Who's That Girl? It's Nicole Beharie

Kurt here. Considering the overall deficit of good roles for great black actresses (an issue to which this site is no stranger), moviegoers really can't be too hard on Nicole Beharie for offering them such rare and infrequent peeks at her remarkable talent. Still, watching those peeks (and they're watchable indeed), it's easy to send "grrrs" in this petite, 26-year-old beauty's direction, as she's thus far only appeared in five movies, two of them not even on the big screen. Why must she deprive us so? Her phone has to at least be ringing a little bit, and it can't just be about her selectivity, as the titles she's appeared in, on the whole, aren't exactly of the street-cred variety. So, what, then, has she been doing?

Quite a lot, as it turns out. My first exposure to Beharie was in early 2009, in a little film called American Violet, which screened at that year's Philadelphia Film Festival and had a very limited theatrical run. To be frank, the movie is glorified Lifetime rubbish, focusing on a real-life single mom who fought back against a corrupt system after being wrongfully charged with drug-dealing in a persecuted Texas housing project (wah-wah). But Beharie is knock-you-out stellar in the lead role, and she easily made my personal Best Actress top five. Since then the Juilliard grad has been toiling away on various projects that are slowly making their way to screens. Some may have caught her in the Precious wannabe Sins of the Mother (which, incidentally, was developed for Lifetime), while others may have seen her work in the football movie The Express, but she's also starring in at least four as-yet-to-be-released films, including everyone's favorite fleshy hype-magnet, Shame.

Beharie in 'American Violet'

In the Steve McQueen sex-addiction drama, Beharie plays Marianne, a co-worker of the lead nympho, Brandon (Michael Fassbender). She offers him a shot at pure, normal intimacy. Beharie doesn't upstage Fassbender or Carey Mulligan (it's not that kind of role), but she brings more than what you'd normally expect from such a character (SPOILER ALERT: she is introduced for the very purpose of being dismissed). Her ability to be extraordinarily sexy in a heated makeout session (which may just be the mixed-bag movie's most well-choreographed scene) is hypnotic, as much a small feat of physicality as in-the-moment focus.

With Fassy in 'Shame'Compared to her character in American Violet (a headlining part Beharie has said she doesn't expect to land again), the sidelined Marianne is rather thankless. But nothing but good can come from the fact that Beharie is starring in a movie that anyone who gives a hoot about film is absolutely going to see. It's bound to give her profile a long-overdue boost.

Beharie flicks on the horizon include the sports drama The Last Fall, and the afro-centric Small of Her Back and Woman Thou Art Loosed: On the 7th Day. Jot those titles down. Beharie will likely be reason enough to see them.

Actresses (2009): On Being A Female Actor

Alex BBats here, dishing about about a film that has been on Nathaniel’s must-see radar, the South Korean film The Actresses. (Nathaniel, you will LOVE this film!)

The Actresses recently screened in Los Angeles at the Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles as a part of their bi-monthly film-screening program.  Though it is usually a projected DVD affair, it is free and I have fond memories of this venue because it was the first place I saw a movie in LA.  Jail Breakers, four long years ago …good times. If you’re in the LA area, why not give it a shot (hint: cheap date night). 

Time passing is one of the main topics of discussion in The Actresses.  Get ready for lots of discussion, because that’s all that happens.  Six actresses ranging from 20 to 60 years old get together to talk about acting, public pressures, rivals, boys, failed marriages, fashion, face size, while drinking and smoking.  The entire film happens within the set of a Korean Vogue photo shoot, minus a few driving and apartment shots at the beginning.  They start out seemingly like archetypes, Ok-bin Kim (Thirst and this year's Korean Oscar submission The Front Line) as young and eager to please starlet and Yeo-Jong Yun (The Housemaid 2010) being the fiery, no-nonsense veteran (who seems to be dealing with ageing better than everyone else), but the character deepens as they have legitimate discussions and debates about the benefits and drawbacks of being an actress and what has changed in the landscape of Korean and Asian entertainment. 

Some very funny and awkward set pieces make for a great start like Ok-bin running to get coffee when one of her seniors wants some, only to show up a hair too late. The entire scene of the actresses meeting at the beginning of the day is very enjoyable.  The only other people to have any sort of dialogue are the make up team, and you will enjoy their bitchiness  (“I heard you had a pearl inserted in your nose.” Gold.) There’s a bit of forced drama between Choi Ji-Woo (TV drama Stairway to Heaven) and Ko Hyun-jung (Woman on the Beach) that’s about...Hyun-jung not liking Ji-Woo, I guess?  That portion falls flat, but the real meat is last hour of the film which occurs around a table set for Christmas dinner.  The director, E J-yong, said each scene was improvised around certain scenarios, and the ladies let loose here, emotionally peaking during a discussion about how divorce stalled and nearly ruined some of their careers.  

