Saturday, November 14, 2009

Sir Links-a-Lot

Vanity Fair How the Fantastic Mr. Fox puppets were made. Cool slides
Boy Culture From Queer to Eternity
fourfour on Precious. I wish I'd read this days ago. Beautiful piece that will hopefully slap some people silly who have wanted to condemn this movie for existing.


Cinema Blend Romola Garai's Spider-Man surprise
Los Angeles Times good piece on Sir Ian McKellen (The Prisoner) on Gandalf, gay rights and Macbeth
The Auteurs looking back at Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans and seeing a conflict of movies within
In Contention Brenda Blethyn London River FYC
Awards Daily Christian McKay Me and Orson Welles FYC
Silly Hats Only remembers François Ozon's 8 Women

About this trailer to Leap Year, Amy Adams next romantic comedy...



I'm not one of those people who likes to trash romantic comedies, especially not before I've seen them. Like any genre it can contain brilliance as well as trash. But it really does seem like Hollywood isn't even trying anymore. People liked to bag on romantic comedies even when they were popular (like in the 90s) but even those films didn't take such lazy shortcuts of having the right guy be so obviously superior to any other guy who might be in the movie. [tangent: Hello, Matthew Goode too Good! Good as in Great. I just saw A Single Man and his perfect human specimen thing makes more sense from beyond the grave]. For instance, there was absolutely nothing wrong with Bill Pullman in Sleepless in Seattle. He was a sweet guy. If anything he's more attractive than Tom Hanks. You feel for him when he realizes he's not the right one for Meg Ryan and yet that doesn't interfere with your joy in watching the movie stars get together at the end. Trust the audience. They aren't dumb. They aren't as dumb as you think.

Oh and way to give away the ending, trailer. Couldn't you have flashed a spoiler warning?
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9 comments:

joy said...

Thank god Amy also has “The Fighter” next year.

DJ said...

I feel like Amy is falling into the same character over and over again (how she is not getting criticism for this, idk). On paper, they're not the same, but she (albeit, sometimes brilliantly) creates the same nuances. Did anyone actually believe she was supposed to be a b**** in Julie and Julia? She didn't flesh out her character in that way at all. And this trailer just confirms my suspicions.

The Fighter should be a gritty role for her... lets hope she keeps it that way.

par3182 said...

oh amy - i just keep reminding myself junebug, junebug, junebug...

Rizz said...

I believe I just saved myself a movie ticket!

Glenn said...

DJ, she was getting plenty of criticism for it during Doubt for playing the "innocent" girl with the cutesy voice after Junebug and Enchanted.

I didn't watch the trailer because I know exactly what to expect. The poster was awful enough (Matthew Goode's facial hair is about 10 years too late).

mrripley said...

Amy Adams is the new sandra bullock/meg ryan/julia roberts/reese witherpoon until she wins an oscar makes a scary movie and simply gets beaten down by her bad choices.

she shoulda won in 2005 for junebug maybe thats it.she knows she can never ever top that creation,my god what has rachel weisz done lately anyhow.come over all full of herself she has an oscar shes too good for the mummy 3yes it was shite but so where the other 2 it didn't matter then but after the oscar it does.

mrripley said...

Amy Adams is the new sandra bullock/meg ryan/julia roberts/reese witherpoon until she wins an oscar makes a scary movie and simply gets beaten down by her bad choices.

she shoulda won in 2005 for junebug maybe thats it.she knows she can never ever top that creation,my god what has rachel weisz done lately anyhow.come over all full of herself she has an oscar shes too good for the mummy 3yes it was shite but so where the other 2 it didn't matter then but after the oscar it does.

Lara said...

Re Amy Adams, no matter the criticism she might have got for Doubt (I think she silenced it perfectly with an Oscar nomination) I read more often than not that everybody still loves her oh so much and wishes that she will (future tense) avoid getting typecast.
And then I roll my eyes, because AA IS already playing the same character, she IS typecast, there is no future tense there. On top of that, and DJ is spot on, even if she has a role where she could explore some meaner sides (the aforementioned Julie, the mistress/ songstress she was playing in Miss Pettigrew lives for a day) she chooses to play it safe.
One can tell that I am not Ms Adams biggest fan, lol. (Sorry for the rant, but I needed to get this of my chest, since it seems literally everybody thinks so highly of her acting skills and I tend to think, homegirl got lucky with one and a half role).

rob said...

I've never really got how Amy Adams have been getting so much attention the past few years, let alone the "critic's darling" she became.

and believe me I tried to like her, tried to see what a lot of other people were seeing. But outside of Junebug, I havent seen any from her with substance. Not Doubt, which I didnt know how it got a nomination in the first place. Especially not Julie and Julia. In Sunshine Clearing, there were some parts that were pretty good- especially the part when she said "I could get guys to date me, to want me, but not to love me"- real genuine emotion- but then she goes back to her usual bag of tricks. maybe she'll be more successful with a romantic comedy, but the thing about her is that she doesnt have that same emotional connection with the audience (that a movie star does, and a great romantic comedy requires )- that someone like Julia Roberts have had in perfection since she burst in to the silver screen.