Celebrity IOU: Brad, Melissa, and Viola.

by Eric Blume

And now for something completely different.  Not sure how many folks have caught it yet, but a few weeks ago, HGTV, center of home improvement and home selling shows, launched a new program called Celebrity IOU.  The concept is that a famous person treats a loved one to a home/property makeover, working in conjunction with the network’s twin “Property Brothers” Jonathan and Drew Scott. 

Usually we wouldn’t write about this here at TFE, but HGTV got some really big guns for their first three episodes, all recent Oscar winners or nominees.  Episode one featured Brad Pitt; episode two was Melissa McCarthy; and episode three, Viola Davis...

Click to read more ...

Review: Little Fires Everywhere

by Murtada Elfadl

This review only covers the first three episodes of Little Fires Everywhere.

In the second episode of the new Hulu miniseries Little Fires Everywhere rich privileged white woman Elena Richardson (Reeese Witherspoon) asks the nomad artist Mia (Kerry Washington), who is her new tenant, to be her maid. You see she means well. She saw Mia and her teenage daughter asleep in their car and of course as any upstanding citizen would do, called the police on them for trespassing. Out of guilt she leased them her open apartment when by coincidence she recognized them later in the day. Now Mia has told her that she needs to juggle more than one job to make ends meet. The offer comes out naturally out of Elena's mouth. Only after she finishes saying the words does she realize what she has said and how it can be misconstrued. She back tracks by changing the job to “house manager.”

That scene is fraught with racial, class and socio-economic tension. It made me excited for the series and for watching Witherspoon and Washington tackle these issues...

Click to read more ...

SXSW didn't have a festival. But they do have winners.

Shithouse (2020) was the big winner at the phantom SXSW festivalA not so secret secret about film festivals: many juries are watching their category on screeners before the festival due to tight schedules, scads of programming, and the general chaos of actual festivals. So, though SXSW didn't actually happen this year, their juries DID give out prizes. Yes, it feels like new movies are but figments of our imagination but that's always the case to some extent with festivals, isn't it? Like Saint Frances which won big at SXSW a year ago only to finally emerge just in time for the Coronavirus to strike it down in theaters, a couple of weeks ago. So maybe in a year's time we'll see these movies!

Their winners and what the juries said about them....

Click to read more ...

Emmy Watch: Regina King in "Watchmen"

by Eric Blume

We here at TFE are big fans of Regina King, as you know.  She’s been performing in the business for over 35 years, and has weathered career ups and downs as all good working actors do. She's risen to the top of the field in the last few years with three Emmys for very interesting and strong roles in TV. 

Personally, I had split feelings about her Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress last year for If Beale Street Could Talk.  As a fan of her and her work, I was thrilled to see Regina King get an Oscar.  But I found Beale Street to be heavy-handed and unconvincing, and the movie gave her too few notes to play.  She brought everything she could to the role and the film, but it would have been more thrilling to see her win for a juicy, complex role.

Which makes what Regina King does on Watchmen so exciting...

Click to read more ...

The Emmas of Yore: ITV's "Emma"

by Cláudio Alves

The character of Emma Woodhouse is a tricky one to play. At least, if the actress is trying to reproduce the personality Jane Austen wrote in her famous novel. She's a daughter of privilege who has grown to believe she's much cleverer than what is true. A matchmaker by vocation, Emma is a busybody who's always interfering in other people's lives, presumptuous and terminally judgmental of all that surrounds her. She can also be a bit of a mean girl when indulged. Still, these character flaws are nothing but the folly of youth and the consequence of a provincial upbringing. Emma Woodhouse is naïve to a fault and desperately romantic. More importantly, she's not intentionally cruel or callous, just foolish.

This mix of a meddler's instinct and a daydreamer's heart is a difficult one to represent without skewing the balance of the characterization. In that regard, Kate Beckinsale might be the best Emma of them all…

Click to read more ...