For three decades, we’ve been treated to numerous looks-back on the Dan Aykroyd -John Belushi comedy team, and the one perfect film they managed to make, 1980’s The Blues Brothers . So much dirt has already been dished over the decades that it almost feels like we know everything we’ll ever need to about the hard-partying tendencies that ultimately killed Belushi in 1982. We would be mistaken, as a new Vanity Fair profile will no doubt demonstrate that however many skeletons you think might have been unearthed, there’s always room for one or two more in the mass grave of a dead celebrity’s life story. The January issue features a new and very detailed look into the making of The Blues Brothers . Part fond remembrance, part cautionary tale, and part “Jesus H Christ, seriously. You seriously did all that,” it delivers absolutely delicious — and absolutely tragic — stories from Belushi’s friends, family and former coworkers about that film’s troubled production. We’ve culled a few choicer nuggets from the online preview: * The ’70s were even more decadent than we think. According to Dan Aykroyd, “We had a budget in the movie for cocaine for night shoots” during the making of > em> The Blues Brothers. And just like that, films like Zardoz suddenly begin to make more sense. * Belushi’s drug problem had gotten so out of hand that they actually asked Carrie Fisher – Carrie Fisher! – to keep him from consuming. I wonder if they also asked Chevy Chase to keep Dan Aykroyd from making bad decisions about the roles he intended to take during the late ’80s and early ’90s. * Belushi and Robert Downey, Jr. have a lot in common: Apparently Belushi disappeared from the set one night, and Aykroyd found him at a nearby home where, the homeowner told him, Belushi had just showed up, raided the man’s fridge like it wasn’t even a thing, and passed out on the couch. Obviously, this thing just became required, end-of-the-year reading. It goes without saying also that we’re very glad this kind of addiction is no longer enabled so blatantly. [ Source: Vanity Fair ]
Quentin Tarantino wants you to know that if his depiction of slavery in Django Unchained disturbs you, the reality was much grislier. “I’m here to tell you, that however bad things get in the movie, a lot worse shit happened,” the filmmaker told a British Academy of Film and Television Arts crowd after screening his hotly anticipated spaghetti western in London. Judging from a report in London’s Guardian newspaper, Tarantino intends Django Unchained to be a visceral, in-your-face depiction of slavery in America. “We all intellectually ‘know’ the brutality and inhumanity of slavery, but after you do the research it’s no longer intellectual any more, no longer just historical record — you feel it in your bones,” Tarantino said. “It makes you angry, and you want to do something.” As was the case with Tarantino’s Nazi revenge fantasy, Inglourious Basterds , the title character of Django Unchained , who’s played by Jamie Foxx , gets to exact a great deal of cinematic retribution against the movie’s slave owners and their accomplices. But Tarantino told the BAFTA crowd that his movie is about more than payback: “When slave narratives are done on film, they tend to be historical with a capital H, with an arms-length quality to them,” he said. “I wanted to break that history-under-glass aspect, I wanted to throw a rock through that glass and shatter it for all times, and take you into it.” “I did a lot of research particularly in how the business of slavery worked, and what exactly was the social breakdown inside a plantation: the white families that owned the houses, the black servants who worked inside the house, the black servants that were in the fields, and the white overseers and workers that were hired to work there.” Of special interest to Tarantino was the southern aristocracy which he called “an absurd, grotesque parody of European aristocracy.” From that same Q&A session, the website Bleeding Cool is reporting that Tarantino told the audience “I could conceive maybe someday doing a 30′s gangster picture, or something like that.” He also said that he could do “another Western, actually.” [ The Guardian , Bleeding Cool ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
If American Psycho ‘s Patrick Bateman were a film critic, he’d be Bret Easton Ellis. When he’s not promoting his film The Canyons — directed by Paul Schrader and starring Lindsay Lohan — on Twitter, Ellis has been blowing shotgun-sized holes in some of the awards season’s biggest films. The Less Than Zero author contends that Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow is “really overrated,” and Les Misérables makes him miserable. (According to him, it’s an “incomprehensible mess.” ) Life of Pi fares better, though Ellis would like to see that film’s young star Suraj Sharma get into porn. Oh yeah, and he also claims that the Academy “hates” The Dark Knight Rises . Below, a sampling of Ellis’ critical stylings, not necessarily in chronological order: Zero Dark Thirty: Kathryn Bigelow would be considered a mildly interesting filmmaker if she was a man but since she's a very hot woman she's really overrated.— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 06, 2012 Kathryn Bigelow: Strange Days, K-19 The Widowmaker, Blue Steel, The Hurt Locker. Are we talking about visionary filmmaking or just OK junk?— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 06, 2012 Silver Linings Playbook: “Zero Dark Thirty” might win critics awards but “Silver Linings Playbook” will win the Best Picture Oscar. This is how it always happens…— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 06, 2012 Les Misérables: The film version of “Les Miserables” is so bad that it made me rethink why I ever loved the stage version. 2 hours and 40 minutes of tacky.— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 05, 2012 The one actor surviving the incomprehensible mess “Les Miserables” is Eddie Redmayne, who should get an award for avoiding humiliation…— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 05, 2012 Tom Hooper blows just about every song in “Les Miserables” including “On My Own” which I didn't think possible no matter who directed it…— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 05, 2012 Oh yeah and I forgot: “Les Miserables” opens on Christmas Day and (spoiler alert!) just about everyone in it dies. Merry fucking Christmas.— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 05, 2012 Life of Pi: Life of Pi is the movie I've thought about the most in 2012. As a writer I can't reconcile with its disturbing reveal: illusion vs. reality?— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 04, 2012 Suraj Sharma gives an amazing and incredibly moving performance in “Life of Pi” and seriously needs to do some porn. Misspelling: my fault.— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 04, 2012 Killing Them Softly Based on the terrific source material “Killing Them Softly” doesn't work at all, but the actor Scoot McNairy is now officially on the radar.— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 04, 2012 “Killing Them Softly” starring Brad Pitt is one of only eight films in Cinemascore's history to receive an “F” grade but…”Troy” didn't?!?— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 04, 2012 How the Academy will vote: The Academy is going to go for Silver Linings Playbook and not Lincoln.— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 03, 2012 The Academy hates The Dark Knight Rises because I sat in that theater that night and listened to the banter in the lobby afterwards.— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 03, 2012 There's not a chance in hell that Ang Lee will win best director. That will be a fight between Ben Affleck and David O. Russell. Haneke? No.— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 03, 2012 I’m not sure if Ellis’ most recent tweet is a reaction to reaction to his withering perspective, but, as you might expect, he’s unrepentant: Anyone Unfollowing me should have known better and never Followed me in the first place. Wise up: pussies and snowflakes. Get the F over it.— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 06, 2012 Watch your back, Sandy Kenyon. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Fans stormed London’s Leicester Square to join the revolution on Wednesday night: the world premiere of Les Misérables . The barricades were up, not to hold back National Guardsmen but to restrain fans who who turned up to salute the movie’s lead Hugh Jackman , Londoner (and the movie’s Marius), Eddie Redmayne and the rest of the main cast. Lovely Ladies Anne Hathaway , Amanda Seyfried and Samantha Barks ,who has played Eponine both on stage and, now, on screen, were all smiles as they stalked the red carpet, the dark days of their Parisian revolt a distant dream. Master of the House, director Tom Hooper , accompanied comrade and legendary theater producer Sir Cameron MacKintoshto the premiere, as well as Russell Crowe , who portrays the saga’s relentless Inspector Javert. The cast confirmed that the movie’s multi-camera, live-recorded singing made filming more laborious than usual, at times resulting in dozens of takes. Some malfunctioning mechanical butterflies didn’t help either. Redmayne said that while he and Amanda Seyfried were filming their “A Heart Full of Love” duet, “Tom became obsessed with the stunt butterflies. There were moments where Amanda and I would do these incredibly intense takes of newfound love, and Tom would say, ‘Yeah, it was great, but the butterflies…'” Barks recalled enduring many sodden takes of singing ” On My Own ” in the rain. “There was a big rain machine which followed me around for a lot of the film. Sometimes I’d arrive on set and they’d have to hose me down,” she recalled. “After the rain, you get so cold, your teeth start to chatter and they say, ‘We’re picking up on a weird sound, what’s that?’ So I’d chatter, ‘It’s my teeth!’” When Hooper wasn’t preoccupied with the butterflies, he devoted plenty of attention to the rain machine, presumably from his eternally dry director’s chair, “The geek in me enjoyed having to come up with the solution of how to do silent rain” so it wouldn’t interfere with the live singing, the director explained, adding: “By the end the rain was quiet.” Hooper said it took “six months of researching to do rain with with no noise” and after finally achieving “our dream,” as he put it, “we had to put the rain sound back in during the sound mixing.” After their near-freezing stint on the red carpet, all guests stepped inside the warm sanctuary of the Leicester Square Odeon for the movie, after which Hooper invited everybody to drink with him in North London, at Camden’s Roundhouse until late. Related Stories: Early Reaction: Oscar Race Heats Up As NYC Screening Of ‘Les Miserables’ Prompts Cheers & Tears Handicapping The Performances Of ‘Les Misérables’ — Who Will Dazzle In the Movie Musical? Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Slamdance set its competition lineup Wednesday with 12 Narrative titles and 10 documentaries joining the film festival’s roster at the 19th annual event which coincides with the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT. This year, 13 World Premieres and seven U.S. debuts will screen in competition, chosen out of 5,000 submissions. “Our goal is to showcase exhilarating filmmaking with a revolutionary take on our world,” commented Slamdance president and co-founder Peter Baxter on the festival website. “These filmmakers have a tremendous ability to innovate, explore and revitalize the independent filmmaking landscape.” The 2013 Slamdance Film Festival will take place January 18 – 24. The festival’s competition lineup follows with descriptions and credits provided by Slamdance. NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION: The Narrative Competition is comprised of American and International productions. All 12 films are feature debuts with budgets of less than $1 million, and were programmed entirely from blind submissions. Best Friends Forever / Director: Brea Grant, Screenwriters: Brea Grant, Vera Miao (USA) World Premiere Harriet and Reba hit the road in this darkly comedic apocalypse tale that explores the boundaries of friendship, the danger of hipsters, and nuclear fallout. Cast: Brea Grant, Vera Miao, Sean Maher, Glen Powell, Kit Williamson, Alex Berg, Alex Fernie, Stacey Storey Big Words /Director and Screenwriter: Neil Drumming (USA) World Premiere A lively drama that captures members of a once-promising hip-hop group, now in their late 30’s, as they struggle with regret, disappointment, and change on Election Night 2008. Cast: Darien Sills-Evans, Dorian Missick, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Yaya Alafia, Zachary Booth, Amir Arison, Jean Grae The Court of Shards / Director and Screenwriter: Jan Eilhardt (Germany) World Premiere In this experimental narrative, two disabled women fight in their own way to maintain their independent loves and lives against an overpoweringly caring family. Cast: Caroline Fricke, Silvia Giehle, Natalia Bondar, Frank Hoffmann, Doris Egbring-Kahn The Dirties / Director: Matt Johnson, Screenwriters: Matt Johnson, Evan Morgan, Josh Boles (Canada) World Premiere Two best friends think it would be funny to make a movie about getting revenge on the bullies at their school. One of them isn’t joking. Cast: Matt Johnson, Owen Williams, Krista Madison, David Matheson, Brandon Wickens, Josh Boles, Alen Delaine, Jay McCarrol Fynbos / Director: Harry Patramanis, Screenwriters: Harry Patramanis, Jonathan Glatzer (South Africa) US Premiere On a lavish and remote property, within the walls of a glass house, six lives intersect and lay bare their secrets and psyches in this twisting drama. Cast: Jessica Haines, Warrick Grier, Cara Roberts, Chad Philips, Susan Danford, Sthandiwe Kgoroge, John Herbert Billy Chen Presents: Ghost Team One / Directors: Ben Peyser, Scott Rutherford, Screenwriters: Andrew Knauer, Arthur Pielli, Scott Rutherford, Ben Peyser (USA) World Premiere A subversive, comedic take on the found footage genre, where two roommates deathly afraid of ghosts both fall in love with a girl who believes their home is haunted. Cast: Carlos Santos, Fernanda Romero, J.R. Villarreal, Meghan Folcone, Tony Cavalero, James Babson, Scott MacArthur, Craig Stott Hank and Asha / Director: James E. Duff, Screenwriters: James E. Duff, Julia Morrison (USA) World Premiere In this voyeuristic love story, an Indian student in Prague and a lonely New Yorker correspond online through video letters – two strangers aching for human connection in a hyper-connected world. Cast: Andrew Pastides, Mahira Kakkar He’s Way More Famous Than You / Director: Michael Urie, Screenwriters: Halley Feiffer, Ryan Spahn (USA) World Premiere A struggling actress will stop at nothing to get her movie made in this sharp comedy, bolstered by absurdist touches and a bravura lead performance. Cast: Halley Feiffer, Ryan Spahn, Tracee Chimo, Jesse Eisenberg, Mammie Gummer, Michael Urie, Ralph Macchio , Natasha Lyonne, Ben Stiller Joy De V. / Director and Screenwriter: Nadia Szold (USA) World Premiere An expressionistic, gritty look at the intersection of madness and love that follows a