Introducing Sunshine State

 The Quintessential Florida film: Sunshine State

When I first saw this film, I was not yet a film person but had likely just declared my major in geography: the study of humanity through looking at regional characteristics, definitions and groupings; the flow of people; the shaping of landscapes; and the flow of people.

One rule of geographic landscape reading is that no inhabited place is uninteresting. There’s something of value in studying the landscape of Allentown, Pennsylvania, even if you’re brain would be stimulated into overdrive trying to figure out how the hell Las Vegas ended up the way it did.

Still, Florida is more like a swampy Las Vegas with much richer news stories and even the non-geographically minded can get fascinated by it. It has spurned the Seth Meyers segment "Fake or Florida" and, in the age of the meme, the popular website Florida Man.

So where does it all begin?

Due to a combination of lack of valuable gems, inhospitable weather, and difficulty of developing on top of swampland (improbably turned into tourism), Florida was settled after the West.

However, air conditioning was invented and people like Henry Flagler provided the infrastructure, Florida paved the way for some of the early trends of vacationing, retirement, and winter snowbirds started appearing here.

Florida was heavily sold to tourists in the same manner of the first European to lay eyes on it: The Fountain of Youth. But every group that used Florida as its dream seemingly ran over the other: The Russian mob, the Quebecois, the Black population, New York snowbirds, and the Hispanic migrants.

National Geographic once described Miami as the modern-day Venice: Where art, wealth, and vice meet and sometimes produce spectacular results. One interesting factoid: When Joel Gurreau published the Nine Nations of North America in the 1980s, he divided North America into nine formal and functional regions, suggesting that state boundaries isn't really how things work. He suggested that South Florida was a unique Latin American bastion that wasn't really operated like America. At the time he wrote the book, Gareau noted nine deposed Latin American dictators were all living in South Florida. Indeed, a small group of Cuban ex-pats in South Florida wanting to save the cigar industry had enough lobbying power to persuade the US to get involved in the Bay of Pigs.

Florida has been mythologized a lot more through writing with the books of Dave Barry, Carl Hiassen, and Elmore Leonard who have ripped their stories from the headlines (the predecessor to Florida Man). Part of this is because Florida has the most lenient FOIA laws with regard to crimes, so crazy headlines are much more likely to make it to the front pages.

There are a lot of great examples of Florida films covering all those different views of Floridian life: Off the top of my head, there's the dysfunctional urban landscape of Miami in Barry Sonnenfeld's adaptation of the Dave Barry book "Big Trouble," the mob film "Scarface" (few know that Al Capone ran much of his Chicago mob operations from Florida), the portrait of Florida as an lavish 50's vacation spot for snowboards in "Some Like it Hot" and "Palm Beach Story," Miami as a happening singles scene in "Hitch," and the more backwater view of Florida as a small-town haven of eccentric characters in "Because of Winn Dixie."

"Sunshine State", mostly somber in tone, stands out to me as the quintessential Florida film, because it is the intersection of multiple Floridian versions in one Altmanesque whirlwind.

The underrated gem by John Sayles flew under the radar when it was released in 2002 (it grossed but it's worth a second look. Starring an ensemble that includes Mary Steenburgen, Edie Falco, Angela Bassett, Timothy Hutton, Alan King, James McDaniel, and Jane Alexander, the film centers around seaside town whose tranquil existence is threatened by an encroaching real estate developer.

Florida is largely a state where real estate development is the rule of the land. The city of Miami, for example, is no longer home to the Miami Dolphins, Miami Beach, University of Miami, Key Biscayne, or even Miami airport. As seen below, all those places broke off from the main city proper as the municipalities became dominated by gated communities and developments that encouraged voters to need the city less. Miami, in fact, survived a vote to dissolve the city entirely in 1997.

Steenburgen stars as a chamber of commerce head and overanxious real estate developer who is trying so hard to sell her latest development she doesn't even notice that her husband (King) is suicidal. In my years of local reporting, I have come across these Chamber of Commerce types and these jobs typically require very perky people who speak about wherever they live like it's shangri-la.


Bassett stars as former town pariah Desiree Perry who got pregnant by the local football star (McDaniel) before he made it big and is now returning to her hometown. She's deciding on behalf of her family whether to sell the land or preserve the special piece of her town. The theme here is Florida being a dream for so many conflicting groups of people is represented here.

