Monday
Feb132017
"Here" and "There" with The Bening
Monday, February 13, 2017 at 2:00AM 
Why doesn't Annette Bening have every award that was ever invented including the Pulitzer, the Heisman, and an Emmy from 1993 Sesame Street...
Monday, February 13, 2017 at 2:00AM Sunday
Feb122017
BAFTA Winners: La La Land, Daniel Blake, and... Lion's Dev Patel!
Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 7:00PM 
Dev Patel struggles to find "words words words" when he wins the BAFTA.
Confession: Despite The Film Experience's devout love of awards season, your host does not actually watch the BAFTAs. I gave up years ago when it was clear that they were never going to change their announce-the- winners and then tape-delay-broadcast-highlights-of-show. It's just not pure enough for my spiritual devotion to the holy act of passing out trophies. I can't stomach it.
The winners with commentary (and videos once they're available) follow...
Sunday
Feb122017
Podcast: The Oscars are coming! How many will 'La La' win?
Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 4:00PM 
Nathaniel, Joe, and Nick discuss the Oscar nominations with just two weeks to go until the High Holy Night.
Index (42 minutes)
00:01 Nomination morning formats
05:45 How much did Amy Adams miss by?
07:35 Cinematography & Score
10:30 Deepwater Horizon
13:00 Which categories will La La Land lose and to which: Lion? Jackie? Hacksaw?
23:00 Denzel vs Casey / Emma vs Isabelle / Salesman vs Toni Erdmann?
30:25 Picture & Director splits. Spreading the wealth. (Remember The Revenant? No?)
39:00 Ryan Gosling & Visual Effects. Byeeeee!
You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you?
Sunday
Feb122017
Box Office: Street Cats, Kinky Sex, Lego Superheroes
Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 1:03PM 
This weekend's box office charts are deceiving in their rankings. Lego Batman and the Fifty Shades sequels topped the weekend but both opened well below their predecessors while #3 was a huge success. John Wick's second outing doubled its original's opening weekend gross suggesting that the fanbase grew exponentially once the 'first chapter' was available for home viewing. This kind of thing we used to see far more of in the early days of VHS but now in the age of franchises, generally you don't see that kind of word-of-mouth "discovery" growth. You're either a behemoth or you're not.
Three more items of note that don't really show in these charts...
Sunday
Feb122017
Gay Indie VOD Round-Up with Franco, Quinto and Juliet Stevenson
Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 10:30AM By Glenn Dunks.
It's sometimes hard to keep up with all the films hitting VOD from the festival circuit, particularly those under the LGBTQ banner that can so easily get lost by audiences. More and more films including those with big stars and major filmmakers are now taking the direct route so competition is fierce. Let's take a look at some of the titles hitting the regular services over these first few months of the year. If your interests extend beyond the buzzier must-see titles like Carol and Moonlight, you should definitely keep an eye out for them and others like them.
DEPARTURE
I’m just going to say it – Juliet Stevenson should be next in line for a Rampling/Huppert style dalliance with Oscar. She is far and away the best thing in this pretty if frustrating drama about a mother and son in the south of France. She is exquisite as Beatrice, a permanently sad Woman Who Lies To Herself™ on the verge of divorce who has travelled to the family holiday house to pack up their possessions so the place can be sold. Never too far away from a glass of wine or an angry/tearful breakdown, Stevenson’s performance is the kind of body-shaking reminder of her talent that, should they watch it, ought to inspire somebody to give her another showcase.
[More on Departure and three more queer titles after the jump]