You know what song really bugs me? "Diva" by Beyoncé. While Beyoncé is unquestionably a diva, I fail to see how a 'Diva is a female version of a hustlah'... that makes no sense to me. Divas are not about making money (though they usually have it. The riches are assumed entitlements, not bragging rights). VH-1 already distorted the concept of divas enough by bestowing the title to any recording artist with a vagina for years and years of televised concerts. I'm more old school about it. Now truly old school would take you back to divas equalling female opera singers. But I'm talking about the larger implied cultural connotation: those with an excess of presence, theatricality, narcissism... and a memorable voice. A good singular name helps, too. At least those are the ways we interpret it when it comes to cinematic divas.
Anyway... blah blah blah. How I do go on. Divas don't like to be kept waiting. My choices for Best Divas of the Film Year. *
<--A new (uninspiring) Inglourious Basterds poster for Brad Pitt. He's standing on a pile of dead bodies. Like Katey says, "subtle". My first thought upon seeing it was that The Bride never felt it necessary to pose atop the bodies of the crazy '88s. Oh, sure she claimed that the body parts belonged to her but she didn't actually keep them. She travelled light. And note: she didn't even have a long range weapon like a machine gun to kill off those enemy hordes. In short, Uma Thurman is more of a badass than Brad Pitt.
It would be misleading to suggest that Quentin Tarantino's current sadism is "new". His films have always had blood and body counts. I haven't seen Basterds yet, I do wonder if the sadism hasn't been consistently increasing. Think about Death Proof's carnage, Basterds entire plot, Kill Bill's massacre and death list... compare and contrast to Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown. The early films were deadly, sure, but weren't the characterizations and dialogue the raison d'etre of the films rather than their bloodshed?
When the multiple character posters thing first started taking off, I loved it. I even wished we could have them for movies gone by. Now I'm starting to feel like it's all overkill. Is today's overhyped movie culture a direct result of how early and how often the marketing department is getting involved these days, or am I just an impatient person? I'm willing to concede that it might be the latter but I'm guessing it's a combination of the two. Do you get impatient after a couple of promotional months?
I'm left feeling about Basterds, like I was feeling for Brüno. Stop teasing me already and just open the damn movie.
What's that? Brüno is open?! BYE. I'm off to the movies. I was about to photoshop Brüno posing atop the bodies of vanquished famous homophobes but stopped myself. Perhaps I should see the movie first before implicitly endorsing it as anti-homophobic? As movie|line notes, everyone's got an opinion here on what / who is being mocked and who will have a right to claim the most offense. *
le cinema StinkyLulu investigates Cher's work in Silkwood. I just watched this again and I love this performance. In fact, I love every turn in the film including Kurt Russell's. I wish Mike Nichols would make something this humble but stirring and potent again. New Yorker Evan Rachel Wood takes trapeze lessons. Fun piece... though I'll believe Jodie Foster's decades-delayed Flora Plum circus project -- not mentioned but why else the trapeze lessons -- when I see it. In ContentionA Christmas Carol sneaks. Score Enthusiast on Alexandre Desplat's work on Chéri Nick's Flick Picks a beautiful even handed tribute to Meryl Streep's career and its foibles, triumphs and unique pleasures
It's gay pride week in NYC FourFour has a great post on the documentary Ask Not on gays in the military and Brüno's comedic use of homophobia Boy Culture takes justifiable aim at Will & Grace creator Max Mutchnick who has been dredging up the ol lame chestnut 'these people don't represent me'. When will people learn that wedge politics are not helpful for minorities?
miscellania Toys R Evil Marilyn's Mickies - a cheesecake mashup [not really SFW] Blog Stage Sarah Jessica Parker is making a reality show American Artists. There's a reality competition for just about everything now 'cept blogging. It's hard to dramatize typing, isn't it?
i challenge you... to beat my score on Cryptic Canvas. It's a really hard but fun movie naming painted puzzle (all films from the past 20 years). Thanks to In Contention for pointing it out. I only got 27/50 answers in 20 minutes. Challenging stuff. I'm still so confused by the three pony-tailed girls in the graveyard.
Another random sampling of ladies hitting the red carpet or being caught by the paparazzi these past few days...
Kathy Bates was not at the press day for Chéri. But that's good. I was experiencing sensory overload anyway. Imagine if I had been made to feel even crazier than I already did about being in the same room with Michelle Pfeiffer. I didn't need Bates there as a freaky "I'm your no. 1 fan" reminder of the obsessive vibe I was probably giving off (uhhhh) NEW TOPIC!
