At its core, director Griffin Dunne’s Fierce People is largely a movie about class and cultural clash, so it’s no wonder
that a conversation with Diane Lane about the predominant themes under
the microscope in the film — the collision of haves and have-nots, with
almost everyone screwed up in their own way — revolves largely around
the sociological differences, real and perceived, between the rich and
the rest of us. “I think people tend to group together with whoever
makes them feel more accepted, and water does seek its own level,” Lane
says during a recent interview,
decked out in a fashionable red dress, accentuated with a smattering of
gold jewelry. “So within any level you’re going to find subgroups; the
self-destructive types, the philanthropic types, the types who are
obsessed with other people or people obsessed with themselves.”
the cover of Time, emblematic of Hollywood’s younger generation of so-called “Whiz Kids.” After the one-two punch of The Outsiders and Rumble Fish in 1983, Lane appeared poised to write her own ticket for pretty much the rest of the decade.
But then, Streets of Fire and The Cotton Club bombed, she turned down Splash, and suddenly Lane’s rising star took a hit. Apart from the 1989 miniseries Lonesome Dove, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award,
Lane spent the better part of the next 15 years working in mostly
forgettable fare. “I always was working, but never in things that were
necessarily aiming high in terms of the money they would make,” Lane
says. “No expectation was attached to me, I was just allowed to work,
which was fine with me, because then there was no burden on me to
deliver.” It wasn’t until 1999’s A Walk on the Moon, opposite Eastern Promises star Viggo Mortensen, that people remembered she could act, Lane says. “That was good,
because then I was afforded movies that people would see,” she recalls.
For Lane, it was the cracked characters and some unanticipated narrative twists that made her want
to sign on for Fierce People in the first place. “It reminds me a little bit in my most enthusiastic, hopeful way, of Little Miss Sunshine,
in that you visit all these characters, you see all these
points-of-view, and it’s not a feel-good movie, but it’s a complete
journey. Every character has an arc, more or less.” For the full interview, from FilmStew, click here.
Eighteen-year-old Anton Yelchin immigrated to the United States from Russia with his figure skater parents before he was even a toddler. Even though he’s grown up here, though, it’s that latent outsider’s perspective that has informed his own personal sociological curiosity, and helped him establish an occupational beachhead playing a variety of wide-eyed innocents, including in 2001’s Along Came a Spider and Hearts in Atlantis; in David Duchovny’s 2005 directorial debut, House of D; and in last year’s sweaty teen kidnapping tale, Alpha Dog.
Fierce People, with Donald Sutherland, Diane Lane and Chris Evans — felt an affinity for his character. “He’s 15 (too), I get what he’s feeling — he’s undergoing emotions natural to somebody that age,” says Yelchin, whose genial speech is peppered with copious “likes” and wide smiles. “I think the type of kid Finn is existed 100 years ago, he exists now; he’s kind of a smart-ass kid who has to take care of this mother, who he loves. It didn’t seem like anything that wouldn’t be relevant today. I suppose if it were of a story about some hippie kid in the summer of love, dropping acid, then I’d have to do more research about the time period and everything, but this is just a regular guy.”
Spanning time, though, will soon become second nature to Yelchin. After all, he’s set to bring to life the role of Pavel Checkov in J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the Star Trek franchise, which starts filming in November. “I’m waiting to read the script, actually,” says Yelchin. “I guess they’re withholding that until they get casting done or whatever. I plan on… becoming as much of a Trekkie as a I can in the couple weeks before we start shooting — just renting all the box sets, not going outside, not seeing the sun rise, just having the shades drawn.” For the full interview/feature, from Reelz, click here.
So Jamie Foxx, né Eric Marlon Bishop, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame yesterday. Somewhere, Carrie Ann Inaba, DJ Twist and T’Keyah Crystal Keymah are saying, “What about me? Seriously… there are bills to be paid.”
Directed by Griffin Dunne — who, as the son of jet-setting Vanity Fair columnist Dominick Dunne, knows a thing or two about rubbing elbows with the wealthy — the 1980-set Fierce People is chiefly about the collision of classes, and how even affluent factions result to primitive behavior. A collection of wildly colorful characters in search of some sort of narrative cohesiveness, though, the movie — adapted by screenwriter Dirk Wittenborn from his own novel — never gels into something more than the occasional, piecemeal entertainment of its fractured parts.
Anton Yelchin (above right) stars as 15-year-old Finn, a well-intentioned kid pinched buying drugs for his junkie masseuse mother, Liz (Diane Lane). This bust wrecks Finn’s plans of spending the summer with his estranged anthropologist father, studying the remote jungle Ishkanani tribe. Instead, Liz drags Finn out to the rural New Jersey enclave of Vlyvalle, to spend the summer with her eccentric sugar daddy, Ogden Osborne (Donald Sutherland). While Liz begins attending AA meetings and strikes up a dubious relationship with Osborne’s physician (Christopher Shyer), observant, hoi polloi gate-crasher Finn, meanwhile, settles into life with the “tribe” of wealthy country-clubbers that inhabit his new home.
He finds a brazen flirt in maid Jilly (Paz de la Huerta), a kinda-sorta girlfriend in Osborne’s granddaughter, Maya (Kristen Stewart), and a strange mentor and advocate in Maya’s older brother Bryce (Chris Evans, above left), a rakish college washout. Unfortunately, just as Finn thinks he’s found his way, things begin to spiral out of control. Sexual awakenings both pleasant and quite rude then ensue, and Finn begins to see that wealth can be a mask for some nasty deeds.
