Review: 'The Exorcist: Believer'

By Glenn Charlie Dunks

The legacy of William Friedkin’s screen adaptation of The Exorcist is a complicated one. Like any long-running horror franchise, the history of its lore is long and maybe a bit confusing. 50 years after the original, we have a sixth film entry (although two of those are duelling prequels built from production turmoil) from director David Gordon Green who works once again on the screenplay with his Halloween reboot buddy Danny McBride (alongside Scott Teems and Peter Sattler). It unfortunately adds little to the myth...

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Review: "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" Ups the Ante to Glorious Results

by Christopher James

Sometimes, bigger is actually better.

Over Thanksgiving weekend in 2019, Knives Out became a sleeper hit, delivering a perfectly fun and witty whodunnit perfect for all generations. The Netflix sequel, Glass Onion, ups the ante in every way possible. The set is bigger, the cast is starrier, the cameos are plentiful. Despite the excess on screen, none of the magic of the original is lost. In fact, Glass Onion improves on the original, taking a character we know and love and thrusting him into a funnier and more zany mystery. The heart is still there so sign me up for plenty more chapters of Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) solving elaborate mysteries.

For those concerned, never fear. No major spoilers are ahead. The latest Benoit Blanc tale, which just opened in cinemas, deserves to be seen with as fresh of eyes as possible...

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Which Movie and TV people won Grammys?

by Nathaniel R

Ben Platt, Rachel Zegler, Cynthia Erivo, and Leslie Odom Jr sing "Somewhere" from West Side Story at the Grammys

The Grammys have almost 90 categories so it can get very difficult to track them all. "Complete lists of winners" around the web are usually missing several if not 2/3rds of the actual winners. The list which follows in this post is also probably not complete though we tried by pooling from different sources. We only care about the Grammys very selectively since we're focused on the actors mediums (film, tv, stage) so the "Triple Crown" has always been cooler to us than the EGOT. Neverthless, there are some venn diagram overlaps between our concerns and the Grammys since at least a few actors are nominated each year for something or another. What's more, despite the remake of West Side Story being up for several Oscars, it essentially got a better tribute at the Grammys. That came by way of a truly stirring "In Memoriam" presentation which ended, reverently, with the late great Stephen Sondheim.

So who got closer to an EGOT last night, even if they're still very far away? Find out after the jump...

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Category Analysis: Who Will Take Home Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series?

The Film Experience Team is looking at the episode submissions for the major Emmy categories. 

Who will win their first acting Emmy this year?By: Christopher James

Yes, we at The Film Experience are often more focused on actresses than actors. However, how can you blame us when you look at the race for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie? While the Lead Actress category is filled with juggernauts, the Lead Actor category features two Hamilton performances, two stars of poorly reviewed series and a coattails nomination from a major show. None of the actors have won an Emmy before, though a few have decades long careers on film, TV and stage. It remains to be seen what voters will reward. Will they go more for an established actor they haven’t rewarded yet, or will they go for the biggest show? Maybe Hamilton will dominate the acting categories like it did at the Tonys.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the nominees for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie...

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The Academy Welcomes 395 New Members

by Nathaniel R

Harry Yoon (Editor), Lee Isaac Chung (Writer/Director) and Christian Oh (Producer) were all invited to the Academy post MINARI

Each year the Academy releases the names of their potential new members. Reports range a bit at how many voting members the Academy actually has. Deadline suggests that if all 395 of the new invitees accept membership, AMPAS will be around 9,750ish members while the LA Times places the number around 10,700. We're not sure where that discrepancy of nearly a 1000 voters comes from but let's just say it's hard to track. We rarely learn who declined membership, for example, and of course people die from year to year since many longtime members are elderly. 

As per usual, even before the Academy's largely successfully diversification and gender parity drive, a good portion of the invitees go out to fresh winners and nominees from the previous season. If they accept Youn Yuh-jung, Maria Bakalova, Steven Yeun, Paul Raci, and H.E.R. (to name a handful of examples) will now be Oscar voters. 46% of the new invitees are women and 39% are from underrepresented groups. One really interesting number is that over half of the new invitees, 53% to be exact, are international invites. Whether that translates to more international titles winning Oscar favor, who knows...

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