Woody Turns 75. Undoubtedly Writing 43rd Feature Film.

What you're looking at below is a screenshot from the new Film Experience site (opening in a couple of weeks) in the "top tens" section... which is more like a "top 1" for each year from 1920-1979 (until I see or revisit more films from those years).

Woody Allen made my favorite films of 1977 (Annie Hall), 1979 (Manhattan) and 1985 (The Purple Rose of Cairo) and came very close to doing so in 1986 (Hannah and Her Sisters) and 1992 (Husbands and Wives). I haven't done the math but he's way up their under "most represented filmmaker" in my personal bliss lists. Other repeat #1 champs are Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks and William Wyler. But you'll see those lists soon enough.

Though I've expressed concern about Woody Allen's qualitative if not quantitative decline in various posts (I've nearly hated the last two films, Whatever Works and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger), he has given us so much great cinema over the past four decades that today on his 75th birthday I only want to sing him "Happy Birthday". Or maybe play it for him on the clarinet. If only I could play.

10 Favorite Woody Flicks

1. Manhattan (1979)
2. The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
3. Annie Hall (1977)
4. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
5. Husbands and Wives (1992)
6. Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
7. Interiors (1978)
8. Match Point (2005)
9. Stardust Memories (1980)
10. Sleeper (1973)

Disclaimer: This list is constantly in flux after the top 5 which are inarguably my favorites. I should probably rewatch some of the older ones. I've been meaning to take a good long look at Crimes and Misdemeanors and Another Woman again especially. The only ones I haven't seen: Bananas (1971), Love and Death (1975), Zelig (1983... I've been meaning to watch this one forever. It's like a strange mental block for me), and Cassandra's Dream (2007)

Weird Oscar Trivia: This is little commented on but I think it's worth noting. Though it's well known that Woody Allen is Oscar's #1 screenwriter (14 nominations, 2 wins) and among their 10 favorite directors of all time (6 nominations, 1 win) isn't it bizarre that, given the intensity of that AMPAS love, he's only ever had 2 Best Picture nominees (Annie Hall & Hannah and Her Sisters)? Strange.

Next? Woody's 42nd feature film Midnight in Paris which is about an engaged couple travelling to Paris on business and cheating on each other. I'm guessing on that last part of that sentence but it doesn't take a psychic. Will the film be another goodie like Vicky Cristina Barcelona or a mess like Whatever Works? The new film stars Rachel McAdams and Michael Sheen (now a real life couple). Marion Cotillard plays a character referred to as the 'Muse' -- an Allen staple. When it comes to the new cast, we're most excited to see Mimi Kennedy join the Woodyverse. She seems ideally suited for it, yes? She was so gutbustingly funny in In the Loop (2009).

Woody directing Kennedy and McAdams in Midnight in Paris (2011)

 All of them are newbies to the Woodyverse but he doesn't repeat his cast members that much anymore (sigh). Still no Dianne Wiest in sight. Since Paris is done filming he's undoubtedly writing Untitled Woody Allen Project i.e. the 43rd due in 2012. That how he do.

Wish Mr. Allen a happy 75th in the comments, and tell us your favorite of his films!
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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!

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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"

Birthday Suits: Giant Sized Edition

11/17 ~ Todays special boys and girls. Are you one of them?

Mischa, Marty and Rachel

1897 Frank Fay, aka Mr. Barbara Stanwyck. The theory goes that their troubled marriage was the basis of A Star is Born. That story is so big it's practically it's own franchise. I can't stop thinking about it today: Stanwyck through the lens of Gaynor, Garland, Streisand. Yummy!) Even if it's only an urban LA legend, I love to think about it. Fay, a popular comedic actor, was also the originator of the Harvey role (on stage) before Jimmy Stewart got to it.
1901 Lee Strasberg, the hugely influential acting teacher that helped popularize "The Method" Students included... well, basically a whose who of late 40s / early 50s giants of the silver screen.
1905 Mischa Auer, very tall actor of oversized comic turns. You'll remember him from the blissfully funny My Man Godfrey and best picture winner You Can't Take It With You (discussed right here).

