Anne Hathaway is Pretty

I was watching The Devil Wears Prada (again) the other night and I had the following collosally obvious realization: Anne Hathaway is, like, really really pretty. Beautiful in the big full memorable sense of the word.

Have you had a startlingly obvious epiphany of late? If so, share in the comments.

Anne Hathaway is Pretty

I was watching The Devil Wears Prada (again) the other night and I had the following collosally obvious realization: Anne Hathaway is, like, really really pretty. Beautiful in the big full memorable sense of the word.

Have you had a startlingly obvious epiphany of late? If so, share in the comments.

Pretty in Link

J.J. honors two of my favorite actresses: Donna Murphy & Viola Davis. Why Hollywood isn't casting them I'll never kn-- oh wait, that's right: Cate Blanchett had a free week in her calendar and she does bit parts now, too.
Cinema Strikes Back A hilarious bit on a silly movie headline. Love it.
Solace in Cinema A five year old boy reviews Star Wars. If it sounds a little too much like a plot synopsis, well, he'd fit right in at any major paper!
Cinematical on Volver's Goya nods -Go Pedro & Penelope! She's pretty.
MSN Movies Nicole Kidman's best friend on the physical luxury / emotional exhaustion of The Painted Veil. That film opens tomorrow on the coasts so go see it. It's pretty.
MNPP says happy b-day to Jake Gyllenhaal. He's pretty.

Pretty in Link

J.J. honors two of my favorite actresses: Donna Murphy & Viola Davis. Why Hollywood isn't casting them I'll never kn-- oh wait, that's right: Cate Blanchett had a free week in her calendar and she does bit parts now, too.
Cinema Strikes Back A hilarious bit on a silly movie headline. Love it.
Solace in Cinema A five year old boy reviews Star Wars. If it sounds a little too much like a plot synopsis, well, he'd fit right in at any major paper!
Cinematical on Volver's Goya nods -Go Pedro & Penelope! She's pretty.
MSN Movies Nicole Kidman's best friend on the physical luxury / emotional exhaustion of The Painted Veil. That film opens tomorrow on the coasts so go see it. It's pretty.
MNPP says happy b-day to Jake Gyllenhaal. He's pretty.

All Hail The Queen (and other tales of year end prizes)

[There's an animated gif in this post so give it a minute to load -Nathaniel]

Greetings awards watchers. With over a half dozen critical prizes already announced, one thing is still as certain as it ever was: Helen Mirren is going to win Best Actress. To save her money on airfare can't they just ship it to her now?

Anyway here is how the chips have been falling

Best Picture: Echoing what looks to be a highly contentious Oscar Best Picture race, critics in a rare episode of “I have a different opinion than my colleagues,” seem split. The current tally (counting only critical prizes) is as follows:
United 93 and The Departed: 3 each Letters From Iwo Jima, The Queen, Little Children: 1 each

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker Last King of Scotland: 7.5 Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat: 1.5 (they tied once. very niccccce) Poor Leonardo DiCaprio has yet to be honored despite the double dip.

And now, enjoy, this mini film I've made for you, awards junkies:




Best Actress "Helen Mirren is the poo. So take a big whiff." Though I think her star turn in The Queen is a swell performance I’m still a little alarmed at the ease in which she wins everything. It's like it's the greatest performance of all time or something? Where are the critics with a differing opinion? Or do media outlets only hire critics with interchangeable aesthetic taste? The tally as it stands so far: Mirren: 9 Dench, Streep, Gyllenhaal, Winslet, Bening, etcetera: 0

Best Director: Martin Scorsese The Departed: 6 Paul Greengrass United 93: 2, Stephen Frears The Queen: 1. I’m not going to say that “it’s __________ year!” because who wants to jinx that?

Best Supporting Actor Jackie Earle Haley Little Children: 4 Djimon Honsou Blood Diamond & Michael Sheen The Queen: 2 each Mark Wahlberg The Departed: 1. The movie stars (Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt, Eddie Murphy) that were early expected leaders for the actual Oscar (and who dominated the Globe nods) are still nowhere in sight.

Best Supporting Actress Jennifer Hudson Dreamgirls 4.5 Adriana Barazza Babel, Shareeka Epps Half Nelson, Luminita Gheor The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Cate Blanchett for Notes on a Scandal: 1 each and my beloved Catherine O’Hara For Your Consideration .5 (tied with Hudson once)

My Oscar Predictions will be updated Friday. The Critics Pages (they’re missing NYFCO & Vegas currently) will be updated tonight.

All Hail The Queen (and other tales of year end prizes)

[There's an animated gif in this post so give it a minute to load -Nathaniel]

Greetings awards watchers. With over a half dozen critical prizes already announced, one thing is still as certain as it ever was: Helen Mirren is going to win Best Actress. To save her money on airfare can't they just ship it to her now?

