10 years ago this week, 'NSYNC predicted the Rise of Timberlake

Hello, everyone! It's Mark Blankenship from The Critical Condition. You may remember me from a recent podcast here on TFE, but otherwise, this is my first appearance on the site. I'm not saying I'm nervous, but I changed my outfit six times before you got here, and I did this silly thing with my hair that you probably didn't even notice and... oh! Where are my manners? Why don't we sit in the living room and talk about you?

Ahem. Anyway.

As you already know, this week marks the tenth anniversary of Wet Hot American Summer and its ever-glorious scene of Janeane Garofalo destroying an infirmary. However, that is not the only cultural touchstone that arrived a decade ago. This week also brought us Celebrity, the final album by 'NSYNC.

Even at the time, the album was a big deal, selling 1.87 million copies in its first seven days and generating hit singles like "Girlfriend," "Pop," and "Gone." None of these were quite as brilliant as"Bye Bye Bye," but they were still pretty magical. (Plus, Dirty Pop is a great drag name.)

In retrospect, however, this album is even more important because it signalled the birth of Justin Timberlake: Media Machine. Before Celebrity, he was simply the most popular member of a boy band, meaning he occasionally shared lead vocals and danced in the back of a V formation.

Celebrity, however, was essentially the Justin show. Looking at the album cover, you could assume he was the lead artist, and watching this video or this one, you might think you were watching "Cry Me a River."

Hey... who are those guys in Justin's light?

When Lance Bass wrote a book (sigh), he suggested this intense focus on Justin broke up the group, and he may be right. Intentionally or not, this period let 'NSYNC's success provide a low-risk incubator for Timberlake's solo career. If he fizzled, then he still had the group to fall back on, but if he sizzled, then he could leap into new projects.

That's kind of how Timberlake evolved from a mere pop star into box-office draw. While nestled in his music career, he started making limited appearances as an actor, popping up in SNL videos and Christina Ricci vehicles. Failure wouldn't have meant much, since people were more focused on "SexyBack" than Southland Tales.

Obviously, though, the acting thing worked out. The Social Network, Bad Teacher, and Friends With Benefits have made Timberlake a movie star who used to make records, not a pop singer who moonlights in film. And to think this was all predicted when we heard "Pop" on the radio!

Timberlake at the Oscars, February 2011

Timberlake isn't the only person to transition from one medium to another, of course, but as Celebrity hits double digits, it's interesting to consider just how successful this former Mouseketeer has been. Ten years from now, we might be analyzing how Bad Teacher laid the seeds for Senator Timberlake's eventual appointment as the Secretary of Education.

[Editor's Note: Mark is currently hosting an amazing "ULTIMATE POP SONG" contest at Critical Condition... there's only 24 hours left to vote on the first round match-ups. Don't miss the hilarious POP SONG commentary at Nick's Flick Picks, and Low Resolution, either. Some of the first bracket countdowns are true 'Sophie's Choice's. Go now... vote!]

"Wet Hot American Summer" at 10!

Alex BBats here, and today is the 10th birthday of one of my all time favorite films.  

Watching a film can be a relatively light affair.  Simple plots, easy jokes, characters who follow archetypes to the tee. A.O. Scott recently proposed that more challenging and unconventional films, such as Bela Tarr’s Turin Horse, might expand a moviegoers palate and appetite for cinema.  Occasionally a film brings the viewer into a lawless land, not one filled with bandits, but a can of vegetables who happens to be a Vietnam Veteran, a boy who can create gusts, and haystacks able to block a motorcycle.  Wet Hot American Summer (2001) challenges the viewer with absurdity, its reward being pure bliss.

Wet Hot American Summer is bedazzled to the brim with details: funny posters, extras dancing, strange gestures, or that fantastic breaking glass sound effect.  I’ve seen Wet Hot American Summer over 30 times and always find, or am given, something new to smile at.  (This latest playthrough, I heard a small, impressed gasp that the talent show MC hailed from  the Catskill Mountains resort circuit and Amy Pohler whispering “This is terrible” during the Godspell number.) 

