Saturday, June 02, 2007

Todd & Julie Redux

Iconoclast auteur Todd Hayne and god herself Julianne Moore work together about once every six years. They started with [safe] (1995), miraculously repeated that brilliance with Far From Heaven (2002), and are now back together (albeit in a minor way) for 2007.

I'm more than a little excited. (This post is just an excuse to show you these movie posters again or for the first time depending on where you've been in your internet travels)

Julianne is sadly not one of the multiple Bob Dylans of I'm Not There directed by Haynes (previously discussed here) But she does appear in the film. To make up for the non-lead role there she's finally got a part worthy of her gift again in Savage Grace. You can see all sorts of divisive reaction to it if you chase the links from greencine but word on her performance is quite good. Indiewire calls her "deliciously evil". Savage Grace is by Tom Kalin whose major claim to fame is directing Swoon in the early 90s, which was a Leopold and Loeb dramatization. (It's worth a look if you haven't seen it or aren't up on that once vital emerging queer cinema --Todd Haynes, Gregg Araki, and others all emerged around the same time. What heady days those were. Now there's mostly auteurless dumb comedy where provocative GLBT movies used to be.) Haynes had a brief acting role in Swoon and both he and Tom worked on the writing team of Cindy Sherman's Office Killer.

This is all a long way of saying that I love it when Julie travels with the intellectual queer cinema brigade. Moore please! It's just such a better fit for her than playing plot foil to Nicolas Cage. The only thing cutting into my anticipatory enthusiasm is the realization that I'll have to wait until 2013 for a fourth Todd & Julie pairing. sigh

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

It played the director's fortnight at Cannes where it got strong reviews. That said, what I read pretty much emphasized that the academy won't be touching it with a ten foot pole.

Glenn Dunks said...

I hadn't seen that poster. I like. But who are the four faces? I can tell Cate and Heath. I would assume they'd put Richard and Christian on there too, but I can't tell if it's them.

(completely agreed about Juli though. She's so much better than Next)

adam k. said...

I also hadn't seen the I'm Not There poster. It's pretty sweet.

I don't see how this would be out of the academy's comfort zone (at least for acting) when they went for Monster. Is incest and matricide that much worse than weird lesbianism, prostitute rape and multiple murders? I dunno, doesn't seem that much worse to me. I feel like if there's major pressure to honor Juli's performance, they'll give. But that's probably my wishful thinking talking.

In other news, Once is lovely and brilliant, and Bug is much better than I was expecting.

If Juli doesn't take hold, I'd say the best bet for a lead actress win this year is Blanchett. I think the Christie love stops at a nom. I'm still holding out for Revolutionary Road to enter the mix at the 11th hour and win Kate her oscar this year, but that's probably about as likely as Gore running for president in '08...

adam k. said...

And by "this" I of course mean Savage Grace.

But I'm predicting lots of love for the Dylan film, too, as I've said before.

Anonymous said...

2009 Oscar leading actress:

Kate Winslet(Revolutionary Road)

VS

Julianne Moore(Blindness)

Anonymous said...

adam, it's less the subject matter and more the tone. All reviews remark upon a coldness to the story - to use Nathaniel's term, it's more thinky, not feely. Monster was largely an emotional experience, and there were oscar bait hooks (deglamming! Hammy performance!) that Savage Grace looks like it lacks (plus, recall that it had Ebert as an early and excited cheerleader, which doubtless helped it at the box office). That said, I also doubt there'll be major pressure to honour Julianne. She makes so much crap that it's hard for her to work up "she hasn't been honoured yet!" buzz, in my mind.

Glenn Dunks said...

Christie will be this year's Ellen Burstyn. I can picture it now.

Anonymous said...

Julianne sucks as an actress.

Anonymous said...

Indeed she's not very good.

Anonymous said...

Savage Grace doesn't have a domestic distributor yet, does it?

NATHANIEL R said...

sigh

it's interesting to me that every Julianne Moore post is greeted with anonymous people claiming she can't act.

anonymous Julianne haters take note! there is an EASY solution to test your theory. Rent [safe], boogie nights, magnolia, end of the affair, far from heaven and quit thinking about that stupid movie you saw her in where she tried to be funny or tried to act opposite CGI. enough is enough. WATCH HER ACCLAIMED WORK

then get back to us when your theory crumbles...

Anonymous said...

I would be surprised if those two anonymous posts were actually written by two different people.

That said, I wouldn't use "The End of the Affair" as an example, but I don't think Graham Greene works very well on screen. Ever.

And as far as I can tell, Savage Grace is still without a distributor. Maybe IFC or ThinkFilm will pick it up.

Glenn Dunks said...

The End of the Affair as a film was sort of a load of tosh, but Juli was fantastic.

That one anonymous person always replies and then replies to himself pretending to be someone else. It's crazy.

NATHANIEL R said...

maybe anonymous has a split personality?

Anonymous said...

This anonymous person loves the Juliane Moore of END OF THE AFFAIR (and the film too), but was in stitches recently when my girlfriend parodied her and Ralph's performances in this film.

- "I'm jealous of your stockings! And your earmuffs! And your nail polish!"

Anonymous said...

every review is thrilled about Julie's performance in "Savage Grace". Please dear academy consider this indie film and give the award to one of america's best actresses FINALLY!!!

Anonymous said...

and here is a SAVAGE GRACE clip!!

http://ivillage.feedroom.com/index.jsp?fr_story=2a32838b613e3fd60de36b94976c97055d4ce671&rf=mrss

Anonymous said...

contains incest?
Is sex between the mother and the son?