Friday, March 20, 2015 at 5:29PM It's a mini-tweets o' the week roundup because I didn't spend much time on social media this week. But I do feel the need to share these yummy morsels featuring Tilda Swinton (Not Tilda), Little Women, Hugh Jackman, Crimson Peak, and Cate Blanchett after the jump...
Toys R Us is way more homoerotic than I remembered. pic.twitter.com/k5x87IMohO
— itsonlyzach (@itsonlyzach) March 15, 2015
Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 3:33PM Team Experience is counting down our 15 most anticipated for 2015. Here's Nathaniel...
Who & What: No, kids. NOT the watery pop art David Hockney painting. Not even the highly naked 70s era fictionalized bio sprung from that painting, though we'd happily see that too should someone screen it. (Curators?) What it is is FINALLY the Luca Gaudagino follow up to I Am Love which topped our charts when it was released in 2010. That film's inimitable star Tilda Swinton and its gifted cinematographer Yorick Le Saux (Only Lovers Left Alive) and editor Walter Fasano are all returning. New collaborators are production designer Maria Djurkovic (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Imitation Game), Dakota Johnson untied, and two of the best male screen actors in the world in Ralph Fiennes and Matthias Schoenaerts.
Here's the only photo that I'm aware of from the set:
Why We're Excited About It: Swinton and Fiennes hinted at fabulous chemistry in Grand Budapest Hotel in their ultra brief screentime together. They're playing ex-lovers this time -- with Tilda married to Schoenaerts so just those names all smooshed together in a daisy chain sound like a bodice ripper for art film fans. The characters all collide on vacation in Italy including Fiennes screen daughter (Dakota Johnson) and things get... well, no spoilers but there's obviously TROUBLE and that trouble is at least somewhat sexual. It's adapted from La Piscine (1969) a French film starring the beauteous coupling of Alain Delon & Romy Schneider. If you want spoilers, go there.
What if It All Goes Wrong: Guadagnino has been doing shorts and documentaries for the past several years after I Am Love, just as he had before that international breakthrough. Following up a masterpiece is never easy. It's probably not safe to expect something that brilliant again though we wish him enormous success so he might finally get that proposed remake of Auntie Mame with Tilda in the leading role made after all. Another concern: Margot Robbie was originally cast in Dakota's part and, ,apologies to Dakota, but that feels like a downgrade on the evidence of what we've seen so far from both of them.
When: Fox Searchlight has distribution rights for America and filming has wrapped so we'd expect a TIFF or Telluride bow followed by a November or December release if people are wild for it. But you never know. I Am Love did Venice and TIFF in 2009 and then waited until summer of 2010 for release.
previously in We Can't Wait, Kate Winslet in The Dressmaker
Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at 2:00PM 
Katya, an actual original!Did you catch the premiere of RuPaul's Drag Race S7? Underwhelming! It's that time in competitions before you've had any time yourself during which to fall in love / hate / conspiracy / indifference / lust with any players.
I eagerly await the moments each episode when the names of showbiz divas or pop culture properties are dropped but that usually comes from either the smartest or most seasoned queens or the judges who tend to have a better grasp of showbiz history than the competing queens each year whose pop awareness often seems disappointingly limited to Beyoncé waking up flawless. RuPaul dropped "Mitzi Gaynor" while commenting on a queen (I forget who). I'll bet you ten dolla and 33 cent that that queen will be googling it, like, "What's a Mitzi Gaynor?"...
Monday, February 16, 2015 at 12:00PM 
Manuel here to discuss one of last week’s hottest trailers by one of my favorite funny ladies. After the success of Bridesmaids ($288 million worldwide gross and 2 Oscar nominations), it’s not surprising seeing Judd Apatow partnering up with another small-screen comedy talent for her big screen debut.
Written by Amy Schumer and directed by Apatow himself comes Trainwreck ("We all know one" the poster coyingly tells us), which opens this July as a nice bit of counter-programming (it goes up against Apatow-alum Paul Rudd's Ant-Man so you know where my momey that weekend will be going to). The film will first show itself over at SXSW as a "work-in-progress" so we'll have word of what to expect sooner rather than later, though it shows great confidence in the material. It also tells us precisely what kind of demographic they're hoping to muster enthusiasm among. Both Funny People and This is 40 failed to capitalize on the success of Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin so I'm sure hopes are higher for this female-fronted comedy.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves, in true TFE fashion, let’s dive right into the trailer giving it the YES, NO MAYBE SO treatment:
YES
Friday, February 13, 2015 at 11:00AM 
They use to disqualify movies from this Oscar if they used too much computer enhancement (see The Hours) and always wanted their makeup effects practical (like American Werewolf in London). But nowadays computer enhancements seem to be a non-issue (see several recent winners and one of this year's nominees Guardians of the Galaxy). There are four indisputable truths about this relatively young category and this Oscar branch and they are like so:
• They love old age makeup
• They worship werewolves and love fantastically weird creatures, but hate zombies
• Hairstyling was recently added to the official category name but usually the wig heavy movies lose to films that are more prosthetically-focused
• There should be five nominees like every other category since literally every live-action film employs makeup and hair. Not every film requires visual effects or original songs or even original scores and those categories all have 5 nominees.
Foxcatcher - Bill Corso & Dennis Liddiard
Grand Budapest Hotel - Frances Hannon & Mark Coulier
Guardians of the Galaxy - Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou & David White
Corso and Coulier previously won Oscars (for Lemony Snicket and The Iron Lady respectively) but the other four nominated artists are Oscarless. All three nominated films have a lot going for them but Foxcatcher would be a longshot since the recreation of existing people's looks via wig, hair and prosthetic enhancements generally has to settle for a nomination. But will they go with Guardians or Grand Budapest? It's tough to say. Guardians is well-loved -- I even talked to a voter who had it at #1 on his Best Picture ballot during the nomination round -- and very showy what with its rainbow of skin colors (blue, green, red you name it) and sci-fi hairdos and scarring. It wouldn't surprise me to see it win. But Grand Budapest Hotel has just about everything they love in this category: old age prosthetics, elaborate hair, memorable hideousness. And who can forget Tilda Swinton's glaucoma-plagued eyes, silver wigs, and old lady liver spots?
Will Win: Grand Budapest Hotel
Could Win: Guardians of the Galaxy
Should Win: Grand Budapest Hotel
My ballot for this category (Hint: I'm thinking of renaming it "The Tilda Swinton Styling" Award)
