Podcast: Joy & Star Wars: The Force Awakens

In this week's podcast Nathaniel and Nick return happily to that galaxy far far away and go off consensus to enjoy the Jennifer Lawrence hit Joy. (Plus miscellania but you'll have to listen to see how Carol and Batman v Superman show up since you know how we do...)

43 minutes 
00:01 Written on the Wind (1956)
03:00 David O. Russell's Joy feat. Isabelle Rossellini, Virginia Madsen, Robert De Niro and Elisabeth Röhm
12:00 Loving Star Wars: The Force Awakens and sexy Oscar Isaac.
27:00 Childhood fascinations with the original trilogy and minor quibbles with the new/old plot and the First Order. 
36:15 Nasty Baby & Mississippi Grind (2015)
40:10 The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)

Further Reading for Context:
Nick's Oscar Isaac Theory & Ordinary People Tweet
David Ehrlich's A24 Article

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. 

a gif of poe biting his lip while talking to finn pic.twitter.com/GGm4mm5oze

— Nicole (@hughmhd) December 22, 2015

Star Wars and Joy

Magic Carpet Link

NY Times talks to David O. Russell about Joy... which still is not screening. The mystery of it all
Playbill Aladdin flew through the streets of NYC on his magic carpet recently. How's that for marketing?
Gold Standard Character actors get their own award "The Carneys"... we wouldn't need this if the Academy remembered why they invited the Supporting Acting categories. The first recipients:  Bob Balaban, Michael Ealy, Bruce McGill, David Paymer and CCH Pounder
THR wishes Toni Collette a happy birthday with fun facts

/Film Jennifer Aniston hasn't made a good film in 10 years. Can What Alice Forgot change her course?
Guardian suggests that appointment franchise cinema will end with Hunger Games: Mockinjay Part 2. "IF ONLY!" says all of us who year for movies to be movies rather than expensive television series
Variety talks to Karl Glusman about his first day on the set of Gaspar Noé's Love -- they started with the ejaculation scene. Yikes
Variety interesting. The very talented Pablo Larraín (No) is making a movie about Jackie Kennedy and Natalie Portman stars with Peter Sarsgaard, and Greta Gerwig in support
Graham Norton talks to Maggie Smith who isn't sad to say goodbye to Downton Abbey 
Variety selects under the rader performances that "deserve" Oscar buzz. While it's nice to see more props for Kristen Stewart's great work in Clouds of Sils Maria, it's tough to take this seriously: Helen Mirren in Woman in Gold? Good god did she ever phone that one in! Ruffalo "reinventing" himself for Spotlight? Try repeating himself! 

Halloween Hangover
Crave Bryan Fuller (Hannibal) chooses the most stylish horror films from Repulsion to The Haunting
HitFix they polled several writers/directors/critics to list their fav horror films. Not enough actresses on the list but I LOL'ed that Elvira gave herself the #1 position
Gothamist photos from the Village Halloween parade
TFE Facebook / TFE Twitter  in case you missed it I was goofing with counting down my 15 favorite horror films last night from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? to Silence of the Lambs -- "it puts the fuckin' movie on the list. It does this whenever it's told."

Also if you aren't liking / following / sharing The Film Experience on social media... why you wanna hurt us like dat?

Finally... 
Did you hear there's a fully poseable Michaelangelo's David action-figure? Want! Also why is there not a movie about the creation of this work of art?  

Would you watch a movie about the making of Michelangelo's David?

Yes. I'm all about the Italian Renaissance

Entirely depend on the casting of David.

No. I'll just look at the nude gifs on the internet.

Poll Maker

Yes No Maybe So: Nobody Owes "Joy" Anything...

It's been amusing for months now to see Oscar pundits fall all over themselves declaring Joy and Jennifer Lawrence frontrunners sight unseen. Unbroken anyone? It's never smart to declare frontrunners sight unseen. But now that we're finally getting more of a peak at the actual movie --  though it's still anyone's guess as to the final quality and perceptions thereof -- It does have the making of an entertaining 2 hours at the movies. So bring Christmas on. Deck the halls. Etcetera.

The new trailer beautifully sequelizes the conceit of the teaser, in which Joy's grandmother (I think) lectured to her. Now Joy (Jennifer Lawrence) is the one imparting wisdom... to her daughter. Of the every-man-for-himself cynical variety but still. Yes No Maybe so breakdown after the jump... 

Click to read more ...

What is "Joy"?

We know of course that Joy, the David O. Russell / Jennifer Lawrence reunion, is a biopic about Joy Mangano, the female entrepeneur who founded the miracle mop. But the advertising thus far, both teaser and poster, aren't selling these details. They're telling the non-film-news obsessed virtually nothing. They're only selling Jennifer Lawrence and a vaguely seasonal vibe. The teaser poster, pleasantly crisp, blue, and straightforward, is ultra simple - the superstar looks up into snowfall.

That may well be enough of a pitch given JLaw's bankability these days. That weird blink and you'll miss the barely released and oft-delayed Serena aside, she's proved golden. Or maybe it's the combination of Jennifer Lawrence with David O. Russell that's golden? You can't credit her for the box office of X-Men -- contrary to salary demands in tinseltown and casting practices, too, it's the franchises not the name actors who are the stars of franchises -- though she certainly helped The Hunger Games toward phenomenon status since she unarguably carried those pictures. But in her two previous pairings with Cooper & De Niro & Russell (Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle) the grosses have been spectacular given that the films are a) not franchise or high concept b) made for adults without the safety net of "Oscar Importance" even if they end up doing very well with Oscar voters and c) they're fun without being broadly pitched as "COMEDY". All of which make them feel like very rare beasts in the current market. 

But how long can this team keep coming up with winners? David O. Russell has had three consecutive Best Picture nominees (it wouldn't be fair to him to count Nailed/Accidental Love as breaking up this continuum) with the grosses climbing each time out. The two most recent have featured all three of Joy's stars. Is this team's luck about to run out or is this streak still to peak? To continue the hot streak, Joy will need a Best Picture nomination and a gross of over $150 million. What's your prediction on the matter?

"Joy" is a Tease

The movies for adults are coming. The movies for adults are coming.

One of the greatest things about summer movie season is that about halfway through it, when you're totally sick of all the explosions and super powers and CGI and lack of great "characters" for actors to really sink their teeth into, invariably the actressy and Oscar-type trailers and posters begin to emerge as "this too shall pass" appetizers. This morning we get our first look at David O. Russell's Joy which reunites him for a third round with his Silver Linings Playbook stars Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro. Yet again 24 year old Jennifer Lawrence is playing a role that might well be better suited for an actress ten years her senior  (she's playing the character from 20-40 I believe) but what can you do? Since Russell likes to work with the same actors repeatedly (one of our favorite traits in any director unless it starts hampering their creativity *cough* Tim Burton) he's also invited back Elisabeth Röhm (so good in her small part as Jeremy Renner's wife in American Hustle) and some recurring background players, too.

We're not doing a Yes No Maybe So since this is but a teaser (it's mostly music montage) but it looks promising and perhaps I've underestimated it Oscar-wise? The entire reason I resisted it is that I hate to go with the totally obvious a year in advance as most pundits do, because history does not actually support Oscar favorites staying Oscar favorites each and every year. There is far too much volatility within each Oscar season for that to happen (thank God AMPAS isn't the Emmys!). No filmmaker or star or craftsman dominates continually in their category unless their names are Meryl Streep and John Williams. 

Here it is. What'cha think?