That's a Wrap on the 88th. Post Index

We did it y'all. We made it through another film year. And with this we close the book on 2015 and join the now of 2016 already in progress. Here's the complete Oscar coverage in case you missed anything...

• Arrivals Live Blog The Red Carpet (Nathaniel)
• Oscar Night Live Blog the 88th Academy Awards (Nathaniel)
• Shockeroos. The Big Surprises at the 88th (Chris)
• Chris Rock's Hosting. The White Elephant in the Room (Kieran)
• The Mad Six. Five Big Non-Best Picture Winning Films Including Fury Road (Glenn)
• Biggest Losers. And Classics That Shared Their Fate (David)
• Kohl's Commercials. What Oscar Speech Would You Lipsynch To? (Chris)
• Great Photos From the Big Night: Todd & Muses, Brie & Man, Etcetera (Nathaniel)
• Those Sound Montages. Well done, Producers (Daniel)
• Musical Performances Review: The Weeknd, Gaga, Smith (Denny)
• Neglected Song Nominees. We Make Times for Them (Chris)
• How Jenny Beavan Won the Oscars. Rock on Costume Queen (Tim)
• In Praise of Ex-Machina's Win. Visual Effects Goes Supporting! (Manuel)
• Doll Sets. Every Lead & Supporting Actress Gown This Decade (Nathaniel)
• The New Actor Hierarchy. Leo Joins the Top Twenty-Five (Nathaniel)
• Oscar Ratings. Eight Year Low (Laurence)
• Sexual Assault Survivors. Oscar's Unexpected Theme (Deborah)
• Fashion Review. Top Ten Best Dressed (Jose)
• Nerdy Oscar Trivia Pt 1 Acting/Directing (Nathaniel)
• Nerdy Oscar Trivia Pt 2 Below the Line Wonders (Nathaniel)
• What's Next For Our Oscar Winners? Brie, Alicia, Mark, and Leo Act On! (Josh)

We neglected to write about the Girl Scout Cookies, so here is a bundle for you to enjoy. To redeem your bundle visit The Film Experience daily in 2016, share it frequently on all social media platforms, become a monthly subscriber, comment on every post. Etcetera Do these bundles come in all Thin Mints sets because that's the best cookie. No arguments to the contrary will be heard.

Finally...
Now that Oscar is behind us, a gentle reminder that we passed out our own annual medals, too. Check out Nathaniel's gold silver and bronze medals in 40+ categories  if you missed it during the mad gold rush.

On to 2016! 

If these were offered as doll sets each year...

yes, that's the whole decade* thus far

...I would need a bigger apartment.

... Also I would go bankrupt. (Especially when trying to hunt down 1950, 1973, 1961 and 1939)

(On a Related Note: Did you see Jose's Best Dressed List?)

* LAST UPDATE MARCH 2ND, 2017
Well, not quite the whole decade. There were two no shows: Judi Dench didn't attend for her nomination for Philomena and Natalie Portman opted out for Jackie due to her pregnancy so that's 68 of the 70 nominees above as they were be-gowned on Oscar night. If you could only afford 1 of these 6 doll sets which year would it be?

Link Becomes Her

Anya Taylor-Joy photographed by Gregory HarrisThe Washington Post interesting visual analysis of Tom McCarthy's Oscar winner Spotlight
Interview M Night Shyamalan interview Anya Taylor-Joy from The Witch
Pajiba Agent Carter in limbo after second season finale. (Is limbo the new code word for cancelled? I've never seen a network burn off that many episodes that quickly if they weren't going to cancel something)
My New Plaid Pants "I would like to talk about... Madeline Ashton." YES. Death Becomes Her is getting a special edition BluRay next month
Kotaku Ghost in the Shell finally adds a famous Asian actor to its cast list, Beat Takeshi. 
Playbill This is cool 15 ambassadors from the UN saw a special performance of Fun Home The Musical. Can we please get a film version? That show is sublime
Film School Rejects looks back at Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991) for its 25th anniversary
NY Times profiles Sarah Paulson who talks about her Marcia Clark role, her romance with Holland Taylor, and why she's drawn to older people in her life. 
The Playlist Matthias Schoenarts will star in Kursk, a Russian submarine survival drama 
MNPP on Kenneth Lonergan's new play Hold on to me, Darling starring Timothy Olyphant 
MTV briely, with wit, on Leo's Oscar win 
Tracking Board Joseph Gordon-Levitt developing a movie called K Troop, about a US Army division assigned to take the Ku Klux Klan down during their rise. 

