April. It's a Wrap

If this blog had skin, it'd be all pruney after a whole month in those April Showers. If you didn't enjoy that series you were probably cursing the blog. It's safe to come back in the room. We've towelled off. Here were ten dry highlights of the month that was.


Nicole and Rabbit Hole some thoughts on the great actress and her eclectic filmography
Movie Themed Easter Eggs Watchmen and more... I was feeling crafty
Nashville Film Festival my narrow Nicole Kidman miss and some interesting films: zombie picture Make-Out with Violence, future romcom hit (500) Days of Summer, lost 70s gem Girlfriends and the jolting transgendered doc Prodigal Sons.
Foolish Oscar Predictions the first round. Can't wait to see how year develops
Thinky Sci-Fi two new pictures falling on the brainier side or conceptual side of the sci-fi genre
Cannes LineUp or 'What Everyone Will Be Talking About in May'

I had much help from guest bloggers this month
Whatever Works Rosengje took in Woody Allen's latest at ShoWest and liked what she saw. Particularly in regards to the ever wonderful Patty Clarkson.
Chlöe Sevigny Adam's take on her secretive screen presence
The Art of Self-Advertising Adam on Almodóvar on Almodóvar
British Films in the 00s Dave's choices for the best of the Brit-flicks

Coming in May
<--- April showers bring... May Flowers. Plus: Hugh Jackman, lots of Terminator nonsense (I'm sorry. I love the franchise... why aren't any of you with me on this?), my various issues with Star Trek, Tilda Swinton in Julia and Pixar's Up. And finally, *hopefully* a return to those previously regularly scheduled blog series I've been neglecting (sigh)

April Showers, Marilyn

Light me up too, Georgie

Not even a hot shower can wash of Marilyn's lipstick.

Kelly McGillis Comes Out

The Amish will not be pleased.

Not that The Amish ever saw Witness (1985) mind you. Maybe they don't even know who she is. But wasn't she good in that film as the Amish widow who resists falling for Harrison Ford for as long as she can? I still find it a bit odd that she didn't end up in the Best Supporting Actress list that year. Her chemistry with Harrison Ford was crazyhot. Further proof that it's ridiculous that people think gay actors can't pull off romantic leading roles.

But back to Kelly. If you're saying "who?" you're forgiven. She had a very high profile career for five short years (two Oscar winning films with one blockbuster sandwiched inbetween) and then *poof*. Hollywood lost interest... or she did... or the public did. It happens.

It happens a lot. We just never know who it's going to happen to until they're gone. Someone who is all over high profile movies this year will be gone from the public consciousness by 2013, mark my words.

Cruise mounts McGillis in Top Gun. His sperm is magic

Kelly's sexual orientation has been gossiped about since at least her co-starring gig with Jodie Foster in The Accused 21 long years ago. Now, she's officially out and "done with the man thing." Her Top Gun co-star might call that statement "glib" but then...
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Saoirse and the Dakotas

When someone in Hollywood needs a 15 year old blonde with dramatic chops to headline or co-star in their movie, I imagine that Saoirse Ronan and Dakota Fanning are getting the scripts first. Can we get a few mailed to Dakota Blue Richards, too?

Dakota Blue Richards in Five Miles Out (2009)

She's exactly 1 day older than Saoirse Ronan (weird trivia!) but I fear she may get lost in the shuffle. Fanning has two months on both of the Dakotas and many more years of experience and celebrity. But Saoirse already has an Oscar nomination and a primo gig with Peter Jackson. Richards, on the other hand, is only known for headlining The Golden Compass, the blockbuster that didn't bust blocks. Since Compass she's made 1 TV film, 1 short and 1 feature.

<-- Saoirse and Dakota the First

In that stack of shorts I saw whilst in Nashville, Richards had the lead in a beautifully shot miniature called Five Miles Out. She played a morose and preoccupied girl, trying to shake off the heavy weight of a family crisis during a trip to the seaside. That 18 minutes was enough to remind me that she holds the screen really well. You look at her face and you must know what's going on inside her head. It's the same feeling I get when I watch someone like Samantha Morton... albeit on a much smaller scale in this case.

Did you think Richards was strong in The Golden Compass? Any other mid-teen actresses you think are worth watching? It won't be long before they're all fighting it out for what we now think of as the Keira Knightley, Amanda Seyfried, Scarlet Johannson parts.
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Tribeca, Quentin Crisp, Departures

I've been doing some Q&A and panel coverage for Tribeca so if you're interested, read and click on.

Last night I caught Okuribito (Departures) [Q & A] which you'll undoubtedly remember won the Foreign Film Oscar in February. Though it's hard to believe, this marked Japan's first competitive win in the category (though they had a few honoraries early on). Had I seen this film prior to Oscar night, I would have known that Japan's wait would be over. It's more traditional and accessible than The Class (my silver medalist for 2008) and the Academy loves traditional and accessible especially when they're paired with tears. Departures plucks the heartstrings practically as well as its leading man Masahiro Motoki pretends he's plucking his beloved cello strings. [previous post feat. Motoki]

I also caught Englishman in New York [Q & A] which is a non-sequel/sequel to The Naked Civil Servant in that it also stars John Hurt as Quentin Crisp. This time we're getting highlights from the last year's of Crisp's life in the 1980s and 1990s. The film takes place entirely in New York City but for a brief amusing trip overseas for a recreation of the filming of Quentin's "never grow old" scene in Orlando opposite Tilda Swinton. Unfortunately Tilda Swinton does not play herself in this scene.

left: John Hurt as Quentin Crisp in Englishman in New York
right: Quentin Crisp as Queen Elizabeth I in Orlando

This viewing was an exceptionally odd experience for me since a dear friend of mine in Manhattan ("Mr. Steele") was once Quentin's editor and friend and he's played by Denis O'Hare in the movie! I probably don't have to tell you that it's very curious if not outright bizarre to see one of your own friends portrayed in a movie.

And finally, I ran into Katey (podcast listeners will perk up now) at an industry party at the most crazy-expensive multiple storied apartment I've ever seen in Manhattan. It was so dripping with money, even well to do movie characters who live in Manhattan could never afford it ... and you know how movie types always live in apartments that cost several times what their real life salaries would be. As a "have not", it's fun to accidentally find oneself in situations wherein one can pretend to be a "have", sipping cocktails on a rooftop patio looking out at skyscrapers. It's the life a life. P.S. Katey and I are brainstorming on a collaboration so stay tuned for that sometimes this summer.

previously @ Tribeca

Leigh's Legs

Alexa here dropping in from Pop Elegantiarum again. I recently found this great publicity photo of Janet Leigh in a thrift store. Apparently the film it was shot for, Safari, was a bit of a dud, but I had to have it. I mean, check out those legs, so famously shot by Orson Welles in Touch of Evil! Then I was up all night the other night and I caught John Carpenter's The Fog, and while it was the perfect thing to watch at 3 a.m., I realized that this woman's career ran the gamut from classic to crap. I started wondering what my favorite Janet Leigh performance might be. While not the best of films, I think Holiday Affair might top my list because of the thick sexual tension between her an Robert Mitchum, plopped in the middle a saintly Christmas story. What are your favorites?

To Michelle on Her 51st Birthday

Happy birthday to the one and only Michelle Pfeiffer, keeper of my fool fan heart.

<-- This photo of La Pfeiff was taken just four months ago. I have lately become convinced that we have a problem with accepting aging in our society because we are always staring at celebrities.Think on this: they start out with an advantage. If you're so beautiful that people want to stare at your face blown up dozens of feet tall when you're in your 20s and 30s... chances are you're going to be an outstandingly beautiful 50something, too. The rest are mere mortals.

You know those cards that tell you who you share a birthday with?
Do you suppose celebrities ever get them and geek out on which other celebrities they share birthdays with? It's an oroborus.

If you must know, Pfeiffer shares her exact birthday with Jan Brady herself, Eve Plumb. But she shares the general April 29th date with a number of other famous types including: tennis giant Andre Agassi, fellow celluloid goddess Uma Thurman, Jerry Seinfeld, actress Kate Mulgrew, former SNL regular Nora Dunn and Pfeiffer's former co-star Daniel Day-Lewis who is one year her elder -- too bad Hollywood doesn't notice how well similarly aged co-stars go together.

A joint birthday celebration on the set of Age of Innocence (1993)?

There's also conductor Zubin Mehta, director Phillipe Noyce (Rabbit Proof Fence), acclaimed French actor Jean Rochefort, Oscar winner Celeste Holm (Gentleman's Agreement), two time Best Director Oscar winner Fred Zinneman (From Here to Eternity), the legendary Duke Ellington and newspaper giant William Randolph Hearst (real life counterpart to fictional Citizen Kane).

And no... I didn't know any of this before typing up this post. I'm not that crazy.
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The Art of Self-Advertising

Adam of Club Silencio here. In full anticipation for Broken Embraces (and full disgust with a US dramedy of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown), let's play Six Degrees of Pedro Almodóvar! One rule: you can only use Pedro Almodóvar movies...


Upon re-watching his brilliant film-noir tribute Bad Education, I couldn't help but notice how many times Pedro actually pays tribute to himself and even gives advanced previews to his own films. Simple enough I suppose when one of the lead characters is based on Pedro himself (in)directly: a queer filmmaker drawn to offbeat character pieces and an explosive exposé on Catholic priests exposing themselves.

Decked out in alter-ego Pedro's production office are posters accentuating these close ties. The two worth special notice are for a film titled La Abuela Fantasma, which translates roughly to "Ghost Grandma." I can only assume this means Almodóvar was tinkering with Volver at the time - his sensational saga of a mother seeking closure beyond her supposed death. Or at the very least he was interested in making a Spanish variation on Ghost Dad.

"She's old, she's bold, and she's back from the beyond!
She also has candy in her purse."

Of course Almodóvar already gave us early glimmers of Volver way back in 1995 with The Flower of My Secret, in which he (in)directly tells of a Pedro-like author veiling her potent plotlines behind fake names. The film has our alter-ego author criticized by the angriest of agents for delivering stories that seem too absurd, without any discernible love behind them. One dissed idea is Volver down to a tee:

"A novel about a mother who discovers her daughter's killed her father who had tried to rape her? And so that no one finds out hides the body in a cold-storage room of the neighbor's restaurant?

Glad she's not Pedro's actual agent! Volver would have never seen the light of day. But by that description alone, one can barely imagine Volver's eventual richness and stunning ode to a mother's devotion.


Pedro also taps into his back-catalogue with a second dissed plotline:

"Who'll dream of people living in a seedy slum like the living dead? Who'll identify with a protagonist who works emptying shit out of hospital bedpans, who's got a junkie mother-in-law and faggot son who's into black men?"

Well, pissy agent woman, perhaps fans of What Have I Done to Deserve This? would identify with that... only replace "black men" with "creepy pedophile dentists."

Plus, even if it goes unspoken, a film like Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! certainly takes a knowing thematic leap from Law of Desire, with its "stalkers make the best soulmates" conceit. (A clingy Antonio Banderas is still Antonio Banderas.) Almodóvar's one of the few auteurs whose ideas we've seen visually and vocally gestate throughout his career. The inspired streams of consciousness for his characters eventually become the inspirational threads for his finest films. It's this kind of self-influence that leads to such personal, passionate and effortless touches on his part. It's also I'm sure what leads to his mammoth collection of devoted followers. You know the type: bloggers who make the most of insignificant details in his films.

April Showers, Midnight Express (1978)

April Showers

I've always been a little bit a lot perplexed by the famous shower scene in Alan Parker's Midnight Express (1978). I'm not exactly sure why it's in the movie. Midnight Express has, at its best, an expressive physicality and a gritty tactile quality. You often feel like you're right there in the grotty hellish Turkish prison, sweating and suffering along with Billy Hayes (Brad Davis). But the sexual vibes coming off of Midnight Express are at times unfathomable. Is it gay? Is it bi? Is it straight? Is it just horny? Or is its ambiguous eroticism simply a by-product of casting Brad Davis in the lead role?


As warm up to the famous shower scene we get a montage detailing the friendship of Billy and Erich (Norbert Weisser) a fellow prisoner. They've been in this hellhole for years. They do yoga together. They bathe each other. They even duet on a private meditation mantra...

Monastery. Cloister. Cave. Prison

They lock eyes while chanting this repetitive phase. Billy drops his head with sadness at the word "prison" and we dissolve to a shot of the intimate friends showering together. In the steam Erich tenderly grabs Billy's soapy hand, slides his hands up Billy's body and pulls him slowly into a passionate kiss. Billy hesitates and then fully reciprocates.


Here's the curious part.

Moments after he's begun passionately kissing Erich back, he pushes him away. Lifts his hand to kiss it, shakes his head in a strangely condescending manner (I love you but I'm not that way) and exits the shower. Despite his willingness to work out, chant, bathe and lock lips with his friend... he draws the line at sex.

Erich is understandably bummed.


Never mind sequential logic. Never mind that Billy has gone for years without sex. Never mind that he's already comfortable kissing, being bathed by and getting naked with Erich. Never mind that the real life Billy Hayes actually did have consensual sex with fellow prisoners according to his autobiography. In Oliver Stone's Oscar nominated screenplay, "Billy" isn't having it. This scene has always utterly confused me on a basic human level, sexual orientation being beside the point. I'm gay but if you threw me in a prison for years and my only option for human tenderness was sex with a girl I liked who was into me? I wouldn't shake my head and walk away. I'd be... 'how often, when, where and what position? Let's go!'

