OVP: Judy (2019)

Film: Judy (2019)
Stars: Renee Zellweger, Finn Wittrock, Rufus Sewell, Michael Gambon
Director: Rupert Goold
Oscar History: 2 nominations/1 win (Best Actress-Renee Zellweger*, Makeup & Hairstyling)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

I actually saw End of the Rainbow with Tracie Bennett, not on Broadway or even the West End, but when it made its American stage debut at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis (for those who don't know, this blog is situated in Minnesota, which may explain why I occasionally struggle to be on the cutting edge of seeing some of the awards contenders).  I remember being absolutely astounded by the show, but mostly Bennett's raw look at the world of Judy Garland (a Minnesota treasure in her own right).  Garland's life has been told so many times, and been told definitively with Judy Davis & Me and My Shadows, but she brought a raw urgency to Garland's final years, where she was mostly just a shell of the vibrant force that was once a major movie star and a voice of a generation, and had long since lost her battle with pills and booze.  This is the Judy we're given in Rupert Goold's onscreen rendition of End of the Rainbow (renamed Judy cause heaven forbid we get a distinctive film title), which at once gives us a more intimate look into Garland's last stand, and also saddles it with an impossibly sad ending that it can't really recover from.

(Real Life Doesn't Have Spoiler Alerts) Judy Garland (Zellweger) is the mother of three children, the younger of two are living at home with her and the older of them enjoying her own start of fame (and like her mother, the demons that would come with it).  Judy is broke, and in order to make money since she can't get enough cash from American nightclubs (and is uninsurable on a film set thanks to her unprofessional behavior), she goes to London, where a packed out audience is waiting for her.  Judy is having an offscreen romance with her soon-to-be final husband Mickey (Wittrock), but that's as ill-advised as her consistent limit-pushing, using the same pills that once allowed her to work 18-hour days on the MGM lot to simply stay awake.  The movie alternates between her time on the set of The Wizard of Oz, with a creepy LB Mayer obsessed with controlling the "girl next door" and present-day Judy, whose demons are still there from that time in the spotlight.  The film ends on a high note, with Judy getting to have one great closing number of "Over the Rainbow" before the curtain closes (and we know that this comeback will be her last).

The movie is disappointing.  It can't really grab the electricity of the live play, where Bennett was able to give us a different kind of heightened Judy, manic but still bursts of genius coming out from a voice that won't come back.  Here the film is more preoccupied with trying to cover the bases of Judy lore, and almost every time it does so it fails.  At this point Garland's personal life is so famous we don't really need the flashbacks to her hellish time on the MGM lot, in many ways feeling like watching Bruce Wayne's parents die just to establish her current anguish-we know why Judy Garland is sad, we don't need it underlined.  Additionally, her relationship with Mickey Deans is confusing and underwritten-the writers clearly have an opinion on him (and it's not complimentary), but they don't have the guts to go after it, and instead just kind of depict him as a handsome leech.  About the only angle that felt genuinely interesting was an early scene where Garland is chatting with her daughter Liza Minnelli, who in 1969 was about to graduate from "Judy Garland's talented daughter" to a legitimate superstar.  Seeing the jealousy in Garland's eyes as she sees the world being laid bare for her daughter (while she, who has given her life to the entertainment industry, can't even get a job), is a challenging thing I've never seen a Garland biopic, and I kind of wish they'd explored this angle just a little bit further.

But biopics, especially ones based on musical superstars, are rarely about getting out-of-the-box, and instead are simply about a famous actor playing another famous person and singing the jukebox hits.  Zellweger uses her actual voice, a risky move while playing someone who was a considerably stronger singer than she is in real life, but let's face it-Garland in 1969 wasn't really "Judy Garland" anymore so having a less-talented singer take on the vocals isn't a fatal flaw.  Zellweger also resists the urge to imitate Garland's distinctive speaking voice, but in doing so she alienates herself too much from Judy.  I'm the last person to complain about a lack of mimicry in a biopic role (I think it's an overrated virtue), but I left Judy thinking that Zellweger hadn't successfully played a singer who was once the greatest in the world.  There's nothing there in her Judy that makes me bask in even a faded superstar, just an empty, funny celebrity who was brought down by pills.  The glamour, the movie star realness of Judy Garland isn't there even in a dilapidated capacity, and I felt the film & performance was hollow as a result.  You can tell she's trying, and every once-in-a-while she hints at what might be possible, but whether out of an urge to stray away from an impression or because Zellweger (who hasn't had a movie of this demand & pop culture importance in a decade) is out-of-practice, I felt her central work was flat.  Judy is a movie that could have been great, but unlike the real life Garland, it's not brought down by erratic swings-it's just too safe, unable to exhibit even a basic shred of originality.

The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)

Film: The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)
Stars: Jimmie Fails, Jonathan Majors, Danny Glover, Tichina Arnold, Mike Epps, Finn Wittrock
Director: Joe Talbot
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

I don't really have an excuse for not having seen The Last Black Man in San Francisco in theaters.  I initially thought it was a documentary, and I was kind of documentaried-out the week that it came out, and by the time I realized it was a narrative film (and was winning raves) it had quickly adiosed from my local theaters.  This is a pity, as I can imagine this was something special on the big screen, the gorgeous house at the center of the film coming to life amid a group of silent, watching faces.  At home, though, I'll state I still found it enthralling.  Last Black Man is not the sort of movie I was expecting, but instead a hopeful film, one aided by a gorgeous score and a stupendous central acting duet.  It's also about what we give up to become ourselves, and might be the most thoughtful film I've seen so far in 2019.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie centers on Jimmie (Fails, in something of a semi-autobiographical role), a man who has had a hard life, at points living in a group home or in a car, who daydreams about moving back to the gorgeous Victorian house that he grew up in, and that his grandfather built.  He, along with his friend Mont (Majors) will sneak past the gate of the house and perform maintenance & fix the property, much to the annoyed chagrin of the current owners.  When the owners are forced out of the house as well (San Francisco real estate, y'all), Jimmie and Mont decide that they are done play-acting and move into the empty home, getting to see what life would be like if they could simply go back to this magical old home.  As reality sets in, we see cracks in their relationship, and in the world around them, and they come to a precipice, particularly Jimmie-does he stay in a city that keeps rejecting him, or does he move on, leaving behind his childhood dreams about this house?

The film sounds conventional in that description, but that's not how it's laid out.  The opening five minutes involve an almost operatic skateboard through the city, with Jimmie & Mont, clearly friends of the closest nature (neither men once mention having sex with a woman among themselves, and one wonders if there is some sort of romantic component to their friendship even if they don't say it out loud...or I might have just been reading into things), on the same skateboard & the camera focused on onlookers, the current faces of a changing city.  The music is a major character in the film, as is the house, with its ornate ceilings and gorgeous side library (if you don't leave enamored with this house, I don't really know how to deal with you).  The film is lensed with precision, so much care given to each frame and sequence, that you know you're in the presence of a future auteur with Joe Talbot.

Honestly-even as the film hits more familiar beats (it's clear that eventually we're going to learn that Jimmie's connection to this house isn't as concrete as he assumes), the creativity of the delivery keeps the film from going down the usual trails.  The film's ending, with Jimmie abandoning Mont, and Mont left to wonder what his life will be without his soulmate, is crushing, but also real-we know that Jimmie needs to leave all of this behind in order to turn into the man he's meant to become, and that includes leaving behind his two great loves, Mont and the house.  The performances are tender & heartfelt, with both Fails and Majors finding a rich back story for their introverted characters, and I left understanding the damaging effects of gentrification in a way that I don't think a thousand New York Times articles could have ever imparted.  Last Black Man in San Francisco is a profound look at love, home, and place, the ways that we connect with the world around us even as it's leaving us (or we're leaving it), and I am in awe of its seamless architecture and grace.

