Who Expects To See Dianne Wiest?

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Just strolled past the two-time Oscar winner while I was out grabbing some lunch and I was half passed her by the time I realized it was her because, as I just said, who expects to see Dianne Wiest just strolling down the avenue all by her lonesome? I mean what is this, a Woody Allen movie I'm in? Did I go all reverse Purple Rose of Cairo and step into a movie without realizing it? Because god that would be awesome. Although honestly my first though once I realized it was her wasn't of Woody Allen and it wasn't of Edward Scissorhands, it was Synechdoche New York of course.

"Glad to be weirdly close."

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Who Expects To See Dianne Wiest?

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Just strolled past the two-time Oscar winner while I was out grabbing some lunch and I was half passed her by the time I realized it was her because, as I just said, who expects to see Dianne Wiest just strolling down the avenue all by her lonesome? I mean what is this, a Woody Allen movie I'm in? Did I go all reverse Purple Rose of Cairo and step into a movie without realizing it? Because god that would be awesome. Although honestly my first though once I realized it was her wasn't of Woody Allen and it wasn't of Edward Scissorhands, it was Synechdoche New York of course.

"Glad to be weirdly close."

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One Lurking Linus

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I would just like to formally apologize to Michael Emerson for nearly having a heart-attack last night when I was walking down the street and he came hopping out of the side of a van right beside me. I thought Ben had come to drag me off to Monster Island. I imagine he must get that a lot, and it must stink.

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One Lurking Linus

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I would just like to formally apologize to Michael Emerson for nearly having a heart-attack last night when I was walking down the street and he came hopping out of the side of a van right beside me. I thought Ben had come to drag me off to Monster Island. I imagine he must get that a lot, and it must stink.

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Do Dump or Marry - Return Trio

I went to a screening of Return this weekend at MoMA - it's a new little drama starring the woefully underrated Linda Cardellini and Michael Shannon; I'll write up some thoughts later - and right before it started who should happen to plunk down right near me?

Sam Rockwell, Josh Hamilton, and Billy Crudup! 

They are apparently friends, who knew. They seemed to like the movie from what I can tell - they shut their yaps and were respectful audience members at the very least. And what more can you ask for than a pack of hot famous talented men proving themselves civil in public spaces? It's a dream come true. Anyway I didn't stalk them or anything so I don't have more to add but I figure since they're a trio why not ask y'all who you'd Do Dump or Marry. So that's what this is.

Who would you do, dump or marry?

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Do Dump or Marry - Return Trio

I went to a screening of Return this weekend at MoMA - it's a new little drama starring the woefully underrated Linda Cardellini and Michael Shannon; I'll write up some thoughts later - and right before it started who should happen to plunk down right near me?

Sam Rockwell, Josh Hamilton, and Billy Crudup! 

They are apparently friends, who knew. They seemed to like the movie from what I can tell - they shut their yaps and were respectful audience members at the very least. And what more can you ask for than a pack of hot famous talented men proving themselves civil in public spaces? It's a dream come true. Anyway I didn't stalk them or anything so I don't have more to add but I figure since they're a trio why not ask y'all who you'd Do Dump or Marry. So that's what this is.

Who would you do, dump or marry?

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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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Pics of the Other Day

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(click to embiggen) If you ever get a chance to see James Franco's reworking of left-over footage from Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho, which James calls My Own Private River, take the chance. It's more interesting than I worried it was going to be beforehand.  I haven't seen Van Sant's film in several years so I'll just admit it, shocking none of you - I was going just to see James in person. He showed it at Lincoln Center on Sunday night, and did a Q&A afterwards. I figured the footage he was showing would be self-indulgent arty rambling with a bunch of shots of wet leaves that were left out for good reason, but what it actually ended up being was a treasure trove of River Phoenix footage - it almost felt as if we had an entirely new River movie to watch. I mean there were some self-indulgent arty rambling shots of wet leaves too, but mostly it was this gift of footage of a performer at the too-soon-snuffed height of his powers, and he was mesmerizing. James was asked if it was ever going to be made available, like with the Criterion DVD of the original film, but he basically said no, probably not, so it might be hard to come by. Maybe he'll take his show on the road! Him and Keanu on a motorbike looping the countryside! We'd all pay a lot for that show, no doubt.

