TGT11: A Moment of 2011 Awesomeness

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This has been a moment of 2011 awesomeness.

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TGT11: A Moment of 2011 Awesomeness

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This has been a moment of 2011 awesomeness.

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5 Off My Head - Roses For Rosemary

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It's Mia Farrow's 67th birthday today, so everybody go fuck the devil tonight in her honor. (Do I mean Satan or Woody Allen? You be the judge.) Meanwhile I'm going to list my five favorite performances of hers. I think we all know what my number one is so I ought to just leave it off as a given, but damn such thinking to hell, my favorite movie of ever is never to be shrugged off. Even if I've posted on it a billion times, it's a billion times too few. I mean, I actually used the quote I'm using from the movie below in conversation just last night! And yes, three of the five are for Woody Allen movies, but whatcha gonna do? He brought out her best. Until... all that. Anyway, let's go.

Rosemary Woodhouse, Rosemary's Baby

"Shut up. You're in Dubrovnik, I can't hear you."

Cecelia, The Purple Rose of Cairo

"I just met a wonderful new man.

He's fictional, but you can't have everything."

Buffy Brenner, A Wedding

(she's mute, and she's absolutely hysterical)

Judy Roth, Husbands and Wives

"Change is what life is made of! Change...

if you don't change, you don't grow, you just shrivel up!"

Alice Tate, Alice

"But then when dad died you drank yourself to death

with... with margaritas."

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5 Off My Head - Roses For Rosemary

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It's Mia Farrow's 67th birthday today, so everybody go fuck the devil tonight in her honor. (Do I mean Satan or Woody Allen? You be the judge.) Meanwhile I'm going to list my five favorite performances of hers. I think we all know what my number one is so I ought to just leave it off as a given, but damn such thinking to hell, my favorite movie of ever is never to be shrugged off. Even if I've posted on it a billion times, it's a billion times too few. I mean, I actually used the quote I'm using from the movie below in conversation just last night! And yes, three of the five are for Woody Allen movies, but whatcha gonna do? He brought out her best. Until... all that. Anyway, let's go.

Rosemary Woodhouse, Rosemary's Baby

"Shut up. You're in Dubrovnik, I can't hear you."

Cecelia, The Purple Rose of Cairo

"I just met a wonderful new man.

He's fictional, but you can't have everything."

Buffy Brenner, A Wedding

(she's mute, and she's absolutely hysterical)

Judy Roth, Husbands and Wives

"Change is what life is made of! Change...

if you don't change, you don't grow, you just shrivel up!"

Alice Tate, Alice

"But then when dad died you drank yourself to death

with... with margaritas."

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I Am Link

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--- Hot Vamp - Finally some official confirmation of Jim Jarmusch's vampire movie with Tilda Swinton! Hooray! Not so hooray - unlike when we first heard about this movie, it doesn't look like Michael Fassbender's attached anymore. Boo. Okay, but he is being replaced with the awesome Tom Hiddleston, so hooray again! Mia Wasikowska's in there too, plus John Hurt. The thing is called Only Lovers Left Alive, which is a gorgeous title.

--- Setting Sail - Cinematographer Matthew Libatique says that Darren Aronofsky's Noah movie will start shooting in July, for a Fall 2013 release. Fingers crossed. And toes crossed that it's Michael Fassbender taking on the lead role!

--- And speaking of Fassy again, Brad Pitt told THR (via The Playlist) that his role in Steve McQueen's Twelve Years a Slave is a small one, a cameo, but that Fassy's role is a big one. This is helpful because until now we really had no idea how big a part anybody but Chiwetol Ejiofor had in the lead. More Fassy = good.

--- My Martha - Over at Stale Popcorn Glenn's praise-riddled review of Martha Marcy May Marlene worked me into a lather of "must see it again right this second" if only it were out on DVD already. It really seems like it should be by now, but it ain't out until February 21st. It should have come out sooner, maybe it could've rebuilt some buzz and gotten the Oscar nominations it deserved. Not that I can pretend to know how these things works. I mean, I can. I just did. Anyway. It is an excellent film, I concur!

--- Bagged A Baggins - I haven't really been too thorough keeping up with Hobbit news - at this point it's inevitable I'll be seeing the movie opening weekend, so dipping too deeply into all the pre-release stuff is only going to muddy that first viewing experience so it seems pointless, to me. But here's a new picture of Martin Freeman as Bilbo anyway, in case you don't feel that way.

--- Winter Folk - If you want to see the first real trailer for the second season of A Game of Thrones, click on over to EW to watch it. I watched it last night and when Dany starts getting all assertive-like I may have gotten erect.

