Barbie Prep: Letterboxd, Watchlists, Oh My!

by Cláudio Alves

We're in the home stretch, less than a week until Barbie arrives in theaters like a shock-pink supernova. The promotion has been near manic in intensity, with the cast showing off their best Mattel cosplay worldwide and Warner Bros. pulling no punches. However, it's not all red-carpet glamour and real-life dream houses, with writer-director Greta Gerwig doing much to excite the global cinephilia by hinting at her Barbie's debt to great cinema of yore. She's been very vocal about the cast and crew watch parties, studying the hyper-artifice of studio classics, and even getting on the phone with Peter Weir to get some tips relating to The Truman Show.

In a recent Letterboxd interview, Gerwig went into a personal watchlist she curated, starting with 29 titles that eventually expanded to 33 during the conversation. It's a vast collection of titles, from 1930s screwball to modern Almodóvar…

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A Marilyn Monroe Top Ten

by Cláudio Alves

In June, we don't just celebrate Pride. For those in the know, it's also the time to honor the immortal memory of Marilyn Monroe, born in the dying breaths of spring, June 1926. As a birthday present to her fans, the Criterion Channel organized a sampling of the actress' best films, making a delicious collection everyone should check out. Inspired by that list, here's my own selection of Marilyn's peak, her ten most excellent performances in a career, a life, cut tragically short. After all, one mustn't confuse the iconographic impact with a lack of substance beyond the surface. Too many have done that already. 

Marilyn Monroe was a tremendous thespian, so seamless that people, in her time and our own, still assume character and interpreter were one and the same. In any case, let's forego defensiveness for joyful exultation. Without further ado, here's the Marilyn Monroe top ten, in chronological order, unranked…

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Queering the Oscars: Calamity Jane's "Secret Love"

For Pride Month Team Experience is looking at LGBTQ+ moments in Oscar history. 

by Nathaniel R

When we decided to do this series we left it up to contributors to pick their topics. Does an movie achievement qualify as queer because of an aesthetic sensibility? Because the artists involved were LGBTQ+? Because of subject matter or characters? Any of those! With Old Hollywood movies one of the most common 'qualifying' reasons -- it's all very subjective of course -- is whether or not a movie or singular element of a movie was 'adopted' by the queer community. In this regard "Secret Love," the Oscar-winning ballad from the western musical comedy Calamity Jane more than qualifies...

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"Kimberly Akimbo" and "Fat Ham" win the 1st Annual Dorian Theater Awards

By Nathaniel R

As we previously shared GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics recently launched a theater wing comprised of 34 members (including myself) which will be honoring the best in Broadway and Off Broadway theater each season. Our wing co-chair Sam Eckmann (Gold Derby) says:

"I’m thrilled to commence Pride Month with the first ever crop of Dorian Theater Award winners. From the gentleness of Kimberly Akimbo and Into the Woods, to boundary-pushing works such as Fat Ham and Prima Facie to the shot of serotonin that is Titaníque, our cohort of passionate journalists has uplifted the spectacular artistry that thrives in the New York theater scene."

For the inaugural our group chose one winner and two or three finalists (if there was a tie in voting) in 13 categories. They were...

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Review: A Portuguese Perspective on "Will-o'-the-Wisp"

Will-o'-the Wisp opens tomorrow in the US in limited release

by Cláudio Alves

I love my country's cinema, so it's only logical I would yearn for its appreciation beyond borders. Yet, sometimes that joy comes suffused with a nagging curiosity. Do foreign audiences 'get' these films? Even when they're praised are they lost in cultural mistranslations?  Perhaps that's too narrow a viewpoint that overestimates how closed-off Portuguese cinema is in its specificities. There's a universal appeal to great cinema, audiovisual idioms can transcend national barriers.

Still, I love to talk with non-Portuguese friends about Portuguese cinema they love and find myself learning along the way. Indeed, I'd love to chat about João Pedro Rodrigues' latest, currently enjoying an American release in selected theaters. Even if you don't get all the details of Will-o'-the-Wisp, there's plenty to love, from fireman eroticism to cumshots, musical stylings, and artificiality unleashed. It's an orgasmic blast from beginning to end…

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