Category Confusion '24: COMEDY or DRAMA – Part One

by Cláudio Alves

Is THE SUBSTANCE a comedy or a drama? What gives?

This year, I am part of the voting body for the Golden Globes. This means I get a front row seat to the annual issue of strange categorizations. Not just in terms of finagling distinctions between lead and supporting performances either. Because this is the Globes, there's also the matter of which films compete in Drama, and which others battle it out in the presumably less competitive realm of Musical or Comedy. Because we all need distractions right now, let's ponder these inconsequential genre divides and enjoy some benign polls whose results don't really matter beyond these awards obsessive circles of ours…

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Don't miss out on Dupieux's "Daaaaaalí!"

by Cláudio Alves

Earlier this year, for the Cannes at Home opener, I explored the filmography of one Quentin Dupieux, from his earliest shorts to the stage-bound satire of Yannick. At the time, only two of the French director's films were excluded from consideration since, sadly, they were unavailable. The Second Act marked the start of festivities at the Croisette while Daaaaaalí! was still making the rounds in more minor festivals before international distribution. Well, some months have passed, and the latter flick has enjoyed a limited run in American theaters and is now coming to VOD. It's as good an opportunity as any to reflect on its idiosyncratic director. And trust that if you're a Dupieux devotee, you won't want to miss Daaaaaalí!...

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NYFF '24: "Rumours" serves political satire à la Maddin

by Cláudio Alves

Rumours is probably Guy Maddin's most accessible film, flirting with the mainstream in ways most of his work never did. That's relative, however, and one shouldn't presume the Winnipeg-based auteur has defanged himself in some desperate attempt to score the public's approval. This G7 pitch-black comedy is still weirder than your favorite Hollywood directors' wildest swing, keeping true to Maddin's cinema of transgression. It involves, among other things, bog body zombies that jack off until they explode, a giant brain with a horny aura, the pedophile-tracker-like ChatGPT taking over the world, and Cate Blanchett playing the Hetalia version of Germany by way of a SNL Angela Merkel…

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2024 Emmy Nominations - Comedy

by Nathaniel R

PALM ROYALE secured 11 Emmy nominations including Comedy Series and acting nods for Carol Burnett and Kristen Wiig

Hey people out there in the dark! The strike threw off the timeline and we have not one but two Emmy award ceremonies this year. The first was for the 2022/2023 season and the upcoming 76th Emmys are for programs that aired between June 1st, 2023 and May 31st of 2024. That means some shows that people are discussing heavily right now, like House of Dragons, The Acolyte, or The Bear, are either ineligible (the first two) or are being honored for their previous seasons (like the latter).  Shogun led for Drama with an enormous 25 nominations but  The Bear was close behind with 23 nominations in the comedy categories (whether or not it belongs there is another conversation). 

You can see an exhaustive list of all 2,000,001 categories at the Emmy official site but let’s discuss the main nominations across the three chief ‘sections’ starting with Comedy. We have to break this into three posts since there's so much to discuss... 

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Almost There: Eddie Murphy in "Beverly Hills Cop"

by Cláudio Alves

Axel Foley's back! Thirty years after John Landis' Beverly Hills Cops III, the franchise has been revived by Netflix, and the fourth movie is already on streaming. Across its various iterations, the series about a Detroit cop solving crimes in Beverly Hills has varied in its balance between action and comedy. However, Eddie Murphy's presence is a constant, conferring a semblance of consistency in the films. Indeed, his impact is so strong that one can easily classify him as the franchise's defining auteur. No need to be in the director's chair when one's presence in front of the camera transforms the pictures, shaping them around the gravitational pull of a true movie star.

To mark the occasion, let's look back at the flick that started it all. In 1984, Martin Brest's Beverly Hills Cop confirmed Eddie Murphy as an A-lister, and might have even come close to Oscar glory…

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