Tuesday, November 22, 2016 at 7:00AM The Film Experience has two posters to give away for Elle, signed by both provocateurs responsible: the Dutch auteur Paul Verhoeven & French icon Isabelle Huppert. Information on how to enter is after the jump...
Sunday, November 20, 2016 at 7:16PM 
We're back to weekly podcasts! This week Nick, Joe, and Nathaniel discuss the latest films from Tom Ford, Ang Lee, and Paul Verhoeven, only one of which we can recommend.
Index (42 minutes)
00:01-17:22 Ang Lee's awkward Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk starring Joe Alwyn and Garret Hedlund
17:23-29:45 Tom Ford's revolting Nocturnal Animals. We don't understand the initial acclaim at all
29:46-42:00 Paul Verhoeven and Isabelle Huppert's provocative collaboration Elle, France's Oscar submission (mild spoilers)
You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments.
Friday, November 11, 2016 at 8:48AM Just a reminder that three major titles open today
Elle
France's Oscar entry, directed by notorious provocateur Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct, Showgirls, Turkish Delight, Black Book, etcetera) features screen icon Isabelle Huppert in arguably the crowning role of her inimitable career as a video game designer chillingly obsessed with uncovering the identity of her rapist. Reviewed. Expect an Oscar nomination or (crossing fingers) two. Reviewed.
[Opens today in New York. Wednesday in Los Angeles]
Arrival
Denis Villeneuve's (Sicario, Enemy) awesome thinking person's sci-fi epic about a curiously immobile alien invasion. The aliens have arrived but what do they want hovering in 12 locations over our world? An expert linguist (Amy Adams, wonderful) is recruited to communicate with them in this superbly executed drama. Reviewed. It's also perfect for this moment for this movie.
Arrival opens this weekend. I can't imagine a better moment to go see a humanity affirming sci-fi movie about overcoming what divides us.
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) November 11, 2016
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
Ang Lee's technically experimental adaptation of the political novel is about a soldier on leave from war paraded for the nation as a war hero. Joe Alwyn (as Billy Lynn) is a compelling debut actor and the film has curio value from this normally great director but the high frame rate technique MUST die a quick death: it doesn't look like cinema at all but like a cheap poorly filmed stage production. More thoughts.
[Opens today in New York and Los Angeles]
Also Opening:
Wide: Almost Christmas a comedy starring Danny Glover, the Naomi Watts led thriller Shut-In; Limited: a 20th anniversary restoration of the lesbian classic The Watermelon Woman (NY only), three documentaries (Seasons, National Bird, The Anthropologist), and the Oscilloscope curiosity The Love Witch. Here's that trailer:
LOVE WITCH TRAILER from Anna Biller on Vimeo.
Sunday, November 6, 2016 at 7:03PM The Precursors are coming! The Precursors are coming! Though the European Film Awards hardly have Oscar on their minds when they vote (bless them) it's all part of the grand circus of November-February honors to commemorate each film year. Several European films hoping to score Oscar nods in the Foreign Language Film race have reason to be hopeful given their warm embrace here.
Sunday, October 30, 2016 at 11:45AM by Nick Davis
Why did I hack into Isabelle Huppert's e-mails? I mean, I do feel bad about it, and I didn't even swipe that much. But if forced to state my reasons:
1. On a long Friday night, I was innocently taking a writing break from some essay revisions, only to discover that everybody is still all about digging into everybody's emails. So, right there, I can plead temporary insanity... though I admit it made me curious if there's anyone whose e-mails I would illicitly want to read.
2. During the same writing break, I was confronted with the info that Nathaniel and Jessica Chastain, who are now on bestie/hugging terms, had spent the day cooing to each other about Isabelle Huppert, as sensible people do. And then I thought: well, there's someone whose e-mails are probably pretty interesting...