OVP: If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

Film: If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
Stars: Kiki Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Teyonah Parris, Colman Domingo, Brian Tyree Henry, Finn Wittrock, Diego Luna, Pedro Pascal, Dave Franco
Director: Barry Jenkins
Oscar History: 3 nominations/1 win (Best Supporting Actress-Regina King*, Adapted Screenplay, Score)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Barry Jenkins' last film Moonlight, was just a marvelous movie, and a picture that I named my favorite of 2016.  That sort of success, especially when you're not familiar with the director's other work (I have not yet seen Medicine for Melancholy, Jenkins only other film, but it's definitely on my list), sets up a challenge though.  Inevitably, the "sophomore (or, in this case, junior with a little-known freshman year) slump" comparisons come out, and Jenkins used his fame to do something deeply ambitious-bring one of the works of James Baldwin to the screen.  Baldwin, the beloved novelist & activist, had never been adapted into an English-language movie before, and so setting the right tone for such a picture, combined with it being your followup to a literal Best Picture winner, was a pretty tall bar to pass.  The result, though, is a compelling movie that is not always successful, but surely gorgeous and distinct enough to prove that Jenkins is a major talent of his generation.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film's plot is relatively easy to get to, so I'm going to summarize, but we'll get to why this isn't the best lens to discuss Beale Street in a second.  The film is about Tish (Layne), a young woman who is in love and together with the young man who was her best friend growing up Fonny (James).  The two are separated when, after finally securing a spot for an apartment, Fonny is arrested on a rape allegation for a crime he didn't commit (he had earlier nearly been arrested for throwing a white man who had been harassing Tish out of a convenience store by a white police officer who eventually forces a woman to identify Fonny as her rapist).  Tish's mother Sharon (King) tries to exonerate the man who is to be her son-in-law, going so far as to fly to Puerto Rico to convince the woman who misidentified Fonny as her rapist to change her story, but the woman (who clearly was raped, just not by Fonny) is broken and screams when Sharon tries to touch her, making Sharon assume that convincing her to come back would be impossible as she is still too scarred from the assault.  The film ends with Fonny accepting a plea deal, and Tish visiting him in prison with their son, waiting for the day when they can reunite as a family.

The movie's approach isn't this linear, and aside from the final scene listed here, is not told in this order.  We find out first that Tish is pregnant, then move into her relationship with Fonny who is now on trial, and the scenes with Sharon trying to save her son-in-law are interspersed throughout some of the back-half of the picture.  Playing the movie more as photographs from a life rather than a linear story is a risky approach, but for the most part it works.  Jenkins employs a gorgeous score from Nicholas Britell, lush and brimming with cues to 1970's cinema (especially Chinatown), to carry us through these different transitions, and when they're on, they're fantastic.  King's uniformly good as Sharon, her character given two major filmic passages (the ones in Puerto Rico and the ones where she tells off Fonny's mother for degrading her daughter), and brings not just a warmth, but a sexiness & a sense of the woman she is even though we view so much of the film through the lens of her daughter's eyes (no child can properly understand their parent, a fact Jenkins highlights here).  And there's a terrific sequence with Brian Tyree Henry as Daniel, a friend of Fonny's who is on parole.  Henry is literally in only one scene, but puts so much fear and understood abuse (he talks in deeply-veiled terms about the violence he experienced from prison guards while in jail, but we know what he means) that it carries through the film, informing our understanding in the change in Fonny's demeanor and appearance for the rest of the picture.

I'm sorry to say this, but arguably the least successful aspect of the film might be the central character of Tish.  While the figures around her are left fully-fleshed, Layne keeps her Tish a blank slate, someone who it's hard to let into her world because she's our visual narrator, showing us the Fonny, the Sharon, the Daniel, that she sees.  As a result, we leave not knowing much about the actual central character of the picture, and she comes across more as a sainted mother than anything flesh-and-blood like the felt characters portrayed by her costars.  This wasn't the case in Moonlight, where an introverted Chiron keeps everything in, but the progression of three different actors give us a window into who he is as a person.  Admittedly this is also where Jenkins' approach to a floating camera, lifting in and out of different aspects of Tish's life, probably hurts her-it's harder to get a sense of who she is when we're taken to the next story, rarely having one interlude focus on her rather than just her relationships.  This makes the film, which I enjoyed but probably not as much as I would have, feel incomplete, like there's a chapter missing that links everything together.  But it's still so beautiful and lifted by the work of King, Henry, & Britell it's hard to fault it too much.

OVP: The Big Short (2015)

Film: The Big Short (2015)
Stars: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Melissa Leo, Hamish Linklater, John Magaro, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong, Finn Wittrock, Marisa Tomei
Director: Adam McKay
Oscar History: 5 nominations/1 win (Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay*, Supporting Actor-Christian Bale, Editing)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

I reacted to The Big Short in the same way I did The Martian a few months ago when I first heard about it: "really, another one?"  Coming so soon after The Wolf of Wall Street (in the same way The Martian felt like a retread of Interstellar) I wasn't sure I wanted to once again get into the bro-tastic world of Wall Street and the financial crisis, even if Adam McKay had hired Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, and Finn Wittrock, the first two being two of my favorite actors working and the latter fast becoming one.  Then the shock of the Globes/SAG Awards happened, and suddenly The Big Short had gone from being a retread to a serious contender for the Academy Awards, and viewing it stopped being optional.  Thankfully for at least most of the movie I wasn't punished for my Oscar devotion, as The Big Short is largely quite watchable, and we get some game moments from almost every person on the cast sheet.  However, a third act that feels a little bit too self-righteous steals a lot of the fun and thunder of the first two-thirds, almost vanquishing the movie in the process.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is about the housing crisis, and unlike The Wolf of Wall Street it gets technical, frequently throwing around terms that would normally have audiences reaching for the cell phones to look them up on Google, but thankfully Adam McKay found a way around it.  I don't know if other critics have found this gimmicky or not (I don't read other reviews before I see a film, at least once I've decided to see the film) but I loved the fourth wall breaking when it was done by celebrities.  Nothing quite topped Margot Robbie randomly appearing as herself in a bathtub, but later appearances by Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez were also hilariously on-point, and weirdly informational.  Note to politicians and professors-get celebrities to record your lectures and you'll get people to pay more attention.

This gimmick and the occasional fourth wall break sets the film apart in some ways (though if I recall correctly Leo did the same thing in Wolf of Wall Street-correct me in the comments if I'm wrong!), and honestly the film is highly watchable up until the actual collapse.  All of the male actors, even those who are overplaying their parts (namely Carell and Bale, both pretty lousy at reeling back their characters overblown tics) have at least one great moment in the film, and frequently seeing the ways that Wall Street/the financial industry (and the government is included in that) were rigged against even those who should have been profiting off of their stupidity is fascinating and frightening at the same time.  The film plays in some ways as a horror comedy, as we watch the foolishness of some people and the greed of others threaten to take down the entire financial system and the world economy.  It's staggering in hindsight, but even more staggering to see how infallible everyone seemed to the effects of the system, and one wonders if this was even underplayed to make the movie appear more believable.

The final third of the film, though, where everyone who has been trying to make an enormous profit off of this stupidity gets their payoff and suddenly grows a conscience, is weak.  We see characters played by Bale, Carell, and even Gosling lose their inner stamina and despite making a career off of the greed of others and winning big, they don't like the way that they made the money and try to be the moral police in all of this when in reality they become multimillionaires off of the anguish of the American populace.  They may have wished the system wasn't the way it was, but the system being broken made them richer than their wildest dreams, and the screenplay can't really reconcile that.  Still, up until that point it's a pretty fun ride, and I particularly loved Gosling (such a welcome presence back on the screen in his "I'm ridiculously beautiful and talented" sort of way), Pitt (the only believable moral police), and Wittrock (who is insanely watchable as a guy trying to find his way into "the game").  All-in-all, it's worth the price of admission but the awards love seems a bit much.