Yes, one might be surprised to learn that Fierce People, in its third act, essentially becomes a whodunit about Finn’s ass-rape at the hands of a mysterious assailant. Or perhaps that’s not a surprise. After all, that seems to make about as much sense as some of the arbitrariness on display here. It’s not necessarily the consistent collision of wackiness and earnest symbolism that hamstrings Fierce People. After all, a film need only unfold in a world that makes sense within the parameters of its own devising. But the tucked away cul-de-sac of exclusivity in which Fierce People unfolds never quite feels fully sketched out. The end result feels like a grouping of potentially interesting, if sometimes thinly drawn, characters in service of an undercooked narrative premise we see reflected more starkly every day in tabloid celebrity misbehavior. It’s just too contrived to be taken seriously, and too burdened with sometimes thought-provoking parallel imagery to be enjoyed as a trashy, turn-off-your-brain delight. (After Dark Films, R, 107 minutes)
The wild and woolly days of Internet start-ups aren’t completely behind us, but certainly the
dotcom bust of the new millennium brought a lot of dreams crashing to the floor
in a relatively permanent fashion. Still, of course, every one of those
entrepreneurs got a raw deal, and remains the star of their own story. It
wasn’t necessarily their idea (and certainly not them) that failed, so much as the mechanisms around them, right?
Classic Game Room, a title which charts, as its subtitle proclaims, the rise and fall of the Internet’s greatest videogame review show — a
low-budget, self-produced program which, in tongue-in-cheek fashion, reviewed
arcade classics like Frogger, Duck Hunt, Missile Command, Perfect Dark
and Yars’ Revenge in the shadow of a
burgeoning, increasingly pixilated videogame craze. Hosted by Mark Bussler and
David Crosson, the show was a relaxed, beer-swilling affair that ran from
November 1999 to October 2000 on FromUSALive.com, a start-up that would
eventually succumb to the same cold fate of so many other mismanaged
businesses. While certainly self-celebratory, this title’s advantage lies in its
sardonic nature and wholehearted embrace of its cult/niche status.
Helmed by Bussler, the director of nonfiction titles Expo: Magic of the White City and Johnstown Flood, this movie is mostly a
fawning glimpse back in time, with a few modern day, context-providing
interview segments interspersed around plenty of footage from seven years ago. The two hosts’ dry rapport is a real pleasure to watch, even if a little of this
goes a long, long way. Classic Game Room
is essentially a one-note inside joke, aimed at hardcore gamers. While bits
like a mock memorial to giant flying ostriches (part of the show’s Joust review) are amusing, there’s
overall not enough of an objective glimpse of the behind-the-scenes business
considerations related to the show’s demise to give this title any true,
second-rail parallel economic perspective.
Housed in a regular Amray case, Classic Game Room is presented in a 4×3 full-screen aspect ratio,
with a solid Dolby digital 2.0 stereo audio track. The DVD includes a feature-length
audio commentary track from writer-director Bussler, three video blogs on
production (including a bonus review of Berzerk
for Atari 2600) and a collection of trailers for this and other niche titles. All
in all, for those seeking a nostalgic fix of Gen-X ruminations on Dreamcast
titles like SeaMan and Sega GT, this flick is a good time. To
others, it might be a little too narrowly defined in its scope. To purchase the title via Amazon, click here. B- (Movie) B- (Disc)
So once upon a time I had a phone interview set up with Alan Rickman, and then, when I slipped up and called him Hans Gruber, he unleashed a torrent of obscenity upon me and hung up. Or he simply stood me up, missed calling me. Or maybe had an assistant call in and cancel. One of the three, I honestly can’t remember. (Such is the curse of an active imagination.)
BBC News is reporting that the German government has reversed a decision to ban Tom Cruise’s new movie from filming at a key World War II memorial site. Named after the coded, secret plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, director Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie stars Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who was put to death for plotting to kill the German leader in 1944. A previous request to film at the site of his execution was initially rejected, but defense ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe said the change of heart came after officials were convinced the film would portray post-war Germany in a good light, and underline the fact that “barbarism did not win, but rather a democratic Germany finally arose.”
I just last night polished off an episode of The Daily Show from September 11, with guest Jodie Foster on hand to promoteThe Brave One, and if anyone needed reminding that she’s a great personality and totally a movie star, they should flag their TiVo for reruns of this episode.
The formidable intelligence and almost otherworldly sense of focus — I think that comes through in her work, and people remember that. But I guess it’s because Foster does relatively few films, does sparse TV interviews to promote them, and then totally stays out of the public spotlight apart from these projects that people tend to sort of forget just how funny and witty she is. Hers is a low-key wattage, but one that shines sincerely, as her banter with Jon Stewart proved. Talking up her film’s Death Wish roots, she says, “It’s a very sophisticated movie — there’s a lot of polemic, a lot of political overtones — but it’s also a really unsophisticated movie that works in a very primal, elemental way.”
To answer the question that will completely define the life and
memory of this movie after it hits DVD, yes, Harry Potter loses his
virginity inDecember Boys. Still, Daniel Radcliffe is not prancing about nude with a horse, as he did in the West End production of Equus
that’s likely headed to Broadway next year. So, when you’re ordering
your priorities for shirtless Radcliffe entertainment, plan accordingly.
For the original capsule review, from CityBeat, click here and scroll down.
I’m somewhat late to this party, but Variety (in addition to other outlets) is reporting that Brad Pittand Edward Norton have agreed to re-team forState of Play, a political drama penned by Matthew Michael Carnahan and Tony Gilroy, and set to be helmed by The Last King of Scotland director Kevin Macdonald.