Remember how fun Bates was on Six Feet Under a few years back? I kind of want her to do another TV series which is uncommon for me, given that I like my film actresses to stay put.
Sacha Baron Cohen, excuse me, Brüno at a photocall in Spain. That outfit... he really can't help himself. I'm drawn to the "too much" factor, I think. I'm not someone who likes comedy shows or standup but the comedians who are willing to push things so far that they ended up feeling dangerous rather than 'funny' or punchline oriented... like Andy Kaufman or early Sandra Bernhard. Those people I tend to love.
♫ I don't give a damn about my bad reputation ♫ It's not every day you see an actor with the famous person they're about to recreate onscreen. This isn't from a red carpet event but the annoying Kristen Stewart and the great Joan Jettare actually communicating about Stewart's Jett performance in The Runaways. Do you think Dakota Fanning, not to be outdone, asked to meet with Cherie Currie?
If they did meet I really hope Currie made her carve something with a chainsaw. I really do. I want The Runaways to be good. If Stewart and Fanning don't fully rock this, it won't be.
update: Dakota did meet with Cherie. Here's proof [thx bartzina]
Catherine Deneuve is 65 years old and still giving sensational performances. Her matriarch in Un conte de Noëlhas really stayed with me. My favorite thing about her (aside from her onscreen magnificence) is the cinephile vibe she gives off. That could be wishful thinking but you can also feel that possibility emanating from Kidman, Huppert and Julianne Moore on her good days. Deneuve's been playing muse to auteurs for decades. Can any actress match her collection: Buñuel, Von Trier, Demy, Polanski, Carax, Tony Scott (er...), Truffaut, Téchiné, Desplechin?
Oh, Christina Ricci. I really thought you were going to experience a bonafide resurgence post Black Snake Moan. Why is nothing major happening? Please to explain.
Michelle Pfeiffer was working the talk show circuit right after her press day in New York and I missed it. I am exceedingly forgetful. Plus I tend to be more big screen oriented than general media oriented all told. I frequently forget that my favorites are going to be interviewed somewhen and somewhere. I just want to see them act. The rest is icing. Unfortunately I skipped dessert. How was she on Letterman? Who watched? I love that she's working her 1992 Catwoman 'do again, don't you? The only thing I can find online is this anecdote about her screen test with Al Pacino for Scarface (1983) and I've paired it with her 2001 Letterman appearance for a comparison (the video clears up after a bit)
And, finally, just because it's so freaky to watch now, here's her first major talk show: Johnny Carson in 1980. Can you believe it? At this point she's 21 or 22 and because she's got virtually nothing on her resume, her intro is basically... 'um, this girl is ridiculously beautiful.' I love that Shelley Winters, ole blowsy Shelley Winters, who famously carried her Oscars to auditions with her to terrorize young casting directors, is on hand to welcome her to Hollywood.
My text-happy friend, who you know has 'txt critic', still wishes to remain anonymous. He's now managed to see Brünoearly. Er liebte es. Here's his brief take:
predictably hilarious. even more shocking and envelope pushing than "Borat" and just as funny. but at the same time it's no longer new, so it feels somewhat "safer" as in you know what to expect. Still awesome, though. Gay stuff will keep it from doing Borat $.
And I have no idea how they got an R rating.
Interesting to hear that he thinks it's still in the dread NC-17 range. In a rare bit of multi-platforming (seriously, it's always texts with that one) he sent a follow up email to elaborate... which gets a bit more spoilery.
My crowd was largely filled with gay tastemakers and "VIPs" (Ivanka Trump and her loudly-talking douche date were sitting near me), so perhaps the cringeing and revulsion weren't as pronounced/discomfiting as they would have been in a multiplex, but I couldn't believe the sort of things Cohen got away with. Lots of penis and explicit (comic, obviously) gay sexuality. There's an extended sequence early on that is so wildly over-the-top (the capper for me involved a bottle of champagne), that I almost think Sacha Baron Cohen included it as a warning/button-pusher (i.e. if this part doesn't make people walk out of the theater, they should be fine for the rest of the movie).
Like Borat, I know there's been a bunch of talk about whether the satire of homophobia/homosexuality could be misconstrued as mocking of gays (thus validating homophobes in the audience), but it's difficult to imagine too many audience members proud to see themselves in Cohen’s targets. The one who you start to feel bad for is Ron Paul (he looks like a senile grandpa being taunted/seduced)… until he’s filmed angrily calling Bruno “a queer.”
