Dr Linkgood

Yahoo attends a Hobbit fan event and discovers that Gandalf has a potty mouth
Movies.com inspired by the return of Chris Hemsworth as "Thor" they must ask "what's the best movie starring a man with long blonde hair?" Duh! It's a tie between the complete filmography of Brad Pitt and The Legolas of the Rings trilogy starring Orlando Bloom's Youth.
Deadline now here's a biopic we weren't expecting: Hair metal band Motley Crue to get the bio (of sorts) from the director of Bad Grandpa.

Atlantic Wire the Emmys weren't enough. Netflix wants an Oscar and scoops up hot documentary The Square (reviewed right here) relabelling it a 'Netflix Original' 
In Contention Nebraska in a double bill with Paper Moon for old timey charm? Yes please. 
AV Club why Schwarzenegger's Last Action Hero failed 20 years ago and why it needs to be rediscovered  
Playbill Sadie Sadie Married Lady! Congratulations to the fabulous Megan Hilty (Smash) who just got hitched. 
i09 Benedict Cumberbatch surprises Harrison Ford with a pretty great Chewbacca impression 

Today's Watch
Awesome Greta Gerwig dances her way through this awesome new video "Afterlife" from Arcade Fire, directed by Spike Jonze 

Greta Gerwig on the "Frances Ha" Gotham Snub

I had the good fortune to speak with Greta Gerwig earlier today. She's had a terrific year co-writing and headlining the comedy Frances Ha, one of the year's true cinematic triumphs. But, due to the timing of our scheduled conversation, I also had the misfortune of being the bearer of bad news. I didn't realize when I clumsily brought up the Gotham snub, that she hadn't yet heard that the first awards show of the season, which previously honored her with a "breakthrough" nomination for Greenberg (2010) had passed this time around. But she was game enough to answer my questions about movie awards, anyway. She likes to watch, she quickly offered but "it's not really party of my orbit" 

But that led me to wondering if the reception of her work is important to her at all, or if she's one of those actors that's solely focused on the process.

I'm incredibly about how it's received but I don't -- but awards seem to be even beyond that. It has, like, its own rules. I want people I respect to like what I've done. I hope it touches people. I'm not making art in a closet because I want to have the experience of people watching it and liking it.

But awards are so kind of arbitrary. I think it's amazing to be recognized and I think good films are certainly recognized but I don't really see any connection between...

Her voice trails off then before she wraps the topic up with a funny bow.

I think if you're in the film business long enough they eventually get around to you somehow. Or at least when you die a picture of you goes up onscreen.

Um, but I don't know. I also think filmmakers who I love -- sometimes the movies they get recognized for aren't as good as some of their other movies.  'Oh, we sat on it when it was fascinating in the 80s,' or something 'so now we're going to do it!' 

That's some truth telling, right there. That's exactly how it works. This fine actress knows more about awards season than she thinks.

Frances Ha is currently available for pre-order from Criterion Collection and arrives on November 12th. The Film Experience's full interview with Greta Gerwig in which we talk musicals, filmmaking, and casting is coming soon.

Link Runner

Indiewire has a handy guide for filmmakers of great perks you get from filming in various states
Maxim celebrates the influence of Die Hard 25 years after its debut
Vulture has the 25 best action movies since Die Hard
i09 shares a 60 second animated redux of Blade Runner. I normally live for this sort of thing but I don't really like this one. I think maybe it's because if you rob Blade Runner of its grandiose visuals and color and mood, you don't have much! 

Off Cinema Fun
Towleroad "the greatest shirtlesss popsicle ad ever" 
Thought Catalog "5 business lessons I learned on MTV"
Thrillist Twinkies are back! So here are great moments in the snack cake's history 

Helen Mirren © Kagan McLeodDiva Worship!
Saturday Evening Post talks to Her Fabulousity Helen Mirren 

Guardian on the exciting trend of actresses as co-writers. Greta Gerwig love for this:

Understandably, Gerwig has bristled at being described as Baumbach's "muse". "I'm OK with the term muse as long as you acknowledge the muse wrote the script, too," she told a recent interviewer. "I feel like I'm the loudest muse that the world has ever seen."

Love them both!

Why Greta Gerwig (hopefully) Won't Be the Next Big Thing

Tim here, hoping that we're all okay with talking about Greta Gerwig a little bit more. The 29-year-old actress and her career has been discussed to the point of distraction throughout the internet ever since she erupted onto the indie scene in 2006 and 2007 in a pair of Joe Swanberg films, LOL and Hannah Takes the Stairs, but on the eve of her new collaboration with director Noah Baumbach, Frances Ha, it seemed the right moment to take stock of where her short but impressively-stocked career has taken her so far. It's also a great moment to look head-on at the question that has hung around the new film like a shroud: is Frances Ha going to be Gerwig’s “breakout” film, the one that finally makes her a movie star?

My feeling, without having seen the movie (where I live in Chicago, it's not opening for a while yet) is that it almost certainly won't. And that's not something that people who love the actress need to feel very bad about, either.

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Vintage 1983

With nothing new in theaters worth getting excited about my head has been all over the (time) map of cinema. I picked this year somewhat arbitrarily to discuss.

Were you alive in 1983? Even if you weren't do you think of it fondly? To give you a little context for the year: Ronald Reagan was POTUS and Nancy had just contributed "Just Say No" to the vernacular; M*A*S*H ended its lengthy run on television; Michael Jackson's "Thriller" was all anybody listened to; Cheers and Hill Street Blues were the Emmy champs.

Let's savor 1983's cinematic crop for a moment. Are these movies (and people) and things aging well? Is there much left to savor? 

Best Movies According To...
Oscar: The Big Chill, The Dresser, Tender Mercies, Terms of Endearment, and The Right Stuff were the best pictures nominees but they also loved Cross Creek, Fanny & Alexander, Educating Rita, Silkwood and Zelig
Golden Globe: (drama) Reuben Reuben, The Right Stuff, Silkwood, Tender Mercies, and Terms of Endearment* (comedy/musical) The Big Chill, Flashdance, Trading Places, Yentl*, and Zelig
Cannes: The Ballad of Narayama
Box Office: 1) Return of the Jedi 2) Terms of Endearment 3) Flashdance 4) Trading Places 5) War Games 6) Octopussy 7) Sudden Impact 8) Staying Alive 9) Mr Mom 10) Risky Business
Nathaniel: The King of Comedy, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Pauline at the Beach, The Return of the Jedi, The Right Stuff, Silkwood, Terms of Endearment, The Year of Living Dangerously and Yentl. I'm holding a spot in my top ten open for Fanny & Alexander or Zelig which are weirdly movies I never get around to seeing even though I am likely to worship both given the time frame in their auteur's filmography in which they land...

Adorable '83 Babies after the jump...

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