In the film — based on the six-hour British miniseries of the same name — Norton will play a congressman whose speedy rise is
threatened by an investigation into the death of his mistress. Pitt
plays a politico-turned-journalist whose relationship with the lawmaker is
compromised when he oversees his newspaper’s investigation into the
murder, and subsequently develops a relationship with the pol’s estranged wife.
Universal is fast-tracking the project in anticipation of next year’s strike, which means a quick turnaround for Norton, who will jump into State of Play right after he wraps The Incredible Hulk. This is good news all around — for Macdonald, certainly, who scores a worthy narrative follow-up to The Last King of Scotland — but also Pitt and Norton, who just really seem to have an excellent rapport with one another. Yes, Fight Club was iconic and ahead of its time, and the glow of that collaboration is part of the allure. But there’s just something about their individual off-screen personas that really jibes and rubs me the right way — maybe it’s the old refrain from the Pet Shop Boys’ “Opportunities” — and I have a feeling this cleverly inverted casting will be great fun to watch.
Studios and publicists play convoluted games of keep-away with movies all the time — that’s just part of the business. A writer is only as powerful as their outlet and accrued reputation (sometimes the same thing, sometimes not), and even then that doesn’t always hold. When word comes down that the fix is in, the games of suppression begin. Still, the brazenness with which certain studios and PR companies are now… oh, let’s say dissembling in making sure that certain films stay off the radar of legit press (read: trades, weekly papers) is rather dispiriting.
Two of next week’s wide releases, Good Luck Chuck and Resident Evil: Extinction, are the most recent examples, among many, of this new culture. LionsGate and Sony subsidiary Screen Gems, respectively, are waging brutally aggressive campaigns of containment and repression with these movies; they don’t want them reviewed at all, but instead of just saying that, they’re playing around and trying to pull selective back-door strings, garnering feature coverage and a few free-pass (presumably friendly) reviews on power-demographic and/or fan-boy sites. They’re trying to stack the deck, in other words.
Sometimes these tactics take the guise of convenient lies of omission, which leave plausible deniability intact. (“Oh, that was a promotional screening, so our office didn’t know about it…”) Other times publicists will just lie, plain and simple. All of this, flat out, is an attempt to dumb down writing about film, to constrict and tamp it down. Studios and PR brethren won’t come out and say it, but they regard a handful of nouveau riche, Internet-only publications as more malleable, and thus less apt to offer criticism that could be perceived as hurting their product. There’s an element of truth to this, of course, but this is a short-sighted, loser’s game, predicated on symbiotic relationships that can’t and won’t continue forever.
I don’t begrudge studios the right to screen or not screen their product whenever they want, honestly, but such decisions really should be applied more evenly, and with an eye toward outlets that are reputable and fairly comprehensive in their coverage. Trying to “pre-screen” who you think is going to like a film is exhausting and stupid, for everyone involved. And for what it’s worth, I respect a lot more the publicists who are upfront about their complicity in executing decisions with which they might not agree.
Craig Robinson is the man. You know this. I know this. In between bites of a turkey sandwich, Robinson took some
time recently to answer questions about his new film Dragon Wars, his work on The Office and the new fan base he’s cultivated courtesy of his turn in this summer’s Knocked Up. The conversation is excerpted below:
Brent Simon: Hey Craig, thanks for the time. I’d love to be
able to ask intelligent questions, but they haven’t screened the movie for us — I’m
flying blind. So I have a few sincere biographical questions and hopefully some
fun ones as well.
Craig Robinson: Right on, let’s go, let’s do it.
BS: First off, is the movie Dragon Wars or D-War, or Dragon Wars: D-War?
CR: It’s Dragon Wars
in the States, and D-War overseas.
BS: Okay, so I’ve read about it, and how the mythology is
rooted in Korean legend, but is there a popular source material or text over
there, or is it more just an urban legend?
CR: That. Is. A great question. I do not know.
BS: No sweat. Well now, what offers more square-block
destruction of downtown Los Angeles:
this or Transformers,
even though I guess that the latter isn’t even supposed to be set there?
CR: Oh! Man, I didn’t see Transformers, but I would guess Dragon
Wars; they really get their rocks off. I mean, there’s a big snake, and
then all these other monsters just wreaking havoc.
BS: When did you shoot this, when did it fall within the
chronology of your own personal schedule and work on The Office?
CR: In 2004 we shot Dragon
Wars.
BS: Wow. So they’re capitalizing on you now.
CR: (laughs) Hey, if that’s the truth, that’s pretty
awesome.
BS: Okay, you can speak definitively to this, I think. What’s the preferred object of choice when acting against special effects: is
it a tennis ball on a stick? A goofy A.D.? A gaping void? What works best for
you?
CR: (laughs) You know, I haven’t had that much experience
with it, so I use imagination and timing. On this it was all, “Action!” And
then just someone yelling, “Monster!”
BS: When you’re doing a movie like this, though, do they
show you mock-ups, drawings of what creatures are going to look like?
CR: Yeah, they showed us exactly what was going on. In fact,
they sent out a DVD, which was what really piqued my interest in doing the
project, and hoping that I got it. (Casting director) Christine Sheaks sent out
a DVD of the CGI they had done — the very first scene where they go to Korea,
and bomb the village. They show the monsters and the army and all the soldiers
— it was pretty awesome.
BS: I’m sure. Working with a filmmaker whose native tongue,
I would reckon, is not English, sounds a bit difficult, or at the very least
different.
