Red Carpet: Radioactive Lohan & Gangster Depp

It's that time again, Red Carpet Lineup. Here's a (truly) random sampling of actors at events this past week. Let's check in with...

Ever classy Lindsay Lohan who celebrated her 23rd birthday (it's actually tomorrow) at a Vegas pool wearing that, flashing a peace sign, and sporting bright blue contacts. Unless she's been spending too much time on Nevada's nuclear testing grounds, those are contacts. I should never ever look at Lohan as she's become the avatar of Lost Potential. She found the empty calories of fame more enticing than the rich nutrients of good actressing.


Public Enemies opens today and it should be an interesting test of Johnny Depp's box office pull. The public is generally averse to period dramas but they do like gangster crime films so it's a bit of a toss up, really. It's already on IMDb's Top 250 but that's typical for masculine "cool" movies when they first open. It's early still and the mixed reviews so far are fascinatingly contradictory. You know that old saw "you must have seen a different movie than I did" Who to believe?

Patricia Clarkson is all smiles and why not? Knowing that you're the best thing in your movies must be heartwarming. That's definitely true of Whatever Works. The only thing that makes bad Woody Allen scripts bearable is his ability to get fine actors to vividly color his caricatures. In Whatever Works Patty is forced at penpoint to delineate the conversion from empty-headed bible thumping Southerner to bohemian polyamorous New Yorker. The movie has little flashes of against-all-odds charm but it's mostly annoying in its broad and stale misanthropy. Yes, I'm a Woody apologist to some degree but I'm not going to apologize for this one.

<-- Josh Duhamel's got something in his eye. Dreams of movie stardom outside of Transformers, perhaps?

Kristen Bell sent geek hearts fluttering when she attended the Saturn Awards. She lost but she's a previous winner (this nomination was for her bad girl on Heroes -- people still watch that?!? -- but the previous three and one win were for good girl Veronica Mars). After years of television it looks like Forgetting Sarah Marshall prompted a committed big screen leap. She's got five movies on the way. First up: Romantic comedy When in Rome with Josh Duhamel, Danny DeVito, Anjelica Huston, Will Arnett and my friend Luca Calvani whom I've already congratulated for the gig. Go Luca! It's about time Hollywood bit.

I've placed Mike Doyle in the lineup to keep you and myself guessing about who might be included each week. He's here only because he was a) at the opening of Twelfth Night and b) he's got a role opposite Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole. The play it's based on had only five roles and his character "Craig", unless they've changed the names, was not one of them so there's been some expansion for the screen. I hope he dies in the movie! He's previously worked Off Broadway and played "Leprechaun" in the Hilary Swank vehicle P.S. I Love You (I don't want to know) but he's best known from regular work on both Oz and Law & Order: SVU.

Hey, it's Rosie Perez. "Fight the Power!" She's been on my mind because of the Do The Right Thing anniversary. I miss her absolutely rambunctious screen presence. Good to see her, however briefly, in Pineapple Express. Get it Rosie!

Whatever Works at ShoWest

Here's another report from Film Experience regular Rosengje from sunny Vegas where ShoWest is closing. She has just seen Woody Allen's latest Whatever Works (previously discussed here)! I am green with envy. Let's jump right in to her slightly spoilerish thoughts.

In many ways, Whatever Works is an amalgam of all of the neuroses and preoccupations that have defined Woody Allen's previous films. Larry David plays Boris, a misanthrope who fled his "rational" marriage to live downtown in isolation, teaching chess to children through methods that involve repeated name-calling and knight-throwing. Boris's life is thrown into turmoil by the arrival of Melodie (Evan Rachel Wood), a runaway from Mississippi. Melodie is eventually followed by her mother (Patricia Clarkson) and father (Ed Begley, Jr.).

Patricia Clarkson storms into the movie after approximately 40 minutes, and plays a role in many ways comparable to Penélope Cruz's tempestuous Oscar-winning Maria Elena. While I was initially skeptical of Allen's treatment of Wood as a young Lolita, Clarkson actually plays the much more sexualized character. After showing up on Boris's doorstep in a hot pink ensemble (scrunchy included!) fit for the Southern pageant circuit, she is quickly awakened to the culture of New York. Naturally, this involves sex and art. In an interesting inversion of the much discussed relationship between ScarJo, Javier Bardem, and Penélope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Clarkson moves in with two men without giving it a second thought. Her character transitions from praising Jesus to opening an exhibit of nude collages. Clarkson is dynamic and sexy and once again demonstrates her unbeatable range. I don't think it is any stretch to consider her worthy of this year's Oscar race.

Patty sandwich! Apparently Woody is really into threesomes now.

The rest of the cast is also effective, pulling the humor out of frequently dark material. David's character first seems like the typical Allen prototype, but there is a bitterness to him that reminded me more of Max von Sydow in Hannah and Her Sisters. Evan Rachel Wood is very likable, but the vitality of her performance is trounced by the arrival of the inimitable Clarkson. Begley Jr. gives a hilarious turn, and Henry Cavill is both endearing and smarmy as a late love interest for Melodie.

The biggest stylistic change Allen makes in this film is having Boris directly address the audience. The film opens with a lengthy treatise on the character's views on death and the cretins that populate the world. We end with a similar address, but this time it is tinged with a kind of optimism unique to Woody Allen. The character's refrain of "whatever works" takes on a slightly sweet quality. I suspect audiences and critics will debate the sincerity of its happy ending. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and believe it provides the same level of insight into the director's fears and desires that many pegged on Deconstructing Harry.

