(Wander)Lust For Blood

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Wanderlust is a lot of fun so I wouldn't hold it against y'all if you went to see that this weekend - give David Wain money and make Wetter Hotter Americaner Summer happen! - but the best movie that I've already seen that's coming out today is The Forgiveness of Blood, the new movie from Maria Full of Grace director Joshua Marston. Granted I've only seen two of the movies coming out this weekend, and they are Wanderlust and The Forgiveness of Blood, but nevermind all that. Blood is the best! It's also presumably coming out on several thousand fewer screens than Wanderlust, but you should keep an eye out for it.

The film tells the story of how an Albanian family in a rural town get trapped inside their house by a blood feud with a neighboring family after a deadly spat occurs between them. It plunks us down in a place with rules very different from our own and then goes about showing how similar we still are under that - Martson, an American who lives in New York, seems to have made this his mission, showing the ill fit between these other cultures with their lingering pasts and the modern world creeping in at the edges. The kids in Blood are literally trapped by the arbitrary and archaic rules of their elders, with the foremost patriarchal figure in their lives having let them horribly down and abandoned them. The film's most riveting, as was Maria, in showing the powerless of women in these structures - best in show goes to Sindi Lacej as the teenage daughter Rudina, full of promise only to have it all snuffed out in a flare of macho.

Besides the movies I have seen, there are a few others - like for instance Tyler Perry's new movie Good Deeds, starring himself and my nemesis Thandie "Ugh" Newton, which might just be the answer to what the equal and opposite force to all the goodness inside of me would be. Also there's propaganda piece Act of Valor, and Gone with Amanda Seyfried and Wes Bentley. Read what I gots to say on them over at Celebrity Beehive.
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(Wander)Lust For Blood

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Wanderlust is a lot of fun so I wouldn't hold it against y'all if you went to see that this weekend - give David Wain money and make Wetter Hotter Americaner Summer happen! - but the best movie that I've already seen that's coming out today is The Forgiveness of Blood, the new movie from Maria Full of Grace director Joshua Marston. Granted I've only seen two of the movies coming out this weekend, and they are Wanderlust and The Forgiveness of Blood, but nevermind all that. Blood is the best! It's also presumably coming out on several thousand fewer screens than Wanderlust, but you should keep an eye out for it.

The film tells the story of how an Albanian family in a rural town get trapped inside their house by a blood feud with a neighboring family after a deadly spat occurs between them. It plunks us down in a place with rules very different from our own and then goes about showing how similar we still are under that - Martson, an American who lives in New York, seems to have made this his mission, showing the ill fit between these other cultures with their lingering pasts and the modern world creeping in at the edges. The kids in Blood are literally trapped by the arbitrary and archaic rules of their elders, with the foremost patriarchal figure in their lives having let them horribly down and abandoned them. The film's most riveting, as was Maria, in showing the powerless of women in these structures - best in show goes to Sindi Lacej as the teenage daughter Rudina, full of promise only to have it all snuffed out in a flare of macho.

Besides the movies I have seen, there are a few others - like for instance Tyler Perry's new movie Good Deeds, starring himself and my nemesis Thandie "Ugh" Newton, which might just be the answer to what the equal and opposite force to all the goodness inside of me would be. Also there's propaganda piece Act of Valor, and Gone with Amanda Seyfried and Wes Bentley. Read what I gots to say on them over at Celebrity Beehive.
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Paul Rudd Twelve Times

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(click to embiggen) Wanna know who's adorable in person? Wow if I said somebody other than Paul Rudd to answer that question - Albert Fish! - that would be weird. (It would especially weird if I said Albert Fish.) Anyway yes as you can see from those pictures above, Paul Rudd is indeed every inch of adorable live you hope he will be. Those are from the Film Comment Selects screening of David Wain's Wanderlust that screened here in NY last night. Also there with Paul was Wain and his co-stars Ken Marino, Kerri Kenney, and Alan Alda.

I'd put Wanderlust about on par with Wain's last movie Role Models - so very funny, but maybe undone a little bit by an erratic tone - towards the end there's some sappy story machinations that even the movie half-rolls its eyes at. Sometimes you feel with Wain's movies this sense of, "Oh fine, we'll actually bother to do some plot now, whatever." It's a real showcase for Rudd though, and he's his ever charming yet vulgar self. That he can maintain such sweetness while using a broad southern waitress voice to say the word "dick" over and over again is a testament to his abilities.

