Review: "The Lesson"

by Matt St Clair

In his BAFTA-nominated breakthrough performance from last year’s Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Darryl McCormack dazzled viewers with his charm and dramatic depth. The fact that he held his own against Emma Thompson giving one of her finest performances made his work even more applaudable. The new slow-burn thriller The Lesson from director Alice Troughton and screenwriter Alex MacKeith, allows him to follow up that stunning turn by going toe-to-toe with another European acting goddess.

The acting goddess in question is Julie Delpy who plays Hélène, the wife of renowned author J.M. Sinclair (a sublime Richard E. Grant). Looking to provide their son Bertie (Stephen McMillan) with a tutor to prepare him for his entrance exams to Oxford, the Sinclair couple hires Liam (McCormack), an aspiring writer and avid fan of J.M. 's work...

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Streaming: Why doesn't "Persuasion" work?

by Nathaniel R

Dakota Johnson and Cosmo Jarvis star in "Persuasion"

Jane Austen's final completed novel Persuasion has been adapted to screen several times, but unlike her most famous novels, theatrical motion picture fame as eluded it. The latest non-theatrical screen adaptation, via Netflix this time, has met with such harsh reviews that we almost didn't watch it. Nevertheless the extremely alluring faces of Dakota Johnson, Henry Golding, and Cosmo Jarvis beckoned as did the reliable wit of Jane Austen herself. We gave in and pressed play. Unfortunately it's difficult to argue with the consensus this time around...

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Review: 'Everybody's Talking About Jamie' Knows How To Put On a Show

By: Christopher James

Sometimes saccharine is just sweet enough. Everybody’s Talking About Jamie piles it on thick, but what else are drag queens supposed to do when applying their makeup. Amazon Prime’s latest film acquisition is a charming delight. It’s packed with warmth, heart and plenty of sass. While it is very much a story rooted in the now, Jamie’s love of drag comes from understanding of the queens that came before him. In fact, what’s so interesting about the film is that the main antagonists aren’t his peers (though some are harsh), it’s from a generation above that hasn’t evolved with the times.

Simply put, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is a crowd pleaser worthy of any crown...

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Oscar Prediction Charts: Three questions about Best Supporting Actor

by Nathaniel R

We're not predicting Richard E Grant Oscar buzz for the drag musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie but we're sharing his picture because we're in this kind of cheerful mood and because he was ROBBED in his Oscar year and we've been fans for as long as we can remember. Wasn't he fun on Loki this month? 

The supporting categories at the Oscars are always hard to read this early. Supporting roles are rarely the focus of pre-release buzz. What's more they can have a tough time finding awards love since leading movie stars have a super gross and predictable way of constantly crashing the party for those lower on the call sheet (last year's "supporting" race arguably had just one 100% no debate supporting player). So we threw one lead into the predictions (Jesse Plemons in Power of the Dog) but it's more than likely that some other lead will be pitched here, too. We don't care to guess about who that will be right now. For first attempt at predicting nominations in this category for 2021 we're saying...

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Gay Best Friend: Jack Hock in "Can You Ever Forgive Me"

by Christopher James

What fun it would be to sit with Melissa McCarthy's Lee Israel and Richard E. Grant's Jack Hock in Julius.

After covering Victor/Victoria last week, we got to thinking about that great sub-section of the “gay best friend” trope - The Gay Accomplice. Often a personal friend, the Gay Accomplice loves to come up with big schemes and be at the center of mischief. The friendship between the protagonist and the Gay Accomplice can exist before the scheme, but often times the friendship starts to revolve around their shared grift. Immediately, Richard E. Grant’s recently Oscar nominated performance as Jack Hock in Marielle Heller’s brilliant Can You Ever Forgive Me? lept to mind...

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