Obsessed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I want to BE Emily Blunt!

She won a Globe for Gideon's Daughter\

She is one HOTT BETCH!!!!

Happy Birthday Blunt!

Emily Blunt can pretty much do no wrong in my book. Every single thing I have seen her do is magic. Even if the film itself is stinky, she is always great. Today is Emily's birthday. She turns 27 (wow, she's the same age as me, and look what she has accomplished, now I am depressed). I have loved her ever since I saw The Devil Wears Prada. She delivers a wonderfully nuanced comic performance in that movie. She is almost the villian of the piece, but she plays her character, also named Emily, with such panache that you can't help but love her. She is a wonderfully flawed and desperate person. This is the stuff great comedy is made of. People desperately trying to climb their way up the ladder and hide all of their idiosyncracies, and failing miserably. I just love me some Blunt.

She also does some brilliant work in, my personal favorite, Sunshine Cleaning. Here is a wounded woman, wallowing in her old wounds. The relationship between Blunt and Amy Adams in this one is such a joy to watch. I really believe them as sisters.
See also, My Summer Of Love, The Young Victoria, and The Jane Austen Book Club for some Blunt Brilliance!!

My God, can we just give her and Oscar already. Although she does have John Krasinski, so I guess she's probably doing ok.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLUNT!!!!!!!

Musings on Impersonation Acting

I just want to say a word or two or sixty about performances based on actual people. This year in the Oscar race there are a few people who are playing real people. Some, like Sandra Bullock are playing people who no one really knew before the movie. And some, like Meryl Streep and Morgan Freeman are playing people who we have a clear picture of in our heads. You can't get away with a shoddy performance as someone we all know.
There are two requirements, in my opinion, of playing a famous person on screen.

1. That you give a realistic and believeable portrayl of whomever the person may be. Adopting their mannerisms, speech patterns and looks in order to make us believe that you are that person.
2. (This is where many actors fail) To give us a believable picture of the parts of this person's life that we have not been able to see. To marry the impersonation with the human factor.

It is number two where I have seen the most actors fail. There have been numerous performers who have played famous people, many to Oscar-winning success. And many have failed. What they need is that human factor. We, the audience, need to belive that not only are you the person we have seen on TV or in the movies, but that you are the person we did not get to see. That is the point of the biopic, after all. To show us the person behind the persona.

Five Best Performances as Famous People

5. Cate Blanchett in I'm Not There

4. Michael Sheen in The Queen

3. Sean Penn in Milk

2. Drew Barrymore in Grey Gardens

1. Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter

What's your favorite/least favorite biopic performance?????

WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?

Who's Afriad of Virginia Woolf?
4/4 stars

I just watched Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf all the way through, for probably the first time in my life. I had seen the whole movie, just never in one sitting. This movie contains four of the greatest performances in film history. It is, hands down, the best overall cast of all time. I really think that the fact that all four of this films stars garnered Oscar nominations, and all deserved to win. Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal and Sandy Dennis all deliver powerhouse performances. To say that it is the most successful film of all time, might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I do believe it is close. I'm not talking about financial success, I'm talking about artistic success. The performances, the direction, the cinematography, the adaptation. As far as stage adaptaions go, it does manage to take a somewhat claustrophobic play, and open it up. It takes it to new locales, and out of the one room of the play, but it does so without losing the claustrophobia of the story; the feeling of being trapped.
When it comes to performances, everyone is pitch perfect. Elizabeth Taylor, in one of the most deserving Oscar wins in history, is hearbreaking and gut-wrenching. Richard Burton is wounded and tough. George Segal is a wonder and Sandy Dennis brings vulnerability to new heights.
This is a MUST SEE classic!!

LIFE AFTER TOMORROW

Title: Life After Tomorrow
Director: Gil Cates, Jr. Julie Stevens
Starring: Allison Smith, Sarah Jessica Parker, Senta Moses, Dara Brown, Martha Byrne
Rating: 2.5/4 stars

I am a musical theatre junkie. As much as I deny it, I also secretly LOVE Annie. So when I came across this documentary about life after Annie, I couldn't resist. This is not the best documentary ever made. It doesn't reveal any hidden truths, or touch the heart. It is essentially a bunch of former child actors whining about their life, since they could never live up to having been in one of the biggest hit musicals of all time (SJP aside).
What I did love about Life After Tomorrow was the surprise little tidbits about the showbiz life. Stories about touring, and stage mothers and hookers. I am such a sucker for backstage gossip.

I was also so surprised by how many faces I recognized. OK, so theatre queen that I am, I knew that Sarah Jessica Parker had been in Annie. I had no idea that MSNBC's Dara Brown and soap star Martha Byrne were former orphans too. And Allison Smith, who I love on Kate and Allie. It was so interesting to hear all of their stories, and see all the old photographs. But let's be honest, no one really wants to listen to you whine.

