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Twins playing music’s Tegan and Sara revisit ‘High School’
BY JAY BOBBIN
To play a famous set of twins, it takes another set of twins, at least in the case of “High School.”
Platinum recording artists Tegan and Sara Quin wrote a bestselling coming-ofage memoir now adapted into a Freevee series that begins streaming with four episodes Friday, Oct. 14 (with the four remaining episodes then debuting over the consequent two Fridays). Premiered at last month’s Toronto International Film Festival, the show casts Railey and Seazynn Gilliland as the teenage Tegan and Sara, with Cobie Smulders (“How I Met Your Mother”) and Kyle Bornheimer (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”) as their parents.
“It’s very surreal, very nerve-wracking,” the real Tegan says of dramatizing her and Sara’s lives. “We’re definitely preparing our family and friends for this next part of the journey. When we wrote our memoir a few years ago, we set out to do something that we thought was really important ... which was to tell a story about queer women, and specifically about music and coming out and adolescence, in a way that was really smart and intelligent.”
Tegan credits actress Clea DuVall – a “HighSchool” executive producer, writer and director– with making the Quin twins comfortable with translating “High School” to film: “Clea and Sara and I have been friends for a long time, and when she approached us about turning the memoir into a TV show, Sara and I just felt reassured right away that somebody who cared about us and our family and friends was at the helm.”
Railey Gilliland maintains making the series “wasn’t easy in the slightest, but getting to hang out with Tegan and Sara and getting to know them made that just slightly easier. Their stories are relatable to Seazynn and me. And we just had a lot of fun.”
Adds Seazynn Gilliland, “I think that there was a responsibility, but it was only the best kind of responsibility. I’ve never seen anything like this on screen before. When I was 15 myself, I would have loved to see something like this. I think it’s really important to show, and I was able to be the one to show that. So that was nice.” Despite the success she and Tegan have enjoyed, Sara Quin says of early tunes they wrote and performed, “We had decided that all of the music was bad. It’s actually been the support of people around us who’ve reassured us that the music is strong enough to be a focal point on the show. I think it just sort of shows that young people can do amazing things, right even out of the gate before they’ve had years of training and experience. Sometimes, our first instinct is our best instinct.”
OCTOBER 8 – OCTOBER 14, 2022 7 Chip and Joanna tackle their biggest reno yet in ‘Fixer Upper: The Castle’
BY GEORGE DICKIE
While us mere mortals might see a property’s cracked masonry, rotted floor joists and encroaching wilderness as a potential money black hole, Chip and Joanna Gaines will look at its obscured architectural charm and beauty and see a castle in the rough. And so it is that the husband-and-wife home renovation experts from Waco, Texas, took on their most ambitious project yet in an eight-episode series coming to Magnolia Network.
In “Fixer Upper: The Castle,” debuting Friday, Oct. 14, the duo apply their skill, imagination and vision to what is known as the Cottonland Castle, an abandoned century-old castle in Waco that had changed hands numerous times and had fallen into disrepair before Chip bought it in 2019.
It was the kind of project Chip had been dreaming of. He had admired the three-story structure for 20 years and made bids on it whenever it was listed for sale but it always went to someone else. Joanna, however, had her reservations. She looked at the dilapidated edifice and saw dollar signs. She also thought it could be haunted. But after years of listening to her husband wax on about the place and his ideas, she began to view it through his eyes and a purchase was made.
To say it needed a lot of work is an understatement. Nearly every square inch of the 6,700-squarefoot building was restored, including its four bedrooms, three and a half baths, seven fireplaces, a turret, a card room in the basement, mahogany woodwork throughout and a 10-foot-tall, 400-pound, solid-oak front door.
The original design was modeled after a small castle on the Rhine River in Germany and Chip’s vision was in essence a 21st century version of that, blending the past and present with beauty, functionality, charm and sophistication.
The Gaineses have always had a love of homes with historical significance and this is certainly no exception. As for its present, Cottonland Castle is open for touring through Oct. 27. Beyond that, the home will eventually be put up for sale. While no price was available, Zillow and Trulia list its value at $1,161,400.
View from the Couch BY JAY BOBBIN
AS Adult situations P Profanity
Family Viewing Ratings
V Violence N Nudity GV Graphic Violence
A genuinely classic drama marks its 60th anniversary by debuting in the 4K Ultra HD format. In director Robert Mulligan’s version of the novel by Harper Lee – who adapted it for the screen – Gregory Peck earned an Oscar as Atticus Finch, a noble Southern attorney raising his children (Mary Badham, Phillip Alford) during the Depression while courting controversy by representing the defendant (Brock Peters) in a racially charged case of rape. Robert Duvall makes an impact as mysterious neighbor Boo Radley in a superb cast that also includes John Megna, Rosemary Murphy, Ruth White, William Windom and Alice Ghostley. The score by Elmer Bernstein is enormously affecting; the story has had added success in recent years as a stage play with a script by Aaron Sorkin. ›››› (Not rated: AS, V)
After the entire trilogy was issued on 4K Ultra HD earlier this year to mark the first film’s 50th anniversary, the original, Oscar-winning drama – widely deemed one of the greatest movies ever made – gets a separate release in the format. Novelist Mario Puzo wrote the script with director Francis Ford Coppola, tracing the reign of the Corleone crime family led by patriarch Vito (Marlon Brando). His sons Michael, Sonny and Fredo (Al Pacino, James Caan, John Cazale) are of very different temperaments that become even more pronounced as a war between underworld gangs looms. Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire (Coppola’s sister), Richard Conte, John Marley, Abe Vigoda, Richard Castellano, Sterling Hayden, Al Lettieri and Al Martino also are in the first-rate cast. ›››› (R: AS, P, V)
“HALLELUJAH: LEONARD COHEN, A JOURNEY, A SONG”
One of the most moving – and most performed – of contemporary songs provides the framework for this portrait of its influential composer, who saw it go from something that initially didn’t grab many record executives’ interest to a widely celebrated music staple. Versions by John Cale and Jeff Buckley increased the tune’s impact and fame ... and here, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Brandi Carlile, Eric Church and Rufus Wainwright are among others involved in the tracing of its history and Cohen’s career overall. Rare material from the Cohen archives, visual as well as musical, is integrated throughout the narrative. ››› (PG-13: AS, P) (Also on Blu-ray, Digital and On Demand)
Following an earlier 4K Ultra HD set that included such genre milestones as “Dracula” and “Frankenstein” (which, incidentally, now are becoming available as separate discs), this second edition in the series combines four more terror titles from the Universal Pictures vaults. Showcased this time: “The Bride of Frankenstein,” with Boris Karloff and Colin Clive back in their roles from the original “Frankenstein”; “Creature From the Black Lagoon,” featuring Julie Adams as the prime target of the title monster; “The Mummy,” another Karloffstarring classic; and “Phantom of the Opera,” casting Claude Rains as the disfigured musician who haunts the Paris Opera House. Various special features such as documentaries, audio commentaries and theatrical trailers are included. ››› (Not rated: AS, V)
