Dancing With Sarah

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JA from MNPP here. I think a lot of y'all will agree with me that Michelle Williams' name has become, in this post-Brokeback, post-Wendy and Lucy world, enough of an incitement to cause us to click on a link to see what she's up to. I like that gal! She's proven herself (and I hear she and Ryan Gosling tear it up in Blue Valentine.) So point being I clicked on this link over at DH, and was met with this news:

Seth Rogen & Michelle Williams Have A "Waltz"

Seth Rogen and Michelle Williams are set to star in the romantic drama "Take This Waltz" says Deadline Hollywood.

The story follows a young woman (Williams) who struggles with her infidelities and the budding realization that she may be addicted to the honeymoon period of her relationships.

Sarah Polley ("Away From Her") directs from her own script which made last year's Black List. Filming kicks off this July in Toronto.

Now you'll note that that post's title leaves the most important fact of this story out of it and if Michelle Williams' name weren't such an incentive for me I might've missed this most important fact:

Sarah Polley's directing again!!!

She shoots... movies.

Can we all just do a little jig for a minute here please? Yay!

Of course if you click over to where the news broke you'll see that they broke the news the right way, with Polley's name the very first thing you see. But everybody doesn't cover news the right way! Polley first, always! It's like my version of "Bros Before Hos" only not obscenely misogynistic.

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Sunday Day 3: Mad Genetic Scientists, Evil Unionized Teachers and Guilty Rich Folk

Five movies in one day is a common enough festival occurrence but I can't say I recommend it. It's fun to chat with fellow film fans when lining up for festival screenings but it can be highly embarrassing when someone asks you "Nathaniel, what did you see today?" and you can't remember. Speaking hypothetically [cough].

Yes, I did have to look up what I saw yesterday in order to share it with you now. Let's take them in ascending order of preference.

Waiting for Superman
This documentary about our nation's education crisis was riding a solid wave of buzz when I saw it. I can't share in the enthusiasm I kept hearing on buses and in lines. It's an easy familiar sit, using talking heads, animation interludes, and familiar TV history moments in the pursuit of its thesis. It's hard not to feel for the struggling adorable kids and parents that the film follows, though one has to wonder why the filmmakers chose to follow so many of them given how much statistical ground and educational ideologies the film also wants to cover (the sidebar issues are forgotten and revived haphazardly throughout). These kids are dreaming of college but statistics are against them. Most of them will end up in poorly performing middle schools and and "dropout factory" high schools. A lot of salient points were raised but this was one of those documentaries that left me wondering how much they'd left out in order to make their point, especially because the last act plays like a commercial for charter schools and constructs a clear movie villain out of teacher's union. C-

Splice
This horror/thriller was part of the 'Park City at Midnight' series. If you've ever been to a film festival you'll know that the midnight section is basically the punk rock bin. The films are meant to be raucous, offensive, strange or violent. They dream of "cult classic" status. Splice follows a romantic couple (played by Sarah Polley & Adrien Brody), who appear to be rock stars of the genetic engineering world. They even dress like they're about to perform for a club's worth of inebriated worshipful fans when they head in to the lab.

Sarah Polley makes a new friend. Literally.

The film kicks off with a smartly filmed "birth" sequence. The scientists create "Ginger and Fred" (hee), two lumpy slugs created from mixed and matched DNA. I won't bore you with the sci-fi gobbledy-gook science or spoil the icky surprises. Let is suffice to say that things don't go the way the scientists plan and their corporate sponsors ask them to redirect their efforts elsewhere. Our rock star engineers pretend to do just that. Meanwhile they continue playing god, making an animal human hybrid they name "Dren". Movies always punish scientists for playing god so you know where this is going. The best I can say for the feature is that Dren is spectacularly disturbing. Director/co-writer Vincenzo Natali manages to sustain a level of creepiness surrounding this... thing... that's pretty impressive. If anything Dren becomes more and more disturbing with familiarity, something you can't say for most movie monsters. Unfortunately, the other parts of the movie don't play as well: the acting seems stilted but insufficiently stylized, the humor often falls flat, and some important backstory details are only brought in as plot devices. But still... creepy. C+

Bran Nue Dae
This wacky Australian musical is about an aboriginal boy who doesn't want to stay in his religious boarding school. He'd rather be at home romancing his girl. This is not okay with Father Benedict (Congratulations hambone Geoffrey Rush. For once, you're not the most over-the-top thing in one of your films!) who chases after the runaway. Bran Nue Dae is contagiously enthusiastic but I wish it were better. It's sloppily assembled and its over the top antics begin to grate before it wraps up. But it is fun. I'm not denying that. It's particularly great counterprogramming at a film festival since film festivals aren't known for "silly". And 24 hours later I'm still humming the sardonic spirited closing number

There's nothing I would rather be than to be an aborigine.
And watch you take my precious land away..."

