20:07 (Salome!)

each morning a screenshot of the 20th minute and 7th second of a film


"What a woman! What a part. A princess in love with a holy man"

[Pssst: This image courtesy of StinkyLulu who has a related post up]

Kiki Zinone?

Another paparazzi puzzlement...
Is Kirsten Dunst auditioning for a remake of Grease 2? Is she about to bust into a subpar "Cool Rider"

I want a devil in skin tight leather,
And he's gonna be wild as the wind.
And one fine night, I'll be holdin' on tight...
To a coooool rider, a coooool rider

If you have a different theory, do share in the comments.

Previous mysteries:
Do you hear what Jake hears?
What's in Kate Winslet's gargantuan bag?

Oprah Loooooves Hairspray. Michelle Still Hates Interviews

Sometimes you see something that sets off so many different feelings in you that you don't even know where to begin. Such was the experience of watching Oprah's gushfest with the cast of Hairspray last week. She gushed so much I feared she would be rushed to County General for dehydration treatment.

She didn't just love the movie. She loooooooovvvvveed it. She loved it with several exclamation points. Either that or she owns stock in it. See for yourself...

Oprahcrazed

I rarely watch Oprah but now I understand why Tom Cruise was jumping on couches. I thought she might be impersonating Arsenio Hall what with all the artificial whooping. John Travolta, a close personal friend of Oprah... and she wants you to know it, charmed the crowd and himself. He loves the accent he created for Edna Turnblad. He loves it so much that even after spending an inordinate amount of time talking about it, he brought it up again after the commercial break. Unfortunately one of Edna's most famous lines --the one about her diet pills wearing off --is almost unintelligible under the affected Baltimorean. I love what he says about the difficulties of musicals, that's a smart answer. But when he's talking about the accent all I can think of is the scene in Waiting for Guffman where Corky St. Clair tries an accent on for size.

Oprahtravolta

Based on the scenes shown we know Hairspray is colorful and bouncy. It looks like a lot of fun if suspiciously frantic in proving itself so (breathe a tentative sigh of relief). Musical comedy works best when you can't feel the heavy lifting. Hopefully the fatsuits, accents, wigs, and uneven score won't cause the talent to sweat.

Following Travolta was Michelle Pfeiffer. Ahem. After my heart stopped pounding (SO good to see her again. It's been years) I started giggling and feeling for her. She still hates to be interviewed. She hates it with exclamation points. She is one of the great movie stars but when it comes to playing herself? That aint her forte. She can't form sentences. She doesn't want to answer questions. She was not made for forced patter. My mind lept back to her very uncomfortable interview with Barbara Walters back in the day. It was chilly in there. And here on Oprah, sandwiched between the eager to please Travolta and the warm charisma of Queen Latifah, the temperature dropped a bit, too.

Here is the Michelle portion plus a bit o' Queen and Nikki Blonsky.

Oprahmichelle

My favorite part is the last bit. Oprah realizes Michelle has been quiet and no one has been addressing her and she tries for an olive branch. The response is the most relaxed Pfeiffer gets. "Someone has to play the villain."

Indeed.

They're beating the drums early for this potential crowd pleaser, aren't they? It doesn't open until July 20th and it got a full hour on Oprah two months prior. That's a lot of time to fluff some cotton candy. It better be sweet.
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Denzel's 3rd Oscar

Today is Malcolm X's birthday. And because I am a movie nut all things are filtered through the cinema... which means today is really all about wishing Denzel Washington had won the Oscar for Spike Lee's Malcolm X . (I know I know. it's pitiably reductive but again: movie nut. What can you do?) To me it's one of three insufferable mistakes they made (post nominations) in the Lead Actor category in the 90s:

1992 Denzel Washington (Malcolm X) losing to Al Pacino (Scent of a Woman)
1993 Anthony Hopkins (Remains of the Day) bested by Tom Hanks (Philadelphia)
1998 Roberto Benigni (Life is Beautiful) defeating Sir Ian McKellen (Gods and Monsters)

In all three cases it's hammy stars beating more resonant and accomplished acting. Arrrrgh. Thank goodness we have several months left before all the cycles of mediocrity begin again. Are those the three that bug you most or do you have another 90s actor peeve to share?