Pics of the Other Day

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(click to embiggen) If you ever get a chance to see James Franco's reworking of left-over footage from Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho, which James calls My Own Private River, take the chance. It's more interesting than I worried it was going to be beforehand.  I haven't seen Van Sant's film in several years so I'll just admit it, shocking none of you - I was going just to see James in person. He showed it at Lincoln Center on Sunday night, and did a Q&A afterwards. I figured the footage he was showing would be self-indulgent arty rambling with a bunch of shots of wet leaves that were left out for good reason, but what it actually ended up being was a treasure trove of River Phoenix footage - it almost felt as if we had an entirely new River movie to watch. I mean there were some self-indulgent arty rambling shots of wet leaves too, but mostly it was this gift of footage of a performer at the too-soon-snuffed height of his powers, and he was mesmerizing. James was asked if it was ever going to be made available, like with the Criterion DVD of the original film, but he basically said no, probably not, so it might be hard to come by. Maybe he'll take his show on the road! Him and Keanu on a motorbike looping the countryside! We'd all pay a lot for that show, no doubt.

Good Morning, World

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A happy 31st birthday to Joseph Gordon-Levitt today. Pickings be slim for what's left of him for me to post that I haven't already - I was tempted to post more pictures of him in his tighty-whities in Hesher but I've already posted so many... these moderately satisfying shirtless shots above are from the 2009 movie Uncertainty, which certainly was. The most memorable thing about that movie was the fact that Joe was actually at the screening of it I went to and sat right across from me at a vantage point so I could stare at him the entire time, so I only half paid attention to the movie anyway. This was especially weird slash awesome during the film's sex scene, which he seemed not at all weirded out by but... kind of into. He leaned a little bit forward. I don't want to read too much into some vaguely remembered body language but I bet you he had a full-on boner, is my point. (I think of Joe as being the type to like showing off, thanks to that Shortbus jerk-off rumor.) So anyway it took all I had in me not to jump on him right then and there, the end.

Good Morning, World

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A happy 31st birthday to Joseph Gordon-Levitt today. Pickings be slim for what's left of him for me to post that I haven't already - I was tempted to post more pictures of him in his tighty-whities in Hesher but I've already posted so many... these moderately satisfying shirtless shots above are from the 2009 movie Uncertainty, which certainly was. The most memorable thing about that movie was the fact that Joe was actually at the screening of it I went to and sat right across from me at a vantage point so I could stare at him the entire time, so I only half paid attention to the movie anyway. This was especially weird slash awesome during the film's sex scene, which he seemed not at all weirded out by but... kind of into. He leaned a little bit forward. I don't want to read too much into some vaguely remembered body language but I bet you he had a full-on boner, is my point. (I think of Joe as being the type to like showing off, thanks to that Shortbus jerk-off rumor.) So anyway it took all I had in me not to jump on him right then and there, the end.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Dianne (Lucy Davis): Just look at the face: it's vacant,
with a hint of sadness. Like a drunk who's lost a bet.

I'm so ashamed I forgot to mention this but Lucy Davis was there last week when I saw Gary Oldman speak! She was only a few seats away from me, and it was so hard not to approach her and do my best zombie impersonation and tell her how I learned it all from watching her. Or say something about how I hope that she and Martin Freeman are very happy together. Either way I suppose she would have called security, so it's for the best that I'm chicken. Love you, Lucy!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Dianne (Lucy Davis): Just look at the face: it's vacant,
with a hint of sadness. Like a drunk who's lost a bet.

