With deeper immersion comes less accessibility I suppose.
 |
| If she's growling and decomposing, shoot her! |
[Lots on GLEE & more WALKING DEAD after the jump]
Showing posts with label zombies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zombies. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
TV @ The Movies: "Glee" and "The Walking Dead"
What is the ideal format for talking about tv? I'm beginning to think it's Twitter since even in the days of next day recaps and the 'watch it on your own time' DVR reality, people often watch it in great masses, round about the same time -- only staggered with everyone in their own slightly skewed time zones. I'm on NESST (Nathaniel's Eastern Stop & Start Time). TV has never been the all immersive experience that the movies can be... so it makes sense that people are now tweeting as they're watching. TV is jerry-rigged to withstand distractions: housework, phone calls, commercials. Twitter and Facebook only amplify this and now everyone has become their own tv critic, ringleader, announcer, omniscient narrator, diarist. I always wish that the movies were this accessible to people to enjoy en masse but... sigh.
With deeper immersion comes less accessibility I suppose.
Anyway, Sunday night I opted not to tweet through AMC's much ballyhooed THE WALKING DEAD. I was curious before the series even began how they would work around television restrictions, only to realize that there are no restrictions. You can apparently show anything on non-premium cable during prime-time hours including little girls and grown men getting their brains blown out (in slo-mo!) and men getting their heads smashed to bits with baseball bats as long as nobody says the naughty "F" word or shows the naughty boobies, butts or dangly man-bits.
With deeper immersion comes less accessibility I suppose.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Halloween Top Ten: I ♥ Zombies; or, Up with Dead People
Craig here. It's Halloween and the new horror tv series The Walking Dead is nearly upon us. This is what I've been thinking about day-to-day for the last few weeks. So here's a Tuesday Top Ten Special (i.e. it's on the weekend instead... and it's Halloween themed) to get you thinking about all things zombified. Perfect for a day made for the dead. Alive or recently embalmed, all enter here. But shuffle in s-l-o-w-l-y now...
A Top Ten Undernourished and Underloved Zombie Characters (in no order) are all getting some love this Halloween. Who's first out of the grave...?
Poor old Colin. He should rank alongside Day of the Dead’s Bub as one of the most sympathetic cinematic zombies ever. Apparently it only cost director Marc Price £45 to bring Colin to the screen; not a penny was wasted on achieving pleasingly affecting acting from the man himself, Alastair Kirton. If, like me, you wonder just what went on in the pre-zombified lives of the unnamed undead – folk like, say, Second Zombie on the Left or Gunshot-Wound to the Head Zombie or Uncle Zombie Who Can Recall His Past Lives, those who dwell at the foot of the end credits – then watching Colin may come as a refreshing treat. It's about one of those very bit players. And very bit he was. The film takes a superfluous character and gives him a movie of his own to walk amok. Although Colin's the shy and retiring type, just looking to escape mad, apocalyptic London and reconnect with his girlfriend. He's a zombie with heart. The heart may have been in his hands, but he had love to give all the same. The guy deserved a break: even he ran from the undead hordes. So, Colin, mate, here’s to you: First Zombie on This List.
With a name like that I'll bet you had an insurmountable array of problems in your life as you did in your afterlife, eh, Dr. Freudstein (Giovanni De Nava)? Kept in the basement by the cemetery by director by the cemetery Lucio Fulci for the entirety of The House by the Cemetery, you didn't half moan about your lot. But then, you did look like a brown paper bag glued to an over-sized peanut. But piss and moan you did. Not before getting your hand lopped off and being outfoxed on a ladder by a girlish-sounding 10-year-old misery moppet by the name of... Bob. Still, you had Mrs. Freudstein to keep you company all those decades spent beyond one of Fulci's Seven Gates of Hell. (Why not click here for more Fulci-on-Zombie action.)
What is it with directors keeping their zombie charges trapped in basements. Subterranean dude Tarman (Allan Trautman), birthed from, yup, some kind of dubiously nuclear tar-like goo, dwells "below" just like Dr. Freudstein. Well, at least it's below a medical supply warehouse right next to a handy morgue-slash-cemetery. This brain botherer spends the film awaiting the split skulls of a band of '80s hooligan punks to sink his rotten teeth into. Looking more like some kind of lavatory skeleton, Tarman's a bona fide zombie in name, rank and number – all of which were printed on the septic tank he arrived in. Lovely.
Gay zombies, musical zombies, and celebrity zombies after the jump...
A Top Ten Undernourished and Underloved Zombie Characters (in no order) are all getting some love this Halloween. Who's first out of the grave...?
1. Colin in Colin (2008)
Colin: the most exotically-named zombie character ever
Poor old Colin. He should rank alongside Day of the Dead’s Bub as one of the most sympathetic cinematic zombies ever. Apparently it only cost director Marc Price £45 to bring Colin to the screen; not a penny was wasted on achieving pleasingly affecting acting from the man himself, Alastair Kirton. If, like me, you wonder just what went on in the pre-zombified lives of the unnamed undead – folk like, say, Second Zombie on the Left or Gunshot-Wound to the Head Zombie or Uncle Zombie Who Can Recall His Past Lives, those who dwell at the foot of the end credits – then watching Colin may come as a refreshing treat. It's about one of those very bit players. And very bit he was. The film takes a superfluous character and gives him a movie of his own to walk amok. Although Colin's the shy and retiring type, just looking to escape mad, apocalyptic London and reconnect with his girlfriend. He's a zombie with heart. The heart may have been in his hands, but he had love to give all the same. The guy deserved a break: even he ran from the undead hordes. So, Colin, mate, here’s to you: First Zombie on This List.
2. Dr Freudstein in The House by the Cemetery (1981)
Dr Freudstein waving for the camera. Bless him.
With a name like that I'll bet you had an insurmountable array of problems in your life as you did in your afterlife, eh, Dr. Freudstein (Giovanni De Nava)? Kept in the basement by the cemetery by director by the cemetery Lucio Fulci for the entirety of The House by the Cemetery, you didn't half moan about your lot. But then, you did look like a brown paper bag glued to an over-sized peanut. But piss and moan you did. Not before getting your hand lopped off and being outfoxed on a ladder by a girlish-sounding 10-year-old misery moppet by the name of... Bob. Still, you had Mrs. Freudstein to keep you company all those decades spent beyond one of Fulci's Seven Gates of Hell. (Why not click here for more Fulci-on-Zombie action.)
3. Tarman in The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Gay zombies, musical zombies, and celebrity zombies after the jump...
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Super Mario Beats It: The Lessons of NYCC 2010
.
JA from MNPP here. New York's Comic Con went down this previous weekend in the massive Javits Center here on the island of Manhattan, and if you were there amongst the stacks of dusty Fantastic Four comics and shiny samurai sword replicas and Jason Voorhees masks you might've seen me wandering around in a glassy-eyed stupor. Every Comic Con I've been to breeds the same overstimulated dullness - within a couple of hours my pupils dilate and seeing things like a ten-foot tall Orc tickling Wonder Woman just starts to seem normal. This happens every day! Still, a couple of things stood out this year and I shall now document them.
01 Girls really like the Silk Spectre costume - Or maybe it's that they know the boys like seeing them in the Silk Spectre costume - either way, I saw about twenty different ladies wearing the slutty bumblebee ensemble from Zach Snyder's adaptation of Alan Moore's seminal comic book. The film hadn't come out yet when the last Comic Con happened here in NYC - in 2009 NYCC happened in February, while they moved it into October for 2010 (a permanent move), and Watchmen came out in March 0f 2009 - so I don't remember seeing the costume last year, but it was literally - literally! - everywhere you turned this time around. Does this make Malin "Baby Girl" Akerman a geek icon?
02 Danny McBride's a trooper - The panel for David Gordon Green's Your Highness was at the geek-freaking hour of 10:30am on Saturday. Keep in mind you've got at least an hour's wait to even get into the building at that hour, plus with the commute there... needless to say it took me some effort to drag my bum there, but I did. Then I heard through the press-vine that McBride & Co. had been partying hard until the wee hours of morning before the panel and I felt a little less super for my own efforts, since I'd been in bed by 11:30. James Franco seemed dazed, but Danny McBride was firing on all cylinders. Funny man.
And the footage they showed from the film, while definitely geared to the Comic Con audience - Natalie Portman's thong! Puppets smoking from a bong! (hey that rhymes) - was every ounce the bizarre mish-mash I could've hoped the film would be. It looks terrific. I don't entirely understand David Gordon Green's directing career, but it's been a pleasure watching it play out so far.
