In our inaugural movie review, Reba Merrill and Tandy Culpepper look at two films garnering considerable Oscar buzz.
Reba Merrill is a veteran entertainment journalist who was an internationally-syndicated journalist , an Emmy winning talk show host, and is also a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, popularly known as the folks who bring us the Oscars each year.
Tandy Culpepper is a veteran broadcast journalist and internationally-syndicated correspondent for CNN’s Turner Entertainment Report.
This first review of movies offers Reba and Tandy’s take on two films:
Conclave, the Focus Features film based on Robert Harris’s 2016 novel by the same name. The screenplay was written by Peter Straughan. The film was directed by Edward Berger. The story, a work of fiction, chronicles the papal conclave following the unexpected death of the Pope. The film is awash in well-known actors including Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini.
Maria, the Netflix feature written by Steven Knight and directed by Pablo Larrain, follows the seven days leading up to the sudden death of Maria Callas, at that time the world’s greatest opera singer. The film stars Angelina Jolie in the titular role.