Box Office: Elle Fanning Ascends and 8 More Notes on "Super 8"

It was a debutante ball or a "Sweet 13", if you will, for Elle Fanning at the Box Office this weekend. J.J. Abrams Super 8, an attempt to recapture Spielbergian 80s sci-fi glory, opened larger than expected, and Elle's star continues to rise. Are you newly won over?

"SuperElle" © Nathaniel R
A HUGE week in the Fanning household this has been, eh? Dakota graduated from high school, became the new face of "Oh Lola" and younger sister Elle starred in a #1 hit, following in big sister's footsteps still (Dakota's already done the #1 weekends with Twilight: New Moon and War of the Worlds... which Super 8 bears more than a little resemblance too with its sinister alien antics, great build up and then strangely lame final act. "Uh, we have to wrap this up now so... THIS"

I meant to write a proper review - sorries! -- but instead you get list/notes. MINOR SPOILERS

• first 45 minutes pretty wonderful, fun period work, enjoyable inside-moviemaking jokes for nerds.
• Elle Fanning's "acting" scene in the movie within the movie (an amateur zombie film) before the cargo crash is awesome. The extra, out of focus in the background, totally forgetting his business to stare at her ? Hilarious/perfect.
• That EPIC cargo crash is the first sign of trouble. The explosions and destructions go on and on and on and on (overkill!) and not one of the kids gets a scratch despite running through fireballs and 10 ton debris falling all around them. It looks like a war zone thereafter but their car is also indestructable.
• All the "what's going on?" withholding is wonderful...until it's not. At some point the audience is supposed to catch up to the story.
• I used to think J.J. Abrams "lens flare" issues were cute and I didn't understand why they bugged people but MY GOD. Stop with the electric blue horizontal lines ruining so many otherwise pleasant images.
• The scene where the sheriff tells his deputy to go home and hug his son. Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights) can convey so much with so little. He's one of those actors who understands the less is more truism. The deputy knows that this is good advice, but he also knows he's not going to do it.
• Elle Fanning is positioned to receive the most praise (this happens to obsessed over "love object/muse" roles) and she's quite good in it but the real find here is 15 year old Joel Courtney in the lead role: Such an expressive face, so natural on camera, entirely absent any child-actor showboating tricks and gimmicks.
• An extended race sequence with massive explosions and tanks and destructive nonsense near the end is entirely useless to the narrative and a sign that the movie is in trouble.
• The overt sentiment works well when it's calm and focused in the first half but starts to feel like an uncomfortable skin graft toward the finale.
• As in War of the Worlds, it just falls apart at the end, as the heroes essentially do too little that's heroic other than survive and the storyline just kind of resolves itself lazily. The end.
• But bonus points for including the amateur zombie movie over the end credits!

Oops. That was way more than 8 notes.
Grade? I'm still mulling that over. It's very uneven.

U.S. Box-Office (Estimates)

01 SUPER 8 new $37
02 X-MEN FIRST CLASS $25 [review] (cumulative $98.8)
03 THE HANGOVER PT. 2  $18.5 (cumulative $216.5)
04 KUNG FU PANDA 2 $16.6 (cumulative $126.9)
05 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES $10.8 (cumulative $208.7) [review]
06 BRIDESMAIDS $10.1 (cumulative $123.9) ♥
07 JUDY MOODY AND THE NOT BUMMER SUMMER new $6.2 
08 MIDNIGHT IN PARIS $6.1 (cumulative $14.2) ♥
09 THOR $2.3 (cumulative $173) [review]
10 FAST FIVE $1.7 (cumulative $205)

What did you see over the weekend?
And if you caught it, how did you feel about Super 8?

The 65th Tony Awards - Live Blog Song & Dance!

UPDATED WITH VIDEO

6:33 I feel like a 14 year old Michigander again, all excited for the Tony Awards to start despite not having any access to the shows. It's so masochistic, loving the theater! See, this has been my most poverty stricken year yet, so all I've seen is Catch Me If You Can, The Normal Heart, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (which didn't get the main nomination it deserved in Best Actor) and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown which was kinda terrible but still got some nominations.

6:35 Norbert Leo Butz arrives. He's nominated for Catch Me If You Can in the Tom Hanks role. Tom Hanks couldn't catch him if he tried Butz is so great in it. He says he's feeling...

joyous, celebratory, triumphant.

He also reveals that he met his wife while doing Wicked, a "showmance" that lasted and he says he filled out Fiyero's super tight pants better than his current Catch Me co-star Aaron Tveit

I couldn't find good pictures so you'll have to imagine the captain tight pants competition.

Norbert (original cast) & Aaron (one of many replacements)

poll by twiigs.com

6:52 My showmance with the theater, like Butz's, also lasted. Obviously due to my masochism.

6:53 They're talking to John Benjamin Hickey, who is the frontrunner for Featured Actor (i.e. "Best Supporting") for The Normal Heart. He is quite incredible in it -- easily best in show -- but he says he won't be doing much celebrating tonight because he has an early morning call on The Big C. From Tony to Linney... nice work if you can get it !

7:00 Sutton Foster and Bobby Cannavale we're just introduced as 'theater's new "It" Couple' and this was their reaction. Heh. Sutton Foster has been "it" for some time but Bobby is welcome to join.

Bobby & Sutton

The reporter is IN LOVE WITH THEM  even commenting on how "in shape" they are? Lol. (Keep it in your pants, Donna!!!) but that love is going around. It's what happens to it couples, don'cha know.

7:11 Harry Connick Jr has just announced that he is going to star in a revival of ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER. Good luck finding a Barbra Streisand level co-star, Harry!

7: 15 Victoria Clark from Sister Act says...

God is front and center this season, I'm happy to say.

Huh. I don't remember seeing him in the nominee list. Was he even eligible? 

More after the jump including VIDEO plus Vanessa Redgrave, Hugh Jackman, Neil Patrick Harris. And Frances McDormand is on the way to a triple crown, you betcha!

Click to read more ...

First and Last, Nice Breeze

first and last puzzles
I chose this one today since there's a play within it, and tonight is Tony Awards night! (Live blogging starts 'round 8:00 PM EST)

the first and last images

first line...

Cop: I ought be fishing tonight. Billy. Some nice breeze, fish be moving...

last lines...

Willis: What?
Emma: Don't 'what?' me, Mr Smarty Pants.
Willis: Willis: 2; Emma: 0

Can you guess the movie? check your guess after the jump

Click to read more ...

Super 6

Blackbook Elle Fanning, currently collecting hordes of new fans for Super 8, mugs it up for the camera.
Mashable turn your summer tweets into movie trailer voiceovers. This is great. The offer ends June 17th.

Telegraph We love Tim Robey but we feel the jealousy that he got to speak with François Ozon about reinventing Catherine Deneuve for Potiche.
NerdCore "the internet is coming" this made me LOL. Regarding: Shelley Duvall. How weird would it be if one expression you made in a movie that one time was so iconic that people riffed on it for the next 30 years?
Ty Cullen "Hey you. What song are you listening to?" 

Finally... Backstage Magazine covers "5 Actors Who Have Had An Emmy-Worthy Year" and they are...

Margo Martindale from Justified (I should say up front that I've never seen this show, though I generally like her work -- Million Dollar Baby notwithstanding), our beloved Connie Britton from Friday Night Lights, our beloved Christina Hendricks from Mad Men, and super popular gays-playing-gays-to-awards-attention (finally no longer a novel concept! God that took forever)... Chris Colfer from Glee and Jesse Tyler Ferguson from Modern Family.  Christina & Connie share stories about nomination-morning disbelief and Margo offers this d'oh bit about her initial nonchalance about Justified.

my agent called and said, "Would you like to audition for 'Justified'?" I said, "What's that?... What's the part?" He said, "It's a Kentucky drug matriarch." And I said, "Well, can't he just look at my reel?" [Laughs.]

I bet that's happened a million times to actors with what later turned out to be signature roles. The Emmy nominations are still 100 years away... longest crawl towards nominations ever. Which of those five do you think will get the happy call on July 14th? 

