August is coming around the bend like a freight train, and the year is more than halfway through. I’m getting whiplash just watching the months pass by. Where’d all that time go? The summer blockbusters have come and gone and true to form, the Oscar contenders are lining up for the fall season, where everyone is expected to do an about-face from frivolous explosions and superheroes to grown-up adult fare. No, not me. Everyone else.
Still, I’m up for a few serious dramas, just to cleanse my palate and remind myself that I am an adult and not everything needs to be Marvel-inspired. Full disclosure, I’m not the best at catching up with award-season contenders; I end up waiting for them to hit Netflix or go on sale on iTunes (i.e. I, Tonya, Three Billboards). So here are a few I just might watch, with emphasis on the word might:
First Man – Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy / D: Damien Chazell
I’m on the fence about this one. On the one hand, Claire Foy! On the other, The Gosling being all method and things. I’m not a big fan when The Gosling goes all method and things, I prefer him standing in front of Steve Carrell with his schwantz hanging out, teaching him how to pick up women. Or standing in the rain, proclaiming how much he’s not over someone. Damien Chazell brought us singing, dancing, tortured artist Gosling via La La Land, and now he’s bringing us studying, practicing tortured pilot Gosling as Neil Armstrong in First Man. Do I really want to see another behind-the-scenes reimagining of the events that lead to some major NASA space mission, even if it does have Claire Foy, who makes everything better? I’m torn.
Beautiful Boy – Steve Carell, Timothée Chalamet / D: Felix Van Groeningen
Speaking of Mr. Carell, he’s in Beautiful Boy, as a loving father who doesn’t quite know how to fix his tortured son in a film by Felix Van Groeningen. How could Steve Carell have dysfunctional children? There’s just no way. Not in my head. Anyway, if like me you’re scratching your head, unfamiliar with anything Felix Van Groeningen has done, IMDB says he’s a Belgian director, which could be the reason I haven’t seen his films. (It’s films in Europe, because they’re classy and mature. Which makes Felix Van Groeningen an auteur, thankyouverymuch.) Anyway, here’s sweet, tormented young boy of the moment Timothée Chalamet – who last made a splash as a sweet, tormented young boy in Call Me By Your Name – as yet another sweet, tormented young boy with what looks like white people problems. Someone’s being seriously typecast, you guys.
Mary, Queen of Scots – Saiorse Ronan, Margot Robbie / D: Josie Rourke
Accents? Check. Period drama? Check. Costume extravaganza? Check. This, I am definitely on board with Like Claire Foy, Saiorse Ronan is great in everything she does, and this should be an interesting clash of queens – one who followed her heart, and the other who followed her head.
Young, pretty, the former queen of France, Mary, Queen of Scots’ claim to the throne of England lay in her descent from the sister of Henry VIII, which made her and Elizabeth I first cousins. As Elizabeth I was seen by some as a bastard and, despite her clear resemblance to her father Henry VII, by some as a product of Anne Boleyn’s alleged affair with her lute player, her claim to the throne was precarious in the eyes of the French and the Scots, who were allied through Mary’s first marriage to the Dauphin. This is for anyone who loves the Tudors and a good old-fashioned catfight, and I’m all in on this one!
Saving for Botox 