Emmy Watch: Regina King in "Watchmen"

by Eric Blume

We here at TFE are big fans of Regina King, as you know.  She’s been performing in the business for over 35 years, and has weathered career ups and downs as all good working actors do. She's risen to the top of the field in the last few years with three Emmys for very interesting and strong roles in TV. 

Personally, I had split feelings about her Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress last year for If Beale Street Could Talk.  As a fan of her and her work, I was thrilled to see Regina King get an Oscar.  But I found Beale Street to be heavy-handed and unconvincing, and the movie gave her too few notes to play.  She brought everything she could to the role and the film, but it would have been more thrilling to see her win for a juicy, complex role.

Which makes what Regina King does on Watchmen so exciting...

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The Emmas of Yore: ITV's "Emma"

by Cláudio Alves

The character of Emma Woodhouse is a tricky one to play. At least, if the actress is trying to reproduce the personality Jane Austen wrote in her famous novel. She's a daughter of privilege who has grown to believe she's much cleverer than what is true. A matchmaker by vocation, Emma is a busybody who's always interfering in other people's lives, presumptuous and terminally judgmental of all that surrounds her. She can also be a bit of a mean girl when indulged. Still, these character flaws are nothing but the folly of youth and the consequence of a provincial upbringing. Emma Woodhouse is naïve to a fault and desperately romantic. More importantly, she's not intentionally cruel or callous, just foolish.

This mix of a meddler's instinct and a daydreamer's heart is a difficult one to represent without skewing the balance of the characterization. In that regard, Kate Beckinsale might be the best Emma of them all…

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Laura Dern's Amazing Run

by Camila Henriquez

If last weekend's Golden Globes were anything to go by, we’ll have an award season packed with Laura Dern speeches. Even though she has been deemed a favorite to win Best Supporting Actress for the past few months, many (myself included) thought the HFPA would go the HFPA way and honor Jennifer Lopez. It was probably the best shot for J.Lo at a televised award, as Globe voters looove their mega-stars. But Dern has an "overdue" narrative that her category rivals just don’t. Well, Annette Bening does, but unfortunately there’s no chance in hell she gets her Oscar this year. Even the nomination would be a shock.

But Dern's Globes victory should have been a foregone conclusion, regardless of Lopez's great Hustler's performance. Laura Dern has a great track record with the HFPA; she has had eight nominations and lost only thrice. With her win last sunday, she joins Carol Burnett, Rosalind Russell, Jessica Lange and Ed Asner in the five-Globe-wins group. 

Let's look back at her Globes history - with an Oscar note or two thrown in -- for fun...

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The AFI Lists

The AFI are now in their 20th year so they're as old as our own Film Bitch Awards ;) Each year they choose 10 American movies to honor and 10 American television programs and then usually make one nod to non American things as they did this year with shoutouts to South Korea (Parasite) and the UK (Fleabag). Their nominating jury is made up of critics, movie people, and other luminaries and changes each year. But regardless of the individual voters you usually end up with something like the Oscar list. This year leans VERY December as if no other months held movies so the jury had extremely short attention spans. That said at least The Farewell and Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood are surviving those very very very short attention spans that always plague voters.

Here is the full list of this year’s honorees who will be honored at a luncheon in January...

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Murtada talks "Pain & Glory"

The Film Experience representing on Turkish TV! Murtada appeared this weekend to discuss Pedro Almodovar's autofiction career reflection in Pain & Glory. Well done. (If you haven't yet caught Murtada's review, referenced here, check it out.)

Pain & Glory now playing in NYC, LA, DC, San Francisco, Chicago.
Oct 18^th Houston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Miami…
Oct 25^th Detroit, Austin, Seattle, Denver, Fort Meyers, New Jersey, Ontario…
Nov 1^st Atlanta, Fort Worth, Honolulu, Milwaukee, Santa Barbara...
Nov 8^th New Orleans, San Antonio, Indianapolis, Columbus, Cincinatti, Des Moine...