Beauty vs Beast: An End To Hunger

Jason from MNPP here with this week's edition of "Beauty vs Beast" bidding a... somewhat... sad farewell to a movie franchise that's been kicking for several years now. This weekend The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (gahhhh, that lumbering title) is released, surely set to stomp over the Thanksgiving competition box-office-wise with its stlylishly Fascistic boots. But do we still care? I was a big fan of the books and the movies have all been pretty good but man I am feeling Katnissed out at this point; I'm still not convinced Mockingjay couldn't have been just one movie.

But I've already got my tickets for Thursday's night's show, natch, just like most of the rest of you. We are too small to fight. As for this week's competition I'm putting up my two favorite casting decisions from book to screen, both of whom knocked these roles outta the park...

PREVIOUSLY I think y'all were much more enthusiastic about voting on our poll pitting the Pitts-Jolie against each other last week than you were about actually going to see the new movie they were starring in, judging by its miniscule box office. In the end it was Mr. Smith who came out on top with about 60% of your vote. Wait did I say you were "enthusiastic" More like what STinG said:

"Fuck you for making us have to choose. They're both a perfect fit for each other and their actor. They're both too super cool. They're both the last of the great screwball couples. How can you do this to us?!"

Tweets o' the Week

Los Angeles is uncommonly windy at the moment. Dorothy Gale windy even. Nature Attacks!

But nevertheless I'm off to the airport to fly home to NYC after quite a fun busy week of Oscar buzz and AFI festivities. We'll catch up on anything we missed (surely a lot) in the next couple of days. In the meantime please to enjoy tweets that amused us most this week.

Beginning with this hilarity from Ryan Adams and moving on to Golden Globe categorization thoughts, Charlotte Rampling praise, Bradley Cooper schadenfreude and more after the jump... 

1951. Therese breaks the news to Carol: Decision Before Dawn got a BP nomination but Strangers on a Train didn't. pic.twitter.com/TAaZuBiaSC

— Ryan Adams (@filmystic) November 13, 2015

Click to read more ...

Cynthia Nixon is Emily Dickinson

Manuel here. No sooner was Nat discussing the talents of one Miss Cynthia Nixon, who's great in James White (review) and commenting on the fact that she’s an Oscar away from EGOTing, than we got these new images from Terence Davies’s upcoming film A Quiet Passion.

In the film, Nixon plays poet Emily Dickinson. The always welcome, if criminally underused, Jennifer Ehle plays Vinnie Dickinson, her sister, and if these images are anything to go by, we’re in for quite a treat. The project should no doubt excite anyone who’s ever fallen in love with Dickinson’s lyrical poetry. A known recluse (or “introvert” if you want to put it mildly), Dickinson produced copious amount of poetry in her lifetime but saw but a few of them published. Since her death she has become a key figure in American literature. 

Emma Bell plays a young Emily which suggests the film may shuttle back and forth between her younger years and her later later life. 

We know what a wondrous performance Davies courted out of Rachel Weisz in The Deep Blue Sea — you’ll remember she won the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Actress and even earned a Golden Globe nomination for her work — and so his pairing with these two talented actress should have us all excited. May this be a chance for Nixon to at least contend for that coveted golden statue? In the meantime for those looking forward to more of Davies’s work, his new film Sunset Song, which premiered at TIFF will be released in the UK next month.

Box Office: Bollywood Hoopla

Amir here, with the weekend’s box office report. As predicted last week, the top two films didn’t change at the high end of the pile. Spectre is doing impressive enough business in the US, but its record-breaking haul in China was the real gain. The total worldwide gross of the film surpassed the half billion-dollar mark. There were four new wide releases, three of which landed in the top ten and, embarrassingly, I hadn’t heard of a single one of them before sitting down for this column, so let’s give each a crack.

