Sunday, March 9, 2014 at 1:08PM 
If you've ever danced around in your underwear...
If you've ever wanted to forget a love affair...
If you've ever loved digging into a movie with other movie geeks...
Than you owe it to yourself to revisit Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) with us for it's tenth anniversary when "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" returns on Tuesday March 18th.
Thursday, April 4, 2013 at 3:21PM 
We're getting to know The Film Experience community with little spotlights on YOU the readers. Here's Zé from Portugal who you've talked to in the comments section as he's a regular.
What's your earliest movie memory?
Zé: The dinner scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, what with the beetle hors d'oeuvres and the "chilled monkey brains". I live for Kate Capshaw's histrionics in that scene and throughout the whole movie.
Your three favorite directors?
Zé: Roman Polanski, David Lynch and John Cassavetes
When did you start reading The Film Experience?
During the 2006 Oscar season. I had always been a huge movie and awards buff and in that year I was particularly outraged that Helen Mirren (who I nevertheless thought was wonderful in The Queen) was steamrolling what I thought was one of the best Lead Actress line-ups ever. So more than ever I started looking up "second opinions" on the matter and eventually ran into The Film Experience, where you had just awarded Meryl the gold medal for Prada. I loved the weekly charts for each category and the more I explored the more I came to appreciate such a witty, unpretentious and most of all passionate take on cinema, its history and the inevitably love/hate affair we have with The Academy Awards.
I've always loved the special care you give to actressing without ever disregarding other aspects of moviemaking. I do admit having a bit of nostalgia when I go dig for old posts. Speaking of which, the quartet with you, Joe, Katey and Nick on podcast is one of the msot delightful online experiences out there. I still crack up thinking about that mess of the 2008/2009 awards season and those back-to-back Globe/SAG podcasts, with Nick being pissed off at Salma Hayek for going all "there she is. my sister. my friend. it's an honour to be presenting this movie on which my soulmate's in" to everything Penelope Cruz-related and how Meryl reenacted the running through the woods scene in Mamma Mia! after beating Kate Winslet at the SAGs. The best!
Nick is too funny. Speaking of that moment... which 3 movies make you running screaming like Meryl, filled with crazy joy?
I have to go with both Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Can we count them as one? They're so different though... I watched both back to back when Sunset came out and I was like 16, and for a while I was in the narrow camp which preferred the whole naive and carefree vibe of Sunrise. As the years have gone by though it's been Sunset that keeps hitting home. I don't think I've seen any other movie where a feeling and the chemistry between the two leads remains so intact 9 years after the first was made. It's mesmerizing that they made that specific format work.
Zé's first actress crush reveals...awesome taste!Same Time, Next Year used to be a (random) favorite of mine when I was a kid. I watched it like a gazillion times and again the uncomplicated nature with which those two characters so genuinely enjoyed each other's company really moved me. Ellen Burstyn was the first of my (many) actress crushes. I was 8 or 9 when I watched Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore for the first time, and that was probably the moment the Oscars really started meaning something to me as my mom told me she had won.
I can't not talk about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. At first I found it extremely depressing even though I kept watching it. I thought that ending was so disencouraging, that yeah you just have to deal with the fact that you can't live without a relationship which is way past its expiration date. But now I have a brighter take on being dependable and that needing someone is can actually be a sweet thing.
I'm seeing a weird pattern in these three... so I'm going to say The Witches. "You may remove... YOUR VIGS!"
Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 11:04PM 
Kate Winslet with Michel Gondry filming Eternal Sunshine Michael C. here back with the return of Burning Questions, the weekly column where I answer all the most pressing film issues of the day, and, more importantly, address whatever is rattling through my head at any given moment. It’s a pretty sweet gig. First up is a growing concern I've been nursing for one of our best filmmakers.
If I hadn’t known the Mood Indigo trailer was for the new Michel Gondry film I might have wondered if it was an incredibly skillful satire. Like those spoofs that show films directed in the deadpan style of Wes Anderson it plays like an exaggerated showcase of all the director’s idiosyncrasies. The tone of melancholic whimsy. The frequent detours into magic realism. The loving devotion to the handmade over the slick and polished. The presence of Audrey Tatou in particular seems specifically engineered to provoke a chorus of cooler-than-thou Internet smart-asses to point fingers and shout “Twee!” “Twee!”
Twee, clouded?
I hold Gondry in high esteem and unashamedly enjoy his all the quirks listed above, but at some point you have to ask: Is Gondry ever going to come back down to Earth? Currently Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind sits in the middle of Gondry’s filmography as a glorious anomaly... [more]
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 5:01PM Alexa here. I recently came upon the work of Peter Strain and was instantly wowed. Peter is an illustrator living in Belfast who has a vibrant, ink-saturated, dirty design aesthetic. He also happens to be the artist-in-residence at the Queens Film Theatre in Belfast, so he has focused much of his time on film posters for the indie cinema house. And, lucky for us, he is selling prints of many of these posters at his shop. Here is a sampling, but really, you should check out all his work here.
Curio, Eternal Sunshine, Memento, The Lost Boys Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 11:02AM 
Hollywood.com Frightening visual fusions of voice actor and cartoon characters
Stale Popcorn on Melissa McCarthy doing Divine for EW. He doesn't mention it but two Drag Race alums are in the ensemble photo. Go Pandora Boxx!
Boy Culture Madonna and Lola promote the new "Material Girl" contest. If I liked reality TV I would die from wishing they had one.
In Contention looks back at the Oscar glory of Titanic before it's 3D rerelease
Grantland interviews character actor Richard Jenkins (The Visitor, Rum Diary, Norman)
Film Studies For Free collects academic essays on the "philosophy of horror". I may definitely read some of the links offered if I can find the time because, as someone who has always been puzzled by the ardent love of this genre, I should look for answers to this question: "Why are those of us who enjoy the genre so attracted to watching things that, in real life, would be repellent to us?"
Gemma Correll "the neverending circle of creative woe" -- so perfect!
Bullett Mary Louise Parker is not ready to quit Nancy Botwin (Weeds). Writes a letter to her signature character instead.
I hope you are doing better than the last time I saw you. I can't imagine you have changed much despite incarceration, fetching little recidivist that you are. You know I mean that with love.
This is fun but I wish she was ready to quit her. Would love to see her do something new -- MLP not Nancy.
Indiewire honors Like Crazy with this top-grossing indie romance list in the US. Revealing. That'll be a tough list to crack, I think. Notice how 80% of them are Oscar nominees of some sort. I added the global gross since IndieWire didn't.
1. My Big Fat Greek Wedding - $241 (worldwide $368)
2. Brokeback Mountain - $83 (worldwide $178)
3. Atonement - $50 (worldwide $129)
4. Lost in Translation - $44 (worldwide $119)
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - $34 (worldwide $72)
6. Amelie (2001) - $33 (worldwide $173)
7. (500) Days of Summer - $32 (worldwide $60)
8. Garden State - $26 (worldwide $35)
9. Vicky Cristina Barcelona - $23 (worldwide $96)
10. The Kids Are All Right (2010) - $20 (worldwide $34)
Ugh, I hate being reminded that Eternal Sunshine wasn't the #1 blockbuster of 2004!
