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.
Next Wednesday night is the Season 1 Finale of 'Best Shot". Together we'll look at the 1955 classic Night of the Hunter which --- well, if you've never seen it, you're in for a major film event. It's appropriately creepy for late October, too. Today, something lighter and flirtier.
MEAN GIRLS (2004)
God, she can be SO annoying.
Few movies from the Aughts have proved as delightfully durable as Mean Girls, the Tina Fey scripted Mark Waters directed comedy that introduced us to Queen Bee Regina George (a total "rock star" performance from Rachel McAdams) and her army of skanks, Gretchen (Lacey Chabert), Karen (Amanda Seyfried) and new girl Cady (Lindsay Lohan) -- "I love her. She's like a Martian" -- transferred in from Africa and experiencing the jungles of public education for the first time. On first viewing back in 2004, its debt to Heathers (1988), another comedy about evil life-ruiner hotties, seemed insurmountable in terms of New Classic! reaction. But Mean Girls has, in the past six years, more than proved its own worth and its own identity. In retrospect the two films feel very different in tone and aesthetic personality, with only the subject matter, mean girls, and über quotability to unite them. In future years, the next great mean girl classic will be compared unfavorably to both of them.
The best filmmaking choice in the movie, aside from the inspired casting, might be the staging of every character intros. The entire principle cast gets fun intros with the best being reserved for the Queen Bee herself who is literally carried into the picture in slo-motion by her male admirers while a Greek chorus of students fills us in on who she is and why we should be in awe of her. It kicks off with the double conscience of the film Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese)
"And evil takes a human form in Regina George. Don't be fooled. She may seem like your typical selfish back-stabbing slut-faced ho-bag but in reality she is so much more than that. She's the Queen Bee. The star. Those other two are just her little workers... "
. To underline her power, Missy Elliott is on the soundtrack also introducing her...
"hey hey hey ♫ I'm what's happening."
And Rachel McAdams is indeed what's happening in Mean Girls (especiallynow that we've had to let our love for LiLo's brief sparkliness go). Every time you watch it, her performance gets better. A lot of actresses can and have done deliciously bitchy but her deliciously bitchy has so many shadings from stickily sweet (is she for real? why do i want to believe this one moment) to casual bored privilege to tossed off power plays to embarrassment at any hint of runner up status to machiavellian rage spiked with tiny flashes of self-loathing (that Burn Book sabotage moment!). She's damn near unimproveable in the picture.
For best shot, I choose a two-part Regina moment...
I love how the camera tracks Regina through the hallway after she's hatched her brilliant revenge plan. She's regained control of her screaming rage we saw in the prior scene and she's just gliding through the hallways, with a neat hint of actressy athleticism. Gone is the sex kitten and in her place is the marathon runner.
The shot functions like a reverse Hansel & Gretel; the witch is leaving a bread crumb trail. In the bookend shot that follows (also pictured) the camera is still moving but the witch isn't. Witness her hungry self-satisfaction while she watches the children gobble up the crumbs. They're already baking in her oven!
* *
Finally, I have to end with a gymnasium moment because Amanda Seyfried just slays me as Karen Smith "one of the dumbest girls you'll ever meet".
This scene where Gretchen "apologizes" to her classmates -- 'I can't help it that I'm popular' -- always makes me cackle. Particularly because the punchline is so funny. Karen is watching Gretchen blankfaced and just opens up her arms to receive her friend while everyone else steps away. The funny thing about Karen is actually how innocent she seems, like a mean girl by accident of proximity and stupidity.
Kenneth in the (212) Fun couples at the Emmys. I hadn't seen some of these photos. Cute! Just Jared The new cast of Dancing with the Stars. I don't watch it but I do find it amusing in a meta way that Jennifer Grey of Dirty Dancing fame will compete. /Film Dozens of new photos from The Social Network
popbytes I so wish I was in Venice right now for Black Swan.* (yes more on this later today) In a perverse way I hope that Darren Aronofsky does take that X-Men Origins: Wolverine sequel. The Playlist I forgot to mention that someone finally gave primo scene-stealer Ari Graynor a lead role. That someone was David Gordon Green. I guess he's just smarter than other directors. USA Today Lindsay Lohan talking to Vanity Fair. She claims she's still a "damn good actress." You always were Linds so prove it again. You can't keep resting on 1998-2004. Pop Eater Sofía Vergara's boyfriend is in politics? Huh, who knew. Movie|Line ewwww. the bedbug epidemic has reached Toronto. Will it hurt the Film Festival?
