Vintage Ewan Two Times

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Vintage Ewan Two Times

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Haywire Will Be Out On May 1st

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So you won't have any excuses for not seeing it after that. Go here and buy it! I don't get why it did so poorly, box office wise - you may recall that I enjoyed the hell out of it (here's my review) so even besides all that hot Fassy towel action I say there's other wonders to behold. Channing and Ewan and Soderbergh's super style, all that jazz. And Carano might've been wet behind the ears acting-wise but Soderbergh utilized her well, I thought.

Oh and I swiped these gifs straight from the ever-awesome Simone at Fassinating Fassbender, but how could I not? She understands.

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Haywire Will Be Out On May 1st

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So you won't have any excuses for not seeing it after that. Go here and buy it! I don't get why it did so poorly, box office wise - you may recall that I enjoyed the hell out of it (here's my review) so even besides all that hot Fassy towel action I say there's other wonders to behold. Channing and Ewan and Soderbergh's super style, all that jazz. And Carano might've been wet behind the ears acting-wise but Soderbergh utilized her well, I thought.

Oh and I swiped these gifs straight from the ever-awesome Simone at Fassinating Fassbender, but how could I not? She understands.

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TGT11: Actor to Actor #8

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What's the "Actor to Actor" series? First I pick out my twenty favorite performances of the year. Then I mix those twenty names all up and pick out two names at random. And then I imagine what a conversation between those two characters would be like. Rinse and repeat. For fun! So let's get to it. Here's MNPP's eighth pair of favorite performances of 2011....

Beginners' Oliver Fields (Ewan McGregor) 

and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo's 

Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara)

Lisbeth: I know you talk to your dog.

Oliver: Well you see...

Lisbeth: I know you think chairs are gay.

Oliver: There's an explanation for...

Lisbeth: I know your girlfriend...

Oliver: She's not my girlfriend.

Lisbeth: Take off your pants.

PREVIOUSLY

Tilda Swinton talks to Mia Wasikowska
Juliette Binoche talks to John Hawkes
Michael Shannon talks to Charlotte Gainsbourg
Patton Owsalt talks to Tom Hardy

William Shimell talks to Jeong-hie Jun

Michael Fassbender talks to Elizabeth Olsen

Kirsten Dunst talks to Andrea Riseborough

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TGT11: Actor to Actor #8

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What's the "Actor to Actor" series? First I pick out my twenty favorite performances of the year. Then I mix those twenty names all up and pick out two names at random. And then I imagine what a conversation between those two characters would be like. Rinse and repeat. For fun! So let's get to it. Here's MNPP's eighth pair of favorite performances of 2011....

Beginners' Oliver Fields (Ewan McGregor) 

and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo's 

Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara)

Lisbeth: I know you talk to your dog.

Oliver: Well you see...

Lisbeth: I know you think chairs are gay.

Oliver: There's an explanation for...

Lisbeth: I know your girlfriend...

Oliver: She's not my girlfriend.

Lisbeth: Take off your pants.

PREVIOUSLY

Tilda Swinton talks to Mia Wasikowska
Juliette Binoche talks to John Hawkes
Michael Shannon talks to Charlotte Gainsbourg
Patton Owsalt talks to Tom Hardy

William Shimell talks to Jeong-hie Jun

Michael Fassbender talks to Elizabeth Olsen

Kirsten Dunst talks to Andrea Riseborough

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Another Friday Means...

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... another chance for me to ramble briefly about a bunch of movies I haven't seen over at Celebrity Beehive. This week it's John Carter of Mars and Friends With Kids and Silent House and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and then some awful-looking Eddie Murphy movie that is apparently getting crapped out as well. Check it.

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Another Friday Means...

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... another chance for me to ramble briefly about a bunch of movies I haven't seen over at Celebrity Beehive. This week it's John Carter of Mars and Friends With Kids and Silent House and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and then some awful-looking Eddie Murphy movie that is apparently getting crapped out as well. Check it.

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I'd Just Like To Point Out...

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... since it's my raison d'être and all, that this is what the Class of February 10th 2012 Menfolk Edition looks like. (click it to embiggen) Speaking of movies being released today, that is. Look at that shit! We are rolling in riches, y'all. Rolling in them. Head over to Celebrity Beehive and I'll tell you more about the new movies these fellows are being their sexy selves in.
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poll by twiigs.com

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And what are you seeing this weekend?

