Jessica Chastain ♥ Viola! Does Jessica Chastain ♥ Gravity?

Hayden, a faithful reader, commenter, and fellow actressexual, alerted me to Jessica Chastain's latest love-fest on Facebook. That girl does emote with girlie gusto and I love her for it (as previously noted).  I follow her so I'm not sure how I missed this one but if I were Sasha Stone at Awards Daily I'd be feeling pretty spectacular that such a great actress described me as "amazing". No world class actress ever said that about me [commence sobbing]...

I was busy picturing Jessica Chastain in an astronaut suit when I read this status update. Picturing Jessica Chastain in movies she's not in is an AMAZING time waste. Try it some time. After I was done with that I realized that Jessica said nothing about Gravity in this post, despite the link to Sasha's article. Maybe she hasn't seen it because if she had wouldn't she have said so?

Meanwhile Hayden was busy obsessing over the last sentence. He writes:

It really bothers me when people IN the industry talk about Viola Davis' career like some charity case. *cough* meryl *cough* But especially since Viola Davis is such a non sequitur to what Chastain was even talking about.

It's like she shouted "Mandy Patinkin, holla" at the end of her post.

LOL. 'Mandy Patinkin, holla' -- voiced by Claire Danes for her first Homeland win -- is surely one of the greatest things ever uttered in an acceptance speech and I think of it EVERY time that I see Mandy Patinkin being awesome. Which is often, in fact, since he is. I've loved him since the skinny-dipping in Yentl and that didn't even turn out to be the highlight of his cross-platform career.

Are you watching the new season of Homeland? This tweet made me laugh so hard last night...

They just gave Claire Danes Thorazine on #Homeland just to stop her from acting.

— Mick LaSalle (@MickLaSalle) October 7, 2013

Regarding Viola Davis...

Listen... I say what Jessica Chastain said all the time and it's true that it's a charity case. BUT NOT FOR VIOLA.

This charity is for audiences because she's a freaking GREAT actress and we need much more of her than Hollywood seems willing to give. Put her back in a spacesuit actually and we'll talk again. She was so good in Solaris in a typically small role. Remember that? Honestly I'd watch her in anything. Even when the movie is terrible (*cough* Beautiful Creatures) and her role is thankless, I'm happy to be watching her. 

P.S. If you missed my post on Jessica & Viola's latest collaboration, Eleanor Rigby, check it out.

P.P.S. Wow is this post a ramble. Viola. Mandy. Homeland. Facebook. Sasha Shout Outs. So much to discuss. Go!

TIFF: "Gravity" & "Eleanor Rigby: Him / Her"

Here's to grand ambition, the spiritual cousin of self-sabotage; whatever scale filmmakers are working on, it's a thin (blood)line that separates them. An noble arguable failure and an unwieldy arguable success from the Toronto International Film Festival will illustrate…

GRAVITY
The very talented multi-hypenate filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón has been MIA from cinema for the past seven years. He's presumably been huddled over various computers or engulfed in endless meetings trying to work out the logistics of bringing this epic outerspace survival drama to the screen. [more...]

Click to read more ...

TIFF: "Eleanor Rigby" Was Written For Jessica Chastain

Jessica outside the Elgin in TorontoOne of my fondest memories of TIFF 13 will be the simple fact that I sat in the same theater with Jessica Chastain for what appeared to be one of the most personal moments of her career. The theater, the Visa Elgin in Toronto, is a giant spacious ornate beast that holds well over a 1000 people but still... I was there! And so was Jessica! Proximity glory even from the balcony, people. 

The event was the premiere of The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him and Her and the movie, a two part romantic grief drama that runs 3 hours when combined (and which probably shouldn't be separated), will undoubtedly have a difficult path to audiences. So its first screening was in the biggest theater it will ever see to the most appreciative crowd it might ever get. That audience included a few members of the film's principal cast most of whom hadn't yet seen it.

Jessica Chastain was in tears afterwards detailing her friendship with the writer/director Ned Benson. They first met ten years ago when she approached him at a film festival where his short was playing asking to show him her reel because she loved his movie! (Take that Nicki & Naomi). This film, his feature debut, appears to be a giant loving personal gift to her or maybe its her gift to him since she stars and also produced it. Consider that Jessica's self proclaimed "favorite actress in the world" Isabelle Huppert plays her mom, that her beloved co-star from The Help Viola Davis plays her confidante and professor and that her very best friend "practically my sister" Jess Weixler (The Good Wife, Teeth a few years ago) plays her best friend & actual sister in the film and you know how personal this all runs.

