While interviewing Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg for The Fighter, who seem to be in great moods (why wouldn't they be after the Globe & BFCA announcements?) Travers tries to entice Bale to serenade us with a little Newsies number. And why shouldn't he? Is there anything so wonderful as Bale crooning "Santa Fe" on horseback with that little red kerchief round his neck?
Travers doesn't get what he expects.
Unexpected delight: Wahlberg throwin' a little Boogie Nights encore in there.
Okay, I can't resist posting it... the best moment from Newsies bar none.
He has a lovely voice. Sad that he doesn't want to do another musical.
I pray my occasional 'look at these comments!' posts don't come off as desperate. I'm just a very chatty person, what can I say? Since we are all becoming cyborgs, comments feel closer to conversation all the time. One day we will all forget how to speak. We will grow extra sets of fingers for more typing speed. Evolution will shrink our hands so that we can text with greater ease on our tiny devices.
First, I wanted to thank everyone who offered up music suggestions ♪ ♫ in the Grammy Awards post. I've already started investigating your recommendations since I usually have at least one "music of the year" or "music video of the year" posts in late December. Keep 'em coming.
Last year about this time the public was going wild for The Blind Side and I included an "Overheard" conversation about it. Broooooke recently discovered the year old post and feels bad that Sandra got such flack for winning because the performance (if not the film) holds up. I would love to include more of those overheard posts but I'm telling you it is SO hard to eavesdrop in NYC. You're oft thwarted by noisy subway trains and traffic and whispering (damn you quite people in noisy cities!). Just last week two older men in suits right next to me on the subway were discussing the Oscar race. I was dying to eavesdrop but alas... major subway noise and then my stop.
A related note on Sandra B: Rebecca finds it odd that people lament the Academy's refusal to give older women the Oscar in the Annette Bening post but also bitch about Sandra's win. Sandra was 45 when she won. But more on this age & oscar topic this week ~ Article in Progress.
Viggo & Fassy on the set of A Dangerous Method
Patrick F recently declared it a life goal to see all of Viggo Mortenson's movies. I was just thinking about Viggo yesterday and how long it took him to get really famous. It was a by-association thought. I was watching Fish Tank (so good, right?) and dreaming about seeing Viggo and Michael Fassbender as Freud & Jung in A Dangerous Method or The Talking Cure or whatever David Cronenberg is calling that psychiatric bio these days. They seem like such ideally paired co-stars to me.
Cal read the whole Undertow interview -- that's the Peruvian Oscar submission -- and loves that more Latin American movies are getting international attention "Before it was only Argentina and Brazil." Troia recently saw the movie, too, and thinks it one of the most moving of 2010. I bring this up now after the fact because I'm assuming we're going to hear about the foreign film finalists from AMPAS any day now. I love following the foreign film race but I'm not sure about this whittling down process where suddenly 50+ movies are evicted in the last month before the actual nominations. Imagine being on the campaign trail and then >boom< 'Sorry, you're out before nominations are even announced.' My current 9 predicted finalists are here but this category often holds surprises so no one knows anything.
That Helen Mirren "women in hollywood" speech sure has been making the web rounds (though there weren't many comments here on it.) Still, Manuel recalls the first time he saw the delightful Helen Mirren (Prime Suspects) and was hooked ever after. Mirren only gradually entered my consciousness. The first thing I remember seeing her in is White Nights (1985) where she met her future husband, the director Taylor Hackford. I was kind of in love with Mikhail Baryshnikov at the time (she played his wife) and I only remember two things about the movie today.
A shot of Misha stretching to warm up where he lays his head against his entirely vertical leg. As if this is something the human body is supposed to be able to do!
This scene where Misha dances for her and she cries from the beauty of his movement. Or at least that's how I remembered the reason for her tears.
Why the Misha love? Blame childhood in the 1970s. It's probably impossible to imagine for anyone born in the 90s when the only people constantly discussed seem to be reality TV show stars but yes... a ballet dancer was once mega-famous to the point where teenager had posters of him on their walls. I wonder if Black Swan will inspire a mini-fad of renewed interest in ballet? If so that'll sure help Benjamin Millipied from Black Swan.
Odes to Emaciation: Christian Bale's Insane Actorly Commitment
I was just about to go into several interesting comments from the latest link roundup but I could do this all day and I have to move on. See.... in about 4 or 5 hours things start getting really crazy with the awards calendar... but maybe Sheila isn't the only one who is less than excited to see the madness begin. She writes
Ahh, these bullshit awards leave me cold. Why do people fawn over them so? Think of all the past great performances that were left out and you get the message. It's all about timing, timing, timing, especially now...
