Podcast: Hillbilly Elegy, The Life Ahead, and Gotham nominations

with Nathaniel R & Murtada Elfadl

We're back !

Index (60 minutes)
00:01 Gotham Award Nominations. There is lots to discuss including First Cow, The Assistant, Nicole Beharie, Riz Ahmed, and longshots in Oscar races
28:00 Sophia Loren's star vehicle The Life Ahead
35:10 Ron Howard's Hillbilly Elegy. Amy Adams stars. We still think Glenn Close as "Mamaw" has a good shot at a nomination despite the rough reviews
54:30 Randomness to wrap up + Nathaniel finally saw Mulan 

Related Reading:
• Complete Gotham nominations
• Murtada's review of Miss Juneteenth
• Jason's review of First Cow
• Time interview
• Claudio's review of The Life Ahead

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Hillbilly, Gothams, Life Ahead

Showbiz History: Casper, Martha Plimpton, Pete Davison, and Silver Linings Playbook

11 random things that happened on this day, November 16th, in showbiz history...

1934 The White Parade about a nursing school starring Loretta Young opens in theaters. Later it's nominated for Best Picture.

1945 Happy 75th Anniversary to both the Best Picture nominee The Lost Weekend and the animated short "The Friendly Ghost" which introduced Casper to the world. The whole short is available on YouTube and it's much darker than you might remember it if you ever saw it as a kid. Poor Casper really needs a hug and or friends...

Psycho, The Sound of Music and celebrity birthday suits after the jump...

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"The Crown" S4: An(other) Acting Showcase

by Cláudio Alves

As a staunch antimonarchist and someone who despises Thatcher and her legacy, watching The Crown's fourth season was an oft-frustrating, sometimes fascinating, exercise. Peter Morgan and his team haven't shied away from looking at the dark side of British history and this latest series is no different. However, time constraints, an episodic structure, and attempts at historical ambivalence often result in a lackluster, superficial, occasionally rushed, experience.

Still, the production values are always immaculate, and the dramatization of the 80s features some of the best costumes the program has ever shown. Nevertheless, what always brings me back to The Crown isn't its analysis of politics, its melodrama, or pretty clothes. The show's greatest strength is its cast, with the actors excelling even when their material is lacking. When faced with some of the royal family's most tumultuous years, the performers upped their game and delivered a masterclass in screen acting…

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What did you see this week?

Though theaters in LA and NYC never reopened, in places they did many are now closing again due to skyrocketing COVID rates. Sigh. This pandemic will be with us until there's a vaccine and not a day sooner because 40% of the country is insane and the GOP have politicized basic decency and believing in science as into bad things. WEAR A F'IN MASK. Jesus. Anyway. I personally had a heavy viewing week taking in The Life Ahead, Sound of Metal, First Cow, Mulan, The White Tiger, Pieces of a Woman, and Hillbilly Elegy. More on most of those soon.

On the internet, The Life Ahead hit Netflix and I Am Greta arrived on Hulu. Meanwhile in limited theatrical release The Climb and Ammonite opened and earned $103 and $85k respectively.  What did you see this week?

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (WIDE... SUCH AS IT IS THESE DAYS)

1. Freaky *new* (serial killer comedy) $3.7 million
2. Let Him Go (Diane Lane and Kevin Costner thriller) $1.8 (cum. $6.8)
3. The War with Grandpa (Robert DeNiro comedy) $1.3 (cum. $15.2)
4. Come Play (horror)  $1.1 (cum. $7.3) 
5. Honest Thief (Liam Neeson action) $800k (cum. $12.3)
6. Tenet (Christopher Nolan sci-fi) $735k (cum. $56.3)

100th Anniversary: "Leaves from Satan's Book"

by Cláudio Alves

Carl Theodor Dreyer is one of my favorite filmmakers. I'll never forget the first time I watched The Passion of Joan of Arc on the big screen and was transported, how experiencing Vampyr felt like witnessing a projected nightmare, the ecstasy of Ordet's ending or Gertrud's stern ruminations on love. It's to my great shame that I'm not familiar with the Danish director's early works, having mostly ignored them until now. The centennial of Dreyer's second feature, Leaves from Satan's Book, makes this a great time to start correcting these cinephilic lacunas…

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