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.)
After brief consideration of an annotated poster, The Film Experience's official position is that we actually don't know enough about the new Star Wars (by choice!) nor do we want to do the research so as to insure some sense of discovery in the the movie theater. Most of you weren't born yet but I saw Empire Strikes Back in the theater and I cannot tell you the seismic jolt that shook the sold out theater during the "Luke, I am your father" business. Filmmakers and even marketers used to understand the power of a good surprise in a crowded room.
• Asking the important question: Is Captain America a virgin still? [Pajiba] • Damnit. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have delayed the opening of their new museum. I'm so excited about this but we're talking 2018 now [Variety] • Queen of Dystopia Jennifer Lawrence (who should thus know) has declared that if Donald Trump becomes President it will be "the end of the world". This may have been the most intelligent thing the verbally uninhibited actress has ever said [AV Club] • 71's awesome debut director Yann Demange will director a true crime story about a teenage undercover informant - they're looking for a quick start in 2016. Yay! [Deadline]
• John Waters might finally make another movie. But he won't talk about it yet! [Speakeasy] • Black Widow is getting a new comic book in 2016. Why can't the movies understand that she deserves her own? [Comics Alliance] • Harry Potter's voice actor in Brazil (Caio César Ignácio Cardoso de Melo), who also works as a cop, has been killed. Tragic. [The Guardian] • 10 reveals from Joss Whedon's Avengers: Age of Ultron commentary including why he put them in marble in the end credits (I personally ♥ed that) [Coming Soon] • What the hell is going on with Xander (Nicholas Brendan) from Buffy? Violence and arrests right after rehab? So sad. Hope he pulls out of this tailspin. [Variety] • Joseph Gordon-Levitt will likely headline a new thriller In Sight from screenwriter Katie Lovejoy after a bidding war [Tracking Board] • Handsome* New Zealander hired to lift Mjölnir. Taika Waititi of What We Do in the Shadows fame will direct Thor: Ragnarok [The Wrap] • An interesting review of Janet Jackson's new album via Rich Juzwiak. I wish the talented Juzwiak didn't have to diss Madonna to complement her but dissing that icon is as natural to humans as breathing. (sigh) [Defamer] • Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tatiana Maslany, Olivia Cooke, and Gina Rodriguez are all in the mix for the two key female roles in Star Wars Episode VIII. That's a formidable shortlist of strong popular diverse and young actresses. Let's hope the two roles are good and not just window dressing. John Boyega will chemistry test with them. [/Film]
*What? I met him one time at a festival for his second directorial feature Boy and to my surprise was struck semi-incoherent. I am only human.
This weekend sees the release of 2015's latest animated feature, Hotel Transylvania 2, and it is somewhat hard to get excited for it. Being an animated sequel will do that.
Being a movie where all the shots were being called by Adam Sandler will do that, too. Being an animated sequel under the control of Adam Sandler in the same calendar year that witnessed the deeply repugnant Sandler vehicles The Cobbler and Pixelswill do that most of all. But let me put on my bravest face and try to tell you about the thing that is noble and interesting about Hotel Transylvania 2 despite all the obvious ticks against it: it's a Genndy Tartakovsky picture.
"And who is Genndy Tartakovsky?" you may now be asking yourself. I very much hope you are, since answering that question is the reason we're here now. The simple answer is that Tartakovsky is one of the great stylists in contemporary American animation.
Mic Manuel on the transgressive feminism of Bring it On 15 years later Grantland Mark Harris on four takeaways from this summer's box office - great piece as usual Stuff this piece is old but I was shocked to learn (sorry if I'm way late) that the 80s posters (like Madonna's debut album) in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night weren't real. I loved that vampire bedroom! Awards Daily reshares the Lady in the Van trailer. I guess it's back on for 2015? Such a crowded year for Best Actress already but I'm expecting an onslaught of "weak year for best actress" pieces any moment since we get those every year even when it's a good one A Fistful of Films shares his personal awards from 1988 - fun choices including Married to the Mob and Salaam Bombay both of which are underloved
Empire I'm trying to avoid reading about the new Star Wars -- doesn't anybody like to be surprised in the movie theater anymore? -- but I ended up clicking on this piece about Kylo Ren (with the jagged lightsaber) and now I'm more excited about the premise behind the villains Empire Léa Seydoux offered female lead in Channing Tatum's Gambit Pajiba catches us up on what's going on with Tom Hardy's TV projects including a new one called "Taboo". (Somehow Tom Hardy is making time for TV every year despite his ever increasing In-Demandness in big movies, too) Guardian the great Jacques Audiard will make his English Language debut with The Sisters Brothers. John C Reilly headlines. Audiard's past leads have tended to be fascinating dangerously sexy actors like Matthias Schoenarts, Romain Duris, Vincent Cassel and Tahar Rahim. John C Reilly as follow up?
Stage Door Playbill Kevin Bacon will star in a stage adaptation of Rear Window in October. THR fun guests at Taylor Swift's Monday concert including Ellen Degeneres Playbill Top US colleges for Theater Majors? from NYU to Florida State via the highly specific metric of which colleges are represented on Broadway right now Theater Mania Steven Pasquale on a painful audition. He has been working on stage and TV forever and somehow people don't realize how incredible his singing voice is. Movie musical please.
For LOLZ "Rock Dentistry" fun tumblr of the moment The Poke lost Stephen King books recovered. Need to read "Brian's Arse" EW "how the internet would have GIF'ed the first MTV Music Video Awards" - the title is more exciting than the GIFS chosen but a highly worthy topic and of course, the internet would have GIF'ed the hell out of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" and "Hi, I'm Marvel... and I'm DC"
Film School Rejects on Comic Con leaks and what the studios should worry about instead Arts.Mic Netflix has the best opening titles Empire Jennifer Lawrence attached to The Rosie Project, a romantic story of a man with aspergers and a free spirited woman who inspires him /FilmX-Men Apocalypse teaser posters Queerty interviews Alex Keshishian on the seismic impact of Madonna's Truth or Dare (1991) back in the day. It changed lives! My friends and I still quote it regularly to this day.
Freier Fall 2 -- um, WHAT? They're raising money for a sequel to that very hot LGBT movie that's streaming on Netflix that stars Max Reimelt from Sense8. Awards Daily Sasha compares Oscars to the presidential primaries Guardian one million dollar reward in the case of Judy Garland's missing ruby slippers i09 first look at HBO's series version of the old sci fi classic Westworld FSR checking in with Hayao Miyazaki who is still working -- albeit on short films -- and experimenting at 74. Variety Guillermo del Toro on his female centric Gothic horror, Crimson Peak
Off Cinema B&N Reads Esther Bloom on inappropriate books she read as a tween. I didn't do this but I remember the whispered conversations in school about books we weren't supposed to be reading. Playbill interviews two of the most talented people in the world: Sutton Foster and Jonathan Groff and talks tv learning curves, their summer productions at City Center, and Groff's fanboy obsession with Foster before he himself was famous. It's sweet
Pic of the Day "Chewie's Angels" (from Comic Con via HitFix) Mwahhhaaaaahaaa. L-O-V-E.
Monday, October 19, 2015 at 10:30AM 
