Your filmic birthdays for 11/25 1914 Joe DiMaggio, center fielder and Mr. Marilyn Monroe, albeit briefly 1920 Ricardo Montalban "Smiles everyone, smiles." (sniffle) 1933 Kathryn Grant, aka Mrs. Bing Crosby, whose film career was spotted with famous stuff (Rear Window, My Sister Eileen, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad) but less than a decade in length. 1947 Jonathan Kaplan, director of 80s & 90s actresses (Bad Girls, Love Field, The Accused, Heart Like a Wheel) who now only works on TV 1947 Tracey Walter, character actor 1960 JFK Jr., prince of Camelot, dater of actresses, magazine entrepeneur. I loved George back in the day. Remember that? 1965 Dougray Scott, the almost Wolverine (Mi:II, Enigma, Dark Water) 1984 Gaspard Ulliel, French looker. Also acts.
The Nine embargo is still in place for "reviews" but lifted as far as any other discussion goes: awards and whatnot. I'm curious how there can exist an embargo on discussing a movie (outside of a review embargo which I totally understand) since people discuss movies freely for years before they come out. Free Speech! I'm joking. It's an awards season curiousity but I play along. After all, the game of waiting for something you desperately want can be fun. Think of how you felt about Christmas as a child. The problemstems from the studios making film fans wait way too long. Christmas should come every weekend, you know. Movies are not like gifts. You can't just unwrap them and move to the next and form a big pile. They take 2 hours just to unwrap in the first place.Spread them out!
You know what else is curious? The new posters. The marketing peoples for Nine made the numerically questionable decision to release 4 posters. I'd say why not 9 except the movie itself doesn't really seem to know why it's called Nine. I enjoyed the movie a lot but when you cut out the Nine song, you do sort of mess with the title... since there's only 8 characters. You have to count Guido twice. But without the song... oh, never mind. I'm still smarting from the dumping of that song. I love that song! And damnit, I wanted to hear Sophia Loren sing it.
The first two posters above are fine but I shan't say anything more about the crammed and ugly poster (third from left) that Jose savaged yesterday. He said it all. But this next one...
Huh ????????? (Nine question marks) Only 3 stars are featured on this poster to your left. I keep blinking and staring at it and yet my girl Nicki never appears. This poster is defective!
Seriously, what is that about? In another 58 years people our ages now won't have a clue who Fergie and Kate Hudson are but the movie freaks will be holding centennial parties for Nicole Kidman. It's so obvious. When will the goddess catch a break? I guess we have to wait until 2010 when Rabbit Hole reminds... Crossing my fingers for that at any rate. You never know. It could be another Fur (an effort but one that doesn't work).
I understand that Fergie is a hitmaker, musically speaking, but is she really more bankable for a m-o-v-i-e than Dame Dench, Kidman, or Daniel Day-Lewis. Bizarre. Not to diss Fergie. Her number "Be Italian" is terrific, the 'Cell Block Tango' of this Chicago sibling. Rob Marshall is the babydaddy again. If you haven't inked him down in your Best Director predictions, you should.
Original Song, after that debacle with The Wrestler last year and the "Come What May" situation with Moulin Rouge! back in the day I will never again assume that this category can contain locks. But I hope to see Marion Cotillard perform "Take it All" at the Oscars but not Kate Hudson shimmying to "Cinema Italiano".
that's 8 nominations and that's where things get trickier...
Supporting Actress This would be a slam dunk for Marion Cotillard except that she's campaigning for lead actress. So there's probably room for Penélope Cruz, unless they object to her garbling the very funny lyrics of "A Call From the Vatican"
Actress More on Marion later. I need to discuss that specifically and all by its lonesome.
Actor The novelty and his reputation might be an irresistable combo. but who knows before the precursors have their say in a race that looks pretty tight for the 4th and 5th spots
Adapted Screenplay If they're feeling nostalgic to honor tAnthony Minghella (RIP)
Supporting Actress Marion Cotillard if AMPAS rejects her Weinsteined categorization
You probably caught on Awards Daily that some early reviews of The Lovely Bones are out. Lots more to come presumably. But did you see this tweet from British actor/novelist/funny man Stephen Fry
Variety is significantly less riveted than Fry, calling it an "artistic disappointment". Todd McCarthy also crushes my dreams by starting the review talking about Heavenly Creatures, a film which he seems to hold in as high regard as I do (One of the three best films of the 1990s, if you ask me).
The "disappointment" seems to stem from Jackson's infatuation with visual f/x. As for its actors, this bit is interesting...
