http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/ Copyright 2010 Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:05:06 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=4.23-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss I don't understand why reviewers are tippy-toeing around the Big Third-Act Revelation of Remember Me (Summit, 3.12) when they're all writing "largely set in the summer of 2001" or words to that effect. With the story happening in New York City, what else could those seven words suggest? It's not "largely set in the summer of 2000" or the summer of '02 or '04...please. I knew dead cold how this movie would end before I walked into the theatre. (And my walking out before the end is immaterial.) So N.Y. Times critic Manohla Dargis giving the game away at the end of her... http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/cut_the_cheese.php http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/cut_the_cheese.php Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:05:06 -0800 25% of those who selected the most anticipated Oscar-level flicks of 2010 on Sasha Stone's awardsdaily.com put Chris Nolan's Inception at the top of the list, followed by Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine (forget it), Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan and Joel and Ethan Coen's True Grit. Except Stone didn't even list Ed Zwick's Love and Other Drugs, which some believe may be an awards-level contender as least as far as Anne Hathaway's performance is concerned...hello?... http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/early_stabs.php http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/early_stabs.php Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:28:49 -0800 N.Y. Times "Media Decoder" David Carr's commentary on Variety's whacking of chief film critic Todd McCarthy is worth a listen. The assessment isn't startling, but there's something about Carr's delivery that makes it seem extra-sage. I hate the Times' mule-headed policy of being...what, the last major news org/website that refuses to provide embed codes?... http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/the_day_variety.php http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/the_day_variety.php Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:00:27 -0800 Maybe a bit too restrained and stagey here and there, but the diminishment of the combatants and indeed the fight itself through mostly wide-angle long shots (with only a few medium close-ups) made for a classic fight-scene-with-a-point. Love those gouges and cuts. The punches sound pretty good too; ditto the exhaustion and labored breathing. "All I can say, McKay, is that you take a helluva long time to say goodbye."... http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/favorite_slug-o.php http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/favorite_slug-o.php Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:43:16 -0800 Here's that CNN article I was interviewed for the other day about Gabourey Sidibe's acting-career prospects. It's nicely written. The author is Breeanna Hare.... http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/gabby_again.php http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/gabby_again.php Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:39:46 -0800 I'm sitting next to a couple of twenty-somethings at a Starbucks on Eighth and 50-something, and I've been listening to them talk for last 40 or 45 minutes, and it never ceases to amaze how these guys, whom I almost regard as a separate species, all submit to the exact same mall-speak fascism in which there are no declarative sentences but constant questioning tones, as if the speaker is basically saying "is it okay if I say this? Because I don't want to seem overly assertive...so is it, like, okay?" And so instead of saying "I walked into that asshole's office and told... http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/clone-speak.php http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/clone-speak.php Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:18:51 -0800 Thursday, 3.11, 10:25 am.... http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/one-hander_1.php http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/one-hander_1.php Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:17:55 -0800 It's a little late in the cycle, but here's a chat with Hurt Locker double-Oscar winner Paul Ottosson, who won for sound editing and mixing last Sunday night. Brought to you and yours by the MakingOf.com guys. (The embed code is only two and half lines, but other embeds are longer than Russian novels. I hate -- "I'm using the word 'hate' here" -- voluminous coding.)... http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/simply_red.php http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/simply_red.php Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:48:11 -0800 Roger Ebert has four-starred Paul Greengrass's Green Zone -- fine. But the film will not come under fire "from those who are still defending the fabricated intelligence we used as an excuse to invade Iraq" as much as those who feel that it brings nothing really new to the table (factually, politically, stylistically), and that it would have felt at least semi-relevant if it had come out, say, two or three years ago. Or four, even. A Green Zone friend-of-the-family asked this morning if I enjoyed it, and I said "yeah, but it's no United 93. It's basically the Bourne Zone, and therefore... http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/nutshell_size-u.php http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/nutshell_size-u.php Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:24:16 -0800 In a N.Y. Press profile of Zoe Kazan (The Exploding Girl, Behanding in Spokane), Eric Kohn suggests she has "the petite appeal of a Zooey Deschanel 2.0, her expressive blue eyes seemingly bursting out her diminutive noggin in an almost-hyperbolic image of pixie cuteness." Among the bullet points: (a) she's a die-hard New Yorker who's against moving to Los Angeles ("There's no dearth of work here"), (b) she wants "range" (i.e., character roles) and not a Katharine Hepburn-like career, (c) she's thinking of bailing on Facebook because of the innumerable-lewd-ayhole factor, and (d) as New York magazine has called her Behanding character "a... http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/kazankohn.php http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/kazankohn.php Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:53:02 -0800 Two online movie-clips sites are suddenly angling for big attention at South by Southwest. Movie Clips.com, the Rich Raddon-Zach James site which appeared last December, has unveiled a new player. And this afternoon I'm dropping by the offices of AnyClip.com, which is will be promoting its presence in various ways at SXSW and launching on 3.15. I don't know anything. I'm just getting my feet wet. But the key to easy clip access is having a vast library (obviously) and providing embed codes -- simple. Movie Clips.com has more money, obviously, but other differences require study.... http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/duelling_clip_s.php http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/duelling_clip_s.php Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:42:42 -0800 "Barack Obama's whole career has been based on the idea of transcending partisanship." the Daily Beast's Paul Beinart wrote earlier today. "But lately, by confronting Republicans rather than courting them, Obama has Democrats fired up. "Amidst the speculation over whether David Axelrod hates Rahm Emanuel or Rahm Emanuel hates David Axelrod or Lawrence Summers hates them both, the punditocracy has glossed over something significant: Team Obama has had one hell of a month. In late January, health care reform was widely considered dead. Now it's considered a better than even bet. It could all still end in tears, of course. But for the... http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/turnaround_1.php http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/turnaround_1.php Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:25:07 -0800 I was down with the first, and seriously despised the second. New Moon cut such a critical stink that it seems incomprehensible that anyone outside of the Twi-hards could be in any state of high expectation for Eclipse. Nonetheless...... http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/one_more_and_fi.php http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/one_more_and_fi.php Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:33:38 -0800 Thanks to Mike Vollman and the MGM/UA team for not inviting me to last night's 7pm showing of Hot Tub Time Machine (3.26) on 86th Street (forget the theatre, between 2nd and 3rd). It may be the only March film I'm half- jacked about, and I've only been posting the trailers for...what, five or six months now?... http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/back_to_the_tub.php http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/back_to_the_tub.php Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:29:02 -0800 Not to sound tape-loopy, but "the reasons for the voltage are Kristen Stewart's scrappy performance as Joan Jett, the Runaways co-founder who went on to become a solo rock legend in the '80s, and Michael Shannon's as L.A. rock impresario Kim Fowley. As long as the film is focused on [these two] and the generally pungent '70s atmosphere, it radiates badass attitude and seems authentically plugged in to the spirit of '70s rebel rock."... http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/repeato.php http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/repeato.php Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:16:24 -0800