And of course the rest of the cast runs deep with talent - Aniston's perfectly charming, while Ken Marino has his blustering jerk thing down pat. And I was surprised not at how funny Micheala Watkins was as Marino's suffering wife but at how much the movie allowed her to be so funny. Hers is a usually thankless role that Wain mined more than you expect him to. And then you've got Kenney, Alda, Malin Akerman, Joe Lo Truglia, Kathryn Hahn, Lauren Ambrose, Linda Lavin (!), so so many people hitting so many funny notes. And Justin Theroux is a bushy-bearded sex bomb. This thing I tweeted last night about says it all.

Oh and during the Q&A Paul Rudd and Ken Marino were asked about a Party Down movie, and that managed to be the only bit I recorded on video. Spoiler alert: they totally dodge the question, but are adorable while doing it.

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Paul Rudd Twelve Times

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(click to embiggen) Wanna know who's adorable in person? Wow if I said somebody other than Paul Rudd to answer that question - Albert Fish! - that would be weird. (It would especially weird if I said Albert Fish.) Anyway yes as you can see from those pictures above, Paul Rudd is indeed every inch of adorable live you hope he will be. Those are from the Film Comment Selects screening of David Wain's Wanderlust that screened here in NY last night. Also there with Paul was Wain and his co-stars Ken Marino, Kerri Kenney, and Alan Alda.

I'd put Wanderlust about on par with Wain's last movie Role Models - so very funny, but maybe undone a little bit by an erratic tone - towards the end there's some sappy story machinations that even the movie half-rolls its eyes at. Sometimes you feel with Wain's movies this sense of, "Oh fine, we'll actually bother to do some plot now, whatever." It's a real showcase for Rudd though, and he's his ever charming yet vulgar self. That he can maintain such sweetness while using a broad southern waitress voice to say the word "dick" over and over again is a testament to his abilities.

And of course the rest of the cast runs deep with talent - Aniston's perfectly charming, while Ken Marino has his blustering jerk thing down pat. And I was surprised not at how funny Micheala Watkins was as Marino's suffering wife but at how much the movie allowed her to be so funny. Hers is a usually thankless role that Wain mined more than you expect him to. And then you've got Kenney, Alda, Malin Akerman, Joe Lo Truglia, Kathryn Hahn, Lauren Ambrose, Linda Lavin (!), so so many people hitting so many funny notes. And Justin Theroux is a bushy-bearded sex bomb. This thing I tweeted last night about says it all.

Oh and during the Q&A Paul Rudd and Ken Marino were asked about a Party Down movie, and that managed to be the only bit I recorded on video. Spoiler alert: they totally dodge the question, but are adorable while doing it.

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Hot Dog, Paul Rudd!

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I'm going to go sit in a room with Paul now, goodbye.

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Hot Dog, Paul Rudd!

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I'm going to go sit in a room with Paul now, goodbye.

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Quote of the Day

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I am contractually obligated to use an image from the above scene whenever Michael Ian Black and/or Wet Hot American Summer comes up, so there that is again. (I don't have to bring it up whenever Bradley Cooper comes up though, because there are other things to look at where he's concerned.) Anyway hey look there's news about a Wet Hot American Summer sequel again - via Slash here's what other the Michael, the Showalter one, said when asked about it:

"Absolutely yes. One hundred percent yes. The whole gang. Everyone’s back. We’re doing it."

Hmm, that sounds like it could be sarcasm to me. Apparently there's video of it so maybe it doesn't come off that way how he actually said it, but for now, consider me skeptical. Somebody get me David Wain on the phone, stat!

ETA EW has some further details, this time from the Cooper-humper himself Michael Ian Black:

“I’ve just talked to [Michael Showalter],” Black revealed. “I said, ‘You caused a little bit of a stir when you said that.’ He said, ‘Yes, I know.’ It’s not true. It’s not not true. But he made it sound like the movie was in pre-production and it’s not. Everybody is basically on board to do it and he and David Wain (Wet Hot director and co-writer) have been working on a script and hopefully it’ll happen. But it’s not locked into place or anything.”

Black, who is currently busy “pimping out” his forthcoming book You’re Not Doing It Right, said he had not even seen a script as yet. However, he did admit he would be willing to participate in another sex scene with Bradley Cooper, his onscreen Wet Hot lover. “If Bradley Cooper will have me,” Black deadpanned, “he could be ‘the top’ this time.”

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Quote of the Day

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I am contractually obligated to use an image from the above scene whenever Michael Ian Black and/or Wet Hot American Summer comes up, so there that is again. (I don't have to bring it up whenever Bradley Cooper comes up though, because there are other things to look at where he's concerned.) Anyway hey look there's news about a Wet Hot American Summer sequel again - via Slash here's what other the Michael, the Showalter one, said when asked about it:

"Absolutely yes. One hundred percent yes. The whole gang. Everyone’s back. We’re doing it."

