Naked Gold Man: Baby Steps

Festival season (Hello TIFF!) births and defeats many Oscar dreams. But it's worth remembering that while all the festival "sure things" are named and buzzed about -- Slumdog Millionaire, Rachel Getting Married, The Burning Plain, Lovely Still, Changeling, The Wrestler, etcera... -- that they're rarely counted. There are only 5 slots in each category... or less. The Oscar race is long and hard and there are few sure things. Particularly in September.

But one thing that the new buzz reflects truthfully is that the race is always on. Oscar competition starts long before a film is released -- critical perceptions and audience reactions can never be controlled per se but they can be manipulated and managed, tweaked, anticipated, hyped or countered. This occurs in any number of ways from the moment of conception: the pre-production buzz (who is cast? is John Q Director right for the material?) to birth...


...(the first reviews and that nail biting opening weekend) to the toddler days when the film starts exhibiting its own personality, a product of both nature (filmmakers as proud parents) and nurture (pre-Oscar awards, media favoritism and industry and public discussions serving up the Environment).

And even if a golden hopefully is great and/or statue friendly (not always the same thing), there's the completely uncontrollable variable: what and who else is dancing around begging for the same attention? Fact: A year with 30 truly great lead performances will result in the same number of nominees as a year with only 7. This is why "locks" are so rare despite the ubiquity of the word in nearly every Oscar conversation.

That said, the following cute toddlers will surely be included in that invitation-only private school @ the Kodak Theater. They've made the race that much more difficult for any young film choosing to follow.

Animated Film - WALL•E. Only 2 spots left and they'll just be happy to be nominated.
Visual Effects - Iron Man. You know they'll honor it somewhere ... somewhere being right here. Only 2 spots left
Score -John Williams for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Why would they stop now? He's been nominated for every single Indy outing. Only 4 spots left.
Acting - only 19 actors and actress need apply for the 20 spots.

Heath Ledger's Joker performance in The Dark Knight is still monumentally creepy to think about or be reminded of, isn't it? Eight weeks of ubiquity, often a great inoculation for hysterically praised work, haven't managed to dilute its feverish pull. That's an impressive feat and a performance that once seemed like a worthy "likely contender" is now a "lock". But we still don't know what this means for the larger Oscar picture. And it's all about the larger picture. "Supporting" is where Ledger's buzz first happened. But many voices are starting to shout for "Lead" status. The Joker's ghostly presence and penchant for chaos will affect future candidates and the Oscar race... but which one. Both? Pre-season can be filled with reversals... he could conceivable alter the chances of candidates in both categories as actors jockey for space and attention in the abundant pre-season honors. And does the desire to honor the late great young actor, pull the rest of the film and its achievements upwards and into the Kodak or not? It's also possible that the long haul to Oscar nominations (still 4 months away) could convince some voters that Ledger's posthumous nomination honor is reward enough for this Batman film. Honestly, what does Batman contribute to his own movie (this time around)?

Ledger's performance is already briskly jogging towards that January goal. Other competitors are still crawling. Penélope Cruz and Woody Allen's writing (the latter always somewhat in the running) could very well represent for Vicky Cristina Barcelona but neither are done deals and could be crowded out with ease if the fall films are especially strong. Richard Jenkins (The Visitor) Melissa Leo (Frozen River -previous article) will now be leaving the safe realm of the theoretically worthy and entering the real world of starry household name competitors and heavily funded movies. I love the arrival of the fall films. So many golden possibilities ahead. I personally can't wait to see what happens next. And you?

Oscar Prediction Revisions & Best Actress Psychic updates are coming round about September 20th (apologies for the long wait)

Linkview Terrace

A few of today's links are not hot off the presses (my god that phrase is dated, huh?) but my timeline is all skiwampus what with the interstate travelling and disorienting movie-drought. Forgive! Just two more weeks and I shall be back to normal. Or as close to normal as I get.

New York Magazine Recommend-O-Matic. A must see.
As Little As Possible J.J. wraps up his Telluride journey with a top 5.
StinkyLulu's Smackdowns are so much fun. My favorite monthly event on the 'net. And I forgot to link to 1966 and Sandy Dennis's "Honey". And she'd already had such a rough night at the hands of George and Martha? Voting is going on now for October's competition.


Sleeps to Dream Zhang Ziyi to star in Clash of the Titans remake! I kid. It's just a Grecian themed photoshoot for the Chinese Harpers Bazaar.
The Playlist Samuel L Jackson wants more titties in the movies. So do I. '70s movies would eat modern movies alive. (Anything below an R rating is not suitable for horror and thrillers if you ask me)
The Hot Blog thinks Landau & Burstyn could find Oscar traction with Lovely, Still
Defamer talks to David Cronenberg about The Fly: The Opera. I'm really obsessed with this adaptation for some reason. Is it because the 1986 movie was so good? Or just because I am twisted for Cronenberg?
Variety if you haven't yet read their rave for The Wrestler you should: such sudden Oscar buzz.
I Watch Stuff the Bettany-Connellys as the Darwins. His and Hers Oscars for 2010? Biopics are evolving. They will eventually become larger than normal movies and devour all other genres.

