Streaming Roulette, July: Reese doesn't live under the silver lake anymore

As is our practice we've selected 8-10 titles and frozen the films at utterly random moments without cheating (whatever comes up comes up!). It's our way of previewing new titles streaming in the first half of JULY 2019. (★ means we recommend catching them.) Please do let us know if you're dying to discuss any of the films and maybe we'll write about them.  

Ready? Let's go...

Why did I get stuck with the janky old broke hobo Spider-Man? 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) on Netflix ★
Watched this again on a whim with a friend who was curious because it won the Oscar. He's not into animated movies or superhero movies and he totally enjoyed it. Thus are its many inventive delights. It really holds up to viewing number two. Jam-packed with details you can easily miss on the first round.

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Halfway Mark Box Office (Pt 1: The Mainstream)

As part of our midway through the year report (we've already seen fun halfway top fives from the team and favourite male performances) here's a look at the box office year thus far. Tomorrow we'll get a bit more niche, okay? Figures here are estimates as of Sunday June 30th for films released in the first six months of the year.

BOX OFFICE TOP TENS IN SIX CATEGORIES
🔺= the movie is still in over 100 theaters.

1. TOP GROSSING FILMS WITH A FEMALE LEAD
(Excluding films where a male lead is just as prominent as his female co-star)

Captain Marvel

01 Captain Marvel (Disney/Marvel) $426.7 starring Brie Larson. March 8th
02 Us (Universal) $175 starring Lupita Nyong'o. March 22nd
03 Alita Battle Angel (Fox) $85.7 starring Rosa Salazar. Feb 14th...

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CONSIDER - Actors of 2019, First Half

With the year half over, it's time to look back on the first six months and what treasures they brought us. Here are the 19 performances by actors we liked most at the movies thus far this year. We hope you'll sound off on these and share a few of your own in the comments... and we hope this list serves as a reminder to Oscar, Globe, critics, and SAG voters that amazing performances can happy at any time of the year. Why wait til December to start considering your "Best of" ballot? We're not saying that all 19+ of these fellows deserve prizes, just that everyone should be keeping lists of standouts for their own pleasure and edification and to combat faulty memories as the year progresses.

Subject to Change! I regret missing the following actor-led pictures which I will catch up with as soon as I have the opportunity: The Mustang and Sorry Angel. Okay here we go...

9 FAV LEADING ACTORS
(Jan 1st - June 30th releases) 

Chao Deng as "Jing Zhou/ Zi Yu" in Shadow
An amazing dual role wherein he delivers both near-camp level villany and subdued stoic masculinity sometimes in the same frame. [Awards for this performance: Best Actor nominations at both the Golden Horse Awards and the Huading Awards.]

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June. It's a Wrap

Happy PRIDE Weekend!

We'll be luxuriating in queerness for the rest of the weekend before halfway mark ballots tomorrow night or possibly earlier. But here are a dozen highlights from the month that was if you'd like to catch up inbetween your own festivities

• Midyear top fives from Team Experience
• Gentleman Jack Deborah Lipp gets personal about that brilliant lead performance from Suranne Jones. Have you watched this great series yet? 
• The House That Will Not Stand exciting new stage-to-screen project 
• West Side Story Promo the first image 
• Rocketman Nathaniel's rave
• Speed Turns 25 Lynn Lee looked back 
• Soundtracking Chris Feil on Moulin Rouge!
• Wonder Woman 1984 gets a pyschedelic poster 
• The New Classics Michael Cusumano revisits 20th Century Women
• The Prom Broadway's Tony nominated musical gets an all star film cast 

Most Discussed
• Big Little Lies ranking the top ten MVPs/moments of each episode
• Smackdown 2001 Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren, Marisa Tomei, Maggie Smith, and Jennifer Connelly
• 100+ Favourite Queer Films Nathaniel's own list  

COMING IN JULY
A celebration of both 1960 and 1957 cinema - two Smackdowns this month.  Plus The Farewell, Midsommar, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Halfway Mark - Team Experience Favourites

I'll be sharing my midyear ballots (such as they are) over the next couple of days but first let's hear from the whole team. Or, some of them - those that volunteeered their little in progress top fives. The team hopes you enjoy these little peeks into our individual film experiences from January through June at the movies (and in some cases, at home).

Chris Feil's midyear top five  
Twitter | Instagram | This Had Oscar Buzz | TFE Articles 

01 Her Smell's redemptive anarchy in five acts

02 Ari Aster's hilarious Midsommar -time sadness

03 Claire Denis' sci-fi descent into the black hole of our biology High Life.

04 The haves-and-have-nots horror of Us.

05 Zhao Tao giving another masterclass in Jia Zhangke's Ash is Purest White.  

Paolo Kagaoan's midyear top five
Twitter | Instagram | All of Paolo's articles

01 Homecoming: A Film By Beyonce... When  Beyonce descended from those steps, Sergei Eisenstein rose back from the dead, burned every copy of Battleship Potemkin, and killed himself.

02 Elizabeth Olsen in Endgame because she reminded me that Thanos is an asshole... 

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