"You won't link me when I'm angry"

Hell on Frisco Bay Silent Summer at the Castro. Love the poster for the Louise Brooks picture (such a great movie). This can be filed under the Grass is Always Greener. NYC has a ton of cool film programs and I'm always wishing I could go to the Castro's film programs.

The Film Doctor good piece on a second look at the 'suicidal cool' of Tom Ford's A Single Man.
Serious Film File this one under Lines I Wish I'd Written. On Peter Jackson returning to The Hobbit

"If only there was some convenient metaphor for some thing people just can't bring themselves to let go of."

Movie|Line Angelina Jolie's "lightning round" of possible future projects. Why does the MTV reporter pronounce Maleficent so bizarrely. Did he never see the glorious Sleeping Beauty as a child? P.S. I love Jolie and I love Maleficent but for all that is holy I cannot stand the thought of that fusion under Tim Burton's direction. I literally would have to be dragged to see it which, well, if you understood how much I loved Maleficent you would understand the utter devastation I'm feeling.

Coming Soon meetings have begun for Wicked with several directors interested (JJ Abrams, Rob Marshall, James Mangold, Ryan Murphy). If you're wondering why I haven't written about it, it's that we have no substantial news and I'm just feeling disaster coming. By the time they make this -- if they ever make it -- the market will have already been flooded with about 6 or 7 other Oz projects that are further along in development. I just don't understand why they waited so long. Hopefully The Wizard of Oz (1939) itself gets some sort of cool rerelease for its 75th anniversary in 2014.
/Film if people who cared about superheroes actually read The Film Experience (I know from comments that that's not really your thing) they would realize I'm a genius because I totally predict these things. MORE trouble with The Avengers. Edward Norton is not returning as The Hulk. I knew this superhero team using all big stars was r-i-d-i-c-u-l-0-u-s from the get go and I already called the delays and cancellations and cast issues. I still have trouble believing we'll ever see the film which is why those constant commercials for it interrupting the narrative of Iron Man 2 irritated me so much. (Just concentrate on the movie we're watching!!! This is not too much to ask of a movie. In fact this is just a basic storytelling requirement.) Most sites on the web feed on every crumb from studio pr about superhero movies like it's a manna from heaven, devouring it all as gospel facts until the fact changes which prompts another flurry of articles. Do movie websites do this because of page views or are they all true believers? If they are maybe I should stop writing the equivalent of "Santa Claus doesn't exist".

But what's this...?

HitFix Marvel Studios publicly dissing Edward Norton? Bad bad form. If that's the way they're going to play the movie game, why would any name actor want to work with them again? I mean, aside from the money. But Marvel Studios isn't the only studio that can offer big money.

The Hot Blog David Poland agrees that it's unprofessional.

Cinema Blend it might be Joaquin Phoenix replacing Norton. This news strikes me as hilarious since... well... when did Joaquin Phoenix suddenly get a "so easy to work with!" reputation that he'd be deemed an upgrade from Norton?

Oh Father.

Jose here. Last night after watching Two Lovers (my review here) there was one plea I kept repeating in my mind: please Joaquin Phoenix don't stop acting.

A lot was said earlier during the year about his retirement from acting and foray into rapping (I'm still trying to erase from my mind that unfunny, awkward Ben Stiller stint from the Oscars in February). And while he's been one of the most consistently fine actors in recent years (despite of some of the film choices he's made) and has received two Academy Award nominations this decade, he's truly remained underrated in a way.

People are used to his affecting Method acting and his superb impersonating skills (I still think his Johnny Cash from Walk the Line was robbed of the Best Actor Oscar), but when it comes to the one performance of his I think is pure genius, it's none other than the Abbe de Coulmier in Philip Kaufman's Quills.

The movie is a treasure chest of underrated performances (not even Kate Winslet got enough recognition for this!) perhaps because all of them were overshadowed by the extraordinary Geoffrey Rush playing the Marquis de Sade.

But back to Joaquin, notice how he literally inhabits the madhouse of Charendon in the movie. His every move is filled with grace and quiet domination. He might not be liked by all the patients, but he belongs there more than they do and they respect him for that.

His character is forced to go through "typical" movie problems priests must endure (duty vs. lust, good vs. evil etc...) but Phoenix manages overall to be human. His scenes with Winslet (who plays the virginal, sexy chambermaid of his dreams) sizzle with erotically charged innocence (sounds like an oxymoron, but you have to see these two together to understand).

His hidden passion and angst evoke Natalie Wood's glorious performance in Splendor in the Grass. You know they're going through something terrible, you wish to help them, but they exert a power over you that inspires guilty pleasure. Phoenix was nominated for an Oscar that year for screaming and hating Russell Crowe in Gladiator, but it was the Abbe who showed us the actor's divine gift.
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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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Performance Art or Just Another Hollywood Implosion?

Joaquin Phoenix on David Letterman last night, ostensibly to push his "last film" Two Lovers upon us.



If the homeless beard and the 'i'm quitting acting for hip hop' announcements weren't odd enough these past few months, his behavior here is. It's painful to watch though the ever quick Letterman makes the most of it. Is the continual crowd chuckling merely uncomfortable reflex or do they find the larger performance joke that Phoenix is having on all of us amusing?

Here's my question: If Phoenix's ruined career is the complicated hoax many believe it to be, shouldn't it be funny? I can't think of a delicate way to put this but if you're the brother of one of the saddest drug-related tragedies in modern Hollywood history, should you really be acting out in this particular psychotic break kind of way? Celebrity meltdowns can be funny (Tom Cruise) and some permanent crazy train ticket holders are greatly amusing or in on the joke (Bai Ling, Anne Heche) but it's all in the context.