Linkenstein

What follows is a strange amalgam of old and new links. It's a frankenstein roundup, stitched together over the past four days from aborted link posts that were accidentally unposted... until now. "IT'S ALIVE!"


/Film Jon Hamm as Superman?
Movie|Line's failed/jokey photoshop attempt at the same thing utterly delights me (pictured left)
I Just Want to Be Perfect Black Swan website devoted to Nina's (Natalie Portman) psyche.
Cinema Blend a look at the newly announced cast of The Hobbit. With pics. Why do I feel that this movie is going to be such a disaster when I love the LotR trilogy? I guess I've lost faith in Peter Jackson given that the beauty of King Kong was smothered by a lack of self-editing and then we got the disastrous The Lovely Bones.

ONTD Rachel McAdams and Michael Sheen. I must have slept through this pairing. This is news to me.
Cinematical Pixar gives its first female director the book (Brenda Chapman was to helm The Brave previously due out in 2012...but you know, I assume this could delay the movie). Boo.
Montages (in Norwegian) a look at what's coming up very soon in Norwegian film. The writer is most excited for The King of  Bastøy starring Stellan Skarsgard, Kristoffer Joner and Benjamin Helstad. The film takes place in 1915 and is based on a true story about a youth prison. Hmmm. Could it be next year's Oscar submission? It's never too early to start thinking about that given that the Oscar eligibility calendar is already in the 2011 film year now when it comes to Best Foreign Language Film.

(Partially) Off Cinema
Tiger Beatdown "No One is Ever On Your Side" excellent, excellent article on Mad Men's Betty Draper Francis. A must read for fans of the show in case you missed it.
Benefit of the Doubt on Metroid, feminism and the Aliens franchise (if you're curious as to why that's suddenly in the air again, it's due to the box set's release Alien Anthology.)
Moby Lives on literature's problems in reflecting our internet ruled new world: timeliness or timelessness?
The Faster Times a list of all the new shows coming to Broadway in the spring.
The Oatmeal How to Pet a Cat. Hee

Something That's Really Bothering Me
Did you read the NY Times piece about the shortage of memorable lines in the movies these days? I suppose it's only helping them that everyone has been talking about the piece and linking to it (like me) for a couple of days but I do not understand the response. I've only read a couple of "in response" articles but they seemed to join in the lament. The article cites 90s films like Terminator 2, Forrest Gump and Jerry Maguire as among the last mammoth 'quotables.' Some response articles are saying things like "yeah, it's sad that movies aren't literate anymore..." I'm sorry but Forrest F'in Gump and Jerry Maguire are not literate movies. They just had fun simple catchphrases. Why are people equating catchphrase-making with great screenwriting and extrapolating that into a lament for the state of modern cinema? Does that mean that Arnold Schwarzenegger movies deserved Best Screenplay Oscars?  A lack of catchphrases does not a poor screenplay make. The article makes a vague statement indicating that these things can take time,  citing "Plastics" from The Graduate as a line that percolated before boiling. But then it blames The Social Network for not having a great lines (um, excuse me? It has hundreds of great lines... it'll just take awhile for a few  of them to rise to the top) Meanwhile The Big Lebowski is praised for "The Dude abides." Listen. The Coen Bros write great dialogue. But I was around in 1998 when The Big Lebowski premiered. It was received with pockets of enthusiasm (as their pictures usually are) but mostly a shrug, and some considered it a small setback after Fargo (which had been nearly as popular as Raising Arizona, their first mainstream breakthrough. Lebowski wasn't.) It was only years later after obsessive fandom had successfully added several fresh coats of "classic" paint on Lebowski that people were incessantly quoting its dialogue and acting like it was this huge hit and of the best films of the 90s.

The article does suddenly remember that "I drink your milkshake" (There Will Be Blood) permeated pop culture but completely forgets about "I wish I knew how to quit you" (Brokeback Mountain) which was quoted just about as often as movie lines ever get quoted. And then there are any number of lines from Mean Girls (Best Shot subject this week!) as reader Dom pointed out a few days ago. You or someone you know quotes that movie every day. I know, right. 