Late tonight... the next episode of Hit Me With Your Best Shot features A Face in the Crowd. Are you joining in?
Robyn doing Björk whilst Björk watches. No pressure or anything.
<-- The poster and the teaser for the British noir Jack Falls. Hmmm, somebody has been mainlining Sin City!
Victim of the Time on Susannah York. My god I love this scene in They Shoot Horses Don't They Guardian Stanley Kubrick's widow speaks. How they met, how he danced (?) and more... Cinema Obsessed is spooked by the Don't Be Afraid of the Dark teaser. I am too. Guillermo Del Toro found created his scaried creature yet called "Katie Holmes"! And Your Little Blog, Too shares memories of meeting Patricia Neal (RIP) VideogumInception themed casual encounter [NSFW... and by Not Safe For Work I mean NSFP... Not Safe for the Prudish]. You know it's funny. I was just going to post about how I'm just DONE with reading about Inception on the internets and then this hit. Hee.
Tribeca Film my column "best in show" spotlights John Hawkes and Dale Dickey in Winter's Bone 52 Bad Dudes This is a cool tumblr. Adam Sidwell is drawing badasses from the movies each week 50 Best Illustration Blogs If you're like me and you love drawrings, check these out. Daventry Blue "12 Songs About Movie Stars" Can you think of any more? Quiet Earth isn't too happy about these plans for Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
On a final note, I read Sunset Gun's piece on a meeting with Lindsay Lohan before that infamous trip to Cannes with great interest. Like Kim, I think Lohan is gifted and like Kim I'm all for forgiving stars their scandals. I have roughly zero use for the weird media demand that they also be role models. But I'm not defensive about LiLo anymore. Give me fine movie appearances and I'll forgive all but Lohan isn't delivering in the movies... or even in the movies so I can't rally. I wish she'd come back but until she recovers her acting focus, I have no real use for her. Party girls bore me. Give me actresses!
I have failed to mention that Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem are now married. You've probably heard this by now. But since the Film Experience loves both of them muchly, and has since 2006 and 2000 respectively, we throw virtual rice in their general direction (Spain is east, right?). To make things even more special we like to remember that Cruz made her first movie (Jamon Jamon) with Javier Bardem way back in 1992. They've known each other forever. They also both have acting Oscars which is quite rare in movie couples. Newman and Woodward did it but Newman has left this mortal coil. Even the Bening-Beattys won't be able to say they do when Annette wins since Beatty won his for directing.
Movie|Line I knew Pixar would eventually have to come down to earth. Seems they're joining the franchise and Direct to DVD markets with abandon. Sigh. The only studio that still prized total originality is giving up. I knew that Cars would be the chink in their armor. Ugh, that movie. It torments me still. Oscar TrackerMachine Gun Preacher pairs Gerard Butler with Marc Forster for a crazily eventful sounding biopic. Oscarable? I Need My Fix has photos from the set. The Big Picture more on the David O' Russell saga involving the unreleased Jake Gyllenhaal/Jessica Biel picture Nailed. Killer last line in this article. The Exploding Kinetoscope I marvel at this review of The Last Airbender. I love.
Movie|Line so we're talking about a Janis Joplin biopic again? That happens once every three years or so. This time it's Amy Adams but Movie|Line looks at the long history of casting rumors. P.S. If Amy Adams plays this won't she win the Oscar in a slam dunk (against type, singing, biopic, mimicry, deglam, addictions. It's got EVERYTHING) A Socialite's Life I kind of love that I can never keep track of Jude Law & Sienna Miller's love life. They're together again? I've lost track of this roughly 62 times in my lifetime. I want a bunch of filmmakers to get together and make an omnibus film about this relationship. An experimental biopic with Jude & Sienna playing themselves. Movie Marketing Madness on the challenges of marketing Inception. /Film to play a live action Tink. Disney is marketing the hell out of this character which makes me sad because each time they use her, I love her less. Hopefully Elizabeth Banks can rescue this. MNPP obsesses over Thomas Kretschmann again. We understand. Where's he been hiding? Hollyscoop Lindsay Lohan back to rehab. Reading the quotes on this makes me ever more worried for her. Not only does she need to get rid of these people from her life, she needs to get rid of the other people who think she needs to get rid of those people. Complicated! Clean house, including your mooch parents! P.S. I realize this is mere conjecture and we can't know what the Lohan family is really like but methinks Lindsay herself would be better off starting fresh, period. She's the one with the talent after all. If she finds sobriety, she'll find everything else she needs (including the lost talent) afterwards.
