Links

Complex imagining TV prequels to movies. Hilarious. The description of "Kramer Loves Kramer" is priceless.
New Republic "I don't f***ing care if you like it." an excellent piece on gender politics in the now with framing guest appearance by Amy Poehler
In Contention David Fincher's Gone Girl will open NYFF this year. Yay!
AV Club "I Killed At the Movies" interesting article from Ignatiy Vishnevetsky on film criticism for the camera

 

The Dissolve an excellent review of Sex Tape which I have no plans to see and therefore can read interesting reviews freely
Daily Mail Sullivan Stapleton gets an Animal Kingdom tattoo
Variety Ben Whishaw will be the new voice of Paddington
Cinematically Insane on possible corporate mergers and what that might mean for classic film fans. Uh oh.
Pajiba Ewan McGregor rumored for True Detective Season 2? (at this rate with the male cast the female role is going to be supporting)
VF Hollywood Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston seen dining together. This changes everything!
The Wire dissects the VMA nominations. I didn't realize they'd happen but there's lots of Beyoncé of course
Kenneth in the (212) Desperately Seeking Susan finally coming out on Blu-Ray 

And look at this beautiful poster of The One I Love. I am the one that loves it. I loves it much. I hear the movie is really good too but I haven't yet seen it.

True Blood 7.4: "Death is Not the End"

Adam is back to talk True Blood as it continues on its death march to the finale.

Ladies and gents, True Blood. Is. Back. Watching this week’s episode filled me with the same amount of giddy joy I felt when I had a bad day at work and came home to find my roommate offering me half of a large pizza (extra cheese, extra sauce) and Burlesque was playing on TV. It’s in those moments when you just can’t help but wonder, Really? All for me? Lucky for my sake, when the credits rolled, I didn’t have the inevitable too-good-to-be-true afterthought that comes with unexpected generosity.  

The episode opened with Sookie and Jason notifying the closest kin of the deceased from the previous episode. Sookie informed Alcide’s father, Jackson, of his passing while Jason spoke with Hoyt Fortenberry about his mother. For a show about the undead, this is one of the only occurrences when death has had any weight and to it. Watching Hoyt and Jackson process their losses was crushing, even though I never cared for Alcide. While one was a human and the other a werewolf, neither one’s pain or hurt overshadowed the other, the same way both Nacho Cheese and Cool Ranch Doritos Loco Tacos exist side by side on the Taco Bell menu (Okay, Okay, Cool Ranch obviously is better). The repercussions of death and the shockwaves that reverberate throughout these characters’ community appear to be at the heart of this final season. No matter who or what somebody is, nobody is impervious to its touch.  [More...]

Click to read more ...

Aarrrr, matey. It's Captain Link!

John August Gregory Maguire (author of the novel "Wicked") looks at the original screenplay of The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Tom Huller look at this amazing commissioned poster for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Erik Lundegaard the first "Best Shot" entry elsewhere is up for tomorrow's Any Batman Movie fest. I love this article. Erik is so right about Adam West
Black Maria the nuance of silence in Ida  

Stage Buddy reviews the cast album of the Tony Winning "Lady Day"... won't someone please make it into a movie so Audra McDonald can have an Oscar?
Cinema Blend Stan Lee getting greedy in his old age - wants to cameo in DC movies, too 
The Film Stage Kurt Russell who starred in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof thinks The Hateful Eight will be going before cameras early in 2015 
The Playlist ranks all eight Planet of the Apes movies. Predictably Tim Burton's box office hit is dead last.
Previously TV 'disparate things' pits Parks and Recreation's party machine up against "that brief window when we thought Smash might be good." I trust you'll all vote for Smash. Do as your told!

Boyhood
Awards Daily thinks Boyhood leads the Best Picture race but I'd be surprised to see it even nominated myself. IFC doesn't really try for these things you know. I think there last nomination was in 2009 or something.
Guardian quibbling with Boyhood  

The Struggle
Film School Rejects has a think piece on the toxic culture of movie rumors as movie news. I've talked about this a lot myself as a way of describing what I don't want The Film Experience to be (just another site that cares more about movies that don't yet exist than movies that do) versus what it is (a movie site that cares about real movies from all eras and long after their opening weekend). As a generul rule we restrict ourselves when it comes to rumors (beyond quite often in these link roundups) much to the detriment of traffic since "future movies" is big business. I don't mean to pat myself on the back but I think it's a real problem for healthy film culture (which needs to be about actual films) and I'm always to curious to read articles like this from bigger sites which are news-focused on their feelings. It's a tough line to walk. I don't think we cover news enough at TFE but you have to be so careful that you're not just feeding into the meaningless of what's-next-what's-next at the expense of appreciating what there already is. Imagine if everyone in the US stopped reading every article about upcoming movies for an entire year. They'd have enough time left over to see a big group of classics and contemporary cinema and discuss them, too.