Take Three: Boris Karloff

Craig from Dark Eye Socket here with Take Three. Today: Boris Karloff

Take One: The Mummy (1931)

Always the consummate character actor, Karloff gave us the most splendidly memorable characters. Famously one of the world’s biggest and best horror icons (along with Lugosi, Chaney Jr., Price and Lee, the frightful five), he played his beasts, ghouls and undead wanderers in exemplary fashion. Take his Imhotep/Ardath Bey, the titular bandaged one in director-cinematographer Karl Freund’s 1931 classic The Mummy. Ten years after being awakened by a group of foolhardy archaeologists Imhotep intends to revive his ancient Egyptian love Princess Ankh-es-en-amon with the help of reluctant modern-day babe Zita Johann.

Museum-based murder and an ancient parchment (the Scroll of Thoth!) cause all the the mummified mysticism. Karloff even has his own Pool of Fate (essentially a steamy bath/psychic porthole), into which he can see anyone and anything, anywhere; and via which he causes the remote heart failure of any old duffer who happens to get in his way. It’s all in the seeing here, all about the Mummy’s eyes. Karloff is given three intermittent extreme close-ups where he glowers into the camera, hypnotising us with his devilish ways. His eye sockets appear as black, lifeless voids into which his bright white pupils emerge through a trick of the light (director Freund was also a celebrated cinematographer). Imhotep is unnervingly memorable.

Take Two: Black Sabbath (1963)

Black Sabbath (AKA I Tre volti della paura or The Three Faces of Fear) was one of Karloff’s key later roles – and a horror-fan favourite. This second segment, The Wurdalak, of Mario Bava's 1963 horror triptych* sees a Russian nobleman seeking shelter in a cottage run by a family awaiting the return of their father Gorca (Karloff). The family fears he may be the titular vampiric creature come back to damn them all to hell or condemn them to a life of blood-lusting misery, whichever comes first. With ashen face and oversized follicle accompaniments (his curly wig, moustache and eyebrows deserve their own end-titles credit), Karloff stands out. And I mean that literally, as well as performance-wise; the star is seen standing outside peering in on the action much of the time. Karloff is also lit by horror-versed cinematographer Ubaldo Terzano in a different, far more singular way than the other actors are. The giddy weight of his presence perhaps aroused nostalgic creativity in Bava. Karloff, so familiar from classic creature features, appears like an ornery flickering wraith from a beloved bygone era.

Bava, like Freund, makes effectively chilling use of Karloff’s penetrating eyes. He knew that all it took to match Boris’ unique ability to transfix an audience with great, creepy eye-work was the requisite camerawork to capture it.

*Karloff’s performance is also notable for the fact that he appears as himself in the interludes, where he introduces the scary stories to follow.

Take Three: Frankenstein (1931) 
and Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

In James Whale’s germinal horror film Frankenstein Karloff is introduced to us simply as ‘?’. He’s a mystery, an enigma: a monster! He’s a confused soul, a man made out of bits of other men, bad men. Karloff comes alive halfway through this epoch-defining original mutant anti-hero movie. He’s first shown via a shot of his hands (as he similarly was in The Mummy and, indeed, in Bride of Frankenstein – it seems to be a recurring trope); he twitches his fingers then rises to meet a world of fear and epic paranoia. It was simply a way of being and walking: arms aloft, that angular, towering body – matched with the bolt-necked, flat-topped patchwork head, fronted by that memorably permanent crestfallen expression. Karloff delivers a beautiful performance, inventively clumsy and expertly physical.

In the first film he was quicker, more erratic. In Bride – with nearly five years' worth of living with the Frankenstein legend surrounding him – Karloff appeared more at home, looser and familiar with the moaning and groaning through fields and ruins, but no less energetically committed. It’s like he dusted off the monster’s clothes four minutes, not four years, after first wearing them so well. As a result, one of Karloff’s monstrous turns can’t truly be judged higher than the other. They’re a complementary couplet, both eminently watchable and always fascinating. But Bride reveals more about the man within the monster. It's evident in the three instances where he sheds a tear. You see that those tears are born of loneliness: he craves companionship. You can feel nothing but vicarious sorrow when the third of his tears works its way down his scarred, sunken cheek.

We belong dead.

...the monster forlornly admits in a last, generous close-up from James Whale. Boris Karloff made this famous monster indelibly his own.

Three more films for the taking: The Black Cat (1934), The Body Snatcher (1945), The Sorcerers (1967)