CONSIDER - Actors of 2019, First Half

With the year half over, it's time to look back on the first six months and what treasures they brought us. Here are the 19 performances by actors we liked most at the movies thus far this year. We hope you'll sound off on these and share a few of your own in the comments... and we hope this list serves as a reminder to Oscar, Globe, critics, and SAG voters that amazing performances can happy at any time of the year. Why wait til December to start considering your "Best of" ballot? We're not saying that all 19+ of these fellows deserve prizes, just that everyone should be keeping lists of standouts for their own pleasure and edification and to combat faulty memories as the year progresses.

Subject to Change! I regret missing the following actor-led pictures which I will catch up with as soon as I have the opportunity: The Mustang and Sorry Angel. Okay here we go...

9 FAV LEADING ACTORS
(Jan 1st - June 30th releases) 

Chao Deng as "Jing Zhou/ Zi Yu" in Shadow
An amazing dual role wherein he delivers both near-camp level villany and subdued stoic masculinity sometimes in the same frame. [Awards for this performance: Best Actor nominations at both the Golden Horse Awards and the Huading Awards.]

Click to read more ...

June. It's a Wrap

Happy PRIDE Weekend!

We'll be luxuriating in queerness for the rest of the weekend before halfway mark ballots tomorrow night or possibly earlier. But here are a dozen highlights from the month that was if you'd like to catch up inbetween your own festivities

• Midyear top fives from Team Experience
• Gentleman Jack Deborah Lipp gets personal about that brilliant lead performance from Suranne Jones. Have you watched this great series yet? 
• The House That Will Not Stand exciting new stage-to-screen project 
• West Side Story Promo the first image 
• Rocketman Nathaniel's rave
• Speed Turns 25 Lynn Lee looked back 
• Soundtracking Chris Feil on Moulin Rouge!
• Wonder Woman 1984 gets a pyschedelic poster 
• The New Classics Michael Cusumano revisits 20th Century Women
• The Prom Broadway's Tony nominated musical gets an all star film cast 

Most Discussed
• Big Little Lies ranking the top ten MVPs/moments of each episode
• Smackdown 2001 Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren, Marisa Tomei, Maggie Smith, and Jennifer Connelly
• 100+ Favourite Queer Films Nathaniel's own list  

COMING IN JULY
A celebration of both 1960 and 1957 cinema - two Smackdowns this month.  Plus The Farewell, Midsommar, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Halfway Mark - Team Experience Favourites

I'll be sharing my midyear ballots (such as they are) over the next couple of days but first let's hear from the whole team. Or, some of them - those that volunteeered their little in progress top fives. The team hopes you enjoy these little peeks into our individual film experiences from January through June at the movies (and in some cases, at home).

Chris Feil's midyear top five  
Twitter | Instagram | This Had Oscar Buzz | TFE Articles 

01 Her Smell's redemptive anarchy in five acts

02 Ari Aster's hilarious Midsommar -time sadness

03 Claire Denis' sci-fi descent into the black hole of our biology High Life.

04 The haves-and-have-nots horror of Us.

05 Zhao Tao giving another masterclass in Jia Zhangke's Ash is Purest White.  

Paolo Kagaoan's midyear top five
Twitter | Instagram | All of Paolo's articles

01 Homecoming: A Film By Beyonce... When  Beyonce descended from those steps, Sergei Eisenstein rose back from the dead, burned every copy of Battleship Potemkin, and killed himself.

02 Elizabeth Olsen in Endgame because she reminded me that Thanos is an asshole... 

Click to read more ...

April. It's a Wrap

April tends to be a slow month here at TFE but we'll hopefully pick back up now for summer movie season which is also Emmy nominating season so expect more Game of Thrones and Fosse/Verdon shortly. If you're just rejoining us here are a dozen highlights from the month...

Donna Lynne Champlin in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015-2019)

Best of April
• Complete West Side Story Casting - Meet the new Sharks and new Jets
• Serial Mom 25th Anniversary - Salim looked back at the John Waters classic
• Smackdown of 1972 -Donna Lynne Champlin and more special guests joined us to talk The Poseidon Adventure, stage to screen acting, and the difficulty of playing drunk scenes
• Farewell Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - Dan says goodbye to TV's genius musical comedy
• Oscar Rule Changes - Makeup and Hair and Foreign Film get minor adjustments
• Howard Keel Centennial - Lynn, Tim, Deborah, and Nathaniel looked back at three of his musicals and one late career sci-fi flick
• Beyoncé's Homecoming - Glenn on the hot concert doc
• Podcast Questions - Murtada and Nathaniel answer yours!

Most Discussed Posts
• Dumbo and Tim Burton - a list heavy look at the auteur's filmography
• April Foolish Predictions - Nathaniel's first crack at this year's Oscar charts
• Renee Zellweger turns 50 - Eric pens a love letter
• The New Classics - Michael's new column kicked off with an ode to Michael Clayton 

COMING IN MAY
Anne Hathaway and The Hustle, Disney's Aladdin, the celebrity fashion doc Halston, Amy Poehler's Wine Country, and Zhang Yimou's stunning wuxia pic Shadow. We'll also celebrate anniversaries for Midnight Cowboy, Julia, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, and Anne Heche.

Our 'year of the month' leading up to the next Smackdown (June 2nd, to avoid the holiday weekend at the end of May) will be 2001 so expect a good deal of that film year along with the 'now' of 2019 summer movie season.  Any requests?

How has March been for you?

It's true that there are three days left in March but we're recapping early because we're willing the month to end. The point is that March is always a bit slow at TFE given the post Oscar-crashing and then the malaise that hits. But we do what we can. Expect much more in April now that we're getting back on the dance floor. Here are a dozen highlights from the month that is almost up that we hope you didn't miss.

• Us Reviewed - Jordan Peele does it again
• Jennifer Jones Centennial - because Love is a Many Splendored Thing
• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - what a tease
• Shrill with Aidy Bryant - already one of 2019's best TV shows
• Four Weddings and a Funeral - still nearly perfect on its 25th anniversary
• Tea with the Dames - Judi + Maggie + Joan + Eileen =  a soothing streaming distraction
• Posterized: Julianne Moore - because the ginger goddess is on fire again
• Soundtracking: Gloria Bell - spin with joyful Julianne
• Doc Corner: Leaving Neverland - sure got people talking
• Nathaniel's 2018 Top Ten List - the Film Bitch Awards wrap-up
• Christian Petzold talks Transit - his haunting German melodrama
• Stage Door: Kiss Me Kate - Kelli O'Hara delights again 

COMING IN APRIL
Weekly rotating coverage of Fosse/Verdon, the 2019 Tony Award races (The Prom, Aint too Proud etc), the MCU wraps up its loooooong world-conquering game plan with Avengers: Endgame, Laika debuts what we hope is another animated winner with Missing Link, for the Howard Keel Centennial we'll dive into big 1950s musicals like Annie Get Your Gun and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and for The Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1972 will take you back to The Poseidon Adventure, Butterflies are Free, and other gems for a bit of context. And other as yet undecided fun. Any requests?

Come play with us every day, won'cha?