"Fuhgeddaboudit"

You know what I really miss? Johnny Depp as recognizably human characters.

I feel this pang every time I see a commercial for Alice in Wonderland with that orange fright wig. I fell for Johnny as Crybaby and Edward Scissorhands and I was thrilled when the whole planet fell hard for him (finally!) when Captain Jack Sparrow arrived on a sinking ship. But over the years Cartoon Johnny has become the brand. Seeing Johnny work his dramatic muscles? Fuhgeddaboudit. I thought we'd go there last year with Public Enemies but something didn't quite take.

It's not that I don't love the stylized cartoons. Nobody does that better... but I think some grounded stretching might be artistically rejuvenating. Lately my mind keeps drifting back to Donnie Brasco (1997) one of his best and least discussed performances. I'd love to see him do something like that soon.


It'd be especially thrilling if he was paired with an actress as fiercely individualistic as himself again. Anne Heche is absolutely special in that movie. The multitude of beats and backstory grudges and thorny specificity and sexual attraction she works into that performed relationship is quite a feat. She so deserved an Oscar nomination that year. And deserved more from Hollywood in general.

Where was I? Heche stole the movie from everyone and now she's stealing this post from Johnny! I would have nominated them both that year. My lists woulda looked like so...

1997 Best Actor
Russell Crowe, LA Confidential
Johnny Depp, Donnie Brasco
Christopher Guest, Waiting For Guffman*
Ian Holm, The Sweet Hereafter
and I'll leave one spot open since I somehow have still never seen Robert Duvall in The Apostle

1997 Best Supporting Actress
Kim Basinger, LA Confidential
Anne Heche, Donnie Brasco
Julianne Moore, Boogie Nights
Parker Posey, Waiting For Guffman
Christina Ricci, The Ice Storm

Are you looking forward to Mad Hatter Johnny or do you want something less Mad sometime real soon?

*Yes, that's a 1997 movie. IMDb confuses people. It was released in 1997

Review: Inglourious Basterds

I understand the consensus buzz for Inglourious Basterds is muddled and noncommital. I blame two things: first, its muted Cannes reception (please note: some people are already changing their minds about it) and second, Eli Roth. What? He's fun to blame. Quentin has thankfully stayed behind the camera this time but he's unfortunately replaced himself with another director who should stay there. Roth's hostile-Hostel presence coupled with the only easy-to-describe part of the film (Jewish soldiers kill Nazis in World War II) assures that people will get the wrong idea about the movie. It's more than a lame exercize in sadism.

Not that Basterds isn't sadistic. Tarantino's films always are. But one of the most amusing and satisfying things about the writer/director's work is that though you can always predict each new movie's mix of elements: vivid performances, instantly memorable characters, long monologues and dexterous banter, Samuel L Jackson, juvenilia, foot fetishes and movie referencing; the way Tarantino arranges, twists and presents these predictable stock elements is always anything but. He's gifted (even if he still can't edit himself).

So, my brief review...

"You're Basterd People"

At first glance it might seem odd to channel Waiting For Guffman’s Corky St. Clair to title a post on Quentin Tarantino’s WW II film Inglourious Basterds, but a closer inspection excuses the odd allusion. Inglourious Basterds lurches toward the parodic on more than one occasion as it veers like a happy drunk from historical drama to espionage thriller to action gorefest to black comedy and back again. And Tarantino is never shy about cinematic referencing so why should we be when discussing his films? Brad Pitt plays the presumably illiterate Lt. Aldo Raine –hence the title, bound to drive spelling bee champs mad – who leads a group of mostly Jewish soldiers on a mission to kill and scalp “Natzis!” in occupied France late in World War II. But that synopsis, and even the understandable marketing of Pitt as the film’s star are somewhat misleading.

Brad Pitt in Cannes with two members of the terrific German cast:
Daniel Brühl (Goodbye Lenin) and Diane Kruger (Joyeux Noël) in Cannes

Like many of QT’s idiosyncratic efforts, this one is overstuffed with memorable characters and sidebar flourishes. The Basterds, as the multi-chapter plot shakes out, turn out to be the least interesting part of the long but never dull film.

Read the rest at Towleroad
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"I always have a place at the Dairy Queen."

Parker Moseys Along

A very happy birthday to former Ruling Indie Queen Parker Posey. It's her 40th. When Parker first came to fame in the limited release scene in the mid 90s her domination was total. Consider that indelibly self-satisfied Party Girl (1995), the bitch-power tyrant in Dazed and Confused (1993), Dairy Queen loving Libbie Mae in Waiting For Guffman (1997) and demented poseur "Jackie-O" in House of Yes (1997). Posey had such a uniquely youthful fire, punk edge and rocking comic snark that it was vaguely impossible to predict how she might parlay her odd gifts into a steady or diverse career. How would that persona age?

But a decade plus later, she's doing fine. Her filmography holds abundant variety and surprises --fringe cinema, comedic classics, mainstream hits, she's nearly done it all. I've been a bad fan and still haven't caught up with Broken English (2007), her most recent lead role, but she's been expanding her dramatic range (she's terrific and incisive in the otherwise middling Personal Velocity, 2002) and her comedy still works: she sure made for ample R.O.I. in Superman Returns (2006) considering she gobbled up far less than 1% of its gargantuan budget.

Next up for Parker: Co-starring with Demi Moore (as sisters!) in the drama Happy Tears from the director of neo-horror favorite Teeth.

What's your favorite Parker Posey screen moment? Share it in the comments. You'd better. Parker doesn't take prisoners.

thx to Joe for reminder

Okay, girlies, it's hot out here and I'm really sick of looking at all of you, so let's just -- let's get out of here. What are you looking at? Wipe that face off your head, bitch!

Review: Hamlet 2

The first joke in Hamlet 2 was on me.


When I sat down to watch this highly buzzed comedy I actually worried that I wouldn’t get all of the jokes. It’s not that I’m not familiar with the Bard — in fact, I’d just seen another production at Shakespeare in the Park — it’s just that with Hamlet, there’s so much to get. But I was in good company. Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan), the drama teacher hero of this demented farce, understands even less about Shakespeare than I do. He’s as adorably clueless about the Bard as I was about this movie.

No, Hamlet 2 is not the inappropriate sequel riff I thought it might be on Hamlet. Nor is it a classic in modern day comic drag a la Clueless’s take on Emma or, to keep it Shakespearean, 10 Things I Hate About You’s reworking of Taming of the Shrew.

I bring up these movies because I think Dana Marschz might like them, even if he didn’t respect them. He prefers “inspirational” movies like Dead Poet’s Society or Mr. Holland’s Opus, which he hopes to restage at West Mesa High in Tucson Arizona with his drama class...

Read the Rest... Elisabeth Shue, Get Thee to a Nunnery!

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