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.)
Living through a difficult year gives you more reasons than ever to take every excuse to count your blessings. No matter how bad life is the magic of moving pictures, or storytelling and the craft of acting, are always reliable mood-boosters. They're not just a blessed escape but a companion, through which we can learn about ourselves. But let's not get too fancy about it because we mostly just want to squeal "WHEEEEEE!" when we think of the joy of movies.
I'd like to give thanks for the following in particular this year:
The good news is the bad news: director Kenneth Branagh’s new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express is exactly what you think it will be. It’s a stylish, corny, enjoyable two hours filled with movie stars and that absurd moustache. It delivers on romantic glamor and old-school moviemaking, but there’s not a surprise to be had.
Out of the gate, Branagh plunges us into a prologue that’s both boring and obvious. He means to establish Hercule Poirot’s philosophy and fastidious nature, which sadly serves only as clunky groundwork which you know will circle back by the finale (which it does). He also tries to bring some levity to the piece with a few lame jokes. At first Branagh seems to be overplaying his hand...
we're pretending this is a script Pfeiffer is about to sign on to -- may the RePfeiffal continue!
Michelle has been spotted filming what appear to be 80s flashbacks on the set of Marvel's Ant Man and the Wasp (July 6th, 2018). We had assumed her role was meant to be a sudden reveal that she's still alive but perhaps it's only retro scenes? Michael Douglas was also on set. They're wearing strange dots on their faces (which are hard to tell in these images) but which indicate that they'll be de-aged later via CGI (like Robert Downey Jr in that Avengers Ultron hologram scene).
Michelle doesn't need any computer help to look unfathomably gorgeous or younger than her years (the woman turns 60 (!) in April. I mean...) but she'd have to be 1980s young for these scenes, hence computer help...
Here's some rather surprising news: Michelle Pfeiffer sings the closing credits song of Murder on the Orient Express. The song is called "Never Forget" which we never in danger of doing for anything Pfeiffer. Though opinions vary about how well the goddess sings, we personally love it when she croons. Case in point: Grease 2 (1982), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), The Prince of Egypt (1998), and Hairspray (2007). Listen it's not her fault that her character in Up Close and Personal (1996) was supposed to be a bad singer or that "Miss Baltimore Crabs" is Hairspray's worst song!
"Never Forget" is written by two-time Oscar nominee Patrick Doyle, a regular on Kenneth Branagh films, who also composes the score. La Pfeiffer is, of course, not the sort who would deign to sing in front of the whole world on Oscar night so they will reassign the vocals if the song is nominated.
Regardless the Original Song category is beginning to show its possible contenders so we've updated that chart and still suspect the leader is The Greatest Showman's catchy "This Is Me" - which was recently performed in NYC by Keala Settle & Darren Criss.
We eagerly await the full eligibility list of 80ish songs we've never heard from 40 movies we've heard of and 20 movies we didn't know existed before this always surprising list hits.
Hollywood's greatest blonde is back after a way-too-long hiatus and she's the covergirl for both Variety for their Women in Hollywood issue and in the "Edit" insert of Net-a-Porter for their "white" issue (the clothing trend not the race!). And with these fine profiles / interviews come photos. So let's share beautiful portraiture and the best quotes after the jump...
Wednesday, November 22, 2017 at 10:45PM 
