ICYMI - Best of August

We're about to enter the prime Oscar-hopeful months of the year. Excited? But before we do, here's a quick look back at August at TFE. In case you missed any of this baker's dozen... 

Some Highlights
• Interview Nine Perfect Strangers Abe interviews Michael Shannon
• Emmy Categories -we've analyzed many of the top races
• Spencer tease - will Kristen Stewart be up for gold?
• Jennifer Hudson in Respect a big new role for a fine singer 
• The Green Knight -Matt has a big crush on Dev Patel
• Phil Tippet -Elisa meets the "mad god" of vfx (RoboCop, Star Wars)
• Jeanette Goldstein in Aliens Nick gives a strong genre turn its due
• Gay Best Friend: Chuck and Buck - with White Lotus all the rage, Christopher looks back at Mike White's breakout
• A Room With a View a long-read team retrospective
• How had I never seen...Blue Velvet Ben has never been a Lynch person

Most Discussed Articles
• Smackdown 1986 -discussing Best Picture nominees Hannah and Her Sisters, A Room With a View, and Children of a Lesser God, plus Scorsese's Color of Money and the bewidering Crimes of the Heart
• Vintage '86 what people were talking about in pop culture that year
• Almost There: Linda Fiorentino The Last Seduction

Coming in September
• (1st-11th) The Venice Film Festival with both Elisa & Nathaniel on the Lido
• (19th) Emmy Awards we have the biggest categories left to discuss
• (24th-30th) Best Actress regular Deborah Kerr's centennial
• (27th) Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1937 - Queue up Dead End, Stella Dallas, Stage Door, Night Must Fall, and In Old Chicago (lotsa good flicks this time!) for maximum enjoyment.
• AND LOTS OF NEW MOVIES including Shang Chi, Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Cinderella, Cry Macho, Blue Bayou, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and Dear Evan Hansen. 

Review: Sandra Oh in "The Chair"

by Lynn Lee

In my younger days, I wanted to be an English professor.  I was pretty serious about it, too – serious enough to major in English, get a fellowship, and enroll in a Ph.D program.  Ultimately, I realized academia wasn’t for me and left with just a master’s.  I’ve never regretted that decision.  Yet I still wonder occasionally what my life would have been like if I’d stuck with my original dream.

So it’s no wonder I immediately let myself sink into The Chair, a new Netflix (mini?)series starring Sandra Oh as the titular chair of the English department at Pembroke University. That's a fictional Ivy League school in what looks like a permanently snow-covered New England college town, although the show was actually shot in Pennsylvania.  Basically, it’s my alternate-universe existence if I were as cool and charismatic as Sandra Oh and as brilliant and committed as her character, Ji-Yoon Kim...

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Two More Other Two

by Jason Adams

I imagine we have some fans of the series The Other Two in the house? Following the sticky travails of the NYC-centric Dubek siblings -- former dancer turned manager Brooke (Heléne Yorke), the gay one Cary (Drew Tarver), and the youngest sibling aka pop sensation ChaseDreams (Case Walker), along their mama-bear Pat (Molly Shannon) -- the series started out on Comedy Central before moving to HBO Max for its second season, which just premiered last week. I got hooked late (binged it at the start of the pandemic) but love love love the show now, and recommend you catch up if you haven't.

Well the fine folks at NewFest (New York's premiere annual LGBTQ+ film festival) have a gift for those of us who are fans -- they are right now for free screening the first four episodes of the second season! And yes that's two more than have aired on HBO so far, so if you're impatient for more right now then this is your scratch for said itch. Head over to their site to RSVP -- I imagine this is just for US folks, and it's only available until 11:59pm on Wednesday, so get to scooting. 

And please do tell me your thoughts on the show in the comments...

Emmy Analysis: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Unlike other categories, Lead Actor in a Comedy Series has been a foregone conclusion even before nominations were announced. With Ted Lasso skyrocketing to the frontrunner status with 20 nominations, Jason Sudeikis is poised to take this as one of the easiest calls come Emmy night. Two of the nominees also came from Comedy Series nominees, but both are nowhere near Ted Lasso’s winning chances. Meanwhile, two of the nominees are sole representations of their shows - one in its first season, one in its last. 

Without further ado, here are the nominees...

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Smackdown '86: Tess, Piper, Mary Elizabeth, Dame Maggie, and Dianne Wiest!

Welcome back to the Supporting Actress Smackdown. Each month we pick an Oscar vintage to explore through the lens of actressing at the edges. This episode takes us back to 1986.  

THE NOMINEES  For the 1986 film year the Academy honored three newbies (Tess Harper, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Dianne Wiest) the latter of whom would become a two-time winner, and welcomed back two veterans (two time winner Maggie Smith and previous nominee Piper Laurie). The characters assembled were a nosy cousin, a savvy girlfriend, a neurotic actress, a spinster chaperone, and an estranged mother.

THE PANELISTS Here to talk about these performances and films with your host Nathaniel are two regular TFE voices Cláudio Alves and Lynn Lee as well as civil rights attorney / cinephile Jonathan Diaz, and writer/cartoonist Rob Kirby.

 SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN + PODCAST  
The companion podcast is embedded in this post and can also be heard at Spotify, Stitcher, iTunes...

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