Finally...
By know you've probably read that Amy Adams has confirmed what those  leaked Sony emails suggested that she was quite unhappy on the set of American Hustle. It was her second film with David. O. Russell but I suspect there won't be a third given what she told British GQ.

Photo by Norma Jean Roy

I was really just devastated on set. I mean, not every day, but most. Jennifer [Lawrence] doesn’t take any of it on. She’s Teflon. And I am not Teflon. But I also don’t like to see other people treated badly.. It’s not ok with me. Life to me is more important than movies. It really taught me how to separate work and home. Because I was like, I cannot bring this experience home with me to my daughter.

A "Spotlight" on Sexual Assault

The Oscars last Sunday threw a somewhat unexpected spotlight on the issue of sexual assault. Best Picture Spotlight is famously the true story of journalists covering the cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Room is about a girl who is raped and imprisoned and ultimately escapes with her son. A Girl in the River, winner for best documentary short, is about honor killings—something that is intimately tied to the sexual control of women. And Lady Gaga’s much discussed performance was of a song about surviving rape, featured in a movie about campus rape, The Hunting Ground. 

In general, when awards shows and sexual assault go together, there’s a kind of gawky, almost porny pandering. Pat ourselves on the back for giving an acting award to the rape victim—yes, I’m looking at Joanne Froggatt, who has done very fine work on Downton Abbey, but who won her Golden Globe for getting raped on the show. 

But that’s not what we saw Sunday night. What we saw was respect for survivors, and the will to change. 

Click to read more ...

How Jenny Beavan won the Oscars

Tim here. I watched the Oscars this year completely without the aid of social media of any sort – absolutely worth doing, if you haven't recently. It lets you enjoy the ceremony for the ceremony.

What that means is that I didn't realize for two whole days that there was quite a furor over my very favorite visual from the whole night, Jenny Beavan's outstanding outfit that she wore on the way to collect her Best Costume Design award for Mad Max: Fury Road. It turns out that there were quite a few people who did not share my view that it was the night's clear highlight. Several of them were sitting right inside the Kodak Theater with her, in fact, rather visibly failing to be delighted by her attire. That's especially true of an epically grumpy Alejandro González Iñárritu. He and several other conspicuous non-clappers were the subject of a Vine that went viral on the spot.

The internet has obligingly and appropriately pushed back, including a magnificent Paddy Considine tweet that I dare not show here on account of the very curt language Considine fired off in Beavan's defense, but it's very much worth checking out.

I did not come to rehash all of that, but to take us back to the outfit itself.

What was buried in the clapping controversy was that Beavan was wearing just about the coolest outfit to have graced the Oscars this decade. It's an instantly classic entry in the annals of "Costume designers just do not give a crap" alongside Milena Canonero's form fitting Victorian men's suit in 2007, and Lizzy Gardiner's 1995 American Express dress (another controversial outfit that many people hate but remains one of the greatest things anyone has ever worn). Just look at it! 

All other considerations aside, that is badass. And it's also really on-point. The inherent ruggedness of (fake) leather, the heightened cartoon gaudiness of having a sequined image on the back, the fact that the image is a sort of cult identity marker, the way that her accessories suggest scavenging. She is, in effect, wearing the movie on her body, and taking it up to win the Oscar with her. More importantly, it's a way to put her own personality on display during a moment that should be entirely about here. And there is far more of Beavan the human being in that moment than any stock Hollywood figure wearing stock evening wear – this is a woman whose primary medium of expression is clothing, after all. As she put it backstage:

I don't do frocks and absolutely don't do heels, I have a bad back. I look ridiculous in a beautiful gown… I just like feeling comfortable and as far as I'm concerned I'm really dressed up."

And as far as we're concerned, she won the whole Oscar ceremony.