I recently saw the elusive picture Girlfriends (also from 1978) and there's an oddly parallel sequence: the lead character's new female roommate begins to caress her shoulder and tries to kiss and undress her. Our heroine gently pushes the misguided girl's hand away and quietly says "no." I can only come to the reductive conclusion that in 1978 this was exactly the way liberal Hollywood felt about the gays -- tolerated them, kinda dug them on an one-on-one basis, but were still totally weirded out by them. The sequence in Girlfriends is a throwaway and doesn't interrupt the movie's flow. In the case of Midnight Express, the filmmakers seem to be letting their own sexual prudishness get in the way of narrative logic. Answer me this: If Billy wasn't going to have sex with Erich, why was their foreplay still included in the movie?
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You Got The Cates Stuff... Baby

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JA from MNPP here. The bizarre news this morning of a remake of Drop Dead Fred coming our way got me thinking on the loveliness that is Miss Phoebe Cates. I guess I was of the right age but my childhood was filled with her. On her I nursed one of those girl-crushes back at that age before I knew where my desires were leading me... what I mean is, being a gay-in-training, her infamous red-bikini moment in Fast Times at Ridgemont High never did anything for me like it did for my booby-admiring peers (although I did take a lesson or two from that scene with the carrot); rather I preferred her when she played it safe, cute and innocent, like the spunky yet neutered girlfriend Kate she played in the Gremlins films. Rosy-cheeked and always ready with a smile or a swift-kick to Gremlin crotch. She was my girl!


And then... poof! The mystery of Phoebe Cates disappearance haunts us all, doesn't it? She hasn't been in anything since her pals Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh dragged her in front of a camera for their "Look at us being real people with our real friends!" flick The Anniversary Party in 2001. She's apparently been content to just be Mrs. Kevin Kline and stay out of the spotlight... here's what she's been up to via her IMDb page:

"Since her 'retirement' from films, she and her movie star husband, Kevin Kline, divide their time between their country estate in upstate New York and their luxury penthouse in Manhattan's tony upper east side. When not supporting her husband's continuing fine stage and film work, she fills her time attending openings and benefits and her favorite activity, hosting dinner parties and 'dishing the dirt' with her celebrity friends."

That's the life! Or, it's a life. Woody Allen's, I think. Anyway, I miss her. The world misses her, don't we? She had something all her own, I think. Come back, Phoebe Cates! Put down the dirt-dishing and fine china and, hey here's a thought, do a Woody Allen movie! About dirt-dishing and fine china. It's perfect!
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'Veronica Lake'

You're different Officer White. You're the first man in five years who didn't tell me I look like Veronica Lake inside of a minute.

You look better than Veronica Lake

April Showers, Glenn Close

April Showers evenings @ 11

I was too young to understand or appreciate the rise of Glenn Close in the early 80s but by the time the one/two punch of Fatal Attraction / Dangerous Liaisons hit in 87/88 she was knocking me out. She was already a star by then, though. Those fourth and fifth Oscar nominations (and who knew they would be her last?) only amplified her celebrity. Critics and Oscar voters had been devoted since her feature debut in The World According to Garp (1982).

The murderous climax to Fatal Attraction wasn't the first time a Close movie scored big with a tub/shower sequence and it wasn't the first time she starred in a Best Picture nominee either. The Big Chill (1983) brought her her second supporting actress nod and some people believe her nude shower scene sealed that honor.

We're not far into this reunion film when it happens. The film has had a surprisingly light mood despite its kick off funereal plot point (Kevin Costner is the dead man, though he was left on the cutting room floor). Suddenly Close kills the laughter but amplifies the movie's dramatic undercurrents. There's no warning.


Directly on the heels of a light scene the camera pans very slowly through her bedroom (we don't understand what's happening at first) until we reach Glenn racked with sobs in the shower.

As The Big Chill's "Sarah" she's arguable at her warmest if still a little cool and guarded. That's why this sudden but tellingly private display of vulnerability works. Ah! So she does feel after all. Close performs this same rug-pulling stab of pain in even more devastating fashion for the finale of Dangerous Liaisons five years later. But after her 80s heyday, that sudden reveal of the three dimensional woman behind the icy mask became as rare as Yeti sightings. Close's screen persona hasn't altered that much over the years but it has hardened.

What would Sarah Cooper make of Patty Hewes?

She has no trouble commanding the small screen on Damages but even in those moments when her character "Patty Hewes" appears to be vulnerable, tears welling up furiously in her eyes, one still can't trust her. Close was always expert at showing us the mask. Now, when she lets it slip, aren't we only seeing another mask just underneath?
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Oscars Abroad (Hong Kong)

While I sometimes feel guilty about the ethnocentricity of calling any film prizes "the [insert nationality] Oscars" it's convenient shorthand. I think awards junkies (and you know who you are) would be a lot more interest in "the ____ Oscars" like the Cesars (France), the Goyas (Spain), the Guldbagge (Sweden) among many others if the films were readily available for viewing and information/photos were easier to find*. I dream that someday corporate globalization will have one good cinematic result: easier access to any type of cinema instead of the interminable waits, spotty drawn out release patterns and the bewildering practice of doing all the work of getting a film on DVD and yet only making it available in one market, cutting off potential revenue.

Your octuplet guide to popular titles at 2009's Hong Kong Film
Awards. Only one of these films (CJ7) was released in the US.

Which is all a long way of saying that I wish I could watch all the Hong Kong Film Award winners (announced last week but still not on IMDB?) back to back for at least one Oscar'ish article. I'd love to do the same for other countries, too.

One of the amusing things about checking out the winners of 'the ____ Oscars' is that they tend to follow the same patterns. The often formulaic biopic genre excites voting bodies everywhere... not just in Hollywood. Ip Man, a biopic about Bruce Lee's master took Best Picture. Wouldn't there be at least a small market for that film in the US? Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story was among the top 50 releases of 1993 without anything other than the Lee mythos to sell it. This is only tangentially Lee related but still... KUNG FU! Action is the most internationally marketable genre.

Though Ip Man won the top prize, Donnie Yen (left) lost best actor and the film only collected one other prize: Best Action Choreography. The Way We Are, a small drama about women in a working class neighborhood was the most celebrated winning director, screenplay and both female acting prizes. Beast Stalker, a kidnapping drama, won both of the male acting statues. The star heavy blockbuster Red Cliff (its lack of US distribution still puzzles me) took home five technical prizes. The supernatural action film Painted Skin won only two prizes (cinematography and song) suggesting only mild support. Why was it their Oscar submission last year, one wonders?

Oscars 2009? Beast Stalker and Ip Man were both released after the AMPAS eligibility period in 2008 so either could theoretically be chosen as Hong Kong's Foreign Language entry later this year. Stay tuned...

*If you know of any non-US blogs that are covering their home country's cinema / celebrities / awards well, please share them in the comments or e-mail me a recommendation.

"but what I really want to do is link"

Hollywood Reporter acquisition talks at Tribeca for The Eclipse, Don McKay (with Thomas Hayden Church & Elisabeth Shue!) and Serious Moonlight
Disturbia "Bateman" Ts. Love it
Coming Soon More Lovely Bones photos
LA Times answers the question I've been asking forever: what the hell is going on with Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret (now three years in post-production)?


Cigarettes and Red Vines check out this marquee for There Will Be Blood. Hee
OMG a sequel to Clueless??? Be careful what you wish for
StinkyLulu Smackdown 1959
Pop Elegantiarum Grace Kelly "Ice-Cold"
Sunset Gun on David Cronenberg and JG Ballard's Crash
Nerdcore unites icons Kirk & Leia. I wish I'd thought of this photo mashup
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$100 Million. No Questions Asked.

Twitch asked a great question on Friday that has been dancing around in my head naked all day: which auteur would you like to see handed a huge pile of money ($100 mil') and complete freedom to make whatever the hell kind of picture they wanted to make with it? Our pal JA answered (always worth a read) and I should, too.

My five.

Jonathan Glazer. Birth and Sexy Beast are both so well directed and imagined with limited budgets. They're also the kind of features that scream 'this director will have trouble getting his films financed!' Imagine how pissed the cinephiles of 2050 are going to be if his feature career ends with Birth, only his second, a movie that will undoubtedly be revered by then.

Terry Gilliam. He makes every list like this... and that's out of more than pity. Even when he doesn't have a lot of money, the visuals are memorable. And an always fascinating if not always great filmography that includes Baron Munchausen, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, Tideland, The Brothers Grimm, Brazil, The Fisher King ... he so deserves a major comeback.


Paul Thomas Anderson. Because, for such a contemporary auteur, he does period incredibly well (Boogie Nights & There Will Be Blood) and I love that its hard to predict what he'll come up with. That said he's never going to get $100 million to work with since he's never made a sizable hit. That's the audience's fault, not his. His films are so thrilling. Why isn't everyone lining up every opening weekend? He should be a household name by now.

Warren Beatty. Mostly because I want to see him work again one last time. He's getting up there in years (72) and he's only directed four pictures: Heaven Can Wait, Reds, Dick Tracy, Bulworth; none of them looked cheap so he'd need a lot of money to play with. No conditions but if there's another Reds in him, my god it needs to come out.

I'm cheating for the last picture with both conditions, cast and theme. I want a Women's Picture omnibus film. Each entry must be as obsessed with actresses as your average Almodóvar picture and Dianne Wiest must appear in all ten segments.

portraits from Portroids

Other suggested cast members: Kristin Scott Thomas, Julianne Moore, Jane Fonda, Kerry Washington, Samantha Morton, Emmanuelle Béart, Holly Hunter, Ari Graynor, Ludivine Sagnier and Catherine O'Hara. The following 10 directors gets $10 million and 10 minutes for their entry: Lynne Ramsay, Jonathan Demme, Claire Denis, Jane Campion, Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson (but only if it's completely about Angelica Huston), Patrice Chéreau, Brad Bird, Brian de Palma and Jodie Foster (provided her segment is an abbreviated version of Flora Plum. That's the only way we're ever seeing it)

I know that only 20 people would buy tickets but I love all 19 of you who'd join me in the theater.
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What movie reminds you most...

...of summertime?

(I know it's only April but we're having 80 degree weather in Manhattan)

Goodbye Dorothy Zbornak

Less than a year after we lost her television mother, Estelle Getty, television superstar Beatrice Arthur has passed away. We always knew her as "Bea" but her first name was actually "Bernice".

She'll live forever in reruns with both the trailblazing Maude and the blockbuster sitcom Golden Girls to her credit. She won EMMYs for both characters. Every once in a blue moon she lent her indelible sharp tongued comedy to the screen, most memorably as "Vera Charles" in Mame, a reprisal of her TONY winning performance for the screen.

Bea was born way back in 1922 when the movies were still silent. If it seems like she's always been an elderly woman, we can chalk that up to her unglamorous no-nonsense celebrity persona and the fact that she didn't become truly famous until she was in her 40s. It was a good long life and we have a very celebrated career to remember her by. The Boyfriend and I recently rented Maude (we'd never seen it) and were so impressed that everything we'd heard about its politics was true. You could never make a network television show like that today. We've regressed.

I last saw Bea on stage during her musical one woman show Just Between Friends in 2002. Today I'm wishing I'd clapped and whistled a little louder when she took her final bow.
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Tribeca, Marianne, Supermodels

<-- Ciarán Hands and Aidan Quinn on the town to promote The Eclipse.

I'm on assignment for Tribeca covering Q & As over the next few days, so last night I saw the ghost story The Eclipse from playwright Conor MacPherson. Calling it a ghost story is reductive but it's the easiest hook to get your attention. The new film is juggling a lot of balls at once (grief drama, love story, literary comedy, character study) and it's coming to a theater new you just as soon as... well, you never know with these festival films. But the audience really liked it so maybe distribution won't be that far away. John Patrick Shanley (Doubt) was a few rows behind me. I guess these playwrights eye each other like hawks.

And two celebrity sightings to tell you about. Before leaving Nashville I had a chat with Marianne Jean-Baptiste at the festival after-party downtown. She was in great humor and much shorter than I expected her to be. We talked about Mike Leigh, the film she directed Ink and Happy-Go-Lucky. She was absolutely convincing when telling me that she's not sick of people telling her how great she was in Secrets & Lies. So she's either still a fine actress or 13 years later she still doesn't really mind being recognized as "Hortense".

Back in Manhattan 17 hours later, I was grabbing a quick bite after an exhausting day of airline travel, bag problems and running around Manhattan for press arrangements before The Eclipse. Who should sit kitty-corner from me in the diner but Ronnie from Make Me a Supermodel. Remember him?

Since we were both alone I felt there was no harm in saying "hi" though I have never interrupted a celebrity at a restaurant. I only share this with you because I'd venture to say that he's the nicest semi-celebrity I've ever met: Sweet as can be, talkative and (rather impossibly) even better looking in person. Some people have all the luck. But when they're as nice as they are pretty, who could ever hold it against them?

If you're in NYC are you attending Tribeca?
For those of you outside the isle of Manhattan, any movie plans over the next few days?
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Women on the Verge of a Bad TV Show?

Have you heard the news that Pedro Almodóvar's comedic 1988 classic Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, the film that first won him a major following in the US and his first trip to the Oscars, is going to become an English language TV series for Fox?

Pass the gazpacho!


When I read the headlines I felt like I had downed a pitcher of glee. Smashing news, especially since Almodóvar himself is producing. But ... then I read the fine print. There's always fine print.

Apparently it's NOT a comedy but a "suburban drama" (huh?) AND it's about women who've known each other a long time (what? no complex comedic interweaving of strangers?) AND it's being written by a Grey's Anatomy writer? (oy!) This doesn't sound anything like the movie and it sounds way too much like a soapy redux of Desperate Housewives. Next thing you know we'll be hearing that they've cast generic TV actresses without any of the absurdist deadpan force of Carmen Maura and Julieta Serrano or the wacky presence of Rossy de Palma or the nervous comedic energy of Maria Barranco.


Pass the doctored gazpacho please. I need a heavy sedative. Don't wake me until the show goes off the air. (Do you share my admittedly horribilizing despair or do you think it'll all work out just fine?)

Spanish beauty: Check out this NYT 2004 portfolio of Pedro's women. Mmmm.
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Fondarella

poll by twiigs.com

April Showers, Rupert Everett

April Showers evenings @ 11

Have any of y'all seen Cemetery Man?


It's a schlocky Italian horror flick from 1994 starring Rupert Everett as the titular character who has to fend off zombies including his lover (the busty Anna Falchi) with some regularity. Despite my longtime Everett fandom (I've been with him since the Another Country/ Dance With a Stranger), I've never seen this one. Nick, who loves the movie, showed me the shower sequence while we were in Nashville on account of this here series.

