The Not So "Amazing" Spider-Man

originally published in my column at Towleroad

Andrew Garfield hanging about on The Amazing Spider-Man set.

Déjà vu  is an unsettling feeling. You can’t quite place the why and whens of it but you know you’ve experienced whatever this is before. Not so with the reboot of Spider-Man which has been optimistically retitled “THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN” for 2012.  The new webslinging film arrives only five years after Spider-Man 3, that final sour note in Sam Raimi’s otherwise sweet trilogy. This déjà vu is easy to place with the “whens” and thus less unsettling if still perplexing on account of the “whys”. We’re back to summer 2002 when Peter Parker first pined for a high school sweetheart, first indirectly contributed to his uncle’s murder, first learned that with great power comes great responsibility, and first swung around a big screen Manhattan in his iconic red and blue spandex.

Franchises are the comfort food of the movies and though there’s nothing wrong with comfort food beyond its lack of nutritional value, so much depends on the delivery when it comes to the familiar pleasure. The Amazing Spider-Man spins its title card with webbing very swiftly which leaves you hoping for a zippy entertainment with key twists on the mythos to keep you engaged. But after a new corporate thriller prologue featuring Peter Parker’s heretofore unseen parents the movie settles into excessively familiar story beats. We’re forced to wait out the entire numbing origin story again and relive many story beats from the 2002 origin story, with the only major exclusions being the absence of Parker's employment at The Daily Bugle (weird) and no James Franco shaped obstacle to his girl’s affections. Other than that only the names of the major characters have changed: Blonde Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) stands in for Redhead Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) as the love interest Peter likes to photograph; Dr Curt Connors/The Lizard (Rhys Ifans) stands in for Norman Osborne/The Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) as the scientist Peter looks up to whose illegal human experimentation (on himself!) wreaks havoc on his mental stability.

Once you start talking to yourself in an out of body "evil" voice, it's just a matter of time until you're a Green Super Villain. More...

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Red (& Blue) Carpet Convo: Andrew ♥ Emma

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! We return to Red Carpet Convos with a special Spidey edition starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone at premiere events with myself (Nathaniel) and Film Experience fan and Pajiba columnist Joanna drooling on them. Moviegoers will be doing the same over the holiday no doubt as The Amazing Spider-Man tests the "how soon is too soon?" mega-question of The Reboot.... 

Is your Spidey Sense tingling?

Joanna: SPIDER-PEOPLE

Nathaniel: Before I succumb to Hollywood's cutest couple, I have to say that though I hear Michael's point, I still live in horror of how well the movie might do and how fast it will then speed up the cycle of reboots. THE HUNGER GAMES STARRING ELLE FANNING IN 2015!

Ahem. But if this movie was necessary to bring Emma & Andrew together, I accept it in all its unecessary glory

Joanna:  ‪It should be noted, that no matter what I say about their clothing, every time I look at a photo of them, I feel like I've been aggressively snuggled by a puppy.  They are the adorablest.‬

Nathaniel:  ‪a puppy with a super cold wet nose and the softest fur imaginable. A whole litter of aggressively cuddly puppies in fact.

Joanna:  ‪Where do we start?  OOOO!  Can we start with Elvira, Mistress of Darkness?‬ 

Nathaniel:  ‪Yes‬. 

Joanna:  ‪Especially because good old Andy is wearing a shiny red suit. A. Shiny. Red. Suit.‬ Not pictured: the (I'm not kidding) gold medallion around his neck.

Nathaniel:    ‪Although this is kind of like skipping ahead to the climax. The best thing is that he doesn't even seem uncomfortable but like he owns it. He's wearing the Shiny Red Suit. The Shiny Red Suit is not wearing him.‬ Which I hope is true in the movie too. Theme clothing! 

Joanna:  ‪Oh sorry!  Did I peak too early?  Well then can we take a post-coital look at the turquoise bed skirt Emma is sporting?‬

Nathaniel:    ‪These are the casual looks from press events earlier in the day at premieres. ‬Although if this is post-coital, what does that say about his t-shirt "I'm an animal lover" well... "_m a_ _nima_ _ve_ " so i'm guessing.