The cast at the shoot

Why is the shoot taking place on Christmas Eve? Who cares. I could think of much worse ways to spend a holiday than with six gorgeous women chatting about the culture of fame and beauty.  I ended up just like Kim Min-hee (Hellcats) at the end of the film; a fly on the wall, listening to wise women speak of love and film with a smile plastered on my face.  

Q&A: Young Directors, Male Actresses, Awesome Marisa

My apologies straightaway that this week's Q & A is so late. A particularly nasty bout of insomnia derailed me for over a day. I was without rail. Back on track now and the time has come to answer your questions, 10 of them at any rate.

BBats: What young director (3 or less films) are you most excited about seeing over the next decade?
Nathaniel: This is a great question but difficult because then you have to really stop and think about who made which pictures when and you have to set aside people you've been rooting for forever that will seemingly be 70 before they birth a third feature (I'm talking to you Jonathan Glazer and Kimberly Peirce). It'd be weird to say John Cameron Mitchell since he's been making great movies for a decade now but in fact he's only made three. Still it's hard to argue with that diverse, unique and cathartically vivid trio: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Shortbus (2006), and Rabbit Hole (2010). I would follow him anywhere though I might be shoving him from behind while doing so because he's too freaking slow. 

My list would have to include 34 year-old Cary Fukunaga who has made two features but already has a great sense of the camera's place in storytelling as well as a place's place in storytelling (Sin Nombre) if you get me. On top of that he's got a steady hand with strong actors (Jane Eyre). 

Cary Fukanaga, Xavier Dolan, and Steve McQueen

I'd also go with 22 year-old Xavier Dolan who sure can make pretty pictures (I Killed My Mother, Heartbeats) and can also act inside of them. His influences are super apparent but he's very young and it should be thrilling to watch that already glorious image-making while on the soundtrack a filmmaking voice find itself. I'm very curious as to how Andrea Arnold's career will develop. She already has an Oscar from that gritty compelling short film Wasp (2003) and Fish Tank was so special. Finally, there are two filmmakers who are about to unveil their sophomore feature after a startling debut: 37 year old Joachim Trier (will Oslo August 31st equal Reprise or prove too similar?) and 42 year-old Steve McQueen (will Shame top Hunger... but then how could it?) which means that my list is already up to five and your question was singular so I'll stop there. But the three names in bold are the ones I can't stop thinking about this year.

Roark: What's your favorite movie in your least favorite genre?
Nathaniel:  I'm not crazy about westerns but I love Howard Hawks's Red River (1948). I was going to say "horror" but then when I stop to recall how many I do love (Psycho, Carrie, Rosemary's Baby being the holy trinity) it becomes clear that I far prefer horror to westerns. 

Luke and Adrian: Best Post Oscar move for Natalie Portman?
Nathaniel: Laying low now that she's had her money-guzzling year. Wait it out until something challenging but different than Black Swan comes around. I'm guessing it would be a lot easier for her to find her next Closer than her next Black Swan so if I were her management team I'd be looking for a high profile prestige ensemble drama... or even a highly stylized but lighter something... She was terrific in Wes Anderson's Hotel Chevalier and the short treated her like a star. Directors who know how to frame her spectacular face and amp up her sexuality in deeper than surface ways tend to get the best rewards; too many Your Highnesses and Friends With Benefits and that Oscar win won't age well.

Evan: What three movies are you most looking forward to from the remainder of 2011?
Nathaniel: Shame for the McQueen/Fassbender reunion, The Skin I Live In for the Almodóvar/Banderas reunion, and I Don't Know How She Doe.... KIDDING! and  A Dangerous Method for the Cronenberg/Mortensen reunion. Look at me all Director/ACTOR things instead of actresses. Where am I? WHO AM I?

Mr W: And are you going to revive you reader spotlights any time soon?
Nathaniel: Yes. The new fall season of The Film Experience kicks off on September 13th and we'll also go back to honoring you... the collective you, I mean. Not that Mr. W isn't worth honoring :) 

Tom M: Which Male Actors (past and/or present) come closest to having careers/images/appeals like the actresses you love? (Not necessarily asking about your favorite actors but if there are any actors that trip your actressexual wire...if that makes any sense.)

my answer, plus Woody Allen and an ode to Marisa Tomei if you click-to-continue

Click to read more ...

