Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category before the nominations are announced. Here's Eric Blume and Lynn Lee to talk Best Cinematography...
Eric: We have the pleasure of discussing the insanely talented cinematography candidates this year. It seems like this year's two big awards players, Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon, will certainly make the slate here...so, can I say, why I am not particularly excited about the work of either Hoyte van Hoytema and Rodrigo Prieto for these two films? Don't get me wrong, both are beautifully lensed films and these men are brilliantly talented, but their work seemed more standard than inspired.
Neither world, neither Oppenheimer's labs and offices nor Moon's flat plains, are the most visually exciting terrains, and while both men work with their respective directors to build a few lovely frames, I was definitely more knocked out by the imagery in some other films this year.
Eric: We have the pleasure of discussing the insanely talented cinematography candidates this year. It seems like this year's two big awards players, Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon, will certainly make the slate here...so, can I say, why I am not particularly excited about the work of either Hoyte van Hoytema and Rodrigo Prieto for these two films? Don't get me wrong, both are beautifully lensed films and these men are brilliantly talented, but their work seemed more standard than inspired.
Neither world, neither Oppenheimer's labs and offices nor Moon's flat plains, are the most visually exciting terrains, and while both men work with their respective directors to build a few lovely frames, I was definitely more knocked out by the imagery in some other films this year.
- 1/18/2024
- by EricB
- FilmExperience
For today's Oscar volley, Lynn Lee and Glenn Dunks discuss the Best Actor race.
Lynn: Glenn, it’s been a while since I’ve felt this strongly about the Best Actor race, so I’ll just lay my cards on the table: I really, really want both Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers) and Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction) to be nominated, would love Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers) to join them --though I think he’s a long shot-- and really Don’T want Leonardo DiCaprio to get in for Killers of the Flower Moon.
It’s extra personal for me because I saw American Fiction, All of Us Strangers, and The Holdovers back to back at the Middleburg Film Festival earlier this year and loved all of them. More to the point, while all three films have their flaws, each one worked like gangbusters largely because of the fantastic...
Lynn: Glenn, it’s been a while since I’ve felt this strongly about the Best Actor race, so I’ll just lay my cards on the table: I really, really want both Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers) and Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction) to be nominated, would love Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers) to join them --though I think he’s a long shot-- and really Don’T want Leonardo DiCaprio to get in for Killers of the Flower Moon.
It’s extra personal for me because I saw American Fiction, All of Us Strangers, and The Holdovers back to back at the Middleburg Film Festival earlier this year and loved all of them. More to the point, while all three films have their flaws, each one worked like gangbusters largely because of the fantastic...
- 12/24/2023
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
For today's Oscar Volley, Lynn and Elisa discuss the Oscar race for Adapted Screenplay.
Lynn Lee: Let’s start with the elephant giant doll not in the room: Barbie is out! Assuming, that is, the Academy agrees it’s properly competing for Original rather than Adapted Screenplay. Personally, I think Barbie does belong in Original even if it is technically based on an existing “property.” And whatever the calculus behind the decision to compete in that category, I’m not convinced it has an easier path to victory than if it had opted for Adapted. Be that as it may, its absence means that in stark contrast to last year, this year’s Adapted Screenplay slate may be composed entirely of adaptations of books, glorious books!
But which ones? Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon are the two obvious frontrunners, and I’m bullish on American Fiction getting...
Lynn Lee: Let’s start with the elephant giant doll not in the room: Barbie is out! Assuming, that is, the Academy agrees it’s properly competing for Original rather than Adapted Screenplay. Personally, I think Barbie does belong in Original even if it is technically based on an existing “property.” And whatever the calculus behind the decision to compete in that category, I’m not convinced it has an easier path to victory than if it had opted for Adapted. Be that as it may, its absence means that in stark contrast to last year, this year’s Adapted Screenplay slate may be composed entirely of adaptations of books, glorious books!
But which ones? Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon are the two obvious frontrunners, and I’m bullish on American Fiction getting...
- 12/17/2023
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
Discoveries have been endless this past year, as Hong Kong Film Festival (UK) continues to explore a newfound fluidity alongside the Hong Kong community in the UK. Adrift are the stories of Hong Kong, a wavering sense of identity alongside an uncertain history. Memories fluid, imaginations of a drifting home.
Hong Kong Film Festival’s second edition is titled “Home Away From Home”. Distance and disparity unveils a world of possibility; between Hong Kongers in the UK and those in Hong Kong, between the Hong Kong we once lived in, but can now only watch from afar. Between the Hong Kong in our dreams, and the Hong Kong laid bare to us now; between your Hong Kong and history’s Hong Kong, between a colonial Hong Kong and post-colonial Hong Kong. A pre-1997 versus a post-2019 Hong Kong, a Hong Kong under the world’s watchful eyes, and that under our own scrutinising gaze…...
Hong Kong Film Festival’s second edition is titled “Home Away From Home”. Distance and disparity unveils a world of possibility; between Hong Kongers in the UK and those in Hong Kong, between the Hong Kong we once lived in, but can now only watch from afar. Between the Hong Kong in our dreams, and the Hong Kong laid bare to us now; between your Hong Kong and history’s Hong Kong, between a colonial Hong Kong and post-colonial Hong Kong. A pre-1997 versus a post-2019 Hong Kong, a Hong Kong under the world’s watchful eyes, and that under our own scrutinising gaze…...
- 3/5/2023
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Lynn Lee looks at the new Star Wars film. Warning: Minor Spoilers ahead...
It’s hard to put my finger on why I remain resistant to the recent Star Wars resurgence despite being a lifelong fan of the original trilogy. So far the new movies have been solid pieces of entertainment, meticulously crafted to capture the scrappy, underdog-hero ethos that made Episodes IV-vi so appealing and the prequels feel so stilted and airless by comparison. Maybe a bit too meticulously – and therein lies my ambivalence. There’s a fine line between homage and recycling, and The Force Awakens, in particular, was a skillful exercise in the latter. (Rogue One was superior in this regard, perhaps by virtue of being a spin-off that had to be able to stand on its own.) On the other hand, Tfa also introduced new protagonists who were so engaging you could almost overlook the fact...
It’s hard to put my finger on why I remain resistant to the recent Star Wars resurgence despite being a lifelong fan of the original trilogy. So far the new movies have been solid pieces of entertainment, meticulously crafted to capture the scrappy, underdog-hero ethos that made Episodes IV-vi so appealing and the prequels feel so stilted and airless by comparison. Maybe a bit too meticulously – and therein lies my ambivalence. There’s a fine line between homage and recycling, and The Force Awakens, in particular, was a skillful exercise in the latter. (Rogue One was superior in this regard, perhaps by virtue of being a spin-off that had to be able to stand on its own.) On the other hand, Tfa also introduced new protagonists who were so engaging you could almost overlook the fact...
- 12/18/2017
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
Lynn Lee reflects on Honorary Oscar winner Donald Sutherland's work in a former Best Picture...
The first time I saw Ordinary People, I remember thinking it was very good, very sad, and very WASPy, and that the acting was outstanding across the board. I was most impressed, if also most frustrated, by Mary Tyler Moore for playing so convincingly against type as the chilly, brittle, allergic-to-grief Beth Jarrett; found Timothy Hutton’s guilt-racked Conrad the most relatable; and Judd Hirsch’s warm, no-bs shrink the most appealing. Yet the character I ended up feeling the most sympathy for was Donald Sutherland’s Calvin, who’s forced to accept the disintegration of the family he fought so hard to preserve.
The first time I saw Ordinary People, I remember thinking it was very good, very sad, and very WASPy, and that the acting was outstanding across the board. I was most impressed, if also most frustrated, by Mary Tyler Moore for playing so convincingly against type as the chilly, brittle, allergic-to-grief Beth Jarrett; found Timothy Hutton’s guilt-racked Conrad the most relatable; and Judd Hirsch’s warm, no-bs shrink the most appealing. Yet the character I ended up feeling the most sympathy for was Donald Sutherland’s Calvin, who’s forced to accept the disintegration of the family he fought so hard to preserve.
