Faces of Future Movies, The Men

In this week's column at Towleroad, I meant to just type up a few words about The Ides of March and continue the possibly tired 2011 motif of drooling all over Ryan Gosling as he completes his ascendance to alpha dog of Hollywood's new pack.

What 's your take on Hollywood's male talent pool (under 35 division)?

Instead I went hundreds of words overboard and it morphed into a substantial but by no means complete summary of the male acting talent under 35. I figured why not since the movies currently in theaters are all about the male stars: Gosling, Gordon-Levitt, Jackman, Clooney, Pitt, etcetera.

In the article you can read about whose work I'm most looking forward to and who may have already peaked (though I hope not). There's also a brief bit about the overvalued that still need to justify Hollywood's faith in them... and my personal pleas for the grossly undervalued.

It's an extension of the conversation we started here a month ago about whether Gos' and Fassy had any competition as "Future of the Movies". (Naturally, this made me want to do a similar longer piece on the actresses but that's so much more expected and will have to wait.)  

Answer me these questions three
1. Who are you rooting for in the next five years of the movies?
2. If you were a casting director which undervalued lesser known player would you go to bat for?
3. Would you dig more Film Experience digging into the depth of the young(er) talent pool?  

Green Lantern: Slightly Enjoyable, Enormously Dumb.

Imagine that you had the power to will anything into existence. Let your imagination run wild. What would it be?

Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is given this infinite gift in the new superhero flick Green Lantern. This power emanates from a ring which is charged by the title object which is given to--- Stop. Stop. You don't need this exposition. Should you choose to see the picture, the complicated history of the lantern will all be explained to you in a lengthy prologue. Once Hal Jordan has entered his own movie, this lengthy prologue will be explained to him again since he wasn't there for it. He in turn will tell this crazy-ass story to his only two friends since they weren't there when he heard it. (If at any point, nature should call, feel free to answer. They'll repeat it for you.)

So what does Hal do with this incredibly infinite gift? He creates fists, fighter jets, race tracks, swords, shields... the basic playthings of little boys. Hal Jordan isn't exactly gifted in the imagination department...

 Read the full review at Towleroad.

P.S. Honestly, I could have spilled 1000 more words. There is so much worth mocking. I didn't even space for The Watchers, or Mark Strong as Sinestro or how ridiculously overplayed and schematic the "daddy issues" were. And yet... I can't say it was painful to sit through exactly but for its just mystifyingly silliness... and I love the Green Lantern (one of my favs as a kid). As Katey said to me in the screening "Why did they do that to Angela Bassett's hair?" Oh, the unsolvable mysteries of Sector 2814!

Thor and His Mighty Hammer

I once lived in Tønsberg Norway so imagine my shock at seeing it name-checked on screen for the first time in my life. According to Thor the movie that's where Odin (Anthony Hopkins in the role usually played by Liam Neeson or, well, Anthony Hopkins) and the Gods of Asgards battled the Frost Giants way back in... I've forgotten the date but it's ages and ages ago. That's the ancient war that prefaces the entire epic hooey of Marvel's new superhero flick THOR. Who knew? I saw no traces of this epic magical battle in Tønsberg soil but I am neither a geologist nor a wormhole chasing astrophysicist like Natalie Portman so maybe I didn't know where to look?

My Thor review for Towleroad.
Return and comment if thou wouldst. Snap back to me like Mjöllnir, mortals.

'it's linking men, hallelujah, it's linking men... Amen!'

The Film Experience likes the ladies best -- actresses forevah -- but today's links are curious phallocentric, hence the title.

Observations on Film Art one more piece on Sidney Lumet, something to fill out the "constrained" picture of the general mass of obituaries.
Tom Shone, in a wonderful concise piece, knows we're all more Brad Pitt than Terrence Malick in this Tree of Life.
Cinema Blend Katey worries that Hollywood is going to make us sick of Jeremy Renner. He's doing as many franchises as Samuel L Jackson adding The Bourne Legacy (lead role - taking over for Matt Damon) to the line-up. Ruh-roh.
The Wrap organized-crime-drama alert. There's always a few in production. Sean Penn and Josh Brolin, so memorably at odds in Milk, may be enemies again in Gangster Squad
Jezebel has a hilarious reel of men faking orgasm onscreen (in non-pornographic films). It's even a little bit interesting in a non-pervy way.
Movie|Line Joseph Gordon-Levitt trashes the Conan set for a Hesher promo.
Movie Morlocks RIP on the 1970s star Michael Sarrazin (They Shoot Horses Don't They, For Pete's Sake) who passed away last week. So many major goodbyes in showbiz lately. Sigh.
TVLine Strange Emmy development, ladies division: January Jones is still campaigning as a lead for Mad Men despite her screen time being at least halved this past season. Bad move? This puts her up against Elisabeth Moss, who is back to lead.

GayGayGay
Stale Popcorn Yay. Another convert to writer/director/actor/producer Xavier Dolan. I'll  have more on Heartbeats once it hits DVD... whenever that is.
Towleroad this weeks column by moi. I would have reviewed Water For Elephants but I was in Nashville. Is it wrong that I'm super excited to see it?
Out Magazine Thomas Dekker (Kaboom, Cinema Verite) is sending out all sorts of mixed signals about his sexuality. I guess we're still a couple years away from (male) movie actors coming out.

"I'm not like anyone else. I'm me."

By now you've read the obituaries, scoured the career appraisals, maybe you've put in a DVD, donated to her charity in lieu of flowers, wiped away a tear, or done something silly to commemorate Elizabeth Taylor. Maybe you've just marvelled at how difficult it is to wrap one's head around the loss of a true Giant, capital and italics intended, and not just because that's one of the only titles in her filmography that doubles as an apt descriptor of its star. 

A friend of mine told me last month when she was dramatically hospitalized on Oscar weekend, that he'd been commissioned to write an obit (just in case). I actually felt bad for him. "You'll never be paid," I said...

READ THE REST AT TOWLEROAD

* This is my last piece on Liz for awhile. Between this and Tennessee Williams week (which ends tomorrow) we've become lost in time. Must jump back to 2011 pronto. Or at least by April 1st, when The Film Experience traditionally admits that the new film year has in fact begun. Here we go again...