We Need To Talk About Linking
Friday, October 21, 2011 at 4:57PM 
MTV Tom Hiddleson singing the praise of his new Thor 2 director Patty Jenkins. He just loves Monster (2003) and Kenneth Branagh assigned it to him as prep before Thor 1; how weirdly coincidental.
Go Fug Yourself has kind words for Amanda Seyfried and hilarious words for Justin Timberlake.
Awards Daily Sasha thinks this has been a weak year for cinema -- I'm guessing because of the lack of consensus on a single masterpiece. I'd say the opposite. I can't get over how good this year is. It's so exciting to be looking at an awards season that might not have a frontrunner. Consensus makes it boring. Bring on the passionate discussion of what is "Best" please!
Acidemic in praise of crazy "chicks of death" dangerous women from Flash Gordon (1936) through Rosemary's Baby (1968) to Trouble Every Day (2001)
Reelizer How beautiful is this poster for The Iron Giant by Kevin Tong? Me want.
"The Iron Giant" © illustrator Kevin Tong
Movie Morlocks Kimberly from Cinebeats on Werner Herzog's excellent adapation of Nosferatu starring Klaus Kinski. Such a good movie.
MNPP JA loves Carey Mulligan and thinks you do, too. Exciting projects she's lining up.
/Film taking storyboarding to the next level with Darren Aronofsky's Noah's Arc movie.
Ultra Culture bitches about Rotten Tomatoes in order to praise Terri (which was recently nominated for one of Gotham's prizes)
Towleroad Zachary Quinto to play a gay ghost on American Horror Story.
Empire offers up a final We Need To Talk About Kevin poster with "Joker" coloring. I love movie posters but when a movie makes this many and keeps changing it up I start to worry that they don't know what they're selling anymore.
Finally...
The Lost Boy thinks that Viola Davis is going to win the Best Actress Oscar. That seems to be going around. Here she is at the Women in Hollywood Awards.
The imagination is so potent. And that's really why we're actors because it's the power of transformation, the power of not being you, of going into a world that is different but ultimately real. And I always felt I had that I had that power even as a little black girl with the afro and using the crisco for moisturizer for my skin. I always felt that everything was possible. That I always had the power to be anything i wanted to be.
As I was walking the red carpet someone asked "What sets you apart from everyboy in the room?"
"Well... I'm black."
[Laughter] and then she launches into an honest and beautiful speech about Cicely Tyson "throwing her a rope" as a young dreaming girl and the need for stories about women of color in the movies. She is awesome.
Reader Comments (12)
A few days ago I saw two trailers for two "haunted house" horror movies one after the other, and then I remembered Insidious and so I thought what's the deal with with subgenre? Is it the new vampire-zombie replacement?
It's probably one of the most constricted/specific subgenres. A married couple in crisis - either he cheated on her or he was too busy at work- that decides to move to try to solve their crisis. They have two kids, preferably a teenage girl and a younger son, so the girl -who's the smartest one- hates her parents for making her move. So, them being a straight white standard family it occurred to me maybe the ghosts/supernatural beings that threat their lives stand for whatever people think of as something threatening families. Just in the same way in the 50s, in B movies about alien invasions they stood for the danger of communist invasions. Maybe now, moviemakers want us to think the traditional family is in danger? And what would be the most threatening for a traditional family? Homosexuals? I really refused to believe my own theory I had so carefully built, and then there's this news about the ghost being gay.
@iggy: Yeah. That's interesting. And yet from the two episodes I've seen of AHS, the ghosts are, in some sense, the most interesting characters. They have back stories, and some themselves have been victims. So I don't know what I am saying except that I am not sure I buy an easily reductive theory about gay ghosts equal a metaphorical threat by gay people to traditional families. It's possible that this is happening in a self-aware, "meta" way, as in Ryan Murphy and crew might be throwing gay ghosts on the screen (and Down's syndrome menaces, and sexual older neighbor ladies) to say "these are what haunts those who cling to an unrealistic notion of the American nuclear family." If the gay ghost is a commentary, I'd say it's a commentary on the fear, not a contributor to the fear. My hunch is that the Z.Q. gay ghost will be a really compelling character.
It is your blog, but why keep you ignoring In the Land of Blood and Honey? The trailer come out today and the consensus is that is really great.
Not here it seems.
I love that Iron Giant poster!
In regards to the multiple posters for We Need To Talk About Kevin? Well, this one you've included very much follows in the path of the other British quads with it's "mummy's little monster" tag and bold colouring. The reason it probably appears that there are so many different styles being used to market this movie is because international distributors have chosen to market it a certain way. Having spoken to local key art designers before, I know that sometimes an Australian distributor will see the American marketing and decide they want to go a different route so they hire somebody to do it. That's what happened with "Kevin" here, which is why our poster (Tilda behind foggy glass) is so different to the US which is so different to the UK. Different distributor, different strategy. Such is the magic of modern day distribution.
@ timothy. I don't buy it myself. I wouldn't believe it's possible these days to have such on the nose, reductionist meaning to it. I do wonder if some anti-gay groups might find that storyline satisfactory and appealing though. Just wanted to throw the idea because there seem to be so many similar stories. But I guess it can be seen the other way around, families are threatened by their own ghosts and fears meaning that the traditional family doesn't always work as a model.
Also, has Zachary Quinto come out because he wanted to or because he thought "I only get gay roles lately anyway, so what's the difference"? Which is sad, because he was the best in show in Heroes, I haven't followed much else of his career.
Well, Viola's speech was pretty unimpressive for me but I agree that she has a shot at winning the Oscar (well, we all knew that already).
I think it will all come down to what will The Iron Lady turn out to be because I'm not really seeing Close winning.
Whatever the case, a nomination for Davis will assure that we'll be getting more of her in the future which is awesome. I hope she's careful about her choices.
Oh and American Horror Story is lame. Really, they have to think harder that that.
But come on, people, it's Ryan Murphy who's behind the show.
He's not really known for linear storytelling and story depth now, is he? Remember 'Glee'? And 'Nip/Tuck' after the first season?
Davis should be in the SUPPORTING actress category...
Who is she supporting? Emma Stone's storyline is the least interesting of the film. The fact is once her character arc is over--all we care about is what happens to Viola Davis, just a reminder is narrating the whole picture.
*she's narrating the whole picture
I'm actually in London right now and I had the chance to see We Need to Talk About Kevin....seriously, one of the toughest movies I've sat through recently (in a good way!). Tilda is as always brilliant and the film itself is very, very hard to box into a certain genre, hence maybe why all the marketing schemes have been different. It's a challenging film, often oscillating between psychological horror, potent character study, familial relationships...regardless, I was shaken and it is undoubtedly one of the best I've seen this year. Alas, I highly doubt the Academy will brace this film (aka they will ignore Tilda again)...it's just too out there for them (although that didn't stop them from honoring Black Swan, but Tilda Swinton is not a box-office, Hollywood princess like Natalie Portman).