i09 Megan Fox poses with her lesbian mannequin. This is easily my favorite Megan Fox performance
Cinema Blend Katey wants to see Christopher Nolan duke it out with James Cameron in a 3D debate. Me too
Movie|Line has updates on those Wizard of Oz projects
Mediaite Adventures in mispronounciations with Catherine Zeta-Jones. She's just a girl who c*** say no. She's in a terrible fix.
Low Resolution Joe Reid begins to count down his favorite Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes. Consider it a corrective to Logo's Spike crazy countdown. Read it because you love Buffy! [I'm guessing because all cool people do.]
My New Plaid Pants JA also makes a Best of Buffy list
PopEater talks to Carrie Fisher about Wishful Drinking. She always gives good interview
Socialite's Life Dakota Fanning has her priorities straight
And yes... I am aware that the first Sofia Coppola trailer "Somewhere" teaser debuted yesterday (while I was at dinner). I am unable to post about it right this second. Let's discuss several hours from now. It'll still be there.
Off Topic Just Cuz
Have you seen this mashup of Madonna / Gaga set to Madonna's underappreciated "She's Not Me" tune. It may be a slam on Gaga but it's still fun.
The way I kind of look at it is that I miss Madonna ALL THE TIME so if Madonna (my fav celeb ever) isn't going to make epic videos anymore -- and she hasn't been really trying in that realm, her very own kingdom (!), in awhile -- I need the Gaga.
P.S. I think there should be some sort of title moderation on YouTube. So many videos label themselves official this or that when they're something quite different. It can be absolutely maddening to search for a new movie trailer and have to wade through hundreds of bad fan videos or cheap gags first. The world OFFICIAL is more grossly overused on YouTube than "Exclusive" is on movie news sites or the naughty F word is in a Mamet play. That's how overused it is. For the love of search engines, please stop lying to the world.
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22 comments:
I love Madonna with all my soul but still I know she didn't invent cars, bathtubs or beds and besides Gaga is always saying that Madonna is an inspiration. Gaga Forever!
I am a proud little monster!!
When has Gaga admitted to Madonna being inspiration?
Gaga mentions Madonna along Warhol, Bowie, Prince and Chanel in her thanks of her first album.
I'll add to that pet peeve about youtube, those that upload something and when you start watching all you can see is a message saying they couldn't upload it for copyright reasons and then, after the cheating they want you to go to their crappy sites.
I've never flagged anything on youtube, mainly because I don't know the consequences, but I think I'm going to start doing it.
Stupid and bitter video with a total lack of truth. The only thing that´s true is that Gaga is not Madonna.Thank God. I love Madonna, but she is the one that is not herself. She is Madonna playing with religious things, Madonna playing with cowboy things, Madonna playing with soldier things, Madonna playing with sexual things.Lady Gaga is real, when she wants to talk about religion, religion adapts to her, to the character, she is the concept and what that concept implies. And she talks about things in a much more brave and clear way, less gratuitous. She is like 1000 times more coherent than Madonna. She is really committed to the message she wants to transmit, committed to art, to beauty, to fashion, to music, to all the taboos of this world, to the outsiders. Madonna is more like a fashion. And please, similarities between Telephone and Hollywood?? Don´t make me laugh. And do you really think that Alejandro is influenced by La Isla Bonita in any way?? Did Madonna invented Spanish ?? That´s really hideous, two songs can´t be more different. I understand influences with ABBA´s "Fernando" or with Ace of base, but Madonna? No way... And again, the thematic in Alejandro´s video is treated in a cleverer, braver, better, darker, smarter, and more disturbing way than in any video from Madonna.
Madonna is an inspiration and not somebody who is copying. And please, tell me something 100% original from Madonna. I think is really stupid being so upset for her success, please get over it!! It sounds so old and embittered... "that was made before and in a better way, nothing is new nowadays..." I think that maybe the problem is that, like Madonna, some of her fans sometimes only stay on the surface of things and don´t realize the depth and the great contribution to art of what Lady GaGa is doing. It is not about of who did it first but of who did it better.
Top 10 Actress Performances: With the exception of Falconetti and Leigh, no agreement. Where is Streep in Sophie's Choice? Geez.
Wizard of Oz-What about Wicked?