Finally...
Reuters is reporting a huge box office weekend for Inception (my review). I swear to god box office reports are getting earlier and earlier. The movie doesn't even open till midnight tonight! Soon they will just have box office reports beamed directly from psychic hotlines.
I follow way too many people on Twitter and thus miss updates from the few celebrities I follow. But since Kristin Chenoweth, one of my favorite peeps in the world, is in the news today being an Emmy nominee (she won previously, and deservedly, for Pushing Daisies) for Glee. I thought I'd share her film tweets.
She misspels her new favorite movie Greenberg but we hear it's quite good and who doesn't love Quentin Tarantino movies? So maybe she has good taste but then... NOOOooooooo she loves Forrest Gump -- god, I hate that movie -- and even gives the Zeéeeee major props so, ungh...
But thanks for sharing, Cheno! Love you always. Can't wait to see you in concert again whenever that may be.
Further Only Tangentially Related Reading: Movie|Line on the mad subject of Lindsay Lohan's sh*tshow tweeting *
the classics The Film Doctor '10 things I learned about Breakfast at Tiffany's...' Birth of a Notion well, well. Batman's Boy Wonder just turned 65. Who knew? Okinawa thinks Olivia de Havilland's Melanie is a badass in Gone With the Wind.
of the moment popbytes True story of my Lady Gaga moment in the supermarket today. Plus news on Madonna's second feature W.E. The Big PictureInception backlash coming in 3...2...1... AV Club strangest news of week: Rob Lowe may be buying Miramax to become 'the next Harvey Weinstein.' Film Business Asia The Golden Horse Awards have added a "new director" prize for the next generation of Asian filmmakers. Empire Captain America Chris Evans talks about his costume for Captain America
"I think everyone that’s going to see it is going to say, 'Okay, well done. Well done. I think they got the costume right. The casting they completely ruined, but the costume they nailed!'"
You gotta love self deprecating celebrities.
Movie Dearest I love reading about bizarre off cinema projects from cinema faces. Seems that god fearing Esmeralda from Edward Scissorhands (aka actress O-Lan Jones) is directing an complex possibly travelling opera. I Need My Fix Lindsay Lohan sentenced to jail time. Incidentally in case you were worried. That porn biopic is going to wait for her release. That's loyalty! Topless Robot True Story: Watching The Twilight Saga: Eclipse can kill you. Oh my god how depressing. Can you imagine if that's the last movie you were ever able to see? Pop Hangover's Celebrity Headswap. These images are disturbing BUT for the first time ever a Twilight image made me want to see a Twilight movie. Kristen Stewart androgynized? Way sexier. ColliderTree of Life gets an MPAA rating but distribution still looks shaky to me.
You Bent My Wookie has a lengthy interview up with the director of the upcoming Fraggle Rock movie. Seems the Weinsteins are giving him trouble. Quelle surprise. I have no special affection for Fraggle Rock (not that familiar) but I do love puppets and his heart seems to be in the right place
...time and again, I will run into people – and I’m talking about anyone from a fan boy sitting at a coffee shop to someone in the industry – everyone seems to long for an analog performance, a live performance, a real performance.
I loved Avatar, and I love what Andy Serkis does with motion capture as Gollum. There’s magic there, too. But I know that people have a hunger for tactile characters right now. I think the pendulum is swinging in a direction where people want to know they’re watching something real on camera, something that they can reach out and touch.
Though I would love desperately for this to be true, as I too miss tangible things and I love in camera effects and such, but I'm pessimistic that it actually is. CGI has conquered.
We're looking at each Meryl Streep Oscar nod and its competitive field. Previously: 78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 87, 88, 90and 95
Twenty years after her first nomination for The Deer Hunter (1978) Meryl Streep replaced Bette Davis as runner up to Katharine Hepburn's Oscar throne with her cancer victim in One True Thing. For a very short time period (i.e. twelve months) the three legends had a 10-11-12 Oscar nomination spread. Streep would soon leave both Hepburn and Davis in the dust. But we'll get to her #1 status when it rolls around.
