Young Juliette Lewis eating watermelon just cuz

Interview: Michael Shannon on his new Hulu series “Nine Perfect Strangers”

By Abe Friedtanzer

Michael Shannon's onscreen career deserves more recognition. Yes, he is a two-time Oscar nominee thanks to Revolutionary Road and Nocturnal Animals, but he wasn’t even nominated for his best roles, including Take Shelter, 99 Homes, The Shape of Water, and The Iceman. He also deserved Emmy recognition for his first regular TV role on Boardwalk Empire, which he strangely didn’t get. 

Now, the talented always busy actor of stage and screen, who at one point debuted a whopping ten films in a single year (2016), is returning to television for the limited series Nine Perfect Strangers, based on the book by Liane Moriarty, author of Big Little Lies...

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Locarno Diary #5: Italian Horror Stories

by Elisa Giudici

I was really curious to see Italian movies selected this year in Locarno, after the change of the artistic director. Italy and this part of Switzerland have strong ties: everyone here speaks Italian. You can drive from Milan to Locarno in a couple of hours, so it is not that surprising that the Swiss Festival has strong connections with Italian movie industry. So why are the Italian movies shown in Locarno almost always a disappointment? (The two worst Italian films I saw in the past decade were both showcased here. ) I have my own little conspiracy theories on this topic but that's for another time.

This year there are three prominent Italian movies in Locarno: one in competition, one in Piazza Grande and one in the Cineasti del presente section (which is reserved for young, promising directors). After seeing Il legionario, I was quite optimistic about the fact the something has changed and the "Italian curse" in Locarno has lifted. Perhaps I was too optimistic...

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Doc Corner: 'Homeroom' and 'Bulletproof' take us to school

By Glenn Dunks

I think it’s fair to say that when Frederick Wiseman directed High School in 1968 he wouldn’t have expected the modern version of education with its prevalence of technology and virtual teaching. Charles Guggenheim, too, who in 1984 also made a documentary titled High Schools, that time an Oscar nominee, surely could not have perceived of metal detectors and mass field trips for teachers dressed in chinos to shooting ranges where they learn how to shoot an armed gunman.

But 50 years after Wiseman captured debates over skirt length and observed awkward sexual education classes, Homeroom and Bulletproof both offer very contemporary looks at what it is like to be a student in 2021...

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Gay Best Friend: Todd Cleary (Keir O'Donnell) in "Wedding Crashers" (2005)

A series by Christopher James looking at the 'Gay Best Friend' trope

Was Todd (Keir O'Donnell) the earliest inspiration for Gru from "Despicable Me?"I don’t love to complain (okay, sometimes I do). Most of the times I write this column to understand how gay representation in mainstream film has changed and evolved over the decades. Each shortcoming could be seen as another toe that LGBTQ+ characters stuck through the door of mainstream society. However, not all representations are good. Especially in the late 90s and early/mid 2000s, male focused comedies used gay characters as particularly malicious punchlines. As cartoonish as these characterizations are, they did paint a horrifying portrait of gay life to straight people. To gay people, these characters also served as a vision of what straight America hated about them.

My dark confession is that I love Adam Sandler comedies. They remind me of being an immature teenager and immediately bring back the sense memory of my hometown and a specific period in my life. Yet, these films were often the main source of these mockeries of gay life. (Though Sandler could be an equal opportunity offender, making himself the butt of the joke, too). Other mainstream comedies followed this formula to diminishing (and more demeaning) returns. The biggest R-rated comedy of this time was Wedding Crashers. The film grossed $205 million domestically (only to relinquish this title later to The Hangover 1 and 2) and was a word of mouth hit.

Today, the film’s success feels completely wild...

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