It's A Coffee Luvah's Dream

One of my favorite scenes in film this year was Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling's courtship scene in Crazy, Stupid, Love. (It's such a shame that the film wasn't a bigger success. It was so smart and entertaining; really well written and acted. Which is a rarity in most rom coms. I just saw Friends With Benefits, so, believe me-it's rare.) It starts off with the Dirty Dancing lift and only gets better from there. Those two have such great chemistry (apparently I'm not the only one who thought so because they're starring together again in Gangster Squad). The actors really play off each other as the characters share more about themselves. It's a great combination of funny and sweet. At one point in the getting to know you montage, Stone starts doing a monologue about drinking a decaffeinated coffee at night. Is she coming up with that herself, I thought, because it's hilarious.

Around this same time my friend started calling everything "a coffee lover's dream".

What are you doing, I asked. What is that from?
Oh, you've never seen Lauren Bacall's commercials from the 80's for High Point? It's genius.

So, thanks to the randomness archive that is youtube, I was able to experience the crazy genius of High Point. And, wouldn't you know, Emma Stone's monologue is from one of those High Point commercials.

I'm so glad that this is in my life now. Bacall's delivery in her husky voice and Brooklyn accent make me laugh out loud every time. I can't decide what I love more: the table, complete with lamp, set up in the back of a car, the glass teacups placed on top of each other capturing that deep brewed flavah, or the possessed look in her eyes-as if taking the caffeine away somehow has made her more intensely high strung. She may not have an Oscar, but she'll always have High Point. Mmmm...

Watch Emma Stone's take on it after the break at around 1:16...

Hitchcock Times Two

Hollywood is full of people with great ideas. Where else could someone come up with not one, but three, live-action Alvin and the Chipmunks movies? And for some reason, everyone seems to get the same great idea at the same time. 1998 was a banner year of the same great idea. We got two computer animated films about ants (the aptly named, Antz, and Pixar's A Bug's Life) and two films about a meteor hurtling towards earth to destroy life as we know it (Michael Bay's Armageddon and the slightly more realistic, Deep Impact). Next year will bring us a double dose of Snow White. And now comes word that two films about Alfred Hitchcock are in development. Luckily, the movies only share Hitchcock and his wife as characters and are about different times in the director's life.

 

     It was reported today by The Hollywood Reporter that Helen Mirren is in talks to join Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock's wife in Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. (I wonder what that's about?) Sacha Gervasi, who directed the documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil!, is attached to direct the film which has been in development for four years and based on a book by Stephen Rebello. I always love films about filmmaking especially when famous actors get to play other famous people. I wonder who will be cast as actress (and Jamie Leigh Curtis's mom), Janet Leigh. This sounds like it could be interesting. I've only seen Psycho once back in high school but it seems like they have their work cut out for them. That film has some iconic images that are pretty ingrained in people's memories. 

      The other is an hour and a half BBC film called The Girl that focuses on Hitchcock's relationship with actress (and Melanie Griffith's mom), Tippi Hedren. The film is based on the book, "Spellbound By Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies" by Donald Spoto.  Hedren has apparantly given her blessing. She has even cooperated with the filmmaker's and met with actress Sienna Miller, who has been cast as Hedren. Hitchcock will be played by British actor, Toby Jones (who starred as Truman Capote in the other movie about his life. You know, the one that didn't win Philip Seymour Hoffman an Oscar. See, more movies about the same thing!). I'm more excited about this one. I wasn't familiar with Hedren and Hitchcock's relationship until I was aware of this project and it sounds intriguing. Apparently, Hitch became obsessed with her and tried to make her over a la Vertigo. He also tried to destroy her career when she refused his sexual advantages. Juicy stuff. I'm also glad to see that Sienna is acting again. I feel like most people only know her as a tabloid staple and Jude Law's on-again, off-again fiancée. But, I think she's talented. I think she was great as Edie Sedgewick in Factory Girl and I thought she really had magnetic star quality on Broadway in After Miss Julie. 