03 Geeks will stand in a very long line to watch a commercial - This is nothing new to Cons, I've seen it at every one I've gone to, but it always baffles me. The fine folks behind the upcoming release of the Alien Anthology, as they call it, had a booth where they'd close you up in a sleeping pod and right up in your face was a TV screen and it'd show a bunch of clips from the four Alien movies with some sound effects echoing in your ears. The end. And yet the line never stretched less than fifty people long! I suppose the T-shirt they gave you that cleverly stated "Want A Hug?" had something to do with it, but still. (I totally did it anyway, and I cherish my T-shirt.)
04 The family that geeks together, is adorable together - I wish my parents had dressed me up like a Jedi or Baby Yoda and taken me to these sorts of things. So I could immediately fall asleep. Damn you, parents!
05 In The Thing, There Be Tentacles - While I'm still unsure about a prequel to John Carpenter's brilliant 1982 film, itself a remake, the trailer for Matthijs van Heijningen Jr's film - which has made its way online in an exceptionally shaky, hand-held version - had a couple of quick glances of their take on the plant-animal alien monster things and they did excite this nerd's senses. Although only glimpsed, they look right, which in this era of lousy CG was a concern. Now let's just hope they can nail the right paranoiac tone needed too.
06 Katee Sackhoff and Tricia Helfer are pros at this - I can only imagine how many of these events these ladies have entertained at this point, but the dynamic Battlestar Galactica duo had the audience eating out of their palms. They have a terrific rapport - they are apparently great friends in real life - and joked that they're waiting for the reboot of Cagney & Lacey to come along to showcase it. I would watch that.
07 But Michelle Forbes is scary - I don't care that she told us she's nothing like Admiral Cain in Battlestar of the maenad MaryAnn on True Blood or [insert the name of every character she's ever played] and that she's really a hippie-type in real life - there's a reason she's successful for playing harsh ladies, and she made me nervous. I had to keep checking to make sure everybody's eyes weren't going all black, because with all due respect the audience at a Battlestar Galactica panel at Comic Con is not the audience I want to be having an orgy with.
08 M Night Shyamalan, amiable dude - I defended M Night for a very long time, well past when most people had bailed ship - I liked The Village, and I liked parts of Lady in the Water - but the one-two punch of that book about him and The Happening (shudder) kind of killed any arguments I could make anymore. So I only sat through half of his panel by happenstance, in order to get a good seat for the panel following him (on AMC's The Walking Dead, which looks epic by the way). But he came off really well! It was for the 10th Anniversary of Unbreakable, a terribly underrated film, and you could tell he really loves the film and that its negative reception put him into a bit of a tailspin. He came alive showcasing the storyboards for the train scene at the start of the film - you can say a lot of things about him, but I don't think you can argue about the meticulous craft on display. And he was fascinating to watch in discussion of that.
09 According to Frank Darabont, Zombies are the new Vampires - Which seems like an odd argument to make, right? The last decade has seen every iteration of zombies you could ever imagine - it's not like they need to make a comeback to be the hip thing. I get that he was selling his Zombie TV Show, and it does look terrific. But isn't it really Frankenstein Monster's time to shine again? I want sexy Frankenstein, dang it. (Yes, SNL got there already.)
10 You haven't lived until you've seen Super Mario dancing to Michael Jackson's "Beat It" - This one is self-explanatory, and true. You might not know it's true. But then you see it happen, and you understand its truth. The fundamental sort.
.
10 Random Things I Learned at NYCC This Year
01 Girls really like the Silk Spectre costume - Or maybe it's that they know the boys like seeing them in the Silk Spectre costume - either way, I saw about twenty different ladies wearing the slutty bumblebee ensemble from Zach Snyder's adaptation of Alan Moore's seminal comic book. The film hadn't come out yet when the last Comic Con happened here in NYC - in 2009 NYCC happened in February, while they moved it into October for 2010 (a permanent move), and Watchmen came out in March 0f 2009 - so I don't remember seeing the costume last year, but it was literally - literally! - everywhere you turned this time around. Does this make Malin "Baby Girl" Akerman a geek icon?02 Danny McBride's a trooper - The panel for David Gordon Green's Your Highness was at the geek-freaking hour of 10:30am on Saturday. Keep in mind you've got at least an hour's wait to even get into the building at that hour, plus with the commute there... needless to say it took me some effort to drag my bum there, but I did. Then I heard through the press-vine that McBride & Co. had been partying hard until the wee hours of morning before the panel and I felt a little less super for my own efforts, since I'd been in bed by 11:30. James Franco seemed dazed, but Danny McBride was firing on all cylinders. Funny man.
And the footage they showed from the film, while definitely geared to the Comic Con audience - Natalie Portman's thong! Puppets smoking from a bong! (hey that rhymes) - was every ounce the bizarre mish-mash I could've hoped the film would be. It looks terrific. I don't entirely understand David Gordon Green's directing career, but it's been a pleasure watching it play out so far.
03 Geeks will stand in a very long line to watch a commercial - This is nothing new to Cons, I've seen it at every one I've gone to, but it always baffles me. The fine folks behind the upcoming release of the Alien Anthology, as they call it, had a booth where they'd close you up in a sleeping pod and right up in your face was a TV screen and it'd show a bunch of clips from the four Alien movies with some sound effects echoing in your ears. The end. And yet the line never stretched less than fifty people long! I suppose the T-shirt they gave you that cleverly stated "Want A Hug?" had something to do with it, but still. (I totally did it anyway, and I cherish my T-shirt.)
04 The family that geeks together, is adorable together - I wish my parents had dressed me up like a Jedi or Baby Yoda and taken me to these sorts of things. So I could immediately fall asleep. Damn you, parents!05 In The Thing, There Be Tentacles - While I'm still unsure about a prequel to John Carpenter's brilliant 1982 film, itself a remake, the trailer for Matthijs van Heijningen Jr's film - which has made its way online in an exceptionally shaky, hand-held version - had a couple of quick glances of their take on the plant-animal alien monster things and they did excite this nerd's senses. Although only glimpsed, they look right, which in this era of lousy CG was a concern. Now let's just hope they can nail the right paranoiac tone needed too.
06 Katee Sackhoff and Tricia Helfer are pros at this - I can only imagine how many of these events these ladies have entertained at this point, but the dynamic Battlestar Galactica duo had the audience eating out of their palms. They have a terrific rapport - they are apparently great friends in real life - and joked that they're waiting for the reboot of Cagney & Lacey to come along to showcase it. I would watch that.
07 But Michelle Forbes is scary - I don't care that she told us she's nothing like Admiral Cain in Battlestar of the maenad MaryAnn on True Blood or [insert the name of every character she's ever played] and that she's really a hippie-type in real life - there's a reason she's successful for playing harsh ladies, and she made me nervous. I had to keep checking to make sure everybody's eyes weren't going all black, because with all due respect the audience at a Battlestar Galactica panel at Comic Con is not the audience I want to be having an orgy with.
08 M Night Shyamalan, amiable dude - I defended M Night for a very long time, well past when most people had bailed ship - I liked The Village, and I liked parts of Lady in the Water - but the one-two punch of that book about him and The Happening (shudder) kind of killed any arguments I could make anymore. So I only sat through half of his panel by happenstance, in order to get a good seat for the panel following him (on AMC's The Walking Dead, which looks epic by the way). But he came off really well! It was for the 10th Anniversary of Unbreakable, a terribly underrated film, and you could tell he really loves the film and that its negative reception put him into a bit of a tailspin. He came alive showcasing the storyboards for the train scene at the start of the film - you can say a lot of things about him, but I don't think you can argue about the meticulous craft on display. And he was fascinating to watch in discussion of that.09 According to Frank Darabont, Zombies are the new Vampires - Which seems like an odd argument to make, right? The last decade has seen every iteration of zombies you could ever imagine - it's not like they need to make a comeback to be the hip thing. I get that he was selling his Zombie TV Show, and it does look terrific. But isn't it really Frankenstein Monster's time to shine again? I want sexy Frankenstein, dang it. (Yes, SNL got there already.)
10 You haven't lived until you've seen Super Mario dancing to Michael Jackson's "Beat It" - This one is self-explanatory, and true. You might not know it's true. But then you see it happen, and you understand its truth. The fundamental sort.
.Saturday, September 25, 2010
Links: Social Networks, Hulk Bulges and Zombie Pornos
Just Jared more pics from the set of Captain America. Chris Evans with prosthetic feet. I always did wonder how they filmed barefoot chase scenes.
