Linktime Stories
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 at 9:01AM Cinematically Insane #DontTouchTCM when it comes to Turner Broadcasting layoffs
Richard Kelly, of Donnie Darko directing fame, lurves Gone Girl and write a whole epic essay about it while also touching on Eyes Wide Shut and Fincher's music videos
In Contention interviews cinematographer Robert Elswit (Inherent Vice, Nightcrawler)
MNPP gives Quote of the Day to Michael B Jordan on his costumes for Fantastic Four. "snug"
Deadline Scarlett Johansson about to do an Edith Wharton miniseries that was originally supposed to be a Michelle Pfeiffer feature film in the 90s. *sniffle*
Empire first images of Mark Wahlberg, Jessica Lange and Brie Larson in The Gambler remake
Vulture the exact moment Jennifer Garner fell in love with Ben Affleck
Antagony & Ecstacy on The Boxtrolls. Glad Tim loved it
Boston Globe Mark Wahlberg's compound is finished. Holy third nipple, is he planning to house everyone who has ever appeared in any of his movies?
IndieWire 11 things learned about PT Anderson / Inherent Vice at the recent press conference
The Dissolve interesting video about shooting sex scenes from Joe Carnahan. Starring Patrick Wilson! Who...speaking of...
The Playlist interviews Jason Reitman who talks about the initial indifference to Young Adult, his Labor Day "misfire" and the critical savaging of Men Women and Children. I haven't seen the latter film yet so I don't know if it's gotten a fair shake or not but Reitman does have a point about film criticism today:
When I talk to directors and actors, "Young Adult" is their clear favorite of my films. I don't think ten years from now people will go, "Oh wow, I didn’t realize "Labor Day" was a such a masterpiece." But what it has taught me is that I can't really gauge what a movie is in the moment. To bring it round back to ["Men, Women & Children"]: film criticism has become a tweet. The moment the movie plays, people are writing about it and there's no digestive period.
We were right about Young Adult all along, bitches.
I love this bookOff Cinema
Arts.Mic on the good news on GLAAD's annual gays on TV report. But...
Slate chimes in with a a more dismissive response: why count?
Pajiba ranking Kyle Maclachlan's TV roles since Twin Peaks
<-- Encyclopedia Madonnica I backed this 20th anniversary edition of the book at Kickstarter. There's a couple more days left to back it and insure your own copy. The book meant so much to me back in the day before you could look up everything instantaneously and when there weren't elaborate comprehensive fansites to celebrities yet. Plus it was just damn fun with lots of trivia and silliness. When I first met Matthew Rettenmund (Boy Culture) here in NYC several years ago I was a wee bit starstruck because of it. And speaking of the big M...
Billboard looks back at the Bedtime Stories album for its 20th anniversary
Finally...
Esteemed stage veteran Marian Seldes has died at 86. Her regal mischievious face appeared semi-regularly in movies and on TV but usually in tiny roles. It was the stage where she experienced her enduring glorious reign.
I unfortunately only saw her perform live once. It was Edward Albee's "The Play About the Baby" (which also starred David Burtka, pre NPH) a sort of abstract minimalist reinterpretation of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and she was a-maz-ing in it. One of my favorite stories about her comes from 1978's "Deathtrap" in which she co-starred with Victor Garber. The hit comic mystery became a controversial movie in 1982 (a gay kiss - GASP!) with Dyan Cannon and Christopher Reeve taking Seldes and Garber's roles for the big screen. But when the movie premiered, Marian was actually still doing it on stage. She was with the play for its whole four year run and NEVER missed a performance. Amazing.
Here are good obituaries at The New York Times and Playbill.
Reader Comments (19)
So funny, just watched Young Adult last weekend and loved every minute -- just as much as when I saw it in the theater.
Glad to see something about Marian Seldes, a uniquely special presence. One of those actresses like Helen Hayes, Katharine Cornell, Maureen Stapleton and Geraldine Page who shone brightest on the stage. It's a shame that unlike the last two she never received a memorable film role that would stand as a recorded testament to her great skill.
Kelly's essay does a great job of making a case for two movies I mutually dislike.
joel6 -- That's exactly what I was going to write! A lovely lady indeed.
Charlize was robbed! If I could rearrange 2010 Best Actress...
Oh, the Pfeiffer! Was it laziness or lack of ambition? Or both? Or David E. Kelley?
Yeah, I have to agree a teensy bit with Peggy Sue-Pfeiffer was/is a big enough star that if she wanted to stretch her gift in different roles, I think she's had that opportunity, and it's not entirely on casting directors at this point.
Speaking of links, Jessica Chastain did NOT just diss Meryl Streep publicly for getting "all the good roles" in her age bracket, did she? Especially for someone who has been in 10 movies in the last 3 years...
Remember the time another Jessica made a joke at the Golden Globes based on a movie line...I think the internet blew up over that one.
Love that picture of Marian Seldes's Tony acceptance "speech." One of the most heart-warming acceptances of all time.
Young Adult is an amazing movie.
And Charlize Theron's so good in it... If I cared at all about the Oscars I would say she should've gotten a statuette for YA; her portrayal of Mavis Gary is so much more interesting and complex than her overrated Monster-performance.
And I've no doubt that Young Adult will stand the test of time
better than Jason Reitman's other movies - Juno's already dated, Juno was dated in 2007!
peggy & john -- yup it's Pfeiffer's fault. Just like it's Denzel's fault as previously discussed. The A listers usually have few to blame but themselves for not stretching or not working at all.
Pam - She already clarified that statement.
Pam: No, she wasn't "dissing" anyone. That was the media trying to create a fight between women where there wasn't one. If anything, Jessica was speaking up and demanded to see stories that included not only women, but men of races other than white.
Miss Seldes was never one to stop challenging herself. I had the pleasure of seeing her Metropolitan Opera debut as the Duchess in Daughter of the Regiment in 2008 ( albeit it was not live...Met at the Movies for those of us outside NY)
Totally with you on Young Adult! It's my favourite of his (along with Thank You For Smoking - I'm relatively underwhelmed by the rest of what I've seen of his).
I'm still curious to hear your thoughts on Gone Girl.. or did I miss a post?
I believe that Custom of the Country was originally intended for Winona Ryder not Pfeiffer. Even in the 90s Michelle may have been too old to play that character.
So weird that a compound as big as Wahlberg's only has three parking spots.
Rob -- i'm working on a post but if you ever want to see past posts about a particular topic just hit it's tag below the post.
A beautiful piece on Marion Seldes by Dan Callahan on Roger Ebert.com. Mark Harris on Twitter suggested reading this, thank you.
Michael: I'd guess that production was set for around 1994 or 1995? That would place Winona at 23 or 24, which combined with her general build would mean she'd have an age range of 16-28. Which fits that story perfectly. If they needed someone with that as a conceivable age range, though, I'd have suggested Brie Larson (25, but with the right kind of face and (ahem) undeveloped enough to pass for a minor) or Shailene Woodley (22 and likewise) before I suggested Johannson, who was barely able to pass for eighteen when she was seventeen, let alone NOW at 29.
Why the hate on Wahlbergs house? I say good for him, plus he's come along way from where he started.