Those are my thoughts-how about you?  Did you like, but not love The Big Short, and if not, where did your opinion differ from mine?  Who was the best-in-show amongst the cast members?  And what'd you think of the celebrity cameos?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

2015 Emmy Predictions: The Miniseries

And now we transition from the shows you watch religiously to the TV movies that you have heard of starring the people you know as movie stars.  Yes, it's the miniseries/TV movie categories, which frequently feature the likes of HBO and PBS, though it's worth noting that at least a couple of other channels have snuck in with their own brand of worthiness.  Let's start, shall we?

Best Miniseries

American Crime

American Horror Story: Freak Show

The Honorable Woman

Olive Kitteridge

Wolf Hall

The Lowdown: I think now that Ryan Murphy has admitted that the seasons are interconnected that it might be even more questionable whether or not American Horror Story should be considered legal here, but even so it won't be interrupting the clear winner here.  HBO may not have had what one would consider a stellar miniseries season this past year, but without much competition (and boy howdy is this season generally pretty weak for Mini/TV Movies) I don't think that will matter as Elizabeth Strout's critically-acclaimed novel will surely end up at the top of the mountain.

My Prediction: Oliver Kitteridge

Best TV Movie

Agatha Christie's Poirot: Curtain, Poirot's Last Case

Bessie

Grace of Monaco

Hello Ladies: The Movie

Killing Jesus

Nightingale

The Lowdown: Really?  We really needed six in this category which managed to bring together Bill O'Reilly, a spinoff movie of a TV series no one watched, and a movie considered so bad that it couldn't get a theatrical release despite starring Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman?  I don't throw Poirot in there mostly because it's a swan song and I'm still bummed that David Suchet didn't score a "life achievement" sort of nomination in a pretty paltry season, but you know in a normal year it wouldn't have stood a prayer.  Either way, this is clearly between Bessie and Nightingale, and considering it had the higher-profile and Nightingale has an easy trophy to hand out as a consolation prize in acting, the blues singer is one of the simplest picks of the night.

My Prediction: Bessie

Best Actor in a Miniseries/TV Movie

Adrien Brody, Houdini

Ricky Gervais, Derek: The Final Chapter

Timothy Hutton, American Crime

Richard Jenkins, Olive Kitteridge

David Oyelowo, Nightingale

Mark Rylance, Wolf Hall

The Lowdown: I like to imagine the Emmys and the Oscars have a little bit of a rivalry, with the Oscars being the star older brother to the Emmys shy, under-performing sister (their cousin Tony is the guy whom everyone looks nervously around when Grandma Peabody says "I wish he'd find a nice girl").  As a result of this, I think that the Oscars clear snub of David Oyelowo and the backlash against them will only strengthen his hand in trying to take home a different trophy this year.  Richard Jenkins theoretically has a chance if Olive is a blowout, but I doubt it will come to that.

My Prediction: David Oyelowo

Best Actress in a Miniseries/TV Movie

Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Honorable Woman

Felicity Huffman, American Crime

Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Freak Show

Queen Latifah, Bessie

Frances McDormand, Olive Kitteridge

Emma Thompson, Sweeney Todd at Lincoln Center

The Lowdown: An extremely prestigious affair, with all six women sporting Oscar nominations to go with their Emmy nods, though I suspect most of them don't have a prayer.  The best bets here are on Latifah, McDormand, and Lange (Gyllenhaal did win a surprise Golden Globe, and theoretically could score but I suspect not with the Emmys who aren't as likely to surprise on TV as the Globes).  McDormand has the most lauded program and doesn't have an Emmy (unlike Lange, who has three), and as a result I think that may be enough for her to seal-the-deal and get the Triple Crown, but don't entirely discount the other two women if you're being ballsy in your predictions.

My Prediction: Frances McDormand

Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries/TV Movie

Richard Cabral, American Crime

Damien Lewis, Wolf Hall

Bill Murray, Olive Kitteridge

Denis O'Hare, American Horror Story: Freak Show

Michael Kenneth Williams, Bessie

Finn Wittrock, American Horror Story: Freak Show

The Lowdown: In a perfect world, this would be an easy win for Finn Wittrock, who created the most iconic performance of this bunch and had a "star is born" year in general (plus, the women on AHS always get all of the love).  However, the Emmys like their winners a bit sturdier than that, and Bill Murray hasn't won an Emmy award in 38 years.  He's also starring in the much buzzier miniseries, and doesn't have a costar to compete with (one has to assume that Denis O'Hare has Emmy fans considering he keeps getting nominated for these nothing roles).  As a result, expect Murray, if he shows up, to give a speech social media goes gaga over.

My Prediction: Bill Murray

Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries/TV Movie

Angela Bassett, American Horror Story: Freak Show

Kathy Bates, American Horror Story: Freak Show

Zoe Kazan, Olive Kitteridge

Regina King, American Crime

Mo'Nique, Bessie

Sarah Paulson, American Horror Story: Freak Show

The Lowdown: After four nominations a lot of people seem to think this is Sarah Paulson's year, and indeed she did have a truly showy spot this past season as a two-headed woman (which had to have gained notice from voters).  Her competition, though, isn't a bunch of slouches, particularly Regina King (who has been a TV trouper for years and just got her first Emmy citation) and Kathy Bates (who won last year and is gunning for a third-never discount the Emmys ability to add yet another trophy to a shelf).  Paulson's biggest threat, though, is Oscar winner Mo'Nique, who likely isn't campaigning too heartily (it's about the performance, not the politics), but is universally regarded as an acting titan after her bravura work in Precious.  Considering the struggles she's had to make movies since then, one wonders if the Academy's acting branch will stand tall with her.  She's the underdog, but not by much.

My Prediction: I'm going to go with a rare upset (I don't usually do that since awards shows have gotten considerably more predictable in the past five years) and predict Mo'Nique.

And there it is-who do you think is taking the trophy?  Whom are you cheering for?  Share in the comments!

Ranting On...American Horror Story: Hotel

If you've read this blog for many years or have come here recently and perused the archives (you should-we post almost daily and there's over 1300 articles at your fingertips), you'll know that I have a complicated TV relationship with Ryan Murphy, the Emmy-winning creator of Nip/Tuck, Glee, The Normal Heart, and most recently American Horror Story.  I have watched many of his shows-hell, I was there from beginning to end of the abysmal The New Normal, though I don't know if I would consider myself a fan of his.  The reason for this is that Ryan Murphy is, more than any other showrunner (and all showrunners get this issue from time-to-time) a sucker for his own hype and a man who frequently finds himself ruining his creations.  Let's be clear here-I'm not one of those people who said Glee stopped being good after the first episode...though I am going to say that even with my Darren Criss-love that I just couldn't with the show eventually, particularly after they didn't know how to recover after the death of Cory Monteith and the introduction of the "new class."  Murphy is someone who ruins his creations, going on tangents that just don't make any sense for his shows, and frequently pushing his characters to such intense extremes that they are almost unrecognizable in the end.

As a result of this I have long thought that the anthology-style programs that he was creating on American Horror Story were a perfect fit for him.  After all, here was a place where he could reinvent himself each season, giving us another dose of his brand of crazy while never actually being able to go into a stupor of boredom and overwriting like he did on other shows.  And for the first two seasons of the program, we were left with something that made that seem correct.  Murder House was marvelously  fun-a sexy, fascinating look at a family haunted by a house, it's the sort of show that instantly both titillated and occasionally brought out some really strong acting (both in Murphy's wheelhouse), and Asylum may have been the high-point artistically, with a maddening array of great actors (Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, and James Cromwell all bringing their A-game) joining a truly well-formed plot that only allowed for occasional alien-induced distractions.  Then Coven came, and Murphy's focus shifted away from creating yet another vital story and instead onto the outlandish things he was going to make his cast do onscreen.  You had great actors like Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, and Gabourey Sidibe showing up, which had to be quite rewarding, but past them he suffered that fate that happens when comic book movies start getting made-when you have too many characters, the script gets muddled, and Coven became an exhausting mess.