With reddish hair, brilliantly alive eyes and a seemingly irrepressible impulse for movement and activity, Ronan represents a heavenly creature indeed, a figure of surging, eager, anticipatory life cut off just as it is budding. Less quicksilver and more solidly built, McIver's Lindsey properly begins in her live-wire sister's shadow only to grow gradually into an impressive figure. Chain-smoking and depleting the liquor cabinet, Sarandon camps it up for a few welcome laughs...
McCarthy is less impressed with the parental units, Wahlberg and Weisz. Are you still counting down the days until dem bones arrive?
I'll be writing about Brothers, the new war-at-home drama, for Tribeca Film soon but for now I just wanted to say that I didn't even know until I was watching it how much I'd missed Mare Winningham. She's an actress whose vibe is a little closer to television (familial, earthy, someone you might see every day) but whose talent is silver screen (rare, outsized, possibly superhuman). I was thrilled when she was unexpectedly nominated for an Oscar for Georgiain the 90s. If you've never seen that performance you must. She's projecting so many layers of character in that film, you start to realize that most performances are threadbare. Put some layers on, actors! You'll catch a cold.
Even though Mare has next to nothing to do in Brothers other than project step-maternal concern, I wanted to hug her as hard as she's hugging Jake Gyllenhaal in the photo.
And usually when someone is hugging Jake Gyllenhaal I am thinking about being them rather than hugging them back. I'm just sayin'.
So yeah, I met Jake Gyllenhaal.
Also rare, outsized, superhuman...
He looks exactly the same offscreen as on (which isn't always the case for better and for worse). I don't advise, if you are a mere mortal like myself, to stand next to celebrities and be photographed. You will just feel so... pathetically human. I don't normally do it (this is only the second time but the first was with Julianne Moore years ago and in both cases, I couldn't not. I'm only human). He was friendly and after I paid him the mandatory compliments that probably sounded like weird if familiar gibberish to him (I'm guessing) we chatted very briefly about Brothers and the Danish film its based on -- yes, he's seen it --before we took this photo. Then I let him loose on the next person who was desperate to talk to him. They were also human.
It's so weird when celebrities are in a room. The crowd can be totally dispersed and navigable and then *boom* bottleneck traffic jams. Everyone wants to be in the place nearest to the celebrity/celebrities. *
an update: The Nine embargo has officially lifted SORT OF. There be fine print. "Reviews" still have the embargo in place... so back to the drawing board for me. I'll write about the Q&A I attended or something else soon. Stay tuned. **
Alexa from Pop Elegantiarum here sharing a little Thanksgiving cinema goodie. Planes, Trains and Automobiles captured the purgatory that is holiday travel; watching it is a great Thanksgiving tradition. I know some may think its signature scene is homophobic, but I don't think so: it just shows two men who really don't want to get to know each other that well, in a situation of awkward, forced intimacy. Sort of how I feel at holiday gatherings with most of my extended family. So I thought it only fitting to feature these this week, in celebration of holiday togetherness:
Wouldn't it be great to have those overnight guests of yours sleep on these? You can buy them here. Save 'em for next year.
Movies Kick Ass deconstructs yet another photoshop casualty (i.e. movie poster), this one for NINE . My thoughts on that film will hopefully be up later today... time is a tough taskmaster. Cinema Styles looks forward to Luise Rainer's 100th birthday in January. We should all be celebrating! Especially since she'll (god willing) still be alive for it. She was Oscar's very first two-time acting winner... beating Spencer Tracy to the title by one year. Topless Robot Batman's TV villains who should make the leap to the screen Scanners (sarcastically) hates on ambiguous movie endings Empire keeps track of Thor's ever expanding cast list so you don't have to. The only person this chart is missing (as far as I know) is Kat Dennings (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist) In Contention looks at the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race Noh Way expresses photographic love for director/muse duos beyond Pedro & Penélope
Sexiest Men Alive? popbytes is on the Brad Pitt beard watch. Did it cost Brad the title of... People's "Sexiest Men Alive". It's not just Johnny Depp. Roughly every famous person shows up. Though... Go Fug Yourself has a laugh about the Glee photoshoot therein My New Plaid Pants, uninfluenced by mainstream rags, remembers his love for Jean Claude Van Damme [nsfw]
Twi-Hard Bright Lights After Dark "tortured longing is the new coke" Erich's inner 13 year old makes a case for The Twilight Saga: New Moon Erik Lundegaard gleans box office meaning: stop ignoring girls Variety director Chris Weisz blames New Line for the way The Golden Compass (2007) turned out. You know, I liked that movie more than most but it was but 1/20th of what it could have been given how excellent the book is. But I'm not sure you can take this in a black & white way, blame wise. Why would they interfere so much there but not on The Lord of the Rings? Would they have interfered with Peter Jackson if he weren't such a goddamn visionary? I just think this is probably a gray area unless Weisz has suddenly shown new cinematic mastery with New Moon. And well... Antagony and Ecstasy thinks it's "boring as fuck-all". And wouldn't that indicate some degree of problems with Weisz' powers behind the camera?