The Evening Class a defense of Bruce LaBruce's porno/horror hybrid LA Zombie.
Freaking Awesome ...speaking of zombies, this poster is created from zombie movie titles. Sick.
The Playlist Stanley Tucci shopping a sports biopic to direct and star in? At least it's not a traditional sports star biopic.
Vulture Mark Ruffalo will actually be playing the Hulk in his monster 3D form (i.e. motion capture) "I hope I don't bulge in anyone's face."
In Contention "I'm just here for the movies" I'm glad I have Guy Lodge with me on this. While it's true that some Oscar pundits care about the race first, with the cinema being but a happy-accident side dish, that's not true of all of us.
Boy Culture Remember when I got to meet Michelle Pfeiffer and Julianne Moore? Good times. Matthew Rettemund, who wrote my favorite book on the icon (Encyclopedia Madonna), finally got to meet her. Here's his story - with video!
LA Times Lindsay Lohan wins more jail drama. I am going to valiantly try to never mention her again on the blog. I'm not sure why I'm doing so now. It'll be hard for me but I feel embarrassed, actually, that I've been rooting for her and intermittently defending her talent for 12 years. What so many millions of people would do with the breaks, beauty and talent she was gifted.
LA Rag Mag Adam Levine wants you to know that Jake Gyllenhaal is not gay.
Noh Way in the wake of the release of Easy A, looks at Hester Prynne throughout movie history
Finally, here's the first bit of the NYFF press conference after our screening of The Social Network yesterday.
I love this bit from Aarron Sorkin...
The Evening Class a defense of Bruce LaBruce's porno/horror hybrid LA Zombie.
Freaking Awesome ...speaking of zombies, this poster is created from zombie movie titles. Sick.
The Playlist Stanley Tucci shopping a sports biopic to direct and star in? At least it's not a traditional sports star biopic.
Vulture Mark Ruffalo will actually be playing the Hulk in his monster 3D form (i.e. motion capture) "I hope I don't bulge in anyone's face."
In Contention "I'm just here for the movies" I'm glad I have Guy Lodge with me on this. While it's true that some Oscar pundits care about the race first, with the cinema being but a happy-accident side dish, that's not true of all of us.
Boy Culture Remember when I got to meet Michelle Pfeiffer and Julianne Moore? Good times. Matthew Rettemund, who wrote my favorite book on the icon (Encyclopedia Madonna), finally got to meet her. Here's his story - with video!
LA Times Lindsay Lohan wins more jail drama. I am going to valiantly try to never mention her again on the blog. I'm not sure why I'm doing so now. It'll be hard for me but I feel embarrassed, actually, that I've been rooting for her and intermittently defending her talent for 12 years. What so many millions of people would do with the breaks, beauty and talent she was gifted.
LA Rag Mag Adam Levine wants you to know that Jake Gyllenhaal is not gay.
Noh Way in the wake of the release of Easy A, looks at Hester Prynne throughout movie history
Finally, here's the first bit of the NYFF press conference after our screening of The Social Network yesterday.
I love this bit from Aarron Sorkin...
I didn't think it was a movie about Facebook. I thought it was a movie that had themes as old as storytelling itself: friendship and loyalty, class, jealousy, power -- these things that Aeschylus would write about or Shakespeare would write about or Paddy Chayefsky would write about. Luckily none of those people were available so I got to write about it.I don't know if I quite buy into the "it'll win Best Picture!" mania that's spreading (it's only September 25th, after all. We don't even know how it will fare with the public) but I 100% believe that Sorkin has a very strong shot at taking home whichever Screenplay category he ends up in.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Links and Other Drugs
I'm so behind on movie news and readings. It will take me a week to catch up. I'm also aware that I need to revamp the Oscar predix this week. Where to even begin? Links.
IndieWire TIFF completes their lineup. I haven't been posting about TIFF much because I'm so depressed I'm not going. Maybe I'll find someone to cover it for me... [hint. hint]
NY Post will The Walking Dead be a hit for AMC? I do wonder how anyone can make the zombie story fresh these days. This looks exactly like all the rest of them, barring the horseback travel. When will entertainment's zombie addiction end?
Coming Soon a big screen adaptation of the app/game Angry Birds? I have now heard everything. This would only work as claymation. Oh god please not glossy CGI for this property.
Nick's Flick Picks His 2009 Honorees continue with Screenplays. Better late than never, especially with the intriguing but concise writeups.
Cinema Blend video of Viggo and Fassbender in costume and makeup for the new David Cronenberg picture. Oooh, can't wait to see them in action together.
Marc Malkin Meet Kurt's Glee boyfriend
PopMatters "like touching the dead" another rave for Ken Russell's The Devils (1971). I really wish they'd put this on DVD. It really is amazing in scope and the world so needs it right now given that the global addiction to religion is more dangerous than ever these days.
The Ausselio Files creative tension on the set of Diane Keaton's HBO project Tilda
Freckle Face The Musical Yes, Julianne Moore's children's book is now a stage musical. They start singing and dancing in early September
We Are Movie Geeks Readers near St. Louis, MO? You might want to check out the Black Expo later this very week. Movie legends Pam Grier (!), Louis Gossett Jr and Mario Van Peebles are all appearing.
<--- Yay. It's P&A. The filmmaker and his only real male muse have reunited. They've started shooting The Skin I'm In (2011). Here they are on a break.
Cinematical offers strange speculation about why Penélope Cruz is not in Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I'm In which just started shooting. Um... how about, Pedro's just using a different girl this time? He does that sometimes. Nothing in P's filmography suggests she'd be uncomfortable with nudity, sex scenes or anything Pedro would ask of her really.
Moviehole Apparently Joss Whedon is aware that people are worried that there are no women in The Avengers. He assures there will be. Um, extras don't count. If you don't have The Wasp or Scarlet Witch, you have a sausage fest, plain and simple.
The Playlist First look at Uma Thurman in Ceremony. I hope this is a hit for her.
Joblo DeNiro, Norton and Jovovich get their Stone poster. I'm falling asleep.
Dial P for Popcorn more Black Narcissus images.
Please someone tell me they watched Narcissus specifically due to all this cheerleading we're doing. Blogging must not be in vain! Speaking of... Tomorrow's "Best Shot" episode is Bring It On. Are you joining us?
Finally, I saw this short at this tumblr where the author said "oh my little heart!! cute/sad shakes" and there's no saying it better. Unfortunately I can't tell you who said so. If I don't save things immediately on tumblr I never see them again. (I don't understand tumblr at all. So disposable it is!)
*
IndieWire TIFF completes their lineup. I haven't been posting about TIFF much because I'm so depressed I'm not going. Maybe I'll find someone to cover it for me... [hint. hint]
NY Post will The Walking Dead be a hit for AMC? I do wonder how anyone can make the zombie story fresh these days. This looks exactly like all the rest of them, barring the horseback travel. When will entertainment's zombie addiction end?
Coming Soon a big screen adaptation of the app/game Angry Birds? I have now heard everything. This would only work as claymation. Oh god please not glossy CGI for this property.
Nick's Flick Picks His 2009 Honorees continue with Screenplays. Better late than never, especially with the intriguing but concise writeups.
Cinema Blend video of Viggo and Fassbender in costume and makeup for the new David Cronenberg picture. Oooh, can't wait to see them in action together.
Marc Malkin Meet Kurt's Glee boyfriend
PopMatters "like touching the dead" another rave for Ken Russell's The Devils (1971). I really wish they'd put this on DVD. It really is amazing in scope and the world so needs it right now given that the global addiction to religion is more dangerous than ever these days.
The Ausselio Files creative tension on the set of Diane Keaton's HBO project Tilda
Freckle Face The Musical Yes, Julianne Moore's children's book is now a stage musical. They start singing and dancing in early September
We Are Movie Geeks Readers near St. Louis, MO? You might want to check out the Black Expo later this very week. Movie legends Pam Grier (!), Louis Gossett Jr and Mario Van Peebles are all appearing.
<--- Yay. It's P&A. The filmmaker and his only real male muse have reunited. They've started shooting The Skin I'm In (2011). Here they are on a break.Cinematical offers strange speculation about why Penélope Cruz is not in Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I'm In which just started shooting. Um... how about, Pedro's just using a different girl this time? He does that sometimes. Nothing in P's filmography suggests she'd be uncomfortable with nudity, sex scenes or anything Pedro would ask of her really.
Moviehole Apparently Joss Whedon is aware that people are worried that there are no women in The Avengers. He assures there will be. Um, extras don't count. If you don't have The Wasp or Scarlet Witch, you have a sausage fest, plain and simple.
