The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)
Emma Thompson was nominated for Best Actress in 1993 for Remains of the Day in which she is very good but it really should have been for Much Ado About Nothing, in which she is utterly radiant, the classiest and most consummate romantic comedy lead the 90s could have ever dreamt up.
The following year, the Oscars made the same mistake nominating Winona Ryder for period drama Little Women instead of the post-collegiate comedy Reality Bites, which I'd argue is her single greatest screen performance if less iconic than her star turns in Beetlejuice or Heathers.
The moral of this story: Even when they're great, comedies have such a tough time being appreciated in their time. Soon you'll be able to add Frances Ha (2013) to that infinite list of under-rewarded laughers!
It’s Amir here, reporting on a couple of films I saw at the David Cronenberg exhibition currently held at TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto. As the biggest Canadian director working in cinema today, the master of body horror is held in high esteem in national circles. This comprehensive tribute to his body of work is a tremendous showcase for a filmmaker whose work has done a major service to the Canadian film industry over the past three decades.
Running alongside the exhibition that includes all things Cronenberg like film memorabilia, set props and a life-size mugwump, Long Live the Flesh also hosts screenings of the director’s films with lectures and Q&A sessions. I had the chance to attend two of these events: a screening of Naked Lunch introduced by David Cronenberg and his longtime producing partner Jeremy Thomas (Oscar winner for The Last Emperor) and my first big screen experience with his seminal science fiction film, The Fly, which was followed by a Q&A with the film’s Oscar-winning make-up artist Stephan Dupuis. Both conversations were illuminating though the films didn’t quite affect me in equal measure.
Naked Lunch, adapted from the William S. Burroughs novel of the same name, is one of the more personal projects in Cronenberg’s canon, born of his passion for the writer’s work. Cronenberg described the film as both a dream-come-true for allowing him the opportunity to adapt one of his personal favorite novels, but also one that made him extremely anxious as he felt the necessity to get the Burroughsian elements just right. Asked if adapting the supposedly unfilmable novel was a difficult task, Cronenberg referred to the project as one of the easiest screenplays he’s written for the way Burroughs’ prose and his dialogue transfers itself directly to the screen.
IndieWire wonders if VOD is the future of independent film The Atlantic Wire Joe Reid looks back on the career of Holly Hunter Twitter yes, it's true. Stevie Nicks, the white witch herself, to guest star on American Horror Story: Coven -- and yes, I'm aware I'm like forever behind in writing about that show which I'm loving. We'll try and catch up this week Film Comment looks back on its 50 year history Total Film Michael Fassbender believes that Prometheus 2 is still going to happen. I'd totally go. Loved his David8 The Playlist the first image from Dark Places starring Charlize Theron Express Jennifer Lawrence may have lost her Oscar. (Opportunity! Let's retcon that shit and give it to Riva) Towleroad lesbians reacting to the sex scenes in Blue is the Warmest Color
randomness Gizmodo Photos of malls of the '80s. The memories! Time Out interviews peerless stage star Mark Rylance
Today's Watch(es) The extremely brief/insubstantial teaser for HBO's Looking starring Jonathan Groff.
I'm terrified of this show as someone who was deeply embarassed by Queer as Folk which is basically it's only precedent, right? But the director of Weekend has to count for something so I'm also hopeful. In addition to Groff the cast includes other (lesser-known) lookers like Rául Castillo, Tanner Cohen (Were the World Mine), O.T. Fagbenie, Justin Chao, and in at least one episode that adorably worried werewolf from Being Human.
And here's a Young Hollywood panel featuring Michael B Jordan, Miles Teller, Dane DeHaan, Greta Gerwig and Brie Larson (aka the ones who'll be dominating our movies for years to come) at the AFI Fest talking about celebrity and social media...
Teller making fun of Jordan's selfies is priceless and Greta Gerwig's fan crush on Jessica Chastain? Adorbs.
Alexa here. While Thor hammered the box office into submission this past weekend, 25 years ago another brawny blonde was dominating the box office. They Live, John Carpenter's campy sci-fi film starring "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, featured a six-minute fight over sunglasses and Reagan-inspired class paranoia that still resonates today. Here are some curios celebrating the cult favorite.
Glenn here. Tell me I am not the only one who looked at this poster for Maleficent featuring Angelina Jolie clad entirely in deep, dark black and saw, rather, Michelle Pfeiffer. Every time I glance at the poster I see Pfeiffer, not Jolie. Is my mind playing tricks on me since, duh, I want Michelle Pfeiffer in everything? Or have they deliberately made Jolie look like her? Or am I just insane?
No matter who it stars, I'm excited to see Maleficent in cinemas in 2014. Are you? Nothing about Jolie's uber-diva pose on this poster is making me question the quality. If anything, it's giving the film a reputation within me that it can't possibly reach. In other words: I'm loving the poster. If nothing else at least Angie will look fabulous, and maybe Anne B. Sheppard will get a third Oscar nomination she (surprisingly?) didn't get for Inglourious Basterds. We're keeping an eye out!
Wednesday, November 13, 2013 at 9:00AM 
