Olivia Williams, The Ghost Actress

I was late to the party on The Ghost Writer but as with any good film, the party is still raging once you get there. It's already one of my favorites of 2010. But back in March I should have been out there championing it as a clever, well executed thriller (if that's the genre you'd like to define it as).  I think it was Pierce Brosnan who kept me away. Since when does he make good movies? And since when is he good in them?

Brosnan is in deep doo-doo in The Ghost Writer. Cattrall and Williams are
out-of-focus behind him. Which is just how both their characters like it, thank you.

Finally, it was you (yes you!) that convinced me to see it. It was praised enough in comment threads to make me think I'd missed out... particularly in regards to Olivia Williams. She's an actress I'd never thought much about until the past few years and now, it's getting kind of hard to deny her her due.

I wrote up her terrific work in my "Best in Show" column for Tribeca Film. She really is something (in general and here in particular). She's such a sticky actress; she haunts.

A Link of Their Own

Have your eyes yet feasted on this actual handwritten letter (thx Boy Culture) that Madonna wrote to photographer Steven Meisel? So much pop cultural memory jogging is happening: Herb Ritts, the "Sex" book in idea form, The House of Extravaganza, and --eep! -- everyone's favorite female baseball picture A League of Their Own ("Geena Davis is a barbie doll"... "I hate actresses..." HA!).

That's better than any time machine in taking me right back to 1992. This is why no one should ever throw anything handwritten away ever.

The Big Picture $40 million is the new ceiling for Hollywood drama budgets. It's about time they figured that out. You can make a great one for that amount so why not improve your profitability potential?
All Things Fangirl on Batman 3 speculation (it's actually Batman 8 if you ask me, though I know everyone likes to pretend the first 5 Bruce Wayne pics didn't happen) Which female villain should appear. I say none because of Nolan's girl problem. I was just innocently reading along and then my fur went up and I started hissing. You'll know why.

i09 interviews Eliza Dushku about the departed Dollhouse now that it's all on DVD. Will she work with Joss Whedon again?
Star East Asia Reign of Assassins character posters. I am so ready to see Michelle Yeoh again. Bring this movie to me.
Empire Black Swan graphic design
/Film Green Hornet poster
I Need My Fix Adam Sandler in drag? My eyes!
Topless Robot They're converting the whole Harry Potter series into 3D. I would someday like 2 pennies to rub together myself but sometimes the insatiable miserable greed in this world is really unsettling.

<--- Meanwhile, in my weekly column for Towleroad I've issued a cinema-altering challenge to James Cameron involving Elizabeth Taylor, bitched about the MPAA and their fear of peen, and shared a performance moment from the dueling trans stars of Portugal's Oscar submission. Why is it that no matter where you go in the world, the drag playlists remain exactly the same?

Emmy Nominations Tomorrow

I just remembered that the Emmy Nominations are nearly upon us. I try not to think about them too much because I am always sorely disappointed.

Lost Causes I'm Rooting For: Anything Friday Night Lights -- yegods that show is brillz but particularly Connie Britton and Zach Gilford. Plus Enver Gjokaj for season 2 of Dollhouse. It seems like that was cancelled a hundred years ago but it only ended this past January. He was quite awesome/rangey as Victor even doing impersonations that were on par with several Oscar winning mimicry efforts. Because he was doing excellent work in the genre of sci-fi though, nobody noticed. He has only done 1 (just 1!!!) guest spot job since Dollhouse's cancellation. I am normally not this cocky about things I've never done but I swear to god they need to fire that entire town's casting departments and just replace them with me because they are CONSTANTLY ignoring people who've already proven their worth. That's like burning money!

Nail Biter: All three principle Mad Men women (and a few of the guest stars too) and 30 Rock's Jane Krakowski. The shows are popular with Emmy, the actors less so. But so much deserve.

Shows That Will Do Well That I Like: The United States of Tara, Modern Family, Nurse Jackie, Mad Men and Glee will obviously be there but in what numbers? I cracked myself up reading my review of the Glee pilot this morning. I was worried that they wouldn't let Matthew Morrison sing?!? Hee. I also said the show had a light touch. Wow, that turned out wrong. I love the show but boy did they abandon that light touch for full throttle AND YOU AND YOU AND YOU YOU'RE GONNA LOVE ME!!! belting in record time.

UPDATE: the nominations have arrived.
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Birthday Suits: Cougar Town

Celebrating the birthdays cinematic: actors, actresses, and other filmtypes. If it's your big day, a happy one to you as well.

