Two (Links) of Every Kind

Directors
Empire Darren Aronofsky's Noah is having post-production / test screening trouble. Duh! Like evangelicals would love Black Swan or Requiem or or or 
Huffington Post has a candid interview with Alan Taylor the director of Thor: The Dark World. Apparently there's a shit ton of exposition in the movie. I wish it wasn't locked yet because cut cut cut  

Actor
Vulture I would have done so much better on this Brad Pitt Hair Quiz (I scored 11/15) if it was about which girlfriend he was imitating with which red carpet look
EW I was thinking Emile Hirsch was getting a little pudgy recently... now he's putting it to (potentially) good use: he's signed to star in a John Belushi biopic. Guess he'd like to get a little closer to Oscar than he got with Into the Wild

Actresses
Backstage remembers Penélope Cruz's brilliant career makeover in Volver  
Cinema Blend Noomi Rapace taking on seven roles in sci fi flick What Ever Happened to Monday? This is totally messing with my plans to continue being uninterested in her.

Bests & Worsts
IndieWire stands up for 10 actresses that are running in longshot position for year-end honors
Salon calls The Counselor "The Worst Movie Ever Made"  

LGBT
Guardian marketing gay films for straight people
Queerty has a two parter on the most realistic gay sex scenes on film

Friends
Nicks Flick Picks does his usual "anticipation" post set to diva beats. These are always amazing to return to for updates
My New Plaid Pants wraps up his amazing "13 Snakes of Halloween series. You need to watch them slithe

Today's Visuals
Anne Elizabeth Moore and Gabrielle Gambo investigate dozens of horror movies and discover disturbing gender/racial politics (in comic book form)

Click the photo for "The Truly Scary Politics of Horror Movies"

and Todrick Hall has fun with Disney Villianesses in this Chicago spoof "Spell Block Tango" 

Curio: Monsters' Day Off

Alexa here. With spooky season almost behind us, it only seems right to feature these illustrations of various film monsters on their day off by Chicago illustrator Kiersten Essenpries.  Ever wonder how Michael Myers keeps his jumper so crease-free? How Pinhead makes a little extra cash? Whether Leatherface works in any medium besides flesh? Kiersten has the answers after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Link He Wrote

GQ Michael Fassbender profiled
Deadline Octavia Spencer in a Murder She Wrote reboot? Maybe because I think procedurals are the most formulaic of all genres and entirely dependable on personality to be distinctive at all this sounds like a great idea to me. To others (Angela Lansbury super fans) it will surely sound like sacrilege.
MCN Late October and still no Best Picture frontrunner?
Empire Team Gattaca reuniting: Andrew Niccol and Ethan Hawke making another film together. Call me when Uma & Jude join and we'll talk.

 

Anatomy of a Scene Blue is the Warmest Color I'm bookmarking this one and waiting till I've seen the movie. Hopefully today
Antagony & Ecstasy on Dario Argento's Dracula 3D 
MNPP Jamie Dornan has been cast in 50 Shades of Grey but you need to know who appreciated him first. Besides Keira Knightley
Pajiba amputee Josh Sundquist wins Halloween again. Incredible costume! 
Coming Soon an unfortunate typecasting niche: John Ridley, who wrote a beautiful script for 12 Years a Slave has signed on to the remake of Ben-Hur which is, in case you've forgotten, also a slavery narrative.
The Advocate on the Oscar eligible LGBT documentary hopeful Bridegroom 

Off Cinema
New Yorker "the dream of keeping poor people from seeing the doctor must never die." I love this but it's also sad that political satire barely has to try these days to be accurate!
Vanity Fair "The Ronan Farrow Love & Politics Dreamboat Hour"

Todays' Watch
The sounds of Gravity... (I'm not sure if it's going to win Best Picture but it seems likely that it walks away with the most statues even if it doesn't.)

Horror Fest 2013
Though horror is not among my favorite movie genres I really had a great time viewing a few seminal movies and working on the Best Horror Pre-Exorcist / Post-Exorcist group lists that we did for this haunted month. I'm realizing, as I stated on the latest podcast (one of my favorite episodes actually!), that maybe I like horror films more than I thought but that it's actually just the slasher sub-genre that I hate. Since I came of movie age in the 80s, I now understand that I equate the entire genre with slashers, for whom I have no use. I just find those movies repulsive and politically suspect (so much sexism and conservativism) and I just need more artistry in my movies.

But anyway my point is this: two members of the team shared more at their personal blogs and you should read them: Michael's Top Ten Lists with commentary ; Jason's own Pre-Pazuzu / Post-Pazuzu  lists... and if you like horror Jason is one of THE voices on the web you should be obsessing on. I actually credit him with opening my heart up to the genre slowly over the past few years, like one rib at a time ...now that it's open, don't get stabby with it!

P.S. I ♥ Shelley Duvall in The Shining so much -- f*** everyone who thinks she's terrible in it! -- and that is my last word on these horror lists we did for this season.

Team Top 10: Horror Films AFTER "The Exorcist"

It's Amir here, bringing you the second episode of this month's Team Top Ten. Last week we looked at the best horror films made before The Exorcist. This week it's time for everything that came after that seminal classic. Moreso than in the previous list, Team Experience members have agreed on canonical titles, barring an exception or two. This isn't to say there weren't any surprises. We decided against compiling a preliminary list of eligible titles before voting - precisely to avoid total agreement on our choices - and lo and behold, differences in opinion over what is considered horror lead to some major eyebrow-raisers; I'm already anticipating your comments about the absence of Jaws. But that's the fun in list-making.

Without further ado join us for the haunted house, serial killers, and terrifying isolation of...

The Top Ten Best
Post-Exorcist Horror Films

Click to read more ...

Crazy/Possessed Ballerinas. Are There Any Other Kinds?

In preparation for our two part Horror Best Listing (pre-Exorcist and post-Exorcist which arrives tonight) I caught up with a few classic titles. One of them, briefly discussed on the latest podcast, was Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977). I can't say I took to it exactly, despite being partial to films which boozily strip naked and beg their Production Designer & Cinematographer to f*** them.

slumber parties in horror movies? never a good idea

Suspiria (have you seen it?) starts sort of well, flying right into an unnatural rainstorm with a weirdly off kilter urgency as ballerina Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) arrives in Germany to attend an prestigious ballet academy. But those first two kills are so yuck making the intro a mixed bag for me. For its middle section, which I assume is where the film's classic status derives, the movie does little cul-de-sacs in creepy/garish atmospherics punctuated by two perversely inventive murders. But then, oops, time is up. For its last trick, Suspiria speeds through a dud finale with mood-killing exposition (how was Udo Kier ever this young!?) and badly dated visual effects. By the time the credits appear, it's lost pretty much all of its intermittent unnerving power. For me at least; I understand others really do dig it.

After Suspiria ended, my mind wandered to a more general cinematic question: Are there any silver screen ballerinas that are happy?

See, it seems like screen ballerinas are always batshit crazy whether they're...

Suspiria

...possessed by the occult

The Red Shoes

...dancing feverishly as if possessed by toe shoes

Black Swan

...having psychotic feathered breaks

The Turning Point

...or engaging in neurotic Oscarbait-offs. 

Can you think of any well adjusted ballerinas in fiction?
And if you can't whose your favorite nutjob ballerina?