World's Linkiest

The Guardian a deleted pre-coronation scene between sisters Anna and Elsa in Frozen
Antagony & Ecstasy Tim on Muppets Most Wanted. I liked the movie more than he but this is why I hired him for TFE. Such an incisive film critic.  
Pride Source interviews Elaine Stritch about Rock Hudson, The Golden Girls that might have been and her gay fandom
Playbill offers up "top ten reasons why we love Sutton Foster" I cosign on all of them except for maybe #10 since I didn't see that one.

In Contention Exodus, that new Moses picture with Christian Bale, gets a new title
NPR on the recent spate of bible movies
Kotaku Joss Whedon already apologizing for Avengers Age of Ultron filming chaos
Pajiba you haven't forgotten about Tom Hardy have you? 
The Playlist ranks 20 great continuous shots in film history from The Earrings of Madame D (1953) through the opening of The Player (1992) and on to Gravity (2013) with many stops inbetween
GroupThink a guide to YA Dystopian novels. (I'm surprised how many of them have yet to be filmed but I guess they're publishing them as fast as people can write them) 

Today's Must Watch
Filmmaker IQ has created an informative 15 minute short on the history of the movie trailer in all its forms

The History of the Movie Trailer from FilmmakerIQ.com on Vimeo.

P.S. Very good news: Richard Linklater's Boyhood, which I reviewed at Sundance, will be hitting US screens proper on July 11th. Not too long to wait for this 12 years in the making movie. 

Raiders of the Lost Link

Total Film Idina Menzel on the long delayed Wicked movie adaptation
AV Club a Hilarious takedown of Nikki Finke's awful couching of Nelson Mandela's passing (RIP) in movie terms 
Boy Culture Happy birthday Boy Culture. Matt selects his 100 favorite posts from 8 years of blogging
The Onion "Google Streep View Panorama" LOL! (This could not be more appropriate to share at The Film Experience since we're always discussing Meryl Streep's Ubiquity). 

i09 Disney buys Indiana Jones. all the franchises will soon belong to them [insert evil laugh]
Playbill Sutton Foster will lead another TV show. This one is not a musical though... boo.
Playbill but another Broadway diva Alice Ripley will be starring in a film called Sugar which she'll do music for. Yay.
MNPP Which is hotter, Brad Pitt edition
me says wishes there were people of color in Frances Ha. I remember people had the same complaint about Girls and Woody Allen films before it. NYC is a very multi-ethnic place but movies and tv are less so
EOnline Mandy Patinkin Holla! He shaved off his beard
Boston Online the upstart critics group in Boston (not to be confused with the 32 year old institution that is the Boston Society of Film Critics) has given nearly 50% of their 2nd annual awards to 12 Years a Slave
Coming Soon Have you heard that Brie Larson and Emilia Clarke are the two finalists for the role of Sarah Connor in a Terminator reboot? Allow me to dry heave a little at the idea of rebooting a series that has already had three lives and whose concept allows for sequels on end without pretending the (great) originals never happened. Ugh!  Normally I'd root for my favorite actresses to get whatever parts they wanted but I'm hoping Brie finds something else instead. She's too good to waste on another tired 'no new ideas' franchise. 

Finally...

FWIW, Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street was widely seen by critics on both coasts today, all three hours of it. Some onliners immediately broke the embargo (sigh) but I play the rules. Sure it costs me, but what can you do? I actually like embargos. They give you time to sit with a movie and consider before mouthing off. But it's definitely... um... a talking point. The only thing I'll say for now is that I was so proud of Margot Robbie for shaking off whatever dullness clung to her beauty in "Pan Am" (remember that show?) and really going for it. This is a hungry performance and Hollywood will surely reward her with a buffet of new roles to feast on. The competition for 'Hot Young Actress I Wish I Could Sleep With' critics org prize (commonly known as Best Supporting Actress... but critics can be so transparent) just got stiffer.

