Yes, No, Maybe So: "The Amazing Spider-Man"

Well, look what we have here. A new Spider-Man suit (and trailer). It's very shiny so that our friendly neighborhood do-gooder doesn't get run over at night. With 147 days until web-slinging commences its time to break this down with our patented Yes, No, Maybe So™ system. 

When I put you on, no one will know I'm not Tobey Maguire

YES
There are various moments within the trailer that get at Peter Parker's intelligence and especially his sense of humor that, let's be honest, the Sam Raimi films kind of skimped on despite their excellence. "You seriously think I'm a cop in a skin tight red and blue suit?"

Love the idea of Spider-Man using his web as a floor to infiltrate a building. You have to keep these things clever since we've seen them so many times.

"I'm in trouble." Casting Emma Stone as Gwen Stacey is a smart move. She's always relatable even in crazy circumstances like "my boyfriend is a webslinging superhero battling a mutated amphibian-man."

Only one villain? And one we haven't yet seen in the Spider-Man films? Such a surprise blessing from Overkill Friendly Hollywood.

MAYBE SO

MORE AFTER THE JUMP

Click to read more ...

Linkomaniac

The Film Stage on Marc Webb's approach to the 'untold story' of The Amazing Spider-Man which has been told oh so many times before.
Vulture Star Market Charlize Theron
Coming Soon has a chat with shooting star Tom Hiddleston on War Horse and Midnight in Paris
The Playlist Stellan Skarsgard on getting naked for Lars von Trier for next year's The Nymphomaniac. Another von Trier alum Charlotte Gainsbourg will co-star in what Lars is calling his "porno"... not to be confused with the pornographic moments from The Idiots (incidentally one of the director's very best films though people rarely speak  of it now.) 

Moviefone 25 things you didn't know about Harold & Maude for its 40th anniversary.
The House Next Door picks the worst movie posters of the year.
In Contention interviews Kenneth Branagh on his "dangerously obvious casting" as Sir Laurence Olivier
Cinema Blend promised me a list of best "tiny" performances and then just gave me a list of good supporting performances, some of them in several scenes of their movies, one them third largest role in the movie! I need cameo suggestions, for my own awards, c'mon!!!
The Advocate has a fun list: Most Googled gays and lesbians of 2011. Congratulations to the lot of them.
MNPP The trailer for a trailer for a not prequel sequel Prometheus

Pajiba Dustin hates the Dexter finale on Season 6 (as did I) yet plans to come back for more. This is why TV shows outstay their welcome! Don't do it. Jump ship once the show jumps shark. If people exhibited half the patience they give television to the movies Bela Tarr and Sofia Coppola would have 100 million grossers under their belt ;) Why do people hate on "slow" movies but come back for TV shows week after week when it can sometimes takes 12 hours for something to happen which actually advances the plot? 
Paste 100 Best Twitter accounts of 2011... sadly the movie stars aren't bringing it. Real celebs on the list are mostly music and TV talents but Steve Martin and Diablo Cody richly deserve their places on the list. 
Animation Magazine a new Bill Plympton animated short based on Winsor McCay's "Flying House" is hitting the festival circuit. Maybe we'll hear of it in next year's Oscar discussion?  He's been nominated twice before.
The New York Times wonders what's going with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close's late breaking Oscar campaign.  

Finally...
If you'd like to read a piece that is fine though unrelated follow up to Michael's recent "Burning Questions" post about being nominated without precursor support, Erik at Movies.com has been crunching other numbers with the same time frame using the Chicago Film Critics of all things as a major predictor. He also reminds us of those unlucky few leads from the past decade who did NOT go on to Oscar nominations despite having the entire big precursor trifecta BFCA/SAG/GLOBE and they were Cinderella Man's Russell Crowe, Sideways' Paul Giamatti, Lars and the Real Girl's Ryan Gosling and A Mighty Heart's Angelina Jolie. Locks can be broken in other words. Of this year's leading crowd that already has all three I'd say only Tilda Swinton and Leonardo DiCaprio seem vulnerable. That said, I'm not prepared to bet against Leo, biopic leads being crack cocaine to AMPAS. Tilda on the other hand I still wonder about given that it's not an Oscar style film by any stretch of the imagination.

