Eight Links: Unhinged Women, Union Protests, Unctuous Celebrity

Awards Daily "Women Unhinged" fun piece on all the bat-shit crazy lady characters fighting for Oscar recognition. We're glad to see Lesley Manville (Another Year) getting some attention in her week of snubs.
Movies Kick Ass sees and loves Paprika Steen in Applaus. What a performance that is.
Disney Blog I hadn't heard of this but apparently there's a union protest against Toy Story 3 outside of Academy screenings. Ruh-roh.
I Need My Fix whoa mamma. Check out this slit in Gwynnie's Country Strong dress.

DListed is thrilled that Tom Cruise still has hard nips. Um... okay. You know what I think is the real disturbing fountain of youth magic? That head of hair. Cruise is bothersome in so many ways but that hair? Still perfect.
Towleroad Kevin Spacey still refusing to come out, "never" will. Makes unconvincing case that asking him to do so is equivalent to bullying gay teens. Even threatens to record an "it gets better" video. (Please don't. Kinda too ironic like). Ah well, at least we have better braver less selfish celebrities emerging each year to change the world.
Sociological Images Have you been wondering what Geena Davis' organization "Institution on Gender in Media" has been up to?  Here are some charts about gender imbalances in family movies.

Just Him and His Shadow

GQ Cover boy Ryan Gosling dresses like a movie star. I love this bit on why he got a regular ol' job briefly after The Notebook

" 'I'd never had a real job,' he says. The problem with Hollywood, he goes on, is that nobody works. 'They have meals. They go to Pilates. But it's not enough. So they do drugs. If everybody had a pile of rocks in their backyard and spent every day moving them from one side of the yard to the other, it would be a much happier place.' "

I always thought this was a problem. I always find myself wondering how some famous actors who rarely work, kill time. You know they're not working at delis.

Continuing the Conversations...

Though I had a won-der-ful time on vacation, I do love the movie conversations. Some recent comments I wanted to respond to (for the patient and/or longwinded-like-me among you).

Clint totally approves of the Jodie Foster casting of God of Carnage (I agree that it's interesting and I hope she pulls it off) but I'm sure he'll be relieved to hear that Matt Dillon is no longer with the film. Not me.

Er... okay, I don't know which husband is which.

I was actually just discussing this with friends recently who had all seen the play and were kind of annoyed that John C Reilly will be playing Kate Winslet Jodie Foster's husband. He's not... handsome. Hollywood loves to pair anything from average to ugly men with ridiculously beautiful women, but it's clearly audience pandering to feed male ego fantasies: i.e. I can have / deserve to have a supermodel in my bed, no matter what I look like. It's okay once in awhile of course but all the time? Not realistic. Reilly is a very good actor but it's kind of silly when you stop to think of his screen conquests; he's already had (implied) movie sex with Julianne Moore, Renée Zellweger, Marisa Tomei, Jenna Fischer, Melora Walters, and Jennifer Aniston! Has he ever been paired with a homely woman? He's like a less cocky/noisy version of the Philip Seymour Hoffman phenomenon.

But mostly I'm just annoyed that...

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Nashville Wrap Up (Part 1)

Howdy y’all. Excuse the twang. I’m just back from Nashville (last night was their closing night) but now I have already plunged headfirst into freelance work for the Tribeca Film Festival. I miss my Film Experience baby but I’ll be back to regular posting duties on May 1st. I had hoped to write up several of the features I saw in Nashville to give you a better picture of this trip to the longest running film festival in the south but we’ll have to cover those films as they emerge on DVD or theatrical instead. For now a quick dashed off note about the festival’s main slate.

a poster for Applaus hangs over the moviegoing crowd

Narrative Competition
The winner was a blast of color and song, a Russian musical actually. The plot was weirdly reminiscent of John Waters Cry Baby only gender-flipped with a side of boys-who-can't-stop-dancing from Swing Kids (Anyone remember that?). It's squares vs. hipsters opening is thrilling but the first musical number almost derails it for sheer confusion before things really get hopping. It's not always a smooth ride but it's most definitely a ride. It gets better as it goes and the ending is a knowing hoot, contextually the title in a way that just about anyone will understand. Recommended! Bonus points: Giving us lots of Oksana Akinshina who you'll undoubtedly remember fondly from Lilja 4ever. She's all grown up now and ravishing, fully convincing as the unknowable dream girl "Polly" who gets the story rolling.

<--- Grand Jury Prize: Valeriy Todorovskiy’s Hipsters
Honorable Mention: The Be All End All
Best Actor: Anton Shagin, Hipsters
Best Actress: Paprika Steen, Applause

It probably won't surprise you to hear that my great takeaway from this festival was a performance by an actress. I was on a separate jury so I didn't vote on the main competition but I was both enormously pleased and as far from surprised as it's possible to be to hear that they were rewarding Paprika Steen for her portrayal of an alcoholic actress Thea in this Danish film. Not only is Steen sensational as the trainwreck actress but she's also blistering as "Martha" who Thea plays in a production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf that keeps tearing holes in Thea's own narrative with its constant intrusions. I loved this performance -- it's a monster, fully deserving of the closeups it's continually granted -- and I loved the movie, too. You may remember Steen for her intense work in the dogme breakthrough Celebration (1998). She's just riveting in Applause and I'm hoping that the film, which has been working the festival circuit for some time, finds distribution so I can demand that every last one of you see it.