- 11/10/2017
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
Lynn Lee continuing our Middleburg Film Festival adventure
Dee Rees and Mudbound cast earlier this year. © Daniel Bergeron
It’s always a little weird to attend a talk with a director before seeing the film they’re being interviewed about. That’s what happened with Mudbound, which concluded a day that began with a very engaging conversation between director Dee Rees and Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday and festival founder Sheila Johnson’s presentation of the 2017 “Visionary” award to Rees. Rees was charming, articulate, and impressively self-possessed, and had many interesting comments on the directorial choices she made in Mudbound, which I wasn’t sure whether I should keep in mind or set aside while watching the film that night. Rees made clear that she resists being pigeonholed as a director of color, female director, or female director of color, an aversion reflected in her somewhat bland mantra “let excellence be the standard.
Dee Rees and Mudbound cast earlier this year. © Daniel Bergeron
It’s always a little weird to attend a talk with a director before seeing the film they’re being interviewed about. That’s what happened with Mudbound, which concluded a day that began with a very engaging conversation between director Dee Rees and Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday and festival founder Sheila Johnson’s presentation of the 2017 “Visionary” award to Rees. Rees was charming, articulate, and impressively self-possessed, and had many interesting comments on the directorial choices she made in Mudbound, which I wasn’t sure whether I should keep in mind or set aside while watching the film that night. Rees made clear that she resists being pigeonholed as a director of color, female director, or female director of color, an aversion reflected in her somewhat bland mantra “let excellence be the standard.
- 10/24/2017
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
Continuing our Middleburg Film Festival adventures. Here's Lynn Lee
Middleburg is the kind of idyllic Virginia town that makes me wish I had enough independent means to spend regular fall weekends there lodging at a cushy spa, riding horses, visiting local wineries, and binging once a year on Oscar-baity films before they get released in theaters. As it is, I was happy to get a taste of the latter on a press pass to this year’s festival. On Day 3, I joined Nathaniel in town (albeit at different events) and took in Maggie Betts’ Novitiate, Todd Haynes’ Wonderstruck, and Dee Rees’ Mudbound.
Of the three, the one I knew the least about beforehand turned out to be the one I liked best. Set at a convent in the 1960s around the time of Vatican II, Novitiate centers on the struggles and yearnings of young postulant Cathleen (Margaret Qualley of “The Leftovers...
Middleburg is the kind of idyllic Virginia town that makes me wish I had enough independent means to spend regular fall weekends there lodging at a cushy spa, riding horses, visiting local wineries, and binging once a year on Oscar-baity films before they get released in theaters. As it is, I was happy to get a taste of the latter on a press pass to this year’s festival. On Day 3, I joined Nathaniel in town (albeit at different events) and took in Maggie Betts’ Novitiate, Todd Haynes’ Wonderstruck, and Dee Rees’ Mudbound.
Of the three, the one I knew the least about beforehand turned out to be the one I liked best. Set at a convent in the 1960s around the time of Vatican II, Novitiate centers on the struggles and yearnings of young postulant Cathleen (Margaret Qualley of “The Leftovers...
- 10/23/2017
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
by Lynn Lee
Sneakers turns 25 today, and until last week I’d never seen it. Although it came out when I was of moviegoing age, it was barely on my radar. All I remembered of it later was that it was about hackers and maybe also spies and the Nsa, and I tended to confuse it with Hackers (which I’d never seen either). My husband was amazed to learn this, having seen Sneakers more times than he could count, and said I had to see it. But wouldn’t it be awfully dated now, I wondered? He insisted it still held up, despite admitting he hadn’t seen it in a while. There was only one way to find out…...
Sneakers turns 25 today, and until last week I’d never seen it. Although it came out when I was of moviegoing age, it was barely on my radar. All I remembered of it later was that it was about hackers and maybe also spies and the Nsa, and I tended to confuse it with Hackers (which I’d never seen either). My husband was amazed to learn this, having seen Sneakers more times than he could count, and said I had to see it. But wouldn’t it be awfully dated now, I wondered? He insisted it still held up, despite admitting he hadn’t seen it in a while. There was only one way to find out…...
- 9/11/2017
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
by Lynn Lee
It should come as no surprise that writer-director Taylor Sheridan, currently hot in Hollywood after his Oscar screenplay nomination for Hell or High Water, is an actual, bona fide cowboy. Perhaps that’s why his work feels like such a throwback—to an era in which quietly capable men, silently toting unspoken burdens, took on the joyless task of meting out frontier justice. At the same time, he’s shown a canny gift for placing such old-school archetypes in a distinctly modern, of-this-moment social and political context, making their struggles feel unexpectedly timely or, rather, timeless. That gift is on ample display in his new film, Wind River, which is now in wide release after nabbing the best directing prize in the Un Certain Regard category at Cannes earlier this year.
Set on a remote, wintry Indian reservation in Montana, the film marks the third installment in...
It should come as no surprise that writer-director Taylor Sheridan, currently hot in Hollywood after his Oscar screenplay nomination for Hell or High Water, is an actual, bona fide cowboy. Perhaps that’s why his work feels like such a throwback—to an era in which quietly capable men, silently toting unspoken burdens, took on the joyless task of meting out frontier justice. At the same time, he’s shown a canny gift for placing such old-school archetypes in a distinctly modern, of-this-moment social and political context, making their struggles feel unexpectedly timely or, rather, timeless. That gift is on ample display in his new film, Wind River, which is now in wide release after nabbing the best directing prize in the Un Certain Regard category at Cannes earlier this year.
Set on a remote, wintry Indian reservation in Montana, the film marks the third installment in...
- 8/16/2017
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
by Lynn Lee
Florence Pugh in Lady Macbeth / Nicole Kidman in The Beguiled
In a summer filled with movies by or starring women of exceptional talent, The Beguiled and Lady Macbeth make an especially fascinating cinematic pairing. Both films center on mid-19th century women who appear trapped by their societies’ constricting gender norms. In both, the women are confined to an isolated, often claustrophobic space, yet nature is a constantly beckoning presence that at once shapes and reflects their desires. (Both even have plots that turn on poisonous wild mushrooms!) And in both, the women up-end the patriarchal structure of their circumscribed universe without liberating themselves. If anything, they reinforce that power structure even as they seize momentary control of it, leaving not a feeling of triumph but a somber queasiness.
For all these thematic similarities, the differences between the two films are even more striking...
Florence Pugh in Lady Macbeth / Nicole Kidman in The Beguiled
In a summer filled with movies by or starring women of exceptional talent, The Beguiled and Lady Macbeth make an especially fascinating cinematic pairing. Both films center on mid-19th century women who appear trapped by their societies’ constricting gender norms. In both, the women are confined to an isolated, often claustrophobic space, yet nature is a constantly beckoning presence that at once shapes and reflects their desires. (Both even have plots that turn on poisonous wild mushrooms!) And in both, the women up-end the patriarchal structure of their circumscribed universe without liberating themselves. If anything, they reinforce that power structure even as they seize momentary control of it, leaving not a feeling of triumph but a somber queasiness.
For all these thematic similarities, the differences between the two films are even more striking...
- 8/7/2017
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
by Lynn Lee
Judging from its early reception, The Big Sick has all the markings of a sleeper hit. Directed by Michael Showalter (My Name is Doris, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp) and written by comedian Kumail Nanjiani (best known to TV audiences as Dinesh on Silicon Valley) and his wife Emily Gordon, the movie’s loosely based on the stranger-than-fiction true story of how the couple overcame the dual barriers posed by his traditionalist Pakistani Muslim family and her medically induced coma. That’s a story you couldn’t make up, or imagine mining for laughs rather than melodrama. And yet here it is: a crowd-pleasing romantic comedy (though it’s really more of a dramedy) about a girl in a coma that’s equal parts funny and poignant without feeling the least bit exploitative.
Nanjiani plays himself, a tricky job he handles deftly, with a...
Judging from its early reception, The Big Sick has all the markings of a sleeper hit. Directed by Michael Showalter (My Name is Doris, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp) and written by comedian Kumail Nanjiani (best known to TV audiences as Dinesh on Silicon Valley) and his wife Emily Gordon, the movie’s loosely based on the stranger-than-fiction true story of how the couple overcame the dual barriers posed by his traditionalist Pakistani Muslim family and her medically induced coma. That’s a story you couldn’t make up, or imagine mining for laughs rather than melodrama. And yet here it is: a crowd-pleasing romantic comedy (though it’s really more of a dramedy) about a girl in a coma that’s equal parts funny and poignant without feeling the least bit exploitative.
