April Showers: Edward Norton x 2

Hope you've enjoyed the April Showers series. There are SO many films we could have covered. (Tangent: I'm dying to know, for example, when the first shower sequence ever filmed was. The earliest I personally know of is Marilyn Monroe in Niagara (1953) which I meant to write about. Oops. But there has to be something earlier, right? I've searched but can't find any definitive info.)

Though I hate to end on a disturbing note I haven't been able to get Edward Norton out of my mind recently so we have to look back at American History X (1998).

Edward Norton as "Derek" in American History X

I'm not sure how Mr. Norton became lodged in my brain recently but if I had to guess it'd be the combo of Mark Ruffalo taking over the Hulk (they just started filming The Avengers) and a random flashback to The Painted Veil. Then at some point last week I said to myself "Edward Norton was Ryan Gosling before Ryan Gosling was Ryan Gosling" i.e. the actor that everyone thought was The Actor of His Generation, The Future. And then I really couldn't get him out of my head.

Norton famously gained much of his Great Actor reputation from American History X (1998), and won a longshot Oscar nomination for Best Actor. In the film he plays Derek, a loathsome racist who, after realizing his world view is full of shit while serving time in prison, tries to turn his life around before his younger brother follows his same dark path. It's disturbing to note how much acting cred can come from playing racist skinheads; Russell Crowe (Romper Stomper) and Ryan Gosling (The Believer) had similar artistic breakthroughs.

I've never known quite what to make of American History X -- it's one of those films like, say, Natural Born Killers, that seems to struggle with its own theme merely by addressing it. If you keep visualizing something awful through strong visuals and hugely charismatic acting, aren't you actually glorifying what you're supposed to be condemning? So this post is also a call for your opinions. I'm just curious how readers feel about the movie because it's one of those key late 90s Oscar players that I don't believe we've ever discussed. (I was in the Sir Ian McKellen camp that year but I was enormously pleased that Norton managed a nomination.)

As Derek begins to form a tentative friendship with a black prisoner, his neonazi counterparts turn violently against him. Showers are always bad news in prison movies. More after the jump [NSFW]

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The Time Link Machine

The Now
Pajiba Joanna reveals 10 current tv characters she'd like to shag. Hear hear on #7 Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott on Parks and Recreation). Zoinks but I love him. And the show, too. One of those blessed TV shows that gets consistently stronger all the time, as if learning from itself rather than calcifying.
The Wrap Hugh Dancy takes the lead in Spree. I was wondering what had become of him outside of being on Claire Danes arm at awards shows.
Gold Derby Emmy categorizations. Chris Colfer (Glee) and Ed O'Neill (Modern Family) are going for supporting again despite the lead Comedy Actor category opening up a bit with the exit of Emmy slot hogs  from Monk and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Kenneth in the (212) turns us on to a Mark Ruffalo Guest DJ program
Scene Stealers ran a fun Thor hammer photoshop contest. See the amusing results.

gif via Sonia

The Future
My New Plaid Pants Jeremy Renner would like to play Steve McQueen in a movie but JA has a better idea: Rainer Werner Fassbinder. My feelings are Yes and Hell, Yes.
Boing Boing Omelette recipe printed on an egg. Oh Technology you clever clever scamp.
IndieWire Ed Burns is never going back to theatrical releases (via Tribeca Film Festival).

The Past
Towleroad Karl Lagerfied is the new Willy Wonka.
i09 Restored uncensored version of Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is being published. Does this mean we'll get another film version.
The Awl, like Pajiba, is feeling the lusty month of may already. 111 Literary characters in order of Bangability. Ha. You'll never believe it but Mr. Darcy is NOT #1.
BET remembers Imitation of Life
Old Hollywood on affection for former lovers via Jeanne Moreau.
Stirred Straight Up With a Twist did you know that Joan Crawford was almost named Joan Arden.

"Yes, No, Maybe So" Triple: Apes, Immortals, Wizards

Yes No Maybe So is a series in which we divvy movie trailers up into three categories so as to manage our expectations and combat Huzz (Hype + Buzz). Huzz isn't a real word but it should be and we'll keep using it until it is. The point of the series is this: We will not be slaves to the Masters of Marketing! Except, of course, by giving them the usual free publicity that they have craftily convinced all citizens of the online world to regular deliver unto them.

The problem, we've noticed with trailers, is that they all tend to arrive at once and how does one keep up unless one merely just posts the trailer which is basically like posting a free advertisement and pretending that advertising IS content which so many websites do is just yuck. That's not a yes, no or maybe so equation. That's just a full on No, yo.  

ANYWAY... today we're doing a short form genre threesome: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2, Rise of the Apes and The Immortals in an effort to catch up. If you haven't seen the trailers they're all after the jump, along with listy yes, no, maybe so bullet points. You know you wanna keep reading so do it.

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April Showers: How Stella Get Her Groove Back

waterworks weekdays at 11

Travel back in time to that unfortunately brief time period when Angela Bassett was headlining movies. After the Oscar nomination for rocking that Tina Turner biopic and lending unforgettable fire (literally) to Waiting to Exhale she got her own picture to headline: How Stella Got Her Groove Back. The movie wasn't great but didn't it have one of the best titles of any book/movie/whatsit ever? The correct answer is yes.

To Shower or Not To Shower. That is the Question

How did Stella get her groove back, exactly?

Lots and lots of sex with Taye Diggs that's how! If that's how one does it, than singer/actress/wickedwitch Idina Menzel is possibly the grooviest chick on earth.

To shower or not to shower? They've just fought... again. These two are always arguing. But since getting her groove back in Jamaica, and returning to San Francisco with her studly groove-inducer in tow, she just can't resist his shameless display. Continued after the jump (mild nudity)

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Pforever