It’s all too easy to label Kristen Wiig’s uproarious new comedy “Bridesmaids” the female equivalent of “The Hangover,” and it works for a quick comparison to sell the movie to a doubting friend. However, for accuracy’s sake (something of great consequence to me), let’s set the record straight. If you put “The Hangover” in a room with “27 Dresses” and allowed them to have a baby, and that baby turned out to be a girl, they would spawn “Bridesmaids.”
In other words, it’s a mixture of raunchy comedy that makes guys howl with the romantic comedy that makes girls swoon. Call it the best of both worlds, but such a combination doesn’t make the great equalizing date movie a great movie. The hybrid has a bit of an uneasy consistency, mainly because the belly laughs come to a screeching halt as soon as Wiig’s Irish-accented love interest comes on screen. Maybe it’s just the critic in me that’s rom-com weary or the male in me that doesn’t really care how the girl inevitably winds up with the guy, but the cliched romance could easily have been excised to maximize the laughs. (Not to mention it could cut down on the length, which is over 2 hours – epic length in terms of comedic films.)
So rather than endlessly compare “Bridesmaids” to “The Hangover,” I’ll let it stand on its own merit. The credit for the laughs, both shocking and sensitive, goes to star and co-writer Kristen Wiig, who after years of stealing the show finally gets to be the show. I feel very vindicated seeing her success after being a vocal advocate since 2005 when she joined “Saturday Night Live” and a written advocate ever since beginning to blog in 2009 (from “Extract” to “Whip It” to “Adventureland” to “Date Night” and even amidst the dung that was “MacGruber”). But this shouldn’t be about me; it should be about her. This is her big moment, and I hope she uses it to fly higher than previous female “SNL” comediennes like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
I have a review for “Bridesmaids” open in another tab as I write this, and now I’m ACTUALLY prepared to say that I’m back for good. I’ve been an unfortunate tease for the last two months, and I do apologize. It’s just been one thing after another requiring my utmost attention, and the one thing that can wait is … you guessed it, blogging. So I’ve been acting, singing, writing plays, studying for tests and quizzes, writing papers, and dealing with the general craziness of my last semester of high school. I haven’t had much time to breathe – I made myself stop one day a week ago to take a deep breath and realized how little I had actually breathed.
So breathe easier, readers. I’m back with my breath. And with that breath, I intend to blow your mind (punny, I know).
I’m ready to earn your clicks and eyes again. So SPREAD THE WORD – I’m back!
Marshall
* Biblical allusion but also lifted directly from “Angels in America,” the play I’m reading in my English class/am totally obsessed with at the moment.
I’M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!! After a month’s leave to write a play (yes, I actually wrote a play; it will be performed in a little over a month), put on a production of “Fiddler on the Roof,” and just deal with second semester senior year formalities, I am back to the world of blogging. It sure feels good to be back! I’ve missed engaging in such a vibrant community of film lovers and blog readers!
I’m headed for a lovely Spring Break in Hawaii and will have plenty of time on my plane flight to write loads and loads of reviews. I’ve been watching plenty of movies in my absence, so you’re about to get hit with a tidal wave of opinion. Heads up.
Thanks to those of you who still stopped by (as traffic didn’t totally come to a halt!) and understanding that I can only handle one writing job at a time. For a month, I had to be a playwright. But now I’m back to being a blogger.
So bring on Marshall and the Movies 2.0!
UPDATE: 43 days later, I finally get to work. This post sure haunts me, “Mission Accomplished”/George W. Bush style.
4:50 P.M. Live blogging the Oscars is on again! I just got back from a rehearsal which was originally scheduled to extend an hour into the actual show … but I got out at 4:15, so I even made it home for the Red Carpet! Needless to say, I’m ecstatic! I came home to find our kitchen table decorated with plastic film reels in celebration of what my mom calls “my Super Bowl” – the biggest night of the year in Hollywood. We are having homemade sausage pizza, chocolate-covered strawberries, and chocolate chip cookies. My will/could/should picks and predictions are coming up (just a little bit late, I know.)
5:02 P.M. Alright, here are my picks for the tech categories:
5:20 P.M. Red carpet update: Jennifer Lawrence and Mila Kunis look SMOKING hot. Hailee Steinfeld’s tutu is a little unfortunate. Onto some of the other non-major categories, most of which don’t even get more than a winner pick.
Best Animated Film – honestly, why bother to nominate a movie other than “Toy Story 3?”
Best Foreign Film – conventional wisdom says not to pick the Golden Globe winner or the one you might have heard of, so I’m going with Canada’s “Incendies.”