Somewhere Trailer-Looks like Lost in Translation with a kid.
Two more things. Lady GaGa´s The Fame was a tribute to music in the eighties and Lady GaGa´s The Fame Monster is a tribute to music in the nineties: what is music in the nineties without Madonna? And those are personal tributes, really personal, I mean, through the amazing eyes of GaGa.
And... Lady GaGa is 24. Not really important, but sometimes I think we need to remember it. It´s really interesting that people like the creator of that stupid video and people that are always comparing her with Madonna are a reflection of what GaGa tells us in her albums: the bright and dark side of the fame. But in this case, accusations are so unfair... Can´t help it, they make me sad, but not because I´m blind of devotion, but because it really hurts me when I see someone with an amazing passion to art and music, to what she does, someone who efforts in making her fans happy, someone who wants to share it with us, someone serious and committed to her passion, to spectacle and theatre and fashion and people only care of looking for a flaw, people wish a fall, a mistake,they just want to say "she´s not that good". Sorry for writing so much, but is something that is always there and makes me very sad. Like when people talk about Nicole Kidman and the first word that comes to their mouth is Botox and not Birth. I think one day I´ll transform in Daniel Plainview and I´ll say " I hate everybody" meaning it (and people will say "Daniel Day Lewis said it before and he was better").
@Deivith -- i hope this isn't directed at me. I love Lady Gaga. But i do think Madonna casts a very long shadow. Thinking that does not make anyone "old and embittered" it just makes them wise ;)
But if it does make someone "old and embittered" than you have to play fair and THIS...
"She is like 1000 times more coherent than Madonna. She is really committed to the message she wants to transmit, committed to art, to beauty, to fashion, to music, to all the taboos of this world, to the outsiders. Madonna is more like a fashion.
will make someone "young and naive" since Madonna was also super committed to each and every one of those things and completely influenced everything that came after in pop culture and especially in regards to modern feminism and female stars. So much Academic ink spilt for Madonna over the decades.
Plus she's been uber famous for 25 years or so now and people have tried to say she's "out of fashion" roughly every 6 months of that 25 years ;) and she never truly is.
Gaga can only hope and pray for that staying power because only a handful of people each decade ever hold on to it in that way.
(I hope you understand that I'm saying all of this in the spirit of healthy discourse and NOT as a knock on you since we're both fans of Gaga)
It's just that if you ask people to look beneath Gaga's surfaces and refuse to do the same with Madonna who is pretty incredible in that regard and insanely influential on modern culture and feminism... well, she is way more than just "fashion"!
But like I said, it's cool to see someone picking up the baton of Music Video as an artform and running with it.
@All -- And one thing i also think is worthing noting since this is a film site a lot of the people doing Lady Gaga's iconography and a lot of the people who did Madonna's before her... don't get credit. In a very real way stylists, photographers and music video directors are also authors of the legend of any pop star. It's just that the pop star hogs the credit.
Andrew R -- I can understand Streep not being there because some people aren't absolutely committed to that performance. I know a few people who don't think it's even her best performances. It's pretty incredible regardless but it doesn't have to be on every list.
I vacillate myself sometimes between Postcards from the Edge, Silkwood and Sophie's Choice or whatever Streep movie i'm watching at the moment, haha.
I don´t ask people to refuse to look beneath Madonna´s surface, I think that what is beneath Madonna is not as interesting as much as what she has done for feminism, and not only is less interesting, is very incoherent. I mean, is funny, but sometimes not very much. Madonna is like a fashion in this way: now I´m Madonna the cowboy, now I´m Madonna the nun, now I´m Madonna the disco girl, now I´m Madonna Monroe...
And I really think Madonna was NEVER as committed as Lady GaGa with the things I said. And that said I know she won´t be as famous or relevant or influent as Madonna...But that says nothing on what we´re talking about. And you people are old and embittered, and for every step GaGa makes, you will always be there remembering people that Madonna was there before. WHO CARES???
And yes, in music videos there is always a director behind, I think we all know that. But GaGa is so much behind all those music videos... And what is great in them are the Gagaistic things.
What a copycat. First she ripped Roisin Murphy, now Madonna. She's like the least original artist to come out on the scene recently.
Re: top 10 performances.
