Before Link Falls

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.

Cory's Curiosities "magical pic of the day" awwww, Kermit.

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 Tracker Machine 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.

Link Flamingos

Scanners envisions Precious as a remake of John Waters Female Trouble. No seriously

Fin de Cinema top 100 of the decade. So many great movies...
Nicks Flick Picks is almost done with his, too.
Crossoverman cheats with lots of groupings for his top 50. But they're good movies so we'll let it slide

Just Jared Jude Law and Sienna Miller are back together? My god... when will these two make up their mind? I hope that when they're separated again Sienna has flashbacks about Jude as frenetically edited and obnoxious as the ones she has about Channing Tatum in GI Joe. Sometimes real life should be just like the movies.

i09 5 lessons we hope entertainment taught us in 2009. Good list
In Contention Guy's top ten of 2009, US and UK versions
42 inch Television's top ten of 2009. I link it becomes Whip It appears and that's nice to see for a change. Firmly agree that more and more people will catch on to this on cable and DVD.
Art Forum John Waters annual top ten list. I love this bit on Antichrist

If Ingmar Bergman had committed suicide, gone to hell, and come back to earth to direct an exploitation/art film for drive-ins, this is the movie he would have made.

(teehee)

and it's a bit late but I hope you all had a merry christmas... even if you were having a post apocalyptic christmas. Are you glad that that's all over with or are you already gearing up for another long weekend to ring in the New Year?
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Vanity Fair's Hollywood ~ Episode 11 (2005)

Missed previous episodes? See: 1995 , 1996, 1997, 1998 , 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Vanity Fair briefly killed my enthusiasm for the "Hollywood project" when they nixed the traditional cover for 2009. But time heals most wounds and I have reanimated the project's corpse. 2004's cover had 13 already peaking actresses on it. How'd they follow it in 2005? With another batch of goddesses, 60% of whom had already graced their "Hollywood" cover. In the case of the C/Kates, it was now thrice. Was Vanity Fair running out of ideas? Given the idiosyncratic pool the covers regularly pulled from you'd think there were only 40 actresses in Hollywood... but then, it's probably all in who you know who represents you when it comes to face time here. It's definitely not only about the fame. Consider this: this cover series lasted from 1995 - 2008 and Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry, Michelle Williams and Tilda Swinton never appeared on them (just four chronologically appropriate examples off the top of my head).

click to enlarge for maximum beauty

For reasons that only pop culture archives will be able to fully explain to future generations this cover was called "Not So Desperate Housewives". Only two of these actresses were even married at the time (the C/Kates) and only six kids had sprung from their enviable DNA (two kids each for Cate, Kate and Uma).

Uma Thurman, about to turn 35, had appeared on VF's very first Hollywood issue back in 1995. Back then she was celebrating her deserved Oscar nom for Pulp Fiction. I like to think that her get up here, white shirt and black pants (the only one of the ladies eschewing a gown), was a nod to "Mia Wallace" in Pulp Fiction. It would make sense. Director Quentin Tarantino had just finished (momentarily) resuscitating her talent and fame with those thrilling Kill Bills and she was about to risk memories of that film with the John Travolta dance number in Be Cool. She had divorced Ethan Hawke in 2004 and the three films coming out (Prime, Be Cool and The Producers) were a nice range of drama, comedy and musical... on paper. Onscreen it didn't work out so well. More flops followed. Uma turns 40 in 2010, and she's undoubtedly looking for that third career wind. Next up: Motherhood, Percy Jackson and Eloise in Paris.

Cate Blanchett had just been won an Oscar (The Aviator) and was about to turn 36. Aside from the Oscar win, 2005 was quiet. Blanchett never stays quiet. The next four years would be jam packed full of Oscar bait and trips down the red carpet culminating in the two biggest non-Hobbity hits of her career (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). No films in 2009 (shocker!) but she'll be back in 2010 as Maid Marian in Ridley Scott's Robin Hood [see previous posts]

Kate Winslet was 29 years old, still Oscar-less and an old pro at the "Hollywood" covers. Uma & Cate are her superiors when it comes to behaving like models in photoshoots (think about it), but she wasn't letting them pull all the focus with her sleek über sexy look here. Her inarguable triumph in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) was about to prove very difficult to follow. Fascinating time capsule note: 2005 is the year wherein she guest starred on "Extras" as a foul mouthed narcissistic "Kate Winslet", bitching about having to do a Holocaust drama to win an Oscar.



