Paul Newman @ 100: "The Verdict"

by Nick Taylor

First thing’s first: HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY PAUL NEWMAN!!!! Everyone say “Happy Birthday Paul!!” in the comments. As I said when giving backstory on my first Newman installment, Sidney Lumet's The Verdict was one of my first encounters with the actor’s filmography. Even admitting my many, many blind spots, I think it’s fair to say The Verdict stands apart in his retinue of troubled men.

So many of Paul Newman’s characters storm into their films as men to be reckoned with, men capable of announcing themselves as singularly indomitable without saying a word. This is not the case for Frank Galvin, a washed-up, alcoholic lawyer on his last legs. Frank is shorn of the charismatic showmanship Newman wielded so adroitly throughout his career. Instead we’re asked to see him as a failure, a man gunked onto the bottom of the barrel and finally fighting to get out after wasting years wallowing in pity and booze . . . .

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Did Paul Newman win for the wrong movie?

by Cláudio Alves

Throughout the history of the Academy Awards, many a winner conquered their statue not because they were the best of the year, but because they had a grand filmography in need of golden recognition. Career Oscars are a bittersweet sort of honor, though. On one hand, it feels just to see living legends rewarded with Hollywood's most coveted trophy. On the other, the win sometimes comes from such a minor work it doesn't feel representative of the artist's true genius. In terms of acting prizes, Paul Newman is one of the most flagrant cases of a winner that was rewarded for his career rather than the merits of one performance. By the time he won a competitive Oscar, he had been nominated seven times already and had even won the first of two Honorary prizes. He might have agreed with those judgments, considering he wasn’t even present to receive the statuette.

At least, that's what most people seem to believe about the great star's Best Actor trophy for 1986's The Color of Money…

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Stream This: The Verdict, Black Widow, Holding the Man, and More.

In the effort to stay au courant we'll alternate between Netflix and Amazon Prime for streaming news, last chance viewings and newly available. We'll freeze frame select titles at random places just for fun and see what image comes up - you know how we do. 

LAST CHANCE NETFLIX

-A present? Nice. It looks just like our horse
-Should I bring it inside?
-It'd be rude not to. 

Mr Peabody and Sherman (2014, expires August 11th)
A little Trojan War humor for you there. Critics were marginally kind but our own Tim Brayton said...

here we are, with the latest in a long line of remakes that simultaneously gloss up, flatten, and embalm an old classic that needs none of those thing. 

So moving on with 9 more titles after the jump...

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TV @ the Movies: "The Americans"

NEW SERIES! Since our eyes always flash and a smile spreads when a movie is referenced on a tv show we're watching, we've decided to make it a habit to share these cross-platform romances with you. Whenever we see one worth discussing, we'll share it. To kick things off, here's Andrew binge-watching The Americans...

The Americans follows the machinations of two KGB spies living in the US posing as Americans in the early 1980s during The Cold War. Like Mad Men (the genesis of The Film Experience’s TV at the Movies love affair), the show does some impressive things when playing with the period, while never going overboard. Key cultural references from television to film to music (a significant scene was set to Yaz’s “Only You”. Remember Yaz?)

This movie moment from “Stingers” (S3E10, a series best from the show) is too good to pass up...

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