Brad Pitt, CGI-aged in David Fincher's ...Benjamin Button (Dec '08)

I also like this article from Anne Thompson about the studio fear of auteurs with big vision. It's such a constant battle in Hollywood and a recycling drama that will outlive us all. The money people are always going to fear the talent, Product being so much easier to sell than Art...
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Anika

Anika Noni Rose has forged such a promising young career playing the fresh & exuberant that I had quite a shock yesterday realizing she'd just turned 36. Perhaps she's like the black Amy Adams, i.e. cute, bubbly, and youthful in persona and appeal only not so newly formed in reality. Age ain't nuthin' but a number.

Let's recap: She survived an awful teenage Spring Break in From Justin to Kelly (my review) @ 31 in keeping with the popularly demeaned Hollywood tradition of casting 30somethings as teenagers (Hello Grease). She won the TONY as the joyful optimistic teen daughter in the otherwise grim (but brilliant) Caroline or Change @ 32. Most famously, she loved & left Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls @ 34...

Lorrell and Jimmy are thru-uuuuu

gifting the film with one of its two most potent sung through lines of dialogue. You can guess the other one.

We've talked about the plight of black actresses in Hollywood before --even vibrant ones like Anika can run into brick walls and glass ceilings. The infrastructure for their fame just isn't there. Black superstar actors aren't often screen paired with them (think of Will Smith's onscreen girls), and they usually aren't paired with white actors either. The remaining option then is supporting roles and unless those are head-turning jewels as parts go, they don't make you a big star. Eventually they end up in the ensemble of TV shows. There are certainly worse fates for actors (their names are Unemployment and Obscurity!) but still...

Here's hoping that Anika gets another boost from her starring (voice) role in Disney's 2-D picture The Princess and the Frog in 2009. The teaser doesn't do much to instill faith in the musical adaptation (Randy Newman, again?)...


...but you never know. Disney was once great at making traditional 2-D animation. And they certainly helped to revive the musical. A comeback could theoretically be just around the corner. Anika's got the pipes should they give her anything worth singing about. Will they?
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Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

It's the "Musical of the Month"!

One of the funniest sequences in Frank Oz's adaptation of the Off-Broadway hit Little Shop of Horrors is the introduction of the villain, Audrey II. At first Audrey II, a "strange and unusual plant" seems like a godsend for a struggling flower shop down on Skid Row. Tarty but kind Audrey (Ellen Greene) and mousy Seymour (Rick Moranis) have convinced their boss Mr Mutchnik (2-time Oscar nominee Vincent Gardenia) to display Audrey II in the window to drum up business. Immediately, to Mutchnik's disbelief, the pathetic trio are deluged with eager customers. The jokes fly fast, both visually and aurally, as huge handfuls of flowers are tossed about and overly expository dialogue is continually repeated in doorways, over registers and through windows.

Director Frank Oz was an inspired if obvious choice for transferring Little Shop from its stage pot into the larger garden of cinema with roots intact. The Audrey II would have to be a massive puppet villain and he knew from felt and foam. He provided the unforgettable voices of both Miss Piggy and Yoda and had previously directed the eye-popping puppet spectacle The Dark Crystal (1982). His filmography is wildly uneven but Little Shop proved the true jewel in his resume. It was, like the Audrey II, a strange and unusual movie for its time.

It's not really up for debate: the 1980s Musicals were Skid Row. The genre was the most undesirable of movie zip codes.

Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene belt out "Skid Row" with affecting desperation

Movie musicals were rare, and when they did arrive they were ill attended and relatively uninspired. Eventually filmmakers moved away. Maybe it was an unavoidable collapse, what with Bob Fosse's 70s masterpieces (Cabaret and All That Jazz) casting 'Can't top this!' shadows and MTV shrinking the taste for musical narratives into bite sized portions. Gentrification of the musical genre would start with the animated blockbusters of the 90s. Live-action musical would follow finally kicking up their heels again at the turn of the millenium. This is why I still cherish Little Shop of Horrors (1986). In the mid-80s it was rather like the Audrey II (prior to all the icky flesh eating!). For musical aficionados it was a strange and unusual sight but very welcome indeed.

I've always been fascinated with the decision making process involved in stage to screen transfers. Many movies based on plays are notoriously nervous about appearing "stagy". Little Shop of Horrors mostly avoids this awkwardness and seems delighted to be an odd hybrid of both traditions. The movie version never tries to present reality. The sets come with painted backdrops; pouring rain never once douses the trio of narrators (doo wop girls as Greek chorus = endlessly amusing) -- but it also takes obvious care to honor the "motion" in pictures. The camera is always moving, restlessly trying out new angles and there is a nifty depth of field to the production, even within small rooms. Little Shop acknowledges the diorama views provided by stage shows, but your eye is continually moving around and inside the prosceniums: up and down staircases, peeping through smudged windows and traveling through doorways. Frank Oz is taking you into every nook and cranny of Skid Row.

But the single most brilliant decision made in transfer was the retention of Ellen Greene for "Audrey" the role she created.