Love the inclusion of my favorite, Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under The Influence.
The list is amazing. And there are at least 30 performances we must talk before any of Meryl Streep's turns - and, IMO, it'd never be Sophie's Choice.
Excuse me for being so boring. I just want to say "I´m sorry" to Madonna the Great. I love her, I love ech album and video, even the "less important" or "less raved" or whatever. I love what she has made for culture in general, for all kinds of freedom, I admire her in every way, even as an actress I think she´s wonderful. I love her strength, her spirit of transgression. I also think she´s never been out of fashion and that many people don´t get her, don´t realize what she has done for us. And I realize that my comments have been center in my negative vision of her, attacking her as a defense to all the attacks to GaGa. And I love Madonna very much. But all the compairisons are annoying me very much, always underappreciating GaGa and being paternalist and enjoying each bad comment. I think GaGa is not profiting Madonna´s shadow, GaGa is the result of her musical culture but at teh same time creating her own style, just like Madonna did. And in my opinion, though Madonna has been (and keeps on being) famous 25 years, there are things in GaGa that I love much more than some things in Madonna.
People can love or hate GaGa, but they can´t deny what is hers. And that´s what people do by saying loudly or in more subtle ways: "meh, she tries to be Madonna, she is copying her, she is like Madonna with cigarette glasses, Alejandro is like La Isla Bonita and blah blah blah" All those things are big fat LIES. Lady Gaga is unique and marvelous. I wish people could just enjoy her. There is plenty to enjoy.
@Deivith -- i agree that there is plenty to enjoy in Gaga and, believe me, I'm enjoying. In fact, this is easily the most excited i've been by a new pop star since Björk showed up. I haven't felt as crazy a rush from a music video as i did the first time I saw BAD ROMANCE as i have in well over a decade.
But since young Gaga fans are so quick to dismiss everyone that came before her, naturally there's going to be a lot of defensive feeling and some defensive attacks from various places.
My point is this: we should all respect history. It's not just because I'm getting older (everyone is haha) that I say that because I felt it even when I was a teenager obsessing on movie stars from earlier eras. I just really don't understand the part of youth culture that demands that the past is irrelevant. There is so much to enjoy from all different eras. Why limit yourself or assume that NOW is always best.
I actually think that's why we get crap remakes like Manchurian Candidate (2004) when really there's no reason for everyone not to be obsessed with Manchurian Candidate (1962) still, you know?
you know?
I want everything if it's good. I don't care when or where it comes from.
@CAL -- since you brought it up and you've said other dismissive things about Streep. I'm totally curious what your favorite Streep performances are.
and i didn't mean to type "you know?" twice a moment ago. I just get worked up about remakes. HATE REMAKES. Why are people always trying to replace? Original things don't wear out. They stay great. Like Madonna ;) or classic movies.
(for the record I don't think Gaga is replacing Madonna... but i do think she is shaping up to be a fascinating sequel)
@Deivith Coast:
The compairsions are annoying you very much? LMAO You brought it on yourself! Learn how to take a taste of your own medicine. GaGa stans have been literally crucifying countless artists for "copying" GaGa, acting like GaGa invented fashion and basically everything in the universe for the past 2 years. You GaGa fans started this nonsense so you get now exactly what you deserve. If it wasn't for you, this would be making headlinies because everyone but you understood there's simply no such thing as complete originality, everything has been done countless times and if someone has a great idea, chances are big it's been done already without even knowing. Maybe this will learn you to think twice next time before accusing others of copying anything to make GaGa look good.
You know as much as I love Lady Gaga, I think she's pretty generic herself. Her sound isn't entirely new, as countless of other people have said before. Her power, in my opinion, comes from the fact that's she intriguing. I can't take my eyes off of her because she always come up with something that will push people's buttons. You know who also did that? Madonna.
I understand passion for Lady Gaga, or any beloved artist for that matter, can make a person combative, but at the same time Lady Gaga has only been around for three-two years. Madonna cultivated her image for 20+ years. There's no comparison between the two.
Lady Gaga didn't invent provocation nor did Madonna. In ten-fifteen years when Lady Gaga is in her late thirties-early forties, there will be a new her that will most likely gain the support of young people. You will be one of those people defending Gaga's honor from those trying to erase her influence. If you're lucky that is. Only time can tell how influential Gaga will be. I mean seriously she's only made one album! (The Fame Monster is just shamelessly expanding on her first album to keep her momentum going). Either way, both women are interesting, influential, and incredibly talented.