...and no, I have no real plans to see New Moon. Unless it falls into my lap, I shan't ever know if it improves upon the original (which wouldn't be a significant hurdle). Time and money are both precious commodity this time of year. I have so many movies left to see in such a short time frame before awards are passed out. So I'm not going to pay hard earned $ to be bored (and support Mormon causes financially) if I don't have to for Oscar write up purposes. I'm guessing I don't have to worry about this movie securing nominations. If I'm wrong I promise to stare at Kristen Stewart and her dead eyes (shouldn't she be playing the vampire?) for 2.5 hours and issue my mea culpas. *
Celebrating the cinematic personalities born on 11/24. Even if you're not cinematic, you're probably a personality. Wish yourself a happy one in the comments. There's no way there's been no Scorpios (or now) Saggitarians reading. Speak up when it's your big day!
Garret, Shirley and 'Izzy'
1913 Geraldine Fitzgerald actress (Wuthering Heights, The Mango Tree, Rachel Rachel) 1942 Billy Connolly, comedian, actor, 'Mr. Brown' (he who was beloved by Judi Dench) and 'Barry' (he who was poisoned by Michelle Pfeiffer) 1949 Manuel De Sica composer (The Garden of the Fitzi Continis), Son of Vittorio 1954 Emir Kusturica two-time Cannes winning Serbian filmmaker behind Underground & When Father Was Away on Business (Oscar nominee) 1964 Garret Dillahunt, terrific actor who has lately specialized in the skin-crawlingly creepy (The Road, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and the endearingly pathetic (No Country For Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) but a blog post to whoever can tell me what the hell movie that photo is from up top!?! 1965 Shirley Henderson helium voiced actress, who billions will recognize as "Moaning Myrtle" but she's been quite memorable in some films like Topsy Turvy, Yes and Miss Pettigrew... 1977 Colin Hanks, Son of Tom 1978 Katherine Heigl "difficult" actress... though sometimes that's code word for "won't suffer fools". The difficult ones are sometimes well regarded after the fact (see: Bette Davis) but that's not until the dust settles. Think Katherine is burning too many bridges or just warming up her inner screen fire?
And finally today is the 93rd anniversary of the birth of Irwin Allen, multihyphenate "master of disaster". He's the 70s force behind The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure and less heralded TV films with wonderfully literal titles like "Fire!" and "Flood!".
Roland Emmerich is not his direct descendant, biologically speaking, but you're forgiven if you assumed so. The 2012 director is also fond of staging epic disasters and end of civilization scenarios (The Day After Tomorrow, 10,000 BC, Independence Day). Who saw and loved that Palin 2012 spoof on SNL? You have to laugh or you'll be too terrified to go on living.
When nineteen year old Harold Chase (Bud Cort) meets seventy-nine year old Maude (Ruth Gordon) at a stranger's funeral, he has little idea of what she has in store for him. The eccentric lady shows him how to live, not in the corny sense we've come to see recently in movies about dying people, but in a more active way.
She gets him out of his rich kid world (which he already loathes) by reminding him that "It ain't about morality"
With that in mind they steal cars to go plant stolen trees to the forest, attend funerals of people they never met before and they smoke, seemingly illegal, herbs before plunging into deep conversation.
It's during one of these smoke-and-talks where Harold confesses,
I haven't lived I've died a few times
And Maude listens surprised while Harold reveals how he became so obsessed with death...
Well, the first time was when I was at boarding school in the chemistry lab. I was in there cleaning it up, so I decided I'd do a little experiment... so I throw this stuff out, begin mixing it up-very scientific.
There was this massive explosion! It knocked me down, blew out a huge hole on the floor. There was boards and bricks and flames leaping up!
I figured, you know, time to leave. My career in school was over...
So I went home, my mother was giving a party, so I just ran up the backstairs, went to my room, turned on the light and got this funny feeling. The doorbell rang, I went out to the banister and two policemen came in. They found my mother and told her that I was killed in the fire.
I decided right there that I enjoyed being dead
The scene is moving because of the sincerity with which Cort delivers the lines. It explains, if anything ever could, why he'd tried to set himself on fire before in the film. With this scene we stop holding on to the idea that he's a spoiled brat and begin to empathize with him.
