10 Links for 10/10/10

Since we won't have another repetitive day like this until 3010 and since I will be well into my 1000somethings when that day arrives (yes, I plan to live as long as Gandalf... though without the scraggly beard) and possibly too senile to blog, I was going to post this great picture of a certain actress in a t-shirt that read "10" that I screencapped a year ago and I cannot find it. Sadness. You get a link roundup instead.

Film School Rejects funny list of "10" themed movies.
Kino London today in film history. 10/10 means both Ed Wood and Orson Welles.
TOH I don't wanna say 'told ya so' given what I wrote a few days ago when I changed my Best Picture charts and bitched about people bitching about The Social Network's box office but a 30% drop only in the second weekend... told ya so! Add a few 10s of millions to your final box office projections.
New York Daily News the 10 guest stars to watch in this TV season. Gwyneth Paltrow on Glee among them.
Show Tracker 10 best moments of the TV year thus far.
LA Times 10 best movies of the year that you might have missed. Go Animal Kingdom!
New York Press 'Top 10 Latin American Movies of the Aughts' to screen in NYC. I've seen 6 of them (all good) but I've always meant to see La Cineaga so I should go. What do you think shoulda been on this list that's not?

 /Film Perfect 10 Tom Hardy should find a big movie quick. The way I see star ascendance trajectories, Bronson was the perfect 'look at me!' move, Inception was the ideal 'gotcha' for the mainstream moviegoers who hadn't been paying attention and the next picture is supposed to be the slam dunk 'I'm a superstar' move. It's no time to vanish from screens! But Mad Max: Fury Road has halted production until maybe 2012? Poor Tommy.
Empire David O. Russell's 10th directorial project (if you include the continually troubled Nailed and his short films) will either be Old St. Louis with Vince Vaughn or Drake's Fortune, a video game adaptation.
Cinematical Reasons why you should be excited for Saoirse Ronan as Hanna. But wait, this list only goes up to 7, not 10. Call the blog police!
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Yes No Maybe So: The Fighter

Our first glimpse of the highly buzzed David O. Russell boxing picture The Fighter. If it becomes a major player at this year's Oscars I want y'all to remember that I believed it would happen first. Toot Toot. (That was my own horn).



And now the patented foolproof system for judging our own reaction to the trailer: Yes, No, Maybe So™. Join us with your own in the comments.

First things first: It seems obvious that this film will live or die on the chemistry between its central brothers, boxer Mickey (Mark Wahlberg) and his trainer (Christian Bale). It seems obvious from the trailer that their relationship could well float like a butterfly and sting like a bee or whatever the hell boxers are supposed to do. Maybe Wahlberg is the type of performer who has to have a strong director to be properly called an actor -- but that question of his ability is already solved by reteaming him with David O'Russell who is already responsible for his best performance (I Heart Huckabees). Plus we'd like Christian Bale to stop doing these crazy things to his body so maybe mass acknowledgement that he's a good actor will dampen down that particular self-destructive urge for awhile?


On the other hand, haven't we seen enough boxing pictures? Isn't it the #1 most populated sport within the movies -- you'd think there'd be boxing gyms on every corner of every street to meet the need. Boxers are like hitmen: way more prevalent in the movies than they are in real life. But there will be blood... in the movies. Since we've seen so many rise and fall and rise again biopics and so many boxing pictures, what could this possibly add to the bloated over populated genre? I fear it looks a smidge generic... at least visually. Not that you can always tell from a trailer.

The cast sounds good on paper but how do they all come together onscreen? It's possibly delicious that there will be a catfight of sorts between Mickey's mom (Melissa Leo) and his girl (Amy Adams) but it also just might be typical Hollywood poverty porn. You know how they love the 'We're going to Disneyland!' white trash families the movies... or maybe I'm just thinking of the last Oscar baiting boxing pic. So, to make a long story short: I knew that both Leo and Adams were in the movie but who expected that the movie would contain girlfights? Haven't we all wanted to see Amy Adams test her range a little ever since her triumph in Enchanted? So why am I a little worried about her in this context.