Audrey in a fog. Yet there isn't an out of focus moment in Greene's portrayal

Most movie musicals jettison their original stars, occasionally to their benefit (not all stage performers can kindle the same fire onscreen), but often to their detriment (the size of stardom superseding all else including vocal technique and general rightness for a role). Little Shop of Horrors provides us with the rare opportunity of seeing a star-making stage turn transferred in full with none of its magic diminished.

Greene's Audrey is a risky and unmovie-like creation (it's easy to imagine the same thing on stage -- which usually isn't a compliment), but her confidence and creativity are stunning. She so thoroughly owns the role that the performance transcends its origins. She'd performed Audrey hundreds of times but it's still vital and alive. She's Seymour's heart and the heart of the movie. To keep the blood of this production pumping she's got to swallow huge amounts of air. The oxygen only escapes her again in huge blasts, barely audible squeaks or quiet pockets of breathy tenderness. Greene's voice is a marvel both in song and spoken word. And so's her look: that impossible silhouette, round cartoon breasts, helmet hair, and tiny frame were surely visible from the back row in the theater and so, undoubtedly, was the performance. Yet for all of that she's still endearing in closeup.

I'd go so far as to nominate Ellen Greene for Best Actress for 1986. At the Oscars that year the nominee pool was a famously two-horse race (documented here before) between Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God (working the disability hook that Oscar is often moved by), and Kathleen Turner in Peggy Sue Got Married who was inhabiting the more hit-n-miss terrain of the 'huge movie star whose time has (supposedly) come'. Here's a comparison chart:


I haven't seen any of these films recently, save Little Shop, so my nominees are subject to change (Farrow would be the first to drop but... for whom? Melanie Griffith in Something Wild? Jessica Lange in Crimes of the Heart? One of Oscar's choices?), but this is how I'm calling it today with Little Shop's soundtrack playing in my head. Forget "Somewhere That's Green", Ellen Greene was robbed of Something That's Gold in 1986. Marvel at this injustice: she wasn't even up for a Golden Globe for Comedy or Musical performance! Awards bodies were channeling her sadistic dentist boyfriend that year, weren't they? There weren't enough kindhearted Seymour's standing beside her.


Blogosphere of Horrors (MotM Participants)
Mondo Musicals has written about this movie extensively. It shows. His new piece is about the altered ending and the details surrounding it's release.

Warner Bros intended the film for the audience least likely to appreciate its genre-bending sensibility. For Little Shop was marketed not as a Halloween treat...but as a family-friendly Christmas picture.

Much Ado About Nothing on that great Greek Chorus
Movies Kick Ass Jose let's a train of thought carry him all sorts of places
Criticlasm remembers his first time with the movie and revisits to see if it remains as loveable
StinkyBits on his favorite bits and the most troubling one

...the plant becomes ever more like a manifestation of the vagina dentata, albeit with the voice of an urban black man. Two great castration anxiety tropes squished together in one giant puppet.

Monday morning, we'll round up the possibilities for October's Musical of the Month and reveal November's too!

Golden Lions in the Ring

Could The Wrestler, the new unexpected Darren Aronofsky movie starring Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei have Oscar in its future? It just won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival which is big news indeed. Mickey Rourke is the kind of storied celebrity that could keep the press humming and you need the press for real Oscar runs. As for Marisa Tomei, she's always fabulous and a possibility too with the right movie / right role. I actually broke the news of her involvement in this film on my podcastinterview weeks before the trades published her casting... only I didn't know it was news ;) Silly me!

Best Film (Golden Lion): The Wrestler by Darren Aronofsky (US)
Best Director: Aleksei German for Paper Soldier (Russia) the true story of the Soviet Union's
'first man in space' mission in the 60s.

Best Actor: Silvio Orlando in Il Papa di Giovanna, a Mussolini-era drama.
Best Actress: Dominique Blanc in L'Autre as an independent but jealous woman.
Best Young Actor or Actress (The Marcello Mastroianni Award): Jennifer Lawrence in The Burning Plain by Guillermo Arriaga (both of them pictured right).
Special Jury Prize and Screenplay Prize: Teza by Haile Gerima (Ethiopia / Germany)
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There is Nothing Like a Dame

"My street cred is gone."
-Dame Helen Mirren on receiving the honor.

Dame Maggie Smith. Dame Judi Dench. Dame Agatha Christie. Dame Helen Mirren. Dame Peggy Ashcroft. Dame Eileen Atkins. Dame May Whitty. Dame Edna. Dame Shirley Bassey. Dame Julie Andrews. Dame Gladys Cooper. Dame Edith Evans. Dame Vivienne Westwood. Or Dame Elizabeth Taylor?

It's your choice. Just make one.

Stop Making Link

Electronic Cerebrectomy throws down. God Blockbuster is annoying. Netflix and GreenCine forever!
In Contention revisits Chris Nolan's first film Following. With audio Q & A!
popbytes has been going for 5 years strong today. Congratulations MK!
Hot Blog David Poland loves Rachel Getting Married. Calls Demme's artistic comeback "a minor masterpiece"
NewNowNext Alan Ball and the HBO's vampire series True Blood
The Big Picture looks at Me and Orson Welles


Scanners spreads that viral Juneau poster. hee
Design You Trust 'Emo for Obama'. also awesome
Black Book has superb photos of Tilda Swinton. [editors note: Are there any other kind?]
Getty Impossibly, Anne Hathaway gets better looking every year. Here she is @ Venice
And Your Little Blog, Too made this nifty 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' movie queen montage... Never take a beautiful girl and hide her away from the rest of the world. That's like a felony in my world



* The Little Shop of Horrors "musical of the month" celebration will be up @ 6 PM EST today. Get those posts ready!