Everett's character Francesco Dellamorte apparently takes a lot of showers and apparently he's used to getting attacked by zombies -- just part of the job. But on this night they come earlier than expected. The lights go out in the shower, he sees one approaching in shadow (shower curtains = scary in movies), and then the zombies, in what looks like boy scout uniforms -- tee hee -- begin to attack. He begin to shoot them in the head. The most hilarious thing about the gorey sequence is that Rupert is attacked in the shower but when he fights back he's suddenly wearing pants. How did this happen? Zombies move slowly but slow enough for their victims to slip on a pair of pants before finding a weapon? It's not for some no nudity clause either -- both Falchi & Everett get naked elsewhere in the movie.

This final post shower attack makes me giggle. Who can blame the little shit for wanting a nibble?

Early Halloween Planning?

Alexa here again from Pop Elegantiarum. My thoughts today have turned to all things costumey; Halloween can't come soon enough! So in honor of Nathaniel's love of Nicole, I decided to try and find the best Nicole costume items out there. While it is sold out, I love this Lady Ashley hairpiece over at Fascinating Creations so much, I may just beg her to create another for me. All the better to imagine kissing Hugh in the rain. Now if I could only summon the sewing skill of Molly Ringwald in Pretty In Pink, perhaps I could recreate the dress in that scene too... shopping for these picks just isn't the same somehow.


But really, nothing tops this Moulin Rouge gown over at Deconstructress's etsy shop. Just wearing this, my 5'4" frame would morph into a lithe 5'10" Satine, no? Now I just have to come up with the $700...a bit tough in this economy. Maybe I can find my own evil Duke to invest in my makeover? I have six months, after all.

Tatumic Temptations

This week my Towleroad article is gauging the amount of heat in the room (or subway) for one Channing Tatum since Fighting opened today. Don't you love that Tatum's extending his pinky in the screengrab? It only makes me love him more. This article also covers the gay bits (there weren't many) from the Nashville festival.

After I wrote the piece I saw one more film that could have figured in. It was called True Adolescents. The movie was about a 30something rocker (Mark Duplass) with more than a little of the Peter Pan syndrome. His aunt (Melissa Leo) convinces him to take her son and her son's friend on a camping trip. The movie starts out all slackerish and obnoxious but as it develops it becomes unexpectedly sensitive, especially in regards to the subject of adolescent sexual confusion. Not a gay film but gayish. It's uneven but it redeemed some of its louder impulses with a subtly tough ending.

What was the last movie that you watched...

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... on an airplane?

It's JA from MNPP asking this while Nat is presumably still on an airplane, and while I'm thinking about my first trans-Atlantic flight which I'll be taking in a few weeks. I'm scared! I've never been on a plane for longer than three or four hours before, and now we're talking about close to nine! I'm going to have to stock up on lots of movies I think. I should probably avoid titles like Alive, Final Destination, and Fearless though, right?

A second question that that brings to mind: What's the scariest plane crash you've ever seen on film? I think the ones I named above are all pretty amazing, but I always hold a special place in my heart for that sudden imagined mid-air collision in Fight Club. Scary!

Um... safe travels, Nat! ;-)
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Best of the Fest ~ Goodbye Nashville

As you read this I am quite possibly thousands of miles above you in a huge aluminum alloy vessel, travelling back to NYC. Nashville was a treat and I hope I get invited back to NaFF in some capacity. Here's a quick run down of the cinematic highlights for me. I was on the short film jury and didn't have a chance to see some of the narrative features so this is from a limited pool.

Best Overall Prodigal Sons Filmmaker Kimberly Reed tells me she'll be ineligible for the Oscar for Best Documentary because of something to do with BBC screening or funding (?) which is a real shame because I could see it getting nominated. Other goodies: (500) Days of Summer and That Evening Sun, pictured left. [more on Prodigal / more on Summer]
Best Actress Zooey Deschanel in (500) Days of Summer
Best Actor Hal Holbrook as "Abner Meecham" in That Evening Sun. It's based on the short story by William Gay about a farmer who escapes the old folks home and returns to his beloved farm only to find it occupied by new tenants. The film is well directed by Scott Teems, graduating from short films to his first feature, and an Oscar campaign could materialize for Holbrook if this movie gets a solid enough release. Holbrook plays a stubborn old ornery codger... one could say it's an Eastwood'ish role with less of Clint's squinty menace and more of Hal's weary sensitivity. Honorable mention: Joseph Gordon-Levitt in (500) Days of Summer

Best Supporting Actress Three standouts for me. Don't make me choose. It's actresses.

Kaitlin Olsen in Weather Girl pictured right. At first I thought she was doing just an amusing but generic perky blonde sendup. Then she took a late film monologue much farther than I believed it could go. Laugh out loud funny. 4realz. I actually LOLed. Shellie Marie Shartzer in Make-Out with Violence. She has no lines to speak of as dead girl "Wendy" but man does she sell the conceit and work her physicality [more on Make-Out]. Remember that woman that Clive Owen comically seduced over martinis in Duplicity? That's Carrie Preston who is moving in That Evening Sun as a woman who is trying to stand by her man. Mia Wasikowska is also good as her restless friendly daughter. [You'll be seeing the In Treatment regular a lot onscreen soon. She's in Amelia later this year and then Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland]. She wants to get away from Daddy as soon as possible.

...speak of the devil.

Best Supporting Actor Ray McKinnon as Lonzo Choat in That Evening Sun. He plays the tenant of Meecham's old farm. They both want each other off the land. They both intend to stay. McKinnon never once lets his white trash role teeter towards dimensionless bad guy, even though he does despicable things and is pitted against the ultra sympathetic Holbrook. That's quite a feat and this treatment of the character really girds up the central conflict. You might remember McKinnon as Revered HW Smith on Deadwood.

I didn't see the performance that won a special prize for acting from the main jury here (Vincent D'Onofrio in The Narrows) but since the character is disabled I don't know how much to trust that prize. You know how disabled equals kudos as acting goes.

I don't know if I'll have time to talk about the dozens upon dozens of short films I screened but Nick has done a frankly awesome job of relating what our jury decisions were about and reviewing many of the best shorts along his way.

Here's his take on the animated shorts (my favorite was Western Spaghetti) documentary shorts (The Witness was tops and I wanted Steel Homes for our honorable mention but I couldn't convince my fellow jurors to go with it for the prize. grrrr) and several posts on the plethora of live action shorts. We watched for hours upon hours.

Oh, look here's Western Spaghetti. It fills me with delight.

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April Showers, Charade

April Showers evenings @ 11; with Dave from Victim of the Time.

Cary Grant usually sings a medley of old favourites when he's in the shower. Any requests?


Audrey looks stern, but she doesn't know what Cary's going to do yet. And Cary may look old, but there's some screwball zest in the man yet. Lest you think Hitch sucked it all out of him, but then Jimmy Stewart was the one who got mentally tortured, wasn't he? Cary just got terrorized by a plane and kissed by Grace Kelly. And Ingrid Bergman. Life is so unfair sometimes.

What were we talking about?

- How often do you go through this little ritual?

- Oh every day, the manufacturer recommends it!

- I don't believe it...

- Oh yes, it's true... Look... Wait a minute. Read the label! Look at the small print: "Wearing this suit during washing helps protect its shape."

I get the feeling that this scene is remembered purely for how bizarre it is- but then most of Charade doesn't really make sense. It's been said- exhaustively- that this is "the best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never made", but he generally did make some kind of sense even if he never explained, say, why those birds were pecking everyone to death. (That was kind of the point.) But apart from that, when did Hitch ever make as chic and frivolous a movie as this? To Catch A Thief, I suppose, but that's Hitch on a bad day and it's hardly his signature style.

I do apologise. I've obviously got Hitch on the brain. Now, I love Cary. And his mannerisms in this scene are really quite amusing. But clearly the best thing about this scene- and indeed the entire movie- is my beloved Audrey Hepburn. Isn't she just a peach? Adorable. The third panel here is the highlight:

Aww.

Oh, and Cary gets wet some more. This didn't really work out very well, did it? Sorry. Feel free to dissect the goodness/failure of this cross-generational pairing in the comments.

And the Best of British To You, Sir! (/Madam)

Dave from Victim of the Time here once more. It's St. George's Day here- the patron saint of England (and several other countries but who cares about them?)- and although usually all that patriotism makes me slightly ill I thought I'd be more cheerful for once and bring you good mostly-American people some examples of my country's film-making prowess. Although even though it's the English patron saint's day I'll still sticking the banner out to cover the other three countries of our country, because it's all very confusing and we haven't devolved yet. Only a matter of time, though, I hear. [/tangent]

Ten years ago, the BFI polled a whole bunch of people to determine what the best British films of the twentieth century were. Now- spoiler!- the winner was The Third Man. A fair enough choice, says I. You can't beat a bit of zither. But, since they did that, and happily it's ten years later, I've decided to be stunningly original and bring you some of the best of what we've had to offer in the first decade of the twenty-first century. In bite-size form, because you've already seen what happens when I start rambling.

Boy A. Plot description doesn't sell this one very well (I think someone's still holding it against me), but it features a superb Andrew Garfield, who I'm sure you'll all know in a few years time if you don't already (that's him to the left there), some wonderful cinematography and a screenplay that is really rather affecting.

Bright Young Things. A marvellous 1930s romp from the ever-dapper Stephen Fry, based on an Evelyn Waugh novel and with a superb Stephen Campbell Moore in the leading role. It's all generally very witty and slightly posh and a bit naughty and all very delightful until the war turns up and spoils it all, like it always does. Bloody war.

Ghosts. You might know documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield from his two Aileen Wuornos films, but his first foray into a narrative film is rather excellent as well; focusing on a tragedy involving illegal Chinese immigrants working in Britain and struggling to survive. Draining but a very powerful watch.

Hallam Foe. Or Mister Foe as you Yanks might know it. Someone's favourite Jamie Bell (above) is preoccupied by the memory of his dead mother, and when he sees someone who looks just like her... things get a bit creepy. All full of gritty Scottish grimness and disturbing plot turns, but fascinating and superbly crafted. (And also with Claire Forlani, who I never knew was British before this, did you? You probably did.)

The House of Mirth. Terence Davies is one of our best but most scarce auteurs, a bit like Terrence Malick really; this adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel is slow, deliberate but superbly affecting, with- see a theme here?- a stellar turn from the wonderful Gillian Anderson.

Hunger. I look at this list and it's rather full of depression. You'll be glad to know things don't change with this one; painstakingly in its depiction of Bobby Sands' hunger strike, this is hardly the most comfortable watch you'll ever have, but the viscerality twinned with director Steve McQueen's (not that one) painterly sensibilities is an impressive sight to behold. [see previous TFE posts]

London to Brighton. More fun and games here as an experienced prostitute and a teenager new on the job run away, all bloody and the like, from their pimp in London and go to Brighton (er, obviously) because something rather bad has happened and they'd quite like to stay alive, thanks. Paul Andrew Williams blew people away a few years ago with this dark, powerful thriller.

Morvern Callar. Samantha Morton gets fucked up in Ibiza. Lynne Ramsay's intimate style is key to unlocking this strange, beguiling and strangely beautiful piece of work.

This Is England. Skinheads are scary. This film about skinheads is also scary, but marvellously so; Shane Meadows' work is always imbued with a rather morbid sense of humour, and the electrifying sense of constant danger. Thomas Turgoose marks himself out as the young boy who joins a gang of skinheads, and experiences the joy of community and the dangers of growing up all at once.

Vera Drake. Obviously if you're an Oscar-watcher you won't need me to tell you how good Imelda Staunton is here as a 1950s housewife who does backstreet abortions, nor that Mike Leigh brings his usual keen improvisation eye to the period setting. You already knew that? Good. Bears repeating, though, doesn't it?

Blimey. We're a depressing bunch, aren't we? I think my flag has wilted.

Tura Santana Is Bigger! Better! Than Us All

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JA from MNPP here, directing y'all over to a brief interview with the legendary cult-lady Tura Santana (thanks to Aaron for the heads-up). She's best known for playing Varla in Russ Meyer's classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, but just take a gander at this introductory paragraph to her life beyond that film:

"Having survived Japanese internment camps, a horrific rape, reform school, a gunshot to the stomach and a brutal car wreck that left her hospitalized for years, Satana has also managed to squeeze in being a gang member, martial artist, burlesque dancer, stunt woman, nurse, police radio operator, bodyguard, wife and mother. Not to mention a couple of legendary off-screen love affairs, with such American luminaries as Elvis Presley and Joe DiMaggio."

They just don't make 'em like this any more.

Check out the interview for more; she talks pretty extensively about Meyer, Presley and DiMaggio. Classic.
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The Biggest Linker

MTV Movies Will Cronenberg ever return to horror?
Guardian Michelle Pfeiffer talks about her career, her lack of a game plan and Chéri
Movie Marketing on the different challenges for Wolverine and Star Trek as they gear up to open
[title] of show has a helpful eligibility chart for the TONYs. If your awards addiction extends to the stage, you'll love studying this. [thx]
The Big Picture on why there's no iTunes for movies. Hollywood needs to figure this out pronto methinks. At one of the panels I attended at NaFF they were really concerned about piracy and pointed to the decline of the recording industry. Didn't the recording industry decline precisely because they waited so long to catch up with demand and refused to supply (online that is)?

NYT did you read this piece last weekend on the expanding waistlines of male stars? They got dinged for it in several places online this week but I think it's kind of interesting... if only for the reaction it provoked. I love this astute comment from annanikita on Vulture's piece.

Vincent D'Onofrio, on L&O: Criminal Intent. How much weight has this guy put on in recent years -- 50, 60? Not a peep about it. (Think co-star Kathryn Erbe would still be employed if she put on that kind of tonnage?

So true. But the other thing I love is all the excuse-making the media does for male stars like Russell Crowe, implying he got heavier specifically for those "portly" characters. Er, no. He just got heavier. It isn't like Crowe has been making Raging Bulls lately, you know? His current characters don't need to be heavy, narratively speaking.


But then there's this photo going around of Crowe all slimmed down for Robin Hood (2010). The NY Post thinks it's photoshopped. If it's not faked, I must ask: why the exact same hairdo / facial hair as he had in Gladiator? Perhaps they're hoping the look is a good luck charm? If it is faked, will anyone call them on it when real photos emerge. We have memories like goldfish.

