Since it's Thanksgiving weekend and your presumably still digesting all that pie, let's stay reflective about gratitude, cinematic and otherwise. You've already heard from positivity-spreading volunteers among our team (Manuel, Jose, Daniel, Murtada, and Chris) so now it's my turn. I shall try very hard to come up with a few new things for which to be thankful since they stole so many of my items!
Here are 16 things I am deeply grateful for in defiance of how awful 2016 was trying to be to all of us...
- The way Meryl Streep's eyes dart around desperately for validation during her wobbly notes in Florence Foster Jenkins. Girl, I feel you. Same.
- Brave endings that really land through force of vision and artistry from The Fits to The Witch through The Lobster and La La Land
- Eva Green's whimsical opacity as Miss Peregrine and anguished soul-baring as Vanessa Ives in Penny Dreadful (RIP great show!) two fantasy roles joined only by that unbelievable face and inimitable voice. Let's all unite on this fact: she's the single most gifted genre actress working.
- Rose's (Viola Davis) fury at her husband for not recognizing her own emotional journey in Fences. In addition to being a great showstopper of a scene it plays like a fighting anthem for actresses everywhere and a rebuke to Hollywood which constantly expects our greatest actresses to barely exist while serving the male character arcs as "longsuffering / supportive wives".
- Speaking of... Jake Lacy's refusal to phone in "the boyfriend" role varying things up constantly with tremendous range in performance and feeling if not always in character in movie after movie for three years strong now; He's practically an actress at this point! His boytoys in Miss Sloane and How To Be Single are worthy additions to his filmography.
- the "reveries" in West World
- That inky Hectapod language in Arrival
- Queer Cinema. There's so much of it these days and some of it is really good, too. Moonlight and The Handmaiden first and foremost in theaters. But I'd also recommend Henry Gamble's Birthday Party on Netflix, and two I just wrote about at Towleroad: Lazy Eye on iTunes, and the Sondheim doc Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened in theaters which will be expanding to additional cities in December.
- Molly Pope, my current favorite cabaret star (check out her Best Original Song Oscar tribute above). Her most recent concert, an inspired A Star is Born reimagining at 54 Below was just incredible. I saw it twice. If she ever does it again, go.
- Lady Gaga's "Million Reasons," David Bowie's "Lazarus," Adele's "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)", and listening to the "Purple Rain" album on loop like it was 1984 again.
- Finally getting into Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton this summer - worth the wait!
Look around Look around How lucky we are to be alive right now
- Channing Tatum in white sailor suit in Hail Caesar
- those dizzying witty character card introductions in Love & Friendship
also starring Viggo Mortensen (film debut!) as the hottest Amish man who ever lived. #Witness #HMWYBS pic.twitter.com/iloYQuMKYB
— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) April 13, 2016
Srsly how is anyone supposed to stay chaste and pure with that one strollinground their village? #Viggo #Witness pic.twitter.com/DOvjsEbixt
— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) April 13, 2016
- Meeting Viggo Mortensen, one of my all time favorite actors, who was amiable as could be and totally willing to talk about his Hot Amish Self in Witness (1985) a movie that I hold so dear in addition to his superb work in Captain Fantastic.
- And finally a huge round of grateful applause to the monthly subscribers who help us keep the website going with the price of a cup of coffee a month (join them!), to our team of talented regular and irregular contributors who I cherish for their insights and enthusiasm and irl friendhip where geographically available, to all the actresses and filmmakers that inspire us, and finally to everyone reading regularly whether you're a new visitor or The Film Experience has been part of your routine for years. You keep this the communal film experience we've always strived for and dreamt it would be.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING WEEKEND!
Tooting my own horn. Sorry!
Nathaniel Rogers, is originally from Detroit but calls New York City home. Michelle Pfeiffer changed his life on a piano top in the late 80s and Julianne Moore as "Amber Waves" forced him into cinephilia as life goals in the late 90s. By Nicole Kidman's sparkly descent on trapeze in the early-00s all hopes for a normal life were lost. He is the creator and owner of The Film Experience. His writing has appeared in both online and print publications and he's even been on TV for Oscar punditry and hopes to do more. [Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram]
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