"I've got plenty of joy in my life!"

Women Who Lie To Themselves. (circa 1999)

Friday's... Pointless Hitchcock Trivia

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JA from MNPP here, with a bit of useless knowledge straight from the dregs of IMDb to entertain your computer-less friends with. This is specifically in reference to Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 classic Strangers on a Train, which I gave the murdering-once-over back home at my blog yesterday.

Did You Know! That when our villain Bruno Anthony, so memorably played by Robert Walker (just eight months before his death from an allergic reaction to the sedative sodium amytal), reaches into the street-drain to try and grab the lighter he's dropped which will prove his guilt, Hitch personally selected all the detritus littering said drain?


Can't you just picture the P.A., lining up the hunks of filth in ascending order of ickiness, Hitch strolling alongside them, hankie over his smirking-thru-his-distaste grin? And the resulting inevitable double entendre about what a dirty boy or girl they were then mumbled devilishly? Heavens to Tippi I can see the whole scene in my mind's eye so clearly.

Speaking of our villain Bruno Anthony here though has got me thinking - I think Bruno's possibly my favorite Hitchcock villain. He's just... so pathetic. Lounging around his big house in his silk robe whining to his mother... falling for the dreamboat tennis star and proving his love with a deranged scheme... he's delightful.

It's quite the rogue's gallery Hitch assembled, so on another day (another second) I might choose someone else as Hitch's Greatest Villain (Lars Thorwald cuts a creepy shape to be sure, and then there's that confused boy named Norman...), but today... today is Bruno Anthony Day! Give him some love, y'all!

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What's your least favorite part of your favorite movie?

Get nitpicky in the comments. Leave that scene or character on the cutting room floor. (The movie will still love you for loving it)
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Puny Movies. Streep Smash!

Labor Day essentially drew a big chalk line between the summer movie season ended and the serious realms of back to school and fall film season, so let's briefly check back in to the year's box office. Where we stand now as it were.

Best Picture (if Oscar were like "People's Choice")
01 The Dark Knight $505 and climbing
It's finally slowing down going into its 8th week but damn... now that is a zeitgeist picture. The term gets overused (I'm guilty too) but that's a real one. So many people responding to it. It's the only modern film that's ever turned itself into a threat to Titanic.
02 Iron Man $317
03 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull $315
I finally watched this. I thought 'Oh, Nat. Don't be such a stick in the mud just because you sometimes think franchises should die noble deaths rather than be exhumed.' But um... even as I found myself completely ready for F-U-N --I guarantee I was in the right mood -- I wasn't having much. Cate Blanchett was sort of a hoot even if her accent was both half baked and deliciously burnt...but that wasn't much of a character to play. I was happy in concept and sometimes in execution to see Marion and Indy reunited. But yikes, this movie is lame. CGI gophers?
04 Hancock $227
05 WALL•E $218
I heart this movie. Should probably see again. I still can't fathom how Cars was a bigger hit than this? Ah well, at least with Pixar, they're always hits and $200+ is nothing to complain about.

Runners Up
06 Kung Fu Panda $213
07 Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who! $154
08 Sex & The City $152
09 The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian $141
This is why everybody does and should make sequels: People will go to them dutifully even if they're not particularly enthused. Force of habit.
10 Mamma Mia! $ 133 and still singing
I haven't seen it which you must know is madness. I know it's supposed to be terrible (which wouldn't surprise me) but Nathaniel missing musicals and Meryl... [gasp]. Still, I can't bear to think of seeing that one alone and I don't have my movie going buddies around since I'm still a hotel dweller.


Technically, at the day of this writing, The Incredible Hulk holds that number ten spot, somehow eking out a teensy victory over Wanted which people seemed to like a whole lot more at the time but which didn't have any legs to speak of, barring Angelina's. Still: Streep Smash! Mamma Mia! (#12 as of right now) will outdistance them both this weekend since it's still in the top ten. That big green giant just can't catch a break. First he struggled all summer just to beat the original outing (by a narrow 2 million) and with that big monkey of a budget on his back, cutting into his profits.

If the (redundant) Mamma Mia! Sing-Along idea catches on, Streep will have an even bigger hit than she already has. What was that about female led films being box office poison? Remember that panic when Jodie Foster couldn't make her usual numbers with The Brave One? Never mind. If The Women tanks on September 12th you'll start hearing that tired meme all over again. "Women can't sell movies. Pay no attention to those many films behind the curtain (of your short term memory)!"

