Nathaniel's Thanks, Given.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014 at 8:15PM The world is a tough place and the movies are our collective great escape. For your host here at TFE there's an awful lot to be thankful for. So as I prepare to stuff my face tomorrow with my best friends I will be especially thankful...
For the orange tabby in Gone Girl
For Julianne Moore getting her groove back on yoga mats and at beach houses
For Ava DuVernay and Jennifer Kent's vivid reminders that women can and do direct movies and we need those fresh voices.
For David Fincher's consistency at turning mainstream audiences on while never pandering
For Shia Labeouf because every film decade needs its defining crazy
For the blooming of Keira Knightley, from an always memorable but uneven actress, to a completely confident movie star, relaxed, nuanced and magnetic in two fine performances
For that shot of the paratroopers in Godzilla
For Finn Wittrock's arrival, sympathetic (Masters of Sex) then terrorizing (Freakshow) outcast beauty
For every single march scene in Selma
For "the world is round, people!"
This scene, people. This scene. It's everything.
For Melanie Lynskey onscreen (Instant-watch Happy Christmas now - it's delightful!) and off
For memorable physicality: Chastain's scolding fingers, Krysten Ritter's Big (Side)Eyes, Luke Pasqualino's battering-ram run, Ralph Fiennes cartoon dashes, and Billy Magnussen's horseback riding (or, rather, his mounting and dismounting)
For the single best crop of LGBT films in one calendar year that we've had in ages and ages (Love is Strange, Pride, The Way He Looks, Stranger by the Lake, The Circle, and so on)
For everything that happens in the elevator in Captain America: Winter Soldier
For "Bob's Burgers"... particularly Tina Belcher. I'm late to the party but that show makes me laugh harder than any show since 30 Rock.
For Jonathan Glazer's return to the movie camera after 10 long years away - his gaze still deliciously alien
For that pop-up Babadook book I just ordered (my advanced thanks)
For the singing voices of almost the full cast of Into the Woods - but especially Streep & Kendrick
For a film year so good I'm already struggling (before screenings are even complete) with too many options for the Film Bitch Awards rosters. I could go on and on... but...
Finally, I'm hugely thankful to my Film Experience team (who delight me so frequently) and to all of you, the readers. Especially if you donate monthly, visit frequently, share articles, and otherwise really engage with what we do here. You help keep the fires burning as we try year in and year out -- against bigger odds than you'd think -- to approach each film year and awards season from lightly different angles than you'll see elsewhere and with more genuine all-eras all-genres movie love.
Abundance to you all! xoxo,
Nathaniel
P.S. What are you thankful for this holiday weekend? Onscreen and off.
Reader Comments (20)
Thanks to you for such a womderful site. Keep the good work!
Thanks to you for such a wonderful site. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for this wonderful site. Keep up the good work!
I guess it's a quiet night here. Lots of things to be thankful for, but Nathaniel THNK YOU for this great blog. I visit many times every day. Thank you providing such great, clever, fun, WELL-WRITTEN stuff. Perhaps you could start tutoring a certain LA-based female colleague. That term seems wrong since she's not in the same league as you. I'm Also thankful for jake gyllenhaal. For different reasons. And foreign films. My best film experiences this year have been from screenings of mommy, force majeure, the way he looks, Ida, two days one night.
we don't have thanksgiving here in brazil, but I have to follow mike and give a huge thanks to the blog and you nathaniel. it's a daily pleasure, and one of the few blogs I read 'religiously'.
re: the film year, I haven't see many movies sadly, but I'm thankful for the different thrills "the babadook", "begin again", 'the homesman" and "the way he looks" provided.
Happy Thanksgiving Nathaniel! I live in Australia and I am thankful for YOU and your incredible blog. I turned 18 years old this year and I began following the Oscar Race in 2007 at age 11 (started young) and this was the first blog I visited and have continued to visit ever since. So thank you for pretty much educating me in the way of the film world. Whilst I certainly understand much more of your writing than I did at age 11, I have always loved the humour, wit and passion you infuse your writing with. The blogosphere is lucky to have you and the wonderful film experience team.
(Also glad to hear that Into the Woods has a great cast. Such a relief!)
I'm thankful (though not American) for people not eating turkeys, or any other animals or animal products, or other people.
I'm thankful for artists seeking truth through their work and not showing off or just dealing with their own stuff in a narrow sense.
I'm thankful for my life (and all the previous ones) for letting me express all the aspects of myself.
I'm super thankful for TheFilmExperience for being a warm, generous companion in my cinephilic life.
#TeamTofurky!!!
Thank you for this excellent blog. I hope you continue delivering insightful and witty analysis and comments on movies, actresses and the varied topics discussed on this site.
Thankful for many things in my life, but as far film writing gifts go, little was a precious as having a place collect a bunch of great original articles on the best shots of 3 Women, Cries and Whispers and Under the Skin.
Where else would you find something as special as that?! Thanks, TFE.
Thankful for this wonderful blog. <3
Seriously tho, it's been a really nice banner year for TFE, it feels like. May many more smart insights, surprise performances and karmic cinematic justices come your way. :D
I'm not American, too. But I hope to attend a Thanksgiving Dinner if I'd travel to the US one day. Sounds like either big fun or big stress, or both.
I'm thankful for still being here, I had some huge troubles and most of them haven't vanished, but I'm thankful my family loves and helps me with everything.
I'm also thankful for films and TV shows in general, a little joy one can escape reality for a certain time.
I'm thankful for those who posts great original movie themed art. They're awesome.
I'm thankful ITW is going to be better as expected and of course I'm thankful Emily Blunt saved Meryl's life at the set of ITW!!!!
No, thank you!
Here's hoping that The Way He Looks will be one of the nine finalists for Best Foreign Language Film when time comes.
Nat, I've said it many times that I appreciate your blog. I think what I like most is the lack of "My way or the Highway." attitude you have towards your posters and even the contributors. Enjoy your day of rest.
This is such a fun post! I'm generally most thankful for Ruffalo especially his character in Begin Again :)
Just watched "Pride" due in no small part to yours and Nick Davis' repeated recommendations. Loved it, so so much. Thanks for helping bring it to my attention, for helping to keep this particular film from fading from view, and for all your advocacy for cinema in general.
I need one of those "what's on your cinematic mind?" posts just to randomly complain how come "beasts of the southern wild" was not nominated for its score. "once there was a hushpuppy" is too beautiful!
Marcelo -- i will never understand the Academy's music branch. For them I can't say that I'm thankful ;)
Dave S -- this means a lot to me, thanks. I love knowing that people listen and that it sometimes benefits them :)
I know you don't comment on TV that much, so I'm happy that the Belchers and Tina most of all got a shout-out from you.
Loved this whole thing. And Dave S, so happy to hear that!