I'm obsessed with this topic right now because I'm gaining weight by the day at this festival. The food is yummy and I'm either watching movies or writing. These things don't burn calories. At least not the way I do them.

Time to work it off by dancing! And Your Little Blog, Too has crafted this dancers a go-go video for you musical lovers. Yay.


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Cannes Lineup 2009

The following twenty films are competing for that coveted Palme D'Or.

Antichrist Lars Von Trier (Denmark-Sweden-France)
Bright Star Jane Campion (Australia-UK-France)
Broken Embraces Pedro Almodovar (Spain)
<--- Enter the Void Gaspar Noe (France)
Expect cheer and happy endings!
Face Tsai Ming-Liang (France-Taiwan-Netherlands-Belgium)

• The first three titles there, bunched up together, feel like some sort of pornographic love letter addressed to me. Not to you, to me. Mine. ALL MINE. Three of my favorite filmmakers with new completed films, one right after the other? Talk dirty to me on the Croisette, Cannes programmers. Talk dirty to me.
  

Fish Tank Andrea Arnold (U.K.-Netherlands)
Les Herbes Folles Alain Resnais (France-Italy)
In the Beginning Xavier Giannoli (France)
Inglourious Basterds Quentin Tarantino (US)
Kinatay Brillante Mendoza (Philippines)

• Brillante (right) sure is prolific. His last film Serbis was a difficult sit. I continually felt like I was missing something having little knowledge of Pinoy film or culture. But, that said, it wasn't a fast fade either. I still find myself thinking about it: the goat in the movie theater, the aggravating weary repeat walks up and down those enormous staircases, the family unable to deal. Resnais is 86 years old and still making movies but his presence is another reminder that Cannes is pretty conservative with their choices. Reading through the list of films reminds us that Cannes is more likely to stick with laureled auteurs in the main field. The new talent generally has to battle it out in other sidebars.
  

Looking for Eric Ken Loach (U.K.-France-Belgium-Italy)
<--- Map of the Sounds of Tokyo Isabel Coixet (Spain)
a dual identity drama starring Rinko Kikuchi
A Prophet Jacques Audiard (France)
Spring Fever Lou Ye (China-France)
Taking Woodstock Ang Lee (US)

• Why am I not more excited for new films from both Ang Lee and Quentin Tarantino? My best guess is that the comedic nature of Woodstock is throwing off my general Angthusiasm and the extreme violence of Basterds -- not to mention its trouble with spelling -- is putting a damper on the latter. I'll see both of course.
  

Thirst Park Chan-wook (South Korea-US)
The Time That Remains Elia Suleiman (Israel-France-Belgium-Italy)
Vengeance Johnnie To (Hong Kong-France-US)
Vincere Marco Bellocchio (Italy-France) --->
Starring Giovanna Mezzogiorno as Mussolini's secret lover Ida Dalser
The White Ribbon Michael Haneke (Germany-Austria-France)

• More Cannes regulars.

Some potentially exciting titles outside of the main competition include: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Terry Gilliam), Agora (Alejandro Amenabar), Tales from the Golden Age which is an omnibus film from Romania (Cristian Mungiu of 4 Months... fame has two segments), Drag Me To Hell (Sam Raimi) and Push/Precious/Untitled/Based on Book by Sapphire.

The congested world famous festival runs May 13th-24th in France.
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April Showers, Home For the Holidays

april showers, evenings @ 11

One of the greatest disconnects I've ever had between consensus response to a movie and my own reaction was in 1995 when Jodie Foster's second film, Home for the Holiday debuted. It was mostly ignored by the public and the critics were out for blood. Maybe Jodie Foster had just been too successful and too lauded and it was time for the pendulum to swing back? Perhaps the undercurrent was along the lines of 'Does she have to be good at making movies in addition to acting in them?'

Even Robert Downey Jr playing Tommy got bad reviews for his performance. He was gay brother to Holly Hunter's Claudia. Though his performance is pretty out there, that needling rapid fire joking -- he's consistently pushing things too far -- is exactly in line with the movie's own sense of humor. Bonus points: the sibling chemistry between Claudia and Tommy is pretty damn credible.

If you're not familiar with the movie I urge you to rent it. You protest: But it's one of thousands of quirky dysfunctional family holiday comedies! I counter: it arrived before that ultra specific genre was wildly over saturated and it's actually very funny.

Holly's shower scene is fairly typical of the movies fast, funny and familial nature. Anne Bancroft, playing Adele the mother, is talking at Claudia but not really with her. Claudia is talking at Adele but not listening. They're on different pages and both of them don't shut up. The older woman exits the scene leaving her daughter showering in an open bathroom.

Mom, close the door behind you okay?

No? okay, no problem, I usually shower in public.
I have no pride.
I have no rights.
I'm only four years old.

I don't need to tell you that Holly Hunter is one of the funniest people in the movies and she was still in her incredible prime (roughly 1987-1998). She makes every pause and emphasis count in a line reading. So many laughs to be had in four sentences. After Claudia is done complaining about the unplanned exhibitionism, she gets down to business. She's vigorously shampooing, suds flying, until she freezes in place with a gasp. Her mischievous brother is lumbering towards the shower curtain like some comic monster.

I swear to god, Tommy, I'm naked in here and I am too old...

*FLASH*

Holly's blind recoil from the flash is the split second punchline and Foster immediately cuts to the next scene, no time to waste... more rapid fire joking to follow.
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Happy Earth Day!

JA from MNPP here with a very important Earth Day message from a star: Channing Tatum would like to request that we all go outdoors today and plant or tree. If no saplings are available, Channing has his own solution, illustrated below:

Channing is planting himself in the ground, and from there a tree filled with Channings will rise, and from its fruit we will never go hungry again. Channing Tatum just solved world hunger, y'all. Respect.

For a more comprehensive, element-to-element appreciation
of our wonderful world, check this post over at MNPP.
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Festivalitis

Apologies that posting has been scant. I haven't had the time I expected between movies / schmoozing / boozing and whatnot. I grow weary of sitting in movie theaters. Took a break yesterday to see Nashville itself. So...

What's on your mind right now, cinematically speaking?

April Showers, Singin' in the Rain

april showers, evenings @ 11

If someone invokes the title Singin' in the Rain you're probably instantly transported to memories of the arguably the most famous dance in film history, as Gene Kelly joyously splashes through the streets, a fool in love grin plastered all over his face. But the greatest thing about Singin' in the Rain is that you don't even have to wait 67 minutes and 48 seconds for the title song and the joy it imparts. You don't even have to wait twenty seconds.


Singin' in the Rain is so generous of spirit that it just hands you the joy the moment the MGM lion stops roaring. And it hands you the title song as soon as the stars names have flashed on their umbrellas in its wicked fun gleefully literal intro.


Here's your stars. They're dancing and singin' in the rain. After all, why make the audience wait? If your movie is overflowing with classic sequences, perfect moments, and exuberant performances you can get away with a lot. There's no need to worry about peaking too early, outstaying your welcome.


It's bliss from frame one on. The bliss increases exponentially. Once Gene (♥) starts splashing around again sixty-seven minutes later, it's become the happiest movie of all time.
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Whatever Became Of Winona Ryder?

Dave of Victim of the Time here again; I asked this question of Christina Ricci a couple of weeks ago, and mused on the possibility of doing the same for poor Winona Ryder. (Sidenote: they were apparently in this together. I have not seen that.) So imagine my surprise to see Nat mention her popping up in something over there in Nashville. Noni on the brain; surely a good thing.

I think we all know what became of her really, though: she got busted. But, looking back, her career didn't look in the finest shape anyway; Girl, Interrupted got stolen by a manic Angelina Jolie, Autumn in New York went down like a balloon filled with air instead of helium (terminal illness and an older man lusting after a young woman- where did all go so wrong?), and I'm not sure anyone should ever mention Mr. Deeds again (unless of course it's followed by the words "Goes To Town"). In fact, after an obviously necessary period of staying out of the spotlight, Noni's slowly been rebuilding respectability in her career, albeit out of the A-List limelight she once inhabited. Her films in the last few years may not have been of the finest quality, or had the widest releases (indeed, most of them haven't swum their way over to these shores), but with things like Star Trek and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee on the horizon, perhaps Noni's career is finally getting back on track.

She seems to have suffered from a similar problem to Christina Ricci; the public perception of her never really seemed to change. Like Ricci, Noni's a small lady, but rather than the child Ricci inescapably plays, Noni was, from the day she appeared in Beetle Juice (which, shoot me, I still haven't seen) and Heathers, forever a teenager. Parts like those in The Age of Innocence and The Crucible never really seemed to fit her, and she didn't seem particularly comfortable in them; Jo in Little Women, on the other hand, fit her almost too well for her own good. Trying to play 'adult' roles- throw Girl, Interrupted (although the 'girl' of the title tells you something) and possibly Alien: Resurrection into that hat as well- made our beloved Noni come across slightly bland, stripped of the sardonic, cutting humour the teenager parts let her express.

Post-you-know-what back in 2002- and note that, A Scanner Darkly aside, I'm going solely on plot descriptions here, so feel free to contradict me- she seems to have, whether willingly or not (they may be the only parts she was offered!), used her damaged image to appropriate a new persona (often involving drugs), and it may be working out, after a few years hard slog. From wiseacre teen to... wiseacre, battered adult. I see her conviction as the division between teenage Noni and adult Noni- it might have been the best thing for her personally, but it looked like her A-list status was dwindling anyway; taking an enforced break, and coming back with an unavoidably altered public image, meant she could finally grow up. (And, yes, she may be in a movie with Hilary Duff, but... Nope. I got nothin'.)

Strong as Steel, Delicate as an Eggshell

Alexa from Pop Elegantiarum here, sharing another crafty film find. Who would think to etch a portrait of the formindable Bette Davis on an eggshell? Emily over at The May of Teck Club, that's who. She did it the hard way.

Transgendered Siblings & Zombie Girlfriends

NaFF ~ Day Five
Yesterday I caught the film that got Nicole Kidman and her hubby here on day three, a documentary called Prodigal Sons. I have no idea why Kidman herself chose it (perhaps it was research for The Danish Girl?) but she chose well. The film is from transgendered filmmaker Kimberly Reed and begins by recounting her journey to her 20 year high school reunion. Her hometown knew her as football quarterback Paul. For the film's first several minutes I expected that the movie would be a traditional but queer slanted memoir doc. I assumed it would recount this reunion and disparate reactions to Paul's new identity as Kim and Kim's own struggles with accepting her past (a lot of post-operative transgendered types destroy all photos and pretend that said past didn't exist). I underestimated it.

Prodigal Sons quickly morphs into something much greater. It's a complicated, well judged and rather astounding study of identity (not just Kim's), family history and dynamics, shared phantoms, mental illness, grief, biological and adoptive parenting, and even some old Hollywood history. I don't want to tell you more than the tag line does "a brotherly rivalry between a man and a woman... and Orson Welles" because I'm really glad I went into it blind. There were moments that hit me like a truck emotionally. I assume it will find distribution and get a major market theatrical release and when it does, go. A-

The other film I saw yesterday was called Make-Out with Violence, a real oddity about two brothers and the girls they pine over, one of whom is dead. Here is the trailer.



The film surprisingly won the top honor at the festival (from the jury that included Elvis Mitchell and Girlfriend's director Claudia Weill). I assume that they were responding to its promise and on that I'd agree. I'd definitely like to see a second picture from the Deagol Brothers. I wanted to love it a lot more than I did but it's worth a look.

On the plus side it has a few really terrific moments, solid visual ideas, beautiful cinematography (it doesn't often look like a low budget indie) and an extremely creepy and well performed twist on the notion of "zombies". In the minus column, it struck me as quite messy: too many characters (two of whom could have been extracted from the picture with very minor script changes), dropped implicated plot threads and an overly repetitive structure. But most problematic I thought was its absolutely bizarre sense of pacing. Nick told me he actually liked its arrythmic feel but it didn't work for me. Initially I gave this film a B- but it linger well. So I'm bumping it up to a B. I am a tough grader [sigh]. I think people who tend to respond to unusual takes on horror or dreamy takes on privileged kids (there's a teensy bit of a Sofia Coppola feel going on within the cinematography) will like it a lot more than I did. I hope some distributor picks it up and asks for another round of editing because the Deagol Brothers have something here but some fine tuning never hurt.

more later...
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Today, Jessica Lange Is 60...

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... and besides wishing her a very happy one,
JA of MNPP here would like to ask two related questions:

1) To those of you who saw it this past weekend, how was she in Grey Gardens? How was the whole thing? I haven't gotten around to watching it yet (I will tonight), but the only thing I've noticed from the trailers and pictures of the production is that the blankets on Old Big-Edie's bed just don't seem pee-stained enough to me, ya know what I mean? I wanna feel like I can't breathe in in there. Like my eyes are burning.

2) And what's your favorite Lange performance? Frances?
Carly in Blue Sky? Julie in Tootsie? Tamora in Titus?

(And as a star-f*cking side-note, I have to admit that right this very second as I was working on this post, Jessica Lange actually called my office and I just spoke to her. WEIRD. I mean, not that weird, she's friendly with my boss and I've spoken to and met her several times here in the real world, but still, it threw me off. [/starf*cking]) .
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Girlfriends (Let's Do the Time Warp Again)

Nashville Film Festival ~ Day Four
A sizeable dilemma arrived last night, the kind film festivals enjoy torturing cinephiles with as two coveted films ran in the same time slot. Do I see the lost 70s movie Girlfriends (1978) or the new film from the terrific young Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke, Lake Tahoe? I've been raving about Eimbcke to anyone who would listen since fall 2004 when I saw his debut Duck Season in Toronto. It opened in the States, finally, two years later [2006 top ten list]. If I have to wait until 2011 to see Lake Tahoe I may expire of anticipatitis and regret my decision but I went with Girlfriends. Here's why: Girlfriends has only been on VHS once (many aeons ago) and copies are hard to track down, no DVD release ever materialized and none is planned and I love movies about women.

