Cláudio's 2022 Top Ten

by Cláudio Alves

While the Academy mulls over its nominees and decides on winners, the awards season reaches its last phase. Campaigns are at their apex, precursors shake the race, and speeches are aplenty. So, here at The Film Experience, it's time to share personal favorites, getting closure on the cinematic year as we do so. Indeed, Nathaniel's Film Bitch Awards are on its way, with some categories already announced – go check them out. In the meantime, I'm here to share my own top ten, which runs the gamut from apocalyptic gore to the year's best performance, from Jesus-y donkeys to Catholic guilt with a side of gay longing...

Click to read more ...

Best of Animated Features, Shorts, and Voice Work

by Nathaniel R

Wagner Moura and Antonio Banderas do fine voice work in "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish"

For today's installment of Oscar talk and our own Film Bitch Award nominations, let's discuss cartoons. Our nominations are up for Best Animated Feature which you can see here and include the thoughtful eccentricities of Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio,  the witty propulsivesness of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and the strangely undervalued hormonal marvel that is Turning Red. Three clear worthies that are difficult to choose between! It's a more mainstream list than we usually have but that's the way the year panned out (and we only have 3 nominees each year due to, well, sanity).

Apologies to the punk riot of Inu-Oh which is an intermittent thrill. As for Marcel the Shell...

Click to read more ...

Baker's Dozen: Best Screen Animals of 2022

by Nathaniel R

One of the underdiscussed joys of cinema, at least if you're an animal lover, are the non-human creatures that swim, gallop, slither, hop, and play across the screens. Debates continue about the use of non-human actors onscreen, but animal characters can be as memorable as their human scene partners whether they're computer generated, stop motion puppets, or furry or feathered actors. 2022's cinema gave us the full menagerie. Among the most memorable "real" animals, for better and worse, were Empire of Light's wounded pigeon, A Man Called Otto's feral yet easily domesticated cat, Everything Everywhere All At Once's weaponized pom, the homicidal chimp and lion of Nope and Beast, respectively, and Babylon's diarrhetic elephant. If you prefer fantastical beasties, the titular animated characters from The Sea Beast, My Father's Dragon, and DC League of Super Pets had their charms while "Socks" the robot cat of Lightyear was that misjudged film's MVP.

Speaking of fantastic, the following list is dedicated to Meilin in Turning Red for embracing her inner red panda, even if she isn't technically eligible being an all-too relatable teenage human girl person... 

Click to read more ...

Awards Season Catchup: The Bad Guys

By Abe Friedtanzer

One of this year’s most successful contenders for Best Animated Feature was released way back in April. It hasn't been as present on the awards circuit as its success and generally positive reviews would suggest. Whatever prizes it ultimately wins would only add to the fact that this family-friendly caper comedy, based on Aaron Blabey’s book series, is highly enjoyable and very much worth seeking out.

Wolf introduces audiences to his team of notorious thieves, who commit major heists and other crimes as regularly as possible. They do it partly for the big takes, but also for the specific joy from getting away with it...

Click to read more ...

Colman Domingo, Taiki Waititi, and Idris Elba give starpower to the Best Animated Short Oscar race

by Nathaniel R

Colman Domingo in "New Moon" based on one of his plays

This year's Best Animated Short Oscar finalists come from about a dozen countries and feature a pleasing variety of animation strategies. The shorts feature talking animals, naturally, as well as plenty of heightened surreal adventures. All of this is to be expected in this always intriguing category (provided you are able to find the films!).  Less expected: this year the race has more than a little star power via voice casts. We'll review all the films here as we screen them.

Read on for brief run downs of the finalists and if and where you can watch the films right now (if you can). Links go to official sites if we could find them...

Click to read more ...