Love the Coopers, is a family Christmas comedy, and because all mentions of Christmas in November should be banned, we’ll skip over it—it was right behind The Peanuts Movie in third place. The 33, the Antonio Banderas-led film about Chilean miners did as well as a film about such a dark—literally and figuratively—tragedy can do. The real story, however, is India’s Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. It’s an open secret that Bollywood films do really well without significant advertising, but this one is doing even better than usual. Already having the best opening of all time for a Bollywood film in India in the bag, where it opened on the 4-day Diwali weekend, Salman Khan and Sonam Kapoor’s newest venture has the best opening weekend for an Indian film in the UK and one of the top five best in the US.

The Weekend's Top 5
Spectre $35.4m (cum. $130.7m)
The Peanuts Movie $24.2m (cum. $82.4m)
Love the Coopers $8.4m (new)
The Martian $6.7m (cum. $207.4m)
The 33 $5.8m

On the limited side of things, Angelina Jolie’s By the Sea grossed a dismal $9k per screen—it’s a shame; this film looks gorgeous—and James White, one of the under the radar gems at this year’s TIFF fared slightly better, but it’s hard to gauge its success given it’s only playing on one screen.

What did you see this weekend? Are you excited to see Prem Ratan Dhan Payo?

Sir Ian McKellen Charms the Brits. And Other Oscar Stories.

Nathaniel again in my last post directly from LA. I'll have to leave you in the good hands of Team Experience tomorrow as I'm travelling back across the country to home base NYC. This afternoon I had the pleasure of attending a Brit-heavy brunch with various BAFTA & Academy voters to honor Sir Ian McKellen in Mr. Holmes, one of the year's biggest indie hits.

Look at the starry talent that showed up to support him...

Jane Seymour, Sir Ian, Sir Patrick, Kathy Bates, and The Lovely Laura Linney

Did you know that Jane Seymour and Sir Ian McKellen go all the way back to 1980 together, having co-starred in Amadeus (1980) on Broadway? She was wife to Tim Curry's Mozart and McKellen was Salieri (and won the Tony) but none of the stage cast were used in Milos Forman's Oscar-devouring film version in 1984. I was able to say hello to all the actresses. I informed Kathy Bates of her devout fanbase at The Film Experience and she credited American Horror Story for giving her new fans but admitted the bloodiness of the show was a bit much for her (same) and that drinking the fake blood was disgusting. We even talked about her Oscar-winning work in Misery as I shared earlier today on twitter.

I asked Kathy Bates if she'll be seeing MISERY on Broadway. "No. But I sent them flowers from 'your #1 fan.' I know that's corny!."

— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) November 15, 2015

Longtime readers, particularly "par3182" who named her thus, will be happy to know that "The Lovely Laura Linney" is now aware that at The Film Experiencce we only ever refer to her by that full title and have for years. One may not even say 'Laura Linney' in casual conversation as it must be properly heralded with 'The Lovely'. She beamed with all the apple-cheeked radiance we've all fallen for repeatedly over the years.

McKellen's close friend Sir Patrick Stewart was also on hand. Though McKellen singled several attendees of the party out beautifully as he spoke to the crowd, about his fellow X-Man he joked...

Patrick Stewart and I are practically married at this point. But his wife is here so we won't talk about that."

I personally admitted to Sir Patrick that I keep almost going as him for Halloween. "That is a terrible idea!" he proclaimed, destroying my future dreams of Professor Xavier drag.

As for the man of the hour, Sir Ian McKellen was just as funny, warm, and winkingly arrogant as you could expect. 'I'm very good in the picture!' he agreed without shame with those twinkling eyes while chatting. He was a delight to talk to and especially gracious to fellow actors.

I told the twice Oscar nominated actor that I thought the makeup work to age him up for Mr. Holmes was incredible -- the actor is a spry 76 but he plays Sherlock Holmes as a frail 90something. He agreed and mentioned that "the big hooter" specifically helped him in feeling like someone else. Looking into the mirror after hair and makeup and seeing the character taking shape is a great help. 'Your body starts to join in,' he remarked hunching over to recall the aging affect. When it comes to actors and transformation, he quipped  'I knew what DNA was before the scientists!' 

related: current best actor chart | more on Sir Ian