There's nothing like musical comedy so long as you're in the right mood for it. B-

Boy
Did you ever see the Oscar nominated short Two Cars, One Night? It simply watched children in parked cars, and the way they communicated as they waited for their parents to finish up with adult activities in a local bar. This feature from the same director Taika Cohen is inspired by that wonderfully suggestive short. You're still dealing with the way children react to the adult world that confuses them and the way they treat each other. Your protagonist this time goes by "Boy" (played by the wonderfully expressive James Rolleston, pictured right). He's obsessed with Michael Jackson and his own loser father, who he idolizes. When his father returns from a stint in prison, Boy's world is upended and he's forced to grow up a little, even though he's already essentially parenting his little brother and a swarm of cousins whose parents are never at home.

The film gets a good dose of laughs from its 80s era obsession (E.T., a number of hit American TV series, and the whole Thriller phenomenon) but Cohen also has a finely tuned visual comic sensibility as a director. He knows when to let a joke play out, when to cut away and when to let loose with imaginative childlike flourishes. He's not as successful at directing himself (he plays the often buffoonish father) and though the film sometimes struggles to find the right balance between comedy and pathos, it's a sweet well rendered coming of age story. Future sleeper hit status awaits. B

Catherine Keener is a giver. Oliver Platt not so much

Please Give
This comedy is quite a rebound for writer/director Nicole Holofcener. It's not that her last feature Friends With Money didn't have its charms but it amplified what can sometimes be schematic in her work: her titles are right on the nose with the characters as variations on its theme. On the other hand this obviousness has its charms. Why conceal your theme when it's so unusually specific and delivered with such a distinct voice? Please Give manages the neat trick of being sharply unsentimental and also loving and, better still, very funny.

Holofcener's chief muse Catherine Keener is front and center as a well off antiques dealer. She's constantly beset by guilt and assuages it with generosity. She and her husband (Oliver Platt) are waiting for their ancient next door neighbor Andra (a wonderfully tart Ann Gulbert) to die so that they can have her apartment but they throw her birthday parties to make nice. What makes Please Give such a generous movie is how fond it is of all of its characters and their hangups, too. Keener and Platt work well together as a couple who've lost the spark, their marriage flatlining into a friendship and business partnership. Even better are Rebecca Hall and Amanda Peet (pictured) who play dissimilar sisters reacting to the "vultures" waiting for their grandmother to kick the bucket and dealing with issues of their own. Highly recommended. Especially if you like talky neurotic comedies. B+

Red Carpet: Venice, Toronto and Tilda x 7

Which stars have been out and about this past week? Whole galaxies of them. I've collected a few randomly for this edition of the red carpet lineup. It's but a tiny fraction of the luminaries since we're now in the thick of festival season. Telluride is behind us, Venice wraps today, and Toronto just kicked off. And that's just the big ones.


Nicholas Hoult and Julianne Moore hit Venice for the premiere of A Single Man (see previous post). An Education's Carey Mulligan, quickly emerging as the one to beat for Best Actress, is going to be fought over fiercely when it comes to dressing for the Oscars, just watch. She wore this Prada 09 Fall/Winter collection piece for her film's Toronto premiere. Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly and her perpetually Oscar snubbed husband Paul Bettany were also in Toronto promoting the Charles Darwin biography / marital drama Creation.

Finally, Venice had the cast of the sci-fi drama Mr. Nobody starring Jared Leto as a 120 year-old man. And, what do you know, Sarah Polley came. Polley sightings are exciting since she's not exactly a red carpet staple. But --and it feels so weird to say this given my actress predilections -- I'd rather she get back behind the camera very soon as a writer/director. Away From Her was just fine filmmaking.

What else ya got, Sarah?

Little Know Fact: In late May of 1960 all of the world's major film festivals met for a wild orgy at Cannes. Just as La Dolce Vita was handed the Palme D'Or, Tilda Swinton was conceived. Cannes herself, heavy with child, fled to England and gave birth to Tilda not five months later (everything happens quickly at festivals). It's totally true! For Tilda is the film festival anthropomorphized: the rush of celebrity, the discovery of the exotic, the air of the international and the thrill of the avant garde. Festivals just don't feel complete without her, do they?

She was all over Venice last week (I've repurposed the photos from Zimbio). Witness...

