"God of Carnage" The Movie

News this heavy with starry wattage and awarded source material spreads quickly. I'm sure you've heard this morning that Kate Winslet & Matt Dillon will square off with Jodie Foster & Christopher Waltz as the combative couples of Yasmine Reza's hilarious and occasionally disturbing four-hander, God of Carnage. Make that Roman Polanski's God of Carnage, since he's bound to make adjustments in the adaptation. I fear that they'll add characters and scenes and lose the play's intense get-me-outta-here vibe... all in the name of "opening it up" as a movie. But perhaps I worry for nothing. Polanski has shown skill at non-literal claustrophic material in the past. In the play two sets of parents meet up cordially to discuss a school fight between their children and the way it breaks down, everyone basically breaks down. The play is entirely set in the living room of one of the couples and takes place in real time.

James Gandolfini, Hope Davis, Marcia Gay Harden and Jeff Daniels
in Broadway's God of Carnage (2009)

Polanski is a reliable auteur and all four actors are strong but I still have to worry. It's my nature. I'm hoping that everyone involved understands first and foremost that it's a comedy. This type of material could easily fall apart if it loses its satiric edge and embraces the dramatic too willfully. If it does, people will just be like "ugh. these people are so immature. I hate them!" and you know how the public reacts to characters they don't like.

Pray for Jodie to pull this off!

The most intriguing casting choice has to be Jodie Foster, who I assume is taking on the Tony-winning Marcia Gay Harden role. I would haved loved to have seen Harden get this shot on the big screen but they rarely let people transfer... even Oscar winning people who aren't bankable. Anyway, Foster knows from claustrophic environs (Panic Room, Flight Plan, Silence of the Lambs) but she hasn't spent much time honing her comic gifts and this character is, at least in my experience of the play, the fulcrum point. She's full of abundant pretense and holier-than-thou speechifying and she'd be utterly detestable and annoying if she weren't also so funny and so endearingly a complete emotional wreck. It's just a killer role.

I'm glad the two time Oscar winner will be truly challenging herself for the first time in well over a decade but if you rest you rust and I hope she's up to the challenge.
*

"I'll tell you what. The day I need a friend like you..."

"...I'll just have myself a little squat and shit one out."

[Great Moments in Screen Bitchery #666,
Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs. Carmody in The Mist]

Can We Talk About Damages ?

My general rule of thumb is that I don't talk about television on this cinema blog unless...

a) I can't help myself (Glee, Buffy)
b) it is connected to cinematic interests (Mad Men, Sex & The City) or...
c) it involves major film actresses

For today's small screen detour, we're talking "c". I watch Damages semi-religiously but I don't love it -- I curse you DVR! you made tv too easy for me -- and I think I've finally pinpointed why. The show is completely intimidated by its Star Actress.


Not that "two-time Oscar winning Gle"-- sorry, uh, "five-time Oscar NOMINATED Glenn Close" is not an intimidating force. She absolutely is. Have you seen what she can do to bunnies, dogs, and pfeiffers?

But Damages creative team seem to live in mortal fear of crossing her path. Every scene and plot development seems to tiptoe up to some big risky "in-your-face-Patty!" throwdown before it scampers away frightened. The way they construct both its rogues gallery and its elaborate plots boils down to the often non-riveting fact that Patty Hewes is an indestructable all-knowing amoral demi-god and everyone else is mere mortal.

For all of Damage's timidity in giving Hewes a true antagonist. -- Rose Byrne's "Ellen" has her moments but doesn't totally work when positioned this way -- you'd think the show would be more terrified to stare directly at Close's Medusa gaze. To make the show as riveting as it thinks it is, they need to focus on this fact: for all the staring matches, they have not yet turned to stone. Glenn Close will not destroy them if they fuck with her a little.

Last week's Close's strongest scene backs up my assertion. The actress nearly found a new note to play when confronted with a disturbing fact (involving her son) that her character was unaware of. Patty, you see, is never The Last To Know. The gap between what Patty always projects (absolute power and relentless determination toward End Goal) and Patty deciding what to project and how to get there without either of those fallbacks was delicious. The show needs a lot more of these gaps in its personality constructs.

Glenn Close is not going to be ignored... but neither, I don't think, would she mind a worthy acting opponent. I hoped, when I first heard that Lily Tomlin would play the Tobin matriarch that they'd make her Patty's arch-enemy. Instead the role, to this point, has been merely an above average take on a teary entitled widow.

I've included an entirely unrelated photo of Lily with Meryl just to make sure you're still reading. Aren't they cute?

I don't think Glenn Close has an equal in the intimidating factor -- unless they really thought outside the box and recruited someone foreign / frosty like a Isabelle Huppert type -- but drama doesn't need its protagonist and antagonist to be total mirrors. That's just one way to do it. Season 2 nearly found the right formula. The blithe carnality of Marcia Gay Harden (see previous post) was a smart, intriguing and non-reflective match for Close's blunt dominance. How, after all, would Patty stare down an opponent that wasn't staring back but checking her hair and talking in hushed sensual tones to everyone but Patty? Strangely though, the show decided not to truly pit the opposing councils against each other. Such a shame.