I'm so ashamed I forgot to mention this but Lucy Davis was there last week when I saw Gary Oldman speak! She was only a few seats away from me, and it was so hard not to approach her and do my best zombie impersonation and tell her how I learned it all from watching her. Or say something about how I hope that she and Martin Freeman are very happy together. Either way I suppose she would have called security, so it's for the best that I'm chicken. Love you, Lucy!

Starf*cker

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Who: Chris Noth

Where: University just North of Washington Square Park, NYC

When: 2pm, Wednesday, February 8 2012

I'm as loathe to admit it - god I do not miss Sex and the City - as he is probably loathe to hear it, but all that went through my head was "MR. BIG!!" when he passed me, and yes it was in caps with all those exclamation points. He really does nothing for me but he is a handsome enough slab of wood in person (better than I expected, anyway) and he was about as tall as me, which is definitely a point in his favor (I've seen too many celebrities who seem miniaturized in the flesh). Unfortunately, he did not have that parrot. That would have really made my day. Anyway I'm surprised I've never seen him around before, he seems like one of those people you'd see here all the time. 

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Starf*cker

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Who: Chris Noth

Where: University just North of Washington Square Park, NYC

When: 2pm, Wednesday, February 8 2012

I'm as loathe to admit it - god I do not miss Sex and the City - as he is probably loathe to hear it, but all that went through my head was "MR. BIG!!" when he passed me, and yes it was in caps with all those exclamation points. He really does nothing for me but he is a handsome enough slab of wood in person (better than I expected, anyway) and he was about as tall as me, which is definitely a point in his favor (I've seen too many celebrities who seem miniaturized in the flesh). Unfortunately, he did not have that parrot. That would have really made my day. Anyway I'm surprised I've never seen him around before, he seems like one of those people you'd see here all the time. 

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Germs Totally Suck, Y'all

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If I had my camera with me I would just post a picture of the giant bottle of Purell I bought on my way to work this morning and leave that as my entire review of Steven Soderbergh's Contagion. It would speak the truth as I see it in absolute and succinct terms. But unfortunately I loaned my camera away this week - and sidenote, I feel so helpless without it! What if I bump into Jake Gyllenhaal again? Ahh! (And sidenote to that sidenote: didja hear I actually bumped into Jake this past weekend? I did! Spotting number three! - so I've got to try this whole "writing my thoughts out in words" thing again. Boo! Who wants that? 

Okay so... Contagion. Contagion pretty much gave me a full-on panic attack, and it's an unprofessional admission - although who the hell here's a professional anyway? - but the movie took me twice its running time to watch because I had to pause it every ten minutes or so and take a break. Not really the optimum way to view a movie, and Steven Soderbergh should probably slap me across the face with a single glove the next time we meet. But maybe he'd be impressed that his film had such an effect on me, and let it slide this time? because he should be. I certainly was impressed. 

When Haywire came out recently I threw a lot of love at it, and I maintain that love even though after I wrote that early review I read a bunch of other people's reviews that argued convincingly about its shortcomings, and the shortcomings in the current status of Soderbergh's mainstream-experimental filmmaking. Why yes indeed, his movies are cold and clinical and more concerned with messing with visual and aural and linear expectations than with necessarily devoting their cold heart and laser eyes to just telling a richly-told-on-all-levels story. At this point he's playing - he can get anybody he wants to show up for five seconds, why wouldn't he?

But oh such play! I could watch Steven Soderbergh play with a narrative for days. (I also expect to be able to watch Steven Soderbergh play with Matthew Bomer and Joe Manganiello in thongs for days as well, but that's for another set of days.) And as sleek and relentless as Contagion is, I found it surprisingly moving too. When you've got Kate Winslet tremulously greeting the on-set of those first few coughs while staring at her reflection or Marion Cotillard being confronted by the duplicity of her own government in the face of sick children, or Matt Damon finally breaking down after stumbling upon the last pictures of his dead wife, when you've got actors this good still being allowed to stand there and do their thing amongst all that sleek relentlessness, then I'm feeling the best of both worlds, personally.

