Horror Actressing: Sofia Boutella in "Climax"

by Jason Adams

Andrzej Żuławski's 1981 freak-out flick Possession, starring Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill, has spent the past couple of decades being rediscovered as a major work of art -- Adjani won Best Actress at Cannes and the Cesars that year but the film was nearly chopped in half for its U.S. release (from 126 minutes down to 81) making an already cryptic and eccentric story totally incomprehensible. In short it bombed, and critics here in the US sneered. Still one has the feeling that the film's become a foundational text nowadays, and this year's Gaspar Noé movie Climax, with its gloriously unhinged central performance from Sofia Boutella, feels like Adjani's LSD-soaked descendant.

A professional dancer before becoming an actress it's only natural that Boutella would nail the physical requirements necessary to play Selva, the lead figure in Climax's troupe of overripe boogie-woogers who get more than they bargained for from the homemade sangria served at their snow-bound after-party...

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Salim Gives Thanks

Team Experience members were invited to give thanks this week so you'll be hearing from a few of us. Here's Salim Garami...

What's good?

2018 has proven to be a very busy year for yours truly, hence my radio silence here in The Film Experience (I didn't have much time to write on my own personal blog Motorbreath). But it has also proven to be a surprisingly rewarding year for me, both in my personal life after much hassle earlier in the year and run-around later in the year (I have been going back-and-forth between not two but THREE U.S. cities for professional reasons) and in cinema

I think 2018 has been one of the best moviegoing years I've experienced in my whole life. So many surprises and experiments, so many crowdpleasers where I am proudly on that bandwagon, a couple of Oscar contenders that I actually enjoyed. And there's no shortage of music, television, or literature from this year amusing me in some way or another as well so let's dig in...

• Comedic songwriter/teleplay writer/critical writer extraordinaire Demi Adeyugibe has blessed us with not one but TWO funny "fake" credit songs for the nerdiest tentpoles of the summer: Future imitation "Snap" for Avengers: Infinity War and the compulsively catchy Childish Gambino imitation in "L-A-N-D-O" for Solo: A Star Wars Story.

• Tom Cruise trying to figure out where the "payload" is at and finding a giant switch saying "payload" in the helicopter chase climax of Mission: Impossible - Fallout...

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Queer TIFF: "Climax"

by Chris Feil

The first third of Climax achieves the most gobsmacking of feats: it convinces you, and wholeheartedly, that provocateur Gaspar Noé might actually have gotten his shit together. After languorous attempts to shock like Love, overly lethargic flashes of innovation like Enter the Void, and burdensome levels of grimness like Irreversible, his new film emerges as something both audacious and (most importantly) succinct. But jokes on us because this is, after all, a Gaspar Noé experience. It also happens to be the best one yet.

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Cannes Carpet #3: Thandie, Ava, Jane, and lots of Kristen Stewart

by Nathaniel R

Kristen, Laura, Jane, Thandie

We've already gawked at Cannes beauty thrice (Jury Arrival, Red Carpet Collection 1, Red Carpet Lineup 2) and now the final group of 16 delicious gowns before closing night. (And yes we'll eventually get to Cate Blanchett!). Let's start with these four: Kristen Stewart, Laura Harrier, Jane Fonda, and Thandie Newton...

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