All comparisons between Dick Cheney and Darth Vader were rendered moot recently when George Lucastold Maureen Dowd, of The New York Times, “George Bush is Darth Vader. Cheney is the emperor.” In response to that clarification, David Edelstein wrote a piece in this week’s New York magazine in which he attempts to find another movie villain who Cheney resembles even more than any character in Star Wars. Ultimately, though, he settles on the former vice president being something of a villainous mutt: “Cheney is Palpatine with a soupçon of Sauron, a pinch of Voldemort, a dash of Mabuse, a jigger of Fu, with some Elmer Fudd and Richard Nixon folded in.”
That’s an interesting conclusion, but do we really need to soil our memories of these cinematic evildoers by likening Cheney to them, and worse, vice versa? It’s bad enough the guy has shown up in a lot of contemporary movies, both officially (W.) and unofficially. In Jim Jarmusch’s new film, The Limits of Control, which opens this week, a certain character is an obvious, albeit somewhat veiled, stand-in for Cheney. And at least seven other recent films similarly feature a character who is a dead-ringer for the old VP. We count them down, in order of most intentionally Cheney-like, below. …Read more
It’s strange to watch the transition of an actor from a bit part to burgeoning indie darling and whirling media-dervish. But it’s oddly appropriate for Paul Dano, the 24-year old who is well on his way to awkwardly smiling and shyly introducing himself into your life before brutally attacking your conceptions of what it means to be an unassuming actor.
Praised for his calculating and spastic performance(s) as Eli/Paul Sunday in P.T. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, Dano is a peculiar character. Not that anything he does is strange—it’s just the opposite. He’s on the verge of continuing a leap into mainstream audiences that started with Little Miss Sunshine and continues to grow with supporting roles in Where The Wild Things Are and Taking Woodstock. He sticks out in all his roles, whether it’s his flopish look that seamlessly translates from troubled teen to angry asshole such as in Weapons, or his voice that manages to make the same radical emotional turns.
In Gigantic, opening today in New York and Los Angeles, he’s transitioned into a leading man role with Zooey Deschanel as his love interest/”Magical Manic Pixie Girl.” But when appropriately brought against Dano’s quiet style, that “quirky romance” staple is torn away to reveal two people who are utterly afraid of what they’re turning into and unsure about where they’re going in life. There’s also a homeless guy trying to kill him–maybe.
We spoke with Dano over the phone, in-between radio interviews and filming The Extra Man, and had previously profiled him back when it was just as easy to walk into a diner on Avenue A to talk.
Because there’s nothing like waiting until the last minute to do some holiday shopping, we’ve compiled this handy-dandy shopping guide to the best DVDs of 2008 that you can use now, or wait until the dust settles and clean up with any cash that Santa or Hanukkah Harry happened to leave you. It’s broken down by the person you’ll be shopping for to make things easier, even if that person happens to be yourself.
When noted, we’ve picked the Blu-ray version over the standard definition, because we try to be all about 1080p and other technical terms whenever possible. But, the regular versions are just fine as well. Still, it’s true what they say: once you go HD you’ll never go back.
Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello have drawn an increasingly large following as the decade as worn on, but this year their cinematic profile has raised dramatically. In Berlin this year Madonna unveiled her Filth and Wisdom, staring frontman Eugene Hutz, and now comes a full blown tour documentary filmmaker Margarita Jimeno, Gogol Bordello Non-Stop. The film made its North American bow at AFI over the weekend and screens again this Wednesday at the Arclight. The Bogota, Columbia born, Williamsburg based Jimeno, who has made shorts and worked in the art and editorial departments of NYC indies for a decade, caught up with us to discuss her fascination with There Will Be Blood, her desire to adapt Que Viva La Musica! and where to catch Sid Vicious on You Tube. …Read more
The Playlist wonders why “almost no bloggers have chosen to write about” this Esquire story purporting to blow the lid off the secret early life of Paul Thomas Anderson. I can only speak for myself: I had no idea this story, which is dated September 22, existed. But I’ll write about it now!
Based on a skim (it’s long and I’ll go back and read it more carefully when I have time, but I wanted to pass it along regardless), it seems to be fundamentally flawed, in that it’s based on the complaints of Anderson’s high school friends and former teachers, who are all clearly bitter that their old pal no longer returns their calls, as if an acknowledged burden of success is that one must take time out of their busy modern masterpiece-making, Oscar nomination-collecting schedule to visit their old high school (does anybody actually visit their old high school?) There isn’t anything jaw-dropping here––He went to a lot of prep schools! He watched a lot of laserdisks!––but it’s an interesting read for P.T.A. completists.
