"you may link, there's nothing to it. But I simply cannot do it alone!"

Tribeca Film I have a new weekly column there "Best in Show" where I'm extolling the virtues of MVPs in new movies. First up: Tom Hardy in Inception.
Mr Dan Zak wants Angelina Jolie to adopt him, loves her in Salt.
The Observer top 10 movie cameos. Wide range of years here, so, yay.
Totally Looks Like Whoa. Keanu Reeves & Tchaikovsky.


In Contention Wait. What's this? Fresh rumor hell that Margaret (2005) starring Anna Paquin might finally see release. I'd rather not hope again given that they're saying 2011.
i09 okay I kind of think this Green Lantern movie is going to be terrible. BUT. This is so sweet/adorable: Ryan Reynolds reciting the oath for a kid at Comic Con.
Playbill the musical adaptation of Pedro Almodóvar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is getting a starry cast for Broadway: Patti Lupone, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Sherie Rene Scott. Yay and also yikes. How can it live up to the film? A lot will depend on how strong the musical score is. And unfortunately film-to-stage transfers haven't seem to view the song score as that important, trusting on name brands to sell the show (see also: Addams Family, Legally Blonde, etcetera)

Finally, let's wrap up with Caroline O'Connor ("Nini" from Moulin Rouge!, don'cha know) performing Chicago's Velma Kelly intro "All That Jazz"



Yes! Caroline is bringing her all singing all dancing one-woman'ish show (there are back up dancers) "The Showgirl Within" to London this fall. Wish I could see it. (I expect a full report from at least one of you Brits reading The Film Experience in the dark out there.) I once had hoped to interview all 'Four Whores of the Apocalypse' from Moulin Rouge! (2001) though I never got very far. My favorite film of the Aughts celebrates its 10th anniversary next year, so I'll have to return to it in a big way. It's been a few years since I last watched it now.

Three Steps to McGregor...

...One: Musical Ewan

[photo src]

Moulin Rouge! may have showcased his vocal abilities to best and most acclaimed effect so far, but back in 1993 when he was starting out Ewan forswore the Suez Crisis for girls and guitars in Dennis Potter’s musical-drama TV throwback Lipstick on Your Collar. The first time I saw him in anything he was shrugging off clerk work and leaping on his desk in gold Elvis get-up miming to ‘Don’t Be Cruel’. And of course four years later the karaoke resurfaced in A Life Less Ordinary, where Ewan’s spontaneous serenading of Cameron Diaz was the only thing that wasn’t lifeless and ordinary. Belting out the tunes came second to his lascivious Iggy Pop-meets-Kurt Cobain routines in Velvet Goldmine, but he gamely sang every song himself. He’s an under-praised cinematic crooner – it’s one of his most dependable attributes.

Come What May, Ewan is always glad to flex his vocal chords on celluloid.

...Two: Ballsy Ewan

[photo src]

As much as Ewan seems to frequently like getting his tackle out, he also seems equally unafraid to take on gay roles. He likes setting his characters’ sexuality free on screen. Four gay roles in a forty-feature career isn’t that many, but it’s more than what most of his peers seem willing to take on. And how venturous and open he is with it, too: he was an open bi book for both Yoshi Oida and Vivian Wu in The Pillow Book; there was the Wild and roughed-up rooftop nookie with Christian Bale in Velvet Goldmine; in Scenes of a Sexual Nature he cruised one long, sunny day away on Hampstead Heath; and in the recent drama-comedy anomaly I Love You Phillip Morris he bunked with Jim Carrey. Ewan is au fait with playing gay. He not only doesn’t seem fazed by it as a factor in choosing parts, he also carries it out with aplomb. In fact he does it in an unabashedly liberating manner: for each of these characters the closet door was flung wide open (check his levity levels on being reunited with Carrey in a crowded jail in Phillip Morris or the flippant way he disregards the social strictures of the ‘70s in Goldmine).

As an actor – and in his own small way – he’s making an affirmative impact from the outside in.