The Penguin and The Secretary

Today's B-Days 11/16
1908 Burgess Meredith two time Oscar nominee. But no, not for the Penguin in Batman: The Movie. Those honors came back to back in his late 60s for Rocky and The Day of the Locust.
1964 Harry Lennix best known for his TV work in shows like Dollhouse and Commander in Chief but he's cut an imposing figure in the movies too (Titus, the Matrix trilogy). But yes Dollhouse was cancelled last week. sigh.
1967 Lisa Bonet mostly retired actress, Huxtable, one of Marisa Tomei's besties
1970 Martha Plimpton. My friends have this thing where they cast the book they've just read for their book club each month. It's their tradition that they have to give 80s teen film star turned ubiquitous Broadway thespian a role in every film. And why not?
1977 Maggie Gyllenhaal incredible actress, give or take, um,... No, I'm not ready to say it. I love you, Maggie!

Two more from Cougar Town! And I don't mean the sitcom (which I enjoy by the way) And I don't mean that as a pejorative either. Italian beauty Valeria Bruni Tedeschi turns 45 today. She's made American films like Munich and A Good Year but remains most vivid in French cinema. Films include: 5x2 (fine work there), Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train, Actrices and Queen Margot. And yes, her boyfriend is ubiquitous French actor/sex symbol Louis Garrel who is 26.

I also want to say a quick word of praise for Missi Pyle, turning 38, who has been an ensemble player in a ton of comedies (Galaxy Quest, Big Fish, Dodgeball, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc) and does a lot of TV guest work. She was recently hilarious as boozy cougar "Charlene" in the long-delayed Spring Breakdown with Amy Poehler and Parker Posey. The movie is not half as funny as the cast list suggests but it has its moments and many of them belong to her. Well done. Missi also just recorded an album with another actress Shawnee Smith (the Saw movies) called Smith & Pyle "It's OK to be happy". Judging by the lyrics and video blogs, they're selling comedy with their country music.
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Dolls, Toys and Links

The House Next Door Did you read any of these "Pixar Week" articles arriving to coincide with the Toy Story 3-D release? Interesting stuff therein and not all of it is the typical media fawning over all things Pixar. Though I'm kinda miffed that there's a defense of Cars and takedown of WALL•E. Sometimes there's no need to be contrarian. Every once in a while the general consensus is correct
Rotten Tomatoes Martial arts star Tony Jaa (Ong Bak 2) picks his five favorite flicks. Very mainstream tastes (The Dark Knight. Yep. Forrest Gump?! Ewww)
TV Munchies "15 TV characters who never came out of the closet (but should have)"
MTV Spider-Man 4 is nearing a start date (March, 2010) and a release date (May, 2011). Watch out here comes the Spider-Man (and Mary Jane) Not sure if this is a good idea but #2 was so wonderful that I'll just pretend #4 is #3. Good plan or...?


My New Plaid Pants fine piece on The White Ribbon "The Answer is the Question is the Answer"
The Auteurs Daily chooses the best film sites. I'm truly honored to be among the 57 cinephiles listed
Empire Kristen Bell has joined the cast of the already intriguingly cast Burlesque: Cher, Christina Aguilera, Stanley Tucci. So many possibilities
Erik Lundegaard pens a lovely review of the evocative Bright Star
Coming Soon Mia Wasikowska is going from leading Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland to leading Gus Van Sant's Restless. Can you think of a bigger aesthetic leap? Burton to Van Sant, oh my. Please pray that the largely audience-untested actress is as versatile as she sounds.

Finally... the AV Club has nice things to say about the low-rated second season of Dollhouse. I'm not as sad that the show will probably be cancelled as I once was but I'm definitely disheartened. A Dollhouse failure will only serve to teach the broadcast networks not to take chances on shows with cult followings and that's a sorry lesson to learn. They need to be moving towards the cable model which is, generally speaking, more nurturing to small audience shows with ambition.

I haven't covered Dollhouse this year because I'm trying to find a way to cover tv that's more in line with the goals of the site (movie love!) hence the switch to movie referencing tv coverage of Mad Men or stray episodes of other things. And, let's be frank, I've also been disappointed that this fascinating Joss Whedon series is still awkward and has stumbled back to early Season 1 stand-alone business. The strengths of the first season were all in the long-form storytelling and I thought that they'd realized this as well as found surer footing as they went along.

