Hump Day Hottie Cutie: "Jenny"

We interrupt the standard Wednesday horniness because we're too young for that you pervs!

I’ve been wandering in a bit of a daze as of late. That may explain why upon arriving to the theater on Saturday morning to see Monster House I had someone never retained the knowledge that the movie was in 3-D. When the cashier asked me for money “$12.50!?!” I nearly went on a tirade about movie theaters raising their prices yet again in Manhattan.

[To explain: it seems like it’s a 25¢ to 50¢ jump every six months –enough to raise the blood pressure when there are more and more commercials every year, too. They ought to be offsetting the cost to the audience].

But then the cashier handed me a pair of glasses and I wasn’t even thinking about the money. Or if I was I was counting the money from my paper route to pay for the ticket. I was suddenly 12 years-old again which is the last time I remember wearing those glasses.

"Jenny", one of the “stars” of the surprisingly creepy/fun Monster House is just the sorta girl I went gaga for when I was 12 -- take charge, whipsmart, and pretty to boot. (I must’ve liked being bossed around ? I don’t know) But all this childhood stuff came rushing back to me: scary houses, Halloween excitement, babysitters, goofing around with my best friend, and that weird puberty period when you’re still a kid but think you’re grownup. Jenny is like some sassy amalgam of galpals past, first recipients of my innocent adoration. It was like Emily, Roseann, Christine, or Tammy & Wendy (the twins) were playing her whilst Scott (my childhood best bud) and I were in the roles of "Chowder" and "DJ"


All of this is a long way of saying that I thoroughly enjoyed Monster House. Its my preference for the Animated Oscar this year. It’s as funny as Over the Hedge but feels fresher. The anthropomorphic house is a lot more visually pleasing than those not-quite-cars with tongues and teeth (ewww) in Pixars recent hit. The movie also made me feel far more nostalgic for simpler times than Cars did, even though the latter film works much harder for that same “oh for days gone by” reaction. Best of all there's no fat on Monster House. It moves at a great clip. It’s confident, smart, and looks great –-hey, just like Jenny.

Jenny is too young to be a 'hump day hottie' --hence the title change-- but you are not too old for this movie. It's intelligent enough to win adult fans (I suspect the box office legs will be good) and there's fine voice work from all the actors. I particular loved Maggie Gyllenhaal's bitchtastic babysitter but most everyone is well cast here including, I am happy to add, my beloved Kathleen Turner.

Anyway back to topic. It's totally right that both Chowder and DJ go all goo-goo eyed for Jenny. What little animated boy wouldn't? And besides, all redheads become total hotties once they're all grown up. Everyone knows that.



just for kicks
Ultranow with another inappropriate (plus funny) Monster House post.

Previously on "Hump Day Hotties"
Uma Thurman -tall, beautiful, orgasmic. Cheyenne Jackson -extreme stage hottie crossing over to film. HDH Season One - Jake Gyllenhaal, Lady Tottington, and more...

tags:
Monster House, movies, film, animation

Superlink

Supersummer Deep Focus on 2006's directors and blockbusters.
Supergay European Films on the upcoming French oddity Poltergay
Superwoman Oh No They Didn't! with the first logical explanation I've heard as to why Madonna can't get radio play for Get Together -despite being more popular right now than she's been in years and despite the song being completely awesome.
Superman But I Always Liked a Good Storm loves the big Kryptonite plagued lug and doesn't care who knows.
Supermovie IDLRZ on Little Miss Sunshine
Supertrainofthought Jake Weird rides the peace train.
Supertease popbytes with a look at John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus
Superwhat? Sci-Fi's new series "who wants to be a superhero" begins. Perhaps the superhero genre has reached the saturation point.

Superannoying is this post. I'll stop now.

This Might Be A Long Day

Virtual Friend

So Friendster was fun years ago. I loved making movie character pages and goofing with their profiles but Friendster got soooo upset at that. And not loving creativity is a sure sign that you just suck and should not be supported. Now everyone and their dog has a myspace page so I made one, too. I still don't get how it's any different than Friendster? But that's not important. I feel like a huge dork so add as me as your friend so I don't have to eat lunch alone in the online cafeteria.

I Am Not Alfred Hitchcock

I am not Alfred Hitchcock. I just wanted to clear that up lest you be confused. I know, I know -- I obsess on icy blondes a lot (Pfeiffer. Thurman. Deneuve. etc...) just as the famed auteur did. But I am not, in fact, him. Nor was I Hitchcock in a previous life. I was already alive when he died in 1980. There’s no Audrey Rose situation going on in here.

