Yes, No, Maybe So: 127 Hours & Fair Game

It's a true story double feature for this installment of Yes, No, Maybe So, in which we break down personal reaction to movie trailers.

We'll start with Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire follow up -- and boy does this trailer not let you forget that this is the follow up -- which is called 127 Hours. In the movie, James Franco plays Aron Ralston who gets pinned under a rock and the rest is, well, his arm is history.



Yes James Franco is on the rise and this could be the movie where he finally proves the extent of his talents. He does have to hold the screen for virtually the full running time. If I've understood the prerelease mumblings correctly, what we're seeing in the trailer is only clips from the first half hour ish of the movie. I'd actually love to have that be the rule for Hollywood. You may not use anything past the 30 minute mark in your trailers. Begone Spoilers! (Not that people don't know what happened in this particular story since it's so easy to sum up and everyone has already been summing online for months.)

Also Moab, Utah is ridiculously beautiful even when shot by cinematographers far less gifted than Oscar winner Anthony Dod Mantle or Enrique Chediak. I know because I once lived in Utah and every photographer, good or un, has a million photographs capturing the rocky beauty of southern half of the state.

No For lost in the desert existential survivalist drama, I'll take something more contemplative like Gus Van Sant's Gerry. Will this be too tricked up to combat those nerves filmmakers so often have about how long they can hold the audiences attention? (Hence the current ridiculous average shot length being under 2 seconds problem.)

Maybe So Even though I wasn't crazy about Slumdog Millionaire -- it's actually my least favorite of his filmography (that I've seen) -- I do think Boyle is an energetic and often interesting filmmaker. My Boyle heirarchy would break down like so.

1. Trainspotting ...choose life
   
2. 28 Days Later ...choose the future
   
3. Shallow Grave ...choose a starter home
   
4. Sunshine ...choose a fucking big television
   
5. The Beach ...choose a family
   
6. Slumdog Millionaire ...but why would i want to do a thing like that?
   

Love the top three and admire the fourth quite a lot. Slumdog and The Beach are like weird twins of the B-/C+ overrated & underrated fraternal variety. So I'm curious about this movie. Where will it fit in?

Verdict: I'm a yes all told. I'll see it opening weekend in early November if I somehow miss the critic's screenings.

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In Fair Game, Naomi Watts plays CIA Operative Valerie Plame and Sean Penn her husband the journalist in this true story that's already been covered at the cinema in a movie with Kate Beckinsale and Vera Farmiga that nobody went to see called Nothing But the Truth. (It's on that annually expanding list of December Glut Plague victims)



Yes We need to be reminded of stories like this. Particularly since the sins of the past administration are still haunting us. It's definitely a compelling and resonant story about a nation that chucks their integrity and bedrock values for political point scoring (sound familiar? see also: current events).

No On the other hand, do we need to be reminded of it again this quickly? And doesn't the casting of Sean Penn in a liberal political type movie feel a bit too preaching to the choir, a bit too on the nose?

Maybe So I'm intrigued that they choose to end the trailer with Naomi Watt's defiant line reading...

They push you until they find the point at which you break. You can't break me. I don't have a breaking point.

(even though the underscore is laughably OTT) because I feel the exact opposite about her as an actress. She often seems so broken before a movie even begins. I think she's Oscar worthy in Mulholland Dr and nomination worthy in The Painted Veil (easily her two best performances) but my principal problem with her intensely pitched work is that she always seems ahead of the character arc, rather than developing it organically towards narrative peaks. I'm hoping she's calm and nuanced her at least before they threaten to break her.

Verdict: I'm a no in terms of desire, but I try to see everything if Oscar buzz becomes involved. So if awards seasons starts calling on Naomi, I'll definitely catch it.

How do these trailers breakdown for you in the yes no maybe so sense? Have at it in the comments. Whether you're pinned under a rock or your dangerous secret has just been outed, nothing is more urgent than blog commenting!
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Madonna & Sean

The definitive couple of the 80s?


It was 25 years ago today that Madonna and Sean Penn were married in Malibu. It was Madonna's birthday (she was turning 27). Sean's birthday was the following day (he was turning 25). She was the new queen of pop ("Dress You Up", the final hit single from Like a Virgin was hitting the charts) and he was the critics darling of young actors, consistently winning praise for both his comedy work (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) and drama (The Falcon and the Snowman)... Oscar voters, often slow on the draw, waited another 10 years to nominate him.

Paparazzi helicopters descending on their wedding like an invading army. The following year their movie collaboration Shanghai Surprise was released. Critics swarmed like an angry hive. Whenever paparazzi bugged Madonna, Sean raged like a...

Well you get the point. What a ruckus they always caused.

Their marriage didn't last but their solo fame sure did. Sean Penn won his second Oscar just 18 months ago and Madonna is, well, Madonna. They'll still be talking about her in the 2085. She's currently in London filming W.E. (see previous post).