His fourth season, though, is when things started to get completely off-the-rails.  Freak Show had arguably the worst turn by star Jessica Lange of the series, and even a bravura piece-of-work by Sarah Paulson couldn't save the series from utter eye-rolling (every character seemed to be obsessed with being horrible human beings and despicably violent and changed their moods seemingly every scene cut).  The season was saved, of course, by Finn Wittrock's picture-perfect turn as Dandy Mott, a villain unlike any that we had seen in past seasons of the show, and arguably the best creation for the series since at least Sister Jude, if not Constance Langdon herself. Still, though, Mott was the only real icing on a bloated season.

Which is why I look at Hotel and am cringing, because there's nothing about the cast that seems to be calling out "wow" in a major way to me.  Every other season of the show, of course, it was noted for having Jessica Lange, a movie star extraordinaire in the center of the occasional bedlam to ground the script.  A double Oscar-winner with an incredible ability to ooze confidence and create memorable moments, Lange was, to put it bluntly, too good to be bogged down when Murphy took her into a questionable direction.  Without her, though, we're left with some very good actors (Kathy Bates, Finn Wittrock, Angela Bassett, Sarah Paulson), who quite frankly don't have that ability to the same degree.  Kathy Bates is the best actor of this bunch (and like Lange also comes armed with an Oscar), but she's frequently relegated to the sidelines of this series and aside from her "featured" episodes, occasionally feels more like prestigious wallpaper than the great actress she is.  Sarah Paulson should be the central actor now (she's more than earned it), but she's been hit-or-miss in the series, with every Asylum resulting in a Coven, and doesn't have the movie star gravitas that Bates does to ground some of the more outlandish things in the script.  Angela Bassett's roles on the show have, like Bates, been severely underwritten and Wittrock is still new-we need to see if he can make it past Dandy Mott (Evan Peters, usually solid, has never been remotely as good as he was as Tate Langdon).  Plus, let's be honest here-Murphy is making this entirely about Lady Gaga from the promotions and the press.

I know I can be a little rough on Lady Gaga, but it's only because she's kind of emerged so far as a bit of a one-note pony.  She tried to be Madonna for most of her first two albums, and it was refreshing in a sea of R&B, and I'm not going to say that I wasn't into it for a while, but then she tried too hard to create this legion-of-fans-who-worship-me thing, and she felt increasingly inauthentic.  Her pop output ended up being avant garde without any substance when she released Applause, and let's be honest here-she wouldn't be doing a TV show on cable or doing Sound of Music medleys on the Oscars or duets albums with Tony Bennett if her career was where she wished it was.  This is a second act, and while those occasionally work for pop stars, most actors end up being more like Britney Spears than Cher when they go from singer to thespian.  Gaga's act has always been to try and offend people in the least offensive way possible, and she has seemed wooden in music videos where she's playing a part.  She could surprise (again, Cher), but I'm doubtful and wish that Murphy was trusting a stronger actor like Paulson or Bates with the center of the show.  Couple Gaga with the fact that he's hiring actors who seem pretty limited in their abilities (Cheyenne Jackson, Matt Bomer, Max Greenfield, Naomi Campbell, Wes Bentley-sorry, but it's true that none of them have really popped in a way other than a signature character), and I smell a bit of a disaster.  I could be wrong, and there's a very decent chance I get sucked in (I've quit AHS before only to end up back in the throes), but I am filled with a lot of dread based on everything I have read.

Those are my thoughts, anyway-what are yours?  What do you think of the looks of American Horror Story's next season?  Are you excited about Lady Gaga, or are you wishing that Jessica Lange was still around?  Share your thoughts below in the comments!

Everybody's Linking for the Weekend

I just dropped a bowl and smashed it to smithereens in my kitchen, so I could probably deserve a link (Marmie Hart!).  I'm guessing so could you, so let's get started...

In Entertainment...

-The new Fantastic Four movie appears set to completely tank, with star Miles Teller and director Josh Trank off complaining about the movie already (though I don't see them handing back the gigantic wads of cash they received for making it), Rotten Tomatoes having it in the toilet, and Friday numbers being thoroughly disappointing.  I honestly don't know why studios can't get this franchise right-it's one of the rare Marvel comics that is actually supposed to be dramatic, it has such a cool origin story, and four complicated characters.  This was my favorite comic series growing up, so it disappoints me to no end that they can't figure it out-perhaps it's that they don't understand the actual characters?  Or that they keep hiring actresses of questionable talent to play Sue Storm (or actors who are way to young to play Reed Richards?).  Whatever the reason, this is surely the final nail in the coffin for the series' big-screen opportunities, so I will just have to console myself with a pile of comic books and at least knowing that Chris Evans and Michael B. Jordan got in spandex for the films (#silversurferlining).

-My love/hate relationship with Ryan Murphy and American Horror Story continued this week.  On the negative side there's Lady Gaga getting what clearly is the central role, playing a wealthy socialite who has an evil plan, a role that feels written for Jessica Lange, and probably would be better played by her.  I don't mind pop stars who cross over to movies (Cher, for example, proved to be an excellent actor and a great addition to the cinema firmament), but Gaga is too earnest and doesn't have any edge, she's just very good at creating catchy pop-I doubt that will change when she gets into acting.  Yet, I loved Finn Wittrock last season and he apparently is playing a coked-out male model, which seems really up my alley in a way I should probably discuss with a therapist, and now he's announced my beloved Darren Criss will be in the show, which I see pretty much everything he is in...ugh, I can't decide-in the comments share if you're a waning AHS fan and if you're coming back to the Hotel.

-I had never heard of this before, but now desperately want to go.  The 'Mostly Lost' Film Festival took place recently at the Library of Congress' Packard campus, where film fans look through fragments of films that historians and critics haven't been able to deduce who the stars are or what the film is.  The attendees shout out clues in the middle of the film to try to figure out through old databases, magazines, and records what the film is to identify it for the library.  If that doesn't sound like the best date idea anyone has ever had, I don't know what does (if you're trying to woo me, get me tickets to this and I'll go).

In Politics...

-Really has there been a politician who had a bigger week than Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)?  The presumed next Democratic Leader of the Senate started off with a huge moment for the left, kicking off a new push for gun control legislation in the wake of the shootings in Lafeyette, LA.  He even got his famous cousin Amy to help with getting some press for it on Twitter (Ms. Schumer's film Trainwreck was playing at the time of the shooting).  While Democrats were all abuzz about this new push, Schumer sort of derailed his positive press by going against President Obama on the Iran Nuclear Deal. Both sides were livid, as the White house was hoping to have Schumer delay his announcement as the Obama camp is trying to find as many Democrats as possible in the House and Senate to ensure that the GOP cannot override the veto, while Schumer said it was Obama who leaked his vote to the press.  White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest seemed to think this could jeopardize Schumer's position as leader, and while I don't think it will (Schumer is more popular in the caucus than Obama, thanks in large part to the number of freshmen he helped elect like Jon Tester, Claire McCaskill, and Al Franken when he headed the DSCC), but I think it should, quite honestly.  This is a huge moment for the Democrats and it couples Schumer not wanting to press for Obamacare a few years ago-his vision for the party isn't grand enough, particularly considering how ambitious the Right has been on their platform.  Dick Durbin has already announced his support of the deal, and Patty Murray is still on the fence but you have to believe will probably go for it.  Both of them should be reconsidered for the top spot in my playbook after Schumer completely rejected such a crucial part of the Democratic agenda.

