Adam Yauch (1964-2012)

Michelle Williams, Kelly Reichart and Adam Yauch at a Meeks Cutoff party. Photographed by Nicholas Hunt © PatrickMcMullan.comAdam Yauch, MCA of the Beastie Boys, has passed away at 47. I've been reading a few fine obits but I don't have much in a personal way to say. I liked the band a lot though I couldn't call myself a devotee; they (hip)hopped in and out of my life but were often somewhere to be found on my mix tapes (remember those?)

It's a major loss to both the music and movie worlds. Yauch took up many causes in his lifetime from the Right (To Party) to Free Tibet to Independent Film as a founder of Oscilloscope Laboratories. Kelly Reichardt and Michelle Williams careers just wouldn't have been the same without the fine job Oscilloscope did pushing the moving Wendy & Lucy and the unsettling Meek's Cutoff to audiences.

Favorite Beastie Boys song? I have two.

The runner up is "Intergalactic" and Adam Yauch himself directed the video (under the pseudonym of Nathanial Hörnblowér)

But my absolute favorite of their songs was one that never quite caught on called "Alive". I listened to it incessantly, loved its progressive politics being fused so effortlessly to clever rhymes and beats. The song took on the 1% before it was a thing to do so, and spoke out against homophobia and racism and generally dickery -- "who in the world do you want to fight? it's against the system we should unite" -- this song meant so much to me in 1999.

Yauch directed this one, too.

Well you can shuffle number but facts is facts
So many billionaires while so many lacks
So before the poor decide to react
Well Come on party people and share up your stacks
Now i'm a break it down to the brass tacks
Do the Biz Mark dance and the cabbage patch
You try to turn the key but then you broke the latch
Sneak into my files for some rhymes to snatch
I'd like to have a say i'm the income tax
Don't wanna help build bombs and that's the facts
No money for health care so what's the catch
The man got you locked with no key to the latch
Mike and Adam have got my back
You bring the mics and we'll bring the rap
Turn on the P.A. and rock your shack
Don't smoke cheeba can't stand crack 

Dip dip dive so-socialize
Open up your ears and clean out your eyes
If you learn to love you're in for a surprise
it could be nice to be alive

Girl Gone Wild

Madonna's "Girl Gone Wild"... I can't stop watching it! 

But why do I think all male models are Colin Firth's rejected hustler from A Single Man? I swear I see him everywhere. Or is that actually Jon Katajarena? Madonna and Tom Ford do like to share collaborators.

It's great when stars can play on past triumphs without exactly repeating them. This song/video has flashes of previous Madonna classics like "Bad Girl" (the smoking, the hair) and "Express Yourself" (Madonna in silhouette and chains) a verbal reference to "Like a Prayer", but it also recalls the Sex book / "Justify My Love" era as well which I was not at all expecting given the complicated fall out from that particular Madonna era.  

Best of all is the confident but not lazy sparseness that suggests "Human Nature" and yet it's all still very "Girl Gone Wild". Wouldn't it be crazy if movies were as sexual as music videos? The MPAA would die.  A-

The Rise of Chan

Have you read this New York Times piece on the slow rise of Channing Tatum? It's basic thesis is that Hollywood's star-making system is failing. Pieces like this are always interesting reads as much for what they leave out as what they take in. The article ignores Ryan Gosling's ascent preferring to stick with the thesis that was in place before Gosling. The one that goes "Hollywood can't produce male superstars anymore because mid size dramas and comedies are no longer Hollywood's concerns and that's where stardom happens. Blockbuster franchise don't make stars, they only make franchise-specific stars." It's true in a lot of ways even if it's not the whole picture.

But it gets a lot right about Channing Tatum's particular case.

Relatability — I’m just like you, Middle America — does seem to be one of his strong points. In person Mr. Tatum is surprisingly humble and honest, two qualities that are almost nonexistent in Hollywood. He is self-aware, but also unguarded. “I know I’m not the best actor, but I’m in love with it, and I’m getting better with every movie,” he said.

It's a pretty thorough overview of his career and abilities with not one, not two but three of the most marketable leading man skills: He can sell a joke, he can hold a gun convincingly, and he can romance a girl. I appreciate the article's break down about what great physiques mean to actors and what they don't.

