The many screen faces of Catherine the Great

by Cláudio Alves

Hulu's The Great is just the latest in a long string of portrayals of Catherine II of Russia, most commonly known as Catherine the Great. Since the time of the silents she's been a recurring topic for filmmakers, whether they're portraying her as the sex-crazed tyrant some propaganda painted her as, or trying to celebrate the legend and legacy of her time as empress. The Great makes her the spunky heroine of a black comedy, but she's also been a romantic lead and a romance's foil, an innocent pawn, and a Machiavellian master.

Looking back at the documentation we have about the real Catherine, one thing's for certain – she was incommensurably more interesting than any single movie character can ever hope to be. That's not going to stop us from exploring her various screen portrayals…

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Horror Actressing: Betty Gabriel in "Get Out"

by Jason Adams

She says "No" fourteen times. It starts off with an "Ohh" that swings into an "Oh, no." Then it gets a little cutesy with a sarcastically sweet "Nooo" that reads as violently as a Southerner saying "Well bless your heart." From there it's a tumble, a cascade of no-no-no's swallowing up each one before it -- a walling-off of panic followed by a hard, thick swallow. A sharp inhale. The computer reboots. "Aren't you something," she asks, blinking off tears she can't seem to even feel running down her face. 

And now Georgina (Betty Gabriel) leans forward, conspiratorially, coming even closer to the camera...

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Streaming Roulette, June: Nezha, Lucy in the Sky, West Side Story

If you're new to the site this is how we share new streaming offerings for the month. We select a handful or two of titles and just randomly hit a place on the scroll bar to see what the film looks like - no cheating.  Ready? Let's play...

-Maid of Honor?
-Oh, that color is bad for Anita!

West Side Story (1961) on Netflix
Silly, Maria. Anita doesn't have bad colors --she's Rita Moreno!  ICYMI I hope you'll read our huge three part retrospective of West Side Story. It was a joy to write. Netflix so rarely has 20th century movies  that you should always stream them (even if you own the picture, just leave it running in the background) to remind them that first century of the artform they make their billions off of is kind of important. Just saying...

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The New Classics: The Descent

Michael Cusumano here to discuss the movie scene that scared me more than any other in my adult life.

There are some tried and true rules of horror filmmaking that get trotted out whenever the topic is discussed. There is The Hitchcock Rule about the difference between suspense and surprise, and The Jaws Rule about withholding the monster from view until absolutely necessary. I propose adding a new rule to the list of horror maxims: The Descent Rule, named after Neil Marshall’s 2005 terrifying excursion into the caves of Appalachia: Structure your story so that it’s scary even if the main threat never arrived. 

Scene: The Tunnel
The Descent didn’t invent this principle, of course...

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A moment of contemplation and anger. What will future movies say about this time in American history?

by Nathaniel R

I've hesitated writing anything about the current state of the US since this isn't a politics site but a film site. But it's naturally been difficult to concentrate on movies these past few days. You may have noticed the postings were fairly sparse after our big Friday event (which was recorded a couple of weeks back). The real world is definitely burning. Sometimes you can only stare at the flames and wonder how much they'll consume. And wonder what is your individual and/or collective place in stoking them or extinguishing them, because aren't we always doing one or the other if we're not preventing them in the first place?

The US is a scary place right now. It's an especially scary time for black people of course. Black Lives Matter. That should be obvious to everyone. It's soul-crushing that it still apparently isn't to far too many people. The US has an anger problem (in general) but in this case the anger fueling the protests is entirely justified...

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