Tribeca 2019 "Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project"

Team Experience reporting from the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. Here's Jason Adams...

I always think of Amy Poehler's funny line on SNL about "soggy board-games and cat skeletons" when I think on the concept of hoarders. Sad people beside blackened sinks. But what if the hoarder's instincts turn out to be less a mental illness -- something more, grander? Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project uncovers that exception in a woman who obsessively recorded 35 years of news programming, from the Iran Hostages through 9/11 and up to Sandy Hook. And in the process the film argues that, as with superstition being science we just haven't yet confirmed, perhaps some of Marion's documentarian's madness wasn't madness, but prophecy...

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Happy 50th to Renée Zellweger

by Eric Blume

It seems crazy, but today marks the 50th birthday of Oscar-winning actress Renée Zellweger.  Zellweger is a bit of a divisive actor (even within this site!), but I loved her the second I first saw her onscreen, loved her through her big decade of success, and will proudly love her forever.

I fell for Zellweger for the first time the way most of America did:  as assistant Dorothy Boyd opposite Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire in 1996.  Even though that film features Cruise’s best performance (he should have beat Geoffrey Rush for the Oscar), I walked away from Jerry Maguire thinking, who the hell is Renée Zellweger?  It takes major presence and considerable skill to not be blown off the screen by a star like Cruise at his most commanding.  Not only did Zellweger hold her own, she brought out new things in him: a comic warmth, a quality of genuineness, something softer and more open.  He listened to her and didn’t anticipate everything, because she was off-center...

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Outer Critics & Drama Desk Nominations

by Nathaniel R

Eva Noblezada and Reeve Carney star in the wildly acclaimed "Hadestown"

Two big theater awards to cover at the moment, the Outer Critics Circle and the Drama Desk Nominations. Like the Drama League, previously covered, they're Tony precursors of a sort, the difference being that the Tony Awards only cover Broadway and all of the theater precursors also cover Off-Broadway. Among the musicals Hadestown led the Outer Critics nominations with 12 while at the Drama Desk Oklahoma! led the pack with 12 nominations. The stage adaptation of Tootsie did very well with both groups in runner-up position in terms of most nominations.

Complete honors for each awards group are listed after the jump...

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Doc Corner: Beyonce's 'Homecoming'

By Glenn Dunks

Reviewing a concert film can be tricky. The lines between what is merely a good concert with good music can become blurred with what is a good film. A concert film can quite easily be one and not the other (I will save you the examples), but to decipher what is what is an equation that it is all too easy to flub the maths on.

In the case of Beyoncé’s Homecoming, the numbers are a bit easier to put together as the film is more up front about its craft – tricky use of editing (those yellow/pink switches!!), the use of retro cinematography filters (Coachella ain’t Woodstock), scripted narration and so on. However, even when trying to filter out the rhetoric that often comes along as baggage with her, it’s easy to see that Homecoming belongs among the list of great concert documentaries.

It’s a joyous and exciting collage of sound and image from a moment in cultural history, a captivating two hours and 17 minutes.

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Fosse/Verdon - EP 3: "Me and My Baby"

Previously: Episode 1 and Episode 2

by Eric Blume

Fosse/Verdon certainly isn’t flawless, but it’s very strong out of the gate in these first three episodes.  Hamilton director Thomas Kail guided the first two episodes with an assured hand, throwing us headfirst into the theater world with little set-up, allowing audiences to feel their way into the environment, and trusting that his two star performances will keep people hooked.  His instincts were right on, and despite some awkward editing and temporal shifts, the show is arresting, absorbing, and intelligent.

Episode Three is directed by Adam Bernstein, a very talented guy who won an Emmy for 30 Rock and was nominated for Fargo...

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