If you can... link it here ♪ you'll link it... ♫ anywhere

Moviefone looks back at the troubled release of Martin Scorsese's New York New York for its 35th anniversary
Awards Daily someday my prince will come... or not. On Brave and more in 2012
Serious Film gets into spoilers to revel in the whiteboard of terrors in Cabin in the Woods 
Movie|Line Magic Mike already making Broadway transfer plans. Huh. 
The Incredible Suit happy third birthday to this fun blog 

Rope of Silicon applies Pixar storytelling rules to Brave to see where it went wrong... um. If you think it went wrong. It's not a perfect movie but I'm surprised by how much some people don't like it.
Vulture first look at Shirley Maclaine in Downton Abbey. Yes! 
How Are You I'm Fine Thanks illustrates the Scooby Doo gaga at the beach. Great stuff. 
GQ interviews Elisabeth Moss on Peggy's Journey in Season 5 of Mad Men... and Season 6 
Empire spreads the rumor that three Avatar sequels will shoot back to back. I can think of better things for Sigourney Weaver to do with her time and I loved Avatar.
TMZ more old footage of Channing Tatum's stripper days

and I can't fight this linking anymore... I've forgotten what I started fighting for ♪ ♫

Vulture the best grimaces and grins from Mad Men season 5. Good stuff
Tim Robey interviews the great Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen on his very busy career (Thor 2, Hannibal TV series, A Royal Affair and more...)
Liz Smith on the Friar's Club roast of Tom Cruise (opening quote via Alec Baldwin) 
EW Jeremy Jordan (Broadway's Newsies and Bonnie & Clyde) joins the cast of Smash. They're really shuffling players for Season 2. Which still won't solve the problem of treating Megan Hilty like she's not the Starriest of Stars on the show. (sigh)
Hollywood and Fine "why I love/hate Rock of Ages" point of view from former rock critic. 

Stale Popcorn on Yentl "Barbra I can hear you". I also like this movie, haters begone.
Movies.com Here's the actor who's playing Osama Bin Laden in Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty 
Pop Watch Prometheus deleted scene still. Who is "the engineer" talking with? 
The Mary Sue on the trials and tribulations of superhero costumes
My New Plaid Pants does the only sensible thing and screencaps the red band Magic Mike trailer. Even with all the goodness inherent in such an effort my favorite thing is this comment from a reader named "Paco":

I am starting a petition to have this movie remade every year, with a rotating cast of actors.

Pass that petition right over. Reboot With Depantsing!

Appropos of nothing, it's Sam Hargraves, Chris Evans stunt double!Finally, the Thought Catalog has "The Life of Someone Who Didn't Like The Avengers"  Funny read.

You didn’t hate it, but you wanted to like it more, and you knew that thinking it “wasn’t terrible” wouldn’t be good enough. Like that time that you saw The Dark Knight and pointed out the badly-choreographed fight scenes to your friend who proceeded to have a hissy fit in the theater lobby...

It does get lonely out there if you don't like a universally beloved thing (like me with Forrest Gump/Braveheart. OMG I hate those movies). I never shared this tidbit from my family time away from the blog a few weeks back but my sister didn't like The Avengers at all. Sadly she didn't say why. It's so hard talking movies in depth with my family. They never explain themselves. Perhaps that's one of the reasons I talk out into the void via The Film Experience? 

Mad Men @ The Movies Knocks Out the Cobwebs

Only the most surface reading of Mad Men would suggest that it's The Don Draper Show. His (forged) identity is, like most identities at some point or another, a prison. But it's also a prism and if there's a single best thing about the show it's the way in which he is reflected in his protege Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) and, to varying lesser extent, in the vibrant supporting cast. So it felt like a total gift when Mad Men's writing team chose to set their final scene (season?) together in a movie theater. Just for us, surely!

Don has had a rough week and heads there for solace only to find Peggy, who has recently flown his Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce coop already there. Don suggests it's far too early in her new job to be ducking out from work. To which she responds.

Just knocking out the cobwebs. Someone told me this works."

Movies to recharge, comfort, and shake out the writer's block? No wonder we can't get enough of this show.

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Mad Men and The Other Women

* an earlier partial version of this article was accidentally published last night. It's complete now.

Have you wondered what happened to our series Mad Men @ The Movies? Well, Matthew Weiner and his team up and ditched the abundant movie references for most of season 5, leaving me to wish that I hadn't required movie references in order to write about the Sterling Draper Cooper Pryce worker-bees each week. Last week's "The Other Woman", a queasy game changing episode is the instant classic Season Five episode but for our purposes The Other Women this season on Mad Men are TV and Music (particularly the Beatles) which have stolen the pop culture referencing thunder from the movies.

Ratings and cinema references may be down (the former an obvious risk when a series disappears for long stretches) but quality, thankfully, isn't.  Not at all. The finale is next week on June 10th, an exhaustive television evening given that True Blood returns and it also happens to be Tony Awards Night and I also have a birthday party to attend... 

The much despised Betty Draper Francis. Still one of the most fascinating characters on television.

Much to look forward to. Much to write about. So herewith brief notes on the last four episodes... 

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Mad Men @ The Movies: Megan, The Actress

In Mad Men @ The Movies we talk about the show's movie references. Mad Men happens to love the movies and we happen to love Mad Men.

Megan Draper: My father won't care if he finds out you read James Bond.
Don Draper: You know what? It's a good book. You should read it. 

poll by twiigs.com

Eyebrows were raised recently when it was announced that Jessica Paré would be submitting herself in the lead actress category at the Emmys for this season of Mad Men. Over the show's interminably long hiatus she graduated from guest star to... well, the new Mrs. Don Draper fits the "Lead" description in every way. Not only does Megan gets key storylines in every episode but her energy, impulsiveness, and partial foreignness is something like a youthquake for the show, especially since all the other characters are aging quicker than they'd like to.

In "At the Codfish Ball" and "Lady Lazarus" Megan's decisions continue to cause aftershocks with Don, Peggy, Roger and more who all seem to interpret Megan's decisions through their own narcissistic lens. Her parents visit, she saves a major account (Heinz Baked Beans) proving her natural aptitude at advertising but instead of celebrating she announces her resignation. She secretly still wants to be an actress and has been attending auditions on the sly.

Movie grammar and a pinch of Hitchcock after the jump...

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