Timing is indeed the magic element. She's not far off with one key example: Christian Bale's "posterboy routine for committed actors" is finally catching up with him in terms of awards heat.
Are you as chatty this morning? If not, have another cup o' joe.
I saw The Fighter last week and didn't even deliver a "this is all the time I have" 7 word review. I have more than 7 words on this one though what follows is not a traditional review. The first thing I tweeted was...
It still applies. Yep, Christian Bale is doing his best work ever in the co-lead role of Dicky Eklund (Let's call it The Fighters)or at least his best since American Psycho (2000). Barring Geoffrey Rush's mutant power (awards magnetism) the "supporting" Oscar is most definitely Bale's to lose. And this is an important distinction: It'd be his to lose even without his baity penchant for putting his health at risk to dwindle down to anorexic nothingness for a role. This is his third time doing so. We hope it's the last.
A Tale of Two (Half) Brothers
But what's my favorite thing about The Fighters other than him?
I guess it'd be the way Melissa Leo (playing the mother to both fighters) and Christian Bale are always believably in sync as mother/son. They're practically twins with their darting hollow eyes, perpetually nervous body language and emotionally vampiric yet super vibrant energy. Would that more actors would co-author such compelling familial bonds while playing at "family". What's more, Bale and Leo have mastered the weird arms-length charisma of charming people who are simultaneously completely off-putting. Alice Ward and Dicky Eklund are the type of people you can't help but want to hang out with... but from a very safe distance, with plentiful escape routes.
Melissa Leo's on fire.
No, no. it's not that. That sympatico style is great but it's not my favorite thing about the movie.
Also worth loving is the everyman mundanity of Amy Adams and Mark Wahlberg, a somewhat perverse use of their combined star power. (Though they both have it, they're more recognizably "human" and thus smaller than giant film stars, here and elsewhere). Charlene (and Adams who plays her) and Micky (and Wahlberg who plays him) are constantly drowned out by the cacophony of Much Bigger Personalities surrounding them. It's hilarious how often they both just shut right down in the center of a scene with an 'I give up' pout. And they're the "Stars" for lack of a better word!
No, no.
The best element has to be the idiosyncratic humanity that director David O. Russell keeps breathing into the proceedings. By all rights, The Fighter ought to feel far more generic than it does; make no mistake, this is a "true story" inspirational sports biopic. Russell keeps finding ways to vary the tone, play with the moodswings (even perpetually "on" people like Alice & Dicky have quiet days) and have fun with the framing, which generously allows the orbiting cast members to contribute to the movie as well (the standout being Jack McGee as Alice's impressively sturdy husband George). Sports movie fans won't like the film quite as much, one suspects, since the boxing scenes are arguably the most generically executed part.
And then there's the subplot involving the making of the unflattering HBO documentary on Dicky "High on Crack Street" (1995). Dicky willfully deceives himself about it but the doc scenes gives the film tremendous tragicomic boost.
There's also a choice scene in which Micky & Charlene go to the movies and... well, I don't want to spoil it.
David O. Russell loves a rangey ensemble.
Oh wait, I know.
My favorite thing is the clown car chorus of Dicky & Micky's trashy big haired sisters (John Waters will be green with envy). There are so many of them. They're the most abrasively comic gaggle of sisters since the perpetual assault of Adam Sandler's siblings in Punchdrunk Love.
Or. Well...
The best thing might be the way The Fighters manages to slide so easily into David O. Russell's undervalued filmography even though it's much less original than his other films. When some auteurs make stabs at mainstream genres or popular appeal they lose themselves. Such is not the case here. Russell is still in love with the juggling act of impossibly noisy mixes of disparate acting styles (Flirting With Disaster, I Heart Huckabees), he's still fond of Oedipal undercurrents (Spanking the Monkey, Flirting...), he can still turn a film on a dime from comedy to 'wait, that's not funny' disturbing (Three Kings, Huckabees) and he's still just about the only director who Mark Wahlberg should ever work with (though, that said, "Micky Ward" has nothing on Wahlberg's Kings or Huckabees performances... the character's too much of a cypher this time.)
But no, it's not that. It's... NO.
No. No. No. You have to stop somewhere.
Needless to say, The Fighter is incredibly watchable. It's a solid good time at the movies. More importantly, it's a total K.O. for fans of Bale, Leo and O. Russell. A-/B+
God bless V Magazine for their latest issue, "Who Cares About Age". Usually when the media decides to celebrate older women, we're only allowed one. Like the recent Streep Mania... or 2006 when Helen Mirren was all the rage. I've always had a thing for actresses of a certain age so I applaud them for multiplying the enthusiasm. I mean check out these legendary cover girls: Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, and Sigourney Weaver. yesplease³.
