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.)
Chris here. Michael B. Jordan is getting the kind of adoration for his Black Panther anti-hero that makes Oscar types start whispering before they get locked in jail for bringing up next year before the current ceremony. (*whispers* but seriously when can we start that conversation?) However, it might not be too early to start some Emmy talk. You might have missed the quiet casting announcement awhile back, but the actor is about to headline a new adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 from indie darling director Ramin Bahrani and HBO.
Between Black Panther, this, and the fast-tracked Creed 2 arriving later this year, we'll be loving Jordan all year long...
Screen • Forbes a theory as to how network TV could survive the exodus of both Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy • Film InkLady Bird was forced to make cuts and dub dialogue to get an M rating in Australia (essentially our PG13). That Playgirl magazine scene really upset the board that much? Ugh. I guess puritanism isn't only for Americans. • /Film The Duplass Brothers have signed a four film deal with Netflix. This makes so much innate sense to me because their work always felt very televisual. •/FilmBond 25 is taking an awfully long time to come together. Danny Boyle and the screenplay still aren't even done deals • Pajiba Disney's upcoming streaming service and the possibility of more Muppets • Decider Joe Reid reveals his obsession with To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar
Black Panther Mania • The Atlantic "The Tragedy of Erik Killmonger" • Shadow and Act Ryan Coogler and Michael B Jordan's next project together, their fourth, is Wrong Answer a true story about an education system scandal. • MCN David Poland persuasively argues which ways Black Panther will change things in Hollywood and which ways it won't • Coming Soon Lupita Nyong'o will costar in Born a Crime, based on the memoir about the childhood of The Daily Show's Trevor Noah. She'll play his mother
Off Cinema • Playbill watch highlights from a reunion concert of Thoroughly Modern Millie starring Sutton Foster and Gavin Creel -when is someone going to give Sutton a movie musical. She's great on camera (see Bunheads and Younger) and a bonafide Broadway star. • The New Yorker a thought-provoking piece on the official Obama portraits in case you missed it • W Mag Greta Gerwig directs Florence Welsh in a photoshoot • W Mag Jordan Peele directs Janelle Monae in a Hitchcock inspired photoshoot • W Mag Luca Guadagnino directs two models in a desert photoshoot • Playbill Santino Fontana (Crazy Ex Girlfriend!) taking over for Gavin Creel in Hello, Dolly! on Broadway. Apparently Gavin Creel is having back surgery? Ouch.
Exit Video Keala Settle and Pasek & Paul are all still out there campaigning for The Greatest Showman's Original Song. Pasek & Paul were just interviewed by Variety and Settle just performed "This Is Me" this time on Ellen. I love this song even though you hate it. Sorry not sorry.
That said, I still haven't decided if it's going to win Pasek & Paul a consecutive Oscar (they won last year for "City of Stars") or if Oscar voters will be more partial to honoring Mary J Blige (given the Mudbound fanbase and her double nomination) or if Coco will mean more to voters than just the mandatory check mark for Best Animated Feature.
Thoughts? Sing your Original Song prediction in the comments.
Jason from MNPP here - Sidney Poitier is turning 91 years old tomorrow, and so let's devote this week's episode of "Beauty vs Beast" to Norman Jewison's 1967 classic police drama In the Heat of the Night, which won five Oscars including ones for Best Picture, for Rod Steiger as Best Actor, and for Hal Ashby for Editing. Shockingly Poitier wasn't even nominated for the film, but he did already have his 1963 statue for Lilies in the Field at that point.
ITHOTN is nominally a film about a murder in a small town, but it's the tension between the Mississippian police chief Gillespie (Steiger) and the usurping fancy-man Philadelphian detective Virgil Tibbs (Poitier) that gives the film its drama, as we watch their animosity give way to something like respect. Still it's very much of its time, up to and including those Oscar nominations - imagine Steiger winning the statue while Poitier's not even nominated today...
PREVIOUSLY To borrow a turn of phrase from Denzel Washington, last week's Creed contest wasn't close and the winner, by an arm, was Michael B. Jordan as Adonis. He took just under 70%. Said Emma:
"I cried like a baby in the final act of CREED. My crying was so audible that someone in front of me turned around and said to my friend, 'let's hope she never sees SCHINDLER'S LIST!'. Oh, and Michael B. Jordan's guns, obviously."
With Nathaniel now ensconced in new digs, the podcast can resume. Up first a mini-podcast on Ryan Coogler and Marvel's Black Panther blockbuster with Nick Davis and Katey Rich. It's paired with a "deleted scene" from the last podcast as Nick, special guest Teo Bugbee and Nathaniel discuss favorites that were never really in the awards conversation but we hope people will find on streaming including super-hero adjacent Professor Marston and the Wonder Women.
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?
Jason from MNPP here - while we're all sitting patiently on our hands waiting for Black Panther to hit theaters this weekend let us use the occasion of today's "Beauty vs Beast" to gaze backwards in Ryan Cooglar's filmography to the flick that no doubt gauranteed him this Marvel gig, 2015's great big crowdpleaser Creed. Coming nine years after Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone's original "goodbye" to the character that gave him his career, Cooglar's Creed opened the franchise up and breathed new life into the Philadelphian boxing saga via Michael B Jordan's Adonis, son of Rocky's deceased opponant and friend Apollo, and with Adonis' attempt to find selfhood in the shadow of his legendary father. The relationship between Rocky & Adonis formed the core of the film, it was one fraught with tension, which brings us to...
PREVIOUSLY Nobody was going to beat The Lovely Laura Linney on her birthday, not even Mark Ruffalo's probable finest performance opposite her in You Can Count On Me - she scored a sizeable 70% of your vote in the end, proving you can indeed count on her. Said RV:
"One of the all time great screen pairs -- both so flawed, both so connected to each other. Lonergan's uncomfortable (for me, maybe not for him) commitment to Casey Affleck aside, he deserves enormous credit for providing such rich writing and understated directing to two amazingly talented performers. "
Monday, February 26, 2018 at 10:00PM 
