Oscar Volley It's Back
Oscar Charts Updated!
Friday, January 10, 2014 at 7:02AM Jessica Chastain as Princess Merida
Annie Leibovitz took this photo of me as Merida from the film "Brave." Out of all the Disney characters, she's probably my favorite, as she takes her destiny in her own hands. That's a modern princess.
Her favorite huh? If not a favorite of convenience perhaps it's a matter of redhead kinship?
Sorry, Ariel!
Thursday, January 9, 2014 at 10:29PM 
Jose here, with yet another batch of guild nominees. This time members of the Art Directors Guild have determined nominees in three categories (which are just as nonsensical as those of the Costume Designers Guild...how is Her contemporary and Gravity a fantasy?). It's mostly more of the same, except for one or two rather interesting choices here and there, and truly it seems as if Oscar mostly cares about the "old look" which is why the Period nominees might pretty much translate into our final five nominees. Right?
The nominees were the following:
Thursday, January 9, 2014 at 8:00PM 
Tim here. As Team Experience’s representative lover of The Act of Killing above all other movies in 2013 (if “love” is the right word for such an bleak portrait of humanity’s worst side), it naturally falls to me to trumpet the Good News that one of the year’s best-reviewed films that you probably haven’t had a chance to see yet is now on DVD and Blu-Ray. At just the right moment, too, in advance of the Oscar nomination that I’m honestly not expecting it to receive; the Documentary branch hasn’t been in the business of making me that happy, and it’s not fair to expect otherwise.
It’s not the kind of film that readily lends itself to breathless statements of the “you HAVE to see this!” sort. For it is, after all, a documentary about mass political killings, one of the unlikeliest subjects in the world to produce a frolicsome entertainment that everyone will enjoy. That being said, you probably do have to see this. It is unlike any other cinematic analysis of its subject that I’ve ever heard of, let alone seen, with the filmmakers (those being director Joshua Oppenheimer, co-director Christine Cynn, and another co-director remaining anonymous for reasons of personal safety) going straight to the men who headed the anti-Communist death squads in 1965 and ’66 (regarded as heroes in Indonesia), and offering them a chance to make their own cinematic interpretations of their past deeds.
Thursday, January 9, 2014 at 4:40PM 
...remember what you told me about Scarlett Johansson the other day? Well, she just showed you how it's done. You're obviously smart, efficient and can find me cheap Chinese food when I'm too lazy to type at 3AM, but even you should acknowledge how stunning this woman is. I am head over heels about her Max Mara coat, her Michael Kors dress and her Jimmy Choos, but it's the 40's leading lady hairdo that's making me want to drop everything and go see Her and Don Jon again right this very second. Heck, I'd even listen to the whole of Anywhere I Lay My Head just because...
Sigh. Please don't go all HAL 9000 on me after this.
Now, as you were...
Love,
Thursday, January 9, 2014 at 2:00PM [I am proud to announce that Matthew Eng, who we've heard from twice as a guest columnist, is now an official member of Team Experience. Here he is on a soon-to-be three-time Oscar nominee! -Editor]
By now, Jennifer Lawrence is well on her way to scoring another Oscar nomination for her supporting performance as the unstable, self-dramatizing Reel Housewife of Long Island Rosalyn Rosenfeld in David O. Russell's American Hustle. Despite initially wary expectations regarding role size, divisive reactions towards both film and performance, and a slowly-surging sense of fatigue regarding America's Sarcastic Sweetheart, Lawrence has already been embraced by two major critics groups (NYFCC and NSFC), was the only actor in her prized ensemble to gain individual recognition from SAG, and, depending on how AMPAS feels about Oprah, June Squibb, and Lupita Nyong'o, might very well be on her way to copping yet another golden boy.
I like Lawrence a great deal, have absolutely no qualms about the Silver Linings victory, and think she's often quite good in Hustle. I laughed heartily watching her blame game her way out of that “science oven” debacle and friskily shove her “sweet and sour” nails in Jeremy Renner’s face. She's lovely in that warm, teary-eyed bayside confessional during her lunch date with Jack Huston. And I contemplated dropping out of college and devoting the rest of my life (or, you know, at least a semester or two) to watching her stick it to Amy Adams in that ferocious bathroom kiss-off/actress throwdown.
And yet, if there is any one viewer who can honestly say that they believed - even for a second - that Jennifer Lawrence was ever really that woman, unhappily married for years to that man, counting the days in that house, and nearly burning down that kitchen, can he/she please stand up? [more...]