-I haven't weighed in on the debates because quite frankly I didn't watch them.  The idea of watching FOX News host a bunch of Republicans hyperboling over themselves seemed like about the worst way to spend an evening that I could think of-throw in Donald Trump and I just couldn't.  I will say, though, reading both transcripts and watching clips from the next day, three things.  One, it does appear that FOX News did have a bit of an agenda to knock Donald Trump down a peg.  I don't usually buy into conspiracy theories and Trump clearly went overboard in the days since with his ridiculousness against Megyn Kelly (perhaps one of the few GOP powerhouses in the country he won't be able to take down), but I do think Roger Ailes told the moderators to give him a rougher go than the other candidates.  Secondly, John Kasich's stance on gay marriage is nothing to applaud.  Yes, he may have been the most moderate voice on the subject on that stage, but really-if the best the GOP can do is "I tolerate them with my whole heart" (bravo Tina Fey), then the party is still pretty damn pathetic on gay rights and this should not be accepted.  Rob Murray, Susan Collins, Ilena Ros-Lehtinen-these can be candidates who can be held up as strong examples of gay allies on the Right-not Kasich.  Lastly, the media has gone all over itself congratulating Carly Fiorina on her great performance, but I looked at this and her answers were all style and there wasn't anything particularly strong in her actual stances or remarkable in them.  This seems a bit ridiculous to me-every CEO of a Fortune 500 company could do what she just did-it doesn't mean that she should be president.  When your track record is only that you tanked at Hewlett-Packard and that you bombed in your Senate race (in 2010, no less!), you shouldn't be considered for a White House nomination, period.

-Moody's has accurately predicted every presidential election since 1980, and it came out that they are predicting that the Democrats will win, but only by two electoral college points.  While I do agree this is going to be a nailbiter, and I do think that the Democrats have the slightest of edges still (based on President Obama's popularity, the advantages they have in the Electoral College, and the uncertainty surrounding the GOP's eventual nominee), I do quibble on which states are the "most at risk to switch" list.  I'll buy that Ohio and Florida could both go GOP, but there's no way in hell that Nevada is more at risk than Iowa for the Democrats to lose, or that Minnesota is more likely to switch than Wisconsin or even Michigan.  Plus, New Mexico has consistently been blue in almost every election except governor, which is likely to go Dem in 2020, so again it shouldn't be ahead of Wisconsin, which nearly went for Bush in 2004 and with Scott Walker potentially on the ticket.  Still, good news for the Democrats nonetheless.

Shameless Self-Promotion of the Week...

-The famed Jon Groff/Sutton Foster stage door photo is everything I always dreamed it would be.


YouTube Video of the Week...

-My single favorite recurring series on YouTube is back: Auguest!  Tyler Oakley's month-long series of collabs started out with the most perfect of guests, Ms. Grace Helbig (see the video below) and has continued with Zoe, Tanya, Joey, Ingrid, and Jenna.  Can't want for next week (and hopefully Marcus & Mamrie!), and am seriously hoping considering the amount of shade that Tyler is getting from Pewdiepie that they end up teaming up (weirdly Tyler hasn't commented yet on Twitter about the videos):

Just One More...

-My new obsession (NASA photos) came out with a doozy this past week, with a random 6000 meter pyramid that is randomly on the side of Ceres.  This is odd principally because it's the only mountain of its kind on Ceres, a dwarf planet between Mars and Jupiter, and there's no early explanation as to why it exists.  Stay tuned...

25 Random Thoughts on the Emmy Nominations

Emmy-nominated presenters Uzo Aduba and Cat Deeley

Well, it's time for one of my favorite features here on the blog-the post-nominations random train-of-thought list of what I thought coming out of this morning's Emmy nominations.  Each awards show I run down the 25 totally random things that go through my head as I slowly memorize the nominations.  Shall we take a look?

1. Anyone else think it was odd that they picked two surefire nominees (Uzo Aduba and Cat Deeley) to present the nominations?  Neither of them looked actually surprised by their own nominations (just for their show's).

2. Really?  The Emmys skipped Empire, arguably the buzziest show on television (and it's on a major network...the major network, in fact, that is airing the Emmys this year!), to once again go with Downton Abbey and Homeland.  Only Taraji P. Henson scored major love for the series, as Terence Howard, Jussie Smollett, and Jennifer Hudson all were left in the cold as well.

3. Really-Naked and Afraid is an Emmy nominee?!?  Really?!?!?!?!  Why not just nominate the Kardashians while we're at it.  This is why I hate reality television.

4. Jim Parsons' snub has to be the story of the morning, particularly considering Mayim Bialik made it.  I have to say, though, that The Big Bang Theory was bordering on unwatchable this past season-even the Amy/Sheldon/Penny trio episodes weren't any good.  And the sexism and homophobia was entering Two and a Half Men territory.  Perhaps this is the end?

5. Modern Family is losing this year-only two nominated regulars?  It's down to the bare minimum at this point, and I suspect Veep or Transparent makes the cut instead.

6. Does anyone actually watch Episodes or House of Lies?

7. I actually think that, barring Amy Schumer totally dominating the conversation, that Amy Poehler could finally break her streak this year.

8. DANDY MOTT!!!!!!

9. Also, if you're into that sort of thing, TATIANA MASLANY!!!!

10. Between the Empire snubs, Kerry Washington being skipped, and Gina Rodriguez also not making it, there may be some credence to an EmmysSoWhite hashtag.

11. Do we really need eight nominees for Supporting Actress?  I honestly have never even heard of that Niecy Nash show.  Not that she's whom I would cut (gotta love a first-time nominee), but just saying.

12. Jon Hamm will win an Emmy this year...but not for Mad Men.  His Reverend Wayne is the funniest thing I've seen in a while...also the picture the Emmys picked for Hamm may be the handsomest I've ever seen.

13. Could Guest Actress in a Comedy be more boring-Joan Cusack, Christine Baranski, and Elizabeth Banks have been playing these roles for years-come on Emmy, promote them to supporting or let it go.  The same for Michael J. Fox and Beau Bridges over in Drama Guest.

14. I am so excited that Moss, Hamm, and Hendricks all made it for the final season-here's to hoping one of them finally wins.  Also, I'm super pumped by the Game of Thrones nominations.

15. If I have to endure as many years of Breaking Bad's ubiquity with Better Call Saul, I will no longer watch the Emmys.

16. Ha!  Grace of Monaco after all of that critical drubbing somehow landed on Best TV Movie!  I hope Nicole shows up.

17. David Oyelowo also looks very fetching in his Emmy photo...and will win this as a makeup for his Oscar snub (as well as for being in a stunningly weak field-where's Bill Paxton?).

18. Every single one of the Best Actress in a Miniseries nominees is an Oscar nominee or winner.  This feels a little bit like a cheap way to pick up an EGOT as a result.  Also, why not just throw Kidman in there while you're at it?

19. Will Emmy prove it's more about the performance or the politics?  That's what Mo'Nique is asking...probably about Finn Wittrock and his need to win an Emmy (just kidding-glad to see Mo back acting-I am guessing she wins as well).

20. It bums me out royally that all of the Variety Talk Series nominees star straight white men.  Talented straight white men, but still.

21. Tress Macneille gets her first Emmy nomination after over 450 episodes of The Simpsons!  Huzzah!  Also suspiciously perennial nominee Harry Shearer is nowhere to be seen (perhaps the TV Academy didn't like his temper tantrum?).

22. Amy Poehler at least will win for writing the Globes even if Julia Louis-Dreyfus wins again.

23. There's an Emmy category for Best Narrator?  Also, Miranda Richardson is the narrator of National Geographic Wild?

24. Can Rachel Portman get an Emmy to go along with her Oscar for scoring Bessie?

25. I hate Anthony Bourdain-Klum/Gunn, Bergeron, Lynch, Deeley-don't care who wins as long as it's not Bourdain.

And there you have it-my thoughts on this morning's Emmy nominations.  What about yours?  I suspect you have thoughts, so let's get them out in the open!  Click the comments below!

