Blog - The Film Experience

Unsure of what I would find, I typed in the words ‘Film Blog’ into Google.  The first few links contained professional newspaper film blogs and Deadline.com.  I clicked the second page and I stumbled across Blog – The Film Experience.

Let me introduce you to a blog called: Blog – The Film Experience

The name itself is melo-dramatic in nature.

Originally written by an individual who calls himself Nathaniel R., he is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association.   But, it seems like you wouldn’t know that if you first glanced at his biography picture.  It was only after I scanned his Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr account links did I realize that he was certified.

After reading his ‘About’ page he apparently served on four international film festival juries and appeared as an on-air Oscar pundit for Sky News London. 

In a nutshell, this blog discusses entertainment news.

The posts are numerous and contain a vast amount of information.  The posts range from interesting leading links for the day, film reviews, and celebrity news to entertainment award coverage that seems to be designated towards anyone who is interested in the entertainment industry.  I immediately liked the information that was displayed in each post.  It is surprisingly difficult to find a blog run by a certified critic (this means there is some legitimacy to what they write) who incorporates both tabloid and entertainment business material.

There are always individuals posting comments under each entry for the day.  This blog’s audience is made up of the passive moviegoer and the informed film critic. 

The blog itself is not strictly scholarly or strictly a critique of film or the entertainment industry.  Rather, it takes information from all corners of the entertainment industry mixes them together into one large boiling pot. 

For example, in a post titled, “Rooney Mara Pans Out,” the writer Tim Brayton discusses the fact that actress Rooney Mara was cast as Tiger Lily.  This is an issue because a Caucasian individual was cast as a minority in a Hollywood film(once again). 

“The internet, including the Film Experience, has been busily discussing the issue of casting able-bodied persons as disabled characters these past few days; it's a conversation that needs to happen, but it's galling to step back and realise that we haven't even finished fighting the easy representational battles yet” - Source

Brayton is right.  The fact that he placed emphasis on the easy representation battles (is it so hard to cast a Native American actor?) brings to light one of the many issues in Hollywood at the moment. 

Because the Oscar season recently ended, this blog is filled with a majority of Academy Award-inspired posts.  Past winners and speculation fill this time period in the blog.   The writer keeps tabs on 

recent winners.  In the article "Carol Now Filming" writer Nathaniel R explains his reasoning for following this film:

"First pics of Cate Blanchett filming Carol based on Patricia Highsmith's "The Price of Salt" (which is sometimes called "Carol" or vice versa). I know everyone thinks I'm this huge Cate Blanchett nerd now that I fell so hard for her in Blue Jasmine but truth: I'm in this for director Todd Haynes." - Source

Writer Nathaniel R. has a clear set of honest opinions.  I want to read professional's opinions without the overindulgence of harsh critiques and an irritating sense of self-righteousness.  

To me, this blog demonstrates that there is a way for individuals to incorporate entertainment business, film critiques and tabloid gossip without leaning one way or another.  I don’t like to be pulled in one way or another because pure tabloids are inundating the news, and pure film critique blogs take themselves too seriously.  Blog - The Film Experience is a great starting point for a blogger like myself who generally enjoys the entertainment industry and who wants to bring some sort of opinion to a variety of its elements.  

According to over 700 sites that link to this blog (one of which includes the infamous Internet Movie Database).  Clearly I'm not the only one who is enjoying pursuing this blog.   

Take a look for yourself - Blog - The Film Experience