Please Please Please Let Me Link What I Want

PopBytes gives Kristen Stewart advice re: her custody battle with Robert Pattinson (they share a beautiful dog)
Kirsten Dunst shares Garrett Hedlund tempting a squirrel with his nuts! (We used to do this as a little kid -- until my sister got bit!)
My New Plaid Pants remembers delicious latent homo Michael Biehn in The Fan. The internet is a wonderful time-free zone where people can obsess on Biehn like it's 1982 whenever they damn well want!
Gawker on Demi Moore's long cinematic rough patch 
The Playlist Nicole Kidman will play a small role in Lars von Trier's pornographic The Nymphomaniac (2013). Oh how I love them both. Please please please let this be as good as The Idiots.

Stale Popcorn Glenn reviews Cosmopolis and Step Up Revolution together because, duh, obvious double feature
i09 has the greatest unintentionally funny lines in genre films/tv. Love #8 and #1 so much. 
In Contention Spike Lee to be honored in Venice
NY Times profiles the rising Ukrainian boy band of sorts, Kazaky, featured in Madonna's "Girl Gone Wild" video 
Vanity Fair gives Olympian Ryan Lochte the Ryan Gosling 'Hey Girl' treatment 
Slate Dana Stevens embraces her inner punk rocker while staring at the Sight & Sound List 
Movie|Line I'm a bit confused by this article about Elizabeth Olson praising 50 Shades of Grey but then "no, no, no" about starring in it. I think we're missing a quote or a follow up question from the reporter!
Comic Book Movie Hugh Jackman on set as The Wolverine. Please please please let these be better than X-Men Origins: Wolv --oh never mind. It would be nigh impossible to be worse!

Finally... I think it's worth noting as a die hard fan of Bring It On (2000) -- which made my top ten list in its year and which I do not, in any way, consider a "guilty" pleasure, just a pleasure full stop --  that the stage musical version is upon us. My friend Tom liked it which gives me hope but I'm still leery. Screen to stage transfers are often very problematic and weirdly the number one thing they seem to get wrong seems very basic to me; super short scenes, of which movies are typically composed, are fussy and distracting on stage especially if they're constantly making adjustments to the sets or trying to keep up the manic visual pace of movies. Too many stage musicals pretend that you can just act the movie out on the stage but that's absolutely the worst way to go. I'm also worried because Bring It On's deserved reputation as one of the best high school comedies and best girly comedies has been utterly tarnished by a lengthy string of straight-up-terrible straight-to-video "sequels".

If any of you have seen it in previews, do share your reactions. Should I go?

Hugh Jackman Sings. "Emptys" Wins TropFest.

I wasn't able to attend TropFest on Saturday night here in NYC due to last minute conflicts -- what a crazy week -- but it looks like a good time was had by all. 

Hugh Jackman hosted the free event, the first in the US though the short film festival, born in Australia, has been going strong for 20 years. Hugh Jackman hosted while fellow Aussie Rose Byrne served with other celebs served on the jury. The winner Josh Leake won $20,000 and the once-in-a-lifetime chance to actually be on stage singing with Hugh Jackman. They sang Kander & Ebb's "New York New York" because, well, what else?

That acceptance speech duet and the winning film after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Yes, No, Maybe So: "Les Miserables"

Q: You know what I always wanted for Christmas?
A: A miserabilist musical epic about whores, convicts, slum lords, revolutionaries and starving street urchins in 19th century France.

Thanks, Santa!

And thanks, Baby Jesus! Even though your dad was not as forgiving as Fantine (Anne Hathaway) dreamed. Les Misérables trailer and discussion after the jump

Click to read more ...

Happenings: Jackman, Spacek, Turner, Fillion, Kidman

I'm losing patience with today's scientists. The world has changed so rapidly in my lifetime but there doesn't seem to be any progress with teleportation. I don't know about you but I need to be in several places quite often and in quick succewssion. Who has time for planes, trains or automobiles? Look at how much there is to experience near you at unreasonable distances from each other.

War of the Roses (1989)

TORONTO
Today! Kathleen Turner will be honored today with a mini free film festival at the Carlton Cinema: Peggy Sue Got Married and Romancing the Stone this afternoon. The War of the Roses and Body Heat this evening. If you're near there, why miss it? I'd totally hit The War of the Roses because and Body Heat because I haven't seen it in ages (the former) and have never seen it on the big screen (the latter). I think the great lady is in town with her recovery drama High on stage. That closed quickly here on Broadway but they're sure pushing the tour which they can do if a star is willing to tour.

LOS ANGELES
Today Plus! The Getty is hosting a film series "What Becomes a Legend Most"  kicking things off with Rudolph Valentino's The Sheik and the incomparable Pandora's Box starring Louise Brooks (which we've covered in our "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series previously. If you're in LA and have never seen it, do not miss the opportunity to see it on the big screen. Other classics coming in the Getty series include two more "Hit Me" alums A Streetcar Named Desire and Rebel Without a Cause. 

EDINBURGH
Monday The Railway Man, a new World War centric prestige drama about a traumatized soldier and a woman helping him confront his past, starts shooting. The film will star Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, and Stellan Skarsgard (incidentally a friend of the book's author). Kidman's role is apparently being beefed up from what it was on the book's pages. 

CANNES
May 16th-27th The world's most important film festival begins with an opening ceremony hosted by recent Oscar nominee Berenice Bejo and a screening of Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom  and closes with the late Claude Miller's Therese Desqueyroux starring Audrey Tautou. Many significant things will happen inbetween. I love MUBI's easy to follow Cannes guide.

LOS ANGELES
May 18th-23rd marks the second annual Hero Complex Film Festival via the Los Angeles Times. They always show geek friendly movies with special guests like the actors of filmmakers. The most exciting day this year, according to me, is Sunday the 20th when they'll show WALL•E with Andrew Stanton there to discuss and preview Brave followed by Serenity (which we were just talking about) with Nathan Fillion appearing.

SEATTLE
June 7th  "An Evening With Sissy Spacek" ! The screen legend is being honored for Outstanding Achievement in Acting via the Seattle International Film Festival. I wonder what she makes of all the Carrie revisionism these days? I'm sure people will ask.

NEW YORK AND ON YOUR TELLY
June 10th The Tony Awards (more on these later) hosted by Neil Patrick Harris and undoubtedly featuring many screen and stage stars. 

NEW YORK
June 23rd Hugh Jackman will be hosting Trop Fest, the world's largest short film festival in Bryant Park. The festival is 20 years old and began in Australia, hence quite possibly the presence of our favorite musical theater mutant. You can reserve a space here -- the event is free but it will obviously "sell out".

What special events are happening in your town in the near future? Should we teleport there as well?

Do you hear the people sing?

Provided you have speakers on your computer, then yes. Hear them you do. Well not Hugh and Anne specifically...

I know I shouldn't be this excited for a movie. It will all end in tears!