For Bassett's character and her neighbors, the town represented the opportunity for blacks to have their little piece of the beach. The town also highlights the pockets of poverty found in many a Florida coastal town. or most traditional tourist traps.

Lastly, we have Edie Falco as Marley Temple who represents the state's evolving tourist industry. Temple, a sixth generation Floridian, used to be a mermaid in one of the seaside attractions that lined the highways before the corporate megaliths of Sea World and Disney World took over. What Temple is referencing, when she talks about her past life as a mermaid, is a real tourist attraction: The mermaids at Weeki Wachi Springs.

 
This is also a Florida thing, as the mermaid shows or the alligator shows that still populate the land today pose all sorts of questions as to how to promote nature, myth, and how not to step on past or future waves of progress in the tourist industry.  Falco is now an owner of the family motel who's sick of where she's living. Her tryst with a landscape architect hired (Timothy Hutton) by the prospective land developer. It's a metaphor for the past Florida going the way of the future.

As a tapestry of intersecting lives, Sunshine State works as a great scene piece that has aged well and will likely continue to be relevant.

It has a running time of 2:20 but it's a film that moves at a great pace. It can be found on Tubi.

The event can be found here. If you need, I can get you a code to reduce the price:
Film Talk and Discussion: John Sayles and Sunshine State (2002) Tickets, Tue, Jul 16, 2024 at 9:00 PM | Eventbrite

The Abyss (1989): A Movie About Brock From Titanic?

The Abyss can be seen as a spiritual predecessor to the Titanic in that it marks Cameron’s love affair with the ocean and his desire to push the furthest limits of special effects in its discovery. It’s even been rumored that Cameron took on the assignment of Titanic as an excuse to indulge his zeal for undersea exploration. In addition to being one of the few people to dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, he holds the record for having spent the most time on board the Titanic (with the caveat that he never spent an hour with the ship when it was above board).

Among the things that fascinate me about this film is that he created an entire film for Brock.

Brock is the deep see gem miner played by Bill Paxton, who can be seen as an avatar for Cameron (considering a certain 2009 film, I’ll have to add a “no pun intended”). Both pride themselves on their adeptness, both feel comfortable in command, and both are capable of being moved by a story. 

In an alternate ending, Brock actually catches Rose in the act of throwing it in the ocean. Rather than do everything in his power to stop her, he holds it for a moment, lets Rose throw it over and laughs. It's as if he learned a (very improbable) lesson on the true power of wealth.

James Cameron has been known as a controlling man on set and he has likely made enemies from the studios for overspending their money. If Titanic didn’t hit that lightning in a bottle and win big at the box office, it would have gone down as cinema’s biggest failures. Maybe Brock was a way to justify Cameron himself.

Whereas the final cut doesn’t give Brock the satisfaction of moral agency (he’s in the dark), it’s indicative of the way Cameron wants to see himself as a man who values wonder and exploration above everything. As an auteur, the way he (some might say carelessly) drives up the budget of his films reinforces this.

The Abyss is one of the most ambitious underwater films ever filmed this side of The Poseidon Adventure.

As part of the 1980s, it’s heavy on heroes and action. At its center is Bud Brigman. Played by Ed Harris, he might not look like a Sylvester Stallone or Harrison Ford; but he has the chip on his shoulder and the confidence in his own vision that is requisite of a frustrated auteur like another James Cameron stand-in. There’s also a quasi-military element which matches other films of the era like Hunt for Red October and Top Gun.

As Brock is potentially implied to be powered by greed (if we go by canon), Bud’s faults are presented by his soon-to-be-ex-wife and professional foil in Lindsey (Mary Elizbeth Mastrantonio).

But here’s the thing: We only see the competent version of Bud. The only negative things we hear of him are in flashback through Lindsey. It’s as if the flashbacks are a way for Cameron to address rumors or his internal doubts, while the man he wishfully presents to the world is an ordinary-looking man who becomes a hero.

Without giving too much away, Bud’s transcendent journey comes from curiosity and appreciating wonder. He also gets the girl back, just as Titanic and Avatar have non-romantic issues resolved through a cathartic love story.