Hmm, that sounds like it could be sarcasm to me. Apparently there's video of it so maybe it doesn't come off that way how he actually said it, but for now, consider me skeptical. Somebody get me David Wain on the phone, stat!

ETA EW has some further details, this time from the Cooper-humper himself Michael Ian Black:

“I’ve just talked to [Michael Showalter],” Black revealed. “I said, ‘You caused a little bit of a stir when you said that.’ He said, ‘Yes, I know.’ It’s not true. It’s not not true. But he made it sound like the movie was in pre-production and it’s not. Everybody is basically on board to do it and he and David Wain (Wet Hot director and co-writer) have been working on a script and hopefully it’ll happen. But it’s not locked into place or anything.”

Black, who is currently busy “pimping out” his forthcoming book You’re Not Doing It Right, said he had not even seen a script as yet. However, he did admit he would be willing to participate in another sex scene with Bradley Cooper, his onscreen Wet Hot lover. “If Bradley Cooper will have me,” Black deadpanned, “he could be ‘the top’ this time.”

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5 Off My Head - Film Comment Selects

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(First off, that picture to the right there really has nothing to do with this post except it's a picture that once appeared in an issue of Film Comment magazine and came up while I was googling "Film Comment magazine covers" to illustrate what's to come in this post, but if you don't want to look at a ripped Brad Pitt covered in blood then I can't help you.)

So this list isn't strictly "off the top of my head" because there's nothing random about it - I am going to see five movies at the Film Comment Selects series that the Film Society of Lincoln Center just announced, running from February 17th through March 1st, and this will be a list of them. Easy peasy. 

It might make more sense to make a list of five movies that I'm not seeing that I would like to see but cannot for various whatever reasons - movies like Rainer Werner Fassbiner's Despair, his only English language film and one of his that I have never seen, but I'll have to skip the screenings of it because it's only showing in the afternoon and I have a day job, yo. Same with Ingmar Bergman's Face to Face. Or then there's the American remake of the single-shot horror flick The Silent House starring Elisabeth Olsen, which I'll also have to miss because I already have plans that night. Or then the Russian futurist nightmare Target sounds interesting, about a cosmic fountain of youth and the wealthy people who take advantage of it, but I can't make that one either. 

But that's all sad junk since I can't go to any of those movies, 

so let's look at the ones I am going to see. Hooray for the positive!

1- First and foremost, tickling the tips of my toes with excitement, is Yorgos Lanthimos' follow-up to Dogtooth, called ALPS. I've talked about this one several times here at the blog - I adored Dogtooth with every fiber of my being, and I cannot wait to see this. 

2- David Wain made Wet Hot American Summer, so I will see anything he ever makes for the rest of forever, even if it stars Jennifer Aniston. His new movie Wanderlust is actually out in theaters only a couple of days after it screens for this series, but Wain and stars Paul Rudd and Kerri Kenney are scheduled to be at the screening, so I'm totally there. Paul Rudd! Have you guys seen the new TV commercial for it? Justin Theroux saying "Suck it." to Paul Rudd over and over again is what heaven looks like, right?

3- Even though my only real knowledge beforehand of the Aussie snuff flick Snowtown is the fact that Glenn of Stale Popcorn hated hated hated it, the hate was so hot and palpable that it's kind of drawn me in with fascination. So I won't blame you, Glenn, when I'm horribly offended, you warned me.

4- The Forgiveness of Blood is the second feature from Joshua Marston, who directed the very very fine Maria Full of Grace. If it's as good as Maria, then I will be very happy indeed.

5- And finally how could I resist going to see James Franco bringing his pretentious homosexually-tinged artiste persona to we the people for a screening of his re-edited take on Gus Van Sant's My Own Prive Idaho and its star River Phoenix, which he calls My Own Private River. I have a feeling my eyes are going to roll right out of my head with this one, but I'm sure at the same time I'll be thinking about how I have something to shut him up with, and so it goes.

Alright, so tickets are on sale now, 

head over here to check it out y'all! 

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5 Off My Head - Film Comment Selects

.

(First off, that picture to the right there really has nothing to do with this post except it's a picture that once appeared in an issue of Film Comment magazine and came up while I was googling "Film Comment magazine covers" to illustrate what's to come in this post, but if you don't want to look at a ripped Brad Pitt covered in blood then I can't help you.)

