Swingers

I wish I could embed images into post titles. A little martini glass, in this case.

Mike: I thought Caesars was one of the dope spots?
Trent: Back in the day this place was a real contender. But now they'll appreciate the business. They'll probably fall over themselves for a couple of high class guys like you and me.

[a couple of minutes later]

Dealer: Perhaps you'd be more comfortable at one of our lower stakes tables?

I don't think I've ever once mentioned Swingers (1996) on The Film Experience but I love it. Why wasn't it nominated for Screenplay at the Oscars that year? Too indie, perhaps. It's better than Shine at any rate.

Jon Favreau pre weight gain and Iron Man. Vince Vaughn pre weight gain and bankability (but still his best performance, no?). Ron Livingston pre post-it note breakups with Carrie Bradshaw. Heather Graham pre Rollergirl. Plenty of well earned laughs throughout. A great soundtrack.

And look at all the beautiful babies...

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Linky the Blogger Slayer

Self Styled Siren has a fascinating quote from William Wellman on the psychology of actors
<--- THR A relaunch of Buffy the Vampire Slayer without the Scoobies, Gellar or Joss Whedon. Ewww. Remember what happened last time they revived Buffy from the dead? She weren't too happy 'bout it, y'all. Learn from past mistakes or be doomed to repeat them.
Big Picture on Ulmer Scale of Bankability. Re: Nicole Kidman

Even overseas, people see her choice of roles as very erratic. She'll do a studio film, but followed by several films that don't even register overseas. She's just too unpredictable. A French executive I spoke to said, "I find her fascinating, but she's too quirky." That makes her a very risky bet.

Fabulon has some clips from a Bette Davis sitcom The Decorator
Risky Biz on marketing Palme D'Or winner The White Ribbon

---> Elizabeth Banks has fun posts up with personal pics and views from Cannes.

...I just got back from the Festival de Cannes. It was pretty good...

We saw UP in 3-D (adorable) and Precious (the opposite of adorable, but great). So I guess it was better than good.

Hell on Frisco Bay sees a documentary about the Sherman Brothers (Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). I want to see this toot sweet.
DListed Cher & Christina Aguilera as co-stars?
I Need My Fix Heather Graham has some words for the producer of her latest

Corbis has a fun brief article by Fran Lebowitz on this ancient Warhol portrait of Arnold Schwarzenegger. I link to this because the grim box office of Terminator Salvation (less than T3 many years of ticket price inflation later) suggests that without Ahnuld, there is no interest in Terminators. CGI Ahnuld need not apply. If your personal lack of interest involves the lack of a James Cameron behind the wheel, you can click over to Market Saw to whet your appetite for Avatar. The shot they have is supposedly of body armor worn by humans attacking an alien village. It's reminiscent of Ripley in her exoskeleton in Aliens, don'cha think?

Kiss Her She's Irish

Happy St Patrick's Day


From three of the most successful Irish actresses (not a lot of Irish actresses seem to make a massive silver screen mark) to hit Hollywood: fascinating Anjelica Huston, endearing Maureen O'Hara and the goddess Greer Garson.


Contemporary actresses of varying degrees of Irishness that must be kissed today: Kathy Bates, Fiona Shaw, Rose McGowan, Jennifer Connelly, Allyson Hannigan (Willow), Kristen Bell (Veronica), Heather Graham and Janeane Garofalo. Did I forget anyone? Hollywood likes Irish men much more. Too many to list!

To read previous posts on any of these actresses, click the labels below
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Red Carpet Lineup

A random sampling of actresses from premieres, parties and events this past week...

[original images]

Amy Adams may be playing a nun currently but she still steps out looking like a cartoon princess. I think it's been much too long since we've seen Alfre Woodard, don't you? Have you seen Passion Fish (1992)? It's been on my mind lately for some reason. Cate Blanchett apparently just stepped out of a time machine direct from the set of Björk's "Who Is It?" video. But that's a compliment. Anything that reminds us of Björk is very welcome, indeed. I've been noticing that Marisa Tomei's red carpet wear is getting increasingly outre as the weather gets colder. If she keeps this up she might be in Tilda territory by the time the Oscars roll around in February. One can always dream. I can't wait for you all to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button because Taraji P Henson gives her character this one little physical gesture in a church healing scene that just made me grin from ear to ear. I'm so glad her career is taking off. Did Kim Basinger think she looked fat in The Door in the Floor or something? Is it wrong that every time I see Heather Graham I want to hand her a pair of rollerskates? I never want her to take them off.

Tuesday Top Ten: PTA Performances

Paul Thomas Anderson makes me feel so unaccomplished. He’s 37 and I haven’t directed four great films at this age! Argh. Hate him. But I love his movies. From Hard Eight (also known as Sydney) to Boogie Nights to Magnolia to Punch-Drunk Love, they’re all really something. As are the performances inside of them. While we're anxiously awaiting There Will Be Blood, let's look at the performances in his fine filmography.