Introducing Terry Gilliam and The Fisher King

 Film of the Month Club: Fisher King and Terry Gilliam Tickets, Tue, Jun 25, 2024 at 9:00 PM | Eventbrite

Here is my intro for the film:

If watching a movie critically is a richer experience than watching a movie passively, than Terry Gilliam is a good place to start because every choice he makes is strong. His artistic process is among the most transparent of any film maker. It’s very easy to spot his bold choices and it might not be too much of a stretch to reach into his head.

The former animator for the Monty Python troop sees the world as a children's storyteller of sorts influenced by mythology, science-fiction, and absurdist humor.

Pretty much nothing about the way his films are made are ordinary from the internal logic of his films, to the way his actors act exaggerated and can even be seen as live-action cartoons, to the close-ups and Dutch angles by which he will film his actors, to the artifice of the art direction, to the overwrought scores. But does it all add up to the sum of its parts? Is it enchanting?

The Fisher King might be Terry Gilliam's most adult film. It deals with loss, trauma, and metamorphis, and the nature of charity. 
His cartoonish style when Jack Lucas is interacting with Parry is juxtaposed against a straighter visual and aural tone when Lucas is interacting with people in the regular world. Whereas his characters often act cartoonish, Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams deliver two of their greatest performances here, Mercedes Ruehl won an Oscar in the supporting actress category, and Amanda Plummer should have won the Supporting Actress Oscar for my money. It would be rather far-fetched for anyone to earn a nomination in any of the earlier stages of Gilliam's career.

WHAT ELSE WILL THE FILM OF THE MONTH CLUB BE COVERING:
Future installments include: Sunshine State and the poverty exposes by John Sayles; Zorba the Greek and the jet set era of 60s films; Sex Lies and Videotape and the birth of indie films; Treasure of the Sierra Madre and the capacity for the adventure film; Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the re-interpretation of noir.

If I Curated a Film-of-the-Month Club

 This isn't that much of a hypothetical as I am currently starting one on a shared FB chat. 

I have a list chock-full of favorites My Top 100 of the 20th Century (imdb.com) (and have these 50 favorites on top of the original: 20th Century 50 Runners-Up (imdb.com). However, this isn't what I'm looking for when deciding what I want to do when curating a list of films for discussion.

For instance, I think Terry Gilliam is a good film director to examine because he's a very odd anomaly with a lot of variances in his popularity. A good discussion can be had about why his films might resonate and what holds him back from achieving more popular success. Someone in the group suggested Brazil but I think that might not create optimal discussion considering it is one of the most beloved films of all-time. I would imagine that 9 out of 10 viewers would find Brazil brilliant which wouldn't lead to as much discussion over a polarizing film director. Films like Fisher King (an attempt at merging mythology with a sappy drama about high stakes and trauma) or Time Bandits (a time travel sci-fi film that's underdeveloped in terms of world building by today's standards), or 12 Monkeys (a more universally enjoyable film, but has some odd attempts to integrate the source material to the final product) will challenge the audience more to see the director's vision. That would be more ideal for discussion.

Here are my picks for a batch of films that have a certain quality, will enrich the viewer, encompass variety, and provoke discussion.

So here is what I would pick if I could say curate for a year (I stretched it out to a year and a third)

1.     Sunshine State (2002) by John Sayles. It’s a film about poverty, class (a little bit about race), and people coping with changing economic conditions. Plus, it's a great Florida film (my favorite invented genre). I’m assuming that people in my group will have less familiarity with him as other auteurs, and that should be changed.

Alternate: Matewan

2.     Theoretically, Liz (the horror buff) would pick the second film and she would probably like to do horror and I don’t know how much stomach we have for that group.. But  David Cronenberg’s 1980s film Videodrome is a thoughtful film (I have seen about half of) and I might be able to appreciate it in a way and it might be a good way to bend. it’s firmly within the realm and I don’t think it’s too horrific for people who don’t love that type of horror.

3.     The Elia Kazan film Pinky (1949). This will be a very interesting film to discuss because this is a 1940s film about race that would get canceled immediately today because the character’s mixed race and she’s played by a white actress. Kazan made a lot of social message films but some like this and Gentlemen’s Agreement (in which a clearly non-Jewish person tries to expose anti-semitism) seem dated, but we can look at such things from a modern lens and evaluate. Mind you, the film might be dated but it is not boring. I really do remember this to be a very moving and good movie.