Anyway here is how the chips have been falling

Best Picture: Echoing what looks to be a highly contentious Oscar Best Picture race, critics in a rare episode of “I have a different opinion than my colleagues,” seem split. The current tally (counting only critical prizes) is as follows:
United 93 and The Departed: 3 each Letters From Iwo Jima, The Queen, Little Children: 1 each

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker Last King of Scotland: 7.5 Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat: 1.5 (they tied once. very niccccce) Poor Leonardo DiCaprio has yet to be honored despite the double dip.

And now, enjoy, this mini film I've made for you, awards junkies:




Best Actress "Helen Mirren is the poo. So take a big whiff." Though I think her star turn in The Queen is a swell performance I’m still a little alarmed at the ease in which she wins everything. It's like it's the greatest performance of all time or something? Where are the critics with a differing opinion? Or do media outlets only hire critics with interchangeable aesthetic taste? The tally as it stands so far: Mirren: 9 Dench, Streep, Gyllenhaal, Winslet, Bening, etcetera: 0

Best Director: Martin Scorsese The Departed: 6 Paul Greengrass United 93: 2, Stephen Frears The Queen: 1. I’m not going to say that “it’s __________ year!” because who wants to jinx that?

Best Supporting Actor Jackie Earle Haley Little Children: 4 Djimon Honsou Blood Diamond & Michael Sheen The Queen: 2 each Mark Wahlberg The Departed: 1. The movie stars (Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt, Eddie Murphy) that were early expected leaders for the actual Oscar (and who dominated the Globe nods) are still nowhere in sight.

Best Supporting Actress Jennifer Hudson Dreamgirls 4.5 Adriana Barazza Babel, Shareeka Epps Half Nelson, Luminita Gheor The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Cate Blanchett for Notes on a Scandal: 1 each and my beloved Catherine O’Hara For Your Consideration .5 (tied with Hudson once)

My Oscar Predictions will be updated Friday. The Critics Pages (they’re missing NYFCO & Vegas currently) will be updated tonight.

You Linky, You

AfterElton The Year in Queer (Movies)
Cinematical Jeffrey Anderson offers up his ten best list.
In Contention So does Kris Tapley. But he cheats with a tie for #1 ;)
Flick Filosopher finds the force in Eragon. Funny because her criticism is spot on about this shamelessly derivative movie.
ModFab tells Mel Gibson where to stick it.
Electronic Cerebrectomy names the best movie posters of the year.
Edward Copeland on the 20th anniversary of Little Shop of Horrors

And you may have heard that TIME magazine named me the person of the year. I have nothing to say about this other than "duh!" but I like these posts about Time's pronouncement @ Brevity is Wit and ModFab and I also like that I get a beautiful shout out at QTA under "Best Blogs". Today was a happy day. mwah.

You Linky, You

AfterElton The Year in Queer (Movies)
Cinematical Jeffrey Anderson offers up his ten best list.
In Contention So does Kris Tapley. But he cheats with a tie for #1 ;)
Flick Filosopher finds the force in Eragon. Funny because her criticism is spot on about this shamelessly derivative movie.
ModFab tells Mel Gibson where to stick it.
Electronic Cerebrectomy names the best movie posters of the year.
Edward Copeland on the 20th anniversary of Little Shop of Horrors

And you may have heard that TIME magazine named me the person of the year. I have nothing to say about this other than "duh!" but I like these posts about Time's pronouncement @ Brevity is Wit and ModFab and I also like that I get a beautiful shout out at QTA under "Best Blogs". Today was a happy day. mwah.

The Pursuit of Will's Happiness

It may please you to know that the new Will Smith vehicle Pursuit of Happyness is mostly free of the overt sentimentality promised in its trailer. Even the offputting spelling error in the title didn’t grate in context. Smith’s own star turn is also well played, a huge relief since one imagines it’s the movie’s principal reason for being. Smith plays Chris Gardner who rises from single homeless dad to successful stockbroker in this tale both simple and simply told.

Given today’s movie trending towards overplotting, simplicity can often be a sweet salve. But a little of it goes a long way: Pursuit overstays its welcome with a repetitive structure and such an intense focus on the movie star at its core that it barely notices any other character, all of them existing only to provide obstacles or helping hands (usually obstacles). Like many triumph of the human spirit stories it also suffers from complete obviousness. The final emotional payoff is never in doubt –not that that would be a problem if the movie didn’t take an awful long time to get there. There’s even a lessons learned voiceover by Smith which makes the movie, for all its attempts at adult honesty regarding poverty and ruined marriages, feel like a children’s film. We’re even given cute chapter titles like “running” for sections of the movie in which, yes, Chris Gardner runs a lot.

It’s easy to follow and easy to root for the movie star but Pursuit of Happyness’s inspirational message didn’t engage my mind enough to distract me from what it leaves unsaid. Take Pursuit’s central plot point: Chris Gardner changes his life by accepting an unpaid internship with Dean Witter. At the end of this grueling internship the company chooses one of its twenty unpaid interns to hire. (You only get one guess as to who is chosen.) This information is presented as a daunting but golden opportunity : a chance for an ‘up by your bootstraps’ tale of triumphant life change. But all I could think of while listening to the conditions of the game was “what a racket.” This is an underdog story but it completely glosses over a cynical and genius move on the part of big business. They feed off of working stiffs without having to reimburse them, and Hollywood is there with an “amen”.