--- Getting Stranger - The director of The Strangers, Bryan Bertino, is finally starting work on his second film - it's called Mockingbird, and it's a found footage flick about a couple that receive a video camera with the instructions to do as told or somebody dies. So kind of Saw meets The Strangers? Anyway he's talented and we were sick of waiting for him to do something new, so yay.

--- Mia May I - I need to thank Adam at Club Silencio for this week's banner from Rosemary's Baby - I stole the image from one of his invaluable Obscure Beauty posts. So lovely.

--- Loony Rooney - The world has made it clear to Blake Lively that we'd rather just say no, thanks very much, right? That's what this news of her getting replaced by Rooney Mara in Steven Soderbergh's next move called The Side Effects, about a drugged-up girl and co-starring Channing Tatum (I'm starting to think SS and Chan are an item) and Jude Law, should be telling her right? Let's hope so. Yay Rooney! And by the way, I know this shocks none of you, but the more stand-offish and weird and annoying things that spill out of Mara's mouth, the more I like her. 

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I Am Link

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--- Hot Vamp - Finally some official confirmation of Jim Jarmusch's vampire movie with Tilda Swinton! Hooray! Not so hooray - unlike when we first heard about this movie, it doesn't look like Michael Fassbender's attached anymore. Boo. Okay, but he is being replaced with the awesome Tom Hiddleston, so hooray again! Mia Wasikowska's in there too, plus John Hurt. The thing is called Only Lovers Left Alive, which is a gorgeous title.

--- Setting Sail - Cinematographer Matthew Libatique says that Darren Aronofsky's Noah movie will start shooting in July, for a Fall 2013 release. Fingers crossed. And toes crossed that it's Michael Fassbender taking on the lead role!

--- And speaking of Fassy again, Brad Pitt told THR (via The Playlist) that his role in Steve McQueen's Twelve Years a Slave is a small one, a cameo, but that Fassy's role is a big one. This is helpful because until now we really had no idea how big a part anybody but Chiwetol Ejiofor had in the lead. More Fassy = good.

--- My Martha - Over at Stale Popcorn Glenn's praise-riddled review of Martha Marcy May Marlene worked me into a lather of "must see it again right this second" if only it were out on DVD already. It really seems like it should be by now, but it ain't out until February 21st. It should have come out sooner, maybe it could've rebuilt some buzz and gotten the Oscar nominations it deserved. Not that I can pretend to know how these things works. I mean, I can. I just did. Anyway. It is an excellent film, I concur!

--- Bagged A Baggins - I haven't really been too thorough keeping up with Hobbit news - at this point it's inevitable I'll be seeing the movie opening weekend, so dipping too deeply into all the pre-release stuff is only going to muddy that first viewing experience so it seems pointless, to me. But here's a new picture of Martin Freeman as Bilbo anyway, in case you don't feel that way.

--- Winter Folk - If you want to see the first real trailer for the second season of A Game of Thrones, click on over to EW to watch it. I watched it last night and when Dany starts getting all assertive-like I may have gotten erect.

--- Getting Stranger - The director of The Strangers, Bryan Bertino, is finally starting work on his second film - it's called Mockingbird, and it's a found footage flick about a couple that receive a video camera with the instructions to do as told or somebody dies. So kind of Saw meets The Strangers? Anyway he's talented and we were sick of waiting for him to do something new, so yay.

--- Mia May I - I need to thank Adam at Club Silencio for this week's banner from Rosemary's Baby - I stole the image from one of his invaluable Obscure Beauty posts. So lovely.

--- Loony Rooney - The world has made it clear to Blake Lively that we'd rather just say no, thanks very much, right? That's what this news of her getting replaced by Rooney Mara in Steven Soderbergh's next move called The Side Effects, about a drugged-up girl and co-starring Channing Tatum (I'm starting to think SS and Chan are an item) and Jude Law, should be telling her right? Let's hope so. Yay Rooney! And by the way, I know this shocks none of you, but the more stand-offish and weird and annoying things that spill out of Mara's mouth, the more I like her. 

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Three Quick Reviews

If I don't type up a couple thoughts on these movies I've seen in the past week right now, I probably never will. This is wholly off the cuff, and therefore probably going to be nonsense, but whatcha gonna do? Actually take the time to craft something thoughtful? Bah! Seriously though, if I had much to say on these I would, like I did with Haywire yesterday. But I don't. So I won't.

The Ides of March - Really exceptionally boring. Clooney seemed asleep in front of and behind the camera - I don't know why he made this movie except maybe he wanted to jerk off on the memory of Sidney Lumet. I guess he got to pretend he was running for office without any of the actual tough parts. There's more insight in a five minute Rachel Maddow monologue. The writing was occasionally plunge-out-my-eardrums-with-a-fork awful. Ryan Gosling's accent is all over the place, but he wears his suits well. (Shocker.) He didn't really seem to know who this character was he was playing, either. Nobody much felt like a person. Marisa Tomei maybe, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman was pretty good. 