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I'd Just Like To Point Out...

.

... since it's my raison d'être and all, that this is what the Class of February 10th 2012 Menfolk Edition looks like. (click it to embiggen) Speaking of movies being released today, that is. Look at that shit! We are rolling in riches, y'all. Rolling in them. Head over to Celebrity Beehive and I'll tell you more about the new movies these fellows are being their sexy selves in.
.

poll by twiigs.com

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And what are you seeing this weekend?

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You Win, Ewan

Besides that Madonna person, there were famous people all over the W.E. screening last night - besides a bunch of the cast (Andrea Riseborough! Oscar Isaacs!) my boyfriend stood next to Patti Smith and Andrew McCarthy (not together; how weird would that be) in the popcorn line and Russell Simmons was waiting outside the bathroom when I went. But apparently Ewan McGregor was there, and I missed him, so it's all for naught. Naught!

Boo, Ewan! How dare you dodge me.

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You Win, Ewan

Besides that Madonna person, there were famous people all over the W.E. screening last night - besides a bunch of the cast (Andrea Riseborough! Oscar Isaacs!) my boyfriend stood next to Patti Smith and Andrew McCarthy (not together; how weird would that be) in the popcorn line and Russell Simmons was waiting outside the bathroom when I went. But apparently Ewan McGregor was there, and I missed him, so it's all for naught. Naught!

Boo, Ewan! How dare you dodge me.

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Blow Me Away, Ewan

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I've already seen and reviewed the movies coming out this weekend that I'd have had any desire to see - those being Steven Soderbergh's Hayire (review) and Ralph Fiennes' Coriolanus (review) - so I'm going to try and finally catch up on movies I haven't gotten around to seeing yet instead. (Hello, Tintin!) I can't quite make my mind up on Zhang Yimou's The Flowers of War - the reviews have been disappointing, to put it kindly, and the photos I've seen from the film don't seem to have any of that visual flair I need from his movies. Hrm. Anyway, point being, there are movies out today! So I wrote up some thoughts on them at Celebrity Beehive, go read that. And because you're all wonderful people I've attached two shots of Ewan McGregor being hot to this post. Enjoy.

Blow Me Away, Ewan

.

I've already seen and reviewed the movies coming out this weekend that I'd have had any desire to see - those being Steven Soderbergh's Hayire (review) and Ralph Fiennes' Coriolanus (review) - so I'm going to try and finally catch up on movies I haven't gotten around to seeing yet instead. (Hello, Tintin!) I can't quite make my mind up on Zhang Yimou's The Flowers of War - the reviews have been disappointing, to put it kindly, and the photos I've seen from the film don't seem to have any of that visual flair I need from his movies. Hrm. Anyway, point being, there are movies out today! So I wrote up some thoughts on them at Celebrity Beehive, go read that. And because you're all wonderful people I've attached two shots of Ewan McGregor being hot to this post. Enjoy.

From Haywire To Horror And Back Again

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There was a moment during Haywire where I found my mind wandering. Which is not in itself a bad thing - your mind is allowed to wander during a movie sometimes without that obliterating the film's worth. A great work of art (not that Haywire is a great work of art) can even encourage such a thing. Anyway my mind wandered and I found myself, and I'm not sure why, remembering a time recently where I was watching a horror movie (I can't even remember what one) and getting really frustrated with it. Every scare was telegraphed ten steps ahead - there was no excitement. It was simply plodding through the motions. No thought was put into mixing up the way anything was shot - you knew right where the scares were going to come from. 

And then there was this one moment in that horror movie where I thought they were going to show me something I hadn't seen before - the protagonist was moving through an incredibly dark room from the right side of the frame to the left where there was a door, and because we've been trained so well by scary movies we know when they get to the left side where the door is that's when the scare will come. They will open the door and "Boo! Gotcha!" But the movement from right to left was really drawn out and I was bored with knowing what was coming so I stopped looking where I was trained to look and suddenly noticed that in the distance, past the character moving right to left in the foreground, there was all this darkness behind them. And it hit me that something totally needed to come straight at the camera out of that darkness. It wouldn't even have to be quick - the shot was moving so slowly that even a slow reveal of something in the background, in the direction we're not trained to be looking, would have made for a terrific scare. Our eyes and expectations were set up for one motion - the terror would come from that being upended.