Madonna arrives at her 52nd birthday party a couple of days ago

Each decade gets a few defining celebrity pairs, don't you think? Who would you say the definitive couples are now? Obviously Brad & Angie, but who else. Which celebrity couple takes up too much of your mental real estate?
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Great Hope Springs Tailspin

Wasn't it just yesterday in a comment thread when someone mentioned Meryl Streep & Jeff Bridges not having worked together. To which I was all "hey, they're the same age but they never let actresses play romantically opposite actors the same age!" Funny how these things pop up in the internet ether and the next thing you know, we all seem like prophets.

The Bridges & The Gummers
Jeff & Meryl know a little something about longterm coupling

But I'm burying the lead... or at least muddying it. Okay. As you may have heard Streep & Bridges are close to signing for a marital drama called Great Hope Springs about a couple who've been together for decades having an intense weekend therapy session that will decide the fate of their marriage.

I always argue with myself about movies in development. To wit:

Meryl Streep and Jeff Bridges working together = Probably gah!some and reason enough to be very excited.

But...

Another marital drama for Jeff with a blonde lovely (see also: The Door in the Floor) and it's not Michelle Pfeiffer again??? Only La Pfeiffer would make me sad about a Streep/Bridges pairing. I just don't get what the problem is with getting The Fabulous Baker Boys onscreen together again?

<-- Jeff @ Michelle's star ceremony in 2007

From all reports ever shared orally, written on paper, or otherwise recorded in the history of the existence of the world and its movies, Jeff and 'chelle are as super fond of each other offscreen as they are amazing together onscreen, which is to say: very very very fond of each other. How did Pfeiffer tagging along on his Oscar campaign (It wasn't just Oscar night. There was also Palm Springs) go unnoticed by everyone in world who might be involved in movie industry dealings that might lead to them reuniting, fictionally speaking.

But, okay. What's that?

Oh yes, the Great Hope Springs director is Jessie Nelson, the woman who made I Am Sam, and we don't care for that movie so much.We thank it for bringing us wee Dakota Fanning (nice to meet'cha!) but otherwise we have very little time for it even though we thought Pfeiffer was sort of quite good in a weird/thankless/unlikeable way. So maybe it's best that she not repeat that situation.


If that movie is indication, which it might not be since it was a first film, Great Hope won't be subtle and that might be bad for the material since marital dramas that are too histrionic are really hard to sit through and often titled We Don't Live Here Anymore or Revolutionary Road.

Plus, if we're being honest we all know that Streep is a big ham -- a big ham we love, don't forget. (More soon on the Streep series. I'm just a few days behind.) So if a director WANTS big attention grabbing acting and doesn't want her to save some for the next movie, you'll get it all. But therein lies the rub. You can't say that you weren't getting it all with Sean Penn in I Am Sam even as you wanted to give at least half of it back.

[UPDATE: It might be Mike Nichols instead of Nelson in the director's chair, instead.]

Finally, if Streep is doing a marital drama, the movie has a big old cloud hanging over its head and that cloud's last name is Kramer. As in Kramer Vs. Kramer. Because, how you gonna measure up Great Hope Springs? Tread carefully.

The third crucial role of the psychiatrist is not yet cast. Philip Seymour Hoffman had to pull out of the project to ruin P.T. Anderson's next masterpiece (argh and also: calm down if that sentence made you angry) so maybe somebody less ubiquitous but able to keep up with Jeff & Meryl is in order. Might I suggest David Strathairn? Doesn't he deserve better after Good Night, and Good Luck.? Couldn't he have a go?

I'm trying to stop jabbering away.

I'm in a tailspin... HELP. Talk to me.
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Viggo, Posterized

With the Cormac McCarthy adaptation The Road coming out on DVD on Tuesday (I'm eager to give it another look) I thought we should focus on one of the best actors working: Viggo Mortensen also known as "Aragorn"

<--- Viggo at twenty-two

Aragon's filmography is super odd. Or maybe not. In many professions if you do good work, your career very gradually swells but there's plenty of detours and error along the way as you feel your way up the ladder. I guess it just feels odd in the context of the movies. When we think of leading players in Hollywood don't we tend to think of them in terms of overnight sensations, has beens, or stars that have always been and will always be with us and seem to have arrived fully formed (Streep, Pacino. That type)?

Viggo fits none of those categories but he's very much a leading actor. I remember reading a magazine article about him around 1998 or so -- I think it was in conjunction with the release of A Perfect Murder -- calling him "the hot new 39 year old" as if he were a) new and b) way too old to find stardom. As it turned out he wasn't. He was too young.

Here's the posters... albeit missing a few.
Scroll carefully as there's an intermission this time!