Reasons why you may have us confused:
We fetishize blonde actresses.
We appear in our own work.
We were raised in religious homes.
We love Fritz Lang and Luis Buñuel
We wear suits to work.
We’ve never won any Oscars.

But beyond that, you see, the similarities end. We’re really nothing alike at all.

Differences
I would never pose with a silly prop. OK, maybe if I had a movie to promote...
He has the shortest speech at the Oscar ceremony on record. When he was given a Thalberg award he just said “thank you” The orchestra would have to play me off.
He liked to terrorize people with their own phobias. I would be more likely to console them after Hitch send them their box of whatever they feared most (mice, snakes, etc...)--the bastard.
My favorite Hitchcock movie is either Psycho, Rear Window, or Notorious (I’m so indecisive). His is Shadow of a Doubt.
He is from England
I am not afraid of heights.
Truth be told, I'm not a big Grace Kelly fan.
He had dogs. I have a cat.
My profile is nowhere near as memorable as Hitchcocks.
Neither is my waist size.
I am (probably) not a genius.

tags: Alfred Hitchcock, movies, cinema, films, Oscars

Links Episode #131

Movie Marketing Madness on the awesome discomfort of Michael Mann films and the marketing buildup to Miami Vice
Cinematical on what’s next for Donnie Darko auteur Richard Kelly once he's fully rejiggered Southland Tales
LA Times Patrick Goldstein’s “Call it Shyamaladenfreude”, an article on the unraveling psyche of M Night. A hot topic on this blog this past week. [src]
Sunday Mail on "50 movies to see before you die." [src]

Dakota, Meryl, Scorsese, and Heidi Klum

[Nat Note: Sorry about the infrequent posting. If you need an explanation just go to this old post. That should explain it.]

Joe Reid and I chatted last night about everything from Dakota Fanning's views on Ingmar Bergman to M Night Shyamalan's new radio program --er, movie. (Well, it was very talky)

We also share breathy anticipatory sighs about The Prestige, The Children of Men and The Fountain as well as gloom over their box office prospects. Basically we talk about everything. All train of thought with very little editing. You can pretend you were there. We begin with Project Runway...

READ THE CONVERSATION And if you want to continue it, return and comment. You know how to do that.

tags: Dakota Fanning, movies, cinema, Project Runway, M Night Shyamalan, Meryl Streep, celebrities, movie trailers, box office, Academy Awards, Oscars, Julianne Moore

Today in BioPic News

My least favorite film genre just keeps on ticking. As frequent readers know, I have issues with biopic features. This partially stems from the contrarian in me since I am an Oscar addict and Oscar voters find this type of feature endlessly appealing. Real life famous people do make for great screen characters –I’ll give the genre that. But unless the screenplay is exceptional they’re often difficult to sit through as whole films. Biopics just don’t seem to understand the value of story arc, structure and originality. It’s the most predictable and plodding of all genres… and not just because we often know the outcome of the interchangeable stories.

BioPic News

Lance Armstrong
For those who stalk love Jake Gyllenhaal and have been wondering what is up with the buddy buddy Tour de Francing with Lance Armstrong, Deadline Hollywood has an answer. There’s a biopic in the works and Jake wants to play Lance. There are so many paparazzi photos of Jake in spandex that I bet you could create an entire motion picture just stringing those photos together. Like an animated flipbook of Jake on a bike.

Mariane Pearl
This one is not a biopic in the pure sense --just a true story. But I wanted to mention it. As you have no doubt already heard Angelina Jolie will play the wife of slain journalist Daniel Pearl. The film will be produced by Brad Pitt. It’s a role that was originally going to Jennifer Aniston so...yeah, expect more press salivating over this love triangle for years to come. (I’m on Team Jolie obviously .) This is good news primarily because it's a role that will actually require Angelina Jolie to act rather than coast on her charisma. Lara Croft is fun and all but sheesh…

Bruce Lee
USA Today shares news that the martial arts icon will be getting another biopic. The article doesn’t mention that he already got one with Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story back in the early 90s. I liked that movie at the time but I have no idea if if was really any good or not ~ I haven’t seen it since. But I remember thinking that Jason Scott Lee was a real find. After a brief heyday, his career sadly went the way of straight-to-video inspiring various “ whatever happened to…?” articles. But good luck finding someone who’ll play Lee as well and look as good doing so.

