Mira Sorvino Pt 1: On "Hollywood," "Badland" and "Waterlily Jaguar"

Sorvino in Waterlily Jaguarby Nathaniel R

The actress Mira Sorvino has been on our screens both large and small for nearly 30 years now. In the past few years the headlines came for speaking out about sexual harassment and her political activism. Now, with Ryan Murphy's Hollywood campaigning for Emmy nominations, and two recent indies available to stream (Badland and Waterlily Jaguar), the focus is back where it originally began: her acting. We talked to her recently about her newest roles.

She can currently be seen as the co-lead of Melora Walters' Waterlily Jaguar. "It's a really interesting art film about the complicated end of a relationship" she says describing the drama about an alcoholic novelist and his wife. While the movie is anguished by nature, Sorvino is a canny enough entertainer to know just when to liven the mood without betraying the tone, in this case with heartbreakingly forced cheer.

But among her recent projects it's Ryan Murphy's high profile mini-series Hollywood which has reminded the most people of her gift. Even, in a neat life-imitating-art parallel, of her Oscar win...

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On the rise, fall, and general chaos of "Hamilton" as an Oscar contender.

by Nathaniel R

Hamilton won 11 Tony Awards in 2016. Now some fans want that same production to win Oscars, too.Have you been following the story on Hamilton as an Oscar contender? It has not been easy to follow! As you all know, the Academy Awards are in chaos this year due to COVID-19. In addition to pushing the ceremony back and changing the calendar of eligibility, they'd previously announced a bending of their "must play in theaters for a week" rules to allow for streaming films that only MEANT to play in theaters. That loophole was meant to close again after the COVID crisis was over but once you've made a loophole that big, it usually grows in size. Now suddenly everything wants to be an Oscar contender. Or at least fans of everything want their favourite thing to be one. It's yet another reminder of the cultural dominance of the Oscars (despite cries of "irrelevant!" each season) that it's considered the "top" award.

The Oscar rule change about streaming eligibility was meant to make up for movie theaters being closed for months on end but it was always going to be problematic. Exactly how will the Academy enforce a "meant to" clause?

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Emmy FYC Doc Corner: 'Country Music' and 'The Last Dance'

By Glenn Dunks

As a lover of non-fiction, you would probably assume that I naturally gravitate towards documentary series. That’s not always the case, though. In fact, as they gain more popularity, I often find myself struggling with them. Expanded running times make big omissions more frustrating, and just as elsewhere, some shows don't know when to stop. On top of that, Netflix has narrowed its house style to such a degree that it has become something of a private joke when the streaming service sends one of those “we’ve added a series we think you may like” emails.

In terms of 2020 Emmy contenders for the Nonfiction Series Emmy, we have already looked at several: I hated Netflix’s Tiger King, wavered on Hulu’s Hillary, and while I liked PBS’ Asian Americans a lot, I don’t think it made the eligibility deadline. Hopefully next year! Elsewhere, I gave up on the likes of The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez and How to Fix a Drug Scandal pretty early. However, there are bright spots among some of the other contenders: Ken Burns' Country Music and Jason Hehir's The Last Dance...

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20 Underrated Actresses as Emmy Contenders

By Abe Fried-Tanzer

There are over 1,200 actresses on the Emmy ballots across all of the various categories. More contenders mean more deserving potential nominees, and I want to spotlight some of the best female performances I saw this past season. We’ll assume that, though a nomination isn’t by any means guaranteed for any of them, moderately high-profile names like Shira Haas (Unorthodox), Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul), and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (The Morning Show) don’t need the boost even though they should certainly have their work honored. Here are 20 performances you may not have noticed (and where to watch them) that are absolutely worthy of thinking about while filling out those Emmy ballots...

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What's on your cinematic (or streaming) mind?

Without an ongoing movie culture these days to keep us busy we imagine everyone's thoughts are all over the place. So what movies or television shows are YOU thinking of today? My mind was hopping around between You Can Count on Me (2000), Where is Kyra (2018), Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and Never Have I Ever (2020) today.