July. It's a Wrap

Only one month of this infernal heat to go and we enter Prestige Season, our collective favorite time of year when the A list festivals begin and Hollywood starts its four month-long unveiling of presumed Oscar heavy hitters. Here are a dozen highlights from July in case your brain melted and you've barely been cognizant.

super soldiers and their cocoons

My Magnificent Aliens Obsession Kurt shared some face-hugging childhood memories during Aliens week
Highest Paid Actresses What are they worth to you?
Shouldn't "Best" Mean Something? yet more Oscar rule changes. 
True Blood Reviewed I'm having fun doing these. Hope you're enjoying. 

Actress Character Wins Miranda Priestley and Clarice Starling and other iconic characters from the past two decades of cinema.
Natalie Wood in Rebel Without a Cause Love her. Love it.
1986 Nick and Nathaniel share 80s memories and revisit Oscar and Cannes favorites 
Complete the Sentences... what would you use Captain America's shield for? 

popular: Stage Door: Disney's Aladdin and Happy Birthday Sandra Bullock... I Guess
comments galore: Emmy nominations and Harry Potter Goodbyes

COMING IN AUGUST 
The Others (10th anniversary!), Fright Night, Higher Ground, Fall series promo, Judy Garland, Jane Eyre, Planet of the Apes, Raven of RuPaul's Drag U, Lucille Ball centennial, Armie Hammer, Win Win, summer recap, festival plans and more.

Halfway Honors. Best of 2011 Thus Far

This year seems to be off to a slow start but here's what I'd choose as the best of the year thus far. I've excluded films that are still waiting for their proper release like Andrew Haigh's finely tuned miniature gay drama Weekend (which has been collecting festival trophies and which I loved) and Paddy Considine's discomfiting abuse drama Tyrannosaur which I did not love but which boasts impressive acting.

TOP TEN PICTURES (alpha order)
The Arbor, Beginners, Bridesmaids, Certified Copy, Jane Eyre, Midnight in Paris, Poetry, Rango, The Tree of Life and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. You can see a complete list of what I've seen here.

[Notable films that I did plan to see but will have to catch on DVD include: Hanna, The Housemaid and Win Win]

DIRECTOR
Clio Barnard - THE ARBOR
Lee Chang-dong - POETRY
Abbas Kiarostami -CERTIFIED COPY
Terrence Malick -THE TREE OF LIFE
Mike Mills -BEGINNERS

notes: I gave Barnard the slight edge over Apichatpong Weerathesakul mostly because I far prefer "Joe's" earlier effort Tropical Malady to Boonmee. But not without some hesitation. I appreciated the bold experimentation of The Arbor, a documentary/narrative hybrid about the life and work of playwright and screenwriter Andrea Dunbar (Rita, Sue and Bob, Too). I just wish the film had been tighter and less relentless in its last 45 minutes. It had already done so much surgical socioeconomic surveillance damage by that point that rather than feeling devastating it started to feel exhausting. But it's definitely worth a look.

ACTRESS
Juliette Binoche - CERTIFIED COPY
Yun Jeong-Hie -POETRY
Mia Wasikowska - JANE EYRE
Kristen Wiig - BRIDESMAIDS
Michelle Williams -MEEKS CUTOFF

actors and the supporting crop and even a few technicals if you just...

Click to read more ...

O Canada, we stand on link for thee!

Pajiba celebrates the hottest Canadian celebrities for Canada day. I didn't even know that Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) and Helo  (Tamhoh Penikett) were Canadian.
Movie|Line opts for "badass Canadians" like Carrie-Anne Moss and Nathan Fillion. 
unexamined / essentials Lovely review of Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. (I hadn't considered Gil's insomnia before.) Hey maybe when Woody is done with Rome he should continue his world tour in Canada. Maybe Montreal? Winnipeg?
Guardian a new book of private candids of Elizabeth Taylor and famous friends. Fun fact: Liz married Richard Burton (the first time at least) in Canada. The second time they were married in Botswona. Obviously.

Brando & Liz, so candid its almost demystifying.

Rants of a Diva Halfway Report: best rentals, hot boys, best films, and more...
CHUD Why there's no sequel to Spike Lee's Inside Man and what might be next for him. 
Awards Daily They're now calling The Invention of Hugo Cabret, "Hugo" only. Gah, DULL. Audiences are so dumb. Or Hollywood thinks they are. It amounts to the same thing.

