Interview: Michael Shannon on his new Hulu series “Nine Perfect Strangers”

By Abe Friedtanzer

Michael Shannon's onscreen career deserves more recognition. Yes, he is a two-time Oscar nominee thanks to Revolutionary Road and Nocturnal Animals, but he wasn’t even nominated for his best roles, including Take Shelter, 99 Homes, The Shape of Water, and The Iceman. He also deserved Emmy recognition for his first regular TV role on Boardwalk Empire, which he strangely didn’t get. 

Now, the talented always busy actor of stage and screen, who at one point debuted a whopping ten films in a single year (2016), is returning to television for the limited series Nine Perfect Strangers, based on the book by Liane Moriarty, author of Big Little Lies...

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Streaming Roulette, August: Pray away those freaky requiems

New month. Time for another round of Streaming Roulette where we point out a handful or two of random titles that are newly streaming and just for fun, freeze frame them at totally random places in the scroll bar...

[No dialogue. Confused, looking around.]

FREAKY (2020) on HBOMax
This must be when the serial killer and the teenager find themselves in each others bodies, in this horror comedy riff on the Freaky Friday template. We didn't see this one (did you?) but are a tiny bit curious. Tangent: Do you ever wonder how actors and musicians feel when they watch movies and see their own faces as set decoration, on character's bedroom walls? (Hi Brendon Urie.)

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TCA Nominations 2021

The Television Critics Association has announced its nominees for the season and they make an interesting parallel kudo-party with the Emmys both in their sameness and where they diverge. I'm told voting closed before the Emmy nominations were announced so these are simple disagreements as opposed to statement making...

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA

Michaela Coel, I May Destroy You – HBO
Ethan Hawke, The Good Lord Bird – Showtime
Thuso Mbedu, The Underground Railroad – Amazon
Elizabeth Olsen, WandaVision – Disney+
Mj Rodriguez, Pose – FX
Omar Sy, Lupin – Netflix
Anya Taylor-Joy, The Queen’s Gambit – Netflix
Kate Winslet, Mare Of Easttown – HBO

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Cannes at Home: Day 7

by Cláudio Alves

Last year, while the Cannes Film Festival did not occur, the organizers revealed a list of titles selected. Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch was among them, and, unlike many other films slotted for the 2020 Croisette, it rescheduled all release plans so it could still premiere at the festival. After a one-year delay, it's finally upon us, and the reviews skew positive. Let's hope it's worth the wait. Another main competition title to take its bow today was Kirill Serebrennikov's Petrov's Flu. It's the Russian director's second film to compete for the Palme d'Or and his first release since a controversial conviction for embezzlement. Still banned from leaving Russia, he attended the festival by FaceTime. More on that later. For now, let's look back at these directors' previous successes – a bittersweet comedy on dysfunctional families and a galvanizing political allegory about modern Russia…

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Links: Korean Actors, Fun Director Interviews, etc...

• Observer a strong piece on the pros and con for both movie theaters and streaming at this juncture
• Variety has a piece up asking if the $60 million Black Widow made on premiere streaming (at $30 a pop) is good or not. And why is Disney being "transparent" about something so vague and impossible to confirm? 
• The Actor is Present The Korean Film Council has a huge guide to current Korean actors (200 of them!) so I'd check it out if you're into Korean cinema or television

More after the jump including Zola, Catherine Zeta Jones...

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