Sophie's Link

Meryl Streep brings endless funny. Have you read "name one masterpiece of cinema that I've starred in"? Hat tip to reader Cal for alerting me. Since this article appears in The Onion, it's Meryl Streep or "Meryl Streep" but both are equally awesome. One can certainly imagine the real Streep taking these shots at her self. She's always been fond of the self-deprecating zingers that somehow pretzel themselves until they're self-aggrandazing.

Of course, next Sophie's Choice comes up. Sure. Absolutely. That makes complete sense. But have you actually watched Sophie's Choice lately? Boy, talk about a movie that has not aged well. My performance is very good. No question. Oscar-worthy even...

So now is when you have to start really digging into my filmography because you're starting to think, "Can it be true that one of this generation's greatest actresses, maybe even the greatest—a national treasure, you might say—has never been in a film as good as Network, which isn't even Faye Dunaway's best movie?"

Ha. That's so true. Faye had quite the run. But... is it true? Does Meryl really not have her very own classic? P.S. The line about The Devil Wears Prada is killer.


More Linkage
Cinema Blend Dakota Fanning and Michael Sheen as bloodsuckers. I still weep that something as boring as The Twilight Saga will be "entertaining" us for years to come, but at least they're recruiting decent actors now that they won the lottery
Stareast Asia Zhang Ziyi engulfed in shoulder pads. Have you accepted that Ziyi is now more of a model than an actress. Maybe that's always how you've thought of her? You're smart
Topless Robot is Green Lantern doomed? I love Topless Robot. They're so self aware. This line from the highly speculative post is a beaut. It's a line which would never be typed on other genre loving fanboy sites but which belongs on all of them

But if I don't make wild, unfounded accusations about things I know nothing about, I feel like I'm not doing my job.

babblebook contemplates the catharsis of Inglourious Basterds. Great post
Cinephilia imagines Pitt & Jolie receiving the Inglourious call. The punchline to the scene is pretty great
Socialite's Life George Clooney breaks his hand. Damn, that man is fragile
PopCrunch Liz Taylor loves RuPaul?

Oh, Anne...
My nearly beloved Anne Heche (if only she'd get the good roles...) is back in, uh, form. Did you see her on Letterman? Now I think it's a terrible terrible terrible thing for a celebrity to diss a civilian on national television --manners, Celestia, manners!-- But that said, I like my Anne crazy, so I loved this.



Against my better judgment.

Finally
It's been ages since I've been to the popular flash site Homestar Runner for a Strong Bad e-mail but I clicked over this morning to watch a short comic bit on "indie film" vs. independent film. Back in the day --when? don't remember-- I wrote Strong Bad an e-mail asking something or other about movies but quickly realized it was a mistake and my e-mail would never be used to animate an episode because the world of Homestar Runner tends not to really deal with reality as we know it in. There's very little in the way of dated pop culture references / jokes. But, I guess Strong Bad is closer to planet Earth now that he's dissing art films and Hollywood poseurs and getting little visual digs in at Juno among other things.

Them's Some Sexy Clintons

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Via:

"Dennis Quaid is set to star as President Clinton, with Julianne Moore taking on Hillary in an upcoming HBO film called The Special Relationship. While, at first glance, this might seem like a tale that will discuss certain forays in the Oval Office and risque behavior with cigars, the piece will look at an entirely different relationship -- the "sometimes turbulent political relationship" between Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair -- who will be played by Michael Sheen.

You might remember that Sheen already played Blair in both The Deal and The Queen, so this will be old hat. (Helen McCrory, who played Cherie Blair in The Queen, is also set to reprise her role.) He was also the Frost to Langella's Nixon, and Frost/Nixon playwright Peter Morgan wrote the screenplay to this project and is hoping to make his directorial debut with the feature, should it get greenlit."

Well? What do we think? Is it giving the project too much of a "he's a closet-case and she's sleeping with the help" vibe?

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We Have Nothing to Link but Link Itself

DListed Sophia & Daniel on location for Nine
A Room of One's Own "youth" in cinema
Coraline I love this new teaser with author Neil Gaiman (if you've never read his books, start doing so now. That's an order!)
/Film "extra pulp" t-shirts. I love
In Contention Oscar Race. Phase Two.


Trust Movies appreciates Michael Sheen (well, someone has to)
Buzz Sugar Sundance awards roundup
Defamer Michael Cera is the lone holdout for the Arrested Development movie?
Out in Hollywood talks to the producers of Milk

off cinema (just cuz it needs to be shared)
fourfour and the entitled homeless woman
i09 interesting piece on Battlestar Galactica. Is it still relevant in Obama America? (Though, isn't it a little early to be defining the Obama era? He's only been in office a few days)

Now Playing: Mickey Rourke and Michael Sheen, Twice Over

Limited
Dog Eat Dog Colombia's Oscar submission is a drama about two criminals who break unwritten rules and suffer the consequences
Donkey Punch a supposedly sick and nasty horror flick aboard a yacht. At least it looks like the victimized girls fight back
Kill Shot I had no idea that Mickey Rourke had another movie out. He's traded in the long blond metal hair for a brunette braid as a killer. Gorgeous Diane Lane isn't safe after witnessing a hit.
Outlander Let's talk Jim Caviezel. He got famous for and was completely amazing in an existential Terence Malick WWII film (The Thin Red Line) and then made lots of weird acting choices and then starred as Jesus in that Mel mega-hit and now he's doing low budget sci-fi viking movies. How weird is this career?

Wide
Inkheart Does Brendan Fraser have the tiniest but most lucrative typecasting niche (dad in children's fantasy adventure movies) in the business? In this one he can bring characters to life out of books. But some of those characters shouldn't be let out. Didn't they make this movie twice in the 1990s and call it Jumanji and Cool World?
Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans You know... (sigh) I have a thing for vampires. I'll see a lot of crap films if there are bloodsuckers. But I'll skip this one. Three films in and I still don't understand what the point of making Werewolf vs Vampire movies are if the beasties fight with guns and swords? That's what happens in other action movies! Give me fangs and claws and things appropriately supernatural. And without the previous film's eye candy of Scott Speedman (delicious even with sickly blue skin & solid black eyes) & Kate Beckinsale (ridiculously tight vinyl costumes? Yes, please!) this is a pass for me.

Enraged by his Frost/Nixon Oscar snub, Michael Sheen becomes a "LYCAAANNNNN!"

Oscar Films Let Out of Their Cages...
Not one, not two, but 5 Oscar nominees are finally in hundreds of theaters, six if you count The Dark Knight's rerelease. Now that the Academy has deemed them worthy of your eyeballs in ways either major or minor, their distributors have reluctantly signed off on their release. You may commence buying tickets to: Frost/Nixon, Rachel Getting Married, Revolutionary Road, Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler. If you do, please report back as the films move from the theoretical to the real for you.