Girlfriends is about a young Jewish photographer Susan Weinblatt (BAFTA nominated Melanie Mayron, of thirtysomething fame) whose best friend and roommate Anne, a WASPy blonde (Golden Globe nominated Anita Skinner), gets married and leaves her behind in the city. The rest of the film merely observes the independent minded Susan as she struggles to come into her own as an artist and navigate casual friendships and romances in Manhattan as a determinedly single girl. Though the movie is definitely of its women's liberation time (Looking for Mr. Goodbar and An Unmarried Woman preceeded it into theaters though it was filmed concurrently) it's not "dated" so much as a resonant time capsule. Its naturalism is refreshing. They don't make movies like this anymore though I suppose some TV shows still traffic in the miniature nuances of daily human drama. The budget limitations show but they also add to the movie's inventiveness. The crucial wedding sequence that sets off the direction for the movie (more of a jumping ground for character arcs than a plot) is covered with only still photos and then a very smart visual transition where Susan repaints her apartment, both of which sum up the life changes and emotional gear-switching in sharp succinct detail. Mayron is an engaging funny lead and the ensemble is strong: Famed character actor Eli Wallach is effective as a rabbi and Bob Balaban and Christopher Guest are the principal love interests for the girls. The latter casting was a little strange to see. From our 2009 film culture we don't tend to think of either of these admired screen talents in terms of romance or even in Guest's case in terms of naturalistic acting. A-

Melanie Mayron and Christopher Guest lose their clothes and fall into romance (without cohabitation) in Girlfriends. Photo Source --- >

Though Girlfriends didn't receive any Oscar attention in 1978, it was a critical pet and an influential film: It won the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival, garnered minor Golden Globe and BAFTA attention and played at Cannes. Cast and crew fared well: the '78 film led to a studio gig for the director Claudia Weill (It's My Turn with Jill Clayburgh) and she was invited to join AMPAS a couple of years afterwards (one of the first few female directors ever invited), first time production designer Patricia von Brandenstein (who also did the iconic costumes for Saturday Night Fever during Girlfriends long stop and start production) went on to much larger success as an Oscar regular, Mayron's EMMY winning character on thirtysomething was actually based on her role in this film. What's more, the film's core issues are still relevant and still being discussed today in modern femme-centric work like Sex & the City (albeit in a completely different stylistic and more confused political mode).

Girlfriends even had Stanley Kubrick as a vocal fan. Stanley Kubrick! So what happened? It's a real shame and even a little bit of a mystery that it's disappeared so thoroughly. Perhaps Warner Bros will one day make it available since they've recently begun to open their vault.
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Stanley Tucci as "George Harvey"

The first still for Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lovely Bones.

USA Today has the first shot.

A fine first choice for a reveal it is. It's both sad and sinister and, if you haven't read the novel, probably intriguing too. (I currently have Tucci predicted for Supporting Actor but the Oscar race is neither here nor there at this point). The question that hovers over this movie is this: can Jackson marry his 00s era facility with epic f/x grandeur to his tinier idiosyncratic 90s artistic impulses? And,, if he can, will that union live peacefully with Alice Sebold's gripping yet sentimental novel?

The other image which you can see at Empire I shan't show you in detail because it functions as an advertisement for that website rather than this movie. It's a fairly simple reflective sky shot, Saoirse Ronan in Heaven (she plays the lead character who is murdered at the beginning of the story, hence the title). The image is so blank that your mind wishes to project the movie's title over the clouds, creating a forthcoming poster. But this is where Empire places their gigantic watermark, sending an odd message. This isn't "Peter Jackson's Empire Online". It's Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones. But then again, Peter Jackson's Empire Online could be a fun curio. What would he do to the magazine if he were in charge?
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April Showers, Black Book

Dave from Victim of the Time again here... it seems I shower more at the weekend, for I'm supplying your Sunday night edition of April Showers too. We go from apparently unacceptable ass to... well, you'll see. I must atone for my sins after all.

When Nat posted on Changeling in this series, he gave you five types of "horror showers". We all know Paul Verhoeven's a bit of a nutjob, and in Black Book he can't just settle for one harrowing shower experience. He gives you three at once.

Ellis de Vries (the marvellous Carice van Houten), having spied from within on the Nazis, is now in a prison camp for collaborators, and, as you might expect, they aren't being treated nicely. Ever-resilient Ellis refuses to take off her clothes like the other obeying prisoners- which lands her in trouble with the drunken, angry officers. And beneath the drum full of excrement we've just seen the prisoners adding their bucket-loads to. Crouching on the floor after an aggressive beating, she thinks it's okay to rise... but the foreboding music says otherwise.


So beaten down by the sheer force of what just came from above, a bit like the blood-sodden Carrie, Ellis' face is covered by matted hair. Verhoeven, keen to emphasize the moment, even inserts a bird's eye view of the solitary, chalk-outline-esque posture of Ellis on the floor of the warehouse.

But the guards aren't done with her yet. The busty females on the balcony above gleefully pour their remaining spirits down on her head, barely rinsing the sludge off her.


Yet Ellis' punishment still isn't over with. Here's the familiar hose-down moment, complete with a close-up of the hose itself, and the humiliated Ellis shies from the blast of water even as it wipes the caked brown sludge off her. Her fellow former-spy Akkermans (Thom Hoffman) is here to rescue her, but, as Ellis looks up with as much pride as she can muster, you and she both know it's not quite over yet.

Black Book looks, from the outside, like another big WWII epic (except Dutch), but it strikes me as more Hitchcockian, in its strong, beautiful, deceptive heroine and twisting moralities. I've not explored Verhoeven's oeuvre beyond this and Showgirls- lament the heroine there, too, for fame's a bitch- but this scene, at the very least, is like Tippi Hedren being pecked half-to-death, or Janet Leigh getting chopped, or Marion Lorne getting strangled: she's had sex, she must be punished. Living in the 21st century as we now do, we don't need Ellis to suffer quite so much, and there's as much sympathy here as there is accusation- but this is still one of Black Book's key scenes, clearly a moment Verhoeven wants you to remember, and he probably had as much fun filming it as van Houten had annoyance at cleaning all the stuff off afterwards.

Buy N Link

I'm pressed for time. Enjoy some links.

Cinema Styles "A Day May Come..." hee. (for you bloggers out there)
Branden Lopez "Famous Last Tweets" definitely humor in poor taste but there's a couple that are funny, despite that
i09 15 evil sci-fi corporations in movies. Kind of nice to seem that all bundled up as one but I'd love to see a piece that was spread across genres. There's definitely a lot of sinister mega corporations represented in our movies coming from mega corporations.
/Film Whedon on Dollhouse and cancellation worries
The Big Picture on the strange Netflix reign of Crash (2005)
Reality Blurred an interesting piece on Reality TV producers messing with "reality" to get their character types (case study: Amazing Race)
"69 Love Songs", Illustrated a blog that will be doing comics/drawings for the entire classic Magnetic Fields set. Should be interesting to watch this develop.
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I Missed Nicole! And Other Festival Stumbles

Nashville Film Festival ~ Day 2
Began the day with the Inuit drama Before Tomorrow and fantastical optimism. Basically I was expecting another Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. Atanarjuat, one should know, is nearly impossible to repeat. Followed that with a tiny indie called Mothers & Daughters (so tiny it doesn't have an IMDB page) which... I hesitate to talk about. It was so in love with its actresses that I imagine it would be the type of movie I would make (warts and all) if someone handed me production equipment and several eager actresses eager to chew on scenery. Not that anyone should hand me those.

<--- You'd probably be more interested to hear that it was preceded by a short called Water Pills which starred none other than Winona Ryder. She played a shaky sweating desperate hot mess of a former actress / addict. Um... ouch. She attacked the role so aggressively that I kept thinking she was going for a deglam Oscar. Apparently nobody had the heart to tell her that it was only a short film and you can't win gold for those.

That said, Noni fared better in front of the camera than other big 90s stars did behind it... but more on Demi Moore and Courtney Cox later.

Nashville Film Festival ~ Day 3
Finished jury discussions/ selections today (must keep private until the reveal closing night) so for the rest of the fest I'm off the hook for official duties. Now it's just about seeing movies and trying to spot celebrities. Today there was a lot of excitement on the red carpet but I didn't recognize most of the people causing the rubbernecking. You'd be safe to assume that that's because I know zilch about country music and this is Nashville. The only country stars I'd recognize are those who've married A list actresses (i.e. Chesney & Urban), tried their hand at acting (Reba, Mr & Mrs. McGraw-Hill) or played themselves in movies I'm obsessed with (I do not ♥ Shania Twain but I sure do ♥ Huckabees)

Giancarlo Esposito and Dominique Swain working the crowds

Nick and I did speak briefly with Giancarlo Esposito in the VIP tent after the screening of his directorial debut Gospel Hill. I told him I was thrilled to see Angela Bassett again -- we don't see her enough -- and he said that he was glad to have finally met her through this movie (they didn't know each other before? Or maybe he said he was finally able to work with her through this movie. It was noisy in there). The movie is loaded with celebrities as first films from known actors tend to be. The Bassett but also: Taylor Kitsch, Danny Glover, Nia Long, Samuel L Jackson, Adam Baldwin. Julia Stiles also appeared working her absolutely favorite miniscule niche: down white girl in interracial dramas. It's more niche than Jodie Foster in tight spaces.

A few minutes after meeting Giancarlo I learned that ♥Nicole Kidman♥ was in the building! If you must know, she and Keith were attending the premiere of the documentary Prodigal Sons in the next theater while I was watching Gospel Hill (so close and yet so far!). They chased it with Antonio Campos' Afterschool (which I saw at NYFF last year). I waited in vain for her to come out of the latter but she was too sneaky. Secret exit! I should have known. Basically I have zero in the way of stalking skills. I love my favorites but I'm mostly content to do so virtually and from afar.
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April Showers, American Psycho

This is Dave from Victim of the Time here again, with your nightly installment of April Showers. And regarding this one... well, someone had to do it, didn't they?

I live in the American Gardens Building on West 81st Street on the 11th floor. My name is Patrick Bateman. I'm 27 years old. I believe in taking care of myself with a balanced diet and rigorous exercise routine. In the morning if my face is a little puffy, I'll put on an ice pack while doing stomach crunches. I can do 1000 now.


After I remove the ice pack I use a deep pore cleanser lotion. In the shower, I use a water activated gel cleanser, then a honey almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub.

Then I apply an herb-mint facial mask which I leave on for 10 minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine. I always use an after shave lotion with little or no alcohol, because alcohol dries your face out and makes you look older. Then moisturizer, then an anti-aging eye balm followed by a final moisturizing protective lotion.

I can supply you with some critical commentary if you're interested? ... No? (It's clever to get the nudity out of the way immediately, though. Then when later he's running out nude with a chainsaw it's the chainsaw you're actually focused on. What, you're looking at his ass then too? What one-track minds you people have.)

Good Morning, Nashville

NFF -Day 3 begins (I'll get to Day 2 later. Swamped) This is the view out the elevator lobby on my floor. So glamorous! The hotel is conveniently just steps away from the movie theater where the majority of screenings are held. Nick (also on the jury) has arrived and says this morning after breakfast.

Isn't it great that the sun only shines on the red carpet?

There isn't much glamour at 10 AM but the sunlight is a nice effect. But last night the red carpet managed some higher profiles: Ben Folds, William Shatner, Jay O. Sanders (Gosling's dad in Half Nelson, Leo's job offer in Revolutionary Road). We passed Elvis Mitchell during our breakfast rounds this morning. Don't be jealous.
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April Showers, Brad Pitt as "JD"

april showers, daily @ 11

Tonight's shower is provided by mother nature rather than traditional indoor plumbing. That's appropriate since Thelma & Louise (1991) is elemental: all wide open spaces, blazing sun, dusty earth and women as hard driving forces of nature.

While the film belongs to Susan Sarandon's Louise, Geena Davis's Thelma is the maddening/adorable one. Among her many exasperating yet endearing qualities is her uninhibited horniness for one J.D. (early Brad Pitt). In the scene pictured to your left, Louise has booted the caddish hitchhiker out of their car since the friends are getting hotel rooms for the night. J.D. struts away into the rain shower, fully confident that Thelma's eyes are still on him. He even kicks up a boot heel, a private little show for her, as the car drives away.

There he goes. I love watching him go.

Wrangler butts drive her nuts... or something.

If you've seen more than two or three movies you'll know that this lustfully observed exit will not be J.D.'s exit from the movie. But Thelma apparently hasn't seen so many movies. She's surprised (and thrilled) when he comes a'knocking on her hotel room door later that same night.

J.D. is such a skilled charmer that the outcome of his neighborly call is never in doubt. The aw shucks grin is ease itself. He even knows just how to pose in the pouring rain so that the water runs, just so, off his cowboy hat. His 'I'll get out of your hair now' wet puppy act is all pretense. He's no puppy but a dog. He knows he's getting out of the rain. He knows he's getting into her bed.

Signatures: "Career Counseling" Edition

Adam of Club Silencio here with another look at my favorite actresses and their distinguishing claims to fame.

Fans of my "Signatures" series (crickets) should know I've made quite the non-career of summing up my favorite actresses in broad, minimizing strokes here at Film Experience. Well it didn't start here, folks! Pre-"Signatures" I made a couple posts that all but summed up the "Signature" splendors of stars Jodie Foster and Jennifer Connelly. It struck me that these were relevant now to the series since Jodie's consistently found whispering in quiet, enclosed areas, while Jennifer's usually found on the edge of a pier. You have to love career consistency.


So follow these main links for some early "Signatures" from these stunning but somber starlets. Think something like A&E's Biography meets... A&E's Intervention? All that history with a hefty dose of concern.

Signatures: Jodie Foster

The star of Inside Man is an indoor woman. Normally I'd call Jodie a brave one... if she wasn't agoraphobic or locked in her panic room. Jodie has a history of being holed up in confined spaces -- be it prison cells, basements, airplanes, tunnels, and spacecrafts specially designed to contact her own subconscious. Lately much of this is due to her being repeatedly (and sparsely) drawn to tight-knit thrillers that play on claustrophobic conflict. On-screen Jodie's presence is a breath of fresh air, but she's also desperately in need of one.

