Monday, September 26, 2011 at 11:15AM secret messages from the movies... 1st season!
Darling, ----
Just because you got me soused last night doesn't alter the logic of the situation.
Good bye Good luck."
Can you guess the movie? Check your answer after the jump.
Monday, September 26, 2011 at 9:50AM 
La Daily Musto turns out Lourdes is in her mamma's movie W.E.
Deadline does a post-mortem on Drive's box office failure. Young men didn't show up. Can we all agree that I'm a genius for my sure to be prophetic "people will love it ten years from now" post? Get back to me in 2021.
Movie|Line talks to director Jose Padilha about his Brazilian Oscar entry Elite Squad 2 and the rumors of Michael Fassbender becoming Robocop
⇚ HF Magazine talks to Miles Teller (Footloose). Kidman & John Cameron Mitchell have high praise from Rabbit Hole.
Tom Shone Ten great things about Moneyball
Frankly My Dear Jamie Foxx sending Will Smith a fruit basket for pulling out of Django Unchained
Hark! a Vagrant, my favorite web comic, begins a Wuthering Heights adaptation just in time for the revival of Brontë Sisters fever in the film world. P.S. what's that about exactly? The renewed fever I mean. I know what Wuthering Heights is about ;)
Bizarre Caption Alert!
I'd seen the new Anne Hathaway as Catwoman photo a few times around the net and didn't think to share it (you've already seen it no doubt) but for whatever reason I actually read the caption at Daily Mail...
Um... Catwoman was famous before most of us were alive and before La Pfeiffer was even a tween. Just sayin'. (Don't think Julie Newmar or the ghost of Eartha Kitt would be pleased.)
Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 8:32PM 
Brad on the greenThe lion is still the king of the jungle. Moneyball's opening was very respectable but a bit softer than Brad Pitt's usual opening weekend numbers. My guess is that too many people who are pushed toward ticket-purchases by perceptions of quality rather than celebrity or subject matter didn't expect it to be as good as it actually is. I'm guessing word of mouth is strong and Brad's very-real bid for Oscar (who'da thunk it?) finds its legs quickly. In baseball you have to do a lot of standing around and waiting for the excitement to accumulate. Or so I gather.
Thus Disney's most popular picture roars again from its jutting cliff peak.
Box Office (U.S.) Baker's Dozen -estimates
01 THE LION KING 3D [review] re-release $22.1 (cum $390.2)
02 MONEYBALL [review] new $20.6
03 DOLPHIN TALE new $20.2
04 ABDUCTION new $11.2
05 KILLER ELITE new $9.5
06 CONTAGION [venice] $8.5 (cum $57.1)
07 DRIVE [review] $5.7 (cum $21.4)
08 THE HELP [review] $4.4 (cum $154.4)
09 STRAW DOGS $2.1 (cum $8.8)
10 I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT $2 (cum $8)
Talking Points: Weekend, the terrific gay romantic drama we've been raving about (read my interview with the director) had the nation's highest per sceen average which is promising for its expansion plans.
Chris New (foreground) offers an invitation to Tom Cullen in "Weekend"
We have always hoped it would expand quickly. You deserve to see it! According to Indiewire our hopes will become reality.
Sundance Selects said they’re “thrilled” with the opening numbers and will expand through the major markets in the next two weeks."
Dolphin Tale once again proves that family films don't need anything in the way of pre-release buzz to do well. I'm so weirded out that it almost equalled the gross of a really entertaining Brad Pitt movie! (I expect that Moneyball will have sturdy legs over the next month or two though.)
Uh... I did not throw that tomato!Will Abduction's super blah but not altogether embarassing opening and the terrible reviews be enough to put a stake through Taylor Lautner's career? My guess is no. Besides, stakes can't harm you if you're already made of wood. (Hardy-har-har). Nevertheless, unless his acting magically improves, he'll be given a headlining opportunity on a procedural on TV in ten years time on his name recognition alone. He'll be working his whole life on name recognition, actually. Such is the power of kicking things off in a blockbuster franchise. (See also: the inexplicably long career death rattle and similarly suspect acting of one Hayden Christensen.
What did you see this weekend?
If you saw Moneyball make sure to sound off over in the review. I'm a bit surprised that Brad Pitt didn't win the weekend since my theater was packed even early in the morning (which is not common in September in NYC).
Brad Pitt, Moneyball, Taylor Lautner, The Lion King, Weekend, box office Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 6:00PM Thanks to Marcus to alerting me to this.
Olsen's fond memory: meeting Michelle Pfeiffer on the set of "I Am Sam"Seems that Elizabeth Olsen, currently Oscar buzzing for her performance as a cult member in Martha Marcy May Marlene, shares not one but two favorite movie stars with The Film Experience. In this recent interview with THR's Scott Feinberg she's asked about favorite films and her idols growing up. Her response:
When it came to the first actors I idolized it was Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. The first actress that I really loved when I was probably ten was Michelle Pfeiffer. I was completely in love with her and I actually got to meet her on the set of I Am Sam.
She wouldn't have remembered that but I was -- it was my first time I remember being speechless as a kid because always I was speaking. A girlfriend in my class --- her uncle did her hair for I Am Sam. That was exciting.
Ahhh, Kelly and Pfeiffer? She has good taste, she does. Can't wait to see Martha Marcy May Marlene. Very soon my hungry eyes will gobble it up at the NYFF screening.
Should you care to see the whole interview you can do so after the jump
Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 1:00PM I promised a bit more TV talk this year and though I haven't seen any show that would inspire me to cover it weekly (Mad Men and True Blood are rare beasts, as interesting to write about as they are to watch) here's a quick overview of first impressions of new series.
PRIME SUSPECT
A bit strange to watch this one in the receding shadow of last weekend's Emmy Awards. The whole time I kept thinking "Oh... here's one to shake up the Best Drama Series field next year if it can be shook. And Best Actress, too!"
But then, immediately after it ended, I felt ashamed of this inner golden-winged monologue. Great acting is no promise of statues after all. I must must must remember my own mantra -- difficult as it is to remember whilst enthusiastically prepping for Oscar season -- Great Work Is Its Own Reward. And Maria Bello is her own reward (and so rewarding, too). Which is as it has to be given the cold shoulder from Oscar in the past (The Cooler, A History of Violence).
Prime Suspect, her new show (adapted from the now 20 year old Helen Mirren series) details the murder investigations of the smart abrasive Jane Timoney, the only woman in her homicide department. The first hour had a few script and performance beats with the zing of those 'Clarice Starling surrounded by tall men' visuals in The Silence of the Lambs but Bello just refuses to shrink. Though procedurals never really capture my imagination, character studies do and Bello demands that I keep watching. Her detective is funny without feeling scripted-quippy and unusually capable without seeming infallible (such a danger for protagonist roles in TV and film). Best of all she shades all of Timoney's more typically admirable qualities like confidence, cleverness, intelligence, and femaleness in such a way that they throw shade; her confidence curdles into arrogance, her cleverness veers towards the reckless, her intelligence has zero warmth and her vagina is both interference and scapegoat. Yes, her department is sexist but isn't her cold arrogance and lack of sympathy for co-workers (who have justifiably open wounds in this episode) more than half of the problem in being welcomed into their club?
Click for more on Prime Suspect plus Revenge, Charlie's Angels and two more newbies.
