Valerie Harper (1939-2019)

by Nathaniel R

Emmy & Golden Globe winner Valerie Harper, who rose to considerable fame as Rhoda on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-off Rhoda, passed away yesterday after a long battle with brain cancer which doctors thought would end her life years ago. And it wasn't her first such battle either. She'd survived lung cancer in 2009, returning triumphantly to showbiz with a smashing performance as Tallulah Bankhead in the play "Looped" in 2010. Though The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda were before our time as showbiz conoisseurs we did catch her in Looped on Broadway and were thrilled to see her justly Tony-nominated for what was surely a taxing but also a bewitching performance...

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AGLIFF: "Saint Frances" gets an encore screening, lives up to its hype.

by Nathaniel R

After winning SXSW in Austin this spring, the festival darling Saint Frances returned to the film-friendly Texas city for an encore screening at AGLIFF. We were initially perplexed at the inclusion since we hadn't heard that it had LGBTQ content. But, then, we don't read reviews until after screening films so sometimes these details slip by. The film has been picked up by Oscilloscope for distribution (we presume in 2020?) but they have a challenge ahead in marketing it. The film has no name actors, no easy marketing hook (more of a character study than a plot film), and is a debut festival hit from a white male director. We only mention the latter, and half in jest, because the film actually has quite a fresh voice and inarguably feminine POV...

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Review: "Good Boys"

by Tony Ruggio

Sixth grade, and middle school generally, is a confusing time. It’s a big transition for boys, from children who play to little teens who wannabe a playa, and not everybody’s in sync on the maturity scale. Good Boys is not merely a comedy about eleven year-olds cursing and thirsting for girls, it’s a mico-coming-of-age story about kids outgrowing each other, and trying desperately to stick together as a unit, as the “bean bag boys.” 

Max (Jacob Tremblay), Thor (Brady Noon), and Lucas (Keith Williams) are the only members, and they’ve been friends throughout grade school...

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The New Classics - In the Loop

Michael Cusumano here to mark the 10th anniversary of one of the great political satires.

 

Scene: The Meditation Room 
The political operators of Armando Iannucci’s In the Loop live in a world where issues don’t matter and the halls of power are filled with bureaucrats who would gleefully sell out their principles were they not held back by their own incompetence. In this universe, those sad few officials who do manage to take a moral stand are not merely defeated but negated entirely, their feeble protests turned into absurd jokes and swept away in a sea of media noise.

I should add that In the Loop is one of the funniest movies of the 21st Century, but then it would have to be to get away with painting a picture so grim...

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Team Experience: Happy, annoyed, and thirsty Emmy reactions

What's your favourite season, Catherine?We've already heard from Team Experience on the Emmy omissions that most pained them. Now that we've all had the opportunity to sleep on it, here are three final questions about the nominations for the 71st annual Emmys which will be held on.

1. Which Emmy nomination was your favourite?

2. Which Emmy nomination most confused / annoyed you?

3. What category is so sexy it made you quiver under your bodice? 

Enjoy their brief answers and provide your own after the jump, won'cha...

Which Emmy nomination was your favourite?

CHRIS FEIL: Sian Clifford for Fleabag. With most folks predicting the also sensational Olivia Colman, I feared that the show might be more of a critical fave than an Emmy to earn multiple slots in one category. But I'm thrilled that Emmy agrees that Clifford's hilarious crisis is an essential ingredient to the show and an ultimately moving one as well. The way she throws away her monumental, restorative line "The only person I'd run through an airport for is you"? Perfection.

ABE FRIED-TANZER: Kumail Nanjiani for The Twilight Zone. The comedian perfectly encapsulates the tone of this anthology reboot and his nomination serves as the best summary of its balance of creepiness and wonder...

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