How's Dianne? Still Great.

Lukewarm off the presses! In a theater article at the New York Times a week ago about the new play Rasheeda Speaking starring Tonya Pinkins, her co-star, the two-time Oscar winner Dianne Wiest made a statement that quickly raised eyebrows that she didn't have enough work to pay her rent. It came when the actresses discussed the difficulties of finding good roles, which is surely depressing when you're basically a genius. (Tonya Pinkins, for what it's worth, gave one of the all time best theatrical performances I've ever seen in the musical Caroline or Change a decade ago. Idina Menzel winning her Tony was basically as ridiculous as say Benigni taking the one that shoulda gone to Norton or McKellen.)

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'The Stanford Prison Experiment' ...Of Future Stardom

Nathaniel again, down to my final two Sundance movies. (Michael stayed longer so he has more coming)

The Outsiders. School Ties. Go. Mean Girls. Dazed and Confused... These are movies people often marvelled at after the fact for capturing multiple future stars in the same ensemble before the title of "star" sat completely well on them. Certain movies function like abnormally prescient time capsules in that way and, who knows, perhaps The Stanford Prison Experiment will one day be among them?

"Guard" terrorizes "Prisoners" in THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT

It's not that the faces are complete nobodies exactly but, apart from Billy Crudup, as the possibly awful Dr. Philip Zimbardo who is behind the psychological experiment in situational behavior, most of them are lesser known. Or, if they're already rising stars, they don't exactly have that signature role or household name factor just yet.

The Standford Prison Experiment was a famous study from the 1970s in which a psychology professor and his team took a simple ad out in the paper for students to participate in a "psychological study of prison life" for 1 to 2 weeks for $15 a day. Students signed up thinking it was easy money but easy it was not...

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Sundance: Lily Tomlin's "Grandma" is a Sharp-Tongued Joy

Nathaniel reporting from Sundance. Or, rather, from Manhattan, while still thinking of Sundance and possibly my favorite film from that trip...

The first chapter of Grandma, an ornery new female-driven comedy, is called “Endings” a counterintuitive opening title, perhaps, but appropriate. Elle Reid (Lily Tomlin) doesn’t have much taste for beginnings. A year and half before our story begins, this "writer-in-residence," who had a brief period of reknown as a feminist poet,  lost her life partner of nearly 40 years to cancer. She’s still bitter about it. We know that her new girlfriend of four months Olivia will soon be shown the door because she's played by Judy Greer who is contractually obliged to never have more than 3 scenes in a movie. [More...]

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Random Bits & Open Thread

• A Little Chaos with Kate Winslet, that I told you about at TIFF, has moved to Dec 31st. Worst release date evah. I will assume from now on that all Dec 31st releases are the Oscar contractual eligibility equivalent of the January dumping ground for mainstream movies

• ♪ This shit, that ice cold, Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold ♫

• Speaking of January garbage, I find this poster for Wild Card wildly pornographic. (Like every image of Jason Statham. Shut up) 

• Is the Superbowl this weekend? Guess that means blockbuster movie trailers hit web Sun/Mon & we get backed up on YNMS

• Woody Allen's 2015 is called Irrational Man. The best (potential) news is that Parker Posey is in the cast. And since every other Woody movie is terrible and we just got through a dire one maybe this one will be good?

• I promise I'll go see Paddington this weekend. Need my Nic'

• Why haven't you voted on the Beauty vs. Beast: Hud edition yet. This one is a close match. 

• WHAT'S ON YOUR (CINEMATIC) MIND? 

Sundance: Inhibitions Are Abandoned in "The Overnight"

Michael C here to chime in on a film that has people buzzing in Park City...

Patrick Brice's The Overnight is one of those long night of the soul movies where things start out with dinner and laughter and then the characters drink and smoke away their inhibitions, repressed feelings bubble to surface, and the mood edges into the surreal as the night creeps toward sunrise. As soon as we spot the inviting blue glow of the pool we know some time around midnight the clothes are coming off and the characters will pass a point of no return...

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