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Being sick would be awesome if one didn't feel like crap whilst staying in bed all day watching movies,  reading blogs, playing iPhone games, and snuggling with the cat. 

IndieWire has an interesting chart of which Toronto People's Choice Winners scored big at the box office after the fest. Adjusted for inflation American Beauty (1999) is still the champ. Or Slumdog Millionaire (2008) without any fancy maths. But those People's Choice winners sure do have a good track record at winning Oscar attention.
Parade has an interview excerpts piece up about Brad Pitt. I don't want to get too sentimental about it but I consider it a huge blessing when very famous and very rich celebrities actually reveals themselves to be good souls, too. The things he has to say about religion and federal government and affordable housing and adoption and all of these things... they are so spot on. I really don't get the bad rap that charitable celebrities often get -- is it just self-loathing turned outward when people realize they wouldn't be even a tenth as altruistic if they were wealthy? Is it jealousy of good fortune? I don't know. But my point is Brad & Angie: love 'em. 
Just Jared Bizarre contest alert. Seems you can enter/audition to be a voice in the animated musical Dorothy of Oz starring Lea Michele (first photos of characters are also present). The closer all these Oz movies get to theaters (I keep losing track of how many there are), the more naive the producers of the celluloid transfer of Broadway's Wicked look. How on earth do you sit on that golden goose property (which has already outgrossed most of the biggest blockbuster films ever) long enough to let an animated film --they take forever!-- beat you to theaters and live off, profit from and burn out the renewed Wizard of Oz fever that you yourselves stoked? Sometimes the Hare and not the Tortoise wins.

Speaking of Brad Pitt, somewhere in this past week I missed the Oscar Fever rise of his candidacy for Moneyball. It would be so weird if the Best Actor race was all hunky across the board: DiCaprio, Gosling, Fassbender, Pitt, DuJardin, and Clooney? 

Awards Daily snapped photos of Julianne Moore and Ed Harris in a Game Change preview. Disturbing it was (I saw the same one) with Julianne being so spitting image of that one celebritician
Ultra Culture opens the PR package for The Change-Up. Big LOLS ensue.
Nicks Flick Picks starts his beloved "Fifties" column, i.e. best of the year thus far. As always his choices and writeups make you rethink the work... which is what great critics do.
Empire Colin Firth, whose career is still giant-sized post A Single King Man's Speech, will next star in The Railway Man, a POW drama. That is after Tinker Tailor. 
Towleroad my latest movie column in which I order people around. Go see Drive.
Stale Popcorn remembers the character actress Frances Bay (RIP) from The Golden Girls to Twin Peaks

October News and Request For Reader Input
When I was reading this article on Everything I Know...  in which Mr. Caggiano who teaches courses in musical theater history and the neuropsychology of music (?!?) asks his incoming students to name the best musical of all time, I remembered that next month marks the 50th anniversary of my personal favorite (WEST SIDE STORY). The film version of West Side Story, which first hit the big screen on October 18th, 1961 went on to become a huge hit and one of the biggest Oscar champs of all time (11 noms, 10 wins losing only its screenplay nomination as musicals tend to.). On the classic movies note, I wondered, for younger readers especially (and please do speak up if you have feelings about this), if I use too much of a shotgun approach when discussing old movies here? I sometimes suspect you have too many titles flying at you all the time to really decide what to get familiar with (like in those huge "all time" lists). So perhaps we should focus more going forward? Maybe we should try Classic of the Month style loose themes? It would be boring to talk about the same movie -- any movie -- for an entire month but perhaps a loose theme could include all sorts of detours that tie in but aren't too much of the same thing (Oscar competitions, influences, actor careers.

Sound off in the comments... I guess I'm interested to know if you liked the previous theme weeks like Aliens or the films of Tennessee Williams or Moulin Rouge! this summer or if you had to already know and love the movies to enjoy those?

Stoke Yourself For Stoker

JA from MNPP here, curious if y’all have been following the delightful casting news that’s been coming out bit by bit day after day for Oldboy director Park Chan-wook’s first English-language film Stoker. I mean just the fact that PCW is making an English-language movie’s exciting enough – not that I have trouble with subtitles, I'm fervently infatuated with every movie he's made, but it means one of my favorite directors is getting to round up some of my favorite Hollywood actors, which he’s doing in spades.

First, some background: Stoker’s script was written (under a pseudonym) by Prison Break actor Wentworth Miller, and is described as “a dramatic thriller about a young woman whose eccentric uncle comes back into her life after the death of her father.”

Attached to the script way back when it was first being talked about were Carey Mulligan and Jodie Foster, which already got us thinking something really good is going on with the script or Park's exciting enough all on his own to snatch up such solid names... hopefully both! Unfortunately scheduling got drawn out and Carey took off to star opposite Michael Fassbender in Steve McQueen’s upcoming film Shame (can’t blame her for wanting to go hang with Fassy for awhile) and Jodie went to work with Roman Polanski on Carnage (also can’t blame that). But Park & Co. managed no downgrade in their replacing – Mia Wasikowska and Nicole Kidman (making up for this) stepped right in. Now them's a two-fer.

