Capsule Review: Tech Triple Threat - "Super-Pumped," "The Dropout" and "WeCrashed"

by Christopher James

Which new show about the rise and fall of a major tech company prevails in the end?Do you ever get deja vu while watching a TV or movie? Trends always lag a year or two when it comes to pop culture. More so than ever, the minute a story or documentary takes off, production companies are working on the scripted version of the story. In the course of a month, there will be three separate miniseries dramatizing famous tech flameouts from the last decade. Showtime was the first out the gate with Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber, which has already been renewed for season two, centering around Facebook. Next up was Hulu with The Dropout, which cast Amanda Seyfriend as Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. By the end of the month, Apple TV+ will premiere WeCrashed, where Oscar winners Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway star as the charismatic couple behind WeWork, Adam and Rebekah Neumann.

It’s easy to make comparisons when so many similar series come out in quick succession. Between the three shows, there’s a clear winner and clear loser. Which is which? Read on to find out...

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HollyShorts Pt. 2: Amanda Seyfried, Sofas, and Cigarettes

By Ben Miller

The virtual HollyShorts Film Festival is in full swing and begins to focus on specific genre categories as the days roll on.  It's an Oscar Qualifying Festival so nominees or even a future Oscar winner could well emerge. In part one we looked at nine shorts with a couple of familiar actors appearing. While there is just too much to cover, here are nine more highlights and a few more celebrity actors, too...

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Supporting Actress Smackdown '20: Bakalova, Close, Colman, Seyfried, and Youn!

Welcome back to the Supporting Actress Smackdown. Each month we pick an Oscar vintage to explore through the lens of actressing at the edges. For the season premiere we're starting with the current Academy Awards competition honoring the films of 2020.  

THE NOMINEES 2020's shortlist, chosen much later than we're used to in 2021 due to the pandemic reschedulings, collects one breakout young Bulgarian actress (Maria Bakalova), one Hollywood legend (Glenn Close), a popular recently Oscar-winning British treasure (Olivia Colman), a former Mean Girl who continues to expand her range (Amanda Seyfriend), and a revered South Korean actress (Youn Yuh-Jung).

THE PANELISTS Here to talk about their performances and films are, in alpha order:  actress/playwright/comedian Grace Aki (Tell Me on a Sunday), awards columnist Scott Feinberg (The Hollywood Reporter), writer/producer Peter Knegt (CBC Arts), writer/podcaster Jorge Molina (Just to Be Nominated), and awards pundit Matt Neglia (Next Bext Picture). As ever the event is hosted by TFE's mastermind, Nathaniel R. Let's begin...

SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN + PODCAST  

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The Furniture: "Mank", Crusader Against Tackiness

"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber. (Click on images for magnified detail)

Opulence isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Sometimes things that are expensive are worse. This is the message of Mank.

Or, rather, a message. But much of the film’s impact does spring from an acknowledgement that it would be cost-prohibitive to replicate the colossal excesses of the real Hearst Castle. Production designer Donald Graham Burt is pretty clear about that in this short video feature about his work. So, rather than trying and failing, they did something different...

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Team Experience SAG/Globe Reactions Pt 1: Dark Thoughts & Unsurprising Surprises

Hey hey. So we polled Team Experience about this week's barrage of honors to see where their heads and hearts were at (though you know some of their loves if you checked out the Team Experience Awards). So let's start with less thrilling questions like ...

• Which SAG or GLOBE nomination left you cringeing or shaking your head?
• Which "surprises" were not actually surprises?
• Any theories about the ___ snub?

Read their answers and supply yours in the comments, please...

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