But this moment truly belongs to Gordon. Some people believe that an actor shows his mastery of the craft by his ability to listen. If that's the case, then Gordon sits and listens like a pro, before she goes and gives Harold a sweet pep talk about taking risks in life and being bold enough as to get hurt in the process. "Otherwise you got nothing to talk about in the locker room" she says.
And we can only imagine all the things someone like her had to talk about... *
JA from MNPP here. You show me an actress' performance from 2009 and I will show you the shadow that Tilda's Julia casts across it, engulfs it with, and then takes it down in three swift gulps, perhaps letting out a valiant belch in a vague and half-remembered recognition of their effort.
I was reminded of this while reading Glenn's piece on the film at Stale Popcorn this morning and it made me angry. Angry! Angry that she's really nowhere near the Oscar's already insane echo-chamber of self-propelled hype this year. "Oh she won two years ago." "Oh her film opened way back in nowhere-land."
And? Tilda's Julia rips the cooking sherry out of Meryl's Julia's hand and bashes her in the head with it. She climbs into bed with Abbie's Fanny and invites that whinging Keats over for threesies (but then just throws up over the side and passes out, naturally). She stuff's Gaby's Precious in the trunk of a stolen car and then loses her in the desert.
She wins even though she's not trying.
And they're not trying, so oh well. Just another one of the greats that'll slip by because of whatever political nonsense they wanna ascribe to it. So I wanna know this: which early non-contenders from this year's race are bumming you out the most? See it is still early so maybe if I just shout about Tilda a bunch people will remember. Shout! This is me shouting! Shout about yours in the comments. No actor left behind! (Or director, or writer, or cinematographer... so on.) .
Celebrating cinematic folk, born on this day 11/23. Get out your kazoos.
Franco, Maxwell and Harpo. Half of the fun of building these posts is these completely nonsensical groupings!
1859 Billy the Kid, outlaw. I've always thought it a mystery as to exactly why people routinely idolize characters whom they would never want to meet in real life. Murderers, criminals, thieves, (especially gangsters)... they all get the silver screen pedestal treatment. Billy has been portrayed dozens of times and Val Kilmer, Emilio Estevez, Kris Kristofferson, Buster Crabbe and Paul Newman have all done the job. 1888 Harpo Marx I'm embarrassed to say this but I can never remember which Marx Bros is which. When I watch 30s comedies, I almost always select a screwball romance. 1892 Erté artist over whom wee Nathaniel obsessed, wanting a whole animated movie to spring forth from his theatrical illustrations of ladies in elaborate headdresses and fab gowns. 1913 Michael Gough, I know that people like Chris Nolan's Batman approach (a movie star in every role!) but to me, Gough will always be "Alfred Pennyworth". Take that Michael Caine! 1924 Anita Linda, award-winning Filipino actress 1941 Franco Nero, Mr. Vanessa Redgrave and sexy Sir Lancelot in Camelot (1967) "♪ ♫ If ever I would leave you..."
I absolutely love this, don't you? One of the dreamiest numbers ever
1944 Joe Eszterhas self assured writer of oft terrible but usually hugely entertaining and vulgar screenplays: Flashdance, The Jagged Edge, Showgirls and the Sharon Stone box set. How does he do it? 1944 James Toback writer and director, not always simultaneously. Films include: Bugsy, Tyson and a Robert Downey Jr double feature (Two Girls and a Guy, The Pick-Up Artist) 1948 Bruce Vilanch Emmy winner, Oscar joke writer, strange character 1959 Maxwell Caulfield, La Pfeiffer's 'Cooo-oooo-ooo-ool Rider' 1959 Dominique Dunne, youngactress who was murdered the same year her career took off with several TV gigs and the smash hit Poltergeist (she was the teen daughter) 1966 Vincent Cassel Mr. Monica Bellucci. He's very busy between American supporting roles (Eastern Promises, Oceans 13, Black Swan) and French stardom (Public Enemy No. 1, Irreversible ...a bit more on that one here) 1970 Oded Fehr, Israeli actor. Busiest in American television but you'll occassionally spot him onscreen in films like The Mummy 1970 Danny Hoch, actor/monologuist 1992 Miley Cyrus, ubiquitous gazillionaire
Finally, today marks the kickoff a week long blog-a-thon in honor of the immortal Boris Karloff, who brought so many imaginative film characters and movie monsters to life. Today is the 122nd anniversary of his birth. What would horror cinema be "Karloff the Uncanny", the man who brought Frankenstein (1931) and the Mummy (1932) to life? Though he's best remembered for those films of the early 30s -- he made a ton of them -- his career spanned from silent short films all the way to 70s horror pictures and one particularly memorable voice gig. He's the star of the 1966 animated TV classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
I've worked hard over the years to insure that this is more than just an Oscar blog. There's lot of love for movies outside of the film year we're living in. But... but... it's awfully hard to resist the "All Oscars! All the Time!" siren song that starts wailing through every film industry speaker when Thanksgiving approaches. So I figured I'd finish revising the Oscar pages. There's more soon, particularly in regards to the foreign, animated, documentary and costume races, but for now there are tweaks. Here's the index of predictions.