The Playlist First look at Uma Thurman in Ceremony. I hope this is a hit for her.
Joblo DeNiro, Norton and Jovovich get their Stone poster. I'm falling asleep.
Dial P for Popcorn more Black Narcissus images.
Please someone tell me they watched Narcissus specifically due to all this cheerleading we're doing. Blogging must not be in vain! Speaking of... Tomorrow's "Best Shot" episode is Bring It On. Are you joining us?
Finally, I saw this short at this tumblr where the author said "oh my little heart!! cute/sad shakes" and there's no saying it better. Unfortunately I can't tell you who said so. If I don't save things immediately on tumblr I never see them again. (I don't understand tumblr at all. So disposable it is!)
MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.
My favorite part is the 'lint puppy'. I would've teared up if my ducts worked properly. One of the undeniable truths of our modern online world is that it has blown out whole new walls as window. There's just so much creativity from so many folks to discover.*
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Take Three: Rosamund Pike
Craig here. It's Sunday. It's Take Three time.
Take One: An(ti) Education?
Earlier this year two great 1960s booze-soaked lushes missed out on Supporting Actress Oscar nods: Julianne Moore's Charley in A Single Man and Pike's Helen in An Education (2009). I'd personally have slotted both in the running had I sole ownership of the voting ballots. Similarly with her performance in The Libertine (see below) Pike sneaks in and very nearly scoops the film out of the hands of her co-stars. But, as with Moore, maybe her screen time wasn't quite enough to grab the Academy's full attention. No matter - Pike was the freshest and most lively presence in the film, Oscar nom or no.
Helen comes on like a Bright Young Thing - albeit dimly lit - full of the joys of life. But she wasn't all just boozy bewilderment though. She had some chirpy advice for novice It-girl Jenny (Carey Mulligan), which she dispensed through the fog of gin and the haze of cigarette smoke in the bars and boudoirs of swinging-‘60s London.
She’s the current It-Girl of her group, so feels lightly threatened when new upstart Jenny enters their social orbit. But she’s oh-so polite with her perky put-downs. She’s flippant with Jenny because she knows her role as the in-thing of the group could very well be usurped. But she becomes her friend and confidant regardless, offering to take her shopping in Chelsea and introduces her to the wider social circle; she was Jenny’s role model in all things Chic and Now. Both girls are relatively privileged, but Helen is from the school-of-life-experience, the flip side to Jenny’s education-seeking debutante. She’s older and more versed in the particulars of partying and all things cultured, and she wards off life’s troubles with just the right amount of savoir-faire. It’s a nicely balanced, note-perfect performance (appearing sophisticated and dim at the same time can’t be easy) and Pike shines each time she’s on screen.
Take Two: Sex, drugs and dribbling
I’m not sure in what kind of light people hold up Laurence Dunmore’s The Libertine (2004) as it rarely receives mention these days (especially for a Johnny Depp film). It was a serio-comic one-off, an artful period piece - imagine Peter Greenaway directing astride a whoopee cushion - about infamously louche rake and poet John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (Depp); he’s being courted by King Charles II (John Malkovich) to write a be-all-and-end-all play for him. But as Rochester's reputation attests, and history dictates, it was frolicking naked actors, oversize phalluses and nose-eroding syphilis that were the order of the day.
Pike played Rochester’s long-suffering wife, Elizabeth Malet - and between John’s infatuation with actress Elizabeth Barry (Samantha Morton) and all his whoring and orgies, suffer long and hard she does. But she remained quite the loyal companion to the end - though she chose her moment wisely to out-deprave the much-depraved Rochester.
Pike valiantly holds her own amongst strong thespian company; she's brilliant casting in the role. She’s the hidden gem of the film and gives a cracking performance in its most unassuming and least (initially) noticeable part. Malet is prim, vain and oh-so-comely; a picture-perfect thing of 17th-Century beauty; the very essence of a regal wife. Pike nails her scenes with apt restraint. But what surprises - in a late scene, when both Malet and Rochester have reached an absolute personal and social nadir - is how she convincingly reconfigures her performance to show how Malet sinks a level or seven when she denigrates the degenerate Earl with just a flagon of wine and a baleful spike in her heart.
She matches Depp’s outré outbursts word for word, swigging booze manfully, and letting it drool down her face as she vents abuse at him. She gets a literal taste of his hedonism - and spits it back at him tenfold. Pike showed Malet was a force to be reckoned with: push a lady like her too far and social standing goes flying out the window. This intense scene, balanced with her earlier moments of serene, ladylike composure, made for a compelling, no-holds-barred performance. Pike proved she was much more than just a Bond girl here.
Take Three: Pike, the game player
But it’s not all Doom and gloom with Pike. A year later she teleported to Mars to find out what went wrong with some genetically-dubious human-mutant-hybrid shenanigans in Andrzej Bartkowiak’s 2005 film of the much-loved computer game. So ok, maybe it was a bit gloomy - she was called Dr. Samantha Grimm after all. But compared with chasing a syphilitic, silver-nosed Johnny Depp around 17th-Century England, sparring with space monsters was a breeze. Anyway, Doom has all to do with military superhumans, mutant devils and Grunts. Or SuperhumanMutantMilitaryGrunts. Or something. Either way, the red planet is not the only Rock Pike has to contend with: thick-necked actor-wrestler Dwayne Johnson joins the mission and adds a spoke in the works.
As far as Pike’s performance goes, she gives it the exact amount of gusto required. It ain’t Shakespeare; but Pike knows this. She’s a game player - and how well she thesps is indicated by how frequently she stares at The Rock to seemingly determine just how different or not he actually looks after he’s turned into a SuperMutantMilitaryGrunt. And she did get to say, “10% of the human genome is still unmapped. Some say it's the genetic blueprint for the soul,” with a straight face and make it sound like everyone’s lives depended on it.
Knightley got the sole acting Oscar nod in that film: an unfair neglect of Pike’s wonderful support, especially as both Emma Thompson (lead) and Kate Winslet (supporting) got nominations for that earlier Austen adaptation, Sense and Sensibility. Priding one actress over another with prejudice? Maybe. But some rising stars get awards adulation more than others - though I do hope that Pike gets raised to the heights Winslet and co. have been privy to for many a year at some future point.
But there’s one trick Hollywood really missed! One role that’s a perfect match for Pike’s equal opps dabbling in all things both literary and genre-based: she’d have been perfect casting for Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. For the love of mutant Austen, why was she not considered for the role?
Today: Rosamund Pike
Take One: An(ti) Education?
Earlier this year two great 1960s booze-soaked lushes missed out on Supporting Actress Oscar nods: Julianne Moore's Charley in A Single Man and Pike's Helen in An Education (2009). I'd personally have slotted both in the running had I sole ownership of the voting ballots. Similarly with her performance in The Libertine (see below) Pike sneaks in and very nearly scoops the film out of the hands of her co-stars. But, as with Moore, maybe her screen time wasn't quite enough to grab the Academy's full attention. No matter - Pike was the freshest and most lively presence in the film, Oscar nom or no.
Helen comes on like a Bright Young Thing - albeit dimly lit - full of the joys of life. But she wasn't all just boozy bewilderment though. She had some chirpy advice for novice It-girl Jenny (Carey Mulligan), which she dispensed through the fog of gin and the haze of cigarette smoke in the bars and boudoirs of swinging-‘60s London.
Party girl: Pike disses dictionary-loving debutante Jenny in An Education
She’s the current It-Girl of her group, so feels lightly threatened when new upstart Jenny enters their social orbit. But she’s oh-so polite with her perky put-downs. She’s flippant with Jenny because she knows her role as the in-thing of the group could very well be usurped. But she becomes her friend and confidant regardless, offering to take her shopping in Chelsea and introduces her to the wider social circle; she was Jenny’s role model in all things Chic and Now. Both girls are relatively privileged, but Helen is from the school-of-life-experience, the flip side to Jenny’s education-seeking debutante. She’s older and more versed in the particulars of partying and all things cultured, and she wards off life’s troubles with just the right amount of savoir-faire. It’s a nicely balanced, note-perfect performance (appearing sophisticated and dim at the same time can’t be easy) and Pike shines each time she’s on screen.