Witness (85) -debut | Prison (88) 1st leading role | Fresh Horses (88)

Leatherface TCM III (90) Young Guns 2 (90) The Indian Runner (91)
Viggo's first solo poster! (Thanks, Sean Penn)

Boiling Point (93) | Deception (93) | Young Americans (93)

Carlito's Way (93) | The Prophecy (95) | Crimson Tide (95)

Portrait of a Lady (96) Albino Alligator (96) Daylight (96)

INTERMISSION: At a casual glance it seems like his career is just one solid upward slope of increasingly large parts in fairly successful films (he's third billed in the Sylvester Stallone action flick) but it's actually messier than that. In the mid 90s he's also doing straight to DVD movies plus he's dipping his toe into Spanish cinema - he speaks fluently - and even taking roles where he plays characters like "homeless guy" despite already having Hollywood's attention to some degree. Did he ever say no? Perhaps he slept just 3 hours a night the whole decade.

At any rate the career heated up once Demi Moore demanded he suck her dick. This unusual career move also worked wonders for Ashton Kutcher. (I kid. I kid. I couldn't resist)

GI Jane (97) | A Perfect Murder (98) | Psycho (98)

A Walk on the Moon (99) | 28 Days (00) | The Fellowship of the Ring (01)

The Two Towers (02) | The Return of the King (03) | Hidalgo (04)

A History of Violence (05) | Alatriste (06) | Eastern Promises (07)
we never got Alatriste in the US. (sigh)

Appaloosa (09) | Good (09) | The Road (09)

Viggo Mortensen quite obviously improves with age. One could say he's like a fine wine but he's more of a whiskey, don't you think? I do worry about all three of his 2009 efforts flopping. Will the lead roles keep on coming? Next up is his third go at being David Cronenberg's muse. Actors are always better off once an auteur suddenly can't live without them.

How many of these 27 movies have you seen? I've only seen half of them. Oops.
What do you first think of when you hear the name Viggo? Tell all in the comments.
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Oscar Night in Review: Worst and Weirdest

I've reviewed the ceremony in the thematic / abstract for Tribeca. So let's get a little more specific here for the big roundup (see also: most wonderful moments and fashion review ~ finis!). Worst and Weirdest Moments coming at'cha now. Whether you disagree or agree, I'd love to hear the moments that left you scratching your head or pissed off.

Worst Things About Oscars 09/10

6 Oscar's Weird Relationship To Youth. The Oscars have never been a youthquake. Institutions are primarily for adults and for kids who dream of growing up to become adults. Certain Young Hollywood stars fit right into the glamour -- the history even -- of the industry's big night. You can't have the movies without both the old guard and fresh faces, after all. Cue Lion King music... "It's the circle of life!" But you need to have the type of young stars that don't require mental gymnastics on the part of the audience when they see them inbetween closeups of true legends and A-List names. There's something about some young stars -- Amanda Seyfried or Dakota Fanning for example -- that exude "one day I may well be Old Hollywood". This is the type of young star that Oscar should embrace if it wants to reexert and maintain its own institutional force. Miley Cyrus has precious little to do with the cinema and it's hard to imagine that she actually cares about the history of Hollywood and her place in their pantheon. What can she possibly bring to the table that they need? Taylor Lautner did fine with the presenting -- he's a young professional -- but they were giving him closeup reactions like he was an actual movie star and he looked confused or nervous when he wasn't on stage, like someone who had stumbled in from a nearby prom.

I don't want to come off like an old grouch here. It's a nuanced point. The Oscars should have a smattering of young stars, but since it's an Establishment event... it kind of needs the young stars who are, well, Established. And not (potentially) one-role wonders that they've been told are the cool kids. I'm not saying "don't invite Taylor Lautner". I have nothing against Taylor Lautner. I'm saying "Invite Taylor Lautner when he's proven himself." Kristen Stewart can stay. I'm obviously not a fan but I won't pretend that she hasn't earned it. She's been directed by Sean Penn and David Fincher. She's carried whole movies. Some people think she's really talented. She can hold her own while locked in tiny claustrophic spaces with Jodie Foster. Etcetera.

5 Pete Docter's speech. It started off well "Never did I believe making a flipbook in my third grade math class would lead to this" but one thing sours his wins for me. Why does he never acknowledge his fellow nominees in any of his speeches? When you sweep (as UP has) it starts to seem ungenerous. In such a rich year for animated films (Coraline and Fantastic Mr Fox would have made completely valid winners) it seems self-absorbed at best and extremely bad form at worst to act as if other great movies don't exist.

4 Oscar's Shame. At first I was excited that Oscar was explaining the difference between sound editing and sound mixing to the audience at home (and the audience in the Kodak... who *ahem* need the same education). But The Dark Knight? Why not illustrate with, um, this year's nominees?!!! Stay focused, Oscar! You could see the phantom image of the Academy's collective tail, still stuck between its legs. Exactly how many years are they going to apologize for passing that one up? The Academy makes a lot of bad choices, sure, but don't we like the Academy better when they aren't so obviously sheepish. Confidence --even when its unearned -- is often sexy. Groveling and pandering never are.