The Actress. A Book.

It took a surprisingly long time but three of my friends independently read the book What You See in the Dark these past two weeks. I had recommended it emphatically a few months back but dropped the topic when nobody bit. All three of them told me much they liked it in separate conversations. Some of you may recall that I interviewed the author Manuel Muñoz right here, hoping some of you would pick it up as well.

Since it was on my mind again, I thought I'd share a passage so I flipped the book open and skimmed until I found one of the passages about the Actress (who it won't surprise you to hear was my favorite character in the novel... although not by much, which surprised me).

The scene takes place as the Actress is contemplating a scene she'll be shooting the next morning and her mind wanders...

A supporting role. Nothing more. In the Director's previous picture, that one actress had appeared playing two roles. She hadn't done a particularly stellar job, some in the industry had said, but the Actress thought the performance more than adequate. She had sat in the theater with mild envy, the role too rich for words: A distraught wife is trailed silently throughout San Francisco by a police detective, from flower shop to museum to the foot of the glorious Golden Gate Bridge, where she finally hurls herself into the bay. The detective rescues her and later falls in love, only to lose her again to a successful suicide attempt. It played, the Actress thought, like an odd type of silent movie, and she felt maybe she had fooled herself into believing she could have fit perfectly into the part. Was it really requiring much beyond posing, or was there something about silent-movie acting that she didn't know? She wondered what the script must have looked like, that other actress -- who couldn't have been professionally trained -- skimming the pages until she found her first line.

No matter how small the role was going to be, it would have been foolish to say no to the Director. He was in the midst of doing something extraordinary and uncanny with some actresses, finessing their star wattage and burnishing it into a singular, almost iconic image. That was the way the Actress saw it anyway, mesmerized by how he was stripping out all  the trappings of the industry and pushing these women toward something beyond even acting, something nakedly cinematic -- poses, postures, gestures, as if the women were in magazine ads come to life for just split seconds at a time, just enough motion for the public to remember them as images and not characters. It was like opening up a jewelry box she had had many years ago as a young girl, fascinated by the tiny plastic ballerina in the center and its brief circle of motion. She had closed and opened that box endlessly even though the ballerina did nothing differently. But even now, in a black sedan carrying her over the Grapevine back toward the Valley, where she had grown up, the Actress could close her eyes and remember the golden lace of the ballerina's costume, the full circle of her deliciously patient twirl, her perfect timing with the delicate chime of the music box's single tune. And that was the way the screen worked, too, she had discovered. Every actresses's trajectory carried a moment like that, and the Director was staging them effortlessly.

After the jump a brief bit about the Actress's brassiere. 

Click to read more ...

Q&A: British Ladies, Weary Superheroes, & "The Hours" for Men

I thought we'd experiment with a Q&A column so over the weekend I asked you to ask questions. Despite this summer's attempt to rebrand myself as a mutant telepath to rival Professor X, I can't actually read minds (unless I'm sitting across from you or holding something that belongs to you), so you had to type them.

So here we go. I'm answering half of them chosen somewhat randomly.

Robert: Do you think mainstream audiences will ever tire of superhero flicks? If so, which film will be the straw that breaks the camel's back?
Professor R: Yes, all things being cyclical. I predict it will happen with the Spider-Man reboot after the Spider-Man reboot... in 2019. (The window keeps shrinking, see.) Either that or the Wonder Twins: The Movie in 2016.

eurocheese: We've heard who'll be producing the Oscars (Brett Ratner and Don Mischer). Any guesses on a host?
Professor R:  It would be unfair for me to guess since I can see into the future. But I will tell you it's a solo act this year after last year's debacle and it's unfortunately not Andy Serkis covered in motion capture gear backstage and then projected onto the stage by WETA in a variety of famous beastly character guises from cinematic history: King Kong, Mickey Mouse, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Charlotte on a web, Jabba the Hut. (Damnit. That would have been so great. Why don't they let ME produce the Oscars? Fuck Brett Ratner!)

Mark: Is Michelle Williams becoming the next Renée Zellweger? She is showing up in 4 or 5 movies a year and seems desperate to win the Oscar.
Professor R: I don't understand the question. That's like comparing apples to oranges lemons. I don't think Williams is desperate to win an Oscar. She wouldn't be making Meek's Cutoff if she was. If she's desperate to win an Oscar she's doing a terrible job of showing it; quiet and serene on the campaign trail is generally not a winning strategy. 

/3rtfull: You're having tea with three famous women. Who are they?

Click to read more ...