Friday, May 6, 2016 at 9:04PM 
I just assembled an entire chair from provided instructions so am feeling unusually manly. Grunt. Grunt. Also hoping it makes my writing less painful and more productive like -- Old chair to the garbage bin!
What's on your cinematic mind? Inspire us with your brain vomit and Happy Weekend!
Friday, May 6, 2016 at 3:00PM 
Apologies for the slim postings the past two days. Boring issues at TFE HQ that will hopefully be remedied shortly for a jampacked next week. But enough of that...
As you may have heard Alden Ehrenreich has been cast as the Young Han Solo. If you are old like me you know he won't be the first actor to have risked Ford comparisons in the role. Way back in 1989, then freshly Oscar- nominated teen star River Phoenix (Running on Empty) played Young Han Solo in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in a flashback scene wherein we learned how Indiana Jones got that scar under his lip.
Alden Ehrenreich is all the rage at the moment due to his truly awesome work in Hail, Caesar! And the following tweet is most definitely true of actor heat both now and in general. The Coens have a rich history of making people notice how great certain actors are and then other filmmakers capitalize on it. It's not just that galaxy far far away that takes cues from them.
First Oscar Isaac and Adam Driver, now Alden Ehrenreich. Lucasfilm just waits for the Coens to show them who's cool. #StarWars #HanSolo
— Angie J. Han (@ajhan) May 6, 2016
The Coens have a rich history of making people notice how great certain actors are and then other filmmakers capitalize on it. It's not just that galaxy far far away that takes cues from them.
But before we begin after the jump please note that I'm nominating Scott Beggs for the Pulitzer in criticism
The punching in Captain America: Civil War looks better than the punching in X-Men: Apocalypse.
— Scott Beggs (@scottmbeggs) April 26, 2016
Friday, May 6, 2016 at 8:00AM 
After debuting at last fall's Venice Film Festival, Luca Guadagnino's A Bigger Splash finally arrived stateside. It's another entry in the growing mass of festival titles taking their time to make their way to the US, with last year's Cannes Palme d'Or winner Dheepan oh so quietly opening next week as well.
A few extra months' wait for Splash is an acceptable compromise consider the six years wait fans of Guadagnino's 2009 slice of divinity I Am Love have had to endure. This time, Guadagnino looks to trade in Love's breathless romanticism for a feverish chic, but upping the ante of the former film's sexual intrigue. It would be some kind of crime against the audience to have a cast like Tilda Swinton (Guadagnino's returning muse), Ralph Fiennes, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Dakota Johnson and not get a little randy.
But wouldn't you be willing to wait for summer to get a dancing (and birthday-suited) Ralph Fiennes by the pool?
Luckily, the wait won't be so long for the director's next lush piece of cinema: he announced this week that his long-gestating remake of Dario Argento's Suspiria will shoot this fall. The remake has had a long haul in its own right, with rumored directors like Darren Aronofsky and David Gordon Green. Luca Guadagnino is an exciting fit for the project, the visual opera he crafted with Love a perfect fit for the giallo nightmare of Argento's original. The director has already lined up his Splash cast to return, so we can expect something special without becoming impatient.
What are your thoughts on Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria?
Thursday, May 5, 2016 at 7:00PM Kieran, here. This past week, Andrew Fleming's 90s teen witchcraft flick The Craft celebrated its 20th anniversary. If you haven't already done so, do yourself a favor and check out the terrific piece over at Decider about the cult classic's enduring power, written by fellow Team Experience member Chris Feil.
One thing that I've always found interesting about the film, something that I've rarely seen discussed, is its racial politics and how they stand out among other movies released around the same time. The dynamic of "the black friend" is one not entirely alien to teen films and television, especially in the 90s...
Thursday, May 5, 2016 at 5:03PM For no reason whatsoever that's what we're blogging at this moment! (Just humor me, okay? My back is in spasming pain.)
1865 - The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified, abolishing slavery in the U.S. but 151 years later the topic is still on everyone's minds: see TV's Underground (any of you watching this?), the exciting news about Harriet Tubman on the $20 and two new biopics about her in the works, plus recent and current Best Picture types (Lincoln, 12 Years a Slave and possibly Birth of a Nation)
1891 - Carnegie Hall (then named Music Hall) opened in NYC so that one day "JUDY! JUDY! JUDY!" could be recorded for posterity
1914 - Movie star Tyrone Power was born and we still don't have a biopic 102 years later even though Zac Efron would be perfect in the role
1927 - Pat Carroll is born so that 62 years later we might enjoy the genius of her voice in The Little Mermaid
1955 - Damn Yankees opens on Broadway and quickly becomes the movie Damn Yankees (1958).
1981 - Bobby Sands dies of a hunger strike in prison. His last days inspire a movie which is just extraordinary and introduces the world to the genius filmmaker/muse partnership of Steve McQueen & Michael Fassbender (Hunger, Shame, 12 Years a Slave).
2000 - Freshly minted Oscar winner, mesmerizing new screen presence, brother-kissing and blood-vial wearing Angelina Jolie marries Billy Bob Thornton further confusing / fascinating the world. That same day in movie theaters Gladiator opens which delights the world, Oscar voters, and drunk Elizabeth Taylor
Gladiator!
