Detour, Links Ahead

Nick's Flick Picks remembers moviegoing experiences this decade. A great angle on a 'decade in review', and as beautifully written as you'd expect
Dear Jesus appreciates the kids movies that weren't really for kids in 2009: Mary & Max, Where the Wild Things Are and Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Film Doctor reasons why Fantastic Mr Fox is the coolest film


The Advocate famous TV mom Meredith Baxter (Family Ties) comes out
The Wrap on Invictus and The Lovely Bones
GreenCine Daily Overheard at the Gotham Awards
Cinema Styles has a wonderfully heartfelt piece on Boris Karloff and changing taste in actors as you age
Filmbo Judy Garland time. Wish I'd written this: "Is there no one running a marathon of her show today? What a waste of a TV schedule."
MNPP remembers comeback-man Woody Harrelson in Indecent Proposal. Going back to the roots are we? Well, I suppose that's cheers but he didn't enjoy frottage with Demi Moore on Cheers now did he?

Sam Neill recreates his Jurassic 90s heyday

Empire Magazine 20th Anniversary Photo Gallery (which maybe came out months ago but which I'm just now noticing... I'm not a regular reader) is very guy-film-only mainstream. Actors (no actresses -- unless they're with the actors) recreate their iconic roles. With 20 years of cinema to play with though it's kind of a shame that the net wasn't a bit wider. Would have been fun to see Thelma & Louise again or Julia redoing Pretty Woman or Linda Hamilton with Schwarzenegger in the Terminator pics but what is featured is super fun.
Sunset Gun remembers Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
IonCinema speculates about the Sundance lineup
/Film Robert Duvall as Don Quixote?
Towleroad Glee's Chris Golfer gives funny interview
MTV I hesitate to link to this article on The Twilight Saga: Eclipse because I think the writer must have been on some sort of drugs while typing it out. But it's so weird I must. It basically asks (without irony) what the franchise could do to widen its audience. Dear god... it's not popular enough?!? These are not struggling limited release art films, crazy-person-who-wrote-this!

And in case you haven't seen this web goodie "Hollywood Vs. New York"

Uncanny Birthday Suits

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, young actress 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.