Signatures: Jennifer Connelly

Even when they're on uppers, Jennifer Connelly's characters can be total downers. Who can blame them with all that career drama? She started her talented but tragic filmography with her only friend a fruit fly, then onto college overrun by white supremacists, ass-to-ass with a heroin habit, several children nearly drowned, a messy marriage to a schizo mathematician... Then to find out he's just not that into you! Poor, poor, pier-bound Jennifer.


Let's have an intervention for Jodie and Jennifer in the comments. Remember, it's all said with love.

Three Things That May Prevent You From Self-Harm Should You Be Subjected To 17 Again

Hello there, folks. This is Dave from Victim of the Time, and apparently I'm supposed to be writing things here. If you're one of the five people who read my blog, you'll know I tend... not to write things. Not very often anyway. So, you know, this is an odd experience for me.

Your widest new release there across the pond (I'm British, by the way, so it you see any 'u's popping up in places you don't expect it's because I'm here to tell you the right way to spell things) this weekend is 17 Again, starring that Disney personage commonly known as Zac Efron. I'm sure usually on this blog this would be dismissed with a paltry paragraph somewhere or other, but because I am the 'yoof' (youth) in this establishment I've decided to act my age for once and talk about movies I'm supposed to like. Also, by some weird circumstance, 17 Again was released here last week, while State of Play (your other main option) isn't released until next week, so basically you'll just have to learn to deal.

If you're going to be seeing 17 Again this weekend, I'd guess it's for one of two reasons. Reason one: you love, worship and lust after Zac Efron, and whatever anyone says you will be seeing this film and you couldn't give a crap about what the film itself is actually like. To those people, I recommend getting something to gag yourselves with during the 'leather jacket' scene, just in case people think that mice have invaded the theatre. But otherwise, you can move on, because I'm not talking to you.

Reason two: you have a friend/partner/child who loves, worships and lusts after Zac Efron and you're being roped into seeing it with them, even though the mere thought of Zac Efron makes your skin crawl. You may be crazy (yes, I'll admit to having the tiniest of crushes on the boy man), but have no fear! Here are three things that will make the painful experience just about bearable.

1. Zac Efron Leslie Mann. Look at Miss Mann's filmography and its tininess is quite surprising. This can probably be put down to her larger-than-life appearances in some of her husband Judd Apatow's school-of-comedy films, most notably Knocked Up, in which she was Paul Rudd's long-suffering wife. In 17 Again, she is Matthew Perry's long-suffering wife. However, since Perry is the man who reverts to being Efron, Mann gets quite a bit of possibly-illegal lusting to do. She doesn't get a lot of the comedy- which is quite thin on the ground in any case- but her natural warmth and charisma as an increasingly confused woman is the most enjoyable part of the film, and should stop you from clawing your own eyes out.

Leslie Mann and Nicole Sullivan in 17 Again

2. Nicole Sullivan. This is potentially a point of debatable validity because she's hardly in the film at all (as Mann's best friend), but Sullivan- mostly a TV actress, who I recognised from Scrubs- has a wonderfully biting presence and will be shot in the arm you might be needing as Efron starts preaching about the wonders of abstinence.

3. A geeky subplot. I said the comedy was few and far between, but it may get to the point where you'll take whatever you can get, so the subplot concerning Perry/Efron's adult best friend Ned's pursuance of his friend's new headmistress does provide a few chuckles here and there. Although there is the possibility that Ned may make your scratching fingernails dig even deeper into your eyeballs, so perhaps feigning illness is the way to go after all.

So, basically, if you are being forced to see this, I just hope you like Leslie Mann. Good luck!

500 Days of Joey & Zooey

Nashville Film Festival ~ Day One
NFF chose well with their opening film. (500) Days of Summer = exuberant crowd pleaser. It's always so enjoyable to see smart comedies with an audience that actually laughs out loud repeatedly (critics screenings can be brutally quiet). The audience was totally with the movie and Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer's (Zooey Deschanel) difficult romance from start to finish. I was a little more tentative about falling for it. Within its first few minutes it threw four things at me that I am completely allergic to: omniscient narrator, precocious child as wizened soul, men vs. women ('they're different!') jokes, and chronology jumbling. I didn't even sneeze. It won me over.

It's 'Zooooey'

I predict big things at the box office. I'm not suggesting it's going to be Juno-sized but I'm guessing it shouldn't have a problem entering that Tyler Perry zone -- $40ish? Or maybe even that Forgetting Sarah Marshall / Role Models $60ish zone? The film cost less than $10 million to make (or, as the moderator joked with its director Marc Webb during the Q&A, 'less than the catering on The Dark Knight') so it should turn a nice profit is what I'm saying.

[editor's note: Who has stolen this blog? Nathaniel knows squat about box office!]

At the very least (500) Days... will make bigger stars of its leads. Zooey may be on her 11th variation of free spirit fantasy girlfriend (definite echoes of her roles in Yes, Man and All the Real Girls in particular) but she's not phoning it in. The film has very smart pacing but in one of the more interesting bits within the Q&A, Webb mentioned that it was hard to control that because Zooey has such unusual "back beat timing" and was always finding new things to work off of within the scenes. He also adjusted the film's entire color palette with the production designer to better accentuate Zooey's popping blue eyes. Good move. The movie falls hard for her just like Tom.

Speaking of. The film is told from Tom's perspective and Gordon-Levitt is _________ [insert your superlative of choice, it probably applies]. He has no trouble whatsoever carrying the picture (see also Brick). Webb called him a "super, intellectual, intense actor" and noted his "great command of his physicality", the latter an observation which I had already scribbled in my notebook whilst watching so I concur. Not only does Levitt shift Tom's body language for every gradation of his relationship with Summer and his own arc but he also completely sells the film's funniest sequence, a dance number, which maybe shouldn't work but works like gangbusters. You feel as happy as Tom by the end of it.

It was strange in the Q&A to hear the director's confession that JG-L didn't think they'd get funding for a movie starring Zooey and himself because they weren't big enough stars. I was thinking to myself: 'But everyone loves Joseph Gordon-Levitt!' And then I remembered. 'Self. Bubble. Bubble. Self. You live through cinema and you talk to other movie fanatics all day long on the web. John Q Public still mostly wants to see Nicolas Cage on opening weekend.'

Opening Night Festivities
No celebrities present (sniffle... although I suppose local celebrities could have been there) but free booze to help you pretend that they were. The festival did provide celebrity intro commercials before the films, though. First up was Mr. Nicole Kidman Keith Urban who welcomed us to the festival onscreen (where was Nicole? I demand Nicole!). Carrie Underwood did the same. In her bit she said "my fellow film lovers" which cracked me up. I was trying to picture Carrie Underwood conversing on Spanish cinema ("Almodóvar and Buñuel. Discuss.") or taking sides in the great critical debate of 2007 (No Country For Old Men or There Will Be Blood?) but my imagination failed me. What do you suppose her preferred genre is? favorite actor?

Look Who's Back!

.

Good morning, everyone. JA from MNPP here, popping my head in briefly to throw out some news that y'all might've spotted elsewhere but seems like something we need to discuss here. There once once a girl who played a girl in a movie her papa directed and she got a lot of shit for not being up to people's high expectations. She mostly went away for awhile but then popped back up and surprised the world by becoming a director of some stature herself. That girl - who one assumes reads notebooks while laying in fields with dandelion seeds drifting through the lazy breeze amid sun flares and tousled hair - well she's not made a movie in a couple of years, but she's finally announced her next project today. From Variety:

Sofia Coppola is checking into a new hotel for her next project

The writer-director who shot her "Lost in Translation" at the Park Hyatt in Tokyo, practically making a character out of the antiseptic structure, will set her next film at the iconic Chateau Marmont in Hollywood.

Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning will star in the Focus Features dramedy "Somewhere," which Coppola penned.

Story centers on a bad-boy actor stumbling through a life of excess at the Chateau Marmont. With an unexpected visit from his 11-year-old daughter, he is forced to reexamine his life.

The filmmaker, who said she has been looking to make "an intimate story set in contemporary Los Angeles," received permission to shoot at the hotel, which has become notorious in recent years as a popular address for tabloid-friendly celebs. Film will lense in L.A. and Italy in June and July.

So what do we think? Honestly I would watch any and everything Coppola cooks up - she has earned that by making three brilliant films back to back to back. I'm extremely curious to see what she does with Dorff - he's always seemed to be a curious case with possibility that has never as far as I've seen gotten the chance to really exploit his natural charisma to its fullest extent.

Just a taste of Stephen Dorff's "Natural Charisma"

I always think of her as primarily a Women's Director - she's got such a rep for girl-flavored film-making - but she's done a fine job with the men-folk too. Not that Bill Murray has really ever failed to captivate me (then again, I've avoided Operation Dumbo Drop Larger Than Life) but his work in Lost In Translation stands very tall in my mind of male performances in our current decade. And then there's The Other Fanning, joining the ranks of Johannsen & Dunst in "Blond Girls Caressed By Sophia's Camera." Can't wait!

April Showers, Carrie (Twice Over)

When I began the April Showers series I was frustrated that I'd already written about the famous opening sequence of Carrie (1976). But then, Eureka! Something more to say.

Though it might be impossible to choose one thing that's "best" about Carrie, I think the juxtaposition of its two shower scenes is definitely in the running. I've never read the Stephen King book so I don't know which of the film's strengths to attribute to the famed horror novelist but Brian De Palma unquestionably did a lot of things right in the transfer.


The first triumph is his undiluted understanding of Carrie's sexual development as adolescent terror themes. The second is his facility with cinematic language. In the opening shower sequence there's slow motion bodies and soft music. Carrie herself (Sissy Spacek) is completely entranced by the water, lost in the pleasure of it. Until her hand, soaping between her legs, comes up red with blood. Carrie raises her trembling hands up and out, staring at them in a confusion and disbelief that shifts quickly into pure terror. Her screams for help invite mocking from her classmates. Carrie crumbles into the corner until her gym teacher rescues her.

The second shower sequence, even more famous, is its twisted malevolent twin. Carrie isn't any where near a literal shower this time. Declared prom queen, she walks to the gymnasium stage in slow motion, that now familiar sad and soothing theme playing again. Carrie's eyes are entranced and wet, lost in the pleasure of acceptance and applause. Until, standing on the stage, her sadistic classmate drops a bucket of pigs blood on her.


Two showers of blood, then, the second infinitely more garish with the stuff. For the second time Carrie raises her bloodied hands up and out, staring at them in a confusion and disbelief. This time, however, her open mouthed shock produces no screaming for help (none that we hear at any rate in the expressive sound design) and her emotions shift to fury rather than terror.

No crumbling in the corner. No waiting for rescue.


Psychotic break time. (God bless the split screen!) This time it won't be Carrie doing the screaming.
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Nashville Sans Nashville

Nashville Film Festival ~ Opening Night
I'm off to the kick off film (500 Days of Summer) and party (...Party). But first, I must share an ultra specific horror with y'all. I've already talked to three people today at festival headquarters who looked blankly away when I mentioned Robert Altman's Nashville (and this wasn't because I forgot my toothbrush since my hotel took care of that, bless). How can this be? One filmmaker casually responded like so "I haven't seen that one" the way one might casually mention one had never tried Ethiopian cuisine or bungee jumped. Admitted it without shame, he did! Stop whatever you're doing out there if you share this debilitating problem. "Add to Queue". "Move to Top of Queue" . You know what to do. Nashville celebrates its 35th anniversary next year so I will surely be moved to discuss. You have time to watch it twice or thrice before then. Here, I'll help you.

You'll thank me.

related post: We Can't Wait ~ 500 Days of Summer

Singular Sensation?

A new documentary about A Chorus Line the classic stage musical opens tomorrow on the coasts. I may have gone a bit easy on the self-congratulatory doc Every Little Step (trailer) in my brief review @ Towleroad. The movie is far from perfect but I have this sickness: intense love of show tunes. Maybe you're also so afflicted? There's no twelve step program for it so the show tune addict is largely an unrecovered one. The new film focuses intensely (maybe too much?) on the casting process alone. On the other hand, isn't casting the greatest unsung creative contribution within the film/stage/television arts?

Speaking of... why isn't there an Oscar for casting? Is it because there isn't much of a process anymore? (They just give all the roles to Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett). It's not so much casting as star wrangling in the type of movies that make it all the way to the Kodak Theater I suppose.

Did you see the Broadway revival of A Chorus Line (2006-2008)? I thought it was too reverential to the original text -- they even made it into a period piece -- so it was interesting to see that thought process front and center in this documentary. They really were going for recreation.

Madonna in 1985 (the year A Chorus Line: The Movie opened) --->

Also in the article a few bits on Dollhouse, Robert Downey Jr and Hugh Jackman. Madonna is briefly mentioned (another sickness!) for time capsule purposes and I am mortified to realize that I typed fishnet stockings as a reference to her mid 80s days when I really was thinking of the black tanks and lace. It's not like Madonna ever said "good riddance" to fishnet stockings. Forgive me Madge fashion curators everywhere.
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Nashville Star

Guess what? I'm on a plane to the Nashville Film Festival for jury duty (festival jury duty -- different 'cuz you don't dread the jury notice). I got no job, no money, a replacement phone due to that recent misfortune, but I'm flying west to jury at a film festival. My life is strange.

I'm going to remain determined and anthemically zen (or self-deluding depending on your perception). Barbara Harris as "Albuquerque" is my spirit guide for this particular journey. Pass the mic'.

You may say that I ain't free.
But it don't worry me.

I will be blogging from Nasvhille but I'm not entirely sure how much. So you'll also have guest stars this next week. So a big round of applause for Alexa from Pop Elegantiarum, Dave from Victim of the Time and my regular godsends and magical elves JA from My New Plaid Pants and Adam from Club Silencio for agreeing to pop in on occasion to keep things hopping right here.

Enjoy!
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April Showers: Irreversible

April Showers evenings @ 11 all month long

I like to think that this is the only part of the horrifically vile Irreversible (2002). It's a short film about sweet lovemaking and the marital bliss of one of cinema's sexiest couples, Monica Bellucci & Vincent Cassel. That's it, a beautiful short film!!! I pretend whenever possible that the rest of the movie did not attempt to show itself to me.


