Saturday, January 14, 2017 at 7:00PM 
Chris here, wishing a happy 50th birthday to one of our most underserved contemporary actresses, Emily Watson!
And around this time she’s also celebrating her 20th anniversary for her first Oscar nomination for her debut in Breaking the Waves, a performance that time simply doesn’t diminish...
Saturday, January 14, 2017 at 4:00PM 
a 1979 publicity photo
P F A N D O M
Michelle Pfeiffer Retrospective. Episode 2
by Nathaniel R
All Pfans, if not fans, know and relish Michelle Pfeiffer's very first line onscreen. Say it with me now...
Who is he, Niobe?!
Fantasy Island S2E10 "The Island of Lost Women"
First aired November 25th, 1978
The line was spoken, emphatically, even giddily, while Pfeiffer gave the goofy Robert Morse (no really) a thorough twice over with her eyes while her hands investigated, too. She barely even looked at Niobe, so intoxicating was the sight of the only man in the vicinity. When Niobe tells her the man has magical powers, her eyes flash with unhinged if virginal comic eroticism. "REALLY?!?"...
Saturday, January 14, 2017 at 12:29PM Chris here. As if Gugu Mbatha-Raw's superpowers of extreme watchability and versatility aren't enough to satisfy us, she'll be getting the more fantastical kind for her next movie. And no, we're not talking a comic book adaptation, but something original. The underrated actress will star in Fast Color as a superpowered woman on the run that must seek shelter from her estranged family. The project promises three generations of women, so stayed tuned for more casting. Hopefully they'll be names as intriguing as Gugu.
If this all sounds a bit like a female Midnight Special, rest assured it's in smart hands. Julia Hart will be directing from a script she cowrote with Jordan Horowitz. Hart & Horowitz were also behind this year's tiny gem Miss Stevens (not to be confused by Gugu's own Miss Sloane), which features a fantastic performance from Lily Rabe. Miss Stevens is currently on Netflix, so be sure to catch up to it.
Mbatha-Raw will be everywhere at the movies this year - Ava DuVernay's A Wrinkle in Time, the upcoming Cloverfield film, and Beauty and the Beast. But could Fast Color be the one that brings her the accolades she deserves?
Saturday, January 14, 2017 at 9:30AM By Glenn Dunks.
The Film Experience would be remiss to not mention the nominations of the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (GALECA) given there are multiple members among the writing team here. Last year the organisation went all in on Carol for obvious reasons, winning five awards. This year another Oscar-favored film with LGBTQ themes leads the pack with seven nominations.
Friday, January 13, 2017 at 5:59PM We've reached the end of our Year in Review List Making if not the end of the year in review list making -- wait wha?!. Which is to say that we still have our own awards nominations (both Oscar and fun extras) in some 40 categories to come. That's right. It's time for the annual Film Bitch Award Nominations -- our 17th annual prizes (gulp) -- which begin with the age-old tradition of the top ten list.
But first...
HONORABLE MENTION
If The Salesman borrows too liberally from Asghar Farhadi's masterpiece A Separation so be it (let's face it -- all the great auteurs steal from themselves. This is how we recognize their films). It's a riveting drama exposed by destabilizing cracks in the foundations.
Sing Street was the year's most rewarding nostalgia piece causing flashbacks of teenage identity experiments and that usually short lived 'i could be a pop star!' phase. And what a fantastically fresh cast.
Viggo Mortensen's uniquely out of place and time persona (think about it: he could be from any country or era) is a huge boon to the thought-provoking Captain Fantastic. Writer/director Matt Ross harnesses Viggo's energy for a head-first sprint into the woods of non-conformity but those idealogical woods thin out and soon enough we're face-to-face with reality.
The Fits' unique character as something of a mystical movement film had us levitating. Its hard-to-pin-down allegory wasn't so much tentative and amorphous as thrillingly ambiguous...