Should Glenn get another crack at Damages (a 4th season is up in the air), who should take a crack at her gorgon lawyer? Do you share my concerns about the show's imbalance... or do you merely despair that so many great actresses bolt the large screen for the small?
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Katey and Nathaniel Don't Have Funny Skating Names

So, it turns out Katey has actually been to the Roller Derby so she knows of what she speaks when it comes to Drew Barrymore's Whip It. Katey is so cool.

Now I've already reviewed Whip It but Katey and I hadn't seen each other in way too long (long boring offline story) so we laced up and skated from Brooklyn (Katey) and Harlem (Nathaniel) and met in the middle. That last part isn't strictly true but you can pretend that is is since we wore protective gear.



Whip It ! Y'all were so suspiciously quiet when the review hit. If you haven't seen it yet, what are you waiting for?

Whip It Real Good

Whip It is based on a novel about a young girl who joins the roller derby.
Whip It is not based on the classic Devo tune. But still...♫ "Whip It good!"

Girl Fight! Don't worry. Drew even uses herself as comic punching bag

For her fictional novel turned movie, writer Shauna Cross drew from her own experiences as derby girl "Maggie Mayhem" and imagined what it would have been like to discover this alternative grrrl world as a young woman. So Whip It introduces us to Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page), a sad eyed highschooler who is eager to get out of BoDeen Texas and into the big city. In this particular case that's Austin, Texas, which just happens to be the spot where roller derby resurrected itself a decade ago. Bliss doesn't share her mom's (Marcia Gay Harden) tenacious dream of beauty pageants. She doesn't even exactly share her best friend's (Alia Shawkat) college plans. Bliss is basically a dreamer without a dream, until a serendipitous sighting of derby girls passing out homemade competition flyers sparks a fire inside of her.

Bliss hungrily learns everything about this new world of self-made skating "stars" like Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig), Smashley Simpson (Drew Barrymore) and undefeated derby champ Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis). With their oversized personalities and theatrical names, it's rather easy to view all of this as an elaborate drag competition on skates...

Read the rest of my review at Towleroad
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TIFF 09 Coverage Concludes: Whip It, Mother and Child, Up in the Air

As promised here's the final installment of this year's Toronto Film Festival coverage. My anonymous friend (txt critic) saw 26 movies in half a week (I know!) and agreed to rank them all upon his return.

Here's his last few capsules and rankings

1. A Serious Man A+ (previous post)
2. Precious A (previous post)

3. Up in the Air A
The recipient of the most ejaculatory pre festival hype, I think Jason Reitman’s film’s low-key aspirations, and the small-scale story it tells, will perhaps not benefit from being oversold by everyone and their mother (most random Torontonians I waited on line with over the course of the week told me they thought it was “very good, not great”). So, while adding to the hype is to the movie’s detriment, I have to report that I completely swooned for the movie. I can already see the backlash coming, as the movie’s conventional story arc (man-as-an-island bachelor starts to see the value in having other people in his life) will be easy to bemoan. What really sells it all is that it avoids sentimentality and seems to come from a sincere place of honest emotion. It's also extremely funny, never losing its designation as a comedy, even as the resonance starts to approach around the midway point. What’s perhaps most impressive about Reitman’s direction is the handling of this shift and balance of tone: there aren’t “serious” beats, and the film doesn’t jarringly turn into a drama halfway through. It grows subtly more weighty as it goes along, until you're misty-eyed. George Clooney gives one of his best performances, while still staying in his comfort zone. There will be much bigger, showier performances than this, but the film wouldn’t work without his deft handling of the character’s arc. This isn’t a blow you away emotional movie or Juno-esque crowd-pleaser -- the two prevalent adjectives in my mind are “quiet” and “bittersweet” -- but it’s the sort of thing that’s going to entertain and touch a lot of people, and for once, actually earn the feelings it arouses. Oscar nominations for picture, director, actor and adapted screenplay all seem assured.

4. Mother and Child A
Following up Nine Lives and Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her with yet another female-driven ensemble film that happens to be his best yet, Rodrigo García’s latest is an openly emotional, fascinating, complex tale of three different women whose lives may or may not cross but, at the least, run parallel. All three (played by Annette Bening, Naomi Watts and Kerry Washington), have had their lives impacted by adoption -- Bening gave birth at 14 and put the girl up for adoption, Watts is her grown-up daughter who’s never met her mother, and Washington is infertile, trying to adopt with her husband. While you emerge from the theater extremely satisfied, no easy answers are found and the film acknowledges the messiness of the emotions / situations entailed in such situations.

Rodrigo García directs The Bening

Watts, Washington and Samuel L. Jackson (in a very small, understated role) are terrific, but the powerhouse performance here belongs to Bening. Starting the film out as an (seemingly) impenetrable bitch, Bening slowly makes us understand the character, and the decisions and emotions that have informed her life. By the time the film ends, you understand why this character ends up in the emotional place that she does. It never feels unrealistic or like a cheat. I don’t know if the film will get distribution before the end of the year but if it does, Bening will unquestionably be one of the five nominees for Best Actress.

