This & That: Pop Songs, Oscar Campaigns, Carnage Poster
Friday, August 12, 2011 at 9:07PM 
Bill Pullman's new roleAV Club is success spoiling AMC? More rumors and commentary on the increasingly troubled network of Mad Men and Breaking Bad.
Macleans also reacts to this 'blame Mad Men' meme going around
i09 expresses shock that Bill Pullman is so amazing as a creepy motivational speaker/murderer on Torchwood: Miracle Day. I haven't seen it yet because we don't get Starz but Bill Pullman can do anything. Why are people surprised? Oh, right. Nobody goes to the theater. Pullman's performance on Broadway in The Goat: Or, Who Is Sylvia? is one of the greatest performances I've ever seen, I kid you not. (pun!) The movie roles obviously didn't challenge him enough.
The Hairpin has an interview with Kate Beaton who writes what may be my favorite webcomic "Hark, A Vagrant!"
Cinema Blend I was just talking about Patrick Wilson to a friend last night and bingo: today there's news that he's joined the cast of Ridley Scott's Prometheus. I should talk about actors who don't get enough good parts every night before I sleep so they'll be cast the next morning.
Inside Movies A story that the web will undoubtedly love: Andrew Garfield on the size of Spider-Man's package.
Oooh, lookie. It's the first poster for Roman Polanski's Carnage.
That's a weird loud poster but at least it's interesting. The moody faces are kind of an interesting way to get at the play's rollercoaster tonal shifts and convey that it's an actor's piece.
The Campaigning Begins
Gold Derby is already claiming the Best Actor Oscar for Leonardo DiCaprio in J Edgar. We'll see. Believe it or not he's still kind of young to win an Oscar. They make the men wait, you know. Different rules for men. Although I suppose it helps that he didn't turn out as elfin gorgeous as he looked like he might back in the days of his youth. Oscar likes his women drop dead gorgeous but doesn't like his men too purty. Just ask Paul Newman how long he had to wait. Or Brad Pitt who still hasn't won.
IndieWire Glenn Close to receive the lifetime achievement award at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Festival honors of the career variety are a standard stop on the way to would be Oscar glory.
Just Jared just posted this promotional pic of Michelle Williams for My Week With Marilyn but labelled it a "still". If it's really a still in the proper sense than the movie is taking some adventurous chances with its look.
For Laughs... Movie|Line is listing four reimaginings of princess movies that it never wants to see.
And in other news... True Blood has been renewed for a fifth season. Yay! Get caught up on The Film Experience commentary.
Best Song of the 1980s?
Music makes the people come together.... yeah ♪
Critical Condition's Ultimate Pop Song Tournament has come down to the final four: Madonna's "Like a Prayer" (89), Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" (84), Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" (82) and Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" (81) This has been such fun for the past few weeks and it also just goes to show you how classic the 1980s are in the cultural canon since songs from other decades were eligible. You already know who I voted for, duh. Go and vote yourselves. May your favorite win... unless it's different than mine.
Boy Culture conjecture about Madonna's upcoming schedule
Examiner DC This is a good piece on the music industry's ability to keep the public interested in the classics, and the film industry's inability to do the same. A provocative mystery, that, right?
Reader Comments (18)
The fact that I didn't get to see Pullman in Goat still gets me. Discovered him in While You Were Sleeping and I will watch anything he's in. Was offered tickets to see Goat with Bill Irwin in the lead role and I turned them down Don't get Starz either so I haven't seen Torchwood.
If that really is a still from the Marilyn movie, I just got a lot more excited. Hard to argue with the finalists of the pop song tournament. Though, to be fair to the late 90's-Today, the picks they made for the bracket in that period were at best odd, and at worst straight up bad. The 80's choices were flawless and perhaps more obvious. A stronger more popular batch could have been chosen from the last 15 years, but, oh well. Guessing the song selectors/voters(?) were mostly children of the late 70's to early 80's anyway.
The Examiner article is interesting too. Could the answer be as simple as time investment. A person can check out a classic artists greatest hits in less than an hour, but watching just one film is quite a bit more of an investment to enjoy. You can't make someone of mix-tape of films for them to work out to, or fall in love with an auteur by watching and re-watching their films while you drive to and from work every morning. Just a thought, probably not the whole story.
I love the Carnage poster. Kate seems like she could be playing: 1) Sarah Palin 2) The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo 3) Idk, Courtney Love?
