We Can't Wait #4: Under the Skin

Hey y'all. Now that I'm back from Sundance I can join in the "We Can't Wait" fun as we near the top of the Team Experience list. The team has been highlighting our top 14 (collectively) most anticipated films of the new cinematic year. We've already covered 13+ great movies and it falls on me to write up our fourth highest ranker.

Under the Skin
In which Scarlett Johansson plays an alien searching for man meat or skin or something. The men she seduces are never heard from again.

Talent
The entire reason this is on the list is surely The Film Experience's collective devotion to 2004's Birth, the misunderstood masterpiece by Jonathan Glazer. I don't have a pass/fail checklist of requirements for my team members here at TFE but if I did "Do you like Birth?" would be on the questionnaire. For reasons that are too too horrible to contemplate Glazer hasn't made a film since which makes Under the Skin something of a unicorn. Does it really exist? It must since we've seen stills of its delectable leading lady Scarlett Johansson all over the place and some lucky souls saw it at TIFF in the fall. I purposely avoided reviews hence this very vague write-up. I want to be surprised and transported. 

Why We Can’t Wait
Here's where I just repeat the intro points again: Glazer of Birth. Rare like a unicorn. Scarlett Johansson as extraterrestrial succubus.

But We Do Have To Wait
But only about 63 more days since A24, that godsend of a specialty distributor, is bringing it to us on April 4th.

 

Previously on "We Can't Wait"
05 Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson adapts Pynchon)
06 Into the Woods (Rob Marshall adapts Sondheim)
07 Snowpiercer (Boon JongHo does sci-fi)
08 Nymphomaniac (Lars von Trier Gone Wild)
09 Boyhood (Linklater's long-gestating family drama)
10 Big Eyes (Tim Burton back to the bio) 
11 The Last 5 Years (the Off Broadway classic goes cinematic)
12 Gone Girl (David Fincher thrills)
13 Can a Song Save Your Life (Keira Croons)
14 Veronica Mars (TV Sequel... hey, what's this doing her?)
runners up  just missed the cut

Podcast: Reader Questions & Short Term 12

For today's super-casz edition of the Podcast it's just Nathaniel & Nick gabbing. We argue about Short Term 12's schematic screenplay and individual character arcs (Nathaniel loved it all / Nick did not) and how the movie reflects what we look for in movies. After that discussion it's off to reader questions involving directors & their muses, the art of movie titling (not the credit sequences, the actual titles), and opinion-shifting from past Oscar seasons.

You'll have to listen to find out how Gravity, American Beauty, Vera Farmiga, and Spike Jonze's Adaptation fit into it all. You can do so here at the bottom of the post or download it on iTunes. Join in the conversation in the comments once you've listened.

Short Term Podcast

Say What, Alien Scarjo?

Amuse us in the comments by adding a caption or dialogue to the first image from Jonathan Glazer's (Birth, Sexy Beast) new film Under the Skin about an alien (Scarlett Johansson) in Scotland.

Reader of the Day: Hayden

Sometimes when I'm reading the comments, at least for the frequent chatterboxes, I start to get a sense of which directors and actors some of you like. Other times it's hard to tell. With Hayden I knew in the subcategory of Warren Beatty Paramours we disagreed on Annette Bening and were sympatico on Julie Christie. So let's learn more in today's reader of the day.

Nathaniel: Do you remember your first moviegoing experience? first obsession?
HAYDEN: The first time I went to the movies was to see The Lion King, which fits because Elton John was my first concert. I was all of three years old in 1994, so I remember leaving early for crying or misbehaving or something. As for an obsession, I really got hooked on Woody Allen during my sophomore year of high school. There were dozens of his classics and lesser films OnDemand so I probably powered through thirty of them in one year.

You were three in 94?! [cough. *pauses to take some Geritol*]. When did you start reading the Film Experience?
2004 was the first year I actively followed the Oscars, and I first came here for the charts. I would say that I stayed when I realized that TFE blog was so fun to read, too. I think before you can enter the dialogue on the Oscar blogosphere, you need a semi-comprehensive sense of Oscar mythology. So I spent some time catching up on history before I started participating.

That's actually astute. There is a learning curve or at least a gateway year to sensible Oscar obsessiveness. Not that Oscar is a sensible state of being exactly! But moving on. Let us not speak of your bizarre hostility to The Bening. Your favorite 3 actresses?
Julianne Moore, Julie Christie, Vanessa Redgrave. And I’m not hostile towards the Bening so much as I think she gets slightly more credit than is due, in a sea of actresses who aren’t even close to getting the praise they deserve.

[short e-pause] I also want to add Blythe Danner to my "favorite actresses" thing. 'Cause she's so absurdly underrated.

Take away somebody's Oscar and give it to someone else. What year? who? why?
Well, I don’t want to pick on Driving Miss Daisy's Jessica Tandy, so I’ll just give Helen Hunt’s As Good As it Gets win to Julie Christie (Afterglow). Julie won so early in her career and has been ripe for a second win so many times. And I have a much easier time accepting (and embracing) wins like Marion Cotillard’s in La Vie En Rose and Jane Fonda’s for Klute than I do Hunt’s. (But seriously, Pfeiffer's The Fabulous Baker Boys was a Crowning Best Actress Moment if ever one existed.)

[Editor's note: I swear I did not pay Hayden to say that but all Pfans agree and thank him.]

Which newish directors are you rooting for in the coming decade?
I’ve been dying to see how Jonathan Glazer follows up Birth. If that wasn’t a fluke, he’ll be one of my favorite directors. I’m also dying for more direction from Sarah Polley.

previous readers of the day: Dominique, Murtada, Cory, Walter,  Paolo, Leehee and BBats