SeanC

As you say, it's clearly inferred, just not something Coppola focuses on. I don't think it's out of a desire to avoid making Priscilla look bad -- at that point, Elvis has been cheating on her basically the whole time, her having affairs is firmly in "sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander" territory.

Gubanova has chronic back problems; it's been very evident with her spins the past two seasons.

Dance The French dance podium is a literal repeat of the previous year's podium, though I wouldn't say any of it was inaccurate. I've become a big fan of Lopareva & Brissaud's Mylene Farmer RD, which is one of the only instances of teams using non-English-language 1980s music. It's nice to see a French team repping for French artists, it's not like the 80s only happened in the USA and Britain. Below the podium, happy to see Lim & Quan continuing to make strides. Women Among the ladies, Nina Pinzarrone emerged on the junior scene during the pandemic so she didn't compete as much as she otherwise would have in those years, and then injury cost her her Grand Prix debut last year, so this was a great start. Loena must be so proud. Cool for Sumiyoshi to finally land the quad, though that was a generous rotation call. Isabeau's reaction to staying in first overall was cute. Two of the three French skaters did really well in the free skate, including Serna having what I'd call her best ever. Men Now that was a blazing finale. Britschgi with what will probably be the best fourth-place performance of the Grand Prix season, Kagiyama with a solid start to his comeback, then Malinin with what will almost certainly be the best silver medal performance of the season, and Siao Him Fa with a spectacular title defense. If the actual World Championship podium skate that well, it will have been a great event. Gogolev, iffy free skate, but I think on the whole this event was a positive for him. Pairs Woo, Lia & Trennt! I had thought they might win Skate America, but they did get their Grand Prix gold eventually, and by unexpectedly unseating the reigning World bronze medalists. The Kovalevs are now two-time Grand Prix medalists, remarkably. Shame about Ellie Kam.

All due respect to the deceased, but she either was not alive or was a toddler during the events depicted.

Elvis' life has been the subject of many, many tellings at this point, and to varying degrees they have developed an aesthetic derived from his own music, so Coppola's signature dreamlike stillness (and mix of anachronistic soundtrack choices and select hits from other singers of the period; due to a disagreement with Elvis Presley Enterprises, the King's own music isn't available, but honestly I don't know that it would fit anyway) stands out as much as the shift in focus to Priscilla. It is interesting to see what aspects of Priscilla's life most interested Coppola. The exact nature of Priscilla and Elvis' relationship has obviously been subject to much speculation (both prurient and otherwise) -- indeed, that's obviously what the film is about -- but after a lot of emphasis on the main character's sexual frustrations early on, both the eventual consummation of their marriage and the decision to conduct her own extramarital affairs (after many such transgressions by Elvis himself) are largely skipped over; the latter, especially, would probably have been considered a pivotal story beat by most filmmakers. Cailee Spaeny is really terrific here, playing from ages 14 to 27 convincingly.

Those are program types that by design aim for different audience reactions.

There are tons of old programs from the mandatory spiral area that stop dead in their tracks with the spirals. And it's not like people can't still do them if they want to and think it fits the choreo sequence, etc. There were certainly skaters who did them well, but there are as many who can do the knee slides, etc. well. The use of more contemporary music I would say has greatly increased the meaning of programs to the audience.

You could apply that same reasoning to virtually any element, could you not? Most competitors will be attempting various challenging things to varying degrees of success. Like, there were very few good spiral sequences back when they were mandatory for women.

Piper & Paul looked great to start the year, despite the shorter off-season. The US dance scene below Chock & Bates is remarkably unsettled right now, between Hawayek & Baker’s absence, Green & Parsons’ surprisingly tough start, and the other young teams jockeying for position. Allison Reed boldly goes where none of her siblings had gone before — a Grand Prix podium. It’s not a requirement. Knee slides have just become popular choreographic features in the past few seasons, inspired (as so much is) by ice dance choreo.

I'd call it less a construct than a logical guess. The Hale conspiracy was poisoning Mollie; the most logical person to have been doing it is Ernest, though he never personally admitted to it.

Those medals are hideously tacky. Really sad for Amber, I really wanted that for her, given this is her home turf. The first half was so good. Conversely, great to see Loena turn the corner on the previous season, which she's said was very tough on her mentally. And Niina wins Estonia's first-ever Grand Prix medal a few years after almost dying of aplastic anemia. In the dance event, Marjorie and Zach barely had an off-season because he had a shoulder injury, and they did not looked prepared at Nepela a few weeks ago, so I didn't have much in the way of expectations for them here, and they definitely impressed me with how much work they'd done in a short amount of time. The Michael Jackson RD feels a lot more filled out (though some of the levels still need work). Also happy to see Lia and Trennt get their first podium. It's remarkable to me how much stronger this partnership is than his preview one; I haven't been this excited for a Canadian pair team in a long time.

I disagree there. Even when he's played a villain role (which, the last one would have been The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013) he hasn't played somebody this stupid.

I don't think there's much to get about it, beyond that it's a parody of this musical number:

TikTok has been shifting a lot of artists' song lengths to decidedly under three minutes, akin to 50s radio singles.

Huh? She genuinely tries to be supportive of her partner and his career, and is undermined at every turn by his aggressive insecurity. This isn't really a movie about heroes, but she's hardly devoid of likeable characteristics.

The biggest acquisition out of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, this psychological thriller (I've seen some reviews, etc. call it an erotic thriller, but I wouldn't say that really fits) about a woman who makes the mistake of earning more money than her fiancé. Basically a two-actor showcase, both Dynevor and Ehrenreich are excellent here, and Chloe Domont's direction does a lot with settings that aren't inherently all that dynamic.

My ranking: The Swan Poison The Rat Catcher The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar The first three are all interesting tonal departures from Anderson's typical aesthetic. At the same time, I thought The Swan made a particularly good case for the distanced narrative style he chose to employ, because I don't know that most people would be interested to watch a more naturalistic rendering of that story.

No, the difference is that in the 1980s the Presley family (i.e., Priscilla) still controlled Elvis Presley Enterprises, whereas now they have only a small minority stake, so this is a bunch of businessmen with no personal connection to Elvis issuing these statements.

https://barrie.ctvnews.ca/figure-skating-olympian-from-barrie-ont-identified-as-new-mom-killed-in-melancthon-crash-1.6534881 Rest in peace, Alexandra Paul. Fortunately her son survived the impact.

How is it her fault they’re both interested in her?

I do not understand why some people think Belly should immediately know which of them she prefers, especially since the circumstances are constantly fluctuating as well. It's not her fault that both of them are interested in her and she likes both of them. Huh? He said he'd see them then because he's focusing on the move out to California (which seems like it's happening pretty rapidly, incidentally, but whatever).

She's not "playing with people's feelings". She has feelings for both of them, and they change depending on the circumstances, obviously including how they act toward her. She did actively choose Conrad, then that ended, and now they're both very obviously broadcasting their interest in her again. I have never understood why so many people act like she is the only one who has agency in this. Huh? Steven has never dated Taylor previously.

Julia, from what we’ve seen, doesn’t like Cousins Beach. She seems to associate it primarily with unhappy family times, given that they’re estranged.

That's two episodes in a row that deploy a fairly modest hangout premise to fill out the hour. I like that whole vibe. I like getting Jeremiah's POV (also, heh, the clips from last season highlight how much some of the actors have changed in a fairly short time).

Waller will be plotting dire revenge for being addressed as "Mandy".