I guarantee you that "milkshake" and "quit you"will never disappear. And that 5 years from now, some line from The Social Network will still be in the public vernacular. One day people might not even remember where they first heard the line they end up using from The Social Network it may dig so deep down into the bone marrow of everyday conversation. You think everyone who has ever said "fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night" was thinking of All About Eve (or had even seen All About Eve) when they first said it?

Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Mean Girls

Next Wednesday night is the Season 1 Finale of 'Best Shot". Together we'll look at the 1955 classic Night of the Hunter which --- well, if you've never seen it, you're in for a major film event. It's appropriately creepy for late October, too. Today, something lighter and flirtier.

MEAN GIRLS (2004)

God, she can be SO annoying.

Few movies from the Aughts have proved as delightfully durable as Mean Girls, the Tina Fey scripted Mark Waters directed comedy that introduced us to Queen Bee Regina George (a total "rock star" performance from Rachel McAdams) and her army of skanks, Gretchen (Lacey Chabert), Karen (Amanda Seyfried) and new girl Cady (Lindsay Lohan) -- "I love her. She's like a Martian" -- transferred in from Africa and experiencing the jungles of public education for the first time. On first viewing back in 2004, its debt to Heathers (1988), another comedy about evil life-ruiner hotties, seemed insurmountable in terms of New Classic! reaction. But Mean Girls has, in the past six years, more than proved its own worth and its own identity. In retrospect the two films feel very different in tone and aesthetic personality, with only the subject matter, mean girls, and über quotability to unite them.  In future years, the next great mean girl classic will be compared unfavorably to both of them.

The best filmmaking choice in the movie, aside from the inspired casting, might be the staging of every character intros. The entire principle cast gets fun intros with the best being reserved for the Queen Bee herself who is literally carried into the picture in slo-motion by her male admirers while a Greek chorus of students fills us in on who she is and why we should be in awe of her. It kicks off with the double conscience of the film Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese)

"And evil takes a human form in Regina George. Don't be fooled. She may seem like your typical selfish back-stabbing slut-faced ho-bag but in reality she is so much more than that. She's the Queen Bee. The star. Those other two are just her little workers... "

. To underline her power, Missy Elliott is on the soundtrack also introducing her...

 "hey hey hey ♫ I'm what's happening."

And Rachel McAdams is indeed what's happening in Mean Girls (especially now that we've had to let our love for LiLo's brief sparkliness go).  Every time you watch it, her performance gets better. A lot of actresses can and have done deliciously bitchy but her deliciously bitchy has so many shadings from stickily sweet (is she for real? why do i want to believe this one moment) to casual bored privilege to tossed off power plays to embarrassment at any hint of runner up status to machiavellian rage spiked with tiny flashes of self-loathing (that Burn Book sabotage moment!). She's damn near unimproveable in the picture.

For best shot, I choose a two-part Regina moment...



I love how the camera tracks Regina through the hallway after she's hatched her brilliant revenge plan. She's regained control of her screaming rage we saw in the prior scene and she's just gliding through the hallways, with a neat hint of actressy athleticism. Gone is the sex kitten and in her place is the marathon runner.

The shot functions like a reverse Hansel & Gretel; the witch is leaving a bread crumb trail. In the bookend shot that follows (also pictured) the camera is still moving but the witch isn't. Witness her hungry self-satisfaction while she watches the children gobble up the crumbs. They're already baking in her oven!

*
*
Finally, I have to end with a gymnasium moment because Amanda Seyfried just slays me as Karen Smith "one of the dumbest girls you'll ever meet".



This scene where Gretchen "apologizes" to her classmates -- 'I can't help it that I'm popular' -- always makes me cackle. Particularly because the punchline is so funny. Karen is watching Gretchen blankfaced and just opens up her arms to receive her friend while everyone else steps away. The funny thing about Karen is actually how innocent she seems, like a mean girl by accident of proximity and stupidity.