The John Hughes Club: Matthew Broderick, Macauley Culkin, Ally Sheedy,
Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Jon Cryer and Anthony Michael Hall

3 The John Hughes tribute. He definitely made an impression on my generation. I'd never deny that. I grew up reciting The Breakfast Club and I love it to this day. But the Academy doesn't even do lone tributes for Oscar winners after they've died and John Hughes was never even nominated. It was an uncharacteristic moment, immediately casting strange shadows on cinematic giants that they've never given this treatment too. Yet another instance of the Academy protesting too much... "see, we DO like Popular Films! We DO!"

They're just so scared to be themselves these days.

2 Interpretative Dance. They gave up Best Original Song or the honorary Oscars....for this? Clue to the producers: This is the type of thing you can AND HAVE done before during the Best Original Song performances. Why omit one to have the other? Especially when interpretative dance numbers have even less to do with the movies than the aborted songs. And especially when you don't even know which movies you've decided to interpret. Why were you doing a tribute to WALL•E during the UP score? That's what the robot dance was for, right? Because there aren't any robots in UP. Was this a biting satirical jab at Pixar? "Your movies are interchangeable!"

1. the worst... Screw Old People! Roger Corman, Lauren Bacall and Gordon Willis. We see you... even if Oscar won't. Legends deserve better than standing and waving to the camera. F**k you producers!

Weirdest Things About Oscars 09/10

6 The Notably Absent. Old Hollywood and New Hollywood were amply represented but wasn't it weird that Legendary Hollywood and Current Hollywood weren't? Perhaps I should explain. Old Hollywood greats (roughly speaking the senior citizens) like Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman were very present. So were newbies like Amanda Seyfried, Zac Efron and Carey Mulligan. We already know that the producers feared the wrath of teenagers should Lauren Bacall open her opinionated mouth. She had to go! But what about Current Hollywood? Was it just me or was there a distinct lack of the big stars in their mid 20s to early 40s? You know... the age range of stars that get the bulk of the leading roles? Maybe I was imagining it (possible) but the whole night felt a little like the demographic of the Best Actress category (minus Sandra Bullock).

5 Fact-Checking ... Anyone? Anyone? You'd think a show with a gargantuan production budget and phalanx of writers wouldn't have this problem but why did Samuel L Jackson get the details wrong about Beauty & The Beast (1991)? No, Samuel, Beauty & The Beast was not nominated for both Animated Feature and Best Picture. The animated feature category did not exist back then. And no Taylor Lautner, The Exorcist was not the last horror film to win favor with the Oscars. That scripted gaffe (not Taylor's fault obviously) was even stranger, followed as it was by a montage of "horror movies" (loosely defined) that included many Oscar favorites that were released AFTER The Exorcist... movies like Carrie, Silence of the Lambs, Jaws, and The Sixth Sense.

4 Amanda Seyfried + Miley Cyrus. Who thought to pair them? I'm convinced they're from different universes and I'm not talking about the light years between Pennsylvania and Tennessee. I loved Anthony Lane's bit in the New Yorker about their odd couple demeanor

Cyrus, who wore a perfectly respectable bustier but had inadvertently forgotten to put anything over it,came on to present an award in the company of Amanda Seyfried, and, in so doing, fluffed her lines. “We’re both kinda nervous, it’s our first time.” So saying, she tried to corral Seyfried into the fluff, inviting her to share the pain, but Seyfried, wisely, was having none of it, and shied backward, as if to say, “Enough with the both, sister.”

3 Fisher Stevens is an Oscar winner!
For those of you who are like "who?" It's okay. Perfectly understandable. But it was a weird moment for me. You see during the peak of Michelle Pfeiffer's career from roughly Fabulous Baker Boys through Batman Returns he was her boyfriend. Fisher withstood frequent hateful media comments, presumably for dating someone deemed so far out of his league. And he was further vilified when they broke up, presumably on account of infidelity.


But that's all ancient tabloid history. Now he is an Oscar winner and Michelle Pfeiffer is still... not.

Excuse me for a moment.

Stevens, who won for the dolphin-killing exposé The Cove, is obviously well connected and I didn't know this either. On the way to the stage for his thank you Woody Harrelson grabbed him and he exchanged looks with Meryl Streep. Who knew.