Jessica, her friend Ned Benson (the writer/director) and her co-star James McAvoy

The bow on this Jessica gift? The film, or films if you will, is/are wonderful. But more on them later.

Despite a premiere/movie that is all about loving and struggling with losing her (she's Elle Rigby), she deflected the light, getting most tearful when she expressed her feelings about her friend and debuting director's long journey to this premiere. 

I'm just so happy for him."

Jessica's First (of Many to Come) Oscar Ceremony in Feb 2012

When we (i.e. all of us) first met Jessica Chastain as an actress a couple of years ago now, her performances were so varied and and wave-like in their multitudes that who she was as a star offscreen was a tantalizing mystery. By the end of her first year in the limelight her offscreen persona was visible to all at the Oscars. Turns out she's just a big softie, a gushy sentimental girlie girl, a walking warm fuzzy. She probably loved unicorns as a child and probably still dots her "i"s with hearts! Which is all completely endearing... especially since her screen performances have told such a different story and cinema's iciest and least sentimental actress, Isabelle Huppert, happens to be her personal favorite.

Don't you love the rich disparity? 

Podcast a group discussion of TIFF 13: Oscar buzz, our favorite films, and more
Ambition & Self Sabotage on Gravity and Eleanor Rigby: Him & Her
Mano-a-Mano Hallucinations Norway's Pioneer & Jake Gyllenhaal² in Enemy
Quickies Honeymoon, Young & Beautiful, Belle
Labor Day in a freeze-frame nutshell
August Osage County reactions Plus Best Picture Nonsense
Rush Ron Howard's crowd pleaser
The Past from Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi & Cannes Best Actress Berenice Bejo
Queer Double Feature: Tom at the Farm and Stranger by the Lake
Boogie Nights Live Read with Jason Reitman and Friends
First 3 Screenings: Child's Pose, Unbeatable and Isabelle Huppert in Abuse of Weakness 
TIFF Arrival: Touchdown in Toronto. Two unsightly Oscars

Jessica + Cate, Mary Music, and Other Linkables

Awards Circuit I guest starred on their podcast Power Hour this week. We talk Oscar's actress categories and Ben Affleck
Film School Rejects Diana gets a November release date
HuffPo interviews Eric Bana (Closed Circuit) who does not like Hulk
Final Girl lists the 5 best vampires of all time. This list LOL'ed me up good
Gothamist Patton Oswalt and Joss Whedon defend Ben Affleck's casting as Batman
Bad Ass Digest chooses the 11 best movies of the summer. Amidst all the fanboy titles are Short Term 12 and Blue Jasmine so well done. 

Jessica Chastain ♥ Cate Blanchett 
This was posted on the Actress's facebook page yesterday.

Sweet. And generous. And culturally aware just as we've come to expect from Chastain who by all accounts is a lovely person and real film enthusiast as well as one of the most important actors to emerge this decade.

Exit Music
Since we've been on a Mary Poppins kick this year what with that Best Shot steppin' time party and Saving Mr Banks coming out here's a music videdo that uses only sounds from Mary Poppins for its beats and melodies... 

Cannes, Chastain, Critics

More Cannes prizes to discuss. We'll illustrate with Jessica Chastain at Cannes because.... she pretty! Always prizeworthy

Mmmmmcccchastainy!

poll by twiigs.com

FIPRESCI -International Federation of Film Critics
COMPETITION  Blue is the Warmest Colour by Abdellatif Kechiche (France, 2013)
This three hour lesbian coming of age drama stars newcomer Adele Exarchopoulos and the ever more impressive Léa Seydoux (Farewell My Queen, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Midnight in Paris ...and many more recently). It's considered a threat for tomorrow's awards from the competition jury, too. Wouldn't you just love to listen to Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee, Christoph Waltz and Nicole Kidman arguing about its graphic 20 minute lesbian sex scene and whether that's just exploitative titillation or artistically justified storytelling?
UN CERTAIN REGARD  Manuscripts Don't Burn by Mohammad Rasoulof (Iran, 2013)
PARALLEL SECTIONS Blue Ruin by Jeremy Saulnier (USA, 2013), a noirish revenge thriller, which played in Directors Fortnight. Radius/The Weinstein Co. picked it up for distribution

CANNES Ecumenical Jury
WINNER The Past by Asghar Farhadi (Iran, 2013)
COMMENDATIONS Miele by actress Valeria Golino (her directorial debut!) and Like Father Like Son by the acclaimed Hirokazu Kore-eda