Emmy Watch: Who will be up for Comedy Actress?

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

The "what will be nominated at the Emmys?" conversation continues. Today: Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. 

Last year, this category was upended in a major way, with just one of the six eligible previous nominees – winner Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) returning to the lineup. 2020, then, could be a good chance for any of the booted five to rejoin the race, as three of last year’s nominees won’t be back. Past winners Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep) will have to wait for new series to bring them back since those shows have ended, and Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll) will probably return whenever her show does, which won’t be this season. It’s fair to assume that the other three nominees will be back: Brosnahan, Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek), whose show just aired its series finale and who is definitely the fan favorite (of this site), and Christina Applegate (Dead to Me), whose second season will in fact arrive on time for Emmy consideration…

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70s Fashion on Criterion

by Cláudio Alves

The relationship between fashion and cinema is a complex one, with influence going both ways. Sometimes, runway shows take their cues from the glory of the silver screen, while costume designers can find inspiration on the pages of Vogue. In cases such as the collaboration between Audrey Hepburn, Edith Head and Hubert de Givenchy, it's a multifaceted symbiosis where couture and cinema walk hand in hand to the benefit of both. These dynamics aren't exclusive to the Golden Age of Hollywood and the big studios, of course. Just look at the great style icons of the 70s moviedom...

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The best-looking Coen flicks

by Cláudio Alves

The Coen brothers are some of the most acclaimed American directors of our days. While many celebrate their ability with witty dialogues and violent storylines, a worldview rich in irony and nihilism, parts of their cinematic genius remain a bit underrated. For instance, their works are always beautiful, carefully composed and shot, full of inspired design choices and homages to the classicism of Old Hollywood filmmaking. Few would put them in the same ballpark as contemporary directors like Luhrmann or del Toro when it comes to the consistent creation of lush visual feasts, but maybe we should reconsider that…

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Posterized: The Best of Icelandic Cinema

by Nathaniel R

A few weeks back we celebrated Romanian cinema due to Whistlers, their most recent Oscar submission, hitting VOD. Why not follow suit today as Iceland's latest Oscar submission, A White White Day, arrives for home viewing? A White White Day is a moving character study about a widower dealing with new revelations about his wife after her death in a car accident. Meanwhile he's building a home for his daughter against the Icelandic landscape which makes for memorable recurring tableaus. We reviewed it at TIFF last year and it's worth checking out. Especially if you love Nordic cinema or are familiar with the work of Iceland's greatest movie star Ingvar E Sigurdsson, who is typically perfect here. We imagine that this film would have ruled this year's Edda Awards (Iceland's Oscars essentially) but the Eddas have been postponed indefinitely (they were originally scheduled for March) due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

And on that note let's look back at the most essential, famous, acclaimed, influential (or some combo thereof) Icelandic films of the past 40 years via our Posterized series. We've put asterisks beside all the titles that star Sigurdsson since we love him and you will too after screening A White White Day.

How many of these 18 Icelandic films have you seen? 

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Review: Endings, Beginnings

by Chris Feil

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, one of the past decade's best examinations of the messy terrain between mental health and romantic entanglements, hilariously gave us a number called "Sexy French Depression". Skewering the French New Wave aesthetic, the song (co-written by recently departed genius Adam Schlesinger) spoofed not only our outsized self-perceptions, but a wan glamorization of female depression in cinema. It’s a trope you’ve seen before and will see again.

That vibe is very much at play in Drake Doremus' new minor key film Endings, Beginnings, where Shailene Woodley suffers from an actually rather sexy but very Los Angeles depression. Woodley stars as art programmer Daphne, in a rut after a recent breakup sends her (back, apparently) to her sister's poolhouse as she tries to find a job between art club sessions with Kyra Sedgwick and performing R.E.M. at karaoke. Woodley is solid, but in Doremus' hands, the most cliche version of Los Angeles plays itself.

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