Nanjiani plays himself, a tricky job he handles deftly, with a...
- 7/4/2017
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
Happy Fourth of July, readers! It's been a busy holiday weekend, but have you caught up to our A League of Their Own 25th anniversary trade-off retrospective? Well if you haven't, here's the play-by-play:
Part One by Lynn Lee Part Two by Nathaniel R Part Three by Jazz Tangcay from Awards Daily Part Four by Chris Feil
Sports are an American past-time on national holidays but if athletics aren't your thing, maybe a dive into actressing will suffice! Have fun in the comments: which Rockford Peach is your favorite? What one Oscar nomination would you bestow this unnominated classic? When is it appropriate to cry in baseball? Tell us your League thoughts!
Part One by Lynn Lee Part Two by Nathaniel R Part Three by Jazz Tangcay from Awards Daily Part Four by Chris Feil
Sports are an American past-time on national holidays but if athletics aren't your thing, maybe a dive into actressing will suffice! Have fun in the comments: which Rockford Peach is your favorite? What one Oscar nomination would you bestow this unnominated classic? When is it appropriate to cry in baseball? Tell us your League thoughts!
- 7/4/2017
- by Chris Feil
- FilmExperience
25th Anniversary Four-Part Mini Series Event
Welcome sports movie fans. Or, in a pinch, actressexuals who will watch largely female casts do practically anything.
Twenty-five years ago on July 1st, 1992, Penny Marshall's period comedy A League of Their Own (1992) opened in theaters. It wasn't quite an immediate blockbuster but word of mouth was spectacular -- in its second weekend it grossed practically as much as its first, which as you know is exceedingly rare. The female led comedy proved another home run for the director of Big, eventually grossing over $100 million domestically. It ended 1992 as that year's tenth biggest hit, just behind Basic Instinct and shutting Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven out of the moneyed top ten.
For the next few days we'll be revisiting this beloved classic tag-team style like we did with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966), Thelma & Louise (1991), Rebecca (1940), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Please join...
Welcome sports movie fans. Or, in a pinch, actressexuals who will watch largely female casts do practically anything.
Twenty-five years ago on July 1st, 1992, Penny Marshall's period comedy A League of Their Own (1992) opened in theaters. It wasn't quite an immediate blockbuster but word of mouth was spectacular -- in its second weekend it grossed practically as much as its first, which as you know is exceedingly rare. The female led comedy proved another home run for the director of Big, eventually grossing over $100 million domestically. It ended 1992 as that year's tenth biggest hit, just behind Basic Instinct and shutting Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven out of the moneyed top ten.
For the next few days we'll be revisiting this beloved classic tag-team style like we did with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966), Thelma & Louise (1991), Rebecca (1940), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Please join...
- 6/29/2017
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
We're cheering on Hollywood's super heroic women this week. Here's Lynn Lee!
Geena Davis at Sundance this past JanuaryIf they’d made a Wonder Woman movie back in the ’90s, Geena Davis would have been on the short list for the lead role. Or if not, she should have been. Statuesque beauty? Check. Commanding physical presence and natural athleticism? Check and check. A convincing don’t-fuck-with-me quality, tempered by a divine set of dimples that suggest she’s not taking herself too seriously? Check and mate.
Davis’s premature relegation to the sidelines of Hollywood is one of the great recent WTFs for movie lovers and actressexuals everywhere. To be fair, maybe we should have seen it coming, given her string of box-office bombs, the fact that she passed up roles she probably shouldn’t have, and her reputation for not being the easiest to work with. Yet it’s pretty shocking,...
Geena Davis at Sundance this past JanuaryIf they’d made a Wonder Woman movie back in the ’90s, Geena Davis would have been on the short list for the lead role. Or if not, she should have been. Statuesque beauty? Check. Commanding physical presence and natural athleticism? Check and check. A convincing don’t-fuck-with-me quality, tempered by a divine set of dimples that suggest she’s not taking herself too seriously? Check and mate.
Davis’s premature relegation to the sidelines of Hollywood is one of the great recent WTFs for movie lovers and actressexuals everywhere. To be fair, maybe we should have seen it coming, given her string of box-office bombs, the fact that she passed up roles she probably shouldn’t have, and her reputation for not being the easiest to work with. Yet it’s pretty shocking,...
- 5/31/2017
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
It's a Pedro Party all week. Here's Lynn Lee on her introduction to Almodóvar...
To all actresses who have played actresses. To all women who act. To men who act and become women. To all the people who want to be mothers. To my mother.”
All About My Mother was the first Almodovar film I ever saw, and as it happens, I saw it with my own mother. I don’t remember why I picked it for us to see together. It certainly wasn’t because of the title or because I thought it would be something she’d particularly like. In fact, if I’d thought about it more, I might have been anxious that she would find it too outré. Or for that matter, that I would; as both a movie lover and a young adult, I was just beginning to learn what was out there and how...
To all actresses who have played actresses. To all women who act. To men who act and become women. To all the people who want to be mothers. To my mother.”
All About My Mother was the first Almodovar film I ever saw, and as it happens, I saw it with my own mother. I don’t remember why I picked it for us to see together. It certainly wasn’t because of the title or because I thought it would be something she’d particularly like. In fact, if I’d thought about it more, I might have been anxious that she would find it too outré. Or for that matter, that I would; as both a movie lover and a young adult, I was just beginning to learn what was out there and how...
- 5/12/2017
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
by Lynn Lee
Elliptical and enigmatic, The Sense of an Ending has the quality of a mystery, but one that raises more questions than it answers. That is, without a doubt, fully intentional. It’s a film that’s designed to make you go “hmm,” not “aha,” and there’s something admirable about how studiously it avoids going for an obvious narrative or emotional knockout punch. But by the same token, there’s something a little unsatisfying about it, too.
Based on the Booker Prize-winning novella by Julian Barnes, the film centers on an aging Londoner, Tony Webster (Jim Broadbent), who, upon being notified of an unexpected legacy, finds himself revisiting his memories of an incident from his youth and eventually coming to grips with the fact that he’s never fully acknowledged or even recognized the truth of what really happened...
Elliptical and enigmatic, The Sense of an Ending has the quality of a mystery, but one that raises more questions than it answers. That is, without a doubt, fully intentional. It’s a film that’s designed to make you go “hmm,” not “aha,” and there’s something admirable about how studiously it avoids going for an obvious narrative or emotional knockout punch. But by the same token, there’s something a little unsatisfying about it, too.
Based on the Booker Prize-winning novella by Julian Barnes, the film centers on an aging Londoner, Tony Webster (Jim Broadbent), who, upon being notified of an unexpected legacy, finds himself revisiting his memories of an incident from his youth and eventually coming to grips with the fact that he’s never fully acknowledged or even recognized the truth of what really happened...
- 3/20/2017
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
Editor's Note: We're passing the baton around for Big Little Lies so that we keep up. Nathaniel took episode 1 and 2, Spencer looked at episode 3. Lynn Lee takes the baton for episode 4....
Coming off the high of Episode 3, Episode 4 couldn’t help but feel like a bit of a comedown, even as it ratcheted up the multiple tensions just a wee bit more. Feels like something’s gotta give soon, doesn’t it? We are, after all, at series midpoint and we still don’t know who the murder victim is. It doesn’t bother me, though, as long as we’ve got such juicy character dynamics and relationships, not to mention such fantastic actressing, to distract us...
Coming off the high of Episode 3, Episode 4 couldn’t help but feel like a bit of a comedown, even as it ratcheted up the multiple tensions just a wee bit more. Feels like something’s gotta give soon, doesn’t it? We are, after all, at series midpoint and we still don’t know who the murder victim is. It doesn’t bother me, though, as long as we’ve got such juicy character dynamics and relationships, not to mention such fantastic actressing, to distract us...
- 3/15/2017
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
By Lynn Lee
With the live-action remake of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast just around the corner, what better time to revisit the original animated masterpiece and its endlessly hummable songs? If you saw the movie when it came out in 1991 and happened to be a bookish, musical theater-loving little girl (or boy) at the time, odds are you got the soundtrack and learned it by heart. (I plead guilty on all counts.)
While I have no idea what happened to my copy, every beat and lyric – by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman, respectively – are still firmly etched into my memory. I never saw the Broadway musical, which restored a song that had been scrapped from the movie (“Human Again”) and added several new songs by Menken and lyricist Tim Rice, but reportedly the new movie isn’t including any of the latter. Instead it’s adding...
