Oscar Coverage. It's a Wrap!

Still so cold. Perhaps a tropical vacation post Oscar? Whew. We made it through another season (but for one last podcast - see below). Kisses. Hugs. No-Doz. Please stay with us throughout the year as 2014 WILL be our best yet.

2013 was a breakthrough year starting with a spot on CNNi, joining the Gurus of Gold, doing TIFF (and then Sundance) and the Critics Choice event officially, and the best year yet for ad sales. But a breakthrough is not, unfortunately, quite the same thing as 'making it'.

I recently made a tough life choice to make writing my sole income  -- yes, believe it or not, I've been juggling a second career for most of the 8 years that The Film Experience has been a daily endeavor (TFE existed before 2005 but that was before all sites needed daily content to stay competitive - the speed of content has increased exponentially all over the web). But now I'm just writing about the movies. Juggling the two became more and more difficult and right here is where the passion lies. To help me prove that it wasn't the worst decision of my life: read, share, link, tweet articles you like, donate, or best yet subscribe (see "Keep TFE Strong" in your right hand sidebar) and for the price of a cup of coffee each month (or more if you're flush) you can make sure a roof stays over my head. I feel enormous gratitude that people read at all much less so many of you. I'm particularly grateful to those who are already subscribing but just 300 hundred more of you and things get substantially easier (i.e. [cue Pet Shop Boys/Destiny's Child/] i love you you pay my rent ♫! / Can you pay my telephone bills? Do you pay my automo* bills? ♫ / )  

Complete Oscar Week Coverage 

• Red Carpet Lineup (pt 1) - The Golden Ladies
• Red Carpet Lineup (pt 2) - Everyone Else
• The Night in Liza - because she deserves better!
• "A Pizza Ranks the Celebrities Who Ate Him"
• "Speech! Speech!" - Cate reigned benevolently over us all while Matthew worshipped himself
• Second Nominations? Which first-timers will be right back?
• Backstage at the show - bon mots from the press room
• The Big Show reviewed - crumbs, mysteries, endearments
• Winning Moment / Loveable Losers - slo-mo fantasies of victory & defeat
  Oscar Foods & Frozen Cake  - What did you serve at your party?
• "2013" - Let's get the date right. Plus photos
• The Beautiful People - Cate, Matthew, Lupita & Jared
• Order of Presentation - Performance Order & Winners List
• Arrivals - Live Blogged

PODCAST !? GOT ANY QUESTIONS FOR US? As an addendum to all of this and for the Season Finale, Katey, Nick, and Joe join Nathaniel for the final podcast of the season. (The podcast will be on hiatus until mid to late April but I think you'll love next season even more)

P.S. BRAD PITT HAS AN OSCAR NOW. xo

* I do not actually have automo' bills. I take the subway

A Pizza Ranks the Celebrities Who Ate Him at the Oscars

I am no more.

But the glorious finale of my life, too brief though watched by millions, was sensual mastication in the mouths of the world's greatest beauties. My only regret, days later whether unnaturally purged or properly digested, is that I never reached the pillowy lips of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award Winner.

To Angelina... my unrequited love!

10 Ellen DeGeneres for ordering me

09 [tie] Harrison Ford & Calista Flockhart for pizza is love

07 Jennifer Lawrence

06 Jared Leto who had for too long forsaken my brothers and sisters.

05 Julia Roberts you have worshipped her megawatt smile but I have known it intimately.

04 Chiwetel Ejiofor who I voted for for Best Actor; and none for you Matthew McConaughey

03 Brad Pitt who so lovingly passed out the paper plates which did cradle me in those final moments and who held me so gently as his perfect teeth pulled desperately at my cheesy surfaces. I didn't mean to resist; I just wanted the moment to last forever.

02 Kerry Washington to provide sustenance to your unborn!

01 Meryl Streep who is the best at everything. Including devouring me. 

if you ♥ pizza, share me on twitter or facebook

Two Movie Advertisements of (Dubious) Note

Cheers to  Carefee Black Girl who is Italy and had the smarts to snap this incredibly unfortunate 12 Years a Slave poster. Yes, Brad sells tickets but at what price to a film's soul? 

Fox Searchlight isn't in charge of Italian distribution (IMDb doesn't say who is exactly though distributors are listed for France and Spain and a few other countries) but this just puts an unfortunate visual to the snarksters who originally attacked the movie with the "Brad Pitt solves slavery" tag when the movie first became our frontrunner.

This second advertisement, a TV spot dubbed "Outrageous" though not, unfortunately "Outrageous!!!" for August: Osage County speaks for itself. 