And as if that weren't enough, you've got Charlotte Rampling on the inside! A whole huge photogallery of her... "Charlotte in Couture".
The average age of these women is 66. The average fabulousity of these women is ∞. Just saying.
More links... Scott Feinberg interviews Halle Berry The Evening Class Liza Minnelli interviews and TCM schedule Deadline Hollywood Toy Story Best Picture spoofing FYC ads. The first is to your left. There's more to come as they campaign for the big prize. I'm really hoping they do Amadeus, The Hurt Locker and West Side Story. Which Best Pictures would you like to see spoofed by the toys? Man About Town interviews Ryan Kwanten... naked. Ha. Shadowplay proposes a mid December blog-a-thons about the last films from directors. What a fine idea. Any suggestions you'd like me write about? Just Jared Anne Hathaway is awesome. She's already dreamt up her own role on Glee and picking songs before they've even invited her. Moviefone If Lindsay Lohan needs to hit rock bottom to recover maybe this will do it? Malin Akerman of all people is now considered a suitable replacement.
offscreen Gabby's Playhouse brilliant cartoon about the progression of all "sexism" discussions on the internet The Post-Game Show on "beefcake" comic art and how it differs from cheesecake...
And finally...
What's your take on Christian Bale's Oscar chances for The Fighter?
I was discussing this with some peers earlier today. Some people feel he's too disliked to win an Oscar (after all, many below the line players vote on Oscars and we all know that Bale has a temper on set) others that "likeability" doesn't matter so much in the face of a certain level of performance. Esquire just published a thorny profile piece. Some journalists think he's an ingrate. Others, like Kris Tapley appreciate his rough edges. My take is somewhere in the middle. Likeability does matter in awards season (a lot) and though I appreciate honesty and strong opinions, I do find that it's incredibly narcissistic when stars of a certain level bitch about their duties as stars... like doing press. Basically they wouldn't have those duties if they weren't hugely successful. If people want to talk to you that means you're more successful. All jobs come with elements that are less joyous for the worker ... but very few jobs have the rewards that star actors receive. Bitching about a tiny amount of drudgery within a life filled with extravagant reward (the only reason that tiny amount of drudgery even exists is because you're successful enough to have been extravagantly rewarded) seems very very petty. So I'm torn. I find it distasteful but on the other hand I believe art should be judged without interference from the personality of the artist.
Our first glimpse of the highly buzzed David O. Russell boxing picture The Fighter. If it becomes a major player at this year's Oscars I want y'all to remember that I believed it would happen first. Toot Toot. (That was my own horn).
And now the patented foolproof system for judging our own reaction to the trailer: Yes, No, Maybe So™. Join us with your own in the comments.
First things first: It seems obvious that this film will live or die on the chemistry between its central brothers, boxer Mickey (Mark Wahlberg) and his trainer (Christian Bale). It seems obvious from the trailer that their relationship could well float like a butterfly and sting like a bee or whatever the hell boxers are supposed to do. Maybe Wahlberg is the type of performer who has to have a strong director to be properly called an actor -- but that question of his ability is already solved by reteaming him with David O'Russell who is already responsible for his best performance (I Heart Huckabees). Plus we'd like Christian Bale to stop doing these crazy things to his body so maybe mass acknowledgement that he's a good actor will dampen down that particular self-destructive urge for awhile?
On the other hand, haven't we seen enough boxing pictures? Isn't it the #1 most populated sport within the movies -- you'd think there'd be boxing gyms on every corner of every street to meet the need. Boxers are like hitmen: way more prevalent in the movies than they are in real life. But there will be blood... in the movies. Since we've seen so many rise and fall and rise again biopics and so many boxing pictures, what could this possibly add to the bloated over populated genre? I fear it looks a smidge generic... at least visually. Not that you can always tell from a trailer.
The cast sounds good on paper but how do they all come together onscreen? It's possibly delicious that there will be a catfight of sorts between Mickey's mom (Melissa Leo) and his girl (Amy Adams) but it also just might be typical Hollywood poverty porn. You know how they love the 'We're going to Disneyland!' white trash families the movies... or maybe I'm just thinking of the last Oscar baiting boxing pic. So, to make a long story short: I knew that both Leo and Adams were in the movie but who expected that the movie would contain girlfights? Haven't we all wanted to see Amy Adams test her range a little ever since her triumph in Enchanted? So why am I a little worried about her in this context.
Robert here, continuing my series on great contemporary directors. In the past ten years or so the Hollywood summer blockbuster has been steadily improving in quality. Now don't worry, there's still lots of trash reinforcing the fact that studio execs never lost a buck aiming for the lowest common denominator. But there's been a resurgence in good big budget films (Can I say resurgence? Was there ever a surgence?). Christopher Nolan isn't singularly responsible for this. Others were making good action movies before him, but he has come to represent all that can be right about blockbusters if the right director is given the right material.
