Marvel Cinematic Universe - New tease and theatrical dates

by Nathaniel R

Marvel Studios released a big "back to the movies" video to celebrate the communal experience of movie-going. You get tiny slivers of their past "phases" and sneak peaks of all four films coming in 2021 except the Christmas-time Spider-Man (so we'll assume there isn't yet footage available). The most "exciting" of which for all it's 'what will this be like?' mystery is The Eternals directed by freshly double-Oscared Chloe Zhao from. We get some wide shots but no glimpses of the action except Angelina Jolie raising a sword. It will be good to have her back on the big screen where she belongs! The "tease" and release dates after the jump...

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John Waters @ 75: A Dirty Shame (2004)

Team Experience has been celebrating John Waters for his 75th birthday.

By Ben Miller

I like to think John Waters had enough of what people have been expecting from him.  Following a slightly more conventionally commercial run of films with Hairspray onward, Waters returned to his sex-addled farcical roots with 2004’s A Dirty Shame.  I love the idea of a fan of Cry-Baby showing up to this film expecting something along the same lines, only to be presented with something much closer to Desperate Living.

A Dirty Shame follows the residents of Hartford Road as either "neuters", a group of puritanical sex haters, or "perverts", a group of sex addicts with unique fetishes brought on by accidental concussions...

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Other women who should have won Best Director

by Cláudio Alves

At this year's Oscar ceremony, Chloé Zhao became only the second woman in Academy history to conquer the Best Director prize. The second one in 93 years. She follows in the steps of Kathryn Bigelow, whose Hurt Locker, like Nomadland, also won the Best Picture trophy. As a longtime proponent of the importance of women directors in film history, I rejoice at this result. However, the victory is bittersweet, a reminder of the chronic lack of recognition for these filmmakers. Many other women have deserved to win the Best Director Oscar across the years…

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Review: "Stowaway" on Netflix

by Matt St Clair

Shamier Anderson is the titular "Stowaway"

One common trope in space movies is daddy issues. Whether it involves trying to find one’s dad in space or a sad father dealing family issues, as this 2019 Vulture article points out, it's a constant in outer-space movies. That's been especially true of this last decade with First Man, Interstellar, Ad Astra, and Netflix’s very recent space venture The Midnight Sky. But a surprise development! The new space movie Stowaway, from writer/director Joe Penna, is the rare film to abandon that trend altogether. The central quartet have struggles but not one of them is a daddy issue. 

Commander Marina Barnett (Toni Collette), botanist David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim), and medical researcher Zoe Levensen (Anna Kendrick) barely touch on their respective home lives as they make their way to Mars for a two-year space mission...

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Olympia Dukakis (1931-2021)

by Nathaniel R

Olympia Dukakis as "Anna Madrigal", one of three iconic roles

Olympia Dukakis, the much-loved Oscar winning actress of stage and screen, has died just a month shy of her 90th birthday. The Los Angeles Times has a lovely article which goes in depth into her early career and backstory. On her devotion to theater, which often pulled her away from mainstream success, she's quoted as saying:  

I did not become an actor in order to become famous or rich. I became an actor so I could play the great parts.

I regret that I never had the opportunity to see her on stage. Like the rest of the world, I fell in love with her first via "Rose Castorini" in Moonstruck (1987), a role she initially and surprisingly didn't think too highly of. Nevertheless she aced it, becoming one of the most beloved and famous screen moms of that era -- a screen mom to Cher no less!

But I'm not here to talk about Moonstruck. Have you ever had a actor that reminded you specifically of one exact person in your life? I don't mean an actor who looked like a loved one in some small way, but a star who always brought a real loved one immediately to mind...

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