Tuesday, March 06, 2007

They Have Latex For That (And Other Links)

Just Jared has some alarming photos of Jared Leto's weight gain & loss (for a role). This cannot be healthy. Fatsuits have come a long way. When do you suppose this gimmick will finally cost some actor his life?
IFC a fun (albeit negative) review of 300
TLRHB on Howard Hawks and Only Angels Have Wings. I love posts that make me want to rent old movies immediately
Hollywood Elsewhere asks a question that's been haunting me: when people say that critics are out ot touch with the public --is this implying that dumber critics should be hired so that they will like rave disposable shit like Wild Hogs and Norbit?
Guardian Unlimited on the rarity of female film directors. Tough to believe that this is still a problem, given what we've seen from Nair, Denis and Coppola among many erratically employed others.
Cinematical I share Monica's concerns about Paradise Lost

9 comments:

Cinesnatch said...

I miss Jordan Catolano. But, I guess Jared doesn't.

Anonymous said...

Most people don't really pay attention to critics anyway, so what would be the point in trying to hire critics that would pander to them? The truth is that for many people movie-going isn't all that serious a business - it's just something to do to spend your time.

Anonymous said...

Go see Only Angels Have Wings. Now.

(It's not star vehicle. If you're gonna rent it because of Grant + Haywoth + Arthur, forget it. Not because they're playing THAT against-type, or they're not great [they're superb], but because it's all about Howard Hawks. He does wonders to this kind of material - people waiting for something to happen, how people relate to one another in moments of tension and conflict. It's marvelous.

- cal roth

Colin said...

"when people say that critics are out ot touch with the public --is this implying that dumber critics should be hired so that they will like rave disposable shit like Wild Hogs and Norbit?"

For me, it means that the critics who resent that the Age of the Blockbuster is here to stay should be given the boot. These critics retain the outmoded mentality that great films like Spider-man 2, Children of Men or The Incredibles are somehow lesser to the legions of oversentimental/tragic/"important"/biographical fare that gets championed every year for their genre alone. Is there any mentality more out-of-touch with this generation of moviegoers?

NATHANIEL R said...

Colin --i agree with what you're saying IF there critics out there that feel this way. but are there? It seems to me that when one of the blockbusters is actually great (spiderman 2, incredibles are fine examples) get stellar reviews. And Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth, two "genre" pieces were treated with great respect by critics.

frankly i don't see where the disconnect is. unless we're talking about the Academy Awards and yes, they still think biopics and message movies are more important than sure-to-be classic genre pieces. But that's not the critics.

I always have trouble with these thinkpieces on "critics out of touch" because who disses great stuff? I'm sure there are bad critics out there ---there's certainly a lot of press release regurgitators or plot synopsis fiends... but there are people phoning it in in every line of work.

Colin said...

Most of my "out-of-touch" indignance is directed at the Academy, since I am too selective about the critics I read to have a problem with critics in general.

Though I could point out one anecdotal example -- none of the people I know saw any of the 76% fresh that Superman Returns received on Rotten Tomato. So I suppose the reverse may be a problem, where "critical groupthink" reveres a movie that the public just doesn't get. Most of the public, I think, don't want to know if a critic thinks well of a movie; rather, they want the critic to tell them if they will. And I guess this is where the "out-of-touch" idea stems from.

Anonymous said...

The weird thing to me is that Leto's completely unrecognizable with the weight on.

So pretty with it off, though, despite the sorta disturbing eye makeup/seediness of the pics.

I agree it can't be healthy, but at least he's back to his normal weight.

Anonymous said...

OK, Jared Leton on the 2nd picture is defenitely NOT back to his normal weight!!!
He's extremely underweight on it.

How could you not recognize that, anonym? He looks horrible (and defenitely more on the 2nd pic)...

Anonymous said...

He's clearly sucking his stomach in on the 2nd one. If you look at the other pictures, he's obviously not that thin, has a decent muscle mass, etc. It's a shocking sight, sure, but plenty of people can do it.