I think given the overwhelming momentum for “The King’s Speech” and the story of its screenwriter, David Seidler, this is a pretty easy victory to call. “Inception” after winning the WGA probably comes in a close second.
As close to a no-brainer as 2010 can give us. Aaron Sorkin will almost certainly walk away with an Oscar for the best script in recent memory and provide at least one statue for “The Social Network.”
Given the overwhelming Bale love throughout the season, he should be able to overcome Rush in a sweep scenario. It also helps that Bale has no Oscar and Rush does. I’ll still be biting my nails for this, but I feel confident with this pick.
Should be nominated: Barbara Hershey, “Black Swan“
The category, as it often does, provides as much suspense as the show can give us. Honestly, anyone but Jacki Weaver could win. Carter could ride the coattails of “The King’s Speech” to victory, and Adams could win for being the best. Smart money is probably on Leo, who has won most of the big precursors leading up to Oscar night. But with 10 nominations for “True Grit,” the Academy clearly has to give something to the movie. This is an easy way for them to do that, and the Academy did this with Tilda Swinton in 2007 for “Michael Clayton.”
If Natalie Portman doesn’t win, the Academy is going to have to work BIG TIME in the next few years to regain my respect. This is the performance of a lifetime, and if they don’t reward it, I’m going to be furious. Annette Bening could win on the conservative theme of the year, but I’m still confident in Natalie Portman. I think they realize that Bening wasn’t THAT good…
6:45 P.M. Just dined and then changed into my “The Social Network” T-shirt. For reference, I was wearing my “I Kept My Eyes Open for 127 Hours” T-shirt beforehand. Here’s my pick for Best Director:
Should be nominated: Christopher Nolan, “Inception“
Another shaky category. Sure, Tom Hooper won the DGA, but that membership is made up of mainly TV directors. Of course they want to reward Hooper, one of their own. The Oscars embraced Roman Polanski, a prickly director indeed, in 2002 over DGA winner Rob Marshall, whose “Chicago” went on to win Best Picture. It doesn’t seem wise to predict a split as most Academy voters don’t think that the Best Picture directs itself. But I have a feeling that the voters took a step back and asked what the best directed movie of the year was, and they probably knew the name of the director that undertook the job.
Then again, Hooper and Fincher could split votes, making the way for Aronofsky to win, much like in 2000 when Soderbergh eked out a victory over Ang Lee and Ridley Scott for “Traffic.” But I’m counting on Fincher riding to victory, making “The Social Network” the third movie to win Best Editing, Best Screenplay, and Best Director without Best Picture.
6:50 P.M. Sandra Bullock has had some MAJOR work done to her face. No other big red carpet arrivals to blow me away with the exception of Penelope Cruz. Jennifer Lawrence is still tops.
Without further ado, here are my thoughts on Best Picture:
This is what it all comes down to. The past vs. the present, the critics vs. the guilds, the heart vs. the head. You’ve heard it analyzed and overanalyzed if you pay any attention the race. But know this: 2010 marks a watershed decision for the Oscars. These two movies have come to represent two entirely different camps of moviemaking and moviegoers, and the critics unanimously chose “The Social Network” as their Best Picture of the year. But then the guilds fired back with their pick for Best Picture being almost unanimously “The King’s Speech.” It’s never smart to bet against the guilds, so I have to pick “The King’s Speech” since it has their support and clearly has the momentum. It is the most nominated movie tonight, which is also a help. I have a hard time calling a split, but I will. I simply can’t predict “The Social Network” to win even though I so desperately want it to prevail.
That being said, how happy would it make you if “Toy Story 3” came out of nowhere and won? Talk about something that would simultaneously silence and please everyone.
7:00 P.M. Time to switch from E! to ABC. Just saw Natalie Portman … all is good.
(graphic perfectly provided by Awards Daily)
7:03 P.M. Natalie Portman still looks perfect. Even when she’s pregnant.
7:22 P.M. AHHHH 8 MINUTES!!! I’ve been where they had the red carpet and I’ve been on that stage, by the way. It’s not a big deal.
7:37 P.M. This opening sequence is so funny I can’t even handle it. “YOU JUST GOT INCEPTION’D.” And the Morgan Freeman cameo is golden.
7:43 P.M. These meta-Oscars are too much for me to handle. I feel like they are setting up a sweep for “The King’s Speech” and trying to justify their pick by comparing it to history.
7:47 P.M. There goes the momentum for “The King’s Speech!” That art direction win for “Alice in Wonderland” was quite a shock. But HOORAY FOR THE “INCEPTION” BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY WIN! That makes me so happy! And here’s to a future win for “The Dark Knight Rises!” Ballot is 1/2 at the moment.