Joanna: ‪I bet you're a whiz at Hangman‬

Nathaniel:   ‪boggle, scrabble, hangman. I ♥ words.

Joanna:   ‪Do you love Andrew's macho T-Bird look?‬ Do you think black leather suits him?

Nathaniel:    ‪This is the only gray area in his choices thus far. It's possible that the Leather is wearing him.‬

‪How is it possible that Emma Stone is so unpredictable with her fashions and yet always looks great. Like there's no signature look at all but everything is perfect. If it were possible to hate whole litters of snuggly puppies, you'd have to hate them. Too much perfection.‬

Joanna:   ‪The fact that HE wants to snuggle her even when she wears pounds of lace and embroidered flowers restores my faith in humanity...and puppies.‬ 

Nathaniel:   ‪But even embroidered flowers look great on her. I'm dying to see her on laundry day. I bet even dirty pajamas and worn embarrassing t-shirts from 10 years ago look great on her.‬ 

Joanna:   ‪Do you miss her Ginger hair at all, though?  I think the blonde makes her look a mite pale all over.‬

Nathaniel:   ‪I do. I always miss ginger hair and it always worries me for actresses. *coughlindsay‬* Blonde is just too common. It's practically the Official Hair Color of Actressing and as such, you're never special when you wear it unless you are one of the true goddesses of the color (Monroe, Deneuve, Harlow, Pfeiffer, and a few more)

Joanna:   ‪I knew we were headed there.‬ 

Nathaniel: lol. But how sharp and natty is Garfield's gray with sweater ensemble?

Joanna:   ‪That's my favorite one!‬ As a fellow Word Lover, I have a thing for English Professor chic. If that coat has elbow patches, I'll just die.

Nathaniel:   ‪And we'll reboot you in ten years.‬ 

Joanna:  ‪To be played by an as yet unborn Fanning!‬ 

 

YOUR TURN...

Which is cuter, a litter of soft puppies or Emma & Andrew? 

Previously...
Savages premiere
To Rome With Love premiere

What's on your (cinematic) mind?

I was just thinking about Emma Stone because I spotted this great spoof sketch by Grant Gould of the Easy A poster through the Game of Thrones lens...

So fun! Which is coincidentally a word that doesn't fit Game of Thrones at all. It's too sober for fun. (Daenerys is just about my least favorite character in the Game of Thrones franchise because her story just never goes anywhere... Whatever, this post wasn't meant to be about GoT which I stopped watching a couple episodes ago, remembering how pissed the third book made me so why stick with it?) 

SO..... what were you just thinking about movie-wise before you clicking over to the Film Experience?

P.S. More posts coming to wrap up our Smash coverage, Cannes new, "Best Shot" and more. The past two days have been a little trying.

Podcast: Spread the Wealth, End the War

I couldn't let the postmortem on Oscar's 84th close without inviting my ol' podcast pals Katey, Nick and Joe to join me for one last conversation of the season. We ended up talking for over an hour. See we all share this "can't stop talking Oscar!" addiction and none of us will ever go to rehab. So you get the podcast in two parts. Part two late tonight.

Here's part one where we start goofy with Octavia Spencer's ubiquity and end all serious like (well, mostly) with Viola and Meryl. Join the conversation in the comments.

Topics include but are not limited to...

• Octavia Spencer, Angelina Jolie
• "Cut To Camera 3. No, Camera 4. Wait, Back to 2!"
• Spreading the Wealth. What Did They Actually Love?
• Billy Crystal's 9th Go-Round
• Emma Stone vs. Anne Hathaway with a side of Jonah Hill
• Red Carpet Reveals and Lead Actor Presentations
• CLIPS! Commercial Breaks
• Meryl & Viola and the Narrative vs. Performance Problem

You can download the podcast on iTunes or listen right here at the bottom of the post.
UPDATE: PART TWO NOW AVAILABLE AS WELL.

Post Oscar Part One

Tues Top Ten Pt 2: 84th Oscar Takeaways

It's (almost) all over but the dresses. But first we're counting down the ten takeaways from Oscar's 84th year. Your takeaways may vary of course but these are the ten things I expect I'll keep thinking about beyond the big night....

