The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)
Congratulations to the newlyweds, Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig! You may have heard that they pulled off the impossible feat of keeping a double-star wedding under wraps until entire days after the nuptials. They were married on Wednesday June 22nd.
Secret weddings are the best. Without the prying paparazzi lenses we are free to imagine the whole thing. So this is what The Film Experience officially believes they were wearing when they tied the knot.
WHY NOT?
The couple may prove ubiquitous for the remainder of the year. Consider...
JULY & AUGUST In Rachel's next film --which seems like it's been "about to open" for years though now -- she plays The Whistleblower and some Best Actress whispers have emerged. Daniel Craig's next, Cowboys & Aliens, arrives first in July butis not garnering any Best Actor whispers for either alien of cowboy life forms.
SEPTEMBER The newlyweds started dating after working together (as fictional spouses) in Dream House from Jim Sheridan (In America). Naomi Watts and Martin Csokas co-star in a thriller about a seemingly idyllic house with a nightmarish history.
Dream House (2011)
DECEMBER The year will end with a possible Oscar campaign for Weisz (though she's already a winner from The Constant Gardener) and a possible blockbuster for Craig by way of David Fincher's adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. May he have more luck with the (comparatively) dull "Mikael Blomkvist" part than Michael Nyqvist had.
The hills are alive with the sound of minds-blown. Mia Farrow auditioning for The Sound of Music.
Thanks to The Broadway Blog for sharing this. Tom succinctly describes exactly how I'm feeling whilst watching this on loop right now.
The Sound of Music is so iconic, so ingrained in our collective consciousness, that it feels immovable, inviolate–a solid totem of granite clothed in floral-curtain lederhosen. It is, has been and always will be.
That’s what makes this brief audition video all the more shocking and hilarious and unsettling.
In my opinion the world would be a better place if every film were to hit DVD with failed auditions as extras. I realize it's not so great for the egos of actors but think of the fanssssssssss. Also: doesn't this only makes you love Mia more... and there's already so much to love about her.
Nathaniel: hey you! Jose: sir Nathaniel: Time for a total quickie Red Carpet Convo.
We just have four blondes today starting with LUCY PUNCH at the premiere of Bad Teacher. There's something about this look (is it the seven bracelets?) that makes me think she's taken her gawdy character in You Will Meet A Tall dark Stranger to heart. (I have yet to see Bad Teacher...)
Lucy Punch, Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, and Evan Rachel Wood
Jose: Is it me or does Lucy look like a more wholesome version of Gaga? Nathaniel: Wholesome is not what i think of when i think of Punch so maybe it's ME who has taken her comic characters to heart? Jose: something about her bone structure...but yes, the bracelets and heels, yikes, very Pretty Woman Nathaniel: Pretty Woman before it was Disneyfied... $3000 ! Jose: lol Nathaniel: I don't understand what CAMERON DIAZ is wearing. Like, not just the cut but the material itself. What is it? Apparently there was a black & white & blonde & leggy theme at the Bad Teacher premiere. Jose: it looks like her mesh t-shirt got attacked by pins from here, but let's not kid ourselves, everyone's just staring at her legs anyway Nathaniel: I was actually staring at the bracelet wondering if it could deflect bullets but I am very gay. Jose: Maybe she's trying to steal the Wonder Woman thunder from our Christina! Nathaniel: (I think we should all except that there won't be a big screen Wonder Woman.) Jose: I do wish Cameron would do something different with her hair sometime though. we get it, you're sporty and surfy and whatnot but find a freaking iron sister Nathaniel: ♪ ♫ She's as free as her hair She's as free as her hair. She is her hair. She is her hair. ♪
Doesn't it seem like a trillion years ago that Cameron Diaz and KATE WINSLET were actually co-stars in a romantic comedy. Ohmygod maybe-it-never-happened-at-all? Jose: I'd been trying to forget The Holiday for years, thank you for rekindling that trauma
Oooh is Kate wearing the classy lady version of Cam's dress? Nathaniel: I don't know but I have to say that it's both fierce AND fugly. That midriff detailing is so... is she expecting the postman to deliver bulk mail? Jose: LOL Actually I loved it for very odd reasons it's a Victoria Beckham dress. and I remembered when i was 12 how I loved Kate and how the British press was always making her try to be as skinny as Posh Spice, so I see her in this dress as kick-ass cosmic retribution Nathaniel: the 12 year old in you rejoices.
Also this dress on Kate… David Cronenberg would salivate. It's very eXistenZ"portal" and... well, I can't look at it for too long. Disturbing. Jose: thanks to you now I'm expecting Jude Law to emerge from it (Holiday reunion?) Nathaniel: LOL. Speaking of emerging from Kate Winslet (ba dum dum chhhh)... Next we have her evil incarnate spawn from "Mildred Pierce"at the "True Blood"premiere. Jose: ...channeling Hayden Panettiere by way of "Express Yourself" Nathaniel: When you put it that way I suddenly love the look not.