      So, what do you think of the double feature of Hitchcock? Have you seen Psycho and/or The Birds? Do you think Anthony Hopkins will give a fully realized performance and stop phoning it in like he has the past couple years? Are you as excited as I am to see Sienna play another real-life blonde? Share your thoughts!

So, what I'm saying is...sleep with me or you're fired.

Charlize-Never Go Away Again

It's been three years since Oscar winner Charlize Theron was the lead in a film. And now she's back! On the cover of magazines, starring along CGIed Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe in Dior commercials, doing foul-mouthed interviews, and, most importantly, acting.  I caught her hour long interview with Piers Morgan a couple of months ago and it only whet my appetite. It's now official: I have Charlize fever!

This is now my desktop background. What's South African for goddess...

Like almost everyone, I didn't come to apprecaite Charlize as an actress until Monster. (If you say you were a fan from back in The Devil's Advocate days-I call bullshit) Of course, she was always beautiful. Being a 5'10" former model will do that. And she was always pleasant enough in films like Cider House Rules. But her performance in Monster really announced her presence as one of the finest actresses working today. Roger Ebert even famously said it was one the greatest performances ever caputured on film. So, it's good to see that she's back on screen in Jason Reitman's Young Adult. She's already getting positive reviews and hopefully it leads to a third Best Actress nomination. I'm seeing the movie this weekend and the more I see of Charlize the more I can't wait!

This week I finally watched this year's The Hollywood Reporter's Actress Roundtable Discussion. (This year wasn't nearly as good as last year when Annette Bening and Helena Bonham Carter named names, talked about projects that got away, and genereally had a lively, engaging conversation ) This year the real stand out was, you guessed it-Charlize. There she was delightfully cussing again, talking about learning the birds and bees from Fatal Attraction, and really being the only actress that sounded intelligent and willing to have a dicussion. (Sorry, Michelle Williams, you may be a good actress, but interviews are not your strong suit.) Charlize was so charming; I found myself falling more and more in love with her. So, just one request: Now that you're back, please stay.

And it looks like my Charlize love-a-thon isn't going away anytime soon. Because she looks amazing as the Queen in next summer's Snow White and the Huntsman. Is it wrong to root for the villian?

Truer Words Were Never Spoken

Penny: Mmmmm, Eggnog is delish! Dairy and liquor are really one of those underrated combinations

Alex: Kinda like Garry Marshall and Hector Elizondo. Yeah, they may be coming for Julia Roberts and Annie Hathaway- but they're staying for Elizondo

For Your Consideration

Best Supporting Actress:

Carey Mulligan Shame

I wanna wake up in a city that doesn't sleep...

While much is being said about the NC-17 rating, the graphic sex scenes, and the stars' full frontal nudity, not enough is being said about the career changing performance given by, Carey Mulligan. 
Miss Mulligan came to the attention of many in her Oscar nominated performance as the innocent school girl, Jenny, coming of age in An Education. She immediately established herself as an English Rose. You know the type. Beautiful, fresh, intelligent, and proper. She followed her break-out role with the prerequisite big-budget girlfriend role in Wall Street 2. And returned to form in another good performance in Never Let Me Go. But, nothing she has done on film previously would prepare you for her blistering turn in Shame.
She arrives about a half hour into the film and immediately gives the film a jolt of energy. Up until then we have been following her brother, Brandon (Michael Fassbender), on his cool, rather distant journey through a sexual addiction. Mulligan bursts on the scene exposing herself, literally, with a vulnerability and humanness that the film has been lacking. Her Sissy is the emotional heart of the film. She is the catalyst for the audience to feel the journey these characters are going through.
Sissy is of the Sally Bowles mode. A fun loving singer that lives for the moment and is very much the little girl lost. It's a character that in the wrong hands can very quickly turn one-dimensional. But, Mulligan makes it her own giving this reckless woman layers of complexity. Sissy and Brandon have an odd relationship. They don't bat an eye at being nude together or emotionally ripping each other apart. There are many questions about how each of them arrived at this place in their lives. It's to the actors' credit that a back story is never revealed. It lives in the moments as anyone's history unknowingly shapes their lives.

