April Showers: South Pacific

waterworks weeknights at 11

Tonight I thought we'd cover one of the most famous showers in entertainment history. It's not famous for the showering but for the singing. Raise your hands if you've ever sung this song in the shower.

I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair
I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair
I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair
and send him on his way.

Nellie talks herself out of love "before i go any further i better not get started."

It's so catchy it's like a commercial jingle. (Didn't it get coopted for actual commercial jingles at some point?) The strangest thing about the sequence in South Pacific (1958) is that it's not actually sung IN the shower. I had totally forgotten this. Maybe "Billis Bath Club" charged extra for singing? I mean even "use of soap" is an extra there, an extra 5¢.

No, constantly fretful Nellie Forbush (Mitzi Gaynor) actually waits until AFTER she's out of the shower to shampoo her hair. And to sing.

Isn't that nuts?

Early Don't Ask Don't Tell signage (?) and Mitzi's backwards shower activities after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Box Office: Easter For the Birds

Did you stay at home and color eggs, church it up, socialize, or hit the movies this weekend? Or maybe a little of all four? I did the latter two. I was a bit worried when I walked into an empty theater for Water for Elephants (but it did fill halfway up). Here's the top ten.

Easter Weekend Box Office

01 RIO $26.3 (cumulative $80.8)
The birds have now taken over for the bunny.
02 MADEA'S BIG HAPPY FAMILY new $25.0
03 WATER FOR ELEPHANTS new $16.8
04 HOP $12.1 (cumulative $100.2)
05 SCREAM 4 $7.0 (cumulative $31.0)
06 AFRICAN CATS new $6.0
07 SOUL SURFER $5.4 (cumulative $28.5)
08 HANNA $5.2 (cumulative $31.7)
09 INSIDIOUS $5.2 (cumulative $44.0)
10 SOURCE CODE $5.0 (cumulative $44.6)

Obviously Tyler Perry will be making Madea movies till he's in the grave since people never stop showing up once he puts on those big dresses. The debut for Water for Elephants seems worrisome (truth: we always hope that epic period romances do well since like musicals they seem in short dead-genre supply) but they somehow kept their production costs way down so they'll be fine in the long haul. Movie budgets so rarely make visible sense on screen. This one only costs $38 million despite being a handsome period piece with wild animals and three stars? Meanwhile Black Swan costs half of that and looked downrright spectacular while some movies -- most movies actually -- cost more than $38 and they don't look as expensive. Guess it all depends on who the producers are handing the money to, right?

We don't like to neglect the films in limited release so let's check in on how films that have never been in wide are doing. That top five goes like so.

01 WIN WIN $1.1 (cumulative $6.6)
02 ATLAS SHRUGGED PT. 1 $.8 (cumulative $3.0)
Apparently if you savage this one in a review people get pissed. So given the 6% on Rotten Tomatoes there are a lot of pissed people out there. I totally believe this as my Dad is about as conservative as they come and worships Ayn Rand.
03 JANE EYRE $.7 (cumulative $7.8)
04 OF GODS AND MEN $.1 (cumulative $3.2)
05 I AM $.1 (cumulative $.5)

Sadly both Win Win and Jane Eyre which have been quite well received by arthouse auds probably won't expand that much further since they're both slowing down. One hopes that Jane Eyre will stick around until X-Men: Mutant Babies opens and some brave new Fassbender fans get curious. The highest per screen average went to Canada's Oscar nominated INCENDIES which nabbed $18,000ish from each of its screens. Alas, it was only on three screens.

What did you see?

Earth's Linkiest Heroes

Whedonesque okay so supposedly Joss Whedon started shooting The Avengers today. I've long said this movie will never happen so if cameras are actually rolling (do people still say that anymore with digital cameras?) and they don't stop production at some point unexpectaly I'll be totes wrong. And I'll be happy to be wrong (so long as the movie is good.)
Pajiba the ten movies people most lie about having seen when they haven't.
Movie|Line Stephanie Zacharek reveals the summer movies she's most looking forward to... even though she hates writing about trailers.
Acidemic remembered Jesus, via Franco Zefferilli, for Easter. I did such a bad job with Easter at the blog. I didn't even post a bunny picture. What's wrong with me? I'm normally such a holiday-friendly guy. Do you have a favorite Jesus portrayal from film or television?
Gold Derby looks at the possible Best Comedy Actress lineup at the Emmys. Did you know that The Lovely Laura Linney has never been defeated when nominated?
Coming Soon Johnny Depp to cameo in the 21 Jump Street movie.
FourFour writes about Lance Loud, now famous again post-humously due to HBO's Cinema Verite.
Us Magazine congratulations to TFE darling Toni Collette! She had a baby boy.

