Streaming Roulette: Netflix & Prime for January

Curiously Netflix and Prime have no recent movies available to start 2019 with.  In the first half of January Netflix only has Solo: A Star Wars Story (beginning on the 9th). The situation at Prime is a bit better with Leave No Trace (3rd), Beautiful Boy (4th), and Eighth Grade 13th) all available soon. In other words, now is a great time to hit the actual movie theaters and catch up on Oscar hopefuls since the streaming services won't help much. Nevertheless here's a perusal of 'new'  streaming options.

As is our practice we've frozen the films at utterly random moments without cheating (whatever comes up comes up) for this quick preview. Let's go...

What just happened?!

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Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2019.

You get two New Year's Babies photos instead of one, but they're both Baby Herman so I guess we're going to embrace our Gemini spirit in 2019 since he was the first baby that popped into mind. We have high hopes for 2019 after two of the roughest years in memory. Perhaps this is wishful thinking but we're going with it! Rather than making a huge long list of Resolutions that we'll have trouble keeping, we're making just five.

New Year's Resolutions for The Film Experience

• Have as much fun with the remainder of the 2018 film year as we possibly can -- the film year doesn't end until Best Picture is handed out, don'cha know!
• Be more consistent like a well-oiled franchise (i.e. podcasting, weekly columns, etc)
• Find fresh new 'cast members' / Reenergize the 'series regulars'
• Start making use of our neglected Instagram and our neglected Newsletter so please follow
• Celebrate YOU the readers more.

What are your resolutions for the new year? 

Aquaman still tops. Mary Poppins also floats

We haven't done a full weekend box office post in some time since we've been sharing the 'top grossing of the year' lists which are all updated if you missed them and you can see the hits in 11 different categories including docs, foreign films, female directors, gay directors, films with female leads, etcetera...

But as for what people were seeing Christmas week and this past weekend, here are the nation's top dozen+ movies chart for both wide releases and limited/expanding titles. Which titles were you catching up with?

Weekend Box Office (Actuals) (December 28th-30th)
W I D E 800+ screens	PLATFORM / LIMITED excluding prev. wide
1 Aquaman  $52.1 on 4125 screens (cum. $189.3) Review, Podcast	1 🔺 Simmba $1.7 on 300 screens *NEW*

2 Mary Poppins Returns $28.3 on 4090 screens (cum. $99.2) Podcast ❤️	2 🔺 If Beale Street Could Talk $766k on 65 screens (cum. $1.9) Review, Podcast ❤️

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December - It's a wrap!

BE SAFE OUT THERE TONIGHT. PARTY RESPONSIBLY! New Year's Eve is legit your host's least favourite holiday so I'm just going to curl up with screeners and comfort food and call it a month... er, year! Of course the film year, for our specific purposes, still rages on until the Oscars are handed out. Here are some highlights from the month that was here at the site ...

• Fav Line Readings "I am your MOTHER" "Oh no... he died." etcetera
• A Star is Born Hits $200 Million appropriate ways to celebrate
• What's Eating Gilbert Grape aging well 25 years on
• While You Were Sleeping yes, it should be a holiday perennial
• An Unfortunate Julia Roberts Headline... though she'd probably laugh
• Boy Erased unfortunately quite relatable
• Chris Feil's Top 20 List with a video montage!
• Toni Collette loves Roma also talks about her bold acting choices
• Into the Spider-Verse  the best Spidey movie in ages
• Best 2018 Dance Sequences Suspiria, Mary Poppins Returns, more...
• Months of Meryl: The Post - the last regular episode of this year long journey!

Most Discussed
• Our chat with Glenn Close she's very honored by the tributes
• Best Actress winners in bad movies an opinionated list
• "Worst" of the Year Ready Player One, Beautiful Boy, and more...
• SAG Nominations / Ensemble Expose what a strange year for SAG
• Globe Nominations 

COMING IN JANUARY: Anne Hathaway in Serenity, M Night Shyamalan's double-sequel Glass, lots of Golden Globe partying, the Sundance Film Festival, the 75th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat, more celebrity interviews, and of course the Oscar Nominations themselves.

Sir Ben Kingsley is 75

by Nathaniel R

A happy ¾th century mark to Sir Ben Kingsley today. Born Krishna Pandit Bhanji he came to global fame in 1982 for his starring role in Gandhi (Oscar, Globe, BAFTA, NYFCC, LAFCA, NBR wins). Before that breakthrough he'd appeared in several British TV shows and television movies. Other key triumphs from his filmography include: Bugsy (Oscar & Globe noms), Schindler's List (BAFTA nom), Sexy Beast (Oscar, Globe, & SAG noms, EFA & Critics Choice Awards), House of Sand and Fog (Oscar, Globe, Spirit & SAG noms), Hugo, Shutter Island, and Iron Man 3 as well as very fine voice work in The Boxtrolls (Annie Award), The Jungle Book, and Noah. 

What's your fav performance from Sir Ben? I think I love him most in Sexy Beast, Gandhi, and the underappreciated Elegy.