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.)
It's a brand new week. Ready to get this one started with some pizazz?
Five showbiz anniversaries for May 8th as mood boosters
2009 Julia opens in limited release in the US. It's arguably Tilda Swinton's greatest performance and also as against-type as it comes for the actress who was surprised Erick Zonca thought of her for the motor-mouthed titular sociopath. If you haven't seen it, what in the universe are you waiting for?
In its honor today: Do something totally atypical today, surprise yourself!
1992Poison Ivy opens in theaters, serving as Drew Barrymore's buzzy "comeback"... yet she was only 17 years old. Child stars grow up fast, y'all...
The Wrap Glee's Chris Colfer is Struck By Lightning in a darkly comic high school movie which he also wrote. It's a Tribeca hit. Will it transfer outside the festival? Art of the Title Saul Bass' work on Bunny Lake is Missing Stale Popcorn starts a 1994 project (great year) with one of my personal favorites Reality Bites and, yes, I think that's Winona Ryder's single greatest performance.
Movie|Line asks you to a caption a new pic of Nicole Kidman from Paperboy. Damn, I wish I'd seen this for Say What before they did. MNPP (NSFW) Les infidèles with Jean Dujardin gets even more notoriety: Dujardin takes it like a man MNPP ...and of course Jean Dujardin is all hilarious about it in a promo Self Styled Siren is hosting another film preservation blog-a-thon and as a little appetizer a piece on Farley Granger and Alfred Hitchcock. Ugh, I love Rope (1948) so much. Chicago Tribune yesterday's it girl Rooney Mara replacing last week's it girl Carey Mulligan in the new untitled Spike Jonze movie, his first since Where the Wild Things Are. (No word on if today's it girl JLaw was ever discussed).
Four Avengers moments Pajiba the most deplorable comments on a negative review of The Avengers on rotten tomatoes. Every time I read a piece on superhero movies not getting the respect they deserve I think: the fanboys bring it on themselves. In Contention Kris stumps for The Avengers under the "best ensemble" category at SAG Joe Utichi interviews Joss Whedon on his ups and downs and downs and downs and back up again in Hollywood
Finally... What if The Avengers had been made in 1978?
My ears. My ears. Bleeding. (The eyes on the other hand enjoy their 70s kitsch)
Drawn Need Christmas Gift ideas! Here's favorite art books of 2011. Love to see "Hark! a Vagrant" and "Amazing Everything" listed, both of which we've linked up before. Several movie books also make the list including The Art of Pixar and Saul Bass. Movie|Line is still on Team Uggie (The Artist) even if the dog may soon retire. In Contention Andy Serkis on MoCap performances and Oscar. toh! Zoinks. I want to go to this restored Wings (1927) screening so bad. Someone buy me a roundtrip to Los Angeles. The silent classic was the first to win Best Picture and let's just say that ol' Oscar started on a high note. Especially since he essentially gave two Best Pic prizes that year and they other one Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is also wondrous.
Gold Derby on the opening weekend performance of a "need to see this" movie like Shame. Stale Popcorn the ladies who lunch with The Ides of March. Hear hear on the Giamatti/Hoffman business. Telegraph Daniel Radcliffe joins the bizarrely long list of actors to play Beat poet Allen Ginsberg . The Guardin Pixar House inspired by Up goes for $400,000 Pajiba 'movies that should've made an assload more at the box office than they did in 2011'. Interesting list though I'd argue that the gross that 50/50 did receive was much higher than one could reasonably expect given that it was a) a tearjerker for guys and guys aren't supposed to like tearjerkers and b) a comedy ABOUT CANCER. The movie should be proud of its gross.
The Wrap super-duper insanely great news for Meryl Streep fans. The living legend will reprise her guffaw-worthy Camilla Bowner character on the second season of Web Therapy. If you never saw the original Web Therapy shorts that played on the internet (before it was a Showtime series) she played a reparative therapist who was attempting to 'cure' Lisa Kudrow's character's husband of his homosexuality.
Top Ten o' the Day - David Edelstein I lurve top ten lists. It matters not whether I find them (individually) nonsensical, just right or aggravating. There's something in me that adores the cataloguing of each year's work. So in each day's link-roundup, I'll be bringing you my favorite bit from whichever top ten list I've just been reading. Here's Edelstein on Beginners:
Melancholy and madcap, Mike Mills’s inventive weave of past and present ushers you into the mind of its hero (a superb Ewan McGregor) as he agonizes over his emotional inheritance. As the dad who comes out of the closet at 75, Christopher Plummer is light and lithe, buoyed by his new life among the boys.
I also really dig his question-mark description of Alexander Payne even though The Descendants isn't coming anywhere near my list.
Vanity Fairy Paul Mazursky, who made one of my favorite pictures (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice) recalls its critical reception and then starts his own film reviewing for VF: J. Edgar and Melancholia. Wall Street Journal Baseball legend Yogi Berra sees Moneyball and reminisces about his own history with the movies. Fun piece. Coming Soon Emma Stone's opening monologue on SNL last night. Andy Samberg's Spider-Man arrives to interrupt her with a new script. Love this bit.
Emma: Ok, Andy, aren't you just redoing the same monologue that Kirsten Dunst did like 10 years ago? Andy: Uhhh, yeah. Aren't you just redoing the exact same Spider-Man movie from 10 years ago?
Hee.
Awards Daily on the unshakeable charms of The Artist. Thelma Adams falls for Kirsten Dunst's beautiful bitterness in Melancholia. Playlist multihyphante showbiz woman Rie Rasmussen is gaga for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained which will "revolutionize Hollywood." In Contention looks back at early Charlize Theron, pre Oscar Charlize in fact. Funny or Die Ryan Gosling, the strong and very silent type. Serious Film on the makeup in J. Edgar MNPP while looking at the new EW cover of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo this is what your eyes did. Towleroad I had a brief chat with Dustin Lance Black about his screenwriting work on Milk and J. Edgar.
stagey NYT Hugh Jackman on Broadway review La Daily Musto Hugh Jackman on Broadway review
Finally... Let's end with this tribute to the title design of Saul Bass from Art of the Title...
There are few things we enjoy more than a good title sequence. Which have been your favorite this year? FYC me for those Film Bitch Awards which begin sooner than you think.
Monday, May 8, 2017 at 12:45PM 
