Year in Review: 2021 Entertainers of the Year

by Team Experience

Olivia Colman photographed by Amelia Troubridge from The Guardian

In our final "Team Experience Year in Review" post before the 10th annual Team Experience Awards and Nathaniel's own Film Bitch Awards (both in January), we wanted to pay tribute to the stars who worked overtime to keep us smiling, crying, laughing, and altogether wide-eyed in 2021. We asked contributors to cite ten choices as "Entertainer of the Year". The catch was the celebrity in question had to have had more than one project during the year. Quantity and Quality.

Names that didn't quite make the list but are nevertheless worthy of our sincere gratitude include actors Olivia Colman (Landscapers, Mitchells vs the Machines, The Lost Daughter, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain), Bradley Cooper (Nightmare Alley, Licorice Pizza), Vicky Krieps (Old, Next Door, Bergman Island), and auteurs Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy), and Ridley Scott (House of Gucci, The Last Duel). Technically speaking both Jamie Dornan and Oscar Isaac  made the following list but since we already sufficiently highlighted them yesterday in "Thirst Traps of the Year" we've ceded their spots to others. Spread the wealth is always our motto...

"ENTERTAINERS OF THE YEAR"
(a dozen wonders in no particular order) 

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Betty White (1922-2021)

by Nathaniel R

One of the most beloved actors, no... make that one of the most beloved people, period, has died. We must unfortunately say goodbye to the Emmy-winning legend Betty White. The longest lived of The Golden Girls was just three weeks shy of her Centennial when she passed away. 

Betty White was more than just The Golden Girls though that sitcom rightfully leads any discussion of her career. That's what happens when you spend eight years of your life perfecting the same character, the dim but utterly loveable/hilarious Rose Nylund, and the show housing her morphs from risky bet (a sitcom about sexually active lively old ladies in youth-obsessed prudish America?) to surprise smash (the Golden Girls spent six of its seven seasons among the 10 most-watched programs on air) to immortal favourite within your life time. People talk about The Golden Girls so often nearly 30 years after it went off the air that it truly feels as if it never did. It did. But, in a very real way Betty White did not... 

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Oscar charts: The more interesting than we were expecting it to be "Best Director" race

by Nathaniel R

The annual competition for Best Director at the Oscars is in a very interesting era. The Academy has become increasingly international so, in theory, we can expect more international figures to pop up in this category rather than just the superstar auteurs. Though it's long had the same racial problems as the acting categories it's always had those in a much less visible way... until recently. And it wasn't all that long ago that people (or, more specifically, the media) didn't grouse about no women being up for the prize. The movement for equity behind the camera only went truly mainstream in the past decade. Female directors have always been around, of course, if not in the same numbers they are today it's a topic Juan Carlos is currently investigating as he moves backwards in time through the Oscar years in his series "Through Her Lens" (new episode drops tomorrow).

For the first time in history we could be looking at a second consecutive win by a female auteur since Jane Campion is currently the favourite for The Power of the Dog. But who else will join her in the lineup? 

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50th Anniversary: James Bond 007 in "Diamonds are Forever"

by Deborah Lipp

If you have clicked on this 50th anniversary commemoration of the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever, you are probably eager for a takedown. Diamonds Are Forever (1971) is a movie fans love to hate. But get your tomatoes ready to pelt me at me instead because I will be doing no such thing. I love this movie and I’m fully prepared to defend it...

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Year in Review Beauty Break: Thirst Traps of 2021

by Team Experience

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder... as is thirst. When we polled Team Experience for the hottest actors of 2021, the voting was all over the place and thus fairly close. So we ended up with a dozen people (after the jump) that had at least two ardent fans among our team members in the preferential ballots.  Because the voting was so close they're presented in random rather than ranked order.

Other hotties that earned our lust, admiration, and aesthetic wonder included: Penelope Cruz in Parallel Mothers, Ruth Negga in Passing, Lady Gaga in House of Gucci, Idris Elba in Concrete Cowboy, Benedict Cumberbatch in Power of the Dog, and Rebecca Ferguson in Dune. And because thirst is not always singular, great pairings like Taylour Paige and Riley Keough (Zola), Melissa Barrera and Anthony Ramos (In the Heights), and Daniel Craig and Ana De Armas (No Time To Die) also showed up in the ballots. Speaking of the latter, why wasn't she the main Bond girl of the movie?!? WOW!

Okay, on to the gallery...

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