CR: Oh no, it’s not difficult at all! Yeah, absolutely it’s
difficult, especially since at that time that was (only) my second movie. He
would do two takes, and I wouldn’t have even warmed up. I was like, “Oh man,
come on!” So it was very interesting, I had to learn to quickly get my game
on.
BS: What first got you interested in acting — are you one of
these people who had a big performance instinct as a little kid?
CR: Yes, actually! I would always perform, engage in some
kind of public display of talent, whether it was reading scriptures and singing
in the church choir and playing piano in church, or doing something in school.
We didn’t do a ton of plays, but we did some stuff. And then I got into doing
stand-up comedy, which was my ticket to L.A.
and ticket into acting, properly.
BS: I’d be interested in your take on the audition process. Is there anything fun come of it apart from booking a part?
CR: Well, if I can remember that it’s about the performance
for that moment, you have to throw out the window — even though it’s impossible,
you still have to do it — you have to remember that this can change your life,
and this, that and the other. You just go in there and say, “Okay, this is
another opportunity to perform.” Whether it’s for one, two, three or 17 people,
you just have to go in there and enjoy what you do. And the more that you can
be prepared for the audition, the better. I have loved it and I have dreaded
it.
BS: What was the audition process like for The Office, because that show, due to
its faux-documentary framing, has a very relaxed and naturalistic, improvisational
feel. Was there anything special or notable about that audition?
CR: Oh yeah. At the time it happened I was on a TV show
called Lucky, and there had recently
been a flurry of articles written about the show, and one of them said, “Bring
on more Mutha!” And that was my character. That article happened to be in the
office of the audition for The Office.
So I was like, “Hey, check this out!” So that was one little spark, and Greg
Daniels had happened to see me do a bit with Jerry Minor — a song, it’s a bit
about someone fucking his lady, all right? Now, if you go to YouTube and look
up L Witherspoon, you can check it out.
Greg was highly complimentary of that bit, and then what I ended up reading was
one of Jim’s asides to the camera. I got to choose one and read it. And they
dug it, so I got a call that said they want you to do this part in the
warehouse, and it has blossomed, thank God.
BS: I know it must be a great feeling to be on a show that’s
exploding like that, so how deep are you guys into the new seasons and what can
we expect for Daryl this year on The
Office?
CR: Well, we’re headed into our fourth episode, which is the
last of the hour-longs. And it’s very exciting — the table-reads for the
scripts are just a party, we’re laughing so hard in there. And then Daryl is
going to be stepping in a little bit more, and have some interaction with not
only Michael Scott. So it’s going to be a little bit more for me to do.
BS: I’m sure you don’t mind that.
CR: At first I had a problem with it, but then I got the
check. (laughs) No, I’m just kidding, I’m teasing. Of course I don’t mind!
Whatever they’ve got — sometimes I’m in there for one line, sometimes a whole
episode, it’s really pretty awesome. They know what they’re doing and I just roll
with it.
BS: Cool. So you know, of course, that this lends itself to the
ridiculous hypothetical question — if the creatures from Dragon Wars descended upon Dunder-Miflin, what would happen?
CR: Mmm! (laughs) Daryl and the warehouse crew and probably
everyone in the office too, except for Michael and Dwight, would get out of
there. Michael and Dwight would probably try to reason with them.
BS: After your turn in Knocked Up this summer, have you cultivated a new fan base in appreciative doormen?
CR: Absolutely! I’m on MySpace, and I get a lot of love
coming from them that way. Some bouncers have emailed me saying thank you, you
said what I’ve wanted to say so many times. I’ve gotten some love at the doors
of certain nightclubs. It’s a brand new fan base, absolutely.
BS:Pineapple Express
sounds pretty madcap, and yet David Gordon Green isn’t known for comedy, per
se. What sort of part do you play in the film and how would you describe its tone?
CR: It’s a stoner action comedy, and David Gordon Green was
amazing. It was like trusting a brilliant… (laughs) and I mean this with all due
respect, but he looks so young that I tease him that he’s the world’s most
brilliant fifth grader. From the minute we met… I just learned to trust him, and he got some great stuff out of all of us, so
it was fun. I play a hitman chasing Seth Rogen and James Franco around, because
Seth Rogen witnessed a murder by my boss.
BS: Sounds like a whole other potential new fan base.
CR: “Fuggetabout it!”
BS: In Walk Hard
you play Bobby Shad, which already has the ring of a classic character in name
alone, but what is that character like, and I heard you might have some musical
sequences, is that right?
CR: Yeah, Bobby Shad is a singer in a black nightclub from
the 1940s or ’50s era. What happens is Dewey Cox, John C. Reilly’s character,
is studying my moves and my songs. And then one night I get hurt, and that
happens to be the night that some Jewish record producers are out in the
audience, and Reilly gets up and performs, and does my stuff.
BS: So he cops all your moves, and Bobby is probably none
too happy about that.
CR: Exactly.
BS: Has that ever happened to you in stand-up? I know
there’s a tendency for comedians to police their own when it comes to this, but
have you had someone steal bits from you?
CR: Yeah, I have actually. But they can’t do it like I do
it, so it’s OK.
BS: So, wrapping up, is comedy
the sweet spot for you, or, given your druthers, are there other things you’d
like to soon do — branch out dramatically, or work behind the camera?
CR: I am riding the ride, my friend, and where it takes me
I’m happy to go. It’s really like that. There’s a lot of things that I dream
about (laughs), but at the same time, who knew I’d be in Judd Apatow’s camp,
you know? So I don’t wanna block anything.