I've gained faith in Nine (more on that once the embargo breaks) and I've lost some faith in Invictus and The Lovely Bones(generally speaking, I'm suspicious of the annual films that hide) but I've curiously regained a little for Avatar which climbs the charts in a few areas and which remains the film I'm predicting as having the highest nomination count without a corresponding Best Picture bid. Even if it's great -- and James Cameron's name augurs well for that -- it's still a sci-fi picture. Having had a few conversations with industry folks (including AMPAS members) over the past week I'm starting to think I've underestimated A Serious Man which is Avatar's inverse prediction wise (i.e. the projected Picture nominee with the least amount of nominations). And it may mean nothing but one voting producer and his wife that I chatted with were both nuts for Sam Rockwell in Moon. Who knew? Not that producers can nominate actors, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless.
As ever the Golden Globes and the NBR have a lot of power to set the tone IF (and only if) they go with anyone that's not already a sure thing or give an obvious cold shoulder to someone who is. Can't wait to see what happens next...
Dave here, popping in to offer thoughts on a sliver of 2001's cinematic offerings as per Nat's request.
As a movie, crazy/beautiful isn't nearly as offbeat as its uncapitalized title and forward-slash want to suggest - the arc of the story is effortlessly predictable and the social divisions between the couple are often drawn in laughably implausible ways. But it marks itself out as a movie worth watching by having Kirsten Dunst burning a hole through the screen throughout. She seems to have been missing from the movies lately, which probably makes a lot of people quite happy... but I don't count myself as one of them. Her performance as Nicole in crazy/beautiful was perhaps the first time her charisma, as seen from her debut in 1994's Interview with a Vampire to 2000's energetic Bring It On, was backed up by blindingly evident acting chops.
She shoots this routine plot through with a bare-faced honesty, a vibrant but completely confused girl, switching from violent temper to coy flirt to desolate weeper at the blink of an eye. Her 'biggest' scene - a heightened encounter with her father and her cold stepmother - is sadly also the one crack in Dunst's armour, as she rather overdoes the emotional breakdown. But for the rest of the film, she makes Nicole a pathetic mess, but one that you can see the spark that attracts Carlos (Jay Hernandez) and makes him want to 'rescue' her. The film ends up spelling out why she's reached this state, but it's all been clear in Dunst's performance from the start - she's almost given up on herself at the very start, as she half-heartedly says "stay away, I'm dangerous" to Carlos and his friends. Frequently it's obvious how much she relies on other people to indulge her pretences, and Dunst excels at the self-conscious, pathetic sadness Nicole feels when someone cuts through it.
I'm not pretending it's the best performance of 2001 (not when Naomi Watts is staring at me...), but it certainly deserves more attention than it got and should remain a highlight of Kiki's career. Maybe her taking some time out of the limelight will help in final breaking her out of being perceived as a teenager and give up some parts, like Nicole, that are worthy of her considerable talent and charisma.
(A shallow postscript: is she not infinitely preferable with the glowing red hair to the slightly pasty-blonde? Yet another reason the Spider-Man movies - we'll just pretend the last one didn't happen - are golden.)
Some of you may have noticed that any articles that have slipped off the front page now have moderated comments. I was forced to do this by huge waves of spam hitting my blog -- it's getting worse all the time actually, dozens of spam comments to be weeded out every day. But I'm delighted that people still comment on older articles. Two recent comments I wanted to draw attention to:
anonymous (sign your names people, it takes all of 1.5 seconds) on the casting of the August: Osage County movie
You know Doris Day has been itching to come back to do a film....and what a way of coming back to movies...also Im surprised no one has mentioned Beth Grant (from Sordid Lives) or even Delta Burke
I can't imagine that Doris Day wants to work again. A Doris Day return would be an event regardless of the vehicle. Her last feature film With Six You Get Eggroll was released 41 years ago. After that she did five years of her own TV show and then retired at 51. She's 87 years old now. That's not exactly young but if Estelle Parsons can travel the country doing a 3 hour play twice a day at the age of 82... maybe there's a lot of elderly actresses still spry enough for a good movie role, should any screenwriters bother to write them. Still, I worry when actors retire. 'If you rest, you rust' and all of that. But wouldn't it be fun to see Doris Day one more time on the big screen? Especially in a comedy.