...Three: Smiley Ewan

[photo src]

Drug happy, love happy, dance happy; happy high, happy heart, happy Feet. Ewan has one of the happiest faces in cinema (check out his IMDb photo for proof). And directors love capturing it on screen: Danny Boyle framed Ewan’s drug-placated grin during his heroin highs in the flophouses of Trainspotting; thanks to the magical sheen Baz Luhrmann sprinkled over the Moulin Rouge, Ewan’s face literally lit up upon entering Nicole Kidman’s Paris of 1899; and it may have been Down with Love but he was Up with Joy for Renée Zellweger in ‘60s New York. The places change, but the face remains the same: blissed out with glee. Despite furrowing his brow in a generous handful of the more serious roles that have peppered his filmography – in sci-fi-fantasy (Star Wars prequels, The Island), gritty Brit flicks (Young Adam, Incendiary) and action-drama vehicles (Black Hawk Down, Angels & Demons) – it’s the lighter, cheerier fare in which he endears the most. He works an audience well when he throws a smile down from the silver screen.

So, say ‘cheese’ Mr. Ewan McGregor, it’s your (birthday) party – you’ll smile if you want to.
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TTT: Top Ten Characters of the Aughts

Tuesday Thursday Top Ten

Remember almost exactly a year ago when I did that impossible list of Favorite Film Characters of All Time? At the time I excluded anybody from the Aughts on account of they were still so new and we'd get to them later. Well, it's later. Here's a quick rundown which I may expand for another project later. These are the newish characters from the last decade in film that are (arguably) the ones I think about the most. I cherish them... it's not a list of best written or best performances or best whatever. It's a list of characters that frequently hop into my brain. They've bought condos in my brain real estate. Though obviously if you asked me on a different day...

Not that you asked me today.

10 Favorite(ish) Movie Characters of the Aughts

• Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain "Jack, I swear"
• Lalit Verma in Monsoon Wedding (Loving dads in cinema really get to me. I'm sure armchair therapists will love that)
• Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind "I'm just a fucked up girl trying to find some peace of mind"
  
• Eleanor Fine in Far From Heaven "Cathy... I'm your best friend"
  
• Tom Stall in A History of Violence (I've brought pompoms to this post...just in case)
  
• Satine in Moulin Rouge! "wilting flower, bright and bubbly or smoldering temptress?"
  
  
  
• Poppy in Happy-Go-Lucky (my hero!)
• Sara Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream (At least once a week I find myself thinking about Sara thinking about that red dress. And that's no exaggeration)
• Vivian and Brad Markowski in I ♥ Huckabees "Have you ever transcended space and time?"
  
• Elle Driver (aka California Mountain Snake) in Kill Bill, Vol. I and Kill Bill, Vol. 2
  
• Mr Chow in In the Mood For Love and 2046 (who leaves behind a cloud of cigarette smoke to punctuate this list)
  

Oops. That's 12.

Tony Leung Chiu Wai in In the Mood For Love

Did these characters sink way down deep into your soul? Or are the newish fictional men/women/creatures that are never far from your thoughts quite a different dozen?
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Favorite Movies of the Decade #15-1

the list #100-76, #75-51, #50-31, #30-16 and #15-1.

Awards for 2009 begin tomorrow or thereabouts.

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Let's wrap this sucker up!
I had really intended to rewatch the top ten (why not?) before I ventured into the mental hospital. Trust me, that's where I've been heading as I've tried to rank the movies I love more than people (kidding! sort of) but who has the time? The 10th Annual FiLM BiTCH Awards begin tomorrow so I have to get a move on to wrap up the 2009 film year. It's possible I'll revisit this rundown at some point for a special project but who knows. These rankings are NOT final. God... I'm not ready for the straightjacket yet. I need my hands free so I can talk.

What follows is more like tiers. The numbers function as mere placeholders.

Tier 3

You could group them with #16-20... It doesn't mean
I don't worship them. I got a whole lotta love to go round

15 Vera Drake dir. Mike Leigh (2004)
Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton) whistles while she works. Though her "work", you soon discover as you follow her into crowded residential blocks, is not something you'd normally think of whistling to. It's part of the genius of Mike Leigh's best film (yeah, you heard me) that Vera doesn't question her calling or the tune in her head. When the bomb finally drops on Vera's happy-go-lucky existence, Staunton returns Leigh's faith in her with one of the most devastating closeups in cinema. It's the moment everyone remembers from the film but my mind often drifts to the aftermath, diminutive Vera in her coat in the snow heading to the police car, terrified. She's warmly dressed but the chill is already down to the bone.

14 There Will Be Blood dir. Paul Thomas Anderson (2007)
If it's not quite this world great's best film (that prize to Boogie Nights saith I) it's definitely his most audacious and technically thrilling. There are so many sinister and seismic moments, it's a wonder the earth doesn't open up while you're watching it, and drag you to hell with Daniel Plainview. "I'm finnnissshed"

Tier 2

I think about them so much that they have
ceased to be movies. They're now life events.