Maestro:Christopher Nolan Known For: Dark and moody thrillers and occasionally Batman. Influences:Stanley Kubrick, Ridley Scott, not comic books as much as you might think. Masterpieces:High marks all around, but none yet(With my genuine apologies to those who disagree. Let's not have that conversation again. Let's argue about Avatar instead.) Disasters: definitely none Better than you remember: I'm not sure I want to get caught up in the ongoing argument about how Nolan's films have compared to the hype. Let's just say that I suspect history will remember all of his films accurately.
Box Office:The Dark Knight made a few cents here and there. Over 533 million. Favorite Actor: Both Christian Bale and Michael Caine have been in three films but once Inception opens, Caine will officially take the crown.
When Christopher Nolan was awarded the Batman franchise, reaction was hopeful and surprised. But in fact this wasn't a new studio tactic. Finding a promising new filmmaker and signing them to a franchise deal has always been part of the process. Rumor has it the Coens were originally offered Batman after Blood Simple. Burton fit the aesthetic so he eventually got the call. Bryan Singer was courted after The Usual Suspects and though hardly new, one has to assume Hollywood had been ignoring Sam Raimi for decades before it finally discovered him and gave him Spider-Man. But two things made the Batman/Nolan match more exciting. First was the utter state of disrepair the (possibly most beloved and iconic of all comic franchises) franchise was in. And second was just how closely the Batman myth aligned itself with the themes that Nolan loved most. Nolan makes movies about desperate men and the moments that drive them to extremes. In most cases it's the death of a loved one (wives or parents) but more than that I think it's a sudden and violent realization of the chaos present in the world. This often results in the "rebirth" of an individual. Bruce Wayne is reborn as Batman, Harvey Dent as Two-Face. Leonard from Memento is, in a way, continually reborn every few minutes. The Prestigealso delves into the topic of continual rebirth but I won't spoil it.
Two sides of the same coin.
Tied into this is another favorite Nolan topic: the duality of man. Characters in Nolan films are often reflections of each other. Consider Batman and his Rogues. Both Ras Al Ghoul and Batman believe the world to be full of evil, but one thinks the solution is saving it, the other destroying. Two-Face is another parallel. He's reflection of what Bruce Wayne could have become if his tragedy propelled him toward evil. The Joker though isn't so much a reflection of anyone as much as he is a personification of that ever-present chaos in the world. This phenomenon isn't just limited to Batman. The two men in The Prestige are mirror images of each other surging toward the same goal, one with emotional abandon the other with precise calculation. There are further examples of man's duality in The Prestige, but I won't spoil it.
It's this perfect match of man and material that has resulted in such success. But there have been other factors too. Much has been made of Nolans insistence on realism and how it has served his films well. Of course any film where a man dresses up as a bat isn't realistic but his determination toward a realistic universe has allowed the strange and supernatural to be that much more clearly punctuated. Other comic book films like Spider-Man or Iron Man (both very good) exist in comic book reality and the difference is noticable. Some have noted that Nolan's action sequences and plots are often too opaque. But I maintain that audiences really aren't adverse to elements of mystery or confusion (people are still watching Lost aren't they?) as long as the excitement level stays high.
There's every reason to believe that Nolan will keep the excitement level high. His next film, Inception is among the most anticipated of this year. And it was recently announced that he'll be overseeing a new Superman film and directing a third Batman. It's still something of an unknown whether Hollywood will heed the right message from Nolan's success. Thus far they seem to have wrongly interpreted it to mean everything needs a "reboot." And Nolan's films (as is now the case with all big budget pictures) must go through a prolonged series of internet-fueled stages (hype, backlash against the hype, backlash against the backlash, and finally acceptance). All of that should be secondary to the movies themselves which remain solid and entertaining. If Nolan really does come to represent the state of the Summer Blockbuster I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't be perfectly happy with that.
...premiered in Hollywood. My how things have changed. Remember when we didn't know who Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) was or that Christopher Nolan would soon make one of the biggest hits of all time. Remember when people were still regularly talking about Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, King Kong) and everyone was still hugely fond of Christian Bale? Good times.
...oh, don't act like you don't speak of them often.
I don't think I'll be getting to "Best of the Aughts" until late this year or possibly March 2010 given what's sure to be a crazed Oscar season but I was looking over those old Actors & Actresses of the Aughts list (compiled to reflect 2000-2005 cinema) and realizing how much can change within four to five years of cinema. Halfway through this decade Meryl Streep hadn't yet reconquered the world, Christian Bale hadn't yet started alienating fans, Scarlett Johansson hadn't yet started boring people, Heath Ledger hadn't left us, Holly Hunter hadn't moved to the small screen, Jude Law's career hadn't receded, Maggie Cheung hadn't vanished...