7:57 P.M. And the winner of Best Supporting Actress is … after much delay, sweet Kirk Douglas … Melissa Leo! Well, there could be worse. Called that one wrong!
8:00 P.M. Melissa Leo dropped the F-bomb! She’ll never live that down … awkward moment for an awkward speech with a silent crowd. And that whole moment with Kirk Douglas felt kinda staged.
8:20 P.M. Sorry for the massive delay, I had to restart my computer. Much expected wins for “The King’s Speech” and “The Social Network” followed by incredibly charming and winning speeches by David Seidler and Aaron Sorkin. The two juggernauts are tied at one apiece. (And the Melissa Leo F-bomb makes for a nice recurring theme. Better than Justin Timberlake wishing he was Banksy. Millions of viewers at home are scratching their heads.)
8:25 P.M. Props to Anne Hathaway for whipping out the “Les Miserables.” She just won my total approval.
8:33 P.M. And the Oscar goes to … CHRISTIAN BALE!!! Good choice, Academy! And a very nice speech to follow – although I think he forgot his wife’s name! (Take that, “The King’s Speech!” 1/5!)
8:36 P.M. Side note: the trailer for “Super 8” makes me REALLY excited for 2011! Is it too early to call a Best Picture nominee for next year? I’ll be incredibly proud if I can look back next year and see that I got this right.
8:41 P.M. The THX sound brings back SO many bad memories from my childhood! Ahhh, I was so scared of that thing!
8:44 P.M. Best Original Score, another category I love! The winner is … “THE SOCIAL NETWORK!” I’m ecstatic, that really was the best score of the year! Ok, now I think that “The Social Network” might win Best Picture!!!!!!! Hooray! That deserves…
8:47 P.M. Best Sound Mixing and Editing? “Inception” as expected! Hooray! That makes 3 for “Inception,” 2 for “The Fighter,” 2 for “The Social Network,” and 1 for “The King’s Speech.”
8:56 P.M. The meta-Oscars need to go for next year.
8:57 P.M. Cate Blanchett had it right when she said “that’s gross.” The fact that we can say “the Academy Award-winning film The Wolfman” is sad.
8:59 P.M. DIE I AM LOVE! But no “The King’s Speech” again!?!?! That’s a shocker. “Alice in Wonderland” has also momentarily eclipsed “The King’s Speech” in Oscar wins.
9:02 P.M. Observation only relevant for tonight: “The King’s Speech” is 1/8 so far. That means at best, it will have 5 wins. Most likely only 4. Possibly only 3. So much for Sasha Stone on Awards Daily saying that you had to predict the movie to win 6 statues. I’m really thinking “The Social Network” will win Best Picture now.
9:04 P.M. Ok, the song from “Toy Story 3” is officially the most adorable thing in the world. I’ll be upset now if it doesn’t win.
9:10 P.M. Wait, are the Oscars actually going to finish … on time? Stay tuned for this exciting development.
9:14 P.M. Aaaaaand more meta-Oscars! STOP!
9:16 P.M. “God of Love” for the win! That’s one of my three short film guesses that panned out!
9:18 P.M. “The Social Network: The Musical” is catchy. Can’t wait to see Justin Timberlake headline the original broadway cast!
9:22 P.M. HOORAY FOR CHARLES FERGUSON AND “INSIDE JOB!!!” The best documentary I have ever seen just won a very deserved Academy Award! Hopefully the politics of the speech don’t hurt him later… (And did anyone else see the Coen Brothers looking insanely bored!?)
9:28 P.M. I miss Billy Crystal hosting the Oscars! He is so my childhood watching the Oscars! And also, I’d like him to make a comeback in movies.
9:34 P.M. LOL to the top reference. That makes it FOUR for “Inception!”
9:35 P.M. “The Social Network” wins AGAIN! That’s three! Hooray, things are looking up for team Facebook!!!
9:45 P.M. Woah, Gwyneth Paltrow is REALLY flat! Yikes…
9:47 P.M. “Toy Story 3” wins! That makes two and a very big smile on my face!!! I heart Randy Newman.
9:51 P.M. I can dig the “Modern Family” Oscar charades commercial becoming an annual tradition. “Eat Pray Chest!”
9:52 P.M. And having Celine Dion sing during the In Memoriam sequence just ruined it. Way to go, Academy…
10:02 P.M. Entering the last half hour … with Best Director?!? Before acting?
10:03 P.M. Booo!!! David Fincher (or at least Darren Aronofsky) deserved it! This awards ceremony is eerily reminiscent of the trajectory of the awards season. Total buzzkill for “The Social Network.”
10:06 P.M. Seeing Annette Bening makes me really worried … if Natalie doesn’t win …
10:09 P.M. They can’t do this with Best Director again. It makes the pit in my stomach last for 20 minutes as opposed to 5 minutes. Not OK.