The Amazing Linker-Man

Vanity Fairy Paul Mazursky, who made one of my favorite pictures (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice) recalls its critical reception and then starts his own film reviewing for VF:  J. Edgar and Melancholia.
Wall Street Journal  Baseball legend Yogi Berra sees Moneyball and reminisces about his own history with the movies. Fun piece.
Coming Soon Emma Stone's opening monologue on SNL last night. Andy Samberg's Spider-Man arrives to interrupt her with a new script. Love this bit.

Emma: Ok, Andy, aren't you just redoing the same monologue that Kirsten Dunst did like 10 years ago?
Andy: Uhhh, yeah. Aren't you just redoing the exact same Spider-Man movie from 10 years ago?

Hee.

Awards Daily on the unshakeable charms of The Artist.
Thelma Adams falls for Kirsten Dunst's beautiful bitterness in Melancholia.
Playlist multihyphante showbiz woman Rie Rasmussen is gaga for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained which will "revolutionize Hollywood."
In Contention looks back at early Charlize Theron, pre Oscar Charlize in fact.
Funny or Die Ryan Gosling, the strong and very silent type. 
Serious Film on the makeup in J. Edgar
MNPP while looking at the new EW cover of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo this is what your eyes did.
Towleroad I had a brief chat with Dustin Lance Black about his screenwriting work on Milk and J. Edgar. 

stagey
NYT Hugh Jackman on Broadway review
La Daily Musto Hugh Jackman on Broadway review

Finally...
Let's end with this tribute to the title design of Saul Bass from Art of the Title...

The Title Design of Saul Bass from Ian Albinson on Vimeo.

There are few things we enjoy more than a good title sequence. Which have been your favorite this year? FYC me for those Film Bitch Awards which begin sooner than you think.

Links

I apologize straightaway for the slower-than-usual posting the past few days. it's just been one of those weeks. co-miserate with me in the comments.

Pajiba "Goodwin's Law: Celebrity Edition" starring Susan Sarandon, Lars von Trier and more celebrities whose exaggerating mouths get them into trouble.
Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal tons of W&G items up for auction starting on November 1st. I love Wallace and Gromit.
EW Joss Whedon plots his return to the web with the apocalyptic Wastelanders.
In Contention I know you've heard this but it's worth noting that the NYFCC, arguably the most important of the 17 million critics awards out there, have taken the crazy crazy "first!" position in awards season by jumping to (gasp) November.

Animation Magazine that animated marvel Persepolis is still shaking things up years later.
Self Styled Siren remembers Barbara Kent (1906-2011), another silent film star who has left this earth.
Awards Daily is excited for the new Diane Keaton memoir. So am I but I'm honestly surprised as she seemed so the don't-kiss-and-tell type.
Scanners good piece on cinephilia and our separate lines in the sand when it comes to horrific imagery, whether of the standard horror or pyschologically disturbing variety.

Keyframe Nick Davis on Derek Jarman's Blue.  

Indeed, it’s hard to escape an undertow of privation while watching Blue, not just because its premise is the imminent demise of a great filmmaker (still absurdly undervalued by all but the most self-selecting audiences,) but because its form is austere enough to come across as like a mid-level gallery gimmick."

just 4 fun
Skedrawdles "it's a cloud eat cloud world."
Towleroad "It Getteth Better"
Hark, a Vagrant! Spider-Man vs. Kraven.  

Posters Should Be Seen and Not Heard. And Other Grievances.

So Annoying! Let it be known: I'm not going to post the leaked teaser to The Amazing Spider-Man. I didn't even watch it despite it popping up everywhere. I don't understand the internet fascination with getting everything before you're supposed to even if that means crappy quality fuzziness. Why spoil a first view with a bad copy of something? 

So Annoying Part 2! That Hunger Games motion poster that everyone is posting. I opted to just screengrab it for y'all because it's so NOISY. At one point with all the windows I open up when I'm working it sounded like my whole apartment was on fire and it's already hot enough up in here.

In addition to setting your computer aflame virtually -- thus denying you marshmallows to make up for it --  the poster counts down the days until the movie opens which will unfortunately NOT put an end to the constant publicity and internet jabbering about it since it's going to be a quadrilogy or something and if Harry Potter taught us anything it's that the world likes television more than the movies and would like the movies to just become television series with new seasons lasting 2 1/2 hours opening for as many years in a row as possible. The minute that Season One of The Hunger Games opens people will just start speculating about Season Two of the Hunger Games. 

Y'all know I love the movie posters and anything Hollywood can do to liven them up is appreciated. Only please do so very quietly. Like you're in the library. Or a church. The Holy Church of The Cinema.

The movies aren't silent anymore but posters still should be.