Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 9:31AM SERIES DEBUT!
"Secret Messages From the Movies" will alternate daily with "First and Last" (returning tomorrow for its fifth season), as its another "guess the movie" puzzle. Here's your first episode...
Can you guess the movie?
That's a lot of calculations... do you give up?
The answer is after the jump.
Secret Messages, handwritten Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 8:05AM Behold the blurry teaser poster (courtesy of Pixar Planet) for Pixar's Brave an original story with their first female lead "Princess Merida"
I normally wouldn't post a blurry advertisement, but having just seen Cars 2, I'm going to rub this teaser all over me for soothing balm. I need this one to be great. Cars 2 stinks (more later) and the Toy Story short that proceeds it "Hawaiian Vacation" is also soul-crushing. Oh Pixar, you said farewell to these characters so beautifully last year. You had a whole world weeping under 3D glasses and then you bring the whole gang back instantly for such a disposable mediocrity? What are we going to do with you? We depend on you! Love - a concerned fan since that bootleg viewing of Tin Toy in the 1980s.
Brave, Cars, Pixar, Toy Story, animated films, short films Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 11:00PM 
Just Jared it's official: Aishwarya Rai, will finally pass her gorgeous genes on. She and star hubbt Abhishek Bachchan are expecting their first child.
I Need My Fix Ian McShane joins the cast of Snow White and the Hunstmen as the leader of the dwarves. Unless they've TOTALLY changed the story, I'm confused. Isn't he contractually obligated to only play evil characters?
Jewish Journal talks to James Franco about his new film The Broken Tower in which he plays gay poet Hart Crane. Good interview.
The Wrap interviews John Slattery on his fascinating Mad Men character Roger Sterling. Can he finally win the Emmy this year?
La Daily Musto [NSFW] claims these are Burt Lancaster nudes unveiled but it's hard to trust any nude photos in the age of photoshop.
Playbill Angela Bassett coming to Broadway with Samuel L Jackson for Mountaintop.
Booth & Steinfeld (maybe they're going for a brother/sister vibe this time?)Finally... In case you haven't heard it's contractual by law that every generation get their own Romeo and Juliet. Or thereabouts. There was kind of a big gap between Franco Zeffirelli's (1968) and Baz Luhrmann's (1996) but it's basically a perennial. Perhaps because it's Shakespeare it's never a grotesque matter of 'rebooting' so much as "hey, we haven't done that one in a while!"
Variety reports that we have our new Romeo and Juliet and it's 19 year old British actor Douglas Booth and 15 year-old Hailee Steinfeld for the new version, scripted by Julian Fellowes. If you ask me they're never going to be able to top Baz's psychovisual poetry or the doubleplusgood acting of Leo + Claire but here's a bright note: Holly Hunter as Nurse!!!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 9:01PM The theater world gets a bit quiet during the summer, post Tony Awards, but there are still live performances to be seen and talked about. Like "Shakespeare in the Park" in, well, Central Park. If you've never been it's always worth going no matter what the show is because it's free and open air theater is truly a special everyone-should-try-it experience. But I wish they'd be more daring with their selections. Some years they stray from the bard, whilst retaining the title, like the year they relaunched HAIR -- god, that was a great production -- or when they mounted that Jonathan Groff / Anthony Mackie Euripides moment Everyone but me hated that one but I think I was just so glad to see something that wasn't performed as often and with two actors I quite like.
Danai Gurira rehearses for "Measure for Measure"
This year they're back to the bard. They're doing two of the "problem plays" Alls Well That Ends Well and Measure For Measure through June and July. Click here for dates. I took in Measure for Measure which... well, I haven't much to say about it. The problem with the problem plays is that they're problematic -- PROFUNDITY! [Editor's note: I warned you!] It was an absolutely decent production but it lacked a defining thrill, defining moment. As for definitive performances, I give my highest marks to Danai Gurira (The Visitor) who was in very strong form as the pious Isabella, who must choose between her brother's life or her chastity (long story!) in the convoluted Jacobean plot. On the comic side, Carson Elrod as Pompei, "the tapster" (aka procurer of johns for the whores? That's how it read from my seat), who offers up a pretty great distillation of how to give a modern performance while still delivering Shakespearean language.