Here's what the lists looked like in 2005
Actor
Jude Law
Gael Garcia Bernal
Ewan McGregor
Tony Leung Chiu-Wai
Johnny Depp
Clive Owen
Peter Sarsgaard
Daniel Craig
Christian Bale
George Clooney
Just Missed: Jim Broadbent, Jake Gyllenhaal Further down... Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Bill Murray, Cillian Murphy, Brad Pitt and dozens of others who've seen great success (or much less of it) since Not even in the top 100 We'd just barely met James McAvoy and he had pointed ears and really furry legs in Narnia. Who knew?
I wonder how much these lists will change once 2006-2009 are factored in? Whose career changed the most for you, cinematically speaking, recently? I suppose you'll be wanting a "Directors of the Aughts" list, too?
Christian Bale actually shoots my (guilty pleasure) Channing Tatum down early on in Public Enemies but I've totally forgiven him because I'm so pleased that he didn't shout at the camera with crazy eyes this time. I was getting so tired of that. My second favorite scene in the movie is totally his lone scene with Johnny Depp through the bars of a jail cell, both men subtly trying to come out on top of the verbal smackdown. Bale is totally intense in the scene without once doing his "LOOK HOW INTENSE I AM!" thing. Well played Bale, well played.
My full review of Public Enemies is up over at Towleroad. In addition to holding forth on Public Enemies (which I heartily recommend to some and not to others) my weekly column offers up new gay movie news and wraps up with the criminal cool of Bette Davis. So, go read it.
It's for this very dichotomous reason that I don't subscribe to either of the Oscar race notions floating around out there: the pro 'The Oscar race has begun' or the con 'Dead on arrival. Look at the middling reviews!' It seems obvious to me that it's the type of picture that will need time to settle. I think that's a good thing. Too many movies are instantaneously celebrated or dismissed on their very first day in theaters (and sometimes before that). Christ, let them breathe a little.
But if you've seen it, do add your initial impression to the confusing dogpile. After all, gut reactions come before full digestion. *
'Txt Critic', my frequent anonymous review donor, has apparently become drunk on his power to reach millions of Film Experience readers (shutup! Let me dream). He has abandoned his habit of one or two sentence text reviews of future releases. Now I'm getting full paragraphs by e-mail. I'll have to change his handle. Here he is on Michael Mann's summer drama Public Enemies.
Warning: He doesn't like it and doesn't mince words
Glossy, somewhat stylish, good production value and all that, but almost completely inert. I wasn't "bored," and it's not a complete and utter failure, but it's probably the least interesting movie Michael Mann's ever made. There is zero character definition. No one has an arc of any sort -- we learn NOTHING about any of the three central characters -- and the "action" isn't particularly compelling, at least not enough to compensate for the complete dearth of emotion or thematic complexity. It's the height of "this happened, and then this happened..." storytelling, without ever giving us a reason to care. There's a couple well-shot shootouts/carchases, but the movie's never EXCITING, and Johnny Depp, Marion Cotillard and Christian Bale are playing completely flat, undefined, static characters. Dillinger (Depp) robs banks. What do we learn about him over the course of the movie? He's nice and won't take civilians' money. That's all we get. Purvis (Bale) wants to catch Dillinger. Why is he so driven? We don't know. He's told right at the beginning of the movie by J. Edgar Hoover "catch Dillinger" and that's about it. He never grows "obsessive" or shows us what's lurking behind the curtain (i.e. making the character interesting) -- he just wants to catch Dillinger. There's no parallels between the two, they have no real back-and-forth, we aren't shown comparisons and contrasts.
We don't get a clue why Billie (Cotillard) and Dillinger care about each other, we just see them kiss occasionally. Depp gets one quick scene of humanity, Cotillard gets two, and boring Bale gets none -- there's a lot of hollow brooding and flat delivery here. I read some interview where Mann said he had Depp lay himself "bare emotionally" for this part or some such remark -- horseshit. This might be the laziest performance Depp's given in the last decade
Um, Ouch. And so hot on the heels of his birthday, too. Have you no heart?
Without the occasional cool music track and the clear, crisp, digital look of the film, we'd get almost no stamps of Mann. There might be some Mann apologists on this one, but I think response is going to be overwhelmingly muted, if not outright dismayed.