4.     The disaster film Airport  (1970) upon which Airplane! devised some of its popularity. We should look at the disaster film as a whole and evaluate whether this is just frivolous Blockbuster or like a really good film. 

Alternatives: Airport, Earthquake, Towering Inferno

5.     Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) It’s one of those films that regularly appear on the top 100 films of all time lists, and is part Western, part adventure, and a little formless. It’s a beloved film, so the discussion can be about whether it’s worth the hype. I’ve only seen half of it on TCM (not the start and not the beginning).

6.     The Conversation (1976). A 1976 Francis Ford Coppola film made at the height of the film director’s power that was sandwiched in between the Godfathers and Apocalypse Now. It’s about surveillance, and equally as acclaimed but not as famous. I haven’t watched any Coppola films outside some of his unacclaimed 90s stuff and Finnian’s Rainbow, and honestly, I don’t feel like starting the Godfather or Apocalypse Now this late in life, so I want to work my way into this wayward stop in his filmography as he returns to form in Metropolis.

7.     School Daze (1988). A 1988 film of Spike Lee that’s right before his defining turn in Do the Right Thing. It might be interesting to look at the elements of Spike Lee before his big, big film.

8.     Sweet Charity (1969). For Mary (a member of our group who liked musicals), we’ll throw in a musical. There's a tremendous number of musicals I'm fond of but for the group, late-period musicals like that of Bob Fosee would be richer for discussion in terms of modern relatabality. Cabaret, because it foreshadows Naziism and the songs serve a purpose that you can argue a lot is an interesting film. But Sweet charity was also an influence in Schmigadoon, and also a Bob Fosse film. I have a feeling it will be very 60s and 70s vibe. As films are a window into history, this could be a big one

Alternative: Cabaret

9.     American Graffiti My favorite coming-of-age film. I’d be curious to see how others see this 1973 George Lucas film as comparing to the ones they grew up on (I’m guessing John Hughes).

Alternative: Rebel Without a Cause

10. The Fisher King (1991) I think Terry Gilliam is an odd bird, to put it mildly. What is it about his visually exxagerative style that works?

Alternatives: Time Bandits, 12 Monkeys 

11. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1956) I want through a lot of sci fi films before deciding on this one. It's not as iconic and influential as Flash Gordon or 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it's a landmark film and symbolizes 1950s films which, like the Twilight Zone, were often rich in allegories and morals. It can be seen as a good code film.

12. What Did You Do in the War Daddy (1966) by Blake Edwards, best known for the Pink Panther. Is a comic war film you might enjoy (I’ve seen it) and can serve as a companion piece to the more famous Rob Altman film MASH (1980) in that it shows the silliness of war

13. Three Days of the Condor (1975) Adam Spector (the local film discussion guru) spoke of this as having some bearing on the Marvel movies, so it could be a good segue to the early action films of the 1970s and 1980s.

14. Cat Ballou (1965) A fun Jane Fonda film and woman-oriented Western which is kind of a curious thing to study from a feminist perspective. It's also a less famous Western, and a very fun film.

15. Dr Zhivago (1965) An epic. The kind of epic that becomes endangered. This is a film I’ve seen half of and own but the second part of the DVD is broken.

16. Looper (2012) Certainly not my favorite film of this era, but it's a curious film and there are a lot of influences in this that might be interesting to examine

17.  Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) We can watch noir or we can watch something that references

18 The Matrix (1999) In this case, I'm picking a film I've never seen and should have. It comes from what some in the group consider to be the best year in recent American history. It's also taken on meanings upon meanings as the film has matured, so that evolution can be discussed.

Top Starkid Moments Part I: 21-15

Star Kid is a musical theater troupe started out of the University of Michigan. They uploaded a musical parodying Harry Potter in 2009, that was only intended to be seen by the immediate families of the members of the students as they were graduating.

They soon joined a class that includes Peter Hollens, Studio C, Brizzy Voices (which I've interviewed), Postmodern Jukebox, Kurt Hugo Schneider, Kaboom Production, Scary Pockets, Barely Productions, and Max Frosh (I'm probably missing dozens) of creators who win the YouTube algorithm lottery but step up to the task by managing to be inventive and fresh to deserve audience loyalty for years.