13 The Lord of the Rings dir. Peter Jackson (2001-2003)

Magic. Especially the first one.

12 Mulholland Dr. dir. David Lynch (2001)
So much has been written about this movie that I sometimes worry that familiarity will rob it of its mystery. Yet when Laura Elena Haring starts whispering "Mulholland Drive" I'm hypnotized again. I'm an amnesiac myself, and I've never heard her whispery chant.

11 Requiem for a Dream dir. Darren Aronofsky (2000)
"I like thinking about the red dress."

10 A History of Violence dir. David Cronenberg (2005)
In the past I've likened this movie to a machine, it's so finely calibrated and efficient. But that doesn't get at its emotional fire, its guttural poetry, and its savage eroticism. It's more like a cyborg.

9 Wo Hu Cang Long (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) dir. Ang Lee (2000)
Ang Lee is not the only filmmaker with three movies in the countdown. But he's the only filmmaker with two in the top ten. How great is Ang Lee? And how glorious was/is this utterly transporting adventure?

8 Rachel Getting Married dir. Jonathan Demme (2008)
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change... like the fact that so many people don't love this movie. Their loss. I'm ready to dive back into this immersive, noisy, eclectic, spontaneous, superbly acted, wonderfully sustained, bleeding heart of a movie right this very second. Pass me the DVD.

7 Hable Con Ella (Talk To Her) dir. Pedro Almodovar (2002)
So imaginatively structured, exquisitely controlled, and enigmatically moving that it's nearly impossible to wrap your head around in one go. It's a good thing then that Pedro's movies miraculous improve with repeated viewings... even when they were brilliant to begin with. "Cucurrucucú paloma, cucurrucucú no llores."

Tier 1

As sustaining as oxygen or water or pets or friends.
If you try to take them away from me, I will cut you.

6 Fa Yeung Nin Wa (In the Mood For Love) dir. Wong Kar Wai (2000, released in 2001)
In a perfect world, I would always be fetching noodles or trying on cheomsangs with Maggie Cheung. Either that or writing wuxia and smoking with Tony Leung Chiu Wai. I'd gladly pay the price of heartbreak in the end.

5 Far From Heaven dir. Todd Haynes (2002)
Of all the things we have to thank Todd Haynes for: new ways of looking at Barbie dolls, Bob Dylan splintered, restless experimentation as cinematic life-blood, a mini Douglas Sirk revival, Ewan MacGregor naked and covered in glitter... this is the gift I cherish most: Julianne Moore in a purple scarf, waving love goodbye.

4 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind dir. Michel Gondry (2004)
The Eyes: a singularly imaginative visualist in Gondry. The Brain: the twisty intellect of Charlie Kauffman. The Body: a great acting ensemble operating as one powerful machine. The Heart: a comic (Jim Carrey) positively aching with true drama. The Soul: one of the most elemental faces and emotional forces in cinematic history (Kate Winslet); It's the collaborative miracle movie of the decade, all its parts made greater by their interconnectedness.

3 Brokeback Mountain dir. Ang Lee (2005)
A love story for the ages. And one that quietly enrages.

2 Dancer in the Dark dir. Lars von Trier (2000)

1 Moulin Rouge! dir. Baz Luhrmann (2001)

List-making is, by its very nature, personal. If you're doing it right that is.

Selma & Satine. To quote the hilarious Moulin Rouge! FYC ads:
"SHE SINGS! SHE DANCES! SHE DIES!"

The story of the Aughts for this particular moviegoer was the rebirth of the musical. To yank the dead genre from its unfortunate grave, fearless visionary filmmakers and prodigiously gifted musicians were required. The impish deconstructionist (von Trier) provoked such genius from a totally modern composer (Björk) that ten years later you can still be transported with just a bar of "New World" or "I've Seen It All".

Then, the party of the decade. The inspired mashup conductor (Baz) and his darling stars (Nicole, Ewan, Jim) put on the messiest craziest livelest funniest tearjerking "Spectacular! Spectacular!" show on earth. I'd never claim it's a perfect movie but flaws are endearing when you love madly and deeply. and Love Is All You Need.

~ finis~
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Decade in Review: 2001 Top Ten

What follows is my original top ten list of 2001. We'll discuss each year of the decade over the next month or two (we already did 2000). I do this because I am curious about which films "stick" and which fade and why and maybe you are too? Best year of the decade I think. The top five films would all be valid #1 film choices in some years. New comments are in red.