I am all for Meryl winning Best Actress. I have now watched Meryl, Carey and Gabourey and I honestly think Meryl gave the best performance of these three. Sure, it was a lightweight movie, but that doesn't mean Meryl's performance is lightweight. I remember a youtube video from way back when showing clips of Oscar winning actresses that all had crying scenes and people wondered if an actress could win without a dramatic screaming and crying scene. I think one can make the argument that it takes more effort to win over an audience without the sympathy factor. We always lament the crowning of Oscar bait roles, but then we complain when there is a contender that isnt the typical Oscar type?
She makes a great point. This is totally and always the case when a "lighter" performance gets recognized in any way. So Oscar is damned if they do and damned if they don't. We have to get beyond our hangups about tears equalling great acting, in order to see that each character makes different demands of the actor playing them. I don't personally think the Julia Child performance is the best of the year but it is super fun and besides, preferences and predictions are different things. Curiously, literally every Oscar pundit I've talked to online or in person thinks I'm crazy in my firm suspicion that Meryl Streep will win this year. I guess I'll either have the last laugh or I'll look, well, crazy. Either way is fine; you have to call it like you see it and give yourself plenty of rope to hang or else it's no fun to swing. *
Fin de Cinema appreciates Tilda in Julia. More people need to Spiegel Online "we make lists because we don't want to die" Good point. But also because they're fun In Contention the animated shorts finalist list Movie|Line interviews Hal Holbrook for That Evening Sun. The performance of his career?
Hollywood Elsewhere asks an understandable question regarding The Twilight Saga: New Moon's box office numbers Awards Daily wonders whether Sandra Bullock is a safer bet than previously thought for The Blind Side Vanity Fair handicaps the Oscar race and makes a case for Fantastic Mr Fox costumes (hmmm) but falls into the age old lazy schpiel about "not enough best actresses to fill a category". I swear to god that people say this every f***ing year and it is never ever true. You just have to be willing to look at performances that people aren't talking about for various reasons: Tilda Swinton in Julia, Abbie Cornish in Bright Star, Michelle Pfeiffer in Chéri, Saoirse Ronan The Lovely Bones, Melanie Laurent in Inglourious Basterds, etcetera... and that's just off the top of my head beyond the contenders that people are talking about at the moment (Bullock/Cotillard/Mirren/Mulligan/Sidibe/Streep) which already equals more than an entire shortlist can hold. The lists are always at least twice as deep as most pundits are ever willing to admit. Why is that? Why won't these blinders ever come off?
Finally, you've probably seen Forbes' list of Hollywood's most overpaid stars by now. This isn't something I think about a lot given that my favorites tend to be people whose salaries aren't reported. But I do think lists like this are problematic. They underline obvious truths (no star is foolproof... even when they stick to formula and some people are just lucky / some people are grossly overpaid because they happen to star in franchises that would be hits without them) and often obscure some real truths.
Ewan McGregor's diminishing filmography
Ewan McGregor comes in at #2. Is he grossly overpaid or is he just making films that his core audience isn't remotely interested in? I'd guess the latter or somewhere inbetween. I'm hardly an accurate judge of box office appeal -- in my world Tilda Swinton is a way bigger name/draw than Tom Cruise or Adam Sandler and the name "Pedro Almodóvar" would put more asses in seats than "Michael Bay" on opening weekend -- but I am a huge fan of McGregor's and frankly, he hasn't made a movie that I've been excited about since the twofer of Big Fish and Young Adam back in 2003. I really love him but I have little interest in seeing him play second fiddle to Renée Zellweger (Miss Potter) or Hilary Swank (Amelia) in stale prestige biographies or do ensemble work in lame Tom Hanks franchises (Angels & Demons). Ewan came to fame doing edgy, boisterous and inventive cinema (Trainspotting, Moulin Rouge!, Velvet Goldmine, The Pillow Book) and might that not still be what his base is hoping to watch him do? That won't keep him in the lap of luxury or anything but it might be more artistically satisfying. *
Celebrating the birthdays of the cinematic peoples daily. If you were born on 11/22 shout it out in the comments. How will you celebrate these fine folks, listed below?
