Morning After Links

BuzzFeed "The 16 Most Epic Faces Jennifer Lawrence Made on Oscar Night" ...my favorite (pictured below) is the "i can't remember your name" face
Slate who was wrongest in their Oscar predictions?
Gawker all of Seth MacFarlane's sexist, racist and homophobic jokes collected
i09 Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 wins all the Razzies... speaking of did we ever figure out why Kristen Stewart was on crutches... was it the crushing weight of her own celebrity?

Salon on why Lincoln lost
Nick's Flick Picks I think in the Oscar Glut yesterday, a lot of you missed this fun group party wherein a bunch of us picked our favorite wins from past years. Super fun. And more to come. 
Nick's Flick Picks also live-blogged the whole show. I haven't read this yet but since it's Nick, you know it'll be good. 
Pop & Hiss Adele and Dame Shirley Bassey saved the Oscars
The Great Showdown celebrates the Best Pics in Scott C's wonderful way 
Hulu for the first time you can watch the Oscars online in full (for a limited time)
IndieWire watch Quvenzhané Wallis get down at the after party!  

And behold, my favorite photo I've yet seen from the After Parties

Answer me these questions three:

• How much do you love both of these men?
• What do you suppose they were saying to each other here? 
• Which Ang Lee movie do you think Daniel Day-Lewis loves most? 

Happy Oscar Day !

The Oscars are just 3½ hours away. Arrivals in 2½. May you all hyperventilate with joy at least once tonight, when something or someone you truly love takes home a golden statuette.

my fav oscar win from 93.... wanna hear more?

What are you doing to get ready?
Are you throwing a party? Hosting one? Or watching alone in an apartment that is a freaking mess due to furniture delivery and various unfortunate events (*raises hand*)?
Are you able to attempt any normalcy today in the lead up?

Have a super fun night filled with blasts of euphoria... (and take five seconds to "like" the film experience page on facebook so you don't miss any of the after-excitement in March!). Do cheer wildly for your favorites. Do not however jump up and down on the furniture with excitement... unless your party host has expressly condoned it. Otherwise, it's rude.

Since we're talking Oscar Joy, I want you to point you to a virtual gathering at Nick's Flick Picks wherein Nick polled his closest critic friends to list their favorite Oscar wins throughout the years -- only one from each year allowed! I played along. See my list (off the top of my head so some of it might not hold true tomorrow) and the lists of Nick, Guy, Joe, Tim, Colin and Katey. Right now it's just 1996-2011 but there's more to come !

Merry Our Christmas. It's Oscar Night!

In case you're just joining us after weeks away (lame!) here's important tonight-related stuff you might have missed! NAIL BITER RACES |  FINAL OSCAR PREDICTIONS | FILM BITCH AWARDS - The Gold Medals! |  Nathaniel Talks AMOUR on CNNi | ARGO, Second Viewing |  OSCAR'S BIGGEST "LOSERS" and recent live blogs: BAFTA | Spirit Awards 

And On To Next Year?

The Film Experience's annual "April Fools Predictions" will arrive on, when else, April 1st. The best 'year in advance' predictions anywhere on the web if I do say so myself (on that note the Weinstein Co. just picked up the Nicole Kidman vehicle Grace of Monaco and Quvenzhané Wallis just signed for a remake of the musical Annie). Until then March is Reader Appreciation Month with contests and interviews and "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" returns so stick around to get to know the TFE community and reminisce about great older films, this year's High Holy Night (coming right at'cha) and new springtime movies. 

"The Hours" Discussion Pt. 1: Nervous Hands, Ravenous Kisses

[Editor's Note: for the centerpiece of our 10th anniversary celebration of The Hours, I asked Joe Reid and Nick Davis if they'd like to talk about the movie and it turned out they already had. A heretofore unpublished conversation. I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I did! - Nathaniel ]

JOE REID: Three (!) years ago, I had planned out an end-of-decade feature for my own blog, wherein I would converse about my favorite films of 2000-2009 with a selection of writer friends. The logistics of it got away from me, but I did manage to get started. One such conversation lost to history was with my fellow Film Experience Podcast panelist Nick Davis on the subject of The Hours. With the ten-year anniversary of The Hours upon us, I thought I'd dig up this abandoned reflection and let it see the light of day.

***

JOE: The Hours is absolutely on the list of movies from the past decade that I truly, unabashedly loved. I suppose there's something chromosomal about a movie starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Julianne Moore (and Toni Collette, and Allison Janney, and Miranda Richardson). But it's more than just watching all these fantastic actresses hand off scenes to each other for two hours. It's also the suicides and the repression!  

Of course, after signing you on to correspond with me on this entry -- and many thanks for that, by the way -- I checked up and found that your feelings on it were decidedly more ambivalent. Is this an "every time I watch it I feel differently about it" kind of thing, or is it always the same kind of mixed bag for you?

 As for me, while there are a BUNCH of aspects of The Hours I'm hoping we can touch on, for some reason, my most recent screening of the movie made me anxious to mention two things: kitchens and hands. I couldn't stop watching Nicole Kidman's hands, either when Virginia is gripping her pen with a desperately tight claw grip or deep inhaling those cigarettes. And Meryl Streep separating egg yolks as she's unraveling in her kitchen has always been a favorite image.

And that brings me to the whole kitchen thing...

kitchen melodrama and sapphic smooches after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Women Who Lie To Themselves™ Box Set

Geraldine Page in "Interiors"Years ago I took a weekend writing retreat to visit my great friend Nick (who you know and love as the man behind Nick's Flick Picks) and while discussing Julianne Moore in Safe and that weirdly specific mini Jodie Foster genre of Women Trapped in Small Spaces (planes, panic rooms... closets) we agreed that our mutual favorite kind of movie was not Dramas, Comedies, Musicals, or Horror but the rarely discussed Women Who Lie To Themselves™  subgenre -- we had to name it but it is so a genre!

You've seen multiple movies from this collection even if you didn't know it existed. In these awesome films, the female protagonist spends more time conversing with her own self delusion than with any actual co-star. The musical anthem of this celluloid sisterhood is Sally Bowles "Maybe This Time" from Cabaret (1972) and the patron saint is surely Eve from Woody Allen's Interiors (1978) who spends the entire film telling herself and everyone who will listen that her husband who left decades ago still loves her and is coming right back. Geraldine Page is absolutely brilliant in the role and if you haven't seen it you're only lying to yourself about your life being complete.

Recently on twitter Yaseen asked Nick and I for a "Women Who Lie To Themselves Box Set" which Nick than promptly retitled because Nick is brilliant.

The box set will include:

• Birth (2004)
• Far From Heaven (2002)
• Three Women (1977)
• Safe (1995)
• Black Swan (2010)
• Cries and Whispers (1972)
• Notes on a Scandal (2006)
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
• The Story of Adele H (1975)
• The Earrings of Madame de... (1953)
• audio commentary on every film by Rosanna Arquette and the cast of Searching For Debra Winger (2002)
• ...and seven copies of Interiors (1978), one for each lie you regularly tell yourself.

 Would you like to pre-order a copy?

Oscar "P"s and Best Pic Convo

I'm here to direct you to two articles elsewhere. This time of year my candle burns from both ends.

Over at Fandor, Nick Davis and I were invited to have a discussion about the Oscars so we did just that. It's nice to be invited to something publicly that you're always doing anyway privately. In The Big Picture on Best Picture we're talking about the "types" in Best Picture, box office results, how well we think they did at captureing the film year, and more. Hope you enjoy. Meanwhile, over at Tribeca Film, for my penultimate Oscar column, notes on Presenters, Parties and Predictions.