Depth is rare in film and rarer in comedy.  David Wain and the company put there all into making this film the best possible.  There's a youthful vigor to the movie, which is especially considering that twenty and thirtysomethings are playing teenagers. Every scene in Wet Hot American Summer has something unexpected. The actors don’t sell the jokes, they own and share them.  You can tell everyone had an amazing time on the set.  Eighty percent of the cast (or thereabouts) went on to become A-list actors. (Bradley Cooper gets a permapass because of this film). Even the kid that gets tossed out of the van has an amazing resume. 

Seriously, check out his IMDB page, Kyle Gallner

Nathaniel once described Rachel Getting Married as “Nathaniel Getting Hugged.”  I feel that Wet Hot American Summer is Alex Getting Loved Passionately.  I’ll snuggle up with Wet Hot American Summer any season.

Also, Sluts Rock.

The Pot Calling the Kettle Bleech, or Hypocritical Cinema

Hello all! My name is Nick McCathy, and I’ve been a reader—and unfortunately infrequent commenter—of The Film Experience for roughly six years. Nathaniel recently introduced me here, and it's a pleasure to meet you all as well. I’ve written for The L Magazine, Boston Phoenix, Moviefone, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center Blog, and now I’m glad to find an occasional home here. I hope you find my credentials worthy, my spirit playful, and my addition to this palace of cinema and actressexuality that Nathaniel has built to be inspired.

In direct contrast to my introduction, I would like to start by celebrating a few celebrity birthdays, and congratulate them for continuing the tradition of living (well, except one of them).

Today, July 23^rd, Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, turns 22. Potbellied, Oscar-winning master of schlub Phillip Seymour Hoffman turns 44. Potboiler-cum-masterpiece noir author (The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye, and screenwriter (Oscar nominated for co-writing Double Indemnity and writing The Blue Dahlia), Raymond Chandler would have turned 123 today.

 And, most significantly, everyone’s favorite Hollywood pothead and two-time Oscar nominee, Woody Harrelson (you heard me right, Matthew McConaughey), turns the big 50 today. 

What’s your favorite performance by Mr. Woodrow Tracy Harrelson?

He has had, and continues to have, such a strange career; I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone had different answers. He's unsurprisingly awarded more for his dramatic work, which is very good, but I find his best comedic performance to be his gleefully sleazy, broken, and banged-up Roy Munson in Kingpin.

You can see two of these birthday boys in the movie theater this week: Radcliffe in a little film called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Deux and Woody Harrelson in Friends with Benefits (although I would proceed with caution since it's only an ugly gay-panic stereotype).

Click to read more ...

Face Huggers Forever!

Today is the actual 25th anniversary of James Cameron's Aliens (1986) which we happen to have been celebrating all week. (Theme Weeks! Do you love or do you love?)

We meant to do a little more about the actual series surrounding this one film but our Netflix queue was beset by weird problems --  "game over, man, game over!" -- The Alien Quadrilogy is arguably the most fascinating big money franchise that Hollywood ever threw money at, functioning such as it does as Auteur Training Wheels; each film was given to a different major director near what the world presumed was the beginning of their huge career: Ridley Scott (2nd narrative feature of 19), James Cameron (3rd of 8), David Fincher (1st of 9) and Jean Pierre-Jeunet (3rd of 6)

Instead we just focused on our favorite of the Quad. Just in case you missed any, here are the four bloggy monsters we hatched for this historic day.

• Hit Me With Your Best Shot
  In which 10 blogs select what they think of as this epic's best shot.
• My Magnificent Aliens Obsession
  In which Kurt shares a surprising childhood memoir.
• Take Three: Michael Biehn
  In which Craig celebrates Cameron's go-to wrecked hero. 
• Podcast: 1986 Highlights, Oscar & Cannes 
  In which Nick and I sing the movie's praises and revisit other favorites from the year.

