You Sweet Link.

I Need My Fix Cameron Crowe and Nancy Wilson (of Heart fame) are divorcing. God, it feels like forever since Crowe made a movie, right? Maybe I've just forgotten something.
Mr Hipp imagines Inception's dream team. So cute! I love the take on Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Boy Culture Isabella Rossellini finally addresses Madonna's "Sex" 18 years after the fact. To your left is one of my favorite photos from the book.
THR a three way discussion on Best Actress and theories as to why Annette Bening isn't really campaigning.
The Awl Ed Koch reviews Black Swan. Whaaaa...?
If Charlie Parker... awww. Natalie Wood wishes you happy holidays.
Time Magazine does a top ten of everything but that link goes to the movies, led by Toy Story 3. Rather annoyingly each entry gets its own page. They want to get 500 page views from you. Boo.
Time Magazine also does a top ten performances, led by Noomi Rapace. But...  Jacki Weaver & Tilda Swinton make the list. So you may applaud.
ABBA try this quiz if you love ABBA. it's so hard. I already forgot my score but I wasn't proud of it.
Towleroad a few words on this weekend's new releases. And a few more links.

Finally, the Detroit Film Critics have announced their nominees. I normally don't link to critics awards before they announce winners (so self indulgent) but it is Detroit and I like to say yes to the home state... especially since I never get back there anymore.

 Unfortunately they're one of those silly silly silly groups (like the upcoming SAG no doubt *sigh*) which feel the need to nominate The King's Speech's entire cast in their individual categories and then again for Best Ensemble. Seriously Detroit? Calm down. In such a stellar year for ensemble casts there really is no excuse for the ensemble nominations and prizes this film is going to ring up from now until the SAG Awards. No one on god's green earth will ever convince me that each of the three principals in The King's Speech needs two nominations for their trouble. Or that Guy Pearce and Eve Best are so sensational as King Edward and Wallis Simpson that they had to be recognized in this way since they won't get to reprise the roles in Madonna's 2011 feature W.E. (which is at least partially about those characters who will be played by James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough).

"Ensemble" categories make me crazy. Movies consisting of repeated scenes where two people talk to each is not "ensemble work." Detroit's other nominees in this category (The Kids Are All Right, The Fighter, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Winter's Bone) demonstrate that at least some of the Motor City's film journalists are sound of mind.

Birthday Suits: ABBA Alert!

Celebrating cinema-related birthdays of the day. Is November 15th your special day?

1879 Lewis Stone star of the only lost Oscar Best Picture nominee, The Patriot (1928). No, you'll never see 100% of the Best Picture or Best Actor nominees. Not even if you try
1932 Petula Clarke singer/actress
1937 Yaphett Kotto actor
<--- 1945 Anna Frid "Frida" Lyngstad, my favorite member of ABBA. I love her so much I'm letting her wear a jumpsuit instead of the traditional suits favored in these posts. ABBA's flamboyant fashion sense could never be contained! [see also ABBA: The Movie recap]
1951 Beverly D'Angelo actress
1957 Ray McKinnon actor, best known for Deadwood on HBO. He's currently in movie theaters doing fine work in That Evening Sun. And, surprise, he's actually an Oscar winner already having won the Best Live Action Short Film category in for his directorial debut The Accountant (2001)
1972 Jonny Lee Miller, actor, Trainspotter, Angelina survivor, Friend of Jude, visionary lawyer.
1976 Virginie Ledoyen French actress to whom I am largely indifferent and, thus, a rare creature indeed. Well known films include The Beach, 8 Women, Bon Voyage and The Valet.

Finally, Georgia O'Keeffe the artist was born 122 years ago today. No one but Pfans will remember this but Michelle Pfeiffer wanted to portray the magnificent vagina flower-loving icon for many years. She never did. Instead we had to wait until this year when Joan Allen took a crack at it for Lifetime Television. I love Joan Allen but the poster alone, which photoshopped all the life from Joan's wonderful face until she looked positively doll-like and disturbing (why?) stood like a threatening "Beware of TV Movie" sign. But O'Keefe did have a bio worthy life. Did anyone dare that basic cable experience? If so, tell us what you thought.

A Dozen Thoughts I Had While Watching Mamma Mia!

...wayyyy after everyone else has already seen it.

01 Meryl Streep is a national treasure. She ought to be on postal stamps, American legal tender and carved into Mount Rushmore... even if that means dynamiting one of the presidents. She's done so much for us. Watching her lift Mamma Mia! up on her preternaturally gifted shoulders is a bit like seeing Charles Atlas lift the world... only with less sweating. Even the most ungainly movie can feel light and buoyant in her care. For a good time call Meryl.

02 Charles Darwin believed that Mary Louise Streep was actually descended from Suidae. Oh sweet succulent HAM! She's always delicious.

03 ABBA are pop geniuses... as gifted as the Beatles even if they aren't as respected.

04 Pierce Brosnan singlehandedly strengthens every argument I've ever made about actual musical talent being necessary to star in a musical. For this I thank him, though my ears will never forgive.

