Emmy Review: Lead Actor in a Comedy

By Abe Friedtanzer

Of the major categories, this one is the most unchanged from last year. Two-time winner Bill Hader is out because season three of Barry has yet to premiere, and Golden Globe winner Ramy Youssef is in his place. Larry David didn’t make the cut. Both Ted Danson and Eugene Levy have won Emmys in the past, but this is their last shot to win a trophy for their current shows. 

I’ll try to avoid major plot details in my analysis – but if you’d like more spoiler-filled descriptions, click on the episode titles. Let’s consider each nominee…

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Emmy Watch: Best Actor in a Comedy

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

The "what will be nominated at the Emmys?" conversation continues. Today: Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.  Looking at last year’s nominees, this field may not be all that different apart from the top. Only one nominee, two-time defending champion Bill Hader won’t be back. Barry hasn’t yet announced its season three premiere date. On the other hand though there’s every reason to expect that the two departing contenders, Ted Danson (The Good Place) and Eugene Levy (Schitt’s Creek), will return for their show’s swan songs. Those two shows seem to have the largest fanbases among TFE readers so we assume you're rooting for them.

Another nominee from last year, Don Cheadle (Black Monday), is a toss-up. But given that he earned four consecutive nominations in this category earlier this decade as pretty much the only representation from House of Lies, scoring yet another solo bid doesn’t feel far-fetched. Anthony Anderson (Black-ish) has been nominated five times in a row, and he survived his show being ousted from the Best Comedy Series race last year, so he may be able to do it again. Michael Douglas (The Kominsky Method) is a good bet to return, but his show’s snub in the top race last year makes his chances less secure than they should be…

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Don Cheadle x 4 in "Miles Ahead"

Nathaniel reporting on the closing night film of the New York Film Festival

Don Cheadle has been an esteemed actor for a full twenty years now. His big reputation began with his breakout turn in The Devil with the Blue Dress (1995) and kept building. Somewhere along the way, despite a Best Actor nomination for Hotel Rwanda (2004) the leading man career didn't materialize (apart from his 4 time Emmy nominated gig on Showtime's House of Lies). The sturdy ensemble player attempts to right that wrong by producing, writing, directing and starring (whew) in a Miles Davis biopic.

Cue the trumpets!

And here we are. Miles Ahead was given the honor of closing this year's New York Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics will release the film.

It's tough to argue that Cheadle hasn't earned a spotlight as bright as this. [More...] 

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All That Link

It's been so long since we had a link roundup! You were all partying over the long weekend anyway. But we're back to normal. Please to enjoy these fine, discussable or just fun posts around the web...

Antagony & Ecstasy looks back at Thelma & Louise now that Susan Sarandon is on the road in Tammy's crime spree
VF Jennifer Lawrence meets Emma Watson
Leigh Alexander on internet sexism - the dos and don'ts 
BuzzFeed Matt McGorry and Samira Wiley from Orange is the New Black recreate Matthew McConaughey movie posters. Love.
WSJ Taylor Swift fancies herself a journalist suddenly and writes about the future of fandom, music careers and record sales 
AV Club on that potato salad kickstarter 
Deadline on new controversial strict rules for documentary eligibility at the Oscars. I understand the arguments against the new ruling but I would also like to caution documentarians to think about what they're asking for. The Oscars are larger than your particular craft and they really are supposed to be about CINEMA (i.e. things that play in theaters) so shush. These kinds of rulings may hurt at first but there should be a difference between television and movies. Television has its own awards for you to win if your film is great. Don't be greedy. I do agree with one complaint though: what's fair for docs should also be fair for features so Oscar needs to tighten up its eligibility rules across the board.

Hey, Look

It's the first image of Don Cheadle as Miles Davis in a forthcoming biopic. Filming has just begun. I guess Cheadle hasn't moved to TV for good (i *really* hate House of Lies) but at this point he seems far more likely to win an Emmy than an Oscar. The movie is apparently more about his marriage than his music. The best news about the project by far is that it gives Emayatzy Corinealdi a follow up leading role to her great work in Middle of Nowhere. She plays Miles first wife Francis Taylor.

Bob Fosse and Roy Scheider at Cannes for "All That Jazz"Fosse Fosse Fosse
Sound on Sight has an excellent retrospective of Bob Fosse's astounding but weirdly forgotten cinematic career from Mynt Marsellus. I wish Marsellus hadn't hedged on his ending - Fosse absolutely is equal to the other far more famous auteurs cited (Coppola, Scorsese, Spielberg, etcetera). They are only better remembered / respected I'd argue because they:

a) have comparatively gigantic filmographies
b) are still alive and working twenty-seven years after Fosse's death (Fosse was older than all the other crucial 70s breakout auteurs save Robert Altman and Fosse also died relatively young at only 60)
c) made their best films in genres that are more typically male than the film musical and thus escaped the pervasive destructive sexism that tends to devalue all rich work in more traditionally "feminine" fields like musicals, romances, and melodramas. We see this all the time in film criticism. Still.