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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Would you rather?

Celebrating our fav recent Instagram pics through silly polling. So, dear readers, WOULD YOU RATHER... 

• levitate spaceships with the Force and Vincent Rodriguez?
• take a swim in the Mediterranean with Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace) and French hottie Pierre Deladonchamps (Stranger by the Lake)?
• learn the art of not giving a f*ck with Trinity the Tuck?
• swim in Tennessee with Christina Hendricks? 
• sunbathe in Italy with Uma Thurman?
• get psychotically cute with Cory Michael Smith? 
• do Madonna cosplay (?) with Erich Bergen? 
• receive an honorary degree with Angela Bassett?
• climb a mountain with former Velvet Goldmine collaborators Toni Collette and Sandy Powell (omg!)? 

Pictures are after the jump to help you decide.

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Queer critics on their fav queer films

by Nathaniel R

Pedro Almodóvar and Antonio Banderas on the set of "Law of Desire"

I didn't intend to point you to yet another "best LGBTQ films" list since we've been to that well twice with an overview of online lists and then my own personal list for Pride month. Nevertheless you'll surely want to check out this article at Paste Magazine called "50+ Queer Writers, 50+ Queer Films". Our friend Kyle Turner polled dozens of critics who identify as LGBTQ asking them to share a short thought about a cinematic favourite. We were only allowed one film, so I went with Law of Desire. We were also encouraged to think broadly about what "queer" meant so a lot of the choices you'll read are atypical rather than full on G-A-Y. Head to the Paste link above to read the whole exciting thing but after the jump I'm sharing three excerpts I particularly loved, two of them from trans critics since they don't get mentioned often...

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