In a language we are not familiar with. Give us subtitles to understand the huhwazzit and the why of what we are seeing here? Why this ad now? Especially when the jingly music suggests a Christmas day opening that is no more. It's now opening on the 27th.

Raiders of the Lost Link

Total Film Idina Menzel on the long delayed Wicked movie adaptation
AV Club a Hilarious takedown of Nikki Finke's awful couching of Nelson Mandela's passing (RIP) in movie terms 
Boy Culture Happy birthday Boy Culture. Matt selects his 100 favorite posts from 8 years of blogging
The Onion "Google Streep View Panorama" LOL! (This could not be more appropriate to share at The Film Experience since we're always discussing Meryl Streep's Ubiquity). 

i09 Disney buys Indiana Jones. all the franchises will soon belong to them [insert evil laugh]
Playbill Sutton Foster will lead another TV show. This one is not a musical though... boo.
Playbill but another Broadway diva Alice Ripley will be starring in a film called Sugar which she'll do music for. Yay.
MNPP Which is hotter, Brad Pitt edition
me says wishes there were people of color in Frances Ha. I remember people had the same complaint about Girls and Woody Allen films before it. NYC is a very multi-ethnic place but movies and tv are less so
EOnline Mandy Patinkin Holla! He shaved off his beard
Boston Online the upstart critics group in Boston (not to be confused with the 32 year old institution that is the Boston Society of Film Critics) has given nearly 50% of their 2nd annual awards to 12 Years a Slave
Coming Soon Have you heard that Brie Larson and Emilia Clarke are the two finalists for the role of Sarah Connor in a Terminator reboot? Allow me to dry heave a little at the idea of rebooting a series that has already had three lives and whose concept allows for sequels on end without pretending the (great) originals never happened. Ugh!  Normally I'd root for my favorite actresses to get whatever parts they wanted but I'm hoping Brie finds something else instead. She's too good to waste on another tired 'no new ideas' franchise. 

Finally...

FWIW, Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street was widely seen by critics on both coasts today, all three hours of it. Some onliners immediately broke the embargo (sigh) but I play the rules. Sure it costs me, but what can you do? I actually like embargos. They give you time to sit with a movie and consider before mouthing off. But it's definitely... um... a talking point. The only thing I'll say for now is that I was so proud of Margot Robbie for shaking off whatever dullness clung to her beauty in "Pan Am" (remember that show?) and really going for it. This is a hungry performance and Hollywood will surely reward her with a buffet of new roles to feast on. The competition for 'Hot Young Actress I Wish I Could Sleep With' critics org prize (commonly known as Best Supporting Actress... but critics can be so transparent) just got stiffer.

Two (Links) of Every Kind

Directors
Empire Darren Aronofsky's Noah is having post-production / test screening trouble. Duh! Like evangelicals would love Black Swan or Requiem or or or 
Huffington Post has a candid interview with Alan Taylor the director of Thor: The Dark World. Apparently there's a shit ton of exposition in the movie. I wish it wasn't locked yet because cut cut cut  

Actor
Vulture I would have done so much better on this Brad Pitt Hair Quiz (I scored 11/15) if it was about which girlfriend he was imitating with which red carpet look
EW I was thinking Emile Hirsch was getting a little pudgy recently... now he's putting it to (potentially) good use: he's signed to star in a John Belushi biopic. Guess he'd like to get a little closer to Oscar than he got with Into the Wild

Actresses
Backstage remembers Penélope Cruz's brilliant career makeover in Volver  
Cinema Blend Noomi Rapace taking on seven roles in sci fi flick What Ever Happened to Monday? This is totally messing with my plans to continue being uninterested in her.

Bests & Worsts
IndieWire stands up for 10 actresses that are running in longshot position for year-end honors
Salon calls The Counselor "The Worst Movie Ever Made"  

LGBT
Guardian marketing gay films for straight people
Queerty has a two parter on the most realistic gay sex scenes on film

Friends
Nicks Flick Picks does his usual "anticipation" post set to diva beats. These are always amazing to return to for updates
My New Plaid Pants wraps up his amazing "13 Snakes of Halloween series. You need to watch them slithe

Today's Visuals
Anne Elizabeth Moore and Gabrielle Gambo investigate dozens of horror movies and discover disturbing gender/racial politics (in comic book form)

Click the photo for "The Truly Scary Politics of Horror Movies"

and Todrick Hall has fun with Disney Villianesses in this Chicago spoof "Spell Block Tango"