TIFF: Kate Winslet Goes Couture in 'The Dressmaker'

Glenn here. I'm not in Toronto (booo!), but I did get to see this homegrown film recently so let's talk about The Dressmaker. This is a film that makes a lot better sense when the end credits roll and you realize that director Jocelyn Moorhouse co-wrote the screenplay with her husband, none other than P.J. Hogan. It makes sense because The Dressmaker, despite the refinement suggested by its prestige audience-courting title, is kinda crazy. It is a buoyantly excessive feat of far-fetched camp that isn’t as good as its highly-stylized cinematic cousins of the early 1990s such as Strictly Ballroom, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and Hogan’s own Muriel’s Wedding, yet which nonetheless has enough of a unique voice to work as a very Australian piece of crowd-pleasuring fluff. It’s the cinematic equivalent of Betsy Johnson designing an haute couture line for Dior. [more...]

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Yes No Maybe So: Kate Winslet IS The Dressmaker

This is dedicated to the patient among you, those who don't badger me about things they KNOW are coming. (Like we're not going to cover this trailer, at TFE! It's like you've never been here before). Most importantly this is dedicated to the die-hard Kate Winslet fans who will sit through Labor Day, Divergent, and A Little Chaos to be there her true return to form whenever it happens. By the looks of this trailer for The Dressmaker, the wait may soon be over.

The Yes No Maybe So breakdown, which is crazy overstuffed with screencaps since this diva murderess fashionista Oscar winner demands them, is after the jump with the trailer... 

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Dressmaker Dressmaker Catch me A Catch

JA from MNPP here - have you guys heard about The Dressmaker? It's the new movie from Jocelyn Moorhouse (How To Make An American Quilt, Proof), which she adapted from a 2000 novel by Rosalie Ham, and it's about a woman who returns to her small hometown after being accused or murder; there she sets out to 1) make amends with her eccentric mother, and 2) show the town's ladies the power of excellent haute couture, and 3) get revenge on the people who wrong her, and 4) falls in love with Liam Hemsworth. Okay I am getting a little ahead of myself there with the Hemsworth thing since I haven't mentioned any of the rest of the casting, which is the real meat and potatoes...

... since the stylish accused-murderess is being played by Kate Winslet and her eccentric mother is being played by Judy Davis. Excuse me I'm sorry you're supposed to always type that in caps - her eccentric mother is being played by JUDY DAVIS. Kate Winslet and Judy Davis as mother and daughter! Revenge and high fashion! Liam Hemsworth as beefcake on a platter! All of these thing deserve exclamation points, you see.

And so do the other two names attached to the film - Isla Fisher (who has gone criminally under-used if you ask me; I can't even tell you how many times I quote her Bachelorette performance) and Elizabeth Debicki (who was easily the best thing in The Great Gatsby). This is a great big pile-up of awesomeness, that's what this is. Oh and a random aside I learned while writing this story up that goes on the awesome heap - did you know that Jocelyn Moorhouse is married to Muriel's Wedding director PJ Hogan? I did not know that until right now, and any connection I can make back to Muriel's Wedding is a cause célèbre above and beyond all else.

Review: Hunger Games Catches Wispy Fire

This review originally appeared in my column at Towleroad

Their clothes ignite but does the movie?

The Hunger Games is not without its charms. Which is a very strange thing to say about a beloved bloody genre franchise about children murdering each other... but then *I'm* not the one suggesting it become a family theme park or inspire a cosmetics line. (Both very sensible and in no way inappropriate spinoffs!) At the very least, as these things go, it is infinitely preferrable to the Twilight Saga. They're the immensely popular twin (non-identical) poster girls for the increasingly crowded subgenre of YA dystopian fantasies in which a mopey teen passively navigates treacherous waters (and woods) and love triangles with death looming all around her. Both series trade on grand suicidal gestures ('I'll die of depression/eat the poison berries, if I can't have my man... I swear!') but at least The Hunger Games is self aware. It performs these defiant adolescent gestures with a sly and stately sense of morbid theatricality instead of self-pitying angst and is generally smart enough to express ambivalence about its content beyond the binaries of Team This Boyfriend vs Team That Boyfriend.

Miley's guards capture Liam on the lamBut, yes, when we return to the deadly adventures of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) for HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE she is flip-flopping between Boyfriends.

If you need a refresher it's like this: Katniss and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) were co-victors of the last Hunger Games, a futuristic take on gladiator battles of ancient history. [more]

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Red Carpet Convos: Hungry Premieres

After a brief glamour break post-Oscar it's time to walk the red again as 2012 heats up. To kick off a new season of Red Carpet Convos, I nabbed Guy Lodge for a moment before we were both due to jet off to previous appointments. Let's discuss the Hunger Games premiere looks and other recent premiere looks.

Nathaniel: Hi Guy, we haven't talked since ‪I don't know when ... Oscars? And Jennifer Lawrence is already Best Actress campaigning at the premiere for Hunger Games.‬ What else can a gold dress mean?

Guy: ‪I was about to say -- she's clearly taken a leaf from Meryl‬. Are those figures all in proportion? Looks like you've given Lil' Josh Hutcherson a boost.

Cato, Effie, Peeta, Katniss and Gale

Nathaniel: H‪ee. I didn't meant to give Josh a boost as remove the high heels from Katniss and Effie but I think I did push it a little. You know on set they'll give him boxes to stand on or some such.

Guy:  ‪Aha! Either way, he still ends up as his own pocketable action figure.‬

Nathaniel: He comes from a long proud tradition of short leading men. Although it's trending away from the pocket-sized hunks with people like the Hemsworth boys and Alexander Ludwig (far left) and so on.‬

Guy:  ‪Which Hemsworth boy is this? I can't keep up. I only learned to distinguish Thor Hemsworth from the other Chrisses last year.‬

Nathaniel: ‪This is Liam to the far right.‬ Who also auditioned for Thor if I recall.

Guy:  ‪Looking very junior copywriter at Sterling Cooper, which is always a good thing‬

Nathaniel: Mmmm Sterling Cooper. If I didn't love Hiddlesloki so much i would suggest that maybe it would have been cool to cast actual brothers as Loki and Thor.‬

Guy:  ‪I'm amazed they resisted!‬

Nathaniel:  ‪but wait. WRONG FRANCHISE. back to Hunger Games. Have you read it?‬ (Guy's answer and more conversation after the jump)

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