Posterized: Michael Cera

I'm still giggling about Scott Pilgrim vs. The World which I saw this morning. I loved the comic book and I was pleased that Edgar Wright was so skilled at keeping the comedy zippy.

Wallace: The L Word
Scott: Lesbian?
Wallace: The other L Word
Scott: Lesbians ?

My review is coming soon but in the meantime, shall we discuss Michael Cera's movie career. This is it, in posters. Before he came to real fame with Arrested Development, he did have a few movie roles, usually as children such as in the Dennis Quaid /Jim Caviezel time travel piece Frequency (2000). But I'm picking up where the classic sitcom left off.

Arrested Development (tv, 03-06) | Superbad (2007) | Juno (2007)

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (08) | Extreme Movie (08) | Paper Heart (09)

Year One (09) | Youth in Revolt (09) | Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (10)

How many have you seen? And isn't it peculiar that the posters are almost all the full body type? I guess you need both arms and legs for maximum slapstick lolz. I thought he was pretty great in Juno (and thought he made a fine Scott Pilgrim) but I know he has many haters, too. Especially due to that Arrested Development Development Hell.

DVD: Natalie Wood 6 Times!, Nick & Norah

Collections ~ It's Tuesday so there are new box sets available highlighting everything from tired hockey masked killers (you know who) to highly respected thespians (Peter Sellers and Alec Guiness) but the big ... make that B-I-G... deal for The Film Experience is the "Natalie Wood Collection" which includes six films. I haven't seen Bombers B-52 or Cash McCall but even if they're bad you still get to stare at her for two hours. Her beauty justifies most any running time.

Natalie Wood *swoon*

The other four are more notable players in her filmography. There's the Edith Head costumed Helen Gurley Brown comedy Sex and the Single Girl (1964) and two true classics: the musical Gypsy (1962) and the legendary 'Warren Beatty Destroys Lives!' teen angst of the unbeatable Splendor in the Grass (1961). Adventurous movie fanatics might be most interested in getting a good long look at the underseen and idiosyncratic inside Hollywood drama Inside Daisy Clover (1965) from director Robert Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird). Natalie, 27 when the film was released, was too old for her role as an ascending teenage starlet, but Robert Redford is just right as her undeniably breathtaking but possibly gay lover. Ruth Gordon is her crazy mama (and strangely Oscar nominated though she's barely in the movie). Inside Daisy Clover's true Best Supporting Actress is Katharine Bard (someone I'd never heard of) who plays a slightly "off" Hollywood wife named Melora Swan. I was riveted every time she appeared. She was apparently a television actress and only made two feature films after this one. I guess nobody noticed how terrific she was. Shame.

From the Vaults ~ Being There (30th Anniversary) is sitting on my TV waiting for me to screen. I love Hal Ashby movies and I've never seen it. Oops. It stars Peter Sellers as a gardener who becomes a political advisor. Shirley Maclaine co-stars and they get Oscar winning support from Melvyn Douglas. When I wrote up that piece on The Little Mermaid two years ago, Bruno Paxton reminded me that I was giving it a teensy bit too much credit as THE comeback for Disney animation since Oliver and Company was a hit the year before. So yeah, 20th anniversary DVD for that cute 2D kitten. Finally Babs somehow found the time to return to her musical Yentl for an "Extended Directors Edition". Would that she would return to acting instead.

Newbies ~ Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist in which Michael Cera moves on from Juno (not the town in Alaska) and into Kat Dennings. Sweet funny movie with stellar comedic support from Ari Graynor. Can I see her in another movie NOW (previous posts)? There's also the Southern girl-fest The Secret Life of Bees starring actresses Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo and Dakota Fanning and singers Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys, Space Buddies which I'd really rather not type about... moving on! And Zack and Miri Make a Porno which I have yet to see. Worth a rental? Help me out.
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Nick and Norah's National Coming Out Day!

And I almost forgot. Last year I typed up a somewhat controversial list of "out" film people. I'm not going to retype but if I did it'd feel so nice to add. And I would've had to. It's so nice to add. See, more and more Hollywood types are rejecting the don't-rock-the-boat myth of Certain Career Doom. Good for them. The way I see it "Coming Out" is a tangible gift to oneself but it's also of abstract benefit to the world. People feel alone and scared and marginalized for lots of reasons, not only sexuality, and if you can make someone else feel less alone merely by being true to yourself? Shazam! The world is a better place... and most of the time you won't even know that someone else was able to borrow from your strength. Which is fine. You don't need credit. At the risk of referencing a bad movie: Pay it forward.

Today I met up with Joe to take in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and it was sweet and cute and funny (though not really a patch on the director's debut Raising Victor Vargas, which is all of those things too). But since it's National Coming Out Day what I most want to say is that youth-oriented movies have come a long way. In the movie Nick's two best friends are both gay. Miraculously the movie doesn't think this is weird or shameful or anything other than just the way Nick's life is. If anything the movie thinks this makes Nick (a straight romantic lead) even more loveable than he is already is just by being Michael Cera.

Shameless generalizsations coming atcha now! Back in 80s teen movies nobody was gay onscreen. "Gay" was only something the characters didn't want to be called. No characters actually were, you know, that way. If you were a gay kid in the 80s (as I was) there just wasn't much to make you feel less "weird" or marginalized apart from the odd arthouse movie that you snuck into with sympatico friends. In the 90s token gay characters began emerging regularly (like Christian in Clueless) but they were mostly peripheral. In the Aughts the Gay Best Friend is everywhere in mainstream fare. From nonexistent to affectionately and ubiquitously portrayed in just two decades? That's real progress even if some diversity in "types" would be more than welcome. I can't imagine what it's like for gay kids growing up now. And the fact that I can't imagine it means that things have changed a lot. And that, my friends, is a very good thing.

The Many Hoodies of Michael Cera

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JA from MNPP here, with a brief call-to-arms for the actor Michael Cera.

Michael, I say this because I like you very much. Maybe you want to do something somewhat different somewhat soon. Something that doesn't involve A) batting those puppy dog eyes, and B) pull-strings. You've already expressed knowledge of your own current self-created limitations. That is a step in the right direction, good sir. Self-awareness is the on-ramp onto the highway of career longevity!

I say it's time for some villainy. Screw sweet, my friend! Make with some murder! It'll do you a world of good, I swear it. Perhaps a Juno sequel in which Miss McGuff's "witticisms" finally push you over the edge? Or Superbad 2: Super-Stab! I don't know, I'm not making millions of dollars to come up with that crap, you think of something.

This post has not been brought to you
by Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist,
Out in theaters today!

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