Emmy Predictions: The Miniseries

We'll finish off the Emmy predictions with a look at the Miniseries/TV Movie categories, the categories that always get a bit of a brush through at the ceremony, but feature the people whom you actually expect to see at an awards show (the movie stars), so it's hardly something you can relegate to the Creative Arts Emmys.  If you missed earlier this week, don't forget to check out the Drama and Comedy predictions:

Best Limited Series

1. Olive Kitteridge
2. American Crime
3. American Horror Story: Freak Show
4. The Honorable Woman
5. Wolf Hall

The Lowdown: This is always the place to over-bet on HBO, not only because they campaign the hardest, but usually because they have the legit best contenders.  As a result, we've got Olive Kitteridge, the likely victor, on the top, though the network's only other major contender (The Casual Vacancy) has no buzz and I'm taking out for now.  Instead, I've got the rare nominee from a major network (American Crime), the perennial nominee American Horror Story (only at the Emmys could a perennial nominee be in the Limited Series category), the prestige-y Wolf Hall (PBS usually slices a nod here too), and the Sundance hit The Honorable Woman.  I suspect that there will be love for Texas Rising in other Emmy categories, especially in the tech slots, but both it and The Missing seem too small to take out this quintet.

Best TV Movie

1. Bessie
2. Derek: The Final Chapter
3. Nightingale
4. Killing Jesus
5. Agatha Christie's Poirot: Curtain, Poirot's Last Case

The Lowdown: Eww, this category looks awful.  No wonder Bessie seems so out-in-front here, there's nothing really to choose from (someone seriously dropped the ball here as every decent contender seems to be in the miniseries category).  Derek made it before and if The Big C and 24 are any indication should have no trouble scoring a couple of nods in an easier slate of nominees, and Nightingale may be largely forgotten but with an up-and-coming star and a weak bench to compete against is a certainty (David Oyelowo should succeed here where he couldn't at the Oscars).  The final two slots I'm going with Killing Jesus because apparently it's a frontrunner (ugh though-Bill O'Reilly with an Emmy?  Blech!) and Agatha Christie's Poirot, a swan song for a famed series.

Best Actor in a Miniseries/TV Movie

1. David Oyelowo (Nightingale)
2. Richard Jenkins (Olive Kitteridge)
3. Mark Rylance (Wolf Hall)
4. Bill Paxton (Texas Rising)
5. David Suchet (Agatha Christie's Poirot: Curtain, Poirot's Last Case)

The Lowdown: I am near certain that Oyelowo wins this one, so it's really just four guys going for an "honor just to be nominated."  That means that Richard Jenkins, who is the well-noted lead of Olive Kitteridge will make it, as will Bill Paxton who is enjoying a nice resurgence in TV movies at the moment (at this rate he might well win an Emmy soon), and Mark Rylance, who has owned Broadway for the past decade and seems likely to be both an Emmy and an Oscar nominee by year's end.  The final slot I'm going to do my true random prediction of the bunch (I haven't really gone out on a limb quite yet in any of these predictions) and go with David Suchet, who has been a TV icon as Poirot for years now without ever being cited, and it's not like Ricky Gervais or Timothy Hutton really need points for largely forgotten work this year.  Either of them make more sense (or perhaps even Oscar-winner Adrien Brody in Houdini), but Suchet seems like a nice way to honor a longtime TV trouper.

Best Actress in a Miniseries/TV Movie

1. Frances McDormand (Olive Kitteridge)
2. Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Honorable Woman)
3. Queen Latifah (Bessie)
4. Jessica Lange (American Horror Story: Freak Show)
5. Felicity Huffman (American Crime)

The Lowdown: In this category, "always go with the Oscar nominees" is a solid maxim, and it's completely true this year.  While some of these women are more known for television than film (namely Felicity Huffman, though lately Jessica Lange as well), all five have at least one Oscar nomination and in two cases a number of them.  Each of them have dominated the conversation so much that the only other person who could remotely compete appears to be Frances O'Connor in The Missing, but I don't think she'll have enough fame to get past this list (maybe if it had been Frances Conroy).  The best question here is whether Frances McDormand will actually show up to pickup her Triple Crown, or will she bow out on the off-chance she's going to lose to Gyllenhaal or Latifah?

Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries/TV Movie

1. Bill Murray (Olive Kitteridge)
2. Stephen Rea (The Honorable Woman)
3. Joanthan Pryce (Wolf Hall)
4. Damian Lewis (Wolf Hall)
5. Finn Wittrock (American Horror Story: Freak Show)

The Lowdown: If there's one rule in doing any sort of awards' predictions, it's to ignore your own personal opinions and always just go with the buzz.  Most of the time this is easy, as frequently the buzz and my own opinions are easy to separate.  For example, I can see that Damian Lewis and Jonathan Pryce both have that aura of former nominee and prestige, or that Stephen Rea's an Oscar nominee which should help him for The Honorable Woman, or that Bill Murray is a movie star icon in a major production, likely meaning not only a nomination but a win.  However, I just cannot buy the buzz behind Michael Chiklis, who was in every channel imaginable worse than Finn Wittrock in Freak Show.  It makes sense that the Emmy-winning Chiklis beats the ingenue and part of me is expecting it, but it will break my heart not to predict Wittrock for the performance of a lifetime, and so I am going with him, wrongness be damned.

Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries/TV Movie

1. Mo'Nique (Bessie)
2. Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story: Freak Show)
3. Kathy Bates (American Horror Story: Freak Show)
4. Janet McTeer (The Honorable Woman)
5. Susan Sarandon (Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe)

The Lowdown: I got a little bit off-the-track in the past category, but won't be in this one.  I know what side Emmy's bread is buttered on, and big names mean nominations (just ask Ellen Burstyn).  Susan Sarandon may be in a tiny film that got minimal plaudits, but she's also Oscar winner Susan Sarandon, who has never won an Emmy in four nominations and she's competing in supporting not the more competitive lead, so that should be enough to make it short of Alfre Woodard being in a show I haven't heard of yet.  The rest of the nominees seem set-Cynthia Nixon, Angela Bassett, and Zoe Kazan all have potential, but Sarandon makes the most sense on-paper, and that's where I'm headed.

Those are my final nominations (I don't really do the reality categories).  What are your thoughts?  Who do you agree with and who are you thinking has no shot?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

Everybody's Linking for the Weekend

I'm going to be a little bit sketchy potentially about posting over the next couple of days (I have company in town), though I'll try to get something out.  If nothing else, I'll try and tweet more to stay in touch (we'll be having a massive influx of posts the week before the 4th, though, since I have the week off and am going to be watching SOOOO many movies).  In the meantime, let's link it up!

In Entertainment...

-Finn Wittrock is returning to American Horror Story next season, and Jason over at MNPP chronicles his hope for Wittrock's story line (as always with Jason, it's slightly NSFW, but his blog is always so funny, and just turned ten so celebrate!).  I have to say, I'm really uneasy about the next season of American Horror Story, mostly because I think I might be done with it.  I was glued the first two seasons, got incredibly bored with the highly-convoluted third season, and was really underwhelmed in Season Four with the HUGE exception of Dandy Mott, Wittrock's Emmy-worthy creation.  As a result, with Jessica Lange gone I was really ready to give up, and Lady Gaga's entry as a leading actor was all the more reason, in my opinion, to get out (I get it, she can "actually sing," but so can Audra McDonald, Sutton Foster, Kelli O'Hara, and Jessie Mueller, and yet none of them ever get this sort of break despite also being able to "actually act"...and being better singers).  Until Gaga has her Silkwood moment, I'm out, but will probably still try and find the clips of what Finn does next on the series.

-(Spoilers Ahead if you haven't caught up with Game of Thrones) After this past week, when we saw the Walk of Shame from Cersei on Game of Thrones, more and more people are talking about quitting watching Game of Thrones.  This, combined with Sansa's rape scene, Princess Shireen's heinous death, and the wildly discussed death of Jon Snow, arguably the series most popular character give or take Tyrion, has made people wonder if perhaps the show has jumped the shark.  While I will not be amongst those who quits and think that some of these decisions were interesting (the Cersei Walk of Shame was painful to watch, but it does give her a different sort of motive for the next season if you look at this from a purely character-based angle, since she is the de facto monarch), I have to agree that this wasn't the greatest season of the show from a completely story-structure angle (though it exhibited some of the best acting), and I wonder if occasionally these moments were utilized more as water-cooler than in ways that will actually aid the storyline (I refuse to believe there's a better resolution to this series than Jon Snow ending up either taking the Iron Throne, or at the very least becoming the Lord of Winterfell).  I think the principle problem is that the show bit off more than it could handle this season-the Tyrells' imprisonment felt completely forgotten, and the Jamie/Marcella bit seemed too rushed.  All-in-all, while it may still be my favorite show on TV (it has competition from a couple of other series, including the soon-to-arrive Leftovers), I do wish they would have paced it a bit more-we don't want this to become a polarizing Lost-style situation in the final two years, and if they needed it to be eight, HBO is hardly going to quibble considering the continued ratings.

