The bags are packed and we’re ready to go…
I am told they now have the internet in other countries (HA!), so I will not be completely gone. I’ll even stop off at the Edinburgh Film Festival during the journey. (I”m sure I’ll even see The Amazing Spider-Man just as soon as I get off the ferry when we return from the Isle of Lewis.) But the plan is to breathe deeply.
Be nice to each other while I am gone.
amit on: Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
Christian on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: Review: Marriage Story (spoilers only in the broadest sense)
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
YancySkancy on: Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
Hcat on: Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: I Should Be Doing Box Office
Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree
Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
Review: Marriage Story (spoilers only in the broadest sense)
see all »
[twitter-widget username="DavidPoland" hiderss="true" hidereplies="true" hidefrom="true" items="3" showts="60" title=" " targetBlank="true"][twitter-widget username="MCNTweets" hiderss="true" hidereplies="true" hidefrom="true" items="3" showts="60" title=" " targetBlank="true"]
It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
Aaron Sorkin repeats a lot of dialogue between his movies and television shows.
Sorkinisms – A Supercut
That Sorkinism is fun to begin but then gets tedious. Shakespeare, Molier, Tolstoy, Mozart, Picasso, The Beatles… they all cannibalized their own work. So what? All it proves that the person who assembled the clips watched a whole lot of DVDs over and over and over and they have access to Final Cut Pro.
I heard it’s more like extracting the closed-captioning or subtitle data and doing a text search, then pulling the clips based on the time stamps.
That Variety review of “Magic Mike” is puzzling. “Breezy” is the last word I’d use to describe that way-darker-than-the-ads-suggest movie.
Steven Soderbergh doesn’t want to be on camera .
DP/30: Magic Mike – dir/prod/dp Steven Soderbergh
audio only
DP/30: The Informant director Steven Soderbergh
legs only
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2Hsh8_OMm0
chris: Maybe that reviewer is also one of the many who seemed to think that THE ARTIST is a light comedy.
With that Sorkinisms video, it’s freaky how much better most of the lines first said on “Sports Night” were when spoken later on “The West Wing”. Viewed from that perspective, I not only do not mind that he repeats himself, I damn well admire him for repeating himself with verve.
People that work with him are always saying his dialogue is so much like music, but I really think it’s more like dance or a great Kung Fu sequence.
over 150 comments about this guy and box office success vs critical success … some pretty interesting comments from a celebrity gossip site ….
Is Robert Pattinson’s career in danger after a couple of box-office “flops”?
this is from Lainey Gossip –
she’s not to impressed that Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher might be dating – unlike a lot of other celebrity sites – she’s actually on tv and does tv interviews..so if these
two are dating or not – why would they do any interviews with Lainey …
any of you movie critics go off on actors on a personal level ? do the actors care ?
“Because Ashton Kutcher is a dick. Not just because he cheated on Demi Moore – but yeah that too – and not just because he’s too dumb to write his own tweets and not just because he’s an arrogant talentless piece of sh-t but if all that wasn’t enough it’s also because he’s not kind. Shouldn’t they be kind? What does it say about Mila Kunis that she can stand to spend time with Ashton Kutcher? Does it matter? Should it matter? It matters. ”
How does everyone deal with the fact that they’ll probably never be famous?
I don’t know how to accept this, even though it should’ve dawned on my in the last two decades that I was working at an office job at the age when Al Franken was a writer on SNL.
I look at my paycheck and feel good about making enough money to own a nice house, drive a nice car, not worry about bills, and enjoy life. This is how I cope with the horror of not being famous.
I work 60 hrs a week and don’t come CLOSE to what I need to make, which would be 100 THOUSAND DOLLARS.
I honestly don’t know how anyone survives on this planet on less than 100K (which to me is still on the LOW END of an acceptable wage)…
I drive a 1991 Taurus and work at a transcription job I hate with a passion. What am I supposed to be happy about?
LexG – your internet famous – do you really want to be famous in real life or do you just want a million bucks ?
if you had a 1 million bucks your problems would go away?
i wanted DP to get a dp/30 with you since last year.
also you should check out the Howard Stern interview with Bradley Cooper – its on youtube. Stern keeps trying to get Cooper to spill on his personal dating and then Cooper talks about meeting Robert Deniro.
I’m all about the money, Sanj
Sanj, Pattinson isn’t in danger for awhile. He’s David Cronenberg’s new plaything apparently as he’s already signed up for his next film after “Cosmopolis.”
I drive a 1991 Taurus…
Well, you’re car is old enough that it is now a hip vintage auto. Something to be happy about.
41 Regrettably Tacky Photos Of Famous People
By the way, Ted was fucking funny.
You thought so, bulldog? To me it felt like more of the Family Guy same. Some laughs, but doesn’t add up to a whole lot, and even less if you don’t find mentioning celebrities and slagging on them by nature hilarious.
Is there actual dick in Magic Mike or like tastefully obscured stuff or prosthetics or what? I’m not super interested but I’m surprised I haven’t seen this discussed at all. Of course, maybe this would be considered a spoiler and everyone is just being on super good behavior about spoilers?
watch Paris sing and dj – stick around for the fireworks and smoke
Paris Hilton “Last Night”
http://youtu.be/rotvMo022Do
No dick, tbunny. There’s one amusing shot with a foregrounded image of a dick in a penis pump but I suspect that dick is prosthetic.
