Hot Docs: Expedition to the End of the World

Amir here, bringing you a film from the Hot Docs festival that will surely land on my top ten list come the year’s end.  

I'll have the watch till 11 o'clock. Then I'll go down to the saloon and write the meaning of life.”

As a general rule, I try to avoid all films that deal with the ocean. I'm not averse to action adventures but I suffer from intense thalassophobia and cinema is an experience I'd like to enjoy, not endure. Exceptions have to be made every now and then, of course, and a few experiences have been rewarding enough to justify all the shaking and sneaking through fingers. I made one such exception for Expedition to the End of the World, based on strong word of mouth, and I’m happy to say I came away thoroughly satisfied. In fact, I doubt I’ll see a better film at this year’s festival.

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Tony Award Nominations

Another year, another set of Tony nominations. I was surprised to note how many theatrical experiences we covered this year here at The Film Experience. As a proudly NYC based site, we have to get our theater on even if the focus is the movies. But hey, a little television and theater coverage mixed in with a whole lot of movies and Oscar gives us a fuller more rounded persona as a blog, don’t you think? I wasn’t able to watch the actual announcement this morning but my darling Sutton Foster – who is between seasons (hopefully) of the ever-more interesting Bunheads on ABC Family – announced them despite a couple of seasons off the boards now. You know I highly recommend a TV show when I’m okay with it usurping all of a beloved stage star’s time.

In some ways the Tonys are more equivalent to the Golden Globes than the Oscar in that they divvy things up between Plays and Musicals. That doesn’t quite equate to the Globes Drama vs Musical since the theatrical community often respects and embraces comedy in a way that the movie community won’t, but it’s close. So the marquee contests are BEST PLAY and BEST MUSICAL. And these are your nominees…

Best Play

• The Assembled Parties (Richard Greenberg)
• Lucky Guy (Nora Ephron)
• The Testament of Mary (Colm Tóibín)
• Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Christopher Durang)

Best Musical

• Bring It On: The Musical
• A Christmas Story, The Musical
• Kinky Boots
• Matilda The Musical

But before we list all of the nominees I want to demonstrate visually, after the jump, why I find the Tony nominating system so problematic in comparison to the other awards shows.

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Curio: Iron Men (and Women)

Alexa here.  I'm a tad caught up in all the Iron Man 3 anticipation in the air this week, probably because I am a sucker for Robert Downey Jr.'s form of charm, Lederhosen and all.  I guess this is why the franchise gets a bit more attention from me than, say, the latest tired Superman reboot might. (Okay, I don't know yet how tired it will be, but aside from Michael Shannon the idea makes me tired.)  So here are some curios that celebrate eccentric egomaniac Tony Stark. 

Glow-in-the-dark reactor necklaces, available here.

And with Mother's Day close at hand, I'm focusing on the female side of the equation (although Pepper Potts curios are hard to come by, sigh). More after the jump including ...stilettos?

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Stage Door: "Trip to Bountiful"

Dancin’ Dan here. The Tony Nominations come out tomorrow and Nathaniel will be discussing them along with a couple new plays he's seen. He has yet to see this one, though.

I have been a lifelong lover of live theater. As much as I love movies, nothing beats the experience of seeing a play or musical live on stage. Even at its worst, there is still an intangible quality to watching a story unfold right in front of you at the same time you are watching. At its best, though, that turns into something transcendent – there is something about watching a person really live a moment while you watch that is indescribable. In the new Broadway revival of Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful with Cicely Tyson and Vanessa Williams (and Cuba Gooding, Jr.), there were two moments when the power of live theater asserted itself so strongly that I wept.

The first moment is by far the broadest in Tyson’s wonderful, Tony-worthy performance. Having almost reached her childhood home of Bountiful, TX, Tyson’s Carrie Watts finds herself in a bus station with a young friend she made on the bus (a lovely Condola Rashad). First, she breaks out into the hymn “Blessed Assurance”, clapping and swaying like a revival preacher. Then, only a couple of minutes later, she drags Rashad through the dance she remembers doing at the first social dance she went to, which just so happened to be in the very town in which they find themselves. It isn’t merely the sight of the eighty-something Tyson singing and dancing up a storm that moved me, but the transfer of energy between audience and performer that can only take place during a live performance. As Tyson went on, the audience was right alongside her, clapping along and willing her into a bigger, more energetic display. Tyson was all too happy to oblige, alight with a glow from within, sending the audience’s energy right back out to them, earning every bit of the ovation she received. It was truly a sight to behold. [more...]

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Meow. It's Michelle Pfeiffer's Birthday!

To celebrate the 55th birthday of the one and only I thought we'd resurrect an old post about her Catwoman performance. If she's got nine lives so should this post. Please to enjoy...

Tim Burton's Batman Returns, the best Batman film (you heard me... throw down!) is now 15 21 years old and still one of the best comic book films. The movie didn't change cinema or its genre or significantly alter any careers. But it did send yours truly and millions of other Pfeiffer inclined moviegoers into a pfrenzy, arguably marking the apex of La Pfeiffer's cinematic reign. She was still in Oscar chasing mode (Love Field) and the full fledged move from heavy dramatic lifting into light mainstream fare (One Fine Day) and then blink and you'll miss her erratic appearances (Dark Shadows) was years away.

Ten Best Catwoman Line Deliveries
All the dialogue rocks but these are my favorite Pfeifferian readings

10 "Life's a bitch. Now, so am I"
Blockbusters love to shove quips on the public, in the hopes of catchphrase afterlife. This one’s pretty basic but Michelle sells it with true believer zeal.

9 more purring quips after the jump

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