10:10 P.M. And there had better be some MASSIVE tribute to the Best Picture nominees coming up! Because otherwise they got gypped!
10:16 P.M. ^^^ THIS GIRL JUST WON AN OSCAR!!!! I’M OBSESSED WITH NATALIE PORTMAN!!!!!! HOORAY FOR MAKING ONE GOOD PICK TONIGHT!
10:17 P.M. OH MY GOSH YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE “BLACK SWAN!”
10:19 P.M. Who cares if her speech wasn’t that good, I’m so happy!!!!! Academy Award winner Natalie Portman!
10:25 P.M. And what we’ve been predicting for five months delivers. Way to go, Colin Firth!
10:28 P.M. Only one award left…AHHH!!!
10:36 P.M. And the Academy’s Best Picture of the Year is … “The King’s Speech.” They’ll regret this one later. Way to send the message, “Yes! You can make a movie that tailors to every single one of our needs! We will give it four Oscars!”
10:38 P.M. Four for “Inception” and “The King’s Speech,” three for “The Social Network,” two for “Alice in Wonderland,” “The Fighter,” and “Toy Story 3.”
10:40 P.M. Cool group photo? Weird ending…
11:03 P.M. Just saw some of the arrivals to the after-parties on E! while unloading the dishwasher. Not entertaining enough to keep me from doing my homework/studying … until next awards season, my friends!
(This post first appeared as part of Stephanie’s Best Picture marathon over at “The Flick Chick.” Go check out the series as all 82 Best Picture nominees are being reviewed leading up to the big day.)
It’s easy to see why a movie like “From Here to Eternity” could take the Oscars by storm back in 1953. In the midst of a post-war baby boom, patriotism was still running high after our victory in World War II and tension with the USSR were at a simmer, not a boil. We had yet to be mired in the Vietnam War or have our nation’s highest office be tainted by the Watergate scandal. It was a different world, and movies fictionalizing these times have a mentality that reflects the times.
So when I watched the movie in an attempt to understand why it won Best Picture, I had to move myself out of our current times where last year’s winner, “The Hurt Locker,” conveys a stark pessimism about military maneuvers. So while I might see the movie as an excessively romanticized portrait of the American soldier, they saw it as a rousing tribute to the men who served their country with honor and courage. And while I might see the movie’s characters and plot as being a touch over-melodramatic, audiences were totally won over by their personification of military values. (This is not meant as a criticism of older generations, more a generalization of how audiences have changed over the decades.)
The movie follows two storylines: the tenacious Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) transfers to Hawaii after missing out on an unfair promotion. He was once a prized boxer and finds himself being hazed by his comrades to join their ranks, authorized from high-ranking officers. To cope, he befriends Maggio (Frank Sinatra) and romances Lorene (Donna Reed). Meanwhile, his superior, First Sgt. Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster), begins an affair with the captain’s wife (Deborah Kerr) that gave us one of the most iconic love scenes ever shot. So iconic, in fact, that it had to parodied in “Shrek 2.”
I’d be lying if I said I loved “From Here to Eternity.” While it might capture the isolation of the soldiers in Hawaii and their humdrum routine existence at times, it felt like a more idealized portrait of military stereotypes. It’s an interesting story (one good enough to be repeated a few times), but aside from Prewitt’s erratic personality, I didn’t find myself engaged in the characters at all. This is a very different kind of American war movie than is being made nowadays – chalk it up to generational differences.
I am alive. You probably doubt that given my total lack of activity over the past two weeks. And for that, I apologize. We all come to points in our lives where the things we love can’t be our priority. Blogging has taken a backseat this month, and I’m sorry to disappoint my loyal readers. I realize that I have to earn your readership, and I look forward to winning you over again once I get back on my feet. But for now, please be patient as I try to regain that footing.
I thank you all so much and apologize again. I think all will be well in the end, but my energies have been required in a lot of places recently. Hopefully it all turns out the way I hope.
Adam Sandler sure has fallen a long way since the glory days of “Billy Madison” and “Happy Gilmore” – and those days weren’t even that good. Fifteen years later, we are invited to just go wherever with the comic who has long since worn out the welcome mat with “Just Go With It,” a typical Sandler comedy that might have been fairly amusing if it had been made a decade ago. It’s a step above last summer’s “Grown Ups” but probably only because there is a strong female presence to whip him in line.