Bobby please, you don´t have any idea of what you´re talking about, I don´t crucify any artist for trying to copy GaGa and I have never thought that GaGa is the queen of originality and that she discover anything. I have never thought it and I have never said something similar in this page so please stop putting in my mouth things that I haven´t said I would thank you a lot if you don´t talk at me as a stupid teenager crazy about his new discovery.
And Nathaniel, I completely agree with you about it is awful to dismiss the past and history and I hate young people who only cares about the NOW and nothing else is important to them, and they don´t see black and whit movies because "they´re boring" and all this nonsense. I´ve been all my life hating that since I was four and my grandma introduced classic cinema to me. But I also hate (and I don´t say that it is your case because I love almost always your taste in movies and in things) people who only assess the past and don´t care about the present, and there are lots of, thousands of pedantic people that is like that and overlook everything nowadays.
@Nathaniel R - I'm not being dismissive about Streep. Having a performance among the 40 best ever is quite an achievement!
And I admire her performance in Sophie's Choice, but, in my opinion, it clearly belongs to her "semi-finalists", just to use a FB Awards analogy.
IMO, her best moment is The Bridges of Madison County, an incredible and flawless performance, and her work doesn't seem so calculated like in Sophie's Choice.
Madison County is her best moment because we see the same precision as ever without seeing the engine behind it, no matter how evident it is. It's a triumph of a technical work (she is always great) but it feels unbeliavable fresh and natural.
It's not easy for Streep to look natural, if you ask me. Everytime I see her act I can see several hours of rehearsal to find that perfect look, that precise voice... She is great that way, and that includes Sophie's Choice and her other memorable performances (A Cry in the Dark, Ironweed, The Frech Lieutenant's Woman), but I don't believe these performances belongs to all-time lists. They don't feel complete, specially if we are talking about emotions.
This whole thing is to say that I agree with you that Streep is better doing comedy than drama. Postcards From The Edge, The Devil Wears Prada and even A Prairie Home Companion (Yes, Yes, yes!) are better for her style than Sophie's Choice. As a viewer, these movies make me feel more things about Streep than mere admiration.
I Madison County, we have the best of these two Streeps. It's a superb performance.
@CAL -- thanks for the clarification. I understand now. I guess what you're saying is what someone else said about Laura LInney the other day. Some people don't respond so well to technical work and "gears moving" performances (I think this is why Pauline Kael and Katharine Hepburn didn't like Streep, too, right?).
I don't feel this way about Streep but i understand the general feeling because it's sort of how I feel about Cate Blanchett. Yes, I'm impressed. But I don't necessarily love the performances all the same. Except the ones that somehow feel mysterious to me. One of my fav Cate performances is THE MAN WHO CRIED because I just found her mesmerizing but I couldn't put my finger on why.
@DEIVITH -- you're right that there's problems on both ends. This is why i was so excited to be excited about Gaga. It felt like a yes... something in the now that thrills me. Cuz i gotta say the pop stars of the now have been boring me silly. I like to enjoy current things (I had a friend who absolutely stopped listening to anything new around the mid 90s and still only listens to 80s and early 90s stuff and i'm like WHAT?) but if they don't thrill you they don't thrill me.
@CLARENCE -- today's young Gaga fans will one day be 30to 40somethings themselves defending her honor. IF she lasts. I really hope she does but it's rare to last for 25+ years in pop music.
Mystery, that's the word. If you're an actor, you can be great if you have technical skills, but the major technical skill is to hide the way you play the character, or at least not make the performance the thing the viewer must see when he looks at you.
Then you can BE the character.
It is a subjective thing, but Streep IS Francesca and PLAYS Sophie.
I think it is more important to an actor to be the character than play it. You can BE if you have a lot of skills, too, like Streep in Madison County or Blanchett in The Man Who Cried or Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire (an extremely technical performance, for example).
But you can also be the character without having any acting skills or training, and that explains why Gabourey Sidibe or Catalina Sandino Moreno or any unknown Iranian can be so striking in front of a camera.
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