"Bombshell" screens shaking up Best Actress

by Eric Blume

Potentially great news just arrived for the undernourished Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress races:  Jay Roach’s Bombshell had its first screening in LA on Sunday night, and the word out of the gate seems overwhelmingly positive.

Reviews for the film are embargoed for another eight weeks or so, but various sources online are saying Charlize Theron’s “transformational” performance as Fox News personality Megyn Kelly is explosive and catapults her into the top of the Best Actress race...

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Tweet of the Week: Charlize Crushes

I feel like I have to be honest.
I’m in a new relationship.
With both these ladies.
For real. pic.twitter.com/V2GxFW8PTi

— Charlize Theron (@CharlizeAfrica) September 15, 2019

If Bombshell is great it might become the tweet of the year!

Yes No Maybe So: "Bombshell"

On the heels of Showtime’s unheralded miniseries The Loudest Voice, Lionsgate and director Jay Roach are diving into the zeitgeist with Bombshell (formerly titled Fair and Balanced). The film details the #MeToo fallout at Fox News and stars three of today’s greatest working actresses. For whatever reason, Bombshell is being mostly ignored by many early Oscar prognosticators.

This despite, well...let’s dive into that teaser shall we?

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Podcast: Once Upon a Time ... in Listener Questions

with Murtada Elfadl & Nathaniel R

 

Index (59 minutes)
00:01 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: stars, tension, pacing, violence
27:00 Skin starring Jamie Bell: Murtada hates it
Listener Questions...
30:00 Feelings about Renee Zellweger playing Judy
35:00 Our favourite Brad Pitt roles
37:00 Alternative history movies
39:00 Best cats in movies?
41:45 Who is the next Nicole Kidman? 
49:00 Smackdown scheduling
50:20 Sharon Tate's legacy 
51:30 What happened with Mask (1985) at the Oscars? 
55:00 Is 2019 a weak film year? 

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? 

Articles referenced in this recording
• Jason's review of Once Upon a Time...
• Murtada on the Judy trailer
• Nathaniel on Mask 

Once Upon a Time in Listener Questions

Big Little Lies MVPS: Episode 2.6 "The Bad Mother"

Previously: Episode 1 (Nathaniel) Episode 2 (Spencer) Episode 3 (Lynn) Episode 4 (Nathaniel) Episode 5 (Eric)

by Chris Feil

... So.

By now I’m sure you all have seen the reports about what has gone on behind the scenes of Big Little Lies: director Andrea Arnold was removed from the show in post-production, a planned usurping by original season one director Jean-Marc Vallée once he completed Sharp Objects. Despite the free reign she had been given, a major lack of communication resulted in the show being snatched from her creative hands.

What a fiasco that’s only resulted in a somewhat disjointed season - looks like the blame for what hasn’t been working goes to producers for putting the show through a meat grinder. But what has been working can be easily ascribed to Arnold’s approach: the attention to character detail, a complex thematic landscape marinating hard-to-reconcile truths, the weight of suppressed feelings brimming over. Aren’t those things Big Little Lie’s fans would use to define the show and their love for it, not just its structural or aesthetic attributes?

Despite the timing and our allegiance to Arnold, Big Little Lies turned in what had to be its most thrilling episode yet this season, one that builds a huge sense of momentum leading into next week’s finale. Let’s look at this episode...

Top Ten MVPs of Big Little Lies, Episode 2.6 "The Bad Mother"

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