They've managed to finance many more musicals, sketch shows, and web series at this point and have been going for some 15 years and counting at this point.

I just discovered Starkid a little over 2 months ago, and already I've seen Black Friday, Twisted (my favorite), Holy Musical Batman, Nerdy Prudes Must Die, Ani, Trail to Oregon, Firebringer (my second favorite), Airport for Birds, VHS Christmas Carol, and the free sample of the reunion.

I'm going to count down my 21 favorite moments from my Team Stsarkid Experiencee, and hopefully, it will spark some debate. I also have a background in sketch writing, so I bring some of that analysis to it.

21. Christmas Electricity, VHS Christmas.

Jamie Lynn Batty’s out-of-left-field take on the ghost of Christmas past that I’m guessing is inspired by Olivia Newton-John’s music video Physical (?) takes the silver for commitment to the premise, but Christmas Electricity is the best thing about this show. James Tolbert looks like he's having the time of his life in the Christmas Present. Besides, it's kind of a given that if you have a catchy chorus, and you repeat it over and over again, it will get stuck in your head. It’s infectious enough that you could even see Scrooge crack a smile in-universe (which he does!), and bonus points, that moves the plot forward as well.

20. Lost Without You, Trail to Oregon

How debatable is it that Jamie Lynn Beatty is the best pure singer in the company? I haven’t really had any interaction with the rest of the fandom, and I am not the worlds' foremost expert on assessing vocal talents, but it seems like JLB is trying out for American Idol every time she flexes her vocal chords. If you wanted an older reference, you could see her as the Ruby Keeler character in 42nd Street, where the theater manager 1930s-style frantically tells her before going on that she’s got to succeed because the whole company right is riding on her. If JLB, had one song to save her life on, it feels like this one (although please debate me!). Other than a little bit of very clever fourth wall breaking (Cletus and the Bandit King want to sing their own musical number in the back?! Haha), it’s an entirely straight song that doesn’t add to the humor of the show. But comedic musicals need to change the rate of funny, so this works really well.

19. Nintendo, Airport for Birds

This is a case of humor often working, because it keys into hyper- specific) to our experiences. We probably never even voice it out loud to our own selves but yes, we did choose our friends as children based on who had cool toys. I know, I sure did, as my parents didn't buy the newest video game systems or ninja turtle collectibles as fast as other kids' parents. The humor of this moment is that sort of “yes, that’s totally me!” catharsis although it is heightened to comedy extremes. Unless you’ve actually had a date to Burger King, then God help you. This also has further fourth-wall breaking (a trademark of Starkid) that works wonderfully when Meredith can hear Brian singing. It's also great to see further group numbers in the sketch shows. I'm unclear as to the degree to how well everyone (say, the more sketch-focused members, or the dancers) can sing solos, but they're all clearly capable of not detracting from a group number vocally, so it's a good way to show off group harmony.

18. Alfred and Bruce’s dysfunctional relationship, Holy Musical Batman

The idea of Bruce Wayne being a stunted child has been notably done before (most notably in a collaboration between College Humor and Pete Holmes a decade ago), so it loses some points for familiar territory, but comedy is about a way in which we all can relate to, like the Nintendo example. I’m sure it's struck everyone that that the two have kind of a codependent relationship. I don’t know, would Adam West have really have been able to have his costume ironed or his Batmobile in such pristine condition without Alfred doing the grunt work?

Chris Allen nails down the Michael Caine impression which helps make the skewed elements of this parody so effective. Holey Musical Batman doesn’t entirely work for me because of the tonal whiplash. I get it because Batman itself has gone through so many degrees between the pitch-black 2022 pitch and the ultra-camp of the 1960s, and comedy can be mine from those contrasts. This was sent one such case where the warmth of the Alfred Batman relationship was punctured by these “F you” shouting matches, that broke up the mood. However, it was funny as hell.

17. The Bandit King’s Brazenness Around his Child Bride, Trail to Oregon

I can think of few funnier lines from the entirety of everything I’ve watched than “It’s not what it looks like, I was just trying to have sexual relations with your daughter.”

The bandit king’s warped view of love is simply hilarious and manages to walk the fine line of what TV Tropes refers to as crossing the line twice. It’s so absurdly offensive. It just goes back to being funny again.

