Tuesday, July 1, 2014 at 10:30AM A very happy 98th birthday to the woman who collected Oscars and cats as if she were personally flirting with me before I was born.
Thank you for Maid Marian, cousin Melanie Hamilton, heiress Catherine Sloper, identical twins Terry & Ruth, Miriam who hushed sweet Charlotte, Virginia in that snake pit... and many more.
Your summer Centennial party is just around the corner in 2016!
Monday, June 30, 2014 at 10:02PM Ten years ago today Spider-Man 2 (2004) was released. I loved it so much that I went back the next day for seconds. This is not in my nature. This is so infrequent for me, in fact, that I can remember every single time it's happened. The othertimes being Queen Margot (1994) and Ladyhawke (1985) and, once on DVD if you want to count that, with Trouble in Paradise (1932). Because those four movies are so similar, what.
So I guess my next-day-rewatches are on the same timetable as Cher's #1 singles and Diane Keaton's Oscar nods arriving once per decade; We're due for another.
This still from Sam Raimi's awesome movie (still my choice for best superhero film) neatly sums up how I feel about the hateful reboot franchise which is just wasting so much money and talent (Andrew Garfield, who was supposed to be one of our great new actors, has literally been in nothing else since Social Network and it's been FOUR YEARS). In case you need help interpreting the photo the reboot is James Franco and he's trying to kill the best superhero. Greed ruins everything.
Anyway...
How often have you seen the same movie on consecutive days? I doubt I'll ever start doing this but I will probably end up seeing movies a second time more frequenty than I used to since MoviePass makes the money much less of an obstacle. I saw Snowpiercer today and may actually need to see it a second time to clarify my feelings.
Monday, June 30, 2014 at 2:00PM Behold the Oscar-nominated Supporting Actresses of 1964: two wealthy matriarchs with strained relations to their children, one desperate widow who would very much like relations of any kind, an irritable church group leader watching your every move and one sweaty possessive housekeeper lurking around the corner.
THE NOMINEES
Moorehead, Evans, Kedrova, Cooper, Hall
1964's shortlist is one of the most senior in any acting category ever with an average age of 61. This 50 year old Oscar contest also acted as a finale for three enduring character actresses who Hollywood adored (Cooper, Evans, and Moorehead) but never quite enough at the right time to hand them the gold man. (In truth Dame Edith Evans, who did not attend the ceremony, was nominated one last time and quite deservedly for The Whisperers but that nomination is sadly almost as forgotten as the confused woman she masterfully played.)
The actress Melanie Lynskey (Happy Christmas, Heavenly Creatures) joins returning panelists Joe Reid, Nick Davis, Nathaniel R, Stinkylulu and You! We also tabulate reader votes and quotes from those ballots appear.
Without further ado, the main event...
1964
SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN
Monday, June 30, 2014 at 1:00PM Presented without censorship in the order they came...
Mmm-mmm-mmm. Channning Tatum
Sorry, top billed Steve Carell but you just aren't as bankable. Did you throw a grenade while plunging toward the ocean shouting "something cool" this summer? Nope!
Although maybe there are two more of these posters and they just released this one first?
Thank God this is not the official poster because zzz
Little known fact. That flag is Daniel Day-Lewis's shawl from Gangs of New York. It hasn't been washed since 1862 for authenticity's sake. Except that one time Madonna and Rupert Everett used it whilst cavorting.
Chan can cavort with the best of 'em. He's got all the movies. STEP UP. I just saw Joe Manganiello's La Bare and we need to talk about it soon. One of the dancers calls himself Channing because why wouldn't you?
Before she dies I hope Carol Channing co-stars with Channing Tatum. In a musical.
Heh. The credits are like a treasure trail, starting with Chan's pecs. Look!
Foxcatcher is a treasure. Or so we keep hearing.
Wait, did they also put prosthetics on Chan's nose, not just Carell's? Everyone wants the Oscar.
Monday, June 30, 2014 at 11:24AM 
JA from MNPP here - I know I'm among my people here at The Film Experience when I stand up in front of you all, tap the mic, clear my throat, and admit that I, Jason Adams, being somewhat sound of mind and body (okay that part's questionable), am straight-up no-holds-barred infatuationally addicted to an actress. Her name is Elizabeth Anne Caplan, she goes by Lizzy, and she is basically everything. How could anyone say anything mean about Amy Adams, right? Adorable, kind, nose-wrinkling Amy Adams? Well I would roll Amy Adams up feet-first and stick her in an envelope and mail her to Timbuktu never to be heard from again if that meant I would get to see Lizzy Caplan play Lois Lane in a Superman movie. That's where we stand.
So today is my beloved's 32nd birthday, and so we're giving her today's "Beauty Vs. Beast" poll. I'm not sure how many of you are watching Showtime's Masters of Sex but I hope it's tons upon tons, because it's a great show stuffed with rich characters from top to top to bottom to bottom and every which way of sexual power dynamics. Michael Sheen's doing terrific work as the Platonian Ideal of the nightmare doctor with a god complex, but yeah... I think I've made it clear where my vote's going. You?
As always you've got one week to vote and to make your case for your pick in the comments. Oh and if you want to see the new trailer for the second season of Masters of Sex, which is back July 13th, watch it here.
PREVIOUSLY Last week we shot the Bat Signal over Gotham in honor of 25 years of Tim Burton's original movie and made you choose between Michael Keaton's dark knight and Jack Nicholson's candy-colored villain - it was tight-going with the Batman and the Joker fluctuating who was on top but in the end goodness vanquished evil and Keaton strolled off with 51% and the victory, heading off towards a bright future involving slinky cat-suits and lots of licking. There was a lot of diccussion about the Bat-Men versus the Jokers (Jokeri?), which Sad man summed up thus:
"Team Batman 100%. If it was Heath's Joker then I'd pick Joker. Also Keaton > Bale."
