Venice: "Primetime" by Lance Oppenheim

Elisa Giudici reporting from Venice

“What story was Oppenheim trying to tell with this movie?” a colleague asked me right after we left the screening of Primetime. He sounded as baffled as I felt. Since we're both European, neither of us is particularly familiar with Chris Hansen’s persona, voice, or mannerisms. As journalists, however, we know enough about his notorious pursuit of ratings on American TV and the backlash surrounding his early-2000s show. Still, for days, when someone asked what I thought of Primetime, I found myself giving the rarest of answers: “I don’t know yet.” It took me a lot of thinking to unpack why, in the end, it did not work for me...

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Emmys: We’re bored to death by the Limited Series

by Cláudio Alves

With 16 overall nominations, BEEF’s second season is our likely frontrunner. But who cares?

It’s over, finished. The TV Academy has broken us – Eric, Nathaniel and I – with the dullest Limited or Anthology Series race in eons. Make that races, for even the acting categories leave something to be desired, with rampant category fraud and some egregious snubs. How did Jamie Bell miss out for Half Man? How in hell did every one of Beef’s leads get a nod except the season’s MVP? And did Jason Bateman really need to double dip with Black Rabbit and DTF St. Louis? Not even Oscar Isaac’s hotness or the possibility of a history-making victory for Matthew Rhys are enough to energize this sorry lot.

Apologies for the grumpiness, but here we go…

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Emmys: Can “The Pitt” be stopped in the Drama races?

by Cláudio Alves

THE PITT is the year’s most nominated program, with 25 nods under its belt.

If there’s still some suspense in the Comedy Emmy races, with Hacks and Widow’s Bay battling out for supremacy, nothing seems able to stop a The Pitt sweep in Drama. Perhaps Pluribus could do it, having scored nominations in the double digits, yet its strongest bet seems to be Best Actress, and that’s about it. Not that the chance to finally see Rhea Seehorn with an Emmy after years upon years of stellar work in Better Call Saul isn’t a treat on its own. Still, sweeps are boring, and here, at The Film Experience, we yearn for variety and surprises. Can the TV Academy deliver on that front?

Eric Blume, Nathaniel R, and I don’t have much faith in them…

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Emmys: It's "Hacks" vs "Widow's Bay" for Best Comedy

by Cláudio Alves

With 24 individual citations, the last season of HACKS is the year's most nominated comedy.

Just as this post hits the timeline, the TV Academy will be in the middle of its two-day celebration of the so-called Creative Arts Emmys. In other words, the show where they give out every “below the line” category, with the Guest Acting prizes thrown in for good measure. The main ceremony, when the big awards will be announced to a new class of television luminaries – or more of the same, since they sure love to reward the same folks, over and over again – happens on September 14th. It’s a bit of a chaotic time, here at The Film Experience, with the fall festivals on a roll and the film awards season starting to peek over the horizon, while the small screen demands attention of its own. And indeed, we must pay respects to TV and the industry’s highest honors. 

With that in mind, Eric Blume, Nathaniel R, and I decided to have a quick look at the principal races and share our predictions, starting with the Comedies…

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Drag Race RuCap: Better late than never, it’s the “Grand Finale”

RuPaul and Miley Cyrus welcome you to the 76th Hunger Gam... I mean the season 18 Drag Race Grand Finale!

CLÁUDIO ALVES: And just like that, it’s over. Season 18 started pretty shapeless, with a scrappy, talented cast who exuded early Drag Race vibes, only to face late Drag Race challenges that did little to capitalize on their energy. The scandal of the Rate-a-Queen Talent Show two-parter suddenly gave us narrative propulsion that elevated the second half of the season until that dreadful makeover episode derailed it all again. We never recovered, enthusiasm dwindling and a bouquet of finalists that, though not undeserving, felt vaguely lackluster. And though the lip-sync LaLaPaRuza gave the show a jolt of life last week, the finale proper couldn’t help but be a letdown, perfunctory apart from one queen’s performance that, for a moment, gave the episode some necessary purpose. 

Grand finales are seldom great hours of television, but we know, from season 16, that this same format can beget better results than what we got this year. Oh well, could’ve been worse.

NICK TAYLOR: It could have been much worse!...

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