Weirdly in the comment discussion following this AV post some fans seem to only now be realizing that Enver Gjokaj (who plays Victor) is the best actor on the show. It took a gay dancing scene to convince them? We've known he was the MVP for a long time. He's virtually the only "doll" that doesn't seem like he's acting a role once imprinted... he merely is the new person he thinks he is. He does spot on impressions of people you wouldn't think you could mimic -- like fellow actor Reed Diamond -- and he's engaging in blank state, too. None of this can possibly be easy, as the uneven performances elsewhere indicate. If you ask me he should have been in the running for a Supporting Actor Emmy nomination last year. I'd like to predict a huge career for Gjokaj post-Dollhouse but Hollywood has a weird self-defeating way of putting blinders on when it comes to newish actors doing great work within the sci-fi world. For instance, in anything resembling a sane world Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica) would be a huge star by now, inundated with film and tv offers. Instead she just has to work the ensemble on aging TV shows like 24 or Nip/Tuck? Boo. If I were a casting director, I'd have Gjokaj and Sackhoff on speed dial.
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A Little Link Music

Everything I Know... Will Catherine Zeta-Jones star in A Little Night Music on Broadway?
Slog Oopsie. a joke billboard for Inglourious Basterds causes offense [thx]
<--- Starblinx (500) Days of Summer illustrated. teehee [thx]
Just Jared Dollhouse Season 2 promos
Scanners overheard at the movie theater
fourfour reconsiders Project Runway. His mind isn't changed but to his credit he does make Models of the Runway, the spinoff, sound about 5,000 times more interesting/funny than it actually is.
Read Roger on Miyazaki's Ponyo
A Blog Next Door Leonardo DiCaprio's one-two punch rule


Finally, Cozzalio doesn't like the ads for Bruce Willis' new scifi picture Surrogates. You know the ones... "human perfection. what could go wrong?"


They're plastered all over the city now. The internet has been kind of mum on this film, which opens shortly (Sept 25th) so I was interested to finally read someone's reaction. Unlike Dennis, I rather like the ads. I appreciate that they feel as vapid as clothing ads so they're sort of subverting / mocking the idea of clean airbrushed beauty. What could be wrong with that? Quite a lot, you know. But maybe I'm just a sucker for android/cyborg stories (a la Terminator / Blade Runner). In some hierarchal geek place in my mind that's just a notch or two below vampires as a subgenre that immediately wins my attention. Holding the attention is another matter. We'll see what reviews are like.

Linker's Dozen

W Magazine Bruce Willis and his new wife star in quite a photo shoot. Is it weird that I totally miss Bruce Willis?
BlogStage Annette Bening as Medea at UCLA. I expect reports from California readers in September! Or maybe I should fly out myself? It's been ages
Kenneth in the (212) meets Susan Seidelman and talks Desperately Seeking Susan
Topless Robot 2,500 Smurfs?! Dear god
Planet Fabulon "what becomes a legend most" -- I haven't seen this ad campaign in so long: Natalie Wood, Bette Davis, Marlene Deitrich? Wheeee


Pop Seoul John Woo to choose between Rain and Won Bin for next action pic. Isn't that a win/win?
Russia Magazine Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch, Wanted) is making a movie that sounds suspiciously like Knight Rider. I guess that fits into his whole ouevre of bizarre action films that require 23 times the usual amounts of suspension of disbelief
Big Screen Little Screen how great is this Quentin Tarantino magazine cover from Germany?
Cinematical Michael Cunningham sells horror screenplay. Interesting... though with just minor tweaking wouldn't The Hours be a horror film of the soul?
Fin de Cinema Peter Greenaway's Nightwatching coming to DVD. Greenaway sure has had a hard time getting eyeballs since 8 1/2 Women.
Noh Way sad news for diehard Liza & Judy fans
Screen Rant Alexander Skarsgard talks about his near miss on Thor. I'm personally a little bummed he didn't get the role... not that I have high hopes for the movie.

P.S. It's only 95 days until Dollhouse comes back on the air. Wheeee

ElizaPatricia

Direct (?) from Eliza Dushku's twittering fingers...


I love getting soaked in the rain too (although imagining Eliza Dushku wet? Even better) but what's most exciting here is the "DOLLHOUSE talks". Normally I wouldn't think much of an actor relaying such a message but she is also the producer of Dollhouse so one would assume she's part of said "talks". Maybe there's hope?

p.s. You can follow me here
p.s. 2 My gf/bff Amy tells me 'Twitter is Facebook on crack so you should definitely NOT be using it'. But, you know... I only learn by making my own mistakes.
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Dollhouse ???

I've been a bad fan. As my enthusiasm for Dollhouse grew larger, my posting about it dwindled to nothingness. I knew that the show would get better. Whedon's work always does. The people who abandoned ship early due to the "icky premise" should've known that Whedon himself would have been aware of the ickiness and would turn it to the show's advantage.

I'm following the actors on twitter (Eliza, Miracle, Dichen, sadly no Enver...) and feeling guilt because they need all the attention they can get. I stopped writing about it because a) there were too few comments on those posts and b) I got scared of cancellation. See, television has taught me not to trust it. Movies are easier for me to love. They're complete and forever. TV requires the assemblage of multiple itty bitty pieces. It requires the long haul and too many TV shows don't get anywhere close to being a complete experience due to early cancellations. Most TV shows are jigsaw puzzles with pieces missing. They're broken.

