Who's Next to the Triple Crown?

by Eric Blume

I’m sure we’ve all found ourselves in some sort of YouTube hole at some point during lockdown.  Mine has led me to rewatching snippets from Tony Awards ceremonies from about a decade ago.  I had completely forgotten that Eddie Redmayne had won a Tony for his work in the play Art, which is strange because I saw his performance in that show and he was staggeringly good.  He absolutely deserved that Tony.

I then realized that since he has since won an Oscar, he is only an Emmy away from the Triple Crown of Acting.  This triple-crown honor (you can see the actors who have won all three big awards of the Tony, Oscar, and Emmy here) has been nabbed by only 24 actors in the history of show business awards!  It’s a very elusive accomplishment and prestigious list of people. In just the last five years, though, there's been a lot of movement -- we've recently seen Helen Mirren, Frances McDormand, Jessica Lange, Viola Davis, and Glenda Jackson all secure this title.

That got me to thinking:  wow, it seems highly likely that Eddie Redmayne would find a big role in a series or miniseries to win that Emmy and be in this company?  He’s young, still at the top of his game, and while I don’t think he’s quite in the league of the other major actors who have won all three, he is surely a likely candidate.

But who are some others...

Click to read more ...

Review: The Aeronauts

by Chris Feil

There’s an eyesore on the horizon with The Aeronauts, a cynically observed aerial adventure fatally encumbered by too many pixels. Reuniting the Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne after The Theory of Everything first welcomed both into the Oscar fold, this film is a strange amalgam of influences it fails to live up to. It’s part survival actioner, part vibrant costume drama, and part uplifting women-in-science empowerment tale. But the film’s blending of the three, and its attempts to infuse some modernity to the storytelling, is too clumsy to satisfy any of its points of entry.

The film stars Jones as Amelia Wren, a mid-19th century balloon pilot grieving an unexpected personal cost of her professional on top of patriarchal limitations. Her expertise makes her a fitting partner to Redmayne’s scientist James Glaisher, aiming to prove the science of early meteorology against highly skeptical widespread thought. But Wren and Glaisher have their own clashing of methods and degree of determination. In their flight mission, Glaisher pushes for them to ascend higher than any balloon in history, turning their quest for information into a brief but dangerous fight for survival.

Click to read more ...

TIFF Derring-Do Double: "The Aeronauts" and "Ford v Ferrari"

by Nathaniel R

Those magnificent men (and women) and their flying machines. What prompts people to build aerodymanic death traps in which to race at incredible never before accomplished speeds or go up up up to never before seen heights?  Today's double feature centers on just this type of man and their creations.  

FORD V FERRARI (James Mangold)
This very handsomely made film centers around a famous late 60s battle between the massive Ford Motor Company and the Italian boutique manufacturer Ferrari. How did Detroit's Henry Ford II come to battle Enzo Ferrarri in the European playground of Le Mans anyway? And how does the film get you to root for the Goliath rather than the David in this battle? That's the magic of this old fashioned well-paced movie. Older audiences might be familiar with this story but we weren't so it all played out like a fleet-footed and hot wheeled corporate drama mixed with inspirational sports movie...

Click to read more ...

Today's birthday suit: Hugh Dancy

Happy 44th to Hugh Dancy today. He's currently onscreens as charming lothario trouble in Late Night (2019). Remember when ginger mom & son Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne had a Dancy sandwich, twelve years back? Good times...

Click to read more ...

List-Mania: Glenda Jackson & Lots of Triple-Crown Acting Trivia

This is a update/reworking of two previous posts about Triple Crowns!

Glenda Jackson is the oldest performer (82) to complete the Triple Crown

Since I'm on record as being annoyed that all anyone cares about is the EGOT it's time to celebrate our preferred obsession: The Triple Crown of Acting. That's when a performer manages the Emmy, Oscar, and Tony. To date only 24 actors* have accomplished this, with Glenda Jackson being the most recent recipient as of this past Sunday night at the Tony Awards. Triple Crowns have become much more commonplace in the 21st century since actors move much more fluidly through the three mediums than they did in before the turn of the century. TV has totally lost its stigma for movie stars and Broadway is more welcome to very short runs freeing major stars up to continue with their movie and TV careers without as much scheduling trauma.  A TRUCKLOAD OF TRIVIA AFTER THE JUMP...

Click to read more ...