5. Micmacs A-
6. The Road A-
7. The Informant! A- (previous post)
8. Harry Brown B+

9. The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans B+
One of the best midnight movies I’ve ever seen (a cult following is already assured), this Nicolas Cage vehicle from Werner Herzog -- using the title and pretty much nothing else from the Abel Ferrara-Harvey Keitel film -- has a warped, nutso energy running through it that had me frazzled when I wasn’t busy laughing. Cage’s off-the-wall performance as a cop addicted to pussy, coke, and back-pain pills is a live-wire tour de force, that for once, utilizes the actor’s over the top inclinations for a character they actually work for. The film’s truly a blast. You alternately gasp and laugh in disbelief, waiting to see what Cage (and Herzog) will do next. My personal favorite moment is a TWO-MINUTE-LONG shot of iguanas Cage is looking at, made all the more brilliant when it’s revealed by another character that said iguanas aren’t even there. This won’t play with Cage’s National Treasure fans, but this is an audience movie if there ever was one.

10. Antichrist B+ (previous post)

11. Whip It B+
Drew Barrymore’s roller-derby directorial debut is perhaps most surprising for the fact that it’s more than “fun,” it’s actually “good.” Showing an assured hand on her first go-round, Barrymore more than capably handles every aspect of the story without short-shrifting any of them: the sports elements work (the derby scenes, violence and all, are insanely fun and well-shot), the coming of age story and love story never feel like bullshit, and the family relationship drama actually proves touching.


Whip It never lets Marcia Gay Harden’s overbearing mother become a caricature or a shrill harridan and allows Daniel Stern, of all people, to be the film’s warm, fuzzy heart. Ellen Page is strong in the central role that can't have been well defined on the page, and the supporting cast is aces, most notably Kristin Wiig in her first screen role (besides, maybe, Ghost Town) that allows her to be as funny as she can be.

12. Perrier’s Bounty B+ (previous post)
13. The Trotsky B (previous post)
14. Daybreakers B
15. Chloe B (previous post)
16. Jennifer’s Body B (previous post)
17. Ondine B-
18. Leaves of Grass B- (previous post)
19. Good Hair B-

20. The Hole C+ (previous post)
21. Solitary Man C
22. George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead C (previous post)
23. The Joneses C (previous post)
24. Creation C- (previous post)
25. Get Low C-
26. Capitalism: A Love Story D+ (previous post)

Would you all join me in a rousing chorus of "Release Mother and Child!" I need The Bening back in my life. It's torture that festivals dangle these goodies and the distributors look around like "who, me?"

I hope you've enjoyed this year's TIFF coverage and please join me in thanking txt critic, MattCanada and Lev for sharing their thoughts! Maybe next year I'll even make it there myself.

Emmy Live Blogging: Swine Flu Fever Edition (Pt 2)

part one
refresh screen regularly

9:03 I recently flew home to visit my parents who were moving out of my childhood home. One of my brother's friends was living in their basement. Killing time one night, I watched How I Met Your Mother on the ancient TV system. It only seemed to carry the broadcast networks. It's like the TV had absorbed my parents refusal to join the modern world. Anyway... while watching the show, my brother's friend comes in the room and says "this is a funny show but you know what the funniest show is? Two and a Half Men. I LOVE that show."

This is why people like Jeff Probst win "Best Host of a Reality TV Program"

9:07 Gilles Marini is thrusting so often on that clip from Dancing With the Stars I feel like he should be punished on an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

9:14 Shohreh Agdashloo wins Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie blocking Marcia Gay Harden's attempts at the triple crown. If Shohreh Agdashloo worked a sex phone line I would go bankrupt calling it. That voice!

Too much information I know. I'm sick. You're required to put up with me.

9:15 We're over an hour in and we've only had two Kanye West jokes. This is a surprising development.

9:28 It's hard to tell what is my fever and what is Patricia Arquette and Jennifer Love Hewitt standing before me. It's a chicken and an egg situation, surely. The cold sweats have set in.


Sadly, I'm not joking.

9:34 I just realized that both Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange can't win for Grey Gardens because they rightly considered them both leads. No category fraud here. It's Jessica Lange. I'm happy for her but quite honestly I thought Drew deserved it. Didn't you?

9:46 I'm dying here. Little Dorrit keeps winning things and I could have sworn that was an Oscar movie in the 80s. I'm starting to hallucinate. The Year in Variety. Like varieties of flus? HA? Avian? H9N2? I could have sworn I just saw a cross dissolve wherein Will Swenson from Broadway's Hair lept at me with his legs spread until he was Barack Obama.

9:57 If you have any antibiotics I could borrow, please convert them into comment form so I can absorb them before it's too late.

10:02 They have a Original Music category at the Emmys? Hugh Jackman's number from the Oscars wins. I love that the Emmys are always giving awards to other awards shows. Hollywood Inbreeding. It stops only for Hollywood Back Patting! Inbreeding is the theme of the weekend (see also: previous post).