Films that should have been bigger hits...
A Girl Cut in Two (France) $95,000 in the states / $7.6 million abroad
I think it would be fascinating if, for just one year, we who weren't present for the American craze for the foreign film (60s and 70s) could experience what it was like when hipsters, at least, flocked to them.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (US) $13.7 million
It's doing very well if you look at it on the Woody Allen curve... but given the solidity of its performance, shouldn't it be getting more than a couple of dozen new theaters in its fourth weekend?
In Bruges (UK) $7.8 million in the States / $18.5 million abroad.
I keep thinking this will become more widely loved on DVD
Reprise (Norway) $554,000 in the states / $647,000 abroad
It didn't cross that 1 million threshold that used to be the mark of a foreign hit here at the arthouses but the number of subtitled pictures that are able to do that per year has dwindled. Half a million is a very respectable gross these days once you cross the ocean. Still, one wishes it were more.

Will the Fall Film Season bring any real box office players or just golden hopefuls?
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Rachel Getting Postered

Let's hope that she's more memorable in motion than in still advertisements. Ho hum.


I'd be very excited about that "awards calibre" blurb but for that it comes from the keyboard of Peter B.W.* Travers who, if you take his words literally, would like all Oscar categories expanded to include about 50 nominees each year. At least. So free with the hosannas that one.

How excited are you to see Rachel Getting Married? Is Anne Hathaway the life of your movie party or do you think she's more of a cinematic gate crasher?

*Blurb Whore

Vampires x 4

Flipping channels in my hotel room it occurred to me that I had HBO and that I could watch True Blood. Sadly, it hasn't yet debuted at this writing. It's been too long since something vampiric caught my eye. I love the bloodsuckers as you know. Herewith, four favorite neck biting things...


1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is so easily my all time favorite vampire property that it's tough to remind myself that I actually loved the children of the night long before Buffy ever moved to Sunnydale. In fact, I loved them back in grade school when the only thing "Buffy" signified to me was the little sister of a girl named Emily that I crushed on. 2. Homoerotic Vampires. Bless Anne Rice for bringing this subgenre to the mainstream (I still love thinking of Brad Pitt's 'little death' in the Interview movie) but I'm letting Poppy Z Brite's Lost Souls stand in here for the photographic representation of vampires who bite both necks and pillows. 3. Near Dark (1987) which you have not seen. tsk tsk. "finger lickin' good" 4. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). The best vampire movie ever may well be Werner Herzog's Nosferatu but this is the one I always think of when the subject arises, both for its miracles and its follies, either of which can arguably and accurately represent what vampires are capable of if you manage to catch their reflection on celluloid.

Are you excited for HBO's True Blood?

Or is the media correcting in trumpeting your total obsession with awaiting Twilight's arrival in December?

And given this impending next wave of undead fervor --the vampires may yet steal the beastly movie crown back from the zombies who now control it -- why didn't CBS think to stick it out one more season with Moonlight?

I always have so many bloody questions. Give me lots of answers.
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Flashback: Cher Feels Pretty ... Oh So Pretty

The Muppet Show moment I had two days back got me thinking about variety shows and their absence from pop culture. The closest thing we've got these days is Saturday Night Live and its copycats (all long past their prime) and maybe shows like 30 Rock or Pushing Daisies (and Ally McBeal before them) that mix surreal out-of-nowhere touches into their comedy and throw in occassional musical numbers courtesy of their Broadway-bred actors. Whilst thinking about this artform, my friend shot me a link to an old Sonny & Cher show classic [correction: or is it? I guess I'm not sure]. It's Cher performing my favorite film West Side Story. She plays all the parts.



Cher is gonna have her kicks tonii-iiight. She'll star in a private little mix toniii---iiight. Well she began it. Well she began it. And she's the one to stop it once and for all...

Maybe Cher out to have another farewell tour or another Vegas show that includes this old chestnut.
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Milk, Finally Spilled

the trailer



Sean Penn looks and sounds pretty great, right? Oscar Nom #5 coming right up. But between this and W., is Josh Brolin planning to be the most despicable person alive this fall (onscreen I mean)? Perhaps he got jealous of Javier Bardem's malevolent awards spree last year.
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Oscars for my Birthday? How Kind

After a fitful night of sleep the previous evening, I woke up today glowing and refreshed. In fact, I overslept. If my dreaming had been lucid I would have overslept even more. In my dream all of my friends had gathered to take me on a picnic of sorts which happened to coincide with Oscar nomination morning. Which was also my birthday. Somehow late January and June 6th were occurring on the same day but I'm not going to turn down a birthday party... or Oscar nomination morning!

If friends and Oscars weren't enough, the dream got sweeter: Michelle Pfeiffer was holding a press conference at the park. This could only mean one thing. Tears welled up in my eyes (in the dream, remember! I'm not that much of a sentimentalist) as I realized La Pfeiffer has snagged herself a surprise Oscar nod.


For what movie I don't know (though Dakota Fanning was with her suggesting that the dream was past tense and that I Am Sam was involved. But it felt more like What Lies Beneath). I wouldn't trade this dream for anything since I also spoke to her and she remembered me (presumably from another dream... but that one isn't fit to share). So there you go.

