Oscar History
Film Bitch History
Welcome

The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)

Follow TFE on Substackd

Powered by Squarespace
DON'T MISS THIS

Oscar Volley It's Back
Oscar Charts Updated! 

What'cha Looking For?
Subscribe
Friday
Jun032016

Links: Julie Andrews, Paul & Daniel, franchise "tone" templates

Variety Whoa. Daniel Day Lewis is going back to work. And with Paul Thomas Anderson again no less. They're making a 50s fashion drama
/Film shares concept art from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4... which obviously never went before cameras

Salon Actor Jake Choi on the odds against Asian actors especially the "de-sexualized" men
LA Times 100 people who could help fix Oscar's diversity problem. I'd be surprised though if at least a few of these people weren't already in the Academy since they've been nominated or close to it. The ultra strange thing is they don't list Bradford Young, one of the very best working DPs, under cinematography and I didn't think he was a member yet. Is it just a terrible oversight or did his invitation skip my notice?
AV Club a new Melissa McCarthy produced series Nobodies will be very meta. It stars her non famous comic actor friends playing themselves with a famous movie star friend (no word on who will play the Melissa McCarthy surrogate)
Towleroad Colton Haynes is working on a photo book with Tyler Shields. He promises it will be "shocking". So... the unauthorized sequel to Madonna's "Sex" book, maybe? 
The Guardian a good piece on reshoots for upcoming movies and the danger of "dark" or "light" templates for franchises 

Off Screen
Adequate Man "Please do not lick your kitty" 

Emmy Season is Upon Us...
Awards Daily is wondering if Scandal can make an Emmy comeback
Decider comedies the Emmys need to consider 

...and for the following year's Emmys we even have a Children's Programming contender worth getting excited about: JULIE ANDREWS IS BACK IN 2017!

 

Friday
Jun032016

Todd Field Finally Returns

It's been a decade since director Todd Field's masterful Little Children followed up his equally potent In the Bedroom, and we have been clammoring for his next effort since. After many close calls and proposed projects, his next literary adaptation is finally coming to fruition. Showtime has announced a two season, 20 episode order for Purity, based on last year's Jonathan Franzen globehopping novel. With the cable network throwing its weight behind the series, this is exciting news for those over us who have watched his many projects never get beyond the announcement stage.

This one comes with a high pedigree: Daniel Craig has signed on to play the central pseudo-WikiLeaks activist Andreas Wolf (sealing the final nail in the coffin to any Bond speculation), with Franzen and Oscar nominee David Hare sharing the writing duties with Field. The female lead has yet to be cast, but it's a strong role ripe for any number of younger actresses. Provided those Captain Marvel rumors don't materialize, might we make a suggestion:

 

 

It's quite an ambitious project for both Field and Showtime, hopefully stepping up their game in the coming years with this and the Twin Peaks revival. The novel is as expansive as Franzen's other praised works (curiously the more celebrated The Corrections and Freedom almost happened at HBO), with enough complex material for the planned two seasons and the thinkpieces that inevitably will follow. If nothing else, it should be a perfect fit to Field's intelligent sensibilities. The series will shoot next year, with both seasons airing shortly after.

Friday
Jun032016

It's National Donut Day!

On this crucial day, as you scarf down a delicious free pastry at various places offering them, remember the great Tangerine (2015) and share your donut, bitch.

Which of the following celebrities, all pictured with donuts (because The Film Experience is nothing if not committed), would you most want to share a donut with?

BEAUTY BREAK - CELEBRITIES w/ DONUTS

Reese Witherspoon

More pastries (and also celebrities) after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Jun022016

Streaming: J Edgar Drinking Games & Elizabeth's Golden Foreshadowing

Do you purchase or rent DVDs movies anymore or just wait for streaming -- however long that takes? If you do the following titles have emerged in the past week on Blu-Ray or DVD: The Finest Hours in which Chris Pine gets a man vs. ocean movie cuz Chris Hemsworth got one;  Gods of Egypt which is terrible but in so-bad-it's-great way; How to Be Single which is better than you'd think but way overstuffed but you should probably see it for another great performance variation on "the boyfriend" by Jake Lacy (he's got that market covered but he's so good at it with no two characters feeling like the same guy); Pride & Prejudice & Zombies which is fun for what it is if nothing more; also new are Race, Risen, Triple 9, and Zoolander 2

But on to the fun part, New to Streaming. Because, to quote the one and only Carrie Fisher:

Instant gratication takes too long.

Let's do our fun little freeze frame game on new streaming titles. The following films were frozen on one image completely at random to see what showed up. They're all new on either Netflix of Amazon Prime. Ready? Let's play!

J Edgar (2011) on Netflix

Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh's baby has been kidnapped.

A fun drinking came while streaming J Edgar in five easy steps
1. Take a drink every time you wish Clint Eastwood wasn't terrified of color
2. Take a drink every time you wish Tom Stern would throw a damn light on the set for once
3. Take a drink every time you see bad old age makeup in closeup
4. Take a drink every time you're glad AMPAS dodged a bullet on this one and it's not part of Oscar history
5. Die of alcohol poisoning. 

Six Degrees of Separation (1993)

You said when artists dream they dream of money.
...I must be such an artist.

Love this movie. Stockard Channing was just sensational in it. (And what a great Best Actress year 1993 was)

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) and more after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Jun022016

Great Moments in Gay - Bring it On

In Great Moments in Gay, Team TFE looks at our favorite queer scenes in the movies for Pride Month. Here's Kieran Scarlett on Bring it On (2000)

Peyton Reed's Bring it On is one of the best high school movies of all time. It's best to get that out of the way first in any writing about the 2000 flick about the politics of high school cheerleading. It's often dismissed, forgotten or written off as a trifle, which couldn't be further from the truth. It so stylishly inhabits its own cinematic universe and does such an excellent job of world building--something that's often missing in a lot of high school movies where the environment can sometimes feel generic or a retread of superior movies. Its first scene brilliantly employs a Greek chorus-style device set to a cheer routine to introduce the world and its characters. And it manages to do so much more gracefully than a similar device in Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite, arguably a more high-minded film. Bring it On is not a guilty pleasure. It's simply a pleasure.

The way Jessica Bendinger's script handles so many issues feels revolutionary. This was 2000 mind you. Right in the middle of that murky period when it was being sussed out whether campy punchlines or true humanization would become de rigeur for queer representation in film and television. [More...]

Click to read more ...