Red Carpet: Crazy Stupid Pockets, Friends With Penis Dresses

‪Nathaniel: For this episode of Red Carpet Convos, I'm joined by our resident fashion-obsessive Jose and Guy Lodge of In Contention. We begin with a Lineup, culled from the premieres of Friends With Benefits, Horrible Bosses, and Captain America, respectively. This triple feature is now available at your local multiplex.‬

Emma Stone, Jennifer Aniston, Captain & Love Interest, Somebody

Guy: Oh, I see why you got me for this one
Jose: hehe I see Jen again
Nathaniel: Guy, I should admit right up front that I think Jen looks hot here and I mean that both ways.
 Jose: ‬ ‪is that thing made out of leather?‬
Nathaniel: ‬ ‪Right? IN THE SUMMER.‬
 Guy: ‬ ‪Ha! I like that, in playing her first real vamp character, she's committed to the cause off-camera‬
It's like something Angie would have worn back when she was still fun.
 Nathaniel: ‬ ‪Spoken like a totally biased member of Team Aniston. Grrrr! I'm sorry but the news told me that it's over 100˚ outside -- I'm pretending outside doesn't exist (curtains drawn, air conditioning at full blast) -- so i can't even deal looking at this.‬
 ‪Guy: ‬ ‪But it's short! At least her legs are breathing.‬
 ‪
Jose: ‬ ‪speaking of which, both Jen & Angie tend to do the same over and over when it comes to clothes, so I'm actually thrilled that this time Jen gave her standard look (black and mini) a slight twist‬
 ‪Guy: ‬ ‪That's a very good point -- and the hair looks a little choppier and more summery. (Sorry, this is getting stalker-y on my part)‬
 ‪Jose: ‬ ‪I still never will get dress pockets though, especially in such a tiny dress, does she have her whips and feathered handcuffs in there?‬
Nathaniel: ‬ ‪Or mash notes from Guy.‬ And a restraining order.

Guy: ‬ ‪I'm all for dress pockets. Why should guys get all the comfort?‬
 ‪Jose: ‬ ‪because we don't get to have fabulous bags * sad face *‬
 ‪Guy: ‬ ‪I like stars who go a little bit casual (but still chic) for premieres -- save the real glamour for awards season, otherwise we'll never know when it ends.‬
Nathaniel:‬ ‪Point: Guy. But I don't approve of pockets on anything unless they're holding treats inside for pets... or hungry fans.‬
 ‪Guy: ‬ ‪ ‪Anyway, at leat Jen's pockets aren't on the OUTSIDE of her dress. What's going on with Emma Stone?‬
 ‪Jose: ‬ ‪don't mess with Lanvin, Guy!‬
Nathaniel: ‬ ‪Her pockets are big enough to fit other starlets inside. If those are indeed pockets. I feel compelled to tell you that this is my least favorite color combination that has yet been invented.
 

‪Jose: ‬ ‪her dress makes me sad for two reasons‬.‬ ‪it's obviously from the collection where Juli got hers for January and i think they would've been MUCH better if they had switched them, apparently pale redheads dig crazy pink Lanvin? ‪I do think it's a fantastic, bold look though, a bit too old for Emma maybe, but I loooooove it‬

 ‪Guy: ‬ ‪I actually like the red-pink clashing and the mini-Alexis Carrington shoulders... but it'd look so nice and trim without the sewn-on clutch bags. (I realise she's going to see Horrible Bosses, but how many flasks does she need to carry with her?)‬
Nathaniel: ‬ ‪Actually she was at Friends With Benefits so back off. Flasks fully justified.
Guy: ‬ ‪I'm glad she's a redhead again, though, even though she's a natural blonde, and even though I  usually criticise starlets for doing the reverse... it's all very confusing.‬
Nathaniel: ‬ ‪Yes.‬

Nathaniel: Moving on. Every time I try to think about what to say about Captain America and his love interest (Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell) I fall asleep.
 ‪Jose: ‬ ‪LOL‬. I resent that this Chris Evans person is trying to pretend he's all geeky and stuff now, every time I see him all Benjamin Button-ized in the trailer I want to kick his ass

 ‪Guy: ‬ ‪Is that Chris Evans? I didn't recognise him behind his cunning "look, I'm smart" disguise. And without his abs.‬
Nathaniel: Is he going for a Clark Kent thing here or is he ready to let himself go since he's said that those grueling two hour workouts to look like a super soldier made him want to vomit daily?
Jose: ‬ He's just being a drama queen. If I had those abs I would not bother with clothes EVER‬.

THERE'S MORE: Chris Evan abs (in motion), Ryan Gosling's perfection, Vanessa's unfortunate frock, Hayley Atwell's identity crisis and the über sexy cast of Crazy Stupid Love at their premiere AFTER THE JUMP.