If you love Joss Whedon's stuff, you'll want to read his 7 Things I Love About Sci-Fi article. It's brill.

update 05/12 still on bubble. talks ongoing.
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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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April Showers: Dollhouse 1.8

"April Showers" evenings at 11:00 all month long.

I'm killing two birds with one stone tonight, by starting the April Showers series with the latest visit to Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. [Here are thoughts on episode 1, 2 and 3 and 4 through 7 in case you missed them.] "Needs", the 8th episode, pleasantly dispenses with the usual three-plot structure. Hopefully the writers have realized that they've been leaning too heavily on the imprint assignment plots. The Dollhouse itself is the heart of the show. It's where most of the good potential metaphors lurk, this episode hinting that the writers might eventually find them. The Dollhouse could be entertainment itself (actors playing dress up / people as product) or a dysfunctional home (the executives as bad parents, the dolls as abused children, the handlers as elder siblings? enabling spouses?). If it keeps going in this direction Dollhouse might eventually be able to do what Buffy the Vampire Slayer once excelled at: illuminating universal emotional realities within outlandish genre trappings.

I love that this episode's plot essentially mirrors our own everyday routines: We wake up (for the dolls something's gone wrong. They don't know who or where they are), eat breakfast (The troubled dolls -- Sierra, Victor (Enver Gjokaj), Echo and Millie are terrified about the simplicity of the other dolls and their banal pleasantries about bananas), we shower to get ready for the big day ahead (for the Dolls, it's a co-ed experience. They didn't see that coming. The kids in the idyllic garden have finally realized they're naked).

What's so smart about this eighth episode is that each of these regular daily events fills the troubled dolls with fear and confusion. Essentially they're damaged children in adult bodies. Reality is going to be difficult for them. But the show, like all of Whedon's shows, has several tones to juggle. The shower scene is played for comedy but we've been prepped for it. Previous episodes have made the funny about Victor's "man reactions".

Victor walks by Sierra, averts eyes.

He's not supposed to pop a boner in the shower when he sees Sierra but he always does, which has caused much hand wringing among the staff. The dolls imprinting should be keeping them in a childlike state. The tingly parts are for paying customers only!

So Sierra and Victor enter the shower together. The newly aware Sierra warns Victor to watch where he looks and Victor tries to. He recites sports figures to stay calm. (I've been meaning to ask straight boys if this really works to prevent "man reactions". My equivalent would be Oscar statistics but I think that would just get me hotter. TMI!!!)

Mike (right) swims several laps every day. Sadly we don't watch him do so.

Weirdly none of the dolls get wet. Sierra looks a bit sweaty but that's it. The co-ed shower has more steam than water (It's network television. I guess steam comes in handy). The dolls have a weird encounter with "Mike" (adonis Teddy Sears) who's been reprogrammed. I love it when the dolls seem eerily vacant. The show is more fun when they tilt ever so slightly towards creepy and away from stupid.

Finally we move into the "get dressed" and "leave home" parts of the daily routine and here's where things really pick up, metaphorically speaking. The dolls find their wardrobes. The Dollhouse suddenly feels like a television set? Ooh, the places they could take this show, you know. Please be renewed for a second season. Pretty please.

Naturally the "leaving home" part doesn't work out well. (It's all been a test for the staff and a medical experiment with the dolls who've been showing memory glitches). They can't really leave. They're broken. Even if they escape the Dollhouse they're still dolls. Have you ever tried walking away from your troubles? Your troubles come with. B+

Dollhouse 1.4 to 1.7

Eeek. This is why I don't write about TV. It's always on and thus too easy to fall behind in. I haven't mentioned Dollhouse in nearly four weeks. I can't offer the extensive write-ups I did last time, but here are a few quick thoughts. I've started each of these posts with a photo of a doll. Subtle! But today let's go with this painting of a Doll holding a doll. It's my beloved Pris from Blade Runner.

blade runner 'pris' by ~sigma958 on deviantART

She's the right iconic character to throw up because she's a pleasure model. That isn't far from what the Dolls in Dollhouse are... except they're not androids but actual humans. Though sometimes I think the writers get confused.