In 2004, franchise mash-up Alien vs. Predator grossed over $170 million worldwide (seriously), but rankled longtime fans of each series with its PG-13 rating. Now, in an attempt to keep the merged franchise alive, 20th Century Fox is turning to a cast headlined by people with the last names Pasquale, Aylesworth, Paetkau and Horsdal for this holiday season’s follow-up, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. (I’m not sure about the size of parts, but the most notable casting addition may actually be Shareeka Epps, the young girl from Half Nelson.)
Stepping behind the camera for departed and disowned AvP director Paul W.S. Anderson are Colin and Greg Strause, brothers with visual effects backgrounds who grew up in Illinois, where apparently English was not spoken as their first language. After confirming to Dark Horizons that the movie will be rated R (insert fan-boy cheers here), older brother Greg says of the prospects for a sequel: “I’d like to do another one but I’d like to do it in
space. The next one either has to be more of the bridge after this and
before Alien, or you could do something after Aliens. We have a
pretty finite ending to this, but we have a cliffhanger per se; it’s a
setup.” Good to know…
A revenge flick also deeply invested in character, The Brave One is a film that takes the temperature of our times, and artfully diagnoses a collective societal fever. It centers on Erica Bain (Jodie Foster), an erudite FM talk show host who shares the sounds and stories of New York City with her appreciative audience. When a brutal attack leaves her fiancé David (Naveen Andrews) dead and her briefly in a coma, however, Erica finds strange new impulses awakened within her. After purchasing a gun for protection and stumbling upon a domestic dispute, she then puts herself in further situations where she might have to use it, all while Detective Sean Mercer (Terrence Howard) investigates string of unsolved vigilante homicides.
For the original capsule review, from CityBeat, click here and scroll down. (Warner Bros., R, 122 minutes)
So I (blissfully) missed this news from a few weeks back, but a friend informed me that an extended cut of Transformers will actually hit IMAX screens later this month, on September 21, just a few weeks in advance of the summer action hit’s DVD bow on October 16.
As my friend rightly pointed out, we can only hope that this means there’s a lot more footage of Shia LaBeouftrying to hide the robots while his parents think he’s masturbating — because that scene didn’t go on long enough. Either that or, alternately, John Turturro getting mock-urinated on by robots and a detailed explanation of the ridiculous cover-up that preserves the franchise prerogative of a sequel in which Transformers still somehow exist in secret.
In advance of the gathering buzz for this fall’s Atonement, Keira Knightleyheadlines the new campaign for Coco Mademoiselle, a fresh oriental scent created by Chanel master perfumer Jacques Polge in 2001. Starring in the same-named short film/advert, Knightley plays the role of a modern day Coco Chanel — a mysterious and independent woman who takes destiny into her own hands — and in doing so joins a list of iconic faces featured in Chanel fragrance campaigns, including Nicole Kidman, Ali McGraw and Catherine Deneuve.
Knightley and her Atonement director, Joe Wright, and thus a savvy, very smartly timed piece of flirty parallel promotion for a romance that is being described as devastatingly well-made, but still has to overcome certain period piece prejudices. The production was overseen by Chanel Artist Director Jacques Helleu, and it features a soundtrack tune performed by Grammy-winner Joss Stone. “Coco Chanel’s strong personality, bold temperament and charisma were impressive,” states Knightley in a press release on the matter. “There was no one like her in the world… her impact went beyond fashion and transformed society by liberating women in both a real and figurative sense.”
No doubt Knightley’s Chanel impact — particularly in the above photo, much more so than the relatively chaste ad — will help, umm, liberate young guys everywhere. National cable television 30- and 60-second spots will debut September 24 and run through October 7. Atonement, previously scheduled to open Stateside on October 12 from Focus Features, will now release on December 7, the better to capitalize on awards buzz.
They say not to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes a cover says everything, and Unholy features one of the worst covers in recent memory. Starring legendary horror queen Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog, Swamp Thing, Creepshow)
and erstwhile stutterer and Buffy the
Vampire Slayer co-star Nicholas Brendon, Unholy is a story of supernatural
controversy and intrigue, a movie that tries to play up X-Files-type fears of grand conspiracy, spinning a story that spans
decades and continents out of a grab-bag of spooky and villainous elements (Nazis, witches, governmental
cover-up).
Following World War II, a classified U.S.
military document recounting the results of a Nazi occult experiment was
uncovered and smuggled into an underground facility in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. Many years later, Martha (Barbeau), a widowed mother of two, is confronted with the grisly reality of the
suicide of her daughter Hope (Siri Baruc). Completely shaken by the experience, Martha takes
it upon herself to prove that someone had a hand in her death. Now, with the air-quote
assistance of her stoned, slacker son Lucas (Brendon), Martha throws
herself into unraveling the mystery that surrounds her daughter’s death. The
only person who really seems to care about Martha is her neighbor Charlie
(Merwin Goldsmith), whose ex-wife Gertrude (Susan Willis) peddles a convoluted theory
that occult-loving Nazis may have something to do with Martha’s personal
tragedies.
It turns out that Gertrude isn’t that nuts, as a bizarre cult plot is uncovered — one which involves the aforementioned Nazis, invisibility and other paranormal powers, brainwashing,
time travel and, of course, a federalized cover-up. But exactly how are all these events linked? That will be up to Martha to sort out.
