Readers' Ranking Meryl Streep ~ All Next Week!

Hello? Hello? Is anyone out there?

Well, yup. A lot of fans picked up our call to rank the sixteen Meryl Streep Oscar nominations thus far with number seventeen just around the corner. It was the best response ever outside of our typical prediction contests. We'll begin to reveal the breakdown after Golden Globe Madness (live blogging tonight... even though I'm sick. be here!) but I thought I'd share a little teaser.

UNDERSEEN
While The Film Experience readership who chooses to participate in polls is a self-selecting sample, according to our very scientific research (we asked you rank everything you'd seen) these are the golden ones that the least of you have laid eyes upon...

01. IRONWEED (1987) missing from 40% of ballots
02 (tie) THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (1981) and MUSIC OF THE HEART (1999) were both missing from 30% of ballots
03. A CRY IN THE DARK (1988) missing from 28% of ballots
04. ONE TRUE THING (1998) missing from 25% of ballots

All the other films showed up on more than 75% of the ballots though The Deer Hunter and Silkwood didn't have nearly the viewership numbers I'd expected given the reputation of the films.

WIDELY ABSORBED
It's perhaps no surprise that one of Streep's all time biggest hits -- and a recent movie -- is the most seen. The Devil Wears Prada was only missing from 2% of the ballots.

TABULATING THE RESULTS...
I weighted the polls to favor those readers who had seen everything. This way underseen work, like, Ironweed as it turns out, wouldn't necessarily lose out to performances that everyone saw but nobody screamed "BEST!" about.  The more you'd seen the more your vote was worth, though everyone's votes counted.

NO ONE'S FAVORITE / NO ONE'S LEAST FAVORITE
Though some performances lived up to their reputation as hugely divisive (hi Sister Aloysius Beauvoir in Doubt!) there were three performances that managed no first place finishes and two that managed to avoid last place on any one ballot. 

No one's BEST: Ironweed (1987), Music of the Heart (1999) and Julie & Julia (2009)
In other words, once every 10 years Meryl does something that a lot of people like but no one absolutely cherishes above everything else she's ever done. Literally every other performance was someone's favorite #1.
No one's WORST: Sophie's Choice (1982) and Silkwood (1983). Literally every other performance was someone's least favorite among her nominated turns.

STAY TUNED... care to make any predictions?

Red Carpet Convos: Critics Choice Easter Eggs

Awards season is truly upon us. The red carpets are unfurled and waiting for the glitterati to trample them. Tomorrow night is the Golden Globes (we'll be here live-blogging it old' style if you'd like to join us!) but for now one last look back at the Critics Choice Awards held Thursday night. For this edition of Red Carpet Convos I've invited Joanna Robinson from Pajiba to join me. Joanna is a longtime reader of The Film Experience (she even won a contest once years ago!) and a delightful person, too. 

Nathaniel: Hey Joanna. Welcome. Let's start with the pastel field and uh... HAPPY EASTER!?!

Olsen, Pyle, Woodley, Miller, and Kruger

Joanna:  ‪As faberge as Elizabeth Olsen looks, I think she looks better than her "fashion plate" sisters have looked in years‬.

Nathaniel: ‪Give her time. If the Olsens practice hand-me-down fashions she's in trouble.‬ 

Joanna:  ‪I see burlap sacks in your future, girl!‬ Also, whoever designed Diane Kruger's dress hates both women and their anatomy.

This is Joanna! Go read her stuff.Nathaniel:  ‪Speaking of women and their anatomy. We've gone so "exotic" for this red carpet convo. I'm speaking to a biological woman.‬ 

Joanna:  ‪I have anatomy!‬ 

Nathaniel: What IS going on with that dress though. It's like her breasts are being caged in.

Joanna:  ‪And around her, um, lady garden?  Are those horns?  I am baffled.‬ 

Nathaniel:  ‪I was thinking it was a rare moment of restraint. The designer wanted to ‬‪trap her vagina in as tight as her breasts but decided to go "subtle"‬ 

Joanna:  ‪Speaking of subtlety, I actually think Missi Pyle looks lovely.  Really sweet.‬

Nathaniel: Agreed. Though sweet, lovely, and subtle aren't the adjectives I normally think of with Missi for which I entirely blame her for being so convincing and hilarious as a crude perpetually drunk and horny partier in Spring Breakdown. Tell me you've seen it!

Joanna:  ‪I haven't!  But her larger than life performances in Dodgeball and Big Fish are enough to make me a Pyle fan.  And her Lina Lamont impression in The Artist was perfection.‬ 

Nathaniel: Yes. I almost wanted there to be sound just so she could say "I CAINNNNNNtSTANNIT."‬

Funereal Black, Dashing Men, and "Team Help" after the jump...

