The Furniture: John Waters, Small-Business Advocate

Team Experience is celebrating John Waters for his 75th birthday. So here's a special episode of "The Furniture," by Daniel Walber, our series on Production Design. 

Pecker is a rare, quiet(er) film in the John Waters filmography. It’s not as outrageous as Pink Flamingos or Female Trouble, nor as bombastic as Hairspray or Serial Mom. It’s plenty lewd, of course, and it’s hardly devoid of yelling. But it’s understated.

After all, it’s a movie about photography - pictures over words, that sorta thing. It’s about capturing the essence of Baltimore in crisp snapshots. The titular Pecker (Edward Furlong) is an amateur photographer with a passion for the little moments of his life: a burger on the grill, the Hampden neighborhood welcome sign, rats mating in an alley...

Click to read more ...

Months of Meryl: Before and After (1996)

John and Matthew are watching every single live-action film starring Meryl Streep. 

 

 #23 —Dr. Carolyn Ryan, a suburban pediatrician attempting to keep her family together after her son becomes a prime suspect in his girlfriend’s murder.

MATTHEW: In a 2000 Entertainment Weekly profile that took stock of her screen efforts to-date, Meryl Streep amusingly and very appropriately described Before and After, Barbet Schroeder’s 1996 small-town crime drama, as “an airless thing.” Truer words, etc.

Before and After is one of those forgettable Streep misfires that appear with a bit more frequency in the latter half of her vaunted career. The tell-tale signs are all here: an appealing but hardly virtuosic director seemingly working on autopilot, bestselling literary source material that maybe didn’t cry out for cinematic treatment after all, and a Northeastern setting in close enough proximity to her Connecticut domicile...

Click to read more ...

Sally Kirkland is "Awakened"!

Sometimes movie publicists are telepathic. Last week I was thinking about The Hamptons and how it's weird that I've never been but I'm so eager to spend every weekend there this fall shivering from the icy cold glares of Victoria Grayson and Emily Thorne (Revenge returns Sunday night ~Holla). Then a friend who had never seen Scarface (1983) sent me a text that was basically like “Steven Bauer ♥ omg!” to which I  responded with a “Queue Thief of Hearts - it's pure Bauer Porn." Last but not least, I was wondering which celebs I should invite as future guest stars and my mind wandered to Sally Kirkland, star of Anna (1986), for which she won the Golden Globe, an Independent Spirit and the Heart of Me. 

All of these things were jostling for attention in my crowded celluloid packed-brain for the past few days when what should arrive in my inbox but the first photos from the set of the thriller Awakened which is... wait for it...

A) now shooting in The Hamptons...

B) co-stars my Sally Kirkland 

and C) also features Steven Bauer in one of the leading roles.

TELEPATHY!

(Well done, publicity team)

More after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Til Death Do Us Link

Frontal Cortex on the Auteur myth and the genius of Hollywood's Studio System using auteur poster boy Alfred Hitchcock as the prime example. 
Super Punch clever Australian symphony posters for a "Space Classics" concert featuring film scores.
Arts Beat Whoa. Musical theater's #1 genius Stephen Sondheim is not happy about the changes they are making to opera classic Porgy & Bess for its reimagination / revival with the great Audra McDonald.
Boy Culture if you haven't been following the Luke Evans (Three Musketeers, Immortals) re-closeting scandal, Matthew has been keeping close track. Lots of testy developments including his management teams efforts to dub former statements "youthful immaturity" (that's right coming out is now IMMATURE!) and Chelsea Handler ribbing.

Luke Evans, Amber Heard, Taylor Lautner

Towleroad That new Taylor Lautner movie Abducted looks d-r-e-a-d-f-u-l (and yes it kills me to see major brilliant actors like Sigourney Weaver trying to prop him up way under the title billing) but this photo caption made me lol. 
Stuart Immonen draws Ginger Rogers on his phone. Love it.
Playboy has an interview with actress Amber Heard (Drive Angry, The Playboy Club, All The Boys Love Mandy Lane) on coming out in Hollywood (she's been dating a female photographer for a few years) and the pressure for actresses to look like "14 year old boys". Fun interview actually, she sounds like she's got bite.
Lens this book "Where Children Sleep" looks fascinating. It's portraits of diverse living environments all over the world, from the overprivileged to the homeless to the whaaaa? Take a look.

Remember that time a couple of years ago when Chris Evans' management  told him that he should top taking his shirt off all the time? Yeah, that was dumb. Thankfully also short-lived. Post Captain Americahe's back to his old tricks. Here he is in a scene from the new Anna Faris comedy What's Your Number?

poll by twiigs.com

Emmy Watch
Gold Derby has a piece up about the Comedy Supporting Actress category at the Emmys which I've discussed previously to offer a quite altered list. I am no Emmy expert so I have to trust them that the race is between Jane Lynch (1 Emmy) and Betty White (5 Emmys). But I'm dumbfounded as to why. ALL the other competitors are stronger than these two by leaps and bounds. I'm rooting for either of the Modern Family ladies Sofia Vergara (no Emmys) or Julie Bowen (no Emmys). "Slow Down Your Neighbors" was an instant classic episode for the Sitcom Hall of Fame thanks in large part to both of them.

Dead Link Me
Screened shares all the deaths in Final Destination. Previously on... Final Destination.
The Awl interesting piece on actors having to play death scenes with quotes from actors like Edward Furlong from American History X

Doing that scene took a long time—I was laying dead in a urinal for a whole day, and playing dead is terrible for me. Maybe I’m a little ADD, but it’s very hard for me to be still, not blink, hold my breath.

There's also vampire victims from both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and True Blood!