<--- 70s cheesecake (Lauren) and 50s beefcake (Rock)

1925 Rock Hudson, Giant. In more than just the film title way. Did any actor ever have a better name?
1942 Martin Scorsese, auteur. diminutive only in heighth. supersized in acclaim (recently discussed here)
1943 Lauren Hutton Once Bitten by American Gigolo
1944 Danny DeVito actor/director/short funny guy. My personal favorites: The War of the Roses, Romancing the Stone and Living Out Loud
1944 Lorne Michaels SNL guru
1945 Roland Joffé director of The Mission, The Killing Fields and... oops, The Scarlett Letter
1948 Howard Dean just cuz

1958 Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio 80s actress of The Abyss, Scarface and The Color of Money fame. And Maid Marian in the unfortunate... oh, never mind.
1960 RuPaul At 6'7" the giantess of the list. Oh, Ru. You better work... on getting some more big screen cameos. It's been awhile. You also better work on a second season of Drag Race. That was so fun.
1966 Sophie Marceau Mel Gibson's rebound royal in Braveheart.
1978 Rachel McAdams giant movie star possibly hidden inside resistant actress. Or so the theory goes.
1978 Zoe Bell Death Proof's awesome hood ornament.

Eric Bana-nanza

Dave from Victim of the Time here, wondering why Eric Bana isn't a legitimate movie-star yet. I don't like to be an undue influence, but if I were in charge of Nat's Film Bitch awards for this year, Eric would be the current front-runner for the 'Body of Work' award. You'll all remember Star Trek, of course, where Bana played the main villain, the Romulan Nero, and put a lot of energy and zest into a role that wasn't given as much attention as it probably should have been. Since then, he's recently had two more roles that amply show off both his acting chops - in strikingly different ways - and his almost limitless charisma. (He also starred in the Australian film Romulus, My Father, but who knows when that'll reach my eyes...) In a coincidental move that surely inspired this post, I happened to see both of these Bana-starring films within the last week.

The Time Traveler's Wife is a disappointing adaptation of Audrey Hiffenegger's immersive, emotional novel, but you can't blame the cast (or indeed the casting director). Rachel McAdams is tender and sympathetic as Clare, perhaps missing a bit of the fierce passion and independent spirit of the book's Clare, but then the script goes for the romantic heartbreak rather than the book's mixture of romance and intellectualism. There's only so much you can fit into two hours, I suppose. But Bana is really the star here. Working within the script's slimmed down plotlines, he effortlessly conveys the bizarre difficulties and odd pleasures of the time travelling concept, instantly makes you comprehend why he loves Clare, while maintaining the book's unspoken edge that part of his love for her might be the simple need to have a purpose. Bana provides the movie with an emotional weight it would otherwise lack; the movie provides him with a chance to prove he is the romantic leading man the industry seems to be without at the moment. (Feel free to challenge me on this, but I can't think of anyone.)

But he saved the best for last. Or, for you Americans, he served up a rather lovely sandwich (choose your own filling for this metaphor), for Funny People, despite what the poster might pretend, is Bana's film. He steals it from under the noses of more seasoned film comedians (admittedly not particularly good ones) and jolts the film out of the odd, pitiable funk it's descended into. It's well-worn trivia that Bana was a stand-up comedian before he was spotted for his break-through performance in Chopper, but, despite Funny People's premise, Bana's character Clarke asks a different kind of comedic poise from Bana. Clarke is a stereotypical Australian dominant male figure with a rabid business sense and an aggression in both his humour and his temper. Bana displays impeccable comic timing in his interactions with Adam Sandler, Leslie Mann and Seth Rogen (as well as his on-screen children - their Chinese conversation provides the film's biggest laugh) as well as fine balance in keeping Clarke out of the realm of caricature. It's not a stretch to say his work here is a film-saving turn.

