors for her in the entertainment industry, he watches as she's rebaptized Vicki Lester and rises to the top, far surpassing him. After their wedding and an awards night, whereupon Norman ruins Vicki's moment, she considers giving up her career to take care of him. Realizing this, he kills himself, intent on saving his beloved from his downfall. 

Though every A Star Is Born has its merits, the 1954 musical tends to be the consensus pick for the best iteration in no small part due to Judy Garland's performance in the titular role…

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Links and Coming Attractions

• Variety Emmy winner Julia Garner (Ozark) has been offered the Madonna biopic -- after months of rumors and speculation. 
• MNPP paparazzi pics of Bradley Cooper and Matt Bomer kissing from the set of Maestro
• Vulture profile of Joel Kim Booster (Fire Island) by E Alex Jung (who always does great celebrity profiles)
• EW has Booster sharing the cover with Billy Eichner (Bros) as they discuss the rise of the gay rom-com

More after the jump including Blonde, Harvey Fierstein, Matthew McConnaughey, the failed attempt to make Morbius happen, and several new trailers...

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Judy Garland @ 100: "Summer Stock"

Team Experience is revisiting nine Judy Garland pictures for her Centennial. Here's Nathaniel R on a troubled moment in time...

Judy Garland's enduring legend comes not just from her rightful title as "The World's Greatest Entertainer" but for her troubled offscreen life. It's not that sadness, addictions, tragedy, and/or an early demise should fascinate the public more than the work itself but the fact is that they often do (see also Clift, Monroe, Ledger, Dean, Leigh, and many other stars throughout history). Judy's struggles only make her incredibly transcendent work in concert halls and movie screens more jaw-dropping; you rarely see anything other than megawatt talent and professional magic. That isn't quite the case with Summer Stock (1950) which makes it an anomaly in her filmography. It's a rare curious glimpse at Garland in-and-out of her magic, like a flickering but gorgeous light. For a time it even threatened to be her final picture...

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Review: Lebanon’s ‘1982’

By Abe Friedtanzer

There are many different reasons that nations go to war, and what unites all of them is that many of those affected have nothing to do with the inherent conflict. It’s a concept that might be difficult for modern-day Americans to relate to since most of the wars from our lifetime have been fought on foreign soil; the domestic population doesn’t feel the impact in the same way. But there are so many civilians, throughout history, who have seen their lives irreversibly changed by a war they never asked for that doesn’t benefit them. Oualid Mouaness’ feature debut 1982, which was Lebanon’s official Oscar entry for 2019 (and finally getting a US release) offers a strong and stirring take on that idea with the 1982 Lebanon War.

1982 takes place over the course of a day in the title year when a group of schoolchildren go about their ordinary lives as military clashes in the distance come ever closer...

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