I wish other blogs would give me awards but patting my back right now might not be a good idea. I can only imagine what I'd cough up.

10:11 I can't go on without more comments. The pillows are singing their siren song. Say something damnit.

10:17 NPH was just standing next to Dianne Wiest and he neither acknowledged her nor fell to his knees in worshipful genuflection. This is the first time I've ever been disappointed in NPH.

10:21 They're speeding things up. Michael Emerson wins Best Supporting Actor for Lost. Cherry Jones wins Best Supporting Actress for 24. WAIT! Where is Sarah Paulson??? First no NPH / Burtka kiss and now I'm denied girl on girl action with my ladies? What the hell... I have a fever. I deserve my televised gay love.

10:27 Sarah McLachlan sings "I Will Remember You" for the in memoriam. There's no way to cover this adequately whilst liveblogging. So I won't say anything other than 2009 has been a real death bummer, no?

10:38 Mad Men wins Best Writing for "Meditations in an Emergency" -- that was the second season finale about the Sterling Cooper merger and Betty's pregnancy

Close of the fierce back and faulty memory

10:40 Best Actress in a Drama Series goes to... Glenn Close Damages. Kyra Sedgwick is bummed. Elisabeth Moss is robbed. Glenn is confused... claiming that Patty Hewes is "maybe... the role of her lifetime". As NoNo smartly says in the comments: "Glenn hasn't seen herself in Fatal Attraction lately". Right? "Or Dangerous Liaisons!", I'd add. Time to pull those DVDs out of storage, Glenn.

10:50 Best Actor in a Drama Series goes to Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad. (I don't even know what that show is about). Best Comedy Series goes to 30Rock.

11:01 I think it's shameful when awards shows that are running over time go to commercials before the final award. I mean, really. Screw the advertising dollars, think of the audience with the flu watching at home.

11:02 SIGWEAVIE! A vision in red. And Mad Men wins best series. Good night. Thanks for watching with me from your homes, through the internet where you can't catch my flu virus. Only other kinds.

Good night, and good luck.

WHIP IT! Trailer

Yet another example of how I don't understand movie marketing at all.



I lurve this concept for a movie but the trailer feels too generic. Like a lukewarm "find yourself!" comedy. Even if it is lukewarm (it might be), you're supposed to disguise that. The way they disguise everything and sell the wrong movie constantly. Like that trailer for The Road (which is 100% ridiculous since big action setpieces and thrills is not the tone of the movie whatsoever. People will be so angry when they're watching it.)

And why the missed opportunity to have like character freeze frames and make it look raucously entertaining / funny like "Drew Barrymore is 'Smashley Simpson!'" etcetera. For the millionth time I find myself perplexed that movies spend so much money on reasonably famous people (rather than unknowns for scale) and then never mention that they're in the movie?! Eve? Juliette Lewis? Kristen Wiig? Marcia Gay Harden? You don't wanna mention their names? Weirdness.

But I still can't wait to see it.

RCL: Foxy Licorice Roller Derby Edition

Time for another edition of Red Carpet Lineup wherein we gather up actresses who were photographed at events during the week... and talk about them.


First up is Famke Janssen because I've been waiting for her Turn the River follow up ever since the terrific one-on-one I had with her in early 2008. She's on set in Monaco... for which movie I do not know. Where Famke goes her puppy Licorice is never far behind, so I had to include him (her?) too. It was recently announced that she'll be reprising her transsexual "Ava Moore" role for the series finale of Nip/Tuck.

Megan Fox is a phenomenon I haven't yet grasped. I've been playfully arguing about her on twitter. Screen Rant implied that she should hold her tongue in interviews, since people will lose interest if they start noticing what comes off of it. I say her faux shocking sound bites are the only interesting thing about her. After all, "Fuckability" is generally and crassly accepted as a pre-requisite for screen actressing. If you really stop to think about it this means that virtually every famous actress is (or was) a major turn-on for at least some sizable segment of the audience. In a world (i.e. the movies) where everyone is sexy, don't you have to bring something else to the table? What "else", I must ask, is she bringing?

Miranda Otto of "I am no man" fame didn't end up a huge movie star like so many of her fellow Australian ex-pats but I thought she'd at least end up a TV star. I'm terribly disappointed that her TV pilot "A Marriage" wasn't picked up. It was by the Thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, Relativity and Once & Again team of Marshall Herskovitz & Edward Zwick who are geniuses of the small screen. They have proved time and again to have an enviable grasp of the daily drama of family/marital dynamics. If this new pilot, which co-starred Bruce Greenwood as Miranda's husband, had the depth and humanity of those shows it's a large unseen loss for the audience.

Nicll Kihthhmn! sorry, my speech is apparently unintelligible through the fanboy drool ("anonymous" says it so it must be true!). I'm still so excited about The Lady of the Locks: The Return of The Ginger. That's another photo from the set of Rabbit Hole. [via] Nicole Kidman ... there, I've wiped away the spittle.