2 The Presenter Rut. What is with the Academy's utter inability to shake things up presenter-wise. They don't actually employ the same producers every year so why is it that we get the same presenters? What is it that makes Ben Stiller so attractive to them versus dozens of other famous comics? What is it that makes Cameron Diaz a "must have!"? Why is Queen Latifah the one black actress they regularly care about? Why do Tom Hanks and Barbra Streisand get so many chances to present biggie prizes? I'm not trying to be dense. I JUST DON'T GET IT. That town is swimming with legends. Los Angeles is where celebrities live. Tom Hanks and Barbra Streisand are not the only instantly recognizable cross generational celebrities on the planet. We've offered the producers numerous suggestions of very very famous people they've never used for Best Picture and they never take our advice. I mean Christ Almighty they've never even let actresses as famous as Meryl Streep or Jane Fonda do it. Or why not someone like Maggie Smith who is loved by the older generation as well as the young kids (see Harry Potter).

1...the weirdest. Sean Penn's AdLib.
It went like so...

I...um. I never became an official member of the Academy but the Academy and I do have in common that we manage to -- neglect to acknowledge the same actress in our own ways two years running. So I -- I'm going to start fresh with the Academy and acknowledge these wonderful actresses.

Maybe someone else has already explained this online but what the hell is he talking about? I have no idea. None. And I watch the Oscars religiously every year, and usually more than once!

Explain it to me in the comments, please!

Update: the best moments too. Thanks for sticking it out!

Come Join the Party!

Hello, Jose here to remind you all that it's Madonna's birthday!

The Queen of pop/ businesswoman/ kabbalist/ mother/ 90's tabloid fodder/ safe sex advocate/ sex advocate/ entrepeneur/ icon is celebrating her 51st birthday today (and with those arms!). But along with everything she's done, many people forget (on purpose mostly...) that she's also an actress/director. The notorious perfectionist has never been able to master the cinematic arts, even if she tries and tries and tries. But since it's her birthday we should acknowledge that not all she's done for the silver screen is bad and since we can't take a holiday to get into the groove with her, here's...

51 Reasons to Celebrate Madonna... in the Movies!

51. Daring to take on a role created by Katharine Hepburn...sort of in Who's That Girl.
50. Her endorsement of Michael Moore.
49. Setting a whole new clothing trend with Desperately Seeking Susan.
48. Her deep love for classic films.
47. Looking cute despite reviews in Shanghai Surprise.
46. She didn't get to play Ginger McKenna in Casino, but we know how that turned out for Sharon Stone.

Madonna & Sean early on... Their birthdays are just one day apart

45. Rupert Everett.
44. She didn't get to play Roberta Guaspari in Music of the Heart, but we know how that turned out for Meryl Streep.
43. The cute anecdote about endorsing Sean Penn's first gay kiss in Milk.
42. The "Vogue" sequence in The Devil Wears Prada.
41. Her delicious line delivery in Dick Tracy.

40. Warren Beatty's cameo in Truth or Dare.
39. She didn't get to play Catwoman in Batman Returns, but we know how that turned out for Michelle Pfeiffer.
38. Dreams of the Chicago that never got made with her as Velma Kelly.
37. She didn't get to play Susie Diamond in The Fabulous Baker Boys, but we know how that turned out for Michelle Pfeiffer (hmmm am I smelling a thing in the weird fact that the performances she doesn't get end up with Oscar nods...)
36. She didn't get to play Frida Kahlo in Frida, but we know how that turned out for Salma Hayek. She even thanked Madonna, because without her the movie would have never been made.

35. Francis Ford Coppola is a fan of Madge!
34. "Into the Groove" from Desperately Seeking Susan!
33. Her concerts involve video art that make any artsy film flicker in comparison...
32. "Who's That Girl"...the song.
31. That performance of "Sooner or Later" at the Oscars.

30. She didn't get to play Bess McNeill in Breaking the Waves, but we know how that turned out for Emily Watson. It's rumored that Lars von Trier wanted her badly to play this part!
29. "I'll Remember" from With Honors.
28. "This Used to Be My Playground" from A League of Their Own.
27. The Fabier Baron footage from "Erotica" which became an underground documentary of sorts.
26. Introducing us to Adriano Giannini, and his abs, in Swept Away.

25. For being so moving in "I'm Going to Tell You a Secret".
24. Without "Like a Virgin" we'd never have that hilarious prison sequence in the Bridget Jones' sequel.
23....or Jim Broadbent's divine interpretation in Moulin Rouge!.
22. Her homage to Marilyn in "Material Girl".
21. "Crazy For You" from Vision Quest.

20. Making fencing look sexy in Die Another Day.
19. ...and trying to give her cameo some depth by making her a lesbian.
18. Her care for the world as shown in "I Am Because We Are".
17. "Beautiful Stranger" from Austin Powers: the Spy Who Shagged Me
16. "Die Another Day" from Die Another Day (does this make her the only artist who's made songs for James Bond and a Bond spoof?)

