Almost There: Ida Lupino in 'The Hard Way'

by Cláudio Alves

Last week in the Almost There series, we took a look at Cher's performance in Robert Altman's Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. That film's part of a new Criterion Channel collection in celebration of Mother's Day. Beyond that program, the channel is bursting at the seams with enticing new offerings. So much so that we'll choose all of our May subjects from the streamer. Today we're talking Ida Lupino, whose career is featured in a selection of 13 movies spanning from 1935 to 1956. Though she was a popular Hollywood actress and even found success as a director, the British-born thespian was never nominated for an Oscar.

She got relatively close a couple of times, though. Regarding the Best Actress Academy Award, Ida Lupino's best bet was surely 1943's The Hard Way…

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Review: Your Grandparents Will Love 'Operation Mincemeat'

By Ben Miller

I loved watching films with my grandfather. We called him Peepaw. It was always something he wanted to do. The problem with Peepaw was a measurement of quality. He always wanted middle-of-the-road stories with little challenges and concise, wrapped-in-a-bow storylines. One of his favorite films was the Kevin Costner snooze-fest Dragonfly. The conventionality and Costner’s charismatic banality was exactly what he wanted. He thought it was a masterpiece.

This doesn’t mean Peepaw only liked terrible movies. He was a huge fan of The Guns of the Navarone or The Great Escape. His generation couldn’t get enough of World War II films. These days, when my brothers and I see a film that hit those points, we would describe them as “Peepaw movies” for their ability to appeal to our late grandfather’s particular sensibilities. John Madden’s Operation Mincemeat is THE Peepaw movie...

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Interview: Peeter Rebane on the gay romantic drama "Firebird"

by Nathaniel R

Writer/Director Peeter Rebane (left) and his narrative feature debut "Firebird"

Sometimes timelessness is a curse. We don't neccessarily want period pieces about forbidden oppressed gay romances to feel especially resonate in the now. Neverthless that's what's happened with Firebird. Peeter Rebane's narrative debut, which recently opened in select cities, tells the true story of a gay soldier and his clandestine romance with a fighter pilot in a Russian airforce base in Estonia during the Cold War. The film has been in the works for ten years but in the interim Russian culture has become more virulently anti-gay (stoked by homophobic 'strong-man' Putin) and aggressive about it; please see the tremendous documentary Welcome to Chechnya if you haven't. At the moment Russia is also waging war on Ukraine which adds yet more unexpected charge to the film since one of the two leads playing Russian military men, Oleg Zagorodnii, is Ukrainian. 

When I sat down with the director Peeter Rebane, we talked about all this, as well as co-writing with his openly gay leading actor (Tom Prior), directing sex scenes, and homophobia in former Soviet countries... 

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Weekend Box Office - what have you been watching?

by Nathaniel R

The two most exciting platform releases of the moment are the French films Petite Maman (on 224 screens) and Venice Golden Lion winner Happening (opening on just 4). Go see them and support your local arthouses. Everyone was at Doctor Strange 2 which grossed a massive $187.4 in its first frame though CinemaScore grades suggest it will have a bigger drop than usual for Marvel films next week. The Sandra Bullock/Channing Tatum rom-com-adventure The Lost City is hanging on pretty well in theaters but it just debuted on Paramount+ which will likely cut its theatrical run short preventing it from reaching the $100 million mark (pity since it was an original comedy and it almost got there). More after the jump...

Weekend Box Office May 6th-8th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	PLATFORM RELEASES
MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS	PETITE MAMAN

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FYC: The Network Sitcom Makes a Comeback

By Christopher James

ABC's breakout hit "Abbott Elementary" isn't the only network success this season.

When was the last time anxiously awaited new weekly episodes of a network TV comedy? It’s been nearly a generation since comedies like Roseanne, Friends and Seinfeld ruled the airways. It’s even been a decade since critical darlings like The Office, 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation amassed their devout followings. Ratings for network TV comedies have continued to dwindle while critics and the Television Academy lost interest. In the past 10 years, only five shows have been nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series at the Emmys: 30 Rock, The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, black-ish and The Good Place. In short, the writing was on the wall that the network sitcom was dead.

Everybody loves a comeback, though...

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