10 Direction is Everything
09 Fincher's Oscar Stride
08 Leggy Angelina Jolie
07 Movie Stars on Movies
06 A Separation's Win

Jessica and her Nana

05 Jessica Chastain is a Girly Girl
Just when we started thinking of her as a Serious Serious Actress she showed up in awards season all giggling, bouncy, girlish. This doesn't mean she isn't a serious actor of course but it was rather a shock, even after speaking with her. Celia Foote's uninhibited enthusiasm in The Help might be the closest we've seen to the real woman behind the chameleon. This impression continued on Oscar night when she brought her Nana and went all womanchild shy and cuddly after her clip. Later during the Best Actress presentation she looked enormously worried for Viola Davis. No wonder she's an actress; her face registers every flush of big feeling. 

04 Emmanuel Lubezki Is Never Going To Win an Oscar
I was more sure that "Chivo" aka Emmanuel Lubezki would lose the cinematography Oscar for The Tree of Life than I was sure who would win it. I predicted The Artist but the prize went to Robert Richardson (Oscar #3) for Hugo.  Lately AMPAS seems much more interested in cinematography as a complicated technical profession rather than a spiritual one that's all about light and tone and feeling. For the past three years Oscar has definitely preferred heavily processed CGI behemoths here. We hope they one day get back to movies that feel crafted by hand... and God. Like There Will Be Blood (which miraculously won).

Lubezki is brilliant but it's lost on the general voters. At least the cinematography branch knows his worth. He has the unique distinction of being nominated with frequency despite rarely lensing Best Picture nominees (which is rare) and despite not being inextricably tied to any one specific filmmaker (also rare). His nominations, all of them deserved (rarer still!), come from filmmakers as diverse as Alfonso Cuaron, Terrence Malick and Tim Burton.

03 Best Presenter: Emma Stone
Easy A was such a confident comic star turn that it was inevitable that she would ascend but it's delightful that she's just as funny at the big show as on the big screen. Entering the stage to present strenuously waving, emphatically gesturing, widely grinning, Emma Stone was so keyed up you had to ask if she was for real. Before she spoke you were caught for an instant on the line between 'is this a skit? and 'ohmygod she is really into this' which, as it turns out, was the skit.

We are here tonight to present the award for visual effectsTHIS IS MY FIRST TIME PRESENTING AN AWARD. Hiiiiiii. 

Waitwaitwaitwait let's stop rushing. We should have some banter.

What joy. Emma is just as funny as herself. Or maybe as Anne Hathaway, if you take this as a comic send up of that ill fated Oscar hosting last year. (In tonight's performance Ben Stiller will be playing the supporting of the less stoned but equally dull James Franco there only to bring his partner down). From Stone's unbridled enthusiasm to her ADD Show Person energy to the spontaneous singing... Was it too Mean Girl? I am crazy in love with Anne Hathaway myself but I laughed and laughed.

(Runners up: The Bridesmaids "SCORSESE!!!!!" [knocks back drink]. It was smart to give the six of them the three short film awards as their numbers dwindled on stage. I only wish they could've had a Sound of Music send off or some comic interstitial to shoo each other off the stage 'adieu adieu to you and you and you'. Distant third: Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr in "The Presenter")

02 Meryl Streep's Third Win. Be Careful What You Wish For
As previously discussed... but also the night's best speech. (Streep would have had a rival in Christopher Plummer but for his speech being in syndication for a couple of months now)

01 They Weren't Fooling Around With 'The Year of Nostalgia'
The Oscar Producers will see your Hugo and The Artist and The Help and War Horse and The Tree of Life and Midnight in Paris and every other backwards gazing collage of deeply felt memories, shared at the movies or privately recreated by or vicariously lived through the movies and they'll raise you Tom Cruise, Jennifer Lopez, Meryl Streep Winning, Tom Hanks all over the place, Cameron Diaz, and Billy Crystal thawed from his cryogenic freeze. If you squint your eyes a little this ceremony took place in...1994.

What will you take away from the 84th Oscars? 
Are you already dreaming of the 85th?