Emmy Watch: Best Lead Actor in a Limited Series/Movie

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

Let's move on to the acting races for limited series and TV movies. Last year, this category didn’t have a single nominee from a TV movie. The two leading contenders in this race are sure to reverse that trend – Hugh Jackman (Bad Education), a past Emmy winner for hosting the Tony Awards, and Aaron Paul (El Camino), who took home three Emmys for playing the same part on Breaking Bad. After that, it’s back to the limited series to find most of the other probable nominees…

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Review: True History of the Kelly Gang

by Chris Feil

For director Justin Kurzel, folklore goes hand in hand with with gorgeous brutality. After emerging with the true crime saga The Snowtown Murders and then the Fassbender double of Macbeth and Assassin’s Creed, Kurzel has established himself through a fascination with grisly legend, rending violence with stoic sheen and brooding male personas. His latest, True History of the Kelly Gang, is no different but somewhat more accomplished.

The film follows the rise of the infamous Ned Kelly, a tale you might have seen in the many, many cinematic retellings. Here George MacKay plays the historical figure with crumbling psychosis. Instead of a detailed account of the actions of his band of outlaws, this version (adapted from Peter Carey’s novel by Snowtown’s screenwriter Shaun Grant) charts Kelly’s exploits from adolescence to execution, delivering more of a character study of Kelly as a psychological victim of British imperialism. Along the way is an ensemble of characters that oppose him in ways big and small, from The Babadook’s Essie Davis as his bitter mother, to Russell as Harry Power showing the preteen Ned his first brushes with violence, to Nicholas Hoult as the film’s dandy police officer villain Fitzpatrick.

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The Quick and the Dead, 25 Years Later

by Ben Miller

When you rewatch Sam Raimi’s The Quick and the Dead, it desperately needs to be contextualized.  Look on the surface and you see four actors with both bonfide acting chops as well as moviestar magnetism.  On top of all that, you have a cavalcade of character actors hamming it up in the background while Raimi pulls out every B-movie trick he knows for an entertaining-as-hell Western.  

All of it all works, but it didn’t in 1995...

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such wonderful things surround you, what more is you linkin' for 🎵

• /Film Why Lulu Wang turned down a huge streaming offer for The Farewell to go theatrical with A24
• Vulture ranking the Spider-Man villains -- Into the Spider-Verse villains ought to be flipped and Far From Home's big bad is a spot or too low but otherwise a very correct list! 
• The Atlantic good piece on the possibly self-parodic elements of Spider-Man Far From Home
• The Guardian an interesting but depressing report on directors getting away with making LGBTQ films in homophobic countries 

After the jump The Little Mermaid, The Lost Boys, Toy Story 4, and Be More Chill...

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The Sad Relatable Story of "Boy Erased"

Please welcome guest columnist Eurocheese, who you probably know from the comments section. We realized we hadn't reviewed Boy Erased in full and he wanted to share his own story and how the film affected him. Here's Eurocheese... - Editor

Fifteen years ago, I came out to my conservative religious parents as a gay man. One of their first suggestions was that I voluntarily send myself to a gay conversion camp. Fortunately, I had accepted myself by that time and refused to go. What would have happened if I had been outed sooner, or if I still thought I could somehow change? I have seen several films addressing these so-called conversion camps, but never one that felt more in line with my personal story than Boy Erased...

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