Links: Sand Pitt, Snow Trilogy, Leonardo Faces

<-- Look it's Brad Pitt on the set of World War Z in Malta. Is he trying to keep sand out of his eyes or faking tears? You decide. (I vote for sand since he's quite a good cryer, don't you think? Has anyone read this novel? I tried and admired the structure but couldn't quite get into it.) Speaking of Brad... let's start the links.

Shortlist 30 Facts about David Fincher's Se7en (1995)
Icelandic Cinema a new website offers on demand Icelandic classics like the Viking epic The Raven Flies and Noi the Albino. They also have free downloads of short films.
Cinema Blend ARGH. The televisionization of the movies continues. Turns out that Snow White and the Huntsman -- the one with Kristen Stewart and Thor -- now thinks it needs three movies to tell its story. In the past few years I have come to respect television more than I used to but they are two different artforms. Why this constant push to make them the same? It's so disheartening. There is much to be said for stories with beginnings middles and ends which you can absorb in one two hour sitting.
Grant Land interesting take on the lack of male movie stars and the real and manufactured cases of Will Smith and Ryan Reynolds. Very sports-analogy filled for those of you who are into that.
The Many Faces of... Leonardo DiCaprio "how to freak out and go crazy!" (as Jorge pointed out to me this is kind of a sequel or a spiritual cousin to my "dead wives club" and so I just love it.

IFC musical sequence from Sucker Punch restored for its blu-ray release
Your Movie Buddy best of 2011 thus far... in Oscar categories. Definitely some surprising choices and omissions here. Yes, yes, I'll do one soon.
Stale Popcorn on the poster for Paddy Considine's Tyrannosaur. It is arresting.
In Contention Kris on his ten year relationship with A.I. Artificial Intelligence (which I just mentioned but alas... my obsession with Gigolo Joe doesn't seem to be shared by many)

Off Cinema
DHARBIN "Some Common Fears" I love this guys comics. I've been so into web comics lately. I appreciate referrals if you know of good ones. 
Towleroad Cher takes on the Bachmann anti-gay crazy on Twitter. Cher = forever fierce.
Boy Culture Matthew proposes the best callsign for Mr. Bachmann I've yet heard proposed "Lady Bird Bachmann" -- PASS IT ON.
Some Came Running on the politics of David Mamet now and Demi Moore then

Cinema de Gym: 'I Am Legend'

Hey all. Kurt here with round five of Cinema de Gym. When I walked into my gym's screening of I Am Legend, otherwise known as one of the greatest movies ever made, it was just in time for sole survivor Will Smith's morning workout regimen. Y'know – the one that shows off his especially cut physique, which had a beaming Jada gushing her wifely approval to the press (or was that for Ali?). In any case, it was a good motivator with which to start, my elliptical-bound self facing the day with Will and his treadmilling dog. I do love these morning-routine sequences, which, if done well, can dole out oodles of narrative and character development with nary a spoken word. (My mind goes right to a particular season premiere of Lost, wherein we woke up with a character, partook in his a.m. ritual, then flew up, up, up a laddered pipe only to gasp, “He's in the hatch!”)

After tending to some ill-tempered rats in his basement lab (he's testing cures for that apocalyptic zombie rage virus, you'll remember), Will grabs some rifles from a locked cabinet, whistles for his pooch (Sam) and leaves the house. Outside, it's revealed that he lives within spitting distance of the Washington Square Arch, and in this moment it hits me that I walked by this very address just a couple weeks ago. Honestly, I don't know how you New York film lovers don't just completely lose your s**t on a daily basis. Maybe you do. It's crazy. You live inside the movies. Anyway...

Last man's best friend

Will and Sam take the SUV to the video store, presumably a regular errand that offers a sliver of normalcy and some much-needed sweet escape (so long as they don't rent Life After People). This, I believe, is the first scene that truly introduces us to the film's keen ability to apply considerable weight to inanimate and/or nonhuman things, be them Sam or the mannequins Will regards as everyday people. In the video store, he calls the cashier mannequin by name, and all but blushes while pretending the nearby female mannequin is giving him the eye. The film finds both comic relief and an oft-profound sense of loneliness in such scenes, and Will knows just how to play them: straight, but with bubbling pain. It's a similar pain to that of Tom Hanks's Wilson-loving cast away, and it's the same pain that hurts so good (dramatically, I mean) when – SPOILER ALERT – Sam goes viral and has to be put down.

But I'm getting way ahead of myself here, as things were nowhere near that dire moment during the little slice I watched. Not long after the video store, Will is golfing on a pier, broadcasting that call for survivors that was ubiquitous during the film's marketing campaign (“You are not alone...”). Broadcast finished, Will and Sam spot a deer amidst an ocean of abandoned cars and begin the hunt. Rounding a corner, Sam gets ahead of Will and follows his prey into the movie's no-no place of shadow, which I suppose we can now consider a bit of foreshadowing...

Conclusions?

1. Watching scenes of people working out while working out actually makes you want to work out!
2. I'm really looking forward to moving to New York, so I can live in the movies, too.
3. Will could've really used a little Kim Cattrall in that big lonely city.