There are also world-building elements to this as it shows he has a warped view of love. He doesn’t acknowledge his existing lover, he clearly has no handle on how to speak to a woman, and hilariously calls her “child bride.” There’s so much to unpack with this guy.

That it leads to Rachel Slogan’s show-stopping mama bear monologue is just icing on the cake.

16. High school is Killing Me musical number, Nerdy Prudes Must Die

It’s certainly darker than I would expect high school melodrama to be if you pay attention to the lyrics but then again, this is supposed to be a series that does genre shift towards horror midway through each installment. What stands out about this to me is that it really feels like Broadway level choreography and vocal arranging. The way that a plot is actively moving to a certain level of dialogue and the characters of Stephanie, Peter, and Grace are jumping back-and-forth between the Greek chorus is extremely impressive. It also sets the stage for a sweet, although marginally lopsided romance between the school nerd and the school rebel. Just don’t get any false expectations, nerds, but doing your crush’s homework will get you anywhere with her.

15. Bank robbery in an extremely loud space, Airport for Birds

In the sketch, a been customer wants to get a new credit card and the noise becomes so gradually overwhelming and that a robber comes in, takes the customer hostage, gets chased down by police, and no one in the bank even notices. Physical comedy isn’t always about tripping over banana, peels or throwing pies at each other’s faces. Sometimes, it’s the small things like a slow acceleration in intensity does the four bank tellers manage to pull off, while chaos emerges around them. Meanwhile, the sketch’s lead actor (sorry, I can’t ID him, he’s the balding one who’s not Joe Walker) appears to have suffered some serious trauma which some might also call Crossing the Line Twice humor.

15 Actresses Most Overdue for Oscar

Looking at Hollywood’s Most Underappreciated Actresses When It Comes to the Grand Prize

Photo by Samuel Ramos on Unsplash

1. Glenn Close-To have that kind of streak in the 80s is something few actresses can manage, and she has followed it up with the kind of good female roles that rarely get recognized in old age

2. Annette Bening-She’s been in prestige films A LOT, and had a well-deserved 5th nomination in Nyad. Close and Bening are almost like Bradley Cooper/Leo DiCaprio and that they might give off the illusion of trying too hard to choose films based on Oscar potential at this phase.

3. Naomi Watts-I view her as on part of the Nicole Kidman/Rene Zellweger/Reese Witherspoon generation that just never got her due despite consistently being in great films

3. Sigourney Weaver-Maybe, it’s the ghettoization of her action or comedy roles, but she’s still been around for a long time

4. Amy Adams-Yes, to have 6 nominations without winning puts you at the upper echelon, but I do feel like it’s competitive at the top and while I adore her from an underdog perspective in years like Doubt or Juneburg, I do feel that Goliath Amy Adams is less appealling (like the due narrative that accompanied Vice).

5. Carey Mulligan-Saoisre Ronan was a child star who lucked into her first nomination (so I’d give her 3 noms rather than 4) which is the same as Mulligan who had a little more agency as the lead in education. The Dig and Promising Young Women are complete opposite ends of the spectrum and she can do period pieces

6. Margo Robbie-I don’t love her, but she’s creeping closer to due territory.

7. Scarlett Johansson-She’s never gone a few years without making something noteworthy. Even something minor like Joseph Gordon Levitt’s Don John or The Man Who Wasn’t There, she brings something to.

8. Saoisre Ronan-She keeps making her way into fantastic films. Counting the one she wasn’t nominated for (Grand Budapest Hotel), all her nominations have been in 5 Best Picture nominees, which bodes well for her.

9.Keira Knightley-Personally, I would have had her winning 2 Oscars already for A Dangerous Method . She can do period and she can do comedy, and is ideal for rom-com (Begin Again, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World)

10. Isabelle Hupert-The Oscars show also include international diversity as well as racial diversity, and this French star has had some major hits

11. Angela Bassett-They probably shouldn’t have given her the honorary Oscar so young (she was around 62–63 by my calculations when the Academy announced the award) and I suspect it was wanting to hedge their bets by awarding a Black actor in case the Academy didn’t nominate any. She’s a personal favorite and honorary usually doesn’t affect in-competition voting but I think she’s worth a lead statue

12. Rosamund Pike-Gone Girl was one of the most epic parts ever to lose an Oscar (or at least in the 2010s) and she is always taking prestige roles. You can see her trying to spin Oscar bait out of subpar material like Beirut.

