Our Sundance Film Festival coverage continues with Michael Cusumano on John Slattery's "God's Pocket".
Have you, like me, been waiting impatiently for years for a filmmaker to figure out how to transfer Christina Hendricks’ incredible star wattage to the big screen? When I saw that none other than John Slattery directed and co-wrote her latest film, I was optimistic. Who better to give her the vehicle she deserves than someone who has had a front row seat to her abilities these past six seasons on Mad Men?
No such luck. Slattery’s God’s Pocket criminally wastes Christina Hendricks in an underwritten role that limits her to sobbing through the film’s first half and being a passive sounding board for the male stars in the second. Which is not to say anyone else in the cast fares much better. [more...]
Photogenesis has brief promotional clip of Guardians of the Galaxy IndieWire a catalogue of old movie magazines now available online Empire the Fading Gigolo trailer - Woody Allen & John Turturro do their own version of Hung Glenn Dunks on The Conjuring as all haunting movies. All of 'em! i09 What is wrong and right about Elysium's mixed bag
CHUD First look at Channing Tatum (with poiny ears!) in Jupiter Rising Cinema Blend Wagner Moura (Elysium) and John Leguizamo competing for a Pablo Escobar biopic Gawker Christina Bianco does it again - 19 divas singing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" Advocate with two new Hercules films coming, The Advocate outs the demi-gods gay side Variety annoyingness: Her gets moved into the December glut... as if November isn't good enough to make an Oscar run. Wrong!
the 80s are inescapable Variety 'we'll never escape the 80s' alert: Pope of Greenwich Village co-stars Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke and Daryl Hannah are all reuniting for a hitman movie called Skin Traffix. (*sniffle* no Geraldine Page this time.) Towleroad Lady Gaga's new song "Applause"... which sounds suspiciously like Missing Persons to me. Or maybe that's just Gaga's voice. Best ShotThe Color Purple is coming (tonight! watch it in the next 24 hours and post somethin!). Next Wednesday The Bad and the Beautiful!
tv lolz i09 wonders what the hell is going on with True Blood -- who knows anymore. Who cares? Such a hot mess. Gayest of All Time This "dramatic retelling" of a recent Project Runway in pictures made me LMAO Vulture quotable Christina Hendricks wants to be on Game of Thrones post Mad Men
6:25 I thought about calling this Emmy Live Blog: Now With Less Pneumonia! (I think I'm on the mend) or Pneumatic Emmy Live Blog! but they both sound too contagious.
6:30 I love the Emmy statue but I don't think any golden statues should have deadly points. There's already enough drama without weaponizing the things.
6: 32 "It involves sex, sharp objects"... actual quote from Lena Dunham just as I was typing that thing about Emmy Statues. I'm not making this up.
6:39 Charlize "J'Adore Dior" commercial. I secretly wish she would introduce all her red carpets outfits that way. A golden aggressive strut to each camera with a breathy whisper ... "Gucci".... "Dior Haute Couture" ... "Valentino"
6:42 Max Greenfield's date would like everyone to know SHE'S WITH MAX GREENFIELD. Clingy!
I want an Emmys night full of redheads! @_juliannemoore and Christina Hendricks #FTW -awesome TFE reader @Luiserghio
YES. Ginger looks good holding gold. Speaking of...
The stars of the new "Nashville" Connie Britton & Hayden Panetierre
My New Plaid Pants asked a very smart question of Vera Farmiga. What is her deal with playing mother to murderous children? She'll play Norma Bates for a Psycho prequel tv series. Playbill Megan Hilty continues her Marilynization with the cast recording of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes "Little Girl from Little Rock" ...♥ Hilty! Advocate Evan Rachel Wood considering the lead in a girl truck driver drama. Although honestly, I can't imagine what a cross between Smokey & The Bandit and Thelma & Louise, as its described, would possibly be like... tonally speaking.
