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.)
For the last three years, The Handmaid’s Tale has dominated this category with wins for Alexis Bledel (2017), Samira Wiley (2018), and Cherry Jones (2019). This year, Bledel is poised for a victory lap in this category after competing in Supporting last season. Last year’s winner Jones is also back, but for a different show. She even pulled off a surprise win last year over Phylicia Rashad, who reappears in this category. Aside from Jones, Succession gets another nomination for Harriet Walter. Meanwhile, category mainstays Cox and Tyson are in for the fourth and fifth time, respectively, for their characters in their final seasons (though neither has won for these roles).
Doc Corner is celebrating Pride Month with a focus on documentaries that tackle LGBTIQ themes. This week a new documentary about transgender representation on screen, streaming on Netflix.
The Celluloid Closetcasts a long shadow over queer cinema in the 25 years since its release when it became an arthouse box office and Emmy-nominated sensation. That film by Rob Epstein (a two-time Oscar winner) and Jeffrey Friedman opened the world of film to new textural readings that many LGBTIQ viewers had known and talked about for years but remained largely quiet in the mainstream while traversing through to the then budding space that queer filmmakers and stories had carved by 1995. And for those young enough to come to the film as a budding LGBTIQ cinephile, it made for a hell of an introduction to movies.
There are always going to be gaps in a film like The Celluloid Closet and the new Netflix documentary Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen from director Sam Feder attempts to fill them. All that and add a quarter of a century of cultural and societal changes on top...
Here's Ren Jender filing her final report from Sundance 2020...
Tabitha Jackson and Kirsten JohnsonSundance didn't have a big queer film this year, as they have in many previous years (most recently in 2018, when director Desiree Akhavan'sThe Miseducation of Cameron Post won the Grand Jury Dramatic Prize) but with this year's awards came the news that a black, queer woman, Tabitha Jackson, would take over from outgoing, longtime Sundance Film Festival Director John Cooper. Jackson also made news on the first day of the festival when she married documentary director Kirsten Johnson (Johnson's Dick Johnson is Dead, was a favorite among many critics and audiences at Sundance this year), and they jointly announced that Johnson would no longer be submitting her films to the festival during her spouse's tenure.
Sam Feder's Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen premiered on Monday. The film is a documentary in the tradition of The Celluloid Closet, which included clips of queer characters in films and commentary on those characters by writers, actors and filmmakers...
Historically announced with the Creative Arts Emmy Awards Show, Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series is a category often filled to the brim with brilliant performances -- making it no less memorable than the main stage categories. Won in the past by the likes of Allison Janney, Margo Martindale, Carrie Preston, and other incredible actresses of strage and screen, the soon-to-be winner will be joining prestigious company.
Fortunately, the nominees for the category this year are (for the most part) equal parts memorable and thoughtful -- leaving a lasting impact on their series. Let's dive into this year's nominees and determine who will and should win...
Vulture every lightsaber in the Star Wars franchise ranked. Solid rankings actually and I rarely say that about other people's lists ;) NPR talks to Harvey Keitel about his role in Youth Coming SoonTrainspotting 2 is officially a go. The entire principal cast returns to reprise their roles. Ready for round two of Ewan McGregor as Renton? i09 Ryan Coogler may follow up Creed behind the cameras of Marvel's Black Panther (2018)
LA Times Directors of Room, Love and Mercy, Brooklyn, Sicario and more discuss nailing crucial scenes PeopleSisters "The Farce Awakens". Tina Fey & Amy Poehler are going head to head with Star Wars on December 18th Interview Magazine talks to Jake Lacy (Carol), our favorite "square" boyfriend at the movies In Contention Laverne Cox helps with the Tangerine Oscar campaign Awards Daily the current BFCA scores for several movies. It's always amusing to see how this lines up with their actualy nominations (which arrive on December 14th) BroadwayCon it's pricey but theater fans are getting their own convention this January. A big list of theater favorites (Alice Ripley, Jonathan Groff, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kerry Butler, etcetera...) already confirmed as guests The Tracking Board has a ton of information and downloadable PDFs of 2015's Hit List, the best as yet unproduced specs
Old Queens We Love Hey we were as surprised as you that they all showed up in the news feed on the same day THR Kathleen Turner speaks about equal pay in Hollywood and reveals new plans -- a King Lear adaptation starring her. I just died reading that. She is so amazing on stage. THR two time Oscar winner Glenda Jackson sticks toe back in the acting waters after years of retirement... from acting at least /Film Barbra Streisand is supposedly going to direct a Catherine the Great movie. I'll believe it when I'm in the theater. She's as bad as Warren Beatty about kicking back at home and occassionally promising to work. It rarely happens! Vulture Sir Ian McKellen improvised a song for Beauty & The Beast but Bill Condon didn't put it in the movie! The Stake discovers how funny Carrie Fisher is with an old bit from SNL. That's a good thing about the Star Wars revival since she's a national treasure. Read her books! Wall Street Journal talks to Carrie Fisher who gives good quote as usual.
Was there ever a point when you thought, ‘I don’t want to do this new movie’?
Never. I’ve been this character for 40 years, why would I not? Because I’m going to be associated with Princess Leia more? There is no “more.” And I’m a female working in show business, where, if you’re famous, you have a career until you’re 45, maybe. Maybe. And that’s about 15 people.
List Mania ! Guardian is doing a top 50 countdown daily... they're almost to the top ten and for US readers they've already covered lots of films you loved from 2014 (Mommy, Birdman, etcetera) some from 2016 (The Lobster) and 2015 goodies like Steve Jobs, Sicario and Tangerine (way way too low at #48) BOFCA released their awards and they yelled "what a day. what a lovely day" giving Mad Max Fury Road five prizes. As we stated last season, we're no longer going to follow / write about all the regional critics awards - just the one's that are long running with history. Why? There are nearly 40 of them now and most debuted in the past 10 years. It's too much and only important in the cumulative. But we'll probably link up like this. Time Magazine recently hired Stephanie Zacharek (good choice, Time) and her top ten list is here: It's topped by Spotlight as so many top ten lists will be and includes both Hollywood triumphs (Creed) and indie sensations (Tangerine). Love what she writes about I'll See You In My Dreams:
How do you know when there are no surprises left in life? The surprise is that…you don’t. In Brett Haley’s gentle but potent comedy, veteran actress Blythe Danner plays a seventy-ish retired schoolteacher, long widowed, whose staid life takes a sharp left when two men appear on the scene almost simultaneously: Pool cleaner Martin Starr is the kind of platonic friend you meet only once in a lifetime; silver fox Sam Elliott is the love interest you never could have planned for.
Must Watch I shudder when I see mashups like this to think of the man hours in making them. Adele's "Hello" cobbled together from a huge variety of movies...
Friday, August 21, 2020 at 2:17PM 
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