Sing Out Jodi! "Part of Your World"

She wants to be part of your woooooooooooorrrld. 

The original Ariel, Jodi Benson, sings her signature tune at the opening of the The Little Mermaid ride which I think just opened in California ("Adventure Park")  but I can't keep track of their parks. It's coming to Florida's Magic Kingdom too.

How many times do you think people have asked her to sing that song for them since 1989: 1,989? 14,000? 890,000? Infinity?

I'm not sure when I came to be so obsessed with The Little Mermaid but sometime about 4 years ago I realized that though I always claim Sleeping Beauty and Beauty & The Beast as my favorite Disney movies (and Jungle Book as my childhood favorite), I mention Little Mermaid, like, a thousand times more often than any of those. What's wrong with me?

Obsessed.

The ride apparently has a surprise ending and Movie|Line made nine cheeky guesses (though #7, "flounder sandwiches", wouldn't surprise me at all, since Disney is totally cannibalistic with their 'children) but they forgot one.

I'll help them by providing it...

#10 the fattest white-haired passenger is impaled and electrocuted.

Review: "Beginners"

Have you ever found yourself wincing in premonitory fear that a gay character or theme will be mishandled by filmmakers or actors? Set those worries aside when approaching the expressive charming BEGINNERS. Though the story about a lonely bachelor artist Oliver (Ewan McGregor) and his newly-out dying father Hal (Christopher Plummer) is fictionalized, it has the stamp of the exquisitely personal about it. It's handmade, in other words, never to be mistaken for a movie made by committee. Writer/director Mike Mills' (Thumbsucker) own father came out of the closet when he was in his thirties and the film is an obviously loving tribute from son to father.

Gay characters in the movies are sometimes little more than caricatures and depictions still largely fall into "types". Older gay men have it especially rough in media representations; if they aren't altogether invisible they're desexualized or depicted as lonely and pitiable. Beginners won't have it like that. One could argue that it's practically heroic in its willful embrace of wholly human characters, no matter their age or sexual preference. Hal is played with lively curiousity by Christopher Plummer with that customary dark twinkle in his eye. It's actually brilliant casting since Ewan McGregor is such a kindred spirit when it comes to those mischievous undercurrents...

Read the Full Review @ Towleroad

Professor X

If the 1960s X-Men: First Class mythology confuses your sense of time and place and character (James McAvoy IS Patrick Stewart), check out this "Comics, Everybody" rundown explaining Professor X's loooong mutated history.

That's just one of many fun panels. It's amusing.

Team Experience: Queue Confessions

For this week's TFE contributors roundup, I thought I'd force a confession... but alas, I didn't manage to catch anything that embarrassed anyone, damnit! Except myself! My queue is stupid

WHAT'S NEXT ON YOUR DVD QUEUE?

Jose: The Red Shoes and the first four seasons of "Doc Martin" which I have to review for work.

JA: Simon Rumley's terrifically unsettling Red White and Blue which unsettled me, terrifically, last year and Undertow, that Peruvian movie which I think you interviewed the director. [Editor's Note: Yes, yes, I did.]

 Alexa (Curio): I'm really, really going to watch them when I'm not chasing my toddler or passing out: Gloria (John Cassavetes' film, not the one with Sharon Stone! This is a re-watch, I just like it) and Reform School Girls (the one with Wendy O Williams from 1986).

Robert (Distant Relatives): First up is The Circus, the only Chaplin silent comedy I haven't seen. It keeps coming back up and I keep bumping it back down because quite frankly, if I watch it then I'll never have the possibility of new Chaplin comedy in my life.  Then Soylent Green, part of the wife's ongoing attempt to school me in good sci-fi I've been too dismissive of.

Craig (Take Three): Lined up I have Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny And Girly (A wealthy clan kidnap bums and hippies and forces them to participate in an elaborate role-playing game in which they are the perfect family; those who refuse or attempt escape are ritualistically murdered) and pre-Ghostbusting Ivan Reitman's 1973 flick Cannibal Girls (A young couple spend the night in a restaurant, only to find out that it is haunted by three dead women who hunger for human flesh). So it's business as usual in my DVD player!