Lacking the sort of gore quotient that would satisfy diehard
genre fans, and grinding gears with its stultifying dialogue and inane characterizations, Unholy conforms to the easiest set-up
for dismissal: it’s an unholy mess. The plot is tangled seemingly only for effect’s sake — to make things as muddled and complicated as possible, feeding endless chatter. While in a very general sense it’s nice to see Barbeau (ahh, those Cannonball Run memories…) in a more front-and-center role than most of her recent work has afforded her the opportunity, Unholy isn’t a vehicle that lets her shine.
The film’s DVD, housed in a regular Amray case in turn
stored in the aforementioned cardboard slipcover, comes with an insert listing
chapter stops and a small clutch of bonus features, fronted by an audio commentary
track with writer-director Daryl Goldberg and co-writer-producer Sam Freeman. They good-naturedly share a few production anecdotes and talk about their own love of genre movies, but it’s never a good sign when a film’s makers cop to a bit of narrative confusion. The
movie’s trailer and a gallery of poster and still images is also included. The
film is presented in a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfter, with solid Dolby
digital 5.1 and Dolby surround 2.0 audio tracks. A lack of subtitles, though, means
that Unholy can’t translate itself to
other languages. And maybe that’s not a bad thing. To purchase the film via Amazon, click here. D (Movie) C+ (Disc)
According to a report late Tuesday night on the New York Times web site, and picked up by Variety, The Daily Show funnyman Jon Stewart will host the 80th annual Academy Awards on February 24 — his second Oscars gig, and a return to the Kodak Theatre after a year’s absence. Ellen DeGeneres hosted last year’s ceremonies.
It seems disgraced Idaho Senator Larry “I Am Not Gay” Craig isn’t the only public figure seeking to amend public records. Per The Hollywood Reporter, director John McTiernan has filed court papers
seeking to withdraw his 2006 guilty plea of making false statements to an
FBI agent in the wiretapping investigation into former celebrity sleuth
Anthony Pellicano.
McTiernan (Die Hard) filed the motion Monday in Los Angeles
federal court, the same day he was scheduled to be sentenced in the matter, which has now been rolled over to September 24. McTiernan’s new attorney of three weeks, Milton Grimes, said his client should have never pleaded guilty. “We don’t think, based on our preliminary review, he
committed a crime and violated federal law,” Grimes said.
The most interesting part of all of this? Wait… McTiernan was wiretapping someone over Rollerball? Show of hands— who else remembers that movie actually exists?
It’s a happy birthday to Emmy Rossum, who turns 21 today, and probably needs the well wishes.
the bizarre amount of hate out there for Rossum — everything from distorted Photoshop fun to several decently-trafficked forums dedicated to smearing everything from her singing to the way she comes across in interviews. I suppose it’s owing chiefly to her casting/performance in the screen version of The Phantom of the Opera (what’s to parse, really, about Poseidon?), a project about which there are deeply and passionately held opinions. Still, such “high negatives,” in the vernacular of the political arena, certainly don’t bode well for prospects of a sustained popular career. Young women seem particularly to resent Rossum, which is strange, because with Hollywood for the moment back in love with musicals, she should be taking off. Instead, that film career is on hold for the moment, and though I know Broadway is in the mix, peddling an Internet-only, self-described pop album (Inside Out, from Geffen) hardly seems like part of the most routinely prescribed regimen of effective recovery.
Good news for those with XM satellite radio, as the company just
announced the launch of Unmasked, a
new original comedy series that will feature one-on-one interviews with some
of the most talked about names in comedy. Stand-up legend George Carlin will be
the inaugural guest when Unmasked
premieres exclusively on “XM Comedy” (XM 150), on Saturday, September 22 at 8 p.m. “Whenever I do an in-depth
interview like this, I’m surprised that I learn things about myself and my work
I hadn’t realized before. It always opens my eyes,” said Carlin.
Recorded before a live studio audience in the Performance
Theater at XM’s Washington, D.C.
studios, Unmasked offers up candid, one-on-one interviews with both
established and emerging comedic talent, for an uncensored look into their
creative process and the lives that shape their comedy. In addition to being
the series premiere, the Carlin interview will also be featured in the upcoming
career retrospective DVD box setGeorge Carlin: All My Stuff.
Spread out over 14 discs and including shows from 1977 to 2005, the collection will
be released September 25 from MPI Home Entertainment.
“We at XM are thrilled that George Carlin, celebrating
his 50th year in comedy, will be the first guest as we launch this new
thought-provoking show that offers an inside look into some of today’s most
compelling comedic minds,” said Eric Logan, executive vice president of
programming for XM. “Since XM became the first to offer the 24-hour
uncensored comedy format anywhere on radio, our comedy programming has grown
from mere concept to include original shows like Unmasked and five dedicated
comedy channels with some of the strongest listenership on the platform.”
New episodes of Unmasked will air every other Saturday, with
future guests scheduled to include Jeff Garlin, Bob Saget, Brian Regan, Carlos
Mencia and others. Additional programming information and encore schedules are
available online by clicking here.
We swell the rolls here at Shared Darkness as
time and inclination permits, and since I seem to randomly see Ron Jeremy every couple of months (most recently loitering outside of legendary hot dog eatery Pink’s, on La Brea), I thought I’d go ahead and slap up this age-updated interview with him, originally published on occasion of the limited theatrical release of the documentary Porn Star: The Life of Ron Jeremy, in November of 2001. To wit:
To really understand Ron Jeremy one must first have an
inkling of his offscreen persona. Of his affable desperation to please. Of his
unending quest for professional (and, by extension, personal) legitimacy. Of
how, without completely copping to it, he really, quite literally wants
everyone to like him.