Marcia Gay Harden turns 50 this August. Her career is going better than ever: A Tony for God of Carnage, a great turn on television's Damages (will they bring her back for Season 3?). Her new film The Maiden Heist is a comedic caper with Morgan Freeman. It was apparently shelved due to financial problems (boo) but we'll see her next in Drew Barrymore's roller derby movie Whip It! We assume Marcia isn't one of the tough derby bitches but we hold out hope that she miraculously is. Wouldn't it be great to see her body slam into Ellen Page?

Bebe Neuwirth is busy. She just got married last month, introduced the in memoriam section at the TONYs, and next she'll play Morticia Addams in the Addams Family stage musical (Spring 2010). She's already training for the part by draining herself of all remaining pigmentation. We see a possible third TONY Award coming her way. She's previously won for Sweet Charity and for her hugely successful reworking of "Velma Kelly" in Chicago before Catherine Zeta-Jones got her eager hands on the role. Showbiz careers are so weird. Isn't it a bit curious that Bebe hasn't had a major slam dunk television role since "Lilith" on Cheers/Frasier for which she won two Emmys? Or a worthy film follow up to her excellent work as a sly cougar in the indie Tadpole for which she won the Seattle Film Critics Award and a FB nomination here.

• Would you pay to see Marcia Gay Harden on roller skates?
• Can you see what Megan Fox brings to the table?
• Is there any point in anything Addams Family without Christina Ricci on board?

Speak up. Don't make me talk to myself.
*

TONY Awards Round Up: Harden, Lansbury, Hathaway, Langella, Neil Patrick Harris

And now a pre-show moment with Martha Plimpton...

That's right. I was conceived because of the musical Hair. I wouldn't exist without it.

That's Plimpton sandwiched inbetween Broadway's Hair boys: my fellow BYU alum Will Swenson, who we've been drooling on for awhile and Gavin Creel (Love the... tie? scarf? tarf?). Plimpton was actually speaking the truth to the reporter. Her parents Keith Carradine (yes, the star and composer of one of the greatest song scenes in all of cinematic history, "I'm Easy" from Robert Altman's Nashville) and Sheila Plimpton met while performing Hair on stage in the late 60s.

I bring up this pre-show red carpet moment because Martha Plimpton is a handy human symbol of how much the mainstream media, and by extension the public, misses out on because they ignore theater and great actors who work in it. To the general public Ms. Plimpton isn't recognizable or, if she is, it's in a vague... hey, she looks like that 80s actress from The Goonies! The sad thing about the movies giving up on her is that she's not just a fine actress but a terrific celebrity. She is easy with the laughter and quick witted with reporters. My favorite Plimpton interview quip came last year when asked to describe what she does for a living, saying something like 'i put on a wig and shout at strangers for two hours'

Martha lost her category at the TONY Awards last night ...that's three consecutive losses, poor thing. But a lot of good people lost. That's nothing new.

Who won? Billy Elliott, Stephen Daldry's adaptation of his own 2000 movie, won nearly everything it was nominated for including Best Musical. Next to Normal, its only real competition, beat Elton John's Original Score and tied Elliott for orchestrations. The Norman Conquests and Hair were chosen as the best revivals and God of Carnage was named Best Play.

Random wrap up thoughts from the evening:

• <-- Harold and Kumar 2's add campaign asked "What Would Neil Patrick Harris Do?" In the case of the TONY Awards he would wear some sort of pleather (?) tux and be an amiable, funny but low key host. Some of his quips seemed to go unnoticed in the cacophony of the show (god, it was a mess). The structure of the ceremony didn't showcase his musical chops until the credits were rolling. What a waste. But give him another go at it, please.
• Lots of tech problems. Why can't they get this together? Broadway is in the business of live events. Why is live television such a hurdle for them?
• Geoffrey Rush's win for Exit the King makes him the the first new Triple Crowner since Al Pacino won his Emmy in 2004 for Angels in America. Rush now has the Oscar (Shine), Emmy (Peter Sellers) and TONY (Exit the King). He also gave an awesome acceptance speech which made me more fond of him that I'd ever been (which is to say I've never been)
• Marcia Gay Harden was also prepared, funny and articulate. Why can't more actors be like that when they win prizes? Marcia needs only the Emmy to become a triple crowner and the Emmy is the easiest prize to win. She could even get it for Damages in September. If she gets nominated that is... loved her on that show. As I announced on a Twitter, Marcia and I are to be married as soon as she is thrice crowned.
  
• If you got as confused as I did when they showed Oscar nominee Janet McTeer (Tumbleweeds) and you thought "my god, what happened to her?!?" you're forgiven. They just had the name wrong names typed up under the wrong faces. McTeer has not entered a witness protection program nor has she had a face transplant. She looks pretty much like she did in 1999.
• Shrek looked single handedly bad enough to destroy my faith in musical theater forever. It looked like something that belonged on the stage for free at a theme park. You know those hour long shows were you rest your feet and get some air conditioning before hitting the rides again? It should not be a high price Broadway show! Naturally, it's a box office hit.

