Happy Christmas. How's Your December Going?

May you get the gift you want the most tomorrow or today (depending on when you're reading this)! Or in the next week. Don't rush Santa. Since the next two months we'll be jampacked with awards festivities televised and otherwise -- and the Film Bitch Awards comin' up real soon and daily -- there will be precious little time to recap. So herewith an ICYMI roundup so that Team Experience can take a 24 hour break for gifting and egg-noggy boozing before we're back to the holiday-movie-Oscar-buzzing-year- in-review madness. If you've only recently been tuning in for awardage and are catching up with the year's movies frantically and wanting to read about them, catch up!

Don't Miss These Dozen Baked December Goodies
• Jessica Chastain - an interview with Miss Sloane herself
• Golden Globe Gaiety - imaginary parties with the nominees
• La La Land Fact - It's an absolute rarity 
• Where is Kyra? - and how should we celebrate La Pfeiffer's return?
• The Wolf Man (1941) - all movie werewolves are in its debt
• The Ladies Who Lush - cheers to these wine-loving ladies
• Rogue One - reviewed
• Edward Scissorhands (1990) - a Christmas classic
• Yes No Maybe So - Spider-Man: Homecoming AGAIN?!?
• Asghar Farhadi Returns - an Oscar finalist again for The Salesman 
• Avocado's Hate-F***ing Other Avocados - aka the Makeup Oscar finalists 
• Florence Foster's Aesthetic -from ersatz Valhallas to potato salad bathtubs

Happy Holidays from Ava Gardner and The Film Experience!

Newish or Brand New in theaters but some we wrote about long ago in case you're like "what about..." Jackie, La La Land, Fences, 20th Century Women, Lion, Julieta, Neruda, Toni Erdmann, and Live by Night. 

Highlights from Previous Months
Jan | 88th Oscars | March | April | May | June | July | Aug | Sept | Oct | November

Review: Assassin's Creed

by Eric Blume

A movie doesn’t necessarily have to make sense to succeed.  Many of us are still mystified by the red pill and the blue pill and The Matrix but that film has such force and style that subtleties of plot were insignificant.  Assassin’s Creed makes less than zero sense, and mere mortals could not possibly explain the plot  It has something to do with the Spanish Inquisition, a descendant of an elite group of assassins, evil scientists, and the acquisition of the Apple of Eden, since the Holy Grail and Ark of the Covenant have been claimed elsewhere in better movies.

The confusing mechanics of this potboiler wouldn’t matter much if the film delivered on action sequences, compelling characters, or overall tension.  Unfortunately director Justin Kerzel seems overwhelmed by the entire enterprise, and buckles under the seriousness of the effort. This is saying a lot, because last year Kerzel directed MacBeth, and his great lead actors from that film, Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, are back on this picture...

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Podcast: "Lion" and "La La Land"

Katey, Nick, Joe and Nathaniel talk two Best Picture contenders along with conversational detours that pop up as these detours do. The podcast will return in the New Year. 

Index (43 minutes)
00:01 LION (and movie titles) 
12:15 LA LA LAND (divisive direction!) 
27:10 BEST PIC & LIST-MAKING (tis the season)
31:13 CHRISTMAS MEDLEY (Rent, Kermit, Judy G)

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments and please have very happy and safe holidays until we're chatting at you again in January (probably around Golden Globes weekend January 8th-ish). 

Lion & La La Land

This One's For All You Cat People...

Year in Review. Each day a new wrap up list. Today Nathaniel with a litter of cinematic felines...

 It's time for a purrfect top ten list. The following list is dedicated to your editor's beloved and much-missed furbaby, Monty who left us in August. In honor of Monty, the web's first Oscar pundit cat, here are some of the most memorable felines of this screen year on movies and television.

Sorry not sorry to all the dog people out there. Isn't that unconditional love from your pup reward enough? Must you always demand doggy time? Let we, the crazy cat ladies, have the spotlight this time!

10 BEST CINEMATIC CATS OF 16

10 Mountain Lion The Neon Demon
This menacing cameo is primo WTFery and hard to forget but surely I did forgot some other key cats. You'll fill me in in the comments about felines who might have made this list, I'm sure...

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On This Day in History: 1988 & 1994's Opposing Best Pic Lineups!

Feeling festive today but not quite ready for Christmas? Celebrate one of these anniversaries!

1805 Joseph Smith Jr, founder of the Mormon Church is born in Vermont. Here's a very random piece of trivia: Outside of the very early movie Brigham Young (1940) about his successor with Vincent Price in the Joseph Smith role, the only actually famous actor to ever play him is Dean Cain of Lois & Clark fame in a movie called September Dawn (2007)? It's kind of hard to draw a line connecting Vincent Price and Dean Cain otherwise, right?
1867 Madame CJ Walker, cosmetics mogul and the first black female millionaire in America, is born in Louisiana. Where's her biopic, Hollywood? History has more than just Great White Man stories.
1887 Underappreciated director John Cromwell who guided Bette Davis's breakthrough role in Of Human Bondage , and the all female wonders of Caged was born in Ohio. One more Bette related anniversary after the jump...

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