Note: This list references films released in NYC in 2001, not year of production or year in which they first the hit festival circuit or whatnot.


Runners Up (in descending order): Sexy Beast, Ali, Series 7: The Contenders, The Others, Last Resort and Waking Life. I don't remember loving Ali that much... and more than The Others? I don't remember that at all. I mean Nicole Kidman was the shit TWICE OVER in 2001.

In my round up of the year I also sang the praises of Monsters, Inc, Crazy/Beautiful and Wet Hot American Summer. Even though I listed Monsters, Inc as "underrated" I still didn't have it in the top 16. That was weird, me! I never consider documentaries eligible for the year's top ten. That's a quirk of mine that I can't really defend except for to say that I don't see enough of them to fairly evaluate their merits and I find it nearly impossible to compare their merits to those of narrative features. That said, in 2001 I was wild for The Gleaners and I.

10 No Man's Land
This acclaimed Bosnian film from Danis Tanovic is a startling visceral comedy about the lunacy of war. Let's hope it beats the overpraised (if admittedly enjoyable) Amélie to the foreign language Oscar this year.

I was surprisingly prophetic there though I understand a lot of people are still mad about that underdog win.

09 The Royal Tenenbaums
A film that flirts with greatness and becomes all the more touching by missing the mark. There's one great scene after another in Wes Anderson's fairy tale document on a family of failed geniuses. The film is blessed with a beautiful team-spirit bouquet of fine performances from Paltrow, Hackman, Huston, Glover, and the Wilson brothers. They've got character.

er... I get what I was saying but I'm not so sure this film missed the mark. It's a thing of melancholy beauty and curious singular humor. Anderson's best by a significant margin.

08 In the Bedroom
Todd Field's studied and terrific debut may not be the masterwork some have claimed it to be but it's a damn good film nonetheless. Its most remarkable feature is its honest deceptiveness. You think it's a love story. Bang, It's not. You think it's a thriller. Oops, think again. It's not that the film is lying, but that we are so accustomed to certain plot trajectories that its difficult to see the film's harrowing turns coming or to immediately understand how thoroughly it undermines traditional notions of revenge or catharsis. Bonus points to the cast for illuminating the emptying effects of grief, and the rage of the broken.

Todd Field and Wes Anderson's subsequent films have made me question my love for these on occasion. I can't say that I remember In the Bedroom well but I like what I remember still. That The Tenenbaums is all the way down at #9 only goes to show what a great year 2001 was.

07 Tillsammans (Together)
The sweetest film of the year is also one of the smartest. Lukas Moodyson throws a broken family into a 70s commune and the resulting emotional, personal, romantic, and idealistic collisions that ensue expose, illuminate, and energize all involved. "Feel good" is a term often used to describe manipulative, simple-minded, happy endings and Hollywood-style sugarcoating. Thankfully, this Swedish comedy has neither of those attributes and actually feels good. It uplifts while engaging you both emotionally and intellectually.

Nobody talks about this movie (maybe because Lukas Moodyson's subsequent films have been so brutal as to be deemed unwatchable by some fans of his first movies) and in truth I don't remember it well but I do remember how I felt leaving the theater: marvelous.

06 Gosford Park
No movie this year approaches it in terms of its nimbleness and fluidity in mixing character, theme and wit. Robert Altman's return to form is wildly entertaining.


05 Mulholland Dr.
This, the critical darling of 2001 (OK, In the Bedroom came close) was the year's most familiar complete stranger. We've seen all the Lynchian motifs, images, and characters before but this time, the singular auteur fashioned something new and revelatory out of his used parts. This picture, a grand one, had tremendous "give" in it allowing for multiple correct intrepetations, thereby prompting the most fascinating critical discussions of the year. But all that aside, the truly smart way to watch Lynch's mindfuck is to just let go and give in to its undeniable and nonsensical pull. From the frenetic overexposed jitterbug opening sequence to the final silencing moment, it's undeniably gripping. Just dive into the blue box.

Subsequent years have only strengthened its grip on the imagination, haven't they?

04 Hedwig and the Angry Inch
A triple threat triumph from writer/director/star John Cameron Mitchell. That this unforgettable theatrical experience made such a successful transfer to the screen with its punk edge, subversive charm, and visceral rock spirit intact was the year's happiest little miracle.