And now I know that the end of the world is near; Madonna And Michael Jackson will lose. Yep, it's a godless society we live in!
Did you guys know that Don't Stop Believing might be the best pop song of the last 30 years? Yeah, me neither.
(I'm not that angry. Just having fun with how absurd I find the results so far)
Is it any surprise that Don't Stop Believin' is winning? First The Sopranos finale and now Glee. That song has the most current cultural relevance of the four. Probably all those tweens and Gleeks voting for it.
wade - So I guess that bugs me is that the whoke thing is just too American. I'm not from the USA and I didn't know about the Sopranos finale or the Glee episode you're referring to.
I do know however that Madonna and Michael Jackson are as loved here as they are in the USA.
This is totes random but I just have to share that everytime I see that "Like a Prayer" video I'm struck by how much Madonna resembles Elaine Benes in it. :)
Whyyyyyy is Like a Prayer losingggggggg??????? ;\
'Don't Stop Believing' is the kind of song I always hear in the background. I never focus on it. It's not a foreground song for me. It's a hazy thing that I wouldn't have been able to even tell you the name of, or who performed it, or distinguish it from so many other songs that have a similar sound to me. So despite its recent ubiquitousness, yes, I am surprised it's winning the poll.
I don't know, but there's something about the Carnage poster that reminds me the one of I (Heart) Huckabees. Perhaps it's the use of colors or the facials expressions. I haven't seen the play in which the movie is based on, but I understand there's very dark humour in it. (So, maybe that's where I saw the similarity also.)
What I know is this: If Carnage is able to achieve the great balance between dark humour and human drama that Hackbees did so well, then it will be a winner.
But not box office winner, i'm afraid.
I don't know. I think Leo is still pretty dishy.
There's no angle in for mass appreciation of classic film. Older films to the unprepared generally are a chore to sit through. Music has an instant gratification or an instant dislike default: film, television, and books will never have.
James T -- Ha, I know that song sucks and the funny thing is that it is in the rock warrior section. Don't Stop Believing representing rock, something is wrong with this society indeed.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/2011/08/13/puzzling_international_poster_plus_more_new_images_from_roman_polanskis_car/
About carnage: Desplat is the composer of the movie:DDDDDDDDDDDD
I want a movie with just Kate Winslet #2 for 90 minutes. Look at that fabulosity.
@James T - Ditto. Kate's bitchface = greatest thing since sliced bread.
I'm glad Glenn Close is receiving the Premio Donostia she should've been given some years ago. I don't like that they're giving it to her when she's promoting her new movie. Last year it was given to Julia Roberts, when she was presenting... yeah, Eat, Pray, Love. While both deserve it because of their undeniable contribution to cinema, it worries me they might be starting a tendency: rewarding stars in promotion tours to make sure people internationally (ehmm, like here) talk about it. Let's hope next year it won't be Matthew McConaughe for Sahara or something similar. They have an almost impeccable record of awardees: Ian McKellen, Susan Sarandon, Meryl Streep, Robert DeNiro, Bette Davis ... Y
You can see a gallery of all them here: http://www.sansebastianfestival.com/es/indice.php?ap=2
On a more positive note, I really like the Carnage poster. And I liked the Contagion character posters put together (I entertain myself doing the caption this thing just for myself). If they're to use stars faces (I prefer that they don't, posters without faces are usually worked harder) for motion pictures, it feels just right that they''re in (e)motion and not just looking gorgeous, we already know stars look gorgeous.
//it also just goes to show you how classic the 1980s are in the cultural canon since songs from other decades were eligible//
What I presume it's showing me is the general age of most the site's readers/viewers, actually.
That pic from Like a Prayer does take me back though - it was 1989? Really? God, I do feel old. It was so controversial then, and it amazes me how iconic the song and video still are (in my memory). It was actually the only Madonna album/CD I ever owned or was interested in. She was really at the height of her powers then.
Everyone is on the Glenn vs. Meryl train, and rightly so, they're both really overdue (Glenn for her 1st, Meryl for her inevitable 3rd), but I believe that if this is a good movie (and I know that's silly to say but I really do worry this could underwhelm), and Michelle is even a remotely believable Marilyn, she is the favorite. I don't think anyone realizes just how much this is in Oscar's wheelhouse, and she is challenging her self more than any American actress under 30.