Red Carpet: "Women in Hollywood", The Event

In Red Carpet Convos, a rotating group of panelists looks at what people are wearing to events like The Emmys, film festival premieres, and various random events, and use it for an excuse to talk about actresses. Today's guest is Guy Lodge from In Contention. 

Nathaniel: The annual Women in Hollywood even took place this weekend -- or perhaps Monday? all the days be running together lately -- so let's start with the Household Names. You can just say "Pfeiffer", "Aniston", "Witherspoon" and "Heigl" and everyone knows who you're talking about. Even people  that don't go to the movies (strange strange people, though they be!)

the über famous

Guy: You know it's the Women in Hollywood event because This Is Serious and Serious Women Do Not Wear Color.
Nathaniel: Michelle has been serious her whole life. If she's feeling unusually frisky she'll throw a red at'cha but it's almost always, 90% of the time, black.
Guy: As if she needs its slimming effect.
Nathaniel: Right.

Guy: I realize that to say a word against Pfeiffer at the Pfilm Experience is a bit like pissing on the crucifix in a cathedral, but I"m... not crazy abotu this look on her? The mid calf length, combined with the severity of the black, is a bit schoolmarmy.
Nathaniel: Well, you're a good sport about my dissings of Aniston so I can take it.
Guy: It's interesting that her belt resembles a roll of film, though, since she seems to have so little interest in the medium these days.
Nathaniel: [sniffle] I do love that she's gone all out with the detailing though to make up for the absence of color.

Guy: Yes, Pfeiffer's always been good with the details -- the glasp on her purse -- CLASP not glasp-- on her purse looks a bit like the vial from Death Becomes Her.
Nathaniel: You were thinking "[gasp] NOW a warning?!?" which is totally understandable because Michelle is 53 years old so she's clearly been to see Lisle for that age-defying potion. 

We have to discuss the psychological profiling of their individualistic choices in cleavage, though. Immediately Reese is confusing me because when i first saw this i swear to god i was thinking "chest hair". it totally threw ‬me.
 

Guy: I'm glad I'm not the only one puzzled by it. I was wondering if she has a giant sunflower tattoo in progress on her chest -- just the petals haven't been added yet.
Nathaniel: Decolattage as character profile: Pfeiffer: angular, classic; Aniston: freewheeling California golden; Reese: .....; Katharine:" Look at me! No, don't look at me. Ack. What am I doing?" 
Guy: Still, I'm grateful for Reese's weird chest-lace. It's the only thing  keeping her from looking like she's abotu to sell me a house.
Nathaniel: Tell her the price is too high! Too high! 

poll by twiigs.com

Nathaniel: Another fun game we could play is "Which of these four women has the worst taste in scripts?"

More on these superstars and nine more actreses after the jump.

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Cinema de Gym: Forrest Gump

Kurt here. On the day Forrest Gump was playing at my gym, it seemed only right that I swap out the elliptical for the treadmill: Run, cinephile! RUN!! In truth, part of me wanted to run right out of the building (this is a behemoth of a movie to chip away at with my modest column). But, I stuck it out, and I tip my hat to the gym's programmers, as I've never been so inspired to burn off as many calories as possible.
Forrest Gump tends to have that effect on people, ever since it ran away with every trophy in sight at the end of 1994. It's a you-can-do-it movie, through and through, with Forrest boasting Oprah-level propulsion – too busy to look back for more than a brief glance. The film itself doesn't wow so greatly the smaller it gets in the rearview, no matter how large it looms on the marquee and no matter how well it urges one to keep up with its star runner. Such is the plight of the overhyped phenomenon.
I like Forrest Gump just fine, but I think it works better as a capsule of Americana than as a movie. And, of course, to be a capsule of Americana is a big part of its aim. It's essentially 141 minutes of milestones and iconography, landmark moments and famous faces. Its underdog-rewrites-history conceit is a good one, always teetering on the edge of magical realism but too awash in actual events to truly show it. That vicious, wonderful – and very viral – review of Transformers: Dark of the Moon stuck it to Gump for being the evil initiator of archival footage manipulation, but it's hard not to find charm in the film's grainy tour of suddenly resurrected legends (JFK, John Lennon), however buffoonish the tour guide may be. I think my personal favorite thing about the film – if I may be so broad – is its sociopolitical Vietnam-era backdrop, which multiple films have since tried and failed to depict with the same buzzing cultural potency (ahem, Across the Universe, ahem). It's what pumps awesome power into Forrest and Jenny's Washington Monument reunion, surely one of the most iconic hugs in contemporary cinema. It's not strength of narrative, but strength of context that gives you butterflies – a movement and an era defined in an embrace. 

Hug it Out

And that's just one moment.
In its tireless forward motion, Forrest Gump, covers an awful lot of ground, each episode another page in the history book. So nimble is its pace that to tell you what I saw during my quick workout is to offer you a clip reel: the rise of the ping pong master, the boiling resentment of a legless Lieutenant Dan, the newsreel mooning of LBJ, the breaking up of the Black Panther “party” and, of course, that lovely aforementioned hug. All scenes that, appropriately, have now found their own places in the pages of history. However you feel about Forrest Gump, few films have so firmly cemented themselves into popular conversation, achieved such immortal quotability, and made themselves known to what seems like every adult media consumer. As I write this, I'm in a house with a ping pong table in the basement. Is it possible to play the game without thinking of a rubber-limbed Tom Hanks? Is it possible to open a box of chocolates without envisioning Sally Field, or a white bench in Savannah, Georgia? 

