"Introducing" Winona Ryder. Here's to 25 Years in Movies

Congratulations to our Noni on a quarter century in the movies. Twenty-five years ago yesterday her first film (Lucas) hit movie theaters. Jump forward a quarter century and here she is again; Black Swan hits DVD today as if celebrating that very silver screen anniversary. People will be popping in the Black Swan DVD and Blu-Ray all over the place today and there she'll be, glass raised perversely. On her own behalf?

Oh sure, it's an in-character moment as "Beth", retiring prima ballerina, but don't think for a second that Black Swan's casting wasn't carefully orchestrated for the mirror affect of all those dark pale beauties not to mention the the cruel passing of the stardom and movie goddess batons.

I bring up this unpublicized anniversary because Noni could use a little public love... or at least Hollywood could use a public reminder that she still has many fans. When she's used correctly, as she was in Black Swan, she's really something else.

I fell instantly and madly in love with her the very first second I saw her in Lucas, which is as stated the first time anybody had the opportunity to see her onscreen. She was all of 14 but it wasn't pervy. This was 25 years ago and we were both babies... so age appropriate! Just look at her. This was the thunderous moment, burned forever into my brain.

I was bursting in my seat "who is this?!" Truth: This is the very first time I ever looked for a name in the movie credits. This was four years before IMDb even existed y'all. I memorized her name and hoped against all hope I'd see her again. Beetlejuice rescued me two years later. People kept calling it a "Michael Keaton Movie" and I'm like "WINONA RYDER! Squeeeee!!!" and everyone is like "who?" and after Beetlejuice nobody asked little me that anymore.

Lucas is a sweet movie but it fell apart right then and there because the whole movie is about how 14 year old Lucas (Corey Haim) has a crush on 16 year old Maggie (Kerri Green) and then THIS girl walks in, his friend Rina (Noni) and you immediately realize she loves him and he barely even notices her. So Winona is forced to look at Corey Haim (RIP) longingly for the whole movie. Like SHE is unworthy of him.

Oh, the humanity!

Do you remember the first time you saw Winona? And for those of you old enough to remember movie-watching before the internet (That would be 30somethings on up), did you ever have that "I must find out who this is!" credit scroll moment with anyone?

New to the Film Experience? Try us out for a few weeks to see if you like.
Related Posts of Note: Overheard: Black Swan, Sassy Gay Swan, Aronofsky's Favorite Actors

Curio: Liz Love

Alexa here.  In the tsunami of Elizabeth Taylor tributes this week, Nathaniel's 79 ways to celebrate stood out for me (I've done more than a few, including falling in love with Monty again). So I thought I'd add to the list, with the help of a few curios to add to your shrine.

Revel in her beauty again with the help of Tim Snyder's prints.

 Plan to send your mom this gorgeous Mother's Day card by Fortune Cookie Crafts.

Charitable baubles after the jump

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Link As We Know It

i09 offers a look at the clockwork man in Scorsese's The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Gold Derby wonders if Oscar winner Estelle Parsons (Bonnie & Clyde) has a Tony Award in her very near future.
In Contention Guy shares his review plans for The Tree of Life in light of its premiere plans. And the new poster. Why yes, reader, here it is. Enjoy.

Gold Derby Academy to honor Sophia Loren in May
Playbill Kristin Chenoweth is coming back to Broadway. Details are unknown but bliss will surely follow.
Self Styled Siren 10 Films that the Siren Should Love But Doesn't. What a fun idea for a list. It's not classics you don't like that everyone else does... it's films you should like, given what you typically respond to, but just don't.

Finally...here's the Onion's vicious but laugh out loud funny Katharine Heigl tragedy "In Freak Accident, 34 Katherine Keigl Films Released At Once." Thanks to Glenn for pointing it out.

In Freak Accident, 34 Katherine Heigl Films Released At Once

So so funny though that Venus & Mars poster / concept reads 100% like a real movie. For a second I thought it was. My favorite bit was the 700% rise in self-blindings and the stressed EMT.

We're doing the best we can out here but the movies are just coming out too fast.

In truth I am one of those rare souls who kind of likes Katharine Heigl. BUT here is how I escaped the hatred: I didn't see all these crappy movies she stars in and I only watched like one season of Grey's Anatomy because it was a shlocky gooey mess. If there is one star in need of saying "no" unless it's a prestige project with A list director next time, it's her. She has enough money. A hiatus until a quality offer shows itself is the only answer to turn this ship around.

"What You See in the Dark," A Must Read

This Wednesday's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" topic is Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). Try to look at it with fresh new eyes somewhen in the next 48 hours and join us for the conversation at 10 PM EST.

In other news, I have three copies of Manuel Muñoz's debut novel "What You See in the Dark" to give away. It's a haunting read that takes place in the small town of Bakersfield in 1959. It focuses on a sudden talk-of-the-town romance between a young couple as well as an older waitress who brushes up against Hollywood in the form of "The Actress" and "The Director" who are scouting locations for a movie (Guess which one? You got it.) I'll have an interview with the author up tomorrow. But if you'd like to enter the contest, here's what you do.

Send Nathaniel and e-mail by Thursday, 9 PM EST containing the following info.

• your name and mailing address
• one thing you love about the movie Psycho (1960)

I'll draw three winners randomly on Friday. This contest is open to all readers but especially recommended for those who like to curl up with literary fiction as much as they like to settle in with a classic movie.

BOB: Sucker Punching Dead Horses

Today's Box Office Blather is short, though hardly sweet. The weekend had only two wide openings which fought it out for two markets: the family and the fanboys. Though girls ruled and boys drooled on Friday when Sucker Punch triumphed, family-market films always grow over opening weekends rather than fade like normal movies.

Carla Gugino, Jena Malone, Abbie Cornish, Emily Browning, Jamie Chung and Vanessa Hudgens at the Sucker Punch premiere

So the weekend went to Wimpy Kids rather than Violent Girls.

01. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules $23.7 new
02. Sucker Punch $19 new
03. Limitless $15 (cumulative: $41.1)
04. The Lincoln Lawyer $10.7 (cumulative: $28.7)
05. Rango $9.7 million (cumulative: $106.3)

Limitless and Lincoln held well in week 2 indicating that people who saw them last week maybe didn't regret their ticket purchases. Rango is now the top grosser of 2011, a title it seems likely to hold until the end of May when Johnny Depp will overthrow himself by way of Pirates #4. (Sigh) Unless Thor gets deified by general audiences or Jane Eyre busts out of her bodice on a record breaking 6,321 screens... all of them sold out for the rest of the summer. (Sorry, fever dream on account of the feverishly Fassbending podcast. But wouldn't it be great if box office were THAT impossible to predict? Hypothetical question. The answer is yes.)

What did you see this weekend? Besides Mildred Pierce, I mean.

Finally, in Shamelessly Beating Dead Horses news: the PG-13 version of The King's Speech opens this Friday. Begone naughty fuck word, you have no power here! The King's Profanity has been redacted. Oscar campaigns don't pay for themselves, people. Although, the $15 million dollar budgeted film has already earned $361 million worldwide so now they're just being greedy fuckers.