News: BIFA, Carrie Fisher, Creed

Gothamist Good Morning America tries to interview Carrie Fisher. She is not as cooperative as they're used to. Hilarious. She mostly wants to talk about her dog Gary. Also...
Carrie Fisher's Dog is on twitter
/Film best and worst of Ryan Gosling on SNL
Variety Shailene Woodley, to whom I am mostly allergic, will unfortunately co-star with Nicole Kidman in Big Little Lies
Boy Culture Warhol superstar Holly Woodlawn has died at 69
i09 in case you can't wait until Christmas, they've released 8 clips from The Hateful Eight to tide you over
Pajiba 8 sets of celebrity dopplegangers

Today's Watch
Director Ryan Coogler talks about Creed's amazing continuous shot boxing match. So gutsy that this bravura bit comes so early in the movie and he still manages to top it later on.

List Mania
Vulture David Edelstein's top ten list is quite adventurous as it zigzags from Room to Chi-Raq but his top 10 and best performances list is.... Steve Carell The Big Short as #2 of the year (say whaaaa?)

Saoirse Ronan has arrived. Finally...
The Moet British Independent Film Awards ceremony happened yesterday during all the critics award madness stateside. The winner by a significant margin was Alex Garland's haunting sci-fi triangle Ex Machina. The prizes...

British Independent Film: Ex Machina
Director: Alex Garland, Ex Machina
Actress: Saiorse Ronan, Brooklyn
Actor: Tom Hardy, Legend
Supporting Actress: Olivia Colman, The Lobster
Supporting Actor: Brendan Gleeson, Suffragette
Screenplay: Alex Garland, Ex Machina
Documentary: Dark Horse: The Incredible True Story of Dream Alliance
International Independent Film: Room
Debut Director: Stephen Fingleton, The Survivalist
Producer of the Year: Paul Katis & Andrew De Lotbiniere, Kajaki: The True Story
Discovery Award: Orion: The Man Who Would Be King
Achievement in Craft: Andrew Whitehurst for VFX, Ex Machina
Short Film: Edmond
Promising Newcomer: Abigail Hardingham, Nina Forever

Kind of a surprise to see Ex Machina dominate so thoroughly though we do love it here at The Film Experience

tweet 16

Jennifer Lawrence and David O. Russell walk past a 45 Years poster. "That should've been you," he whispers.

— Matthew Eng (@Eng_Matthew) December 3, 2015

It's funny because it's true! ftr JLaw is really good in Joy but toward the end of the movie she does kind of have to play hardened wiser 40something and... sigh... I wish this didn't bother me but I can never make that leap with her.

Anyway... a collection of recent tweets of note or amusement or truth starring Jennifer Lawrence (again), Tom Hardy, Melanie Lynskey, Carol and more presented without further ado after the jump...

Click to read more ...

LAFCA Winners (Plus: NYFCO Madness)

 With today's announcement of the Los Angeles Film Critics Associations winner the die is set for critics awards. People can argue until pigs fly about whether and how and to what extend critics awards affect Oscar voters but here is a fairly universal consensus among people in the know: these things only matter to the extent they convince voters to attend that particular screening or put that specific screener on top of their to-watch stack. And the two critics groups that voters hear most about and are thus most likely to be influenced by are the two most prestigious coastal giants, LAFCA and NYFCC (who already announced with Carol winning big).

Will Oscar voters take MAD MAX: FURY ROAD seriously or just think "action film"

LAFCA 2015 Winners
Film Spotlight (ru: Mad Max: Fury Road)
Director George Miller, Mad Max Fury Road (ru: Todd Haynes, Carol)
Actress Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years (ru: Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn)
Actor Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs (ru: Geza Rohrig, Son of Saul)
Supporting Actress - Alicia Vikander - Ex Machina (ru: Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria)
Supporting Actor - Michael Shannon, 99 Homes (ru: Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies) 

More and a very cool bit of trivia after the jump via Joe Reid...

Click to read more ...

Boston Film Critics choose hometown heroes -- "Spotlight" for Best Picture

Every other year the BSFC chooses the future Oscar winner as their Best Picture. Look at the evidence: 2009 The Hurt Locker; 2010: The Social Network; 2011: The Artist; 2012: Zero Dark Thirty; 2014: 12 Years a Slave; 2015: Boyhood. Before that it's a little bumpier statistically since 2008 saw a tie between Slumdog Millionaire (the eventual Oscar winner and WALL•E, a much more deserving (and braver) choice. But it was only in 2006 with The Departed that they started lining up regularlyt. Before then Boston could often be counted on for more iconoclastic choices like Mulholland Drive, Out of Sight, Three Kings, Trainspotting, Bull Durham, Ran, etcetera. They've been handing out awards since 1980 when Raging Bull won their inaugural Best Picture award.

Here's what they chose this year...

Click to read more ...

What did you see this weekend?

With only Krampus as a new wide release this weekend was a repeat of Thanksgiving weekend with The Hunger Games, The Good Dinosaur and Creed leading the way at the multiplex and Oscar hopefuls like Carol doing good business on a miniscule amount of screens. Spotlight and Brooklyn -- which are both looking lockish for Best Picture nominations -- continue to reap the benefits of great word-of-mouth audience response.

"Um, why am I in Krampus?" -Toni Collette to her agent, probably.

BOX OFFICE
(Dec 4th-6th)
01 Hunger Games 4 $18.6 (cum. $227)  Hunger Games & Oscar
02 Krampus $16 *new* 
03 Creed $15.5 (cum. $65.1) Review & Oscar Possibilities
04 Good Dinosaur $15.5 (cum $75.9) Review
05 Spectre  $5.4 (cum. $184.5)  Review
06 The Night Before   $4.9 (cum. $31.9) 
07 The Peanuts Movie  $3.5 (cum. $121.4)
08 Spotlight $2.9 (cum. $16.6) First Impression & SAG Ensemble Predix
09 Brooklyn $2.4 (cum. $11.2) Review, Saoirse & Best Actress
10 Secret in Their Eyes $1.9 (cum. $17.2) 

With BFCA's "Critic's Choice" ballots going out tomorrow and a handful of critics organizations voting this weekend, I've been struggling to catch up / wrap up but in truth I am always quite behind at this point. And I get distracted by my pets... like seeing Carol twice this weekend. Oops. By my count there are 27 titles that I had hoped to see that I still have to squeeze in during the busiest month of the year and of course the rewatches I'd hoped to do before drawing up the top ten list. If I get to half of this by Christmas it'll have to be considered an enormous success. The Glut! The Glut!

What did you see this weekend? Are you struggling to keep up?