I asked him where he falls on the Mann-Fann spectrum and he claims he's generally a devotee. "I even like Ali and Miami Vice" he assures. Another confirmed Mann junkie, In Contention's Kris Tapley has already expressed a (very) positive reaction. Perhaps it'll be a divisive picture? I had thought we were looking at our earliest real Oscar contender but then Up happened. If Enemies does disappoint, we might not see any of the Oscar players that will pop Up's balloon (prepare yourself kids. If even WALL•E couldn't do it...) until October or November.
When I announced I was seeing Terminator Salvationyesterday, I got a note from Rob, a longtime reader, which said
Let us know if the cinematography comes across as especially intrusive to the thespian process.
Heh. I am happy to report that unless Christian Bale's eyes are particularly sensitive to bleached colors and shadowy sets, Shane Hurlbut's lensing didn't intrude on his thespian process at all. But Bale intruded on Bale's thespian process.
I liked Salvation a lot more than this next statement will imply (here's the video review) but... John Connor was a dud. [editor's note: Isn'thealways?] Christian Bale bored me silly. He used to be a thrilling and unpredictable actor. Now I feel like I'm seeing the same performance over and over again. It's like he's lipsynching to his own Arias of Intensity.
Since Bale has given at least one undisputably genius performance ("Patrick Bateman", American Psycho) I'd like to cut him some slack and blame Hollywood and movie audiences. Why is it that we need the same thing over and over again? Why do we need orphaned crime-fighting Batman to also be orphaned robot-fighting John Connor? Why do we need 4th and 11th versions of stories we've already heard? Why do we need a reboot of the Star Trek story which we've been hearing for over 40 years? For Christ's sake, why do we need a 8th season of American Idol? It's the same show every year.
Will we ever love something new?
I was thinking about this whilst perusing the internet yesterday and reading numerous gripe posts about X-Men Origins: Wolverine followed (in the same posts!) by anticipation of X-Men Origins: Deadpool or whatever they might call it. It's like we're goldfish or we're collectively stuck in a OCD moment, repeating the same cycle over and over again.
Instead of locking and unlocking our doors, we're swallowing hype whole, choking on it and then opening wide again "Give it to me!" It's basically Hollywood's ideal cattle herding loop. Even if we don't like a movie, we'll still go to its sequel.
But I'm spiralling off topic. In the case of Bale, I'm more concerned currently with Hollywood's (and by extension our) lack of imagination about who should play whom in franchises. I'm sitting there watching Anton Yelchin, who plays Kyle Reese as a teenager, and thinking 'Chekov from Starfleet impregnated Sarah Connor to stop Skynet?!?'
Shouldn't I be thinking "ooh, the young Kyle Reese!"?
Why did Chris Pine, suddenly get talked up for Green Lantern just as soon as people starting noticing he might not bomb as Captain Kirk? Should Captain Kirk really remind us of Green Lantern and vice versa? And then there's the problem of Samuel L Jackson. I've complained about this before but the Nick Fury casting really upset me last summer. It seems, scanning credits, like Marvel wants Nick Fury to be the connective tissue for all of their superhero movies. That would be a fun idea if it were a lesser or unknown actor but now all of these Marvel superhero movies will not only remind us of each other but of the following franchises or intended franchises (some didn't pan out): The Spirit, Star Wars, Shaft, Jumper, Afro Samurai, xXx, The Incredibles, S.W.A.T, Jurassic Park and even The Exorcist. I don't begrudge any strong actor a successful career but I really think there out to be a cap on how many big franchises one actor is allowed to appear in. Seeing the same faces over and over again (Jackson's) or hearing the same affected voice over and over again (Bale's) just makes all these movies seem more generic and copied and alike than they already are.
The internet was abuzz yesterday with the rumor that Bradley Cooper might play Hal Jordan / Green Lantern (the IMDB lists Chris Pine in the role but that's still only a rumor). I've mocked it up for you to the right. I forgot the mask but that's all Bradley there. Actors don't need padded muscle suits anymore. They have personal trainers and dieticians.
I like Cooper but I haven't even begun to ponder whether or not he'd be a good Hal Jordan. Still, better him than Chris Pine. That way I won't have to get used to Captain Kirk belonging to both Federation Starfleet and the Green Lantern Corps. Does Starfleet even allow dual citizenship?
Have you read the Terminator Retro Special? PART ONE: Tech•Noir (The Terminator) PART TWO: Model Citizen (Judgment Day) PART THREE: Terminator Salvation Discussion (passed on rewatching Rise of the Machines after all)
This is Dave from Victim of the Time here again, with your nightly installment of April Showers. And regarding this one... well, someone had to do it, didn't they?
I live in the American Gardens Building on West 81st Street on the 11th floor. My name is Patrick Bateman. I'm 27 years old. I believe in taking care of myself with a balanced diet and rigorous exercise routine. In the morning if my face is a little puffy, I'll put on an ice pack while doing stomach crunches. I can do 1000 now.
