Into the Link-Verse

• Dim the House Lights a conversation about those Sondheim auditions in Lady Bird
• /Film why is Big Little Lies still competing as "Limited Series" when it has a second season order. The controversy is starting to bubble up
• Cartoon Brew I didn't even know that there was ANOTHER new awards show but come to think of it there's always another new one, isn't there? We now have the European Animation Awards and they gave their top prize to Loving Vincent. This is not to be confused with the European Film Awards which also gave Loving Vincent Best Animated Feature
• Cartoon Brew on the key points of that giant Disney/Fox deal. It's scary people. Now basically only 4 American-owned entertainment companies have control over America’s cultural identity. 

• Forbes on the teaser for Into the Spider-Verse with Miles Morales finally making it to screen...
• Indie Wire talks to the great actress Lesley Manville about Phantom Thread and Hollywood for women over 40
• The Wrap ack. I totally forgot to link to this last week. In an unprecedented move The Academy added 'Standards of Conduct' to membership details after the explosion of sexual misconduct news this past month
• Coming Soon the first poster and teaser for New Mutants
• Out January 25th is when RuPaul's Drag Race returns
• Vogue Philip Seymour Hoffman's partner Mimi pens an essay with Adam Green about living with an addict and the actor's final sad year.

List-Mania
• EW a timeline of Nicole Kidman's most iconic 2017 moments
• After Ellen a list of the best lesbian or bi movies of the year
• GQ Top ten books of the year and each author chosen gets to recommend a book, too. Fun angle! Do you have a library card? You might need one after this.
• Variety Owen Gleiberman and Peter DeBruge's top ten lists
• EW best and worst tv shows of the year
• Out most iconic looks of 2017. It's heavy on music video ladies for some reason but there's some fun surprises like "Allison Janney with a parrot on her shoulder" from I, Tonya
• CBC an A-Z guide to the year in queer: God's Own Country, Melina Matsoukas, and much more
• THR top ten movies of the year from Todd McCarthy and staff. Call Me By Your Name all over the place.

"Everyone is Nominated... but you!" Our annual SAG Ensemble Rules Exposé

by Nathaniel R

Betty Gabriel is not included in the Get Out ensemble nomination. For shame, SAG!The Film Experience started a tradition of exposing the Screen Actors Guild Awards unfortunate rules regarding ensemble nominations back in 2004. If you'd like a little history as to why we became advocates for change in this matter you can find the details at the bottom of the post. But for now let it suffice to say that SAG's rules for inclusion strike us as punitive for less famous actors and thus unbecoming given that they are a union and unions are ostensibly there to support the workers. The rule boils down to this: you need your own title card in a movie to be so honored - being on a shared title card or in the credits scroll won't do. With a new set of nominees for Outstanding Cast of a Motion Picture let's investigate which valuable players were unjustly left out while their (usually) more famous coworkers were honored, no matter their actual contributions to the movie in question.

2017 SAG OUTSTANDING CAST NOMINATIONS
Who was excluded this year despite their fine work?

THE BIG SICK
Nominees (in billing order): Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Anupam Kher, Zenobia Shroff, Adeel Akhtar 

Who was left out? The first shared title card belonged to Bo Burham and Aidy Bryant, with the second shared card going to Kurt Braunohler and Vella Lovell. Burnham, Braunohler and Bryant played Nanjiani's inner circle of comedian friends. Lovell was fantastic as a would-be arranged bride for Nanjiani but anyone who has seen her on Crazy Ex Girlfriend knows that she is skillful with mixing sharp comedy with dramatic undertow.

Click to read more ...

The calm before the box office storm?

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (Dec 8-10)
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
1. Coco  $18.4 (cum. $135.6) REVIEW | FEELING SEEN	1.🔺 The Shape of Water $1.1 on 41 screens (cum. $1.3)  CAPSULE | PODCAST
2. Justice League $9.6 (cum. $212.1) REVIEW	2.🔺 Darkest Hour $741k on 53 screens (cum. $1.1) CAPSULE | SECOND VISIT
3. Wonder $8.4 (cum. $100.3)	3.🔺 Man Who Invented... $687k on 720 screens (cum. $4.3)
4.🔺 Disaster Artist $6.3 (cum. $7.9) REVIEW	4.🔺 Call Me By Your Name $291k on 9 screens (cum. $1.3) SCREENPLAY | SEX SCENES
5. Thor Ragnarok $6.2 (cum. $301.1) REVIEW, YOUR QUEEN	5.🔺 I Tonya $264k on 4 screens REVIEW NEW

With only 2 new movies (I Tonya and Just Getting Started) in a big movie-going month like December it was a dire weekend at the box office with the box office essentially looking the same as last week. Somebody will need to write a book some day on what happened to distribution in 2017...

Click to read more ...

Podcast: A Proper Oscar Season Kick-Off

Katey, Nick, Joe and Nathaniel reunite to talk about the Oscar season as the floodgates open - Globe & SAG noms are about to hit! There are absolutely no spoilers in this so listen away.

Index (43 minutes)
00:01 Introductions & The Greatest Showman
02:11 Lady Bird's prospects
04:15 SAG ensemble possibilities
11:00 Girls Trip & Comedy Globe
16:00 Best Director -- easy or tough call?
21:00 Three Billboards, Darkest Hour, Screenplay race
30:00 Phantom Thread, The Post, Murder on the Orient Express, Visual and Sound categories
38:30 Roman Israel Esq
41:00 Colin Farrell & Goodbyes

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

December 10th Oscar Check In

Beauty vs Beast: Grit's the Word

Jason from MNPP here wishing the actor Jeff Bridges a happy 68th birthday today with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" poll. What's your favorite performance from Bridges? Mine is far and away his performance in Peter Weir's wildly underrated 1993 plane-crash survivor drama Fearless, but that movie doesn't lend itself well to this series. So instead we'll go with something more recent, namely his turn as "Rooster Cogburn" in the Coens' 2010 update of True Grit. Don't you wish he'd won his Oscar for this rather than Crazy Heart? And we'll pit him against his fine co-star and co-nominee Hailee Steinfeld. Good luck with this one!

PREVIOUSLY Last week twas everybody's current favorite momma drama Lady Bird's turn in the hot seat, and daughter came out victorious - Saorsie Ronan went all Baller / Anarchist and took 55% of your vote. Said chasm301, giving me a good chuckle:

"Lady Bird is basically the most instantly iconic teen movie character since Cher in Clueless. (Ok maybe Regina George or Tracy Flick). She gave this victory to herself. It was given to her by her and me too."