And the question we all want answered: What movies would you rent if you were the last person alive?

Daddy Dearest / Daddy Warbucks

Willow Smith: Daughter of WILL SMITH in case you forgot!You guys... 

I was going to talk about this last week but decided against it under the umbrella "if you don't have anything nice to say..." But now Willow Smith had to go and remind me by wearing her dad when she hit the red carpet for the BET Awards. Just in case you forgot why you should care about her!

It wasn't enough for Will Smith to foist his son upon the world by way of co-starring roles when he was 9 (Pursuit of Happyness) and a leading gig (The Karate Kid) by the time he was 11. Now, he wants his daughter to be equally famous: cue record deals and movie contracts; she's 10. 

You've heard by now -- though some of you may have blocked it out --  that Smith is hiring Emma Thompson to adapt the musical "Annie" for his daughter to whip her hair back and forth in in the starring role.

♫ The fame'll come out tomorrow
Bet Will's billion dollars,
that tomorrow
there'll be fame. ♪

How long before we start hearing disturbing things about this family? His kids just seem awfully young to be pushed so aggressively towards global fame. There are many famous Hollywood dynasties of course -- nothing wrong with following in your parents footsteps -- but how often does the second generation get this big a push this early? 

Okay, maybe I did just spend way too much time watching Ryan O'Neal talk up Tatum O'Crazy the other day. But believe me when I say that if Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie suddenly decided that they needed to produce movies to star each of their children before they hit puberty, I'd worry about that family, too.

Carol Burnett as Miss Hannigan in "Annie" (1982)Or maybe I'm just annoyed that one of the great actresses of the past century -- that'd be Emma -- has been relegated to behind the scenes scripting duties for the vanity projects of another star's offspring. Vulture suggested last week that Emma would make an awesome Miss Hannigan (played by Carol Burnett in the last movie version and Kathy Bates in a telefilm) and we concede that if that happened, we'd totally be interested. I hope Will Smith is going to pay Emma very very well but the thing is ...I'm starting to think that we should get compensation pay from someone for every year that we don't have Emma Thompson on our movie screens (sans Nanny McPhee makeup, I mean). 

Hopefully Emma's "Oh" character in next summer's Men in Black III is a fun one.

Links: Arthur Laurents, Joel Edgerton, Parker Posey, Will Smith

TV Guide A brilliant suggestion: put Parker Posey in the boss's chair in The Office. Did you see her on Parks & Recreation last night? She's dependable with hilarity, that one.
The Art of Manliness how to jump from rooftop to rooftop, like a frenzied movie hero.
Boobs Radley Imagined conversations between Scarlett Johansson and Sean Penn. Teehee.
My New Plaid Pants a big week for Joel Edgerton. A leading role in the new Kathryn Bigelow flick? Yes please.
Variety Quentin Tarantino wants Will Smith for his Django Unchained movie. In our opinion any actor would be crazy to turn Tarantino down. He nearly always finds something new or untapped in their talent. He's pure magic that way.
The Beats Within new blog on Madonna as a musician (still underappreciated). This is a really interesting interview with Guy Sigsworth who cowrote "What It Feels Like For a Girl"
Movie Morlocksk spends an evening with Terence Stamp. We love him.

Hey U Guys shows the delightful first image from a pirate movie from Aardman Animations. Hugh Grant will be voicing it matey.
THR It might be Keanu Reeves for Akira. Hollywood is just determined not to cast Japanese actors even though the property is the selling point.
Movie|Line is every Kate Hudson movie the same? Chart!
Salon looks at the best devil portrayals on film.

Finally...I meant to write about Arthur Laurents passing yesterday but this one made me sick with loss. The theater great had a hand in so many properties that are just magic (Rope, West Side Story, The Way We Were, Gypsy ... the list goes on) and he lived to be 92 years old; a long and accomplished life it was. He won Tony Awards and was twice Oscar nominated (both nominations were for the ballet drama The Turning Point) but somehow they snubbed his brilliant screenplay for The Way We Were which is only among the pinnacle achievements of its entire genre. Seriously name ten romantic weepies that are better; you can't!

His life was inspiring, too. Imagine having the guts to live as an out gay man as early as the 1950s. I didn't know where to begin -- I'd need a whole blog week. MUBI is terrific with the obituaries, always rounding up good articles to read, like this recent lengthy dishy profile from New York Magazine when the revival of West Side Story opened on Broadway.

April Showers: Will Smith's Morning Routine

waterworks each weeknight at 11 pm

Be like Will Smith this week by practicing this I Robot morning routine: 8 easy steps.

1. Experience recurring dream in which you are rescued from drowning by a robot. This will be hard to do unless you're lucid dreaming, but if you're lucid dreaming take it there. Aren't lucid dreams trippy?

2. Wake up at 7:30 AM

3. Sit up in bed and massage your injuries. Will sometimes does this flesh rubbing with a loaded weapon but I would use something normal like your hand. Safer.

4. Play "Superstitious" by Stevie Wonder on your iTunes or last.fm as you...

5. Eat cold pie for breakfast*

three more steps after the jump

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