Of course, these traits aren’t too difficult to glean — a
half hour phone conversation should do the trick. “What’d you think of the
movie?” presses Jeremy right out of the gate. “Be totally honest because I
didn’t make the film, I’m just the subject.”
Porn Star: The Life of Ron Jeremy, a documentary from Scott Gill detailing the
life of the clown prince of pornography. Now 54 years old, Jeremy’s been in the
adult movie business for more than half his life. His career, launched by a “Boy
Next Door” photo in the October ’78 issue of Playgirl, includes more than 1,500 blue movies and a healthy
smattering of regular film work (from TV work on Nash Bridges and bit parts in Killing
Zoe, Detroit Rock City and The Boondock Saints to the cruel
indignity of being edited out of Ronin).
As porn’s reigning character actor, a performer who often infuses his cocksmen
with a sense of playfulness and/or self-deprecating humor, Jeremy’s been in a
position to see firsthand the sort of industry evolution on display in Paul
Thomas Anderson’s sprawling Boogie Nights.
“I always did the comedy, I guess, more than most,” recalls
Jeremy. “I came into the porn business with training, I came in with a degree
in theater — a BA in theater, a BA in education and a masters in Special Ed. So
I came into the business with training as an actor, and having taught theater
and done some plays off Broadway. …I took it seriously as an acting medium back
then, when you could. They had big scripts, big locations, [you were] travelling
all over the world. You might do 10 days as an actor and one day you’d have a
sex scene. So you felt kind of like an actor in a way. The scripts were
important too; they even made you read before you got a job. Nowadays they just
take a Polaroid of your body and you do or don’t work — which I can understand,
because the market really changed when [pornography] went video and people
brought it into their homes. Couples started watching it just to see exciting
things. They’d fast forward through the dialogue: ‘Hey honey, look at this guy
trying to act!’”
Through it all — improbably, for a man nicknamed “The
Hedgehog” for his roly-poly physique and general hairiness — Jeremy has remained
one of the most recognizable and enduringly popular faces (if not bodies) in
porn. But, as the film amply demonstrates, Jeremy doesn’t let his celebrity go
to his head. In fact, far from it — being the most famous person at any given
party is usually a drag, Jeremy asserts. He gets a bigger kick out of
celebrities who approach him. “I’m a big ham,” he admits. “I get a real kick
when a celebrity will stop me and
ask, ‘Are you Ron Jeremy?’” (His top five kicks, by the way, consists of Billy
Joel, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Patti LuPone and Tony Curtis.)
Jeremy even has his own criteria, detailed in the
documentary, for determining whether a party is worth investing your time in:
first, and most important, is there someone there who you can brag to your
friends that you met? Second, is there anyone present who can help your career
in any way, shape or form? Third: good food? Fourth, is there quality entertainment?
And of course, finally, are there any chicks you have a chance with?
That last lingering question might be most frequently a
losing proposition for the majority of folks, but it probably keeps Jeremy at a
lot of parties (well, OK, the food seems to as well). The fuzzy math of
celebrity ensures Jeremy not only a loyal legion of college-age male fans and
minions (indeed, Porn Star finds him
being welcomed into a fraternity almost like returning royalty) but also, for
some reason, plenty of “normal” women (read: not in the adult biz) who seem
perfectly willing — and in some cases downright eager — to view and/or test his
wares in person. “Occasionally a girl might come up to me and say, ‘Can I see
it?’ And that might occasionally lead to some fun because I’ll say, ‘Well, show
me yours and I’ll show you mine.’ And they’ll say, ‘But I’m not in the
business.’ And then I’ll say, ‘Yeah,
but I clocked out for today.’ And then we might go to some private area where
they’ll flash, I’ll flash — that gets kind of fun because it might get a little
playful.”
So what’s the upside of a documentary like Porn Star, a film that amuses,
entertains and to a degree titillates, certainly, but also highlights in
passing the cheapness, nervous aspiration and latent loneliness of its hirsute
protagonist? “It mentions all these good things,” asserts the eternally
optimistic Jeremy, citing at length his mother’s work as a code-breaker during
World War II and his interesting family history. “They promised me they
wouldn’t try to slant the direction to just
porn, [that they would show] I’ve done decent speaking parts in major motion
pictures. I mean, you have a prolific director like Adam Rifkin saying that I’m
a very good actor and have to try extra hard to break the adult stigma. I like
the public hearing that. …It shows,
‘All right, the guy’s trying to go mainstream, he’s giving it his best shot.’”
Sometimes what happens in Vegas doesn’t really stay in Vegas. Take, for instance, that out-of-wedlock kid you fathered in college who’s now extorting you to fund his poorly thought out business plan for a smoke shop and Phish collectibles emporium. Or, alternately, the jokey, hush-hush revelation from Shia LaBeouf that the fourth Indiana Jones flickwill in fact be titled Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Or course, the latter — made during Sunday night’s MTV Video Music Awards, and confirmed by fan site SpielbergFilms.com, among many others — was never meant to stay in Vegas at all. Still, the selection of the title — one of five registered with the MPAA last month, the others being The Lost City of Gold, The City of Gods, The Fourth Corner of the World and The Quest for the Covenant — definitively nixes dreams of Indiana Jones and the Opal of the Mer-Man Prince, the dryly sardonic misdirection that star Harrison Ford had floated out there. Ahh, to dream…
I just got an advance media kit for the film from the Lucasfilm and Paramount folks yesterday, and while I have to scurry off in Gollum-like fashion to a full slate of stuff today, I’ll peruse the media kit for photos later tonight. Mostly, though, it’s a teaser and series refresher, with maps of real-world locations where the movies were filmed, tidbits about historical truths behind the legendary films… and even a maze and word find, people. That’s right, it’s like Indiana Jones and the Mysterious Case of Highlights Magazine.
