Year in Review Beauty Break: Thirst Traps of 2021

by Team Experience

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder... as is thirst. When we polled Team Experience for the hottest actors of 2021, the voting was all over the place and thus fairly close. So we ended up with a dozen people (after the jump) that had at least two ardent fans among our team members in the preferential ballots.  Because the voting was so close they're presented in random rather than ranked order.

Other hotties that earned our lust, admiration, and aesthetic wonder included: Penelope Cruz in Parallel Mothers, Ruth Negga in Passing, Lady Gaga in House of Gucci, Idris Elba in Concrete Cowboy, Benedict Cumberbatch in Power of the Dog, and Rebecca Ferguson in Dune. And because thirst is not always singular, great pairings like Taylour Paige and Riley Keough (Zola), Melissa Barrera and Anthony Ramos (In the Heights), and Daniel Craig and Ana De Armas (No Time To Die) also showed up in the ballots. Speaking of the latter, why wasn't she the main Bond girl of the movie?!? WOW!

Okay, on to the gallery...

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Year in Review: Best Screen Animals from Shark to "Pig"

by Team Experience

Animals didn't always have an easy go of it in 2021 movies. Consider Jonathan Larson's elusive super-neglected cat in tick, tick... BOOM!, wondering if its box would ever again be cleaned. Or, worse, those dalmations in Cruella demoted from loving titular characters to growling weapons. And it's best not to think too long on the fate of either bunny we meet in The Power of the Dog. 

But the following animals were luckier (for the most part) winning enough screen time and giving off enough personality to become an essential part of their movies, so let's talk about them...

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Year in Review: Best Onscreen Chemistry of 2021

by Team Experience

Screen chemistry is the great intangible of movies. It can happen behind the camera among teams on the same or complimentary wavelengths. Director/Muse relationships often become the stuff of legend. But the most commonly celebrated electricity is the spark between actors that you can see onscreen. Sensational chemistry between them can elevate any genre, even the ones that aren't intrinsically built on interpersonal dynamics. A thrilling duet, romantic or otherwise, can rescue a film from mediocrity and elevate a very good picture to a beloved one. Old Hollywood understood this, reteaming co-stars that clicked over and over again. Modern Hollywood has a much rougher go of this kind of repetition (given that everyone is a freelancer) so we treasure great chemistry whenever it crops up in its too fleeting way.

We polled the team on 2021's greatest examples of screen chemistry and here were their top 16 choices...

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Year in Review: Best Movie Posters

by Nathaniel R

Movie posters may be an endangered artform since movies are seldom chosen from lobby posters or slapped on DVD covers anymore. Most people see only those interchangeable rectangles of movie star faces deployed by Netflix or Hulu in scroll bars. Nevertheless we still love the way posters at their best can brand or encapsulate a movie, become iconic pieces of art in their own right (rare), or cleverly tease or suggest the kind of experience you'll be having when you watch the movie.

Movie posters are often lazy so we want to cheer the good ones. Some titles that missed the following list but remain noteworthy are:  Benedetta which arranged the text in an invisible crucifix frame, Annette, which memorably placed its romantics underneath a tidal wave, the teasers for The Matrix Resurrection and Black Widow  which went minimalist and flat but impactful, Swan Song and The Eyes of Tammy Faye for the way they presented the main character's face while also obscuring it emotionally, and the graphic whatsthis? boldness of both Titane and Tragedy of Macbeth.

The best movie posters of the year after after the jump...

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November. It's a wrap.

Just one month left of 2021. Here's what you might have missed in November... 

A dozen highlights
• Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021) Nathaniel has thoughts on his legacy
• Ranking Jane Campion Cláudio shares his list from, uh, best to most best
• tick...tick...BOOM! Nathaniel is surprised but ecstatic
• Did Judi Dench deserve the Oscar for Notes on a Scandal? Matt thinks so
• The Humans isn't for everyone, but Jason writes about its strange resonance
• The Worst Person in the World Chris declares it a best of the year. Yup
• Halle Berry in Bruised Eurocheese things she's just fine but the movie is lacking
• Through Her Lens Juan Carlos introduces his new series on female directors and the Oscar race from year to year. third episode coming soon
• Benedict Cumberbatch Cláudio is slowly becoming a fan
• Best Supporting Actor Unusually confusing this year!
• Spencer (Con) Spencer (Pro) Nathaniel doesn't like it but Cláudio loves it a lot (especially the costumes)
• Ask Nathaniel stopping Category Fraud and other topics
• Gratitude November is the time to focus on it

Previous wrap-ups if you're just rejoining us...
Oscar 2020 Wrap | May | June | July | Aug | Sept | Oct

COMING IN DECEMBER
A team experience tribute to Honorary Oscar winner Liv Ullman, the beginning of awards season, new movies like Power of the Dog, West Side Story, Don't Look Up, Nightmare Alley, Encanto and others. Plus more on the International Feature Film race and interviews with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Kathy Bates and others