Barbie Prep: Letterboxd, Watchlists, Oh My!

by Cláudio Alves

We're in the home stretch, less than a week until Barbie arrives in theaters like a shock-pink supernova. The promotion has been near manic in intensity, with the cast showing off their best Mattel cosplay worldwide and Warner Bros. pulling no punches. However, it's not all red-carpet glamour and real-life dream houses, with writer-director Greta Gerwig doing much to excite the global cinephilia by hinting at her Barbie's debt to great cinema of yore. She's been very vocal about the cast and crew watch parties, studying the hyper-artifice of studio classics, and even getting on the phone with Peter Weir to get some tips relating to The Truman Show.

In a recent Letterboxd interview, Gerwig went into a personal watchlist she curated, starting with 29 titles that eventually expanded to 33 during the conversation. It's a vast collection of titles, from 1930s screwball to modern Almodóvar…

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Team Experience Reacts to the 2023 Emmy Nominations

by Christopher James

The Team was particularly excited for the four nominations for Jury Duty.

No one loves awards shows more than The Film Experience team. Loving an award show doesn’t mean nomination morning is happy. You take the lumps of coal with the bright, shiny surprises. There was plenty to like this year at the Emmys, and about as much to complain about as well. After all, there are more than 100 categories, even if most of them went to Succession.

Click for our thoughts after the jump...

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First & Last 020

Can you guess the movie from its first & last shot?

The answer is after the jump...

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Halfway Mark 3: Fav Performances of 2023 (thus far)

by Nathaniel R 

Teyana Taylor (A Thousand and One), Greta Lee (Past Lives), Nicolas Cage (Renfield), Chris Messina (Air), and Scarlett Johansson (Asteroid City)

We already discussed gay cinema of 2023 and favourite movies (thus far) in general. Now let's talk the magical gift of acting. Herewith a handy cheatsheet of favourite film performances (and why we love them) from the first six months of 2023 so we don't forget them later on in the year-end glut. Although will we have a year-end glut this year? Hollywood has come to a standstill throwing the futures of the year end releases into question as no actors will be available to promote their work. This is a small problem in the grand scheme of things -- fair pay and treatment is more important than the timing of any batch of releases -- but it could make for a strange year in cinema (and tv, too).

The halfway lists are generally our way of taking stock of the year. Consider it "intermission". Some of these performances won't factor into our own Film Bitch Awards at years end but that's no reason not to love on them right now...

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Four shows entirely dominated the Emmy nominations. Worthy or excessive?

By Abe Friedtanzer

Melanie Lynskey in The Last of Us

As Chris reported, Emmy nominations were announced yesterday and four shows absolutely dominated. I want to take a look at what happened in comparison to my predictions, which shows faltered, and most importantly, grapple with the notion that those four shows are indeed terrific yet them being omnipresent so that other shows barely registered is still disappointing. I also want to share the nominations I saw that got me particularly excited...

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