Horror Actressing: Marissa Anita in "Impetigore"

by Jason Adams

Impetigore's Tara Basro (L) as "Maya" and Marissa Anita (R) as "Dini"

The concept of the "Funny Best Friend" is nothing new, but I always tend to think of the role in the context of the Romantic Comedy. Think Laura San Giacomo in Pretty Woman, who gets to be so hysterically vulgar and dumb, all the better to make Julia Roberts seem in turn like the classy and smart one. That's what these roles are there in the script for -- these Falstaffian sidekicks, who throw our lead characters' highs and lows into contrast.

But Horror Films have a storied history with these roles as well and this week Shudder premiered one of the best I've seen in awhile -- Marissa Anita playing "Dini" in Indonesian director Joko Anwar's latest fright flick Impetigore. You can drop Anita right down alongside Rose McGowan in Scream, Greta Gerwig in House of the Devil, Paula Prentiss in The Stepford Wives -- she's that terrific.

We meet Dini right at the start...

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Emmy Nominations 2020

By Abe Fried-Tanzer

William Jackson Harper is finally nominated for The Good Place. The show received 6 nominations including 4 for acting.

Every year when Emmy nominations are announced, there are at least a few surprise snubs and inclusions. One or two inconsistencies are expected, but usually, when a series does well, it brings along its most talented performers with it. This year, it feels like that isn’t true in so many different cases in what may well be the messiest list of nominees we’ve ever seen. But let’s start with the good.

From this truly baffling announcement, there are a few very positive takeaways. Every single acting category listed below includes at least one person of color, and there’s a real diversity to the nominees. Underdogs like Yvonne Orji (Insecure) and William Jackson Harper (The Good Place) made the cut for the fourth seasons of their shows, which is wonderful (and not common). Unorthodox managed eight nominations, including for Best Limited Series and lead actress Shira Haas. Though it didn’t crack its top category, Normal People did score a nomination for Paul Mescal and for writing (we cheered on Nathaniel’s behalf). A lot of people were surely ecstatic that Zendaya (Euphoria) managed a nomination in an insanely crowded field, too.

Unfortunately, that’s about the extent of the entirely positive...

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The New Classics: The New World

Michael Cusumano here, kicking off our intermittent 2005 coverage for the next few weeks. This episode of The New Classics can be subtitled "Confessions of a Former Malick Agnostic."

Scene: Reunion in England
For most of my life, Terrence Malick films have been like going to church in that I respect the showmanship while being privately unmoved as, all around me, believers are moved to heights of ecstasy. Like any good lapsed Catholic, I felt tremendously guilty about this. If only I wasn’t so spiritually deficient, so hung up on traditional plot structure, then I wouldn’t be a Philistine who preferred Private Ryan to Thin Red Line (twenty lashes for being basic). True, I adored Badlands but that only increased my shame. Of course I would go for his most accessible one. What, is "Creep" my favorite Radiohead song, too?

My first viewing of The New World followed the usual script...

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Almost There: Olivia de Havilland in "My Cousin Rachel"

by Cláudio Alves

As you know, Olivia de Havilland passed away on Saturday. She leaves behind a filmography full of immortal classics as well as a legacy that still shapes the American film industry. At first glance, de Havilland might seem like an odd choice for this series. Her most acclaimed roles did nab Oscar nominations and she won twice. Still, there was, at least, one occasion when the great Olivia could have considered herself snubbed by AMPAS. It happened in 1952 when the actress returned to the screen after a short period dedicated to the stage. Surely a wise move since The Heiress (1949) was undoubtedly a tough act to follow.

Her next feature after the break was a Daphne du Maurier adaptation that's noteworthy for at least two reasons: one, it  launched the career of Richard Burton in Hollywood and two, it went on to score four Oscar nominations. We're talking about My Cousin Rachel…

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Review: Rosamund Pike in "Radioactive"

Please welcome new contributor Juan Carlos Ojano, who you may know from the podcast "One Inch Barrier" - Editor

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Biopics are tricky.  Inasmuch as making them are good bets for filmmakers to get awards consideration, they are also prone to falling to overused clichés. One overworn formula persistently plagues this genre: the all-encompassing chronicle of the major events in a real person’s life. Such is the case with Marjane Satrapi’s Radioactive, an unabashed ode to the legacy of Marie Curie and her contributions to science, that's now streaming on Amazon Prime.

While this biopic harbors a lot of distinct aesthetic choices, they are but distracting compensation for formulaic storytelling...

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