From 4 Artists Who Should Probably Just Take a Break for a While:
“If you want to know what happens to a kid who never gets told ‘No,’ look at Seth MacFarlane’s career. The resurrection of Family Guy was the worst thing to happen to his ego, because it was basically a way for him to tell himself ‘Hey, I was right. All of the higher-ups who said the show was too weird, or that not enough people watched it, or that I was more obsessed with making obscure references than I was with telling stories and, occasionally, jokes — that was ALL HORSESHIT. I never should have doubted myself. And I never will again.'”
It does go on to attack Ted as just a live-action version of Family Guy, and American Dad, and The Cleveland Show….
Was I mistaken in thinking that there is usually a dick involved with male strippers? I mean, if there’s no dick isn’t that just chippendales?
Charlie Sheen is back with a new tv series on FX called anger management
it airs this week – so set your vcr’s …
Louis CK show is also back this week on FX …
Little late to the game, hope no one minds. Just got back from Abe Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. One of two people so almost a private screening. Wasn’t expecting all that much and it managed to pretty much meet my expectations. I had fun with the first half. It’s not spectacular but it moves swiftly and I enjoyed watching young Abe become a killer of the dead. But holy christ does it come to a screeching halt about halfway through. From the beginning of the Civil War until the train sequence I was bored silly. Not nearly enough vampire killing. It felt more like Spielberg’s Lincoln (only much worse I hope). At least it livens up on the train. Are audiences really that into slow motion these days? This would have been 30 minutes long without it. I wish it hadn’t tried to cram 40+ years into 100 minutes. It was a perfectly serviceable summer matinee for a while.
SHEEN RULES. Thanks for the reminder, Sanj.
All hail Sheen.
I saw a brief promo featuring Anger Management’s creator. He said they plan on hitting 100 episodes in like a year or two. Sounds crazy.
Sheen is all kinds of ick.
Sheen has the balls (and the money) to live the life all men, ALL MEN, wish they had. He is my personal God.
I honor him by not acting like him in any way whatsoever and going to a desk job I hate and weighing 247 pounds.
That is how Sheen prefers to be honored. There can be only one.
Paul D: My understanding is that FX is doing 10 episodes of ANGER MANAGEMENT, but if it does well they’ll automatically order another 90 to be produced over two years. This is pretty much the same deal the syndication company made with TBS for Tyler Perry’s sitcoms.
I think the TBS deal gives Perry five years to complete. Presumable because A) he’s constantly busy w/other projects and B) his life expectancy is longer than a hamster’s.
The Anger Management creator suggested that they were on a very accelerated schedule, with two new episodes airing per week.
Did anyone see that trailer for Alex Cross with Tyler Perry and Matthew Fox?
Holy shit does it look terrible. Awesomely terrible.
Lex – seeing you in the video on youtube (the one where you’re trying to review some film at the paramount lot entrance), it looks to me like you’re about 5’10” or 5 11″? If that’s the case, and you really weigh 247 lbs, you’re probably 50 lbs overweight. That’s a lot. Have you had your BMI tested? Please do that, and let us know what that number is.
just got the first two episodes of ‘anger management’ today (along with ‘louie’ and ‘wilfred’)….
pretty standard sitcom stuff but sheen is right on his game…don’t know what to make of that story about ordering 90 eps at one time…that’s wacky even for fx…..
the most baffling thing about this massive presentation kit is the announcement that ‘american horror story’ won’t be back until fall of ’13…WTF?!?…it’s a limited run series, not ‘cleopatra’ fer chrissakes….
looks iike an upgraded tv movie
Alex Cross movie trailer
delaying american horror story – not the best idea – cause its one complicated story and people will forget about the various things that happens…
Was very pleasantly surprised by “The Amazing Spider-Man.”
It’s not “Amazing,” but it is pretty darn good–probably (blasphemy alert) as good as Raimi’s first “S-M” 10 years ago. (Naturally it isn’t as good as the brilliant “Spider-Man 2.” It is, however, superior to “Spider 3.”)
Think of it as a well-tuned B’way revival of a classic American musical: you know all the songs, but it’s still a pleasure hearing them sung so well by some fresh new voices.
Tobey will always be “my” Spidey, but Garfield is terrific, too (it helps that he can finesse a spot-on “American” accent), and Emma Stone is every bit as good as Kirsten Dunst as “the girl” (although it’s a different female character this time). Also loved Rhys Ifans’ villain.
Really liked “Magic Mike,” even if it’s not the movie I was expecting.
For some reason–e.g., the trailer/TV spots, lol–I was expecting a sexy, light-hearted romp like the “Ocean’s” movies. It’s a tad weightier than that, and definitely has more of an “indie” sensibility than that of a mainstream H’wood release. The first half reminded me of ’70s-era stuff by Altman and Ashby (although Alan Rudolph is probably an even better comparison point); “American Gigolo,” too, altho that was 1980. I’m not sure what the audience lured in by the “fun and funny male stripper” movie it’s being sold as will make of it. For some reason, I’m expecting a hefty opening followed by a precipitous drop once w.o.m. spreads that it’s….different…than the trailers have suggested. Ironically, a H’wood studio version of this story 40 years ago would have been considerably more explicit (w/ frontal male and female nudity and actual sex scenes).
Make of that what you will.
“How does everyone deal with the fact that they’ll probably never be famous?”
