Alice Doesn't Link Here Anymore

The Hairpin "Our Bella Ourselves" is one of the best pieces I've read on The Twilight Saga and the communal anger over its terrible central role model.
Paper Mag cute piece on future Oscar nominee Jean Dujardin, describing his character George Valentin in The Artist.
Nick's Flick Picks has revived his top 100 project
Inquirer Christian Bale praises Tom Hardy & Anne Hathaway on their work in The Dark Knight Rises
Towleroad George Michael hospitalized for pneumonia and not doing well. 
Sunset Gun "I Am One of Your Fans" on actresses playing other actresses
Little White Lies interviews Eddie Redmayne of My Week With Marilyn. I love it when actors actually talk about the career management portion of their job:

Informally you’re part of a group of up-and-coming British actors making waves in the States right now. Is there a sense within that group of having made it?

Yeah. Well… Working and spending time in the States, it’s interesting to see the group of actors and actresses from my generation, who all started around the same time, getting so much respect. It’s wonderful, and at some point I’d love to work with some of my mates in that capacity, because it’s exciting, having started off as jokers trying to get a gig, thinking that our paths could meet.

Who are we talking about, exactly?

Dom Cooper, Andrew Garfield, Ben Whishaw, Charlie Cox… We’re not best mates, I’d say more close peers.

And what a fine group they are, right?

It's a Marty Marty Marty Marty World
THR Hugo looks to be overperforming a bit at the box office in a nice surprise.
Awards Daily Samples from the Hugo soundtrack. Do you think Howard Shore will see another nomination? 

Finally, Sons of Norway reports that Martin Scorsese may take on the adaptation of the novel The Snowman soon. But a word of caution before you race out to buy the book in the hopes of getting a jump on a future Scorsese. This is one busy busy busy 69 year old man. The IMDb, while not 100% reliable on such things as future projects, lists over a dozen projects on his current docket and since he's not as fast as Eastwood and Allen, he'll be in this 80s before we've seen them all. I respect the author Jo Nesbø's approach to a film adaptation; he wouldn't sell without director approval. Scorsese was at the top of his dream list of five. 

"baby, you are going to miss that link"

Please tell me how to feel about the proposed Before Sunset (2004) sequel. I don't mean to shirk my duties as an "opinion maker" *snort* but sometimes I just don't have one. A definitive opinion, I mean. See, when the magical Sunset was first announced it sounded like an iffy idea at best and a terrible idea at worst chasing such a fleeting wisp of enchantment like Before Sunrise (1995), one that purposely left the future up to our collective or, rather, individual imagination.

But then Before Sunset arrived and it turned out that a second encounter with Jesse and Celine was not just a good idea, but a great one. It was as if the stars and the Richard Linklater, the writer/director, had not just matured nine years in the interim but that they're maturity combined had tripled that depth of their real time spell-casting. What an incredible film. But if a third film were to triple the depth and power of the second, we would have to count it among the greatest films of all time and what are the chances of that happening? 

Do you want to know what happened to Jesse & Celine or are you more than content to imagine for yourself what came after the fade out?

Links!
fourfour "the diva chain" love it. 
The Playlist awww, damnit. No The Fly sequel for David Cronenberg after all.
AV Club on the new muppet "Walter".  
Rope of Silicon talks to Michel Hazanavicius on Tati, Chaplin and The Artist. Can you believe he's never seen The Thin Man?!
The Wrap Weird News Of Day Alert: Rocky is being musicalized. I've always thought there was great crossover between boxing fetishists and musical theater lovers... uhhhh
The Awl Mary & Natasha are all "!!!!!" on all things The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 1 "I CANNOT EVEN" myself but maybe not in the same way. 

Finally... Hollywood Elsewhere reveals a big "No" on Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close screenings for NBR and NYFCC awards voters. Stephen Daldry's latest just won't be ready by their crazy-early deadlines (November 28th and 29th respectively) It is a bit ridiculous that people are trying to vote on "best of the year" in November. But, then again, it's kind of ridiculous that so many movies don't want to show themselves until December. Lots of magazines have deadlines for "best of year" pieces that have always required long lead looks. November expectations for December offerings are nothing new behind the scenes.