How about you?

The Fighter opens in December.
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Oscar Predictions Revised: Picture, Director, Animation, Documentary, Sound

I'm working on revising the Oscar predictions. So far we've updated the extensive foreign film pages (yet, we're already behind again the news is coming so quickly), the animated and documentary categories, the aural categories like best score and song (I could use some help there -- offer it in the comments) and NEW best picture. And yes I know that many people believe that The Way Back will not be released in time. But I don't believe for a second that the current plans will keep.

About Best Director. After a banner year for diversity last year this year looks like a return to the standard. It'll take a while for cinema's burgeoning spread of voices to register on a frequent basis. If you fuse all my predicted nominees together -- that'd be David Fincher, David O. Russell (pictured left), Mike Leigh, Peter Weir and Christopher Nolan -- you've got a 54 year old white auteur with 9 films under his belt who has been nominated once before in this category and is generally perceived as overdue for a win. But why would you fuse them together? That's only something I sometimes do with statistics because I am weird.

I would have loved to predict Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan (because I am a fan* in general, though I haven't yet seen the film), but here's something I fear about the new 10 wide Best Picture system. Though it gave us a nice spread of genre and mood and consensus last year, I fear the noisy mainstreaming of that category will end up drowning out the hoopla for those left of center choices that the directorial branch sometimes honored in their gutsier moments. And if my fears prove correct going forward, that'll be a real shame.

Your thoughts and armchair punditry are welcome in the comments as always.

*fan not stalker. Which I must differentiate because a friend of a friend of a friend did point out his & Rachel Weisz's apartment to me the other day quite unexpectedly, even though movies weren't even the topic of conversation. The exterior was red. That's neither here nor there. I'm just sharing for a bit of organic blog flavoring.
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Wahlberg, Posterized.

(Left) Then & Now: Wahlberg in the infamous CK campaign in 1991. Wahlberg yesterday in Missouri.

In my weekly column at Towleroad, I barely mentioned what will likely be the big box office draw this weekend, the Mark Wahlberg/ Will Ferrell comedy The Other Guys. I note this because I was moved to discuss National Underwear Day in the same article and what modern star used underwear so successfully to boost their initial fame? Why did I ignore him so? The Other Guys poster implies that you'll be seeing a kind of self-aware satire of a buddy cop comedy. You know... the kind Edgar Wright already delivered memorably with Hot Fuzz (2007). Could these two American hams really top that Brit wit? I'm doubtful... but perhaps they're not trying. I haven't seen it. Maybe the poster is misleading.

Anyway...

Let's look at Wahlberg's career as told to us through movie posters. Is there another star as popular that people still regularly complain can't act?

Renaissance Man (94) | The Basketball Diaries (95) | Fear (96) first lead

Boogie Nights (97) all time classic | The Big Hit (98) | The Corruptor (99)

Three Kings (99) | The Yards (00) | The Perfect Storm (00)

Planet of the Apes (01) | Rock Star (01) | The Truth About Charlie (02)

Italian Job (03) | I ♥ Huckabees (04) | Four Brothers (05)

Invincible (06) | The Departed (06) - Oscar nom | Shooter (07)

We Own the Night (07) | The Happening (08) | Max Payne (08)

The Lovely Bones (09) | Date Night (10) | The Other Guys (10)

I missed one film in that line up, an indie called Traveller (1997) but the posters have to be divisible by 3. How many of his 25 have you seen?

Does your answer make you proud, ashamed or dumbfounded? Regarding the latter, do you even remember the films? Should you glance across the posters a pattern emerges. Wahlberg alternates seemingly interchangeable gun-wielding crime dramas with A list auteur-driven ensemble films. (The latter category seems like a 50/50 mix of "instant classic" and "notorious misfire".) The overlap between his two preferred types seems to be the James Gray movies, which are both crime dramas AND auteurish ensemble films. I'd never seen a James Gray film prior to Two Lovers (09, quite good) and, though some smart critics swear by him, from the outside in both plot synopsis and marketing his movies look EXACTLY like generic crime drama programmers, don't they?

