Film

Reba Merrill and Tandy Culpepper’s Take on the Films A Real Pain and Sing Sing

In this episode of The Hollywood Beat, Tandy and Reba look at two low-budget, indy films – one set entirely in a prison, the other briefly in New York, but chiefly in Poland.

A Real Pain stars Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg, who also wrote and directed the film. The plot centers on two American cousins who reunite to embark on a tour of Poland. Their intent is to honor their grandmother who survived a Polish concentration camp and afterward emigrated to the United States. Her grandsons’ travels take them to the death camp where she was interned. For his performance, Culkin was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

Sing Sing was shot in a former correctional institution filling in for the titular prison, The story follows a group of prisoners participating in a program called Rehabilitation Through the Arts. A real program, RTA uses theater and acting to modify their behavior. Some of the inmates were convicted for murder. Colman Domingo stars as a man who is serving time for a crime he did not commit.

A Real Pain and Sing Sing were not nominated for Best Picture, though there is an argument to be made that either should have been.

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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