Link is the Longest Blog Post

Flavorwire 15 great female film critics you should be reading
IndieWire Before Midnight has a great opening night in an unfortunately tiny amount of theaters. If I ran the world this would make $100 million this weekend ;)
Funny or Die "the reviews are in for Behind the Candelabra" LOL
Grantland Wesley Morris on two Cannes entries Claire Denis' Bastards and Nicolas Winding Refn's booed Only God Forgives 
My New Plaid Pants Allegedly Ewan McGregor 
/Film interesting. Jon Stewart's directorial debut Rosewater will star Gael García Bernal and is about a man who was held in an Iranian prison

Twitter Bryan Singer announces Evan Peters as Quicksilver. I've always thought the X-Men franchise was marred by sloppy casting (especially the further you get away from the centerpiece roles) and this one strikes me as no exception. The actors chose beyond the Magneto/Professor X/Wolverine trinity always seem "off" for the roles. Am I just too connected to the comic books? It's worth noting that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver (twin siblings in the comics and two of my personal favorite characters in all of the Marvel Universe), due to complicated legal situations, can be used by both Marvel Studios and Fox but cannot reference the other so we may see a different actor play Quicksilver if Joss Whedon decides to use him.
Variety ...which he has according to this interview
Coming Soon an extremely annoying motion poster for the new Carrie
Variety Blue is the Warmest Color wins Fipresci prize at Cannes
In Contention ..speaking of lesbian dramas. Todd Haynes finally has a new movie project. It's called Carol and it's based on Patricia Highsmith's novel "The Price of Salt". Cate Blanchett is Carol, a married woman, who has an affair with a shopgirl Therese (Mia Wasikowska)
i09 DC heroes invade George Seurat's famous sunday in the park painting 

anniversaries and goodbyes
The Film Doctor happy 5th anniversary to a film blog I quite enjoy! 
Drawn is closing its doors. sniffle. i love this tumblr which was always a great way to stay connected to illustrators on the web 
Awards Daily Sasha's last entry from Cannes - missing buzzy Blue ... and attending the Nebraska press conference. Although I'll admit the reveal of a 30 minute time frame to file a review filled me with abject horror. It takes me SO LONG to write reviews. Are other critics really done with them in 30 minutes? How! 

Monday Monologue: “There is no Barbara Novak”

Andrew again, with your weekly monologue. Chances are, if you’re asked to remember what films were tickling your fancy a decade ago you wouldn’t turn to Peyton Reed’s sophomore effort Down with Love. I wouldn’t hold it against you. 2003 had many good films, even great ones to offer. Reed's pastiche of the sex-comedies of the '60s was unlikely to be anyone's #1 film of the year but that does not mean it's without ample merits.

Ewan and Renée display their flexibility

When Down with Love opened in May 2003 to unexceptional reviews, both of its stars, Ewan McGregor and Renée Zellweger, had higher profile releases coming out in December of the same year and by the end of the year few were even thinking about it. Ten years after, less so. But that's unfortunate. The film, like many an homage, does not offer expressly much in the way of originality but as far as well intended romps in the romantic comedy genre go Down with Love ably succeeds more often than you’d expect.  We're a few days late in celebrating its 10th anniversary, but for this week’s Monday Monologue here's a reminder of the frothy pleasures of the film...

Click to read more ...

Ewan-in-a-Blanket

Happy 42nd birthday to Ewan McGregor! The giants in Jack The Giant Slayer earlier this month were super gross and dumb but they were right about one thing.

Ewan McGregor is delicious!

        Especially in blankets.

So herewith a (not entirely sfw) photo gallery of Ewan-in-a-blanket in semi chronological order. If you can add to the gallery, please do!

Click to read more ...

The Link and I

tumblr screenshots without pausing of Zero Dark Thirty's hallway showdown scene
MNPP on responsibility in film criticism and Michel Gondry's The We And I 
Unreality the Han Solo in carbonite business card case. I keep wondering if Patrick Bateman would love this
Pajiba sounds off on the official poster for Mad Men Season 6, which features an illustration of Don Draper looking at... himself? in passing.  I cannot cannot wait. You?
Antagony... follows up that best oscar wins list with its evil twin counterpart: worst oscar wins

the greatest sitcom?
I've been really impressed with Vulture's #sitcomsmackdown which has made all sort of insightful points about the state of the situation comedy throughout the past quarter century, even if I wish Vulture had been more clear about how much rewatching they've asked their selected writers to do. Glenn at Stale Popcorn sounds off on the uproar that greeted Sex & The City's win over 30 Rock. But, as Glenn points out, if you read the actual original essay the writer clearly loves both series and makes really salient engaging points about why she chose Sex as the winner. But alas, people don't read. They just choose sides and fight. I'm thankful I don't have to choose the ultimate winner from the past 30 years but many of the shows battling it out for the top slot would make my top 10.

weird coincidence
So this week while instant-watch surfing a few films I'd seen before, which I do on occasion to refresh my memory, I watched a few scenes from both Head On (1998) and from Trainspotting (1996). Both films were critical hits and bold in-your-face indies about hard-living young men. The two films served as major launching pad for two exciting actors (Alex Dimitriades and Ewan McGregor, respectively) though their careers didn't exactly turn out the same. And then yesterday while link surfing, I chance upon a piece about how hard it is for men to turn 40 that featured Alex Dimitriades and the news that Danny Boyle still wants to do a Trainspotting sequel and that, finally, Ewan McGregor may say yes. The article suggests that one hurdle has always been residual director/star strangement dating back to the days when Boyle threw his young start-up muse (Ewan had also been with him for his debut Shallow Grave) overboard for Leonardo DiCaprio on The Beach? I felt like the internet was reading my mind! 

The Linking Daylights

Variety's "The Vote" looks at all time great film scores
NYT remembers voice actress Lucille Bliss (RIP) the voice of Smurfette and Anastasia in Cinderella. 
Art of the Title Sequence has a cup of fresh coffee with Cabin in the Woods
EW watch Anthony Hopkins become Hitchcock in under a minute (though in real life it took an hour and a half each day 
In Contention Angelina Jolie campaigning for Ewan McGregor's work in The Impossible. Whoa

Unreality Marvel superheroines as Bond Girls
Salon uh oh Activists claim that 27 animals have died making The Hobbit films 
Pajiba shows us Val Kilmer and Joann Whaley's kids all grown up. Think they'll be actors? I always wished that Whaley had had a better career. Loved her in Scandal and Willow.
Movie|Line Ryan Gosling's beat up face on the Only God Forgives poster 
IndieWire first Joaquin and now Anthony Hopkins calling Oscar campaigns "disgusting" 
French Premiere the semi-finalist list for the Best Newcomer prizes at the Césars in France. Expect a nomination at least for Matthias Schoenaerts for his awesome double attention-grabber Bullhead and Rust & Bone  
The Playlist fun gallery of behind the scenes shots from Kill Bill
Awards Daily James Franco made a music video. Lindsay Lohan is in it 

And finally here's Jeremy Renner making fun of Hawkeye on SNL...

It'd definitely been the year or archery what with Brave, The Avengers and The Hunger Games among the top blockbusters. And now we have gifted archers on two television series: Revolution and Arrow... which is also about a guy who shoots arrows. That's kind of his thing. Before this trend dies a swift death from ubiquity, can someone please give actual archer and awesome actress Geena Davis a good role and combine the two?