1998 the nominees were
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth
Fernanda Montenegro, Central Station*Nathaniel's vote*
Gwyneth Paltrow, Shakespeare in Love
Meryl Streep, One True Thing
Emily Watson, Hilary & Jackie
The Blanchett vs. Paltrow contest has arguably been the most discussed in modern Oscar Actress history with the possible exception of Swank vs. Bening (both rounds). People still get hot under their ruffs about this one a full dozen years later.
Other '98 women for context: Globe nominees that didn't make Oscar's cut were Susan Sarandon (Stepmom), Jane Horrocks (Little Voice), Cameron Diaz (There's Something About Mary), Meg Ryan (You've Got Mail) and Christina Ricci (The Opposite of Sex). Elsewhere in Awardsland, Ally Sheedy (High Art) took Best Actress at the Indie Spirits, besting Alfre Woodard (Down in the Delta). Weirdness: Emma Thompson, an awards staple, couldn't get any traction for a mimicry job (Primary Colors).
Anne Heche & Ellen Degeneres still had tongues wagging --- >
1998 was a double dipper year for Drew Barrymore (The Wedding Singer, Ever After), Sandra Bullock (Practical Magic, Hope Floats) and Anne Heche (Six Days and Seven Nights, Psycho) who was the controversial rage at the time as the first out lesbian* headlining major studio movies.
Major 90s stars like Angela Bassett (How Stella Got Her Groove Back), Holly Hunter (Living Out Loud) and Jennifer Lopez (Out of Sight) came on strong. And Oprah Winfrey (Beloved) didn't generate the awards enthusiasm needed.
Finally, this is the year we met Lindsay Lohan, future hot mess -- and like Heche, also a future faux lesbian! -- in her wonderfully able child star debut in The Parent Trap. It was so wonderfully able, in fact, that I fell hard for her. To emphasize why that is unexpected is to admit that the Hayley Mills film was my BEST-MOVIE-EVER until I was about eight years old. Even thinking of it now in 2010 makes me all teary-eyed with nostalgia.
Nathaniel's List? He's not so sure. Oscar's roster is Classic Bait: terminal illness, mental disorders, Shakespeare, royalty porn, older person opening their heart to a child (Yes, they have a thing for that, too). How could any of these performances not have been nominated even if they weren't as good as they are? Originally in the now mythic war for the statue between Paltrow & Blanchett I favored Blanchett but my opinion of Paltrow's star making turn has grown considerably over the years. Still, I'm not sure either would make my list. I'm not sure who would make my list. Strangely, given the topic at hand, I barely remember Streep's cancer mom.
Apologies to Watson but she'd probably be the first to go to make room for one of the worst snubs of the decade. I'm talking about Ally Sheedy's devastating photographer/junkie in High Art. I was madly in love with both Hunter and Ricci's smart sexy comic work in '98 so maybe I'd dump a couple more of the Oscar women for them. Who knows? Revisits are in order. But to make a long story short, the LAFCA got it exactly right with their tie; Ally Sheedy and Fernanda Montenegro tower over 1998's actress field. *Anne "Celestia" Heche's lesbianism was short lived of course. But still. People were all "Oh My God!" -- OMG! wasn't in the vernacular yet -- "They're letting an out lesbian play romantic straight leads in movies! The world is going to end." *
The Big Picture that Marc Webb Spider-Man reboot has narrowed the candidates down. I'm still not excited about a redo but I'm totally thumbs up on the idea of either Jamie Bell or Andrew Garfield... though it's weird to hear them referred to as "unknowns", you know? Alden Ehrenreich (Tetro), Josh Hutcherson (The Kids Are All Right) and Frank Dillane (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) are also being considered. Cracked "Which awful redhead stereotype are you?" Starring Lindsay Lohan"time bomb", Julianne Moore "sex fiend" and others. Poor gingers!