It was nice to revisit this movie after the major Hanks misfire of Larry Crowne, which won't put a dent in the smiley star's career, but surely bruised his credibility as a filmmaker. There will be no higher peak for Hanks than Forrest Gump, no better instance of his massively, uniquely beloved everyman/leading man persona. I wonder if he knew this when he was making the press rounds with Robert Zemeckis and Robin Wright, or when he collected his Oscar – that this was it, the summit, the key page in his history. I wonder if he wanted to stop and freeze instead of just keep running. 

Conclusions?

1. See above.
2. Movies about running are even better motivators than Matthew McConnaughey's abs. (Should I recommend Prefontaine to the gym programmers?)
3. Admittedly, the whole “box of chocolates” thing is pretty counterproductive here.
4. Qualms aside, Forrest Gump is something of treasure.  

What do you think of the film? Despite everything, it's surprisingly divisive, especially given the whole Pulp Fiction / Shawshank Redemption Best Pic defeat. 

11 SAG Shots. Drink Up.

Since there is so little to parse anymore in terms of awardage, herewith a brief visual survey of SAG moments that lingered -- reaction shots mostly (fashion roundup still to come.)  During live blogs it's hard to discuss all the minutae. Particularly when you need pain killers. Anyone we always wonder what it's like to sit in the room, fully aware that the camera is constantly seeking you out. It must be excruciating madness for the camera hogs and the weirdly shy ones alike. Does anyone even nibble at their food?

Can Anyone Lip Read?

I never want to be able to lip read so much as when I'm watching awards shows. Something inconsequential had just gone on onstage and Andrew Garfield turns and chats with Jesse Eisenberg. Whatever could they have been talking about? If you can lip read, you must transcribe all these awards shows for us. Please and thanks.

Sometimes, particularly with emphatically earnest stars you can tell. After Juliana Margulies thanked her husband effusively, Hilary Swank says...

.

"THAT WAS SO SWEET."

You could even make out the emphasis on the "so"... I bet she even sighed audibly after like "Awwww." I couldn't make out who she was saying this too but at another table Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban smiled at each other knowingly. Hmmmm.

Camera Tricks?

Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman wree onstage introducing the clip to Black Swan and when the clip ends they pan the Black Swan table and they're sitting right there. How could a pregnant woman move that fast? Are they still doing those "head replacement" visual fx?

Mila and Natalie are so foxy. Speaking of...

Her Favorite Husband
Hugh Dancy, Hugh Dancy's Tongue, and Friend of Hugh Dancy (this shot is for Darryl)

He was reacting to Claire Danes singling him out as her favorite man and favorite husband as the music drowned her out.

Two Actresses Who Deserve a Good Gig

Since Christopher Guest does not make a movie at even close to the same speed as the Woody Allens and Clint Eastwood's of the world, why doesn't some sharp genius television creator give Catherine O'Hara her own series? You know she would ace it and make a character as memorable as Nurse Jackie or Valerie Cherish or other sitcom greats. And speaking of underemployed... Robin Wright was glowing. She hasn't looked this good since... well, ever. This new Robin Wright puts even The Princess Bride to shame. Look at her. What the hell happened? She looks 10 years younger and it sure doesn't look like surgery.

Mad (Wo)Men

It was not a good night for Mad Men as Boardwalk Empire became the new shiny toy of awards groups. Jon Hamm looked totally defeated when Buscemi won ("am I ever going to win anything for creating one of television's most iconic characters?") and when Christian Bale won for The Fighter we got this strangely frosty frozen shot of January Jones. After this split second she let her bottom lip drop a little, moving from frozen robot to sultry robot. But either way, she nails the frost in Emma Frost.

Speaking of Frosty...

This moment when barely anyone applauded for The Social Network and Andrew Garfield shrugged his shoulders 'you can applaud if you want' stuck a knife in me and twisted it. And not in the happy "omg. i died!" way. Just after that Justin Timberlake said something about the microphone volume so I guess there was a technical snafu in the room and [self delusion] there was actually thunderous applause from the crowd who must surely know that The Social Network is something the industry ought to be very very very very proud of and will SURELY know that it will be embarassing if they don't hand it "Best Picture". [/self delusion]

Now we need to cheer up...

Finally, Three Best Actress Reaction Shots.
Adieu Adieu to you and you and you...

Annette Bening looked genuinely happy all night -- but how silly is it that they always cut to the Bening-Beattys "Hollywood Royalty" whenever anyone over 60 is talking from the stage? Bening's joy in her own work and her movie is heartening since Her Majesty ain't ever winning an Oscar. Sigh. Nicole Kidman was a little embarrassed that they chose her single loudest moment in a quiet performance I think. But she also seemed happy. She never has any luck with "clips". Remember when they used her bizarre Three Stooges ready noisy-boudoir moment in Moulin Rouge! as her Oscar clip? Jennifer Lawrence giggles at her clip. I've already forgotten what her character Ree Dolly (Winter's Bone) was saying in the clip but it was some specific turn of phrase that was as regionally specific as Luke Skywalker bitching about Toshi Station Power Convertors on Tattoine. And just as alien, too.

Bye!