Taking a fairly unique premise, the movie follows Sandler’s Los Angeles plastic surgeon (cue some scary and derivative jokes involving lots of Joan Rivers-esque figures) Danny and his morally suspect way of picking up women without a hitch – pretending to be married. It works out great for him until he meets the incredibly well-endowed, good-natured, and much younger Palmer (Brooklyn Decker), and he has to start an elaborate lie to keep her. The ruse, which eventually requires index cards, grows to include his divorced assistant Katherine (Jennifer Aniston) and her two annoyingly precocious children as well as his horndog brother (Nick Swardson).
All things considered, this could have been more than just mildly entertaining, which is what the end product settles for. There are a few chuckles, usually accompanied by a groan but thankfully not with eye-rolling. So by all means, if you want to see Adam Sandler re-enact the movies from his prime, “Just Go With It” should provide you with what you’re looking for. But you’re probably better off dusting off one of his older flicks so you can have the faintest hint of nostalgia of a time when these jokes and formulas weren’t stale. C /
I’m sorry, because I’m a Christian male, I’m being TARGETED to see “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never?!?!” Surely that must be a joke.
But according to Entertainment Weekly, it’s not. Check this out:
“Execs recognized that the film’s message of hope and Bieber’s strong Christian beliefs, about which both he and his mother Pattie Mallette have spoken extensively, were an opportunity to reach out to the faith community. The study guide is a collaboration between Bieber’s mother and Allied Faith & Family, an arm of Allied Integrated Marketing. It’s the first time Paramount has worked with Allied to supplement its general publicity, but not the first time the studio has had a faith-based element to a movie campaign. (The studio had faith-based outreach programs for the documentaries ‘Waiting for Superman’ and ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and the adaptation of ‘The Kite Runner.’) Indeed, marketing to Christian groups became quite popular post-‘The Passion of the Christ;’ like secular marketing campaigns, it’s about making sure people who may not think a film has something for them see that it does — like Bieber’s pre-performance ritual that includes a prayer introduced to him by his Jewish manager, or Bieber and his friends saying grace at a pizza parlor.”
While I’m certainly glad to see a faithful Christian unafraid to proclaim his beliefs to the mainstream, it just strikes me as odd that they think that just because I share certain ideals as Bieber, I’ll rush to see his movie. I’m not a huge fan (although I unfortunately have to fess up that I did buy one of his songs before I realized he would take over the world) and have not made any plans to see the movie. It’s not a faith-based movie, although faith is prominently featured, and I’ll go spend two hours reading Levitical laws before I spend $15 and two hours of my time watching Justin Bieber squawk like a mouse in three dimensions.
Maybe it’s just my hyper-awareness of being grouped into a demographic after reading “White Noise” in my English class…
Wes Craven has made many a good horror movie, helming such classics as “The Last House on the Left” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” but arguably leaving his biggest mark on the genre with the revolutionary self-aware “Scream” series. He merges the two together to form the irresistible guilty pleasure “Cursed.”
Yes, I fully realize that by labeling it a guilty pleasure, I’m saying that you could easily hate this movie. But if you love that seamless blend of comedy and horror with a touch of irony, I think you will be drawn in by the cultish appeal of “Cursed.” In an era marked by movies that are emasculating such fearsome beasts as werewolves and vampires, Craven delivers a werewolf movie with true bite!
Not to mention that it features fun performances from plenty of ’90s stars like Christina Ricci and Joshua Jackson that have disappeared, as well as providing one of cinema’s first glances at an Academy Award-nominated actor by the name of Jesse Eisenberg. In one of his earliest screen roles, Eisenberg still has the same fast-talking and dorky awkwardness that has marked his career ever since. (“The Social Network” just served to refine and harness that power.)
As for the movie’s plot, it’s a mash-up of the typical werewolf curse stories as two siblings, Eisenberg’s high-school dork Jimmy and Ricci’s professional Ellie, are attacked and are forced to confront and kill the beast if they want to avoid total transformation. But along the way, they find little changes make a big difference.
…Ok, it sounds dumb on paper, but I loved this movie because in all the ways it should have failed, it somehow worked!
Back in Random Factoid #302, I wrote about being recognized by name at the library, the source of many of the movies I watch. This was a source of great pride as I don’t think a movie theater employee will ever recognize me by name.
However, I did get a significant step closer to that at a promotional screening of “Just Go With It” last night. The security people, usually very faithfully rotating between a series of five or six men, knew who I was! They didn’t call me Marshall, but when they were talking to people a few rows ahead of me about turning their cell phone off, one of the guys looked at me and said, “I know you. I want to see you turn it off!”
The Oscars are a great cultural conversation for all to participate in, but it’s all too easy to only have surface knowledge of the nominees. It’s all too easy to know “Black Swan” as the ballet movie, “The Fighter” as the boxing movie, and “The Social Network” as the Facebook movie. But don’t you want to know more and stun your friends with your knowledge of the movies in the weeks leading up to the awards and ultimately during the broadcast itself?