MTV MoviesLogan's Run gets a new director in Erik Rinsch. It's so sad to me that the studio had issues with handing Alien 5 over to him. That's what that entire franchise thrived on... putting fresh visionary directors on the map before they were A list: Scott, Fincher, Cameron. If the Aliens franchise is about anything beyond the Ripley badassery and the acid blood beasties, that's what it's about. It's like the third most important element of that franchise. When you have the same story every time, you have to add the auteurial shakes up or you have nothing. NY Mag sword and sandal epics and the evolution of Abs within them. Funny stuff Vanity Fair has 30 portraits and profiles of Tony nominees for this past theater season including familiar faces like Jude Law. Playbill Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch offered the CZJ and Lansbury roles in A Little Night Music on Broadway? ohmygodohmygod. Not that either of them would ever accept a "replacment cast" situation but if this happens a ticket MUST have my name on it. Mental Floss '9 Copyrights Given to Charity.' Interesting list. I had no idea that Peter Pan was copyright free now. You'd think there'd be a sudden influx of Pan movies. Just Jared more pics from the set of Mildred Pierce: Kate Winslet and Evan Rachel Wood Towleroad Madonna gets vampiric to sell sunglasses. It's very Deneuve/Hunger
Finally, the first pics of LL as LL have surfaced. Yes the alliterative Lohan/Lovelace porno biopic Inferno is coming your way... eventually. Oh No They Didn't posted the pics from photographer Tyler Shields who seems to have already removed them from his own website though there's still a lot of fun stuff there including a shoot with Glee's Jayma Mays, Zachary Quinto and plentiful rude portraits of Young Hollywood.
I'd love for Lohan to be able to pull this off but acting is like anything else. If you aren't committed to it, how are you going to get great at it?
Movies Kick Ass how the Palme D'Or is not unlike the Oscar, thought its partisans will protest Movie|Line interviews one of our favorite people in the movieverse, Ari Graynor TOH! Will Luke Evans be the next big thing once Tamara Drewe opens? /Film Mark Romanek has completed work on Never Let Me Go. It's due October 1st. Acidemic would like you to stop judging Lindsay Lohan. Her downward spiral is none of your concern
Total Film has the 21 most storied, insane movie shoots. I refuse to scroll through 21 pages to read it (a blight on all the traffic whores out there!) but I'm guessing you get some Werner Herzog (Aguirre: The Wrath of God) and Coppola's Apocalypse Now therein. Those jungle movies are brutal on filmmakers and cast Subway Cinema Asian Film Festival in NYC very soon. Lots of exciting stuff including the NYC premiere of the award winning Bodyguards and Assassins [prev post] Pfangirl has a lengthy look at the superhero genre, where it's been and where it's going. This is the DC edition. Marvel later this week. EmpireSoapdish (1991) is jumping on the remake train along with everyone else. Good luck to however has to top Cathy Moriarty's bitch goddess this time around Golden Trailer Awards that's happening in June. I don't really understand their nominees but whatevs
Shrek Forever After? I "love" that the tagline is the final chapter but the movie's actual title promotes Shrek in perpetuity. That's a nightmare ending for me since I hate that lazy green franchise. I am still dumbfounded that Dreamworks suddenly learned how to make good animated films (Kung Fu Panda & How To Train Your Dragon) in its aftermath. Usually studios try and repeat successes rather than find a way to make films that are way better than them. You'd think they would have tried to repeat its success rather than tried to be Pixar (a far worthier goal) given that Shrek films make more than Pixar films (a sad audience-damning truth). So HAPPY ENDING, however improbable. I do so love How To Train Your Dragon. Anyway, Erik Lundegaard looks at Shrek's franchise box office and understands, unlike Hollywood, the math that goes into sequel numbers. Opening weekend is never about the movie you're seeing but about the one before it... provided that there is one before it. If there's not it's about the marketing. Meanwhile Tim at Antagony & Ecstasy shares my fear that this won't be anything like The End
The ostensibly final film in the Shrek franchise (which I'll believe the moment that everybody involved is dead, and not a second before)
He goes on to say that the movie isn't half bad. for this sort of thing. But definitely half bad all the same!
multiplex Movie|Line suggests that Lindsay Lohan stay in France. International diplomacy is admittedly not their strong suit The Onion Ridley Scott and Tim Burton switch action figures. 'No tradebacks!' (this article is a couple weeks old but if you haven't read it, experience the hilarity)
The Big Picture questions the hypocrisy of dissing Shia Labeouf for dissing Steven Spielberg. Good piece. There's too many "yes people" in Hollywood and Crystal Skull stank. The Hot Blog Poland waxes philosophical about revivals of genres, musicals, and cartoons A Socialite's Life I wouldn't normally link to a Robert Pattison on set! thing (who cares?) but in truth I have read this book they're making into a movie Water For Elephants. The whole time I was reading it -- even though it wasn't great or anything -- I kept thinking 'this should be a movie.'NatashaVC an evocative Harvey Keitel story I Need My Fix on the Demi Moore ♥ Ashton Kutcher romance. In truth they're one of my fav Hollywood couples, too
arthouse In Contention Guy Lodge on Cannes winding down Vulture The Fug Girls uncover and display the 10 loopiest outfits at Cannes. Their quote on Kate Beckinsale who isn't wearing anything crazy in the picture is lol
...tends to prefer either short prom dresses or really long prom dresses; ergo, for her, this is practically Gaga City.
