Hit Me With Your Best Shot: "Firefly / Serenity"

For this week's edition of Hit Me With Your Best Shot, the series wherein we invite everyone to get opinionated and choose the single best shot from pre-selected movies, we offered up an atypical two-for-one deal. You could either choose an image from Firefly's first episode (if you'd never seen the Joss Whedon series and wanted to start at the beginning) or an image from its movie spinoff Serenity. Or both if you're crazy about Captain Tightpants. I am but I chose only the latter in order to tie it into 2012's Joss Whedon film frenzy.

Though Whedon had been Oscar nominated for screenwriting (Toy Story, 1995) even before Buffy the Vampire Slayer bowed on TV making him famous, Serenity was his feature film directorial debut. You might even call it his audition piece for The Avengers. Transitioning between medium is rarely simple for creative talent and Whedon wisely made the leap by leaning right into his earned TV auteur status. 

I know. We're going for a ride."

I never read contributor posts until I've finished mine but I'll be surprised if someone doesn't choose the bravura post title scene. It's actually a four and a half minute long continuous shot reintroducing us to the entire Serenity crew from the shortlived but wonderful Firefly series. It begins by following Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) around as he barks order to his crew until its finally handed off like a baton to the stowaway siblings Simon (Sean Maher) and River (Summer Glau) at the heart of the plot. Whedon rarely resists self-mythologizing the Whedonverse and it's just perfect that the shot ends with the mysterious psychic River Tam promising you a good time at the movies -- "we're going for a ride" -- just as Joss's name materializes on her body like a branding. 

My two sibling choices for "Best Shots" are after the jump.

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5 Kidmanic Confessions

Confession #1: Whenever I see images or promotions from Hemingway & Gelhorn (2012) or think of Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen together, my mind immediately fools me into believing that they already co-starred in Closer (2004).

Yes, yes, yes that was Julia Roberts but I'm just telling you that my Nicole-addled brain attempts to force the recasting every time.

It tastes like yours only sweeter."

How hot would that have been?

More photos /confessions after the jump...

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A Link is a Blog's Best Friend

Stale Popcorn Popcorn Glenn is a Scream (1996) fanatic and he almost got to correct that little problem of "never seen it on the big screen".Sympathies!
Film Doctor has a spoileriffic analysis of a crucial late scene in Cabin in the Woods
Basket of Kisses has an insightful guest post on misogyny, goal-post moving and blistering reactions to Megan on Mad Men who is "too" everything.
La Daily Musto today's arguments about Judy Garland's legacy. Are young gays still 'Friends of Dorothy'? 

Pulitzer Prizes congratulations to this years winners, particularly to the Boston Globe's Wesley Morris (pictured above) who is easily one of the best film critics working. If you aren't reading him, you're missing out.
Tom Shone, another of my favorites, on box office and spiritual pain. Don't let the "pre-sold" suck your soul.
Go Fug Yourself Lindsay Lohan three times... and behind a transparent umbrella!

 The ULTIMATE in wanting to be seen not wanting to be seen.

i09 I can haz nostalgia? "Even in the 1870s humans were obsessed with ridiculous photos of cats"
The Awl interesting interview on gothic horror with Hemlock Grove author and screenwrither Brian McGreevy
Boy Culture "i want you to hold me like you hold your money" ('Love Spent' is totally Madonna's best new song) 

Finally... perhaps it's time for another Cute Hierarchy.
I'll take your suggestions for recent Cute Achievements in the comments but until then, this pressing question inspired by Too Fab's story about Josh Hutcherson adopting a special needs puppy "Driver" who is missing some toes and just had surgery on his femur.

poll by twiigs.com

Saoirse Ronan Ruins Lives!

The poster for Saoirse Ronan's latest Byzantium has just been released. It's a vampire movie from Neil Jordan who is no stranger to supernatural beasties (see also: The Company of Wolves, Interview with the Vampire, The Crying Games ... what? There's no other explanation for how indelibly creepy Miranda Richardson is in that movie!)

Question: When will Saoirse Ronan ever be cast as a non-lethal girl again? The ridiculously talented young star (who just turned 18... god, time flies) just keeps playing killers whether literally or metaphorically. Let's review:

Atonement (2007) DESTROYER OF LIVES
The Lovely Bones (2009) DEAD GIRL 
Hanna (2011) ASSASSIN
Violet and Daisy (2011 still awaiting release) ASSASSIN
Byzantium (coming soon) VAMPIRE
Order of the Seven (coming soon... another Snow White movie) WARRIOR 
The Host (coming soon) DANGEROUS POSSESSING ALIEN 
How I Live Now (coming soon) NORMAL GIRL THRUST INTO VIOLENT SURVIVAL MODE

Second generation vampiress Saoirse Ronan in "Byzantium"

I realize she's got those spooky ice blue Pfeifferian eyes -- already well cast as La Pfeiffer's daughter in I Could Never Be Your Woman (one of her only roles without a body count) --  but what is her management thinking? Diversify!

Burning Questions: Can Horror Keep a Straight Face?

 Michael C. here to talk horror and I left the spoilers back in civilization where they can't be reached. If Drew Goddard’s Cabin in the Woods ends up the cult favorite it is so clearly destined to be, it will not be simply because Whedon’s acolytes turn up automatically or because the film is a hoot that efficiently presses every horror geek button known to man. Cabin has a lock on cult status because it so perfectly captures a moment in time.

Cabin in the Woods can't stop looking at Horror's reflections

If Scream’s purpose in ’96 was to take the piss out of the slasher movie, Goddard's film uses the slasher flick as a jumping off point to take on the whole horror genre, top to bottom. In this era, when even non-horror fans chuckles when the dead teenager clichés make their appearances on cue, Cabin pulls back the curtain on the machinations of the whole show until it resembles a viral supercut of the horror genre’s interchangeable, formulaic parts, and it expects the audience to laugh with recognition at each one. 

So if audiences are as savvy as the Cabin's filmmakers expect them to be one wonders: Have horror movies lost the ability to play it straight? Have they given up trying to surprise a fanbase that is perpetually in on the joke?

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