And I was just about to say that I liked it. Jose:EVAN RACHEL WOOD always wears odd things to premieres, last True Blood premiere she did a librarian sort of thing that everyone hated. Nathaniel: I was going to compare this to one of Dazzler's looks from the X-Men comics but I realize that would be like the 4th time I've gone there this summer. There is something very wrong with me. I apologize. Jose: uh-oh, she would make an awesome Dazzler though
Nathaniel: Anyway I kind of love it because it makes me think that I don't fully understand Evan Rachel Wood yet and that's always a good feeling when it comes to young actresses. Surprise us or risk replacement! There are a gigajillion young blondes eager for your spot. Jose: Totally. When it comes to the freaky, what-will-she-do-now department, Marilyn Manson did good by her. And her smile made me forget how much I hate her as Veda Pierce too Nathaniel: her or the character? Jose: o Veda, I hate all incarnations of that tramp but Evan's was especially easy to loathe. Nathaniel: but that's the point! Jose: I know but I was worried I'd hate Evan too afterwards. Hopefully True Blood will make me forget all about her Nathaniel: Veda. You know you're trouble when undead soulless bloodsuckers have more soul.
Striiiiike. I forgot to sound off on the trailer for Moneyball. And then there's Footloose what shuffled by us, too. It's been a long week. TGIF and all that... only it's already Saturday. What? Okay, here we go. You know how we do here. We manage expectations with the patented Yes, No, Maybe So breakdown. How excited are we/should we be for each new movie?
First up... Brad Pitt in the baseball stats dramedy Moneyball.
YES Brad Pitt. And there's something mellow but casually exciting about the presentation overall... which is rather like the sport of baseball come to think of it, wherein nothing much happens until it does. NO All behind-the-sport dramas made after 2006 are always going to come up short on account of Friday Night Lights (2006-2011). That's just the way it is. It's like trying to envision what the future will look like after Blade Runner or trying to do a porn drama after Boogie Nights or somesuch. Several of the shots of Brad Pitt here instantly recall Coach Taylor for example even though they're probably not trying to. Plus the topic just seems so dry, right? True stories also have the disadvantage of inevitable and therefore (sometimes) anti-climactic finales.
MAYBE SO The trailer doesn't get all obsessed about Philip Seymour Hoffman being in it which is a considerable relief. If the trailer is true it looks like Jonah Hill is the one to watch IF (and I still think it's a big IF) the film gets any sort of Oscar traction. I liked Hill in Cyrus and though heseems a bit limited in the range department, choosing the right projects can really help to shift perceptions about that or at least maximize what can happen within the confines of any actor's range. The script is by Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian, both strong writers, and though that's not an automatic yes (must we invoke the name of Charlie Wilson's War? for example), it's a good sign that it'll be lively and smart.
Me, I'm a maybe so and I'll lean whichever way the Oscar buzz does. But then it does star Brad Pitt so chances are very good that I'll see it.
The other night while I was out at a party and my friend Kenneth totally got in my face about how Brad Pitt is a terrible actor and I'm like no-no-no. Brad Pitt is... well he's Brad Pitt! ♥. He's been continually underrated his whole career despite being a huge star with the exception of that highly unnecessary Oscar nomination for his Benjamin Button turn, the equivalent of Depp's Neverland nomination surely ("Yes, you're totally boring in this but WE JUST LOVE YOU ANYWAY!"). So maybe whether or not you're a yes, no or maybe will come down to Brad?
UGH. FOLLOWING IN KEVIN BACON'S FOOTSTEPS IS HAAARD.
YES Miles Teller in the Chris Penn role?That could be fun. And though it pains me to say it... when an original isn't sacred -- and Footloose is only sacred in the nostalgic sense not in the "movie" sense -- it's sometimes fun to watch how they reinterpret key moments. Like, when Kenny Wormald crazydances in that empty warehouse, they won't have to go all silhouette body double right?
NO The most annoying bit in the trailer is surely the "It's OUR time" town hall righteous speechifying since the movie looks as generic as can be and anything but generation-defying... unless today's generation prides themselves on being super lame Frankenstein's monsters stitched together by their parent's nostalgic parts. Also in its insistence on looking like both a hip-hop movie AND a remake of "Dirty Dancing" AND the original "pop" film AND a country and western joint, it's clearly trying to be all things for all people and will subsequently have no identity of its own.
Plus (by which I mean minus): exploding trucks.
And a lead female star so bratty you want Dennis Quaid to give her a good spanking and ground her. Where is Lori Singer's weirdly comatose sensuality... the believable byproduct of a stifling home environment (with or without the cello)
MAYBE SO Craig Brewer wrote and directed it and though I can't for even one frame spot the brave provocateur behind Hustle & Flow or Black Snake Moan, maybe you can? Or maybe the trailer is just a bad lie and the film will be interesting?
"No" unless reviews by nearly every trustworthy critic surprise.
This is one of the nights, a history maker, as New York legalized same sex marriage. It's a win-win for everyone... it's just that some people don't know it yet. Eventually they'll make movies about this and everyone will watch and think "Duh! Of course" and imagine themselves fighting the good fight with the protagonists and shake their heads at the small minded antagonists. Ah, those "safely in the past" message movies. But it's all part of the predictable beauty of social progress. Eventually everyone ends up on the same side (which is why one should always cross first and help with the bridge building.)
In the past decade of the movies, we've seen some beautiful transformative and realistic depictions of gay love onscreen. We love to dream about fictional couples here at the Film Experience but the beauty of what's happened tonight in New York is what it will mean for the dreams of real couples, just living their lives together day in and day out.
Much love to all. Happy Pride Weekend!
P.S. The Empire State Building is rainbow tonight -- previously scheduled for Pride but I can't see it due to all the fog. Here's a photo. Sunday's parade is going to be insane.
Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 9:09AM 
Dream House (2011)