Will the upcoming Fighter jack up the modern classics section of his filmography by one? The star seems to think so. I've had a good feeling about it even prior to his biased 'good vibrations' about it. I've been predicting it for the Oscars since April. That was entirely due to its status as a true story and boxing drama, since Oscar loves both. That was not due to it being a reunion of director David O. Russell and Wahlberg, despite their previous and quite awesome collaborations (see: Three Kings and i ♥ huckabees. No, really, see them if you haven't. They're fantastic).

Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg in The Fighter (December 2010)

But I'm thinking too hard over this. Let's simplify. Can Mr. Wahlberg act or not -- answer that eternal question, would ya?

Before Link Falls

I have failed to mention that Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem are now married. You've probably heard this by now. But since the Film Experience loves both of them muchly, and has since 2006 and 2000 respectively, we throw virtual rice in their general direction (Spain is east, right?). To make things even more special we like to remember that Cruz made her first movie (Jamon Jamon) with Javier Bardem way back in 1992. They've known each other forever. They also both have acting Oscars which is quite rare in movie couples. Newman and Woodward did it but Newman has left this mortal coil. Even the Bening-Beattys won't be able to say they do when Annette wins since Beatty won his for directing.

Cory's Curiosities "magical pic of the day" awwww, Kermit.

Movie|Line I knew Pixar would eventually have to come down to earth. Seems they're joining the franchise and Direct to DVD markets with abandon. Sigh. The only studio that still prized total originality is giving up. I knew that Cars would be the chink in their armor. Ugh, that movie. It torments me still.
Oscar Tracker Machine Gun Preacher pairs Gerard Butler with Marc Forster for a crazily eventful sounding biopic. Oscarable?
I Need My Fix has photos from the set.
The Big Picture more on the David O' Russell saga involving the unreleased Jake Gyllenhaal/Jessica Biel picture Nailed. Killer last line in this article.
The Exploding Kinetoscope I marvel at this review of The Last Airbender. I love.


Movie|Line so we're talking about a Janis Joplin biopic again? That happens once every three years or so. This time it's Amy Adams but Movie|Line looks at the long history of casting rumors. P.S. If Amy Adams plays this won't she win the Oscar in a slam dunk (against type, singing, biopic, mimicry, deglam, addictions. It's got EVERYTHING)
A Socialite's Life I kind of love that I can never keep track of Jude Law & Sienna Miller's love life. They're together again? I've lost track of this roughly 62 times in my lifetime. I want a bunch of filmmakers to get together and make an omnibus film about this relationship. An experimental biopic with Jude & Sienna playing themselves.
Movie Marketing Madness on the challenges of marketing Inception.
/Film to play a live action Tink. Disney is marketing the hell out of this character which makes me sad because each time they use her, I love her less. Hopefully Elizabeth Banks can rescue this.
MNPP obsesses over Thomas Kretschmann again. We understand. Where's he been hiding?
Hollyscoop Lindsay Lohan back to rehab. Reading the quotes on this makes me ever more worried for her. Not only does she need to get rid of these people from her life, she needs to get rid of the other people who think she needs to get rid of those people. Complicated! Clean house, including your mooch parents! P.S. I realize this is mere conjecture and we can't know what the Lohan family is really like but methinks Lindsay herself would be better off starting fresh, period. She's the one with the talent after all. If she finds sobriety, she'll find everything else she needs (including the lost talent) afterwards.

Finally...

Reuters is reporting a huge box office weekend for Inception (my review). I swear to god box office reports are getting earlier and earlier. The movie doesn't even open till midnight tonight! Soon they will just have box office reports beamed directly from psychic hotlines.

By Odin's Link!

Awards Daily yes, everyone is already obsessed with Summer 2012 now that we know Chris Nolan's Batman will return. It's a franchise world we're living in.

So... let's get this over with.


The mighty Thor is coming before the next Batman. In approximately 369 days. And we're thinking about this primarily because the internet is insatiably interested in superheroes and they are thus impossible to ignore. The Almighty Internet has actually declared this photo of Chris Hensworth as Thor be posted from the rainbow bridge of Asgard to the wide streets of Harlem, New York and beyond. Offending blogs and sites shall be struck down.

