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With Sharp Objects debuting tonight on HBO (Yes, we'll cover it here), let's talk Amy Adams. Why should film twitter have all the listing fun? Talk Film Society asked people to list their 3 favorite performances were and I was stunned how quickly I came to my definitive answer.
Junebug (2005)
The Fighter (2010)
Enchanted (2007)
You've got her full range displayed; endearing dramedic instincts, stealth pathos with deep soul beneath the exteriors of women who seem ordinary at first glance, her star charisma and comic invention are all over her best work.
And to make the question a bit more interesting. Is there a performance of hers other people love that you just don't? My vote there is for The Master (). I think she's terribly miscast and I couldn't ever figure out the draw of what she was doing or how people figured it was earned within the film -- especially for an actual Oscar nomination. Those are hard to come by ["for other people" - self-editing note] But to each their own in opinion-land, right?
Jason from MNPP here -- this Thursday David Lynch's cult masterpiece Eraserhead is marking its 40th anniversary! 40 years have passed and I still haven't seen anything like it. Even among Lynch's work it still feels singular - you know how there's the blue key in Mulholland Drive that opens the little box? Sometimes I feel like Eraserhead is the blue key. Everything flows through it. It's his beautiful brain's Rosetta Stone, but good luck deciphering it. Anyway let's celebrate the film with this week's round of "Beauty vs Beast" shall we...
PREVIOUSLY You guys gave James Marsden a very happy birthday week, giving his Enchanted performance a whopping 85% against Patrick Dempsey's. That's one of the soundest beatings I think we've ever had. Said PoliVamp:
"Prince Edward all the way. He's so enthusiastically sincere that, even if the sex was terrible, he'd still find someway to make sure you enjoyed it."
Jason from MNPP here, wishing a happy 44th birthday to the perennially underrated James Marsden today! He's not so underrated that he's ever really gone without work at least (and he's currently riding the zeigeist a bit with the success of Westworld, although I don't know if his moon-eyed compoke Teddy is really what's keeping anybody coming back to that show week after week) but underrated he still somehow seems. That's an impressive impression to give for someone as breathtakingly gorgeous as him! No small feat.
I suppose it's the "Nice Guy Loser" role he's been called on to play time and again - we've watched him watch The Girl go off with the right Mr. Right so many times we've built a stockpile of empathy for him. Speaking of, for today's for "Beauty vs Beast" let's hit up just one of those roles, the 2007 hit film Enchanted (which insanely is turning 10 in November, can you believe it)...
PREVIOUSLY Last week's It Comes at Night contest between Joel Edgerton & Christopher Abbott's survivalist characters was a tight race for a bit but the latter pulled out in front eventually taking 62% of your vote - said Nick T:
"Their scenes together were my favorite parts of the film, their beards my favorite characters."
On this day in history as it relates to the movies...
1859 Billy the Kid, future legendary outlaw, is born. He's been played in movies and TV by actors like Buster Crabbe, Hugh O'Brian, Paul Newman, Clu Galager, Val Kilmer, and perhaps most famously by Kris Kristofferson, BAFTA nominated for Pat Garret and Billy the Kid (1973) 1887 Boris Karloff, villainous movie icon (Frankenstein, The Mask of Fu Manchu, Scarface, etcetera) is born 1888 Harpo Marx is born
• The next James Bond will be... Damian Lewis? Our first ginger 007 you guys! Rumor only but I could see that happening. [Mirror] • It's weird that there's not a definitive feature about the airplane-building Wright Brothers. Steven Spielberg wants to make one as it turns out. Seems like a good fit, no? [/Film] • Life on the red planet? There's water at least. Did Fox pay NASA to announce this the week before the opening of The Martian ;) ? [The Guardian]
• Rising star Jonny Beauchamp says he owes everything to Roland Emmerich. Oh noooo. Tough debt. Also there's a photoshoot [Interview magazine] • "I was being talked to like I was a silly pop singer." Grace Jones is still quotable/fabulous/singular. Just released a memoir [Time Out] • "I've got tea. I've got cookies. No cake!" I cannot tell you how often my best friends and I quote The Log Lady from Twin Peaks. RIP Catherine Coulson [Wired] • "Marlene Dietrich believed her pussy was magic" is the first sentence of this article so you know you want to read it. Why can't we get a biopic about THESE anecdotes? [Pajiba] • Is this really Frank Grillo (from Captain America: Winter Soldier) younger & NSFW? [OMG BLOG] • Everyone in the world has forgotten that Disney was going to make an Enchanted sequel. Except Disney apparently. It's going to be called Disenchanted. I shudder to think of the web exploding with "who should replace Amy Adams?" articles [Coming Soon] • "we were certainly looking for shots that told the story without a lot of cutting." - Roger Deakins on point of view and action sequences in Sicario [The Film Stage] • First image of Woody Harrelson as LBJ in Rob Reiner's forthcoming biopic [Empire]
Image of the Day Thor and The Vision making out from theAvengers: Age of Ultron gag/blooper reel. Love the elegant placement of Thor's hammer. The best part of the image is surely that man about to shoot in the corner.
Video of the Day #1 The Revenant gets a new nearly 3 minute trailer. I won't be watching it because I love the teaser so much (previously discussed, the one with all the heavy breathing) and I don't want any more information in my eyeballs before seeing it than we've already gotten. The reaction online seems breathless/"MASTERPIECEY"! but one should never bank on trailers to tell you what the finished quality of a movie will be, only to tell you whether it looks like you must see the movie. The last trailer that fooled me with "oh, this will be a masterpiece, hands down!" was Little Children (2006) and that's where I learned my lesson once and for all that the art of cutting trailers into 2-ish minute expressive gems was an entirely different art form (a beautiful art form if you don't give too much away) then making a 2 hour movie.
Video of the Day #2 "Bitch Better Have My Money" Barbershop Quartet Quintet style with Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Sunday, July 8, 2018 at 9:16PM 
You've got her full range displayed; endearing dramedic instincts, stealth pathos with deep soul beneath the exteriors of women who seem ordinary at first glance, her star charisma and comic invention are all over her best work.
