Posterized: Natalie Portman

by Nathaniel R

Natalie Portman in a new photoshoot for Diorskin ForeverWhat odd careers child stars eventually look back on. Natalie Portman was an instant sensation when she appeared in The Professional as a junior assassin. When the film was released late in 1994, Natalie was just 13 years old. She became an instant favorite for directors filling their prestige ensembles and by the time she was 18 she was a leading lady and also the mother of Luke & Leia (though the Star Wars prequels contain her worst acting by far). By 23 she was a Golden Globe winner and by 29 an Oscar Best Actress champ. Afterwards she receded as so many actresses who win Oscars in their twenties do (what is there left to strive for?) presumably enjoying their riches and in some cases their new domesticity. Pregnant during her Black Swan Oscar campaign, Portman & her ballet world husband Benjamin Millepied are now the parents of a five year old and she's not seen in public nearly as often as she once was.

(Fun Trivia: did you know that Portman, Millepied and their son Aleph all have birthdays in a single week every June?)

After the jump posters from all of her theatrical releases, except the ones where she played herself or only appeared in cameo or in a section of an omnibus film, and a few notes on her filmography.

How many have you seen?

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A Deluge of Kennedys

Murtada here. Within the next two years, there will be three movies about The Kennedys. They seem to be as fascinating to filmmakers as the British Royal family. Even less famous members of the family are now subjects of movies.

Diana (2013) was both a car crash and framed its story by a notorious car crash. Now it's time for the Kennedys' own notorious car crash. Announced this week is Chappaquiddick with Jason Clarke as Ted Kennedy. The film tell the story of 1969 tragic car accident that involved Ted and took the life of teacher and political campaigner Mary Jo Kopechne. How Ted handled the aftermath - leaving the scene, waiting hours to report it - led of course to the end of any presidential aspirations he might have had. The film will be directed by John Curran, who previously directed The Painted Veil (2006) and Tracks (2013).

The very busy Emma Stone - currently being Billie Jean King - is set to play another JFK sibling, the lesser-known eldest sister Rose Marie “Rosemary” Kennedy in Letters from Rosemary. Joseph and Rose Kennedy’s first born was lobotomised at the age of 23 after developing violent mood swings that embarrassed her famous family. The film is reportedly about the events leading up to the lobotomy and its aftermath. We assume this might be a project that will not be popular within the family. Not that they would ever comment about any of the many projects about them. Royals don’t do that!

The first project we will likely see though is Pablo Larrain’s Jackie about the immediate aftermath of JFK’s assassination. Once earmarked for Darren Aronofsky and Rachel Weisz, it now stars Natalie Portman as Jackie and Peter Sarsgaard as Bobby. Aronofsky remains a producer. Production pictures have been released months ago, so we assume it’s in post production and might appear on the fall festival circuit. Sarsgaard’s hair seems wrong, although Portman’s costumes are spot on. Jackie tackles much covered territory, what more could be added to those often discussed few days? The other two projects are about more obscure chapters in the family history, which could mean they might be more interesting.

Still that’s just way too many projects about one rich and powerful family. There’s even an upcoming sequel to the 2011 miniseries The Kennedys, with Matthew Perry as Ted and Katie Holmes reprising her Jackie. I’m already exhausted, are you?

(tfw you dont comment)

Oscar Isaac Joins Alex Garland's Annihilation, Not Even Most Exciting Part

One would be forgiven for thinking a movie called Annihilation sounds a little too close for comfort to a cataclysmic retread in the vein of Batman v. Superman. And if someone told you that all signs currently point to Oscar Isaac joining the cast, you’d politely let them know that they must be thinking of the also very loud sounding X-Men: Apocalypse, where he’ll join fellow motion captors and prosthetic prisoners Lupita Nyong’o, Josh Brolin, and Idris Elba in what sounds like the cell to be! in franchise jail. But no earplugs necessary, just your rapt attention, because Annihilation is writer/director Alex Garland’s follow-up feature to Ex Machina and a rousing science fiction thriller by the sound of it. Per Variety - not only is Isaac set to partner up for another dance with the director but join what is already shaping up to be the most promising and diverse fist pump of an ensemble for a 2017 release.

On second thought: maybe hold onto those earplugs. While no one can hear you scream in space, here on Earth the names “Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, and Gina Rodriguez” are enough to break the sound barrier. Annihilation, based on Jeff VanderMeer’s novel of the same name, tracks the expedition of a four-woman team charting a mysterious territory chocked full with deadly unknowns of both chemical and zoological varieties. Portman is set to play the biologist – whose husband (Isaac) may or may not be dead – while the other three top-tier actresses will gear up as an anthropologist, surveyor, and psychologist. Point me to the nearest fainting couch!

Where to begin. How about the mere fact that Black Swan, Amy Archer, Sam White, and Jane the Virgin are about to do a Mission Movie together that promises a journey into the unknown packed with scares and science? This could be the Ghostbusters of paranoid, alliance shifting, contamination adventure movies. Television’s brightest shining star, and reliably sharp eye of the storm, Gina Rodriguez is one big screen smash away from the boundless stardom she’s projected since before her Golden Globes speech. Tessa Thompson perfected the art of cool and detached authority in Creed and Dear White People, so she’s a no-brainer for this crew. And Isaac? He’s just the cherry on top of the sundae.

Which of this beloved quintet would you most want watching your back while on expedition?

Knight of Cups Top 5

Manuel here with a short list about Terrence Malick’s most recent outing. Knight of Cups will sit alongside Tree of Life and To the Wonder in what we might call the director’s spiritual trilogy and however you felt about those last two outings will color how you see his latest. Since the film is a roving set of overlapping and interlocking duets—we follow Christian Bale’s Rick, a successful Hollywood writer through Los Angeles and Las Vegas as he has dalliances with beautiful women and deals with the demons that afflict all troubled artists—I figured I’d pick out 5 pairs of Malick collaborators that truly shine in this dreamy poem of a film.

Consider it our version of praising the parts while remaining underwhelmed (or just ill-equipped) to praise the sum...

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