With Halloween less than a month away, it’s time to start thinking about what to go as. That is, if you haven’t already. A good costume-loving cinephile typically knows well in advance what he or she will dress up as for Halloween (and Comic-Con, too). But if you’re one to wait until the last minute, and also one who likes to be a lot more contemporary than, say, dressing up as a Ghostbuster or Edward Scissorhands, I’ve got some suggestions for you for costumes based on recent films.
Sometimes I really wish David Bordwell’s blog permitted comments. Mostly it’s better that it doesn’t, but the man’s last post has made me want to discuss the art of movie titles for a whole week now. And it didn’t help that coinciding in time with Bordwell’s post was another one of those sidebars in Entertainment Weeklypointing out some new movies with misleading titles. Yes, Lakeview Terrace does sound like a period romance, as do many other badly titled films (Elizabethtown and Wicker Parkcome to mind). This weekend also sees two new movies employing the method of borrowing song titles, which are typically not appropriate (Ghost Town seems more like a horror western hybrid, while My Best Friend’s Girl actually fits its plot).
Well, fortunately for me (and hopefully you), I can bring the discussion over to SpoutBlog, though not quite as in depth as Bordwell. I’ll be more than happy to have a conversation in the comments section regarding the more general topic of movie titling, but for now I’ll kick things off with a list of what I find to be the most interesting movie titles of the past decade. It’s been a time when studios and filmmakers have been very loose with ill-fitting and overlong titles, as well as some that are too plainly literal (Snakes on a Plane), but the following selections have the benefit of featuring clever, well-chosen and more meaningful monikers.
Twitter, the popular micro-blogging service, has turned into a powerful tool in the hands of not only consumers but marketers of all stripes as well. Comcast, Paramount Pictures and a handful of others have all latched on to it as a way to communicate with customers, acting not only as a distribution platform but a conversation hub and customer service hub as well. Some of the biggest names in the social media marketing world are spending serious time brainstorming how to use Twitter for marketing, debating its usefulness and otherwise hashing out a series of best practices for utilizing the service.
Media outlets have also turned to Twitter for many of the same reasons. TV Guide, Fox News and even Spout have a presence there to, again, promote their content and, in some cases, even engage in a back-and-forth with readers.
In response to Paramount’s consolidation of the marketing divisions of Paramount Pictures and Paramount Vantage, I went looking for a mash-up trailer that would give us a sense of what we’re in for. Because advertising for specialty films is typically different from advertising for major studio films. But seeing as Vantage has already done a fair enough job lately trying to make a documentarylook likea teen comedy, the consolidation may not really be that noticeable after all.
Anyway, I couldn’t find a good mash-up that re-cut a recent independent film to resemble a blockbuster, so here’s something else entirely that I found during my search. It’s a Wonderful Life“made to look like the movie is about George Bailey’s descent into madness.” Consider it a belated celebration of James Stewart’s centennial (he would have been 100 on May 20th). Or consider it merely a fun re-imagining of a classic. And consider this assignment for mash-up enthusiasts: how about a reverse re-imagining of There Will Be Bloodas a Capra movie?
Paramount is putting together a new division designed to craft new video games based on both current and classic Paramount films. You know what that means…”I Drink Your Milkshake” for the Wii!!!
New York’s state Senate and Assembly are expected to soon announce a compromise on the tax credit issue that was left in the lurch when governor Eliot Spitzer resigned to spend more time with his soul-crushing self-hatred. The new deal will favor the Democrat-led Assembly’s plan, which aimed to increase tax credits on below-the-line costs, thus supporting the state’s filmmaking infrastructure over luring flashy out-of-town productions.
2008’s total box office is so far 3 percent above 2007’s, but that’s mostly due to that 3D Hannah Montana thing, and 2007 holdovers like Alvin and the Chipmunks––not a single action film has grossed over $100 over the past three months. And that’s not going to change this weekend, although both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter seem confident that 21 will do well, and Stop-Loss will not.
Director Alexis Spraic, producer James Scurlock, and Bunim-Murray Productions are joining forces on a documentary about the “globalization pioneer” who founded DHL.
I’ve just discovered that a slap in the face is the funniest thing in the world. Well, maybe not to me. But apparently to a lot of people much younger than me, a slap is a sure guarantee for a big laugh, particularly if the act is man to man or man to woman.
Yesterday I’m at the class I’m taking on Billy Wilder, and I’m really enjoying The Apartment, which is already one of my favorite films of all time. The rest of the students, aged mostly 18-25, are also really enjoying it. After all, it is a timelessly hilarious film. But then, of course, comes the scene where Baxter (Jack Lemmon) finds Miss Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) unconscious in his bed, barely alive after a suicide attempt. It’s a moment that certainly interrupts the comedy, and although some of the stuff that follows, between Baxter, his take-home barfly (Hope Holiday) and his next-door-neighbor doctor (Jack Kruschen), is occasionally funny, the situation overall is pretty serious. Especially the part where the doctor is attempting to revive Miss Kubelik with coffee, questions, smelling salts and some slaps across the face. The students I’m watching the film with, however, think those slaps are the most side-splitting thing they’ve ever seen.
