Friday, June 20, 2008

Thoroughly Modern Hillie

<--- These pictures making the web rounds from next year's Amelia biopic are freaking me out. It's not because I don't know what to make of its Oscar chances which break down like so:

biopic = take it seriously
cast = who knows. Richard Gere and Ewan McGregor are always ignored. Madsen... wronged wife. so maybe. Swank... only when she's manly. Which...
director =Mira Nair (good director but does Oscar care? probably not)


The pictures are haunting me because... 1: she's kissing Ewan McGregor and that just reads all kinds of wrong. Plus: His lips are busy! They belong to Nicole Kidman, Tilda Swinton and Jonathan Rhys Meyers... not Hilary Swank ! I'm still recovering from the Renée Zellweger romancin' he attempted twice over. And 2: Swank in 20s garb? I don't see her as a period actress. Put her in cloche hats and bandeaus and I am absolutely... freaking... out. And not in the good way.



The 20s and 30s seem to be making a fashion/subject matter comeback with Hollywood after years of being ignored in favor of the 40s & 50s. In the next 12 months or so we've got Angelina Jolie (Changeling), Nicole Kidman (Australia), Michelle Pfeiffer (Chéri) and Hilary Swank (Amelia) all headlining 1920s or 1930s pictures.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why can't Swank manage to choose a role that isn't a doomed tomboy (no offense to Amelia)?

By the way, Swank has done a period piece before, she starred in Iron Jawed Angels on HBO.

Kenneth M. Walsh said...

I never cared for that dude.

Anonymous said...

hilary swank is to period clothes what renee zellweger is to facial expressions.

very funny poster nat you are the king of blogs!!!! and should be knighted accordingly!!!

arise dame nat!!!!

Anonymous said...

Nathaniel...please make up with Renee!

elgringo said...

I cannot STAND Hilary Swank. Period.
From her voice to her movements to her face to her voice to her face. It all twists my stomach up in a bad way.

The last thing I liked her in was The Next Karate Kid and I was 10 when I saw that.

This movie will come and go without me watching it. All is right with the world.

Scott
he-shot-cyrus.blogspot.com

NATHANIEL R said...

sorrythinking i am aware. I just choose to forget ;)

kenneth hee

mrripley i'm never even up for lame blog awards --I'm like angelo badalementi trying to get a lousy "original score" nomination, or jennifer jason leigh! -- but thank you for the support.

filmexperiencelover I love your name, he said shamelessly. As far as making up with Renée... i have started to say her name again. It's a baby step.

Anonymous said...

oh yeah...One who should not be named!!
thats a start!

Anonymous said...

you are number 1 in my blogger awards up there with nick and lulu,u three are my dreamgirls.

Anonymous said...

Some of Hilary Swank's work holds no interest for me at all. It's like she's either OFF or ON. But when she's ON, I'm deeply moved and feel she deserves her awards. I like her in her "not defined by current ideas of female gender" roles. I respect her for being able to do something that other actresses don't or can't.

What disillusions me is the awards for "prostitute with a heart of gold", "long-suffering wife", "hot new sexy It girl", etc. etc.

I've always liked Amelia Earhart, and these photos look great. I actualy feel reassured that Swank is playing the part, so that Amelia isn't going to be made more "sympathetic" by showing her as weaker and needier.

Michael Parsons said...

I didn't know Amelia Earhart could eat an apple through a letter box!

NATHANIEL R said...

anonymous you had me up until the last sentence.

since when does Hilary Swank not amplify the sympathetic neediness of her characters? Her MDB turn practically shut out any possible character traits her white trash boxing upstart woman might have had. She was practically an angel begging for audience sympathy.

Anonymous said...

In fact, Hilary Swank has two priod piece before: The necklate affair with Simon baker and Adrien brody (A year beofre he'll win an Oscar) and Iron Jawed Angels.

In fact, I don't know if she has an Oscar baity role. Mira Nair was a interesting director and I think "the Namesake" is one of the most underracted films of the award season adn Tabu deserves more recognition, but she never close to Oscar again after Salaam Bombay. Ewan McGregor deserves an Oscar a long time ago especially for Trainspotting and Moulin Rouge!, but maybe he's the new Johnny Depp (Until in his 40s he received his first Oscar Nomination)

By the way who are the principal contenders of 2009 race:
-Michelle Pfeiffer, "Cheri" (Of course depends which release is truth...)
-Robin Wright, "The privates lives of Pippa Lee" (hoollywood loves the victims of scandals)
-Eileen Atkins, "The girl in melanie Klein"
-Charlize Theron, "The Burning Plain / Sympathy for Lady vengeance"
-Kerry Washington, "Mama Black Widow"

Glenn said...

That poster is genius.

Anonymous said...

Aww that Hilary...her hair looks nice?

I wouldn't be too excited about Kerry Washington in Mama Black Widow. I love her as much as the next person but the director is the same guy who directed Diary of A Mad Black Woman ::shutters:;

Anonymous said...

Yes, Nathaniel, you're right about sympathy and neediness. I don't know what I meant exactly. (So obviously I should have thought a little more).

You know how sometimes, there's a great movie with a lead heroine, and at the end they just undercut the character somehow, as if somebody making the movie had to show me "see, she wasn't so great", "See, she wasn't really a heroine", "see, she was a just a girl and therefore nobody important". I hate it when they do that, but I don't know what to call it.

If the heroine is going to die, I want to cry, because it's important.

Anonymous said...

Why that hate for Hilary Swank? I don't understand it. It's just silly!

Anonymous said...

I am excited for Amelia. Its just a movie made with some good folks/actors bunching up together. I hope to enjoy it for what it is. I dislike the pseudo psychoanalysis that Nathaniel sometimes indulges in.

NATHANIEL R said...

pseudo psycho analysis ahoy!

and huh what?

Anonymous said...

agreed the swank hating is verging on the ridiculous,so what she won a 2nd oscar at the expense of a terribly hammy bening and 2 great brits staunton and winslet but i got over it so should you nat!!!! it's unhealthy to focus on this woman in more ways than one.