Anyway the stupid horror movie didn't do it. But for some reason right there while watching Haywire I thought of that. And then Soderbergh did it! He literally did what I was hoping that horror movie would do about ten seconds after my mind had wandered to thinking about it. A character's moving from one side of the frame to the other when zoom something comes at us from background to foreground - Soderbergh draws it out too, so we see it coming, and coming -  and it's a humdinger of a shot. Probably the one people will most remember after seeing the film. It even got a comment during the Q&A. This being an action film and not a horror film it's used differently - it's not meant to terrify but to ramp us up instead - but the wowza factor is all the same.

Maybe Soderbergh transmitted something subliminally to me with all the obvious fun he was having shooting the film - the camerawork is just beautiful here. Steady and classic and elegant, but as lively as can be. Or maybe I am just incredible. That's basically my point, I think - I thought up a cool thing, and then, as if by my decree, Steven Soderbergh did it for me. Thanks, Steven!

Back tot he word fun though - Haywire is a helluva lot of fun. Leading lady Gina Carano is a little bit stiff - this is her first time acting ever, so we'll cut her some slack - but Soderbergh knows how to work with that and make it work for the character. And he surrounds her with an army of talented sexy men, and then he lets her punch all of them in the head over and over and over again. What's not to like? The action is choreographed beautifully, and the camera lives with it, embraces it - it loves to watch these bodies in motion, and the love is infectious. And somebody is gonna be sketching really bitching pictures of Carano in cornrows and a wetsuit in their notebook 50 years from now.

.

From Haywire To Horror And Back Again

.

There was a moment during Haywire where I found my mind wandering. Which is not in itself a bad thing - your mind is allowed to wander during a movie sometimes without that obliterating the film's worth. A great work of art (not that Haywire is a great work of art) can even encourage such a thing. Anyway my mind wandered and I found myself, and I'm not sure why, remembering a time recently where I was watching a horror movie (I can't even remember what one) and getting really frustrated with it. Every scare was telegraphed ten steps ahead - there was no excitement. It was simply plodding through the motions. No thought was put into mixing up the way anything was shot - you knew right where the scares were going to come from. 

And then there was this one moment in that horror movie where I thought they were going to show me something I hadn't seen before - the protagonist was moving through an incredibly dark room from the right side of the frame to the left where there was a door, and because we've been trained so well by scary movies we know when they get to the left side where the door is that's when the scare will come. They will open the door and "Boo! Gotcha!" But the movement from right to left was really drawn out and I was bored with knowing what was coming so I stopped looking where I was trained to look and suddenly noticed that in the distance, past the character moving right to left in the foreground, there was all this darkness behind them. And it hit me that something totally needed to come straight at the camera out of that darkness. It wouldn't even have to be quick - the shot was moving so slowly that even a slow reveal of something in the background, in the direction we're not trained to be looking, would have made for a terrific scare. Our eyes and expectations were set up for one motion - the terror would come from that being upended.

Anyway the stupid horror movie didn't do it. But for some reason right there while watching Haywire I thought of that. And then Soderbergh did it! He literally did what I was hoping that horror movie would do about ten seconds after my mind had wandered to thinking about it. A character's moving from one side of the frame to the other when zoom something comes at us from background to foreground - Soderbergh draws it out too, so we see it coming, and coming -  and it's a humdinger of a shot. Probably the one people will most remember after seeing the film. It even got a comment during the Q&A. This being an action film and not a horror film it's used differently - it's not meant to terrify but to ramp us up instead - but the wowza factor is all the same.

Maybe Soderbergh transmitted something subliminally to me with all the obvious fun he was having shooting the film - the camerawork is just beautiful here. Steady and classic and elegant, but as lively as can be. Or maybe I am just incredible. That's basically my point, I think - I thought up a cool thing, and then, as if by my decree, Steven Soderbergh did it for me. Thanks, Steven!

Back tot he word fun though - Haywire is a helluva lot of fun. Leading lady Gina Carano is a little bit stiff - this is her first time acting ever, so we'll cut her some slack - but Soderbergh knows how to work with that and make it work for the character. And he surrounds her with an army of talented sexy men, and then he lets her punch all of them in the head over and over and over again. What's not to like? The action is choreographed beautifully, and the camera lives with it, embraces it - it loves to watch these bodies in motion, and the love is infectious. And somebody is gonna be sketching really bitching pictures of Carano in cornrows and a wetsuit in their notebook 50 years from now.

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