13. Toni Collette-I get the sense she’s more likely in supporting, but she rarely goes a few years without something experimental and wild like Midsomar or I’m Thinking of Ending Things and she’s prolific

14. Michelle Pfeiffer-Here’s the thing: With women, they sometimes drop off in noticeable roles as they age. I don’t like it any more than anyone, and with Stardust, White Oleander, and Hairspray, Pfeiffer fought strong, but it just might be difficult for her to find a good script today

15. Lily Tomlin-I’m not sure how much of a glass cielling voters would consider to have a lesbian win lead actress, but she’d be that and a rare comic actress to win the Award. When she acts in Grace and Frankie or 80 For Brady, it’s kind of sad thinking she’s the only star on screen not to have won an Oscar and only got nominated once.

Personal Wish List: Elizabeth Shue, Charlotte Rampling, Kerry Washington, Keri Russell, Jenny Slate (she has headlined the films before, but her films have been lower visibility, Marcell the Shell might have broken that), Olivia Williams (AKA the other Olivia), Christina Ricci, Kelsey Asbille, Kelly Reilly, Riley Keogh

Palm Royale: An Anti-Hero for the Soapy Period Drama

 

Credit: Apple Studios

Kristen Wiig stars as social climber Maxine in this soapy melodrama about a woman’s attempt at being a social climber in the jet set age of the 1960s.

In the opening pre-credits scene, Maxine scales the wall of the prestigious Palm Royale country club and falls over the other side like a clumsy burglar. It’s an apt metaphor for a social climber who is willing to surrender any level of dignity for her prize.

In the first scene after the credits (which, sidenote, are award-worthy in their own right) Maxine slyly makes her way to the jet setters equivalent of a mean girls club to try to ingratiate herself into their conversation. Her genteel southern charm and agreement with everything they say marks her off as suspicious. 

After queen bee Evelyn (Allison Janney) spurns her encroachment, Maxine gets desperate enough to risk life and limb by crashing her car in front of mean girl Dinah (Leslie Bibb) just to get into a conversation with her. And this is the first episode alone. 

She’s clearly a desperate woman for social status. When Dinah asks her why she would want to be accepted into this club so badly, Maxine technically gives an answer but it’s never particularly satisfactory. This is a running motif: In-universe, the other characters are aware of how strange it is for Maxine to so desperately want to be part of a club that likely doesn’t want her so badly.

It’s eventually revealed that Maxine has some big financial stakes: She’s in debt, and her rich in-law hasn’t yet left her estate. But still, her obsession with high society is still left somewhat enigmatic to the viewer. It’s likely that the intention is to make Maxine’s motivations to be the series’ proverbial rosebud (to borrow a Citizen Kane reference).

What’s clear is that Maxine is not particularly sympathetic. Evelyn’s step-daughter Linda Shaw, who can see through high society’s flaws (although she might be a little too liberal for some audience tastes) might be more in line with reality and heroism. Maxine, on the other hand, is an anti-hero. Even if she never reaches the depths of the villains of Killing Eve, Breaking Bad, The Americans, or Boardwalk Empire, she is pretty singularly focused for grift among morals. 

The negative might be that the stakes will never reach that high in this arena of country club intrigue. The whole saga is framed by a gunshot (so maybe a total body count of one?) and Maxine’s goal is merely to be the head of the charity ball. Sure, there might be intrigue in the detours en route and how low the character will sink to, but the main route of conflict is only appealing to people who want the soap.

Maxine’s tunnel vision is also cringey in the manner of Laura Dern’s protagonist, Amy Jellicoe, in the wonderfully cringey show Enlightened. But again, Jellicoe, has bigger goals (corporate corruption) and pressures that wasn’t of her own making. Maxine’s crusade is basically against some gossipy housewives who won’t let her be part of their club.

Still, it’s hard to predict where this show will go to an extent and that makes it watchable. It’s also got an excellent period feel (the late 60s), and is careful not to overemphasize “hey this is a period show!” Ricky Martin and Laura Dern are also excellent in their supporting roles.