1.4 "Gray Hour" I'm struggling to remember this episode. Echo (Eliza Dushku) was imprinted to be a master thief, helping to steal priceless art. As usual things went very wrong. B-

1.5 "True Believer" Echo is made blind (don't ask me to explain the science, the show can't and I wish it wouldn't try!) in order to infiltrate a cult. It's another chance for Joss Whedon to bash religious fundamentalism. I'm sympathetic to that. Eliza was better than usual in this episode. Perhaps it was that Mormon'ish environment she originally sprang from? B

1.6 "Man on the Street" Easily the best episode and written by Joss Whedon himself, natch. It's the one we were promised through the buzzvine "where it gets good". The snarky critic in me suggests that shows should be good from the beginning rather than promising future quality (Hi, Heroes. I stopped watching long ago. You cried wolf too many times), but the realist in me knows that it often takes time for complicated shows to find their footing. The Dollhouse team should feel pretty good about landing this episode. They managed for the first time a completely integrated vision. The A (imprint assignment), B (Dollhouse mythology) and C (FBI investigation) plots all worked as one to take us on an icky thrill ride. Usually they've been standing awkwardly side by side, staring oddly at one another. There were three fine reveals in this episode. The first, which involved a sleeper agent Doll --"there are three flowers in the vase"-- wasn't that big of a surprise but it was still plotted quite well. The second was that there's someone within the Dollhouse ranks who wants to help the FBI Agent. The last and big reveal was a great surprise (at least to me). Turns out we've barely scratched the surface of this shady operation. "There are over 20 Dollhouses..." [shiver]


Best thing about the episode: Ms. Dewitt, the boss lady, finally got some scenery to chew. She's a devious one. Her final scene was brilliantly succinct and Olivia Williams handled it perfectly.

Worst thing: The interstitial, man on the street news report, with civilians talking about the urban myth of the Dollhouse, was awkward. A bit too "on the nose" I suppose, what with the foregrounding of the show's non consensual sex and slavery conundrums. Still the dialogue was sometimes funny and the show probably needs more laughs to balance out the heebie jeebies those twin issues unavoidably inspire. A-

<--- Is Enver Gjokaj who plays "Victor" the best 'Doll' actor on the show? His personality does seem to subtly shift with each assignment. The show's concept requires chameleons. They don't seem to have cast most of the young actors that way.

1.7 "Echoes" Oops. After that thorny near-thrilling sixth episode we reverted back to 'what the hell are they doing?' doubts about this show. A Plot: A group of dolls are sent to lock down a college campus affected by a drug which removes inhibitions and messes with your memory and self control. Too much of a dose and things get very violent/ugly. And oops, the drug/virus goes airborne... or something (again sloppy with the science). B Plot: Turns out the Rossum corporation which develops this drug is intimately connected to the Dollhouse's very existence. In Echo's former life as Caroline, she was out to take down the Rossum corporation. She was something of a political activist/animal rights hellion. C Plot: the FBI Agent's sex life was totally ruined by that assassination attempt on his new girlfriend in the last episode. That always kills my sex drive, too.

Best thing about this episode: The drug going airborne within the Dollhouse gave Olivia Williams her first comic scenes as Ms. DeWitt started binging whilst her chief imprint tech man, usually the only character on the show with any jokes, ended up pants less for half the episode.

Worst thing about this episode: the writing and Eliza's uneven playing (sigh. I love her but...) continue to make Echo look like an idiot rather than an interesting character. This episode contained the single worst (?) moment in all seven episodes. Echo and a college student want to escape from the Dolls that are supposed to be locking down the campus. They're basically sitting in a containment tent. The tent opening is mere feet away with no one guarding it. Echo and the student sneak out by walking out and Echo turns to the student and says, with a sense of wonder and accomplishment "That worked!" Duh. Walking out of a room you don't want to be in when it doesn't have a door to begin with is often a piece of cake!


This episode gets two grades. Scenes inside the Dollhouse: B Scenes outside the Dollhouse C

And that's it for now. Next week's episode "The Awakening" is supposed to be game changer just like episode 6. We'll see. Don't be crying wolf people.
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Thoughts on Dollhouse 1.2 and 1.3

<-- "Faith" Doll. Get it? We're subtle.

You know that geeky t-shirt that was popular some years ago "Joss Whedon is My Master Now"? I should have bought one at the time. We're now 3 episodes into Whedon's latest Dollhouse and even though I'm still not so sure about it I get excited each time. Dollhouse isn't close to the best thing on TV (For me Mad Men and Battlestar Galactica fight for that honor with Friday Night Lights and 30 Rock as honorable mentions) but I'm into it for better and worse. Hopefully for better.

Previously on Dollhouse

[spoilers to follow, obviously]

Episode 1.2 "The Target"
I'm already learning to divide Dollhouse into its A, B and C plots: A is the "imprint" assignment - i.e. Echo (Eliza Dushku) gets new memories and personality so she can serve as someone's dreamgirl / muscle / somesuch; B is the "series mythology" thread (also known as "the best part") wherein they complicate the back story; C is the "externals", or, whatever Helo from Battlestar Galactica (Tamoh Penikett) is up to as the investigating Agent Ballard. He's trying to bring the mythical "Dollhouse" down. It's not exactly a legal or ethical institution. I hope actors aren't the only thing that Joss Whedon ends up borrowing from BSG as Dollhouse continues but more on that in a bit.