Despite that hilariously written and performed prophecy, her next several films didn't truly catch on (The Holiday, Little Children, Romance & Cigarettes, Revolutionary Road and All the Kings Men). The happy ending punchline arrived earlier this year when she won her Oscar for the holocaust drama The Reader. Up next: Nothing. With Oscar in hand, I'm guessing she lays low for the next couple of years. She was never a ubiquitous celebrity to begin with.

Scarlett Johansson was just 20 and already a back to back Hollywood covergirl. She had skyrocketed in 2003 with the global success of Lost in Translation, the critical success of Girl with a Pearl Earring and her high profile relationship with another Young Hollywood star, Josh Hartnett. And though nothing in 2004 had added much to her mystique she had the lead in a would be summer blockbuster for 2005 (The Island, which flopped). No one at the time saw her Woody Allen's muse status coming, but Match Point (their first collaboration) was about to debut at Cannes and become the legendary director's biggest hit in over a decade. Cut to several Scarlett roles and three calendar years later: she's beloved as a celebrity, newlywed and spokesperson but who loves her as an actress, any more? Can she turn that around with her stint as The Black Widow in Iron Man 2 (see previous post)

<-- Rupert Everett, Claire Danes and Billy Crudup at the premiere of Stage Beauty in October 2004

Claire Danes, turning 26 appears to have been slain by ScarJo. And maybe she was. Hollywood only has room for a handful of young superstar blondes in any given time period, you know. Perhaps she's prone as sacrifice for Cate, Kate and Uma none of whom have ceded much space for up and comers, holding onto big fame with that iron grip combo of talent, beauty and the favor of important filmmakers. Or maybe Mary-Louise Parker had snuck in to lay her down? It had only been a year since the gossip machine had ground and spit Claire Danes and Billy Crudup out for splitting with their partners -- in Billy's case, the several months pregnant Parker.

Which is all along way of saying that her cover girl status was slightly puzzling. Despite Danes' absolutely stellar start in television's My So Called Life and a promising initial silver screen transfer (Little Women and Romeo + Juliet), the movie career never really worked out. Her career had slipped in the late 90s and the Aughts brought nothing but a string of well performed but small supporting roles (The Hours, Igby Goes Down) or lead parts that didn't do much for her (Terminator 3, Stage Beauty). This trend continued after this cover, too: The Family Stone, Stardust, Evening and Shopgirl haven't provided breakthroughs. Up next: Temple Grandin in which she plays an autistic scientist. Should she try headlining a TV series again?

Rosario Dawson about to turn 26, had been on the cover before and had just caused a mini-fuss with her scene stealing nudity and feral performance in Alexander (2004). Vanity Fair's cover indicated a good sized year for her and it was: Sin City and Rent "I wanna go ouu--uuuuuttt, tonight" both premiered.


Zhang Ziyi newly 26, had enjoyed a high international profile since her breakthrough in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, five years earlier. The preceding months had been very good to her with three well received successful imports: 2046 (her best performance if you ask me), Hero and House of Flying Daggers. But she was undoubtedly on this cover because everyone in the world seemed to be anxiously awaiting Memoirs of a Geisha, then only a blockbuster book and not yet a disappointing movie. She was making lists like People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful, she was a frequent object of lust in men's magazines. Once the Memoirs craze ended, things went quiet, though one can still spot her on red carpets or in paparazzi shots with venture capitalist boyfriend Vivi Nevo. Is an international comeback going to happen? She's only 30. Next up: Sophie's Revenge and possibly the romantic drama Waiting which would reunite her with her Daggers co-star, Takeshi Kaneshiro, her only co-star to ever challenge her for "prettiest person in this movie" contests.

Kerry Washington, 28, had just appeared in the Oscar nominated biopic Ray and was still dating actor David Moscow (pictured together right, Jan. 2005) Many people, including yours truly, were pulling for major stardom for Kerry. She's still high profile and highly castable (young, beautiful, talented, speaks multiple languages including very handy ones for the cinema: French and Spanish) and yet the cinema can't seem to figure it out. 2005 brought only bit parts in Mr & Mrs. Smith and Fantastic Four. When will Hollywood ever figure out big careers for the top black actresses? It seems hopelessly beyond Tinseltown's capabilities. Things are still about the same for Kerry. She'll give a great performance (The Last King of Scotland, Dead Girl) and it's like it didn't happen at all in the larger scheme of the star hierarchies. It's so frustrating. Will her new projects turn the tide? Next up: A Thousand Words with Eddie Murphy and a possibly plum possibly Oscar-bait supporting role in Mother and Child starring Annette Bening.