20:07 (Orientalist Pornography)

Each morning a screenshot from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie


Mina Harker: There's more to marriage than carnal pleasure.
[the bound copy falls to the floor]
Lucy Westenra: Oh, Mina! So I see. Much much more!
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I Know Who Linked Me

<--Jude Law does not appear in the links. I just like to look at him

quick reads
ModFab wishes himself a happy birthday. Go do the same
Burbanked punishes their favorite directors
Hot Blog 10 Things Studios Don't Want You To Know
Guardian Yay, Lukas Moodyson (Together, Show Me Love) is coming back. His new film will be called Mammoth
Film Brain welcomes William Friedkin back with Bug
novaslim "Dear People With More Money Than Me..."
Cinematical on Susan Sarandon's next picture. Although I find it more than a little sloppy weird that they talk about the casting and the mother/daughter angle of the story and still fail to mention that Eva Amurri is Susan Sarandon's daughter in real life. Helloooo.

find the time
The Misunderstood Blog-a-Thon at Culture Snob. So far there are entries on One From the Heart, Punch Drunk Love, INLAND EMPIRE, Heaven Help Us, Magnolia and more...
Radio Allegro for those of you who've asked, I won't be on the Radio Allegro podcast weekly anymore. I just had too much on my plate... but I will be a featured guest when I can manage. They currently have podcasts up on the art of the mashup and NYC dance party Bootie as well as a political discussion on the 2008 candidates. Episodes coming soon for the TONY awards and the summer movies and I hope to chat on both.
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Now Playing (05/18)

L I M I T E D

Brooklyn Rules Freddie Prinze Jr is still around?
Even Money Kim Basinger and Danny DeVito are also still alive and featured in this addiction drama from director Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond, For the Boys). Plus: The depressingly underutilised Carla Gugino is in it. Minus: So is Kelsey Grammar.
Fay Grim I truly love Parker Posey but I truly hated Henry Fool so...
Flanders a new one from eternally cheerful Bruno Dumont (L'Humanité, Twenty-Nine Palms)
Memories of Tomorrow Ken Watanabe stars in this drama about the early onset of Alzheimers. Hmmm could make a fascinating double feature with Away From Her (which happens to be the best o' the year so far)
Once the Sundance winner, a romance between an Irish musician and a Czech immigrant. People really really like it.

Private Property the tireless Isabelle Huppert takes on another meaty role as the single mother of teenage twins (played by L'Enfant's Jérémie Renier and his own brother) in this drama from Joachim LaFosse
Severance a fusion of horror and corporate comedy from the looks of it. But it's from the director of the stomach turning Creep so I'm not seeing it.
The Wendell Baker Story Wilson Bros (Luke & Owen) pitted against each other in this romantic comedy about an ex con. Eva Mendes is the girl.

W I D E

Shrek the Third Zzz. Laughed a few times for each film (gingerbread man & Puss n Boots = funny) but was puzzled by the Oscar win over the infinitely superior Monsters, Inc. and can't imagine that this franchise will still be funny once the pop culture jokes grow mold. But anyway... This movie is on 4122 screens. Thank god I live in a major market. With rising theater counts every year for the blockbusters I can't imagine what it's like in smaller cities now. Do you only get one choice on any given weekend? No wonder people rent so many DVDs.

Are you seeing anything this weekend?
If you're staying in with DVDs might I suggest Se7en (95), Darling (65), All That Jazz (79), Network (76) or Sweet Bird of Youth (62) -- I'll be discussing all of them over the next few weeks (reader requests) and if you've never seen them... now is a good time to refresh.

20:07 (The Band-Aids)

Each morning a screenshot from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie


"Here comes Sabbath! Ozzy Osbourne! It's me, Polexia!"

Do You Hear What Jake Hears?

You were so good about helping me figure out what was in Kate Winslet's bag the other day, I figured I should enlist your sleuthing skills again.