03 In the Mood for Love
Wong Kar Wai has outdone himself. The year's most glorious foreign film has the year's best cinematography. It paints a masterful and hypnotic meditation on memory, emotional stasis, and romantic yearning. The luminous coupling of Maggie Cheung as Mrs Chan and Tony Leung Chiu Wai as Mr. Chow astonish: They're as erotic as Mulholland Dr's Nancy Drew lovers without a sex scene, as glamorous as Moulin Rouge!'s doomed bohemians without as many costume changes and in the end they're more emotionally affecting than either of those sensational couplings. Unmissable.

If I had a gazillion dollars I would have this movie projected on my bedroom wall 24/7. Who needs photos, wallpaper, art or paint? Just these visuals on loop, forever.

02 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Pure magic. Peter Jackson's new film sets the bar high. Released just one month prior to it, Harry Potter looks even more factory-like next to it. The Fellowship of the Ring recalls the grandiose Star Wars magic minus the bad acting and none of the eventual dissappointments of an embarassing Episode One. Fellowship is compared to many films but the one it looks prettiest sitting next to is Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. In just two short years, two signature adventure epics for The East and the West have arrived that dwarf everything their genre has offered for years. Both films will likely inspire future filmmakers who are now but starry eyed children discovering the enormous magic of the cinema while watching them for the first time.

01 Moulin Rouge!
It's no secret that I've always adored Bazmark productions. (Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet were also top ten entries in their years.) But Luhrmann and his troupe topped themselves this time. With the final film in his Red Curtain Trilogy celebrating 'real artificiality,' Baz delivered his masterpiece. A lot of ink has been spilt covering Bazmark's divisive musical fantasia and I could certainly spill a lot more, but I think this revolution of a musical sums itself up quite well and accurately in one of its first numbers.

Spectacular! Spectacular!
no words in the vernacular
can describe this great event
you'll be dumb with wonderment.

More than any film in 2001 this film hit my nerve center of cinephilia: I got completely lost in the daring aesthetics, inspired performances, music, dance, and romance. I was stunned, flabbergasted, thrilled, moved, entertained, and drained all at once. When it was over I could only applaud, buy the soundtrack, and return to the theater repeatedly. To paraphrase another song from the film: come what may... come what may.... I will love this film until my dying day.

I wasn't kidding.

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What were your favorite pictures from 2001?
Do they hold up now? Do you agree that 2001 was the best film year of the decade? For the record the films I was not at all crazy about that quite a few other people love include: The Devil's Backbone, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, A Beautiful Mind, Shrek, Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone and Ghost World.
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Did You See Fireworks?

"That was good."
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Matthew Morrison and Glee

Did you watch the pilot of the new show choir comedy Glee last night? Unfortunately, there's no rush. In an odd carrot-dangling exercize from FOX, you can watch it all summer long on their website. You just can't see anything new. Not that Glee is "new" per se. We've seen high school shows with well meaning adorable teachers and can-do dorky kids before. We've seen musically self aware comedies (Ally McBeal / Pushing Daisies). It's not "new" but it is very very welcome. It's another blessed flag planted down in the pop culture sand, with the inscription "the musicals are back."

I swear to god if I read one more opinion piece / review of anything musical that feels the need to use the disclaimer...

I'm not really a musicals guy/girl...

I'm going to...
Well, I'm going to ... bite my pillow!

How about we drop this foolish bias and twittering nervousness about anything show-tuney or theatrical. Let's just admit that it was out of fashion for about twenty years -- roughly the years in between the genre's final 70s classic All That Jazz (1979) and its masterful rebirth Dancer in the Dark (2000) / Moulin Rouge! (2001) -- and two decades is a lot of time to train people to believe that a particular genre is "uncool" or "gay" or "only meant to be in animated movies" and that they're not supposed to like it.


Stop being sheep opinion-makers! Why the disclaimers? It's like many bloggers, talking heads and critics are worried about being seen as uncool. And that's so, well, high school. Stop worrying about what's cool and enjoy anything that's passionately created, well executed and joyfully performed. Enjoy anything that is glad to be what it is. There are so many joyless money-making exercizes out there. [*cough* Wolverine... seriously? I think everyone involved needed major injections of anti-depressants]

Glee is certainly glad to be what it is. The first episode is funny, mostly well cast (yay Jane Lynch. Never can get enough Jane Lynch), moving and bursting with promise. It was also just casually adorable. That light touch was particularly surprising given that musicals are more prone to tilt towards the charm offensive. Not that there's anything wrong with that: if you've got it, flaunt it and whatnot. Glee doesn't whip out its razzle dazzle into the rousing "Don't Stop Believing" finale, but by then you're already a believer. B+/A-

My only quibbles: Why no singing from Matthew Morrison in the lead role as Will Schuester? I've seen him thrice on stage (Hairspray, The Light in the Piazza, 10 Million Miles) and his voice is beauteous. As is the rest of him.