Kate Bosworth, 22, was fresh off the underrated romantic comedy Win a Date With Tad Hamilton! and the flop biopic Beyond the Sea starring Kevin Spacey. She was very high profile in the celebrity-watching sector as Orland Bloom's girlfriend and Hollywood seemed to have faith in her. She was soon given the Lois Lane role in Superman Returns (unfortunate casting, that). Her film career has long since been smaller than her celebrity and she hasn't actually been making many movies. Next up: The Warrior's Way.

Sienna Miller, at 23 was, like Kate Bosworth, far more famous than her filmography would imply. She was Jude Law's new fiancé -- they had just made Alfie (Oct 2004, left)-- and he was at the peak of his celebrity. A few months after this Hollywood cover they broke off the engagement and their on and off again relationship has provided tabloid fodder for years now. She followed Alfie by romancing Heath Ledger in Casanova. She's been working a lot ever since (Factory Girl, Stardust, The Edge of Love, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh) but it looks doubtful that her movie career will ever equal her celebrity. Or not. Maybe she's just the right role away from more legitimate stardom? Next up: playing "The Baroness" in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

PLEASE NOTE: If you'd like to read more about any of these stars, click the names in the labels section below.

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median age: 27. Blanchett was the eldest, Scarlett the baby.
noticeably absent: Who else was topical 'round mid 2004 to mid 2005? Let's see... Monica Bellucci (international profile raised with The Matrix films and The Passion of the Christ), Jennifer Garner (transferring to movies with 13 Going on 30 and Electra), Eva Mendes (had 4 movies coming out including Hitch), Lindsay Lohan (Mean Girls) and maybe Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda)
collective Oscar stats before cover: 7 noms / 1 win (all by the front cover girls. Blanchett won for The Aviator)
collective Oscar stats after cover: 5 nominations / 1 win (3 for Cate, 2 for Kate)
fame levels in 2009, according to famousr, from most to least: Uma Thurman, Scarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett, Kate Bosworth, Claire Danes, Sienna Miller, Rosario Dawson and Kerry Washington. Not listed in famousr for some bizarre reason: Kate Winslet & Zhang Ziyi.
previous episodes: 1995 ,1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.
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Sienna Miller = Reparative Therapy ?

Sienna Miller is just what Evangelical Christians ordered. She can save gay men from their ungodly "urges"! At least onscreen. I kid, I kid but her character is helping to degay Art Bechstein (Jon Foster) in The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. I'm bitching about the trainwreck of this "adaptation" (it's more of a steal the title / gut the source situation) over in my weekly column over @ Towleroad. Normally I am averse to attacking movies I haven't seen and will not see. But this is a special case for me since the filmmaker has so obviously little respect for the original material which is a touchstone novel for a lot of people, including myself.

There's also bits on the other new releases this week but I neglected to mention the heavy metal documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil about a once promising now obscure band. I reviewed it for Zoom-In over a year ago and it's continued to hover around the edges of my psyche since. If you're into documentaries it's worth a look since it's finally hitting theaters. If you've recently seen The Wrestler, it'll make an interesting companion piece. Both films are about exhausted financially strapped men pushing 50 who are still chasing past glories and unfulfilled dreams well past their expiration date.

May Flowers

Linkarazzi

Webster's Is My Bitch "fangasm" with Willow & Wesley (for Buffy fans only)
Defamer racism at Sundance? Why is there no distributor for the excellent documentary Trouble The Water. For those who don't remember I reviewed the film for Zoom-In.
Buzz Sugar has more names for the omnibus film New York, I Love You
The Bad and the Ugly has a SPOILER pic from the same film
Anne Thompson why Iron Man will be huge (but how -- $$$ -- huge?)
Lazy Circles loves James McAvoy as much as Courtney Love does
Oscar and the City original songs in Sex & The City? Oscar nods?
Awards Daily Photos from The Edge of Love, a bio (of sorts) of the poet Dylan Thomas with a yummy romantic quadrangle featuring Keira Knightley, Cillian Murphy and Matthew Rhys. Here's the final piece of that quartet: Sienna Miller...


Readers with elephantine memory will note that when I interviewed "14" of The Gallery of the Absurd she said...