Scarlett, Mark and Mads
1920 Anne Crawford Israeli born British actress of the 40s. Died when she was only 35. 1923 Arthur Hiller Canadian director. Oscar nominated for mega-hit Love Story (1970). Also known for comedies like The Out-of-Towners, Silver Streak and Outrageous Fortune and some erratically interesting choices like The Americanization of Emily, Man of La Mancha and Hollywood's first mainstream gay film Making Love (1982). 1932 Robert VaughnThe Man from U.N.C.L.E. and one of The Magnificent Seven 1940 Terry Gilliam crazy indispensible auteur. He doesn't deserve all the funding / filmmaking problems he's had of late. But, sadly, I can't really recommend The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus which is messy in dozens of ways 1956 Richard Kind character actor (A Serious Man)
1959 Jamie Lee Curtis actress of the Perfect bod, Mrs. Christopher Guest, the most successful "final girl" of all time, yogurt spokesperson and Oscar snubbee (deserved so much better but at least the Golden Globes paid respects) 1960 Christopher Ciccone Madonna betrayer (boo. hiss) 1960 Leos Carax French auteur behind the excellent Lovers on the Bridge and the darkly hypnotic Pola X. Rent them 1961 Mariel Hemingway Woody Allen's first intergenerational onscreen love affair in Manhattan. Unfortunately she would not be his last. Her birthday suit was an 80s staple: Personal Best, Star 80 and Playboy magazine. 1964 Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson Icelandic actor of memorable eyes and scary forehead (Jar City, Angels of the Universe) 1965 Mads Mikkelsen Denmark's chief export, male actor division 1967 Mark Ruffalo (sigh) Hollywood ain't done right by him. Enough with the thankless second banana crap... give him something meaty. He's proven his worth 1984 Scarlet Johansson remember when I was so obsessed with her that I devoted a whole week to her on the blog? Damn that was a shortlived infatuation. I don't expect my new indifference will turn around much with Iron Man 2, given that ScarJo does her best work as quiet reactive women in dramas but we'll see...
Finally, I have been terribly remiss in writing more about Geraldine Page who left this mortal coil shortly after her long-awaited Oscar win (Trip to Bountiful) 24 years ago. She would have been 85 today.
Page and her kept man. Who wouldn't keep him?
Of all of Oscar's most beloved actresses (up there with Bette Davis and Ingrid Bergman!) she gets zero attention in the online film world. Surely she deserves more. I promised reader George that I'd write about her two years ago and I still haven't. Argh! At any rate, I need to watch a few more films but my favorite performance of hers from those I've seen is unquestionably Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth, opposite Paul "hard gold" Newman, in which she plays a temperamental actress, desperate for a big comeback. She out divas several more famous divas and that's saying something. Have you seen it?
Given that precursor season is nearly upon us and I've always believed in full disclosure you should know that I recently joined the BFCA. Yes, the same group I have taken to task in the past for their insistence on equating "best" with "Oscar predictions". I've never understood that as an operating agenda but then... it's hardly endemic to them. In fact, each year I have to underline the difference between predictions and preferences several times over when people start saying things like "you think that's better than that?" while holding their nose. So many people think it means the same thing but it never does. When the two crossover it's an accident... a happy accident. Best is your own perceived meritocracy. Prediction is what you suppose a random group of other people might collectively prefer. I promise to vote by way of Best.
Swag watch: Bad Lieutenant companion book and Coraline alphabet cards
But I have sooooo many movies left to watch before the precursor deadlines arrive. When will I get to them all? Where did the year go? It's nearly December.
A couple of nights ago I attended a Coraline event -- don't think I'm all fancy, I had to invite myself! -- which was a lot of fun. I told Henry Selick I loved Coraline and was rooting for it in theAnimated Oscar race which is true (I'm okay with the schmoozy stereotype of the 'I love your work' meet and greet, so long as I actually love the work).
<--This fully posable puppet was on display and though you can't really see it in this iPhone pic, the young explorer has a thin line across her face at eyeline. Apparently there's hundreds of individual top and bottom halves of this face that they had to mix and match painstakingly to bring her expressions to life. And then they digitally removed the line where her face comes apart. If you've seen any "making ofs" you already know this but I hadn't and didn't.
I've always loved stop motion but I can't imagine the level of patience required for even the simplest scenes. It's enough to drive one to drink.
I had a blue cocktail, which they served with blue rock candy. I'm not sure what that had to do with Coraline but it was yummy. Talking to Selick I learned that he hadn't seen the Off Broadway Coraline musical (discussed here) but that he was a fan of its composer (Stephin Merritt from Magnetic Fields). The soft spoken director behind The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach still hasn't decided on his next project -- he couldn't elaborate without jinxing -- but he's got three to choose from (a nice problem to have). I told him he should work on all three simultaneously a la Lord of the Rings. What? I'm greedy for good movies. I always want more.