I do a lot of thanking god I’m not.
movieman – pretty sure that’s a misprint. every story i’ve read about AHS indicates it is already shooting and coming back this fall.
have to disagree with movieman (quelle surprise!) re: spiderman… while i’m with him on the fact that it’s not exactly ‘amazing’, i really think garfield is so much more than maguire….so much more personality…and, well, just a better actor….
btw– compared to the seriously dark story ‘magic mike’ could have told, it was pretty light-hearted…and, while you’re absolutely right about ’40 years ago’, the hollywood version of this story 30 years ago (a night in heaven)actually contained very little full frontal..
watched Collaborator 2011 – a super simple hostage movie with 2 guys in a house – acting is fine …but the why the hostage happened didn’t blow me away – however it does have a real ending.
trailer –
Is this BEASTS OF SOUTHERN WILD thing really THAT good?
Usually I’m primed to like anything, but any movie about some KID (first strike) living in a WORLD OF MYSTERY OF IMAGINATION is almost always a no-go with me. Add in the white-douche guilt element of some indie movie about black kids in Louisiana directed by lily-white hipsters, and I’m OUT.
I know it’s getting raves, but they’re mostly from guys like Drew, who I respect but who has this HUMANIST streak in him that I don’t relate to sometimes, and who likes movies about kids on journeys.
Also there aren’t any famous people in it, so I can GUARANTEE it’s one of those deals everybody loves when it comes out then NOBODY rewatches it on DVD.
I honor him by not acting like him in any way whatsoever and going to a desk job I hate and weighing 247 pounds.
You weigh as much as Lebron but are a foot shorter and ten years older.
Do something about it, before the heart attack.
You know what I wouldn’t go there but between ARISP and MARTIN S the two PORTRAITS OF HEALTH?
I’m 6’0 247. How much does Kris Tapley weigh? How much does Faraci weigh? How much does POLAND weigh? How much does McWeeny weigh? No offense but those does look 60 pounds heavier than me, and no one’s on here riding Poland about a HEART ATTACK, so fuck you.
Not even dogging those guys out, but dudes on my balls about WEIGHT when I’m fucking honest…. 247 ain’t exactly John Candy, and my Armenian superfan upthread stroking off to some student movie some buddy of mine shot me in in 20-FUCKING-07 when actually I was 265.
So go tell fucking Tapley or LYT or POLAND or whoever the same YOU’RE GON HAVE A HEART ATTACK and get off my fucking back, or put up some pics of MARTIN S or whoever,
PUT UP OR SHUT UP. Thought so. Day any of you assholes reveal anything about yourselves will be a fucking stunner.
Even a GENTEEL TYPE like YANCY SKANCY would FREAK LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER if anyone on here was dogging him out about his name or his size or his lifestyle, so how would any of you assholes like it?
Smith- It was Scooter who reported the “AHS” wouldn’t be airing until 2013, not me.
You’re right about “A Night in Heaven” (what a wretched film that was!) not being particularly explicit (or erotic) in 1983, Partisan.
But the golden age of the New Hollywood had–sob–already passed by
then, and everyone was cleaning up their acts (so to speak).
The days when a hertetofore unknown Don Johnson could parade his genitalia (along with his female costars’ nether regions) in an R-rated 1970 (!) major studio release like “The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart” had already passed.
Re: Tobey Maguire Vs. Andrew Garfield.
I think it’s too soon to say whether Garfield is a “better” actor than Maguire who, truth be told, has been around a lot longer, and accrued an impressive range of credits (“Ice Storm,” “Pleasantville,” “Ride With the Devil,” “Cider House Rules,” the “Spider-Man” movies, “Seabiscuit,” etc.)
Garfield is–as I stated earlier–very, very good. But get back to me in a few years to render a final verdict on which actor is the greater talent.
Hey, “MARTIN S,” can we get some pix of you, O portrait of health passing judgment?
Maguire has been in some good movies, but I’ve never been all that impressed with any performance of his. Garfield in the Red Riding trilogy is better than anything Maguire has done. He’s the greater talent. Waiting years is not necessary.
movieman — no need to get back to you in a few years re: mcquire/garfield…one is a cipher the other has a personality…one is unable to perform in front of a live audience, one was nominated for a tony (although we might extend mcguire a little theater cred for producing the movie version of ‘rock of ages’)….no doubt both will be around for a long time…
your mention of ‘the magic garden of stanley sweetheart’ reminded me that don’s johnson was also on display in ‘the harrad experiment’ (along with a nude performance by future wife melanie griffith)…ah, the ’70s….
Movieman: “Think of it as a well-tuned B’way revival of a classic American musical: you know all the songs, but it’s still a pleasure hearing them sung so well by some fresh new voices.”
See, that’s exactly what I was afraid of, and what I have no interest in seeing. I want new songs, not the same songs, just sung differently. I’ll pass and wait for DVD.
Paul and Scooter: I guess I’ve just been more impressed with Maguire’s aching vulnerability/sensitivity/boy-next-door-ism than you (he reminded me a bit of the “TLPS”-era Tim Bottoms in his earliest films).
Like I said, Garfield is fine in my book.
But the thing that’s left the biggest mark on me so far re: Garfield’s perfs is the ease with which he can maneuver a neutral American accent.
Wish more of his Brit brethren (and “sister-en”?) had that skill.
If I’ve had a “problem” w/ Garfield until now, it’s that he’s been pretty indistinguishable (physically and thesp-wise) from a whole rash of other twentysomething Brit actors invading our shores in recent years. Including one that he’s a virtual doppelganger for whose name–irony of ironies–I’m blanking on right now. In fact, until “Social Network” I always confused the two of them because they were so damn similar.
I don’t think Maguire is unappealing or a terrible actor, but he’s never done much for me. He’s just kind of “eh.” I have been far more impressed with Garfield’s acting abilities and range.
