Venice at Home – Day 8: Who Are We?

by Cláudio Alves

Before either film had been screened to the public or press, there was already buzz surrounding Alice Diop and Florian Zeller's newest films. Many called Saint-Omer, Diop's first narrative feature after many documentaries, a likely contender for the Golden Lion. Lo and behold, the picture has receiving glowing reviews, which is unsurprising. In contrast, this eighth day of competition at the Lido saw a shocking development with Florian Zeller's follow-up to The Father. Defying expectations The Son has received mixed reviews, some of which lambast it unsparingly. Not even the cast is above reproach to the naysayers. Even so, Hugh Jackman remains mostly unscathed, keeping those Best Actor dreams alive.  Let's not forget that Zeller directed Anthony Hopkins to his second Academy Award. So let's take a look back at The Father and Alice Diop's last documentary before Saint-Omer…

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Emmy Category Analysis: Limited or Anthology Series

By Abe Friedtanzer

Inventing Anna

This was a crowded year for limited and anthology series. A number of buzzy programs earned little to no Emmy attention, like Scenes from a Marriage, Under the Banner of Heaven, Gaslit, and The Offer. Two shows, Maid and Station Eleven, surely just missed given their presence in some top categories. The Staircase and Impeachment: American Crime Story might have come close to more nominations but we'll never know. Instead we’re left with an interesting list of five shows, four based on real events and one based on people that likely do exist, maybe not always in quite as exaggerated form. Let’s look at the competition…

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"Bros" and Colman Domingo at the 35th annual Out on Film festival

by Nathaniel R

Shout out to any of our readers in Atlanta or thereabouts! Atlanta's premiere LGBTQ film festival Out on Film is kicking off its 35th anniversary edition on September 22nd with the Bily Eichner romantic comedy Bros as its opening night film. The festival closes on October 2nd with a movie about a double drag queen act Chrissy Judy. The festival's longtime director Jim Farmer has built it up for years into a must attend for LGBTQ films, a chance to showcase local filmmaking talent, AND an Oscar qualifying event...

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Bakers Dozen Links: Don't Worry Darling, Funny Girl, Telluride, etc...

• Vanity Fair checks in with Jane Fonda about her cancer diagnosis and general feeling these days
• Gawker a rundown of all the Don't Worry Darling chaos from early rumors to bizarre press conference
• Jezebel a funny review of Madonna's "50 Questions with Madonna" video
• Coming Soon Have you always wanted to see Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman on the big screen? Here's your chance as Batman Returns gets a one day (?) rerelease on "Batman Day" Sept 17th

More after the jump including Lea Michele finally treading the boards at Funny Girl, Telluride Oscar contenders, Jason Momoa's shaved head, Jodie Turner-Smith's new role, and conservative meltdowns over the new Lord of the Rings series on Amazon...

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Thoughts I Had... while staring at the first images from "Babylon"

by Nathaniel R

Damien Chazelle photographed by Scott Garfield on the set

Damien Chazelle's Hollywood opus (of some sort or another), Babylon, wasn't ready for the fall festivals so we had no clue when we'd get our first taste. Thankfully today Vanity Fair ended our long drought of information, visual and otherwise, with several lux images from the film. Naturally then it's time to discuss our thoughts, yours and mine (as they come to me). Yours go in the comments. Please don't be shy. The team misses socializing with you in this way. Okay, lots of images to get through so here we go as fast as can, thoughts in the order they came to us...

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