Doc Corner: The Cowgirls of 'Bitterbrush'

By Glenn Dunks

Emelie Mahdavian’s first documentary feature was set in Tajikstan. The remote mountains of Idaho in the American west may seem like something of a remarkable jump, but it’s really not one at all. Topographically speaking, the two are quite similar. Certainly more so than Idaho and at least half of the rest of the US. That Mahdavian was so easily able to embed herself into the world of Bitterbrush shouldn’t surprise, then.

This is a quiet film, a film about loneliness and struggle and about the physical toll of a genuine hard day’s work. Unlike something like Buck or the more thematically similar Sweetgrass, that its two subjects are women lends Bitterbrush a unique entry-way into its world that brings with it a lot of connotations even before its opening shot...

Click to read more ...

Tribeca 2022: B.J. Novak's "Vengeance"

by Jason Adams

Weirdly conservative and as profound as a midnight tweet-storm during a Dexedrine binge, I give you (no seriously, take it away from me) actor B.J. Novak’s writer/director debut Vengeance. This feels like a movie that Elon Musk will just absolutely adore... and please never defile my memory by thinking I mean that as a compliment. A wannabe Coens-esque satire of red-state/blue-state warfare and the champagne simps caught in the middle, Vengeance ultimately reads like a love letter to "Both Sides"-ism that ventures nothing so gains a great plains worth of nothing in bold-type return...

Click to read more ...

Tribeca: Intoxicating Experiences in ‘Good Girl Jane’

By Abe Friedtanzer

 

Everyone’s experience of high school includes something they wish they hadn’t done. It’s much easier to reflect back on what that might have been as an adult; you have more distant to consider the impact and meaning of a moment or relationship that might not have problematic or regrettable at the time. For some, there’s a great deal of regret from a repeated pattern of behavior that had an undeniable effect on their lives. With time, humor can also be found in deeply disturbing events, and Good Girl Jane does that exceptionally well.

Sarah Elizabeth Mintz describes her directorial debut (she also wrote the screenplay) as loosely based on her own life but with considerable liberties taken and modifications made...

Click to read more ...

Almost There: Bea Arthur in "Mame"

by Cláudio Alves

This past Sunday, the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League celebrated the 75th Annual Tony Awards. Considering past intersections of Tony gold and Oscar success, it's fun to speculate which honorees might one day reprise their roles on the big screen and play a part in a different sort of awards season. Not that repeating an acclaimed stage performance for film leads to a surefire triumph with the Academy. For every Yul Brynner in The King and I and Viola Davis in Fences, there's a Robert Preston in The Music Man and Bea Arthur in Mame. That latter film saw 2022's Lifetime Achievement Tony Award winner Angela Lansbury ditched by Warner Bros. in favor of Lucille Ball, despite having originated the role to great acclaim on stage and already being a film star. It was a move everyone involved grew to regret. 

Thankfully, the studios didn't replace Arthur from the original Broadway cast, so there's still something to love about the misbegotten Mame…

Click to read more ...

Final Episodes of 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot'

little change of scheduling for "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" with no episode this week. 

 

1) watch the movie
2) pick your favourite shot (whatever you think is "best" however you would define that)
3) post it, with or without an explanation wherever you play online #bestshot

FINAL TWO EPISODES

Post before Thursday June 23rd Klute (1971) streaming on HBOMax
Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland star as a call-girl and the detective following her, respectively, in this paranoid classic. Leading up to the "Best Shot" post on we'll do a tag team retrospective. In other words it's a Klute week (June 20th-23rd) for its 51st anniversary (yes, we're kicking ourselves that we didn't do this last year) in our ongoing endeavor to get everyone to see this classic. If you've never done a "best shot" before but often thought of doing so, why not?

Post before Thursday June 30th SEASON FINALE Titanic (1997) streaming on Netflix
We have to watch this again for the next SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN so why not make a party out of it? Climb on that floating door with Rose -- there's room for everyone.