How Do You Solve a Problem Like Christina?

Christina Ricci plays a dead girl in the horror flick After.Life (new on DVD). I'm not trying to be cheeky when I say that I wish her performance were more lively.

It's justifiable, as a characterization decision, to play this role like a corpse even before the death (for reasons you'll have to watch the movie to understand) but it doesn't exactly make for an exciting star turn.. Perhaps she was counting on her body -- she's quite naked -- to do the heavy lifting. Maybe Justin Long just wasn't the right scene partner? But even so. When will this girl get her mojo back? I feel like we almost got there with Black Snake Moan... but then. No. As child and teen stars go, there were few that felt more regularly inspired. She's adult-sized funny and showstopping in Addams Family Values, my choice for 'best in show' in the pretty formidable ensemble found in The Ice Storm and amazing (duh!) in The Opposite of Sex. But that's a long time ago now. Where'd that (cold) fire go?

Any suggestions for her career? Maybe she needs a fresh young auteur to find her a-MUSE-ing

Links, Episode #3,002,038

/Film Jamie Bell may have just been cast as the new Spider-Man. Ah, I knew Marc Webb had good taste (with (500) Days of Summer as evidence)
Trespass Magazine Glenn interviews movie poster maestro Jeremy Saunders, who designed this year's fb gold medal winner for poster (Antichrist).
Little Gold Men Sandra Bullock sapphic smooches, part two.
The TV Addict Katharine Heigl's career killer Killers ?


Deviant Art a fan made poster for The Avengers. This movie will have to give blind men back their sight and maybe part oceans to live up to fanboy expectations.
Movie|Line Luke Evans is on "the Verge". He also wants to star in a film version of Miss Saigon so good on him.
Towleroad Apparently Elton John is going to perform at Rush Limbaugh's wedding. Money may be the reason but it's not like Elton needs any more of it. What a traitor. I've only ever bought two Elton John records in my lifetime but now I'm wishing I hadn't given him a lone dime.
OMG "Make Homosexuals Marry" Actors Justin Long & Mike White tie the knot excruciatingly tight in this campaign vid.
Newsweek on Italy Porn Movies like Eat Pray Love and I Am Love

And finally, I really must take a moment to thank all the cinephile angels involved in the Film Preservation Blogathon. Blogs can be a powerful force for good. The funds raised during that blog-a-thon are being used to restore two silent films. The first is a western named The Sergeant (1910) which is an incredible 100 years old.

...one of the earliest surviving narratives shot on location in Yosemite Valley. The one-reeler shows the magnificent terrain prior to the creation of the National Park Service, when U.S. Army cavalry troops kept order, and it is the military presence that provides the backdrop for the story.

The second is from 1912, another western called The Better Man. That blog-a-thon which was hosted by Marilyn Ferdinand and Self Styled Siren is still taking donations so maybe a third film can be saved! It's a worthy cause if you have the cash.

Hollywood's millionaires and its behemoth corporations could do a lot more to preserve old films -- imagine how many silents could be saved if like one single day's profits (or hell even one showing's) from any of those soulless blockbusters were so directed -- but at least we have devoted cinephiles and government funding helping to preserve cinematic history.

We Can't Wait #17 Drag Me To Hell

Directed by Sam Raimi
Starring Alison Lohman, Justin Long
Synopsis Lohman gets cursed by the scary old lady she's gone and pissed off. Horror apparently ensues!
Brought to you by the director of For The Love of the Game and the writer of The Nutt House
Expected Release Date May 29th


JA: I feel as if I could just type the sentence "Sam Raimi has made a new horror movie" and leave it at that, but I've discovered there are people in the world that that sentence means nothing to... a fact that I find way scarier than any ghouls or goblins or scary pissed-off old ladies with cataracts and grudges. Because the sentence "Sam Raimi has made a new horror movie" turns my insides into a warm, happy goo, and it ought to goo-ify every last one of you too!

Oh sure, it's not Evil Dead 4 -- and hell it doesn't even appear to have Bruce Campbell anywhere in it. Blasphemy! -- but it's... well, it's Sam Raimi making a new horror movie. Sam Raimi made a new horror movie! That's enough, yo.

Joe: This one definitely popped for me as I scanned the new year's movie offerings. Will the ensuing years making un-horrific movies have dulled Sam's senses or sharpened his technique? I'm really hoping for the latter. Plus Alison Lohman gets something different to do for the first time in forever, and all you Justin Long-haters out there will get to enjoy what will doubtless be his gruesome death. Something for everyone!

poll by twiigs.com

Fox: There are "Justin Long haters"? How?!?

I pretty much second everything JA said in his kick-off. I'm very anxious to see Drag Me To Hell because I'm hoping to see Raimi having fun (again) the way he did prior to A Simple Plan. Watching his stuff from Evil Dead thru The Quick And The Dead, you can feel the spontaneity and experimentation that went into making the film. It was exciting! I haven't really felt that physical presense of his since then. But I am optimistic!

Whitney: Justin seems to have had a really busy year. I was scanning the list of anticipated films and saw him in a whole bunch of movies. Remember when he was in Galaxy Quest?

As for Sam Raimi, I do have hopes for this film, but I just don't see Raimi returning to his earlier style after becoming such a hot Hollywood item.

Nathaniel: Whitney, I suspect that Raimi has actually been itching to return there. I'm not much for horror ["We know. Shut up!" shout all the readers] but I did deeply dig his visualizations for that first Doctor Octopus attack in Spider-Man 2 and I understand through osmosis that it was filmed in the style of his horror films? It did feel somehow cinematically joyous in its murderous intent so I think Raimi likes to violently kill things real dead on celluloid. Just a guess.

On the other hand it's not my genre and it's Alison Lohman, so it's certainly a horror. For me. I'm scared even before the first reel. We'll see...

What about you out there, will you see?
In case you missed any entries they went like so...
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We Can't Wait:
#1 Inglourious Basterds, #2 Where the Wild Things Are, #3 Fantastic Mr. Fox,
#4 Avatar, #5 Bright Star, #6 Shutter Island, #7 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
#8 Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, #9 Nailed, #10 Taking Woodstock,
#11 Watchmen, #12 The Hurt Locker, #13 The Road, #14 The Tree of Life
#15 Away We Go, #16 500 Days of Summer, #17 Drag Me To Hell,
#18 Whatever Works, #19 Broken Embraces, #20 Nine (the musical)
intro (orphans -didn't make group list)
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