Blueprints: "Evil Under the Sun"

In anticipation of the release of Murder on the Orient Express this weekend, Jorge Molina takes a look at a lesser known Agatha Christie adaptation to see how a mystery can introduce its suspects before it even begins.

There are few things that give me more comfort in life than murder mysteries. Clues woven cleverly through a narrative, the slow reveal of hidden motivations, the buildup to a clean and logical resolution. Watching one person inevitably emerge a criminal from a large group of eccentric and enigmatic characters. 

Agatha Christie is still the undeniable queen of the genre. In her novels she perfected the character archetypes for these stories: the charismatic millionaire, the begrudging femme fatale, the quiet foreign girl, the ambitious older lad... to name but a few.

And when her work started to inevitably get cinematic adaptations, with them came a pool of dramatic flair for actors to dive into...

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Kevin Spacey Replaced / Removed From "All the Money in the World"

by Ben Miller

a performance that will be erased -- Kevin Spacey in "All the Money in the World"

On Wednesday night, I was talking to my wife about All the Money in the World.  The upcoming thriller from director Ridley Scott features the true story of billionaire J. Paul Getty and his involvement with the kidnappers of his grandson.  I brought it up because (alleged) serial sexual harasser Kevin Spacey was set to play Getty.  

My discussion focused on how unfair it was to Scott, stars Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg, and especially young Charlie Plummer, who is poised for a breakout role as the aforementioned kidnapped grandson.  Just because Spacey is a terrible human doesn’t mean the people involved in a production should suffer.

The backlash from Spacey’s allegations was swift...

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75 days until Oscar nominations...

The upcoming Oscar ceremony is their 90th but guess who's having their 75th birthday this year? Oscar's bad seed step-sister The Golden Globes, that's who! We kid. We love the Globes, bad seed reference aside, in all their adorably flawed glory. What should we do to celebrate the Globes 75th birthday this year?!?

To honor their impending anniversary ceremony, here are 10 random times that the Globes were smarter than Oscar:

• 2010 The Social Network, Best Picture (The King's Speech won the Oscar)
• 2005 Brokeback Mountain, Best Picture (Crash won the Oscar)
• 1996-1999 Their choices for Best Supporting Actor always preferrable to Oscars! 
• 1995 Sense & Sensibility, Best Picture (Braveheart won the Oscar)
• 1984 Kim Basinger was nominated for The Natural instead of Glenn Close at the Oscars for the same movie (Close is a better actress, sure, but Basinger is way better in The Natural)
• 1980s They recognized that Cher was a brilliant actress long before Oscar (three nominations and a win even before Moonstruck!)
• 1967 Edith Evans, Best Actress for The Whisperers (Kate Hepburn won her second of four Oscars for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner)
• 1962 Angela Lansbury, Best Supporting Actress The Manchurian Candidate (Category frauding Patty Duke took the Oscar for lovely work in The Miracle Worker)
• 1960 Janet Leigh, Best Supporting Actress Psycho (Shirley Jones won the Oscar for Elmer Gantry)
• 1959 Marilyn Monroe won the Comedy Best Actress Globe for Some Like It Hot (she was not Oscar nominated)

Can you think of any others?

"The Post" on Our Doorstep

Chris here. I was just mentioning the other day that we had yet to see any real goods on Steven Spielberg's The Post, and voila: we just got a new trailer and poster. And the promise of the film being a potential major Oscar player has just gotten a whole lot more intense.

If we thought this one aims to capture the zeitgeist, the first look makes good on that and then some. Gender equality, journalistic integrity, a lying government, etc. The Post seems to hammer all of these in a graceful way to make for what looks to be a richly entertaining drama. There has been steady buzz for this first look online (and not just from movie obsessed folk like us at The Film Experience) since dropping late last night, so we may also have a big box office hit on our hands.

So what Oscar questions might have been answered here? For starters, Streep is definitely a lead performance, landing both top billing and the majority of the trailer's attentions - so the Best Actress race just got definitively more crowded. Giggle at the various hairpieces, but it's worth pencilling this next to other Makeup and Hairstyling hopefuls.

Of course with any reveal, there is also inevitably more questions. In The Post's case, which of these featured supporting male actors could be a contender? Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford, or Bob Odenkirk perhaps? Might Sarah Paulson's earnestness get her an awaited first nomination or is she more of a crucial bit player? Give us your first impressions and burning questions in the comments!

Soundtracking: "Frances Ha"

Lady Bird is a hit, so Chris is dancing in the street with Greta Gerwig to Frances Ha's soundtrack!

There aren’t many films that use music to capture a state of transition better than Frances Ha, particularly growing out of immature idealization. The film uses its heroine Frances’s addresses as chapter markers, but the flourishes of music notate her waning optimism and intensifying self-actualization. It’s like a variation on Woody Allen’s Gershwin obsession, but here it’s the character glamorizing her life rather than the film itself.

Music is an integral part of creating her internal fantasy. The twinkling, carefree instrumentals provide the lens with which we experience Frances’s world - or at least a more gilded version of how she envisions herself living in it. In tandem with the film’s precise editing and Greta Gerwig’s tremendous performance, the music choices make her everyday life a daydream that’s headed towards an inevitable collapse.

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