There are some faces I just can't seem to "see". I can't paint Sienna Miller or Hillary Duff because I can't get my head around what they look like.

Yes, that. It's so true. I can never remember her face from one film to the next.
The Egalitarian Bookworm in semi-related news --I'm stretching -- hates the casting of Keira Knightley and other young actresses in literary biopics
MNPP... and we're back to yummy pictures: a couple more from that Emile Hirsch photoshoot we were talking about yesterday

And just because I can't seem to stop today ... here's Jason Patric spanking Cameron Diaz. You know she deserved it! One for each crappy movie she's made.

[more where this came from @ A Socialite's Life]

Ubiquity: The 2008 Edition (Pt 2)

Last year about this time we investigated a group of actors who might dominate 2007, hard working SAG card holders with 3 or more movies arriving. Doing it again for 2008... (if you missed Part One ---which has been updated, click here)

Ubiquitous Actors
Part 2 ~ L-Z

This is part 2... Part 1 was lorded over by Cate Blanchett and the ruling spirit for Part 2 is sneaky Channing Tatum (a TFE favorite) who goes mosty AWOL this year after this month's Iraq drama Stop-Loss. So why is he mentioned? Well, he should have about 7...12...21 movies ready for release next year at the rate he's signing contracts. So, get used to that mug. 2009 belongs to him.

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Frank Langella, will be in three films. The most attention will be paid to his star turn in Frost/Nixon, a role for which he won a TONY already. Langella never quite became a movie star, preferring the stage, but the closest he got was in his Dracula stint in 1978 (a role he also incidentally did first on stage). He got a little bit of Oscar buzz last year for the indie Starting Out in the Evening, but this year he'll have more success with the Academy. What's baitier than playing a famous person? Nothing. Watch for abundant "OMG... FrankLangella IS RichardNixon" style reviews and an Oscar run for the Ron Howard film. Oh, there's more? Yes. He's in the next oddball Richard Kelly effort The Box which is a horror thriller of sorts (pssst. Never trust easy genre categories for Kelly who previously made Donnie Darko and Southland Tales). He's in a corporate corruption drama The Caller, too.

Sienna Miller, Jude Law's on & off girl and inexplicably very famous actress (quick: what's she famous for?) has five films due. There's the title role in the completed Camille where she takes a honeymoon with James Franco but there's no release date in sight yet. She has the principle female role in the bowdlerized adaptation of the great novel The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (I haven't seen it but I'm free to judge since I love the book and the reported changes are... ghastly. I may join the boycott). Sienna is also getting mixed up with Cillian Murphy in not one but two biopic period pieces. The first is The Edge of Love (Keira Knightley co-stars) which takes place in the 30s and 40s and the second is the British 60s counterculture story Hippie Hippie Shake. Finally, if they're quick about the adaptation of Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance, she could end the year with that.

Viggo Mortensen fans are thrilled that he finally got an Oscar nomination last season (for his second Cronenberg film, Eastern Promises). More meaty roles and challenges are coming his way. You may remember that celebrated Ed Harris directed himself and Marcia Gay Harden into the Oscar race for Pollock in 2000. He's finally made a follow up feature, a western named Appaloosa which stars Viggo, Harris himself, Jeremy Irons and Renée Zellweger. He'll play a novelist named "Halder" in Good who gets swept up in the rise of socialism in Germany. It's based on a stage play. Further away but possibly ready in 2008 will be his darkest role yet as "Father" in The Road. I've read the genius novel by Cormac McCarthy and its so bleak that No Country For Old Men's die hard fans will whimper. I have no idea how they'll make it work as a movie but the director of The Proposition (John Hillcoat) is the one who attempts it.


Cillian Murphy was everywhere a few years back but it's been quiet. Why? He was working. He has six films in the pipeline (though I'd be surprised if they all opened in the next 9 months). We've already discussed the two with Sienna Miller (The Edge of Love and Hippie Hippie Shake) but Murphy nuts will be happy to know that they're both biopics so he could end up with his first Oscar nomination. Edge... is about Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (played by Matthew Rhys) and his rival William Killik (Murphy) for the women in his life. Counterculture figure Richard Neville is the focal point of Hippie. The biopic Oscar tactic seems to work best if the Academy is very familiar with who you're pretending to be. So maybe not... Murphy will be reprising his Scarecrow role (in cameo form?) for the Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight and you'll have to catch Watching the Detectives on DVD shortly. There are two more films (Telepathy and Dali & I: The Surreal Story) that are looking more like 2009 prospects. Remember, nothing is ever definitive with release dates.