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TV @ The Movies: Parks and Recreation

Summer is a strange time at Chez Nathaniel. Though I'm a film guy, summer movie season isn't really even close to my favorite movie time. And though I'm not totally a TV guy, I miss my shows (No Mad Men this summer is going to be the strangest).

Fr'instance, I'm already missing Parks & Recreation since the fantastic two part Season Finale aired a week back.

The Haverford Charm Ray! wah-wah-wah

You know I LOL'ed at this moment when Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) decides to use the "Haverford Charm Ray" on an old lady who works on the dread 4th Floor. How to do it? Flatter her with screen goddess comparisons.

He wants this old lady to do his work for him. Time to butter her up.

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Reader Spotlight: K.M. Soehnlein

Are you still enjoying the reader spotlights? I hope you've found a few kindred spirits in the featured readers thus far. Today, I'm talking to K.M. Soehnlein in San Francisco who is a longtime reader and also a novelist. Discovering that novelists read you is a bit humbling. Anyway... let's talk!

Nathaniel: So... earlier this year you received the Warren Beatty book "STAR" from a Film Experience contest. What's your favorite nugget so far?
K.M. SOEHNLEIN: There’s a nugget on every page of “Star,” if by nugget you mean hot steamy chunk of gossip: “He made love to [Joan] Collins relentlessly, although every now and then he would accept calls while he was inside her.” In the Introduction to the book, Peter Biskind, the author, says he’s interested in Beatty as “one of the foremost filmmakers of his generation…at the intersection between politics and culture.” But he also talks about how difficult Beatty was to get interviews with, and you start to suspect, as the negative characterizations of Beatty pile up, that maybe Biskind is enacting some kind of revenge on his “star.”

But! There are absolutely page-turning stories about film production. I just finished reading the chapter on Bonnie and Clyde. I had no idea it was so difficult to get this film or that it was the vehicle that saved Beatty from a string of flops that would have sunk his career before he was 30.
 
You've written books yourselves and graciously sent me two. I'm really enjoying "The World of Normal Boys" and especially love the movie references, duh! How autobiographical are they?

Soehnlein's book references three huge musicals of its era

I’m glad you like the book! The scenes in my novel are mostly fictional – I never went to a drive-in to see Saturday Night Fever with the sexy older boy next door – but the music, the setting, the flavor of the times, that’s all from experience. Yeah, I’m a child of the 70s which meant we had one “stereo system” in the house. My parents had lots of soundtrack albums, so that was the first music I listened to as a kid: The King and I, Funny Girl, Godspell (we were Catholic), and the one I got completely obsessed about, West Side Story. I had every lyric memorized before I'd ever see these movies. I don’t think I could overstate the phenomenon of Grease when it came out in 1978. Kids were OBSESSED with it. I used to walk around with the girls in my neighborhood playing the soundtrack on portable cassette player, acting like the Pink Ladies.
 
Your three favorite actresses. Go.
Old school: Natalie Wood would be my first answer but that’s not because she was the best actress – in fact she’s often pretty terrible – but just because of my West Side Story obsession. When she cries those tears of injustice at the end of the film – “How many bullets left in this gun? Enough for you, and you, and you?” – I think some kind of tragic template lodged in my blood that has never quite left. Reigning queen: Julianne Moore. It might be a redhead identification thing, but I love her in everything. I especially like her in comedies, from The Big Lebowski to The Kids are All Right, though my favorite performance is in Far From Heaven. Rising star: Give me more Michelle Williams. (Meek’s Cutoff recently opened in San Francisco.)

Take an Oscar away. Give it to someone else.
Only one? Didn’t one of your recent readers get six? OK let’s take away Cate Blanchett’s Oscar for that hammy imitation of Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator and give it to any of the four women she was nominated against: Laura Linney in Kinsey, Virginia Madsen in Sideways, Sophie Okonedo in Hotel Rwanda, or Natalie Portman in Closer. (Maybe if Natalie had won that year we could have seen Michelle Williams win this year… Sorry, wishful thinking.) Just for the record I love me some Cate Blanchett but I’d have given her the statue all the way back for Elizabeth. Sorry, Gwyneth.

Supporting Actress 2004

Name your favorite in each of the following 4 genres: Drama, Horror, High School, Woody Allen.
Drama Something by Mike Leigh, probably Naked or Secrets and Lies. Horror Carrie. High School The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love, which was my good friend Maria Maggenti’s debut back in the mid-90s and which I have a huge sweet spot for. (Plus: Dale Dickey in an early role.) Woody Stardust Memories.

They put you in charge of the movies. How do you wield this awesome power?
Well if I can be completely self-interested the first thing I’d do is green-light the film adaptation of The World of Normal Boys which I’ve been trying to get made for ten years.

