Streaming Roulette, April: The Blazing Perks of Molly's Xanadu

by Nathaniel R

If you're new to the site this is how we share new streaming offerings for the month. We select a handful or two of titles and just randomly hit a place on the scroll bar to see what the film looks like - no cheating.  Ready? Let's play...

VO: And since I heard that having a girlfriend makes you happy I tried hard to love her like I love Sam.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) on Netflix
Sweet movie. Remember Logan Lerman? We had such a good interview with him for this movie. Sad that he's trapped on a tv series with bad reviews at the moment (Hunters). 

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Emmy Watch: Regina King in "Watchmen"

by Eric Blume

We here at TFE are big fans of Regina King, as you know.  She’s been performing in the business for over 35 years, and has weathered career ups and downs as all good working actors do. She's risen to the top of the field in the last few years with three Emmys for very interesting and strong roles in TV. 

Personally, I had split feelings about her Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress last year for If Beale Street Could Talk.  As a fan of her and her work, I was thrilled to see Regina King get an Oscar.  But I found Beale Street to be heavy-handed and unconvincing, and the movie gave her too few notes to play.  She brought everything she could to the role and the film, but it would have been more thrilling to see her win for a juicy, complex role.

Which makes what Regina King does on Watchmen so exciting...

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Streaming Roulette: Honey Boys & Gates of Hell

by Nathaniel R

The mania of Oscar season completely detached us to what people might have actually been streaming at home. So let's get back to that with a short round of Streaming Roulette. If you're new to the site that's how we share new streaming offerings. We select a handful (or two) of titles and just randomly hit a place on the scroll bar to see what the film looks like - no cheating. 

If you'd like us to write up any of the new to streaming pictures (there's a huge list after the roulette) please share what you'd most like to talk about in the comments. Maybe we'll get to 2 or 3 of them? Ready? Let's stream...

The reviews were... like, I murdered their children or something. 

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Streaming Roulette, Nov: The King Lives by Night

As is our practice we've selected a handful plus of new-to-streaming titles and frozen them at utterly random moments without cheating (whatever comes up comes up!). What should you queue up for NOVEMBER 2019 ? (★ means we definitely recommend catching) 

Let's get started...

-Meet me in the garden tomorrow

The Thief of Bagdad (1940) on Criterion Channel
This fantasy adventure based on The Arabian Knights won 3 Oscars in its year (Special Effects, Cinematography Color and Art Direction Color). Fill in those Oscar gaps! Weird trivia note: NONE of those categories it won had the standard 5 nominees. It took the Academy awhile to settle on the "five per category" rule that dominated the Oscars for decades. There were 14 films nominated for Special Effects that year -- the visual effects category in particular has had multiple strange incarnations and volatility. 

I'm going to ask you to deliver this message to France given your... familiarity with its recipient.

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Big Little Lies MVPs: Episode 2.7 "I Want to Know"

Previously: Episode 1 (Nathaniel) Episode 2 (Spencer) Episode 3 (Lynn) Episode 4 (Nathaniel) Episode 5 (Eric) Episode 6 (Chris)

by Nathaniel R

Parting is such sweet sorrow. But so is sticking together. With the seventh and final episode of Big Little Lies -- beware SPOILERS ahead all throughout this post-- we're in some ways directly back where we ended last season, with the Monterey Five, all in harmonious agreement. This time around, though, it's a bit grimmer if you stop to think about what might occur after they all confess. We don't mean the threat of a possible third season (which we don't actually think will happen) but the narrative possibilities inside our own heads. Exactly how do you conspire to lie about manslaughter and get away with it? Did Celeste keep her children only to lose them? Did Madeline save her marriage only to lose her freedom? Etcetera. 

But we're jumping right to the finale and we need to backtrack again for the best moments and fine performances of the finale...

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