That’s what my KNOW YOUR NOMINEES series hopes to do. Every three days, I’ll feature ten interesting facts about the ten Best Picture nominees of 2010 that would be fascinating to pepper into any conversation. My hope is that you will come away with an enhanced appreciation of the movies but also enjoy learning strange and interesting things about them.
So, as we proceed in alphabetical order, our next stop on the tour is “The King’s Speech.”
“The King’s Speech” should feel like a very personal movie for a number of reasons, but probably chief among them is screenwriter David Seidler. As a boy growing up in England in the 1930s and ’40s, Seidler was a stammerer and idolized King George VI for his ability to overcome his problem. He had to wait many years to secure the rights to write a movie about his hero, mainly due to being asked personally by the Queen Mother (played by Helena Bonham Carter in the film) to pass away. Seidler then wrote it as a play, which director Tom Hooper saw and decided to make into a movie.
The director then added his own personal touch to the movie as well. Hooper stated in an interview that “The King’s Speech” is really a movie about his family. For example, the opening scene of the movie showing the preparations for the radio broadcast is an homage to his sister, a presenter for Radio 4. But mainly the connection comes from the relationship between the British Bertie and Australian Logue as Hooper has an Australian mother and an English father. He talked greatly in interviews about the interesting relationship between the two countries and how he conveyed it in the movie.
Lionel Logue, King George’s speech therapist played in the movie by Geoffrey Rush, kept a detailed set of diaries chronicling his work (although they don’t start until the coronation of the king). However, the diaries were not made available to the filmmakers until nine weeks before the shoot. Hooper has said that the only changes they made were for the sake of accuracy, and nothing was drastically altered. He also stated in an interview that some of the best lines in the movie were taken directly from the diary. For example, after the climactic speech, Logue jokingly says, “You still stammered on the w,” to which King George replies, “Well, I had to throw in a few so they knew that it was me.”
Colin Firth looks like a sure-fire winner for Best Actor, but this easily could have been someone else. Firth was actually the third choice to play King George VI and only received the role after first Paul Bettany and then Hugh Grant passed. Neither have Oscars at home on their mantle, so I’m pretty sure that both are regretting this decision.
So how did Firth nail down that stammer, which he executes so immaculately in “The King’s Speech?” What might be surprising is that Firth did not work with a speech therapist. He did, however, use a dialogue coach who helped him make the stammer come from a very personal place while also not affecting the pacing of the movie (imagine how dreadful the movie would be if it took him 20 minutes to utter each word). A speech therapist did come to some of the rehearsals for the movie, and Firth’s sister is also a vocal therapist, which he claims was very helpful for consulting purposes. He also talked a lot with screenwriter David Seidler, who compared stuttering to being “underwater.”
Does stammering come with side effects? For Colin Firth, it did. During the shoot, he claims to have suffered from some headaches and neck tension. But the more debilitating toll was on his arm, which became numb, went to sleep and thus hard to use. He went to the set doctor who had little to offer due to the lack of precedent.
Helena Bonham Carter received her second Academy Award nomination for her work in “The King’s Speech,” but just as the case was with many of this year’s nominees, she almost missed the chance. Due to her commitment on the “Harry Potter” movies, Carter turned down the role numerous times despite director Tom Hooper’s insistence. Yet she did star in “The King’s Speech” by making what she calls an “illegal” maneuver – shooting BOTH at the same time. Carter would go off on the weekends and shoot her scenes for Tom Hooper while never being truly “released” from the “Harry Potter” sets.
How do you get a good actor – an Academy Award winning actor, for that matter – to play a convincing mediocre actor? Tom Hooper got Geoffrey Rush to do some unconvincing Shakespeare by shooting the scene on the first day with English actors in the room who knew that Rush had some experience with Shakespeare. To quote Rush, “I was nervous and I was bad, and he just shot it.”
What of the royal reaction to the film? Queen Elizabeth II, George’s daughter portrayed in the movie as a young girl, gave “The King’s Speech” her seal of approval. Cynics might ask how much Harvey Weinstein paid for it; others are probably just thrilled to see the royal family showing interest in popular culture.
Cynics might also say that “The King’s Speech” is a stuffy British royal family costume drama that’s totally designed to win over the Academy. The last part seems to be somewhat true, but it’s hardly stuffy like most other movies about royal life. Director Tom Hooper is largely responsible for that. He stated in an interview that he purposefully set up the opening and closing shots of Bertie/George VI so that the movie would stand apart from others in the genre. We first meet Bertie in normal clothes, not looking all snazzy in his royal get-up. The movie closes reaffirming King George and Lionel Logue’s friendship, not with him cured of his stammer as if by magic or medicine.