I'll let the paid subscribers and donors (see sidebar) choose the next theme week. If you've contributed this past month to keep the site with something approaching a shoestring operating budget (i.e. roof over head) expect soon.

Did you enjoy the Ripley action this week?

20th Anniversary: POINT BREAK (1991)

By the time Point Break emerged in the summer of 1991 I was already a fan of Kathryn Bigelow having obsessed over Near Dark (1987) on VHS in, I think, 1990? I was not disappointed since Point Break has at least a couple of sequences in it that made good on Near Dark's terrifying bar massacre for the sheer "finger lickin' good" adrenaline that pumps through them. When I think of great action direction the foot chase sequence in Point Break always comes to mind if I don't get stuck in James Cameron oeuvre. With the recent rebirth of both Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) and Cameron (Avatar) perhaps there is hope for action cinema still?

Online searches for Point Break screencaps reveal yet again the dearth of movie images online from the early 90s (just before the internet took over, natch) so we can't marvel at Kathryn Bigelow's generous attention to Keanu Reeve's wetsuit ass or the way his wet bangs cling so perfectly to his forehead in slow motion as if entire action sequences were shot as frame-by-frame meticulously as any frozen fashion shoot meant to be blown up on billboards everywhere.

I asked Team Film Experience to share their most vivid memories of the one arguable classic in the pretty-FBI-agent-meets-new-age-bankrobbing-surfer-guru genre. Shut up! It is so a genre.

Kurt (Cinema de Gym): Collectively, my most vivid memory of Point Break is definitely the skydiving scenes. In my teens, I went through a phase where I was totally obsessed with extreme sports and extreme sports movies, perhaps because extreme sports don't exactly require the same hand-to-eye coordination of regular sports, which I extremely lacked. Point Break was one of my big, masculine extreme sports movies, along with Airborne and Drop Zone, the Wesley Snipes skydiving movie. I totally had it my head that I would skydive as soon as humanly possible, especially since my dad had done it back in the day. My thoughts have since...changed. Now I can't imagine just jumping out of an airplane. Maybe if I magically ended up in Point Break 2...

Editor's Note: If we get 150 new subscribers today (see sidebar for TFE's budget to 'dream a little bigger darling') Nathaniel will personally foot the bill to convince Kurt to skydive and share the video for your viewing pleasure. Kurt is very handsome so wouldn't you love to see him terrified and screaming in the clouds as he plummets to possible death?!? If we reach 300 paid subscribers this week (the goal) Nathaniel, whose father has also sky-dived and who is also terrified at the thought of leaping from a plane, will do it with him. Editor's Note Pt 2: The Film Experience accepts no responsibility if anyone dies while trying this.

Craig (Take Three): What I remember most is Kathryn Bigelow showing 99% of her action-filmmaker peers of the time exactly how action cinema is done 100% of the time. 

Michael (Unsung Heroes): All my strongest memories of Point Break involve Nick Frost's anguished Keanu interpretation in the movie Hot Fuzz, so methinks I may be due for a refresher viewing of Bigelow's surf/heist opus.

JA from My New Plaid Pants: I've been meaning to revisit it but I was never a big Point Break fan as a kid. Even back then surfer talk set my nerves on edge. But the first thing I think of is that post-coitus shot of Keanu and Lori Petty in bed where she's about a hundred thousand percent butcher than he is. He looked like a pretty porcelain doll and she was this motorcycle mama that was just gonna pick him up and smash him on the floor.

Ha! I love that image, too. Whatever happened to Lori Petty? Ah well. At least she'll always have the early 90s see also: A League of Their Own and Tank Girl.

P.S. Team TFE is looking for a couple of new members to gear up for Oscar season. If you consider yourself a fine writer who is able to get interesting fun points across in short bloggy doses (no current blog is necessary if you have samples), understand TFE's voice (i.e. you "get" and enjoy the site) and live in a major market (and can thus get to screenings or festivals), contact Nathaniel at film experience (at) gmail (dot) com.