She don't need no education: Pike as Helen in An Education
Take Two: Sex, drugs and dribbling
I’m not sure in what kind of light people hold up Laurence Dunmore’s The Libertine (2004) as it rarely receives mention these days (especially for a Johnny Depp film). It was a serio-comic one-off, an artful period piece - imagine Peter Greenaway directing astride a whoopee cushion - about infamously louche rake and poet John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (Depp); he’s being courted by King Charles II (John Malkovich) to write a be-all-and-end-all play for him. But as Rochester's reputation attests, and history dictates, it was frolicking naked actors, oversize phalluses and nose-eroding syphilis that were the order of the day.
Pike played Rochester’s long-suffering wife, Elizabeth Malet - and between John’s infatuation with actress Elizabeth Barry (Samantha Morton) and all his whoring and orgies, suffer long and hard she does. But she remained quite the loyal companion to the end - though she chose her moment wisely to out-deprave the much-depraved Rochester.
Picture-perfect by the picture window: Pike in The Libertine
Pike valiantly holds her own amongst strong thespian company; she's brilliant casting in the role. She’s the hidden gem of the film and gives a cracking performance in its most unassuming and least (initially) noticeable part. Malet is prim, vain and oh-so-comely; a picture-perfect thing of 17th-Century beauty; the very essence of a regal wife. Pike nails her scenes with apt restraint. But what surprises - in a late scene, when both Malet and Rochester have reached an absolute personal and social nadir - is how she convincingly reconfigures her performance to show how Malet sinks a level or seven when she denigrates the degenerate Earl with just a flagon of wine and a baleful spike in her heart.
Pike providing solid 17th Century support in The Libertine
She matches Depp’s outré outbursts word for word, swigging booze manfully, and letting it drool down her face as she vents abuse at him. She gets a literal taste of his hedonism - and spits it back at him tenfold. Pike showed Malet was a force to be reckoned with: push a lady like her too far and social standing goes flying out the window. This intense scene, balanced with her earlier moments of serene, ladylike composure, made for a compelling, no-holds-barred performance. Pike proved she was much more than just a Bond girl here.
Take Three: Pike, the game player
But it’s not all Doom and gloom with Pike. A year later she teleported to Mars to find out what went wrong with some genetically-dubious human-mutant-hybrid shenanigans in Andrzej Bartkowiak’s 2005 film of the much-loved computer game. So ok, maybe it was a bit gloomy - she was called Dr. Samantha Grimm after all. But compared with chasing a syphilitic, silver-nosed Johnny Depp around 17th-Century England, sparring with space monsters was a breeze. Anyway, Doom has all to do with military superhumans, mutant devils and Grunts. Or SuperhumanMutantMilitaryGrunts. Or something. Either way, the red planet is not the only Rock Pike has to contend with: thick-necked actor-wrestler Dwayne Johnson joins the mission and adds a spoke in the works.
Mars or Johnson? Pike ponders which Rock to escape from first in Doom
As far as Pike’s performance goes, she gives it the exact amount of gusto required. It ain’t Shakespeare; but Pike knows this. She’s a game player - and how well she thesps is indicated by how frequently she stares at The Rock to seemingly determine just how different or not he actually looks after he’s turned into a SuperMutantMilitaryGrunt. And she did get to say, “10% of the human genome is still unmapped. Some say it's the genetic blueprint for the soul,” with a straight face and make it sound like everyone’s lives depended on it.
But the great thing about Pike’s part in Doom is that she’s not one to sniff at a daft sci-fi flick here and there (see Surrogates for further proof); she’s not above the occasional fun genre role. And I love her all the more for it. She gives the likes of Doom, Surrogates and Fracture as much actorly attention as she does Pride & Prejudice. In fact, I always thought Pike and Keira Knightley should’ve swapped P&P roles; Pike was a better fit for Lizzie Bennett in my view.
Here comes the science bit: Grimm times for Pike in Doom
Knightley got the sole acting Oscar nod in that film: an unfair neglect of Pike’s wonderful support, especially as both Emma Thompson (lead) and Kate Winslet (supporting) got nominations for that earlier Austen adaptation, Sense and Sensibility. Priding one actress over another with prejudice? Maybe. But some rising stars get awards adulation more than others - though I do hope that Pike gets raised to the heights Winslet and co. have been privy to for many a year at some future point.
But there’s one trick Hollywood really missed! One role that’s a perfect match for Pike’s equal opps dabbling in all things both literary and genre-based: she’d have been perfect casting for Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. For the love of mutant Austen, why was she not considered for the role?
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Hedwig and the Angry Link
Michael Reidel Hedwig and the Angry Inch made it from stage to screen and now it's going back again. [Insert a billion exclamation points here] The cherry gummi bear on top: John Cameron Mitchell will reprise his classic role. This show is a-ma-zing live. One of the best experiences I've ever had in the theater way back in 1999 or so. You must come to NYC and see it. Between this and Rabbit Hole, John Cameron Mitchell may have an incredible 2010
MNPP alerts us to the must-read sounding book "The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock's Shower". I already want this to be a movie.
MovieLine an imaginary apology from James Cameron for making you sit through Avatar
Cinema Blend Anna Faris to get all Goldie Hawn in a remake of Private Benjamin. Hey she sold Cameron Diaz with great flair, didn't she?
The Playlist has details on Steven Soderbergh's Contagion. The cast list is almost frighteningly A-list huge. Even if it's a disaster, it'll get a SAG ensemble nod.
Just Jared Reese Witherspoon in talks to play a country singer (again). If at first you do succeed...repeat.
Banana Penis [nsfw] Did this predate An Education or is someone using movies brilliantly for safe sex promotion?
Empire State of Mind pretty fun Star Wars by way of Alicia Keys video
Popnography skewers Miley Cyrus and The Last Song and suggests a gay alternative
Blabbeando If you're tired of catty remarks about Ricky Martin's coming out, try this on for size. Definitely something to think about.
(Le Sigh)... Isabelle Huppert to guest star on Law & Order: SVU. The apocalypse is nigh. Someone please shoot me!
Finally, remember that unusual zombie movie I told you about that won the Nashville Film Festival? It's called Make-Out With Violence and if you're curious about it you can now "save it" to your Netflix queue.
<--- poster design by Family Tree
If the movie gets enough 'saves' Netflix will purchase copies to rent out. I really marvel at how many ways there are to distribute movies now and how hard it still is for filmmakers despite all those channels, even when they have a quality movie on their hands. I don't think Make-Out is a perfect movie but it sure as hell was made by people with a filmmaking eye. And it makes you want someone to give the Deagol Brothers more money to make a second feature and see where their talents can take them. This is one of the obvious drawback of film festivals... you see work by all sorts of interesting off-the-map talent and then you return to the real world and notice how many hacks are so gainfully employed by Hollywood. Not that film festivals don't have their own "keep your day job" failures ... but this movie is definitely not one of them.
MNPP alerts us to the must-read sounding book "The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock's Shower". I already want this to be a movie.
MovieLine an imaginary apology from James Cameron for making you sit through Avatar
Cinema Blend Anna Faris to get all Goldie Hawn in a remake of Private Benjamin. Hey she sold Cameron Diaz with great flair, didn't she?
The Playlist has details on Steven Soderbergh's Contagion. The cast list is almost frighteningly A-list huge. Even if it's a disaster, it'll get a SAG ensemble nod.
Just Jared Reese Witherspoon in talks to play a country singer (again). If at first you do succeed...repeat.
Banana Penis [nsfw] Did this predate An Education or is someone using movies brilliantly for safe sex promotion?
Empire State of Mind pretty fun Star Wars by way of Alicia Keys video
Popnography skewers Miley Cyrus and The Last Song and suggests a gay alternative
Blabbeando If you're tired of catty remarks about Ricky Martin's coming out, try this on for size. Definitely something to think about.
(Le Sigh)... Isabelle Huppert to guest star on Law & Order: SVU. The apocalypse is nigh. Someone please shoot me!
Finally, remember that unusual zombie movie I told you about that won the Nashville Film Festival? It's called Make-Out With Violence and if you're curious about it you can now "save it" to your Netflix queue.<--- poster design by Family Tree
If the movie gets enough 'saves' Netflix will purchase copies to rent out. I really marvel at how many ways there are to distribute movies now and how hard it still is for filmmakers despite all those channels, even when they have a quality movie on their hands. I don't think Make-Out is a perfect movie but it sure as hell was made by people with a filmmaking eye. And it makes you want someone to give the Deagol Brothers more money to make a second feature and see where their talents can take them. This is one of the obvious drawback of film festivals... you see work by all sorts of interesting off-the-map talent and then you return to the real world and notice how many hacks are so gainfully employed by Hollywood. Not that film festivals don't have their own "keep your day job" failures ... but this movie is definitely not one of them.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
An Expert At Dismantling
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JA from MNPP here, wishing the actor Jeremy Renner a wonderful 39th birthday. May this year be the best, most Oscar-nominated one yet!