I hope your dreams last night were as goddess or trophy filled. Were they? Don't be shy.
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Mothers on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Adventures in DC Part 2

This weekend with friends visiting for the holidays we hit a lot of museums (and margaritas. shhhh). My friends are almost to a one culture lovers so museums are often good options. One of the best things we saw was something called The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image (closing this coming weekend, here's a NYT review]. All of the video installations were about the way the motion picture portrays or pretend realism. My favorite piece in the roundup was by Candice Breitz and simply titled Mother (pictured below)


In the supremely well edited six screen extravaganza Faye Dunaway as Mommie Dearest, Susan Sarandon & Julia Roberts from Stepmom, Meryl Streep the ex Mrs. Kramer, Diane Keaton The Good Mother and Shirley Maclaine ...from the Edge have what amounts to a schizophrenic tearful and angry conversation filled with interrupted monologues and asides about being mothers and women. Fused together and separated from the context of their films, Keaton actually rivals Dunaway's camp icon for overacting and Maclaine comes across as the most sane. "I am...[slams piano]... STILL. HERE." This, as you may have guessed, is unsettling. Clearly none of them have been taking their meds. It's very very funny.

Thought provoking too, sure, in its voyeuristic way but I mention the funny because too few people in museums ever laugh. Another piece in the exhibit lampoons the E! True Hollywood Story pretending great typical rise-and-fall fame for Francesco Vezzoli following that nifty Trailer for the Remake of Caligula in which he convinced Gerard Butler, Helen Mirren, Milla Jovovich, Courtney Love and more to star. His E! prank follows all of the beats of those shallow infotainment documentaries so well that anyone who sat next to me in the room didn't get that it was a spoof. (I saw the ending three times -- trying to let friends catch up) and both times when it ended conversations were along the lines of "I have never heard of this guy. He's famous?" or "Did he really die?" Before you think this is a Nathaniel feeling superior moment I assure you it was more along the lines of confusion. The exhibit is called "Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image" and every piece is about how the presented real is never real. I really think misunderstandings arise because people don't expect humor when they go to see "Art". Certainly not humor that pairs Dame Helen Mirren, gay porn, Dietrich, biopic cliché and infotainment specials.

P.S. There was also a companion piece to Mother called Father which featured Dustin Hoffman, Steve Martin, Jon Voight, Tony Danza (!?) and Harvey Keitel but it wasn't as interesting. Men never are. But give me six Hollywood moms on the verge of nervous breakdowns? Bliss.
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Because you've been good museum attendees today, here's a retro treat. It's Shirley Maclaine's house rattling "I'm Still Here" from Postcards from the Edge.



How Maclaine wasn't Oscar nominated for this turn as the Debbie Reynolds-esque mom in this movie is one of the great mysteries of the 1990s.
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Linkocracy

Best Week Ever hilariously points at the critical plunge for those execrable Movie Movies.
Everything I Know... checks out Whoopi Goldberg in Broadway's Xanadu. This particular bit o' casting ends this weekend.
Buzz Sugar Don LaFontaine (RIP). "In a world where..."
Out in Hollywood chats briefly with Ellen Burstyn. We love her, don't we.
Bauer Griffin Madonna and Guy rock it out at the RocknRolla premiere


Some Came Running a great lengthy post on late summer movie season in... 1986! Wheeee. "Get away from her you bitch!"
Darren Aronofsky loves the tune Springsteen wrote him for The Wrestler. Oscar nom?
i09 ponders the possibly deleted scenes from The Incredible Hulk
off-cinema
The Advocate an article on self-image and bodies. This has nothing to do with the movies but the concept of the piece is interesting
Lazy Circles has succinct but fun takedowns of Sarah Palin.
Defamer also breaks out the funny with the GOP ticket.

And as you bid another link post adieu, wave goodbye to the greatest heavily freckled movie star in the world (pictured here @ the Brazilian premiere of Blindness)

[src]

Bye Julie! See you soon at the movie theater
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"You're Always Welcome at My House"

Nathaniel here. Does anyone else remember that Marisa Berenson episode of The Muppet Show (no, you're too young!) wherein she abuses her visitors and guests. So wrong. But so cute!



I loved The Muppet Show as a kid. I was insane for it basically. Cuckoo for felt monsters and musical numbers. It's sad that today's kids don't get any good variety shows. ANYWAYS... I was thinking about this skit today because I've been such a greedy host. My guests keep looking nervously at the door. Their darting eyes and beads of sweat seem to whisper "Will he ever let us leave? The other guests were never expected to stay this long?!"

You can't see me but I'm unlocking the door. I'm also genuflecting to (in no particular order) Adam, Jonathan, Whitney, JA and Robert who I really leaned on heavily this past month. I invited them because I love their blogs, so check those out and/or subscribe. Good times guaranteed.


I missed the movies so badly in August. I see a light at the end of my Off-Cinema tunnel and I'm taking back the reigns. But you'll still be hearing from other voices from time to time. I love group efforts. Living on the net shouldn't be lonely. JA is sticking around for a weekly column to be determined --I can't live/blog? (...same thing) without him and we love movie-obsessing together despite disparate cinematic interests. There's also a special new weekly guest feature coming that I think you'll love... and even if you don't, I will! And my first rule of thumb for providing free entertainment is to entertain myself. Me! Me! Me!