With the live-action remake of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast just around the corner, what better time to revisit the original animated masterpiece and its endlessly hummable songs? If you saw the movie when it came out in 1991 and happened to be a bookish, musical theater-loving little girl (or boy) at the time, odds are you got the soundtrack and learned it by heart. (I plead guilty on all counts.)
While I have no idea what happened to my copy, every beat and lyric – by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman, respectively – are still firmly etched into my memory. I never saw the Broadway musical, which restored a song that had been scrapped from the movie (“Human Again”) and added several new songs by Menken and lyricist Tim Rice, but reportedly the new movie isn’t including any of the latter. Instead it’s adding...
- 3/13/2017
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
Scarlett & Viola won the supporting & lead actress Tonys in 2010. Now Viola is headed for a supporting trophy (for the same role) by Lynn Lee
If it’s Oscar season, there must be category fraud lurking somewhere. This year most of the debate has centered around Viola Davis, whose barn-burner of a performance opposite Denzel Washington in Fences is a virtual lock ...for supporting actress gold. There’s little doubt the decision to go supporting was driven by the perception that lead actress would be a much tougher road in an especially competitive year. Still, it’s such a powerhouse turn that many Viola fans are justifiably frustrated by what looks like a cynical lack of faith in both her and the Academy.
And yet, having previously read the play and seen it performed on stage – though not the production that starred Viola and Denzel – I can’t help wondering if...
If it’s Oscar season, there must be category fraud lurking somewhere. This year most of the debate has centered around Viola Davis, whose barn-burner of a performance opposite Denzel Washington in Fences is a virtual lock ...for supporting actress gold. There’s little doubt the decision to go supporting was driven by the perception that lead actress would be a much tougher road in an especially competitive year. Still, it’s such a powerhouse turn that many Viola fans are justifiably frustrated by what looks like a cynical lack of faith in both her and the Academy.
And yet, having previously read the play and seen it performed on stage – though not the production that starred Viola and Denzel – I can’t help wondering if...
- 1/17/2017
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
by Lynn Lee
As we approach the start of Oscar voting, the race for Best Actor remains comparatively quiet, especially when compared with the super-tight margins in the Best Actress category. Currently the smart money has the Academy tracking the SAG lineup, with Casey Affleck and Denzel Washington as virtual locks (notwithstanding the continued rumbling about those 2010 sexual harassment suits against Affleck) and Ryan Gosling, Viggo Mortensen, and Andrew Garfield filling the remaining slots...
As we approach the start of Oscar voting, the race for Best Actor remains comparatively quiet, especially when compared with the super-tight margins in the Best Actress category. Currently the smart money has the Academy tracking the SAG lineup, with Casey Affleck and Denzel Washington as virtual locks (notwithstanding the continued rumbling about those 2010 sexual harassment suits against Affleck) and Ryan Gosling, Viggo Mortensen, and Andrew Garfield filling the remaining slots...
- 12/28/2016
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
A few members of Team Experience will be sharing posts on their favorite Christmas movies. Here's Lynn Lee
You can have your Christmas Story or your It’s a Wonderful Life. For me, my Christmas movie will always be Gillian Armstrong’s Little Women, which took its bow Christmas Day, 1994, and has kept a place in my heart ever since. Even though it faithfully adapts a literary classic, the movie’s also a perfect encapsulation of the ’90s: besides Winona Ryder, for whom Little Women was something of a pet project, it also featured a very young Kirsten Dunst, fresh off her star-making turn in Interview With a Vampire, and Claire Danes, still in her Angela Chase days, making her big-screen debut, as well as a 20-year-old Christian Bale completing his transition from child to adult actor.
None of that, of course, meant anything to me when I first saw the film.
You can have your Christmas Story or your It’s a Wonderful Life. For me, my Christmas movie will always be Gillian Armstrong’s Little Women, which took its bow Christmas Day, 1994, and has kept a place in my heart ever since. Even though it faithfully adapts a literary classic, the movie’s also a perfect encapsulation of the ’90s: besides Winona Ryder, for whom Little Women was something of a pet project, it also featured a very young Kirsten Dunst, fresh off her star-making turn in Interview With a Vampire, and Claire Danes, still in her Angela Chase days, making her big-screen debut, as well as a 20-year-old Christian Bale completing his transition from child to adult actor.
None of that, of course, meant anything to me when I first saw the film.
- 12/14/2016
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
It's Noirvember. Here's Lynn Lee...
For a film set in the ’50s, L.A. Confidential (1997) looks and feels surprisingly contemporary. Maybe it’s because so many of its themes still resonate today: police brutality (especially against racial minorities), broken Hollywood dreams, and the addictiveness of celebrity and power. Maybe it’s because so much of the film is shot and lit in a more naturalistic, less stylized manner than your typical hardboiled crime movie, which makes the more obviously noir-ish sequences really pop by contrast. But I think what distinguishes it most from its classic forbears is that it ends up being less memorable for its atmosphere or its plot twists than its character development of not one detective-protagonist but three, whose parallel narrative lines end up converging over the course of the film.
For a film set in the ’50s, L.A. Confidential (1997) looks and feels surprisingly contemporary. Maybe it’s because so many of its themes still resonate today: police brutality (especially against racial minorities), broken Hollywood dreams, and the addictiveness of celebrity and power. Maybe it’s because so much of the film is shot and lit in a more naturalistic, less stylized manner than your typical hardboiled crime movie, which makes the more obviously noir-ish sequences really pop by contrast. But I think what distinguishes it most from its classic forbears is that it ends up being less memorable for its atmosphere or its plot twists than its character development of not one detective-protagonist but three, whose parallel narrative lines end up converging over the course of the film.
- 11/11/2016
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
Lynn Lee here stepping in for Nathaniel, on his way back to NYC, for the final day of the Middleburg Film Festival which was Sunday. As a D.C. area resident, I’ve been observing the rising profile of this local-ish film festival over the past few years with great interest. Festival founder Sheila Johnson seems bent on making Middleburg a lower-altitude Telluride of the East, and she certainly has the Hollywood heavy-hitter connections to do it! This year’s lineup was easily the most impressive so far in the festival’s short history; it’s as if the program was constructed specifically to highlight likely Oscar contenders.
The Lovings in the beloved Virginia.
In both that ambition and its picturesque Virginia setting, there was no more fitting film to cap the festival than Loving...
The Lovings in the beloved Virginia.
In both that ambition and its picturesque Virginia setting, there was no more fitting film to cap the festival than Loving...
- 10/25/2016
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
A conversation between Lynn Lee and Kieran Scarlett. At the end of Part 1 of the discussion, Lynn left us to wonder just how long "Westworld" can keep this story going. We pick up where we left off.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
Kieran: That’s an excellent point about Marsden and Wood’s performances that I hadn’t considered. I did think Wood was much more compelling in the second episode than she was in the pilot. I found myself adjusting to the tonal rhythms of her performance, which are quite specific. I appreciate that there isn’t a rigid uniformity to how the actors portray AIs. Each has their own texture and we’re not just watching actors play mindless automatons, which would have been so boring. That we get insight into their creators and programmers based on how each AI behaves is also an intriguing facet to the performances that...
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
Kieran: That’s an excellent point about Marsden and Wood’s performances that I hadn’t considered. I did think Wood was much more compelling in the second episode than she was in the pilot. I found myself adjusting to the tonal rhythms of her performance, which are quite specific. I appreciate that there isn’t a rigid uniformity to how the actors portray AIs. Each has their own texture and we’re not just watching actors play mindless automatons, which would have been so boring. That we get insight into their creators and programmers based on how each AI behaves is also an intriguing facet to the performances that...
- 10/16/2016
- by Kieran Scarlett
- FilmExperience
This week, Team Experience members Lynn Lee and Kieran Scarlett have tackled the first two episodes of new HBO sci-fi drama, "Westworld," which has captured the interest, fascination (or ire, depending on who you talk to) of audiences. Here's Part 1 of the 2 part discussion...
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
Kieran: Watching the “Westworld” pilot and then the second episode, my immediate reaction—even in thinking that the pilot was relatively strong and an intriguing opening statement to the show—was that these two episodes should be reversed. I might even go so far as to say that the pilot, with all of its beautifully creepy, world-establishing glory (more on this later) is missable when held up against the power (both narratively and stylistically) of the second episode...
