Magic Carpet Link

NY Times talks to David O. Russell about Joy... which still is not screening. The mystery of it all
Playbill Aladdin flew through the streets of NYC on his magic carpet recently. How's that for marketing?
Gold Standard Character actors get their own award "The Carneys"... we wouldn't need this if the Academy remembered why they invited the Supporting Acting categories. The first recipients:  Bob Balaban, Michael Ealy, Bruce McGill, David Paymer and CCH Pounder
THR wishes Toni Collette a happy birthday with fun facts

/Film Jennifer Aniston hasn't made a good film in 10 years. Can What Alice Forgot change her course?
Guardian suggests that appointment franchise cinema will end with Hunger Games: Mockinjay Part 2. "IF ONLY!" says all of us who year for movies to be movies rather than expensive television series
Variety talks to Karl Glusman about his first day on the set of Gaspar Noé's Love -- they started with the ejaculation scene. Yikes
Variety interesting. The very talented Pablo Larraín (No) is making a movie about Jackie Kennedy and Natalie Portman stars with Peter Sarsgaard, and Greta Gerwig in support
Graham Norton talks to Maggie Smith who isn't sad to say goodbye to Downton Abbey 
Variety selects under the rader performances that "deserve" Oscar buzz. While it's nice to see more props for Kristen Stewart's great work in Clouds of Sils Maria, it's tough to take this seriously: Helen Mirren in Woman in Gold? Good god did she ever phone that one in! Ruffalo "reinventing" himself for Spotlight? Try repeating himself! 

Halloween Hangover
Crave Bryan Fuller (Hannibal) chooses the most stylish horror films from Repulsion to The Haunting
HitFix they polled several writers/directors/critics to list their fav horror films. Not enough actresses on the list but I LOL'ed that Elvira gave herself the #1 position
Gothamist photos from the Village Halloween parade
TFE Facebook / TFE Twitter  in case you missed it I was goofing with counting down my 15 favorite horror films last night from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? to Silence of the Lambs -- "it puts the fuckin' movie on the list. It does this whenever it's told."

Also if you aren't liking / following / sharing The Film Experience on social media... why you wanna hurt us like dat?

Finally... 
Did you hear there's a fully poseable Michaelangelo's David action-figure? Want! Also why is there not a movie about the creation of this work of art?  

Would you watch a movie about the making of Michelangelo's David?

Yes. I'm all about the Italian Renaissance

Entirely depend on the casting of David.

No. I'll just look at the nude gifs on the internet.

Poll Maker

208 Days Until... Cinema Ends.

We retitled the last one Eyesore in Wonderland since it was one of the ugliest and worst movies ever made. What shall we call this one? 

Ask Nathaniel

Oh my friends my friends don't ask me...

Marius can't handle your questions right now, okay. So ask your kindly editor instead.  Yup, it's that time again. Ask questions and Nathaniel will do his best to answer about 10 of them on Monday night. (As always questions that would require whole huge essays, entire books or top ten articles to answer will be ignored.) 

October. It's a Wrap!

October came and went and we barely clocked Halloween? That's scary. Usually we're more in the costumed-up spirit. Highlights from a speedy month gone by...

ICYMI
First image from Loving - how long till Jeff Nichols is an Oscar favorite?
Steve Jobs -first impressions of an electric Oscar contender
The AFI Fest is coming - Team TFE will be there so here's a preview 
"Hello" - Adele & Xavier Dolan called each other a 1000 times 
Jennifer Lawrence vs. Oscar records - how far and fast can she rise?
1986 Flashback - A Room With a View and more 
Golden Globe Comedy - a curiously thin field
Steven Spielberg - Bridge of Spies and his 21st century work 
Oscar's Foreign Race - a five part trivia-happy series
HBO LGBT Sex & The City - Manuel's series hits the movie spinoffs
Q&A: Favorite Vamps & Cute Monsters - for Halloween 
Kate Winslet & the Oscars - a ranking 
Freeheld - belated thoughts on the once Oscar hopeful
NYFF Wrap Up -Carol, The Assassin, The Lobster and more...
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night - female directed horror is all the rage 

Coming in November... 
Interviews with Ridley Scott, Alicia Vikander, the screenwriter of Spotlight and more. We'll do TFE tributes to Gena Rowlands, Spike Lee, and Gena Rowlands as their Honorary Oscar ceremony approaches. Anne Marie will look at the career of Mira Nair in "Women's Pictures". Our eyeballs will drown in lushness via  Brooklyn, Carol, The Danish Girl and other Oscar hopefuls. Plus the star studded AFI premieres of By the Sea, Concussion, and The Big Short. 

Any requests?

In Praise of Carey Mulligan in Suffragette

Murtada here, with a lot of love and respect for Carey Mulligan.

There's a scene late in Suffragette when Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan) realizes the devastating enormity of the separation from her son. Mulligan’s face, in a second, flickers many emotions, all so overwhelming that you feel this woman’s pain in your gut. Yet she doesn’t overplay or milk the moment for maximum effect. She remains understated.

This is just one of many moments in the film in which Mulligan transcends her movie and reaches her audience with clarity and without exaggeration. Set in London in 1912, Suffragette tells the story of Watts, her education and indoctrination into the suffrage movement. When the film starts, she is working in a laundry, trying to survive a hard existence alongside her husband and young son. A chance encounter introduces her to the suffragettes and she becomes a member of their embattled movement. 

It is through Mulligan that we enter this world. Her character is a composite of many working women who were part of the movement and is built to be the audience surrogate. Her performance is so strong that the plight of these women is not only depicted effectively, but comes alive. I could not control my emotions or my tears. Mulligan’s performance is an emotional marvel and delivered with technical mastery. Her working class English accent is impeccable, her weariness and defeat is visible in her hunched back and heavy walk, her defiance rises to crescendo and is delivered with skillful control of her voice. This is why there are awards for acting.

The film is dividing critics and its reception is unfortunately lukewarm. Some accuse it of being well intentioned but conventional. "Earnest", "formulaic" and "schematic" are words used to describe Suffragette.

But the film derives most of its power from the performance at its center. Mulligan is riding on a wave of acclaim, with co-star Meryl Streep recently praising her:

"I’m in awe of your talent . . . I really am. I’m also in awe of your voice, which is like warm caramel poured over the English language. I applaud your taste in material and how you hold out for stuff. Even when you were young and didn’t have any money, you just did things that mattered. I can’t wait to see what Carey Mulligan will give us next, what new woman she’ll give birth to”.

In her earlier 2015 release Far From the Madding Crowd, Mulligan as Bathsheba Everdeen says "It's my intention to astonish you all". And you do Carey. Always.

Do you think Carey Mulligan in on her way to a second Oscar nomination?