Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy “What’s Cooking?” and “Pieces of April”

Posted on November 26, 2019 at 8:00 am

My favorite Thanksgiving movies are the delightful “What’s Cooking?” and “Pieces of April.”

What’s Cooking? is a peek at the Thanksgiving celebrations of four families celebrating Thanksgiving with all of the secrets, drama, longing for approval, and, yes, gratitude and love we all face at this time of year. The cast includes Julianna Margulies, Dennis Haysbert, Kyra Sedgwick, Alfre Woodard, Mercedes Ruehl, and Joyce Chen.

Pieces of April is also filled with all of the hopes and pressures of the holiday as an estranged daughter (Katie Holmes) struggles to prepare a Thanksgiving feast for her family, including her mother (Patricia Clarkson) who has terminal cancer. The cast also includes Derek Luke, Alison Pill, Oliver Platt, and Sean Hayes.

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For Your Netflix Queue Holidays

Scorsese’s Greatest Shots

Posted on November 23, 2019 at 3:08 pm

The Ringer picks out some of Martin Scorsese’s most striking — and most influential shots.

And the Runner-Up Is: Podcast Discussion of Picnic and the Best Films of 1955

Posted on November 20, 2019 at 8:56 am

Oscar-ologist Kevin Jacobsen’s delightful “And the Runner-up Is” podcast looks back at the Academy Awards and considers which films that did not win have better stood the test of time than the ones that brought home the gold. Spoiler alert: We agreed that “Marty” is still at the top of the 1955 list, but we had a great time talking about the runner-up, Joshua Logan’s “Picnic,” starring William Holden and Kim Novak and based on the play by William Inge.

1776: A Broadway Musical About the Signing of the Declaration of Independence

Posted on July 2, 2019 at 9:33 pm

Celebrate the 4th of July by watching the entertaining and inspiring “1776,” based on the Broadway musical about the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The movie does not shy away from the terrible compromise on slavery that the founding fathers agreed to in order to make this country one nation, with a fault line that would shatter our deepest convictions enumerated in the very document our country was established on. The characters are really brought to life with all of their courage and hope as well as their faults and fears.

EHere’s a glimpse from a recent Broadway staged version, with Santino Fontana of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.”

And from the movie, with William Daniel as the “obnoxious and disliked” John Adams.

July Character Actor Blogathon: “Always a Bridesmaid”

Posted on June 30, 2019 at 5:38 pm

This is a great idea for a blogathon! A month-long tribute to the often-neglected character actors, orchestrated by Zoe Krainik of Hollywood Genes. She writes:

While, of course, we love the main characters of our favorite films, often truly great characters and performances end up unnoticed, unremembered, or under appreciated simply because the characters were supporting, relegated to the background, or deemed less than perfect per society’s norms of the time.

With this concurrent Twitter challenge and blogathon, we hope to celebrate the bridesmaids instead of the brides, small parts with big heart, and the characters who are way too familiar with the background and the friend zone.

Follow along on Twitter or Instagram! #BridesmaidChallenge2019