July. It's a Wrap

July was the month of Emmy nominations, Ingmar Bergman's Centennial, Mamma Mia! melodies, old and new. It was also the month I failed to convince you to watch Harlots (your loss!). Here are 16 highlights from the month as we say goodbye to July.

Miscellania
• Almodóvar and Penelope - filming collaboration #6, Pain and Glory 
• Yes No Maybe So: Aquaman - another DC tragedy or wet fun?  
• The Dark Knight - a rewatch for its 10th anniversary 
• Rear Window -it's still perfect; We checked. 
• Best of 2018 - thus far at the halfway mark in all categories 
• Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood - Good dish or unethical or both? 

Most Discussed
• Amy Adam's 3 Best - Everyone has an opinion!
• Cats to become a movie - How on earth will that work? 
• Months of Meryl: The Hours - Streep unravels exquisitely
• Yes No Maybe So: Boy Erased - will it be one of the year's best?

Oh and 1943 was our Year of the Month
• Casablanca Quotes -Fun to hear all the different choices for "best," wasn't it?
• Mattes, Moons, and Mountains -on For Whom the Bell Tolls' production design
• Supporting Actress Smackdown -Katina vs Lucille vs Gladys vs Paulette vs. Anne 
• Vintage '43 - Magazine covers, happenings, and box office hits
• Soundtracking: Girl Crazy - Judy & Mickey & the American songbook
• The Seventh Victim - a 'polite' horror movie 

COMING IN AUGUST
New Films: Christopher Robin, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, BlackKklansman, Crazy Rich Asians, and The Happytime Murders. The podcast will return to a weekly schedule and we'll have a three part West Side Story retrospective for Leonard Bernstein's Centennial. Otherwise 1972 will be our Year of the Month and since Nathaniel has more time than usual (loss of a financially stabilizing side gig *sniffle* please donate to the site -- see sidebar!) expect a deeper dive into that particular film year. We'll start with Cabaret tomorrow! 

Doc Corner: Musical Chairs with Whitney, Elvis and Ryuichi Sakamoto

By Glenn Dunks

We’re playing a bit of catch up this week in the lead up to the hectic fall festival and award season. Nathaniel already looked at a bunch of recent indies and mainstream blockbusters. Now it’s my time to look at a trio of recent documentaries all about musicians: Whitney, The King, and Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda.

Why can’t we get a documentary about the one and only Whitney Houston that truly works? Kevin Macdonald’s Whitney follows on a year after Nick Broomfield and Rudi Dolezal’s Whitney: Can I Be Me, an appalling film that Whitney easily supplants if only by default. Macdonald, an Academy Award-winner for One Day in September (a personal favourite, but he is probably best known as the director of The Last King of Scotland) brings a glossy sheen to Whitney that was missing in that earlier title, but it still falls short of giving Houston the treatment she deserves.

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What did I just watch? "The Seventh Victim"

by Nathaniel R

Because Jean Brooks had frequently been mentioned as a supporting actress standout of 1943, the last film I screened for our celebration was Val Lewton production The Seventh Victim. I have only one question: what did I just watch? Kristen Lopez was right on the podcast when she called it a "polite" horror movie. Even the satanic villains are polite...

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Sharp Objects: Episode 4 "Ripe"

by Murtada

I was excited for this episode of Sharp Objects as it was billed as "Camille and Richard finally go on a date." They sort of did, in the Sharp Objects way by visiting Wind Gap murder scenes. But the episode also gave us a glimpse into Adora and Alan’s marriage and a memory involving Alan and Camille. I don’t think we’ve ever seen the latter two characters have any meaningful interactions before last night.

At the end of last week’s episode we saw Camille fleeing Wind Gap after her confrontation with Amma. However this time we start with her changing her mind and coming back. Images of dead girls fill the screen, we get it Jean Marc Vallèe, that's why she’s coming back. The constant cutting between now and the Camille's memories feels played out to me despite the story's dependence on memory. It was fresh and exciting when we first saw it 4 years ago in Wild (2014). Get some new tools, Vallèe!!

I’ve decided to let go of trying to look for clues to the mystery of the killer and just enjoy the performances and the eerie atmosphere that the series built.

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Podcast: Smackdown '43 Companion

Nathaniel R welcomes the panel Yaseen Ali (cinephile), Kristen Lopez (critic), Rebecca Pahle (critic) and Kieran Scarlett (screenwriter) to discuss 1943 at the movies with recommended favorites and our favorite switch-the-actresses around game. We had previously reviewed the supporting actress nominees.

We talk about the three actresses (Claudette Colbert, Veronica Lake, Paulette Goddard) in WW II women's picture So Proudly We Hail. The running time slog of For Whom the Bell Tolls which doesn't showcase Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman well, the hit play turned message movie Watch on the Rhine and its place as a "homefront" movie when the war barely touched our soil, and religious epic The Song of Bernadette which won Jennifer Jones the Best Actress Oscar. 

You can listen to the 1 hour podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

So Proudly We Hail Bernadette on the Rhine