Sunday, April 18, 2010

Link-By Posting From Nashville

Hi y'all. Nathaniel (c'est moi!) is still in Nashville and feeling very out-of-time and place, shuttling from downtown hotel to movie theater to well attended/scrumptious VIP tent between said movie theater and parking garage. It sounds strange but it's pretty on the inside. There's even a red carpet outside for celebrities I don't recognize (Music City, you know). Celebrities seen wandering through VIP tent that I *do* recognize include Michael Clark Duncan, Mario Van Peebles, Sheryl Crow, Jane Seymour and always memorable character actress Beth Grant (No Country For Old Men, Little Miss Sunshine, Donnie Darko among many others). She's pictured below in what was a very flattering flowing emerald dress... though I wished when I saw her that it was more sparkly in motion. Uh... Get it? Ba dum dum. I'm here all week.


No Nicki Kidman like last year though *sniffle*. Last night I played poker until the wee hours (my first time ever!) with fellow jurors and a couple of filmmakers. Texas Hold Em Whilst In Tennessee. My my my my my my my my poker face. I don't have one. I lost.

There's so many newsy bits I haven't discussed since I'm in the alternate reality of the film festival and they all feel so ancient now despite just happening in the past week. Anyway, for now, random links!

Flickers remembers Yentl warmly. Someone needs to
Techland names 12 disaster movies that are better than Titanic for the 98th anniversary of the great ship's sinking
Deadline People keep asking me what I think of Kirsten Dunst joining Lars von Trier's Melancholia. A hearty nod of approval is what I think. She's making the right moves for a major comeback...i.e. potentially reminding people that she's actually a very talented actress, not just some overly famous celebrity


Guardian offers an amusing solution to the creativity drought of today's "remake it!" frenzy
GreenCine Daily on Summer Hours and the myth of age-appropriate cinema. Good piece but I have one tiny bone to pick. Kohn asserts that the main character is several decades older than he, suggesting that he is still in the womb. Charles Berling is only 51. If you were to be several decades younger than 51 how young exactly would you be? Have your parents even met yet?
Coming Soon Looks like Viola Davis is finally getting that lead role we've all known she deserves. She'll star as The Help, a drama about a housekeeper whose candid comments to a writer send shockwaves through her community.
/Film Joss Whedon to direct The Avengers? I refuse to be as enthused as the rest of the internet. Like I've said before I'll believe this entire movie's existence when I see it. It sounds like way too many contracts to corral into one movie. To me at least. Nevertheless the internet will keep writing about this movie until 2022 and beyond even if it spends decades in development hell.
Thompson on Hollywood on Ryan Phillipe and abs
Erik Lundegaard another interesting review of Kick-Ass
Peel Slowly remembers Jaws and investigates the tiny shifts in its iconic marketing

That's all for now. Enjoy...
*

8 comments:

Robert Hamer said...

If it makes you feel better, Nat, it looks like Kick-Ass isn't exactly, erm, kicking ass at the box office.

NATHANIEL R said...

the thing is I didn't *hate* the movie. I just found it so smugly dehumanizing that it was harder for me to enjoy the clever bits (of which I concede there were a few) than maybe it was for other people.

But in the end, it's not like they had to pay a lot of massive paychecks (apart from Nicolas Cage -- and really how it important is it to have a name star in a high concept movie? I've never understood why they let that part of movie budgets escalate so much for movies that are sold primarily on their concept). My point is: i assume we'll see sequels... which will be bigger hits since people do like this movie and will undoubtedly be a big DVD hit when the R rating isn't any trouble.

Doug said...

Thanks for the Flickers link, Nathaniel!

Jay said...

I'm really glad that Kirsten got a lead role in Melancholia!

Michael Parsons said...

As for Viola. I would not be surprised if her character (lead in the book) is pushed to supporting in the film (to give way for the white co-lead)

Greg Boyd said...

Mr. Lundegaard's review of "Kick-Ass" was actually pretty good, though I don't agree with it. Unlike Mr. Ebert, he at least justifies his opinion.

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