I'm encouraged to hear rosengje's positivity regarding Patty Clarkson (she who really needs an Oscar) but maybe she'll have to get there from Shutter Island instead? Would they really reward a similar role to last year's winner to get back-to-back Woody Allen Best Supporting Actress citations?

Film Experience podcast guest Katey also liked what she saw, speaking highly of Evan Rachel Wood's performance, too. I am so eager to see this. I have to have my annual Woody.
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We Can't Wait #18 Whatever Works

Directed by Woody Allen
Starring Evan Rachel Wood, Larry David, Patty Clarkson and Kristen Johnston
Synopsis Aging New York City man begins romance with a much younger (what a surprise!) southern gal and has wacky encounters with her family.
Brought to you by Sony Pictures Classics
Expected Release Date Summer

Fox: I have a Woody Allen blind spot. Meaning, the man could put out crap for the rest of his life, and I would still hold out hope that the next time around would produce one of his good ones. I'm also not one to jump all over Allen's post-80s output. Not at all. I quite like many of the films he made in the last twenty years. However, personally, I can do without any more European Scarlett Johannson jaunts.

I have high expectations for Whatever Works because it has a unique comic supporting cast in Ed Begley Jr. and Kristen Johnston. And... oh yeah... he's FINALLY WORKING WITH LARRY DAVID! It might be great, but it could just as well go all wrong. Woody Allen doing southern caricature humor? Oy. Yeah, it could go very wrong.

Nathaniel: I share your blind spot. (Speaking of blind -- why wasn't that gag funnier in Hollywood Ending? It had such potential) But I don't share the enthusiasm for Larry David. I just hope he's not the Woody proxy. I don't think that ever quite works unless it's minus the proxy part. I prefer the pictures without an obvious Woody Allen role -- like Vicky Cristina Barcelona or Match Point. I wanted to kill Kenneth Branagh when he was trying to "do" Woody in Celebrity.

And I'm glad ScarJo was tossed aside for this one though I wonder how Evan Rachel Wood will fare in Woody's universe -- it's so different than the one she usually inhabits onscreen... or the one we all live in come to think of it.

poll by twiigs.com

JA: This one didn't make my short-list because my blind-spot for Woody's films shuts out the films entirely until they suddenly appear at the local indie multiplex and somebody suggests we see that new Woody picture and I say 'what new Woody picture?'... you get the gist. I had heard he was working with Larry David, but this "wacky southern" angle is new to me and... it has me terrified. Mainly because my boyfriend is southern and the slightest hint of tired southern stereotyping causes him to go apoplectic and I just don't need to deal with that (again). Borat made him spit nails.

What worries me here with regards to that is Woody's not above relying on tired stereotypes even recently - the only reason the Latin Lover and Fiery Latina stereotypes Woody made Bardem and Cruz play in VCB worked was that those actors made something out of them that in my opinion wasn't really on the page. So let's hope his actors are up to the challenge this go around then. I don't need to dodge spit nails anymore!

Joe: If we all share the same Woody Allen blind spot (as I do as well), how the hell did this movie make our list? Not that I'm not looking forward to it, but that was before I learned that Larry David, and not the delectable Henry Cavil, would be playing the lead. Because, silly me, why WOULDN'T Larry David be the perfect romantic counterpart for Evan Rachel Wood? (Although at the rate she's going lately...) Every time I think Woody's going to allow me to forget his creepy and gross relationship with women, he has to go and pull one of these. Anyway, Larry David teaming up with Woody Allen seems like a clash of similar styles -- kind of like if Woody had cast Mel Brooks in his movies twenty years or so ago. How much "Jewy Old Curmudgeon" humor can the South be expected to handle?

On the other hand: Patty Clarkson. Oh, okay. I'm in.

Fox: Speaking of Woody's "gross relationship with women", he may be pushing the "little girl" thing a bit too much by giving Evan Rachel pig tails and color clashing outfits. I mean, in that first still she looks like she's twelve! Maybe he saw her in thirteen and got inspired.


JA, I share in your boyfriend's nail spitting fits. I mean, I'm from "Texas", not the South (we think we're special!), but Southern characters in films is something I think filmmakers continually get wrong. (Though, a shout out to Jeff Nichols for getting it right in Shotgun Stories). I hope Woody doesn't add on to that long line of failures.

And, Nathaniel, at least Hollywood Ending had that shot of Woody falling from the rafters. That had me howling and made putting up with the movie's other weaknesses worth it.

Whitney: Maybe it made our list because I put it up there pretty high. I've got a little bit of a thing for old Jewish men and Larry David is my favorite. I might be the only one in the world that thinks he's so sexy. Yep. Sexy.

Joe: Well, you and Evan Rachel Wood, hopefully.

In case you missed any entries they went like so...
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We Can't Wait:
#1 Inglourious Basterds, #2 Where the Wild Things Are, #3 Fantastic Mr. Fox,
#4 Avatar, #5 Bright Star, #6 Shutter Island, #7 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
#8 Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, #9 Nailed, #10 Taking Woodstock,
#11 Watchmen, #12 The Hurt Locker, #13 The Road, #14 The Tree of Life
#15 Away We Go, #16 500 Days of Summer, #17 Drag Me To Hell,
#18 Whatever Works, #19 Broken Embraces, #20 Nine (the musical)
intro (orphans -didn't make group list)
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