PTA is often compared to Robert Altman and though I think the comparison is a little simplistic, he invites it too. He’s often cited Altman as an influence and he even helped out with A Prairie Home Companion (Altman needed a standby auteur should his health prevent completion –thankfully it didn’t)

Top 10 Performances in Paul Thomas Anderson Films

10 Fiona Apple in numerous music videos.
I’m cheating here because there were too many performances to choose from (these are huge consistenly excellent ensembles) plus I’m Apple obsessed and still miffed about that breakup. I love all the videos he made with her including "Limp", "Fast As You Can", "Paper Bag" and "Across the Universe"

09 April Grace as “Gwenovier” in Magnolia
Her enemy combatant interview with Cruise is a marvel –my second or third favorite scene in the movie. No matter what one thinks of Tom Cruise as an actor, it’s hard to match his intensity in any given scene. Gwenovier is so formidable a scene partner (without doing much) that doesn’t it feel like even Frank TJ Mackey has to overreach to fight her off? And can someone get Grace more movie roles?

08 Mary Lynn Rajskub as “Elizabeth” in Punch-Drunk Love

I still thrill to the way she comically rampages into every scene. There’s just no brake fluid in her system. That anger problem runs in the family.

07 Philip Baker Hall as “Sydney” in Hard Eight.
I’ll admit that I don’t remember this movie, PTA’s first that well. I sought it out after being stunned by Boogie Nights and Magnolia and I recall immediately understanding what PTA always saw in this character actor mainstay. Gwyneth Paltrow is also quite good in this film.

06 Heather Graham as “Rollergirl” in Boogie Nights

What a gift this role was. It’s perfectly suited to Graham’s considerable yet slightly vacant charisma. It’s a great role as written but it’s also the best performance of her career: engaging, well judged, and more than a little raw once it needs to be.

05 Tom Cruise as “Frank TJ Mackey” in Magnolia

This sexist self-help monster role needed either a charismatic movie star or an intense but "off" actor to serve it. It was lucky enough to be channeled through both.

04 Julianne Moore as “Linda Partridge” in Magnolia

Possibly the most divisive performance on the list but I love that it doesn’t feel like other Moore performances. It’s large, stylized and forceful... Moore at her bravest as an aging trophy wife carrying tons of weight in guilt. I still remember the New Yorker review which deemed her work both nonsensical and mesmerizing.

03 Burt Reynolds as “Jack Horner” in Boogie Nights

It always alarms me when I hear about the actors who turned this role down. Reynolds almost didn’t take it himself. Insanity


02 Mark Wahlberg as “Dirk Diggler” in Boogie Nights

When this film premiered this star turn felt like a leap forward for a young actor and the promise of great things to come. Now it feels like the realization of promise. It's so right for both the demands of the film and the truth of the character that I'm doubtful Wahlberg can top it. A hilarious, sweet and sad take on a guy who is in over his head especially once his pants are down.

01 Julianne Moore as “Amber Waves” in Boogie Nights
Not just the best performance in PTA's fine filmography but one of the best of the past couple of decades. It deserves at least a 1000 words, not just a few sentences. too many things (to say)... too many things.

Agree? disagree?
Light a firecracker, collect some pudding, or throw some frogs around in the comments...

IIFF #3: A Doc, A Walk Out, A Tease

OK. I have just a short half hour (as opposed to a long one -what?) before my next screening. I must type fast. Just a few words on the movies this time.

Adrift in Manhattan belongs to my once beloved drama subgenre: strangers lives intersecting. I think I grew up loving the mosaic film because I think it's truthful in basic form and because I love Robert Altman. But unfortunately very very few filmmakers are good at it yet it's all the rage anyway (see: Crash, Babel, etc...) This movie, surveying a half dozen characters who live along NY's 1/9 subway line (very familiar to me) is a mixed bag. There's some great NY details: the apartments seem real for once and it does a fine job capturing the quietness of isolation within a bustling environment but like a lot of these mosaics it also forces its hand, particularly in its final stretch. Good performances from Elizabeth Pena, Heather Graham, Victor Rasuk (who we still know and love as Victor Vargas... though he's now Raised), and Dominic Chianese.
[Funny moment post-screening: One of the festival peeps was talking to me about how much he liked the movie and he said with great relief/surprise "Heather Graham was acting with her face!"]

Disappearances is my lone walkout so far. That happens at festivals when you're seeing dozens of things and short on time. It appeared to be a magical western of some sort about a strange family and whiskey running. The theater was freezing, I was hungry, and I was unable to cope with the first half hour's stilted tone. Genevieve Bujold was giving a performance that can only be described in one succinct adjective: weird. No other word. I wasn't feeling it.

Summercamp! by Bradley Beesley and Sarah Price fits neatly into the Spellbound documentary subgenre of 'kids say the darndest things'. There's a lot of cute moments, one very sad girl obsessed with chickadees and several intriguing characters. Though the movie touches on a lot of fascinating issues (childhood meds, how kids deal with grief, social development, overworked counsellors, and environmental specific friendships) it's more than a little unfocused --dropping a lot of the balls it tosses so enthusiastically up into the air. I think it needed to either zero in a few kids and stay there or not go there at all and concentrate on the communal portrait instead. It tries both. Still, fine stand alone moments and the subject matter make it a fun watch.

Away From Her. I was asked during the fundraiser last month to review this so I don't want to give it short shrift here. I'll say more when I return home. But everything you've heard about Julie Christie's performance is true. She's just... Ahhh. I can't speak coherently about it yet. She completely wrenched my heart out without any cheap over sentimentalized nonsense.

The rest of the movie is quite good, too.