Posterized: Rosamund Pike

by Nathaniel R

Pike earlier this month in LAYou can see Rosamund Pike's acclaimed performance as a war journalist in A Private War today in movie theaters -- the movie's now gone wide. Pike, who is 39, was born in Hammersmith London, the only child of musician parents. We've been fans of Pike since her slyly terrific work in An Education (2009). Though she's headlined one huge hit (Gone Girl) it still seems like she's waiting for that one role / star vehicle to cement those career gains, and make people remember her name, doesn't it? If you were her agent or management what would you be fighting for right about now? I know I'd immediately put the kabosh on 'the girl' in male-driven action ensemble pictures and fight for more complex female leads -- why not another play? She hasn't been onstage in quite a while.

I'd also be looking for a drama which flirts with mysterious woman elements to capitalize on her Gone Girl fame and her sometimes deliciously remote aura without attempting to recreate that film. Just make sure it's a juicy role because she's up to the task. 

After the jump all the posters from her feature film filmography. How many have you seen? And did you remember that she was in them (since you probably saw a few before Gone Girl!) 

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The Spirit Award Nominations are Here

by Nathaniel R

Gemma Chan (Crazy Rich Asians) and former Spirit Award winner Molly Shannon (Other People) announced the Spirit nominations for the 2018 film year. No film truly dominated the announcement because, while We the Animals led with 5 nominations (YAYYYY) it wasn't nominated in the top category. Eighth Grade, First Reformed, and You Were Never Really Here each had 4 nominations. The highest profile expected contenders with not so great results this morning were BlacKkKlansman (only Adam Driver was recognized) and Can You Ever Forgive Me? (the Screenplay and Richard E Grant only). 

so happy for this little gem!

An important note before the full list of nominees: Unlike other major awards bodies, film festival releases are (sometimes) eligible here, overseas films even if they're in english are (mostly) ineligible outside of foreign film, and anything over a $20 million budget is (usually) ineligible here, so the eligibility pool is slightly different. Some examples of 'not eligible' this year for those reasons are: The Hate U Give and Beautiful Boy (too expensive) The Rider (festivals and nominated last year), Roma and The Favorite (both foreign film only though The Favourite led the Gotham nods). The Spirit Awards has multiple nominating committees assigned to different categories. Even better they meet several times throughout the fall before selecting the nominees which is, we think, why the nominations sometimes have a better spread of titles (in terms of release dates) than the Oscars do.

The full list of nominees along with a few comments are after the jump...

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It's 100 Days until the Oscars! Do you remember your first time watching?

How will you countdown? This upcoming Oscar ceremony will be the 91st annual event. In just 9 years, if the world survives that long, we'll have the Centennial of the Oscar! Can you imagine?! And do you remember the first ceremony you ever watched?

The first one I ever remember watching was the 56th ceremony...

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HMMA Honors "Black Panther" and "A Star is Born"

We're not sure why or how the Hollywood Music in Media Awards came about but they're now in their ninth year honoring musicians in a few buckets worth of categories across all visual media. Their winners are determined by committee and like the NBR, who people tease for divvying up their prizes in a way that insures each studio buys a table at their banquet, there's a little something for everyone. The only multiple winners were Black Panther (Original Score -Scifi/Fantasy, Original Song - Scifi/Fantasy & Soundtrack Album), and A Star is Born (Music Supervision & Original Song).

The winners are after the jump though we're not listing the nominees because it's one of those silly awards shows that seems to have no consistency about how many nominees each category is allowed to have. All that said, you might see some of these winners again on the Oscar nomination lists, though...

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Say it Aint So! Rebecca (1940) is Getting a Remake

by Nathaniel R

Nooooo. Rebecca (1940) doesn't need to be remade. Essentially no Hitchcock picture needs to be, you know. But word is out that Lily James and Armie Hammer are risking the ghosts of Joan Fontaine and Sir Laurence Olivier to star in a new film version of the Daphne Du Maurier story about "the second Mrs de Winter," her cold bossy husband, a sinister lesbian housekeeper, and an old creepy gothic mansion. The foolish or ballsy director that's going to try to live up to collective memories of Alfred Hitchcock? That'd be Ben Wheatley of High-Rise and Free Fire fame. 

Hey, let's do a "Cast This!" in the comments for the story's best role: Mrs Danvers, that creepy housekeeper with an obsession for her late mistresses undergarments. (You may recall that The Film Experience spent a lot of time with Rebecca a few years ago for a pass-the-baton retrospective.)