I also think ASM is pretty darn swell, but one huge caveat: As good as he is, Garfield is simply too tall, muscular and insanely good-looking to be the high school nerd/outcast. Maguire you could see getting stuffed inside a locker; in the real world, Garfield would be banging not only the entire cheerleader squad but most of his female teachers as well.
“Get back to you,” movieman? Egad. Anyway, Garfield has a pretty decent list of great work already: He’s fantastic in “Red Riding,” ‘Never Let Me Go” and “Boy A.” Really good in “The Social Network.” The only reason “Lions for Lambs” is half worth seeing. He makes more interesting choices than Maguire (see his work on Broadway now) and I’d say he’s done almost as much good work in Maguire in a lot less time.
Maguire has never really done much for me, his ‘aw shucks’ open faced wonder at it all persona sometimes wears my patience down by the end of a film, but I do think his best performance to date is the Brothers remake that takes his decent upstanding boy-next-door type and puts him through the psychological wringer. The rest of the movie was a bit of a let down and almost a high school play version of the original but Maguire was able to bring just the right amount of confusion and intensity to the role.
Jim Sturgess is the other “twentysomething Brit actor” I was thinking of (the one I used to always confuse Garfield with).
Hell, I still probably couldn’t tell them apart if you put them in the same room together.
That’s probably why I always felt there was something generic about Garfield until he finally “broke out” around the time of “Social Network.”
Of course, I had the same problem with a group of young British actresses in the late ’90s (Catherine McCormack, Lena Headey, Rachel Weisz, Saffron Burrows).
It wasn’t until “The Constant Gardener,” “Miss Julie” and “300” than I was finally able to separate Weisz from Headey from Burrows (big fans of all three now), yet I still probably couldn’t ID McCormack to this day, lol.
No dick in Magic Mike just kills any interest. What is this the Full Monty? Is the fact that no discernible plot appears in the trailer like a kind of clever marketing ploy? This movie could literally be about anything for all I know. Is Duke gonna get some money for his sick kid brother? Does he have a passionate romance with Rachel McAdams? Does Wooderson have like some backstage drama with Duke? Does Duke beat Wooderson in a step-it-up style strip-off at the end? Is there a murder in the dressing room?
As it is, some man-candy actors you know dance and show their abs. And? And no dick. Really? Not even a sock? Not even like some Robert Plant pants in close up? What is the point?
tbunny, there are modest-immodest glimpses, including a very clinical visual joke at the beginning.
Mentioned that one earlier in this thread, I think, Ray. But I also think it’s prosthetic.
Happy Future Day! Today is the day that Doc set the DeLorean to in “Back to the Future.”
Wow, good stat etguild2. Not sure how I pictured the future back when I first saw Back to the Future but it all seems like one giant week sense then, not noticibly different time periods, though as I look back, in many ways it really is.
Umm, all the dates end with a 5, and the only one left is Oct. 21, 2015.
http://movieline.com/2010/10/25/happy-25th-anniversary-back-to-the-future-know-your-dates-with-this-helpful-trilogy-timeline/
Wow I was hoaxed! What a ridiculous thing to trick people with…
http://mashable.com/2012/06/27/back-to-the-future-hoax/
For those (like me) who LOVED the FX show TERRIERS and feel it was unfairly cancelled way, way too early…there’s a twitter handle and other online sites trying to get Netflix to do a season 2. I love that show (the whole season is on Netflix Instant. Give it a shot, I never knew what was coming both in terms of plot and what each scene might hold. I like the idea of trying to get the attention of Netflix rather than those pointless petition sites that never work. Well, maybe they did once.
Here’s the site.
Terriers is brilliant. I watched the season on Netflix over three nights last fall. It’s damn near perfect and one of the best shows of 2011. I also heartily recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it.
I’m sure it’s good, but who says the actors wanna do another season? If I were a working TV actor I’d be PRAYING every show I did got canceled right after the check cleared, because SERIOUSLY, who wants to be stuck in Louisiana or Hawaii or Vancouver for half the year when you live in NY or LA?
Always felt TERRIBLE for the LOST or FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS guys, stuck 2000 miles from home on some stupid show for a half-decade.
Just stay home.
>SERIOUSLY, who wants to be stuck in Louisiana or Hawaii or >Vancouver for half the year when you live in NY or LA?
LexG – what does NY or LA have those other cities don’t have ? wasnt K-Stew stuck in Vancouver doing the Twilight movies ? is that why she looks sad all time ?
Hey, “MARTIN S,” can we get some pix of you, O portrait of health passing judgment?
hahahaha….no thanks, I don’t want to make you feel any more miserable.
Lex complaining about someone “passing judgement” based on physical attributes…
How about it was the text equivalent of a slap in the face?
In other words – Do. Something. Now. Before. It. Kills. You.
One caveat for you folks: Andrew Garfield is an American. He may be half-Brit and half-American, but that makes him ALL-AMERICAN XD! It does suck that they rebooted Spidey, and had to tell another freaking origin story. Who needs that sort of thing? Really? Who needs it?
If Lex is fine with his weight, then leave him alone.
total recall movie is coming ..
when are humans finally getting to mars ? chances are 8 people will end up there within 100 years ..
cost of going there should gett cheaper but it takes years to actually get there and come back …
figure one or two people might die ..and it’ll be a huge conspiracy theory ..
within 200 years – 1000 people might show up to mars – by then they have figured out the food / water deal
if earth is screwed because of global warming – there could be 100,000 people on mars in 300 years.
after that who knows. anybody got cool theories that might be realistic ?
