Streep Finally Listens, Gets Real Director.

We've been harping on Meryl Streep's extraordinary lack of interest in working with A list directors who might actually, you know, direct her for a decade. She's finally working with one. She's now attached to Ricky and the Flash and, juvenile sounding title aside, it sounds like a potential winner.

She'll play a rock star trying to reconnect with her estranged children when her career peters out. The script is by clever Diablo Cody and in the director's chair, none other than Oscar winner Jonathan Demme. He's quite gifted with actresses having previously directed arguably career best work from actresses as diverse as Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married), Melanie Griffith (Something Wild), and Jodie Foster (Silence of the Lambs). He also guided Michelle Pfeiffer, once his favorite actress, in her best romantic comedy outing (Married to the Mob). More...

Click to read more ...

Conscious Uncoupling

You've heard by now from Goop, that Gwyneth Paltrow & Chris Martin are in the process of a "Conscious Uncoupling". Yes, that's a fancy therapeutic way to describe a breakup but why is the internet treating it like a virus that must be eradicated? I've been mostly amused but, I'll admit, a little disappointed by the way the internet (generally speaking) is treating this as something to mock. The word "pretentious" is bandied about a lot.

It's a reminder that the internet as a collective is stuck in perpetual adolescence or at least most people are, on and off the internet. I don't mean to be a killjoy or a scold but honest question: what's so bad about a long term couple with kids trying to break up amicably? More power to them if they can stay friendly. 

Misery loves company. Maybe its our own shame at our own messy breakups that make us uncomfortable with the couples who break up amicably when we couldn't? Most people don't remember it now but people were weirded out by Demi Moore and Bruce Willis staying friendly, too. But, hey, some people do. Don't most of us know at least one former couple who are still friendly and isn't that more healthy and appealing (even if, yes, unfair and annoying) or at least easier to stomach in the long run than that friend with lifelong bile for their ex that you have to taste every time the name comes up? 

Don't get me wrong. I love the kind of volatile coupling/uncoupling/recoupling of the Liz & Dick's of this world as much as any guilty bystander living vicariously through celebrities but would that really be a good look for Paltrow and Martin? It would be so off brand. "Conscious uncoupling" is PERFECT for Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martins personae. Maybe it's because I am not opposed to the sometimes quacky but occasionally eye-opening allure of self-help books or to Coldplay records or to Gwyneth in general (Can this conscious uncoupling include conscious filmmaking?) but I wish them the best. Who needs all that drama of the alternative?

The internet needs a big embarrassing open-hearted kumbaya session with a sing-along choral finale. Internet, heal thyself! 

Tears stream down your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down your face
And I...

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Visual Index ~ L.A. Confidential's Best Shot(s)

It's Tuesday night, time for another Hit Me With Your Best Shot. This week we're looking at Curtis Hanson's 1997 Best Picture nominee L.A. Confidential, which was nominated for 9 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Cinematography (Dante Spinotti) both of which it lost to the 52,000 ton Titanic. But it's a lot of people's idea of a modern masterpiece so I was fascinated to read what others had to say about the movie.

See it through multiple sets of eyeballs, in this case 17 of them by clicking on any of the thirteen shots selected ... and please do comment if you like something you read. The series only works properly when people participate. 

BEST SHOT(s)
Arranged in rough chronological order

Making news just like they make movies...
-Coco Hits NY 

Opened up and unnervingly close at one and the same time...
-Timothy Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy

At its heart, Curtis Hanson's stylish exercise in film noir tropes is a reflection on manhood and masculinity...
-RJ, Home Film Schooled 

A clever tip of the hand, although not an overly obvious one...
-Allison Tooey 

A turning point for the character...
- Andy Hall, Three Pounds Lost 

The birth of Shotgun Ed reveals a confident directorial eye...
-CineMunch 

Just as I became disillusioned, my shot would reflect the disillusionment of Ed Exley...
-abstew, The Film's The Thing 

Is it possible to pinpoint the exact moment when a performance wins an Oscar?...
-Michael Cusumano, Serious Film 

Despite the cool dusky warmth, Bud still walks in haunted noir shadows... 
-Nathaniel R, The Film Experience

One of my favorite moments in Kevin Spacey’s career...
 - Robert Hamer, Awards Circuit 

The rain pours as Bud’s hard-boiled mask crumbles... 
-Derreck Johnson 

That's how you die when you're in close-up...
-Cal Roth 

I'm just the guy they bring in..."
-Intifada 

A live wire, always ready to brawl when necessary...
-Shane Slater, Film Actually 

At any given point, any of them could be on either side...
-Jason Henson, The Entertainment Junkie

After all his moralizing, Exley has rolled in the dirt...
-Margaret, We Recycle Movies 

One of the reasons I love this shot is that it really fleshes out the character of Bud White...
-A Fistful of Films 

NEXT THREE FILMS - THE SCHEDULE

Hit Me With Your Best Shot: "L.A. Confidential"

When L.A. Confidential premiered in 1997 I was one of the few cinephiles that wasn't overcome with passion for it. I thought it too warm, actually. The happy(ish) ending threw me since most of the noir I was familiar with (not a wide sample I'm afraid) was much more nihilistic, rarely leaving the compromised heroes alive or free. It was the clear critical favorite in its year, though, so I've long wanted to reassess it and spend more time with it. I'm happy to report that I underestimated it the first time around. The screenplay with its hardboiled broad strokes dialogue and characterizations made more sense now that I'm more familiar with its tropes. But above all else it's a "wow" in execution from every department (but yes we're here to talk cinematography).

My clearest memories of the film were three: the smarmy gossip opening "on the QT and very hush hush", that I was enamored of both Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey's performances, and the (literal) head-turning introduction of Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger in her Oscar winning role) though it should surprise virtually no one who reads the Film Experience that the subplot of the Fleur de Lis girls "whores cut to look like movie stars" was the storyline I was initially most drawn to.  

Whatever you desire.

More after the jump...

Click to read more ...

"And Emily..."

(Great Moments in Screen Bitchery, #91, Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada)