A new Zooey Deschanel movie came out last weekend. But is it the one where she plays a “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” opposite Paul Dano or the one where she plays a “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt? It’s the former, and it’s called Gigantic, which is also not to be confused with this coming week’s new DVD release, Yes Man, in which she plays a “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” opposite Jim Carrey.
Sure, Deschanel has range and talent (see this fan-made montage of some of her more varied performances), but she also has a certain repetitive nature to her characters. And this “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” nature became all the more confusing recently when trailers for Gigantic and (500) Days of Summer (the Gordon-Levitt one, which is actually her second romantic pairing with the actor) appeared online around the same time. Maybe instead of worrying about people confusing her for Katy Perry, the actress should worry more about people confusing her characters and films for each other.
Or, maybe not. Plenty of us can’t get enough of Deschanel’s quirky, free-spirited performances. In his Yes Man review, Roger Ebert noted that two critics proposed marriage to the character at the end of the film. We wouldn’t go that far, but we have crushed on the actress since All the Real Girls and haven’t yet gotten sick of her or her similar, typecast roles. In fact, to us, the problem is not that indie films too often employ the MPDG character; it’s that they don’t cast Deschanel for every such part. So, instead of wishing she’d broaden her career to include other types of characters (it didn’t work well for her with The Happening, after all), we’ve selected ten MPDG characters that she should have additionally played. …Read more
If Tyler Perry gets an Oscar nomination for his acting in Madea Goes to Jail, can a washed-up actress scold him for taking away female roles? Actually, could it just be Cuba Gooding Jr. in drag, a la Boat Trip?
Seriously, though, Madea won’t be up for any Academy Awards next year, but damn is Perry’s character popular. Enough that the sassy matriarch has now evolved from a supporting character into the star of her own vehicle (which gave the filmmaker his biggest opening yet this past weekend). Yes, it’s true that Madea is a central figure in most of Perry’s films and has previously been the main protagonist in his plays (including the one Madea Goes to Jail is based on), but in the movie world she was introduced as a secondary role in Diary of a Mad Black Woman. So, now she belongs in that small club of supporting characters who’ve earned their own film(s); other members of which include Jay and Silent Bob, Bruce and Lloyd, Cousin Eddie, Marshal Samuel Gerard, the Scorpion King and Wolverine.
And Madea is one of the very few female characters to belong to the club, which is another good reason for an actress to scold Perry. But the problem also lies with the people who write woman characters, apparently, since in coming up with ten other supporting characters who deserve their own spin off, we managed to only include two females on our list. Perhaps if we’d permitted classic film characters there’d be more to choose from — though even then we might be more likely to include a Peter Lorre or a William Demarest role than a Thelma Ritter or Eve Arden. …Read more
Is romance dead? David Carr seems to think so, at least in American cinema (both Hollywood and “Indiewood,” as he inclusively clarifies). While celebrating the subway station meet-cute from the beginning of Milk, a scene he claims to be of an increasingly rare sort, Carr states that American filmmakers “can do romantic pathology and entropy, but the kind of love for the ages, a big-movie kind of love? Not so much.”
If you agree with him, blame the back-to-back Best Picture winners Titanic and Shakespeare in Love for feeding us the kind of romance that’s so cheesy it clogs our arteries and gives us a coronary. Left with a burst heart and a lack of quality Nora Ephron movies, most of us have been cynics when it comes to love stories these past ten years. Yet cynics can still be swept off their feet, and American filmmakers have adequately supplied them with new kinds of love for the ages.
Just take a look at these ten films from the past decade. They may be full of cynicism, but they’re also filled with big-movie love, in their own way. If you can’t see the romance, then the problem is with you, not the movies.
I don’t know what I’m happier about, the fact that “Bust-Ass” from All the Real Girlshas been getting a lot of supporting roles in big comedies (Hot Rod, The Heartbreak Kid, Pineapple Express, Drillbit Taylor, Tropic Thunder) or that he’s got the starring role in this little comedy, which ought to receive a decent theatrical run courtesy of Paramount Vantage. I’ll tell the truth, though; I hadn’t heard of The Foot Fist Wayuntil I was directed [via ComingSoon.net] to the movie’s new “restricted” trailer. Apparently it was quite popular when it screened at Sundance in 2007, and it so far has a rating of 9.7 stars out of 10 on its IMDb page (though only 29 people have rated it so far).
This trailer does something interesting that isn’t seen much in the world of movie marketing. It employs a sort of peer-recommendation that we’re used to seeing on book jackets. The trailer mentions the fact that it has been watched by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay at least 20 times, that it has been quoted by them and that they obsess over it. The only thing it’s missing is an actual appearance from the pair, or at least a direct statement from them. I feel like something less second-hand would be more effective.
One of the most frustrating things in the world is the length it sometimes takes for a movie to go from its Sundance premiere to its theatrical release. For example, Snow Angels, the latest from acclaimed filmmaker David Gordon Green (All the Real Girls), screened at the 2007 festival and will not come out in theaters until 15 months later, on March 7, 2008. At least we now have this trailer to feast our eyes on, and while it isn’t the adaptation of Confederacy of Dunces starring Will Ferrell we all had hoped for next from Green, it is nonetheless a great leap in the direction of mainstream appeal. Never mind the film’s stars — Green has worked with popular actors before. Notice instead how much this trailer is cut to make the film resemble every other tragedy-laced, character-driven drama.
Not that this is a bad thing. I’m all for Green becoming popular, and successful (even if it means making a so-far awful-looking stoner comedy from producer Judd Apatow, which, written by Superbad’s Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, has to end up being hilarious). I just really hope he remains the David Gordon Green I’ve been excited about for the past five years (I got a late introduction), the guy who wows me with stunning cinematography and stunning dialogue, each respectively shot or written blatantly enough to be noticeably brilliant yet modestly enough to feel completely natural. Unfortunately, I can’t yet tell you if Snow Angels is the work of an auteur or if Green is slowly making his way to more mainstream waters. If I had gone to Sundance last year, or if the film had been available anytime in the twelve months since, I would have been first in line to see it. Oh well, I’ll probably still be first in line on March 7.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
filmcouch-114
