50 Kristins for Kristin's 50th

by Jorge Molina

Today, Tony, Emmy and Grammy-winner (that’s right, she only needs an Oscar to EGOT; get on it, Hollywood) and human ray of sunshine Kristin Chenoweth turns 50 years old. To honor her career, her legacy, and that impossibly high pitch matched only by her charisma, let’s take a look at 50 roles and appearances that she has gifted the world in almost three decades of work, in no particular order:

1) Her Broadway debut in an adaptation of Moliére’s Scapin as Hyacinth in 1996. 

2 & 3) Her two most iconic Broadway roles: A featured Tony-winning turn as Sally in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown in 1999, and the Best Actress Tony-nominated performance as Glinda, the Good Witch in the world phenomenon that was Wicked in 2003.

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Saoirse Ronan Living Her Best Life

Saoirse Ronan went to Magic Mike Live! in Las Vegas for its one year anniversary! We hope it was a belated birthday trip for her 24th, too. (The photo is from the Instagram account of Ryan Carlson who is one of the 13 dancers in the show.)

Middleburg Farewell: Nicholas Brittel, Greta Gerwig, and "American Crime Story"

Day 1 (Darkest Hour), Day 2 (James Ivory, Mudbound, A Fantastic Woman) in case you missed them, Day 3 (Last Flag Flying)

Ann Hornaday and Greta Gerwig talk after a screening of Lady Bird. photo src

The last moments of Middleburg were a blissful blur that it's taken me a week to recover from. Before I left the splendor of the country at this under-the-radar festival in Virginia, I managed to attend three more events.

Lady Bird
I caught some of Lady Bird again (one viewing is definitely not enough). Just enough to give me that rush of pre-college feels again before meeting one-on-one with Greta Gerwig. We'll share that interview next week as Lady Bird begins its theatrical release. Gerwig is such a singular actress that we don't want her to give that up (please never leave our screens!) but it's a joy to know that she writes and directs just as beautifully. 

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
Since Middleburg largely takes place at a single resort, there are several panels and discussions in their coziest event space. The last on the menu was a discussion about the forthcoming miniseries The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story which is the second season of that anthology series which began with the Emmy-winning The People Vs Oj Simpson...

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Middleburg Finale Pt 1: "Last Flag Flying"

Day 1 (Darkest Hour) and Day 2 (James Ivory, Mudbound, A Fantastic Woman) in case you missed them.

Saturday at Middleburg started really slow but then the tempo and key changed. And then it got chopped and screwed and tessellated... and became truly special. If you don't know what any of that means, it's okay; neither did I. I shall explain when we come to the topic of Oscar nominated film composer Nicholas Britell of Moonlight fame.

But first Last Flag Flying...

Richard Linklater is America's most distinguished auteur in the subgenre of movies in which a tight knit group of men just kind of hang out for two hours. He's back quickly after his delightful college baseball comedy Everybody Wants Some!! but this time he's trained his lens on three men his own age... 

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Soundtracking: "Stop Making Sense"

This week, Chris Feil's series on music in the movies ponders the concert movie...

Who killed the concert movie? While the subgenre never reached the commonality of the music video, that particular form’s rise is timed right around the concert film’s demise. But perhaps it was just a form that seldom met the heights of “you are there” excitement or insight into the performer as Jonathan Demme and Talking Heads’s Stop Making Sense.

For such a distinctive visually-defined group as the Talking Heads were in music video form, Stop Making Sense remains their defining document. As much as David Byrne is the creative spearhead of the band and that radical rebellious sound, Demme’s insight is what makes this more than just a filmed event or way to see a popular band if they skipped over your town. If a concert is a singular way to live in the full experience of a performer and their sound, Demme takes that to the next level by dropping us in the middle of this creative unit.

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