Emmy Category Analysis: Supporting Actress in a Limited Series

by Cláudio Alves

If you need proof that the current Emmy voting system is broken, you need to look no further than the Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series race. Despite having seven available slots, only two shows appear in the lineup. Unsurprisingly, they are The White Lotus and Dopesick, two of the year's biggest frontrunners. Allowing voters to check an unlimited number of names on their ballots means that the most popular and acclaimed programs will dominate, no matter the specifics of the category. Unfortunately, this takes away slots to honor MVP achievements in less buzzy shows.

For predicting purposes, it also muddies the waters...

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Stage Door: Wonderful Mare Winningham in 'Girl From the North Country'

Mini Intro: We've always wanted to launch a weekly theater column here so we're finally doing it. Though theater is not film (the focus of this site), it relates in many ways to the screen arts. So we'll end each column with screening recommendations!  In weeks where we don't get invited to shows, we'll get creative to keep it going. This will be a Monday night series from here on out. - Editor 

Mare Winningham in 'Girl From the North Country'. Photo © Matthew Murphy

by Nathaniel R

The Tony-nominated jukebox musical Girl From the North Country closes on Broadway tomorrow, Sunday June 19th with the 3:00 PM matinee. While it's too late to urge you to attend (unless you're right here in the five boroughs) there are still ways to enjoy the show in retrospect. The easiest of those is listening to the cast recording with its Tony-winning orchestrations. But the most crucial way to appreciate the show at the moment (happily it was filmed for posterity) is to join us in deep appreciation of its leading lady Mare Winningham...

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The Tony Awards return to tradition. Here's what's eligible...

by Nathaniel R

Shery Lee Ralph, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Beanie Feldstein at least season's Tony Awards

The past two years have thrown awards shows (not to mention the whole entertainment industry) for quite a loop.  Nowhere was that more true than the Tony Awards with Broadway entirely shut down and most of the presumed contenders never opening in 2020. The Tony Awards for 2019 and 2020 shows were finally held last September, just under a year after nominations were announced!!! With Broadway theaters reopened for some time now (proof of vaccination and masks still required) the American Theater Wing is resuming the Tony Awards as we know them, returning to their usual month (June!) and their usual venue (Radio City Music Hall) so we're getting the 75th Tony Awards just nine months after the 74th.

The Tony Awards will arrive on June 12th and the four hour show will air live, for the first hour on Paramount+ and the final three hours on CBS. from 7-11 PM EST.  Productions have to open by April 28th to be eligible and the nomimations will be announced on May 3rd, 2022. A list of eligible productions is after the jump...

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Looking back at St. Elmo's Fire (1985)

by Eric Blume

Director Joel Schumacher’s St. Elmo’s Fire captures 1985 perfectly:  the word “yuppie” had just come into vogue, and this film follows seven Georgetown students finding themselves lost after graduation.  They’re all white, attractive, fairly affluent, and awfully boring, and nothing much happens in the movie.  So why is it so damn watchable?

St. Elmo’s Fire is a curio from this era, because while it wasn’t a huge box office success, it’s an instantly-recognizable title after 22 years.  This of course is due to the film’s actors: Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Mare Winningham, Judd Nelson, and Andrew McCarthy.  Schumacher did manage lightning-in-a-bottle with that casting, and while very little about the film is objectively good, watching these actors near the start of their careers provides a kicky joy...

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Podcast Smackdown (Pt 2) Nixon & Georgia & 1995 Takeaways

You've read the Smackdown proper and heard Part One of the companion podcast. Now we're wrapping things up with Part Two in which Nathaniel and guests discuss a movie they all loved (Georgia) and the most divisive movie of the batch (Nixon). Big thanks again to this month's panelists: Nick Davis (Nicks Flick Picks), Guy Lodge (Variety), Kevin O'Keeffe (Arts.Mic), Conrado Falco (Coco Hits NY) and Lynn Lee (The Film Experience)

Part 2: 39 Minutes
00:01 Mare Winningham and Georgia’s Screenplay
08:45 Oliver Stone’s excesses -- extremely split opinions on Nixon
19:15 Off-Oscar: Other performances we loved from 1995 and another round of Emma Thompson and Sense & Sensibility
30:00 Best Original Song ???
33:40 Final Thoughts, recommendations and takeaways

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes tomorrow.

Smackdown. Pt 2