15. Her decadent Guinness world record from Evita -- most costume changes in a movie -- which had been held before by Liz Taylor in Cleopatra.
14. The original "American Life" video which is more political than anything being done in movies today.
13. She's Gwyneth Paltrow's best friend.
12. Her directorial debut Filth and Wisdom isn't as bad as they say, it has some Richard Lester vibe to it.
11. Playing Madonna in Truth or Dare. Call her what you will but she's a movie star in this one!

10. Reminding us how refreshing the HFPA's choices can be sometimes by winning Best Actress over eventual Oscar winner Frances McDormand in 1996.
9. Both her husbands have been in the movies and are great at their craft...the first one more than the latter, but still...
8. Bringing sexy back to German Expressionism in the "Express Yourself" video.
7. Bringing the musical back, sorta...with Evita and proving she can be a good, award worthy actress when needed.
6. Showing us that documentaries can make profits.
Truth or Dare was huge in its day.

5. Her groundbreaking work with top notch movie directors in her videos.
4. Christopher Walken in the "Bad Girl" video paved the way for his brilliant work in "Weapon of Choice" years later.
3. Her homage to Joan Crawford in "The Power of Goodbye" video.
2. The Luc Besson musical she never got to make inspired "Hung Up" (her greatest single this decade).

1. The video for "Vogue".
It's arguably the greatest music video of all time and its love of cinema is just so evident, it probably encouraged a million people to seek the work of the people she mentions in the interlude. And that is spectacular in every single way!


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Linking Center

This is cute but will surely offend the psychotically patriotic from any given country. Literal translations of flags from Pop Hangover.

Ah Grease, the great unifier. Everyone has seen it. I'm so glad there hasn't been a Grease 3 or a Grease Reborn... yet. I know they've threatened us with remakes in the past. Why bother? Shan't ever top Olivia + Travolta + Channing's "Rizzo". Sigh

Here's a possibly worthwhile event at Lincoln Center in July should you be in NYC. It's a movie discussion with multiple Oscar nominee Sidney Lumet (Network, The Verdict, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead) and his daughter screenwriter Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married).

More Linkage
In Contention Alexander Payne to guest direct Telluride
Variety strike most of what I said in that last 'Sean Penn is so busy' post. He's pulling out of projects now, citing personal reasons... one suspects it's the continually off-again/on-again situation with the Mrs.
Getty Images Trend alert: snake charming on the red carpet
Topless Robot "The Greatest Megan Fox Pic of Our Times" pretty funny paparazzi shot. Tangent: I've never noticed that stupid Marilyn Monroe tat' that Megan sports on her right arm. Yeah, I guess I haven't been staring that closely. It's hard to miss.
Hobo Trashcan Aaron Davis on the polarization of Tarantino perceptions

♫ I'm in the mood for love

Underwire Do we have any Pittsburgh readers in the house? If so, this new permanent exhibit roboworld looks worthwhile. Go. Return and report. P.S. 'tis only a shame that there's not a working replica of Gigolo Joe for purchase.
Hot Blog attacks Anne Thompson's summer box office lessons. I can't say I "enjoy" David Poland's habitual attacks on other film journos but he definitely makes good points in this article
Everything I know... you've got less than two weeks to see August: Osage County on Broadway if you haven't already. More on this play that's becoming a movie next month before the national tour begins.

May Flowers, Sean Penn

May Flowers, evenings at 11... or thereabouts

Playing against type is an ancient Oscar-winning trick but it only works if you do it really well (or if enough people are hoodwinked into believing you've done it really well). A lot of people, including myself and Academy voters, rethought Sean Penn last fall due to his twinkly and affable work in Milk. The famously sour Penn was suddenly funny, likeable, warm... sweet even.

Sean Penn in 1996. Sweet smiling Sean was always in their somewhere.

In other words, not "Sean Penn".

How on earth will he follow Harvey Milk up?

He himself probably isn't feeling the pressure, "Great Actor" status having been granted long long ago, but I was curious. Would he return to directing, to more typically Penn parts? Turns out the 48 year-old actor is booked until he's 50. At least. He's got five new identities lined up for our cinematic enjoyment over the next two years.

Contemplative Narrating Penn: In Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life (previous post) he plays "adult Jack" and since the film is focused on a father (Brad Pitt) and his three boys... I guess that means Sean Penn is playing Brad Pitt's son. Brad really did age in reverse!

Political Penn: In Doug Liman's Bush era dramatization Fair Game he's Joseph Wilson, the administration's nemesis and husband to CIA Agent Valerie Plame, played here by Naomi Watts. It's their third time playing Very Intense Screen Couple (see also: 21 Grams and The Assassination of Richard Nixon).

Tough Penn: I'm not sure who he is playing in Cartel, but it involves guards protecting a lawyer trying a mafia case.