Here is a pic of Jake Gyllenhaal @ Cannes to promote Zodiac (my review). So what do you suppose is going on here? What do you suppose Jakey poo thought he heard? What does he want to hear? Who is talking?

[note: lots more Jake @ Cannes over @ Just Jared]

Those Summer Nights

With the summer movie season upon us I thought I'd share an old 'classic' from the website for the new readers. This is my illustrated memoirs of summer movie experience as a kid. There's four panels covering 1975 through 1982.

*blog challenge at the end of this post*

[click to enlarge by panel]

Introduction...


1975 -1978


1978-1980


1980-1982

I drew this in 2003. I had originally intended to continue with more installments taking me up to the present day but I never got around to it. Still and all... it's those years as a kid that inform movie love as an adult. When it comes to the summer blockbuster, they feel more vivid than the years that followed. Nowadays my best friends always want to go to the beach. I always want to sit in the air conditioning with a tub of popcorn staring at the screen. Hitting the beach beforehand: a pleasure but hardly a requirement.

tags: Olivia Newton-John, childhood memories, Grease, Jaws, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back
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Blogging challenge! If you have a blog share a memory of summer moviegoing from you childhood over the next few days. Let me know you did and I'll link you up in a follow up post next Tuesday, the 22nd. Consider it a warm up nostalgia exercize for Eddie Copeland's 30th anniversary of Star Wars blog-a-thon --(that's on May 25th) you will not want to miss that one.

Happy Syttende Mai

Ja vi elsker dette landet --A shout out to any readers from Norway today on your national holiday! Vi snakkes in the comments.

If you happen to be a Norwegian reader and in the filmmaking industry I say the following with the utmost love: please try and keep up with Denmark and Sweden. They get all the movie press what with Lars Von Trier, Connie Nielsen, Susanne Bier, Stellan Skarsgård representing and there being regular Oscar foreign film nominations for Sweden. I mean even Iceland has managed a higher profile this past decade (mostly due to a certain genius madwoman)

Despite a low film & pop culture profile Norway is still awesome. The land of the midnight sun is responsible (indirectly but still...) for Oscar winner Celeste Holm (Gentleman's Agreement) and two highly iconic movie stars Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe. I'll ignore 'she who must not be named' ...all countries make mistakes.

Anyway, because I had a sudden hankering for Norway this morning (a jaw droppingly beautiful country) here are some famous Norwegians to reflect upon...


I received Hawaii Olso, Norway's 04 Oscar submission in the mail yesterday from Film Movement. Perhaps I'll watch...

tags: Norway

20:07 (Mockingbird)

Each morning a screenshot of the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie


"You don’t hear that? That annoying noise. I looked it up. They can imitate car alarms and telephones and other birds. I called the animal control and you know what they said? They said I should just enjoy one of natures most talented singers...

I’m gonna kill it”
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Hump Day Hottie: Kate Winslet

Is it my imagination or is Kate Winslet getting hotter every year? I'm not just talking about her stardom which has been a relative constant since Titanic lifted her up out of the corseted release realm and into the expansive world of mainstream adulation. I'm not just talking about her performances which have always been good but together amass a resonant and formidable filmography that would be the envy of practically anyone. I'm talking about her beauty and sensuality too.

<--- This photo to your left comes to us by way of Kate Winslet Fan. Ain't she gorgeous? This was taken on the set of Revolutionary Road , the film previously mentioned that will reunite Titanic's young superstars, Leo & Kate. Anyway... the natural light in this photo sets off her luminous blonde locks so well. And nothing beats a period eyebrow in the makeup department says me. She's stunning.

If she's this beautiful all throughout the movie I may die of happiness watching it, even if her character happens to be miserable...from what I've heard Richard Yates famous novel is not exactly a happy tale. I shall read it soon.

Now that Little Children is on DVD and finally available to every Kate fan who was desperate to see it and presumably some of you reading along (god that movies release strategy. ack) ...how do you feel it ranks in her filmography?

