Doc Corner: 'Listening to Kenny G' and 'Jagged' at DOC NYC

By Glenn Dunks

DOC NYC starts today. The festival runs for in-person screenings from November 10–18 and then continues online until November 28. I have a Twitter thread covering what I am watching, but here we are looking at two music docs about artists from very different ends of the spectrum: Kenny G and Alanis Morissette.

Trust director Penny Lane to make a biographic documentary about a musician and have it not be the same old same old. The American filmmaker has been on a tear lately with Nuts! (about goat testicle charlatans), The Pain of Others (about Morgellons disease), and Hail Satan! (about the Satanic Temple). This run continues with the wittily assembled Listening to Kenny G, which plays today as the opening night film of DOC NYC.

Lane’s film isn’t the standard musician bio-doc, although it does chart his career from the early days discovering music in school and does make a spotlight out of his career highs and lows. What makes Listening to Kenny G so invigorating of a watch is because of the greater story within which this narrative is placed. One that interrogates the controversial anti-populous appeal of the multi-instrumentalist’s smooth jazz stylings from all angles.

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Would you rather?

(You know this is just an excuse to share Instagram pics we like, we hope). Time for another round of our time wasting celebrity fantasies. Would you rather...

• goof with Charlize on the set of The Old Guard?
• scrub a rock with Julianne Moore?
• complete a puzzle with Morena Baccarin?
• hot tub it with Rebel Wilson?
• canoe with Alyssa Edwards?
• shower with Simu Liu?
• compose a tune with Florence Pugh?
👈 • play legos with Sam Claflin?
• do tequila shots with Jessica Chastain?
• multitask with Alanis Morrissette? 
• "work out" with Mindy Kaling?
• nibble fruit with Reese Witherspoon?
• share wine with Dakota and Elle Fanning?

Pictures are after the jump to help you decide.

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Stage Door: Where are the original musicals?

by Nathaniel R

Uh-oh... The Tony Awards last month wrapped up the 2018/2019 season with a reminder that original musicals were doing just fine (The Prom is getting a film version,  Hadestown remains a very hot ticket, and Tootsie has its diehard fans). Strangely, then, the 2019/2020 Broadway season is looking troubling from this distance. Of the six new musicals currently scheduled for the season NONE have original scores....

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Linkbusting

Alanis Morrisette had a baby daughter. Named her "Onyx Solace"
MNPP Chris Hemsworth's Australian commercial
Film School Rejects Where is Shelley Duvall?
Coming Soon First photo of Colin Firth on the set of Kingsman: The Golden Circle 
Christian Siriano of Project Runway fame, got married in black - guests (a celebrity who's who including Danielle Brooks and Christina Hendricks) wore white 
Revelist on Poussey & Soso's relationship in the new season of Orange is the New Black (spoilers) 

Mike's Movie Projector remembers Deborah Kerr's iconic nun characters 
Towleroad apparently Christoph Waltz kissed Tarzan in the original cut of The Legend of Tarzan. Test audiences were perplexed
i09 Kiefer Sutherland takes a supporting role in the remake of a film he once starred in, Flatliners (1990)
Pajiba whiny women-fearing Ghostbusters haters are still at it, giving the movie a 3.5 rating on IMDb before the pubic has seen it
Times of Israel talks to Quentin Tarantino about his career. Sadly he's still planning to quit after a 10th movie so we only have two left. I hated The Hateful Eight but I'd rather not see him quit altogether
Interview Jon Favrea (The Jungle Book) talks to Idris Elba about his career thus far
Theater Mania Marisa Tomei is starring in The Rose Tattoo at the Williamstown Theater Festival. If only she'd get roles that good in film! (Christopher Abbott co-stars)
Michigan Avenue Scarlett Johansson was recently honored in Chicago with a "Renaissance Award" and talked about her love for her job and for playing The Black Widow
AV Club looks at the collaboration of Woody Allen & Scarlett Johansson in their "Together Again" series
/Film Carrie Coon will play the chief of police in the third season of Fargo. Ewan McGregor co-stars. I guess I have to start watching.

Vintage '95

The Supporting Actress Smackdown 1995 Edition arrives on Sunday so let's talk context since we haven't revisited as much of 1995 as we'd hoped to! We've only hit the Jane Austen trend, Nicole Kidman's breakout year, a Bonus Podcast on Actresses and Films to Revisit, and Dolores Claiborne. Damn, we had planned much more. But many of you will already have your own personal context for the year, which isn't true of many years of "Smackdown" events so it's fine.

In many ways, though, 1995 was a completely different world. The internet was still in its list-serve infancy. The idea of computer generated movies was a joyful novelty. And aside from Batman, superheroes were still mostly relegated to "light" TV shows. Remember Teri Hatcher in Lois & Clark ?

EW photoshoot from June 1995

Great Big Box Office Hits: 1) Toy Story... the first wholly computer generated feature film 2) Batman Forever 3) Apollo 13 4) Pocahontas 4) Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls 6) GoldenEye 7) Jumanji 8) Casper 9) Se7en 10) Die Hard: With a Vengeance

Michelle & Coolio. They had a hit film, smash video, and the year's #1 single. But zero oscar nodsOscar's Best Pictures: Braveheart (10 noms / 5 wins), Apollo 13 (9 noms / 2 wins), Babe (7 noms / 1 win), Sense & Sensibility (7 noms / 1 win), and Il Postino (5 noms / 1 win).

My theories as to what was just outside the shortlist plus more '95 goodies follow...

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