Slapstick Penn: He's "Larry" in the Farrely Brothers The Three Stooges... but you knew that already. Jim Carrey is "Curly" and Benicio Del Toro is "Moe"

Rock Star Penn: I saved the oddest one for last. Odder than The Three Stooges? Maybe not. Okay okay, I saved the furthest away for last. Paolo Sorrentino, the Italian writer/director behind the award winning Il Divo, is prepping a movie called This Must Be the Place. The plot is unusual. A retired rocker (Penn) decides to find his dad's executioner, a former Nazi.

Excited for Penn's upcoming projects? Or are you more excited about the continuing drama of the on again off again on again off again on again off again (I actually think that's the right number of times) Robin Wright Penn divorce? Can those two crazy kids make it work? Or make it work again as the case may be?

April Showers, Sean Penn

april showers, daily @ 11

A mischievous devil sent me these snaps of Sean Penn showering for Oliver Stone's U Turn (yes I'm liable to use pics if you send any) I assume this is a hint to discuss it, but I haven't seen the movie.


What, pray tell, is with the canted overhead shot of his body? And why does Sean appearing to be swallowing the water in both shots? Is he washing out his mouth after offending someone? He's never been one to hold his tongue so it's a definite possibility.

<--- Penn all washed up.

Or maybe it's just an odd shot because it's part of Oliver Stone's lost period. Some people feel he lost his way after JFK, but I'm inclined to believe that NBK was even better and worked precisely because of its delirium, a filmmaker unhinged. But what's been going on since? U-Turn, Any Given Sunday, World Trade Center, Alexander? And why was "W." so weirdly tentative about so many of its impulses, both satiric and otherwise?

And Sean Penn. Do you fancy him gritty or cleaned up?

New Podcast: Oscar Night Memories and "Best Consecutive Oscar Runs"

Nathaniel walks to the stage, tears welling in his eyes

Thank you so, so much. Whistle so I can tell where you are dear reader... There you are! Thank you for listening to our informal chatty awardsy podcast all season and especially for commenting so we know we're not talking into the great web void. I couldn't have done this without my beautiful co-stars Joe, Nick and Katey who always believed in me! I also must thank my accoun ---[drowned out by orchestra]

Enough hokey awards show humor. If you aren't already completely Oscared out (you're totally forgiven if you are), join the four musketeers for one last podcast pow-wow about Oscar night. The best option is the iTunes version i.e. the enhanced podcast but you can listen to the simplified mp3 if you don't have an enhanced player.

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Jessica Biel's napkin and Marisa Tomei's "envelopes"
  
• Meryl Streep in the front row, Anne Hathaway singing, Hugh Jackman up on stage
  
• Commie Homo Loving Sean Penn
  
• Penélope Cruz Obsessions. Spreading like brushfire
  
• Why is there no Oscar cable channel?
  

Somewhere round about the middle of the podcast (60 minutes this time. We had much gushing to do) Nick dropped an intriguing question for listeners/readers. What do you think is the Best Consecutive Run for Acting Oscar winners ever? Nick thinks it might actually be the last four years of Best Actor, great performances all...

• Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
• Forrest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
• Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
• Sean Penn, Milk

Well done, AMPAS. I counter with a five year spread of Best Actresses in the 1960s that I think is unbelievably satisfying. Which consecutive string of winners thrills you most? We want to hear it in the comments.
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Hump Day Hotties: Don't Hate Them Because They're Beautiful Oscar Winners

Does winning an Oscar make you more beautiful? Or do you already have to be sexy to win? A chicken and egg mystery for you to solve in the comments. Maybe all one needs to be beauteous is the right photographer and airbrushing? (Now it's a chicken / egg / omelette mystery)

Clockwise from left: Kate Winslet in Elle, Dustin Lance Black in Vogue,
Masahiro Motoki in White Room, Sean Penn in tie and Penélope Cruz
in only a bedsheet. Mmmm.

I'm asking because I'm still detoxing from all the collective beauty on Sunday.

And yes, I'm cheating a bit to include Masahiro Motoki who is not an Oscar winner. But he is the star of Oscar winning foreign film Departures and he was on stage next to the Oscar. And he did win the Japanese Best Actor Oscar for the performance. That said he doesn't really need the help of the beauty-by-statue-association, does he? Anyone who poses nude for photography books probably feels beautiful without shiny trophies. [Cinebeats has more Motoki enthusiasm]

Departures [official site] which swept the Japanese Oscars even harder than Slumdog Millionaire swept ours, is about a cellist (Motoki) who becomes an undertaker when he finds himself jobless, opens in the U.S. in May, distributed by Regent Releasing.

Here's the trailer, or "a" trailer at any rate.



recent hump day hotties
Penélope, Kate and Sean have all been featured in previous seasons (2008, 2007 and 2005 respectively)

Oscar Did You Knows?

a few pieces of useless trivia for you!