20:08 (Ludivine in Motion)

Thoughts and screenshots from the 20th minute and 8th second of films released in 2008. I was missing my 20:07 series so I'm bringing it back albeit in an altered form. Looking only @ this year's titles.


Ludivine Sagnier (in motion) doesn't like to wash dishes. Particularly not while the men lounge about in the next room. And especially not after awkward conversations with her mother (smoking) about her new threesome!

This random screenshot pulled from Christophe Honoré's young musical Love Songs, which flitted briefly across stateside screens in March, proved serendipitous. Because when I think of Ludivine Sagnier, which is more often than you'd guess, she strikes me as a Girl of Perpetual Motion. With some actresses I think of close-ups. Not so with Sagnier. Whether it's the languidly sexual movements in Swimming Pool, the youthful bounce in 8 Women or even her exaggerated bratty gesturing as Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, in my mind's eye she's always on the go.

<--- I haven't finished watching Love Songs yet but I grinned impulsively the second I saw her hair swinging in closeup in the opening credits. She's walking to a movie theater as this film begins. So meta ...or so French whichever the case may be.

Come to think of it, Ludivine's current film A Girl Cut in Two has a fine uninterrupted shot of the intoxicating starlet hurrying down the street, too. I loved the movie when I saw it @ the NYFF last year, but it's kind of a blur now. My memory might be faulty but that particular long cut felt like a bullet shot, a dividing line for the film as the victim/heroine raced from its first half into its second, hormones and emotions in disarray. Another image from A Girl Cut in Two that also loops in the brain is a kinkier suggestive one of Ludivine on all fours crawling towards her svengali lover. I was so pleased to discover that the new poster uses it.


Ludivine je t'aime.
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I've Linked You So Long

In Contention joins in on the Kristin Scott Thomas Oscar buzz (for I've Loved You So Long). Could we really have a French language film in the Best Actress race two years running?
As Little As Possible filing reports from Telluride. Can't wait to see some of these films
Anne Thompson's Telluride Watch, too.
Daily GreenCine collects the rousing response to Slumdog Millionaire, a festival breakout
Just Jared burns up for Charlize Theron at her latest premiere. fwiw, the shoes are beyond fierce.


Drawn! highlight a Gremlins fan film. Ah DIY film culture.
Guardian wonders why "chick flicks" have such a shallow pool of themes
LA Rag Kevin Spacey gets cheeky. Oh, come out already man. It's so tiresome.
Big Screen Little Screen Audrey Tatou as Coco Chanel.

And -- trés awkward segueway --please cheer me up in the comments. This consulting gig I'm doing (no, I don't make a living from writing just yet) is wearing me down. Nathaniel is missing the movies and Manhattan and friends. and especially his cat! I never intended to doom him to depression by naming him after Montgomery Clift ... but the name proved prophetic. He's not exactly a chipper thing. When he's not morose he can be demonic. But now that I've abandoned him for a month, I worry. His brain is so tiny and he doesn't speak English and I'm like the only thing he loves. I feel guilt. GUILT. He's soft and fuzzy and I fear that if I don't return soon he won't need Lacuna Inc to erase his memories of me. Are there any pet owners out there who can relate?

Step Brothers

There are some movies that are worth exactly $3. Step Brothers was one of them. Entertaining enough to keep me interested for a good 3/4 of the movie, sappy enough to appeal to the kid in all of us, and funny enough for a few good belly laughs. 

While the childish antics of Brennan (Ferrell) and Dale (Reilly) are initially nothing short of hilarious, their insults and bonding montages start to get a little tiresome. By the time the two boys have successfully ruined their parents' life, the movie hits a bit of a standstill, rolling from one bit of repetitive physical comedy to the next.

Luckily the film saves itself in the end with new found maturity that gives us this quote after Brennan loses his job:

"I'm so scared right now. I'm just gonna do what's sensible, I'm gonna file for unemployment. Then I'm gonna try to get a job at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, because they got an excellent corporate structure and they...they give you the tools to be your own boss."

And that points to the reason this movie actually works for me. While the physical comedy is silly and a little amateur, the subtle bits of dialogue involving popular culture and creative use of the many words for male genitalia actually save the movie. This seems so backwards. It's usually those pop culture references that ruin films, dating them with overused observations about today's world (hey everyone, let's make a movie about a cell phone! We'll call in 88 Minutes but the movie will be much much much longer than that!). In this case the pop culture is so far out there that it struck me as very clever. Likewise, I think, with all the poop and fart humor. It's just different enough that it surprises you. And, most importantly, makes you laugh.

Cast This! Then We Came to the End

August's Cast This! book club selection, for our imaginary movie-making pleasure, was the comedic (tragicomic?) office culture novel Then We Came to the End. The acclaimed best seller tells the crowded collective story of a group of managers and creatives at a fictional ad agency in Chicago. The agency is failing and one by one they're dropping like flies vanishing as they "walk Spanish" down the halls with pink slips in hand. The book sharply divided my friends, or rather, it sharply divided their opinions from mine -- I loved it, they did not. Hopefully, your feelings for it are closer to mine. But even if you didn't enjoy ... I hope you had fun trying to cast it as you read along.

