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?

Podcast: Loving "Little Women"

In this hour long conversation Nathaniel and Murtada welcome special guest Kim Rogers (no relation to Nathaniel) from Head Over Feels to discuss Greta Gerwig's reworking of the classic oft-adapted Little Women starring Saorsie Ronan. Compare and contrast conversations to the 1994 version can't be helped but our opinions differ here and there on the 2019 film's sucess in various areas. We discuss the ambiguous ending, Eliza Scanlan versus Claire Danes, Florence Pugh playing Amy the whole way through and more. Spoilers, obviously, for this 151 year-old story. 

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Little Women

Review: Little Women

By Lynn Lee

Did we need another one?

That question hangs over any movie based on a novel that’s already been adapted multiple times – even moreso if there’s a previous adaptation that’s particularly beloved.  It may not, however, be the right question.  As potential movie material, perhaps great books should be treated more like great plays are for the stage, in the sense that if the work has enduring appeal, every new era deserves its own adaptation.  So perhaps the better question is whether this adaptation speaks to us, the viewers of today?

As applied to Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, the answer is yes…with a few caveats.  Full disclosure: I came to the movie as someone who read Louisa May Alcott’s coming-of-age classic so many times that my copy literally fell apart at the seams, and my devotion to Gillian Armstrong’s near-perfect 1994 adaptation starring Winona Ryder (which you should absolutely see if you haven’t) is a matter of TFE record .

While Armstrong’s version remains my favorite, I found a lot to like and admire about Gerwig’s...

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Noirvember / Contrarian Corner: Motherless Brooklyn

By Lynn Lee

Is Motherless Brooklyn just another high-profile Oscar hopeful turned dud-on-arrival?  The early signs for Ed Norton’s long-gestating passion project have not been encouraging, to put it mildly.  Reviews on both the festival circuit and the film’s general release and here at TFE have been tepid, the box office even more so. Its awards prospects are pretty much nil.  It’s also not the kind of movie that’s likely to find success through word of mouth or build a long-term cult following, and its chances of future critical reevaluation are uncertain at best.

All of which makes me a little sad, because I quite enjoyed the film, and think Norton deserves more credit than he’s getting for what he’s accomplished...

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Best of the "Whodunnit?" Genre (Part One)

by Eurocheese

Rian Johnson’s upcoming Knives Out is a thrill ride of a whodunnit, toying with one of the most enjoyable film genres. To celebrate, I'm sharing my all time list of favorite murder mysteries. Feel free to add your own in the comments – we could all use some good discoveries from any era or country.

Before we begin some whodunnit qualifiers to narrow down this list. The films must have: 

1. A set group of suspects, who we get to know through the film (disqualifies movies like Se7en)
2. An unknown culprit (knocks out most of Hitchcock)
3. Evidence, so the audience has some chance of guessing the final answer
4. ...And the identity of the culprit being revealed late in the film, either by a detective or the movie itself.

This should go without saying, but a whodunnit isn’t as fun when the answer is spoiled, so no spoilers in the comments (about any of these or Knives Out)!

TEN FAVOURITE WHODUNNITS...

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