I don't pay as much attention to the Oscars beforehand as Nat and y'all do but I am aware of the buzz that's long been around Renner's Hurt Locker performance this year (as well as the film as a whole) of course, and frankly I see it as a long, long time coming. I've been championing this chap for years! And here's a couple of the reasons why.
I think a lot of people dismissed Dahmer as one off the many redundant serial-killer exploitation flicks of the decade - post-Seven cinema's been littered with 'em after all. One of the Aughts' many somewhat questionable exploits - become a serial killer, get your own semi-sympathetic movie! It certainly worked wonders for Charlize Theron's career (not to knock Monster - I am a big-time defender of that entire film and her performance therein). But Dahmer came and went in 2002 with hardly a mention - it actually wasn't even until a couple of years later that I saw the film. But when I did, wham - Renner's take on Jeffrey Dahmer is no bull about it one of the the decade's finest performances, period. He not only makes you understand the hole at the center of Dahmer that led to such horrors, but he nails the disturbingly over-charged sexual angle as well. It's a disturbing film for a lot of reasons, but not because anyone ever lets Dahmer off the hook for the things he did - no, it's that Renner's performance is just so captivating that he burrows his way right into you from the screen. A star-making role that took seven or so years to take, I guess.
And then in 2007 he starred in another under-appreciated film, 28 Weeks Later, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's sequel to Danny Boyle's smash zombie flick. I actually prefer the sequel to the original, for a lot of reasons, but I stand somewhat lonely on that front I do realize. I think most people took the film from too face-on a point-of-view, when it begged to be viewed from the side, as a sort of metaphorical fairy-tale - Poppa Bear's turned into the Big Bad Wolf and he's gonna gobble those kids right up. But aside from the film itself's worth, once again Renner popped off the screen to me as sort of the - if we're gonna continue looking at the film as a fairy-tale for the moment - Hunter figure that comes between Little Red Riding Hood(s) and the big mean wolf monster. It also serves as sort of a precursor to his role in The Hurt Locker in at least an exterior fashion, since he's a big serious soldier-man here too.
But all that's beside the point really, since once again, although here with a much smaller canvas to play on than in Dahmer, he's instilling his character with so much, well, character, that he just sorta reaches off the screen and smacks ya across the cheek in a playful and loving manner. He can so easily project this easy-going camaraderie to the audience, this feeling that the two of you have a secret and are in this together. Whether, as in Dahmer the secret is the monstrous sort that you'd rather not be a part of, or in 28 Weeks Later and The Hurt Locker, it's more of a fraternal bond, a you-and-me-against-the-world sens of intimacy, is up to the film surrounding him. But Jeremy Renner takes you where he's going every single second the camera's pointed at his face. He takes them, and us, apart, only to piece us together again in some new fashion afterward. Never to be the same again.
.
JA from MNPP here, wishing the actor Jeremy Renner a wonderful 39th birthday. May this year be the best, most Oscar-nominated one yet!I don't pay as much attention to the Oscars beforehand as Nat and y'all do but I am aware of the buzz that's long been around Renner's Hurt Locker performance this year (as well as the film as a whole) of course, and frankly I see it as a long, long time coming. I've been championing this chap for years! And here's a couple of the reasons why.
I think a lot of people dismissed Dahmer as one off the many redundant serial-killer exploitation flicks of the decade - post-Seven cinema's been littered with 'em after all. One of the Aughts' many somewhat questionable exploits - become a serial killer, get your own semi-sympathetic movie! It certainly worked wonders for Charlize Theron's career (not to knock Monster - I am a big-time defender of that entire film and her performance therein). But Dahmer came and went in 2002 with hardly a mention - it actually wasn't even until a couple of years later that I saw the film. But when I did, wham - Renner's take on Jeffrey Dahmer is no bull about it one of the the decade's finest performances, period. He not only makes you understand the hole at the center of Dahmer that led to such horrors, but he nails the disturbingly over-charged sexual angle as well. It's a disturbing film for a lot of reasons, but not because anyone ever lets Dahmer off the hook for the things he did - no, it's that Renner's performance is just so captivating that he burrows his way right into you from the screen. A star-making role that took seven or so years to take, I guess.
And then in 2007 he starred in another under-appreciated film, 28 Weeks Later, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's sequel to Danny Boyle's smash zombie flick. I actually prefer the sequel to the original, for a lot of reasons, but I stand somewhat lonely on that front I do realize. I think most people took the film from too face-on a point-of-view, when it begged to be viewed from the side, as a sort of metaphorical fairy-tale - Poppa Bear's turned into the Big Bad Wolf and he's gonna gobble those kids right up. But aside from the film itself's worth, once again Renner popped off the screen to me as sort of the - if we're gonna continue looking at the film as a fairy-tale for the moment - Hunter figure that comes between Little Red Riding Hood(s) and the big mean wolf monster. It also serves as sort of a precursor to his role in The Hurt Locker in at least an exterior fashion, since he's a big serious soldier-man here too.But all that's beside the point really, since once again, although here with a much smaller canvas to play on than in Dahmer, he's instilling his character with so much, well, character, that he just sorta reaches off the screen and smacks ya across the cheek in a playful and loving manner. He can so easily project this easy-going camaraderie to the audience, this feeling that the two of you have a secret and are in this together. Whether, as in Dahmer the secret is the monstrous sort that you'd rather not be a part of, or in 28 Weeks Later and The Hurt Locker, it's more of a fraternal bond, a you-and-me-against-the-world sens of intimacy, is up to the film surrounding him. But Jeremy Renner takes you where he's going every single second the camera's pointed at his face. He takes them, and us, apart, only to piece us together again in some new fashion afterward. Never to be the same again.
.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
In The Garden, There Is A Girl
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JA from MNPP here, taking a look at one of my favorite films not just of 2004 but of the entire decade. My first thought when I noticed that Shaun of the Dead came out in '04 was, "Really? It's only five years old? I feel as if it's been a part of my life forever." And then my second thought was, "Really? It's five whole years old? It feels like it just came out yesterday."
I really can't imagine a world without Shaun in it, though. What a terrible world that would be! One of the greatest horror films in the 00's, it's smart enough to know you haven't really made a zombie movie unless you've included a zombie feeding frenzy where they pull a person in half...
... and it's also one of the funniest comedies of the 00's - funny enough to have a delightful comic actress like Lucy Davis playing a terrible actress forced to give an acting lesson on how to behave like a zombie in front of an actual impaled zombie...
"Just look at the face: it's vacant, with a hint of sadness.
... Like a drunk, who's lost a bet."
... and on top of that, is also a film entirely capable of yanking your heart-strings right outta your chest. Exhibit A: Shaun's Mum.
But in a decade crammed full of the undead (sidenote: when we rolled through 2002 here how did I not write about the impact 28 Days Later had on the next several years of entertainment? Decade of the Undead wouldn't be too off as a calling card for the oo's, although in this current Twilight climate it's a fangier sort of undead we're talking about now), Shaun stands apart. I've seen zombies on a plane, zombies at the prom, slow zombies, fast zombies, zombies as pets, zombies as flotation devices, Nazi zombies, Ninja zombies, Stripper zombies, Bill Murray zombies... much like the undead of which I speak, I could keep going and going and going.
But Shaun, like all the better zombie movies, found a way to make the metaphor of the undead interesting again - what Shaun's really running from is the state of adolescence that he's gotten himself trapped in. Zombie = the ultimate slacker. It's telling that the weapons Shaun uses through the film all tend to be things that he's used to keep him from his actual adult responsibilities: his record collection, his cricket bat, the darts at the local pub...
And refreshingly in the end Shaun doesn't have to totally give up all of his slacker tendencies to become a grown-up and win the girl... he just has to hide them in the backyard, out of her way. A happy ending for all! Well except for all the people those died, naturally.
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I really can't imagine a world without Shaun in it, though. What a terrible world that would be! One of the greatest horror films in the 00's, it's smart enough to know you haven't really made a zombie movie unless you've included a zombie feeding frenzy where they pull a person in half...
... and it's also one of the funniest comedies of the 00's - funny enough to have a delightful comic actress like Lucy Davis playing a terrible actress forced to give an acting lesson on how to behave like a zombie in front of an actual impaled zombie...
"Just look at the face: it's vacant, with a hint of sadness.... Like a drunk, who's lost a bet."
