Review: The new "Emma."

by Lynn Lee

Now that we’ve revisited past Emma adaptations like 1996's Miramax release and 1995's Clueless, courtesy of Claudio, it’s time to turn our attention to the latest version, which just went wide last week.  It’s a production of relative newcomers, marking the directorial and screenwriting debuts, respectively, of photographer Autumn de Wilde and Booker Prizewinning New Zealand novelist Eleanor Catton, and starring a cast of mostly fresh faces headed by rising star Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch).  Whatever it’s lacking in big names it certainly makes up for in indie credit.

The result is an Emma that’s bright, fun, and funny – not attaining the sublime heights of Clueless but more successful than the 1996 Miramax version with Gwyneth Paltrow...

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Film Bitch Awards: Screenplays, Score, and Sound

We started a week ago with a few appetizers but now the 20th (gulp) annual Film Bitch Awards are finally in full swing. Here are the new categories that are up

BEST ORIGINAL & ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Wouldn't it be neat if Marriage Story or Parasite could snag a surprise win from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at the Oscars in Original Screnplay. All three are also nominated for the Film Bitch Award but we don't think Tarantino needs a third Oscar and for the first time since Kill Bill his visuals feel even more noteworthy than his writing anyway. Not that it's not a grand script. But the raw wound comedy and drama of Baumbach's reflection and Parasite's ingenious construction are right there for the honoring so we hope the Academy thinks it through.  We're happier about the other impending Oscar win for Adapted because Greta Gerwig takes Little Women apart and puts it back together again in such a personal and fresh 'life-of-an-artist' way. 

BOTH SCORE & SOUND CATEGORIES
Music and sound preferences are so hard to articulate so forgive the very short notes.

As a reminder, if you haven't voted on the "should wins" for those categories at the actual Oscars, do that on the charts please. 

Sundance: Benh Zeitlin returns with "Wendy"

by  Abe Fried-Tanzer

Eight years ago, director Benh Zeitlin, just twenty-nine at the time, brought his debut feature Beasts of the Southern Wild to Sundance, where it took home the Grand Jury Dramatic Prize. It went on to score four Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture and a bid for directing for Zeitlin. Since then, he has produced a few projects, but now marks the much-anticipated release of his second effort behind the camera.

Wendy is a creative retelling of the Peter Pan story, with Wendy (Devin France) and her twin brothers (Gage and Gavin Naquin) helping their single mother at the diner where she works and watching excitedly as trains go by their windows every night...

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Toni Collette is winning in "Dream Horse"

Abe Fried-Tanzer reporting from Sundance...

Toni Collette is an incredibly versatile actress. In just the last two years, she has enthralled indie horror fans in Hereditary, hilariously parodied GOOP excess in Knives Out, and impressed Netflix viewers with her tremendous turn as a no-nonsense cop in Unbelievable. In comparison, her latest turn as a Welsh bartender with big dreams, may seem tame or even unchallenging. Yet Collette is always up to the task and prepared to deliver... 

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Jake Gyllenhaal will be visiting 'Fun Home'

by Murtada Elfadl

Gyllenhaal with Tesori in 2018

Thankfully the box office failure of Cats hasn’t put the kibosh on green lighting musicals for the big screen. The latest Broadway sensation to get the big screen treatment will be Fun Home, based on illustrator Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir about her bittersweet relationship with her father. Yes that’s the Bechdel of the Bechdel test. Jake Gyllenhaal will produce and star as Bruce Bechdel, the role that won Michael Cerveris a Tony for best actor in a musical- one of 5 Tonys Fun Home won in 2015. The part is multi faceted as the elder Bechdel is a closeted conflicted gay man and the musical charts not only his daughter’s queer awakening but also his messy relationship with her and with his wife.

Sydney Lucas as Small alison with Cerveris on Broadway

I loved this show on Broadway and I'm excited to see a film adaptation, but with reservations about this casting. I hope Gyllenhaal can give it the pathos and depth it needs while not relying on the tics that have become a trademark of his performances since Prisoners (2013). On the other hand he has proven himself to be adept at musicals having starred in Sundays in the Park With George on Broadway and Little Shop of Horrors off Broadway. He will be taking Sunday to London next May.

Fun Home featured lyrics by Lisa Kron and music by Jeanine Tesori (Caroline or Change). On stage the part of Alison is played by three actresses at different ages but we don’t know if the movie would follow the same plan. Sydney Lucas was senastional on Broadway as the youngest Alison. That character gets the showstopping number, Ring of Keys. Another great part is that of the mother Helen Bechdel for which Judy Kuhn was Tony nominated. The Daily Mail which broke the news - Baz Bamigboye is reliable on theater and theater to film adaptations - credits Sam Gold, who directed the Broadway production, as the director but no news yet of who’s writing the adaptation. 

Have you got your Ring of Keys ready for this?