Check back on February 13 as the KNOW YOUR NOMINEES series continues with “127 Hours.”
Today, my AMC MovieWatcher card breathed its last. While buying a student ticket for “Rabbit Hole,” I whipped out my card to get two points towards a ticket. However, the ticket lady told me that the program had ended. So now there’s a hole in my wallet and a hole in my heart as I wait for the Stubs program to begin.
In its 2 1/2 years in my wallet, the AMC MovieWatcher card garnered nearly 190 points – that’s 95 tickets, for those of you who need a more relatable figure. It has served me well, and I will miss it dearly.
Will someone do the MPAA a favor and save them from themselves?
First it was the whole “Blue Valentine” controversy. Then their whole dumb “male nudity” policy and their attack on smoking at the potential cost of artistic integrity. But now … they want to disconnect Google?!
“Every month the MPAA sends out wave after wave of copyright infringement notices to people accused of having illegally downloaded a movie. In practice, these are simple intimidation tactics notifying the accused that they were caught downloading a certain film and that, basically, unless they stop, the MPAA will make sure the criminal’s ISP disconnects them from the Internet. And if you’re Joe Schmo sailing the high seas of movie piracy, such warnings might make you reconsider whether or not a free copy of ‘The Expendables’ really is worth it.
The problem with this method is that the for-profit legal organizations that the MPAA hires to send out these automated warnings don’t do any research on the accused, they simply send out the notices en masse. (In the past this has resulted in old ladies who barely know how to use email being accused of multi-million-dollar copyright infringement.) So when some of Google’s IP addresses showed up in their piracy databases, the MPAA simply didn’t know any better and told one of the largest Internet companies in the world that they would disconnect them from the Internet if they didn’t give in to their demands.”
If you want to really punish Google, make them pay to produce some more anti-piracy advertisements that we all skip on DVD or tune out at the theater. But disconnecting them from the Internet is the quickest way to incite riots and hatred. There has to be a better way to solve this whole piracy problem.
Interestingly enough, movie studios love 3D for more than just cash: people can’t record them and then pirate them. So if this problem persists, don’t expect 3D to just go away.
The Academy Award nominees all gather for a luncheon just before the ceremony, and they take a giant group picture like a graduating class. This picture gets published all over the web, really as a “Where’s Waldo?” activity for all the actors. I always enjoy seeing the little Hollywood clicks and who gets left out or hangs out with a different crowd. It’s a fun picture to dissect, much further than the obvious Annette Bening sitting on Jeff Bridges’ lap front and center.
Click on the image if you want a better view as it takes forever to load otherwise.
Here are some of my favorite observations from the picture:
Natalie Portman is REALLY pregnant.
Christopher Nolan’s grin is creepy.
James Franco is standing next to the Pixar guys.
Amy Adams is up front but her co-stars from “The Fighter,” Mark Wahlberg and Melissa Leo, are way up top.
Poor Hailee Steinfeld looks so alone up there…
John Hawkes is so lost among the crowd.
Colin Firth and Michelle Williams together … interesting.
Why can’t we be friends – Jesse Eisenberg and Geoffrey Rush, despite being in the dueling Best Picture candidates, are right next to each other.
The guy with the long, curvy beard in the bottom right SCARES ME.
The Oscars are a great cultural conversation for all to participate in, but it’s all too easy to only have surface knowledge of the nominees. It’s all too easy to know “Black Swan” as the ballet movie, “The Fighter” as the boxing movie, and “The Social Network” as the Facebook movie. But don’t you want to know more and stun your friends with your knowledge of the movies in the weeks leading up to the awards and ultimately during the broadcast itself?
That’s what my KNOW YOUR NOMINEES series hopes to do. Every three days, I’ll feature ten interesting facts about the ten Best Picture nominees of 2010 that would be fascinating to pepper into any conversation. My hope is that you will come away with an enhanced appreciation of the movies but also enjoy learning strange and interesting things about them.
So, as we proceed in alphabetical order, our next stop on the tour is “The Kids Are All Right.”
“The Kids Are All Right” is set in Los Angeles, fairly obviously although not entirely prominently. But according to writer/director Lisa Choldenko, the movie was originally set in New York. The availability of Annette Bening, however, was contingent on moving production to Los Angeles. Cholodenko decided to rewrite the script with the setting changing coasts, and she claims that it helped bring the characters more to life.