Two more quick things:


First, I don't remember this photo above but I am obsessed with it at the moment. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

And finally... Here to your right is one more photo from the set of Revolutionary Road. I love the color on Kate's dress but this is quite possibly the most gargantuan handbag I've ever seen. It's nearly as big as Kate. What the hell is in this bag?

Mia and Joe? ...perhaps its nap time.
Her entire seven figure salary?

It's a mystery you should help me figure out in the comments. Any suspicions?

Release The Links

cinema
Wired a DIY Raiders of the Lost Ark
NY Times Manohla Dargis on Cannes' kick off
film ick the Blueberry Nights trailer. Wong Kar Wai directing Norah Jones and Jude Law
Defamer has a hilarious sexist look at Mary Jane Watson & Peter Parker
My New Plaid Pants investigates the hot ass in mainstream cinema [NSFW]
Maxim releases their Hot 100. Most are garden variety bimbos but there's a few points of film/tv interest in their list: #1 Lindsay Lohan (woot. I try not to love her. But I fail) #3. ScarJo #12. Angelina #29 Sarah Silverman (basically the only sign of non T&A based lust in their list) # 30. Rebecca Romijn #44. Rose McGowan # 46. Kristen Bell #55. Halle Berry (the only geriatric on the list --ewwww she's 40!... [/sarcasm] ...well, she's ancient for Maxim at least) #57. Tricia Helfer ("Six"!), # 58. Penelope Cruz # 64. Lena Headey (apparently starring as the audience beard in retarded action flicks about hot throbbing man muscles is good for your f***ability) #67. Gabrielle Union #80. Abbie Cornish #90. Salma Hayek and #91. Isla Fisher

offcinema
Arjan Writes Madonna going green for a charity single
Zoom In theorizing about the new Rufus Wainwright record Release the Stars
QueerSighted comes out as a TONY nut. Plus: predictions for the win
Slate has a fun interactive guide to help you keep track of GOP scandals. (Hey when you don't wanna cry, laugh)

and finally... I've talked enough about my own feelings about mixing religion and government (unhappiness, war, and misery for everyone. There'll be enough to go around!) but here are my two favorite articles on the death of Jerry Falwell, a human being --and therefore someone who is being mourned by some-- but not a very good one. Here's Gay Prof and fourfour with measured, funny, honest and insightful reactions.

20:07 (Pepe & Reinaldo)

Each morning a screenshot from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie


"Bring him a banana split with pistachio"
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A Place Where Broadway Dared To Go

Oh for what could have been... Xanadu is soon in previews on Broadway and I have yet to buy tickets. In workshops Jane Krakowski and Cheyenne Jackson (pictured left) were playing the Olivia and Michael Beck roles. I was hopping up and down with nostalgic glee. Jane. love. Cheyenne. yummm

Though I have made my displeasure with the film to stage movement known in the past, there are exceptions to every rule. I had high hopes for this particular adaptation: seemed like an ideal film to rethink and/or restylize into grand kitsch or goofy musical comedy. But though I love Xanadu I got suspicious when both Jane & Cheyenne (two of Broadways very best) opted out of / proved too expensive for / or otherwise exited the production. I am more wary of this rollerskating ELO/Olivia scored Greek muse disco musical than I ever expected to be.

Incidentally Cheyenne writes on his own website about once a month and he's pretty funny. There's great stories about hearing "sexyback" in an elevator, working pilot season in LA, and Xanadu rehearsals with Jane.

(I've added Jane Krakowski's TONY winning Nine number "A Call From the Vatican" as well as the Xanadu theme to the jukebox in the sidebar)

Thank You. (Toot Toot)

Not to toot my own horn but I noticed today that since I started tracking the comings and goings of this here blog a year and a half ago (it was originally intended as just a companion to my site but now its a destination on its own), I've now passed the million visits mark.

Thank you for staying on this cinematic journey with me from site to blog and back again. xoxo

Tony Nominations & Movie Connections

The whatever annual Tony nominations are here. You'll want to go directly to ModFab (always the place for great theater buzz) if you're looking for a complete list. My habit is to briefly comment and throw out movie suggestions... but really: Broadway is closer and closer to the movies (what with all the cross pollination) so I'm not in the mood. I'm just going to talk about the Best Musical Nominees.