Telegraph Whoa. Tim Robey kinda likes Transformers Dark of the Moon. I love this bit especially...

If you wonder why it had to take a spirit-taxing two and a half hours about this, it’s because Bay’s ego clearly considers it logically irrefutable that the longer one of his films is, the better it must be.

You can say the same, unfortunately, for many far greater auteurs. Length -- one might say dick-measuring --almost always comes with the territory of being a respected auteur, whether you're respected for your art or your money-generating craft... the same thing tends to happen.
My New Plaid Pants meanwhile JA fears he'll go see it this very weekend "like some sort of brain-damaged masochist." hee.

 

Finally, Clothes on Film has a fine piece on Kate Winslet's omnipresent floral housedress in Todd Haynes' remake of Mildred Pierce (which should be cleaning up in the Emmy nominations in a couple of weeks -- I'm most curious to see if/how many supporting actress nods it manages since I suspect Brian F. O'Byrne and Kate Winslet are givens). Ann Roth was the costume designer for that miniseries. You can see an interview with Ann Roth about her designing process (not a Mildred interview) here.

June. It's a Wrap

2011 is now half over. [Gulp] Well that got away from us. If you were offline for June -- and if so my god why? -- please revisit some highlights from the month that was. 

• Peggy Sue Got Married holds up 25 years later... the first ⅔ at least.
• Top Ten X Moments the best moments in the Marvel's mutant movie franchise.
• Red Carpet "Voices of Reason and Flamboyant Firemen" -this was so fun to do.

• Unsung Heroes Michael on the "Origins of Love" sequence in Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
• Curio gets its most popular ep' ever: "Do You Save Your Ticket Stubs?" 
• Dick Tracy 2? Alex attends the Warren Beatty Q&A in Los Angeles
• Hit Me With Your Best Shot: MOULIN ROUGE! It remains a "Spectacular! Spectacular!"
• Top Ten Ewan McGregor Have you seen Beginners yet? So glad he's back.

Most Discussed: 10 Best Picture Nominees... or Less 
Most Popular: X-Men: First Class Review
"Live Blog" Madness: MTV Movies and The Tony Awards
Series Debut: Cinema de Gym

COMING IN JULY:
New Oscar Predictions (next weekend!)... and there's a lot of new info to parse, Harry Potter "It All Ends", the Italian classic Rocco and His Brothers, summer's last superhero Captain America: The First Avenger, Cowboys & Aliens, New York City's Judy Garland's retrospective, and a 25th anniversary celebration of Lt. Ellen Ripley and Aliens (1986). "Get Away from her you bitch!" right here at the Film Experience and other participating blogs.

May. It's a Wrap

One more month until the "halfway mark" for 2011. Of course the film year is a bit different stretching basically from each March to the following February; the Oscar calendar, don'cha know!

Best of May In Case You Missed It...

• Beauty & The Beast - the magic flower is his heart, you see.
• "Maverick" at 25 -Michael, a Top Gun virgin, checks out the Cruise "classic" on its 25th bday
• Film Bitch Awards - 2010 finally gets all wrapped up. I Am Love, The Social Network and Black Swan led the nominations and medals ceremony
• Waif vs. Waif -Special Guest Ester pitted Mia Wasikowska against Saoirse Ronan. Who won?
• May Flowers: The Hours it's a favorite film for many readers. It's aromatic, too.
• Melancholia Fallout - Lars von Trier's press conference blunder was the story everyone wanted to discuss from Cannes
• Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Matador - Pedro Almodóvar's dark bloody thriller made an excellent choice for the "best shot" series
• Ishtar's Second Wind -Elaine May reminisces about her maligned but funny flop
• Reader Spotlights continued with four movie-loving men: K.M., Sergio, John and Borja
• Cannes Goddesses - Jose and I discussed the best gowns at Cannes

Most Popular Post Game of Thrones
I guess everyone wanted to discuss HBO's new show
Runner Up: Top Ten: Tom Hardy From Behind
Most Discussed Timetables Tween Films
We're so Goldliocks. Which directors are fast, slow and "just right".
Runner Up: Cannes Winners

COMING IN JUNE
Moulin Rouge!, X-Men new and old, Super 8, Green Lantern, The Tree of Life, Midnight in Paris, DVD Reader's Choice, True Blood Season 4, and more to be determined by our whims and your enthusiasms.