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
Kieran: Watching the “Westworld” pilot and then the second episode, my immediate reaction—even in thinking that the pilot was relatively strong and an intriguing opening statement to the show—was that these two episodes should be reversed. I might even go so far as to say that the pilot, with all of its beautifully creepy, world-establishing glory (more on this later) is missable when held up against the power (both narratively and stylistically) of the second episode...
- 10/15/2016
- by Kieran Scarlett
- FilmExperience
Editor's Note: On this very week in 1793 the Queen Consort of France Marie Antoinette (born Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna von Habsburg-Lothringen -whew) stood "trial" and was guillotined during the French Revolution. She's haunted popular culture ever since. On this very week ten years ago in 2006, Sofia Coppola's undervalued and unconventional biopic Marie Antoinette began its trip to movie theaters. We're celebrating every day at 3 Pm Est for a week. Party.
Lynn Lee looks back at Marie Antoinette's (2006) controversial use of music...
First come the fast, bracing guitar chords, followed by the almost-too-on-point Gang of Four lyrics - “The problem of leisure, what to do for pleasure?” - as the opening credits roll in bright hot pink against a black background. We catch a quick shot of a reclining Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst), tasting one of an array of sumptuous cakes as she tries on a shoe and gives...
Lynn Lee looks back at Marie Antoinette's (2006) controversial use of music...
First come the fast, bracing guitar chords, followed by the almost-too-on-point Gang of Four lyrics - “The problem of leisure, what to do for pleasure?” - as the opening credits roll in bright hot pink against a black background. We catch a quick shot of a reclining Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst), tasting one of an array of sumptuous cakes as she tries on a shoe and gives...
- 10/13/2016
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
by Lynn Lee
USA’s Mr. Robot wrapped its second season this past week, just after star Rami Malek landed his first Emmy for best lead actor in a drama. The timing couldn’t be better: with the show already renewed for a third season, it should help maintain the buzz factor and maybe pick up more curious viewers.
And yet, among existing fans, season 2 has been remarkably divisive...
USA’s Mr. Robot wrapped its second season this past week, just after star Rami Malek landed his first Emmy for best lead actor in a drama. The timing couldn’t be better: with the show already renewed for a third season, it should help maintain the buzz factor and maybe pick up more curious viewers.
And yet, among existing fans, season 2 has been remarkably divisive...
- 9/25/2016
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
Here’s Lynn Lee, with a closer look at the newcomer and underdog of the six Emmy nominees for Best Lead Actress in a drama:
When I first started watching The Americans, I was blown away by one actor, and one actor alone: Matthew Rhys, as the male half of a pair of Kgb operatives hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Reagan-era Washington, D.C. Oh, the rest of the cast was strong, too, but Rhys—whom I’d never previously seen in anything—left everyone else in the dust, including Keri Russell as his partner in espionage. She was good, I thought, but not quite at the level of her co-star.
Flash forward three seasons, and Russell’s more than made up that gap. Not only does she now easily hold her own opposite Rhys, there are times when she surpasses him...
When I first started watching The Americans, I was blown away by one actor, and one actor alone: Matthew Rhys, as the male half of a pair of Kgb operatives hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Reagan-era Washington, D.C. Oh, the rest of the cast was strong, too, but Rhys—whom I’d never previously seen in anything—left everyone else in the dust, including Keri Russell as his partner in espionage. She was good, I thought, but not quite at the level of her co-star.
Flash forward three seasons, and Russell’s more than made up that gap. Not only does she now easily hold her own opposite Rhys, there are times when she surpasses him...
- 9/17/2016
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
As part of our celebration of the year of the month, 1984, Lynn Lee revisits the winner of that year's Palme d'Or, Wim Wenders' Paris Texas.
While it may not quite have the status of an iconic movie, there’s much about Paris, Texas that feels iconic. A hybrid of those two most iconically American genres, the Western and the road trip—directed, natch, by a German and starring two European actresses—it bears the distinctive features of both. The long stretches of silence, only occasionally broken by snatches of spare Sam Shepard-scripted dialogue or, as often as not, monologue. Ry Cooder’s haunting slide-guitar score, which seems to meld with the harsh, lonely, yet strangely sublime landscapes of Texas deserts, highways, and roadside motels. The lighting, especially at dusk. The weathered countenance of Harry Dean Stanton—how does it manage to be at once so stoic and so expressive?...
While it may not quite have the status of an iconic movie, there’s much about Paris, Texas that feels iconic. A hybrid of those two most iconically American genres, the Western and the road trip—directed, natch, by a German and starring two European actresses—it bears the distinctive features of both. The long stretches of silence, only occasionally broken by snatches of spare Sam Shepard-scripted dialogue or, as often as not, monologue. Ry Cooder’s haunting slide-guitar score, which seems to meld with the harsh, lonely, yet strangely sublime landscapes of Texas deserts, highways, and roadside motels. The lighting, especially at dusk. The weathered countenance of Harry Dean Stanton—how does it manage to be at once so stoic and so expressive?...
- 8/23/2016
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
Well, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. But it wasn't very good, either.
by Lynn Lee
Suicide Squad was supposed to be DC Comics’ answer to Marvel’s big-screen dominance. It had even more pressure riding on it to make up for the underwhelming Batman vs. Superman. Unfortunately for DC, there’s nothing here to challenge Marvel’s crown.
It’s not that it’s unwatchable, it’s that everything about it is either unfocused or uninspired: the plotting, the fight scenes, the visual aesthetic, and most damning of all, the character development. Let’s face it, most superhero movies are variations on the same handful of basic plot arcs and themes; their rhythms are so familiar to us that they rarely pack true surprises. What makes some more compelling than others is the characterization of the heroes (and, less frequently, their villains)...
by Lynn Lee
Suicide Squad was supposed to be DC Comics’ answer to Marvel’s big-screen dominance. It had even more pressure riding on it to make up for the underwhelming Batman vs. Superman. Unfortunately for DC, there’s nothing here to challenge Marvel’s crown.
It’s not that it’s unwatchable, it’s that everything about it is either unfocused or uninspired: the plotting, the fight scenes, the visual aesthetic, and most damning of all, the character development. Let’s face it, most superhero movies are variations on the same handful of basic plot arcs and themes; their rhythms are so familiar to us that they rarely pack true surprises. What makes some more compelling than others is the characterization of the heroes (and, less frequently, their villains)...
- 8/7/2016
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
Lynn Lee revisits the John Singleton classic on its 25th anniversary.
Four young boys walk along a railroad track, idly chatting but in search of something specific. They find what they’re looking for: a dead body. A group of older boys arrives and harasses them. The most pugnacious of the younger group fights back in a way that foreshadows his destiny as an adult.
Stand by Me? No, Boyz n the Hood, which opened in theaters 25 years ago today. And the parallels are no mere coincidence. Writer and drector John Singleton was intentionally referencing the earlier Rob Reiner film – perhaps as much for the differences as the similarities between the two narratives of boyhood and the cultural spaces they occupy...
Four young boys walk along a railroad track, idly chatting but in search of something specific. They find what they’re looking for: a dead body. A group of older boys arrives and harasses them. The most pugnacious of the younger group fights back in a way that foreshadows his destiny as an adult.
Stand by Me? No, Boyz n the Hood, which opened in theaters 25 years ago today. And the parallels are no mere coincidence. Writer and drector John Singleton was intentionally referencing the earlier Rob Reiner film – perhaps as much for the differences as the similarities between the two narratives of boyhood and the cultural spaces they occupy...
- 7/12/2016
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
We're sharing Emmy FYCs as nomination balloting continues. Here's Lynn Lee...
When promotional clips first started appearing for The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, I found myself wondering what on earth FX could be thinking. The whole thing seemed like an obvious misfire: Cuba Gooding, Jr. didn’t look or sound anything like O.J.; John Travolta seemed to be channeling his inner alien under layers of makeup and Botox and a perpetually, awkwardly raised chin; and who was going to be interested in a dramatization of a trial that had saturated the media over 20 years ago and was now being produced by Ryan Murphy, the king of camp? How could it be anything but terrible?
