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The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)

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Thursday
Dec282017

Open Thread

Ooof. I must have been on Santa's naughty list this year as he brought me a fever for Christmas that finally broke yesterday. I have barely moved for 36 hours. Hopefully I'll be back amongst the living soon. I hope you are only recovering from how much fun you had during the holiday break. What's on your mind? 

Thursday
Dec282017

Review: "Pitch Perfect 3" 

By Spencer Coile 

Pitch Perfect could not have arrived at a better time. Its release in 2012 was met with solid reviews and box office figures, but that was just the beginning for the fandom that would ensue. It told the story of the Barden Bellas, an all-female university a cappella group led by Anna Kendrick vying for the top spot at Nationals. Blending Top 40 hits and an underdog narrative was effective. Soon, you could not escape the presence of singing groups and acapella wordplay ("aca-scuse me?").

The arrival of Pitch Perfect 2 in 2015 proved that the Bellas were no fluke. The second film dipped in quality, but was a worthy successor. Now, in 2017, Pitch Perfect 3 is the (supposedly) final installment...

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Wednesday
Dec272017

Soundtracking: "200 Cigarettes"

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Chris rings in 2018 by looking back at the 80s via the 90s with 200 Cigarettes!

Remember theme parties? Well, 200 Cigarettes is a film version of an 80s theme party, set over New Year’s Eve as several lovelorn folks slowly make their way to Martha Plimpton’s house. Sounds like a party we would all want to go to, so you would think that the film would have had a longer shelf life than it did. The film is as forgotten as the old acquaintances "Auld Lang Syne" talked about, and shouldn’t be considering its easy charms, famous cast, and relentless gifability. But while parties are meant to be replaced by other parties, the music stays the same.

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Wednesday
Dec272017

Reviews: "The Post" and "The Greatest Showman"

This review was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad. It is reprinted here in slightly altered form...

If you take film critics, Rotten Tomatoes, or any review aggregate site seriously you might think that future Oscar contender The Post (86%) is a pricey gift from Santa Spielberg that’s come exquisitely wrapped for Christmas. You might also believe that the new Hugh Jackman musical The Greatest Showman (51%) is an oversized lump of coal fouling up your otherwise pretty stocking. Don’t fall for that anti-fun / theme=worth messaging; See both for a well-rounded holiday week at the movies...

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Tuesday
Dec262017

Cinematic Inverses: Beach Rats and Call Me By Your Name

by Dancin' Dan

It's the time of year where we're all playing catch-up with everything we missed in theaters. This prepares us for that most sacred of cinephile traditions: End-of-year list-making!

I had heard a lot of good things about Eliza Hittman's Beach Rats when it was released in theaters late this summer, but I wasn't able to catch it. But nothing I had heard about it prepared me for what I found. Beach Rats is nothing if not the inverse of the acclaimed (and currently playing) Call Me By Your Name; nearly everything in one is the opposite of the other.

It starts with our protagonists, Harris Dickinson's Frankie and Timothée Chalamet's Elio. Both are possessed of a certain amount of self-confidence but even more self-doubt...

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