November. It's a Wrap

November's most fun exercize was a ranking of the "1 and done" actors and actresses who've won Oscars in their only competition, and updating the Oscar charts for 2016, too. The key awards events were the Indie Spirits which Moonlight and American Honey led with six nominations apiece and the Gothams which went big for Moonlight and also loved all over Isabelle Huppert. Here are 16 key posts from the month in case you missed any of them.

8 Favorites
• Best Young Performers - which child stars and teen actors deserve kudos? 
• Happy Anniversary to the Pfeiffer-Kelleys - a couple for 23 years now 
• Tree of Life Revisited - with a live orchestra no less 
• Noirvember: Kiss Me Deadly - a "thriller of tomorrow" that still packs a punch 
• "Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again" -Judy & Barbra's classic duet 
• The Furniture: Hell or High Water - I always see the movie in new ways after these columns
• Noirvember: Bound The Wachowski's debut 
• We Give Thanks For...- Team Experience gave thanks for this film year.

8 Most Discussed
• Current Oscar Charts - the four acting categories. Volatile or set?
• It's Not Supposed to Happen This Way - we're in mourning about our country
• Oscar-Less Actress Wonders - which 5 do you love most?
• Yes No Maybe So: Silence - the trailer for Scorsese's latest
• Actress Roundtable - thoughts on the magazine cover
• Meryl Streep and the Cecil B DeMilles - Golden Globe history
• Fences: His & Hers - Denzel and Viola are both sensational
• Posterized: Ang Lee - How many of his films have you seen?

COMING IN DECEMBER
La La Land, Jackie, Fences, Kirk Douglas Centennial, and The Year in Review party begins. Any requests?

Why Amy Adams May Have to Sit This Oscar Year Out...

The news of Amy Adams winning the NBR delighted many and also stirred up the usual "The Film Experience hates her!" complaints in the commentary. We do not. Being frustrated by an actor's ubiquity and dullness at one particular annual event is not the same as hating them or their work. Amy Adams is a very fine actress. She has given many delightful performances, two of which would have even made non-controversial Oscar wins had she managed to actually nab the statue (Junebug or The Fighter).

Amy Adams (5), Albert Finney (5), and Glenn Close (6) are the living actors with the most Oscar nominations who have never won.

And it's true that she's quite amazing in Arrival, serving as the audience vessel to in two simultaneous and important ways that the movie couldn't succeed without: she's awestruck by what she's watching (she's our eyes and surely our facial expressions in the dark); apart from that awe she's emotionally and intellectually engaged with the events in order to grapple with them and suss out meaning which is what the audience is always doing when they're watching grand films that demands that they pay attention with both their heart and their mind.

But for all of that I don't think she's making the Oscar lineup and here's why...

Click to read more ...

Complete the Sentence

If I could have any object from any 2016 movie
it would be ____________  from __________ .

I would use it to ______________. 

Judy by the Numbers: "I Like Men Medley"

 Anne Marie has been chronicling Judy Garland's career chronologically through musical numbers...

So it may not look like it offhand, but today's episode marked another big shift in the rocky history of The Judy Garland Show. After producing seven episodes, firing most of the staff, kicking Jerry Van Dyke to the curb and reformatting the show, Norman Jewison exited as planned after the 13th taped episode. He would be replaced by Bill Colleran, a producer from Your Hit Parade.

The Show: The Judy Garland Show Episode 13
The Songwriters: Various, arrangement by Mel Torme
The Cast: Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, produced by Norman Jewison

The Story: (My favorite part is the surprise boas at 3:00.) Though Jewison wasn't able to improve the unsteady ratings of The Judy Garland Show, the episodes he produced would set the established characteristics of the show at its peak. More cinematic production, the movement away from sketch comedy, and an emphasis on music and a variety of guest stars all defined Jewison's tenure on the show. The Peggy Lee medley exemplifies all of these qualities, but also points towards the show under Colleran's stewardship: two cabaret singers belting standards. Colleran would transition the show towards a concert format. But before he could complete that transition, it was time for Christmas.

The Top Tens Begin... Neon Demon?

Everyone will have to have their say about which films are the "best" of the year and that starts, bizarrely, right now even though it's still November. First up is the famed Cahiers du Cinema, which is the oldest film publication still running stretching back to the early 1950s. 

Since they're in France, they have a different timetable on releases so TFE's primary 2015 obsession factors in -- Why Carol, it's so good to see you again! But because they are Cahiers du Cinema and generally choose at least one polarizing but largely hated picture, Neon Demon is up near the top. 

Their Top Ten List
1 Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)
2 Elle (Paul Verhoeven)
3 The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn)
4 Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
5 Slack Bay (Bruno Dumont)
6 Julieta (Pedro Almodóvar)
7 Staying Vertical (Alain Guiraudie)
8 La Loi de la jungle (Antonin Peretjatko)
9 Carol (Todd Haynes)
10 Le bois dont les rêves sont faits (Claire Simon)

What do you make of the list? The two I wasn't familiar with are both French and haven't played much elsewhere. Les bois... is a 2 hour plus documentary about people in the woods, cruising for sex, living there if homeless people, etcetera. Jungle is a comedy set in French Guiana which is in South America.