Cholodenko also claims that the movie is slightly autobiographical, mainly at the beginning as she and her partner in real life were looking to be impregnated by a sperm donor. In walks co-writer Stuart Blumberg, who was a sperm donor himself. He wondered what children he brought into the world, and the two of them came up with what we now know as “The Kids Are All Right.” In 2006, the movie was nearly greenlit for production – but Cholodenko became pregnant and shelved the project for family matters.
The revision process was also grueling. The initial draft took a month to write, and as we know, nothing is perfect the first time. So Cholodenko and Blumberg re-wrote every character, scene, and line at least 10 times.
Who was the first actor onto the project? Several years before production began on “The Kids Are All Right,” Julianne Moore met Cholodenko and expressed her admiration for the director’s work. The two kept in touch, and Cholodenko sent Moore the script for her next movie around 2004, which the high-profile actress was attached to for many years.
When Annette Bening came aboard the project later, Cholodenko has stated the she retouched the script to make the character fit Bening better. The character Nic that we see in the movie better serves a vessel for her voice.
Mark Ruffalo received his first Academy Award nomination for his role in “The Kids Are All Right,” but it might interest you to know that he intially turned down the role. He was cast sequentially after Moore and Bening, and he was approved from a list that Cholodenko had made for potential actors to play the character. After his initial refusal, Moore used her personal relationship with Ruffalo, who she starred with in “Blindness,” to reel the actor in, even texting his wife.
How did the kids come aboard? Cholodenko chose Mia Wasikowska after seeing her work in HBO’s “In Treatment.” On the other hand, her on-screen sibling didn’t have it quite so easy. Josh Hutcherson received got the script and auditioned for the role. I guess “Zathura” wasn’t quite convincing enough…
Indie movies are, by their nature, independently financed. But for the quality of filmmaking you get from “The Kids Are All Right,” you’d be surprised how rushed the schedule was. The entire movie was filmed in 23 days. And as for the budget, the movie was made on $5 million; according to Ruffalo, the stars made almost no money just like virtually any indie movie. Oh, and they only had five days to rehearse.
Unlike “The Social Network,” which was shot word-for-word for Aaron Sorkin’s script, “The Kids Are All Right” underwent some metamorphosis during the filming process. Two scenes were added during the shoot, and the last line of the movie that appears in the final version wasn’t written until pre-production.
Ok, and what about the movie’s politics? Lisa Cholodenko acknowledges that the political climate in which “The Kids Are All Right” is being released in makes most people believe that it has an agenda. But in numerous interviews, she has stated that she did not see this as a gay movie. What she wanted to get at with the movie was something more universal. It’s a movie about family in any way, shape, or form. All the stars said they didn’t need to do any research on same-sex parenting because they approached it like any family movie.
Check back on February 10 as the KNOW YOUR NOMINEES series continues with “The King’s Speech.”
Given how far behind I am in factoiding (7 days, eek), I figured it was time to pull a page from the music industry’s playback: when new ideas aren’t flowing, go back to the greatest hits.
Way back in Random Factoid #298, I wrote about how I tend to buy music after I hear it in movies (or their trailers, which can often feature catchy tunes). So here’s part two of that factoid, basically filling you in on all the things that are in my “Purchased” playlist on iTunes.
“Don’t Think” by The Chemical Brothers, as heard in “Black Swan”
“Baby, You’re A Rich Man” by The Beatles, as heard in “The Social Network”
“Animal” by Neon Trees, as heard in the trailer for “Love & Other Drugs”
“You and Me” by Penny & The Quarters, as heard in “Blue Valentine”
“Speaking Unto Nations” by Ludwig van Beethoven, as heard in “The King’s Speech”
“Misery” by Maroon 5, as heard in the trailer for “The Dilemma”
“Ball and Biscuit” by The White Stripes (RIP), as heard in “The Social Network”
“Map of the Problematique” by Muse, as heard in the trailer for “The Tourist”
“Creep” by Scala and Kolacny Brothers, as heard in the trailer for “The Social Network”
(This post first appeared as part of 
The movie follows two storylines: the tenacious Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) transfers to Hawaii after missing out on an unfair promotion. He was once a prized boxer and finds himself being hazed by his comrades to join their ranks, authorized from high-ranking officers. To cope, he befriends Maggio (Frank Sinatra) and romances Lorene (Donna Reed). Meanwhile, his superior, First Sgt. Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster), begins an affair with the captain’s wife (Deborah Kerr) that gave us one of the most iconic love scenes ever shot. So iconic, in fact, that it had to parodied in “Shrek 2.”
I’m sorry, because I’m a Christian male, I’m being TARGETED to see “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never?!?!” Surely that must be a joke.
Back in 
Today, my AMC MovieWatcher card breathed its last. While buying a student ticket for “
Will someone do the MPAA a favor and save them from themselves?
Marshall and the Movies 
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