After I remove the ice pack I use a deep pore cleanser lotion. In the shower, I use a water activated gel cleanser, then a honey almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub.
Then I apply an herb-mint facial mask which I leave on for 10 minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine. I always use an after shave lotion with little or no alcohol, because alcohol dries your face out and makes you look older. Then moisturizer, then an anti-aging eye balm followed by a final moisturizing protective lotion.
I can supply you with some critical commentary if you're interested? ... No? (It's clever to get the nudity out of the way immediately, though. Then when later he's running out nude with a chainsaw it's the chainsaw you're actually focused on. What, you're looking at his ass then too? What one-track minds you people have.)
JA from MNPP here again. When I participated in the "We Can't Wait" countdown with Nat & Co. the other week, we collective countdowners got taken to task for (amongst many many things) leaving off some love for the next effort by the director Michael Mann, Public Enemies.
For my part, Enemies did not make my top 20 list, and looking at the films that did make it I stand by that, but I still kind of wonder why I'm not more excited by this film. I love Bale (yes, even after the bitch-out heard round the world), I love Depp (usually), and I'm one of those crazy people that thought Marion Cotillard deserved that damn Oscar... then there's Billy Crudup, Channing Tatum (mmmm), Lili Taylor, David Wenham (mmmm)... the list goes on and on.
All those actors, plus Michael Mann in the director's chair... well see, Mann always makes movies that sneak up on me. So I think that's what this is. And now, seeing some new pictures from the flick via MSN, well... I am feeling a tingle of anticipation, I am.
Looking at the poster, I do wonder at the decision to have Depp's crotch be the focal point of all the text. Then again... perhaps that is genius. Mad genius! .
In Contention Tapley looks at all of the Oscar nominated documentary shorts Your Movie Buddy this isn't a link to a specific post but this blog by TFE reader Kurtis O is pretty funny -- I particularly got a kick out of the reimagining of The Reader poster and the Price is Right riff for Meryl Streep that I hadn't seen. Hee Victim of the Time doesn't much cotton to this Doubt picture and fully explains why Slant on Oscar's best actress race
Off Oscar The Bad and Ugly Ummmm. Is the new Transformers character supposed to kill people with its giant angry drillbit penis? This is a toy? 'You know, for kids' (?) The Big Picture Christian Bale's official apology "...make fun of me. I deserve it completely." Hugo Stiglitz Makes Movies a long piece on the evolution of noir (Chinatown, A Touch of Evil, Blade Runner, Blue Velvet and more...) Rob Licuria's 15th annual Awards and Radio Allegro's second annual Antagony & Ecstasy flips for Henry Selick's Coraline. The Hot Blog an interview with Jonathan Demme and Jenny Lumet of Rachel Getting Married magnificence. *
Jane Fonda's Blog!!! Why is it that it took me 29 whole days to discover that she was writing a blog? I lurve me some Fonda. Topics so far have included the inauguration, her father as Abraham Lincoln, dreams of Bob Redford, her dog, her dressing room (she's rehearsing for a play) and Danny Boyle --yes, Slumdog Millionaire has invaded ever nook and cranny of everything. I am pretty sure that Slumdog Millionaire was appearing in some way on every channel on my cable box yesterday and every website I visited, too. I think I accidentally sprinkled some Slumdog Millionaire on my pizza today. If you cut me I would bleed Slumdog Millionaire. (February 23rd can't come quickly enough!)
Mighty God King defines "nerdy". It needed to be done TMZ assaults Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins with questions at the airport. I don't think he's used to this treatment, god bless. Slant insightful piece on Oscar's best score category Erik Lundegaard gives out "Lundys", a fun award for the best review of each Best Picture nominee Pop ElegantariumHarold and Maude finger puppets? I'm dying here
popbytes Scarjo is blonde no more! The Bad and the Ugly brings together all the Dollhouse promos. Eliza Dushku makes me drool. Drooling is not good for keyboards Ephemerist on the preparations for the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack The Carpetbagger amused by Jon Stewart's take on Benjamin Button. Have you seen it? So funny. Pets Who Want to Kill Themselves Poor Puppy Bale. Daddy is a mean one
..and a couple of Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue photoshoots for Australia and The Wrestler
Here are some photos if that vid is not enough... and how could it be since there's no ... COVER. Argh.
Velvet Goldmine, auteur Todd Haynes' marvelous, sexy, agitated tribute to glam rock celebrates its 10th anniversary this month. A decade later it's still quite the queer jewel. It remains one of the sparkliest bits in the filmographies of all involved.