Michael (Unsung Heroes): First up is Let Me In. I'm caving on my anti-remake indignation and giving it a chance. After that is The Falcon and The Snowman. I've heard good things.

As for me, Nathaniel, I shall also confess. Next up for me is Dark Habits (Almodóvar) and uh... Ron Howard's The Dilemma.

WAIT. WHAT???

I think what happened was I starting this thing a few months ago where I started "saving" new releases thinking I would rent EVERYTHING that came out in 2011 and do some stupid little visual thing with it once they came out on DVD -- even if I didn't watch them -- and now I am realizing this means it is coming to my house, this Ron Howard movie with Kevin James.

NOOOooooOOOooooooo

What's up next in your DVD queues???
No cheating, people. CONFESS!

On Blogging, Stamina, Subscriptions and Rent.

I've been contemplating a hiatus in a week's time for creative recuperation but especially to catch up on some pressing life concerns, mostly involving dire finances. Blogging day in and day out is tough nonlucrative work -- not tough nonlucrative like slinging burgers I know (don't misunderstood) -- but taxing in a peculiar emotional/headspace/social way, as many forms of mostly solitary, intellectual and/or creative jobs are.

A few years back I held a fundraiser which went well (thanks to all of you!) and saved me from ridiculous overage charges which the site no longer incurs (I've since fused the site & blog and switched hosts -- a big win for everyone, I think, right?... NEVER go with Pro-Hosting people!)

But fundraisers aren't really sustainable financial models unless you do them very frequently --which is annoying -- and ad revenue isn't (currently) enough to pay bills on. Hope springs eternal, though. I was thinking the other day that if everyone reading daily, every other day or weekly treated The Film Experience to a cup of coffee every month we'd be very strung out on caffeine we would be earning a totally liveable wage! Of course not everyone will contribute to anything they're used to getting for free. And I don't really, at this point or any point in the near future, want to try to challenge the New York Times (teehee) to a Pay Model duel.

So if enough of you have it in your hearts (and bank accounts) to be the kind of people who would gift The Film Experience the price of a cup of coffee, tub of popcorn, movie ticket or even dinner, on a monthly basis -- it'd be greatly appreciated and make our existential dilemma about whether we should keep blogging for time and all eternity go away :)

I ♥ The Film Experience so...

I'll buy you a coffee : $2.50USD - monthly I'll get the popcorn : $5.00USD - monthly Movie tickets on me! : $10.00USD - monthly Dinner! My treat : $20.00USD - monthly

A solid stream of revenue for the site would also theoretically (if enough people pitched in) enable Nathaniel to go to (or send someone to) more of the big ticket festivals, make trips to LA during Oscar season, and make a video series we've been brainstorming possible. Everything costs either time or money but almost always both.

If you buy a "subscription" you'll get a discount on upcoming things we're working on to sell, too (mostly commemorative books). The point is Something's Gotta Give and Please Give (It's not Diane Keaton or Catherine Keener, so it's gotta be you.)

P.S. I realize it's bizarre to preface a request for patronage with "hiatus" talk, but if I get a slew of donations that would be loud motivation to keep it real real short-like (a week-like to tie up some loose ends) rather than something lengthier in which I would be searching for gainful employment.

P.P.S. If you don't want to do something regular-like, a one time donation would still help and it's my birthday next week anyway. Plug Plug. (There's donation buttons in the side bars or right here!)

P.P.P.S. Thanks to everyone who reads for this lovely community, whether or not you can give. (If you can't give you can always help sustain The Film Experience in other ways: Tweet or facebook or digg or otherwise share your favorite articles and spread the word. More traffic equals more opportunities for ad revenue.) It's great to wake up every morning and talk to other film fans... even the super quiet ones who never talk back ;)