Tangent: Shower curtains in movies are always so sparkly clean. No mold, no stains, nothing. You can totally kiss through them without once thinking 'god, i totally need to clean this bathroom!' ...hypothetically speaking. My bathroom is impeccable. Um...

Occasionally my pretending fails me. I recognizable the structural potency (to an extent) of Irréversible but I will never ever ever ever ever subject myself to it again. Never ever.

Weirdly, I have never seen any of the other collaborations between the Bellucci-Cassels (and there's quite a few). Cassel will next be seen in the portugese film Á Deriva (Adrift) and the Andrew Niccol's next project The Cross which stars Orlando Bloom... but I'm most eager to see what David Cronenberg will do with Cassel's closeted self-deluding "Kirill" in the Eastern Promises sequel.

We'll see Bellucci in the ensemble cast of The Private Lives of Pippa Lee this year. After Pippa, she reunites with director Guisseppe Tornatore. He fawned over her beauty in Malena (2000) to such an extent that the film won a cinematography nomination for its DP Lajos Koltai. Koltai isn't joining the Bellucci/Tornatore reunion, though. Enrico Lucidi got the DP duties on Tornatore's latest, Baaria -La Porta del vento. Such a thankless task, pointing cameras at Bellucci ;)


Bellucci and Cassel celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary this year. The knot, still tied. Here they are at the Cesar Awards (France's Oscars) earlier this year. I can't stop looking at pictures of them, today. They're regulars: Vincent has been nominated 4 times, winning once and Bellucci was nominated once for their first film together L'Appartement.



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1st Round of Oscar Predictions Complete

Whew. That took me forever this year. Apologies. Here's the index of predictions with links to more specific information for the categories themselves. It's basically my vague hunches about the films and the year to come, an unholy brew of wishful thinking, pessimism, and predictive knowledge of Oscar voting biases. I'll revise next month and fine tune. Repeat cycle. Eventually we'll reach the precursors and then the Kodak theater. It's an endless loop, like waking up in the morning and going to sleep at night.

Avatar, The Lovely Bones and Nine are in the lead with 7 predicted nominations each. How'd that happen? I'm not that bullish on Nine's Oscar chances??? The Human Factor, An Education, Shutter Island and even The Wolf Man and Terminator Salvation have things to celebrate within this first round of crystal balling. Now that you're looking at the whole thing, what stands out for you? And what's your biggest hunch about the Oscar season to come?
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If you could live...

...in a house from the movies, which one would it be? And the inverse: which movie house would you never set foot in, unless major renovations and evictions took place first?

Lindsay Lohan Laughs at Love

But mostly herself. Do you laugh with? at?

Lindsay Lohan's eHarmony Profile from Lindsay Lohan

A sense of humor about oneself is crucial to survival. So thumbs up, Linds. But, damnit, stop looking at the teleprompter! Memorize your lines. You know how to do that. Remember when you were 12 and you could do that plus juggle accents, act with yourself convincingly never flubbing a sight line and risk comparison to Hayley Mills? Hayley freaking Mills! And that was your feature debut. [sigh]


This post has been brought to you by Nathaniel's recent unplanned cable screening of Parent Trap (1998) in which this 'redhead with a little bit of sass' was completely awesome, Dennis Quaid leaned with ease on his familiar megawatt charms and Natasha Richardson was unexpectedly funny. [sniffle]
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April Showers, Sean Penn

april showers, daily @ 11

A mischievous devil sent me these snaps of Sean Penn showering for Oliver Stone's U Turn (yes I'm liable to use pics if you send any) I assume this is a hint to discuss it, but I haven't seen the movie.


What, pray tell, is with the canted overhead shot of his body? And why does Sean appearing to be swallowing the water in both shots? Is he washing out his mouth after offending someone? He's never been one to hold his tongue so it's a definite possibility.

<--- Penn all washed up.

Or maybe it's just an odd shot because it's part of Oliver Stone's lost period. Some people feel he lost his way after JFK, but I'm inclined to believe that NBK was even better and worked precisely because of its delirium, a filmmaker unhinged. But what's been going on since? U-Turn, Any Given Sunday, World Trade Center, Alexander? And why was "W." so weirdly tentative about so many of its impulses, both satiric and otherwise?

And Sean Penn. Do you fancy him gritty or cleaned up?

Thinky Sci-Fi

We haven't had a lot of brainy science fiction at the movies recently. Most science fiction has moved away from the philosophizing headspace to the easy accessibility and fun of the space opera / adventure variety, the Star Wars school if you will. There have been a few attempts to bring it back: Steven Soderbergh's Solaris remake, Danny Boyle's Sunshine (to some degree) and indies like Primer. People don't tend to think of it as sci-fi but Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind also fits into this camp: movies using outlandish and/or futuristic scientific premises to illuminate something about the human condition or tie us up in theoretical knots.

One of the reasons I loved Battlestar Galactica so much during its run (2004-20009... sniffle) is that it lived in an enormous suite in the headier wing of the genre mansion but also kept a couple of rooms in the other, so as not to scare away that sizeable audiences who lives for gunplay and explosions. Loud fireworks work the same action magic whether they're inside an earthbound action movie or light years away between humans and machines.

This is a long way of introducing two recently released indie trailers. The first is the "what if?" implant/romance scenario of TiMER.



I love that the trailer introduces its crazy premise with a coincidental (?) reunion of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's hilarious she-demons Anya (Emma Caulfield) and Halfrek (Kali Rocha), don't you?



The second trailer there is for Moon starring Sam Rockwell. It seems a bit Solaris inspired but maybe that's a simplification (I haven't seen the movie).

I've read from a few sources that Rockwell is just terrific in the movie. But Oscar watchers should probably ignore that buzz. Sci-fi is the last place* awards voters look for acting skill. Even the widespread lengthy brilliance of Battlestar's ensemble resulted in 0 Emmy acting nominations. What they were accomplishing with their ridiculously complex and sometimes alarmingly sneaky characterizations on that show was simply no match for the revolutionary advances in the acting artform taking place over on Law & Order, Grey's Anatomy and Boston Legal [/sarcasm]

*Do awards voters like horror acting slightly more than sci-fi acting? Which is to say 'are they slightly less eager to spit on it?' It's arguable but maybe.

Von Trier's Punk'd

Lars Von Trier is a sadistic prankster auteur. Think of The Five Obstructions and extrapolate from there. He's probably going to have several laughs about reactions to his upcoming film Antichrist. No matter what the reactions turn out to be, there's probably cause for wicked glee.



Horror freaks will likely hate Von Trier's aesthetic. I suspect Antichrist's trailer might be of the Bug variety, i.e. a horror film of the soul masquerading as traditional horror (the audiences overlap slightly, but not by a lot). Jesus freaks lured by the lurid title will undoubtedly hate whatever angle Von Trier has on religiosity... at least if Breaking the Waves is any indication. Art house patrons who didn't show up for Haneke's Funny Games probably won't venture here either. Movie blogs like this one will end up in all sorts of misleading Google searches. If you've wandered here this afternoon looking for discussions of Christ's second coming and you can't wait for the world to burn so you can experience the Rapture... run away (wrong audience!). Run right to that Knowing movie instead.

Do you like the trailer? I personally can't wait to see what Von Trier does with this concept, with the "He" and "She" (no character names apparently) couple and "Eden" as setting. But you're already feeling for Charlotte Gainsbourgh I bet. If you had to live in a cabin in the woods with Willem Dafoe, wouldn't you lose your marbles?
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related post: Places Willem Dafoe's Ass Has Been
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April Showers: Changeling

April Showers evenings @ 11 all month long

Showers in real life are comforting and cleansing. In the movies, they're often harrowing ... if you survive them that is. If my math is correct there are five types of shower/horror in the movies.

1. being murdered
2. being raped
3. being spied on (possibly for the purposes of #1 or #2)
4. seeing something you didn't expect to see (like blood or Kevin Bacon's penis)
5. being violently hosed down...
   

...is more specialized. It's generally spotted only in the wilds of prison movies or in the sub genre of Women's Pictures dealing with the martyred crusader. Think Meryl Streep in Silkwood or this recent demonstration from Angelina Jolie in Changeling.


Most of us will never experience the hose down (water fights on your childhood lawn don't count) so who knows if it's as painful as it always looks? The point is surely humiliation, rather than pain. It's another chance to build yet more sympathy for the heroine.

This isn't meant as a knock against Clint Eastwood (calm down) but why must workers in unfortunately dehumanizing facilities like asylums or prisons always be portrayed as evil themselves? This happens in a lot of movies, not just Changeling. When Eastwood grants these actresses shots of their own they're completely unforgiving and possibly malevolent.

Evil Worker #1 "spread your legs" she intones mercilessly
Evil Worker #2 has no voice. She wields her hose with committed intensity

Maybe these two ladies could just as easily have starred in a Woman's Picture themselves? Perhaps they're widows or hard up single mothers like Christine Collins? How easy was it for them to get jobs in the 1920s? Maybe at the beginning of their movie they were circling want ads just like Erin Brockovich did in hers. Maybe this is the first job they could find to feed their kids and they hate it with a passion? Surely not everyone who works at miserable jobs is evil themselves?

Hunger is the only recent film I can think of that understands that it can be even more emotionally potent and despairing to humanize the people doing the dehumanizing work. There was a brief shot of a crying prison guard after a particularly brutal "beat up the prisoners" sequence that was just devastating. Caricaturizing worker drones as evil simplifies your movie but it does dehumanizing work of its own.
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Freshwater Link

/Film more on Ridley Scott's Robin Hood's basic angle and the casting. A fourth Oscar winner has been added... is he actually going for Oscars, 2010 rather than a mere adventure romp?
Getty Images La Lohan is back to her natural red. Okay an approximation of it but still... good sign? NO. I shan't get my hopes up. Don't do that to yourself, Nathaniel!
Twitch Elisabeth Shue to star in Piranhas 3D. Sigh. I love my Shue but does NO studio or casting director or director or producer or anyone anywhere besides her fans (and it's weird how many she still seems to have) remember what she was able to do in Leaving Las Vegas? We can't get any real roles for her
Crazy Days Robyn Gibson finally dumping Mad Mel -- entitled to half a billion?
MNPP congratulates SMG on the bun in her oven and offers her sound advice, too?
Empire a Venom movie in development? Marvel has gone mad. Maybe they should slow down a wee bit or focus on, I don't know, 2 or 3 of them?
Topless Robot takes (humorous) issue with the new Star Trek "not your father's Star Trek" commercial

Musicians and the Acting Bug

The A.V. Club has an interesting piece up on musicians who aced acting roles. Lot of good choices inside including Björk (Dancer in the Dark), Tom Waits (Bram Stoker's Dracula... how odd that we just barely spoke about that) and Frank Sinatra (The Manchurian Candidate) but it's obvious that their listmakers tried to steer away from... the obvious. "How you make a list like that and don't include Cher, I'll never know," he said whilst rolling his tongue and tossing hair back.



I think Dolly Parton was also aces onscreen. Sure, she was playing variations of Dolly every time but what giant movie star (outside of the small chameleon circle) doesn't do that exact same thing?

Why did Sting quit acting? He was doing it pretty regularly for awhile and his performances were fairly well received. Why do you suppose Gwen Stefani never tried again after that bizarre SAG nomination for The Aviator? Cyndi Lauper keeps dipping her toes in. She's already won an Emmy and she has a lead role in an indie called Here and There (pictured left) which is about New Yorkers marrying Serbian immigrants for the ole cash/citizenship papers deal. It's currently working the festival circuit.

What do you make of Justin Timberlake's screen career? What kind of role could they ever find for Lady GaGa? Amy Winehouse? [editor's note: I'm trying really hard not to mention Beyoncé in that Obsessed movie. The trailer is practically BEGGING for Razzie votes.] Wouldn't you like to see Sufjan Stevens in a movie (blue or otherwise)? What do you think P.J. Harvey thinks of Juliette Lewis's impersonation of her in Strange Days? Which musician are you fond of onscreen?

Why do I have so many questions today?!? It's like I'm ready to dance and there's no music playing.
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Please Take a Moment...

...and sign this petition against the discriminatory move Amazon recently made against the gay community. You can read about it here. It's pretty disgraceful not too mention outright stupid on Amazon's part. My favorite part, Nathaniel said sarcastically, was the de-ranking of books about homophobia. Way to prove the point of those books, you fools.

update 04/13 there's some jerk claiming "I did it" about the Amazon de-gaying... with dozens of commenters enjoying his prank (censorship is so hilarious). Other web denizens think it a lie, a hoax about a hoax. The levels. And still others are saying it was a glitch. None of this solves the real problem (why are there ANY systems that allow customers to decide for other customers what is appropriate reading material?) or answers the real question (Why did Amazon originally defend this as policy?)

How Green Was My Shower?

April Showers @ 11 PM all month long


Donald Crisp gets the old school shower treatment from Sara Allgood in How Green Was My Valley (Best Picture win 1941) while their dirty dirty* boys look on. (Robert Redford also did this manual labor shower trick for Meryl Streep in Out of Africa but he was more gentle/sexy about it. Sara is hardcore, she just douses her man).

This is a totally green way to clean. Your shower water becomes your bath water. Voila!

*What?!? They're coal miners.

2009 Oscar Predictions, Best Picture & Director

Here's something that may surprise some of you. Learning over the last month that The Human Factor, Eastwood's once Untitled Nelson Mandela Picture, was not a biopic but a sports drama of sorts with biopic ready characters (Nelson Mandela and World Cup star Francois Pienaar) did not deter my prediction that Oscar will love it.

<-- poster concept art by Raats

The inspirational sports film is a regular staple of the multiplex. Most of them come and go with nary an Oscar blip. It's kind of the ugly stepchild within the family of stories Oscar really loves, the true story period piece. I expect this is because everyone thinks of these films as a formulaic paint-by-numbers subgenre that doesn't require artistry so much as predictable story beats, swelling music and one recognizable manly star (Quaid, Washington, McConaughey... take your pick). Every once in a while, though, this overly populated genre does attract Academy eyeballs (Chariots of Fire, Seabiscuit, Hoosiers) and if there's any pairing that comes with automatic prestige cred and appealing "important!" political background, it'd have to be Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman mixed with Nelson Mandela and South Africa.