Just For Fun
My High School Boyfriend Was Gay have you seen this new humor site? Prom photos are the best for unintentional comedy. You woudn't believe mine but, no, I won't ever be sharing it.
The Awl on friendships with the unemployed.
Omaha I'm sharing this link about a tattoo artist just because of his following quote from the tattoo artist to your right on the rise of intricate realistic tattoos.

“You can put beautiful art on the body just as you can put beautiful art on the wall. I spent nine hours putting a tattoo of Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman on one guy.

Nobody loves La Pfeiffer more than me but I couldn't wear her face on my body for the rest of my days. Do any of you have tattoos? I'm squeamish about them but I'm always curious as to what motivates others to get them.

Hugo Nominees Or: How To Stop Worrying and Love The Geek

The quickest thing you learn once you become obsessed with awards is that they never end; someone is always handing out prizes for something. And since the eligibility periods are different for everything it takes forever for a single year's entertainment to finally be "old" aka ineligible. Such is the case with 2010 entertainment (mostly the second half of it) which is still eligible for Emmy nods (July 14th), Tony nods (May 3rd)... and The Hugo Awards, which are science fiction based, and newly announced today.

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION – LONG
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
How to Train Your Dragon
Inception
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Toy Story 3

Inception and Toy Story 3 can breathe a sigh of relief that The King's Speech featured neither threatening alien invaders (Wallis Simpson does not count) nor superpowered heroes (Helena Bonham Carter does not count, her super powers being off screen).

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION – SHORT
Doctor Who: ‘‘A Christmas Carol''
Doctor Who: ‘‘The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang''
Doctor Who: ‘‘Vincent and the Doctor''
Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury
The Lost Thing

I've embedded this "Ray Bradbury" vid once before on the old blog but it made me LOL so here it is again. With Doctor Who cancelling itself out (one assumes) Will The Lost Thing, the animated short, repeat its Oscar win at the Hugos?

Shaun Tan, the Australian illustrator behind that short, is also up for Best Artist, a category which includes Dan Dos Santos, Bob Eggleston, John Picacao and Stephan Martiniere.

Since there are definitely not enough awards for online entertainment (The Film Experience certainly hasn't won any trophies, y'know *sniffle*), here are some webzines to check out if you're into sci-fi. They're all nominated: (Semi-Pro) Clarkesworld, Interzone, Lightspeed, Locus, Weird Tales, (Fan) Banana Wings, The Challenger, The Drink Tank, File 770, StarShipSofa

Here's a complete list of the nominees should you enjoy sci-fi.

"Something's crossed over in me. I can't go back. I couldn't live."

For those who experienced the tumultous "girlpower" ride of 1990s popular culture this Pretty Woman vs. Thelma & Louise essay in The New York Times is wonderfully mnemonic... and insightful.

Love that accompanying illustration by Tom Gauld. Spot on, spot!

Here's a morsel from the article on the narrative transformational journeys of Thelma (Geena Davis) and Vivian (Julia Roberts), the "ingenues" as the narratives go.

...only Thelma transitions into a new, more independent self, while Vivian finds a way to be preserved as a wide-eyed child-bride forever.

It was precisely this happy ending that made people love “Pretty Woman,” just as it was the flying-off-the-cliff part that made some people object to “Thelma and Louise.” But while Vivian was happily giving herself to a callous oligarch who would purchase her personhood (as she chirped inanities about “rescuing him right back”), Thelma was saving herself by holding up a gas station and locking a cop in the trunk of his car. As every moment of Vivian’s transformative love story — from buying new outfits to subsuming herself to her Pygmalion husband — is transactional, every step of Thelma’s transformation is about evolving from chattel to free agent. In fact, you can make the argument that it was actually Vivian, not Thelma and Louise, who ceased to exist at the end of her film.

Guess which film predicted the next two decades of pop culture? Sigh.

In the magazine version (alas not online) the sidebar features Susan Sarandon Haikus by Adam Sternbergh. These were the two funniest:

Kind Sister Prejean
Bravely faced down injustice
And Sean Penn's Acting.

Nun, hooker, stepmom,
Your only regret, no doubt:
"Mr Woodcock," yes?

Teehee.

Come back to the five and dime Susan Sarandon, Susan Sarandon. And by five and dime, we mean "good movies."