Not that anybody should doubt my commitment to sleek relentlessness. As my undying love for Michael Haneke attests, I can tend to favor the impersonal touch. A Cinematic misanthropy can speak to me, I will admit. So Soderbergh works for me. His rhythms are first rate, and his eye is incontestable. And this movie wound me up into a frenzy of germ warfare. It felt authentic, a vérité I could hardly take. Take for instance the scene where Matt Damon and his daughter finally leave their house after a frightened period of mourning only to find the world outside collapsing into chaos - the way it builds, from the glimpse of a small fire to the looting and screaming and running (not to mention all all that horrible hacking), it's a dreadful showmanship I felt fortunate (and more than a little sick, blessedly) to be shown.
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Germs Totally Suck, Y'all

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If I had my camera with me I would just post a picture of the giant bottle of Purell I bought on my way to work this morning and leave that as my entire review of Steven Soderbergh's Contagion. It would speak the truth as I see it in absolute and succinct terms. But unfortunately I loaned my camera away this week - and sidenote, I feel so helpless without it! What if I bump into Jake Gyllenhaal again? Ahh! (And sidenote to that sidenote: didja hear I actually bumped into Jake this past weekend? I did! Spotting number three! - so I've got to try this whole "writing my thoughts out in words" thing again. Boo! Who wants that? 

Okay so... Contagion. Contagion pretty much gave me a full-on panic attack, and it's an unprofessional admission - although who the hell here's a professional anyway? - but the movie took me twice its running time to watch because I had to pause it every ten minutes or so and take a break. Not really the optimum way to view a movie, and Steven Soderbergh should probably slap me across the face with a single glove the next time we meet. But maybe he'd be impressed that his film had such an effect on me, and let it slide this time? because he should be. I certainly was impressed. 

When Haywire came out recently I threw a lot of love at it, and I maintain that love even though after I wrote that early review I read a bunch of other people's reviews that argued convincingly about its shortcomings, and the shortcomings in the current status of Soderbergh's mainstream-experimental filmmaking. Why yes indeed, his movies are cold and clinical and more concerned with messing with visual and aural and linear expectations than with necessarily devoting their cold heart and laser eyes to just telling a richly-told-on-all-levels story. At this point he's playing - he can get anybody he wants to show up for five seconds, why wouldn't he?

But oh such play! I could watch Steven Soderbergh play with a narrative for days. (I also expect to be able to watch Steven Soderbergh play with Matthew Bomer and Joe Manganiello in thongs for days as well, but that's for another set of days.) And as sleek and relentless as Contagion is, I found it surprisingly moving too. When you've got Kate Winslet tremulously greeting the on-set of those first few coughs while staring at her reflection or Marion Cotillard being confronted by the duplicity of her own government in the face of sick children, or Matt Damon finally breaking down after stumbling upon the last pictures of his dead wife, when you've got actors this good still being allowed to stand there and do their thing amongst all that sleek relentlessness, then I'm feeling the best of both worlds, personally.

Not that anybody should doubt my commitment to sleek relentlessness. As my undying love for Michael Haneke attests, I can tend to favor the impersonal touch. A Cinematic misanthropy can speak to me, I will admit. So Soderbergh works for me. His rhythms are first rate, and his eye is incontestable. And this movie wound me up into a frenzy of germ warfare. It felt authentic, a vérité I could hardly take. Take for instance the scene where Matt Damon and his daughter finally leave their house after a frightened period of mourning only to find the world outside collapsing into chaos - the way it builds, from the glimpse of a small fire to the looting and screaming and running (not to mention all all that horrible hacking), it's a dreadful showmanship I felt fortunate (and more than a little sick, blessedly) to be shown.
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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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