After reaching the end of A counter-reading of Lena Dunham’s Girls to see just who Ms. Dunham is and what the stink was about, I do have to wonder why anyone who isn’t a big-city hipster would care about her work. I haven’t seen Girls or Tiny Furniture, but they sound like nothing that would appeal to anyone outside the coastal metropoli.
Sam, seeing as a lot of the entertainment press lives in New York, they are all about Dunham. They live for some sort of glance into their lives. Even if those characters on that show are so weird, that it’s hard to imagine how anyone can identify with them.
The idea of someone fresh out of college working on a “memoir” is bad enough (isn’t that something you do when you’re about to enter an old folks’ home?), but the vibe reminded me of Reality Bites, which may very well have started the downward slide of Ryder’s career because 99% of the viewers couldn’t believe her character was whining about having to be the lackey of a celebrity (most of us would’ve killed a half-dozen friends and family members to get that job) when she, a fresh what–art school grad?–should clearly be running a studio.
Although I caught the movie when it was in theaters, I am surprised I bought the tape maybe two years later, cheap, but not surprised at all that I’ve never taken the plastic off. The memory of that movie has grown more sour with every passing year.
The one ironic thing about Reality Bites in retrospect is that Winona Ryder had to choose in it between a narcissistic hipster and a genuine nice guy who just wanted to be a success…and that Ben Stiller played the LATTER and Ethan Hawke the former, rather than vice versa.
So Sam, you have insulted Reality Bites and Julie & Julia on the same day. Really, Sam? Really? Shameful, absolutely shameful, and you have to remember the 90s, Lou. The 90s were all about not selling out, and Stiller represents that sell out. While Hawke represents that emotionally stilted guy, that women love to fix.
What I do find funny about that movie, is that Ryder’s character Lelaina decides to get off of her ass, and works for the Gap. She takes her friend’s job offer, but Stiller edited that out of the movie. Which makes the ending of that movie, absolutely bizarre, because it LeLaina basically shutting down for weeks, waiting for Troy, and then all of a sudden decides to run after him. It’s a weird choice of editing, but LeLaina could not be shown to sell out to the Gap.
I thought this was interesting.
Super-Dreams of an Alternate World Order
By MANOHLA DARGIS and A. O. SCOTT
EDITED: [Link]
movieman – wtf? Post a link. Total BS to rip an entire piece. It’s a bitch to look at, let alone read, in blog thread form.
I’m not sure why one needs to be a “big city hipster” to enjoy Girls. That makes no sense. I’m not in a big city nor am I a hipster and I really enjoyed the first season. Some of the performances are great and it’s very funny. Why would you need to live in Brooklyn in order to admire the performances and humor? That’s a strange viewpoint. I am madly in love with Friday Night Lights right now as I finally got around to watching it. I have never lived in a small Texas town nor did I play high school football, yet I still love the show. How odd.
The descriptions I’ve read of Dunham’s oeuvre seem to indicate these characters would be mentally let alone physically incapable of owning a car, holding a real job, or living on their own, thus hipster. Imagining any of these adolescents becoming a parent would make one want to call Child Protective Services.
So you’re saying you have never even seen the show, yet you feel qualified to cast judgment upon it and its characters? A lot of people have no business being parents when they are 22 years old. What does that have to do with the quality of the show or whether or not it can be enjoyed by people living outside of big cities?
Martin- I have no idea how to do links on my laptop. I’m sure that it’s possible, but nobody ever showed me how, lol.
Glad to see that somebody (Dave Poland?) affixed a link to make it easier to read, though.
Movieman, cutting and pasting the link itself also works better than adding the full article.
lens flare from super 8 – not everybody gets it
That’s funny Sanj.
My favorite review of “Magic Mike” is this gem by Andrew O’Hehrir at Salon:
“Soderbergh fears there is no escape for Magic Mike, or any of us, from the permanent Tampa strip club of the mind, where we sit inhaling Buffalo wings and making it rain all over the latest naked offering.”
Public: 1, Abrams: 0
The fact that it occurred so often that this guy thought his new player may be broken proves that Abrams has a problem. Hopefully, he can get help. Perhaps medication.
Ten dollars a day for unlimited internet? And they call ME an international criminal….
watched brake 2012 – Stephen Dorff is stuck inside a car for entire film and tries to get out … the ending i didn’t like so much …but good acting.
Dorff needs another dp/30 .
break trailer –
i liked reality bites – that was like 15 years ago or something but the writer Helen Childress hasn’t done
much since ….also Winona Ryder – Ethan Hawke
– Janeane Garofalo – Steve Zahn – Ben Stiller haven’t done any dp/30’s in 3 years. DP should get on that.
Film critics have such a SODERBONER they always make a new SS movie sound like a more anticipated event than it is; Not saying MAGIC MIKE is gonna tank, it’ll do fine, but it’s going to make money from the Sex and the City aud, so it’s vaguely embarrassing all these dead-serious auteurist Wells type superfans acting like it’s this real ZEITGEIST movie…
On the flip side, why is NOBODY talking about either PEOPLE LIKE US or MADEA?
Isn’t this the CROSSOVER Madea movie, with big white actors and a broad slapstick tone? The trailer’s a riot and looks like it could bring in Sandler or Big Momma type fans– I think it’s a bigger deal this weekend but Magic Mike; it’s just interesting how Tyler Perry is SO off the radar of white bloggers, not a single word has been written about what’s probably going to be a hit.
Isn’t PEOPLE LIKE US this year’s THE HELP? Every element of the marketing stresses that EVERY SINGLE PERSON who saw THE HELP needs to see this movie, too. Isn’t it going to make 200 or 300 mil?