Scanners With Jean Luc Godard's Socialisme premiering, Jim Emerson neatly summarizes the critical conversations about Godard over the past... entire career David Germain on Sony Pictures Classics at Cannes and with Oscar YouTube Have you seen this "Chlöe Sevigny" dragster yet? Funny. Love the coyness when dropping Tilda's name
great white way Just Jared Paul Reubens still in process of bringing Pee Wee Herman back. Yay.
the page Cooley! "Inappropriate Golden Age Book: Movies R Fun" [via]
the boob tube Antenna an interesting piece on the Joss Whedon episode of Glee just past, which gives answer to the question i had while watching it: this doesn't feel like recent episodes. Why?
in the life The Onion "New Social Networking Site Changing The Way Oh, Christ, Forget It Let Someone Else Report On This Bullshit."
With Cannes's final weekend approaching people are probably leaving town. At least that's the way it happens at other festivals. The only thing exciting left (unless there's a late breaking hit or polarizing cause) is the awards and the first ever Queer Palm which could go a few different ways. But here's a few more tweets and eye candy treats for you.
Dominic Cooper = sex? | Ryan & Michelle are now dating
The Beautiful People @onthecroisette "Dominic Cooper is provoking pansexual heatwaves in my row." @snooptom "Pas d'Araki pour moi, je resterai sur le Dolan, "une éphémère vacuité addictive" / 20 ans, 2 films en un an, 2 Cannes, je te hais, BRAVO!" @AwardsDaily "Am always amazed by the perfect symetry of some actors' faces. Ryan Gosling is so blindingly good looking. Michelle Williams too." @guylodge "EXCLUSIVE Cannes fashion report: Mike Leigh favours red-soled Campers with yellow socks. You heard it here first."
Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet (Love Songs) and Xavier Dolan (Heartbeats). Young Hollywood if YH spoke French and made bisexual auteur flicks
Le Cinema @cobblehillis POETRY (Lee Chang-dong): Splitting hairs to say it's no SECRET SUNSHINE because it's still terrific, devastating & (sorry for this:) poetic. @guylodge "Anyway, a second helping of "Certified Copy" only enriched the film. People will be studying it for years. Binoche's final scene slays me. @mattnoller "Trying to write up BLUE VALENTINE, I keep typing BLUE VELVET instead. Boy I wish." @ZeitchikLAT "Why can't Americans make movies like CARLOS? The best we could do is Munich.." @akstanwyck "Cannes' The Myth of the American Sleepover vs. Shit Year: One Sings, the Other Doesn't: I'm allergic to pretension..."
Every time I tire of Carey Mulligan as FASHIONISTA, she wins me back VERY Young Hollywood: Faith Wladyka is terrific in Blue Valentine.
The Random @MattDentler "So, the Cannes Film Festival will stream the "Lost" series finale inside the Palais this weekend, right?" @mattnoller "Feeling a strange craving for a hot dog. Might be that I'm sitting three feet away from Jeff Wells."
if you didn't get that last joke... read the previous Cannes tweet report Time to say au revoir but before that, let's all wish Lindsay Lohan well. She's "lost" her passport in Cannes i.e. in trouble again. Will Lost His/Her Passport become the new Hospitalized For Exhaustion? I've said it before and I'll say it again: We'll know that Lindsay has finally pulled herself together when she stops messing with her beautiful red hair.
Lindsay at a party rather than a film. Bien sur.
If her mane is blond or black or any color wheel slot save red, it's a sure sign she's trying to escape herself. So saith I, Nathaniel, unlicensed Armchair Psychologist to the Stars Actresses. Deal with your issues LiLo and get back to acting. It's something you're good at. When people have such things, they really ought to focus on them. It's a lifestyle choice that guarantees rewards. Not always sensational or exciting rewards but rewards nonetheless.
