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.)
An unexpected treat from our neighboring country to the north and a hat tip to Kevin LaForest for sharing it with us.
Two of Canada's greatest directors Jean-Marc Vallée (Wild) and Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners) recently posed for the photographer Olivier Ciappa's anti-homophobia series which photographs heterosexual celebrities as gay couples. (For a long time I actually thought Vallée was gay because his breakout hit C.R.A.Z.Y., which Canada submitted for the Oscars back in its day a decade ago, was a fine LGBT coming out drama in addition to the other things it was good at, but it turns out he's straight.)
Vallée is riding quite an Oscar wave at the moment post The Dallas Buyers Club and Wild and his next film Demolition with Jake Gyllenhaal premieres at TIFF. (It's planning on 2016 for its US release but don't expect that plan to stick if reviews are sensational.) Villeneuve's career has been building for some time as well. Canada has actually submitted his work three times in the foreign language film category and the last of them Incendies (2010) was nominated for the big show. His newest feature Sicario (see that intense trailer) stars Emily Blunt and Benicio del Toro in a drug trafficking drama and could be one of the fall's mightiest films and a possible Oscar player. We shall see.
We have heard your complaints about not featuring the Room trailer just yet. It was not from lack of love for Brie Larson (who improves every single movie she's in) as you'll remember we were among her greatest cheerleaders for a Best Actress bid for Short Term 12. It was merely lack of time. But do you think she'll get closer to the Best Actress lineup this year?
The Room trailer follows this poster along with our Yes No Maybe So commentary. That plus the new Tom McCarthy film Spotlight, and its all-star cast, which is also tipped as 'Oscar bound' or at least testing very very well...
Vox has an article on how binge-watching is changing television -- and not just on Netflix. Some interesting thoughts if too repetitive Variety Lupita Nyong'o headed for an Off Broadway play called "Eclipsed" - I'm still stunned and disappointed that her film docket isn't full through 2018. Hollywood is so f***ed up. Vulture it's somehow fitting that the news that Tom Holland has already shot his first Spider-Man appearance in Captain America: Civil War broke in an interview about Chris Hemsworth's huge prosthetic penis in Vacation. The world is a horny voyeur for all of Marvel Studios's masturbatory impulses
/Film oh noooo a Robin Hood origin story in the works? I hate origin stories so much. Hate them hate them. When will our global obsession with "origins" of characters we already know end? Just tell a story about them! Broadway BlogBent, the powerful play about gay men in the Holocaust is getting its first major revival in some time. Plays through August in LA. Go and report back! Jake Shears from the Scissor Sisters is even in it! Anyone remember the film version with Clive Owen? Variety finally Ryan Kwanten books another series (I was wondering why he wasn't highly in-demand post True Blood). He'll play one of two leads in Amazon's new Western series Edge. I forsee a problem: People in westerns tend to keep their clothes on. /Film Both of David Fincher's "straight to series" shows for HBO are apparently in trouble The Guardian celebrates Jeremy Renner's five best performances. Well someone had too... he may be infinitely more famous now but his respectability as an actor seems to have taken a serious plunge once he attempted four different franchises leaving tough drama far behind Kenneth in the (212) rewatches the great LGBT flick Edge of Seventeen, which relates to a recent study on sexuality and friendshipe
Peculiar WTFs? Pajiba on The Shroud of Cruise in a pop-up church in Florida Boy Culture does Guy Ritchie require all his wives to be branded? NPR here's a weird one. A 80 year old much decorated tough guy Marine looks back on his secret: he was the voice of Disney's wee fawn Bambi
Oscar Season Cometh Variety Student Academy Award finalists in animation, documentary and more. One of them is actually from BYU this year (my alma mater) and thats... "Ram's Horn" by Jenna Hamzawi TOH! reports that Cary Fukunaga's Beasts of No Nation is getting a short theatrical release after all, presumably for Oscar play. Which is too bad for me because only heavy Oscar talk could convince me to sit through something this unpleasant/brutal. Here's the teaser
Awards DailyTruth, the true story about Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) and Dan Rather (Robert Redford) and a story about George W Bush that nearly ended their careers, arrives in October. (I'm actually a bit surprised by this announcement since Cate already has a leading role in the mix this year.) Speaking of release dates... David Poland resets the field with departures and arrivals. This is the part that interested me most on account of 'you never know'. Some movies always get pushed back and losing two or three of these would be impactful to say the least in the communal speculation.
My best guess, based on past histories of the directors and companies and/or absence of promo materials is that 2015 loses three of these four: Silence, Concussion, Snowden, and I Saw the Light.
[UPDATE: We have been asked to remove the posters]
I currently have the film predicted in all five top categories (Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor, Actress) as well as three more craft categories. Is this putting too much faith in it, too little or just right? How bullish are you feeling about this one? It's certainly timely in the year of Caitlin's coming out party.
Can Eddie Redmayne can be the first actor to pull off consecutive wins since Tom Hanks 21 years ago?
Jurassic World just beat The Avengers box office tally to become the third highest grosser of all time (when you don't adjust for inflation) which has Awards Daily wringing its hands over what the Academy should do to better honor the types of films people pay to see. As you may have guessed The Film Experience has strong feelings about this topic (including suggested new Oscar categories) all of which we will share with you right now...
Tuesday, August 4, 2015 at 11:30AM 
