Year in Review: The 20 Greatest Stocking Stuffers of 2020

Our year in review lists begin!  We'll try to bring you one each day for the next couple of weeks. We polled the team for this one and haphazardly tallied the results. At least two members had to vote for them or they had to score really high on one person's list. It's so not scientific but it was fun to think about: Which movie or television prop did you most covet this year? Here are the items Team Experience craved.

Just imagine pulling any of these things out of your stocking this holiday...

20 A BOTTLE OF SECONAL from Mank
If the pandemic has reeked havoc on your sleeping schedule, and what timetable hasn't it disrupted this year, you can take back control with one of these babies if someone is kind of enough to throw it in your stocking. No wrapping necessary. Maybe don't down a whole travelling case full of them like a boozy screenwriter, though.  - Nathaniel

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November. It's a Wrap

Hi readers. I know I got lost in the weeds a bit in November. It's that damn International Feature Oscar race. It really brings out my OCD qualities with those Oscar history overviews (Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Italy, Netherlands,  Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland) so I skimped on other stuff. ANYWAY, here are some of key posts of November in case you missed any. There's one day left but it's the holiday weekend so we're doing the wrap up early ;) 

Highlights from the Month That Was

• Ethan Hawke at 50 -an appreciation. The definitive Gen X actor?
• Home for the Holidays -deserves to be a better remembered!
• "Gay Best Friend" -a delightful new series kicked off with My Best Friend's Wedding and Under the Tuscan Sun
• Netflix has too many Oscar contenders - considering the possibilities
• Nicole Kidman in The Undoing -giving us eyeball acting! 
• Joan Crawford -Criterion's curated collection
• Cher in 1987 -how she ruled the world that year
• Gene Tierney - a three film retrospective for her Centennial
• Carmen Maura in Law of Desire - the definitive Almodóvar interpreter?

Most Discussed

• Amy Adams in Arrival - almost there at the Oscars
• Smackdown '87 - Olympia Dukakis vs Norma vs the Annes (x 3)

COMING IN DECEMBER / ANY REQUESTS?
Oscar chart updates this week. Then a new movie bonanza as the studios finally release their supposedly strongest Oscar contenders --mostly huddled around Christmas week as if they're pretending it's a normal awards-strategy year: The Prom, One Night in Miami, Soul, Promising Young Woman, The Father, Minari, Mank, Ammonite, Nomadland, and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.  Beyond that flurry of titles we'll begin our "year in review" list-making frenzy.

Not sure how much time we'll have for older titles but which of the following birthdays/anniversaries would you most like to see celebrated? 10th: Black Swan, Rabbit Hole, The Fighter, True Grit, Blue Valentine, Another Year; 25th: 12 Monkeys, Dead Man Walking, Sense & Sensibility, Nixon, Waiting to Exhale, Cutthroat Island, Timothée Chalamet; 50th: The Aristocats, Donkey Skin, Husbands, Love Story, Horror of Frankenstein, The Wild Country, Puzzle of a Downfall Child, Little Big Man, Gimme Shelter, Regina Hall, Jennifer Connelly; 75th: Spellbound, Bells of St Marys, Leave Her to Heaven, or National Velvet?

October Wrap-Up.

Tomorrow is Halloween which means October is nearly gone. Happy Devil's Night! Apart from the madhouse of virtual festivals (which all decided to happen at once!) and finally getting all Oscar charts up for this strange season we spent most of October celebrating Montgomery Clift's Centennial. We're so proud of that 18 episode series and the fine insights of our writers so we sincerely hope you got something out of it and were spurred on to discover at least a couple of his pictures that you hadn't seen before. If you did, please let us know in the comments so we know we reached people. Highlights from October follow...