Hi everyone, MattCanada here with another weekly dose of gay cinema. This week we're looking at Philadelphia, the Oscar winning courtroom drama, essentially the defining Hollywood response to the AIDS epidemic.
I first saw this film as a kid. I must have been about seven when I watched it with my parents and it was definitely my, and probably many other people's, introduction to AIDS. For me it continues to shape how I think about the virus, the stigma, and the epidemic. Longtime Companion opened a few years earlier but this was the first mainstream prestige film to deal with AIDS and homophobia. Having two big stars in Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington must have seemed like a big step for Hollywood. All of this is well and good, but rewatching the film for the first time in over a decade, I had serious problems with its filmic construction and especially its politics. While it remains important for being 'the mainstream gay AIDS movie', the film has definitely not aged well.
The Major problem is with the Denzel Washington character, Joe Miller. Joe acts as a guide for the straight audience into the scary world of gay-ness. His arc from homophobic to mildly understanding is shown as a victory, and it is Joe, not Hanks's Andrew, who goes through a pivotal transformation. He is the true hero of the film: not only does he save the gay victim, he grows as a person, thus giving the audience someone to root for. But this leaves Tom Hanks' gay character at a mediated distance where he can be sympathised with (or pitied depending how you see it). This film was made at a different time in both Straight society's relationship to homosexuality and the mainstream gay community's stance towards the oppressions and exclusions of straight hegemony. Today, the politics seem conservative and even condescending, positioning gay men as victims needing to be rescued and protected by the good straights from the bad straights. Contemporaneous films from New Queer Cinema, especially Derek Jarman's Blue, Gregg Araki's The Living End and John Greyson's Patient Zero, are much more relevant now for an understanding of the AIDS epidemic, and the anger and response of the gay community. Philadelphia is a film from another time in mainstream culture and it's unable to transcend its dated approach and politics.
The other problems are minor in comparison. Tom Hanks doesn't give a particularly remarkable performance (in my opinion it was the weakest of that year's Best Actor nominees). It may have been a brave choice of role and a good performance, but it's not on par with other AIDS performances (Steve Buscemi in Parting Glances, the cast of Angels in America, Penélope Cruz and Toni Canto in All About My Mother).
Jonathan Demme's directing also overreaches at points, especially the Opera set piece and the courtroom scenes with canted camera angles. Demme is at his best when he keeps his stylistic flourishes to a minimum. The strength of his classics, namely The Silence of the Lambs and Married to the Mob, is the seeming simplicity of his directing, which allows for pitch perfect performances, flawless narrative progression, and a complex and inventive intermingling and subversion of genre. Philadelphia is too fussy, especially in the moments when we are most required to empathize with the characters.
There are incredible parts of Philadelphia though. The performances of Mary Steenburgen, Antonio Banderas, and Joanne Woodward are all fantastic. Mary in particular, I think, deserved a Supporting nod for transforming a one dimensional role into something memorable.
There are also two sequences in the film which are incredibly moving and show Demme at his musical best: the opening credits sequence with Bruce Springsteen's "The Streets of Philadelphia" and the closing home video section with Neil Young's "Philadelphia" overlayed. Both sequences are so simple, yet the combination of music and expressive imagery are perfect distillations of the humanity of people with HIV and AIDS. For those two sequences alone I think the film deserves to be watched and remembered.
Bruce Springsteen takes those Streets of Philadelphia to an Oscar win
I would love to hear your thoughts on Philadelphia. I'm interested to know if people remember what the discussions surrounding the film were like on its original release? Was Tom Hanks' win one of those inevitable Helen Mirren/The Queen steamrollers or more of a surprise?
Mmmm, Penelope. If people had any sense it would be Almodovar movies that broke attendance records. Not the movies that, in fact, do. But enough handwringing about box offizzze.
Given Towleroad’s generous coverage of all things Twilight (all things equalling shirtless wolf boys and wild haired Pattisons) I had hoped to share a few thoughts on NEW MOON for today’s movie column. No can do. I wasn’t invited. Curiously I had been invited to the press screenings of Twilight. Perhaps I’ve been too openly disdainful of sparkle-in-the-sunshine vampires or creator Stephenie Meyers’ retrograde sexual politics (I had quite enough of that in my own Mormon years, thank you).
The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel Rogers, gemini, actressexual and cinephile. All material herein is written and copyrighted by him, unless otherwise noted.
Your filmic birthdays for 11/25
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