-IndieWire chronicles why television is far more diverse when it comes to celebrated TV movies than film is.  While IndieWire is always a site with a ridiculously short memory (seriously-Frances McDormand's career-best performance in Olive Kitteridge and not Fargo?), they have a point about the elasticity of television and the way that its business model allows for more risk since so much original content is needed.

In Politics...

Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC)

-The Washington Post has a great article chronicling the history of the Confederate flag flying over the South Carolina Capitol, which was notably not at half-mast after the racially-charged shootings in Charleston early last week.  The article provides a good explanation on its history, but it doesn't answer the obvious question everyone in the country that doesn't participate in Civil War reenactments is asking: "why the hell didn't this flag get taken down over a century ago?"  Seriously, no one in their right mind could look at the Confederate Flag and not see the clear racist implications behind it.  It'd be as if Germans wanted to keep flying the Swastika because of its link to history.  I think it is a damn shame that despite the fact that other modernized countries don't have these sorts of mass shootings and the only major difference is their gun laws, we have politicians like Gov. Haley who refuse to endorse the need for gun legislation.  But I think it's truly beyond reprehensible that that flag is still flying in the wake of this tragedy, and that it gets to fly at all on government property.

-If there's an under-the-radar story of the week, it has to have been the continued unease between organized labor and House Democrats after the past few weeks of the fast-track votes.  Yes, the AFL-CIO scored a coup by getting Nancy Pelosi and the majority of the caucus to buck the president, but it was at a price.  Democrats have done a really good job of backing incumbents and their own regardless of tough votes, but targeted attacks on people like Reps. Ami Bera, Scott Peters, and Kathleen Rice not only make Democrats uneasy, but they also potentially alienate allies on almost every other labor issue.  More than one Democrat has noted that labor has been attacking only Democrats, not Republicans in marginal districts on this vote, and that strategy didn't work at all for the Tea Party in the long run...

-If you don't have the time to read through the pope's entire encyclical, but you do want to stay informed, here's your perfect article.  It details the Pope's stances on coal specifically (he views it more unfavorably than even oil or gas), he's against carbon trading, and has some sharp things to say about iPhones.  Overall I'm pumped about this, I have to say-while I don't 100% agree with every point he makes, this is a huge step in the right direction on a critical issue.

Shameless Self-Promotion of the Week...

-With all due respect to all of the women who got dressed up for the Swedish royal wedding, this is the only picture you're going to care about seeing.

YouTube Video of the Week...

-Caspar Lee has arguably his funniest video of all time with Jurassic World star Chris Pratt.  Somewhere my brother is wishing he had started making YouTube videos five years ago so he could have done this interview:

Just One More...

-You might know this about me, but I have a mild obsession with Pippa Middleton.  I have lurved her since the Royal Wedding, and am constantly looking in the Wimbledon stands to see if she is there (Middleton sister watching is basically as important to Wimbledon now as Pimm's and strawberries-and-cream and Andy Murray's white underwear).  It seems that Tommy Hilfiger is also interested in Pippa, as she may soon be the face of his brand.  I say go for it-if you aren't going to date Harry, you might as well jump into fully-fledged celebrity stardom.

OVP: Unbroken (2014)

Film: Unbroken (2014)
Stars: Jack O'Connell, Dohnall Gleeson, Miyavi, Garrett Hedlund, Finn Wittrock
Director: Angelina Jolie
Oscar History: 3 nominations (Best Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Cinematography)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Arguably the most shocking downfall of this past Oscar season was the fall of Angelina Jolie's Unbroken.  Every year there's at least one film that manages to be drowned by its own expectations, faltering because people expect it to be a natural Best Picture frontrunner.  In the defense of pundits, a World War II epic based on a critically-acclaimed biography directed by an Oscar winner and lensed by one of the most acclaimed cinematographers of all-time...well, it's the sort of stuff that the Oscars salivate over.  And yet, I agree with the critical consensus here-Jolie may know how to create all of the right elements, but Unbroken lacks passion and nuance enough to make it an interesting picture.

(Spoilers Ahead) The story of Louie Zamperini, a World War II veteran and Olympic runner, was destined for the screen.  By all accounts Zamperini was a truly extraordinary human being-overcoming bullying in school to become an Olympic athlete (who, according to some reports, was ballsy enough to steal Hitler's personal flag from him in 1936) and then became an incredible hero in World War II, followed by a long career as a Christian inspirational speaker.  His story feels like it was lived by three different people, and his biography, particularly his compelling overcoming the odds in Berlin and later in Japan, is the stuff that biopic-fans salivate over.

The problem for Jolie, of course, is that it's difficult to frame Zamperini in an actual film setting without making him larger-than-life, because quite-frankly he was.  This was a person who doesn't appear believable and would be mocked at by critics if he weren't non-fiction, as he seems too good to be true.  The character in the film, it should be stated, may well have been what Zamperini was (he genuinely seems like an extraordinary human being), but the film itself doesn't know how to find angles to sort of test his endurance.  Perhaps this is a situation where a plot on paper doesn't work in actuality-Zamperini doesn't have the shades of grey as a protagonist that would make for a more compelling film.  Instead, his story may be better suited for a biographical documentary, where you can stagger his story a bit more ferociously and have less need for cohesiveness.

This isn't the only problem that Jolie runs into with her film, though.  For starters, while the film is immaculately shot with beautiful aerial views (it's Roger Deakins behind that camera, y'all), the actual cast may be a bit too, well, pretty to be believable as a unit.  Unless Tom Ford had a hand in casting World War II, it's ridiculous to watch, with gorgeous Finn Wittrock, Jack O'Connell, Luke Treadaway, Jai Courtney, and Garrett Hedlund all somehow ending in the same orbit.  I know that an army uniform helps pretty much any guy in this regard, but this is ridiculous.  Additionally, aside from the scenes on the raft, they manage to stay gorgeous throughout the film.  Somehow in a war camp where they are deprived of human dignity and hope, they still have regular access to hair gel.

The performances are all over the board.  Jack O'Connell clearly has a magnetism that's going to serve him well in future roles, but I have to admit that he was just okay here-he doesn't know how to crescendo his performance, as his big moments end up appearing less big and more out-of-character.  Not to criticize Jolie too much, but I feel like he needed more direction here and to be pushed a little harder.  Garrett Hedlund is always wonderful, but we know next to nothing about his Fitzgerald (the same can be said for Domhnall Gleeson's Phil and Finn Wittrock's Mac, both strong actors who are given roles that don't demand much and they don't push them enough to be very memorable).  Miyavi, playing the "Bird," a famed prison guard, gets the plummest of roles but thoroughly disappoints.  He doesn't find any sort of internal aspects of the character-we're left with him being awful, but little indication of what sets him off in Louie, or why he is such a sadist.  I normally blame the screenplay in these situations, but I have to admit that the script is there, but Miyavi holds back, perhaps because he's more a practiced singer than an actor, and as a result this aspect, crucial to the film's success, left me completely cold.  This result is the ending being less capable than it could have been; when you don't ever think that Louie won't succeed, you don't really have any uplift when he does.