• Sutton Foster and other unfortunates are wasting their talents to act-along with the Shrek movie onstage. Shouldn't this be left to children in the nation's living rooms with their worn DVDs? Still, Christopher Sieber's "Lord Farquad" got one of the biggest laughs of the evening... albeit from the mouth of Neil Patrick Harris hours later

  Chris Sieber, please. Dancing on your knees? That only works to win Golden Globes!

  No, NPH didn't shy away from ribbing his fellow gays.

• <---Angela Lansbury is now to the TONYS what Katharine Hepburn is to the Oscars (though she shares that distinction with Julie Harris and Hepburn doesn't share). She's now won 5 competitive acting TONYS. Lansbury was definitely feeling the love in the room and gracious enough to admit to her fellow nominees that it wasn't a fair contest. Her last trophy was in the 70s for creating Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd! (oh and we wish she'd let her hair go gray or white. Go the Judi Dench / Helen Mirren route, Angela)
• When I see Liza Minnelli in the same black sequined pant suit she's been wearing for years in front of a tacky set sign that says "BROADWAY' my heart leaps and I have to supress squeals of delight. It's true. "I am what I am".
  
• You know how I know I'm a musical theater geek? Whenever I see Alice Ripley (Next to Normal) I start singing Side Show's siamese twin ballad "I Will Never Leave You" at the top of my lungs. Every time. When is Glee coming back on?

• Anne Hathaway is rapidly becoming my favorite young movie star. She always seems so happy to be in showbiz... like 'these are my people' happy. There's none of that obnoxious: 'I'm too cool for this' attitude that plagues some members of Young Hollywood -- you know who I'm talking about. Translation: Hathaway isn't just in it for the fame and fortune and she's most definitely in for the long haul. You'll be hearing her name until you're dead, mark my words.
• Alice Ripley's best actress speech was... um, unhinged. Was she channeling her unraveling Next to Normal mom? She prompted my room of friends to start quoting Sandra Bernhard's classic routine "...don't you just love theatahhhhh people!"
• Frank Langella was hilarious whilst making fun of himself, his Oscar loss, and his TONY snub. Why can't more stars have a sense of humor about the whole awards show / campaigning / losing thing? This reminded me of reviews of his charisma during the Oscar campaigning for Frost/Nixon. Dracula still can work a room. I imagine if he's ever up for an Oscar again post Nixon he's going to nab it.
  
• I haven't seen Billy Elliott on stage and don't really have a desire to (the movie is great but that came out in 2000. It isn't even dust covered yet) but while I was watching the performances I was thinking how difficult that show must have been to cast. You have to find not one but three young boys who can act, sing and dance a very demanding lead role. Jamie Bell only had to do two of those three things. But he nailed them, so...
  
• Susan Sarandon is still a sex on a stick.
  
• Yes, the revival of Hair is as awesome as it looks. Go see it.
  

Okay, enough theater. Back to the movies!


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Jane Fonda vs. Geoffrey Rush for the Triple Crown

You know about the Triple Crown of Acting, right? It's when an actor manages to stretch across three mediums and snag all three of the top competitive prizes: Tony (theater), Emmy (television) and Oscar (film).


To date only 15 actors* have accomplished this but the number could jump to 17 soon. Currently the rarified list reads like so...

• Jack Albertson (Tony: 65, Oscar: 69, Emmy: 75)
  
• Anne Bancroft (Tony: 58, Oscar: 63, Emmy: 99)
  
• Ingrid Bergman (Oscar: 45, Tony: 47, Emmy: 60)
  
• Shirley Booth (Tony: 49, Oscar: 53, Emmy: 62)
  
• Melvyn Douglas (Tony: 60, Oscar: 64, Emmy: 68) Did you know that this Hud star was Illeanna Douglas's grandfather? I certainly didn't.
  
• Jeremy Irons (Tony: 84, Oscar: 91, Emmy: 97)
  
• Thomas Mitchell (Oscar: 40, Tony: 53, Emmy: 53)
  
• Rita Moreno (Oscar: 62, Tony: 75, Emmy: 77)
  
• Al Pacino (Tony: 69, Oscar: 93, Emmy: 04)
  
• Vanessa Redgrave (Oscar: 78, Emmy: 81, Tony: 03)
  
• Jason Robards (Tony: 59, Oscar: 77, Emmy: 88)
  
• Paul Scofield (Tony: 62, Oscar: 67, Emmy: 69)
  
• Maggie Smith (Oscar: 70, Tony: 90, Emmy: 03)
  
• Maureen Stapleton (Tony: 51, Emmy: 68, Oscar: 82)
  
• Jessica Tandy (Tony: 78, Emmy: 88, Oscar: 90)
  

<--- Dianne Wiest on Broadway with John Lithgow (four EMMYs, two TONYs... only Oscar eludes him) and Patrick Wilson in All My Sons.

