That's a Link Breaker, Ladies

Letters of Note "I feel every cut" an intimate glimpse back at Terry Gilliam's Brazil madness
Self Styled Siren a happy ending for For the Love of Film Blogathon III. The money raised towards film preservation (a digitial copy of a super early piece of the Hitchcock puzzle) will result in free streaming of the surviving reels this November. Well done, all!
24 Frames Broadway star Kelli O'Hara will star in not one but two new fillm drama to stage musical adaptations: Far From Heaven (previously discussed) and... The Bridges of Madison County?
The Daily Notebook 1948 was a good year for mermaids: Glynis Johns & Ann Blyth

Rope of Silicon new character photos from Anna Karenina including Keira Knightley, veiled
Pajiba says goodbye to sci-fi legend Ray Bradbury (RIP)
Antagony & Ecstacy "in space no one can hear you yawn"... on Alien Ressurection. Or is it Alien: Ressurection? 
Slate "Woman: The Other Alien in Alien" Tom Shone investigates Academia and the Alien franchise... with a Ripley focus of course
Ultra Culture "fixes" the teaser poster for Robert Zemeckis' Flight starring Denzel Washington 

Broadway Blog my friend Tom makes his educated Tony prediction guesses. Are you watching Sunday night? 
The New Yorker's this new true story article "The Yankee Comandante" about an American helping Cuban rebels overthrow their president in 1959 is already on its way to being a movie. George Clooney will direct.  
Vulture the scariest thing ever seen on television via Twin Peaks. I wholeheartedly agree. I remember actually attempting to move backwards. (Maybe I also whimpered / screamed. Shut up. You had to be there in 1991)  

Finally...
I giggled this morning when reading Stranger Than Most's "Jenna tells it like it is" a reminder of one of 30 Rock's most hilarious scenes. I'm linking because tonight I'll be at Town Hall enjoying Jane Krakowski in concert, a birthday gift from my besties. Yay. I loved Jane truly madly and deeply even before 30 Rock finally convinced everyone else that she was a comedy genius. Every drink I consume tonight will be (re)named in her honor: Jenna'sSide, The Krakowski, 'That'sADealBreakerLadies', Sexual Walkabout, CallFromTheVatican, and MuffinTop. Erm... not that I'm going to drink six drinks. No Lost Weekends for me!

Tell me how much you love Jane Krakowski and how much she deserves the Emmy for this season of 30 Rock after the jump. Don't be anything less than effusive, bitches.

Take Three: Piper Laurie

Craig (from Dark Eye Socket) here with this week's Take Three. Today: Piper Laurie

Take One: Hesher (2010)
Laurie has played the grandmother figure a few times in recent years (Hounddog, Eulogy, The Dead Girl), but she best conveyed matriarchal feeling last year in Hesher. The film uses the familiar narrative coupling of a loveable old person and unruly younger person connecting despite obvious differences. This time it's carried out with keen subtlety because the people involved are Laurie and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who make this arrangement work in a delightfully fresh way. Their friendship isn’t the main thrust of the narrative, but a key characterful diversion, and the genuinely heartfelt union elevates the film with tiny moments of tender affection.

Laurie's Grandma is there for her grandson (Devin Brochu) through the mourning of his mother and later when Gordon-Levitt’s stoner/drifter crashes the family home. Her open acceptance of the stranger in their home starts as comically baffling but becomes almost profound. A bedroom scene where the Grandma and Hesher share tales of their lives over a bong contains obvious comedy. But Laurie’s performance – especially her indistinct and sweetly sing-song delivery – creates an odd pathos. She's giving us glimpses of her life before old age took its toll. This scene follows an earlier moment where nobody takes her up on her offer to accompany her on her morning walk. Unfazed, yet with a hint of melancholy barely audible to the others, she utters: “Well, you know you’re always invited.” She arouses a rush of emotion in five small words. "Grandma" couldn't might've been a mere peripheral presence or a parody, but she's more than a token old lady in Laurie's hands. 

Godfearing loons and corporate megabitches after the jump

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