Streaming Roulette April '22: Sweet Birds, Edgy Postcards, and Moon Knights

Bridgerton Season 2.

Are you watching Bridgerton Season 2? I'm trying to pace myself but I'm watching it too fast because I am eager for the extremely beautiful pair of Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley to consummate their love instead of just staring angrily at each other. I will never get over how widely accepted the trope of 'people who hate each other are obviously in love!' is in movies and television since it has no parallel in real life. I've never met a couple in real life who discovered their love because they aggravated and hated each other so much. Have any of you? 

Okay, time for this month's streaming roulette. You know the rules. We highlight new-to-streaming movies and an occasional TV series by freezing them on the scroll bar at entirely random places and just sharing what pops up. No cheating*!

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Posterized: Movies About Nun

by Nathaniel R

Sally Field as "The Flying Nun"... but that's a TV showThough we hate that every movie wants to become a 'universe' now, box office pundits predict that The Nun -- part of The Conjuring series -- is going to be huge. And, hell, we kind of love nun movies because we didn't grow up Catholic so it always seems like a fun or exotic other to us with peculiar hangups and fashion sense. Perhaps Catholics don't like nun movies quite as much or go into them with far more complicated baggage?

There are LOTS of B movies about nuns -- particular of the naughty variety (whether that's horror films or sexual films) but we're looking at only the more known titles here. (And surely there are a TON of foreign films about nuns that we're unfamiliar with though we've included a few famous ones in the list below.) 

This list is dedicated to Sally Field The Flying Nun, and Ann Dowd's nun in the short-lived TV series Nothing Sacred (both of whom we love) because this list is about nun movies.

OK, let's survey the posters. How many of these 39 nun movies have you seen?  If we've discussed the movie, it's linked up below... 

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Beauty vs Beast: Foes of the Vampire Slayer

Jason from MNPP here - I think we can get away with some more Buffy love this week, right? It's 20th anniversary might have been a whole several days ago but seeing as how we made it to 20 years and the internet still cared, and cared deeply (I can't be alone in having had my timeline entirely flooded with Sunnydale Fever), what's a few days?

Thing is we have devoted more "Beauty vs Beast" competitions to the show than any other single piece of entertainment - we've already asked you to choose between Spike & Angel and then also to choose between Faith & Buffy herself. But if there's one thing the Buffyverse isn't lacking - besides quips, chokers, and Xander Harris in a speedo - it's an endless supply of loveable mooks from which to love. So I went with my two favorite villains - Mayor Wilkins (Harry Groener) from Season 3 and Glory "Glorificus" (Clare Kramer) from Season 5. Raise your hand if you're invulnerable...

PREVIOUSLY Last week we said our prayers and sent our souls off to the hell of Ken Russell's making, taking on The Devils - for a quick minute I thought (my beloved) Oliver Reed might win it but Vanessa Redgrave's masochistically mad nun ultimately raved her way to victory with 58% of the your vote. Said thefilmjunkie:

"I bought a region-free blu-ray player for the sole purpose of being able to watch this movie and it was worth EVERY penny. I'd love to be able to watch it on the big screen. Of course my actressexual vote went to Redgrave, she really threw herself into this role in a way few actresses could/would have."

Beauty vs Beast: Savors & Sinners

Jason from MNPP here feeling hysteria and heresy running through my veins on this Monday morning. I got to see Ken Russell's 1971 film The Devils on a big screen again this weekend (one of the benefits of living in a city the size of NYC is this chance happens every couple of years, and I grab the chance every damn time).

It being what it is (translation: a Ken Russell movie) the experience kind of infiltrates your consciousness for a little while. You close your eyes and all you can see is Oliver Reed beating his big burly man chest and Vanessa Redgrave twisting her humped and habited self into knots... it's not a bad place to be in, honestly. I must like it - I keep going back. Anyway as long as we're for the moment happily poisoned by the mad nuns of Loudun we figure we'll drag y'all there today too with this week's "Beauty vs Beast"...

PREVIOUSLY We waved goodbye to this year's Oscars and its closing SNAFU, making you choose sides between the former Bonnie & Clyde at the maelstrom's center -- you came down with Faye Dunaway (that makes her sound like a disease) to the tune of 58% of the vote. Said brookesboy:

"Have to pick Faye. She is a legend and I love her. I love Warren too, but I agree with those who say he saw the card first and should have signaled to the stage hand right away. Faye was impatient because it was going on too long. But neither are at fault. This should never have happened. No matter how terrible this fiasco, they both looked great and got to present Best Picture. How very cool. They should always only have classic Hollywood stars presenting Best Picture. That needs to be a rule."

Q&A: Friday Nights, Voice Work, Underseen Gems

You asked some questions. I'm finally answering them. You know how this works. Please do chime in in the comments. The whole reason we do the column is for participatory flavor and that includes a pinch of you! Our Question of the Week which is Friday Night Lights themed is, annoyingly, from "Anonny" (how about a name?) so he/she gets to choose our next banner topic! (And how about our current "joy" banner. I put Jessica Lange in it for the first time and no one notices!?)

What is it, a crime? Is it a crime to look at Lange?

Pat Carroll recording UrsulaJAMES: Does the trend now that animated films only use "names" for voice work mean that we'll never see the likes of Pat Carroll again?

That would be among the greatest of cinematic tragedies. Unlike seemingly many TFE readers, though, I don't actually share an interest in voice actors getting Oscar nominations. But as with motion capture and the much discussed pioneering case of Andy Serkis, I do think this is where Oscar is really dropping the ball in terms of never giving out special achievement statues. I can't even remember when the last one was -- was it for Toy Story (1995) before there was the Animated Feature category? Pat Carroll's work as Ursula is the single greatest voice performance in the history of animation. (Team Experience shamefully put her in only 3rd when we took a poll)

The days of specialized voice talent getting prime opportunities like that are gone but there is hope: Pixar uses celebrities sometimes but they don't rely on them exclusively the way Dreamworks and other lesser studios do. And sometimes their "celebrities" aren't exactly household names so they aren't using them for advertising purposes, but because they genuinely love the voice. Wasn't Richard Kind a great choice for "Bing Bong" in Inside Out? 

DEBORAH: If you could choose one lesser-known movie each from the 70s, 80s, and 90s that everyone should see, what would they be (and why)?

THE ANSWER AND EIGHT MORE QUESTIONS AFTER THE JUMP...

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