05 This movie is more fun than ABBA: The Movie (my review) but it's just as shoddily put together. On the downside: Agnetha, Frida, Benny and Björn don't appear. So maybe it's less fun.

06 Jukebox musicals are destroying the world... or at least the Aristotelian Unities.

07 I'm really glad Michelle Pfeiffer didn't make this movie (she was an early rumored lead) even though I'd love to see her and Amanda Seyfried paired as mother/daughter. La Pfeiffer can do silly (see: Married to the Mob) but Meryl more thoroughly enjoys doing silly. And if you're not having a ball acting in this type of "movie"...

08 I owe Susan Stroman an apology. When she made The Producers movie I thought 'oh god. she has no clue what to do behind the movie camera. Someone get her out of there!' but then I met her Broadway-to-Hollywood successor Phyllida Lloyd. I believe that genealogy would prove Phyllida Lloyd a descendant of Ed Wood himself.

09 Why is nearly every number staged like an early 80s music videos or deleted fantasy karaoke sequences from Young @ Heart?

10 Ting Huan, Charles Emile Reynaud, and the Lumiere Brothers never meant it to be this way.

11 This might be an impossible film to grade because it's not really a film at all but a crazy quilt of songs shot with dadaist music video sensibility. There are so many things to consider: ABBA the music: (A+), these particular interpretations of ABBA songs (A- to F depending on who is singing), the plot (F) the overall dumbness (C-), the choreography (D), the energy level of the movie (B+), the direction and editing (D), Meryl (B+), Amanda's voice (B), Amanda (B-), Meryl's semen donors (C), Meryl's sidekicks (C+), the (literal) Greek chorus (D), the weirdly kinky sexuality (A- to D+ depending on which particular kink we're talking about), the bipolar characterizations -- someone please write a dissertation on the "Dancing Queen" sequence. Explain to me what the hell was going on there (C-)

Overall: ABCDEFGHIJKlmnopQR.... crap I have no idea.


12 Did I have fun watching it? Sure.
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Who's Your Daddy, Amanda?

Amanda Seyfried has no manners. Amanda Seyfried doesn't even say "please". Entitled much? Young Hollywood power players have no manners. It's all Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!

While watching the video above I couldn't help but think through Amanda's movie dilemma. Amanda has three daddys!

Who's your daddy?


If you had that problem...

poll by twiigs.com

Choose carefully. These are not interchangeable men.

P.S. 1 I entered this Mamma Mia! contest last week. I've always wanted to go on a cruise. The gods of blogging should just deliver this win unto me. They should. You know I would repay them by blogging from the ocean inbetween margaritas, lame cabaret shows and shuffling. The cruise goes from London to Vicky Christina Barcelona and you know I'd find the appropriate movies to write about. Oh please deliver this win unto me. I'm saying three Hail Mary Pickfords. I'm not Catholic but that's what you do, right?

P.S. 2 Mamma Mia! opens in three weeks. I'll be on that cruise in ten if the gods of blogging are kind.


P.S. 2 No write in votes for Dominic Cooper please. Padded swim trunks aside, he's Amanda's eventual babydaddy --not the daddy.

P.S. 3 Come here more often people. Subscribe!

ABBA: The Movie (1977)

A Reader Request (Long time in coming...and Happy Birthday Stephen G!)

I should warn you up front: Jeg elsker ABBA! [imagine beating cartoon hearts here] I just love them. And not in the way most people do, bopping around ironically or with retro amusement to "Dancing Queen" or "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!". I mean I actually love ABBA. I'd make them breakfast in the morning. My love isn't camp-based or fleeting or based on one fun song. I know their first and last names. I've listened to Swedish interviews. I've seen all of their videos. I've bought box sets. I think they're musical geniuses... possibly the most perfect pop group that ever existed. Despite my ABBAlicious feelings, I've never seen this movie.

So I've decided to share the experience with you as I live it. Live Blogging.

Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Frida's pre-show jitters

Why haven't I seen it? Well, I'm allergic to director Lasse Halström (Chocolat, The Cider House Rules, The Shipping News) and I blame ABBA for setting him loose on the world. This was his first major film you see. I have also avoided the smash Broadway jukebox musical Mamma Mia! I considered it blasphemy when it premiered and reviews didn't endear me to it. The plotline alone gives me hives: a young girl wants her father to walk her down the aisle but her mom was a big whore and it could be any one of three men; They all come to her wedding in Greece. What is this Lace: The Musical !?!

That being said, my genuine unshakeable delight in Meryl Streep, especially when she's singing, has prompted me to set all my qualms aside and be excited for the movie version. I like the idea of Streep as a former floozy with a daughter who looks just like yummy Amanda Seyfried.

Read the Rest...

