As promised it's time to answer ten reader questions, pulled from your comments. We'll try to do this weekly for awhile because I don't want you to abandon us in the offseason. "DON'T LEAVE US," he cried out, voice trembling, mascara running.
Pedro: Who are your top ten actors/actresses that also participated in politics (were appointed/elected to office or just participated in an election but were not elected, for example)?
You guys aren't supposed to ask top ten questions! I have not paid close enough attention to this weird occurrence, so I dont even know who has done this really. The most famous examples are surely Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan, and Arnold Schwarzenegger with Glenda Jackson a distant fourth. But I have no personal favorites since basically I don't like it when actors shift careers. My 11th commandment proposal: Acting is a rare gift - thou shalt not waste it!
Of course Nancy Davis and Ronald Reagan were no great shakes in the acting department before they became POTUS & FLOTUS so the loss wasn't extreme. We're supposed to be saying nice things about them this week since Nancy just died (RIP) so I'd better just move on before I get myself into trouble since our national fantasy about how great the Reagans were is all kinds of f***ed up and problematic...
But, P.S., I did find it momentarily fascinating when there were rumors that Ashley Judd was going to do it.
DJDeeJay: what's your favorite example of male objectification in a movie?
[The answer and 8 more questions after the jump...]
Can I say "I haven't seen it yet?" Most of the time I think the movie camera is pretty coy when it's looking at men, even in films where the male physique is something of the subject as in superhero franchises which are male fantasies of self-actualization/empowerment. Imagine working out as hard as Chris Hemsworth had to for Thor and then getting one shirtless scene that only lasts 2 seconds. My favorite superhero objectification is that beat in Captain America: The First Avenger when Steve Rogers emerges from the super soldier machine with a whole new muscled body and Agent Peggy Carter can't help but reach out to touch him. It's the moment I fell in love with BOTH of them and I've been true to them ever since.
This question would make a great top ten list since it requires lots of pictures to make its arguments. Perhaps soon!
Chris: What's your favorite gay classic that has basically nothing to do with gay people?
Great Goddess! What a loaded question. The instantaneous answer that kicked my head when I read the question is Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? But there are many. Hey, this would make a good top ten list, too.
Craver: Who is your favorite fictional president?
President Laura Roslyn, Battlestar Galactica. In a landslide even if she wasn't exactly elected into office. So say we all. That Mary McDonnell didn't even receive one nomination, let alone the win(s) she deserved is one of the top five reasons I have trouble ever taking the Emmys seriously.
Dr G: What festivals are on the calendar for TFE to cover this year? (I just moved to Austin and will be attending SXSW next week - so... any tips on creating a realistic festival schedule?).
We'll be covering our usuals this year: Tribeca, Nashville, TCM (all in April), Toronto (September), New York (October), and AFI (November). We'd do more but for the cost of travel/attending. I'd love to go to Cannes but the site doesn't generate enough money to make that feasible. As for realistic schedules, this really depends on your own stamina as a movie buff. The first time I did a festival I assumed I could handle lots of 4 movie days but I found that I enjoyed it a lot more when I just did 3 a day or alternated 4 & 2. That way I still had time to think/write about each one and do other things that I'm told humans enjoy like sleeping, eating, socializing.
Nicolas M: Which auteur(s) do you want see Brie Larson and Saoirse Ronan work with next?
Brie Larson & Saoirse Ronan at Sundance 2015
This is a really good question. They're both too early in their careers for us to get a sense of whether or not they're director-motivated as some actors are. Brie's best film work (Short Term 12, Room, Rampart, Scott Pilgrim) has always involved fairly fresh filmmakers... and her acting is so naturalistic that I kind of hope she avoids established auteurs who she'd have to stylize her work for and keeps working with relative newbies. Saoirse, on the other hand, gives off the screen vibes of someone who is likely to become an auteur muse (even if the only director she's worked with twice is Joe Wright) but I hope it's not Wes Anderson who latches on first since he wasted her in Grand Budapest Hotel and he rarely gives the ladies much to do. Plus Brooklyn reveals an actress of much more warmth and nuanced romanticism than we might previously have expected given those cool eyes and her amoral fine work in both Hannah and Atonement.
Brookesboy: Which acting Oscar winner's performance from this year will endure.
That leaves only four choices and the easy winner is Brie Larson since Room is such a sturdy intimate drama with electric actor chemistry (chemistry never feels dated. If it's there it stays there.). It's fascinating in both conception and execution, with themes that can resonate in both universal and ultra specific ways. I can see people caring about it a long time from now. The others not so much. The Revenant really has no substance to latch on to (a man wants revenge! in the wilderness!!), Bridge of Spies is solid but not quite top tier Spielberg, and people barely cared much about The Danish Girl to begin with so how will they care about it in 10 years?
Flickah: who among the superhero movies cast has given a performance that you think should have merited award consideration, apart from Ledger and Downey Jr.?
I CANNOT THINK OF WHO...
I'M SURE IT WILL COME TO ME...
This question presupposes that I think Robert Downey Jr merited awards consideration for Iron Man (he was really good in the first one but that's a stretch) or that there will be several players I might name. While The Film Experience is genre-friendly in terms of awardage and ideas about where you can find greatness (hint: any genre) the superhero genre is not actually all that conducive to GREAT acting in the way, say, the horror genre is because there is rarely much subtext or complicated psychology to play. I think Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight) and Michelle Pfeiffer (Batman Returns) are the only actors to date in this young subgenre of movies to have transcended it so completely that they were totally Oscar win worthy.
"KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!" (We'd love to)This is not to say that I don't think others have done very fine work. Obviously we'd kneel before Terence Stamp's Zod! Who else? Hmmm...
I think RDJ in the first and third Iron Man movies, Chris Evans as Captain America every single time, Paul Bettany & James Spader in Age of Ultron, Scarlett Johansson in The Avengers, Christopher Reeve in the first Superman, and Tobey Macguire (yes Tobey Maguire. shut up) in the first Spider-Man all nailed those characters, the style and tone, and elevated their films. On the small screen I think you can make an easy case that Charlie Cox as Daredevil and Hayley Atwell as Agent Carter are worthy of Emmy nominations. (Not that anyone would listen: Emmy voters are way too conservative to ever stray from their favorites in 4th, 6th, and 17th seasons.)
John T: What are your favorite things about the moviegoing experience aside from the actual movies themselves (ie the theater, the concessions, things of that nature)?
I know I am continually stressing "GO TO THE MOVIES!" but that's because I really think it's the ideal way to see and hear a story. Yes, other patrons can sometimes ruin it but you're never more attentive to a movie than when you're watching it in the cocoon of a dark room where that succession of images is the only thing to focus on. I don't love concessions very much (too $$$) but when I buy it's always popcorn. But I love picking a seat and that moment when the lights dim or the curtains open (if the theater has curtains) and you feel like anything could happen up there. There's about to be a whole new world to get lost in.
Richter Scale: I'd like to know how you define a Lead performance vs. a Supporting performance. What are the criteria you use to measure whether a performance is Lead or Supporting and where would you draw the line?
I don't actually find this complicated. I once did a graphic on this. Let me see if I can find it. Okay. Here. hopefully it's not too small to read:
That one is kind of snarky so here's a less judgy formula. Pick a movie. Attempt to describe the plot of that movie in one sentence. If you can't do it in a way that sounds like an authentic representation of the story without including a specific character, that character is the lead or the co-lead.
That's it for this edition, dear readers. Who do you think should have been up for awards for the spandex subgenre? Do you feel similarly about Brie & Saoirse? Would you vote for an actor in an election beyond the Oscars?