Well, turns out FX knew what it was doing. Not only was The People v. O.J. Simpson not terrible, it just may turn out to be the best drama series of the year. There are many reasons why the show worked as well as it did, and why it deserves Emmy recognition, but three stand out...
When promotional clips first started appearing for The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, I found myself wondering what on earth FX could be thinking. The whole thing seemed like an obvious misfire: Cuba Gooding, Jr. didn’t look or sound anything like O.J.; John Travolta seemed to be channeling his inner alien under layers of makeup and Botox and a perpetually, awkwardly raised chin; and who was going to be interested in a dramatization of a trial that had saturated the media over 20 years ago and was now being produced by Ryan Murphy, the king of camp? How could it be anything but terrible?
Well, turns out FX knew what it was doing. Not only was The People v. O.J. Simpson not terrible, it just may turn out to be the best drama series of the year. There are many reasons why the show worked as well as it did, and why it deserves Emmy recognition, but three stand out...
- 6/16/2016
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
Our celebration of Actors this month continues with Lynn Lee on Viggo
Is Viggo Mortensen the most interesting man in the world? Based on his peripatetic history and eclectic interests, he’s certainly a contender. In addition to acting, he’s a prolific painter, photographer, composer, and poet who founded his own publishing house. A dual American and Danish citizen who spent his early childhood in South America and Denmark before returning to his native New York, he speaks multiple languages, with greatest fluency in English, Spanish, and Danish. Oh, and his ex-wife is punk singer Exene Cervenko, with whom he has a son.
As my husband put it, “Viggo Mortensen is who James Franco wishes he was.”
I can’t speak to the artistic merits of Viggo’s off-screen pursuits, but I do see him as a kind of anti-Franco in keeping them largely off the public radar. And...
Is Viggo Mortensen the most interesting man in the world? Based on his peripatetic history and eclectic interests, he’s certainly a contender. In addition to acting, he’s a prolific painter, photographer, composer, and poet who founded his own publishing house. A dual American and Danish citizen who spent his early childhood in South America and Denmark before returning to his native New York, he speaks multiple languages, with greatest fluency in English, Spanish, and Danish. Oh, and his ex-wife is punk singer Exene Cervenko, with whom he has a son.
As my husband put it, “Viggo Mortensen is who James Franco wishes he was.”
I can’t speak to the artistic merits of Viggo’s off-screen pursuits, but I do see him as a kind of anti-Franco in keeping them largely off the public radar. And...
- 4/24/2016
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
In April Showers, Team Tfe looks at memorably soaked moments in the movies. Here's Lynn Lee on Dreams (1990).
The sun is shining, but it’s raining. Foxes hold their wedding processions in this weather.
But they don’t like anyone to see them – if they catch you watching, they’ll be very angry!
Dreams (1990) may be the most personal of Kurosawa’s films, and has always struck me as one of his most underrated. It’s uneven, yes, but at its best it really does capture the vivid yet elusive, disorienting nature of a recurring dream that always seems to slip just out of your grasp – the kind of dream that can turn on a hair from a beautiful vision to a nightmare and back again...
The sun is shining, but it’s raining. Foxes hold their wedding processions in this weather.
But they don’t like anyone to see them – if they catch you watching, they’ll be very angry!
Dreams (1990) may be the most personal of Kurosawa’s films, and has always struck me as one of his most underrated. It’s uneven, yes, but at its best it really does capture the vivid yet elusive, disorienting nature of a recurring dream that always seems to slip just out of your grasp – the kind of dream that can turn on a hair from a beautiful vision to a nightmare and back again...
- 4/5/2016
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
We're accidentally having nearly a full television day today at our mostly movies site so this is as good a time as any to try to reboot that idea about a weekly glance at what we're loving on TV. So I asked members of the team to name a Mvp of their television week and here's what they said...
Mvp: "If it doesn't fit...," Scene
Show: The People Vs. Oj Simpson
This show gets better and better. In an episode chock-full of riveting moments, there was never any real doubt that The moment would be the presentation of the iconic gloves, the gloves the prosecution was so convinced would win the case for them. After tracing what led to the fatal error of asking Simpson to try them on—Chris Darden’s desire for a “big moment” to beat the defense at their own game, and perhaps to make up...
Mvp: "If it doesn't fit...," Scene
Show: The People Vs. Oj Simpson
This show gets better and better. In an episode chock-full of riveting moments, there was never any real doubt that The moment would be the presentation of the iconic gloves, the gloves the prosecution was so convinced would win the case for them. After tracing what led to the fatal error of asking Simpson to try them on—Chris Darden’s desire for a “big moment” to beat the defense at their own game, and perhaps to make up...
- 3/16/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Team Experience is celebrating Valentines Day with favorite love scenes. Here's Lynn Lee on an 80s classic
Everyone who loves this film remembers The Kiss. It’s the moment proper Edwardian girl Lucy Honeychurch (a very young Helena Bonham-Carter), vacationing in Italy, discovers romantic passion for the first time. She doesn’t know it yet, but the odd free-thinking young man she’s only recently met (Julian Sands) is her soulmate. He knows it, though.
Besides being (literally) storybook-romantic—a sun-drenched poppy field in Italy! lush soprano aria in the background!—the kiss is also wreathed in comedy, as the film cuts back and forth between Lucy, wending her way uncertainly towards George, and her fussy chaperone Charlotte (Maggie Smith) bonding with another fellow tourist, a hacky romance novelist (Judi Dench), over scandalous love stories before she starts to worry about Lucy. Meanwhile, the Italian driver who led Lucy to...
Everyone who loves this film remembers The Kiss. It’s the moment proper Edwardian girl Lucy Honeychurch (a very young Helena Bonham-Carter), vacationing in Italy, discovers romantic passion for the first time. She doesn’t know it yet, but the odd free-thinking young man she’s only recently met (Julian Sands) is her soulmate. He knows it, though.
Besides being (literally) storybook-romantic—a sun-drenched poppy field in Italy! lush soprano aria in the background!—the kiss is also wreathed in comedy, as the film cuts back and forth between Lucy, wending her way uncertainly towards George, and her fussy chaperone Charlotte (Maggie Smith) bonding with another fellow tourist, a hacky romance novelist (Judi Dench), over scandalous love stories before she starts to worry about Lucy. Meanwhile, the Italian driver who led Lucy to...
- 2/13/2016
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
Since several members of Team Experience are high on Agent Carter, here's Lynn Lee to talk about its new Tinseltown resonance.
Are you enjoying Marvel’s “Agent Carter”? If you're not watching, you should. The show’s really upped its game in its second season, in part because its main characters have found their groove, but in even larger part because of its change of setting.
Dispatched to Los Angeles to assist the West Coast office of the Strategic Science Reserve, Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) quickly finds herself in the heart of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Her old friend Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) is doing his best impression of another famed Howard of the period, dabbling in filmmaking but really most interested in collecting starlets as poolside decorations and “production assistants.” Meanwhile, Peggy and Jarvis (James d’Arcy) do their own best impression of Nick and Nora Charles (although...
Are you enjoying Marvel’s “Agent Carter”? If you're not watching, you should. The show’s really upped its game in its second season, in part because its main characters have found their groove, but in even larger part because of its change of setting.
Dispatched to Los Angeles to assist the West Coast office of the Strategic Science Reserve, Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) quickly finds herself in the heart of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Her old friend Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) is doing his best impression of another famed Howard of the period, dabbling in filmmaking but really most interested in collecting starlets as poolside decorations and “production assistants.” Meanwhile, Peggy and Jarvis (James d’Arcy) do their own best impression of Nick and Nora Charles (although...
- 2/9/2016
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
Lynn Lee here, with a little "before they were in Star Wars" trip down memory lane...
Remember when Poe Dameron and Kylo Ren did a novelty song with Justin Timberlake?
Does this mean Jt will be joining them at some point in our favorite outer space saga? Maybe there can be a truce trio - or even a quartet with Daisy Ridley...
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) is one of those films that I didn't love when I first saw it but gradually burrowed its way into my soul. I now think it's one of the Coen brothers' best. Of course, a lot of credit goes to the gorgeous musical performances, especially Oscar Isaac's solo turns, even if they're continually punctuated (and punctured) by the complete lack of on-screen audience appreciation. Or maybe all the more because of that: you feel like you're making a private discovery, whether of the character or the actor,...