This year I expected to see one of my all time favorite actresses Dianne Wiest fighting for a place on this list. She already has two Oscars (Hannah and Her Sisters and Bullets Over Broadway) and two Emmys (Road to Avonlea and In Treatment) but she did not receive a TONY nomination for All My Sons. I shall console myself with the happy knowledge that she's left boring-ass TV procedurals behind and is returning to fine roles elsewhere. Next up for Wiest: more In Treatment on TV and Rabbit Hole with Nicole Kidman onscreen... for which she could conceivably snag her fourth supporting actress Oscar nomination in 2010.

So, no Dianne. Jane Fonda and Geoffrey Rush did get nominated though and could become Triple Crowners in one month's time. Fonda has two Oscars (Klute and Coming Home) and one Emmy (The Dollmaker) and she's up for the TONY this year for 33 Variations. Geoffrey Rush has one Oscar (Shine) and one Emmy (The Life and Death of Peter Sellers) and Exit the King could bring him the TONY.

The Tony Lead Acting Races

Lead Actress Play

• Hope Davis, God of Carnage
• Jane Fonda, 33 Variations
• Marcia Gay Harden, God of Carnage
• Janet McTeer, Mary Stuart
• Harriet Walter, Mary Stuart

This category is brutal with two squabbling pairs of leading ladies. Although as far as I know neither Hope nor Marcia lose their head in God of Carnage so the battle in Mary Stuart is deadlier. It comes with a body count. Could all this infighting / vote splitting clear the way for Jane Fonda? [p.s. Harden already has the Oscar and if she snags this TONY all she's waiting for is the EMMY. Will she get a nomination for Damages in July?]

Lead Actor Play

• Jeff Daniels, God of Carnage
• Raúl Esparza, Speed-The-Plow
• James Gandolfini, God of Carnage
• Geoffrey Rush, Exit the King
• Thomas Sadoski, reasons to be pretty

It's cause for some despair that Esparza seems like he's never going to win the TONY. And with Pushing Daisies cancelled we'll never know if they planned to bring him back as "Alfredo Aldarisio" and maybe give him a duet with Kristin Chenoweth. He's so clearly one of Broadway's best and versatile too given that he hops between plays and musicals with ease. But TONY voters L-O-V-E movie stars and vote for them when they get a chance. Geoffrey Rush should be able to snag this one and join the triple crowners.

Lead Actress Musical

• Stockard Channing, Pal Joey
• Sutton Foster, Shrek
• Allison Janney, 9 to 5: The Musical
• Alice Ripley, Next to Normal
• Josefina Scaglione, West Side Story

It's a West Wing reunion... the EMMYS on Broadway! But I don't understand the Janney nomination. At all. I find her as endearing as a celebrity as most people but let me put it this way: she makes Renée Zellweger in Chicago look like a born hoofer. I could practically hear Janney counting whenever she had to do the simplest moves onstage. Both of her co-stars sang multiple circles around her and if you ask me, Megan Hilty in the Dolly role would have a right to be pissed that she was passed over so that TONY could get its celebrity fix. But thems the breaks. All awards bodies prefer celebrities to lesser knowns, if they're in direct competition.

Lead Actor Musical

• David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik, and Kiril Kulish (combined) as Billy Elliot
• Gavin Creel, Hair
• Brian d'Arcy James, Shrek
• Constantine Maroulis, Rock of Ages
• J Robert Spencer, Next to Normal

I'm not exactly sure why Gavin Creel (I'm not a fan) is considered lead in Hair while Will Swenson is nominated in "featured" (the story is about Creel but Swenson controls the show and gets more stage time -my review) but I'm not part of the nominating committee. Trivia: We have our first TONY nominated American Idol alum in Constantine Maroulis. Many of the Idol players have been on the boards (an odd twist given that American Idol regularly uses "Broadway" as an insult -- never mind that most Broadway performers can sing circles around Idol contestants) but this is the reality show's first nominee.

The SNUBBED

A lot of film stars were ignored this year including: Kristin Scott Thomas for The Seagull (my interview), Susan Sarandon for Exit the King, Rupert Everett for Blithe Spirit, Daniel Radcliffe's naked identity crisis in Equus (my review), smoking Carla Gugino for Desire Under the Elms and the romantic pairing of Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons in Impressionism.

For a complete list of TONY nominees, click here.

Don't be quiet. What do you think of these nominations and which movie star would you most love to see on stage?

* Notable superstars like Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand and Whoopi Goldberg have all three prizes too but they didn't win them all in competitive categories or for performances.
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Red Carpet Lineup

because someone is always walking one...

The glamour is a bit toned down this time of year but here's a handful of actresses that were lit by flashbulbs in the past couple of weeks.


Pedro Almodóvar and Penélope Cruz hold hands for the world premiere of Broken Embraces in Madrid. They won't have to smile for stateside paparazzi for awhile yet. It's a rule of distribution that everyone in Europe has to have a chance to see each new Pedro movie three times before it opens in the US. There are several reviews of his Volver follow up floating round the web but I'm avoiding them. Spoilers, ya know. Almodóvar movies always hold surprises of plot, theme and/or character and it's best to see them unfold organically.