Two of this year’s Oscar winning films were sequels. And only two Oscar-nominated films are officially slated for sequels. But only one film fits both of these truths. The Bourne Ultimatum, which was a bit of an upset in its winning of three Academy Awards, including the shocker of Best Editing (which Christopher Rouse certainly deserved), will definitely be getting a follow-up, if this Variety article from Friday is correct (via Cinematicaland Empire). The possibility of a fourth Bourne installment has been floating around for awhile now, despite the fact that Ultimatum so nicely tied up the series’ storyline and despite implications from Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass that continuing the franchise is unnecessary. But considering Ultimatum was a box office hit, and a critical favorite (it was one of the best mainstream films of the year) and has now won three Oscars, it seems like a no-brainer that Universal should want to keep Jason Bourne running.
The same can’t be said for that other Oscar-winning sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Although director Shekhar Kapur has said he wants Elizabeth to be a trilogy, it’s unlikely that the third film will be greenlit anytime soon. Of course, the plan is to revisit the story after another decade and things could well be different in ten years. Even if it weren’t likely to be a box office or critical success, it could be worth making just for the Oscar glory. I know that Alexandra Byrne wasn’t the first costume designer to receive Oscar nominations for work on two different films in the same series (Ngila Dickson and Richard Taylor were both nominated for two LOTRfilms), but if she suited Cate up again for a third film, she might be the first to have that honor of making it three. Meanwhile, Cate could also be the first actor or actress to be nominated three times for playing the same character.
Starting around 7:30 PM EST tonight, Karina will be live-Twittering from Spout and The Reeler’s Oscar party in NYC. You can follow Karina on Twitter to get her posts sent directly to your cell phone or instant messenger or, better yet, keep refreshing this page for the latest updates. You can also talk back to Karina while the awards are going on, either through Twitter, or in the comments to this post.
No Oscars host has done better Best Picture parodies than Billy Crystal. And no awards show has had better parodies than the MTV Movie Awards (specifically the Max Fischer Players reenactments from the 1999 show). So it is interesting that MTV’s movies editor Josh Horowitz has made a video in which he’s aping Crystal’s opening shtick. And comparatively, he’s not very good. Some of it is kind of funny, including the whole No Country for Old Menphone call, especially the line about Juno being Abigail Breslin with the mouth of Dennis Miller, and the bit about how in There Will Be Blood Kevin J. O’Connor’s mustache seemed to be trying to compete with Daniel Day Lewis’. But I was completely bored by the Michael Claytonbit.
The video is worth watching for one reason, though: Kurt Loder, scarier than ever. The next time I see him in person, I might actually run away screaming. He’s definitely more frightening than The Ruins looks. I have to say, though, as creepy as he is, I can’t wait to see him in Big Trouble in Little China 2.
Anyway, good luck to Jon Stewart this Sunday. And remember, if you’re in NYC, you can watch his monologue and the rest of the ceremony with your friends at Spout and our friends at The Reeler. See here for details.
*Blush*––New York Times blogger David Carr has called our Oscar party “the white hot social center” of the Oscar-party landscape. If you’re in New York that night, you simply must stop by. Details here.
“If you’ve seen Daniel Day Lewis’ portrayal of a greedy, sinister oilman in There Will Be Blood, it’s just another example of the Hollywood left’s contempt for capitalism.” That’s Tonight Show producer Dave Berg, speaking at a meeting held to try to rally Hollywood’s Republican troops against Barack Obama. Via Wilshire and Washington.
David Edelstein is worried that Juno will win Oscars in just about every category it’s nominated due to better choices splitting the vote. “As one of the few critics to dislike Juno, I would be devastated,” he writes in the first of what will apparently be a series of bloggy exchanges with Lynda Obst. “But weirder things have happened in these silly awards.”
From The Department Of Questions That Don’t Need To Be Asked: Jeff Wells wonders, “Is there anyone who doesn’t suspect that Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay will somehow play fast and loose, water down or otherwise make light of that deplorable situation?” Commenters to proceed to argue whether or not Gitmo detainees should be transfered to domestic prisons.
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
The Playlist
Twitter
Paramount is putting together 
Two of this year’s Oscar winning films were sequels. And only two Oscar-nominated films are officially slated for sequels. But only one film fits both of these truths. 
