Nathaniel in Venice: "Official Competition" and "107 Mothers" surprise

Nathaniel reporting from Venice, a smorgasbord of days 3 through ??? ... I've lost track of days. What is time?

107 Mothers (Péter Kerekes)
A ‘tough' movie doesn’t have to be hard to watch. 107 Mothers isn’t ‘easy’ in its characters or themes, but it’s a surprisingly gripping watch, even entertaining. For a few scenes in the beginning of 107 Mothers, a new film from a Slovakian director Peter Kerekes, it feels like you’ve stumbled into an unfeeling doc about a women’s prison for violent offenders. And, indeed, this narrative feature is based on real stories about a specific prison in Odessa, Ukraine and Kerekes usually does documentaries. The establishing scenes interview several of the inmates, all pregnant, about their crimes which usually involve murdering their boyfriend/husband or his lover. It’s a curiously incongruous feeling that settles in: how could such hard-eyed numb women muster enough passion to commit a “crime of passion"?

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Emmy Analysis: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

The Film Experience Team takes a look at the episode submissions for major Emmy categories.

 

By Nathaniel R

Confession as lede: I chose this specific actor race when the Team divvied up the categories because I genuinely had no idea who I'd vote for when I heard the nominees. That's partially because of Emmy's silly voting rules which end up burying their acting fields with one show but partially because even within Ted Lasso, where I assume my vote will go, I love everyone. So come with me on this real-time (while I'm writing it that is) journey to find out where my imaginary vote lands and who Emmy might choose and why. I've reskimmed each episode or watched again in its entirety, to think this over.

(NOTE: If there is an asterisk by the Emmy nomination it means they have additional Emmy nods in non-acting categories. Only the acting nomination statistics are listed below)

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Gay Best Friend: Todd Cleary (Keir O'Donnell) in "Wedding Crashers" (2005)

A series by Christopher James looking at the 'Gay Best Friend' trope

Was Todd (Keir O'Donnell) the earliest inspiration for Gru from "Despicable Me?"I don’t love to complain (okay, sometimes I do). Most of the times I write this column to understand how gay representation in mainstream film has changed and evolved over the decades. Each shortcoming could be seen as another toe that LGBTQ+ characters stuck through the door of mainstream society. However, not all representations are good. Especially in the late 90s and early/mid 2000s, male focused comedies used gay characters as particularly malicious punchlines. As cartoonish as these characterizations are, they did paint a horrifying portrait of gay life to straight people. To gay people, these characters also served as a vision of what straight America hated about them.

My dark confession is that I love Adam Sandler comedies. They remind me of being an immature teenager and immediately bring back the sense memory of my hometown and a specific period in my life. Yet, these films were often the main source of these mockeries of gay life. (Though Sandler could be an equal opportunity offender, making himself the butt of the joke, too). Other mainstream comedies followed this formula to diminishing (and more demeaning) returns. The biggest R-rated comedy of this time was Wedding Crashers. The film grossed $205 million domestically (only to relinquish this title later to The Hangover 1 and 2) and was a word of mouth hit.

Today, the film’s success feels completely wild...

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Esther Williams @ 100: "Thrill of a Romance"

Team Experience is celebrating Esther Williams' Centennial.

by Nathaniel R

"Do you mind if I watch, too?" a businessman in a parked car shouts from outside a swimming pool -- a pretty swimming instructor, has asked her students to watch her do a swan dive. "Not at all," she says with a dulcet tone and flirty smile. Moments later the businessman is grilling the child to tell him everything he knows about his teacher including where she lives (!) This is the opening scene from 1945's Thrill of a Romance and courtship was, um, different. Who knows about this fictional swimming instructor but the actress playing her was already used to being gawked at, even before movie cameras arrived.

Esther Williams, the athlete turned movie star, was born on this day one hundred years ago in Inglewood, California. By the time she was 16 she was a national swimming champion with Olympic dreams. A couple of years later she was a star in the Aquacade (paired with another swimming champion, Johnny Weismuller, already a movie star). MGM signed her in 1941 and she became a popular WW II pin-up girl in her endless swimsuit photos. Meanwhile the movies back home were making her yet more famous. 

Which brings us to Thrill of a Romance (1945)...

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Emmy Analysis: Can "Ted Lasso" beat itself to Outstanding Comedy Writing?

The Film Experience Team takes a look at the episode submissions for all the major Emmy categories.

By Nathaniel R

Oustanding Writing in a Comedy Series has paired with the Comedy Series winner for the past three consecutive years even though a different show won each time (Mrs Maisel, Fleabag, Schitt's Creek). This was true even when the winning show had multiple writing nominations so it should have (theoretically) been splitting its vote. This suggests that the adorable and brilliant frontrunner Ted Lasso is going to win with ease... but which episode? WAIT, not so fast. Not long at all before that, Master of None and Louie both took this prize twice beating out their year's Comedy series winner (Veep and Modern Family). In the not-so distant case of Master of None vs Veep, Veep had multiple nominated episodes both times, theoretically splitting its own vote. This suggests Ted Lasso could also lose. But to what?

So let’s take a look at the nominees... 

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