Birthday Suit: Dolph 'the biggest one' Lundgren

Thought I'd goof around with a little b-day series. In case it's yours! Could be shortlived. Or maybe it'll go on forever. You never know.

Hal Hartley , Paprika Steen and Charles Bronson

Today's Birthdays, November 3rd

...some of them at any rate. For those who are prone to celebrating the lives of the filmic and famous. And if you aren't, you're not having enough fun.

1921 Charles Bronson had a Death Wish, five of them actually, and he had them before "franchise" was a daily spoken word in movie discussions.

1930 Lois Smith, sweet character actress, is now 79 years old. I once saw her in a train station. It's true. Weren't you shocked when she died on the first season of True Blood? I sure was.

<-- 1931 Monica Vitti, breathtaking Italian goddess
1953 Kate Capshaw aka Mrs. Spielberg. Did she sing or was she dubbed for that awesome "Anything Goes" opening number in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? It's a trivia question from 25 years ago. I'm so in-the-moment!
1954 Adam Ant, the acting career was short but the 80s hits live forever ♫ "we're just following ancient history if I strip for you, will you strip for me?"

1954 Brigitte Lin, The Bride With White Hair herself, is finally making another movie, The Grand Master, reuniting her with Wong Kar Wai. It's their first film together since Ashes of Time and the beloved, dream-like Chungking Express

1956 Gary Ross, producer, Oscar nomination collector, dabbles in directing (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit)

1959 Hal Hartley 90s indie auteur (The Unbelievable Truth, Trust). Where he been?
1964 Paprika Steen Danish actress, best known internationally for starring in the two most famous, most brilliant and very first Dogme 95 films: von Trier's The Idiots and Thomas Vinterberg's Festen.
1987 Gemma Ward, model/actress, recently donned creepy mask for The Strangers.
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Finally, I have to talk about Dolph Lundgren who turned 52 today. TFE's youngest readers will draw a blank but anyone over 30 will remember this Swedish hunk. Rocky's Russian rival was basically a second tier action star during the reign of Stallone & Schwarzenegger. Whenever I think of Dolph, I think of four things

1. That naked photoshoot he did with 80s girlfriend Grace Jones. What a visually striking pair they were.
2. The naked posters he did for the Chicago International Film Festival. Quite shocking at the time they were.
3. That naked action duet with Jean Claude Van Damme also known as Universal Soldier (1992)
4. That naked scene in Showdown In Little Tokyo (1991) that has to be one of the most hilarious Bad Movie sequences ever.

This sounds totally pervy, I know. But it's not like Dolph didn't invite it! He was always nekked. Ask anyone who was around in the 80s / early 90s. Back then action stars understood the selling power of the fleshy muscle display. They all sexploited themselves, not just Dolph. I sometimes think CGI was created to distract us from all the unnecessary clothing on movie stars.

In the spectacularly silly sequence mentioned above, cop Kenner (Dolph) and his partner Murata (Brandon Lee in his screen debut, prior to The Crow) take yakuza mob target Minako (Tia Carrere) to Dolph's remote home in the woods for hiding. That evening he strips down for some r&r in his outdoor hot tub. Way to hide, Dolph! Turn on them tub lights and turn on the bubbles... outdoors! Soon Tia (also naked) joins him. She learns that he built the house himself. He's beautiful naked and he has an artistic soul! Score.

Tia does. She can't sleep so she asks to share his bed. Soon enough they are doing the deed. Dolph lasts 14 seconds (literally) before Tia remarks, I kid you not, "...this time I heard you cumming". 80s movies were so racy! [editors note: I know this is a 1991 movie but it feels almost exactly like a low budget 1987 movie]. The scene is silly but it gets even more ludicrous. Dolph hears a noise outside. The evil Asian crime syndicate are surrounding the house. He jumps up (still naked) and throws on only black trunks in which he begins to shove weaponry including knives. I'm not making any of this up. Then he runs into his partner in the living room.

Some of the gayest most awkward bro dialogue ever emerges

Murata: Where's Minako?
Kenner: She's in my room
Murata: I knew that was going to happen
Kenner: She was frightened.
Murata: I saw you strip down in that hot tub. I'd be frightened too.

We're in trouble here, champ. There's more bad guys than we have bullets.

Murata: Just in case we get killed, I wanted to tell you. You have the biggest dick I've ever seen on a man.
Kenner: Thanks. (smiles) I don't know what to say.

Ummm, how about "you've seen them on women?" That's what I'd say. What the hell?

While the screenplay isn't helping, I can't even begin to express how delightfully bad the acting is, particularly by Brandon Lee. The movie probably deserves a multi-page recap article it's so time-capsule terrible. You must see it if you love bad movies. And if you already have, you must back me up in the comments.


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