Personalize Your Guest Room DVD Collection

Hi kids. It's Nathaniel typing at you from a surprisingly cool Chicago, a welcome break from the stifling NYC heat. I'm visiting Nick for a few days and arrived to find the guest room (which doubles as the DVD Containment Room) super-personalized for my stay. Nick has arranged his movies in chronological order which instantaneously revealed to me why I've always been disappointment by my own DVD shelves which are alphabetical. The alphabet is about as exciting as the Dewey Decimal system. Chronology is king. 

Nick already tweeted one photo of his shelves for giggles but I thought I'd share my two favorite library notes with you. Our favorite shared movie genre, as previously noted here on the blog, is Women Who Lie To Themselves™. That note was strategically placed right under a certain Oscar-nominated 1996 picture which is a very literal interpretation of the genre. Guess which movie!

This genre is immortal and always revisited by the best filmmakers and actresses so I especially love the apotheotic "Women Who Lie to Themselves SILENTLY at the OPERA™", don't you?

Two more shelves after the jump...

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Man of Steel Post-Script

Release dates are no Kryptonite for me. I can't be bound or weakened by them! I rejoined Panel Culture, a weekly comic book podcast, as their special guest for a discussion of Zach Snyder's Man of Steel five weeks into its successful run. Why did they wait this long to discuss it? They'll tell you.

Listen in and join the conversation about...

• Whether this Superman is successful as icon, hero and performance
• If this Lois Lane dynamic (or lack thereof) works
• How Michael Shannon's General Zod measures up to Terence Stamp's
• That surprising first half hour on Planet Krypton with Russell Crowe
• Tornados, mass destruction, and whether or not to save a life or keep on fighting
• What the sequel should fix or keep or jettison

  iTunes | Podbean | ...or Listen Right Here

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Teen Wolf Eye Gougings (& Shark Jumpings?)

Teen Baby WolfIf my eyes were to glow like a werewolves on Teen Wolf I'd want them to be purple or green -- my signature colors. But, since werewolf eyes seem to be mood driven, right now they'd be ice blue. After the TV highs of last week when we got Orange is the New Black (so good!) on Netflix, a decent Emmy nomination list with a little something for everyone and fun to play with, Sunday and Monday were brutal: True Blood began to truly suck again despite the vague sense that it was limping back towards former mojo after the debacle of Season 5 (please stake this show!), Bunheads was cancelled just as it was really hitting its stride (those last few episodes were giant leaps forward for a show that was clearly only just starting to hit its stride) and Teen Wolf...? well my guilty pleasure that I've kept telling people not to feel guilty about, delivered its single worst episode. And made me feel guilty for watching it. 

I was so bored and annoyed I felt like the eye-gouging scene was basically projection. And what's with the sparkler effect on punctured lupine eyes? Last week I joked that Teen Wolf goes everyone but to high school these days but this episode was a disaster, accomplishing  a truly bizarre thing no TV series should want to accomplish: it had an entire episode devoted to backstory exposition starring actors who are tertiary characters or playing younger versions of the characters in which NONE of the show's central players got more than a few minutes of air time. No Lydia and very little Allison, Scott, Derek or Stiles? No thanks! 

Do you agree that flashback / backstory episodes are The Worst? To me it nearly always signals creative trouble. Even shows as consistently excellent as my two all time favorites (Mad Men and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) tend to trip up when they leave their main actors behind or put them in bad wigs to tell us some story from days of yore.

Cinema Swimwear: Planet of the Apes

This summer The Film Experience is launching its own swimwear line!

◀ Back to Results | You are in: Swimwear

Click for larger viewThe Heston Tattered Trunk
★★★★ - 15 Reviews

Product Details
Designer Morton Haack did some hacking of his own to create this “doomsday chic” ensemble. Whether you’re overthrowing your ape overlords or discovering the relics of shattered humanity, this one-piece is sure to help you stand out from the mute hordes of your once noble species.

The tattered trunk will win you so much attention you may find yourself screaming "take your stinkin' paws off me you damn dirty ape!"

Color
Rotted Brown Canvas. Optional accessories include metal shackles, machine gun, or a stunning over-the-shoulder cape.

Size
One Size Fits All. Also comes in a fitted woman’s model

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TIFF13 Lineup Announced

Amir here, with a sore throat after a few hours of screaming in excitement. Like Oscar nomination morning, 'TIFF lineup announcement day' (what a mouthful)  is marked on my calendar in prominent colours every year. It's a day that brings a combination of excitement, endless 'what-to-watch?'  dilemmas, and the dread of having to plan a 40 film a week schedule while still attending to unwanted obstacles like eating and sleeping and day jobs. If you followed this morning's press conference by the festival's directors, you know that only about a quarter of the films that will eventually grace the screens were named and the actual schedule isn't even out yet, but such is the nature of festival going. It gets you going long before the curtains are raised.

TIFF's opening night film: Bill Condon's The Fifth Estate

Naturally, for a festival that screens nearly 300 films every year, the list is an eclectic mix of hotly anticipated Oscar players, critically acclaimed titles from other festivals earlier in the year and auteur titles that have slipped under the radar so far. It is among this latter bunch, for instance, where my most anticipated film of the year, Sylvain Chomet's live action debut Attila Marcel, showed up in the announcement this morning, greeted by a shriek that had my poor co-workers jumping in their seats.

One mild surprise came in the words "World Premiere" that preceded the not-so surprising inclusion of 12 Years a Slave. [more...] 

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