Emily Mortimer seems stunned to be photographed in her sparkly maroon cocoon... maybe she's just stunned that the flashes don't go off more often. She and hubby Allesandro Nivola should both be much bigger stars than they are. But then, as I've said before, Hollywood is no meritocracy. Scarlett Johansson continues to be absurdly beautiful. That is all. Gemma Arterton wants to know why I included her. Consider it a thank you gift, Gemma. You're the only one that got Daniel Craig out of his clothes in Quantum of Solace.

I saved Marcia Gay Harden for last. She's currently treading the boards on Broadway in God of Carnage with three other fantastic actors: James Gandolfini, Hope Davis and Jeff Daniels. One of my friends has already seen it twice and keeps saying "it's great!"

How many of you are watching Damages? but I love her confidence and sensuality as "Claire Maddox". Marcia's roles usually leave her fighting for scraps on the sidelines. But there she is on Damages completely unafraid to play in Glenn Close's sandbox. More to the point, she acts like said sandbox is hers. While a handsome woman, she's not a typical screen beauty and she's pushing 50. But there she is on Damages languorously scrunching up her curls, seducing younger men and pulling up her stockings like some Attorney for the Defense of Mrs. Robinson. More to the point, she acts like those men are already hers.

She makes a strong case. Marcia Gay Harden can strut on my screen (big or small) any time she likes.

for previous related posts, click the labels below
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Manni Peddis with Marcia

Absolutely True Story You Couldn't Possibly Live Without!
Suburban readers may laugh but it's not uncommon for men to get manicures and pedicures in the big city. You'd be surprised at how filthy your nails get in the urban jungle.

So last week before moving to DC for a month (? not sure how long I'm staying?) I was feeling extra gross and got one. Location: Upper West Side. No sooner do I plop down in the raised chair for my pedicure than I spot a mini-shrine to one Marcia Gay Harden (happy 49th birthday diva!) next to me. There overlooking me on the wall are multiple pictures of the Oscar winner torn from magazines. As my feet soak, I point to the pictures and say incredulously "Marcia Gay Harden is your client?" she looks at me, points, nods her head "yes yes" with big smile (I don't think she speaks English) and then continues to work on my unclean toes, god bless her.

She works in silence and I am left to ponder how these pictures possibly made it to the wall. Marcia Gay Harden is not Angelina Jolie or Madonna or Britney Spears. You actually have to work to know who she is. She is not an unavoidable celebrity force. So did Marcia herself, sitting in this very chair, explain to this pedicurist Who She Was... ? Did she pull an Oscar from her purse to underline her point in something of a more universal language? Did Ms. Harden herself return with the magazine photos as mementos of her fame for this unsuspecting woman new fan who hadn't even asked for an autograph or told her how great she was in Pollock, Mystic River, Millers Crossing or The Mist?

It was all I could think about as I tipped the woman for her troubles and left the salon with my newly presentable fingers and toes.
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Hot Group Action

Made you look.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ENSEMBLE
My nominees are posted. The reasons you'll always hear me complaining about SAG's choices in this category is because I think they're not paying attention to what an "ensemble" means (or maybe, more generously, they just don't have the same criteria as I do) To me "best ensemble" does not conjure up big casts with one scene stealing standout or simply big casts. To me examples of superior ensembles would be groups of actors who are tonally in balance with each other (everyone feels like they're in the same movie) and groups that use their internal chemistry in the scene work to elevate the movie.

This is one of the reasons I've always been a Robert Altman nut. He actually lets you see more than one performance at once. Most filmmakers cut so often to back and forth reaction shots that you miss the chance to see actors create the character dynamics in tandem. To me that's a shame.

In semi related news...

I had been planning on a post detailing my thoughts on The Dead Girl but it's obviously never going to see the light of day so an "ensemble" discussion is as good a place as any to talk about it: You'll notice that it's not in my nominee lineup. I know some people were plenty fond of its cast and I'll happily agree that three of them work wonders. I'm talking about the always wonderful/beautiful/awesome Kerry Washington, ISA Nominee Mary Beth Hurt and (surprise) Rose Byrne. But it's not much of a cohesive ensemble -- it's more like solo pieces strung together. And the unimaginative casting made me wince more than once. Toni Collette as an ugly unloved girl again? Brittany Murphy as a wildchild. Marcia Gay Harden as an uptight woman. And, worst of all, Piper Laurie all but reprises her Carrie role (only without the advantage of that hilarious final monologue)

He took me, with the stink of filthy roadhouse whiskey on his breath, and I liked it. I liked it!

I could babble about these actresses for hours, but I'll spare you turn it back over to you. What's your idea of hot group action in a movie -- which were your favorite ensemble this year? Anything like mine?

Daryl, Reese, Chloe, and Drew...

The countdown is progressing. The next batch of actresses (#40 to #31) to have warmed the cockles of my jaded moviegoing heart in the past 5 years range in age from a luscious 26 (Ludivine Sagnier) to a still rockingsexy 59 (Susan Sarandon), from comedic powerhouses (Parker Posey) to dramatic showstoppers (Marcia Gay Harden), from anonymous (Celia Weston) to superstardom (CZJ) Check them out and discuss. The Top 30 is just days away.