Jean Harlow on Criterion

by Cláudio Alves

During the past years, the Criterion Channel has highlighted the careers of many Old Hollywood stars. After Carole Lombard, Mae West, Joan Crawford, Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth, and many more, it's time to celebrate Jean Harlow. In this case, the selection of titles entices because of how encompassing it is. The Criterion Channel presents 14 films, every feature the starlet did while on contract with MGM, from 1932 to her untimely death in 1937. By watching these works, one can get a good sense of Harlow's meteoric rise, how her persona evolved, how it changed to accommodate personal and physical transformations, a transfiguration of industry ideals and popular tastes. Furthermore, the movies showcase other great stars and the work of such vital 1930s screenwriters as Anita Loos and Dorothy Parker. It's a perfect treasure trove of Old Hollywood moviemaking, history, and scandal…

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Emmy Analysis: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

The Film Experience Team takes a look at the episode submissions for major Emmy categories.

 

By Nathaniel R

Confession as lede: I chose this specific actor race when the Team divvied up the categories because I genuinely had no idea who I'd vote for when I heard the nominees. That's partially because of Emmy's silly voting rules which end up burying their acting fields with one show but partially because even within Ted Lasso, where I assume my vote will go, I love everyone. So come with me on this real-time (while I'm writing it that is) journey to find out where my imaginary vote lands and who Emmy might choose and why. I've reskimmed each episode or watched again in its entirety, to think this over.

(NOTE: If there is an asterisk by the Emmy nomination it means they have additional Emmy nods in non-acting categories. Only the acting nomination statistics are listed below)

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Is 2021 the year of Adam Driver?

by Cláudio Alves

Leos Carax's Annette hits streaming today. You can watch this year's Cannes Best Director prize-winning feature on Amazon Prime Video and bask in all its insanity. The picture has proven pretty divisive, which is no surprise. Many of the director's anti-naturalistic choices and the Sparks' off-kilter music have been at the center of praise and pans. But, along with them, the most contested element of Annette seems to be its leading man, Adam Driver, whose performance goes to extremes of operatic grandeur intersected by American realism, aggressive anti-comedy, a guttural plunge into the depths of self-hatred. It's a big performance, maybe the biggest in the actor's career, so vast in risks and pitfalls, one can't help but admire the ambition. Annette also represents the first of three major projects the actor has coming out in 2021, marking this year as one of the potential high points in Driver's ever-growing career…

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Posterized: Sean Penn as director

by Nathaniel R

Dylan and Sean Penn earlier this summer at Cannes.

Former movie star Sean Penn celebrated his 61st birthday just two days ago and now welcomes his sixth directorial effort, Flag Day, into US theaters. Though Penn's name was once intoned with a kind of reverence by fellow actors and critics his film career has been curiously uneventful for a decade now (with his supporting role in The Tree of Life, 2011, his last real prestigious success... and mostly by association at that). One suspects the fading film career is more from a shift in his own interest and priorities given his political activism than a lack of opportunities but it's always hard to know given the fickle nature of Hollywood and stardom in general.

Can Flag Day serve as a kind of jumpstart for a comeback in the next few years? Does he even want that? He has two films (as an actor) in preproduction now, a drama with Dakota Johnson and a drama with Tye Sheridan.  How many of his six directorial efforts have you seen? The posters are after the jump...

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Links

• Bloody Disgusting design for a new steelcase edition of American Psycho
• Screen Crush Sonny Chiba, legendary martial arts star, has passed away at 82 from COVID related pneumonia
• IndieWire Cinematographers speaking out about unsafe working conditions
• Deadline turns out Disney released that petty victim blaming statement against Scarlett Johansson when she was in labor delivering her new baby
• AV Club ...and perhaps to prevent another lawsuit, Emma Stone obviously got a *very* sweet deal for Cruella 2 aka... um, a second live-action 101 Dalmatians remake.

Julianne Moore, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Eternals, Anthony Mackie, Billy Eichner, Manny Jacinto, Gloria Swanson, Denzel Washington, and The White Lotus after the jump...

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