A. Echo's latest client Richard would like an outdoors adventure with her but he isn't sure about the "truth" that Dollhouse CEO (Olivia Williams) is promising in regards to Echo.

I've been with a lot of women. It's not bragging, it's just what you might call 'truth.''

Since this character looks exactly like Matt Keeslar, we believe this. But since this character looks exactly like Matt Keeslar one wishes he would have added "a lot of women... and men". Keeslar has already gone to bed with Jonathon Schaech and Dan Futterman onscreen.

Anyway, excuse those 90s fantasies... Echo is the Dollhouse's most prized girl but her assignments always go terribly wrong. One would hate to see how lousy the other dolls are at their jobs if Echo constitutes "the best". The trouble (this time) is, Richard/Matt is a psycho. He's the love 'em and leave kill 'em sort. After a particularly steamy hunting scene -- the things they get away with on television now! Not that I'm complaining when it's Eliza & Matt doing the groping, sweating and talking about blowjobs -- Matt jumps up from their tent of coital bliss and tells his pricey doll that he's giving her a 5 minute head start and then he's going to hunt and kill her. This is a totally creepy scene because...

1. Angel faced Keeslar is suddenly revealed as a sick f***
2. This brings up all those icky memories of what happens to people who have sex in the woods in slasher movies. Hint: double penetration.
   
3. It also reminds us that Echo is basically a very very expensive prostitute (we're two episodes in and this is, you guessed it!, the second time she's been comissioned as a fantasy lay)...
4. Which brings up the uncomfortable issue to trump all uncomfortable issues. Can Echo, who is never herself but an imprint of other personalities and behaviors, truly give consent? Some critics are calling these assignments rape fantasies. Yuck. (Whole debate going on about this over at the IMDB)
   

Joss Whedon has gone on record before about the problems he has with misogyny in the horror genre but some parts of this episode felt uncomfortably close to being a part of the problem without enough distance to comment on it. I'm not sure. Perhaps the horror fans among you would have a sharper perspective? I probably don't need to tell you that Echo survives this assignment. Her client does not. She ends him in rather pointy fashion after he nearly strangles her to death. Which brings us to the B thread.

As Echo nears death, she sees her other selves. Uh oh, she's "compositing"!

Crosscut throughout this A horror plot is a B horror mystery (also of the psycho killer variety) about the previous best doll (they call him "Alpha") who "composited" and promptly slashed several people around him into little bits. He left Echo alive, shivering naked in the Dollhouse showers, surrounded by the other dolls he wasn't as merciful with. Grisly. Nobody knows why he spared her. But what this basically tells the viewer is that there are all sorts of problems with the "imprinting" technology and maybe those memory wipes don't work so well. Echo does her own compositing in this episode. Whenever she nears death she starts seeing previous versions of herself. The A and B stories are well integrated mirrors in this episode and I'm assuming the best episodes will have this organic reflective compatibility. Cross your fingers.

C story: The FBI Agent hits more dead ends but someone ("Alpha" is my early guess) sends him a photo of Echo with a "keep looking" scribble.

Kind of a sick episode but a goodie: B+

Episode 1.3 "Stage Fright"
A plot: A Britney style popstar has a deranged fan. Echo is sent in as back-up singer / bodyguard. The opening musical number suggests we'll be getting lots of boob shaking and ass shimmying action from Eliza (score!) once she joins the act but that's mostly left to the guest star Jaime Lee Kirchner as the pop star in jeopardy. The writers do have a bit of meta fun with the notion that they suspect you're watching this show for Eliza's rack and general bootyliciousness, though. And aren't you? I am (partially). Eliza sings in this episode. It's too bad Joss didn't somehow work her into the classic Buffy episode "Once More With Feeling". The A story has some really rough acting in all corners though --do they only do one take?

B and C story: We don't get as much plot from the B story this time -- it's mostly well-played / scripted handwringing between the various Dollhouse staff members about what to do about Echo. She seems to be acting slightly outside her persona/parameter programming with increasing regularity. The nifty thing about this episode is that the B & C stories collide. Agent Ballard's one lead to the secret organization, a lowlife criminal named "Victor" (they're both pictured to your left), had seemed like an expendable minor character in the first two episodes. He's revealed to be an actual doll here in a great "gotcha" edit, wherein he steals Echo's signature post memory wipe line "Did I fall asleep?". Agent Ballard has been hitting dead ends for a reason. C

One of the things that Dollhouse seems to be lacking in its first few episodes is a sense of real threat. Battlestar Galactica, the current high water mark for genre shows, has this in spades. Each episode has a dizzying sense of "anything could happen" danger that is rare on television where the long term nature of the artform generally prevents shocking plot twists and characters dying unexpectedly or turning against each other in irreparable ways. I hope Whedon steals some of BSG's writing staff now that that show is wrapping.

