Friday, April 10, 2015 at 3:49PM 
I'll pick ten questions to answer on Monday night. But remember to keep it tight because book length questions get ignored. Two (unrelated) themes to inspire your questions this week: "Stage" and "Science Fiction" because Tony season is coming and we have a special sci-fi theme week coming up in April that we need you in the mood for.
Friday, April 10, 2015 at 11:21AM 
Jose here to bring you and interview as the new documentary Dior and I opens in select theaters.
In April 2012, Raf Simons was announced as the new creative director at Christian Dior, fashion experts all over the world were surprised that they’d chosen a minimalist Belgian designer who up to then had mostly been known for his menswear, and when his first couture collection debuted, the house of Dior was once again giving people something to talk about, as Simons sought to pay tribute to the man whose “New Look” revolutionized fashion in the twentieth century. What few people knew was the behind-the-scenes drama that had the introverted Simons become the hero at the center of a thriller which had him try to deliver a couture collection in two months, as opposed to the six most designers are given to work with.
In his provocative documentary Dior and I, director Frédéric Tcheng gives us access to this exclusive world in which art and commerce are at constant odds with each other. Tcheng has amassed an admirable nonfiction filmography comprised of some of the greatest fashion films in recent years, he co-produced and edited the Oscar short-listed Valentino: The Last Emperor and co-directed the delicious Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, but as he explained during our chat in New York City, he’s not interested in being “a fashion filmmaker”, but instead wants to tell compelling stories that transcend into the universal.
THE INTERVIEW
JOSE: Something that never becomes clear in the film is why he would agree to do the collection in eight weeks? Did you ask him about this?
FRÉDÉRIC TCHENG: (Laughs) I think the timing just happened to be that way, I’m not sure what was actually said at the meetings when they were negotiating his arrival, so I can’t speak for that. What I gather is that Dior wanted him to start with couture as a statement, not ready to wear, but couture, which happens only twice a year. Everyone was waiting for Dior to announce a new designer, and it took them almost a year to do it, so I don’t know what happened in those meeting rooms.
This time element gave you the tools to make a thriller! [More...]
Friday, April 10, 2015 at 9:00AM A very quick roundup to begin a Netflixy day (Daredevil anyone). Speaking of... Hi, Sissy!
Sissy Spacek photographed by Christian McDonald
Interview Todd Field (In the Bedroom) interviews Sissy Spacek on Bloodline etc...
NPR talks to Brad Bird on Tomorrowland. And yes, he is finally working on Incredibles 2 (very early writing stages) for which we will eschew our normal eye rolls at animated sequel news and instead cheer wildly.
Tracking Board Logans Run remake still a slight possibility. This time with female lead?
i09 posits that Practical Magic w/ Bullock & Kidman as witch sisters is a perfect movie
Antagony & Ecstasy film criticism for a good cause: Tim takes on the daunting task of reviewing Vertigo aka "the greatest movie ever made" as part of his cancer charity drive -- he's raised over $2000 already!
Vanity Fair on Ryan Gosling as a director
Pajiba says "eff it... reboot everything" including Cybill. Hee!
Pajiba should you grow a Mad Men moustache? A handy guide
Today's Watch ICYMI
It gives a whole new meaning to "instant watch"
Thursday, April 9, 2015 at 9:30PM 
Your weekly reminder that Julianne Moore won an Oscar. It's still true and still amazing.Tim here. It's a good weekend to be Kristen Stewart: today is the actress's 25th birthday, and tomorrow begins the limited U.S. release of Clouds of Sils Maria, which has won her the best reviews of her 15-year career. It's the natural endpoint of a very good 12 months for Stewart, which saw the premiere of three movies (Camp X-Ray, Sils Maria, Still Alice) that found her proving herself to all the hostile critics that were ready to write off her entire career as an asterisk following her starring role in the Twilight movies.
Having been one of those critics – part of the fun of The Twilight Saga while it was ongoing was having an annual opportunity to trot out my list of synonyms for "catatonic" in describing Stewart's performances – I am happy to have been thus defeated. What she's doing in Sils Maria isn't just giving a solid performance and holding her own with a modestly complex part and proving that there's more to her than just gaping blandly at a sexy shiny vampire and a sexy jailbait werewolf. We just saw Stewart do that in Still Alice, where she did a fine job of keeping one corner of the movie nailed down as it hunted for anything interesting besides Julianne Moore's performance.
No, Stewart's performance in Sils Maria is an out-and-out revelation, the kind you tell your grandkids about. She's not just "fine" or "solid", she's the best thing in the movie – she steals the movie right out from Juliette Binoche, and that's simply Not Done.
Thursday, April 9, 2015 at 3:00PM Please welcome new member of Team Experience, Lynn Lee (who you may remember from the Reader Spotlight and Furlough Guest Blog) here to continue our unofficial Joan Crawford week - Editor
Lynn here, filling in for Nathaniel as Mad Men – and with it, Mad Men at the Movies – returns for the final seven episodes. The show has had a good run but from a filmgoing perspective I'm sorry we won't get to see what Don would make of the weird and wonderful cornucopia of movies in the ’70s, from gritty crime sagas to paranoid conspiracy thrillers to, well, “Star Wars.”
Curiously, the only obvious movie reference that popped up in tonight’s episode was to a movie from decades earlier – Mildred Pierce (1945), the half-soap, half-noir blockbuster that revived Joan Crawford’s flagging career and won her the only Oscar of her career. Fittingly, the shout-out comes from Roger Sterling, our most senior character now that Bert Cooper is gone. Even more fittingly, it’s delivered as slightly derisive banter wrapped around an order to an underling: Roger’s in a diner with Don and three ladies, all decked out in evening wear, and he wants the waitress to bring him the bill.
Hey, Mildred Pierce, can I get the check?”
It's not exactly a flattering sobriquet...