... and on top of that, is also a film entirely capable of yanking your heart-strings right outta your chest. Exhibit A: Shaun's Mum.
It still makes me sad. Damn you, Shaun's Mum.
But in a decade crammed full of the undead (sidenote: when we rolled through 2002 here how did I not write about the impact 28 Days Later had on the next several years of entertainment? Decade of the Undead wouldn't be too off as a calling card for the oo's, although in this current Twilight climate it's a fangier sort of undead we're talking about now), Shaun stands apart. I've seen zombies on a plane, zombies at the prom, slow zombies, fast zombies, zombies as pets, zombies as flotation devices, Nazi zombies, Ninja zombies, Stripper zombies, Bill Murray zombies... much like the undead of which I speak, I could keep going and going and going.
But Shaun, like all the better zombie movies, found a way to make the metaphor of the undead interesting again - what Shaun's really running from is the state of adolescence that he's gotten himself trapped in. Zombie = the ultimate slacker. It's telling that the weapons Shaun uses through the film all tend to be things that he's used to keep him from his actual adult responsibilities: his record collection, his cricket bat, the darts at the local pub...
And refreshingly in the end Shaun doesn't have to totally give up all of his slacker tendencies to become a grown-up and win the girl... he just has to hide them in the backyard, out of her way. A happy ending for all! Well except for all the people those died, naturally.
. Saturday, December 12, 2009
Linkables
In case you're wondering... Golden Globe predictions tomorrow
Indie Wire the winners of the European Film Awards
Topless Robot Natalie Portman to produce and star in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Yes, they're making a movie from the gimmicky bestseller.
Anne Thompson on the f/x finalists for Oscar. She doesn't mention it but isn't it kind of weird that Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones didn't make it. I guess a lot of people (not just me) really do dislike the movie.
Quiet Earth spotlights an interesting-sounding gay Latin film playing at Sundance this year
Critical Condition on Mo'Niques non-campaign campaign for Oscar
Boy Culture salacious Steve McQueen/Paul Newman quote. Whaaaa? I guess it'll sell books
Cinematical offers up an unexpectedly rich "what if" regarding David Lynch
Ebert's Journal a new feature "foreign correspondents" Ali on 24 Hour Party People
Parting gift: The Boyfriend sent this to me from Pharyngula and, though it's not movie-related, I laughed so hard that I had a spring in my step all morning so I had to share it. A flow chart of the gay marriage debate... click to embiggen.
So so funny. I especially love the 14th amendment bit and that the actual quotes (denoted by the asterisks) so perfectly illustrate the unholy but enduring marriage of stupidity, homophobia and pious religiosity. Why were those three temperaments allowed to get hitched? And in a church no less! Isn't marriage supposed to only be between one man and one woman?
Indie Wire the winners of the European Film Awards
Topless Robot Natalie Portman to produce and star in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Yes, they're making a movie from the gimmicky bestseller.
San Francisco Chronicle takes down Carey Mulligan and offers up Michelle Pfeiffer instead for Best Actress
YouTube toddler Hamlet with Brian Cox. So adorable
YouTube toddler Hamlet with Brian Cox. So adorable
Anne Thompson on the f/x finalists for Oscar. She doesn't mention it but isn't it kind of weird that Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones didn't make it. I guess a lot of people (not just me) really do dislike the movie.
Quiet Earth spotlights an interesting-sounding gay Latin film playing at Sundance this year
Critical Condition on Mo'Niques non-campaign campaign for Oscar
Boy Culture salacious Steve McQueen/Paul Newman quote. Whaaaa? I guess it'll sell books
Cinematical offers up an unexpectedly rich "what if" regarding David Lynch
Ebert's Journal a new feature "foreign correspondents" Ali on 24 Hour Party People
Parting gift: The Boyfriend sent this to me from Pharyngula and, though it's not movie-related, I laughed so hard that I had a spring in my step all morning so I had to share it. A flow chart of the gay marriage debate... click to embiggen.
So so funny. I especially love the 14th amendment bit and that the actual quotes (denoted by the asterisks) so perfectly illustrate the unholy but enduring marriage of stupidity, homophobia and pious religiosity. Why were those three temperaments allowed to get hitched? And in a church no less! Isn't marriage supposed to only be between one man and one woman?
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Zombie Sighting, Alhambra CA
I don't know how many of you remember my Nashville Film Festival coverage from early in 2009, but the narrative feature winner was a local zombie picture called Make-Out with Violence. Referring to it as a 'local picture' doesn't do its justice because it definitely looks like there was a budget... even if there wasn't. Referring to it as a 'zombie picture' doesn't do it justice because it's definitely its own thing. Being your own thing is a neat trick that too few movies perform.It's a head scratcher that some smaller distributor hasn't, uh, bitten (sorry) given the built-in audience for genre movies, the festival awards its managed (not just Nashville) and the good chance that it would win enthusiastic reviews. Plus there's the possibility that The Deagol Brothers who made it are the next Coens or Wachowskis or Polishes (remember them? They got a few idiosyncratic features released. Different times I guess). Brother teams are their own marketing hook, right? The soundtrack is also fine... I even bought it at the festival assuming it would be hard to find elsewhere.
If you're in the Alhambra area or within driving distance (how close is LA?) the film screens for free Thursday night (that's tomorrow). And if you take the chance, I'd love to hear back. E-mail me and maybe I'll even share your film experience right here.Regal (Edwards) Atlantic Palace
Thursday November 12th, 7:00 PM
W Main Street Alhambra CA 91801
event phone (626) 458-9748
I've been meaning to write about the movie at length because it aged well for me. But time is a difficult mistress. You know what else is? zombie girlfriends.
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Saturday, September 19, 2009
5 More From TIFF: Perrier's Bounty, The Joneses, The Hole, Survival of the Dead and A Serious Man
Faithful readers! You may have noticed my absence from the blog of late as I let friends fill in from the Toronto International Film Festival. The Canadian fest wraps today but we've got a few more TIFF related reports to get through. I hope you're enjoying (comment!). After the TIFF wrap, I'll be back. Things have been crazy for me. Apologies! (I can't wait to tell you about my star studded 'Oprah Day'). Here's five more capsules from Txt Critic who I like to argue with in real life (he sees everything) despite his anonymity here.
on The Joneses
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on The JonesesThis satire of consumerism starring Demi Moore (at TIFF with her man, left) and David Duchovny as parents of a fake family "cell" placed into suburbia to sell their neighbors on various products is about as stale and 'blah' as that plot description sounds. The screenplay leaves both leads grasping at straws to fill in the holes of their characters and it's awkwardly indecisive on a tone; the softball-satire "jokes" clash with the stabs at relevancy and pathos (including a "what have we learned here" climax), and none of the actors ever finds a consistent pitch. I'd be surprised if it gets theatrical distribution. (C)on The Hole
While I didn't get to see the entire film (the fire alarm was pulled twenty minutes before the film was over!), I feel like I got the gist of this 3-D Poltergeist throwback from Joe Dante. The movie, which intends to be a horror film for family audiences (PG-13?), alternates between groan-inducing dialogue, family drama backstory and jumpy B-movie scares (e.g. a creepy clown doll that keeps reappearing in inconvenient locations). It’s not up to snuff with Dante’s Gremlins but what is? If you have any 8-to-12-year-old kids who like being scared, take them along. That said, you’d still probably be better off with a DVD of Coraline. (C+)On Perrier's Bounty
On A Serious ManDerivative of films like In Bruges (without the emotional heft) and Snatch (without the emphasis on style), this Irish crime comedy flew under the radar of most festival-goers, despite starring well-liked mick stars Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson and Jim Broadbent. Though it doesn’t bring a ton new to the well-worn genre, it boasts clever dialogue, fun performances (particularly Gleeson as the crime boss) and surprisingly off-kilter sources of humor, such as violence in the name of one’s affinity for dogs and dislike for homophobes. Seems a sure bet for small-time US distribution. (B+)
I can’t really be trusted when asked for my opinion on a Coen Brothers film. I’m more than a bit biased: for well over a decade, I’ve espoused the belief that they’re the best filmmakers working and I think even their worst movie (yes, The Ladykillers) is still pretty great. That said, even I was surprised at the level to which I was knocked out by their latest, which is supposedly their most personal film. It's about a much put-upon Minnesota university professor (Tony-nominated Michael Stuhlbarg) and how he attempts to grapple with the innumerable trials and tribulations in his life, most prominently via advice from the rabbis in his life.on George A Romero's Survival of the Dead
Man recalls Barton Fink but definitively possesses its own unique identity. The film is consistently very, very funny but proves surprisingly weighty, too. A Serious Man depicts life as basically, ‘one fucking thing after the other,’ and espouses a supremely bleak worldview in an entirely original, oddly moving manner. While it possesses the Coens’ trademark immaculate filmmaking and shot composition, this is probably one of their most esoteric and least commercial films. It’s also, in my opinion, one of their three or four best films and in serious contention for my ‘best movie of the year’ title. (A+)
I appreciate the effort, but the guy should really give it a rest. I seemed to be one of the few in attendance who thought this was (mildly) more watchable than his last effort, Diary of the Dead. At least it featured a handful of fun, gory moments, and characters I didn’t want to instinctively murder. Overall, I think my reaction can best be summed up by my sold-out midnight audience’s behavior: they gave Romero a standing ovation when he showed up to introduce the film, and shuffled out of the theater as the credits rolled with their heads hung low -- not even bothering to stay for the Q&A with their hero. (C)Whoa. High praise for the Coen Bros. After No Country For Old Men (my #2 of 2007) and Burn After Reading (#11 of 2008), both top-notch efforts, it's clear that they've jumped whatever hurdle they were struggling to clear in that weird mid-Aughts patch (The Ladykillers, Intolerable Cruelty). Well done.
