New Mutants and New Films. What did you see this past week?

Everyone is wondering when it will be safe to go back to movie theaters, or, in some markets (like here in NYC), when theaters will reopen at all? Vanity Fair sent Richard Larson to his home town of Boston for a wonderfully evocative piece about returning to the movie theater... for The New Mutants of all things. That Fox movie's long troubled voyage to cinemas has been well documented on the internet and Vulture recently tried to sum it all up, if you haven't been following along.

I was an avid reader of comic books when The New Mutants first emerged (September 1982) and I gobbled that book right up...

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Comment Party: Against-type casting... pro or con?

by Nathaniel R

Mo: He came slammin' into my shop...
Freddie: Who struck the first blow?
Whitey: The first blow -- what are you kidding? -- there was only one blow. 

Do you enjoy against-type casting? I couldn't stop thinking of this practice while watching Boys Town (1938) the other night to fill in a notable Best Actor gap (Spencer Tracy won the Oscar as do-gooder Father Flanagan who started the titular home for abandoned / delinquent boys). In the film Mickey Rooney's "Whitey" tests Father Flanagan's theory that 'there are no bad boys' and his tough guy shtick feels very over the top especially coming from a teen star who was then best known for boisterous enthusiasm in comedy and song and dance.  But then a funny thing happened. Halfway through the picture, while still bristling against this relentless posturing, it suddenly worked for the movie; OF COURSE Father Flanagan is right and Whitey's tough guy callousness is a performance. This little jerk acts tough but he's actually a softie beneath the sneering.

Do you like watching actors playing the opposite of their typical persona, whether or not they succeed? What's your go to example of this sort of thing.

Bradley Cooper entering PT Anderson's world

by Nathaniel R

We were wondering when we'd get casting news for Paul Thomas Anderson's next film and it's finally starting to trickle in. Though the untitled movie revoles around a famous teenage actor attending high school in the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s (yes, we're thrilled that PTA is returning to Boogie Nights time and locale) the buzz is that it's actually an ensemble piece. And there are supposedly at least three prominent adult roles. Bradley Cooper is in talks for one of them but we don't know which. The juiciest adult roles are rumored to be a film director, an agressive agent, and a closeted politician.

Cooper is one of the best actors of his generation so we can't wait to see what Anderson can pull from him since the auteur is just amazing with  actors...

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Who deserves a shot at romantic lead stardom?

This question is brought to you by a recent rescreening of North Country (2005). The movie is too didactic to dimensionalize its characters but there are lots of little things worth thinking about and discussing therein... especially the kind of topics that can only come when a movie is now an older if not an 'old' movie. Like... why didn't Michelle Monaghan (who really pops in a small role) become a bigger deal? And why hasn't Hollywood given Corey Stoll a shot as a romantic lead? There he was, 15 whole year ago, being bald and sexy and crushworthy six years before his breakthrough (Midnight in Paris). He plays one of the only redeemable guys in the mine where Charlize works (and is continually harassed, both violently and sexually). There's a lovely but sad moment when he asks her to dance at a local bar and as she relaxes into his arms, drunk, she asks him twice... "you're a nice guy, right?" 

Are they any other character actors that you think deserve a shot at a romantic leading role? 

Born in '91 Fun. Who will get an Oscar nomination first?

by Nathaniel R

It occurred to us this morning, since we're celebrating 1991 this month, that no one born in 1991 has yet been nominated for an acting Oscar! Which begs the question: who will be first among them? The following actors are all turning 30 next year and the early 30s is a GREAT time for movie star ascendancy if you have the skill and magnetism and also happen to get the opportunities and have some good luck (three of the four are required!). We narrowed it down to a dozen options for you (in random order) though of course the first to get there could be someone we haven't even heard of yet getting a late start. Make your case for which of these actors it'll be in the comments...

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