So this list isn't strictly "off the top of my head" because there's nothing random about it - I am going to see five movies at the Film Comment Selects series that the Film Society of Lincoln Center just announced, running from February 17th through March 1st, and this will be a list of them. Easy peasy. 

It might make more sense to make a list of five movies that I'm not seeing that I would like to see but cannot for various whatever reasons - movies like Rainer Werner Fassbiner's Despair, his only English language film and one of his that I have never seen, but I'll have to skip the screenings of it because it's only showing in the afternoon and I have a day job, yo. Same with Ingmar Bergman's Face to Face. Or then there's the American remake of the single-shot horror flick The Silent House starring Elisabeth Olsen, which I'll also have to miss because I already have plans that night. Or then the Russian futurist nightmare Target sounds interesting, about a cosmic fountain of youth and the wealthy people who take advantage of it, but I can't make that one either. 

But that's all sad junk since I can't go to any of those movies, 

so let's look at the ones I am going to see. Hooray for the positive!

1- First and foremost, tickling the tips of my toes with excitement, is Yorgos Lanthimos' follow-up to Dogtooth, called ALPS. I've talked about this one several times here at the blog - I adored Dogtooth with every fiber of my being, and I cannot wait to see this. 

2- David Wain made Wet Hot American Summer, so I will see anything he ever makes for the rest of forever, even if it stars Jennifer Aniston. His new movie Wanderlust is actually out in theaters only a couple of days after it screens for this series, but Wain and stars Paul Rudd and Kerri Kenney are scheduled to be at the screening, so I'm totally there. Paul Rudd! Have you guys seen the new TV commercial for it? Justin Theroux saying "Suck it." to Paul Rudd over and over again is what heaven looks like, right?

3- Even though my only real knowledge beforehand of the Aussie snuff flick Snowtown is the fact that Glenn of Stale Popcorn hated hated hated it, the hate was so hot and palpable that it's kind of drawn me in with fascination. So I won't blame you, Glenn, when I'm horribly offended, you warned me.

4- The Forgiveness of Blood is the second feature from Joshua Marston, who directed the very very fine Maria Full of Grace. If it's as good as Maria, then I will be very happy indeed.

5- And finally how could I resist going to see James Franco bringing his pretentious homosexually-tinged artiste persona to we the people for a screening of his re-edited take on Gus Van Sant's My Own Prive Idaho and its star River Phoenix, which he calls My Own Private River. I have a feeling my eyes are going to roll right out of my head with this one, but I'm sure at the same time I'll be thinking about how I have something to shut him up with, and so it goes.

Alright, so tickets are on sale now, 

head over here to check it out y'all! 

.

How Have I Never Seen, Two Times

Firstly, how have I never seen these pics
of Adam Scott and Paul Rudd?

Look at them, doing their best Jennifer Connelly in Requiem for a Dream pose. Ass to ass! Ass to ass! Anyway how? How is that possible that I'm just seeing these, I ask you? It doesn't make any sense. It is nonsense! Nonsense, I say! Alright that aside I love them, and life is better with them in it. So that's nice.

Secondly, how have I never seen Adam Scott's part 

as one of Michael C. Hall's boyfriends in Six Feet Under?

You can watch it all here, somebody was kind enough to gather up his scenes into one video. I suppose this is my fault, since I still haven't seen any of Six Feet Under except half of the first season. I know, I know. But who knew Adam Scott had such a storied gay make-out past? First I make ado over his kissing scene with Eion Bailey in Seven and a Match, and now this. And it... it is nice too. I made a couple more gifs from it, with bonus shirtless Adam Scott included, see them after the jump.

And a happy birthday to Michael C. Hall today, too!

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How Have I Never Seen, Two Times

Firstly, how have I never seen these pics
of Adam Scott and Paul Rudd?

Look at them, doing their best Jennifer Connelly in Requiem for a Dream pose. Ass to ass! Ass to ass! Anyway how? How is that possible that I'm just seeing these, I ask you? It doesn't make any sense. It is nonsense! Nonsense, I say! Alright that aside I love them, and life is better with them in it. So that's nice.

Secondly, how have I never seen Adam Scott's part 

as one of Michael C. Hall's boyfriends in Six Feet Under?

You can watch it all here, somebody was kind enough to gather up his scenes into one video. I suppose this is my fault, since I still haven't seen any of Six Feet Under except half of the first season. I know, I know. But who knew Adam Scott had such a storied gay make-out past? First I make ado over his kissing scene with Eion Bailey in Seven and a Match, and now this. And it... it is nice too. I made a couple more gifs from it, with bonus shirtless Adam Scott included, see them after the jump.

And a happy birthday to Michael C. Hall today, too!

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