by Daniel Erenberg

Toni Collette is going to win an Emmy for her performance in the new Showtime series, The United States of Tara. After all, this is the kind of performance that the Best Actress in a Comedy Series category was built for. As Tara, a woman with split personalities, she is also required to play three “alters,” including T, a 15 year-old lolita who is besties with Tara’s teenage daughter, and Buck, a chain-smoking southern hunter. In these three characters we see her inhabit throughout the pilot episode, Collette is heartbreaking and vulnerable one moment, and tough and hilarious the next. And we believe it every step of the way.

Full Review

Tags:
January 20, 2009 at 7:44pm

By Lillian Pontius-Goldblatt

She was watching a science fiction TV show with her grandmother in the house on the very steep hill. The night before she’d lain on her back on top of the sheets on her bed listening to the saddest song on a very sad album over and over. She’d cried some, but not very much or for very long (though the music was up loud enough, no one would have heard; she made sure of that). This was the first time her grandma had come over; they had only moved into the small house on the very steep hill a week before.

FULL STORY

Tags: fiction short story lillian pontius-goldblatt
January 19, 2009 at 7:25pm

by Daniel Erenberg

So after the monstrous rush to see every supposedly Oscar-worthy film that came out in the tail-end of December in order to be eligible for award consideration (by the way, who are you kidding, Defiance?) the first film of 2009 that I give a shit about is Notorious.

Full Review

Tags:
January 19, 2009 at 1:38pm