Red Carpet Lineup

A random sampling of people hitting the red carpet the past... uh... couple of weeks (Yes, I'm on time delay) Girls and boys for a change and some random thoughts regarding them.


Penélope Cruz. is having a rather extended bout of premieres for Broken Embraces and by the time that winds down she'll be starting it all over again to promote the musical Nine. Too much of a good thing: Nine and Broken Embraces premiere in the US within five days of each other in November. It'll be all Penélope all the time and if the baby Bardem rumors are true, she'll be 7 months preggers when those hotly anticipated titles arrive.

Diane Kruger confuses me. I normally love these androgynous outfits on women but it doesn't work for her. Maybe because the body is too emaciated / boyish to offset the masculine attire with femininity? You'd think working on Inglourious Basterds would have given her more of an appetite, a carnivorous blood red meat kind of appetite.

Gillian Armstrong is still alive! She's been very low profile for the past decade -- her last film was Death Defying Acts, that barely released Harry Houdini film with Catherine Zeta Jones and Guy Pearce -- but since 2009 is shaping up to be a breakthrough year for female directors (so many in play), it's good to be reminded of those who came before and paved the way. Armstrong gave Diane Keaton one of her best dramatic roles (Mrs. Soffel) -- Keaton would be smart to find a good drama again, I think but most importantly, Armstrong basically introduced the world to both Cate Blanchett (Oscar & Lucinda) and Judy Davis (My Brilliant Career) so the world owes her.

Speaking of people who owe Gillian Armstrong...

Claire Danes -- who got her first shot at movie stardom with Armstrong's remake of Little Women (still one of Danes' best) -- looks awesome in blue, don't you think? Her movie career isn't so enviable lately but in 35 days she'll be Mrs. Hugh Dancy so it all balances out, don't you think?

Amy Adams will survive the lack of affection people feel for the Julie part of Julie & Julia.


Stanley Tucci (Julie & Julia) should co-star with Meryl Streep in every movie from here on out. I've said this a few times now but that's only because it bears repeating. They're wonderful together. My friends and I have taken to calling him "dreadful Stanley Tucci" in replication of Streep's hilarious Globe speech for The Devil Wears Prada. Remember that?



Streep & Tucci are clearly very fond of each other and it shows onscreen. Not too many people have commented on this but isn't it kind of wonderful that two of Tucci's most memorable roles involve the love of food? See also: Big Night.

Hugh Dancy is dreamy.

Chris Messina has played the steadying-influence husband twice in a row now with Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Julie & Julia. What else you got Chris? That's meant as a compliment. We want to see.

Sam Rockwell can currently be heard in that guinea pig movie G-Force. But more importantly his one man show Moon (Katey & Nathaniel's review) is still playing in various and sundry parts of the world. I was anxiously awaiting your thoughts on it but I haven't heard a peep from readers, really. I guess it was too slow to expand, never reaching more than 251 theaters. That's a shame. Rockwell has always been prolific and he's not slowing down. Next up: the remake Everybody's Fine, the Hilary Swank working mom drama Betty Anne Waters and Gentlemen Broncos from the Napoleon Dynamite team.

Fancying Hugh Dancy

It's Nathaniel (not quite back yet) just popping in to point you to this week's Towleroad column in which I swoon for Hugh Dancy despite having insufficient interest in his new picture, Adam.


Have you seen the shameless TV spot for the movie? It opens by declaring him an Oscar contender for Best Actor and then cuts immediately to Adam explaining that he has Asperger's Syndrome. Way to sell stereotypes, marketing team. "Watch this movie! Mental disorders = Oscar Gold!"

In real life Hugh Dancy is still hooked up with Claire Danes. In the movie he's fallen for Rose Byrne (sans Glenn Close). But in my dreamworld he's still macking on Patrick Wilson -- the most exciting moment in Evening (2007) by an incalculably large margin -- or having threesomes with Julianne Moore or...