Christopher Walken in Pennies From Heaven (1981)

FINALLY...
You'd probably heard that Christopher Walken will be playing Captain Hook in the "Peter Pan Live!" event we should see sometime next year. "The Sound of Music Live!" set off a bunch of new plans for networks since live events are one of the only ways to get people to watch a program as its broadcast and thereby force them to sit through commercials. Walken is so amazing in musical roles which he almost never gets to do (see "Weapon of Choice" and "Pennies From Heaven" for starters). I don't remember this musical at all though I think my parents took us to a touring company when I was itty bitty to see it. Hopefully Hook gets to do some elaborate pirate jigs.  

Unfortunately it looks like they're looking for a female actress to play Peter Pan (Kristen Bell was an original choice) which is disappointing. Yes, that's the stage and film tradition but wasn't it originally the tradition only because of wirework technical issues and women being smaller and lighter. It's decades later now, time to get a real boy who won't grow up for the role. 

Emmy Nom Hangover: Snubs & Peculiarities

Apologies for my radio silence yesterday. Off my game I was for the entire day plus which means I'm know 36 hours behind on writing projects. Hooray. Nevertheless, because Emmy nominations are still very much on my mind after the initial response and the main titles detour (oh don't pretend you aren't still thinking about them) I polled a few members of Team Experience about their feelings. And here's what they had to say on four questions. Answer them yourself in the comments, too. The more the merrier. 

What's the Nomination That Most Perplexes You?

Adam Armstrong: Kristen Wiig – The Spoils of Babylon. When I read her name among the nominees, I was like:

...Pure, unadulterated, ecstatic, confused bliss. 

Andrew Kendall: So many options, but it's impossible for me to let Christina Hendricks in Mad Men just pass - for so many reasons. Everyone loves Joan and Hendricks is one Mad Men's finest actors but in the seven episode "half season" 2014 gave up what did Joan Harris even do to warrant a citation? I'm always willing to defend the Emmy voters when people accuse them of voting without watching (maybe they just have trite tastes?) but can anyone have watched this last season of television and sincerely felt Christina Hendricks did anything of note? Her nomination this particular season is even more of an albatross to the category than Maggie Smith's never ending series of nominations for frowning on Downton Abbey.

Dancin' Dan: Michelle Dockery, Lead Actress in a Drama. Does she actually do ANYTHING remotely interesting or difficult on Downton Abbey? This nomination has always perplexed me.

Anne Marie: Apparently the only people still watching Glee are Emmy voters. It's the only way to explain how it got a directing nomination for an episode with fewer audience members than the population of New Mexico.

Omission You Will Hold Against the Emmys Forever?

[RuPaul, Hannibal, Archer, The Good Wife and much more after the jump]

Click to read more ...

Emmy Nods 2014: Full List, First Impressions

The Emmy nominations have been announced for your viewing pleasure... unless your favorites were snubbed in which case here's the list to enrage you. Cable continues to ruthlessly dominate making things very hard for network shows - even hits like Scandal and The Good Wife. And Emmy proved again, as they often do, that they are very slow to change, largely embracing the same performers / shows they've always embraced as if they're only ever voting on the entirety of a show and not its current season.

I know people are very upset about Tatiana Maslany's ongoing snub for Orphan Black. She basically embarrasses every critic that's ever over-used the word "chameleon" to describe an actor; we should've saved the word for her. But this is not remotely surprising in any sense and I'm confused as to why so many people thought it might happen. The show is...  

a) ...not on a prestigious network like HBO
b) ...a genre show and awards bodies from Oscar to Emmy only deign to honor those when they're insanely popular and never just because they're great or an actor is great on them.
c) ...filled with actors (including Tatiana) who are not well known in Hollywood.
d) ...not as good as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Battlestar Galactica and those genre shows were egregiously snubbed for YEARS despite endless enraged fanbases and critical pleas

BUT ON TO THE NOMINEES...

COMEDY

Click to read more ...