Remember when Poe Dameron and Kylo Ren did a novelty song with Justin Timberlake?
Does this mean Jt will be joining them at some point in our favorite outer space saga? Maybe there can be a truce trio - or even a quartet with Daisy Ridley...
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) is one of those films that I didn't love when I first saw it but gradually burrowed its way into my soul. I now think it's one of the Coen brothers' best. Of course, a lot of credit goes to the gorgeous musical performances, especially Oscar Isaac's solo turns, even if they're continually punctuated (and punctured) by the complete lack of on-screen audience appreciation. Or maybe all the more because of that: you feel like you're making a private discovery, whether of the character or the actor,...
- 1/21/2016
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
For this edition of Contrarian Corner, we'll have to redub it "Conflicted Corner". Lynn Lee discusses her mixed feelings about the Oscar's primary dark horse.
In this year’s Best Picture race, The Big Short is the one title that virtually no one saw coming very far in advance. Which is appropriate for a movie about an event that only a handful of people predicted. And while it’s fallen back a little in the shadow of The Revenant’s nomination-leading surge and Globe wins, it’s still very much in play for Oscar’s big prizes. With five nominations (fpicture, director, supporting actor, adapted screenplay, and editing) under its belt, as well as a strong performance both at the box office and the Critics Choice Movie Awards, who knows?
The Big Short's ascendance hasn’t gotten it much love here at Tfe, where the prevailing reaction has been...
In this year’s Best Picture race, The Big Short is the one title that virtually no one saw coming very far in advance. Which is appropriate for a movie about an event that only a handful of people predicted. And while it’s fallen back a little in the shadow of The Revenant’s nomination-leading surge and Globe wins, it’s still very much in play for Oscar’s big prizes. With five nominations (fpicture, director, supporting actor, adapted screenplay, and editing) under its belt, as well as a strong performance both at the box office and the Critics Choice Movie Awards, who knows?
The Big Short's ascendance hasn’t gotten it much love here at Tfe, where the prevailing reaction has been...
- 1/18/2016
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
If you dwell too much on the negatives on Oscar Nomination Morning it can be so deflating that the rest of the season (just one month to go) can feel agonizing. Nevertheless we owe the movies and actors that enrich our lives a proper send off here now that Oscar has closed this particular chapter on them. But never fear. The Academy Awards are a fun time from a anecdotal calendar perspective and important in a history chapter kind of way but they're never ever ever the full book on the movies.
Here are achievements in film from Carol, Creed, Inside Out, and more that we here at Tfe have no intention of saying goodbye to in reality, though we'll have to set them aside in a particular kind of way this month...
image src
Benicio del Toro in Sicario
While Sicario received some recognition in the technical categories, it...
Here are achievements in film from Carol, Creed, Inside Out, and more that we here at Tfe have no intention of saying goodbye to in reality, though we'll have to set them aside in a particular kind of way this month...
image src
Benicio del Toro in Sicario
While Sicario received some recognition in the technical categories, it...
- 1/15/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Lynn Lee test-drives a new, potentially recurring feature wherein Tfe members voice dissent on Oscar hopefuls and critical darlings.
If you’re on this site, it’s safe to assume you pay attention to movie critics. It’s also a fair bet you’re likely—or at least more likely than the average person—to agree with the critics when they coalesce around a particular movie. But if you’re like me, every once in a while a film comes along that generates a level of critical enthusiasm you just don’t get. You’d like to share or at least understand it, but instead find yourself feeling like the lone non-believer in a church full of the radiant converted.
That’s how it’s been for me and Mad Max: Fury Road, which met with rave reviews and solid box office when it hit theaters this summer. More recently,...
If you’re on this site, it’s safe to assume you pay attention to movie critics. It’s also a fair bet you’re likely—or at least more likely than the average person—to agree with the critics when they coalesce around a particular movie. But if you’re like me, every once in a while a film comes along that generates a level of critical enthusiasm you just don’t get. You’d like to share or at least understand it, but instead find yourself feeling like the lone non-believer in a church full of the radiant converted.
That’s how it’s been for me and Mad Max: Fury Road, which met with rave reviews and solid box office when it hit theaters this summer. More recently,...
- 12/15/2015
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
Lynn Lee, here again to discuss this week’s Mad Men
Glen is off to Vietnam but wants a proper goodbye from Betty
Maybe Don Draper should have been a movie director. His best ads have a film-like narrative and emotional pull, and going to the movies (something we, perhaps tellingly, haven’t seen him do in a while) seems to recharge his creative batteries. Even now, as he appears increasingly disaffected with the business of selling either his work or his home, he yearns for the kind of high concept that sounds better suited to the big screen, whether it involves the World’s Fair or a fantasy about the inventor of the Frisbee making a million and moving to France. After all, he’s managed to rewrite his own life story – the public version, at least – like the brashest of screenwriters: from poverty to the penthouse.
[Jane Fonda, Vietnam and more after the jump]...
Glen is off to Vietnam but wants a proper goodbye from Betty
Maybe Don Draper should have been a movie director. His best ads have a film-like narrative and emotional pull, and going to the movies (something we, perhaps tellingly, haven’t seen him do in a while) seems to recharge his creative batteries. Even now, as he appears increasingly disaffected with the business of selling either his work or his home, he yearns for the kind of high concept that sounds better suited to the big screen, whether it involves the World’s Fair or a fantasy about the inventor of the Frisbee making a million and moving to France. After all, he’s managed to rewrite his own life story – the public version, at least – like the brashest of screenwriters: from poverty to the penthouse.
[Jane Fonda, Vietnam and more after the jump]...
- 4/21/2015
- by Lynn Lee
- FilmExperience
Leviathan leads contenders; 36 films from 21 countries in the running.
Films in the running for the 2014 Apsa for Best Feature Film include Winter Sleep (Turkey, France, Germany), Leviathan (Russia), I’m Not Angry (Iran), The Owners (Kazakhstan), and Memories on Stone (Iraqi Kurdistan, Germany).
Leviathan, also nominated for Achievement in Cinematography for Mikhail Krichman, has received three nominations in total, the most for any film.
In total, 36 films from 21 countries are in the running for awards.
Nominees vying for the award in the Achievement in Directing category are: Rolf de Heer (Charlie’s Country, Australia), Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan, Russia), Im Kwon-taek (Revivre, South Korea), Rakhshan Banietemad (Tales, Iran) and Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Winter Sleep, Turkey, France, Germany).
For the first time, a film from Syria has received a nomination, with Silvered Water, Syria Self-portrait (Syria, France) nominated for the Apsa for Best Feature Documentary.
Films from the China and Russia lead the nominations with six each, closely followed...
Films in the running for the 2014 Apsa for Best Feature Film include Winter Sleep (Turkey, France, Germany), Leviathan (Russia), I’m Not Angry (Iran), The Owners (Kazakhstan), and Memories on Stone (Iraqi Kurdistan, Germany).
Leviathan, also nominated for Achievement in Cinematography for Mikhail Krichman, has received three nominations in total, the most for any film.
In total, 36 films from 21 countries are in the running for awards.
Nominees vying for the award in the Achievement in Directing category are: Rolf de Heer (Charlie’s Country, Australia), Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan, Russia), Im Kwon-taek (Revivre, South Korea), Rakhshan Banietemad (Tales, Iran) and Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Winter Sleep, Turkey, France, Germany).
For the first time, a film from Syria has received a nomination, with Silvered Water, Syria Self-portrait (Syria, France) nominated for the Apsa for Best Feature Documentary.
Films from the China and Russia lead the nominations with six each, closely followed...
- 10/28/2014
- ScreenDaily
A group of Singaporean filmmakers including Anthony Chen, Boo Junfeng, Royston Tan and Kelvin Tong has issued a statement protesting the local ban of Tan Pin Pin’s documentary To Singapore With Love.
The documentary examines the lives of Singaporean exiles, including trade unionists, student leaders and Communists, who left Singapore in the 1960s and 1970s due to their fear of being imprisoned under Singapore’s Internal Security Act.
Singapore’s Media Development Authority (Mda) classified the film yesterday as “Not allowed for all ratings”, on the grounds that it undermines national security. The classification means that the film can’t be shown or distributed in Singapore.
The group of 38 high-profile filmmakers and members of Singapore’s arts community expressed their “deep disappointment” at the Mda’s decision and called on the government body “to release their version of the events in question”, rather than banning the film outright (see full statement below).