Guy Pearce might have six (!) releases this year. He was originally reported to have replaced Viggo Mortensen in The Road but they're both still listed as cast members at IMDB and the movie is filming. Perhaps those rumors were erroneous. Even if we don't think he's quite the actor Viggo is, they can both certainly do the emaciated thing that will be crucial to this movie's post-apocalypse believability. (Where's Christian Bale?) Further along in production, i.e. already wrapped, are five films. They go by the names of Traitor (a CIA drama with an outstanding cast that includes Don Cheadle, Saïd Taghmaoui, Jeff Daniels and A Mighty Heart's Archie Panjabi), The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq thriller), How to Change in 9 Weeks (an Australian crime drama with Sam Neill and Miranda Otto), Winged Creatures (a post traumatic stress group therapy drama with an all star cast), and Death Defying Acts (as famous magician Harry Houdini. It played at Toronto last fall).

Dennis Quaid had a bit of a rocky patch in his career but two films in 2002, Far From Heaven and The Rookie, reminded people of his talent and charisma. He's in demand again, or thereabouts. His first 2008 film (in theaters now) is the action thriller Vantage Point. He'll follow that up next month opposite Sarah Jessica Parker in the comedy Smart People. He's got a big role in The Express due in October, the latest entry in the very crowded true life inspirational sports drama genre and he plays a bitter detective in the serial killer thriller The Horsemen which is due in May.

Eddie Redmayne was last seen flopping in his attempt to murder Cate Blanchett. The glow off of her Oscar winning costumes in Elizabeth the Golden Age temporarily blinded him. Seriously. She was bathed in white. The sunlight really reflects! He can currently be seen in the ensemble of The Other Boleyn Girl. He's paired up with Julianne Moore in the shocking true life 1972 murder of Savage Grace. And still two more movies await. Yellow Handkerchief finds him on a road trip through Louisiana with William Hurt and in Powder Blue he's got one of the four central roles in a Los Angeles set 'strangers colliding' drama -- we expect that we'll be seeing a lot of that subgenre in the coming years. Ahem.

Mark Ruffalo has four films ready for you. Nah, let's make that three. I mean, does anyone believe that Kenneth Lonergan's (You Can Count on Me) Margaret is ever going to open? It's two years late. But we'll still get a triple fix of this almost big star (seriously, when will he "break"?). In no particular order we'll get the con-artist film from the director of Brick (Rian Johnson) which is called The Brothers Bloom. There's also Real Men Cry about Boston boys turning to crime (another subgenre that's hot in Hollywood). Finally, he'll play the Doctor in Fernando Meirelles adaptation of the classic novel Blindness which I've discussed a bunch already.

[source]

Amy Ryan was all smiles on Oscar night. It wasn't just because she was a nominee. She's been working a lot, too. And that's even before the after-effects of the Gone Baby Gone breakthrough have hit. The only way is up. She's got one unreleased film from last year's festival circuit called Neal Cassady (which is about the inspiration for Jack Kerouac's "On the Road"). We'll also see her in The Missing Person (her third film with Bug's Michael Shannon) and the comedy Bob Funk. The big dog in her 2008 roster is undoubtedly the Angelina Jolie drama Changeling. No word on who she is playing but she's in it. And since it's a Clint Eastwood picture, that alone is a big deal.

Terence Stamp, now in his 5th decade of screen stardom, is busier than ever. He's playing Siegfried in the Farrel/Hathaway adaptation of TV's Get Smart. His inimitable silver haired presence will assist Angelina Jolie and Tom Cruise in Wanted and Valkyrie, respectively. At Christmas time he'll be part of the Jim Carrey comedy Yes Man. If I had to guess I would say that 2009 will be full of him, too.

Mark Strong was the most evil of the plentiful evil princes in Stardust and he's working the dangerous man angle in the period comedy Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day too. It opens tomorrow. You'll also see him in five other films this year. Busy, busy, busy. The films: Good (that German nationalist drama with Viggo Mortensen), Babylon A.D. (Vin Diesel's summer action pic) RocknRolla (another Guy Ritchie crime film), Flashbacks of a Fool (a Hollywood memoir piece with Daniel Craig), and The Young Victoria (he plays "Conroy" to Emily Blunt's queen). If you've read all this and you're still scratching you're head saying "who the hell is Mark Strong?", here's an earlier post that explains.