Salon "Superheroes Suck" a great piece on the problematic popular genre by Matt Zoller Seitz Atlantic "3 Things Glee Does Wrong" an excellent take on the chinks in Glee's delightful armor. Are you listening show runners? This is spot on i09 The villain of Iron Man 2 is Tony Stark. Discuss The Hollywood Reporter a porn biopic for Lindsay Lohan. This could either be the comeback of "yes I can act" or a very very bad move. Hard to tell
Film Freak Central "the perils of Dirk the Daring" wow. i was just thinking about this 80s cartoon videogame the other day. The Playlist first pic of Chloe Moretz as the vampire in the misbegotten remake Let Me In Deadline NY Kristen Wiig options Clown Girl. Sounds intriguing fourfour 'old people getting high' a gif wall from It's Complicated i09 production art and casting demands for John Carter of Mars
Finally,you really should read this heinous homophobic article on Newsweek about the inability of gay actors to sell straight roles. Yeah, I guess Rock Hudson, Montgomery Clift and god knows how many othersnever gave any performances that were worth a damn.The article is mostly about today's out actors and it does them a terrible disservice. Where's the respect? Make sure to read the comments section though. The ever wonderful Kristen Chenoweth shows up to tell Newsweek what's what about her gay co-stars and gay actors in general.
...and not only by relocating to the City of Angels. The fashion design competition also enlisted two movie stars for their big premiere night. Well... one actual movie star at any rate. We'll get to the other in a sec.
I am a huge huge fan of Project Runway. You're all so talented... give my best to Tim
After announcing that the winning dress would be worn at the movie premiere of Nine -- she didn't specify by whom, mind you, could be a publicist for all we know -- she blew a kiss to Tim Gunn. Even better than watching Kidman's recorded message was seeing the reaction of the designers, which was primarily that of stunned joy. Though they would have made my night (hell, my week) if but one of them had broken down in hysterical shaking tears at the sight of her, like a tween at a Jonas Bros concert. Nicki deserves it!
Only the perpetually bummed but ridonculously talented Korto was unphased by the star wattage of the one and only.
Lifetime, obviously desperate for viewers and banking on the show they nabbed from Bravo, spent 3 and 1/2 hours celebrating all things Project Runway last night. First the All Star challenge then a season premiere and a spin-off. Can you say overkill? After their bonafide A List movie cameo, Lifetime turned to Lindsay Lohan for another sprinkling of stardust for the season premiere.
One never knows what's left on the cutting room floor when it comes to reality television but Lindsay seemed focused, serious... smart even. So much so that I started to feel bad for her.
If she's that together doesn't that mean she's fully cognizant of her own downfall? Her Mean Girls co-stars aren't exactly starring in Lifetime television movies these days.
<-- At least Lohan got some love from one of the designers.
Did you watch last night? Would you feel stunned joy to see Nicole Kidman on a TV screen talking directly to you? Or maybe you'd rather tell Lindsay Lohan you love her in person.
In honor of Penélope Cruz's recently announced pregnancy and the DVD release of Lindsay Lohan's latest Labor Pains (don't everybody rush out to snatch it up at once. I promise you they'll have enough copies) in which she fakes a pregnancy to keep a job, I thought a top ten list celebrating the miracle of childbirth -- or future childbirth rather -- was called for.
But first a bit more about Ms. Lohan. Rich at fourfour collected the Labor Pain lines that were more applicable to Lindsay the celebrity than the character she happens to be playing.
...not that Lindsay plays characters these days. The Actress wrapped things up with Mean Girls, only The Celebrity lives on. *
Ten Best Pregnant Movie Characters
10 Juno in Juno (2007) The general three act journey of zeitgeist movies goes like so... Act I: instant hype, audience love and acclaim births a new pop culture babe; Act II: media overkill curdles that hype, attempts to beat holdout audience members into submission spurring rebellions. Backlash turns pop culture darling into punching bag; Act III: Everything settles down until the darling/punching bag is just a movie again, neither the greatest nor the worst ever made. Are we in act three yet with Juno? I hope so because for all the swipes at its forced quirk and too widely adopted quotables, it's a good movie and Juno the character as written, and especially as performed by Ellen Page, should be appreciated as a pretty swell(ing) movie character, hamburger phones be damned.
