Actress Polling - Final Days

Only a couple of days remain to vote on the "Character" Best Actress Polls that were posted earlier this month.

If you haven't already voted on 1991-2000 in particular please do so. That decade's polls got far fewer votes than 2001-2010 and it'd be great if another 400 of you voted to even things out a bit. You can vote for five characters in each poll!  I mean I'm dying to know whether you think Cynthia "Sweetheart" Purley in Secrets and Lies is more memorable than, say, cross-dressing Viola in Shakespeare in Love. Or whether you love Louise but not Thelma (aren't you required to vote for both?) or if you'd vote for Senator Laine Hanson from The Contender but would never buy a house from Carolyn Burnham in American Beauty. Have you ever ridiculed Nell "tae in the win'" or sold your body to an alcholic like Sera did in Leaving Las Vegas.

Go and vote: Which Best Actress characters from that era do you think about the most?

John Malkovich signs "John Malkovich" on a photo of John Malkovich

"Malkovich! Malkovich! Malkovich!"

Malkovich Career Honors

John Malkovich was just honored at the Munich Film Festival in Germany with a "CineMerit Award" so herewith a very impromptu top 4 performances. I loved him in his Oscar nominated work in Places in the Heart (1984) back when I was a kid but I don't remember the movie at all so I left it out.

Nathaniel's "Best" Malkoviches

1. Being John Malkovich (1999) -far and away his best. The Academy was insane not to nominate him.
2. In the Line of Fire (1993) 
3. Burn After Reading (2008)
   honorable mention: Dangerous Liaisons (1988) maybe he was a walking anachronism but I worship the movie, okay?

 YOUR TURN!

Ally Sheedy "We Were Under the Radar"

Gay pride week here in New York City has been eventful to say the least (see previous post) and the parade today was fun. But I thought what you'd most be interested in, given The Film Experience's leanings (actressexual), was a shared moment with Ally Sheedy!

I was on the guest list for Kiehl's Pride Party which was hosted by Dan Savage and his boyfriend Terry Miller of the awesome "It Gets Better" project (Can someone give them a Nobel Peace Prize already?). And so, to my utter delight, was Ally Sheedy. I had to reach out to her as she passed by me to tell her how much I loved her in High Art (1998). Once she'd stopped to chat, me being me, I had to then tell her I was rooting for her to win the Oscar but then she wasn't even nominated. Unspeakable Tragedy! Immediately after blurting that out, I worried I'd poured salt onto an old wound but instead she was all smiles, thank yous and bygones "We were under the radar!" she said cheerfully. We then swapped "Isn't Patty Clarkson awesome?" notes and to my surprise Ally introduced me to her lovely daughter. How is Ally Sheedy old enough to have a 17 year old daughter?!?  

I brought along my friend Jon and we're pictured to your left with Kenneth in the (212) who offers up an amusing rundown of the event and a rather skewed version of my chat with Ally Sheedy ;)  It's not that I don't love The Breakfast Club, trust! I just wanted to use the few seconds I had with her to talk about more pressing matters. And Oscar is always the most pressing matter, don't you agree?

In addition to a great crowd, the event featured gourmet cups of macaroni & cheese (4 or 5 different flavors. Don't confuse me with options) which everyone tried to pretend they weren't into. Everyone pretended badly.

How was your weekend? More on the weekend movies, box office and the True Blood premiere tomorrow. G'night.

"Character" Poll - 1991-2000

Saturday I asked you to vote on Best Actress Character Polls. This is not about the performances per se but the movie characters themselves.

It's to help me with brainstorming a secret project or two -- plus to get a general consensus on which characters you wonderful people out there in the dark obsess over most. So while we're discussing it, let's make the poll an even two decades.

Here's part 3 & 4 1991-1995 | 1996-2000. VOTE ON BOTH. Please choose up to but no more than 5 characters. Be honest about which characters you think of the most (which is not the same as who you think deserved to win.)

poll by twiigs.com

Here's part 4. 1991-1995. Same thing.

poll by twiigs.com

Thanks for voting.

And make sure to hit the other two polls if you haven't already. Thanks!

"Dick Tracy" Q&A with Warren Beatty

Alex (BBats) here, doing a lil’ scouting in LA. Oh my oh my!

BBats and Beatty! This past weekend, I had the pleasure to revisit Dick Tracy (1990) on the big screen courtesy of the Los Angeles Times Hero Complex Film Festival.  The film hasn’t aged a day due to that rich pulp style that seeps through every set piece, costume, matte painting, and actor.  The main draw was a Q & A with Warren Beatty after the film! Now, I was battling the flu and taking notes as fast as I could, so keep that in mind and I wouldn’t say anything below was a direct quote.

Beatty stood in the wings as the film’s end credits rolled. Big applause for the film followed and I saw a big smile grow across his face. The moderator brought him out to thunderous ovation (duh). He seemed a little cagey and very careful in selecting his words; this Q & A was for the Los Angeles Times, he pointed out, and would be in print the very next day.

Hit the jump for some Beatty, Dick, and a lil' Bening action!

On Stephen Sondheim
'He did great stuff for this…I’m such a fan of Sondheim’s. Everytime I see one of his shows, I just fall apart on the first song.'

On the film itself
'I’m disgusting because I really do like it a lot.'

Beatty had been attached to the propertry since 1976. The moderator asked why he chose Dick Tracy. Beatty said that he didn’t want to do some picture where everything got blasted around, and that Dick Tracy was this guy who had been around forever and wanted to start a family. He paused and said he thought of it as a gentle picture. (Aside: I love when people call movies "pictures". Super classy.)

This next part is so funny, let's get it right by quoting directly from the Los Angeles Times.

 “Little by little I found myself caught up enough in it to actually go and make a movie about it, because it was hard for me. … I always think of making a movie like vomiting. I don’t like to vomit, but I get to the point where I think, ‘I’d better go ahead and do this, and I’ll feel better.’” 

Everyone  rolled with laughter. The vomiting reference also maybe gives us a little glimpse as to why he hasn’t directed a film since Bulworth (1998). But back to the Q & A.

His desk needs a bucket.

Beatty began to compliment everyone in the cast and the moderator honed in on certain performances and how he cast the roles. Interestingly, Beatty compared the casting process to writing. When you cast someone it's an instant rewrite, even if you don’t change a word.

Madonna sings "MORE" in Dick Tracy and you know you want more, too: Bening, Pacino. Hoffman, Oscars and Dick Tracy sequel nuggets after the jump.

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