...that in the elite community of actors who've won more than one Oscar, all thirty-eight of them with Sean Penn as the newest club member, the average wait for the second statue is 9 years. Kate Winslet for the win in 2017, baby! Of course, for some actors the love affair with the Academy is intense and feverish and the statues are back to back (Tom Hanks, Luise Rainer, Jason Robards, Spencer Tracy) as if the voting body wanted to seal the deal before they started showing... if you know what I mean. The most common wait time though is strangely but a 3 year span. That's happened to five goddesses of the silver screen (Glenda Jackson, Jodie Foster, Meryl Streep, Bette Davis and Olivia DeHavilland).

Only four actors have won three or more Oscars (Katharine Hepburn, Walter Brennan, Jack Nicholson, and Ingrid Bergman) and though most sentient beings expect Meryl Streep to become the fifth to achieve that rare honor, she'll set another record when she does. The longest wait after the second Oscar for that third -- well, besides eternity -- was Ingrid Bergman's 18 year delay. It's been 26 years since Streep's second win so she's already shown more patience than Bergman had to.

Penn's second win also makes him the fourth straight man to win the Lead Oscar for playing a gay man. He follows William Hurt in Kiss of the Spiderwoman (1985), Tom Hanks in Philadelphia (1993) and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote (2005) to that distinction. Now if they'd only give the Oscar to a gay actor playing a gay man for once. Sir Ian McKellen's loss for Gods and Monsters still stings. Especially since it's better than any of those performances.

[cue music] Onesies beats twosies but nothing beats three [/music]

Cuteness alert: Kate, Sean and Penélope reenact the Vicky
Cristina Barcelona menage a trois with their gold men.

I haven't double checked this statistic (where would one check it?) but I believe that Penélope Cruz is now only the second actress to win an Oscar for a film in which she engages in threesome loving -- the first being Liza Minelli in Cabaret (well, depending on how you interpret the events of Cabaret). Unless I'm forgetting someone. Which I might be.

These random pieces of trivia are brought to you by a ferocious hangover sponsored by Absolut Vodka. I shall try to collect myself for further Oscar post-show business.

Oscar Symposium Lift Off. (But AMPAS Won't Fly)

Nathaniel R: First things first, please welcome this year's Symposium guests (in alpha order just like Oscar do): Timothy Brayton, Antagonie & Ecstasy, Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine, Karina Longworth, Spout, Erik Lundegaard, Eriklundegaard.com and Kris Tapley, In Contention. They were chosen through an elaborate and painstaking ranked balloting system. Only Price Waterhouse employees know who was snubbed for the 4th annual Film Experience event. Pundits suggest that they were invited on the basis of their mad skills with dramaturgy and accents. I'm happy to have these five in my virtual house to discuss the 81st annual Oscars.

But where to begin in a year when the Academy is feeling so passive aggressive? It's almost as if they took a look at the semi daring and pleasingly rangey shortlist of 2007 and thought: 'we simply can't have that again!', beating a hastry retreat back into their bios, Holocausts pictures, and vaguely ambitious epics a good portion of which will be forgotten about in five years time. I'm still unsure, given the ranked balloting system of the Academy, how at least 60% of them managed to get a sufficient number of #1 votes to compete. Who is passionate about them?

The menu was varied but AMPAS would only order the usual. Why's that?

AMC Theaters is hosting a marathon of the Best Picture nominees in several cities the day before the Oscars. I've considered going for the blog fodder but who wants to sit through these five particular films back to back to back to back to back and again for that matter? That's someone's idea of hell surely, or at least one circle of it. There's not even a comedy to break up the 12 hour day. Could you do it? Or would you like to propose a separate marathon. Is there an entire category you could sit through all at once?

Erik Lundegaard: Is the Academy feeling passive-aggressive? Does the Academy feel? All I know is I'm feeling passive and Harvey Weinstein is feeling aggressive. A friend of mine said that 2008 was a bad year for movies but it was really only a bad year for Oscar movies. The blockbusters were great: The Dark Knight, Iron Man, WALL•E, even Hancock which I think is underrated. The Oscars have Milk, which I think should win, and Slumdog Millionaire, which I wouldn't mind winning, but nothing to stir the passions like No Country or Brokeback or The Pianist. At least for me. Anyone else?

As for Nathaniel's question: I could sit through all the foreign language films, since it's probably the only way to see them all. I'm in Seattle, not a bad city for movies, but only Waltz With Bashir has shown up. The Class is scheduled soon. The others? Lotsa luck.

Karina Longworth: I agree that 2008 was not a bad year for movies. I don't think it was even necessarily a bad year for nominated movies...

Click for Day One of the Symposium

Find out how Sean Penn gave Kris a black eye, who loves Rachel Getting Married, why Slumdog didn't set off Ed's bullshit detector, how France pissed Karina off and which Muppet Frank Langella reminds Timothy of. Return and comment if you'd like to join the convo.
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