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It's my birthday! Do Nathaniel's birthday right by watching a good movie today, meditating on the talents of your favorite actress, and donating to the site.

The Film Experience has been around so long it's a web institution but it is always in need of funds which help with boring things like rent, necessary things like expenses, exciting things like film festival travel and possible site revamping (depending on access to funds), and happy things like giving bonuses to columnists. In fact, if you have a particular favorite series, completed or ongoing, and you'd like to give your donation specifically to that, leave a note with your donation and we'll make sure the right writer gets your "tip."

So whether you love the Oscar coverage, actress-obsessing, special theme weeks, star/film retrospectives, contemporary reviews, random silliness, or any of our weekly series show your love. There are two ways to donate, subscription (which is wonderful as its steady and something we can count on) or a one time donation. 

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Beauty vs Beast: The Sun Also Sets

Jason from MNPP here with this week's edition of "Beauty vs Beast" - I think I must have had fever of the brain (to the lay-person that's called Kopfgeschlagen) last week because somehow I didn't take advantage of the 25th anniversary of one of my most favorite comedies of ever, Michael Hoffmann's Soapdish, the fizzy slapstick tale of backstage shenanigans at a daytime soap opera full of narcissistic psychopaths. Somewhere in the late 90s I wore out my VHS I watched this movie so many times - Soapdish is one you could stand me in front of a crowd, tell me to go, and I could perform the entire thing from start to finish, from crawdad butts to Tawny the Tweety-Bird Couturie.

The cast is to a tee in top form - even semi-cameos like Carrie Fisher's classic bitch Betsy Faye Sharon leave impressions so sharp I can summon up their character-names on command. But it's the poisonous rivalry between show queen Celeste Talbert (Sally Field) and "Nurse Nan" Montana Moorehead (Cathy Moriarty) that gives this Soap its eternal dishiness...

PREVIOUSLY With what could turn out to be her final X-Men movie we took the opportunity to say goodbye to Jennifer Lawrence's two blockbuster turns, and Katniss carried the day to the tune of about 80% of your vote - said Tom:

"I thought she was quite good in First Class (and looked great in that mod costuming). But it seems that her heart was always more focused on Katniss than Mystique. She openly expressed that she doesn't really wish to return to the role. She never seemed bored as Katniss, a complaint often lodged at her in regards to her X-Men performance."

The Furniture: Decorating Madness in A Streetcar Named Desire

"The Furniture" is our weekly series on Production Design. Here's Daniel Walber...

The 70th Tony Awards are in just a few days. I certainly can't be trusted with predictions, but I’ll make one guess. The award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play probably won’t be split three ways. That sort of near-impossible result has only occurred once, all the way back in 1948. The 2nd Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play was shared by Judith Anderson, Katharine Cornell, and Jessica Tandy. Tandy won for the original broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire.

Of course, she didn’t get to be in the movie and so we will leave her behind. Elia Kazan’s film of Tennessee Williams’s masterpiece premiered less than two years after its Broadway run ended. Its success was that instant. It won four Oscars, though all but one was for acting. That fourth prize, of course, was for production design. [More...]

Click to read more ...

Podcast: Love & Friendship, Neighbors & Apocalypse

Katey is back! Our very pregnant team member returns to discuss a few new movies with Nathaniel, Nick, and Joe and catch up.

Index (43 minutes)
00:01 Katey is back!!!
02:36 Money Monster
11:30 X-Men Apocalypse
23:36 Love & Friendship
31:28 Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
42:05 Goodbyes

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes tomorrow. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you?  

Neighbors 2, Apocalypse, Love & Friendship

New Laura Linney Movie Tops The Box Office

Don't you love headlines that are technically true but twisted to serve an agenda? If The Film Experience ran the world movies led by great actresses would always be event movies. Unfortunately for now we're stuck with The Lovely Laura Linney as a police chief within the context of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. [sigh] But what can you do? Summer is cruel that way.

 arrows indicate gaining or losing screens

TOP TEN WIDE
🔺01 TMNT: Out of the Shadows $35.2 NEW
🔺02 X-Men Apocalypse $22.3 (cum. $116.4) Review, Podcast
🔺03 Me Before You $18.2 NEW Review
▫️04 Alice Through the Looking Glass $10.6 (cum. $50.7) 
🔻05 Angry Birds $9.7 (cum. $86.6) 
🔻06 Captain America $7.5 (cum. $388.9)  Review
🔻07 Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising $4.7 (cum. $48.5) Podcast
🔺08 Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping $4.6 NEW 
🔻09 The Jungle Book $4.2 (cum. $347.4)
🔻10 The Nice Guys $3.5 (cum. $29.1)  Shane Black, Review

TOP TEN LIMITED
Under 1000 screens. Excluding previously wide. 
🔺01 Love & Friendship $2.1 (cum. $7) Review, Podcast
🔺02 The Lobster $1.5 (cum. $3.6)  Reviewish, Podcast
🔻03 The Man Who Knew Infinity $283K (cum. $2.9)
🔻04 The Meddler $257K (cum. $3.6) Review
▫️05 The Wailing $224K (cum. $302K) 
🔺06 Weiner $215K (cum. $607K) Review  
🔻07 A Bigger Splash $160K (cum. $1.7) Reviewish, Podcast
🔺08 Maggie's Plan $153K (cum. $406K) Review
🔻09 Sing Street $46K (cum. $2.8)  Review, Who's the MVP?, Podcast 
🔺10 Dark Horse $45K (cum. $199K)  Review 
 

WHAT DID YOU SEE THIS WEEKEND?