We don't have a lot to go on yet but Dollhouse's "assignments" have ranged from mediocre (1.1) to scary (1.2) to campy (1.3) but there's not enough paranoia and dread laced through each episode to represent what is essentially a very sinister and ethically meaty premise. In its best moments it glances in the general direction of the sinister. The third episode ends with an absolutely terrific final shot of Echo walking through the Dollhouse. We've seen the choreography of this shot before but this time its twisted just enough to raise the hairs. It looks the same as every other walk we've seen her take in her memory wiped state, but something is different. With a minor wary sideways glance to a handler who thinks Echo should be "sent to the attic" (he doesn't see this and she shouldn't know he's a threat to her) followed by a barely visible head shake (as if in warning) to another doll passing by, you have to wonder...


How much of her now familiar childlike persona is a put on? How much does Echo really know? It's the best and most intriguing note of the series yet capping its worst episode. Fancy that.
*

Doll House and Dollhouse

I am obsessive by nature but somehow I never caught the collecting memorabilia bug. I have none and I rarely get excited about something unless it's super personal -- like the water bottle a friend of mine snatched after a Julianne Moore function. Her lips had touched it! I swear I did not ask my friend to do this -don't judge! -- so I have no idea why I'm suddenly all into the idea of owning one of a kind sculpted movie dolls or how long this sudden urge will last but...

How great are these Rosemary's Baby dolls?

They're made by sculptor/actress Alesia Newman-Breen. (Here's her blog) At this moment I feel like I would give up several gallons of plasma or perhaps donate my whole body to science to have one of Michelle Pfeiffer as Susie Diamond or Julianne Moore as Carol White in [safe] (That'd transfer so spookily well to doll form, wouldn't it? Especially if it came with the right accessories). I mean, look at how incredible these movie dolls are! And they're so actressexual friendly, too. Famous femmes in indelible roles. Yes, please. More.

Dolls have been on my brain what with the premiere of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse last Friday still imprinting in my susceptible bad girl lovin' brain. Did you watch it?

[spoilers follow]

The first few minutes of Dollhouse take place between a dishevelled Eliza Dushku ("Echo" our heroine) and a suspiciously helpful business type Olivia Williams. They're discussing Echo's actions, their consequences and possible solutions. It plays out somewhat like that 'become a super assassin and leave life in prison or death sentence behind' establishing scenes in Point of No Return / La Femme Nikita only far less specific. This Someone is signing Something to escape Someone or Something. Actions, consequences and solutions? 100% vague. They're so vague, in fact, that one might be forgiven for assuming that Whedon and Co stuffed the dialogue full of as many pronouns and generalities as possible. All the better to make it up as they go along if the show takes off. 'Save some space for cool ideas, fellas. We love deepening mythologies in the Whedonverse!'

Cut to a motorcycle chase wherein Echo takes a spill and then nonsensically dumps her helmet -- the same helmet that undoubtedly just prevented a concussion. Little known fact: Famous actors are exempt from helmet laws because if it's just some random person on a bike we're flipping the channel. Seems Echo is on some sort of Ultimate Date Night for Badasses. She calls her boyfriend a "bitch" after he wins the bike race and then demands that they dance. Whedon knows his target audience (i.e. Faith the vampire slayer lovers!) and for a brief blissful moment once Eliza starts shaking it, it's like watching "Bad Girls" again, one of the best episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Ever. [Hint: All episodes involving Faith are 'one of the best episodes of Buffy. Ever.' Remember this. It will serve you well. Season 3 people, season 3]

Eliza working it out

Anyway, her bitch boy gives her a necklace which trips some switch in her. Is she a robot? No, she just mental. She's got subliminal programming and she's back to the "Dollhouse" which she seems to think is a spa. Her "treatments" involve memory wipes... but unlike the concept in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind these aren't true memory wipes but fake memory wipes. We realize that this date was paid for and the bad girl persona was not Echo's own, but an "imprint" to please her client. Once she's wrapped an assignment, the current personality and memories are wiped and she's personality free and ready for the next imprinted personality to be determined by the next rich client. In other words, this is sort of like Fantasy Island with a Machiavellian twist. The island workers serving up the fantasies don't know who they are or that they're role playing.

Since it's a Whedon show it's all about tough sexy women (Echo), nerdy and possibly evil computer geeks (this guy to your left here) and older stuffier handlers (this other guy to the far left) who try to keep aforementioned tough sexy women safe and in check. Sound familiar? But I overstate. These are just surface 'type' similarities. Dollhouse doesn't feel a lot like Buffy or Whedon's other shows. TV shows, the best ones at least, often take several episodes to find their true personality. There's a lot of groundwork being laid down. One senses the show might experiment with a few personas before it settles for one imprint.