Hannibal
The conqueror not the cannibal. Cinematical reports on the latest regarding Vin Diesel's obsession.

Barbara Baekeland
IMDB still has a page up for Savage Grace the story of the murder of f***ed up heiress Baekeland which even claims that filming began last week. I'll believe it when I see confirmations elsewhere. This page has changed so many times. Cast. Filming. Not Filming. But it's always kept busy Julianne Moore as the lead. If anyone has any info as to why this movie has taken so many years to get off the ground and if it is, actually, FINALLY filming... please do let me know.

Other Biographical Oscar-Bait still in the works:
Sharon Stone Catherine Zeta-Jones as Lana Turner in Stompanato, Benicio Del Toro as Che Guevera in Guerilla, and Uma Thurman Gwyneth Paltrow as Marlene Dietrich, and Liam Neeson as Abraham Lincoln to name just a few.

New Charts. And Next Week.

EARLIER TONIGHT.
The Oscar Prediction Chart Updates are finished. Exhausting. I'm sure there are goofs and errors from my eyes going all fuzzy and the tedium of it.... as well as a few blank spots that I will fill in when time frees up. So if you see mistakes feel free to let me know. Or if you just want to talk about the Oscars do so in the comments.

COMING SOON
Thoughts on Lady in the Water, Monster House, another conversation with Joe Reid, navel gazing with Hitchcock, 1961's Supporting Actresses, Scarlett Johansson musings, thoughts on the reader survey about the site, plus all the usual goodies.

RIGHT NOW
I'm going to sleep.

Seven Links

ModFab on movies that we wish were open now.
Reverse Shot on the Frank Borzage retrospective. Go see 7th Heaven!
popbytes on new superhero stamps. (I'm wondering why PlasticMan?)
Velvet Hot Tub brings the funny re: the autoerotic McConaughey.
Cinematical on new projects for slow-as-molasses Tarantino.
I Don't Like Renée Zellweger on World Trade Center
In Contention on Babel

And finally a new pic from Sony of Venom from Spider-Man 3. If I was any more excited for summer 2007...

Oscar Prediction Updates

You can now read the Oscar prediction chart updates for:

Best ACTOR
Best SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Best SUPPORTING ACTOR.

Again, I'm just thinking aloud. Obviously things don't get serious until some major contender emerges in each category (this is why Best Actress is the most exciting at the moment --we already have one).

Return and discuss.

The Queen (and other ladies in waiting)

In the past forty years of Oscar royalty we’ve had Queens Elizabeth I (twice), Queen Victoria, Mary Queen of Scots, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Anne Boleyn all in the running for acting prizes. If you expand the search into ladies who are queens in their own mind, the list of characters expands considerably. Royal status provides ready-made high drama and “look at me” acting opportunities.

I don’t remember why I didn’t include Helen Mirren in the original list of my April Fools Oscar predictions -- I may have mixed up her cable film Elizabeth I with her role as Elizabeth II in The Queen (yes she’s cornering the market in English monarchs in 2006) -- but now that I’ve updated the Best Actress Predictions page, you’ll see that she’s fighting it out with Streep & Winslet for the golden boy. The current lineup I’ve listed might be too much wishful thinking. It’s three actresses I deeply love, one I highly respect (this one), and one I don’t care for but who is starring in a film version of a play I deeply dig, so who knows… I might love her too.

After checking out the chart update, let me know what you think in the comments. This is too many prestigious actresses in one lineup right? Oscar loves to give the actual statue to starlets who've just proven themselves (Paltrow, Theron, Berry) instead of seasoned wonders (Mirren, Bening, Streep, Winslet) so perhaps the next Oscar goes to a less respected actor (Judd, Beyonce, Cruz) instead.

The Pfeiffer Takes It All

What the f*** is going on? No Michelle Pfeiffer news for years and now it just doesn't let up. A star on the walk of fame, new production stills, magazine covers, press releases, a Stardust website. And still more casting rumors: Next up Mamma Mia: The Movie? I'm just going to pretend that our blog-a-thon sent this Pfeiffer-Mania surging across the country to Hollywood. I better see my name in the 'thank you's when the credits scroll.

