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.)
On this day in history as it relates to the movies...
1461 Edward IV is crowned King of England. Over a dozen actors will play him from silent film to TV miniseries including Roy Dotrice (The Wars of the Roses), John Wood (Richard III), and Max Irons (The White Queen) but despite awards-voters fetish for royalty porn this role has never resulted in an Oscar, Tony or Emmy nomination. 1838 Queen Victoria is crowned. Emily Blunt reenacts the ascenscion for Young Victoria (2009) receiving her third of five Golden Globe nominations (she's won once). Oscar, though, has yet to notice her gifts. When Oscar, when? What do you require?...
The New Yorker pays tribute to Garry Shandling who passed away suddenly on Thursday Salon remembers the polarizing response to David Lynch's Blue Velvet 30 years ago Lee Pace Network they did a "posterized" of sorts on Lee Pace's filmography only with gifs - how many have you seen? I've only seen 7 but he sure is nice to look at Washington Post fascinating story on Hollywood's latest beauty trend: expensive post-production digital retouching Vulture interviews RuPaul /Film so sad but HBO's Togetherness starring Mark Duplass and Melanie Lynskey has been cancelled. Playbill awwww. Hairspray and Smash composer and 5 time Oscar nominee Marc Shaiman got married. Patti LuPone, Nathan Lane, Bette Midler, and Whoopi were guests!
Meta Humans MTV Teo remembers Batman Returns "There is only one true Batman movie, one Batmovie to rule them all." Amen. Comics Alliance Marvel & Disney join other companies planning to boycott business with the state of Georgia if the governor doesn't veto the recently passed anti-gay law Vulture asks celebrities to pick Batman or Superman in a fight. Michael Shannon's, the former general Zod, answer is the greatest Film Freak Central amazing free associative depressive review of BvS by Walter Chaw Terry's Fabrics suggests you decorate your room w/ Batman or Superman accoutrements (to make sure you have nightmares about the movie lasting even longer?) Comics Alliance thinks Wonder Woman's MVP status in the new film is not enough to justify the treatment of the other female characters i09 you can explore Batman's lair using Google Street View. YouTube LOL. Sad Affleck hearing about the Batman v Superman reviews EW Warner Bros DC universe movies schedule through 2020
Today's Watch Batman v Terminator from Captain McKay. A fun little stop motion short using actual action figures. And it fits with Easter's ressurection theme, kinda, too.
ICYMI The Oscars channel on YouTube added a ton of clips and speeches from last month's ceremony a couple of days ago
This review originally appeared in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad
Just over a hundred years ago the movie serial was born. The stories were divided up into small chapters and kids would return each week to the movie theater to see how the cliffhanger endings were resolved. And then they’d watch the feature presentation. Cut to: March, 2016. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is now open in theaters. There’s no serial preceding it but it is one. While Warner Bros, the studio that owns the DC heroes, has several superhero shows on television and stresses that they’re unrelated to the movies, the lines are ever blurrier betwen the two mediums. In fact, Batman and Superman actually both had movie serials in the 1940s. The most popular movies seventy years later are all what you’d call “franchises”. That’s code name for a very expensive serial which doesn’t air weekly but annually. And you have to see them in movie theaters.
With serials/franchises/TV shows you’re perpetually aware that there will be another episode. So the heroes are never really in danger; contractually they’ll be back next episode/season. But let’s not leap tall buildings in a single bound into the future. Is Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice a worthy movie or satisfying episode on its own?
Awards Daily pays tribute to Jane Fonda (Youth) and Lily Tomlin (Grandma) as we all should. Weekly. (Daily? Hourly?) People introduces new princess 14 year old Auli'i Cravalho who voices Disney's Moana Jezebel "Today we are all Frances McDormand drinking wine on a toilet" Amen!
Interview Magazine has really been really topping itself lately. Now they've got Jeff Bridges talking to the iconic cinematographer Roger Deakins (Sicario). Thus begins the hard push to get him his long overdue Oscar I suppose. We interviewed him for True Grit and he was a good chat! The Bitter Script Reader thinks The Martian screenplay is a great example of how to write obstacles for characters that engage the viewer in the same "oh shit" living of them as plans fall apart Film School Rejects tears up over Room and appreciates the Mother & Child thread running through many films this year i09 is (rightly) horrified by what Frank Miller has done to Superman in a new comic book cover Variety thinks its time Oscar voters caught up to Love and Mercy and Straight Outta Compton
Taylor (left) and Rodriguez (right) the stars of TANGERINEP.S. First Trans Actress Oscar Campaign You may have heard (from everywhere) that Magnolia Pictures is launching the first ever Oscar campaign for transgender actresses - the spirited girls from the awesome Tangerine (a film which we've recommended often). TFE actually broke this news first (albeit in early "we might do this" planning stages) but we were asked to remove the reference to it, post publication, from our James Ransome interview since he wasn't supposed to talk about just yet. We get no respect I tell you -- even when we heartily support a film from its first screening!
Anyway, if you haven't seen the film yet do so the first chance you get. Kitana Kiki Rodriguez (who plays vengeful hot-tempered Sin-Dee) will be pushed for Best Actress and Mya Taylor (her much calmer best friend Alexandra) will be campaigned as a Supporting Actress but... you know how these same gender movies go, that's total Category Fraud bullshit since you can't have one without the other. They're like a trans Thelma & Louise only with less of a crime spree and no wheels of their own; these girls have to settle for the indignities of public transport (those bus scenes. LOL) and walking in L.A.
It would be a lie to say that The Film Experience has been anxiously awaiting the latest trailer from Zach Snyder. But life can surprise you and the newly released Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice promo literally begins with this image of Oscar Winning Diva Holly Hunter!
Today is a day for truth."
And her line reading is so over-the-top IMPORTANT that I want it on a Vine loop. Like Jessica Lange screaming "Knotty Pine" or something. Is it too much to ask that Holly's Senator is like Cristal/Showgirls self aware of what kind of movie she is in?
For now we are free to imagine that this movie is actually an action drama about Senator Holly Hunter's vendetta against Superman wherein she cosplays Wonder Woman (briefly glimpsed though it's never clear who she is fighting in her cutaways) to lay waste to him. Featuring Oscar nominees Diane Lane and Amy Adams! (Those grim self-important steroid warriors are just there to sell tickets to fanboys and muscle-queens!)
So let's Yes No and Maybe So it this thing (okay the real thing - sigh) after the jump...
Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at 7:15AM 
On this day in history as it relates to the movies...