Bana's filmography since Chopper is a selective bunch of films, and it has to be said he's not always saved it for the best roles - Troy was a disaster (Bana emerged as the best thing in it), as were Lucky You (again, not his fault) and The Other Boleyn Girl (I don't who to blame for this), and, despite my opinion being that it wasn't half-bad, Hulk was hardly the vehicle to stardom anyone would have wanted. Maybe this terrific year will propel Bana to better things. He has the charisma, the talent, and the looks. Now he just needs to be allowed to use them more often.

New Releases + Hitchcock

I'm talking about Alfred Hitchcock's birthday and this week's new releases in my column at Towleroad. The obvious highlights from the newbies are Ponyo (sight unseen but it's Miyazaki so we're fine) and District 9, which I have seen. Katey and I will have a vodcast up soon to discuss the very bloody but very exciting alien action flick. But for now, the column

There's quite a variety of new product at the multiplexes. Let's start with the romantic drama, The Time Traveler's Wife in which Eric Bana keeps disappearing and reappearing in Rachel McAdams life. Wait, is he playing Ryan Gosling?!? This vanishing / reappearing act is probably a great metaphor of some sort for romance, though I haven't read the bestseller so I've no idea if the concept is executed well. The faithful are angry that they've changed it to something sunnier. Hollywood is so terrified of sad endings, even in tearjerkers which are supposed to make you cry.

read the rest at Towleroad

Links Run Amok

Hollywood Reporter I guess turnabout is fair play and Hollywood is always remaking Asian films. Zhang Yimou is going to remake the Coen Bros debut film Blood Simple. Er... good luck
Bright Lights After Dark reminds us that not everyone loves the legendary Pauline Kael as a critic. 'She didn't "get" the 60s' is the claim here.
Socialite Life Harrison Ford and Rachel McAdams to co-star in Morning Glory (not a remake of the Katharine Hepburn Oscar winner
Empire Watchmen getting rereleased... and it's even longer now? (gulp)
Topless Robot remembers the geek side of Farrah Fawcett's career
Twitch Audition, one of the scariest movies I've ever seen, is getting a 10th anniversary DVD edition with extras


Splash Page fan made Spider-Man 4 posters. Eliza Dushku as the Black Cat? Yes, please
Mike Lynch 200 characters from Dick Tracy. Does anyone besides me wish the movie version had had a sequel?
Billy Loves Stu Brad Pitt (Cutting Class) and the vagaries of fame

More takes on the Oscar's Best Picture nominee doubling
AV Club pros & cons
Nick's Flick Picks with charts of what 1999-2008 might have looked like. We should probably do this here at some point. So many projects!
Movies Kick Ass 'Oscar Should Wait'
Risky Business Oscar's Decathlon

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen reviews > Transformers Revenge of the Fallen
Kim Morgan suggests that Bay is an idiot savant surrealist. She thinks he needs to embrace/realize it
James Rocchi "And no, I can't shut my brain off and have fun, anymore than I could rip out my tongue and enjoy a meal, because my brain is where I feel fun."
Peter Bradshaw "like watching paint dry while getting hit over the head with a frying pan"
Timothy Brayton Robots in Disgust
Cinematical absurdities they love

Vanity Fair's Hollywood ~ Episode 12 (2006)

Missed previous episodes? See: 1995 , 1996, 1997, 1998 , 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005

This Hollywood history series is nearing its end point as we approach the here and now. After two relatively safe / similar Hollywood covers: actresses + gowns = glamour. discuss, Vanity Fair shook things up to instant water cooler success in 2006.

click to enlarge for maximum blinding cheekiness

Tom Ford, 44, was ditching fashion for Hollywood (his directorial debut will supposedly emerge soon), and VF had him nuzzling Keira Knightley as Scarlett Johansson languorously lounged before them in nubile albino glory. Was the empty black space to your left...

• a compositional must?
• a place in which to photoshop oneself for an imagined ménage à quatre?
• an homage to every ethnic actor they'd ever shoved into the last fold of the covers?
  

