National Pet Week: "Maggie" from The River Wild

Team Experience has been celebrating pets at the movies (and in our homes) all week. We'll wrap up Sunday. Here's Ginny O'Keefe... 

The best kind of pet in any movie is a loyal one. And it doesn’t hurt if the pet is cute. Also, a sprinkle of badassery is always welcome. All that is nicely packaged in a yellow Labrador retriever named Maggie in 1994’s rafting/crime adventure film The River Wild. For those who haven’t seen this Streep vs. Bacon gem, Meryl plays rafting expert Gail who is forced to take two criminals (John C. Reilly and Kevin Bacon) down a dangerous river all the while trying to protect her son, Rourke (Joseph Mazzello), and husband Tom (David Straithairn). Along for the trip is Maggie. From the get-go, Maggie is sweet, bubbly and you can tell she loves her humans deeply. She’s also good at digging up dead bodies in the woods (spoiler). Overall, she’s a good girl. But when s**t hits the fan, then we see how great of a girl she is...

Click to read more ...

Months of Meryl: The River Wild (1994)

John and Matthew are watching every single live-action film starring Meryl Streep. 

 

 #21 —Gail Hartman, a rafting expert whose distracted husband and disgruntled son will soon turn out to be the least of her problems…

MATTHEW: The River Wild opens with the rather surprising sight of Meryl Streep rowing a kayak with steely determination and brisk athletic prowess down the lengthy expanse of the Charles River. Watching Curtis Hanson’s waterborne caper for the first time in 2018, I asked myself with stunned curiosity the same question that surely rolled through the minds of ‘90s audiences upon the film’s release: How exactly did she get here? The River Wild is a light rip-roarer that could have easily ended up as little more than a forgettable IMDB entry in the filmography of Sigourney Weaver or Geena Davis or Linda Hamilton were it not for someone’s out-of-the-box idea to transform one of our most famously worldly and erudite thespians into a hard-bodied, take-charge action heroine...

Click to read more ...

Sneakers Turns 25

by Lynn Lee

Sneakers turns 25 today, and until last week I’d never seen it.   Although it came out when I was of moviegoing age, it was barely on my radar.  All I remembered of it later was that it was about hackers and maybe also spies and the NSA, and I tended to confuse it with Hackers (which I’d never seen either).  My husband was amazed to learn this, having seen Sneakers more times than he could count, and said I had to see it.  But wouldn’t it be awfully dated now, I wondered?  He insisted it still held up, despite admitting he hadn’t seen it in a while.  There was only one way to find out…

Click to read more ...

HBO’s LGBT History: In the Gloaming (1997)

Manuel is working his way through all the LGBT-themed HBO productions. This series is usually on Wednesday's but tomorrow Ann Dowd is in the house. Stay tuned! - Editor

Last week we looked at the earnest adaptation of one of the best-selling non-fiction account of the early years of the AIDS epidemic, And the Band Played On. It feels rather like a backhanded compliment to the well-meaning if sprawling film, but you should really watch it to see Lily Tomlin, Steve Martin, Ian McKellen, Swoosie Kurtz and Richard Gere doing their thing. This week, we’re still not done looking at the AIDS epidemic. You have to begin to wonder whether HBO knew there were other stories worth telling that included the LGBT community, but then AIDS really was seismic in the way it defined LGBT representation in the decade(s) that followed, so it’s hard to argue against its ubiquity.

But ubiquitous doesn't describe the next topic: Here we are with the moving directorial debut of a famous actor starring a six-time Oscar nominee, an Oscar winner, a future Oscar nominee, a startlet from a Hollywood dynasty, and a young actor who’d go on to become a Tony winner and then the star in a long-running successful medical drama, and it is almost impossible to find. This week we're talking In the Gloaming... 

Click to read more ...

Yes, No, Maybe So: On "Lincoln" and Trailer Premieres

Four score and seven years ago One hour and some minutes ago our Spielberg brought forth, upon this internet, a new trailer, conceived in Marketing, and dedicated to the proposition that all biopics are created equal.

LINCOLN will arrive in theaters on November 16th, 2012, a mere ten days after the election when everyone will undoubtedly be exhausted by politics (if they aren't already). And for reasons unbeknownst to The Film Experience Lincoln became the first movie to have its trailer premiere in this Google Hangout fashion with immediate commentary from fans afterwards. A sober presidential biopic isn't a natural fit for "OMG!" Insta-Reactions that fanboys pics can bring in trailer form as you'll see if you watch. You can watch the event (non-live) right here.

There is some hedge-betting from Steven Spielberg with which I personally great sympathize. The much beloved filmmaker hasn't bought in 100% to this new frightening world where trailers and not movies are the things that get people talking en masse.

Strathairn worries, Nathaniel doubts, and the trailer after the jump

Click to read more ...