Consider Oscar Isaac in "The Card Counter"

by Lynn Lee

Is it too early to start an “Oscar for Oscar” FYC campaign?  Because there needs to be one for Oscar Isaac in The Card Counter, stat.

Sadly, it’s not at all a given that he’ll get much traction.  Initial reception of The Card Counter among critics has been positive but rather muted, and the film hasn’t made much of a mark with general audiences.  It probably doesn’t help that the trailer gives the misleading impression of a snappy, heisty movie about a poker player with a shady past when in reality it’s a slow-burn Paul Schrader Dark Odyssey into the Mind of a Morally Tormented Man.  Schrader fans, at least, will get what they’re expecting; Isaac fans will get that and so much more...

Click to read more ...

Chastain wins San Sebastian (+ Best Actress Chart Updates)

by Nathaniel R

Women won every award at San Sebastian this year.

Congratulations are in order to Jessica Chastain who took Best Actress at the San Sebastian Film Festival for her sensational star turn in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. We've updated the Best Actress chart. At this very early stage it's looking like a Stewart vs Chastain vs Gaga battle royale. Yes yes the internet always likes to crown the winner before there's even a battle (with everyone deciding Kristen Stewart is winning) but here at The Film Experience we prefer the contest for the nominations -- it's more egalitarian and one should always celebrate multiple actresses as there has never been a year with only one worthy contender. And, listen, when you earn substantial Oscar buzz you're already a winner baby.

Nevertheless "wins" do exist so let's look at the other San Sebastian winners and which actresses have won all the major festivals thus far after the jump... 

Click to read more ...

NYFF: Sisters are doing it for themselves in Paul Verhoeven's blaspheme-licious "Benedetta"

by Jason Adams

Never let it be said that writer, director, and everlasting gob-dropping provocateur Paul Verhoeven doesn't know how to entertain. In what other director's hands would a dramatic film about a 17th century Tuscan nun having visions and tackling both the patriarchy and the plague involve a Virgin Mary statue whittled down for her pleasure? (Okay definitely Almodovar too). But Benedetta, Verhoeven's latest outrageous act of delicious cinematic provocation, is nevertheless All Paul, from the hem of its habit to the tip of its nips. And that's just the poster! Just wait until you peel that part down and see what sexy bits are bouncing about underneath...

Click to read more ...

NYFF: "Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn"

by Jason Adams

Emi (Katia Pascariu) is having what you might call a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. A respected and talented history teacher at an elite Romanian private school, she's just been notified that an amateur porn video she made with her husband has been seen by her entire classroom of students, their parents, her co-workers and principal -- basically everybody, sitting as it does spread-eagled there on the world wide web for all to take a good long look at. After making some phone calls and visits to involved parties she's forced to sit down in front of an angry mob of parents and teachers and defend herself in order to keep her job. And this is what you would call the "plot" of Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Romanian provocateur Radu Jude's latest film which won the Golden Bear in Berlin earlier this year and is screening at NYFF this week...

Click to read more ...

Albania, Ireland, Kyrgyzstan, Slovenia, and Ukraine choose their Oscar submissions

by Nathaniel R

We have five more Oscar submissions for the Best International Feature Oscar to share, all from countries that have never been nominated. With 13 official contenders we're probably around 15% there -- we don't even have enough "official" contenders for a full finalist list (of 15) yet...

ALBANIA is going with Jonid Jorgji's road trip comedy Three Lions Heading to Venice about filmmakers headed to the festival who meet adult movie actresses on the way, derailing their plans...

Click to read more ...