Chris Gardner works his way out of homeless shelter but what of the other interns? If we’re to follow the film’s logic they each have done the same thing as Chris Gardner. They’ve all taken on gigantic workloads, earning large revenues for a huge corporation and all but one of them receives nothing in return. It’s a sweet deal for big business but this happy ending is only for one man. The other unlucky souls, the ones filling the backgrounds of the frame with nary a handful of lines among them to give them movie life, Pursuit has no use for them. They’re but grist for the storytelling and corporate mill. It’s a triumphant tale alright. But guess who wins? C

The Pursuit of Will's Happiness

It may please you to know that the new Will Smith vehicle Pursuit of Happyness is mostly free of the overt sentimentality promised in its trailer. Even the offputting spelling error in the title didn’t grate in context. Smith’s own star turn is also well played, a huge relief since one imagines it’s the movie’s principal reason for being. Smith plays Chris Gardner who rises from single homeless dad to successful stockbroker in this tale both simple and simply told.

Given today’s movie trending towards overplotting, simplicity can often be a sweet salve. But a little of it goes a long way: Pursuit overstays its welcome with a repetitive structure and such an intense focus on the movie star at its core that it barely notices any other character, all of them existing only to provide obstacles or helping hands (usually obstacles). Like many triumph of the human spirit stories it also suffers from complete obviousness. The final emotional payoff is never in doubt –not that that would be a problem if the movie didn’t take an awful long time to get there. There’s even a lessons learned voiceover by Smith which makes the movie, for all its attempts at adult honesty regarding poverty and ruined marriages, feel like a children’s film. We’re even given cute chapter titles like “running” for sections of the movie in which, yes, Chris Gardner runs a lot.

It’s easy to follow and easy to root for the movie star but Pursuit of Happyness’s inspirational message didn’t engage my mind enough to distract me from what it leaves unsaid. Take Pursuit’s central plot point: Chris Gardner changes his life by accepting an unpaid internship with Dean Witter. At the end of this grueling internship the company chooses one of its twenty unpaid interns to hire. (You only get one guess as to who is chosen.) This information is presented as a daunting but golden opportunity : a chance for an ‘up by your bootstraps’ tale of triumphant life change. But all I could think of while listening to the conditions of the game was “what a racket.” This is an underdog story but it completely glosses over a cynical and genius move on the part of big business. They feed off of working stiffs without having to reimburse them, and Hollywood is there with an “amen”.

Chris Gardner works his way out of homeless shelter but what of the other interns? If we’re to follow the film’s logic they each have done the same thing as Chris Gardner. They’ve all taken on gigantic workloads, earning large revenues for a huge corporation and all but one of them receives nothing in return. It’s a sweet deal for big business but this happy ending is only for one man. The other unlucky souls, the ones filling the backgrounds of the frame with nary a handful of lines among them to give them movie life, Pursuit has no use for them. They’re but grist for the storytelling and corporate mill. It’s a triumphant tale alright. But guess who wins? C

Monologue Monday: "Rent Boy"

Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends.

Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday night. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life.

But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?

That's the opening lines from Ewan McGregor's sensational breakthrough in Trainspotting (1996). Who would have thought that this mesmerizing actor, who at first specialized in lowlifes like Mark 'Rent Boy' Renton and the devilish grinning Alex in Shallow Grave would have morphed into one of the screen's most endearing heartthrobs? When you stop to really consider his range: look at the aforementioned plus great work in Moulin Rouge!, The Velvet Goldmine and able headlining turns in Down with Love and Big Fish...well, it's an outrage that he hasn't yet been nominated for an Academy Award. And now he's playing second fiddle to Renée Zellweger's supremely annoying Miss Potter ? Oh the humanity. Ewan deserves better treatment from the Academy, filmmakers, and the moviegoing public.

Next For McGregor
His next five movies look (on paper) like quality fixes for we McGregor junkies. The first one out is Woody Allen's Scoop follow up, Cassandra's Dream which co-stars Colin Farrel and Tom Wilkinson. After that it gets even more intriguing. In The Great Pretender (2008), a comedy, he'll play a dual role as a Hollywood star and the extra who impersonates him. He co-stars with Ben Kingsley and Emily Mortimer (his Young Adam lover) in Number 13 which takes place on the set of an Alfred Hitchcock film. I, Lucifer, an adaptation of the bestseller, will pit Ewan against a devilish Daniel Craig --that's a lot of hottie for one film. And speaking of... The Tourist, already filming, pairs Ewan with Hugh Jackman who introduces him to sex clubs! You've just bought an imaginary ticket, haven't you?

Related Posts:
Miss Fugly on Miss Potter
Where is Ewan McGregor's Penis random thoughts
Ewan Gordon McGregor #3 Actor of the Aughts
Moulin Rouge! my obsession: scene by scene

Tags: actors, cinema, Academy Awards, Ewan McGregor, Renee Zellweger, Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig,Trainspotting, film, movies