It's guesswork. Maybe it'll be too light for the Academy.

Nothing is really screaming "sure thing" this year: Public Enemies is coming out in the summer and its digitally shot (an Oscar no-no), James Cameron's Avatar might be a thrilling and revolutionary behemoth but it's also sci-fi (definitely an Oscar no-no), Green Zone has the pull of both Damon and Paul Greengrass but it's also Iraq-concerned and so far that's been a turnoff for audiences/Oscar, Shutter Island might impress audiences but will it impress Oscar (I have some doubts), The Lovely Bones is based on a beloved novel but will Jackson pad the story too much, weighing it down?, Nine is the year's starriest picture but it's based on a superior film (I'm guessing. But it's a safe sort of guess, right, Federico Fellini being > than Rob Marshall... duh!) which could easily turn people against it. Nine's Oscar prospects... gah! Its strengths are its weaknesses are its strengths. The head spins.



Theoretically all this uncertainty should make the Oscar race more interesting in 2009. At least until December when we all be begin whining that it's entirely too predictable!

For my predictions, I'm going with four high profile pictures with a nice spread of release dates and studios, plus one small wonder people seem enthused about already, An Education. The 1960s London set story is based on a biographical essay by Lynn Barber. She seems amused by the changes they've made to her life. Many others seem amused by the whole film.

PICTURE PREDICTIONS

Also Posted: best director (I'm taking a big risk here) and the index of all predictions -- you can see how well I generally do with my predictions this far in advance on this overall chart. The plan is to wrap up with the remaining techs tomorrow. But now, EASTER celebrations with friends await! Must eat green blue eggs and ham. And a Chocolate Jesus. yum yum.

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Tom Waits Has Something For the Kids on Easter

It's called "Chocolate Jesus"



Remember when Tom Waits was actually a part time actor and not just a world class musician? Good times... especially the Lily Tomlin coupling in Short Cuts and the bug eating in Dracula.

One of my favorite film books, With Nails: The Film Diaires of Richard E Grant, has a few bits on Waits. Grant, like Waits, was a frequent supporting player in interesting / storied movies of the early 90s and he lived to write about it.

The cast of Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula gathers at the Coppola estate for a week long bonding / rehearsal session before filming. Gary Oldman looks sad and tells Grant that his 11 month marriage to Uma Thurman (Grant's co-star from Henry & June) is over -- he wonders if he'll be one of those people who marries a lot. The actor/diarist notices that Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves are "sibling-close" and he's amused by Keanu who has decide to call everyone by their second names "Laura Ryder, Leonard Oldman, Phillip Hopkins". Tom Waits arrives a day later, pulling the focus.

Tom Waits. How can I not introduce him to these pages without falling into the cheesy showbizzy-sleaze-shpeak of a lone motel lounge act compère - hit the snare drum, smash a cymbal, bang a drum and wind up with 'LADIES - AND - GENTLEMEN - THE - IN - HOLE - THE - WALL - BAR - AND - SNAKEPIT - SALOON - PROUD - 'N' - PRIVILEGED - TO - PRESENT - FOR - YOUR - ENTERTAINMENT - AND - YES! - GODDAMMITT!! - EDUCATION - TONITE - THE - ONE - AND - THE - ONLY - MR - LONELINESS - OF - A - LONG - DISTANCE - SONGWRITER - HIMSELF - IN - THE - FLESH - IN - THIS - HERE - LOUNGE - LADIES - 'N' - GENTLEMEN - LET'S - PUT - OUR - HANDS - TOGETHER - AND - GIVE - IT - UP - FOR - (gasping for breath) - MISTAH!!! TOM!!!!!!! WAITS !!!!!!!!!!' Everyone else is in smatterings of designer casuals. Mistah Waits arrives straight off an old record cover in a '64 open-topped Cadillac, with fins, with a funnel of dust trailing down the dirt road. The gravel voice gets out some howdy-doodys and his clothes and hair are crumple-sculpted to him. Doesn't seem to have a straight bone in his bearing and kills me off with his cool by growling out a compliment for Withnail. Out the side of his mouth. Like we might be being spied on by the bailiffs. Him, rolling tobacco and reefer. Winona and I are 'We've got all your recordings, Tom!!' To which he just heh-hehs.

I just noticed that Mistah Waits is in the cast list of Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus which I'm more and more excited about. [previously excitement] Danger! Danger! One should never ever get excited about movies that only have release dates scheduled in Romania and the Czech Republic.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus clockwise from top left: Christopher Plummer as "Doctor Parnassus", Heath Ledger (and Johnny Depp and Jude Law and Colin Farrell) as "Tony", Tom Waits as "Mr. Nick" (some sources refer to this character as "The Devil"), your auteur Terry Gilliam, Lily Cole as the Doctor's daughter and Andrew Garfield as "Anton".

Lionsgate is going to be handling the film's UK release but I can't understand why nothing is set for the US? You'd think someone in a suit would remember that for all of Gilliam's recent film completion / box office troubles, it wasn't always this way (think Twelve Monkeys and The Fisher King... though I realize that Hollywood memories don't stretch back that far. Weren't movies silent and in black and white back then?). Plus there's the free publicity of being Heath Ledger's last film and having three A-Listers sub for his incomplete scenes and those Cannes rumors. Can we get this thing on the schedule already? Even if it's no masterpiece it'll surely be worth gawking at.

Movie Themed Easter Eggs

Easter is here. Are you feeling festive? Time for Arts & Crafts! In the past we've made Pan'scakes and Spider-Man cookies. Time for easter eggs. All holidays lend themselves to movie obsessing and Easter is no exception. Think of the long history of bunnies in the movies. Plus, who doesn't love brightly colored edibles? Here are a few movie themed easter eggs you can make with your kids, godchildren, nephews, nieces or your adult friends who behave like children.

Movie Themed Easter Eggs

Materials needed: eggs, food dye, vinegar, water and the ability to measure and boil it, spoons, glasses, white crayons, black crayon or black marker, red candle, hand/eye coordination and some degree of artistic ability.

Get started! Boil water. Insert eggs (leave boiling for 10-12 minutes). Take water off stove without burning self. Rinse eggs in cold water. Put eggs on cooling rack. Leave for a few hours. Return. Mix different colors of dye into glasses (1/4 tsp food coloring / 1 tbsp white vinegar / 3/4th cup hot water) into which you can dip zee eggs. Ready... and GO.

Spider-Man
This is the first "character" easter egg I ever made. I love Spidey. Before you dye Spidey, use your white crayon to heavily draw in those crazy big pointed eyes. If you want him edible after you're done draw in the webbing with a white crayon, too (this part is optional but it looks color than what I've done here). If you don't plan to eat the egg just do the eyes before dropping him in the red dye. While you're doing all of this you should be reciting the following phrase "Spider-Man 2 is better than The Dark Knight" until the phrase feels natural and true. Because it is. You've been brainwashed otherwise so this is like counter-programming. It's a public service from The Film Experience.


You need to leave Spidey in the dye a long time because he comes out too orange otherwise. Wait until he's good and red and remove him from the dye. If you've opted for edible spidey, you're done! If you've opted for the more photo-realistic spidey (er...) you have to draw in the webbing with your black marker. Voila!

Dr. Manhattan and Watchmen
It's good to have something contemporary. "You know, for kids" (Watchmen is so child appropriate don't you think? my review) Most of the characters are difficult to transfer into egg form. I'm guessing you could figure out Roscharch but I opted for Dr. Manhattan. White out the eyes like you did for Spidey only more oval like. Drop in blue dye. Leave Dr. Manhattan in that blue dye for a long time. He needs to look radioactive. Remove and ink on his symbol.


You should make multiple Dr. Manhattans. He can't be bound into just one body!

The other Watchmen option is the famous logo.

Drop your white egg in the yellow dye for a long while. Get it bright yellow. The smiley face you'll need to draw on either before (with black crayon) or after with a marker. Then light your red candle. Once it gets warm, tip the candle and let the wax drip on the egg. It doesn't always go where you want it but it'll make a blood splash / streak. Give it to someone you saw Watchmen with or merely throw it on a wet city sidewalk in the rain and admire or relive the movie.


Joker
This one is messier and I don't think I really pulled it off. But what the hell... do you wanna know how I got these scars multi-colored fingers? Too much playing with eggs and food dye is how! If one of your eggs cracks a bit while boiling and looks icky, you can still use it though you definitely shouldn't eat it! This egg is perfect for a zombie or for Edward Scissorhands (I screwed up on those eggs so I can't show them. Disgraced!). If you want to do the Joker leave the hard boiled egg white and just draw on his makeup with black marker or crayons. Remember that red candle trick we used on the Watchmen logo? Same thing applies here to form that sickly mutilated smile. Messy works. The last step is to blow out the candle, dip some green easter egg grass (very small amount) into the hot wax and immediately smoosh it on the top of the egg to make his stringy green hair.

Yes, you'll probably burn yourself but what is art without sacrifice?


Brainstorm in the comments. What excellent egg remains to be made? If you make any you're proud of send me photos and I'll do a follow up post. Best egg wins... our admiration. We are destitute and have nothing to give away.

If you'd like to share these Movie Eggs for Easter with someone who might love them please email this post their way OR download any of these jpg postcards I've made below and just attach 'em to your emails! Wheeeeeee. Instant holiday fun.

Happy Easter from the Film Experience
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Sienna Miller = Reparative Therapy ?

Sienna Miller is just what Evangelical Christians ordered. She can save gay men from their ungodly "urges"! At least onscreen. I kid, I kid but her character is helping to degay Art Bechstein (Jon Foster) in The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. I'm bitching about the trainwreck of this "adaptation" (it's more of a steal the title / gut the source situation) over in my weekly column over @ Towleroad. Normally I am averse to attacking movies I haven't seen and will not see. But this is a special case for me since the filmmaker has so obviously little respect for the original material which is a touchstone novel for a lot of people, including myself.

There's also bits on the other new releases this week but I neglected to mention the heavy metal documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil about a once promising now obscure band. I reviewed it for Zoom-In over a year ago and it's continued to hover around the edges of my psyche since. If you're into documentaries it's worth a look since it's finally hitting theaters. If you've recently seen The Wrestler, it'll make an interesting companion piece. Both films are about exhausted financially strapped men pushing 50 who are still chasing past glories and unfulfilled dreams well past their expiration date.

Spectacularly Crappy Day...

...got worse. Phone stolen by five teen thugs. After ten years of living peacefully in New York City this is the second time I've been outnumbered and threatened in less than a month (in two different neighborhoods no less). What the hell is going on? May your weekend be better than mine. I think I will collapse on the couch and watch movies until I can shake it off. I need Poppy!

Technical (& Tax) Difficulties

Abundant on my end today. Apologies. Talk amongst yourselves. I'm having my 173rd nervous breakdown.

Max & Haley

Today marks the 80th birthday (80th!) of cinema legend Max von Sydow. This year, a fan site points out, retrospective celebrations of his work seem highly probable. I bring this birthday up because my interview with him a year and half ago is still one of my favorite events from my Film Experience journey. He was so interesting to talk to. Consider the diversity of his resume: The Exorcist, The Seventh Seal, Awakenings, The Virgin Spring, Flash Gordon, Three Days of the Condor, Judge Dredd, Hannah and Her Sisters. He's worked with everyone from Ingmar Bergman to Steven Spielberg. If I could have tied him up for hours with more questions, I would have, believe me. His next film is Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (previously discussed) and then we might see him in the WW II resistance fighter drama, Truth & Treason. He's not in the trailer so we assume he plays one of the characters as an older man in an epilogue.

On the other end of the age spectrum is von Sydow's upcoming co-star in that picture, Haley Joel Osment. He turns 21 today. He was once everyone's favorite tiny medium (The Sixth Sense) and little android (A.I. Artificial Intelligence) but we haven't seen him for years. Growing up is always difficult for child stars. Their faces change or don't change enough. There's that brief awkward phase or whole long stretches of it. We haven't seen Osment much recently but he does have two films in the works, the aforementioned Truth & Treason and an indie comedy called Montana Amazon in which he co-stars with Olympia Dukakis.

Maybe he isn't ambitious about having a big film career as an adult but if he is I figure both M. Night Shyamalan and Steven Spielberg ought to offer him something good to help him with the transitioning. They way I see it they both owe him --think of how much weaker both of those films immediately become with anything less than a preternaturally gifted child actor in their demanding roles.
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April Showers: Ryan Phillippe

"Hello?"


So I haven't seen this movie all the way through but here's my question. If you were spying on Ryan Phillippe in the shower, wouldn't you forget to carry out your dastardly deed? Who could concentrate?

So Ryan wraps himself in a towel (shame) and moseys on over to his locker where he sees this photo.

You should complete the sentence in the comments.

"I KNOW... ___________________ "
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Oh Isabella, You Crazy Thing

I'll wrap up those initial Oscar predictions tomorrow! (Frustrating busy day) For now, links...

Green Porno Isabella Rossellini is at it again with Season 2 of her Sundance series. It's so awesomely wrong and fascinating.

When needed I can have an erection that's six feet long.

I'll never understand how she and David Lynch broke up. They seem like soul mates... at least from the perspective of an outside observer. They both push envelopes and effortlessly combine risque adult subjects with such strangely sincere innocence.
Bright Lights explains the difference between Paul Thomas, Paul Thomas Anderson and Paul W.S. Anderson. Important stuff... commit it to memory.
House of Mirth and Movies "The Unofficial Female Film Canon"
Victim of the Time asks 'Whatever Became of Christina Ricci?'
Notes from the Culture Bunker reexperiences Pinnochio (following Some Came Running's lead) and is terrified. I've got to watch that again.
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"Well guess what, bitch?"

"I'm better than Annie Oakley and I've got you right in my sight."

Exercise with Roz

"Up Over, Up Down, Up and Stretch, Up Together, Up Down..."


Exercise is good for you. So why do some of us (ok, me) hate it so...? "No more 'up', this has got me down"

April Showers: Miami Vice

In between