12 Highlights You Might Have Missed

• To Die For -Chris revisits for the 25th anniversary of Kidman's breakout
• Damon Identity - Patrick's thinkpiece about Matt Damon's persona
• Bram Stoker's Dracula - Michael's hilarious first screening (!) of this visual orgy
• Smackdown 1965 - Shelley Winters vs Maggie Smith vs Ruth Gordon
• Sally Kirkland FYC a legendary Oscar campaign for Anna (1987)
• Ranking Olivier's 10 Oscar nods -Cláudio on Sleuth, Othello, Rebecca, etc...
• From Here to Eternity - Nathaniel on the peak of Montgomery Clift's stardom
• The Furniture: Suddenly Last Summer - Daniel on wild gardens, descending thrones, medical theatres
• Almost There: Andrew Garfield -for The Social Network's 10th anniversary
• Pretty Woman Fantasy - Christopher recounts a fateful Halloween night
• NYFF: French Exit - Nathaniel works out his issues with the transfer
• Making Montgomery Clift - Sean's thoughtful epilogue to our series - have any of you seen this documentary?

5 Most Discussed Articles

• YNMS: Hillbilly Elegy - Damn the opinions were out to play!
• Cancel the Oscars' is bulls***t - And more (heated) opinions
• YNMS: The Prom - Meryl, Nicole, and more in this movie musical
• Best Actress Predictions - Always discussable!
• Oldest Best Actress lineups will 2020 break the record set just seven years back?

COMING IN NOVEMBER: New films including Ammonite, Mank, Monsoon, Wolfwalkers, Sound of Metal, and Hillbilly Elegy and retrospectives including Home for the Holidays 25th, Gene Tierney's 100th, and of course our 1987 series culminating in the season finale of Supporting Actress Smackdown. 

If you're just rejoining us looking to catch up. 2020 so far...
2019 Film Year Wrap | Feb | March | April | May | June | July | Aug | Sept | Oct

The 'Cancel the Oscars' thing is just plain bulls***t. Here's why

by Juan Carlos

I’ve been itching to discuss this for quite a while now. Ever since the pandemic, the way we watch films has dramatically shifted. Cinemas are now either closed down or maintained with stringent health safety measures. Drive-in cinemas have experienced a resurgence in popularity due to their safer conditions. Meanwhile, we have seen films dropping on streaming platforms, VOD, and virtual cinemas at such a rapid rate that it is quite hard to even keep track of what is being released. 

Meanwhile, AMPAS made several changes in its rules to adjust to the current world we are living in. So for the first time, the Academy allowed streaming-only films in as long as there was an intention to exhibit them theatrically (I still don’t know how they would prove intention, but that's another discussion). Also, they have extended the eligibility period: from January 1 to December 31, 2020, it will now extend until February 28, 2021, a move that seemed hastily done months ago and now makes even less sense since majority of the films that were supposed to screen in the last months of the year in cinemas have now moved to late 2021 anyway. 

And then this opinion piece from the Washington Post happened.

In an article that adds itself to the chorus of people saying that the Oscars should be cancelled in its entirety, the writer asserts that the Oscars should be cancelled because...

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September. It's a wrap

We're entering the last quarter of this film-light year. But we're still finding things to talk about. We hope you enjoyed all the Emmy and 1938 coverage, and (currently ongoing) Oscar predictions and NYFF coverage. Here's a look back at September at the blog...

10 You Shouldn't Miss
• Nomadland at Venice ...and at NYFF Elisa and Murtada both react
• The Wolf of Wall Street Quaaludes, man
• John Cazale in Dog Day Afternoon was this the closest he came to an Oscar nod?
• The Human Voice - Pedro and Tilda wow in short film form
• Fred & Ginger, Ranked Cláudio ranks their 10 musical pairings
• Handmaid's Tale during a pandemic Juan Carlos gets personal about why it's his favourite show ever
• 1938's Best Pictures a ranking from The Citadel to Robin Hood
• Yes No Maybe So: Dune the sci-fi epic gets another adaptation
• The Furniture: Doctor Zhivago what a way to kick off '65 coverage 

5 Most Discussed
• New Oscar Rules AMPAS gets serious about representation and inclusion
• Timothée What do you see in the Chalamet's future?
• Smackdown 38 You Can't Take Jezebel With You! 
• West Side Story Delayed so few movies competing for the Oscars
• The Baroness Nick on The Sound of Music's most overlooked turn

Coming in October 
Calgary & Middleburg film festivals, a Montgomery Clift centennial celebration, and the 1965 Supporting Actress Smackdown, and more.