Chris Gives Thanks!!

Team Experience members were invited to give thanks this week so you'll be hearing from a few of us. Here's Chris Feil...

Thank you love, thank you life, thank you faithful Film Experience readers!

2018 has been a busy year for yours truly! Between being TFE's resident soundtrack obsessive, starting a podcast, and having another go at TIFF, it's nice to indulge in a little bit of reflection on what this year has meant to me cinematically. As always, I'm grateful to our benevolent host Nathaniel for allowing me to share my voice with you all and my fellow genius cowriters here at TFE. In a terrifying world, our little corner of the internet is a salve. But as for the movies, I am most thankful for...

• "[staccato piano keys] ... I'm alone in my HOUSE!"

• Nicholas Britell's majestic If Beale Street Could Talk score. The rare beast that feels inextricable from its images, forever tied together in my brain.

• Janelle Monáe's Dirty Computer in general, but specifically "Pynk" in particular. Listen, if folks are allowed to put Twin Peaks on their best films of the century lists, I can put a music video in mine...

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Soundtracking: "Boy Erased"

by Chris Feil

Troye Sivan is one of those musical acts that makes me realize that I am suddenly, and without warning, very old. Forgive me if in recent years I’ve found myself incapable of distinguishing him between the Shawn Mendes and Charlie Puth hodgepodge of pop baritenor twinkery. But after this year, I can at least recall Sivan as the one who sings about his bootyhole and provides some understated grace to the emotional landscape of the so-so Boy Erased.

And Sivan’s musical stylings might also be making Oscar feel aged by adjacency, should he be nominated this year for his collaboration with Jónsi, Boy Erased’s original song “Revelation”. He’d be one of the category’s youngest nominees, and also join (certain nominee) Lady Gaga in the tradition of songwriter’s starring in their song’s film. Streisand, Parton, Björk, Blige - Sivan?

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Watch at Home: Crazy Rich Asians, We the Animals, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

What's newly available for home viewing this week? 

DVD/Blu-Ray
• Blindspotting - Just discussed.
• Crazy Rich Asians -Currently the 12th biggest hit of the year, and hopefully the film that changes everything for Asian-American actors. We should probably watch and discuss again. Do you think it will be up for the Golden Globe Comedy or Musical Best Picture prize or SAG's Best Ensemble prize? I wonder.
• Kin - A sci-fi film about a weapon of unknown origin and two brothers in trouble.
• Skate Kitchen -a drama about skateboarding girls in Manhattan. Nominated for Breakthrough Director at the Gotham Awards.
• We The Animals - The nomination leader at the Spirit Awards this year. We've interviewed the director and we just love the film here at TFE. You really should see it and the book is a swift gorgeous read... the two experiences go well together but are also their own things, perfectly tailored to each medium.

New iTunes 99¢ Deals
• A Quiet Place - The Emily Blunt monster movie smash (and longshot Oscar hopeful) is this week's highlighted deal
• My Cousin Vinny - Revisit Marisa Tomei's hilarious Oscar-winning breakout
• Under the Skin - My personal #1 of 2014, the sensationally unsettling sci-fi masterwork from Jonathan Glazer and Scarlett Johannson in that brief run when Scarjo was experimenting with every movie and knocking it out of the park each time.

ALICE: Two people have asked me about President Pierce...well, complained. 
GILBERT: About what?
ALICE: The barking.
GILBERT: Well, I don't know what to say. President Pierce is a nervous creature and excited by animals larger than himself. 
ALICE: Almost all animals are larger than President Pierce.

Brand New Streaming
• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Netflix) - The Coen Bros originally planned this as a TV series. It became a standalone anthology movie. Add "President Pierce" to 2018's long list of memorable dogs onscreen. If you've watched it already which of the six stories is your favorite? 
• Loving Pablo (Prime) -Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem reunited onscreen but the movie didn't make any waves
• McQueen (Prime) -Our review. This highly praised doc about the fasion designer Alexander McQueen is eligible for the Documentary Feature Oscar. 

Golden Globe Nominating Begins!

My oh my but awards season is speeding up. Today ballots go out to the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assocation. Better known as those crazies that give out the Golden Globes. We adore the Globes here at TFE because if you look back at their history many great films and performances and TV series have won that were never honored at the Oscars or Emmys, particularly those of the comic or musical persuasion.

10 dream nominations we're rooting for, however likely or unlikely after the jump...

1. Crazy Rich Asians and A Simple Favor for Best Picture, Comedy or Musical

2. Toni Collette (Hereditary) and Nicole Kidman (Destroyer) both in Best Actress, Drama because we need some Aussie Actress power celebrated especially since Oscar might stiff them...

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Murtada Gives Thanks

Team Experience members were invited to give thanks this week so you'll be hearing from a few of us. Here's Murtada Elfadl... 

It’s that time again when we tell you lovely readers of The Film experience what we’ve appreciated from all the stuff we watched in the past year. But first things first, I'm thankful for Nathaniel and The Film Experience. For the readers and those who engage in the comments, for this lovely oasis of a community.

And now for the movies, and the people behind them, who made me whoop with joy, cry silently in my seat and sometimes shake my head in amazement and awe.

• YouTube making "The Shallow" always available just a click away so I can watch as many times as I want and not just 200 like Andrew Dice Clay. Because just listening is not enough, I want to see Gaga and Bradley!

• The gut punch to the heart that Carey Mulligan gave me this year. On stage in Girls and Boys. On screen in Wildlife...

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