Showbiz History: Way Down East, Valerie Perrine, Kalifornia

8 things that happened on this day in history as it relates to showbiz...

1838  Legendary abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery. Where's his biopic? Seriously.He shows up briefly as a supporting character in both the miniseries North and South and the feature film Gloryin the 1980s but since then, no films or TV about him, apart from documentaries?  

1920 Way Down East starring Lillian Gish as a wronged young woman premieres...

Click to read more ...

Review: Gemma & Gugu in "Summerland"

by Juan Carlos

Jessica Swale’s Summerland introduces us to Alice, an old writer living in the countryside during the 1970s. We watch her drive away children who are playing petty pranks on her. While it may seem random, the film utilizes this moment to inform us of her instinctive response to children which will interfere with the story to unfold.

Cut to the 1940s: in the same town, people are wary of the looming terror of the war. A young Alice (Gemma Arterton), then a recluse, is given the news that she is required to take in a young boy named Frank from London as the perils of the war continue to escalate in the capital. Meanwhile, she remembers a former lover (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) from the past...

Click to read more ...

Reader's Choice: Voyage of the Damned (1976)

Last week by popular vote you selected this streaming film for screening & discussion...

by Nathaniel R

It lasted 30 days... You will remember it as long as you live."

So went one of the chief taglines for the Oscar hopeful Voyage of the Damned (1976). It reads like a threat -- when taglines attack! -- this promise of a long unforgettable sit. Having only viewed The Voyage of the Damned for the very first time this weekend, it's too soon to say if we'll remember it for as long as we live, but the other part of the statement is accurate. We won't make a snarky comment about the running time (too easy!) but the titular passage was indeed a month long moment of intensely shameful global history. 

For those unfamilar with the history it goes, very briefly, like this...

Click to read more ...

Lina Wertmüller's History-Making "Seven Beauties"

The Governors Awards (Honorary Oscars) will be held on October 27th, 2019 with director Lina Wertmüller, actress Geena Davis, director David Lynch, and actor Wes Studi celebrated. We'll be discussing each of them before then.

by new contributor Camila Henriques

In Seven Beauties, Lina Wertmüller is not interested in sparing the audience. That becomes clear in the first minutes of the film, when we’re presented with a myriad of images of the Second World War: Hitler, explosions, destruction. In the background, a voice over speaks with a hint of melancholy and irony about “the ones who keep going and going just to see how it will end”... 

Click to read more ...

The New Classics: Inglourious Basterds

Michael Cusumano here to take a break from batting around Once Upon a Time In... Hollywood to look back a decade.

Scene - Chapter 2: Inglourious Basterds 
The Inglourious Basterds marketing team knew what aspects of the film to emphasize ten years ago. 

“A basterd's work is never done” boasted the tag line next to the image of a triumphant Brad Pitt brandishing a machine gun atop a pile of dead Nazis. “An inglourious, uproarious thrill-ride of vengeance!” promised another line. The centerpiece of the trailer was Pitt’s Aldo the Apache jutting his chin into a tight close to declare “I want my scalps!”. The promise was clear. The director of Kill Bill is trading samurai swords for hand grenades.

Rewatching it now, ten years later, I can still feel the chasm between the film that was sold and the film that was delivered. Basterds is a sprawling, oddly-shaped, thesis paper of a movie. And while there is no shortage of violence, it takes a back seat to dialogue, mostly arriving in quick bursts to punctuate long scenes of conversation. At times, Basterds could be mistaken for an adaptation of a stage play, and a foreign language one to boot. 

“Uproarious” though. The tag was telling the truth about that...

Click to read more ...