The Boss
Lynn Mason described as a "cool detached beauty" would be the most important role to cast. She's the closest thing the book has to a lead though she doesn't take center stage till late in the narrative once her employees start gossiping about whether or not she has breast cancer. Described thusly

Lynn Mason was intimidating, mercurial, unapproachable, fashionable and consummately professional. She was not a big woman --in fact, she was rather petite -- but when we thought of her from home at night, she loomed large.

The workaholic partner of the firm keeps her personal life to herself. She doesn't have much of one. She commands respect from her presence alone but the actress essaying her will have to have a certain fragility about her. She makes her employees nervous but at the same time they actually do like and respect her so the actress needs to be formidable but warm ... the "unapproachable" description is from your unreliable narrator. I thought of Joan Allen for Lynn's steel spine. But Joan at 52 is a decade too old for the role. You need an actress with presence at 40 who can handle the steel with the vulnerability. Why not hand the plum role to someone who never gets center stage. Can Carrie Ann-Moss bring the warmth? But in truth, though I hate how unimaginatively over-cast she is, Cate Blanchett might well be perfect in both spirit, age and surface look.

In the Offices
Joe Pope, Lynn's right hand man, is probably gay... but he also believes in the separation of work and personal life so there's no telling. He bikes to the office, works hard and wins promotions. He won't play the office reindeer games and is a regular verbal target for the disgruntled set. Attractive but too short. Jamie Bamber? Not that he's short but he can do competent and a little uptight. Maybe I just want to see more of him.
Marcia Dwyer, pretty dark haired "born again". Perpetually is stuck in the 80s --loves hair metal bands. Though regularly unkind she's always apologizing for her mean-spirited remarks. (I pictured Joan Cusack in Working Girl for the overstated fashions... but that characterization is all wrong for this otherwise)
Karen Woo, the fast-talking office gossip... "her voice was a force of nature". She's also a hipster and prides herself on being ahead of the curve. They'd probably cast Lucy Liu on account of it's a Hollywood regulation that she gets bitchy parts. But who else?
Genevieve Latko-Devine -'the kindest and sweetest among us' is blond and regularly teased for her beauty. She is married and lives in the suburbs, stays above the fray.
Benny Shassburger, a "dough faced Jewish guy with corkscrew curls and a quick laugh" -the's the the office raconteur. His office is a favored meeting place.
Hank Neary, a black man who fancies himself an aspiring novelist. He's always ready with a quote, famous or otherwise. Tim Meadows? We need some funny actors in the movie.

Cubicle Dwellers
Chris Yop -graying longish but thinning hair. Late 40s? He's a nervous man "his animating hands shook a little as if battling a caffeine drip"
Carl Garbedian -is frustrated that he's not the central focus of his doctor wife's life. He's let himself go developing a substantial gut in his mid 30s. He suffers from manic depression and starts experimenting with prescription drugs he steels from desk drawers. It's a showy part and you know Hollywood would want Philip Seymour Hoffman in it even if his innate actorly cockiness would be all wrong for the role.
Larry Navotny got Amber Ludwig , a "compact" athletic dark-eyed woman, pregnant. Larry is married. Amber can't decided what to do about this growing thing in her body. You could cast any actors you'd love to see uncomfortably coupled here.
Jim Jackers an eager redhead, always seeking approval. William Lee Scott... remember him? Simon Woods?

Early Exits
Frank Brizzorella -the "old man" of the office. Chain smoker, eats the exact same lunch every day. Fond of sweater vests.
Janine Gorjanc -her young daughter was murdered before the story begins. This brunette remains a part of the office conversation and is fleetingly seen, always full of grief. "Unpretty but not ugly. Hippy but not fat. Puffy about the face but with a youthful cuteness buried somewhere in there that might have have caused someone to be crazy about taking her to the high school prom."
Tom Mota -"built like a bulldog", goateed, unhinged... wears the same polo day after day and is the office practical joker. Sends bizarre e-mails, acts spontaneously and emotionally. Amber thinks he's a security threat.

Who would you cast in the roles?

Like any true ensemble cast it's impossible to divide the characters into "leads" or "supporting". If a movie were ever to be made of Then We..., it would need a master of the intertwining narrative behind the camera. But the film I made from it in my own head was an arthouse mess and missed the comedy too much.


Picturing it cinematically, it ended up feeling like an unholy cross between Mad Men (the TV series) for its attention to detail and the ad agency conversations, Office Space for cubicle comedy, Executive Suite (Robert Wise's underseen 1954 gem) for the office politics and the whiffs of desperation and Nashville from the late great Robert Altman for the seamless blending of a huge disparate cast into one collective story that's greater than the sum of any of its parts. I imagined Denis Lenoir behind the camera because I loved all the vaguely threatening office shots in Demonlover. I left in the non-omniscient narration (and I often hate voice over) which made the book as a movie in my head feel like it was directed with cool HAL-9000 detachment by Stanley Kubrick. Eight people would see this, my imagined movie, and probably not one of them would like it.

Perhaps you'll come up with something better in the comments?!
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Labor Day

Ooh you get one extra weekend day. How are you spending it? Enjoy your Labor Day ...sans the labor.