When I first announced this Velvet celebration I dropped the argumentative note that I think it's a better film than Haynes's recent and more acclaimed picture I'm Not There. The latter has a bolder attention-grabbing actorly gambit (multiple performers for one role ... sort of) but the films are close spiritual siblings in many other ways. They're like aggressively eccentric visual historians who share the same pet topics: fluid persona, rock star egotism and cultural youthquakes. So why do I think Velvet is better?
Ten Reasons Why Velvet Goldmine Trumps I'm Not There
10Christian Bale appears in both of these Todd Haynes extravaganzas. In only one of them does he masturbate to a fold out album cover and newspaper clippings.
"It's a shameful fithy thing you're doing!"
09 Todd Haynes detractors point to his intellectualism as a fault. They say it renders his movies into theses. Mostly I say "what's wrong with that?" ... better to have something meaty to discuss than the alternative. And though I've often chalked this reaction up to lazy anti-intellectualism I see where they're coming from a bit with I'm Not There. Advantage Velvet Goldmine: It funnels its big ticket ideas through the painted lips of characters as unintellectual in nature as Mandy (Toni Collete --I kind of live for her "speeding up" monologue) as awkward as Arthur (Christian Bale) as silent as Jack Fairy (Micko Westmoreland) or as stoned as Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor) or as smugly pontificating as Brian (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). This filter makes it less 'thinky' somehow.
08 Put another way: Velvet Goldmine lives in its body as well as its head. I'm Not There stays entirely cerebral even though rock n' roll is often located in the groin. The sex scene between Mandy & Brian in particular is incisively shot through distorting glass, incisively echoing their fluidity and even the confusion of who is/will be doing what to whom in the long run. And that's not to mention the crude guitar fellatio or the orgy sequence.
"It's funny how people look when they're walking out the door"
07 Unlike many rock and roll films, Goldmine's reach is generous. It focuses not just on a performer (as I'm Not There and most traditional rock pictures do) but it allows for further contextualization by adding an equally weighted audience surrogate (Arthur). We end up experiencing the larger cultural shifts through both performers and audiences. As a result it far exceeds the familiar rise and fall narrative of famous movie musicians and paints an unusual portrait of the death of a particular peculiar moment in both the large and intimate sense and from both directions (performer/voyeur) at once. You have to love it.
06 The flights of fancy in I'm Not There: whale, giraffes, balloons, etcetera... are all (presumably) esoterica. Only Dylan fans might understand them. Velvet Goldmine's most fanciful flourishes such as spaceships, magic amulets, barbie doll kisses and Oscar Wilde, are more accessible. I knew precious little about the glam rock era before watching the movie and I never felt like I wasn't in on any joke.
"Baby's On Fire" and "the curve of your lips rewrite history"
05Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ewan McGregor are both way more believable as rock stars than anyone in I'm Not There... and more believeable as rock stars than many other people in many other rock movies. There are many people who think JRM is not much of an actor and to them I say 'ignore the other things you've seen him in an marvel at how perfectly he's cast and shot here and how well he embodies autoerotic androgynous callow celebrity.' He'll never top it but so what? If you have to peak early due it in service of a great film. As for McGregor... "TV Eye" has to be one of the most authentically live & dangerous rock numbers captured on film, doesn't it?
04 The Citizen Kane structure is endearing in its chutzpah. Not that I'm Not There doesn't have balls. But there's more film-appropriate youthful bravado in Goldmine. In short: it's more fun.
03 No sequence within Velvet Goldmine --not even the slightly mistifying Jack Fairy throughline -- is as headscratching or unsatisfying as one sixth of I'm Not There, the sixth being the Richard Gere section. Please note: This is not to take away from that lovely haunting musical bit "Goin' to Acapulco" even if it still makes no sense to me whatsoever.
02Toni Collette does not appear in I'm Not There. Filmmakers take note: this is an automatic point deduction.
01 Velvet Goldmine gives the world's greatest costume designer Sandy Powell (absent from I'm Not There though she often works with Todd Haynes) a lot to do. When you give Sandy Powell room to play she returns to you entire playgrounds.
I know what you're saying I'm Not There lovers... You're saying... ...............okay okay I don't know what you're saying. I don't get you.
If you're on Team Dylan(s) speak up in the comments. Why were the reviews stronger? If you're on Team Goldmine rally 'round.
More Velvet Readings? Try my Musical of the Month Pals Movies Kick Ass "Citizen Slade" Cinemavistaramascope "the curve of your lips..." StinkyBits "an enthralling confounding fabulation" Haiku'ed Viper Tetsu pays tribute in Japanese Meter
Next Musical The classic Meet Me in St. Louis(1944) on December 6th. 'Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas' a little early. *
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