THE LIVING END

Title: The Living End
Director: Gregg Araki
Starring: Mike Dytri, Craig Gilmore, Darcy Marta
Rating: 3/4 stars

The Living End is what all movies should be. It is truly HONEST. In Hollywood, AIDS has been presented in many ways. Usually the person with AIDS is a tragic hero (i.e. Philadelphia, It's My Party). That is not really the case here. The two 'heroes' of this movie are neither tragic or heroic. They are just real. In a Thelma and Louise-esque tale, two HIV positive young men, on the run from the law, travel the west coast. It doesn't have the intrigue of Thelma and Louise, you never see the cops chasing them. They simply have a 'fuck the world' attitude. They don't know how much longer they have, so they must enjoy it.
I really liked the tone of this movie. It wasn't preachy. It didn't want to change anyone's mind. It just wanted to tell a story. It wanted to show you what two people who love eachother, will go through for one another, and examines what draws one person to another. Like, does having one thing in common, albeit a big thing, make two people work, or does it take more?  This movie really got me thinking. It is independent filmmaking at it's best.

CRAZY HEART

Title: Crazy Heart
Director: Scott Cooper
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall
Rating: 3.5/4 stars

Loved Crazy Heart even though it is a big ol' cliche. This movie follows an old formula: down and out musician/athlete/writer meets younger woman, falls for her, hits rock bottom, cleans up his act and comes back from despair. Crazy Heart is among the best of these "Washed-up old drunk" movies for three reasons: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal and an amazing soundtrack.
Bridges plays a drunk so sublty, that when he hits rock bottom, you finally realize that he was drunk for most of the movie, but he functioned so well in those scenes that the audience (and the rest of thze characters on screen) doesn't realize it. He deserves every award he gets.
Gyllenhaal is so believable in this cliche role. The age difference almost bothered me, but Maggie was so convincing in her love for Bridges, that it didn't skeeve me out at all. And she really broke my heart a few times.
The music in Crazy Heart surprised me. I don't consider myself a fan of country, but the songs were like vintage Dylan, and were so well written that I downloaded the soundtrack and even sing along. A lovely movie!!!

THE CELLULOID CLOSET

Title: The Celluloid Closet
Director: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Starring: Lily Tomlin, Quentin Crisp, Armistead Maupin, Gore Vidal, Arthur Laurents, Harvey Fierstein
Rating: 4/4 stars

The Celluloid Closet is a gayssential. This documentary drawn from the work of Vito Russo, is a pretty comprehensive look at homosexuality in the movies. I first saw this one years ago on television. It combines two of my favorite things to research: movies and gay history. I set out to see as many of the movies mentioned in the movie as I could, and I have done pretty well. What this movie does is examine how and where homosexuals have been portrayed in the movies from the early years of Hollywood. It also gives a taste of how these protrayals effect the audience. It uses clips from a wide range of movies, from Wings to Advise and Consent to Philadelphia. Granted, it is somewhat dated now, as it was released in 1995. The 15 years of Hollywood since then have had a huge improvement in the way they portray gay people, thanks to movies like Milk, Angels in America and Brokeback Mountain. Despite it's dated-ness, it is a wonderful look at the history. Not only is this a great movie for its research value, it also has some great things to say about our lives and experiences.

INVICTUS

Title: Invictus
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon
Rating: 1.5/4 stars


Invictus is everything I expected The Blind Side to be, but wasn't. This movie used all of the manipulative tactics there are to play with the audience's emotions. Sweeping music, epic shots, dialogued filled with 'profundity' and stadiums full of extras screaming for the fictional sports team in the movie. Honestly, I am not a big Eastwood fan. I have always thought he was a pretty self-important director. And this movie proves it. It was really nothing more than a piece of melodramatic junk.
Morgan Freeman, whose performance in Driving Miss Daisy is one of my all-time faves, does nothing at all in this movie. His oscar nomination baffles me because, besides looking like Nelson Mandela and having an accent, doesn't do any acting at all. Every one of his lines sounds like it came from a book of Mandela quotes, there is no human factor in this performance.
The 1.5 stars I have given this movie, are all for Matt Damon, who I usually despise. He is great in this movie. His character could have been the one with the most cheeseball moments, but he rises above, delivering a nuanced and beautiful performance. A well deserved Oscar nomination!!

Slacker

I have not posted in like 4 days. I guess I should get on that. I have seen Crazy Heart and Invictus and will post my reviews of them, as well as my gayssential review of The Celluloid Closet. And the ladies need some love too, don't they. It'll happen, just a lot of distractions.