Lots of funny/broad/silly set-pieces, with intermittent bits that resonate/provoke – a short encounter Brüno has with the ‘God Hates Fags’ folks was a highlight for me.
I personally can't wait to see this. Borat hurt me i.e. offended my delicate sensibility -- a remnant of that pesky Mormon upbringing -- but also made me laugh my ass off. Where are you at with Brüno: want to see, must to avoid, will decide later? just visiting? Try the front page for new posts including Patty Clarkson on gay marriage, a "Streep at 60" Retrospective and my brief encounter with Michelle Pfeiffer. You can also chase the labels below for more on these topics
I didn't live blog the MTV Movie Awards tonight but I tweeted about it -- if you followed along -- whilst bracing myself for the last death rattle of Slumdog Millionaire's trophy gathering prowess. It lost everything to Twilight and that makes total sense since the latter stare-fest was the worst movie in the mix and this ain't about the cinema!
It was the MTV Twilight Awards. They won everything. Here's the New Moon trailer. Lots of screaming on MTV when Taylor Lautner took his shirt off.
It looks like he'll lose more than his shirt. When he transforms into a fearsome WereCGI his clothes explode.
The big takeaway of the night:Brüno wins. Eminem loses.
Sacha Baron Cohen hasn't lost any of his ability to cause a comedy stir and Eminem hasn't gained any sense of humor. Shouldn't rehab give you a humbler handy sense of humor about yourself? I do think it was justly hilarious to see Eminem's gaybaiting come back to (ass)slap him in the face. To be fair though he has cooled the homophobia a bit, unless you consider the 'don't mean to offend' to be sarcastic
He does not mean to lesbian offend But Lindsay, please come back to seeing men Samantha’s a two, you’re practically a ten I know you want me, girl, in fact, I can see a grin ... Sorry Portia, but whats Ellen DeGeneres Have that I don’t, are you telling me tenderness? Well I can be as gentle and as smooth as a gentleman
At least Zachary Quinto and Cameron Diaz thought the Brüno/Eminem bit was funny. Here's a theory about the prank that I suspect is true
Antonio Banderas was on my mind. I blame Fernando in the comments. Happy b-day Fernando
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! So many exclamation points. ¡But it's worth exclamating! Tis one of the very best films of 1990.
If you ask me this one never gets enough attention in the Almodóvar oeuvre. It's the MPAA's fault (It's fun to blame things on them. Try it). 'Round about '89/'90 a lot of specialized films were having huge problems with the ratings board. Films like The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover and Henry & June were just too much for the simple "R". Regarding the latter film, I still maintain it was the fully clothed Uma Thurman that did it in with the board. She was unbelievably smoldering in that picture. And you can't really edit a title character out of the picture, can you? In this climate was born the NC-17 rating which is still protecting fragile Americans from ever being subjected to films as permanently scarring to their psyches as....
(I'm sorry to scare you out there. Settle down, it was only an Ang Lee movie!)
There are a few violent pictures on the list of films that got slapped with 'the new X' but mostly it's sex that gets them angry enough to outlaw any parent from bringing their teenagers into the theater with them. Meanwhile, it's totally OK for a parent to bring their 5 year old into Saw XIV. "All is right with the world", he typed sarcastically.
The Wrap reports that the new Sacha Baron Cohen comedy, his follow up to Borat, got slapped with the dread rating. Perhaps reading the full (informal / gifted?) title will make the MPAA's objections more comprehensible.
Brüno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt
The film hasn't even opened yet and Brüno's already achieved his purpose. They're visibly uncomfortable. The comedy, presumably with a few snips, cuts and resultant "R" rating, will open July 10th in theaters everywhere. *
You know what song really bugs me? "Diva" by Beyoncé. While Beyoncé is unquestionably a diva, I fail to see how a 'Diva is a female version of a hustlah'... that makes no sense to me. Divas are not about making money (though they usually have it. The riches are assumed entitlements, not bragging rights). VH-1 already distorted the concept of divas enough by bestowing the title to any recording artist with a vagina for years and years of televised concerts. I'm more old school about it. Now truly old school would take you back to divas equalling female opera singers. But I'm talking about the larger implied cultural connotation: those with an excess of presence, theatricality, narcissism... and a memorable voice. A good singular name helps, too. At least those are the ways we interpret it when it comes to cinematic divas.
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