I always forget that Chan was in that Ricky Martin video "She Bangs"

Channing's Chastainy Schedule This Year

Jan 20th. Haywire (reviewed) the experimental actioner though Chan was fairly far down the cast list.
Feb 10th. The Vow a huge romantic hit with Chan front and center. It's actually the second most popular movie of 2012 thus far. Have you seen it?
Mar 16th. 21 Jump Street another lead part, comedy. That's three genres in three months. 
June 29th. GI Joe: Retaliation he steps down from lead duties but he's still in it.
June 29th. Magic Mike the stripper drama inspired by his own life. This will be the biggest test of his bankability yet because it's not a pre-sold genre like action films or soggy romances.

Parting Shot...
I've yet to read an article on this star-making problem though that addresses that simple fact that star-making machinery was always faulty. It's just that we only remember the successes. For every Marilyn Monroe weren't there 100 ingenues that didn't work out even in the studio system?

Another Link

I Need My Fix Michael Fassbender to appear tonight... any moment now I guess given the time difference...on Top Gear (in the UK)
Movie|Line details all the messy pre-release problems surrounding John Carter. I hope to see it soon. I would so much rather see movies than hear about their production for months beforehand.
Rope of Silicon 'the ABCs of cinema'. How many of these 26 movies can you name. I had a tough time since it moves so fast (one minute) but it's a cool animation.
Coming Soon gets its hands on the diaries of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

Associate Press Dame Judi Dench is fighting blindness via macular degeneration :(. Having scripts read to her now.
Guardian interviews BAFTA's rising star winner Adam Deacon who is an unknown on these shores.
Serious Film our Michael C reveals his Best Actress ballot. We share three choices.
Animation Mag the theatrical run of the Oscar Shorts package has grown 80% in attendance over the past 7 years. Good to hear.
The Wrap shares the rumor that Jennifer Aniston nixed topless moment in the comedy Wanderlust out of consideration for new boyfriend Justin Theroux. I refuse to believe that Theroux is that touchy about nudity... especially since he's done it himself on my TV screen.

A Streaming Oscar Moment
If you understood Carrie Fisher as a kindred spirit when she famously said "Instant gratification takes too long." you should know that there are two Oscar nominees currently streaming here at Netflix. 

• If a Tree Falls... the documentary feature nominee is on Netflix
• Hell and Back Again another documentary feature nominee is on Netflix
• OSS 117: Lost in Rio is not a nominee but gives you a chance to see Jean Dujardin strut his stuff... with sound!
• Kramer Vs Kramer in case Meryl loses again on Sunday and you need a good cry. That one's a multiple hankie effort and I know some of you haven't seen it because I read your Streep Ranking Ballots
• And finally...

Oh damnit. I was going to list a Woody Allen documentary streaming on PBS but turns out it was only doing that for five days. This is the problem with "instant watch" anywhere and everywhere. SO inconsistent. It's always peek-a-boo. Clearly the distributing channels of entertainment have not quite caught up with audience's "gimmegimme" modern tendencies.

Finally...
Appropos of nothing, I'm kind of obsessed with this music video at the moment Henry Wolfe's "Someone Else". Sure it's almost a year old but I shall not be constricted by currency with my flash obsessions.

The Actress Brit Marling (Another Earth) stars -- you'll remember she just made the Vanity Fair rising stars cover -- and it's directed by Terri's writer/director Azazel Jacobs. I love music videos that treat themselves like short films and get how to take snapshots of larger stories and condense them. Henry Wolfe is, of course, Meryl Streep's son; you can totally see it in his profile. It probably drives the children of famous people crazy that people always mention the famous person they're related to but I really love his music and I might not have ever discovered him if I hadn't been chasing Streep info one day a few years ago and chanced upon one of his performances.

I Met Madonna. And Other "W.E." Stories

As some of you may recall from a couple of breathless tweets, I met Madonna two months ago at a W.E. press event though we weren't allowed to publish the pieces until this week. I was invited by way of my columnist gig at Towleroad so I wrote that up now that W.E. in in theaters, well past its Oscar-qualifying run (which netted it a nomination for Most Costumes). Here's a snippet:

She repeats all of our names back to us. Madonna saying your name back to you is a strangely surreal experience, both utterly mundane and impossible. 

She has entered 'The (Mostly) Gay Room' as its been dubbed to discuss her new film W.E., since most of the journalists are with gay publications. "Cool." is her monosyllabic response. She's promised we'll put her in a good mood for the rest of the day. "Let's start with levity," she says though it sounds more hopeful than bossy.  We're all squished round a table with recorders on. 

[read the full article]

In regards to those recording devices. If you had yours on before Madonna entered the room, you could hypothetically listen to Madonna saying your name over and over again on loop once you got home. HYPOTHETICALLY. I mean, who would do that? [ahem]

More including W.E. thoughts and Madge's new video...

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