Moneyball - Speaking of PSH being best in show, I loved every shot of his scowling baseball coach here, but I didn't like this movie either. I have no special love for stereotypically told "Sports Movies" with their routine telling of the old-as-time underdog tale but this movie seemed disingenuous to me in its attempts at being different just for different's sake. Something just rang really false about it all to me, like everybody involved was so actively engaged in carving off expectations that they forgot to make any of it involving, or interesting. Like with Ides of March, Moneyball never got me anywhere near giving a shit about any of these people and their ridiculous problems. Oh Brad Pitt was fine (I generally very much like watching him onscreen, even when he's clothed) and as a vehicle for him coasting along amiably it was fine but we live in a skewed universe where this can be considered the best anything. It's just slightly less obnoxious than Clooney's golden praise for his dull scattered work in The Descendants. Jonah Hill wore glasses, so I guess that was respectable of him? I don't even know.

Carnage - Of the three this is definitely my favorite, and I'm sure I'll find myself watching Carnage again someday, but it's by no means a homerun. As I said earlier this week I'm perfectly on board with Joe Reid's rankings of the performances - Kate Winslet walks away handily with best in show (Barf of the century!), while Jodie seems a little lost. I kept feeling like she was panic-stricken looking for a closet to lock herself in so she'd feel comfortable enough with her surroundings to get her bearings. Although you figure this is, generally speaking, another "trapped in an enclosed space" sort of movie for her - too bad Jared Leto and his cornrows never swung through the window! I'd never seem the play, and I have to admit I was a little bit put off by the occasional facile misstep, but it is a tricky beast and I could see some of the off-notes working if the whole cast were a little bit tighter in step. Polanski does a good job working the space for all its worth - there must be five thousand camera set-ups in this thing, looking at these four people from every single angle there could ever be, keeping the single set feeling more dynamic than it could have.
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Three Quick Reviews

If I don't type up a couple thoughts on these movies I've seen in the past week right now, I probably never will. This is wholly off the cuff, and therefore probably going to be nonsense, but whatcha gonna do? Actually take the time to craft something thoughtful? Bah! Seriously though, if I had much to say on these I would, like I did with Haywire yesterday. But I don't. So I won't.

The Ides of March - Really exceptionally boring. Clooney seemed asleep in front of and behind the camera - I don't know why he made this movie except maybe he wanted to jerk off on the memory of Sidney Lumet. I guess he got to pretend he was running for office without any of the actual tough parts. There's more insight in a five minute Rachel Maddow monologue. The writing was occasionally plunge-out-my-eardrums-with-a-fork awful. Ryan Gosling's accent is all over the place, but he wears his suits well. (Shocker.) He didn't really seem to know who this character was he was playing, either. Nobody much felt like a person. Marisa Tomei maybe, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman was pretty good. 

Moneyball - Speaking of PSH being best in show, I loved every shot of his scowling baseball coach here, but I didn't like this movie either. I have no special love for stereotypically told "Sports Movies" with their routine telling of the old-as-time underdog tale but this movie seemed disingenuous to me in its attempts at being different just for different's sake. Something just rang really false about it all to me, like everybody involved was so actively engaged in carving off expectations that they forgot to make any of it involving, or interesting. Like with Ides of March, Moneyball never got me anywhere near giving a shit about any of these people and their ridiculous problems. Oh Brad Pitt was fine (I generally very much like watching him onscreen, even when he's clothed) and as a vehicle for him coasting along amiably it was fine but we live in a skewed universe where this can be considered the best anything. It's just slightly less obnoxious than Clooney's golden praise for his dull scattered work in The Descendants. Jonah Hill wore glasses, so I guess that was respectable of him? I don't even know.

Carnage - Of the three this is definitely my favorite, and I'm sure I'll find myself watching Carnage again someday, but it's by no means a homerun. As I said earlier this week I'm perfectly on board with Joe Reid's rankings of the performances - Kate Winslet walks away handily with best in show (Barf of the century!), while Jodie seems a little lost. I kept feeling like she was panic-stricken looking for a closet to lock herself in so she'd feel comfortable enough with her surroundings to get her bearings. Although you figure this is, generally speaking, another "trapped in an enclosed space" sort of movie for her - too bad Jared Leto and his cornrows never swung through the window! I'd never seem the play, and I have to admit I was a little bit put off by the occasional facile misstep, but it is a tricky beast and I could see some of the off-notes working if the whole cast were a little bit tighter in step. Polanski does a good job working the space for all its worth - there must be five thousand camera set-ups in this thing, looking at these four people from every single angle there could ever be, keeping the single set feeling more dynamic than it could have.
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