Happy Birthday, Robin Weigert!

How will you celebrate the birth of one of our most underrated supporting actresses of the stage and screen today? Will you:

• hang out in a diorama and monologue about pain, as she did in Angels in America?
• drink and cuss up a storm, like her Emmy nominated Calamity Jane from Deadwood?
• break from procedure to help someone in need, like her Big Little Lies therapist?
• bump your head and get kinky, a la Concussion?
• have three distinct personas, like each different woman she played on Law and Order?

When did you fall in love with this scene stealer?

Thoughts I Had... The "Geostorm" Trailer

Chris here. It's been a long time since we got a good old fashioned disaster flick, right? Luckily Geostorm is here to fill the silly void this fall.

The film stars Gerard Butler (as if you had to ask) in a world where satellites help ward off the perils of global warming. When the system gets hacked (or something, science is hard), Butler and crew is sent into space to investigate while Jim Sturgess is our hero on the ground. From the looks of the first trailer, there is a whole lot going on, from explosions to tornado armies to an Andy Garcia president. Naturally, I have some thoughts:

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First Look: Sienna Miller in "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof"

Why is it that Sienna Miller has had quite a successful and diversified stage career, but can't seem to break from the suffering wife roles that have marked her film work? Miller always gives these roles more than they ask of her, so you would think she would be given a role with more narrative heavy lifting. This year, she got to flex a little more muscle in The Lost City of Z (out on DVD next week) within the trope, giving the film its haunting final note.

Miller's next stage role is a similar suffering wife, but of the iconic sort: she will be playing Maggie in Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in London's West End beginning next week. Miller joins a growing list of actresses like Scarlett Johansson and Anika Noni Rose that have played the role in recent years - this play never seems to go away. Unbroken's Jack O'Connell plays her closeted husband Brick. Take a look at Miller in rehearsals and muse on her career in the comments.

"Wonderstruck" is NYFF's Centerpiece Selection

Chris here. Todd Haynes's Carol follow-up, the genre mash-up Wonderstruck has been one of our most anticipated here at The Film Experience for some time, naturally. While the film got a mixed reception at Cannes and came up empty handed for prizes, that's not enough to dampen our excitement. Haynes reunited with Julianne Moore? Of course we're there! But the film just landed a prime spot on the fall festival circuit - Wonderstruck will be the Centerpiece for the New York Film Festival.

Festival hounds will remember that this spot went to 20th Century Women's world premiere last year - so let's hope the film is as beloved in these parts as that film. But will it capture Oscar's attentions more than that small film? Haynes hasn't had much luck on the big prizes, so we bet Wonderstuck could at least register below the line as his previous films have. Despite the muted Cannes reactions, one of the most universally praised elements of the film was the performance of young deaf actress Millicent Simmonds - could she be the next youngster to steal Oscar's hearts? 

Wonderstruck play's NYFF afew weeks before opening October 20. Tell us what has you most excited about the film!

Bob Hope to Ella Fitzgerald