Scarlett Johansson was 21 going on 22. You're forgiven if you assumed she was the niece of not one but all of Conde Nast's top executives. Three Hollywood covers in a row! Perhaps they should just have replaced the"Hollywood" tradition with an annual "Scarlett" issue. They could document every step of her career. They could string famous actresses across the cover each year, dressed up like Scarlett Johannson's film characters.

But who would play each Scarlett?

Keira Knightley was just turning 21 and enjoying her first Oscar nomination for Pride & Prejudice. She was also promoting her second Pirates of the Caribbean and a few months away from filming Atonement. "Come back to me!" [sniffle]
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average age: 29.
noticeably absent: Clothing. Also: Rachel McAdams, who was booked to be in Tom Ford's place but due to a "conniption of modesty" walked away leaving us forever wondering what she had planned to whisper in Keira's ear. "Come back to me!"?
collective Oscar stats before cover: 1 nomination (Keira's)
collective Oscar stats after cover: none. Keira's Atonement campaign didn't take.
fame levels in 2009, according to famousr, from most to least: Scarlett than Keira.
previous episodes: 1995 ,1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.

don't miss the last two episodes and a possible bonus round.

Actress Psychic ~ Point Frenzy Update

This post goes out to those of you who predicted the Oscars with me wayyyyyy back in April. On December 3rd we totalled the points thus far in the "Actress Psychic" contest. Now, after 3 weeks of precursor madness an update. May the most psychic contestant win it all!

Points since December 3rd (and a few I forgot last time)

Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married +35 (NBR Best Actress, 1st time solo SAG nominee, 1st time Golden Globe nominee, BFCA nominee, critics awards -she maxed out on minor prizes, rotten tomatoes score above 85%)
Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky +27 (1st time Globe nominee, critics awards -she maxed out on all possible points here, major and minor, rotten tomatoes score above 85%)
Meryl Streep, Doubt + 24 (BFCA, SAG & Globe nominee, two minor critics prizes, film opened)
Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road +24 (SAG & Globe nominee, critics awards -maxed out on minor prizes, EW cover shared)
Angelina Jolie, Changeling +23 (SAG, BFCA & Globe nominee, one minor critics awards)
Melissa Leo, Frozen River + 23 (AFI top ten list, NBR special award, first time solo SAG nominee, BFCA nominee, two minor critics prizes, rotten tomatoes score over 85%)
Kate Winslet, The Reader +10 (Globe, BFCA & SAG nominee ... only in Supporting, two minor critics. Only lead awards count)
Meryl Streep, Mamma Mia! +9 (Globe nominee, one minor critics prize)
Cate Blanchett, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button +4 (AFI top ten list, BFCA nominee)
Kate Beckinsale, Nothing but the Truth +3 (BFCA nominee, film opened)
Vera Farmiga, Nothing but the Truth +2 (BFCA nominee... only in Supporting, film opened)
Hiam Abbas, The Visitor + 2 (rotten tomatoes scored over 85%)
Rachel McAdams, The Lucky Ones or The Time Traveller's Wife + 1 (NY Times Style cover... I forgot this point last time)


Rachel, Rachel... oh Rachel

Remarkably not one of the Best Actress contestants was listed in the EW "Great Performances 08" section that just came out. In fact, it's been kind of a lame year for Best Actresses in terms of media interest/coverage. Few magazine covers all year have gone to our leading screen actresses. The only point possibilities remaining are last minute magazine covers, box office points, the NSFC prize, The FiLM BiTCH Awards (that's my nominees if you're just joining us), BFCA and Globe wins, rotten tomatoes score for the movies that have just opened or are soon opening (scores still in flux) and of course the OSCAR NOMINATIONS themselves after which the contest ends and we announce the gold, silver and bronze medalist in psychics. Your current leaders, way out front, are KiYe and Rich Aunt Pennybags. Here's that complete chart of contestants and their points. Hayden W, JarJar K, Jaydawg, Rizz, Sasnyder and Matt Noller appear to be battling it out for the bronze... unless of course Jolie or Winslet are snubbed (they're on a lot of the ballots) in which case it could be a number of people's game. The tiebreaker (how many nominations will Revolutionary Road get?) will undoubtedly have to be used this year.

