Tweetweek: Deadpool Revival, La La Land Triumph, and A Few Good Jokes

We'll start with two tweets to suit this morning's neurotic Tennessee Williams heroine mood. Continue on for La La Land and Deadpool divisiveness (with jokes), and more... 

sexuality: that thing jessica lange does with her hands when she's acting her hardest

— probably an android (@airportangel) December 29, 2016

I love Altoid smalls b/c you get to feel like a character from a Tennessee Williams' play taking one of their heart pills when you eat them.

— LoreenaMcKennittVEVO (@robertbalkovich) January 3, 2017

Click to read more ...

La La Demy Land

Now that La La Land is in wide release word of mouth from regular moviegoers (rather than critics) keeps expanding. As expected with Best Picture frontrunners, not all of it is kind. This unique and ravishing film has begun to suffer from the inevitable backlash.  Some of my musical theater friends are balking that neither star is a great singer, the songs aren’t sophisticated, and it doesn’t honor Hollywood musicals in the way they’d expected.

To harp on these issues misses the point of what director Damien Chazelle has created.  It's true that neither Emma Stone nor Ryan Gosling have Broadway-caliber singing voices, and it’s also true that future composers of musical theater are likelier to study Sondheim than Justin Hurwitz.  But Chazelle isn’t making a Broadway show, he’s crafting a wholly-original tone for a film, stealing bits and pieces from a wide variety of sources, and doesn’t seem interested in making a purely traditional Hollywood musical.

Chazelle has spoken in interviews about how the single greatest influence on La La Land were the two musical films of French director Jacques Demy:  The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and The Young Girls of Rochefort...

Click to read more ...

Modern musicals and the supporting actresses we give Oscars to

by Jorge Molina

During the 85th Academy Awards, there was a somewhat arbitrary musical tribute to three modern musicals in between Seth MacFarlane's sexist monologue and Jennifer Lawrence's fall: Chicago, Dreamgirls, and Les Misérables. Besides being the soundtrack of my college experience, I noticed that all three had one thing in common: they had all won Oscars for their Supporting Actresses.

This threw me into a rabbit hole of IMDb pages, Wikipedia charts, and showtune playlists to look into the historic relation between movie musicals, supporting actresses, and the Academy Awards. If I’d put this much effort into my thesis, I might have graduated in time...

Click to read more ...

Debbie Reynolds, 'America's Sweetheart' (RIP)

So many heartbreaking goodbyes this holiday season. Today, the brilliant showgirl Debbie Reynolds, "Unsinkable Molly Brown" herself, America's Sweetheart (1950s/1960s edition), charitable icon, Hollywood memorabilia queen, and mother of Carrie Fisher...

She left us just one day after her famous daughter's death...

Click to read more ...

Tweetweek: Carrie's Inspiration, Best of Decisions, and Good Musical Jokes

140 character messges that amused or moved us this week (or just that we wanted to share if the cases in which they came from Team Experience directly)... 

Here’s Agnes Varda, possibly the greatest filmmaker of them all, dressed as a potato. #cinema121 (11) pic.twitter.com/cqxt9fixKc

— Adam Batty (@Rivettian) December 28, 2016

my horcruxes are Amy Adams' Oscar nominations

— Robert Kessler (@robertkessler) December 29, 2016

more after the jump including Carrie Fisher, Greta Gerwig, Binge Watching and List Making...

Click to read more ...