Box Office: Bella Marries but We're Totally Team George

Twi-hards RSVP'ed to their beloved franchise's wedding, giving Twilight's fourth film a box office weekend as bloated as its romantic angst and running time. George Clooney's Oscar bid (aka The Descendants) also saw very enthusiastic attendance. It's only in 29 theaters and still managed to crack the top ten (!), suggesting a future all lucrative like the family's in the movie (who happen to own gazillions worth of Hawaiian real estate).

Box Office (U.S.) Top Ten -Estimates

01 THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 1 new $139.5
02 HAPPY FEET TWO new $22
03 IMMORTALS $12.2 (cum. $52.9)
04 JACK AND JILL $12 (cum. $41)
05 PUSS IN BOOTS $10.7 (cum. $122.3)
06 TOWER HEIST $7 (cum. $53.4)
07 J EDGAR new $5.9 [review] (cum $20.6)
08 A VERY HAROLD & KUMAR 3D CHRISTMAS new $2.9 (cum $28.3)
09 IN TIME $1.7  (cum. $33.4)
10 THE DESCENDANTS new $1.2  (cum. $1.3)

One Final Talking Point
Remember when we were wondering if The Help (#11 of the year) could overtake Bridesmaids (#10) to land in the US top ten of the year? It's still trying. The Help is still in theaters (under 400) and is now just $900,000 behind the other female driven smash featuring poo jokes. The only similarly intense and weirdly close battle for yearly "rank" bragging rights is between Captain America (#8) and Rise of the Planet of the Apes (#9) with less than $300,000 separating their takes; no poo jokes unite them but they do share super serum injections.

What did you see this weekend? Or are you saving your pennies for the awesome cavalcade of pictures opening for Thanksgiving. So many goodies opening for the holiday.

"Wonder Twin Powers Activate"

File under: The greatest thing any Twilight cast members have ever done for us.

[src]

That's Peter Facinelli & Nikki Reed as the infamous Wonder Twins. Though Facinelli was saddled with a total boresville part in Twilight, he was fun on Nurse Jackie and seems to have a good sense of humor in general. Remember that time he present costume design guild awards in just his underwear?

Now on to more pressing questions. Once their College Humor short emerges (which is what they're in costume for) what water-based shape is Facinelli going to take: whirlpool to drown in, icicle to suck on, bucket of water to dump with? And which animal form will Nikki change into? It's funny but I do always think of her as feral after thirteen (2003).

Hey, who Abducted my links?

Taylor Lautner, that's who!
and Kate Winslet but we'll get to her in a minute.
Michael Musto wonders if Taylor Lautner can be a film star outside of Twilight. My guess is no... but that he'll be crying all the way to the bank for the rest of his life by association. But, really, if you can't even sell a performance (Abduction) for two minutes in a trailer, how are you going to carry an entire film? 
Ultra Culture also has some words about the disingenousness of the promotional efforts for Taylor's BabyBourne film and...
Movie|Line giggles about how desperately Abduction wants to be seen as Teen Bourne.
Biblioklept "all four Twilight books in one comic" by Lucy Knisey is totes funny so read it. Unless the previous words about Taylor hurt your feelers.

P.S. I don't follow these things: Is there another Twilight about to come out or something? Cuz why is everyone talking Twilight again just as Harry Potter finally shut up? Blargh! Put new things into the world. Why is 2011 just like 2007? Noooooooo

And since you're all talking about it in the comments without me even posting it, here is an early teaser/trailer (?) for CARNAGE.

For those of you who haven't seen the play you're seeing two of the three big moments from Winslet's character.... and almost none of anyone else's. Which is interesting choice for marketing... but doesn't necessarily mean anything in terms of the movie as a whole.

Miscellania
My New Plaid Pants "who the hell wears this to dinner?" Sophia Loren, that's who!
Lemonwade the author of War Horse already has another film adaptation of his work, lined up. Private Peaceful is about two young farm brothers and, like War Horse, also takes place during The Great War.
Art & Design on the Jim Henson exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image and Cookie Monster's origins. Have I ever told you how much I love Cookie Monster? Probably not. I do.
Towleroad True Blood's Carrie Preston records an "It Gets Better" video.  (Loooooove her. Wish she'd do more supporting roles in movies as the last few were awesome)
Towleroad I'm not one for bathroom humor but Anderson Cooper is the world's cutest giggler - totally loses it when discussing Gerard Depardieu's urination incident.