The "Best Shot" clique is so fetch

• Dean A believes in kissing cousins.
• Sorta That Guy maps it out for you.
• Okinawa Assault wonders what table you sit at?
• Serious Film thinks Daniel is too gay to function
• Pussy Goes Grrr had never seen the movie before!!!
• Antagony & Ecstasy goes to the mall and notices the gap. Not the Gap.
• Movies Kick Ass Whoa. great minds think alike. Jose and I both got caught up in the Wicked Witch of the North (Shore).
• Awkward is What We Aim For survives a three-way call.
• Andrew R appreciates a "cool mom"

 Previously on "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"

• Angels in America (2003), X-Men (2000), Showgirls (1995), Bring It On (2000), Black Narcissus (1946), A Face in the Crowd (1957), Pandora's Box (1929), Se7en (1995), Requiem for a Dream (2000) and La Dolce Vita (1960)

Related Reading

•  "Let me tell you something about Lindsay Lohan"

Boo You Whore

So... Blogger's image upload function happens to be getting some sort of reboot on the very night we were doing Hit Me With Your Best Shot!



Image uploading being the #1 requirement for celebrating our favorite screenshots, we're postponing til tomorrow night at 10:00 PM. You're invited so be here. Maybe we should just move to Thursdays

Yes, every Thursday he thinks she's doing SAT prep but really she's hooking up with Shane Oman in the projection room above the auditorium! I never told anybody that because I am *such* a good friend!

"Let me tell you something about Lindsay Lohan"

We were best friends in 2004. I know, right? It's so embarrassing. I don't even... Whatever. So then, I started going out with my first boyfriend Ryan who was totally gorgeous but then he moved back to Canada, and Lindsay was like, weirdly jealous of him. Like, if I would blow her off to hang out with Ryan, she'd be like, "Why didn't you call me back?" And I'd be like, "Why are you so obsessed with me?"

So then, for my birthday party, which was an all-girls pool party, I was like, "Lindsay, I can't invite you, because I think you're a lesbian." I mean I couldn't have a lesbian at my party. There were gonna be girls there in their bathing suits. I mean, right? She was a LESBIAN.


So then her mom called my mom and started yelling at her, it was so retarded.

And then she dropped out of Hollywood because no one would work with her, and she came back in, all of her hair was still badly dyed and she was totally weird, and now I guess she's off crack.

Luv ya! *mwah*

___~Regina George
*



P.S. Nathaniel, stop trying to make "film experience" happen!

More Mean Girls

More Mean Girls

High School on Film: A Little Bit Dramatic

So, Mean Girls is trashing its competition over in the best high school movie poll. My vote went to Heathers , my generation's spin on the same social truth. In point of fact, I love both films. I figured Mean Girls would do well given that it's both recent and excellent. That's a winning combination for polling. Though the screenplay has been justly lauded, the movie also benefits highly from two killer star turns. First there's the Golden Globe nomination worthy lead work from Lindsay Lohan *sigh.* This will sadly prove to be her peak. I've finally accepted it. Girlfriend just didn't acclimate well to her success. Too young perhaps or maybe fatally lacking in Jodie Foster or Evan Rachel Wood levels of gray matter needed to process it all? I don't know. But shut up and let me grieve in peace.

The second star turn of note comes from the always superb Rachel McAdams (Bronze Medalist in my 2004 Awards for "Best Villain") as the bitchtastic Regina George. I've been giggling lately about her shirt "a little bit dramatic." It's one of many great costuming choices made in the movie and it's also a pretty accurate description of high school movies in general. The good ones are always a little bigger, stylized depictions of what we all went through in real life. Every school has a Regina George. In the 80s she went by the name Heather Chandler. Same girl. But the real ones are never as beautiful, witty, and fabulous as the reel ones. They're just mean. You need the heightening to make the movies and characters enjoyable. Otherwise... well, who wants to relive high school?

The only time realism seems to work for high school stories is on television. My So Called Life will forever be one of my favorite shows. It plays more real but even that show is ever so slightly fantastical. Real life Jordan Catalano's never leaned quite that well. Dye jobs on pretty girls who didn't know they were pretty (like Angela) never looked quite that perfect. Etcetera. But for the most part that show was true.