Next year we'll do this Psychic contest differently -- maybe we'll start later in the year and do both Lead and Supporting... I'm still brainstorming.
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Red Carpet Rendezvous

Who's been working the premieres and parties this week? Everyone. But I can only be bothered with real actors. So, every week I might just bring a few of them together for your quick perusal and judgment. The images have been scaled for the star's heighth because I am obsessed with such minutae, don'cha know.


There's Heather "Dawn Wiener" Matarazzo at a Rachel Getting Married event, Monica Bellucci (where she been?) at a D&G party in Milan, Michelle Williams at a Wendy & Lucy event (thoughts on that film coming soon), Rosario Dawson smashing in green at the red carpet for Eagle Eye, Robert Downey Jr & Rachel McAdams announce their presence in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes which will be turning its monocle and pipes at us sometime in 2010 (Jude Law will play dear Watson). Careful Rachel! We thought you were trying to avoid superstardom. RDJ's got that now and it might be contagious. TFE's imaginary group snapshot ends with the Amazonian Sigweavie, who casually attended that Rachel Getting Married screening.
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"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
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P.S. Nathaniel, stop trying to make "film experience" happen!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

NYFF: Patty, Will You Marry Me?

From the 45th Annual New York Film Festival (Sept 28th thru Oct 14th)

<--- I am in love with Patty Clarkson. I've declared this fondness before... albeit in a more platonic professional fashion. But my suddenly matrimonial intent was not a solitary one in the Walter Reade theater last week. The entire audience @ her new film Married Life was eating out of her hand. She was all flirtation and humility while working that crowd during the Q & A that followed. Boy does that woman spark. [My favorite moment: she affectionately referred to her character as "a deep redheaded ladygirl." Emphasis hers.]

Life director Ira Sachs, who hogged most of the questions, said he wanted to show Patty in a new light in this film and he does: There's one particularly fresh scene with Ms. Clarkson in lingerie that'll make you envious of her scene partner. She plays a grandmother but da-amn. But, anyway, the movie...

Married Life opens on one of those kitschy illustration-filled title sequences. It's essentially suggesting that you're about to view a comedy. The narration by "Richard" (Pierce Brosnan), is of the serious but winking variety of running commentaries. It suggests that you're watching a noir or a black comedy. Yet the movie that unspools is neither of those and more things too: a treatise on coupling, a melodrama, a bedroom farce. I shan't spoil the story's twists for you but the comic premise itself is known: Harry Allen (Chris Cooper) has fallen in love with a young woman Kay (Rachel McAdams) and decides to spare his wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson) the pain of divorce by murdering her.

I'm all for tonal mishmashes if they work but Married Life doesn't. In a period film that doesn't open up much (it's based on a book but you're forgiven if you assume it was a play) you're left with only the actors to sell the material. Despite their collective talent (considerable) the effort shows. Chris Cooper has the most to work with and acquits himself well though his interpretation is so serious that it tilts the movie far into sober drama.

Maybe that's the intent since Rachel McAdams also goes for a portrait of deep hurt. This Canadian actress is the one that everyone wants to crown as the newest bonafide movie star but in this film she only continues her stardom avoidance tour. She's quite good at hinting at unexplored depths but the movie seems mostly interested in her beauty and its ability to hold the frame.


Patricia Clarkson, always a joy to watch, is assigned whatever levity this quiet serious film can muster. Unfortunately, "Pat" is the character that makes the least sense in retrospect as more and more of the story becomes known. It's as if the earlier scenes are purposely obscuring the story rather than playing as organic parts of the whole. Married Life ends with a dinner party but the dish it's serving up smells weird. There are tasty ingredients but this movie is a clash of flavors. C