What? Shut up.
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Now Playing: Hockey Masks and Shopaholics

links go to trailers

L I M I T E D
Gomorra The Italian hit finally opens proper, without the intended Oscar nomination it expected to be promoting itself with. I thought it was good but I don't totally understand the fuss, I must confess. If you like hyperlink mosaics or mafia films you could certainly do a lot lot worse. It has its moments.

Two Lovers I keep thinking this movie opened already but such is the fateful pattern of distribution for small actor's films. Only in this case it's more like actor (singular) since that's not what Joaquin Phoenix is anymore, you got it? See it for Gwynnie. Didn't you realize you kind of missed her when she showed up in Iron Man last summer?

W I D E
The International Evil banks vs. the world. How timely! But how did they get permission to shoot up the friggin' Guggenheim? (I never use the word friggin but the doubled double 'g's were too much to pass up). That's all I can think of when I watch the trailer because despite the presence of a director I once loved (Tom Run Lola Run Tykwer) and actors I admire it seems so, what's the word, "standard"? We'll see.

Confessions of a Shopaholic In which two time Oscar nominee Amy Ad-- I'm sorry in which Isla Fisher (the other one was on my mind, that's all) tries to carry a girlie hit all by herself presumably targeting the huge Devil Wears Prada audience. Notice the helpful hint "You speak Prada?" in the trailer. Although do we really care what Hugh Dancy speaks so long as we are able to read his lips? Do you think the female audience will ever tire of being portrayed as insatiable brand-crazy consumers?

Kristin Scott Thomas also appears in this one and we'll be talking about her again in a couple of weeks when I've Loved You So Long hits DVD. I'll share my interview then.

Friday the 13th I have no idea what number this is the endless bloody stream of Jason pictures, but the title suggests it's a reboot. Not a rethink! How can one rethink "Kids go to Crystal Lake, get slaughtered" I saw the first five minutes of this at Comic Con (not by choice! they sandwiched it between two things I wanted to see so I couldn't give up my seat). In the first five minutes of the picture, young pretty people get killed in increasingly gruesome ways. Sorry to go so heavy on the spoilers. Did I ruin the movie for you? What surprised me is how many people got killed in those five minutes. I counted five. The movie is 97 minutes long. I guess I'd see 92 more murders if I purchase a ticket? Slasher math.

True story: One of my friends is hosting a Friday the 13th party tonight in which apparently a bunch of the movies are going to be screened in marathon succession --how does one tell where one film ends and another begins? Hours upon hours of grisly murders. Another friend keeps bugging me to go. Don't they know I would just curl up in fetal position? That's no way to behave at a party and it's also not conducive to hanging out by the food, my preferred party position. It's hard to reach for chips and salsa when you're hands are hugging your knees.

Seeing anything this weekend?
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The Wizard of Link

Oz (Cinema)
<--- Queerty the real life Sam Green objects to the way he's portrayed in Julianne Moore's new flick Savage Grace (my review). How one can object to being portrayed charmingly by none other than Hugh freakin' Dancy is beyond me, but, to each their own. It was apparently not the freeloading characterization that bothered him but the makin' it with Eddie Redmayne part.
Chicagoist has a piece up on a bank-owned cinema that my friend Goatdog programs for. Chicago readers really should be making use of this amazing repertory theater.
ONTD tons of new photos from the Amelia biopic starring Hilary Swank. Coming soon to threaten the Oscar dreams of the unrewarded and hugely deserving (I'm just guessing. Carry on)
This Recording has a bizarre and lengthy piece that lives in abject terror of Scarlett Johansson having her way with the world (or something like that. amusing)
NYT Manohla Dargis on Cyd Charisse

Kansas (Off Cinema)
Braniac Decision 2008: Hip Black Guy vs. Cranky Old White Guy
Joe My God "on sale at the Texas GOP Convention" Typical. Hopefully the Republican endorsed racism of the upcoming elections will prompt millions of saner members of the "undecided" block to choose the Democratic party. Although if you're undecided after the last 8 years, are you really sane at all?
Ping Mag 'Fundoshi' is hot in Japan. Um, can I move? All the men here have swimsuits down to their knees. ;)
E! Project Runway is "getting some work done"