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.)
There are few movie characters as iconic as Lt. Ellen Ripley, the accidental but determined warrior so superbly played by Sigourney Weaver four times over in the five film Aliens franchise (1979-2012). Soon to be six or seven if Ridley pursues his Prometheus sequel and Neill Blomkamp and Sigourney actually make good on their plans to bring Ripley back in 2017 on the heels of their first collaboration Chappie (opening Friday).
While James Cameron's Aliens (1986) hogs most of the attention when it comes to Weaver's franchise headlining work (including a well deserved but very out-of-comfort-zone Oscar nomination for Best Actress) she's actually pretty stellar in all four of the movies. [More...]
All Oscars All The Time Big Group they've taken that 'Oscar Dresses infographic' that was so successful a year ago and updated and expanded it with interactivity AV Club wants the Oscars to add these 11 categories. I say Nay! to most of these. The Academy nixed two of these very recently (Best Casting and Title Design) when they were proposed again David Poland thinks "preferential balloting" makes virtually anything possible in this tight Best Picture race and seems to expect a true spread the wealth night (as do I) Gurus of Gold the full charts in all categories The Atlantic Joe Reid on the lack of connection between Best Picture & Best Actress Vox tries to explain all the confusing Oscar categories - not who will win but the category definitions themselves THR Mo'Nique believes she was blackballed after her Oscar win for Precious for not playing the game and being "difficult". Hollywood is so frustrating. Who cares if she's difficult. That's one of the best performances of all time. Doesn't anyone wanna try bottling lightning again? The Wrap, truly jumping the gun, proposed 20 actors of color and 5 directors for all 25 of the major Oscar nominations for next year's race from films like Creed, Silence, Nina, Lila & Eve, and Crimson Peak
More Movies Keith Gow reviews The Last Five Years and he's much more satisfied with it than I am. One of my friends who is much more critical of modern movie musicals than I also loved it. I am definitely ready for a second look. GMA Jeremy Jordan and Jason Robert Brown perform a Last Five Years number on morning TV Empire 8 secrets from the set of Nightcrawler Dissolve on Neil Blomkamp's plans to direct another Aliens sequel. Sigourney Weaver is planning to return as Ripley. So exciting if we really do get a sixtysomething action heroine but I'm not holding my breath since Ridley Scott is working on a Prometheus sequel, too Interview amazing new photoshoot of Kristen Stewart who really turned it out as an actress this past year. More please First Showing yes it's true Pirates of the Caribbean 5 has started production (Noooooooo) with Javier Bardem wasting more of his time and YA stars Kaya Scoledario and Brenton Thwaites joining the cast The Film Stage Xavier Dolan in the new trailer for Elephant Song - he's just acting this time Details Calum Marsh looks at The Breakfast Club 30 years on In Contention looks at some of the tougher to call races THR Brutally Honest Ballot of an Oscar voter from the PR branch - these things are always a mix of cringeworthy and/or interesting revealing quotes THR Brutally Honest Ballot #2 - this one loves Theory of Everything and admires Boyhood
New Mad Men Trailer! "The Final Episodes"
Because of this people are speculating that the final episodes take place in 1976. People are silly. It's not like that show to jump 7 years. And Matthew Weiner said he always wanted to make a show about the decade of the 1960s and he's always been willing to be anachronistic about music. The movies on the other hand, they're usually right on schedule so I wish I knew what year the final episodes took place in so as to study that year's movies. I want to see Don Draper in a movie theater one last time. Pretty please!
Monty waiting for more cakeOff Cinema Wisdom Nation screw motivation, seek discipline Billboard Madonna speaks, makes journo drink shots BuzzFeed Trans model recreates Adam Levine's famous never-nude shot Towleroad Lady Gaga is engaged to her actor boyfriend Taylor Kinney (The Other Women / Chicago Fire) Playbill the great Victoria Clark (The Light in the Piazza) is doing a diary of her out of town tryouts of Gigi, a reworking of the Oscar winning musical AutoStraddle "50 Shades of Grey Cats". Monty made me include that one. He's breathing very loudly right behind my chair as I type this, surely plotting my murder for the recent vet visit. FTR he is also upset that Jennifer Aniston didn't get nominated for Cake because he was hoping for more edible swag.
New Policy. Though The Film Experience invariably prefers teasers to full trailers on account of our spoiler aversion our Yes No Maybe So is one of our most popular features. So herewith we shall always do Yes No Maybe Sos on only the teaser for films we very much want to see and don't want spoiled and we'll just skip the trailers altogether (I am so grateful I did with Snowpiercer). Other films, we'll wait on the full trailer to do our full duty... especially those movies that were spoiled centuries ago like Exodus: Gods and Kings.
FYI for those of you who haven't read it, the Bible is full of spoilers. It's practically a reality TV show it's so fond of telling you what's coming up next and then what just happened recapping. [More...]
I've been holding on to this picture of Sigourney Weaver as "Tuya" from Exodus for a couple of days without any idea what to say about it other than 'thank god Sigourney's signature directors still love her'. Between Ridley Scott (Alien) and James Cameron (Aliens), Lt. Ellen Ripley will always find her way back to decent roles on the big screen.
But I don't understand the casting of that movie at all. Everyone is SO white, like pasty white. Especially Joel Edgerton as Ramses. In The Ten Commandments that role went to Yul Brynner. Though Brynner was also white, a white Russian to be exact though that sounds alcoholic and we're not talking about how drunk looking at Yul makes me, he had that exotic visual flair that had Hollywood casting him in every conceivable ethnicity. Kind of the way Ben Kingsley who is Indian British is used now, only sexier.
Let's stick with the sexy. The Film Experience loves a good headdress on the big screen. Here are some of the best.
The Wire has a funny report on new Chris Martin / Gwyneth Paltrow rumors i09 the greatest Bride of Frankenstein poster ever /Film Andrew Stanton on the John Carter sequels that will never be My New Plaid Pants suggests that we all rewatch Alexander because Oliver Stone's new cut vastly improves it
Guardian Sigourney Weaver will appear in all three Avatar sequels continuing her fruitful collaboration with James Cameron CHUD on the Dumb and Dumber To poster Guardian the trailer to the beautifully shot Lilting starring Ben Whishaw and one of the most handsome actors you've never heard of (I reviewed it at Sundance) Antagony & Ecstasy one of our most loyal Best Shot supporters finally got around to Pocahontas! The Dissolve sees a statue of Napoleon Dynamite Vice's summer fiction issue features a short story about Lindsay Lohan by James Franco Empire Josh Brolin will co-star with George Clooney in Hail Caesar! a new comedy for the Coen brothers about 1950s Hollywood about scandal coverups of the stars /Film David Fincher and Rooney Mara may reunite for Red Sparrow, a spy thriller
Today's Watch Though perhaps you saw it late last week (what? I can't be everywhere at once). Matt McGorry, the adorable confused soon-to-be father from Orange is the New Black "auditions" for Magic Mike 2
Monday, March 2, 2015 at 11:01AM 