Olivia Thirlby was the least famous of Juno's celebrated ensemble (she played Juno's BFF Leah) but she's aiming to correct that fame disparity this year. The beautiful New Yorker has a couple leftover films from last year that haven't opened in the States yet called Si j'étais toi and Love Comes Lately. First to find release this year will be Snow Angels, the David Gordon Green film. It opens tomorrow. You'll also see her in Margaret (if it ever gets released) as well as the comedy The Wackness. Finally there's two dramas coming from exciting directors. The first Uncertainty comes from the pair behind the Tilda Swinton film The Deep End, remember that? Her co-star is Joseph Gordon-Levitt. And last but probably not least she'll be Jonathan Glatzer's (Birth, Sexy Beast) Safety Glass which is set in the 80s and centers around a group of students and the Challenger Space Shuttle launch.

Tilda Swinton follows her Oscar win for Michael Clayton by logging more time in Hollywoodland. She's reprising her White Witch role for summer's The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. She's costarring with fellow 2007 Oscar nominees George Clooney (again) in the Coen Bros Burn After Reading which is opening wide in September and Cate Blanchett in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which opens in November.

For die hard Swintonians who may soon start to resent the post-Oscar silliness of "discovery" when she's already been famous for culturally savvy types for close to 20 years, there's arthouse fare too. The festival circuit has already seen her in Bela Tarr's The Man From London. She's the title character Julia who is extorting a bunch of money with a young boy as bait. Bad Tilda! The chief non-Tilda reason to be excited about that one is that Erick Zonca (The Dreamlife of Angels) is the director. She's got three other more art films lined up, too but don't expect these until 2009: a Lady Macbeth (!) turn in Come Like Shadows , teamed up with Marilyn Manson in the Alice in Wonderland derived Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll and a supporting turn in the new Jim Jarmusch picture The Limits of Control (with Bill Murray). The 47 year old (but ageless) icon is not going away anytime soon.

Charlize Theron is a smart woman. Once known mostly for her astonishing beauty she worked ferocious deglam magic in Monster to win very own Oscar @ 28. So here she is in her early 30s, already firmly established as a seriously talented actress --perfect timing. I expect she'll be in demand until at least until 2020. The first of her three '08 pictures is Sleepwalking in which a young girl most cope with her mother's abandonment. She'll co-star in the Will Smith superpowered vehicle Hancock... And if they're quick about it, she'll play "wife" in the apocalyptic drama The Road. It's not a big role but it's bound to be a devastating one. 2009 looks even better but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

South African supertstar Theron and Dutch sensation van Houten

Carice Van Houten found her international breakthrough last year with Paul Verhoeven's Black Book and offers apparently starting pouring in. I have no idea if her Dutch romantic comedy Love is All will find release but why not? People are curious about her. Strike while the iron is hot, distributors. But even if that's just something to track down on DVD eventually, Carice speaks four languages so she's totally mobile for the good roles. She's playing a German in the Bryan Singer WW II picture Valkyrie opposite Tom Cruise. She's got the lead role of the psychiatrist dealing with a troubled girl in the English language thriller Dorothy Mills and in October she'll be supporting two mega stars (Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe) in Ridley Scott's CIA drama Body of Lies.

Sigourney Weaver. Sigweavy for short... only she's very tall. Will this post ever end? I miss her and hopefully her gut busting turn in The TV Set reminded Hollywood was a unique and valuable assett she is too films. Films already in theaters include Be Kind Rewind and Vantage Point. Still to come: the drama The Girl in the Park (delayed from last year) and the Tina Fey surrogate mom comedy Baby Mama.

Rachel Weisz has been flirting with the supporting actress Oscar curse since winning for The Constant Gardener doing films like Fred Claus and as the voice of the dragon in the silly Eragon. But 2008 looks pretty good, 2009 even better. But why am I always jumping ahead? This year we'll see in the promising sounding The Brothers Bloom, the long delayed Wong Kar Wai road trip movie My Blueberry Nights and she's already in theaters as one of the women opposite Ryan Reynolds in Definitely, Maybe

David Wenham. If you're saying "who" just think "Faramir" in Lord of the Rings or one of those oiled and ab'ed warriors in 300. The talented and handsome Australian will be seen in the Baz Luhrman Nicole Kidman epic Australia... (see previous posts). He's part of the strong cast of the the China set orphanage / war drama called The Children of Huang Shi (which co-stars Jonathan Rhys Meyes and both Michelle Yeoh & Chow Yun Fat of Crouching Tiger fame). Last but not least, he's delicious in a relatively small role in Married Life (opposite Patty Clarkson) which is about to open.

