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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Judy Garland @ 100: "The Pirate"

Team Experience is revisiting a dozen Judy Garland movies for her Centennial. Here’s Baby Clyde on her most infamous picture... 

Get Judy and Gene at the peak of their movie star appeal, allow Vincente Minnelli to go as ‘Vincente Minelli’ as he pleases, hire the world’s greatest songwriter to provide the tunes, script by the same team behind The Thin Man and It’s A Wonderful Life, sets by Cedric Gibbons, costumes by Irene, all presided over by the fabled Freed Unit. What could possibly go wrong?

The Pirate, that’s what. A great big glorious, Technicolor mess. And I love it...

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Happy Birthday to... Me

me chillin' with the boyfriends cat. my #1 favourite relaxation technique

Hello dearest readers. Today is my birthday (I want no gifts for myself other than donations -- here's our fundraiser since we'd love to go to Venice again and keep active through the fall film season. Or if you'd like to subscribe you can see that in the sidebar and choose a small monthly donation amount). 

Let's have fun with lists, shall we? Obviously movies aren't made with any one person in mind -- that would be insane -- but have you ever felt like a movie was made just for you or was just what you needed or found yourself unable to not obsess? Because nostaglia has struck me, herewith are the (mostly) movies from each year from 1989 forward that felt (at the time) like personal gifts to me...

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a short Tweetweek distraction

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The final dance in Dirty Dancing, but they’re dancing to The Muppet Show theme tune. pic.twitter.com/ldfjmm5JoQ

— Amanda (@Pandamoanimum) May 17, 2022

Social media has been hellish lately in tune with a country that's rapidly falling apart. So we haven't been as active for sanity reasons though we share the outrage. So for this tweet roundup, happy/funny showbiz stuff only as a silly diversion to brighten your morning as the week begins anew. More after the jump obviously...

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Judy Garland @ 100: 'Easter Parade'

Team Experience is revisiting a dozen Judy Garland movies for her Centennial. Here’s Mark Brinkerhoff on one of her most popular pictures...   

Judy Garland: physical comedienne. This may not be the descriptor that comes to mind when it comes to the one, the only, The Voice. But as superlatives go, it’s the one that fits like a dainty, sturdy little glove on the hand of a one-of-a-kind talent in her very prime.

At 26 (and newly a first-time mom to then-baby Liza), Garland, less than a decade removed from her superstar-making performance in The Wizard of Oz, was reemerging in MGM musicals with a proto-Barbra-Streisand-as-Fanny-Brice performance in what would become her second biggest hit of the ‘40s (following mega-musical, Meet Me in St Louis, four years earlier). Easter Parade is a Funny Girl period-adjacent set tale of a novice singer-dancer plucked from obscurity by a storied showman...

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