Still, if you a) can't afford a ticket --that'd be most of the population or b) don't get to NYC often, you can play along at home by renting the movies these things are based on and then watching the TONY Awards in June.


In the category of "Best Musical" which, despite the presence of a correlative "Best Play" prize is really the grand kahuna. The "Best Picture" if you're thinking Oscar because it's the one with the $$$ should you manage a win. The voters went for

Curtains from the legendary team of Kander & Ebb (you know and love them even if you don't think you know them: They wrote Cabaret and Chicago --two of the bigges Oscar hauling musicals ever)
Grey Gardens pictured above. It's based on the legendary documentary about Jackie O's infamous relatives
Mary Poppins you're already familiar.
Spring Awakening which is an original from Duncan Sheik, former pop star.

The box office is with: Mary Poppins
The critics and the cool kids are behind: Spring Awakenings
I've only seen: Grey Gardens... which was pretty damn good with a great performance by Christine Ebersole which will undoubtedly win the TONY.
Snubbed: Legally Blonde --some say is a pretty shoddy movie to stage transfer but it could still prove a tourist trap. And LoveMusik which had all the buzz on paper since it had a great topic (the love affair between Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya) and cast (Tony winners Michael Cerveris, last season's Sweeney Todd, and diva extraodinaire Donna Murphy who moviegoers will recognize as Doctor Octopus wife from Spider-Man 2 but really she's an insanely talented woman. Easily among the best performers anywhere.)

"Best Musical Revival" isn't usually as exciting. Broadway shouldn't repeat themselves as often as they do. But it's not all their fault. Audiences, just like at the movies, tend to flock to familiar looking stuff even if the great stuff is elsewhere. *sigh* The voters chose:

The Apple Tree which was another success for Kristin Chenowith who is pure joy on stage. She plays to the back row and she does it with such enthusiasm and comic inspiration that you're always laughing and in love. As my friend Kay remarked the other night while we were applauding Kristin at a concert "She knows she's in a barn" Hee. Kristin is also one of those rare Broadway stars with some general off stage fame as well, CDs, concerts, the talk show circuit and movie work (she was last seen onscreen as Annette Bening's lover in Running With Scissors).
110 in the Shade This is the latest for TONY champion Audra McDonald. She's crazy beloved on Broadway (she's only 36 and she's nearing the record for most TONY winning performances ever)
A Chorus Line Previously adapted into a not-very-good movie in 1985. If you've got a hankering to witness the dancers life I'd watch All That Jazz instead.
Company Broadway sensation Raul Esparza headlines the latest Sondheim revival --this one uses the same technique that Sweeney Todd did last season: the actors play their own instruments.

The box office is with: A Chorus Line
The critics are behind: Company
I've seen: both of those. A Chorus Line deserves its immense fame as a landmark musical. But when it comes to these reworks I Sondheim's genius marital angst musical has a much stronger cast and production and deserves the win. A Chorus Line feels like it's trapped under glass. To me at least. For a show that's all about being a fly on the wall for a gritty look at Broadway babies it needs to feel more contemporary and spontaneous to really work.

And once again, for the complete list with acting nominees and such, head over to Modern Fabulousity. There's several movie faces in the mix but big stars like Kevin Spacey and Julianne Moore were shunned.

20:07 (Journey)

each morning a screenshot from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie


No dialogue. Crucial evocative image/moment from the movie. Can you guess the film?

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My favorite 20:07 (Cabaret, Carrie, Boogie Nights, Junebug, Rosemary's Baby, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert)
Lively 20:07 discussions (Showgirls, The Sign of the Cross, Corpse Bride, Mulholland Drive)

Nicole Kidman as Margot

Tonight is one of those dread insomnia nights. So I play on the internet instead of sleeping and post at ungodly hours. *sigh* But all is not bleak. There's lovely photos to gaze upon. Lookie here... Ted Z's got a photo of Nicole in Margot at the Wedding. Looks like a bonafide production still.