What Were We Talking About?

When Sam Mendes and Maggie Gyllenhaal had lunch recently in NYC, what do you suppose they were talking about? I hope Maggie was saying "sorry about being such a one-dimensional cartoon in Away We Go -- but you weren't helping, mister man!"

What were they talking about? What were we talking about? What are we still talking about? (That actress list fo' sure and also the August: Osage County casting)  Here's some recent comments on older posts that I wanted to call your attention to. Yes, I read everything! Thank you to everyone who comments. It makes the work of writing of the blog more like fun.

silencio actually loves Perfume Story of a Murderer more than Se7en  in the serial killer genre. I don't hear that often. Truth (I haven't seen it. Shhhh). But it's funny that silencio should mention it since I have been thinking about Ben Whishaw all week. I'm fond but his part made-a me crazy in Julie Taymor's Tempest (for a few reasons... not really his fault. More on that later). How come I haven't seen Perfume?

Robby notices how many Oscar nominees are dropping off lately. Trust when I wrote that "still with us!" list in July I REALLY did not intend it as a morbid countdown. I just wanted to honor people while they were still with us. But yes it's already really out of date. Rough month of RIPs.


Kevin thinks the death of P.T. Anderson's The Master ought to free him up to do a musical. Wouldn't that be great?



Jordan ranks David Fincher's films and is fond of the Modern Maestro series as a whole. I didn't mean to scare y'all with saying that it's wrapping up soon. Robert is staying with us. I love the column too but it's time to switch it up after a short break.



james t rediscovered the huge voice / brilliance of Ellen Greene in Little Shop of Horrors and pointed me to this Patrick ♥ Wilson / Carrie Underwood version (what the he--uh?) I included an Ellen Greene version too (from the Tonight Show) because I can never get enough of her as Audrey and I'd never seen this clip... apparently Siskel & Ebert talked her up on the Tonight Show too back in the day.



And finally, I was pleased to see that in the Tangled post, there were quite a few people popping in to express their love for the music of Hunchback of Notre Dame. I'm glad I wasn't alone in thinking that Judge Frollo's songs really are special in that movie.

My point is this: Thanks for visiting The Film Experience every day! It was our biggest September over and I suddenly feel very enthused about the rapidly approaching awards season.

Consider this an open comment thread!
What's on your movie-lovin' mind?
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'Titanic' Divorce

New York dailies aren't exactly known for their subtlety.

This makes me feel bad for being somewhat glib yesterday. For all the cutesy in this headline -- "Kate Winslet jumps ships" -- it feels inaccurate. Kate has always been a lousy tabloid star in that she's famous for her talent and work first rather than any personal life drama or flamboyance. So I highly doubt this divorce will be catastrophic for anyone.

Unless they're implying that Kate's departure is an iceberg for Sam Mendes career.

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We Can't Wait #15 Away We Go

Directed by Mr. Kate Winslet
Starring John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Jeff Daniels, Catherine O'Hara, Josh Hamilton, Melanie Lynskey, Allison Janney and Maggie Gyllenhaal
Synopsis a young pregnant couple travel the US "in search of a place to put down roots"
Brought to you by Focus Features
Expected Release Date June 5th

Nathaniel: I put this on my list for the curiousity factor: Sam Mendes, lover of dramatic angst and crushing profundities (Road to Perdition, Revolutionary Road, American Beauty, Jarhead) is doing a comedy. It might be just the thing to shake that monkey (let's call it "Oscar") off his back. He really needs to try something different, looser and funkier. I hope this is it.

JA: That list of names... those are like a thousand of my favorite things right there. I mean, Catherine O'Hara alone, but Janney, Rudolph, Gyllenhaal and Lynskey! Brain-freeze. If I were gonna play that game where one chooses who you'd like to have dinner with, five famous people, living or dead, well you wouldn't go very wrong with choosing these names.

So yeah, I could stand to be stuck in a car with these folks for a bit.

Whitney: I'm always a little scared of movies involving pregnancy. Not because of anything the movies do or don't do, but just because babies freak me the fuck out.

