I was invited by Sony publicity to a special midday preview of footage from Neil Blomkamp‘s Elysium (Sony, 8.9). I rsvp’ed right away to the emailed invite but when I clicked through on my iPhone it led to an image of some dorky moron that told me to tilt the phone, blah blah. I’ve no … Read more
A week ago a Behind The Candelabra teaser went up. Here’s the first full-boat trailer for Steven Soderbergh‘s biopic, which HBO will premiere on 5.26. It doesn’t matter if Matt Damon sounds like Scott Thorson, but it does matter what Michael Douglas‘s Liberace sounds like. Liberace spoke with a certain sing-songy tone and a hint … Read more
It’s hard to think of any actress-celebrity who seemed to represent the vapidly self-absorbed, pre-progressive-social-consciousness era of the ’50s and early ’60s more profoundly than Annette Funicello, the ex-Mousketeer and AIP Beach Blanket Bingo queen who has died at age 70. I guess Shelley Fabares and Connie Francis were just as “bad” in this regard, … Read more
You can recite all those Iron Lady incantations until you’re blue in the face. For me one of the most revealing Margaret Thatcher quotes is her allusion to Francis Bacon as “that man who paints those dreadful pictures.” That, to me, almost says it all. Any person who has made it in a tough world … Read more
It’s not the clothing…well, yes, it’s the clothing, of course, but it’s the atmosphere inside Bergdorf Goodman‘s that people particularly love. It feels incredibly flush, pampered, protected, perfect. But I hate it when sales people grin almost lasciviously at me and say, “Can I help you?” Or, much worse, when they stand nearby as I … Read more
“I had hoped that even on such a subject as [gay relationships and marriage], where passions run high, the internet was a forum where ideas could be freely discussed without descending into name-calling. I believe that is what it could be, but it depends on all of us behaving, even behind our aliases, in a … Read more
Substitute “drive” for “live” and Ron Howard‘s Rush (Universal, 9.20) is saying you always need to go for the gusto even if it’s risky or dangerous. You have to accept that death is just around the corner. Presumably the film is a more varied smorgasbord but the trailer seems almost queer for death and wipe-outs … Read more