Months of Meryl: Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)

John and Matthew are watching every single live-action film starring Meryl Streep. 

#51 —Florence Foster Jenkins, a socialite and opera singer of abysmal ability.

MATTHEW: Florence Foster Jenkins was an affluent New York heiress who is only remembered today for her decades-long career as a nonprofessional soprano that spurred many to label her “the world’s worst opera singer.” Meryl Streep is one of the most acclaimed and rewarded actresses in history, a global celebrity whose foremost attribute is talent, pure and simple. The marquee casting of Streep as Jenkins is the amusing and unignorable irony at the center of Stephen Frears’ Florence Foster Jenkins, a biographical drama that narrativizes the amateur, septuagenarian chanteuse’s notorious attempts to resuscitate her dormant career in the years before her death in 1944. It is nothing if not a testament to Streep’s power as one of the only active, major female movie stars of a certain age that a period piece about an awful opera singer well into her 70s received a prime summer release from a major studio (Paramount) and a full-steam awards campaign that garnered the actress her 20th Oscar nomination...

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Penny Marshall (1943-2018)

by Nathaniel R

We were terribly sad last night to receive word that America's most successful female sitcom-star-turned-director had passed away at the age of 75 of complications from diabetes. We'd long hoped that showbiz legend Penny Marshall, who became a household name in the 1970s as one of half of Laverne & Shirley before getting behind the camera in the 1980s (to immediate success), had another movie or two in her. That was wishful thinking, we realize, since she hadn't directed a feature since 2001. Still, we'll always have her two indisputable comedy classics Big (1988) and A League of Their Own (1992) to remember her by...

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Blueprints: "Little Miss Sunshine"

To celebrate the family awkwardness of Thanksgiving weekend, Jorge takes a look at one of cinema’s most memorable dysfunctional families and how they make their entrances.

Look, no family’s perfect. Far from it. And no holiday brings out the imperfections more than Thanksgiving. Every difference of opinion, tightly-held grudge, annoying personality trait, buried secret and imprinted trauma tend to resurface. And while it may be hell for those going through it, these interactions are usually fertile ground for narrative drama.

But most families tend to be dysfunctional year-round, not just during the holidays. Some don’t need a holiday weekend or a glass of wine to bring out their unpleasant side. All you need to see it is a quick first glimpse. So let’s take a look at the Hoovers in 2006’s Little Miss Sunshine, who are precisely that kind of family. Let’s see how they are each individually introduced in the script, as fully flawed human beings...

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Parker Posey's On Top

WHO'S ON TOP AND WHO'S ON BOTTOM NOW, HUH?

Happy Birthday to Parker Posey, who gave us the best worst audition of all time.

And here's to Libby Mae Brown and her healthy blizzard. 

 She'll always be our teacher's pet.

Parker Posey Priorities

Parker Posey as Miami in the college comedy Kicking & Screaming (1995). She's got her priorities in order.

Guy: Do i have to start paying back student loans tomorrow?
Miami: I'm gonna go look for pot.

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