I Am Link

Before I dive into the brief couple of links that I've gathered up today, a note: I really spent a hefty chunk of the past two weeks off-line as much as I could, so if there were any stories you saw that you think might be of particular interest to me, leave me a comment here with a link! I'm terribly behind news-wise.

--- Good Pair - Over at The Film Experience Nat's gotten to speak to all sorts of cool folks lately, so here's a good pair - first up he chatted up the delightful Sally Hawkins about her terrific performance in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine; like Nat I hope she doesn't get overshadowed by Cate's powerhouse performance (I made mention of how good she is way back in my review). And second Nathaniel got to talk to Mr. Jordan Catalano himself, Jared Leto, who just might be winning an Oscar in a few months time for his work in Dallas Buyers Club. Y'all probably know I don't like the movie - lesser known fact since I didn't mention him in my review: I don't love Leto's performance either. It's okay. I just don't think it's deserving of any the effusive praise it's getting. Michael Fassbender's work in 12 Years a Slave is miles more impressive.

--- Wolf Whistle - It feels almost too late to review The Wolf of Wall Street now, after a couple weeks of so much conversation it practically capsized the internet, so we'll see how that comes if slash when I get to that. But for now I really think linking to what our pal Joe Reid wrote in reaction to Leonardo Dicaprio's defense of the film will be a fine shorthand to lead you where I too personally stand on the film, since it seems Joe and I are pretty united. I certainly didn't think I'd come out of the film actually disliking one of my favorite directors, that's for sure. Relatedly, I found this.

--- Jonze All Over - At the other end of the spectrum, my love affair with Spike Jonze is going just fine, thank you for asking! Naturally this piece on how 2013 was "The Secret Year of Spike Jonze" at The Film Experience appealed to me, then. Although every year is "The Secret Year of Spike Jonze" if you ask me, since I can just go watch his five movies on DVD over and over again and will it so.

--- The Top Experience - I didn't participate because, as Nathaniel alludes to at the start I was one of the ones who's not prepped to name my favorite films of 2013 just yet (I talked about that a little the day before yesterday when I listed my favorite 2003 movies), but you really have got to go see all of my co-conspirators lists of their ten favorite movies from the past twelve months over at The Film Experience - these are very smart people with very good taste, y'all. You'd be wise to listen.

--- And finally, I guess a whole bunch of movies got dumped off of Netflix Instant when the ball dropped, but all is not lost! STYD does us a solid and finds a list of horror movies that just got added to the service, and there are a few on there that are totally worth our time. It's something!

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