We're family. We're meant to look after each other

The film isn't afraid to take it's time. There are many single shot scenes in which the camera lingers, daring you to look away. In a scene in which the siblings have a discussion, they are shot from behind with no cuts. Even though the entire conversation is done in profile we don't miss a thing. He, all icy reserve and she, bleeding heart on her sleeve, cut to the heart of what it means to be family. Wanting to stand on your own, but knowing that family is always there.

And in perhaps the film's best scene, the camera, in extreme close-up, focuses on Sissy giving the saddest performance of the song, 'New York, New York', that you've ever heard. With her voice and a furlong look, Mulligan gives the song a raw intensity. She acts through the song, giving the moment a glimpse into her character's fragility. The camera briefly cuts away to show that the song has brought a tear to Brandon's eye, momentarily melting his hard soul. As an audience member, it's difficult to invest in a character who is so closed off. If the film succeeds at all on an emotional level it is due to the performance of Carey Mulligan.

I Know All the Nominees Weren't That Great, But Really?!?

Everyone, I have a confession to make. I thought it would pass, but I can't seem to shake it.  Sometimes at night I wake up in a cold sweat. Why, you ask? Is it the state of the union? The ever increasing unemployment numbers? (that one should haunt me more) The fact that every new musical on Broadway is based on a film? To a degree, yes. But, the reason I have trouble sleeping at night is the fact that Sandy Bullock has an Oscar. It just isn't right.

Is that Meryl Streep in my rearview? Luckily this blonde wig  fooled everyone...

How did this happen? People like Sandy. In Hollywood and America. I get it. I'd rather have an ice queen over a girl next door any day. That's just me. But, just because you like someone as a person doesn't mean you should give them acting awards. 

Back in August of 09, I was waiting to see Meryl Streep in her soon to be Oscar nominated performance of Julie and Julia in the movie theatre. There was the usual summer movie previews. Tony award winner, Julie White, was sitting in front of me and decided that this would be a good time to try out a stand-up comedy routine. When the preview for The Blind Side came on it was a typical cliched story. The cheese was practically dripping from the screen. After it was over, Julie White shouts, "I smell Oscar!" The theatre unleashed uproarious laughter. Yeah, right. Like that piece of crap, Lifetime original movie, would ever take it's place in the Oscar canon. Cut to March 2010 and there's Sandy with a Best Actress Oscar in her hands.

 I realize this doesn't have the same effect on some people as it does me. So, as a reference, in no particular order, a list of actors and actresses who are Oscarless:

Best Actor 2012 Oscar Goes To...

So, after years of being in development and losing original star, Liam Neeson, in the process, Speilberg's Lincoln is finally filming. And some brave person has given us a first look of new star, Daniel Day-Lewis, in Honest Abe make-up. Apparently, he took a picture of DDL while at a restaurant in Virginia and posted it on twitter:

I wonder if those jeans and grandpa sneakers are period...

Looks pretty good even off the set. Which makes sense because DDL is notorious for going all crazy Method. According to Jeff Sneider at Variety, the actor hasn't stopped with the Lincoln accent since March and his real name doesn't even appear on call sheets. Intense. But, that's how you win a third Best Actor, folks. And you really have to be at that level in your career to be so committed. Can you imagine if say, Channing Tatum, did this kind of behavior? No one would stand for it. (Although, Chan, if you would care to stay in character from Magic Mike I'm sure no one would object.)

The film also stars Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tommy Lee Jones, James Spader, Lee Pace, John Hawkes, Jackie Earle Haley, and bunch of other fancy people. It is scheduled to open in late 2012.