Dutifully I post though I'm still struggling to care. Whenever I think of Thor I only think of that little girl in Adventures in Babysitting and how weird it was that someone's favorite superhero was Thor!?! And once I'm done thinking about that I can think only of Alexander Skarsgård's magical hammer. Or the Mjöllnir one imagines him to have.

I know I should let it go -- that he didn't get the part -- but even his name reminds one of the home of the Norse gods.

what were we on abou---oh, yes, yes...

LINKS
Coming Soon Esteemed director Bill Condon shares his reasons for taking on The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn and never once mentions money! Liar liar pants on fire ;)
Just Jared Scarjo in DC with her twin brother for the White House correspondents dinner
Guardian Burnt by the Sun 2, the sequel to the foreign film Oscar winner, flops in Russia. Interesting article on the Why of it. Maybe this isn't a sure thing as Russia's Oscar submission?
/Film Hank Azaria as Gargamel for The Smurfs. I have an inexplicable desire for this movie to be good but the odds are most decidedly against it I think
In Contention wonders if Jim Carrey is ok
The Daily Beast on why David O. Russell's political comedy Nailed is still in limbo. I normally find it difficult to enjoy stories about the business side of moviemaking: contracts, insurance, unions escape me. But this is interesting. I like his films so I'm hoping they find a way to finish it.

Randomness! Just because it amuses
Instructables Gummi Bear surgery
situated laundry Johnny Weir vs. Evan Lysacek summarized
MTV Movies "my name is Talky Tina and you better be nice to me" I can't tell you how horrified I was of Talky Tina as a little boy... though I remember her as "Talking" Tina

Stage Craft?
Tony Predictions from Michael Reidel, Just Shows To Go You, while Time Out New York offers up only who *should* be nominated. The big question mark might be how Addams Family fares given the critical drubbing. I'm currently rooting for Everyday Rapture because even though I haven't seen it yet I am in love with Sherie Rene Scott. I have every note of The Last Five Years deeply embedded in my brain and vocal chords. I'm also rooting for Valerie Harper in Looped because I have seen that one and she was great. As is often the case these days there are a ton of big and small movie/tv names who might be in the running including: Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Daniel Craig, Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Alfred Molina, Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, Kristin Chenoweth, etcetera... The Tony nominations are announced on Tuesday.

The Year of Wishful Linking

Underwire apparently some fans think Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles can be saved from cancellation. I dunno. That season finale sure felt like a goodbye.
My New Plaid Pants congratulate JA on one year without cigarettes. He celebrates in the only way he would... sexy cigarette pics!
StinkyLulu a special smackdown coming on May 31st
CHUD worries that David O'Russell's Nailed will never see movie theaters or even DVD


Go Fug Yourself on Winona at the Star Trek premiere

...looking sheepish and as if she's not quite sure whether she's on the list -- despite the fact that she is IN THE MOVIE

Oh, Noni. Stitch that star mojo back together. Everyone is rooting for you. Almost everyone I mean.
popbytes Madonna back with Jesus... and crazy couture?
i09 and Jezebel on new superheroine meets Sex & The City comicbook Marvel Divas
BlogStage I no longer have to be jealous of you Los Angelenos who got to see Carrie Fisher's memoir show "The Year of Wishful Drinking". It's coming to Broadway this fall. This is the only Carrie Fisher book I haven't read. Not sure what I'm waiting for. My favorite is Surrender the Pink.

TONY Time
You've already read my ill-informed thoughts on Broadway's trophy races (I miss theatergoing so much!) but here are some other rundowns worth perusing: Justin Plus One offers informed opinions from someone who sees more theater than anyone else I know. Lots of love for Next to Normal and God of Carnage and complete disdain for Billy Elliott. Boy Culture hates 9 to 5 and lurves Billy Elliot. Gold Derby investigates the history of shared acting nominations in lieu of Billy Elliot's best actor citation. Everything I Know... has a long history of mixed feelings about Next to Normal but gives it the thumbs up in its Broadway incarnation.