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Thursday, July 23, 2009
Links
Old Hollywood I had no idea that blooper reels existed of old black and white films. It's so weird to see Jimmy Stewart, Bette Davis and Bogie flubbing their lines. It ain't right!
Victim of the Time "a half-child of Disney"
I Need My Fix alerts us to another Worth1000 contest. Check out 'Viggo by Carravaggio' among many others
Fin de Cinema France's young actor Yasmine Belmadi (Criminal Lovers, Who Killed Bambi?) dies.
I Need My Fix alerts us to another Worth1000 contest. Check out 'Viggo by Carravaggio' among many others
Fin de Cinema France's young actor Yasmine Belmadi (Criminal Lovers, Who Killed Bambi?) dies.Topless Robot a 12 year old girl made feature length zombie film? My god I'm so unaccomplished (sniffle)
MTV I was sick to death of hearing about Comic-Con before it even began last night but I am a sucker for James Cameron and I won't be able to resist the Avatar news. This is a 14' tall powersuit from the film.
Broadway World I'm assuming you've heard that Johnny Depp dropped the desire to portray the legendary Carol Channing into an interview recently. Channing responds
It is not a new concept to me. Not at all. Men have been imitating me for as long as I can remember. In fact, most of the impersonations I have seen have had a five o'clock shadow. I imagine, when or if Johnny should portray me, he will succeed.While you've been reading this post, I've been sitting in a screening room watching Meryl Streep do Julia Child. More soon...
Off Cinema
Loyal K*N*G this is fun. "Fast Food Mafia" artwork
FourFour sums up Lindsay Lohan TV movie Labor Pains for you.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Neil Patrick Harris Sing-Along Week
In my weekly column over @ Towleroad I've declared next week "Neil Patrick Harris Week"... pass it on! The hilarious Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (pictured left co-starring Nathan Fillion) comes to DVD on Tuesday* and then NPH hosts the TONY Awards on Sunday. He'll basically sing for you all week if you want him, too. The column also features a quick bit on two gay winners from Cannes, Bruce LaBruce's plan to make another explicit zombie picture and more...*Apparently it was already on DVD but is being rereleased or released in some new way? DVDs schedules are making me crazy, lately. I can't keep track anymore... they're getting as convoluted as theatrical. How many versions and how many release dates can each movie / tv show have? And the press releases don't even mention the other releases. Ayiyiyiyiyi.
Friday, April 24, 2009
April Showers, Rupert Everett
April Showers evenings @ 11
Have any of y'all seen Cemetery Man?
It's a schlocky Italian horror flick from 1994 starring Rupert Everett as the titular character who has to fend off zombies including his lover (the busty Anna Falchi) with some regularity. Despite my longtime Everett fandom (I've been with him since the Another Country/ Dance With a Stranger), I've never seen this one. Nick, who loves the movie, showed me the shower sequence while we were in Nashville on account of this here series.
Everett's character Francesco Dellamorte apparently takes a lot of showers and apparently he's used to getting attacked by zombies -- just part of the job. But on this night they come earlier than expected. The lights go out in the shower, he sees one approaching in shadow (shower curtains = scary in movies), and then the zombies, in what looks like boy scout uniforms -- tee hee -- begin to attack. He begin to shoot them in the head. The most hilarious thing about the gorey sequence is that Rupert is attacked in the shower but when he fights back he's suddenly wearing pants. How did this happen? Zombies move slowly but slow enough for their victims to slip on a pair of pants before finding a weapon? It's not for some no nudity clause either -- both Falchi & Everett get naked elsewhere in the movie.
This final post shower attack makes me giggle. Who can blame the little shit for wanting a nibble?
Have any of y'all seen Cemetery Man?
It's a schlocky Italian horror flick from 1994 starring Rupert Everett as the titular character who has to fend off zombies including his lover (the busty Anna Falchi) with some regularity. Despite my longtime Everett fandom (I've been with him since the Another Country/ Dance With a Stranger), I've never seen this one. Nick, who loves the movie, showed me the shower sequence while we were in Nashville on account of this here series.
Everett's character Francesco Dellamorte apparently takes a lot of showers and apparently he's used to getting attacked by zombies -- just part of the job. But on this night they come earlier than expected. The lights go out in the shower, he sees one approaching in shadow (shower curtains = scary in movies), and then the zombies, in what looks like boy scout uniforms -- tee hee -- begin to attack. He begin to shoot them in the head. The most hilarious thing about the gorey sequence is that Rupert is attacked in the shower but when he fights back he's suddenly wearing pants. How did this happen? Zombies move slowly but slow enough for their victims to slip on a pair of pants before finding a weapon? It's not for some no nudity clause either -- both Falchi & Everett get naked elsewhere in the movie.This final post shower attack makes me giggle. Who can blame the little shit for wanting a nibble?
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Transgendered Siblings & Zombie Girlfriends
NaFF ~ Day FiveYesterday I caught the film that got Nicole Kidman and her hubby here on day three, a documentary called Prodigal Sons. I have no idea why Kidman herself chose it (perhaps it was research for The Danish Girl?) but she chose well. The film is from transgendered filmmaker Kimberly Reed and begins by recounting her journey to her 20 year high school reunion. Her hometown knew her as football quarterback Paul. For the film's first several minutes I expected that the movie would be a traditional but queer slanted memoir doc. I assumed it would recount this reunion and disparate reactions to Paul's new identity as Kim and Kim's own struggles with accepting her past (a lot of post-operative transgendered types destroy all photos and pretend that said past didn't exist). I underestimated it.
Prodigal Sons quickly morphs into something much greater. It's a complicated, well judged and rather astounding study of identity (not just Kim's), family history and dynamics, shared phantoms, mental illness, grief, biological and adoptive parenting, and even some old Hollywood history. I don't want to tell you more than the tag line does "a brotherly rivalry between a man and a woman... and Orson Welles" because I'm really glad I went into it blind. There were moments that hit me like a truck emotionally. I assume it will find distribution and get a major market theatrical release and when it does, go. A-
The other film I saw yesterday was called Make-Out with Violence, a real oddity about two brothers and the girls they pine over, one of whom is dead. Here is the trailer.
The film surprisingly won the top honor at the festival (from the jury that included Elvis Mitchell and Girlfriend's director Claudia Weill). I assume that they were responding to its promise and on that I'd agree. I'd definitely like to see a second picture from the Deagol Brothers. I wanted to love it a lot more than I did but it's worth a look.
On the plus side it has a few really terrific moments, solid visual ideas, beautiful cinematography (it doesn't often look like a low budget indie) and an extremely creepy and well performed twist on the notion of "zombies". In the minus column, it struck me as quite messy: too many characters (two of whom could have been extracted from the picture with very minor script changes), dropped implicated plot threads and an overly repetitive structure. But most problematic I thought was its absolutely bizarre sense of pacing. Nick told me he actually liked its arrythmic feel but it didn't work for me. Initially I gave this film a B- but it linger well. So I'm bumping it up to a B. I am a tough grader [sigh]. I think people who tend to respond to unusual takes on horror or dreamy takes on privileged kids (there's a teensy bit of a Sofia Coppola feel going on within the cinematography) will like it a lot more than I did. I hope some distributor picks it up and asks for another round of editing because the Deagol Brothers have something here but some fine tuning never hurt.more later...
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