Fox: In the way that Nathaniel is a little bit scared of Drag Me To Hell, I'm pretty terrified to hear that Sam Mendes already has another film coming out after he made us ("me") suffer through Revolutionary Road. At least three years were allowed to pass between Jarhead and RR (same for the time in between Road to Perdition and Jarhead). So, Sam, how about taking your family on vacation for a while and canning this one until 2011, 'kay?

That cast, though... I'd like to see Krasinski and Rudolph in more big screen comedies.

Joe: I don't know what it is about Sam Mendes that keeps me loyal to him despite the fact that I'm not crazy-in-love with ANY of his movies. Like most people, American Beauty has faded in its esteem for me in recent years. Jarhead was good but (Santa hat "OPP" dance sequence notwithstanding) fell way short of expectations, and I outright hated Revolutionary Road. I did like Road to Perdition more than many people did, but it's not like I'm cuckoo bananas crazy for it or anything. And yet I'm always all "New Sam Mendes movie!" Maybe it's the Winslet fan in me.

How fun is this cast? a) extremely b) very c) quite d) yes

And it's a damn fine cast he's got here. I've heard rumblings that it's a dark comedy that might be a shade too dark (i.e. depressing) to let the laughs squeak out, but I remain hopeful. Particular with regard to the breakthrough potential for one Ms. Maya Rudolph, who I think is just so insanely talented. Here's your time to shine, lady!

Nathaniel: I hope she does. Road trip comedies can be divine. If it's as funny as Flirting With Disaster it's going to be a big smart highlight of 2009. And it better be since that's my birthday weekend!

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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See Revolutionary Road Early

If you're in the NYC area director Sam Mendes (Mr. Kate Winslet) is attending a screening and doing a Q & A afterwards @ BAM on December 10th. I'd buy your tickets now as special appearances like that, two weeks prior to opening, sell out quickly.

thanks to reader and commenter Abstew for the tip

Revolutionary Road

I love the way Kate's voice sounds so flatly husky and small, Leonardo's too. The lines almost sound like they're numbed by suburbia, too much smoking and whisky. Or, more likely, Mad Men is just on my mind after its EMMY win (similar time period and marital dissatisfaction). Everything that's said between Leo & Kate here might be whispered between them, even if its uttered for us.

I also enjoyed Kate running through the woods (eery memories of Heavenly Creatures, still one of her finest hours) and the depersonalizing shots of hordes of men in suits. But then, Sam Mendes has never made a film that didn't look like a million bucks. He likes those A grade cinematographers, don't he? My chief worry is that it'll play stiff and thematic. Road to Perdition and Jarhead weren't exactly loose and spontaneous pictures, you know? Here's to this Titanic reunion, though. What a crazy handsome couple.

It's a Look

Episode 9 of The "Best Picture From the Outside In" series is ready for your eyeballs. Nick's Flick Picks hosts this week's discussion in which Nick, Mike and yours truly wax longwinded (you would too!) about 1999's American Beauty Inconsistency and 1936's bio-epic The Great Plain Ziegfeld.

Here it is

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In the odd chance you're just joining us...the complete series (so far)
episode 1 No Country For Old Men (07) and Wings (27/28)
episode 2 The Departed (06) and Broadway Melody (28/29)
episode 3 Crash (05) and All Quiet on the Western Front (29/30)
episode 4 Million Dollar Baby (04) and Cimarron (30/31)
episode 5 LotR: The Return of the King (03) and Grand Hotel (31/32)
episode 6 Chicago (02) and Cavalcade (32/33)
episode 7 A Beautiful Mind (01) and It Happened One Night (34)
episode 8 Gladiator (00) and Mutiny on the Bounty (35)
episode 9 American Beauty (99) and The Great Ziegfeld (36)

We Can't Wait #8 Revolutionary Road

Directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead)
Starring Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kathy Bates and Michael Shannon
Based on the novel by Richard Yates about a young couple in 1950s Connecticut struggling with marital problems.
Brought to you by BBC Films and Dreamworks
Expected Release Date December 19th, 2008

Nathaniel: Jack (DiCaprio) and Rose (Winslet) are together again. This time they're called Frank and April and they're married with children. Is reteaming the Titanic superstars a brilliant stroke of casting, insuring a big audience for what is essentially a period marital drama? Or an impossibly reckless move, sure to lead this movie straight into a critical or populist ("I like your old stuff better than your new stuff") iceberg?