Tilda's Venice palette: baggy black (a la 07 Oscars), earth tones, white.

I wonder if she'll show up in Toronto? While in Venice, she was promoting Lo Sono L'Amore, an Italian drama. Longtime Swintonites should note that a reunion with her Teknolust director is currently in development. It's called Gene to the Fourth and the actress would play a woman seeking eternal life through scientific experiments. But first, and as early as April, Swinton is set to go before the cameras as Die Blutgräfin (The Blood Countess). Yes, that's the same vampiric Hungarian role that Julie Delpy played in the unreleased film The Countess, a film I'm starting to feel I'll never have the opportunity to see.
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Padded Link

<--- Last week Rope of Silicon shared the creepy teaser poster for Shutter Island (previously discussed here) and now JA is all hyped up. Has Scorsese made a picture as brutal and scary as Cape Fear since? I'm not thinking "Whatever Happened to Patient 67?" So much as "Is Emily Mortimer Patient 67? And if so, will people finally realize how versatile and quite awesome she is?" I know that's not quite how the marketing folks wanted me to react but I'm a special case. I think only of actresses whenever possible. I guess I really need to read Dennis Lehane's novel before this picture opens.

links
Tapeworthy shares the news that Friday Night Lights has been renewed for two more seasons. Grand news for any fans of quality television.
The Big Picture wonders about the idealogical inconsistencies of snubbing movies because of an actor's politics.
Empire on the girlpower casting of Zach Snyder's Sucker Punch. I was going to say Snyder doing a movie with female leads? ... but then I remembered the wonderful Sarah Polley and she sure as hell anchored and powered Dawn of the Dead. May one of his new actresses can do the same for this film.


Boy Culture points us to an inspiring new site inspired by Harvey Milk's activism.
MightyGodKing finds the difference between Pixar and Dreamworks Animation
My New Plaid Pants wishes Ewan McGregor a sweet birthday. I miss Ewan. Please make lots of good movies very soon.
Extra Criticum offers some excellent DVD rental ideas on that "10 Characters" meme I struggled through earlier today.
Cinemavistaramascope enthuses about the trailer to Taking Woodstock. He worked on the film.
The Exploding Kinetoscope RIP Andy Hallett, Angel's colorful demon host "Lorne".
MTV News Eastern Promises sequel? I am totally willing to go back for seconds although I can't imagine what plot point could get Viggo Mortensen completely starkers again. Bummer.

Why Sarah Polley Rules

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JA from MNPP here. Today is Sarah Polley's 30th birthday, so we all must take a moment and bow down to this most lovely of creatures. Here are ten reasons why she's awesome.

1 - She played Sally Salt in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen when she was 9 years old, and recently described the experience as "incredibly unsafe" and "traumatic"... so much so that she publicly derided Terry Gilliam when he cast a girl of the same age as his lead in Tideland. I mean, I love Gilliam, but you go, girl.

2 - Her performance in The Sweet Hereafter,
where I fell in love with her for the first time.

3 - She was in an episode of Friday the 13th: The Series. Insta-cool points.

4 - "And here I thought you just gave me head."

5 - She cuddled with Scott Speedman. Swoon.

6 - She loves doing genre flicks. She kicked ass as the lead in Zach Snyder's pretty-decent remake of Dawn of the Dead (no matter your opinion on the whole of the film, I think we all must admit that those first fifteen minutes are killer), and her only two upcoming credits on IMDb are a time-jumping fantasy called Mr. Nobody opposite Jared Leto (more on that here) and a sci-fi-tinged horror story about DNA disruption opposite Adrien Brody called Splice (more on that here) I mean, I like it when she does the prestige stuff too, but the girl knows how to let her hair down as well, thankfully.

7 - "You know what makes it better? If you take a lot of pot with it. I mean, like, A LOT of pot."

8 - Along with Michelle Williams, Polley is a big part of the "previous co-star procession" nightmare that goes through Katie Holmes' brain every night as she tries to sleep and thinks of all the people she worked with back when she was doing good work and now they are so much more established and respected than she is, even though she was the hot one back in the day. Ha - suck it Katie!

9 - "Who the hell are you? Monty Hall?"

10 - As her very first feature film directing gig at the tender age of 27 she took on the challenge of crafting a loving ode to long-term commitment and the loss and regrets of old age. And she hired Julie Christie and lit her like the most amazing thing you'd ever seen in all of the world. (Which she is, of course.)