Does Your Mother Know that you read and comment on this blog?
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Mamma Mia! Here Streep Goes Again

It's all Meryl Streep all the time here at the Film Experience. What is going on? News is just in that Streep has taken the lead role in Mamma Mia (formerly rumored for Michelle Pfeiffer) a film adaptation of the long running Broadway musical that basically caused the über annoying "jukebox" musical phenomenon on Broadway. I've never seen the show because I love ABBA too much and I love the Broadway musical too much to combine them --something about it just freaks me out.


I will however see the movie because I can't get enough of Meryl's pipes which are just phenomenal in Ironweed, Silkwood, Postcards From The Edge, and A Prairie Home Companion. Forgotten musical fact: Meryl really wanted the lead in Evita which, after years in development hell, finally went to Madonna.

Meryl has to be the busiest fiftysomething in Hollywood. Check out her IMDB page which lists an incredible 8 upcoming films and that's not even counting Mamma Mia. Oscar #3 here she comes.

Mamma Mia! Here Streep Goes Again

It's all Meryl Streep all the time here at the Film Experience. What is going on? News is just in that Streep has taken the lead role in Mamma Mia (formerly rumored for Michelle Pfeiffer) a film adaptation of the long running Broadway musical that basically caused the über annoying "jukebox" musical phenomenon on Broadway. I've never seen the show because I love ABBA too much and I love the Broadway musical too much to combine them --something about it just freaks me out.


I will however see the movie because I can't get enough of Meryl's pipes which are just phenomenal in Ironweed, Silkwood, Postcards From The Edge, and A Prairie Home Companion. Forgotten musical fact: Meryl really wanted the lead in Evita which, after years in development hell, finally went to Madonna.

Meryl has to be the busiest fiftysomething in Hollywood. Check out her IMDB page which lists an incredible 8 upcoming films and that's not even counting Mamma Mia. Oscar #3 here she comes.

Hump Day Hotties: ABBA

Today is Agnetha Fältskog's birthday. Or, perhaps more descriptively... it is the birthday of the blonde girl in ABBA. And try as I might I "Can't Shake Loose" (Children of the 80s may recognize the reference --the rest of you are SOL) ABBA is, as you may have read or heard for yourself, the most ingenious pop band in the history o' the universe. Even if there are bands churning pop hits out in other galaxies, I feel completely confident in saying that there's no way any group anywhere -- ever -- has produced as consistently catchy a discography as the beloved Swedish quartet.

All that said it's important to acknowledge that you'd be completely justified in being sick to death of them. I think it was Mamma Mia that did it for me. I had to put the ABBA CDs away for a few years. Many of my friends from high school still wonder how I, such a huge ABBA fan, have not seen Mamma Mia onstage. My answer: I never will. ABBA was perfect as is. I don't need some soulless jukebox musical to further overplay the songs at me.



My all time favorite ABBA songs for those who have valiantly made it to the end of this post (six of them just for "par3182"):
1. The Name of the Game
2. Knowing Me Knowing You
3. One of Us
4. Summer Night City
5. The Way Old Friends Do
6. Under Attack

As to the sex quotient of ABBA? Well, I'll just say this: Remember how Fleetwood Mac and Culture Club disintegrated due to interband romances? Remember how No Doubt looked shaky for awhile when whatshisname dumped Gwen? Copycats! ABBA did it first.

ABBA did it best.

*

tags: abba, broadway, music, celebrities

other atypical HDH selections:
"Lady Tottington" , Tim Gunn, "Starbuck", and La Streep

and something more traditionally piping hot

Hump Day Hotties: ABBA

Today is Agnetha Fältskog's birthday. Or, perhaps more descriptively... it is the birthday of the blonde girl in ABBA. And try as I might I "Can't Shake Loose" (Children of the 80s may recognize the reference --the rest of you are SOL) ABBA is, as you may have read or heard for yourself, the most ingenious pop band in the history o' the universe. Even if there are bands churning pop hits out in other galaxies, I feel completely confident in saying that there's no way any group anywhere -- ever -- has produced as consistently catchy a discography as the beloved Swedish quartet.

All that said it's important to acknowledge that you'd be completely justified in being sick to death of them. I think it was Mamma Mia that did it for me. I had to put the ABBA CDs away for a few years. Many of my friends from high school still wonder how I, such a huge ABBA fan, have not seen Mamma Mia onstage. My answer: I never will. ABBA was perfect as is. I don't need some soulless jukebox musical to further overplay the songs at me.



My all time favorite ABBA songs for those who have valiantly made it to the end of this post (six of them just for "par3182"):
1. The Name of the Game
2. Knowing Me Knowing You
3. One of Us
4. Summer Night City
5. The Way Old Friends Do
6. Under Attack

As to the sex quotient of ABBA? Well, I'll just say this: Remember how Fleetwood Mac and Culture Club disintegrated due to interband romances? Remember how No Doubt looked shaky for awhile when whatshisname dumped Gwen? Copycats! ABBA did it first.

ABBA did it best.

*

tags: abba, broadway, music, celebrities

other atypical HDH selections:
"Lady Tottington" , Tim Gunn, "Starbuck", and La Streep

and something more traditionally piping hot