Sony is getting into the online comedy biz… tangentially. Crackle,
a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company, today announced the launch of Moving
Targets, a programmed channel teeming with all sorts of sketches, digital shorts
and laugh-out-loud animation.
Moving Targets delivers laughs around the clock from the
comedy chops of veterans like Airplane!
director Jerry Zucker, animation innovators Starz and Jennifer Shiman (30-Second Bunnies Theatre) and Brian Dalton
(Mr. Deity), as well as open
submissions from today’s emerging talent. “Sketch comedy has been a launching pad for some of
Hollywood’s brightest stars, and with Moving Targets we’re giving content
creators the opportunity to shine, while comedy hungry audiences get quality
programming they desire,” said Tony Liano, vice president of programming
at Crackle. “Every generation has had a signature comedy program — from Laugh-In and In Living Color
to Saturday Night Live — Moving
Targets will be this generation’s.”
Crackle also produces a stable of original programs under
the auspices of Crackle Studios. Moving Targets combines licensed and produced
episodes as well as invited submissions from emerging talent participants. For more information, click here.
TV’s Grooviest Variety Shows of the ’60s and ’70s. That’s the author, above, and while this breaks with Shared Darkness‘ informal policy of linking and/or celebrating only hot chicks, it’s the exceptions that make the rule, and this is a worthy exemption.
With cable and 24-hour news cycles, the small screen of today is vastly different than television of yore — it might as well be another galaxy, really. So examining the histories of programs like The Lawrence Welk Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Flip Wilson Show and The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour is a daunting task, particularly for a young writer. But those shows and many more get a comprehensive workout in Davidson’s tome, which is full of warm anecdotes and behind-the-scenes detail but also keen analysis of the business landscape that rose up, sustained and ultimately felled these shows (and largely the entire variety genre). For more information, and/or to purchase the book via Amazon, click here.
the cover of Time, emblematic of Hollywood’s younger generation of so-called “Whiz Kids.” After the one-two punch of The Outsiders and Rumble Fish in 1983, Lane appeared poised to write her own ticket for pretty much the rest of the decade.
Fierce People, with Donald Sutherland, 
Anton Yelchin (above right) stars as 15-year-old Finn, a well-intentioned kid pinched buying drugs for his junkie masseuse mother, Liz (
Classic Game Room, a title which charts, as its subtitle proclaims,, his two collaborations with writer-director Randall Miller (including the as-yet-unsold <I>Nobel Son</I>), and <B>his impressions of Tim Burton’s forthcoming <I>Sweeney Todd</I></B>, in which Rickman stars alongside Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. <A href=)
For the full piece, from FilmStew, click here., amiable Spark (Christian Byers), and short,<br />
bespectacled Misty (Lee Cormie). While Maps strikes up an awkward<br />
flirtation with Lucy (Teresa Palmer), the embodiment of bad-girl<br />
temptation, Misty eye-battingly ingratiates himself with a local couple<br />
whom he learns may be looking to adopt a child.</p>
<p>Dubiously plotted and slow out of the gate, <i>December Boys</i> leaves one to<br />
infer certain key relationships, and <b>relies heavily on an audience’s<br />
predisposition to find this yawning coming-of-age tale stirringly<br />
original, which isn’t the case</b>. The Kangaroo Island locales are<br />
attractive, but the story is so snooze-inducing as to recall a forced<br />
viewing of someone else’s vacation slideshow. <a href=)
For the original capsule review, from CityBeat, click here and scroll down.
CR: It’s Dragon Wars
 and solidly acted. Howard lends support as a figure of moral suasion himself grappling with the limits of action within the law. <B>Foster, meanwhile, knows how to wield steely inner resolve like it’s a direct extension of her physicality</B>, and several of her previous performances (<I>The Accused</I>, and certainly <I>Taxi Driver</I>), as well as would-be Reagan assassin John Hinckley’s obsession with her, give <I>The Brave One</I> a fascinating extra layer of textual depth.<BR><BR>While on the surface merely a gender-flipped take on <I>Death Wish</I>, <B>the film actually taps into vengeance’s much-undiscussed twin — the swallowed fear that frequently propels such a mindset</B>. It’s this element that gives the movie its thin, extra sociopolitical sheen — invisible to some, appreciated by those receptive to it. Even a quick-sell, somewhat gimmicky denouement — the film’s weakest point — can’t totally negate <I>The Brave One</I>‘s accomplishments.<o:p></o:p> <A href=)
For the original capsule review, from CityBeat, click here and scroll down. (Warner Bros., R, 122 minutes)
Knightley and her Atonement director, Joe Wright, and thus a savvy, very smartly timed piece of flirty parallel promotion for a romance that is being described as devastatingly well-made, but still has to overcome certain period piece prejudices. The production was overseen by Chanel Artist Director Jacques Helleu, and it features a soundtrack tune performed by Grammy-winner Joss Stone. “Coco Chanel’s strong personality, bold temperament and charisma were impressive,” states Knightley in a press release on the matter. “There was no one like her in the world… her impact went beyond fashion and transformed society by liberating women in both a real and figurative sense.”
the bizarre amount of hate out there for Rossum — everything from 
Porn Star: The Life of Ron Jeremy, a documentary from Scott Gill detailing the
TV’s Grooviest Variety Shows of the ’60s and ’70s. That’s the author, above, and while this breaks with