To Singapore With Love...
The documentary examines the lives of Singaporean exiles, including trade unionists, student leaders and Communists, who left Singapore in the 1960s and 1970s due to their fear of being imprisoned under Singapore’s Internal Security Act.
Singapore’s Media Development Authority (Mda) classified the film yesterday as “Not allowed for all ratings”, on the grounds that it undermines national security. The classification means that the film can’t be shown or distributed in Singapore.
The group of 38 high-profile filmmakers and members of Singapore’s arts community expressed their “deep disappointment” at the Mda’s decision and called on the government body “to release their version of the events in question”, rather than banning the film outright (see full statement below).
To Singapore With Love...
- 9/11/2014
- by lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
- ScreenDaily
We don't have a lot of info on this one, but following its premiere earlier this month at South Korea's Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival, some sales art and early details have landed in our inbox for Camera.
The Chinese language film, directed by James Leong and written by Leong and Ben Slater, comes our way from Fortissimo Films and producers Lynn Lee and Jacqueline Lui.
Camera stars Sean Li, Venus Wong, Calvin Poon, and Yuen Leung.
Synopsis:
Ming is a surveillance expert with an obsession - he wants to film everything he sees. It’s a compulsion born of a childhood accident, which left him blind in one eye. Following a design he believes his father left him, Ming builds a miniature camera, which he installs in his bad eye, restoring his sight and allowing him to record everything he sees.
He becomes the perfect surveillance device, but soon...
The Chinese language film, directed by James Leong and written by Leong and Ben Slater, comes our way from Fortissimo Films and producers Lynn Lee and Jacqueline Lui.
Camera stars Sean Li, Venus Wong, Calvin Poon, and Yuen Leung.
Synopsis:
Ming is a surveillance expert with an obsession - he wants to film everything he sees. It’s a compulsion born of a childhood accident, which left him blind in one eye. Following a design he believes his father left him, Ming builds a miniature camera, which he installs in his bad eye, restoring his sight and allowing him to record everything he sees.
He becomes the perfect surveillance device, but soon...
- 7/31/2014
- by Debi Moore
- DreadCentral.com
Hany Abu-Assad’s Omar won best film in the Muhr Arab feature competition at this year’s Dubai International Film Festival (Diff), while Anthony Chen’s Ilo Ilo won best film in the Muhr AsiaAfrica section.
Abu-Assad also won best director in the Arab feature section, while Yasmine Raees won best actress for Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Khan’s Factory Girl. Best actor went to Hassan Badida for Moroccan filmmaker Hicham Lasri’s They Are The Dogs, which also picked up the Special Jury Prize.
Special Mentions went to Mohamed Amin Benamraoui for Adios Carmen and to Moroccan actress Raouia for her roles in Rock The Casbah and Pillow Secrets.
Ilo Ilo was also a multiple prize-winner, adding to an already weighty awards stash, by taking best actress for Yeo Yann Yann’s performance. Best actor in the AsiaAfrica section went to Irrfan Khan for his role in Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox, which also won...
Abu-Assad also won best director in the Arab feature section, while Yasmine Raees won best actress for Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Khan’s Factory Girl. Best actor went to Hassan Badida for Moroccan filmmaker Hicham Lasri’s They Are The Dogs, which also picked up the Special Jury Prize.
Special Mentions went to Mohamed Amin Benamraoui for Adios Carmen and to Moroccan actress Raouia for her roles in Rock The Casbah and Pillow Secrets.
Ilo Ilo was also a multiple prize-winner, adding to an already weighty awards stash, by taking best actress for Yeo Yann Yann’s performance. Best actor in the AsiaAfrica section went to Irrfan Khan for his role in Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox, which also won...
- 12/13/2013
- by lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
- ScreenDaily
Sandeep Ray won best director award for his short Shirno Bahu (Thin Arms)
Irrfan Khan won best actor award for his role in Ritesh Batra’s “The Lunchbox”. The film also won the writer-director a special mention for screenplay in the Muhr Asia Africa category. The jury was headed by Shekhar Kapoor.
Sandeep Ray’s short film “Shirno Bahu” (Thin Arms) won him the best director award in the Muhr Asia Africa shorts category.
“Shirno Bahu” tells the story of an octogenarian woman who undergoes treatment for a debilitating medical condition. The 10 minute film is in Bengali language.
Actor-producer Sanjay Suri was a part of Arab competition jury.
“The Lunchbox” also won two Asia Pacific Screen Awards recently.
Full list of awards at Dubai International Film Festival:
Muhr AsiaAfrica Feature:
Special Mention: Souleymane Démé for his role in Grigris(France, Chad)
Special Mention: Ritesh Batra for the screenplay of The Lunchbox...
Irrfan Khan won best actor award for his role in Ritesh Batra’s “The Lunchbox”. The film also won the writer-director a special mention for screenplay in the Muhr Asia Africa category. The jury was headed by Shekhar Kapoor.
Sandeep Ray’s short film “Shirno Bahu” (Thin Arms) won him the best director award in the Muhr Asia Africa shorts category.
“Shirno Bahu” tells the story of an octogenarian woman who undergoes treatment for a debilitating medical condition. The 10 minute film is in Bengali language.
Actor-producer Sanjay Suri was a part of Arab competition jury.
“The Lunchbox” also won two Asia Pacific Screen Awards recently.
Full list of awards at Dubai International Film Festival:
Muhr AsiaAfrica Feature:
Special Mention: Souleymane Démé for his role in Grigris(France, Chad)
Special Mention: Ritesh Batra for the screenplay of The Lunchbox...
- 12/13/2013
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
The Government Shutdown is Over! But our previously furloughed friend Lynn Lee (once reader spotlighted) was kind enough to complete her movie binge diary for us. - Nathaniel
"Filmgoing Adventures of a Furloughed Federal Employee"
Previously on Part 1: Gravity (in 2D), Rush, and Mr Smith fantasies
Day 8: Museum Hours is the film that’s been eluding me for the past month, and the only place it’s still playing at locally is the Avalon, on the border between D.C. and Maryland. The Avalon is one of those old-school theaters with a balcony in the main theater but creaky, decidedly non-stadium seats, and a more cramped secondary theater that can only be reached by a set of steep, narrow stairs. Still, the place has a certain rickety charm, and offers my last chance of catching this movie before it leaves theaters altogether. So there I go, feeling more...
"Filmgoing Adventures of a Furloughed Federal Employee"
Previously on Part 1: Gravity (in 2D), Rush, and Mr Smith fantasies
Day 8: Museum Hours is the film that’s been eluding me for the past month, and the only place it’s still playing at locally is the Avalon, on the border between D.C. and Maryland. The Avalon is one of those old-school theaters with a balcony in the main theater but creaky, decidedly non-stadium seats, and a more cramped secondary theater that can only be reached by a set of steep, narrow stairs. Still, the place has a certain rickety charm, and offers my last chance of catching this movie before it leaves theaters altogether. So there I go, feeling more...
- 10/18/2013
- by GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
- FilmExperience
Reader Takeover Day! The Reader Spotlight is coming back soon but as a special triple treat a few posts over the next 24 hours written by you, the reader. (Well, not you literally). Here is Lynn Lee -- previously reader spotlighted so you'll want to check that out -- who is currently on a tv/movie binge while on furlough.- Nathaniel
Lynn here, taking Nathaniel up on his kind invitation to recount the...
"Filmgoing Adventures of a Furloughed Federal Employee"
There's no question the ongoing federal government shutdown is a disaster for this country, and it's affected federal workers more directly than most. A good chunk of us, including yours truly, have been indefinitely furloughed. Those who think this just means extra vacation time clearly don't understand that (1) most of us *want* to be at work, but it's against the law for us to work and (2) we currently aren't getting paid!
Lynn here, taking Nathaniel up on his kind invitation to recount the...
"Filmgoing Adventures of a Furloughed Federal Employee"
There's no question the ongoing federal government shutdown is a disaster for this country, and it's affected federal workers more directly than most. A good chunk of us, including yours truly, have been indefinitely furloughed. Those who think this just means extra vacation time clearly don't understand that (1) most of us *want* to be at work, but it's against the law for us to work and (2) we currently aren't getting paid!
- 10/15/2013
- by GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
- FilmExperience
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