Natalie & Nathaniel

I'll Link To That

Slant’s Ed Gonzalez on the M Night Shyamalan screenwriting grab bag. I love this. I’d like to see some for other directors. Speaking of M Night… WOW Report let’s you know what Haley Joel Osment has been up to…a car crash apparently. Weird to see him all grown up in the photo.

popbytes on superhero stamps. I’ve never understood stamp collecting but I do admit that I enjoy seeing what gets put on stamps and what doesn’t. But to have 10 superheroes only and Plastic Man and Hawk Man get stamps? I call foul. Speaking of superheroes… My New Plaid Pants on the new casting rumor for Batman Begins 2 (er…Batman Continues?). Heath Ledger!

Cinematical covers the MPAA’s anger over IFC’s MPAA-questioning documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated . It will --appropriately for its title I may add—never, in fact, be rated. They’re releasing it without one.

And finally… I’m spending every Wednesday night gleefully watching Project Runway and now a few days later I can gleefully read Four Four’s recaps. Life is good.

Fill in the Blanks

I'm busy which means you get to amuse / edify each other. Fill in the blanks:
Johnny Depp is to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest what ____________ is to _____________
Savvy?

Pfeiffer: Catch That Wave

Now that the one and only has dipped her cool toe back into cinema water, the media ripples are expanding. It’s thrilling after four years of nothing. Surfs nearly up. I just hope the films kicking this wave off (I Could Never Be Your Woman, Stardust (pictured left -wheee), and Hairspray!) are worthy swimmers. (Sorry for this obnoxious beach motif, but it’s freaking hot … [insert more whining here])

Pfeifferian Web Goodness

Gorgeous Pfeiffer Morrissey Bond has the new InStyle magazine cover and interior photos lots of new pics of the beauty looking sensational and relaxed. Yeah! If it’s not on your newsstand yet, be patient. As soon as Keira Knightley’s skeletal mug comes down, Michelle’s airbrushed mug rises up.

People talks to La Pfeiffer about the surgeons knife. Will she or won’t she? Don’t do it, ‘chelle! Never toy with perfection. Besides did you see what they did with McKellen & Stewart in the X-Men movie. That’s clearly a better option. It’s not permanent. There’s no blood.)

TheaterMania on the Hairspray casting. For those readers who’ve asked --Yes, I’m totally relieved they’re changing her song. It was the one moment in the Broadway show that I thought was a bust. But I still don’t understand the director choice. If I ran Hollywood…

Really Scary is covering the San Diego Comic Con. Expect more Stardust news to filter out into the blogosphere after the Stardust panel is held this Friday.

And, finally, under the umbrella of ‘I’ll discuss anything even tangentially related to Pfeiffer’ lets talk co-stars.

Stacey Dash, best know as ‘Dionne’ from Clueless, who stars opposite Pfeiffer in I Could Never Be Your Woman (due in Sept), will be posing buck naked in the August issue of Playboy whilst talking about the film. I may be the only one buying it for the article. (Not that Dash isn’t a looker.) Claire Danes, one of the very very few actors to have worked with Pfeiffer twice (To Gillian… and Stardust), is in talks to co-star with Toni Collette and Vanessa Redgrave (triple your pleasure, obviously) in what sounds like Focus Features’ 2007 Oscar hopeful. One of the other Pfeiffer repeaters is eternal hottie Rupert Everett (A Midsummer Nights Dream and Stardust). Here are a couple of interesting posts about audience response to out gay actors like Rupey at After Elton and Crocodile Caucus.

Previously on "Nathaniel Loves Michelle"
Stardust (Again)
"beautiful and very scary"
You Can Walk All Over Michelle
The International Michelle Pfeiffer Blog-a-Thon
Top 10 Actresses of the Aughts
Pfandom

tags: Michelle Pfeiffer, movies, cinema, Rupert Everett, Stacey Dash, Claire Danes, celebrities, Stardust, hairspray, plastic surgery,

We Are Siamese If You Please...

NEW CONTEST

Next Friday an indie called Brothers of the Head arrives in greater cities near you. Here is the trailer. It's the story of conjoined twins and their rise to punk rock fame in the 70s. Early critical word is quite positive. People seem impressed with its rebel spirit.

ENTER TO WIN THE SOUNDTRACK
Send an email to filmexperience@gmail.com with "brothers" in the subject line before Thursday July 27th at midnight EST. Include the following:

a. Your Name
b. Shipping Address (private -only to be used if you win)
c. The name of your favorite movie soundtrack with a few words about why you love it so... (I might post these on the blog so if you don't want anyone to know you love Can't Stop the Music don't tell me you do)

The winners will be randomly drawn on Friday, July 28th.