Yes No Maybe So: Joaquin Phoenix is "Joker

by Tony Ruggio

The internet’s been aflush with grousing over Todd Phillips’ upcoming Joker, a boiling pot of loyal DC fanboys and girls versus cinephile crusaders. Stir the pot with critics and pundits who have read an early draft of the script (why do that?) and the discourse, pre-discourse, and twee little jokes about discourse have been headache-inducing. I don’t care so much for pearl-clutching over what the film’s worldview might be... judging films on such things, particularly before anyone has seen one minute of finished film, is unfair to art and the place it occupies in pop culture. It’s not a filmmaker’s responsibility to coddle a country or avoid uncomfortable points of view.

That being said, there are pre-existing mixed feelings, and the final trailer only exacerbates them…

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Merrily We Roll... and Roll... and Roll... Along

by Nathaniel R

Real life theater friends Ben & Beanie, doing a musical theater movie adaptation together. But they won't be done with it for another 20 years

While The Film Experience was in the pro-Boyhood camp in 2014 we were never among its biggest fans. It was hard to be in that club given the massive stanning for a movie that was winning Best Picture prizes left and right in its year. But today we love it more than we ever have now that it's given the king of longform cinema, Richard Linklater, the funding and confidence to attempt the coolest or most foolish movie musical ever. As you may have heard he's now embarking on an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's most beloved flop Merrily We Roll Along to be filmed over the next 20 (gulp!) years...

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Review: Where'd You Go, Bernadette

by Murtada Elfadl

What if that one thing that you cared about and that you built your life’s work around was gutted away from you violently? Can you recover? How do you cope in the days and years that follow? These are some of the questions that Richard Linklater is trying to answer with his adaptation of the Maria Semple novel, Where’d You Go, Bernadette?

Bernadette (Cate Blanchett) is a harried mom (to Emma Nelson’s 15 year old Bee) and wife (to Billy Crudup’s Elgie) in Seattle. She spends her days in her big semi-rundown house trying to manage the small details of her family’s life, but mostly running away from facing the minutiae and drudgery of those tasks by composing long email and text messages to her virtual assistant Manjula. But Bernadette’s life wasn’t always so banal and she wasn’t in perpetual war with everyone she meets (Kristin Wiig plays her nemesis and next door neighbor). She used to be a genius architect with lots of promise until she suffered a major career setback that she couldn’t recover from. 

If you are a fan of the novel you might not recognize what you liked about it from this adaptation...

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Review: Dora and the Lost City of Gold

by Tony Ruggio

Dora the Explorer was after my time, a cartoon for young children that came around long after my Saturday morning cartoon days were over. And yet, despite being one completely uninitiated and cynical thirtysomething, I found Dora and the Lost City of Gold to be a charming delight. Aged up from the show, Dora’s now a teenager who has spent many of her formative years in the jungle with a pair of well-meaning archeologist parents (Michael Peña, Eva Longoria). Thrust into high school in Los Angeles, she’s an odd duck and beacon of positivity amid the cynical squalor of American modernity. Suck out all pretension and she’s simply the smartest, kindest person in the room. 

Isabella Moner is a bright-eyed, exuberant presence as Dora, always ready to sing or swing into a grand adventure...

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"Four Weddings and..." this is a mistake

by Deborah Lipp

Last night I sat down to watch Hulu's new series, Four Weddings and a Funeral. First I looked in their “TV” section and couldn’t find it. Then I looked in their “Originals” section – it wasn’t there. Then I searched. “F” and “FO” did not bring it up. The only result for “FOU” was Found. I had to enter the R before the title appeared in my search results.

Folks, be warned: Even the network is hiding it...

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