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20:11 Bad Trollhunter's First Class on Getting By

I'm a bit under the weather today but Golden Globe Prediction and Red Carpet Convo coming up later today and the Film Bitch Awards will continue Monday in full force (after Globe hoopla). Until then enjoy this bit of Year in Review Fun! 

Herewith the 20th minute and 11th second of the movies of 2011 in chronological order of US release date. It's like flipping channels for snapshots of the film year! For those who like a challenge, I've written the film titles in invisible ink (you can highlight to see them) below the screencap. How many have you seen? Do these images make you want to stop surfing and watch a little?

Jan | Feb | March | April| May

Part 6: June

I've always wanted to have a phone call with someone who doesn't talk.
[BEEP]
Wanna do something?
[BEEP]
Now?
[BEEP]

BEGINNERS ...gah. I love like every scene in this movie, don't you? top ten list! and director interview.

[V.O. from TV] ...beyond the student's identity. Students from his dorm only say that he was quiet and kept to himself. We go now to...."

BEAUTIFUL BOY (a.k.a. We Need To Talk About Sammy)

You're thinking of running, hiding. We'd find you Henry. There's not a fortress in the world that could keep us out."

HER LIPS AREN'T MOVING! AND YET SHE'S SPEAKING!! HOW CAN THIS BE?!? Silly, it's just telepath Emma Frost from X-MEN FIRST CLASS... She's inside your mind! [Reviewed]

More memorable 2011 moments and even a gif after the jump...

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Globe Winner Predictions. A Nail Biting Night?

I normally look forward to Golden Globe night with the feverish pitch I otherwise save for Oscar Nomination Morning and Oscar Night itself. They're the holy trinity of awards season Father (Oscar Noms), Son (Oscar Night) and uh... Holy Ghost (The Globes). Well, there are spirits involved. I expect that the drunkest table will belong to The Help or Bridesmaids. Here's to inebriated ladies!

And here are my predictions. I'm just going for it and predicting a return to... January 2003. Wait, what? Read on!

MOVIES

BEST PICTURE, DRAMA

• The Descendants
• The Help
• Hugo
• The Ides of March
• Moneyball
• War Horse 

With most of the attention swinging towards The Artist, Best Picture Drama feels like a free for all this year. Three films (The Descendants, Hugo and The Help) look like feasible winners since they've retained heat after the nominations. Common wisdom points to the inexplicable near-universal love for The Descendants but for whatever reason I'm imagining a repeat of the 2002/2003 Globes season wherein the throbbing heart of a female epic (The Hours) beat out an expensive Scorsese film and the Alexander Payne film about the widower dealing with his angry daughter whilst having spiritual awakenings. (Gangs of New York and About Schmidt)
Prediction: The Help
Spoiler: The Descendants 

BEST PICTURE, COMEDY or MUSICAL

• 50/50
• The Artist
• Bridesmaids
• Midnight in Paris
• My Week With Marilyn

This one seems all sewn up for The Artist but I think it's worth noting that the Comedy or Musical category tends to be where the Golden Globes house their biggest surprises on average. That said a defeat for the Artist would be the kind of shocker that only happens once a decade. 
Prediction: The Artist
Spoiler: Bridesmaids (imagine the uproar!) 

BEST DIRECTOR 

• Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
• George Clooney, The Ides of March
• Michel Hazanavicus, The Artist
• Alexander Payne, The Descendants
• Martin Scorsese, Hugo

Hazanavicius may or may not be the frontrunner for the Oscar. It's tough to say with lesser known directors when they're battling cinematic giants who win awards based on their whole filmography rather than the specific film they're up for. But I'm guessing that the presence of Woody Allen pulls enough votes from Martin Scorsese to keep Hazanavicius in the lead.
Prediction: Hazanavicius
Spoiler: Scorsese

PREDICTIONS IN ALL CATEGORIES after the jump...

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Home Alink

Self Styled Siren on Margaret. She has no affinity for mess.
24 Frames talks to Anna Paquin about the resurrected movie.
Roger Ebert's Journal on the Oscar lalapalooza. Very strange piece. What's going on here? Ebert seems suddenly willfully ignorant of various Oscar rules claiming, among other things, that The Artist would be ineligible for Oscars if it were in French. Uh, not so, Ebert, not so.
Towleroad new photos from Magic Mike, Soderbergh's stripper movie.

IndieWire ten shooting stars of European film, Elena Anaya (The Skin I Live in) and Alexander's little brother Bill Skarsgård.
Boy Culture Joan Crawford is not one of Rick's (Santorum) Fans! I love it. 
Deja View pencil tests and the challenge of designing Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.
Stale Popcorn on rejected movie posters. I'd never seen some of these. Love a rejected poster from Bugsy that prominently features Annette Bening. 

We Need To Talk About Kevin McAllister...

The crazy thing is that if they wanted to go blonde for Kevin, couldn't Macaulay have worked?