Neil Patrick Harris as eternal bachelor "Bobby" puts the moves on Christina Hendricks in "Company"Company
The recent very brief Philharmonic staging of Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY played this past week in select movie theaters around the country. I wasn't paying close enough attention to times and missed my one best opportunity. Hopefully it'll come to DVD. Neil Patrick Harris led the all star cast as "Bobby". Company is only one of the greatest musicals ever written so if you ever have a chance to see it performed, do so. If any of you caught it, speak up in the comments.
I've always wanted someone to make this musical into a movie because the songs are just so spectacular. But I fear Hollywood wouldn't understand it. It's not "flashy" and that's the only kind of musical they make anymore.
Links!
Joe's Pub STREEP TEASE!!! That Meryl Streep Monologue show with an all male cast is coming to NYC next Monday night. One night only.
Broadway Blog wonders if Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark can join the list of shows that triumphed after rough starts?
Broadway Blog also looks at the history of Broadway songs on the pop charts. Does the man upstairs hold sway? It seems like it.
Billboard answers a question I was asking on twitter (Thanks Mark!) about whether in-theater sales of Original Cast Recording count on Billboard charts as record sales. The answer is both closer to a "maybe so" than a yes or a no.
BlogStage wonders if Shakespeare is being performed too often in the world? My answer: Duh! I've been saying this for years.
Finally... Mocking Acceptance Speeches as a special theater event?
Q: What's so great about acceptance speeches?
A: What we discovered doing this show is that they're actually really joyful to watch even if the person is a self regarding narcissist.
I didn't even know about this until it was over. The theater community has yet to discover and worship The Film Experience properly. Where are my press invites? ANYWAY... there's nothing quite like an acceptance speech which is why its hateful when the same people win 10 things in a row. Variety is wonderful... and so is a good variety show.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 4:30PM Three stories of how I'm off my game.
1. In the podcast post about "Midnight in Paris", I was all "you should read these articles" and then I didn't link to them. D'oh. We briefly mentioned Fandor's "TOP TEN FILMS ABOUT FILMMAKING" which you should definitely look at (I did the Sunset Blvd honors therein and I shared a personal ballot) and we talked about Mark and Joe's series on Oscar nominated Original Songs which has covered 1980 "Fame", 1981 "Arthur", 1982 "Up Where We Belong", 1983 "Flashdance", 1984 "I Just Called To Say (I Love You)", 1985 "Say You Say Me" and 1986 "Take My Breath Away" thus far. It's great fun to read.
2. Today is the 50th anniversary of THE PARENT TRAP (1961) only one of my favorite movies of all time. I think I was born loving it. Maybe I was meant to be twins? And I forgot to write it up. *sniffle* Forgive me Hayley & Hayley!
Yes, it is amazing!
3. You have to be chosen! With each passing day my own Green Lantern review fades in my own estimation (and I was so happy with it when writing it) whilst my hatred for the movie grows.
First Christopher Orr at The Atlantic provided the funniest traditional review, absolutely skewering the movie's hateful messages. I had tried to do the same with that "thinking is bad for you!" anti-intellectualism angle but the Tyranny of Beauty complaint is just as valid when it comes to the movie's deplorable subtext. Now Topless Robot has an incredibly funny but, more importantly, entirely accurate synopsis of its "best" scenes. It's hilariously precise and a great reprimand to all future movies that would like to have their screenplays written by committees and portray"heroes" as assholes whilst demanding that you root for them.
Remember how juvenile and bratty that movie Jumper was wherein the "hero" basically called everyone watching it "schmucks" in the opening scene and then we were supposed to root for him and his enormous and undeserved powers anyway? Green Lantern is totally like that... but it gets away with it a bit more on account of cocky Ryan Reynolds winning the sweepstakes of "who would you rather stare at you in 'puny human'* contempt mode?" sweepstakes handily over whiny Hayden Christensen whose ass you could probably kick anyway.
*I realize I just mixed up superhero tropes. Shut up! My ego has already taken a beating.
I will diminish and go into the East and remain Nathaniel.
