Nicole in HBO's "The Undoing"

by Eric Blume

There are few things in life more exquisite than watching Nicole Kidman unravel.  And she does so with her usual panache in the new HBO miniseries The Undoing, from director Susanne Bier.  

HBO is releasing the six episodes week by week, so we're currently only two episodes in, but what we have on our hands with The Undoing is a genuine potboiler!  The program slowly lays out its icy upper east side NYC terrain with careful deliberation, only to end the initial episode with a fun corker that sets Nicole into a fiery actressy spiral...

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Will Mads Mikkelsen have another Oscar hit?

by Nathaniel R

Mads Mikkelsen stars in "Another Round"

Denmark is currently Oscar's favourite country in the Best International Feature category. Yes, we know they're not the "all time" favourite country, so don't @ us. But in the past 10 years (2010-2019) they've been nominated 50% of the time, with two additional finalists. Deep involvement in 70% of the Oscar conversations in a decade is a pretty great track record. How long can they keep it up? We won't know if they'll nab another nomination this season until a few months from now but Denmark just announced their finalists. On November 17th, they'll choose their submission between the following films: 

• Another Round by Thomas Vinterberg 
• A Perfectly Normal Family by Malou Reymann
• Shorta by Anders Ølholm and Frederik Louis Hviid. 

If Denmark wants to bet based on past success they'll go with Another Round.  It just won the top prize at the London Film Festival. Plus, international star Mads Mikkelsen has headlined three Oscar-nominated films from his home country previously....

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Monty @ 100: Unexpected ending with "The Defector"

by Nathaniel R

Sadly, we now reach the finale of the Montgomery Clift filmography. The shroud of sadness and tragedy that hung over Clift's second act in motion pictures (Raintree County through Freud) have often obscured the quality of some of the films. Despite the broken souls and grim reaper feeling exuded by The Misfits and Judgment at Nuremberg in particular -- it's part of their subject matter, after all -- Clift's acting prowess was actually on the rise again.

His declining health and addictions interfered. After Freud there was another four year intermission from the silver screen as there'd been just after From Here to Eternity. With 1966's The Defector the curtain raised again and filming went smoothly for a change. But no third act came. Both Clift (then 45) and his director Raoul Lévy (then just 44) died that year, Clift of a heart attack shortly before the movie's release and Levy, shortly after, by his own hand...

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Martin Scorsese: Master of the Remake

by Cláudio Alves

As a general rule, remakes don't represent a particularly respected type of film among cinephiles. Concerns about lack of originality abound, as do questions of necessity and the way remakes can lead to the obscuration of older movies. That being said, to characterize every remake as a mercenary minded waste of time isn't fair to the filmmakers involved. Moreover, it can result in the unfair dismissal of interesting cinematic propositions. Remakes can recontextualize past narratives, respond to aesthetics of yore and comment upon them, reinterpret texts and revitalize forgotten styles, deepen pre-established themes or even make us look at a classic through new eyes. They can also highlight the specificities of different artists' visions, exposing how their particularities shape the same raw material. Not all remakes are good, but we can say that about every kind of film project.

Some directors have shown a particular aptitude for this type of project, like Luca Guadagnino with A Bigger Splash and Suspiria. Still, we're not here to talk about that epicurean delight or the transfiguration of Dario Argento's post-Giallo masterpiece. Our subject, today, shall be Martin Scorsese and his mastery of the remake… 

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Reader's Choice: Lady in a Cage (1964)

New bi-weekly Monday series. By popular vote you selected this streaming film for screening & discussion...

by Nathaniel R

Where did the sayings "wear your influences / heart on your sleeves" originate? No matter the etymology of the phrase we think it disagrees with fussy widow Mrs Cornelia Hilyard. Her billowy sleeves aren't half as expressive as the sheer scarf and shawl like top over her simple house dress. She fidgets with it constantly, untying and unbuttoning the extra layer of fabric due to the unfortunate duet of a broken air conditioner and a great lady's modesty!

The influences and emotions clinging visibly to this lady in her cage, or rather Lady in a Cage (1964), are much the same. Screenwriter Luther Davis and Director Walter Grauman throw just about everything they can think of that was cinematically en vogue or brazenly attention-grabbing in the early 1960s into the mix (drug use! homosexuality! juvenile delinquents! sex! formerly glamorous leading ladies getting sweaty and desperate and humiliated for your viewing pleasure). The film's sociopathic parents -- its daddy is Psycho and its mommy is Whatever Happened to Baby Jane -- have cast a long historical shadow over Lady in a Cage...

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