"The New Classics" Returns

Exciting news! Michael Cusamano's engaging series "The New Classics," which focuses on top-notch 21st century films by dissecting a single scene, begins its second season April 28th --weekly editions Tuesdays at 1 PM! Here's what's been covered previously if you'd like to catch up. Any suggestions for season two? 

Season 1 of The New Classics

• Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
• Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)
• Sexy Beast (2001)
• Master and Commander (2003)
• Shattered Glass (2003)
• Before Sunset (2004)
• Collateral (2004)
• Eastern Promises (2007)
• Michael Clayton (2007)
• No Country For Old Men (2007)
• Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) 
• The Hurt Locker (2009)
• Inglourious Basterds (2009)
• In the Loop (2009)
• I Am Love (2010)
• Meek's Cutoff (2010)
• A Separation (2011)
• Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
• It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)
• Blue Ruin (2013)
• 20th Century Women (2016)
• The Florida Project (2017)

Review: True History of the Kelly Gang

by Chris Feil

For director Justin Kurzel, folklore goes hand in hand with with gorgeous brutality. After emerging with the true crime saga The Snowtown Murders and then the Fassbender double of Macbeth and Assassin’s Creed, Kurzel has established himself through a fascination with grisly legend, rending violence with stoic sheen and brooding male personas. His latest, True History of the Kelly Gang, is no different but somewhat more accomplished.

The film follows the rise of the infamous Ned Kelly, a tale you might have seen in the many, many cinematic retellings. Here George MacKay plays the historical figure with crumbling psychosis. Instead of a detailed account of the actions of his band of outlaws, this version (adapted from Peter Carey’s novel by Snowtown’s screenwriter Shaun Grant) charts Kelly’s exploits from adolescence to execution, delivering more of a character study of Kelly as a psychological victim of British imperialism. Along the way is an ensemble of characters that oppose him in ways big and small, from The Babadook’s Essie Davis as his bitter mother, to Russell as Harry Power showing the preteen Ned his first brushes with violence, to Nicholas Hoult as the film’s dandy police officer villain Fitzpatrick.

Click to read more ...

1981 Retrospective: Jessica Harper in "Pennies From Heaven"

Please welcome new contributor Nick Taylor. He's been sharing insightful comments on his reader ballots for years so he now joins the team to talk about Supporting Actresses who weren't nominated to coincide with our upcoming Smackdown events.

The 54th Academy Awards celebrated an insular group for 1981. Only nine films were represented between all four acting categories. If you expand that circle to include the nominations for Picture, Director, and Screenplay it's only a whopping twelve films hogging forty above-the-line slots. Every Supporting Actress nominee (to be discussed soon) had a co-star recognized in a different category. But when you look to performances outside of the nominated shortlist, like Kate Reid in Atlantic City or Karen Allen in Raiders of the Lost Ark, it’s hard not to wonder why things shook out the way they did.  

Or consider Jessica Harper’s perfectly controlled performance in Pennies From Heaven. Adapted from a 1978 British miniseries, Pennies follows song salesman Arthur Parker (Steve Martin, aces as a total cad), who views life through the rose-colored tint of the music he peddles but can’t see the damage he wrecks on others, and whose affair with lovelorn schoolteacher Eileen (Bernadette Peters, winning a Golden Globe for her delicate, nuanced turn) sends both their lives spiraling towards tragedy...

Click to read more ...

Emmy Watch: Who are the Supporting Actor Drama Contenders?

Giancarlo Esposito in "Better Call Saul"by Abe Fried-Tanzer

Our Emmy punditry continues with Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. This category has plenty of contenders, but unlike the corresponding female fields, there are more past nominees that aren’t eligible than ones that are. The end of Game of Thrones means three opens slots, and Michael Kelly is also out of the running since House of Cards is (mercifully) over.

What’s especially interesting about this category is that, because of season-skipping, character departures, and category switches, there’s actually only one nominee from the past four years who didn’t earn a repeat bid the next time he was eligible. That happens to be Jon Voight (Ray Donovan), who is indeed a very unlikely possibility this year for the final season of his series after three years of missing out. He’s way behind a number of other actors…

Click to read more ...

Doc Corner: Spike Jonze's 'Beastie Boys Story' + 'Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert'

By Glenn Dunks

If live experiences are one of the things you are missing most about being in isolation, then documentaries can be one small way of getting that groove back. Beastie Boys Story and Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert probably won’t be enough to recreate the experience—certainly, both are limited in their creative and technical scopes, nor are they the sort of concert extravaganzas that the subjects have released before—but for music-loving watchers, they may just offer at least something that approximates the joy of being among the throngs of others enthralled in musical rapture.

Beastie Boys Story in particular feels like a greater missed opportunity given it is directed by none other than Spike Jonze (he also directed the stage-show that it captures). But the band at its core are so interesting in their history and captivating in their stage presence that is almost doesn’t matter. Almost.

Click to read more ...