This year for our "thankful for" column we're mixing it up a bit. Instead of asking our contributors to share a brief list of favourite things, I wanted to share with you, dear readers, why I love the team so and then ask them a few key questions so you can get to know them better. As you digest your Thanksgiving pies, consider JASON ADAMS!
I have been a fan of Jason's writing forever -- My New Plaid Pants is literally my favourite personal blog -- and he has been contributing to The Film Experience for a good portion of its life. His first self-given assignment in our current iteration (since 2011) was to see all three of James Dean's films for the first time. He has done weekly series since then like Horror Actressing and Beauty vs Beast. And of course he writes personally evocative reviews. Ccurrent releases he's sounded off on include The Humans, C'mon C'mon, Drive My Car, and next week's not-to-be-missed Paul Verhoeven lesbian nun picture Benedetta.
A short interview follows!
When did you first fall in love with the movies?
I have a distinct memory of my cousin showing me Rear Window one Saturday morning instead of our usual cartoons and my little mind was blown. There was no going back to Goofy after the heated city perversions of Hitchcock had found hold.
Which current director do you feel truly grateful for?
There are dozens of answers but having just watched Girlhood for the first time last night all praise be to Céline Sciamma, whose poetic humanity thrums off the screen -- go see Petite Maman the second you can!
Tis this season to be thankful. What wouldn't you have wanted to live without this past year?
1) TV binges of Mad Men and Curb Your Enthusiasm - I normally don't love to binge series in compressed periods of time but it turns out doing exactly that is a good distraction when a literal plague is happening outside your apartment
2) Shudder - This streaming service really does right by us horror fanatics. It's clearly curated by us, for us, and it's taken over TCM to become my background noise channel when I'm doing other stuff. There's nothing better than looking up from the mail you're sorting or the laundry you're folding to see a good decapitation or two!
3) Jake Gyllenhaal, because obviously
4) Jonathan Majors, for similar reasons
5) The Film Experience -- As so many sites become personality-free news aggregates I think we should all take a moment to appreciate what Nathaniel curates here. The loves for the movies -- all the movies through all the years -- is enormous and infectious and so so profoundly appreciated. We need to keep sites like this alive! Tell all your friends to visit!
6) The actual real-world thing that actually kept me the most sane over the past year and a half was the new-to-me park that I discovered by my house, so I have to give props to that. Nature! Who knew???
Pick your favourites, Jason!
If you were to magically win an Oscar, who would you thank in your acceptance speech?
Franz Rogowski, because then I'd have a better shot to meet Franz Rogowski. "Hey remember when I thanked you for my Oscar, Franz Rogowski" etcetera
You're throwing a Thanksgiving dinner feast. You can invite 5 movie characters. Go!
Jack Twist
Morf Vandewalt
Jamie Randall
Johnny Wilcox
....and Mysterio
Give me a room full of Jake Gyllenhaals and I'll show you what a feast looks like!
You can follow Jason on Twitter, Letterboxd, and Instagram where you'll discover he's a good photographer, too.