If you are in NYC and want to see any of the shows, the cheapest though often chancy route is "rush" or lottery tickets. Here are the policies for current shows.
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We Can't Wait #9 Nailed

Directed by David O. Russell
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Jessica Biel, James Marsden, Catherine Keener, James Brolin.
Synopsis Jessica Biel gets a nail shot into her brain. Yay! Oh, okay, so after that she starts acting all crazily and ends up going to Congress for some reason and runs across helpful Congressman Gyllenhaal.
Brought to you by Whoever is crazy enough to partner up with David O. "Some F***ing C***" Russell (i.e. Red Wagon Entertainment)
Expected release date Given this movie's checkered history, who knows?

Joe: Nailed's tumultuous (that's putting it lightly -- production stopped at least 2-3 times as they ran out of money) road to completion almost made me forget what an intriguing prospect it is creatively. Yeah, yeah, Jessica Biel -- but look at all that other talent. Plus: Paul Reubens! Jon Stewart! Kirstie Alley! Even if it's bad, it could be a total glorious car wreck. I am way excited to find out.

JA: Way excited doesn't even BEGIN to cover my expectations. Yes, David O. Russell's is by all accounts a terrific (as in size, not nature) prick. So is very nearly every director whose films I enjoy. I don't want to be his assistant, I want to watch the wonderful insanity that springs forth from his corrupt brain.

If I were the sort who was into making lists - wait, what are we doing here? - I Heart Huckabees would probably make my top 10 for the decade so far, and I didn't even like it that much the first time I saw it. But then I saw it again. And again. And again, and the fucker swallowed me whole.

And that cast! Yes give or take a Biel - although I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt as of right now - it's like Russell took an ice cream scooper to my skull and splatted my deepest fantasies out onto a marble surface and rolled them up into human form like some sort of brain-to-human version of Cold Stone Creamery.

Whitney: I think putting a nail in someone's head sounds funny. There was a dude that actually happened to. A spike went through his head in a mine and it changed his personality. While he was once friendly and sweet, he suddenly turned into a totally asshole. I learned all about it Psych. 101.

Fox: The premise for this film sounds amazing in it's absurdity. Huckabees was that way, too... I guess everything of Russell's is that way if you think about it.

And come, come now... you guys are being a bit harsh on Biel. True, she hasn't shown anything significant yet, but neither has Gyllenhaal (dudes, come on... he's completely overrated). I mean, if Jake gets a pass simply because he's a cutie, then so should Jessica.

Nathaniel: I'm generally okay with mediocre actors being in auteur films if the auteurs in question have shown a knack for pulling interesting or best of career stuff from their cast. Auteurs are like painters in that way. Red is red is red unless it's on Chagall or Almodóvar's palettes, you feel me?

i heart david o. russell

And I trust Russell. I'd just wear earplugs and protective gear were I to visit his set. He has such an original comedic voice and he doesn't just rest there, always wedging dramatic tension somewhere inside the laughs. Spanking the Monkey was an attention grabber as debuts go, but he's gotten consistently stronger as a filmmaker. Consider Three Kings, the genius of Huckabees and the still undervalued Flirting With Disaster. This is a goldmine filmography, isn't it?

Your turn. Are you excited for this movie? And even if you aren't, whose head would you like to see nailed?

In case you missed any entries they went like so...
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We Can't Wait:
#1 Inglourious Basterds, #2 Where the Wild Things Are, #3 Fantastic Mr. Fox,
#4 Avatar, #5 Bright Star, #6 Shutter Island, #7 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
#8 Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, #9 Nailed, #10 Taking Woodstock,
#11 Watchmen, #12 The Hurt Locker, #13 The Road, #14 The Tree of Life
#15 Away We Go, #16 500 Days of Summer, #17 Drag Me To Hell,
#18 Whatever Works, #19 Broken Embraces, #20 Nine (the musical)
intro (orphans -didn't make group list)
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