The combination of an unbelievable main character and an underwhelming villain make this film pretty much the disappointment it's described as, though I will say they chose correctly on the nominations.  Particularly with the Sound Editing, there's a ferocious crispness to the air scenes that make them easily the best aspect of the film (the way that dialogue is still audible but feels drowned-that's strong sound mixing in this critic's opinion).  And of course Roger Deakins is superb, though I will say that there were sequences of the movie where it felt like he was just leading up to the next terrific shot (the scenes in the camp, for example, where he isn't showing the same care that Lubezki did with Birdman or Dick Pope does with Mr. Turner).

Those are my thoughts on this film-how about yours?  Were you with myself (and critical consensus) or were you a closet cheerleader for this film?  Where do you see Jolie taking her career as a director and O'Connell taking his career as an actor?  And what are your thoughts on the nominations that the film did pull (should it win any of them)?  Share in the comments!

Thoughts On American Horror Story: Freak Show

Once upon a time, I used to do recaps of American Horror Story (and Glee, for that matter), but I quit a few episodes into Coven, principally because I quit watching the show.  In fact, though it sits somewhere on the labyrinth that is my Netflix queue (I feel like there are films on that list that will never actually escape at this point-I hit my 500 film limit a while ago), I have little yearning to go out and finish the series.

However, I have heard such interesting things about Freak Show that over the last three days I decided to binge-watch the first seven episodes, and I have to admit that I’m pleasantly surprised.  While it lacks the gravitas of Asylum and the surprise of Murder House, it may be the best-plotted Ryan Murphy show I’ve ever seen.  People seem to be a bit turned off by the deliberate, and occasionally even slow pace, but this is Ryan Murphy we are talking about-he starts and ends “major” relationships in single episodes of shows.  The fact that he seems to have actually planned out and kept Freak Show relatively grounded in a coherent story is nothing short of a miracle (I say this knowing full-well that next week one of the freaks could end up being an alien).

As a result, I’m not going to get back into recapping Freak Show (maybe I’ll start again with Season 5), but I figured I’d go through the five things I love and the five things I can’t stand coming out of the first seven episodes (Obviously, spoilers ensue)

The Good

1. Finn Wittrock’s Dandy Mott: Honestly, this is enough reason to watch the show.  Wittrock (whom I have met, and really is just spectacularly dreamy in person, to the point that I met Andrew Garfield moments later and couldn’t stop thinking about how attractive Wittrock was) is wonderful as Dandy, a sociopath with the mentality of a child and the sense of morality of a barracuda.  His lines can be both ridiculous and frightening.  And Wittrock isn’t afraid to make Dandy weirdly intoxicating and oddly real.  Plus, the American Psycho homage was, well, something to behold.

2. The Pacing: I said it above, but the pacing of the show has been beautifully-restrained, and has only helped sell the story.  The Dandy plot, in particular, seems unusually deliberate for Ryan Murphy, as he normally would have had Dandy out killing someone in the first episode.  There’s also the giant question mark of which villains we should fear the most: is it Dandy or is it Denis O’Hare’s sadistic Stanley, out to profit from the deaths of the freaks?

3. Jessica Lange: Lange’s story is weirdly similar to last season’s (a once-powerful woman clinging to her fading youth and delusion), but this year she has a darkness that goes with it.  I love the way that she finds the complete lack of moral compass and sense of reality that is Elsa: this is a woman surrounded by the absurd, and she has pronounced herself a god, but there is absolutely no hope for her dreams, and we as the audience see the pointlessness of her life, but she doesn’t, which results in a sense of danger surrounding her.

4. The Darkness: The reality of this year, quite frankly, is that it might be the darkest and bleakest season so far of the series.  You see that in Elsa, who had any chances of stardom stolen from her when her legs were amputated during a snuff film (again, dark).  You see that with the devastating long sequence death of Matt Bomer’s Andy (and the way that Dandy and Andy serve as weird mirrors of each other).  You see that in the death of arguably the series’ most lovable character Ma Petite, when the death seems so unnecessary.  And of course, also in the last episode, you see that in the way that Penny is forced into becoming a freak by her father, who tattoos her face because she disobeyed him.  These are rough, difficult, permanent scars that are inflicted on these people in a way that twinges a bit more than usual for this show.

5. The Celia Weston Scenes: At first this was a bit of a downer for me, as was the entire Denis O’Hare storyline (at some point they’re going to explain the Viking joke, correct?), but this is yet another payoff of moving at a slower pace.  It seems that the Weston scenes may be building to something-perhaps that all of the freaks have died at Stanley’s hand?  That we’ll someday see some of our villains like Stanley or Dandy in her cavalcade?  There’s so much potential here, and building potential is not something Ryan Murphy does well, so this is definitely in the plus column for now.

The Bad

1. Angela Bassett: Hopefully we’re headed in a different direction with the Oscar-nominated actress, but at this point she seems to be woefully underused by the show, and is forced throughout the series to use the phrase “ding-a-ling” which seems a bit much.  Honestly, and I mean this in as nice of a way as I can because the horrible nature of the show has been a solid high point for the series (it’s received an infusion of The Leftovers), but did we really need Desiree to have her dream stolen so quickly with the death of Dr. Bonham?  Couldn't that plot line have continued a bit longer?

2. The Twisty Back Story: I liked the back stories on nearly every character on the show, with this exception.  Twisty the Clown was far more menacing, and in my opinion, effective, when we had no idea what was going on behind the mask.  I understand that his being a murderer without as much knowledge of what he is doing compared with Dandy’s ruthless evil is a solid juxtaposition, but why did we even need to know that evil can come from good as well as bad?  Why not leave his creepy, horrible clown as a creepy horrible clown that eventually inspires Dandy to become just as ruthless?

3. Patti LaBelle: What precisely was the point of hiring someone as famous as LaBelle to be in the series just to have her be killed off without any sort of character development?  If they had to do that, why not pick an unknown actor who is looking for a break rather than a platinum-recording artist?  Considering how much singing randomly goes on at the Freak Show, couldn’t we at least have had a song before she went?

4. Michael Chiklis: I don’t like Dell, and like all Ryan Murphy productions, he’s the character who I find could have been cut (every season has at least one plotline that doesn’t need to be there, and Dell the Strong Man is certainly that role this year).  Dell is unnecessarily angry and illogical (he’s already a pariah-why does it matter to his fellow carnies if he was also gay), and quite frankly I haven’t seen enough character growth or rationale to keep him around, and his actions in killing off Ma Petite were just awful.

5. Emma Roberts: I don’t get what the appeal is here yet.  Her character’s actions are always shifting, and she’s not a strong enough actress yet to really sell these scenes.  Her role should be more interesting, particularly since she may be the most moral person so far in the season, excepting Ethel (she’s one of the only major characters who hasn’t killed someone quite yet), but I don’t see the draw to her at all yet.

The Undecided

1. Gabourey Sidibe: I don’t quite want to list all three of the main African-American actresses as disappointing this season quite yet (even if they all three feel vastly underwritten at this point), but I’m hoping that Sidibe is at least somewhat fun next week.  Sidibe is great with comedy on the red carpet, and her one-liners are frequently hilarious in other films/shows, so hopefully next week’s episode, where it looks like she is a featured player, will be great.

2. The Crossover Element: Ryan Murphy has claimed that all of the series are related, but doesn’t seem to have an ending planned.  Either he’s flying by the seat of his pants (always terrible in his case) or he has a plan to link the seasons together in the future, which would be pretty incredible if done well.  We’ll see when Lily Rabe returns as Sister Mary Eunice if this ends up being completely awesome or not.

3. Sarah Paulson’s Story Arch: The twins, it should be noted, are incredibly watchable.  Paulson’s acting is sublime, and they are fascinating in the way they are similar and different.  However, their story has been stuck in park since the first episode, and there hasn’t been much growth in their plot.  Clearly they are gearing up for them to be separated, but can’t they do something else in the meantime?

And those are my thoughts so far on the season.  What about yours?  Are you watching Freak Show, and where does it rank compared to past seasons of the show?  Where do you hope to see the show progress in coming weeks?  Which of this season’s newbies do you hope becomes part of the “regulars?”  Share in the comments!