Matthew atop a pickup for a solo in the short-lived 10 Million Miles.

Glee did manage to sneak in one beefcake shot of Morrison in bed but no singing to stamp it with an exclamation point. For a while Broadway and Off Broadway were combining his hunk quotient with the killer voice to great effect: shirtless for the romantic highlight in The Light in the Piazza (the unbelievably gorgeous "Say it Somehow" --god, that show was so fab), Broadway Bares 18, extra pumped-up and wife beater clad for most of 10 Million Miles (the show wasn't so hot but the music was super. You really can't go wrong with Patty Griffin, now, can you?),

<--- Matthew with puppy. Awwww

When Glee returns there will supposedly be guest appearances from other glittery musical theater types like Kristin Chenoweth, Cheyenne Jackson, Victor Garber and John Lloyd Young. But given the show's concepts (which seems to only allow for the high schoolers to be singing ... how are they going to give all these giant voices their own musical numbers?). Either way, this show will be a much better rent-paying option for Broadway stars than Law & Order (their previous cash cow) sine though none of them ever got anywhere close to a musical number on that procedural. They usually just got a paycheck for delivering some exposition as victims, criminals or witnesses. Snooze.

Two videos: Matthew Morrison and Zooey Deschanel in Once Upon a Mattress and "Don't Stop Believing" from Glee (though I'd advise watching the whole show first. It's more moving that way)



In conclusion: September/October can't come soon enough. Summer is my least favorite season, anyway. Let's skip ahead to fall. That way we get the new TV shows, falling leaves, Oscar buzz and prestige movie season.

I'm totally into time travel this month, huh? 1984, Fall 2009, Terminators 91. How to stay in the present tense? Where When am I?
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Hump Day Hotness: Marital Bliss

Have you seen Vanity Fair's list of Hollywood's rarest unions: the longterm actor/actress marriage? I don't need to tell you that most Tinseltown marriages end in divorce. Yet some couple stick by each other and anyone in a long term relationship or marriage will know what a feat that often is. The immortal Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward are the longest lasting dual movie star marriage -- they were married for 50 years before Newman's death (2008, RIP). But the lengthiest dual actor marriages ever? The Reagans with 52 years and, up at the tippity top, recent Oscar nominee Ruby Dee (American Gangster) and Ossie Davis (2005, RIP) with 56 years of happily ever after.


I'm sure you've heard the famous Newman paraphrase about fidelity

Why fool around with hamburger when you have steak at home?

but what I loved most about their celebrated marriage was that they weren't overly sentimental about it in interviews, often admitting that couples can drive each other nuts, and regularly implying that patience and space are required -- they probably weren't co-dependent nuts in other words. They were able to do things without the other. The sense of humor also definitely helped. I hadn't read this before but I love the inscription on Newman's wedding gift (sherry glasses and a silver cup) to Woodward in 1958

So you wound up with Apollo / If he's sometimes hard to swallow / Use this.

The longest SAG marriages still running: Paula Prentiss (The Stepford Wives) and Richard Benjamin (Portnoy's Complaint) who've been together since 1961 and Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis and Louis Zorich (Mad About You) who've been together since 1962.

The only thing unsatisfying about a very satisfying stability-list like this is that a lot of star couples skip the matrimony part* so it's not entirely accurate. Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins have been together for 21 years now and have yet to marry. And then there's the 26 year situation between Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.

Clockwise, top left: Patricia Wetting & Ken Olin, Tim Robbins &
Susan Sarandon (not married), Helena Bonham-Carter & Tim Burton (not
married), Dukakis & Zurich,The Beatty / The Bening, Will and Jada, Amy
Madigan & Ed Harris and Jamie Lee Curtis & Christopher Guest.

Two weeks back I attended a wedding in Austin which was multi-racial / multi-cultural (Japanese and American) and multi-religious (Shinto, Unitarian, Mormon) and included a moment to honor those who can't be legally married yet (the bride, a longtime friend of mine, has two mommies and two daddies). It was awesome. So anyone who thinks Rachel Getting Married was pure east coast liberal fiction can suck it! My point, which I haven't even gotten to, is this: Ain't love grand? ... and complicated ... and hard to measure... and worth celebrating whether it's fresh or well aged and whether or not there's a wedding certificate?! Celebrate it!