Happy birthday, Sarah!
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Vanity Fair's Hollywood ~ Episode 5 (1999)

The Hollywood Historian in me continues his work after a long sabbatical ... Missed other episodes? See: 1995 , 1996, 1997, 1998 | 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005

In 1999, Vanity Fair went both a little crazy (14 people? The most ever for a Hollywood cover) and a little blah (seriously now, zzz). This issue gets my vote for worst cover in their history of Hollywood editions. They called it "New Kids on the Block" as if they were trying to date it instantly. I called it "Call me in Spring 2000 when the next one comes out." None of them look like they're in the mood to due boy band choreography or even sing one bar of a power ballad.

Adrien Brody, Thandie Newton, Monica Potter, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Stiles,
Leelee Sobieski, Giovanni Ribisi, Sarah Polley, Norman Reedus, Anna Friel,
Omar Epps, Kate Hudson, Vinessa Shaw, and Barry Pepper.

Adrien Brody, newly 26 years-old, had just come off of an extremely disappointing role downsizing in Best Picture nominee The Thin Red Line (see fascinating time capsule interview from several years back) --originally touted as the lead he was barely in the film by the time notoriously slow filmmaker Terence Malick was through with it. He had not yet been cast in The Pianist which would prove his rather massive critical / awards / Halle Berry kissing breakthrough. He was on the cover, as they often are because he was busy... already popular with casting directors with 5 performances emerging between 99 & 00 (his stripper in Spike Lee's Summer of Sam and his union organizer in Bread and Roses chief among them).

Thandie Newton was also 26. 1998 had been a big year with both Bernardo Bertolucci's Besieged and Jonathan Demme's Beloved haunted by her beauty. All was not rosy thereafter. She snagged the female lead of Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) but it did as little for her as the previous film had done for Emmanuelle Béart stateside. Interest was renewed with her memorable supporting part in Crash (2005) and buzz has it that we'll next see her as Condoleeza Rice in Oliver Stone's Bush bio W. (2009).

Monica Potter, about to turn 28, was one of many actresses who were weighted down with "next Julia Roberts" buzz. Believe me, it was a plague that decimated the female 20somethings of Hollywood that entire decade. She had been in two hits Patch Adams and Con Air and would be in a couple more (the already forgotten Along Came a Spider, 2001 and the unfortunately remembered franchise-spawning Saw, 2004) Her last big gig was a stint on TV's Boston Legal.

Reese Witherspoon, all of 23, was still an up and comer and she was about to marry Ryan Phillipe, whom she had been dating since '97. Hopes for her career had stayed high mostly due to her impressive and soulful debut in The Man in the Moon (1991) but none of her films had been hits. That wouldn't change in 1999 (though Cruel Intentions nearly did it) because Election, the film that announced her formidable talent with the subtlety of a megaphone, also flopped in theaters (though it's better remembered than most of the smashes of that year... quality does sometimes win out in the end. It just takes a long time --Tortoise and Hare, you know). Two years after this cover, Legally Blonde would open and she'd join Hollywood's A list to become the biggest star to emerge from this cover's gelatinous mass of wannabees ---seriously. There's way too many people on this cover.

Julia Stiles, newly legal at 18, probably won this cover treatment on the basis of the just-then opening lead role in 10 Things I Hate About You (co-starring the late Heath Ledger). She worked a lot in the years that followed in films both successful and otherwise but her career didn't grow as much as people expected or she herself expected for that matter (that's my presumption from some interviews at least). Today people are still familiar and she is pretty terrific in that tiny role in the Bourne series.

Leelee Sobieski, also known as 'Helen Hunt Jr' among my crowd at the time, was a critical darling turning 16... a status I never understood how she achieved so quickly. Never could I understand her appeal but she worked steadily from her debut in the Tim Allen comedy Jungle 2 Jungle (1997) through the blockbuster Deep Impact to Kubrick's controversial Eyes Wide Shut and the horror thriller Joy Ride (2001). She's never stopped working but the press definitely stopped paying attention, ignoring her from about 2002 onward just as suddenly as they'd once inexplicably decided to dote on her. She's in the new Al Pacino thriller 88 Minutes which is about to open.

Giovanni Ribisi, from the twitchy school of acting that also spawned Jeremy Davies was 24. He had already worked a lot in indies with his biggest claim to fame being part of Saving Private Ryan's young soldier ensemble the summer before this cover was shot. He had eight projects open between this cover and the end of 2000. Presumably he slept some time in 2002 or thereabouts because every year brings several films. His career has been cooling off considerably but he's part of the next buzzy Michael Mann picture Public Enemies so his career might find its second wind next year.