After all this setup we enter into this particular episode's A story, a unthrilling crime drama about a rich man's kidnapped daughter. Echo is sent in with a new imprint (she's a hostage negotiator) and she dresses like a sexy librarian who would immediately be stripping if this were a music video. But -- and I hope the showrunners get a handle on this right away -- the A plot is not really what's important. All the interesting bits involve either a) the behinds the scenes machinations, b) the organic problems inherent in the doll's programming (Echo's latest imprinted personality comes with child abuse memories) and c) the dolls going a little wonky if they get confused. Don't confront them with any questions about their real selves since they don't actually know that they aren't who they're mentally programmed to be! Got that?


It's a little head spinning. Dollhouse could probably use a beginning pre-credit sequence like Buffy had in the first season that narrows down the concept in a sound byte for the casual viewer.

Acting wise this show might be a challenge for those cast as dolls. Only Eliza gets much air time in the premiere episode (smart move) though we see several other gorgeous men and women milling about in this luxurious spa atmosphere. There's a few witty overhead shots that do make them look like tiny figurines in a, well, doll house. One imagines that the other dolls Echo lives with in personality-free splendor will become involved quickly. Whedon has never met a show concept he couldn't rapidly populate -- Ensembles are his thing even when the concept hinges on a solitary hero / "chosen one". Sometimes Dushku pulls off the personality switching that this new concept show requires. The opening scene she handles superbly (playing to her time tested strengths) and I love the way she lets that party persona bleed over into her dazed but not confused stroll back to her handler. One sees that she doesn't quite know why she's doing it but she's okay with that -- her devil may care nature doesn't sweat the small stuff. As an actress she also seems to be having a spot of fun with the stereotyped edges of her uptight negotiator role. Dushku has a tougher time in the post memory wipe personality free stage. I assume the dolls are supposed to read like eery blank slates but Echo seems uncomfortably close to, well, stoopid.

But if we learned anything watching Eliza Dushku on Buffy it's that she improves rapidly as an actor. And if we learned anything watching Joss Whedon's past three series it's that they improve rapidly once the creative teams are done "setting the stage" or perhaps finding their nerve/voice. For a first episode I'd give it a B but I think the concept is at least an A-. We don't get a lot on Ms. Williams (is she truly evil or merely an amoral businesswoman?) or the investigator trying to find the Dollhouse (Battlestar Galactica's Tahmoh Penikett). We meet him when he's all sweaty, shirtless and boxing presumably because, again, Joss knows his audiences.

If the Dollhouse team can figure out a way to keep the stand-alone assignment plots reflecting back at the overarching mysteries of this organization while also finding clever ways to play the emotional arcs of personality-free dolls (one hopes that they start to crack!) it could really be something. Stay tuned.

P.S. This is never going to be the TV Experience but for when I really feel like talking about something. That said do you like the idea of weekly coverage of Dollhouse?

Twelfth Link

Charlie Rose speaks with Mickey Rourke at length about his storied career and The Wrestler's road to Oscar
Arts Beat Joss Whedon on Dollhouse. It premieres tonight.
Popnography Joss Whedon and the gays
Slant is done with the director's branch in the Academy. They have been in free fall, haven't they?
In Contention shares the Peter Gabriel dropping out of the Oscar news. I don't know how y'all are feeling about this but limiting the performances to only 90 seconds each is just another clue to me that the Academy has virtually zero interest in this category. Why not just cut your losses and cancel the category for future years. Especially since the choices year after year leave a lot to be desired.


Flick Filosopher Should the character of The Joker be retired from movies?
Topless Robot looks at the most dysfunctional superhero couples of all time. For Valentine's Day. Only two of these crazy romances have ever made it to the screen. You know which two.
Fabulon Madonna & Boy Toy
Lazy Circle even Angelina Jolie freaked out by baby crazy Nadia Suleman
Film of the Month Club looks at The Three Caballeros. God, I haven't seen that in decades.
Film in Focus is finalizing a "who inspires you" contest by way of Milk
1 more

Finally, did you know that Anne Hathaway will be doing Shakespeare in the Park this summer? She's doing Twelfth Night but Twelfth Night is not as kind to everyone as it was to Gwyneth Paltrow, you know? Twelfth Night in the Park is, are you ready for this, the same thing that Michelle Pfeiffer did immediately following her first Oscar nomination. The levels. The difference is that Anne is playing Viola and 'chelle played Lady Olivia back in the day. Here's hoping that Anne has an easier road with critics than Michelle did. That 1989 production is still cited as a terrible one in articles on New York's beloved seasonal event. Critics were not kind to the fresh Oscar nominee back in 1989.