Silence of the Lambs Pt 2: Head in Jar, Moth in Throat, Girl in Pit

Team Experience is revisiting 1991's Best Picture, Silence of the Lambs for its 25th anniversary.  In Pt 1 we met our protagonist FBI student Clarice Starling, given an errand by her boss to question serial killer Hannibal the Cannibal in hopes of gaining insight into a new case, a killer named "Buffalo Bill". We begin where Kieran left us with our intrepid heroine, Clarice Starling, sliding herself narrowly into an ominous storage facility thanks to a lead (of sorts) from Hannibal Lecter.

Let’s see what she finds inside, shall we?

Pt 2 by Angelica Jade Bastién

00:24:43 A bloody cut from some rotten wood will be the least of Clarice’s problems

00:25:35 Creepiest storage facility ever, right? Thus far we’ve seen disparate parts from pale mannequins, a taxidermy owl suspended mid flight, and other odd oddities covered in dust. 

00:26:05 The fear and curiosity on Clarice’s face is palpable. I think what makes her such a compelling lead are those qualities coupled with her bravery. I’ve been bothered recently by seeing many female characters who are either so strong they seem infallible or faux girl-power creations. Clarice is compelling because of her humanity and complications.

more after the jump...

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Oscar Luncheon

Yesterday the Academy held their annual Oscar luncheon for the nominees from 2015 cinema. Maybe we're all eager to move on to 2016 but all in good time. There's still 21 days of the 2015 film year given that it doesn't wrap up until the credits roll on Oscar night.

The luncheon is the event with the cheesy "class photo". So let's look at that and talk noteworthy moments and how we're all feeling at this point after the jump.

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Linkbowl

Boy Culture revisiting Maurice with director James Ivory 30 years later
The Guardian previews Alone in Berlin, a new WW II drama starring Emma Thompson & Brendan Gleeson
Playbill How the Newsies choreographer got Channing Tatum tap dancing for Hail, Caesar!
The Film Stage 15 movies to see after you've seen Hail, Caesar!

Film Mixtape Chris Feil's top ten.
MNPP [nsfw] Tom Hardy on the set of Taboo... with tattoos 
Antagony & Ecstasy comparing current Best Picture nominees to previous Best Picture winners 
Pajiba on Star Wars...dildos? 
i09 argues that Virtuosity (1995) starring Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington now works as a 'bad movie we love' instead of just a bad movie 

Today's Watch...
I was watching George Clooney and Channing Tatum lounge and dance about in Roman soldier and Sailor costumes during the big game so I watched the new movie commercials afterwards. X-Men Apocalypse, Captain America: Civil War, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, The Jungle Blook, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Jason Bourne, Independence Day: Resurgence are included after the jump.

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TV at the Movies: Agent Carter goes Hollywood, and Hedy Lamarr gets her due.

Since several members of Team Experience are high on Agent Carter, here's Lynn Lee to talk about its new Tinseltown resonance.

Are you enjoying Marvel’s “Agent Carter”?  If you're not watching, you should. The show’s really upped its game in its second season, in part because its main characters have found their groove, but in even larger part because of its change of setting.  

Dispatched to Los Angeles to assist the West Coast office of the Strategic Science Reserve, Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) quickly finds herself in the heart of Hollywood’s Golden Age.  Her old friend Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) is doing his best impression of another famed Howard of the period, dabbling in filmmaking but really most interested in collecting starlets as poolside decorations and “production assistants.”  Meanwhile, Peggy and Jarvis (James d’Arcy) do their own best impression of Nick and Nora Charles (although they also prefigure original Avengers John Steed and Emma Peel), trading exquisitely polite British quips as they navigate palm trees and movie sets, and they’re a delight to watch. 

But it’s not just Howard Stark who draws Peggy into Tinseltown’s orbit. More...

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Beauty vs Beast: It's A Walk Off!

Jason from MNPP here, flashing my signature look your way as we mount this week's "Beauty vs Beast" -- it's fifteen years later and we're set to return to the Derek Zoolander School Who Can't Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too this Friday with Zoolander 2, the 2001 film's slow-cooked sequel. The film reunites most of the original cast while bringing in a few new (stretched, preening) faces - I can't even tell you how many times I've watched Kristen Wiig's "Youth Milk" commercial; she's the entire reason I will be returning. I do have good feelings towards the original film though, so let's make our best right turns and flash a Blue Steel backwards in time...

PREVIOUSLY We wished Jennifer Jason Leigh happy birthday with a glance back at 1992's Single White Female, and this time out it was her crazy crazy Hedra that came out on top, sticking a single high heel (and sixty percent of the vote) into poor innocent Bridget Fonda's fashion hopes and dreams. Said DJDeeJay:

"Yes, she kills a puppy, but she also gives a guy a BJ AGAINST HIS WISHES. Totally subversive, haven't seen anything like it before or since."