Michelle Williams was last seen as a socialite having a complicated affair with Cate Blanchett's Bob Dylan in I'm Not There. The former Brokeback Mountain Oscar nominee's face will adorn screens throughout the year. She's one of a bevy of beautiful women involved with Hugh Jackman and Ewan MacGregor in the sex club thriller The List. And proving once again that she's got a taste for dark and serious filmmaking, she'll be seen in Incendiary (about a suicide bombing), Lukas Moodyson's new film Mammoth with Gael Garcia Bernal and something a little lighter but still intelligent: Charlie Kauffman's ensemble film Synecdoche, New York (previously discussed here... my god what a cast)

Patrick Wilson, Kate Winslet seducer par excellence (Little Children), is still working for A list leading man status. Why is it so elusive? Neither Brothers Three: An American Gothic or the Ed Burns romantic drama Purple Violets found suitable release last year but you can maybe pick them up on DVD soon. Violets is on iTunes. Later this year, this looker will be part of the ensemble of the grief counselling drama Passengers (with Dianne Wiest and Anne Hathaway), he's a troubled architect in Life in Flight and he's the husband in the potentially buzzy Neil LaBute picture Lakeview Terrace which is about an interracial couple (Wilson & the ever-wondrous and gobsmackingly gorgeous Kerry Washington, a TFE favorite) who are being harassed by a cop (Samuel L Jackson). But what I want to know is why on earth isn't Mr. Wilson being cast in any of these new movie musicals? They're making them again and that's how he got famous in the first place. It's a head scratcher. The voice is as beautiful as the face.

and we're done. WHEW.
[Back to Part 1 if you missed it]

more at twiigs.com...

now playing 07/13

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L I M I T E D

Hula Girls This was Japan's Oscar entry last year
Interview Sienna Miller (left) and Steve Buscemi play talking heads in this indie. I don't know how to phrase this heavily qualified question but re Sienna: Isn't she now the most famous actress in the world to have worked consistently whilst never deriving any portion of her fame from her actual film work? I'm genuinely curious. I don't think she's a bad actress but the fame level is really high considering...
My Best Friend Daniel Auteuil in a French comedy about a businessman who discovers he has no friends. I like Auteuil but my Francophilia is heavily drama based. Comedy is another story though I should note that the first French movie I ever saw was Les Comperes in 1984 with Gerard Depardieu and I thought it was rilllly funny (at the time)

Talk to Me Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) takes on another true story, this time it's lighter: the story of "Petey" Greene Jr, a DJ and social activist in DC. Is it wrong that when I see him going for laughs in period garb all I can think about is his sad but comic character beats in Boogie Nights --god, he's so good in that one.
Time (right) Kim Ki-Duk's (3-Iron, spring summer fall winter and spring) intriguing looking tale of a desperate woman, plastic surgery, and the evolution of romantic relationships

W I D E

Captivity [no link on purpose] I'm so sick of hearing about this movie. I don't wanna say another word except this. I laughed at this line on Reel Fanatic "I had originally intended to list the 100 or so things I'd rather do with Elisha Cuthbert than torture and abuse her..." hee

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix I get confused by the public hysteria over this series. I understand why people love it having read two of the books... but I don't understand the L-O-V-E. I found the first book super fun and the second exactly like the first so why continue? --this conversation is brought to you by 2001 it's 2007 I'll shut up now --here's my point/question: the accompanying fervor for Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) and Emma Watson (Hermione) offscreen...? Huh!? They haven't made other movies. They're completely unterrible in the roles but neither are they exactly [ahem] Oscar worthy --it's easy to imagine dozens of other young actors being just as good or better. So... yeah... no. don't get it. I can only assume it's like television fame: you're super famous but only in connection with your character and as soon as you're off the air the fame evaporates into "he was in that television show!" which is a vaguely eternal but unhysteric fame and far more comprehensible to the non fan.

I'm probably only talking about this because I'm still just freaked out by how awful Daniel looks in that new Details photo shoot. He's suddenly like an ugly mutated version of Elijah Wood at his freakiest looking. When did that happen? Who approved that shot?