The role of the “eccentric uncle” was rumored for awhile to be recent Oscar picker-upper Colin Firth, but somebody apparently decided to age the character down a whole bunch and the role went to the 50 year old Firth’s 33 year old Single Man boyfriend Matthew Goode instead. Even though he might not pack the immediate wallop that Firth does, Goode’s shown a lot of promise in the past – he was mesmerizing in The Lookout.

We don’t have word yet when filming begins, but we're thinking it must be soon since three more names have hopped on board over the past week – Lucas Till, who played Havoc in the recent X-Men movie; Alden Ehrenreich, a cute young thing that caught Steven Spielberg’s eye and can be seen in both of Francis Ford Coppola’s most recent efforts; and most awesomely Jacki Weaver, who shoulda won that Supporting statue last year for her terrifying turn in Animal Kingdom just for the way she arched her eyebrows and smiled that sinister Grinch’s smile. If you’re keeping count, that's three count ‘em three singular Aussie actress sensations for the price of one. Can’t beat that!

Podcast: The Elephant in the Room

For this final podcast of the 83rd Oscar season, we've misplaced Katey. Oops? Where she go? But Nick, Joe and myself (Nathaniel) are back to close out the season.

We had fun chiming in weekly and after a  break will be back with Off-Season cinematic musings.  While we normally have quite a laugh during these, and there's a fair bit of that againe, we do get a bit serious on a couple of topics. "The End" always brings a smidge more sober take-it-all in perspective.

Topics covered include:

• Kirk Douglas & Melissa Leo. The early peak.
• Dressing like a winner / Dressing like a nominee
• Cate Blanchett, Sharon Stone and other fancy dressers
• Nobody ever likes the hosts of the Oscar show. But Anne Hathaway & James Franco?
• Ovearching themes and production confusion: Old or Young?
• Why no visual gags for non-comedian hosts?
• Colin Firth, Christian Bale and Natalie Portman speeches
• Awards Fatigue (and strategies for coping)
• Next?

Listen in and join in the conversation in the comments.

Podcast: The 83rd Annual Oscars. Season Finale

March of the (Oscar) Penguins

Oscar binge posting. Let's get it out of our systems. No thought must go unuttered. (Oh dear*) Well, until Sunday's podcast. You get it out of your system, too, in the comments!

Hulk and Puny Humans

I selected 9 men for display. You'll have to tell me who you think is best dresed as there's a dizzying amount of variation in men's formal wear. Would you like black with a blueish tint, black with a grayish tint, bow tie, white tie? Long tie? vest? The possibillites are ENDLESS.

Today Mark Ruffalo tweeted...

Hulk Smash. Hulk Destroy. Hulk Cuddle.

He's the only actor I can think of that would convince me to watch The Hulk again onscreen. But we're poll happy lately so let's convert it to suit (haha) this post.

poll by twiigs.com

Mr Penélope Cruz, Peter Parker, The King, Jude Law

So who do you think was best dressed: the Ruffster, Jakey, Armie Hammer, Hugh Jackman, Robert Downey Jr, Javi, Spider-Man, Jude Law or Colin Firth?

Before you decide try not to let that gold shiny accessory of Colin's sway your vote. That accessory always puts people on best dressed lists. Totally unfair advantage.

Yes, there were more men than this at the Oscars but I had to disqualify a few people right up front: Justin Timberlake because his suit looked too big on him; Jesse Eisenberg because he didn't step it up not one notch from previous awards shows; Christian Bale because of the beard; and Jeff Bridges because he's looking more and more like a muppet version of Jeff Bridges*

* There's almost nothing we love more than Muppets but we don't generally think of them as fashionistas. Also: if there is anything we love more than Muppets it is probably Jeff Bridges. Also and: perhaps Nathaniel is taking too many cold/flu medicines?

Leon, Angel, Adam, Edward and Andrew

This post is titled by the middle names of Oscar's BEST ACTOR nominees because here at The Film Experience we are always trying to find ways to keep things interesting. It would be much easier to title this blog post "Javier Bardem, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg, James Franco and Colin Firth" but where's the fun in that? If you enjoy a challenge, try to guess which middle name goes with which best actor, before you click over to the BEST ACTOR PAGE.

I include the trivia (and more) because this race is a done deal yet we have to stay interested for nine more days. Colin Firth's Coronation is proceeding exactly like Helen Mirren's a few years back, isn't it? It's like I was saying in that Tribeca Film article, each year there's generally one candidate who is granted immunity about whom no one ever bitches and who just sails through like it was always meant to be their year and their prize.

UPDATED: Includes Reader Poll "Who Should Win?"