Truth, Beauty, Freedom...
and above all things, Love

P.S. Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson (aka "Abs & Boobs") have now been married for 7½ months !

<--- P.S. 2 Check out this awesome photograph of Newman and Woodward at home, just a few years into their marriage. SO adorable. Thanks to Catherine for pointing the way to it.

previously on hump day hotties:
April Fools, Battlestar Galactica, Carla Gugino, Juliette Binoche, Gael Garcia Bernal & Diego Luna and many more...

Tues Top Ten: Green Skinned Wonders

This list is dedicated to two crushes from childhood that never went away: First, Yvonne Craig (i.e. Batgirl!) who once played an Orion slave girl on Star Trek (prized for their eroticism). Second, Daryl Hannah... who is more caucasian than green but she doesn't think so. Leonardo DiCaprio may get all the press for being an environmentalist but Daryl is the hardcore real deal. I absolutely love her and you should, too. Plus you know: "California Mountain Snake" ... (red and yellow but you know -- snakes = green in the broader sense. Wha--Where am... Oh yes, the list).

Ten Best Green-Skinned Movie Characters

10 Speaking of snakes... One of the scariest things I ever saw as a kid was Medusa in The Clash of the Titans (1981). Don't stare too closely at her lopsided [shudder] key-lit eyes. You know what can happen... I'm so thankful that model work and stop motion haven't completely died in the movie making world because they are so much freakier than CGI as visual effects go. Yes they are remaking that one... and supposedly it's happening any minute now. The Parisian action director Louis Leterrier is helming. His last film was The Incredible Hulk so he must have a viridescent fetish. (How do you say "Orion slave girls" in French?)

09 I know Marvel and the Media have told me that I must prefer Leterrier's Incredible Hulk to Ang Lee's Hulk but I rarely do as I'm told. One reason to prefer the first Hulk (review) is that he seemed more phosphorescent and if you're going for scientific experiments gone awry which accidentally grant superhuman powers, why not saturate? Commit to the absurdity! (see also: Dr. Manhattan)

08 Buzz's run in with those squeaky aliens in Toy Story...

The Claw. The Claw is our master. It decides who will go and who will stay.

is still one of the funniest bits from any movie ever. I cherish the memory. I saw it with my brother and we had no idea what to expect (Pixar wasn't yet synonymous with instant classics). We laughed so hard that we missed the next few jokes that followed it.

07 Alligators (in general). Confession: I make a beeline at the zoo to see the alligator/crocs even though they never ever ever move. I wait and wait. They don't move! I love them onscreen even more (they move!) whether they're wrestling with Tarzan underwater, starring in comedic horror movies (Alligator) or trapped in supporting roles in cartoons (The Rescuers, Peter Pan)

06 Oola and Jabba The honeymoon was over even before the Jedi returned. Those crazy kids just couldn't work it out. She found him too possessive. He hated her independent streak. So he fed her to the rancor monster. What an a******.

05 This is more of a sideways fantasy than a reality. Plus no green-skin. There's talk of a Green Lantern movie very soon but the thing that would be brilliant that they'll never even consider doing is a hugely dense and populated sci-fi television series of Green Lantern Corps. Think of how many stories they could tell. There's more than just Hal Jordan to the Green Lantern mythos and we've got plenty of spandex single hero movies already. Try something new. The Pitch: Battlestar Galactica meets Dollhouse meets the superhero genre. Earth not included.

04 Kylie Minogue as "The Green Fairie" in Moulin Rouge! (retro) The most inspired / deranged pop star cameo ever? Maybe. Has anyone reading tried the newly legal absinthe? Did she appear to sing you showtunes? If so please tell me she knows more than just one song.

03 Yoda Make this list he must.

02 Even if I hadn't just been back to Wicked, there's no denying The Wicked Witch one of the top spots. I'm only denying her the top spot so that she'll terrorize me with an "I'll get you my pretty" or some such.



01 Kermit the Frog. The Muppets are Love.

Who would you include in a top ten green list? I admit I found the pickings a little slim. Blue is definitely more of a movie color.

previous top tens: overdue for Oscar, best TV of 2008, female directors, etc...
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Happy Valentines from a Courtesan and Her Penniless Sitar Player

Truth, Beauty, Freedom; but above all things...