Sarah Polley, 20 at the time, just had quite a year with an Oscar nomination for her first full feature behind the camera Away From Her. But we're talking 9 years ago, aren't we? Nine years back she was a critically celebrated actress with The Sweet Hereafter (1997) behind her for which many people thought she deserved an Oscar nomination. She had four movies coming out the year of this cover, the most famous of which would be Doug Liman's Go. Sarah hasn't totally given up acting (two movies coming next year) but expect more work behind the camera, too.


Norman Reedus at 30 was the oldest character on this cover. This former model was about to have a baby with longtime girlfriend Helena Christensen (they split up in 2003). He had made a few indies directly before this cover as well as the horror sci-fi flick Mimic (1997), which was his first picture. The heat was on with three more small films due in 99 but he never "broke out" as it were. He stayed mostly in indies with the occasional small role in bigger films dotting the filmography like Blade 2 and last year's American Gangster.

Anna Friel, about to turn 23, had up and comer buzz despite very little screen work. 1999 was an important year for her (see time capsule interview) as she was part of the quartet of players in Broadway's Closer (which became a film in 2004 --she played "Alice", later become Natalie Portman's role) and she was also in the ensemble in the umpteenth film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream (this one with Kevin Kline and Michelle Pfeiffer). Everybody forgot about her for awhile but she's more popular and adorable than ever, suddenly, as one fourth of Pushing Daisies central quartet of players. She's "dead girl" ...but you knew that already if you've been watching.

Omar Epps, nearly 26, had gotten his film start in the Harlem set drama Juice(1992) with Tupac Shakur and had been working steadily in both TV (ER) and film up until this cover. 1999 was a big year with three major roles (The Woods, In Too Deep, and The Mod Squad) and 2000 would be equally crowded but success was only moderate. Lead film roles dried up and he moved over to TV in 2004 as a regular cast member on the Emmy nominated House, M.D.

Kate Hudson , turning 20, had an Oscar-winning superstar mother (Goldie Hawn) but little else to recommend her for this cover. Major stardom of her own would arrive approximately a year and a half later when Almost Famous (2000) opened, for which she received an Oscar nomination and became a mainstream media staple. One romantic comedy blockbuster followed (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, 2003) but, honestly, she gets a lot of attention for how little success her films have hand. And that filmography: yikes!

Vinessa Shaw, nearly 23, was known from her work as a teenager on television and in films like Hocus Pocus and Ladybugs. Nothing major but the Kubrick film Eyes Wide Shut (pictured, right) was in post-production when this cover was shot and the buzz on her appearance/sex appeal in the mystery shrouded film was fairly loud. Not sure why a bigger career didn't materialize but you'll probably remember that she did a brief Russell Crowe snogging act in 3:10 to Yuma last year.

Barry Pepperwas turning 29 and the previous year's feature film landscape had suggested that he might be breaking free of television, where he had spent the first six years of his Hollywood career. In 1998 he had played a memorable sniper role in Saving Private Ryan and supported Will Smith and Gene Hackman in Enemy of the State. A role in Best Picture nominee The Green Mile followed this very December and then he hit the brick wall that was the Scientology inspired Battlefied Earth(2000). The future didn't hold big successful lead roles after that but damn he was good in 25th Hour (2002), don't you think? Next up: supporting Will Smith again in Seven Pounds this Christmas.

Anna Friel ~ then and now

median age: approximately 24. Youngest: Leelee was still fifteen when the cover was shot. oldest: Norman Reedus @ thirty
collective Oscar nominations before this cover: Zilch
collective Oscar nominations after this cover: 4 (Reese, Adrian, Sarah and Kate), 2 of which led to big wins (Witherspoon in Walk the Line & Brody in The Pianist)
fame levels in 2008, according to famousr, from most to least: Reese Witherspoon, Kate Hudson, Julia Stiles, Adrien Brody, Omar Epps, Giovanni Ribisi, Thandie Newton, Leelee Sobieski, Sarah Polley, Barry Pepper, Monica Potter, Vinessa Shaw (Anna Friel and Norman Reedus are not listed on the website)
see also: 1995 ,1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.
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don't miss future installments. Yes I will one day get through them all

Oscar Reminds Us

Four things I forgot about until Oscar reminded me

1. 1. The great Sarah Polley would be @ the Kodak theater. More camera time please.
   2. Casey Affleck is Joaquin Phoenix's brother-in-law. And Summer Phoenix is deliciously busty. Like Madonna @ Golden Globes for Evita busty. A very good thing
2. 3. Hal Holbrook is married to Julia Sugarbaker.
3. 4. Josh Lucas = ohmygod