Joe: I don't think the Kate/Leo reteaming is going to mean much of anything at the box office, but I'm really pulling for something special onscreen;. He's a much better actor now, so I think it'll be something exciting. Plus I remember Kate called him a "girl's blouse" one time on Letterman and that always made me laugh. Anyway, what is it about Kate Winslet that keeps making me want to delve into the private hell of marriage in suburbia? Hopefully this one gets better studio support than Little Children.

Gabriel: Joe's absolutely right...if the studio gets behind Revolutionary Road , it's got all the elements necessary for a classic (and an Oscar contender). If it's as good as it deserves to be, maybe Kate will finally get that Oscar she's deserved for so, so, SO long.

MaryAnn: I don't know anything about this movie, but I'm psyched to see these two together again.

Glenn: I'm hoping for - more than a magical reconnection between Jack and Rose - is that Revolutionary Road is a return to form for Sam Mendes. He's shown he's more adept to movies about suburbia than, say, war movies. But, of course, much like a film a bit further up in the countdown is another movie with a ridiculously pretty pair of lead actors. Marketing those two films is going to be gorgeous, is it not?

Nathaniel: We'll get to what Glenn's hinting about soon enough. For now, bask in that Kate and Leo goodness. Try to figure why Connecticut is always the setting for unhappy marriages (see also: Far From Heaven, The Ice Storm, The Ref, etc...) Ponder why Mendes has gone so Titanic alum with the casting: the Unsinkable Molly Brown (Kathy Bates) returns, too.


the countdown
#1 Synecdoche, New York / #2 Burn After Reading / #3 Australia / #4 Milk / #5 Blindness / # 6 Doubt / #7 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button / #8 Revolutionary Road / #9 The Dark Knight / #10 Sex & The City: The Movie / #11 The Lovely Bones / #12 Wall-E / #13 Stop-Loss / #14 The Women / #15 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince / Introduction / Orphans
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Reason #1,302 To Love Kate Winslet

For fans who love both the cinema and the live theater, there has been more than a little excitement about Julianne Moore's upcoming Broadway stint in The Vertical Hour. The play is from the esteemed writer David Hare (Plenty and the screenplay for The Hours) and will be directed by theater pro and Oscar winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Jarhead). Now we learn that we have Kate Winslet to blame for this upcoming delight. In the new issue of New York Magazine we read this delicious bit...

Moore had already passed on The Vertical Hour—although she found the play “brilliant,” she told Mendes that her filming schedule made it impossible to say yes. “And I thought, I shouldn’t have read it!” Moore groans at the memory. Then she bumped into Mendes’s wife, Kate Winslet, at the preschool the two actresses’ children attend, mentioned how disappointed she was, and Winslet fanned the project back to life.

Oh, the ways in which The Winslet continues to bless us all! We're definitely well into quadruple digits of reasons to love her.

Reason #1,302 To Love Kate Winslet

For fans who love both the cinema and the live theater, there has been more than a little excitement about Julianne Moore's upcoming Broadway stint in The Vertical Hour. The play is from the esteemed writer David Hare (Plenty and the screenplay for The Hours) and will be directed by theater pro and Oscar winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Jarhead). Now we learn that we have Kate Winslet to blame for this upcoming delight. In the new issue of New York Magazine we read this delicious bit...

Moore had already passed on The Vertical Hour—although she found the play “brilliant,” she told Mendes that her filming schedule made it impossible to say yes. “And I thought, I shouldn’t have read it!” Moore groans at the memory. Then she bumped into Mendes’s wife, Kate Winslet, at the preschool the two actresses’ children attend, mentioned how disappointed she was, and Winslet fanned the project back to life.

Oh, the ways in which The Winslet continues to bless us all! We're definitely well into quadruple digits of reasons to love her.