The Linking Games: Catching Blog

Self Styled Siren has ten rental suggestions for your friends who are haven't yet become true movie fans - 10 classics anyone will love
The Cut Scarlett Johansson's runway looks for her 29th birthday
Vanity Fair Jason Statham on 'poncy actors' and stuntment deserving Oscars 
Variety Emma Thompson is just killing it in these campaign stops for Saving Mr Banks

 Awards Daily on a live performance of the score from All is Lost
The Film Doctor revisits Frances Ha and its French New Wave inspirations
MNPP The Moment I Fell For... Mark Ruffalo
In Contention I'm beginning to realize that Guy Lodge and I have very very different taste in actresses. He thinks Julia Roberts is the MVP of August: Osage County. (I will say this for her: she has the toughest role and she is really going for it.)
Gurus of Gold for this week's chart David Poland had us imagine what would happen if Oscar held a "Best Casting" prize and didn't differentiate between Adapted and Original Screenplay. FTR I love some of the other gurus choices for Casting more than my own picks but I was doing it how I thought Oscar might...
Variety Bunheads after glow... TV giant Amy Sherman Palladino joins other producers to bring Sutton Foster back to Broadway in the new musical Violet. Yes, please.
Variety finally a worthy sounding project for Oscar nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno, the biopic Castro's Daughter

All Hunger. All The Time
The Hairpin Closeted characters from The Hunger Games' Katniss Everdeen to everyone in The Great Gatsby
Monkey See and yet more thinkpieces. On gender types: Is Peeta essentially Katniss's girlfriend?
Atlantic Wire An Open Letter to Jena Malone (who does make a fabulous Johanna) 

Tweet of the Week
By name you've undoubtedly heard that Mia Wasikowska and Johnny Depp are both in for a sequel to Eyesore in Wonderland.

It's Official: Johnny Depp and Mia Wasikowska love money!!!

— Pat Healy (@Pat_Healy) November 23, 2013

 

What else is there to say really?*

*although don't let that stop you from having doing what you do in the comments

Goodbye, Bunheads

Andrew here with a eulogy. Nathaniel just can't.

You have heard by now that ABC Family has officially pulled the plug on the comedy musical series Bunheads. It’s been five months since the show aired the final episode of its first, and only season, ironically titled “Next”. Since then the network has failed to definitively address the issue of whether or not the show was done for good. The statement the network released Monday afternoon reads, thus:

“Bunheads is a wonderful series that we are very proud to have aired," ABC Family says in a statement. "The series had amazing storytelling, the most talented cast and a passionate and loyal fan base. Recognizing all of this, we took extra time to try and find ways to bring the series back for another season, but in the end it simply wasn’t possible.  We wish the cast and crew the best in their future endeavors”

It’s difficult to speculate on the veracity of a claim like “we took extra time to try and find ways to bring the series back” but to the outside eye the line reeks of the disingenuous. [more...]

Click to read more ...

Tony Award Nominations

Another year, another set of Tony nominations. I was surprised to note how many theatrical experiences we covered this year here at The Film Experience. As a proudly NYC based site, we have to get our theater on even if the focus is the movies. But hey, a little television and theater coverage mixed in with a whole lot of movies and Oscar gives us a fuller more rounded persona as a blog, don’t you think? I wasn’t able to watch the actual announcement this morning but my darling Sutton Foster – who is between seasons (hopefully) of the ever-more interesting Bunheads on ABC Family – announced them despite a couple of seasons off the boards now. You know I highly recommend a TV show when I’m okay with it usurping all of a beloved stage star’s time.

In some ways the Tonys are more equivalent to the Golden Globes than the Oscar in that they divvy things up between Plays and Musicals. That doesn’t quite equate to the Globes Drama vs Musical since the theatrical community often respects and embraces comedy in a way that the movie community won’t, but it’s close. So the marquee contests are BEST PLAY and BEST MUSICAL. And these are your nominees…

Best Play

• The Assembled Parties (Richard Greenberg)
• Lucky Guy (Nora Ephron)
• The Testament of Mary (Colm Tóibín)
• Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Christopher Durang)

Best Musical

• Bring It On: The Musical
• A Christmas Story, The Musical
• Kinky Boots
• Matilda The Musical

But before we list all of the nominees I want to demonstrate visually, after the jump, why I find the Tony nominating system so problematic in comparison to the other awards shows.

Click to read more ...