If asked to name the show that most perfectly captured the high school experience for me --with no airbushing-- it would be Freaks and Geeks. I saw it for the first time a year or two ago when my lifelong friend Christine urged me to watch it. I was shocked...shocked by what I saw unspool. Save for character names and minor details it was like watching my own high school. Where had they been hiding all those cameras. Not only does it take place in the 80s when I went to high school but it took place very close to where I went to high school. They even mention going to places that I went to with my friends. I also had an older sister who ran with a different crowd than me. I was also the youngest looking kid and a geek. Etc... Watching it was both frightening (how did they remember so much?) and unusually cathartic.

Still, I'm willing to bet that even if you didn't go to high school in 1980s era Michigan the show will feel absolutely authentic to you should you ever rent or buy the series (just one season long *sigh* --just like My So Called Life) which I suggest you do. Right now.

Related Posts:
My Favorite TV Dramas (Ever) * To Lindsay on her 20th Birthday * Paris is Only a City in France * Hump Day Hottie: Rachel McAdams

Tags: Rachel McAdams, Lindsay Lohan, celebrities, television, TV, High School, movies, entertainment, cinema

High School on Film: A Little Bit Dramatic

So, Mean Girls is trashing its competition over in the best high school movie poll. My vote went to Heathers , my generation's spin on the same social truth. In point of fact, I love both films. I figured Mean Girls would do well given that it's both recent and excellent. That's a winning combination for polling. Though the screenplay has been justly lauded, the movie also benefits highly from two killer star turns. First there's the Golden Globe nomination worthy lead work from Lindsay Lohan *sigh.* This will sadly prove to be her peak. I've finally accepted it. Girlfriend just didn't acclimate well to her success. Too young perhaps or maybe fatally lacking in Jodie Foster or Evan Rachel Wood levels of gray matter needed to process it all? I don't know. But shut up and let me grieve in peace.

The second star turn of note comes from the always superb Rachel McAdams (Bronze Medalist in my 2004 Awards for "Best Villain") as the bitchtastic Regina George. I've been giggling lately about her shirt "a little bit dramatic." It's one of many great costuming choices made in the movie and it's also a pretty accurate description of high school movies in general. The good ones are always a little bigger, stylized depictions of what we all went through in real life. Every school has a Regina George. In the 80s she went by the name Heather Chandler. Same girl. But the real ones are never as beautiful, witty, and fabulous as the reel ones. They're just mean. You need the heightening to make the movies and characters enjoyable. Otherwise... well, who wants to relive high school?

The only time realism seems to work for high school stories is on television. My So Called Life will forever be one of my favorite shows. It plays more real but even that show is ever so slightly fantastical. Real life Jordan Catalano's never leaned quite that well. Dye jobs on pretty girls who didn't know they were pretty (like Angela) never looked quite that perfect. Etcetera. But for the most part that show was true.

If asked to name the show that most perfectly captured the high school experience for me --with no airbushing-- it would be Freaks and Geeks. I saw it for the first time a year or two ago when my lifelong friend Christine urged me to watch it. I was shocked...shocked by what I saw unspool. Save for character names and minor details it was like watching my own high school. Where had they been hiding all those cameras. Not only does it take place in the 80s when I went to high school but it took place very close to where I went to high school. They even mention going to places that I went to with my friends. I also had an older sister who ran with a different crowd than me. I was also the youngest looking kid and a geek. Etc... Watching it was both frightening (how did they remember so much?) and unusually cathartic.

Still, I'm willing to bet that even if you didn't go to high school in 1980s era Michigan the show will feel absolutely authentic to you should you ever rent or buy the series (just one season long *sigh* --just like My So Called Life) which I suggest you do. Right now.

Related Posts:
My Favorite TV Dramas (Ever) * To Lindsay on her 20th Birthday * Paris is Only a City in France * Hump Day Hottie: Rachel McAdams

Tags: Rachel McAdams, Lindsay Lohan, celebrities, television, TV, High School, movies, entertainment, cinema