Oscar History
Film Bitch History
Welcome

The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)

Follow TFE on Substackd

Powered by Squarespace
Keep TFE Strong

We're looking for 500... no 390 SubscribersIf you read us daily, please be one.  

I ♥ The Film Experience

THANKS IN ADVANCE

What'cha Looking For?
Subscribe

Entries in Reviews (1249)

Sunday
Dec132020

The 2020 Christmas Movie Catalogue

by Tony Ruggio

It wasn’t so long ago that Christmas movies were dead and buried, outside of Hallmark’s copious output anyway. They were no longer of much interest to major Hollywood studios and inherently verboten for indie distributors. Thanks to Netflix, Hulu, and the streaming wars, the genre is back and more prolific than ever. And in a year like 2020, we might need them more than ever...

Click to read more ...

Sunday
Dec132020

Review: Israel’s Oscar Submission "Asia"

By Abe Friedtanzer

It's been quite the year for Shira Haas. Known previously to American audiences for her work in Shtisel on Netflix and the Jessica Chastain film The Zookeeper's Wife, she arrived in a big way in 2020 as the star of Unorthodox, which premiered on Netflix in March. Just a few weeks later, she was named Best International Actress at the Tribeca Film Festival, where her film Asia was slated to have its world premiere. After popping up at a number of festivals over the past few months and winning nine of its twelve Ophir (Israel’s Oscar) nominations, Asia is now opening the Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles, which begins today…

In her past few roles, Haas, who turned twenty-five in May, has been playing younger than her age. Esty in Unorthodox was nineteen, and in Esau, which debuted on digital and VOD a few weeks ago, she portrays a particularly young teenage love interest...

Click to read more ...

Saturday
Dec122020

Review: "Let Them All Talk"

by Christopher James

Imagine a cruise ship movie starring Meryl Streep, Candice Bergen, Dianne Wiest and Lucas Hedges. With five Oscars, 26 Oscar nominations and 10 Emmy wins between them, Let Them All Talk was poised for greatness just on its logline alone. The new HBO Max film may sound like the perfect fluff while at home, but that would ignore the film’s not-so-secret ingredient. With director Steven Soderbergh at the helm, he steers the film away from madcap and into more contemplative, but far less calm, waters. Let Them All Talk may move more glacially than expected. Yet, what we’re left with is a thornier and more interesting look at a decades long friendship filled with fractures.

A renowned author, Alice (Meryl Streep) learns that she is receiving a prestigious award in England (“it’s not even given out every year,” she reminds everyone she encounters). Ever the diva, Alice wants to travel by style and not by plane...

Click to read more ...

Monday
Dec072020

Review: Aubrey Plaza in "Black Bear"

by Matt St Clair

Though her trademark had been deadpan comedy, Aubrey Plaza has shown a recent knack for giving bold dramatic performances as obsessive women. Three years ago, in Ingrid Goes West, she immersed herself into the role of Ingrid Thorburn who was not unlike a female Travis Bickle on Instagram. In Black Bear, Plaza is on a career-best level as Allison, an actress-turned-filmmaker with possibly ulterior motives as she stays with an unsuspecting couple in an isolated cabin...

Click to read more ...

Friday
Dec042020

Streaming: Riz Ahmed's star ascends in "Sound of Metal"

by Christopher James

Since he broke out in Nightcrawler, Riz Ahmed has been looking for his movie star moment. Sound of Metal proves he is the real deal. Director Daris Marder displays quite a bit of flair in his directorial outing. The Place Beyond the Pines screenwriter excels here specifically because of his unique use of sound design to give us greater insight to our lead character. Between Ahmed and the sound design, Sound of Metal is of major interest...

Click to read more ...