Then I’d wield my awesome power to dump money on all the filmmakers I love: Mike Leigh, Todd Haynes, John Cameron Mitchell, Kelly Reichardt, Spike Lee, John Waters, etc. etc. etc. I’d put limits on the amount of money any single film could cost. I’d set up some kind of incredibly well-funded National Film Agency, maybe run by a cabinet-level Secretary of the Arts, (how about Meryl Streep?). I’d make sure artists had health care. Socialism. Yes please.

previous spotlights

May Flowers: 'The Hours'

Kurt here from Your Movie Buddy. In an intro to cinema studies course, my peers and I were tasked to select and present a three- to five- minute segment from a film for a collegiate show and tell. The terms: choose something that features effective editing and/or noteworthy use of music. With the field so finely narrowed (sarcasm), my mind went...everywhere. Rather than drive myself nuts, I opted for the opening credits sequence of a movie I always feel like I've seen recently: The Hours.

This remains one of my very favorite movies of the aughts, and it's a fine specimen for Nat's "May Flowers" series. The brisk and beautiful introduction culminates with a trio of bouquets, but more on those in a bit. Guided by Phillip Glass's score (by turns elegant, chipper and paranoid), we wake up with three women, all of them linked by Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. We have Virginia (Nicole Kidman), the writer; Laura (Julianne Moore), the reader; and Clarissa (Meryl Streep), the character (in a matter of speaking). The sequence sets the stage for the three ladies' storylines, which seem to run parallel, but are decades – and miles – apart.

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Reader Spotlight: John from Boston

Continuing the Reader Appreciation Series, here's a conversation with John (pictured left) from Boston. He's been reading the site ever since it launched and hearing that warms the cockles of my heart. Loyalty is definite top ten top three material as character traits go, don't you think?

Nathaniel: Do you remember your first movie?
JOHN: I think my first movie was Cinderella.  I was so frightened of the evil stepmother that we had to leave early.  When I was young, every movie scared me.  I didn’t sleep for years after E.T.  (yet somehow/somewhere I became obsessed with this medium).

First movie obsession?
Probably Clue.  I remember renting it when I was home from school with chicken pox in fifth grade.  I probably watched it 10 times in one weekend.  It is so campy, but so utterly entertaining.  …and what a cast!!!  Eileen Brennan as Mrs. Peacock and Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White are classic!  I still bust that one out every once and a while.

I love that one, too. Mrs. White is the best in the movie but when I play the game though I am always Professor Plum or Miss Scarlet.

Mrs Peacock and Mrs. White

 Okay, you're suddenly in charge of the cinema for a year. How do you wield this awesome power?

• Todd Haynes and Julianne Moore have to make at least 2 movies together
• Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock are put on one year hiatus (Meg Ryan would be too, but what the hell has she done lately)
• No sequels
• No Oscar campaigns
• I decide all Oscar nominees and winners

Heh. Okay. Who are your three favorite actresses?
JULIANNE MOORE is the God to whom I pray.  I saw her receive the Hasty Pudding award in February.  She cannot be more awesome.  There are too many awe-inspiring performances to name.  JUDI DENCH continues to amaze me.  I thought she could only be the strong, comic matriarch until she blew me away in Notes on a Scandal.  MERYL STREEP is a given.  She is so perfect every time out that I take her for granted.  If she doesn’t win a third Oscar sometime soon there is no justice.  Katharine Hepburn, Cate Blanchett, Julie Christie and Angela Bassett get special recognition.

Take one Oscar away from someone. Give it to someone else.
I can’t only do one here.  I have to take advantage of the moment.  I would go back to 1958 and give Susan Hayward’s Oscar for I Want to Live! to Rosalind Russell for Auntie Mame. Auntie Mame is my all time favorite and Russell is so spot-on.  One of the best comic performances ever!  Second, in 2005, I would take Reese Witherspoon’s Oscar for Walk the Line and give it to Joan Allen in The Upside of Anger.  It is a major travesty that this performance was not even nominated (Keira Knightley in Pride & Prejudice…what was the Academy thinking?). That was definitely Allen’s best--better than her three Oscar-nominated, which are all fantastic. 

2005's Film Bitch Gold Medalist Joan Allen has other fans. She shoulda won the Oscar.

Finally, I would take Kim Basinger’s 1997 Supporting Actress win for L.A. Confidential and give it to Julianne Moore in Boogie Nights.  This is my third choice because I still have faith that Juli will win one day.

Have you ever dressed up as a film character for Halloween? Has a film character ever dressed as you?
Like so many others in the past, I was tighty whitey clad Tom Cruise in Risky Business two years ago for Halloween.  I had the right hair at the moment .  He’s not a film character, but Matthew Morrison’s Will Schuester definitely raided my tie/cardigan collection.

Okay John. Let's wrap up. The movie of your life. Tell us about it.
Stephen Daldry would direct the movie of my life starring James Franco (I am not scarred enough by the Oscar gig to not cast him).  The movie is part Seasons 1-3 of Brothers and Sisters, part Mean Girls, part Into the Wild, part Latter Days, part The Devil Wears Prada, part…

So many parts!

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