Why is NOBODY covering these 2 movies, in favor of a Soderbergh lark?
LexG – people like us looks like a tv movie . Wilde / Pine / Banks haven’t done a dp/30 …doesn’t look like this film
is going to win some sort of award either. DP loves them awards.
Does anyone care about Ann Curry getting dumped from the Today Show? I barely watch the show but I always thought she was so smoking hot. Over the years I’ve read people really rip her over the internets but I never thought she was that bad.
On a local note for those in LA, did you guys like Dorothy Lucey in the Goodday LA morning show? I never had anything against her but most of the time I thought the entertainment and gossip reports were pretty vapid. Do really need to be told that Angelina is thinking of adopting another kid at the same time they play the same 3 second fair use clip they have of her at some premiere in Cannes over 6 mos old??? It’s like I sat through 5 mins of commericals for what?!??
A New Mexico woman was arrested and spent a night in jail for not returning the book “Twilight” and two-DVD set “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” back to the library on time.
“People Like Us” being by the guy who wrote Transformers 3 doesn’t help either. But I love me some Elizabeth Banks so I’ll probably bite.
Yeah, it’s a little strange that 3 of Metacritic’s 6-best reviewed non-animated wide releases this year involve Channing Tatum and/or Soderbergh…
fwiw — ‘people like us’ is actually pretty enjoyable but smacks of television…kind of like a very high level lifetime movie or mid-level hbo movie…some really nice moments, some really cliche moments and some very good performances….
and, to single out just ‘transformers 3’ is pretty unfair since kurtzman and orci have also done some pretty good work….
Elizabeth Banks is pretty swell in PEOPLE LIKE US; the editing favors her in her scenes.
Did anyone watch Anger Management tonight? Don’t really care for Sheen myself but when it was announced I thought all the curiosity might result in record setting cable ratings (until Hatfields shattered it a month ago).
If anything I hope it raises awareness of Louie which is like getting a little slice of classic Woody each week.
And its a shame that Fox News isn’t shuffling off with the publishing arm. While I appreciate the new Fox being around 40% less evil, I’ll still feel a twinge of guilt buying any of their stuff.
watched 2 episodes of Anger Management – Charlie Sheen pretty much plays himself…i was expecting something more dark and R rated ..something with more edge…instead we get a general sitcom with laugh track ..there’s not much character in the ex wife and the daughter…
overall – this belongs on regular cable ..
Does anyone know what “Heroes and Demons” is?
The IMDB listing is very confusing. There are apparently 6 directors, and the cast includes everyone from Tom Hardy to Andrew Garfield, Chris Hemsworth and Kirsten Dunst. Yet the only release date listed is one for Canada (?!) later this summer. Also, there was no studio/distributer mentioned either.
At first I thought it might be a doc on comic book movies (why not, right?), but since Garfield, et al have character names, I’m guessing not.
I did not care much for People Like Us. SPOILERS
The acting is very good and it has its share of effective moments. But the parts don’t add up to a complete whole. Pine holds his secret for way too long and it hurts the movie. For good reason Banks thinks he is pursuing her romantically. It’s just weird and off-putting. Also people are way too accepting of Pine hanging out with an 11 year-old kid. And the kid, ugh. Always ready with a witty one-liner, saying things kids only say in the movies. It’s grating. Finally, everything is resolved way too simply and neatly in the final 10 minutes. Some critics seem relieved to have seen something with no explosions and lots of grown-up conversation in late June. But that doesn’t make this a good movie.
Aaron Sorkin on Colbert – funny interview..way better than a dp/30 .
watched some random interviews with Kal Penn and John Cho for Harold and Kumar movies – they seem pretty smart guys for being in dumb movies. 3 movies now without a dp/30. Kal went to theatre school and DP loves asking everybody about theatre stories.
also for LexG – Adult World 2012 – A recent college graduate who believes she’s destined to be a great poet, instead winds up working for an adult book store…has Emma Roberts in it .
“Always felt TERRIBLE for the LOST or FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS guys, stuck 2000 miles from home on some stupid show for a half-decade.”
Yeah, Lex, being “stuck” in Hawaii for eight months musta been HELL! HELL, I TELLS YA!!!
breaking news –
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are to split after five years of marriage.
Movieman, do you read pajiba? I found out about that movie yesterday on that site..likewise mystified.
‘heroes and demons’ trailer here:
distributor here:
Sanj: Well, this is not a surprise. The contract was for five years, and it’s expired. Katie gets a nice settlement, the kid goes back to the props department at Paramount, and Tom is now free to join Travolta in BATTLEFIELD EARTH 2: THE WRATH OF RON.
Four years ago i wrote a script about a middle aged gay actor who hires a young actress to be his wife in order to salvage his career. It bounced around to every independent producer i know. Got a lot of compliments but little interest.
This afternoon i had three emails in a row asking if it was still available. I hadn’t heard the news yet and couldn’t figure out why there was a sudden swell of interest. Then i saw the report that they were getting divorced.
People are funny.
All I do is become defensive for Tom when the TMZ trolls roll out.
it’s been speculated that douglas carter beane used cruise as a model for the actor character in ‘the little dog laughed’….he denies it, of course, but it’s had to watch the show and not have it come to mind…
isn’t Tom a hero of LexG’s …
wondering how akward it might be having Tom and Katie at sn awards show from now on…
wondering what real actors think of this …probably 100,000 comments from regular folks already .
he probably got like 50 phone calls already from some big name actors … or do his actor friends leave him alone.
watched indie game the movie –
A documentary that follows the journeys of indie game developers as they create games and release those works,
— i really liked this doc – real people risking it on video games . it’s at oscar level ..so you super important movie critics should give this a chance.
the camera work in pretty good .. the directors need a dp/30 .
the games in the doc were fez – super meat boy –
and braid ..all big games in the indie world of gaming.
out of all the stories my favorite was Phil Fish …he risk a lot.
