Streaming Thoughts: Broken Circles, Hunger Games, Gay Indies

Time for another "watch this before it leaves" warning. It's so stupidly complicated to follow these things is it not? So we'll do what we can here and there. The big 'new month calendar dump' is approaching but we'll deal with those next week. For now, let's just talk random streaming stragglers. The following titles are leaving either Amazon Prime or Netflix Instant quite soon so give them a shot if you've been meaning to.

As we do we've freeze-framed them randomly to see what they're serving up and to (hopefully) prompt discussion...

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Beauty vs Beast: Weimar Memories

Jason from MNPP here, willkommen and bienvenue, happy to see you! I trust you've all left your troubles outside? Today is the 84th birthday of the Master of Ceremonies himself, Herr Joel Grey, and so we're feeling frisky for some time inside the Kit Kat Club. As an aside, have any of you read Grey's recent autobiography? I highly recommend it if you haven't -- he's lived a hell of a life and doesn't hold back. (I recently shared my favorite tidbit from the book over at my site.)

Grey originated the role of the MC on stage (and won a Tony for it) and was the only person carried over from the cast to the film (much to Bob Fosse's chagrin), which led to him also winning the Oscar for the role. (This came up recently when Patty Duke, who also won both a Tony and an Oscar for the same role,  passed away.) Standing beside him that night and clutching her own statue was of course a little somebody named Liza Minnelli - maybe you've heard of her? But darlings, now we must choose...

PREVIOUSLY The new Captain America movie is out in about three weeks and we gave you guys the chance to make your Civil War wishes known --wellh the titular Captain stomped right over his fellow Avenger Iron Man to the tune of just under 90% of the vote! It's a blow-out for Cappy! Said Sawyer, taking these results to their (logical? harsh?) extreme:

"Cap all the way. I can not abide Tony Stark. I hope he dies in this movie."

In Praise of Brendan Gleeson

For our impromptu and informal Actors Month, members of Team Experience were free to choose any actor they wanted to discuss. Here's Chris Feil... on one of our most reliable character actors. 

Though Brendan Gleeson's grounded and somewhat imposing presence have made him a staple of large budget period and genre pieces they've too often kept him on the sidelines as well. Perhaps his minor breakthrough in Braveheart (1995) is what created this typecasting bias of Gleeson as the hearty rascal. But note: it's not his aggressive frame that make him such a valuable piece of each film, it's his ability to bring human reality to films that are focusing on the very big canvas. Martin Scorsese, Anthony Minghella, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Danny Boyle, just begin to scratch the surface of the director who have noticed though awards bodies have yet to truly awaken to his subtle and diverse gifts...

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Tomorrow Night

Tomorrow night at The Film Experience - Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Witness (1985). Peter Weir's 80s classic (nominated for 8 Oscars, and not undeservedly) is currently available on Netflix. Revisit and join us.

The Furniture: The Forest and "The Force Awakens"

"The Furniture" is our new design series. Here's Daniel...

Once upon a time, Hollywood movie magic looked a bit different. In this age of CGI, with some blockbusters relying so heavily on digital effects that they border on fully animated features, it’s easy to forget how science fiction and fantasy once looked. This is why the throwback technical elements in Star Wars: The Force Awakens are so exciting to behold.

One could go on for quite some time about all these details, many of which come up in the extensive special features included on the Blu-ray. One production design revelation in particular that's worth celebrating is that the final fight scene between Kylo Ren and Rey, set in a dark and snowy forest, was shot on a set.

Initially, a location shoot was considered. Such a choice worked wonders for the forest sequence in House of Flying Daggers (2004) , certainly. Yet, due to the fact that the nighttime setting would severely restrict the schedule, the production design team led by Rick Carter and Darren Gilford began workshopping a solution [More...]

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