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Signatures: Nicole Kidman

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

Like a sparkling diamond we can't take our eyes off of Nicole Kidman. Let's be honest, she prefers it that way. Nicole likes to place herself at the center of everything - at least on camera.


Even indirectly, be it as a writer whose words and legacy trickle down through the generations, or as a TV weathergirl who uses her husband's funeral for publicity; Nicole has a way of making things revolve completely around her.

Entire townships rely solely on Nicole for their daily chores and sexual favors, and children pretend to be reincarnated just to get with her. Likewise her directors have a way of being utterly entranced by her -- feeding her needs while still maintaining it's all "essential to the story."


The ravishing Aussie beauty insists she's the opposite of her screen-stealing persona, "I'm very exposed in the movies I do, yet I'm incredibly private in my own live." Should we believe that Nicole dislikes all this attention? Well Margot certainly doesn't... Watch her climb a tree! She used to be so good at climbing trees.


Nicole's content with her place in the spotlight for the moment, or so she says. "People used to say, 'Oh she's so cold.' And now they realize, I think, that it's actually misinterpreted. It's actually shyness. I am really, really shy. As a child I would hide under my mother's skirt, and they couldn't get me to come out." But in reality she was just under there planning how to get our attention next.

"Wilting flower? Bright and bubbly? Or smoldering temptress?"

15 Days Until Australia Opens...

Nicole Kidman as "Satine" for Moulin Rouge! (2001)

...and Baz (direction) & Catherine (costumes) have their way with the Iconography of Kidman again. *faints*

p.s. more on that Oprah special later today

Australiagasm

Opinions on Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!) vary from moviegoer to moviegoer -- not everyone responds to super sized style and theatrics but to me the Australian filmmaker is a blessed rarity. He's a real live descendant of the old showman style of filmmaker or Hollywood producer. You can see the D.W. Griffith ambition. You can see the Selznick in him. If he were born before the movies he could have been a circus impresario and, quite obviously, he's Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent) in Moulin Rouge!, frantically sweating, pumping up and exploiting his talent and whipping his audiences into a carefully orchestrated frenzy. Baz thinks big. But more importantly, he thinks big naturally. His films, agonizingly slow in coming for fans, never bear the marks of required No. of Setpieces that Hollywood blockbusters do (particularly the action films). There's no straining to pad the running time, no lazy idea-free setpieces make their way in.

Even within his earliest film Strictly Ballroom (1992), which is indisputably modest in budget and story, he's going for the rousing super-sized moment. Consider the "L'Amour" sign (making its first big screen appearance, consider the hair and makeup, consider the triumphant crowd-rocking finale. Consider Paul Mercutio's ass.

Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Moulin Rouge! (2001), which completed his aesthetic non-narrative "red curtain" trilogy of movies, were yet bigger, pricier and more successful. With each film his budgets, imagination and even the fame of his leading actors seems to increase exponentially. I worry for him a little as a result. His new film, brazenly going by the moniker of Australia stars Nicole Kidman & Hugh Jackman, two of the most famous stars on earth. It'll either be a big success or be declared a folly. This is probably as big as it gets unless his next film is called The Milky Way with a cast entirely populated by $15-25 million dollar movie stars. Even the extras will have to be household names.

Deep breaths now...



I know people have been asking me my opinion on the new trailer but I'm mostly speechless. I can sum up my reaction in basically three words which contain many more feelings.

KIDMAN

JACKMAN

BOOM!

That last refers not to the World War II explosions that end the trailer nor to the mini explosive notes mixed into the score as the showy cuts happen. It's the sound of my own heartbeat, thunderous.

Am I laying it on thick enough?

It's just that so many epics seem so desperate only to win Oscars. With Baz you know that this (Australia) is just what's inside of him. It's showy but it'll probably be damn sincere. One can't accuse any of his films of being made with awards in mind... which is more than can be said for many epics and golden hopefuls that find their way into theaters in November and December each year. It was a happy accident that Moulin Rouge!, a mad experiment, got as far as it did. It only became associated with the awards circus after it developed a feverish devoted fan base.

My greatest fear is that the new film will be stiffly weighed down by Baz & Nicole's efforts to top themselves (better not to try and top Moulin Rouge! methinks) and my greatest hope for it is that it will be every bit as thrilling in its 120+ minutes as it is in this new tiny dosage.
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