Best International Feature: Chile, Mexico, South Korea

by Cláudio Alves

Nathaniel has recently shared the Best International Feature Contenders List and given us an overview of the stars and directors and stats. Like last year, I'll be reviewing as many of the contenders as I can get my hands on, beyond the reviews already shared here at The Film Experience for the submissions from Czech Republic, Georgia, Guatemala, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Palestine, Romania, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Venezuela. The number of contenders is at an all-time high!

To start our voyage around the world, let's take a look at the submitted films from the last three champions of the category: Chile (2017, A Fantastic Woman), Mexico (2018, Roma), and South Korea (2019, Parasite)… 

Click to read more ...

Gay Best Friend: Robert in "The Next Best Thing"

A series by Christopher James investigating the 'Gay Best Friend' trope

Both Madonna and Rupert Everett made some key mistakes in "The Next Best Thing."Gay men love their one named divas, and with good reason. Madonna is in the upper echelon of gay icons. Her outspoken nature, incredible discography, ever-evolving persona and culture-defining fashion have given her a remarkably enduring legacy that should be lauded. Still, every gay icon has a few flops in their closet. 

The Next Best Thing has been virtually wiped from the world. Unavailable from all streaming platforms (including transactional video on demand services), in order to gaze upon this Sodom and Gomorrah of filmmaking I had to order a used DVD from an Amazon seller. The Next Best Thing both did and did not disappoint. It's an epically misguided trainwreck not just in scope (the film takes place over a 7 year period) but in the colossal ways it fails its characters, stars, director and the media of filmmaking itself. Adding insult to injury, it also is an early digital film, making it look like part home movie and part snuff film. Move over The Room, The Next Best Thing is a midnight trash-terpiece...

Click to read more ...

What did you see this weekend?

While time has lost much of its meaning during the work-from-home lockdown, it's still a holiday weekend which theoretically will give more of us an opportunity to catch up on screenings. For the Martin Luther King Jr Day holiday weekend, Amazon Prime released One Night in Miami and, it's worth noting as perfect holiday viewing, that the Oscar hopeful documentary MLK/FBI is also available to rent online. Here's what was popular in movie theaters, such as they are right now...

Click to read more ...

Showbiz History: Frances McDormand's Film Debut

7 random things that happened on this day, January 18th, in showbiz history

1942 Dates on this one tend to vary but some sources say the Mickey Rooney/ Judy Garland film Babes on Broadway arrived in movie theaters on this day. A year later it would be up for Best Original Song at the Oscars for "How About You?" but lose to "White Christmas" in the film Holiday Inn... 

Click to read more ...

One Night in Miami: Telling a story through suits

by Cláudio Alves

Limitations aren't always the enemy of style or art. Tight parameters can be the fertile ground from which creativity grows and thrives. In the world of costume design, the dynamic between restraint and imagination is especially obvious when one needs to dress men in formal attire. Since the early 19th century, western men's fashion has solidified around a masculine uniform with little in the ways of variation – the suit. To find ways to make that fashion standard into a storytelling tool, one must excel at finding the little details that make all the difference. Recently, Regina King's One Night in Miami is a good example of this brand of costuming excellence…

Click to read more ...