Movie|Line god bless Ryan Gosling. Hollywood was slow to hand Christina Hendricks the leading roles she deserves but her Drive leading man is now providing one. The film, his directorial debut, is a noir called How To Catch a Monster. Now that that problem has been resolved... can someone hand her the Emmy she also deserves?! Stale Popcorn reacts to the news that his beloved Jamie Bell will appear in Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac.
i09 on the desperation Warner Bros / DC must be feeling having let Joss Whedon get away (via their Wonder Woman squashing). Now what to do with The Justice League movie? What to do. Meanwhile... Vulture Joss Whedon is beginning work on S.H.I.E.L.D. your weekly televised dose of the Marvel Universe and is married to Marvel indefinitely on multiple projects CHUD apparently Rachel Weisz has been cut out of Terence Malick's To the Wonder entirely. Oh Malick. You're so unpredictable and predictable simultaneously. Empire Online Charlize Theron may star in a Marie Colvin biopic. Maybe she wants a second Oscar? Biopics are the way to go. Vulture Matt Zoller Seitz on Louie's brilliance
Retro Advocate Barbra Streisand's next album -- just one month away -- is a collection of unreleased material, including "I Think It's Going To Rain Today". That's such a great song but I can't live without Bette's version from Beaches so nothing else will measure up! Do you think this winter holds a major Babs revival what with this CD in the fall and The Guilt Trip coming to movie theaters for Christmas? Broadway Blog uncovers an old performance duet between Liza Minnelli and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Tom @ The Broadway Blog finds so many wonderful thing. Interiors on the great Lost in Translation (2003)
Sofia Coppola creates an impossible scenario using the space of the hotel room; she brings two married people, puts them in bed together, and somehow makes their entire encounter feel innocent.
It's been so long since the best series on television was airing (17 months!) that this new version of The Film Experience has never seen an episode of "Mad Men at the Movies". Last night the miserable sexy funny smart complex men and women of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce returned to take us all back to the sixties once again. In this series we document the show's love affair with the cinema. Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is a movie buff and references tend to be sprinkled in for vintage flavor, character detailing and thematic resonance. Unfortunately this two hour premiere had no movie references. Damn!
5.1 "A Little Kiss, Part 1" 5.2 "A Little Kiss, Part 2" The episode opened oddly with none of the familiar characters and a confrontation between African American picketers and immature men at an ad agency (not SCDP). By the time the episode ended, a small plot detail in the middle brought it all full circle with the unfamiliar site of the SCDP lobby filled with black applicants applying for jobs.Between the sobering bookends we were treated to a very strong premiere full of humor and potential for the season ahead. The talking point beyond the closing scene was surely the "zou bisou bisou" scene where Don's new wife Megan sang to him seductively in front of all his friends at a surprise birthday party. But the single most brilliant scene involved Joan (the great Christina Hendricks) bringing her baby to the office for a visit. We're talking perfect character farce The choreography of the scene was so brilliant they should teach it film school... er television school... since it practically defines what this particular medium can do. Very little of what was going on emotionally and inside the character's head was actually spoken but if you've been following all the characters for years all their child-rearing issues and past romances and conflicts just made the scene hilarious and nimbly so. Perfection. A
The hit song was originally sung by Gillian Hills who was also an actress. In 1966, the year this new season takes place, Gillian was on screens as "The Brunette" in Michelangelo Antonioni's classic Blow-Up (highly recommended) which is about a fashion photographer who believes he's accidentally photographed a murder. Blow-Up wasn't the only classic to feature her. She also has a role in A Clockwork Orange.
Jane Birkin and Gillian Hills in BLOW UP (1966)
Mad Links Flavorwire a pop culture guide to 1966 when the season takes place AMC Janie Bryant on the costume designs for Season 5 Technabob Mad Men as an 8 bit game IndieWire beginnings: each season's opening scene Pajiba 10 of January Jones' bitch faces to celebrate the show's return NPR Eleanor Clift remembers what it was like to be in secretarial shoes as a typist in the 60s
Tuesday, January 21, 2014 at 9:16PM 
Our Sundance Film Festival coverage continues with Michael Cusumano on John Slattery's "God's Pocket". 
