Review: "The Great" on Hulu

by Cláudio Alves

Most dramatizations of history have a difficult, often unbalanced, relationship with facts. Reality is notoriously devoid of narrative structure, which makes taking departures and creative license into an essential crime. The troubles arise when the parameters of adaptation aren't clear, when fiction dresses itself as truth, and confusion blooms from pretension. Hulu's biographical series about the early years of Catherine the Great in Russia is unencumbered by such issues, sidestepping them with irreverence. At the start of each episode, a title card points out that this miniseries is only occasionally based on things that really happened.

The rest of it is hilarious fantasy, a play on history that turns the rise of Russia's empress and reformer into the stuff of romantic comedy. It's a black-hearted farce that's unafraid and unashamed of being silly…

Click to read more ...

Review: The Lovebirds

by Tony Ruggio

Michael Showalter’s follow-up to The Big Sick is both a wonderful showcase for its two stars, the whip-smart Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae, and a disappointing mismash of comedy and murder mystery. Though we know it was originally intended for theatrical release, the film continues a strange, disquieting trend of so-called “Netflix originals” which feel incomplete from a narrative standpoint. 

Their four-year relationship on the skids, Jibran (Nanjiani) and Leilani (Rae) are on the verge of a bad break-up when they’re thrust into the middle of a conspiracy involving one dead bicyclist, a secret cult, and a sketchy self-proclaimed cop with a bushy mustache (Paul Sparks). With police on their tail, potentially marking them for vehicular manslaughter, the bickering couple sneak around New Orleans attempting to solve said mystery and dodge wealthy individuals who want them dead...

Click to read more ...

Emmy Watch: Supporting Actress in a Movie or Miniseries

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

Like its counterpart lead actress race, the supporting actress in a miniseries category has seen several programs receive multiple nominations over the past decade. In fact, on three occasions, three women from the same miniseries have all been cited. This year, there’s one series that may well shatter that record, with more possible contenders than there are slots in the category! That, of course, is Hulu’s Mrs. America…

Click to read more ...

Early Dolan: Cinema of Restless Youth

by Cláudio Alves

Like many others, I've been missing the experience of going to the movies quite terribly. Lately, I find myself thinking about films I had planned on watching before the COVID-19 pandemic annihilated any sense of normalcy. There was a picture scheduled to open in Portuguese theaters in the middle of March that I was particularly sad to see affected by this crisis. Matthias et Maxime is Xavier Dolan's latest film and, according to many critics, represents a return to form by the Canadian director after some less than ideal productions. As someone who once called himself a fan of Xavier Dolan, I'm eager to see him return to the glory of his earlier work…

Click to read more ...

Models + Trivia + Movies!

by Nathaniel R

"The Trinity" - Christy, Naomi, and Linda

Happy half-century birthday today to the one and only Naomi Campbell. For those of you who were born in the 1990s or later you might have missed what a huge supernova deal models were to pop-culture in the late 1980s to late 1990s. Household name models had existed for some time before of course (Twiggy in the 60s / Paulina in the 80s, etcetera) but it was in the 1990s when the term "supermodel" was coined and when the models who could legitimately be called household names began to truly multiply. "Supermodels" infiltrated rock and roll (via a constant presence in music videos) and tranferred to movies and tv by becoming their own brands and trying their hand at acting... or merely playing themselves (often superbly) in fashion-related movies or documentaries.

MODEL/MOVIE TRIVIA AFTER THE JUMP... HOW MANY CAN YOU GUESS IN 10 MINUTES?

Click to read more ...