Beauty vs Beast: Why Must EVERYTHING Be a Contest?

Jason from MNPP here - I'm sure if Faye Dunaway were to come to The Film Experience and stumble upon us wishing her a happy 78th birthday here today with a Mommie Dearest themed edition of our "Beauty vs Beast" poll she'd roll her eyes in that certain way she does that makes you quake in your slippers and utter some four-letter word... and that's just why we love her. She may not love the movie that turned her knobs up to Full Camp and then snapped right off, but we do, and we always will - her stratopheric take on Joan Crawford has the stuff of myth about it, as if she squeezed heaven and hell like a wet rag and drank down every last drop right before they said "Action!" That said... Joan's a tough vote all the same! 

survey tools

PREVIOUSLY I think this is the first time this has ever happened, y'all - we ended with a tie on last week's poll! Mahershala Ali's performance in Green Book & Rami Malek's turn as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody came down 50/50. So I guess we'll go with the most magnaminous comment then... said lylee:

"Recognizing these were both problematic movies, I still really enjoyed them - and these performances. Fine acting by a couple of fiiine men. I pick Don because I have a soft spot for brilliant pianists and Freddie seems like he'd get exhausting after a while."

It's time for final Best Picture predictions!

For the next week we'll be sharing final predictions for each Oscar category. We're starting with the big kahuna, Best Picture because it's the most crucial. It's a domino effect essentially since each year shows us that once voters favor your movie, they just favor it whether or not it's particularly worthy from one category to the next. We'll start with the not so obvious (if you ask me) question:

What would be nominated in a five film year?

Past statistics will tell you that that would be the DGA lineup (BlacKkKlansman, Green Book, Roma, A Star is Born, and Vice) because prior to 2010 when the Best Picture category expanded, the DGA lineup was slightly more predictive of Best Picture than of Best Director, as curious as that might seen. But it wasn't infallible, of course. And we don't think those would be the five this year. 

So let's take them in the order of strength after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Team Experience Globe Fun: Fav Speeches + Maya & Amy's Nuptials

It's our final Golden Globes in review post. That was exhausting. As is our habit each big awards show, because TFE writers and podcasters are never all in the same room at the same time, we've collected the group's responses for you. Because we love the Globes even when we hate them (like we did Sunday night) we have a lot to say so this is for you die-hards who can't get enough. If you're already tired of the Globes look away look away there's plenty more to see here if you start clicking around.

We were going to talk about worst winners but we don't want to be negative for the wrap-up so I'll just share what Nick wrote in response to "Which win made you angriest?"

I don't know, which is worse, strychnine or anthrax? I refer, of course, to the two "Best" "Picture" "winners." There aren't enough scare quotes in the world, really.

Hee !!! We were co-miserating by text that night. 

Anyway, here are 5 fun questions that we hope you'll answer in the comments. Our answers are after the jump...

1. Which win made you happiest?
2. Who will you volunteer to comfort about their loss?
3. Which was your favourite speech?
4. Which table did you fantasize about sitting at?
5. What would you like your role to be at Maya Rudolph & Amy Poehler's 'wedding'? 

Click to read more ...

BAFTA's Oscar Predictions... er, Nominations. BAFTA's Nominations!

by Nathaniel R

The BAFTA nominations are in and, what do you know? There is no difference whatsoever in which 8 or 9 films each awards group watches each year! One longs for a utopia where each major organization longs to shout their own identity out to the world (in some ways we are what we love) rather than just predict the Oscars but in our current dystopia, people in the industry -- no matter which country they live in! -- only watch 9 movies a year before voting. 

Here are the nominees with commentary...

Best film

• BlackkKlansman
• The Favourite
• Green Book
• Roma
• A Star Is Born

In the bygone years of five nominations only for Best Picture at the Oscars the race looks like it would be down to 7 films now, these 5 above as well as Black Panther and (ugh) Vice. In fact, having 7 nominees only at Oscar this year wouldn't surprise us at all given how dominant those 7 films appear to be. It makes sense that Panther and Vice would be the two to fall out with BAFTA since they're surely more resonant in America...

Click to read more ...

Fun Golden Globe Tweets

Tweets curated by Nathaniel R

Er.... pic.twitter.com/tVqHI5EW0Q

— Idris Elba (@idriselba) January 7, 2019

Idris made a subtle James Bond joke, haha.

Tired of our Golden Globe coverage, yet? No wait don't answer that because we're still working hard on it given that we have fashion and team reaction post left. Anyway here's a random curated selection of funny or gorgeous tweets you might have missed this week about the Globes. I'm certain I missed a thousand great ones but there's only so much time and googling one can do on big showbiz days. Enjoy...

Click to read more ...