Film

Reba Merrill and Tandy Culpepper Discuss the Films A Complete Unknown and Emelia Perez

In this episode of The Hollywood Beat, Tandy and Reba look at two films — one, a drama with several music interludes, the second, a groundbreaking foreign-language musical.

A Complete Unknown was adapted from Elijah Wald’s 2015 nonfiction book, Bob Dylan Goes Electric. The screenplay was written (along with Jay Cocks) and directed by James Mangold. Timothee Chalamet plays Bob Dylan in this picture which depicts four years in the singer=songwriter’s life beginning when Dylan arrives in New York City. Co-stars include Edward Norton as Pete Seeger and, in a stand out performance, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez.

Emilia Perez is a musical unlike anything in this genre ever to hit the big screen. Based on a secondary character in the 2018 French novel Ecoute by Boris Razon, the plot chronicles the life of a Mexican drug kingpin who wants to leave the cartel behind to become a woman. The plan? Hire a lawyer who can find a doctor who will help said kingpin make the transition.

The screenplay was written by French filmmaker Jacque Audiard who also directed the movie. Audiard first visualized the project as an opera — indeed, he developed the story for the stage in four acts before deciding to make a movie instead.

To play the titular role of Emilia, Audiard cast Karla Sofia Gascon who is herself a trans woman. Before transitioning, Gascon was a star in Mexican telenovelas. Audiard chose Zoe Saldana as the lawyer on the hunt for a surgeon. Rounding out the cast are Selena Gomez and Edgar Ramirez.

Published by Tandy Culpepper

I am a veteran broadcast journalist. I was an Army brat before my father retired and moved us to the deep South. I'm talkin' Lower Alabama and Northwest Florida, I graduated from Tate High School and got botha Bachelor's degree and Master's in Teaching English from the University of West Florida, I taught English at Escambia County High School for two years before getting my m's in Speech Pathology and Audiology from Auburn University. Following graduation, I did a 180 degree turn and moved to Birmingham where I began ny broadcasting career at WBIQ, Channel 10. There I was host of a weekly primetime half-hour TV program called Alabama Lifestyles. A year later, I began a stint as a television weathercaster and public affairs host. A year later, I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida and became bureau chief at WPTV, the CBS affiliate. Two years later, I moved to Greensboro, North Carolina where I became co-host of a morng show called AM Carolina. The next year, I moved cross-country and became co-host and story producer at KTVN-TV in Reno, Nevada. I also became the medical reporter for the news department. Three years later, I moved to Louisville, Kentucky and became host and producer of a morning show called today in WAVE Country at WAVE-TV, Channel 3, the NBC affiliate. Following three years there, I moved to Los Angeles and became senior correspondent at the Turner Entertainment Reportn, an internationally-syndicated entertainment entertainment news service owned by CNN. I went back to school afterwards and got an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore. Oh, yes. I won a hundred thousand dollars on the 100 Thousand Dollar Pyramid, then hosted by Dick Clark.

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