But how do you think her baby turned out?
09Demi Moore in... Vanity Fair Magazine: The Movie. Don't even argue that that wasn't her best role.
08Holly in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) That's a spoiler if you haven't seen Woody Allen's Oscar nominated classic. I love that Holly begins the movie as a bundle of cocaine snorting sister-dependent directionless neurosis and ends the movie aglow with the promise of new life and yet you never think to worry that she'll be a terrible mother. You're too in love with Holly to be anything but happy for her. Credit Dianne Wiest who is one of the most endearing actresses that the cinema has ever known.
07Sarah Connor in The Terminator (1984) If you give birth to the future savior of mankind you deserve a place on the list. I chose Sarah over Mary from any Jesus movie or Kee from Children of Men because I don't think they would have survived a robot apocalypse (too demure and too shell shocked, respectively). More on The Terminator and Sarah Connor herself.
06Dawn Lagarto aka 'Bloody Mama' in Series 7: The Contenders (2001) It's strange to me that Daniel Minahan's Series 7 never got its due as a prescient satire of the barbaric leanings of reality television and celebrity culture's fame fixation. In the movie, random citizens are selected to star in a show wherein they have to kill the other contestants before they're killed themselves. The final girl (or boy) is the winner. Did the black comedy arrive a year or two too early? Is it not quite as sharp as I remember it being? Either way, Brooke Smith's reluctant but efficient pregnant murderess still lingers in the memory with her big belly, flop sweat and bloody hands.
Is Brooke Smith cursed? Whenever you think her career is going to take off either the film doesn't (Series 7) or she's overshadowed by brilliant co-stars even though she's totally working it too (Vanya on 42nd Street and Silence of the Lambs) or she gets written out of the picture series (Grey's Anatomy, Weeds). If anyone in Hollywood had actually seen Series 7 maybe they wouldn't be so quick to write her off as a contender. Given the right opportunities, she's killer.
04Ruth in Citizen Ruth (1996) If you've never seen Alexander Payne's satire of America's eternal war between the pro-choice and pro-life forces, you should. The ever brilliant Laura Dern (in one of the best performances of 1996) plays the druggy dimwitted and frequently pregnant Ruth and both sides of the abortion divide seek to co opt her for their cause. It's worth seeing for Dern's amoral comedy alone but the political satire has real bite, too. Here I'll help you. Rent it from Netflix or Blockbuster.
03Marge Gunderson in Fargo (1996) Frances McDormand's Oscar win for her seven months pregnant police chief is one of the greatest atypical Oscar moments of all time. A memorably comedic portrayal of a truly original character wins? There is a god. That's as hopeful as Marge's innate goodness, which provides the wintry brutality of Fargo's comedy with its sole warmth.
And for what? For a little bit of money. There's more to life than a little money, you know. Don'cha know that?
And here ya are, and it's a beautiful day. Well, I just don't understand it.
Marge is a great cop. You know she's going to be an awesome mom in just "two more months. two more months."
02Trudy Kockenlocker in The Miracle at Morgan's Creek (1944) This Preston Sturges comedy about a girl who gets knocked up on a one night stand with the troops should be mandatory viewing in film schools. It's not that it's the greatest comedy of all time or anything that hyperbolic. It's that it does two things superbly that Hollywood has forgotten how to do well at all. First, briskly paced comedic storytelling and second, an endearing good time gal lead who doesn't feel like she's been assembled from pull down menus in a screenwriting program. Betty Hutton is a total dream as Trudy: funny, sexy, radiant and supremely silly. She's just wondrously fruity. And her loins are unexpectedly fruitful, too.
01Rosemary in Rosemary's Baby (1968) Roman Polanski's enduring chilleris among my personal holy trinity of horror: the father mother (Psycho), the son (Rosemary's Baby), and the unholy ghost (Carrie). Most horror movies play with our loudly admitted phobias: fear of the dark, monsters, death. Rosemary's Baby plays a more masterful game, exposing primal fears about things we're not supposed to admit we're scared of. Fears such as pregnancy, childbirth, unknowable offspring and the dread of identities subsumed by our children's. Mia Farrow's brilliant star turn channels these anxieties which are especially pronounced in new mothers, whether or not they've been knocked up by the devil.
* * Here's the part where you horrify me by telling me who I've forgotten...
More links...
Posts
