Link-Along

HuffPo Gabby Sidibe gets in trouble for using the word "Tranny" on television. It's hard to keep up. Gabby is not alone. I also didn't realize this word was now off limits since LGBT people have been using it for years and in names of clubs and dance nights and everything ("Tranny Shack" "Tranny Chasers" etcetera) 
Cinema Blend American Hustle will hit DVD Bluray on March 18th. I wonder if it will have any Oscar wins to tout on its cover? You think?
The Wire attends the Frozen sing-along

TV Blend poster for season 2 of Bates Motel (I wish I had liked that show, but nope.) 
In Contention Guy makes us want to go the Miami Film Festival 
/Film new trailer for Captain America: Winter Soldier includes Emily VanCamp

More on PSH
Slate Dana Stevens' tribute to the late Philip Seymour Hoffman
The Wrap catches us up on 5 current PSH projects and where they stand now that he's gone. Weirdly they leave out the sixth, Ezekiel Moss which he had planned to direct and which had recently cast its leads.
The Guardian on the double standards of drugs and drug laws. Some addicts are viewed empathetically and tragically and others as criminals 

Finally...
I keep meaning to share this really fun video of all the Best Visual Effects winners at the Oscars from Star Wars through Life of Pi. You've probably seen it already but isn't it a good watch?!

Curio: Philip's Creations

Alexa here. Like Amir, I can't see past the loss of Philip Seymour Hoffman this week.  We'd become complacent about his greatness: his presence was one you counted on to keep returning, to keep elevating everything he touched.  I am so glad that I flew to New York just to see him perform with John C. Reilly in the revival of Sam Shepard's True West in 2000; he was, predictably, a dynamo.  While immersing myself in written tributes I've also sought out visual ones; here are some that celebrate a few touchstones in his too-brief career.

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A Personal Note on Allen/Farrow and a Plea For Sanity

I'm about to pull a Hannah Horvath and make something that's not about me entirely about me for a moment but... I had a really difficult week. As long time readers undoubtedly now, Woody Allen and Mia Farrow as artists and as a unit were largely responsible for making me the cinephile that I am today. The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) was a major turning point in my life, the moment that I realized innately if not quite in a self-aware way, how much the movies meant to me.

Woody & Mia in the 80s

I will never be able to thank either of them enough for that gift. Were it not for them, and over the rest of the 80s an actress we should probably just call "Michellyl Glenn Turnstreepfer", I would not be the person I am and you would never have read The Film Experience as it would not exist.

So Allen and Farrow were a superhero duo to wee Nathaniel and their movies, events. To this day, I'd rather think of them that way. I turned up every year from 1984 (Broadway Danny Rose, my older brother drove me because he said "it looks funny") through 1992 (Husbands and Wives, their last film together) even when I had to drag reluctant family or friends. The catatrosphic end of their relationship -- there's no other word for it -- drove Farrow away from Hollywood and thus tarnished her justified place in film history (I hate how often I've had to explain her career/celebrity/talent to people over the years) and permanently tarnished Woody's own reputation; no one who has ever been accused of child molestation, whether or not they are convicted (and Woody was never even charged), is ever presumed innocent again. [more...]

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Kate Winslet: In Desperate Need of a Career Resurgence

My name is Andy and Kate Winslet is my favorite actress.

From the moment  I saw her walk across the rain-drenched moors to see Willoughby's house in Sense and Sensibility, I was hooked. (I watched that movie nearly once a week in high school - a fact I mentioned to her years later when I met her.) After catching up with her mesmerizing film debut in Heavenly Creatures and seeing her follow-ups to Sense and Sensibility, 1996's Jude and Hamlet, there was no question in my mind; Kate Winslet was the greatest actress of her generation. I wasn't the only one that thought so. [More...]

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Podcast: Stranger by the Lake

On this week's brief podcast, Nathaniel, Nick, and Joe meet to discuss the erotic French thriller Stranger by the Lake currently in release after a successful multiple-festival run these past several months. But that's not all!

00:00 WGA & Jennifer Tilly
05:00 Frozen wins Annies, musical tangent
09:00 TCM's Oscar Doc
11:00 Actress '74: Burstyn & Rowlands 
14:00 Best acting shorlist this year?
16:00 Coming Soon: Liam Neeson in Non-Stop 
18:00 Stranger by the Lake 

You can listen to the podcast right here at the bottom of the post or download the conversation on iTunes and continue it in the comments! 

Stranger by the Guild Lake