Like Katie Holmes will ever be invited to an awards show again.
Also– every house wife, single lady and female relative of mine is at MAGIC MIKE tonight. That things gonna be huuuuuuuuge. (the movie)
“it’s been speculated that douglas carter beane used cruise as a model for the actor character in ‘the little dog laughed’….he denies it, of course, but it’s had to watch the show and not have it come to mind…”
I thought that when i watched little dog laughed.
The screenplay i wrote was intentionally vague. You never see the actor outside his house, a board room, and inside a car. It could be any actor, any era of film from the golden age to today. The whole thing is about someone who is insufferably obsessed with controlling his image and his legacy. And the actress he brings in thinks she can fix him and make him step out of the closet. When she realizes he can’t let go of this lie even when it means sacrificing his own happiness she begins to hate him. Things get ugly.
I love the idea of someone who becomes so obsessed with maintaining a lie that they are willing to sacrifice almost everything to perpetuate it. Even if ending the lie means that they would actually gain something in the process. But it becomes less about what they want and more about proving others wrong.
Gear shift.
So i saw Moonrise Kingdom. It finally started showing up in one horse towns. And as a Wes Anderson fan i can say i was really dissapointed. It wasn’t bad, but it was exactly the film he is always criticized for making. It was pretty, affected, highly stylized, but didn’t have a single character i connected to. It was a Wes Anderson storybook: nice to look at, nothing to hold on to. It was his least human film and his least realistic portrayal of real people. It was cute, full of whimsy and ultimately ended up being kind of nothing.
Crap of Life Aquatic all you want, but Zissou was a very flawed, very real person. Even with the claymation and the super stylized set and camera moves and broad comedy i could say that Life Aquatic gave me some very human, very personal moments.
Not everyone digs Darjeeling Limited, but through all the fancy wrapping there’s still three very real, very flawed characters. I still liked the guys at the center of the journey and they ended up learning something in the process. It was nice to see them finally realize that you have to let the baggage go if you’re going to move forward.
Now that ive finished defending Anderson’s ‘lesser’ works…
Moonrise Kingdom was just a series of those cute Wes Anderson moments. i think he jumped the shark with this one. Norton was game. Willis was good. Bill Murray is Bill Murray. The kids were cute but were such blank slates. I liked them, i kind of rooted for them, but their situation never felt real. The world they lived in might as well have been Narnia or the land in one of Susie’s stories because it had no connection to reality.
and maybe that’s why i can defend Life Aquatic or Darjeeling Limited (two films i routinely rewatch along with other Anderson gems like Rushmore and Tennenbaums). Because those works, no matter how stylized and storybook, still feel like they took place in a real world with real people.
Moonrise Kingdom just felt so forced and so fake. Dissapointing.
Yeah, no, Moonrise Kingdom is Wes Anderson most touching and moving film. It’s amazing because it does feel as if it takes place in the real world, where two kids fall majorly in love, and a very repressed bunch of characters have to deal with it. If young love and what it means, resonates with you, then this film is for you. It’s out and out amazing, go see it now, and avoid seeing anything else.
Prediction: Next year Katie will be playing the mother on the CW’s reboot of “Dawson’s Creek.”
“The screenplay i wrote was intentionally vague”…
well, good luck with that…it doesn’t often/always work out so well…
Re: Life Aquatic, Willem Dafoe is the single best thing in that movie.
“well, good luck with that…it doesn’t often/always work out so well…”
it looks like im getting an option on a four year old script that was collecting virtual dust on my hard drive. it already worked out. but i appreciate the concern/veiled criticism.
“Re: Life Aquatic, Willem Dafoe is the single best thing in that movie.”
Agreed.
On Moonrise Kingdom.
“It’s amazing because it does feel as if it takes place in the real world”
Spoilers Ahoy:
On the tiny little storybook island where two 13 year olds get married in a chapel at a Boy Scout jamboree before the kid gets struck by lightning with no ramifications other than being covered in soot where the Social Services lady is only referred to as Social Services and everybody has walky talkies (even the lawyers) and foster parents can be assigned while scaling the roof of a church in the middle of a massive storm….
It’s as if it was ripped right from the headlines.
And again, i love Wes Anderson. I’m not even saying i didnt like Moonrise Kingdom, but it felt like every other Wes Anderson film concentrated and reduced to his more flamboyant tendencies and he was missing those real, human moments in favor of manufactured fancy.
Congratulations anghus. That’s pretty damn cool. I hope it gets made.
I don’t think Anderson has EVER been more real and human than the beautiful “Moonrise Kingdom” scene with Frances McDormand musing on her missed opportunities while her daughter is in the bathtub.
there were good scenes, and i liked it, but i thought it felt very detached and affected. Just one guy’s opinion.
Paul, thanks. I hope so too. I always hope they get made. At this point based on historical precedents theres a 20% chance it will get made.
looks like this show will stick around .
“With nearly 5.5 million total viewers, the premiere of Charlie Sheen’s “Anger Management” is the most-watched premiere in FX history, as well as two records for scripted comedies on cable”
I previously expressed apprehension about Paul Schrader casting the, um, erratic Lindsay Lohan and some porno dude I’d never heard of in his new film.
