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.)
These days we don’t get many musicals brave enough to buck genre comforts and form as Bob Fosse’s autobiographical All That Jazz. The director/choreographer transplants himself onto Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider), a highly regarded and sexually cruel master of the stage on his way to untimely demise. It’s a masterpiece to shame other masterpieces.
There’s a reason that the film isn’t remembered for its songs - musical pleasantry is low on his priorities, as the film is an uncompromising character study of the visionary creator’s weakest impulses...
• Vanity Fair Carrie Fisher's best lines in The Last Jedi come from the actress/writer herself • Rolling Stone David Fear's 25 reasons to love the movies in 2017 • Variety a "tsunami" of change in Hollywood. Netflix, MoviePass, sexual harrassment scandals, low box office. What's next? • Vanity Fair Annette Bening, Whisper campaigns, The Last Jedi and more • AV "TV Club" a lengthy but always engaging 17 part lookback at the year in culture and the small screen
Much more after the jump including more "best of the year" lists, Strictly Ballroom, Hamilton, and female directors...
Before we plunge into the deep end of movie awards season, which tends to consume our every waking moment from right now through Oscar night each year, a wee theater break.
Though we love movies with all our hearts, the one thing live-action movies don't really have an equivalent of is the grand theatrical tradition of the musical comedy. I'm talking inspired silliness as goddamn raison d'etre. I recently fell hard for Desperate Measures, a hilarious wild west riff on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. The show has now been extended three times at the York Theatre in Manhattan and will close on New Year's Eve so get to it! (The York specializes in helping develop new musicals and I'm happy to call attention to this noble cause as a bonafide fanatic of the genre.)
I sat down recently to talk to with two of the musical's stars, strapping Peter Saide and rockstar feisty Lauren Molina, who both really "outta be in pictures" as they say though we're happy they're killing it on stage, don't misunderstand! The interviews are after the jump...
• Coming SoonAnt Man and the Wasp has wrapped filming. Apparently there's a scene on a beach between Pfeiffer and Douglas • Decider 10 movies you should stream right now to prepare for awards season • The Guardian apparently Feud is just making its way to the UK so there's a new Susan Sarandon interview where she defends her baffling political decisions of the recent past
• Rotten Tomatoes Jude Law has nabbed the male lead of Captain Marvel opposite Brie Larson • Los Angeles Times John Lasseter, Disney/Pixar's long time chief creative officer, is taking a leave of absence from Disney after complaints of inappropriate behavior with female employees • Playbill what are the plays that Broadway revives the most often? The top 12 features well loved playwright's like Tennessee Williams (though I was surprised by his second most revived), Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill, and of course Edward Albee's masterpiece Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf • Variety Rance Howard, the character actor and father of Ron Howard, has passed away • Gr8ter Days David Cassidy, 70s teen idol of the Patridge Familyhas passed away • VarietyThe Seen and Unseen, which you'll remember I raved about at TIFF, has won two new prizes this past week, splitting the Grand Prize at Tokyo FilmEx and winning the APSA for Youth Feature.
Exit Video Have you checked out the new webseries "Power Couple"? We must thank Joe Reid for recommending it. The concept is simple and hooky (famous pairings through history) and the execution by Sudi Green and Matt Rogers is brilliant. My favorite thus far is Caesar & Cleopatra but they've also done Britney & Justin (with an amazing 50 Shades riff on negotiation) and Evil Queen & Magic Mirror.
a famously cheeky magazine cover from 1997Sigh. How do you solve a problem like Kevin Spacey? The actor's career started off splendidly but soon after those hugely popular double Oscar wins (The Usual Suspects and American Beauty) in the second half of the 1990s, he became rather insufferable both onscreen and as a celebrity. Acting is a subjective art but I personally can't make it through a single episode of House of Cards (I've tried a few times) with that pitched to the rafters hamminess.
The Netflix star has been resisting public admission of his open-secret homosexuality since he became famous. He's let decades go by without comment, while dozens of braver less famous actors took up the challenge and made the world a better place for future generations by coming out.
Now that he's accused of sexual assault by another man he chooses THIS moment to do it? For shame!
Wednesday, February 21, 2018 at 10:00AM 
