The 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards

Megan Mullaly showing one of her dad's residual checks from SAGMegan Mullally served as host for the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards with a droll, endearingly casual approach, often making Lady Gaga the brunt of good natured jokes. But as with most awards show she got out of the way very early. SAG is all awards and no frills. They even shortened the "I am an actor" intro this year, limiting it to just three people. There's no awards show that's faster than SAG but the continually nervous Oscar producers might want to consider, when trying to shorten their own ceremony,  that SAG is not even a fraction as popular as the Globes or Oscars, both of which are considerably longer! 

The winners and notes...

BEST ACTOR IN A TV COMEDY Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
Tony Shalhoub has prepared nothing because, he suggests, his category was too great to think he'd win. This seems naive since he is an awards magnet. He probably has to wear protective gear whenever entering a ceremony, lest he be pummelled with statuettes of all kinds...

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Final Predictions: Best Actor & Best Actress

Other than the shorts, which we'll get to this weekend, we're all finished with our final Oscar predictions. Though we're at the top two most discussed categories, I regret to inform that this will surely be anti-climactic since I'm sticking with previous predictions in both cases. But here's why...

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Podcast: Aquaman Into the Poppins-Verse

Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl and Chris Feil talk new films

Index (51 minutes)
00:01 Mary Poppins Returns, the songs, the costumes, the Blunt
20:17 James Wan bonkers vision of Aquaman, shirtlessness and the lack thereof, and the kick-ass fun Nicole Kidman is having as Aquamom
30:08 Returning to the Poppins-Verse for a moment 
33:20 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and comic book style
40:40 Split opinions on Cold War but we all love the cinematography, music, and the performance of its leading actress Joanna Kulig
46:47 Murtada makes us talk about Beale Street... again.
49:45 Wrap-up

Further Reading / References
• Pawel Pawlikowski on KCRW's "The Business"
• Chris's review of Aquaman
• Yahya Abdul-Mateen underneath the "Black Manta" suit 
• Jason's review of Cold War
• Tim's review of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Into the Poppins-Verse

Podcast: Ben is Back, Beale Street, Vice, and those pesky SAG nods

Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl welcome special guest Alfred Soto to talk new films & SAG fallout

Index (61 minutes)
00:01 SAG nomination leftover feelings
05:00 None of us liked Vice and the reviews are mixed. We still think it's an awards contender so we discuss the question of latebreakers in each awards season. 
11:45 Randomness: Ethan Hawke, Bohemian Rhapsody, and the Florida Film Critics Circle
20:40 Ben is Back starring Lucas Hedges (with sidebars of Boy Erased and Beautiful Boy)
33:40 If Beale Street Could Talk
45:00 Reader Q: A fine element of a buzzy movie that's not being talked up
49:17 Reader Q: Is Best Actress actually set already?
51:00 Reader Q: If there wasn't Category Fraud this year what would be happening in Supporting Actress?
53:30 Reader Q: Reassign an Oscar win - what's the cascading effect?
59:40 Wrap up

Further Reading / References
• Murtada's If Beale Street Review
• Nathaniel's If Beale Street Quick Take
• Alfred's controversial review of Roma
• Alfred's Florida Film Critics ballot
• Best Actress Race 

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Beale St, Ben is Back, Vice

Months of Meryl: Into the Woods (2014)

John and Matthew are watching every single live-action film starring Meryl Streep.  

#48 —The Witch, a witch.

JOHN: In his reserved review of the original 1987 Broadway production of Into the Woods, Frank Rich summed up the plot of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s beloved musical as such: “Cinderella and company travel into a dark, enchanted wilderness to discover who they are and how they might grow up and overcome the eternal, terrifying plight of being alone.” Rich noted that, “in remaking Grimm stories, Mr. Sondheim's lyrics and Mr. Lapine's book tap into the psychological mother lode from which so much of life and literature spring.” Sondheim and Lapine’s dextrous, intertwined reimagining of classic Grimm fairy tales, from Little Red Riding Hood to Cinderella, offers a subversively adult version of these hallowed childhood fables and an artistic vision that seems fundamentally at odds with family-friendly Disney, the machine behind Rob Marshall’s 2014 screen translation.

When unhappy fans pressed Sondheim upon the film’s release to defend what felt like a compromised adaptation, he admitted that concessions were in fact happily made to secure a PG rating...

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