But after checking the latter out on Youtube, I’m now completely on board w/ James Deen headlining a mainstream film by an auteur director like Schrader.
If any (male) performer has a real shot at crossing over from the porn world into the legit film industry, it’s going to be Deen. I was floored by his charisma, charm, boyish good looks, quick wit and “screen presence.” (And I’ve never even seen any of his blue movies).
It’s Lohan I’m most concerned about now.
Hope she can hold it together this time because–as her recent bit on “Glee” proved–she’s still got “it.”
i find these pictures boring . Maxim didn’t make an effort …
Jessica Biel & Kate Beckinsale – Maxim Pictures
this film is so weird…
Tub – short film. 10 minutes.
anghus — i think you mistook my skepticism for criticism…i said ‘good luck’ not ‘bad luck’….i’ve known several writers who’ve lived very well off the multiple options of unproduced scripts…mansions have been purchased on the money made from movies that never saw the light of the big screen…. so, more power to you….i really meant no offense…
I know James Deen and he’s a really, really nice guy. He’s also a pornstar dude. A mope. Just like Dirk Diggler before him, he’ll always be stuck at the gate of the recording studio, wanting his demos while assholes like Brett Easton Ellis try to exploit him.
I mean, Schrader and BEE doing a Kickstarter for this movie?! Fuck you guys, fund it yourselves.
funny 2 minute clip
Charlie Rose – Alec Baldwin on Social Media
Is anybody else noticing the distinct effort at lightening up the mood for the television ads for “The Dark Knight Rises”? The majority of the 30 seconds ads I saw this weekend was banter between Bale and Freeman. Maybe they’re just trying to round out the movie’s appeal, but I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody got worried that all of the marketing up to this point was pretty much heavier than center mass in a black hole.
Emma Roberts is on pinterest – she really is into social media …she’s got 1 million people following her on
twitter – and she actually seems to read her followers.
wouldn’t surprise me if she stopped acting and went into the social media business ..made her own facebook site or something. she really likes moonrise kingdom movie
dp/30 with Emma Roberts … pretty happy here…
Destructoid writer Ryan Perez attempts career suicide by Twitter
“Ryan Perez, a self proclaimed “nobody” writer from gamer website Destructoid, recently decided to step on the recent gaming industry controversy around ‘gamer geeks’, by getting drunk and taking to his new Twitter account to tweet abuse to writer/producer Felicia Day”
lil bub – cat pictures .. these are quite popular ..cause
the cat always seems happy and cute .. cat videos are way more popular than the dp/30’s . DP should worry about that…
hey DP – get some more muchmusic hosts –
Amanda Walsh – she hosted at like 18 years old doing music interviews. real ones. then went to acting but didn’t have
breakout role .
Rachel Perry – she stuck with hosting various entertainment shows after hosting at muchmusic …but then she got a series on playboy tv…so thats different. she’s pretty funny and great at doing interviews.
7 minute interview
DP – grab them now before they hit it big in a few years…. Rachel actually knows more about entertainment people – tv / music then those idiots
at ET / Access Hollywood… she was on Extra for awhile…
i’m guessing 5 people on here know who these two are ….
it took like 8 years before Dane Cook ended up with a dp/30 …
still sucks i’m a nobody and all my dp/30 requests go directly into the virtual recycling bin…
Whadda YOU complaining about? We all requested NO DP/30 with Dane Cook, and look where that got us…
Dane Cook – its probably a 1 time limited time offer for dp/30 ..he probably not coming back in the next 2 years.
Natalie Portman should have 8 dp/30’s by now …but it was also a one time deal for Black Swan … she ain’t coming back is she ?
if your not super famous actor – then you must have more time to do more interviews…just seems actors are just too lazy…butsometimes it takes months before DP even posts the interviews…DP went to Cannes – spent a lot of money and there are 2 interviews up …
Sanj – I love your requests and do think about them. Sometimes, with so much happening – DP/30 production, the blog, the family, the site, sleep – it’s hard to get ahead of the curve and think proactively about bookings… not just with cats and music hosts and YouTube kids, but with directors and actors and writers and others who I really want to get on camera, especially the older ones.
So please, keep on pushing. Even if I don’t deliver on request, I see the comments and they broaden my focus.
DP – i’m 90% dp/30 – 5% boxoffice and 5% movie reviews from you ..for some reason i remember most of the dp/30’s i watch …there’s at least 12 dp/30’s – i give 10 / 10 …
i was never bored – the lowest score would be 5/10 ..something just didn’t work right .. i do judge the interviews and movies separately ..
the youtube kids – there are 1000’s of them – some of them have way more talent than real hollywood actors ..they just don’t get a chance at dp/30.
i would think all this social media would make it easier
to get interviews …
as for older actors – they will come around but only when they want awards – actors under 25 …they are less guarded about stuff …
i listened to 2 new audio interviews – Bonnie Somerville – tv actress – she is funny and real – Ali Cobrin – who’s just okay but i get why people like her …
i’d like to see some suprises for dp/30 …the cat videos – interview the guy who makes them … they do get millions of views and there’s always seems to be demand .
my top request is still Amber Heard .. none of the other
film critics are after her
also it took me 15 minutes to figure out who Stephen Gyllenhaal kids are….
still don’t get how its possible to avoid avengers dp/30 with all them actors in it .
also … DP you watch way more movies than most people – if you see a good / bad performance you should make that very clear …. there’s tons of reviews out and people might skip it ..or not remember.
maybe do a weekly or monthly – best and worst actors / directors list ….