young con-artist who wakes up to discover his pregnant wife is missing. Cast: Evan Louison, Claudia Cardinale, Josephine de La Baume, Iva Gocheva, Victoria Imperioli Kohlhaas / Director and Screenwriter: Aron Lehmann (Germany) US Premiere An obsessed director and his cast seek to adapt the true story of a 16th-century revolutionary when their actions behind the scenes begin to mimic the book’s subject. Cast: Robert Gwisdek, Jan Messutat, Thorsten Merten, Rosalie Thomass, Michael Fuith, Heiko Pinkowski Visitors / Director: Constanze Knoche, Screenwriters: Leis Bagdach, Constanze Knoche (Germany) US Premiere Three adult siblings are surprised by their parents’ announcement that they are cutting off finances in this commanding and evocative look at the oppressive results of stasis. Cast: Uwe Kockisch, Corinna Kirchhoff, Irina Potapenko, Jakob Diehl, Anne Muller, Anjorka Strechel, Bernhard Schütz, Andreas Leupold, Janusz Kocaj, Mehdi Nebbou What Isn’t There / Director: Marie Jamora, Screenwriters: Marie Jamora, Ramon De Veyra (Philippines) US Premiere In this lyrical exploration of love, music and expression, a self-imposed mute returns home for Christmas and the anniversary of his twin brother’s accidental death. Cast: Dominic Roco, Annicka Dolonius, Boboy Garrovillo, Dawn Zulueta, Felix Roco, Alchris Galura, Mercedes Cabral, Marc Abaya DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION: The Documentary Competition is comprised of American and International productions. All 10 films are directorial debuts with budgets of less than $1 million, and were programmed entirely from blind submissions. Battery Man / Directors and Screenwriters: Dusan Saponja, Dusan Cavic (Serbia) US Premiere Thanks to the powers he discovered by accident, Biba Struja has spent his entire life experimenting with electricity and proving to himself and others that it cannot harm him. Cast: Slavisa Pajkic Bible Quiz / Director: Nicole Teeny (USA) World Premiere Seventeen-year-old Mikayla memorizes books of the Bible on her quest to win the National Bible Quiz Championship and the heart of JP, her quiz team captain. The film explores coming of age in the face of faith, doubt, fierce competition and teen love. Cast: Mikayla Irle, JP O’Connor, Christopher Teeny, Brandon Duffy, Rich Nelson, Rachel Dawson, Rachel Holley, Gary Irle The Bitter Buddha / Director: Steven Feinartz (USA) Cult-Comic Eddie Pepitone’s life is on display in this unhinged portrait of creativity, enlightenment and rage. Cast: Eddie Pepitone, Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman, Patton Oswalt, Sean Conroy, Paul Provenza, Dana Gould, Marc Maron The Brotherhood of the Traveling Rants / Directors: Gavin McInnes, Steve Durand, Bryan Gaynor (USA/Canada) World Premiere ‘Godfather of hipsterdom’ Gavin McInnes goes on a stand-up comedy tour with his best friend from high school and things go from bad to worse to downright catastrophic. Cast: Gavin McInnes, Steve Durand, Bryan Gaynor The Institute / Director: Spencer McCall, Screenwriters: Uriah Findley, Spencer McCall (USA) Is it a cult? Is it a game? Or is it a life-changing adventure? Cast: Daniel Shoup, Arye Michael Bender, Carolee Gilligan Wheeler, Garland Glessner, Michael Wertz, Kiyomi Tanouye, Geordie Aiken, Jeff Hull The Last Shepherd / Director and Screenwriter: Marco Bonfanti (Italy) US Premiere Renato, the last traveling shepherd left in Milan, has a dream – get to the inaccessible center of the city to meet the children who have never seen a flock of sheep. Cast: Renato Zucchelli, Piero Lombardi, Lucia Zucchelli, Patrizia Frisoli, Hedy Krissane, Barbara Sorrentini (voice) My Name is Faith / Directors: Jason Banker, Jorge Torres-Torres, Tiffany Sudela-Junker (USA) US Premiere Faith, a 13-year-old girl who suffers from Reactive Attachment Disorder, attempts to heal from the trauma inflicted by her birthmother’s lifestyle. Running Wild: The Life of Dayton O. Hyde / Director: Suzanne Mitchell (USA) World Premiere The inspiring journey of a remarkable cowboy who triumphs in his quest to protect wild horses and the American West. Cast: Dayton O. Hyde Where I Am / Director and Screenwriter: Pamela Drynan (Ireland) World Premiere The courageous story of Gay American writer Robert Drake and his struggle to recover and return to the scene of a crime in Ireland, where, he was left for dead more than 10 years ago. Cast: Robert Drake Without Shepherds / Director: Cary McClelland (Pakistan/USA) World Premiere Six bold individuals struggle to find their role in the turbulent waters of Pakistan and build a better tomorrow. Cast: Vaneeza Ahmad, Arieb Azhar, Abdullah Khan, Imran Khan, Ibrahim Waheed, Laiba Yousafzai
A dismal misfire, Hyde Park on Hudson could have been a spoof of a period prestige film, had it a little more energy and humor. Consider this scene: Daisy ( Laura Linney ), a poor distant relative of Franklin Delano Roosevelt ( Bill Murray ), has begun getting summoned to the house the President shares with his mother (Elizabeth Wilson) to provide him with company and distraction from his work. The two go for drives in the countryside, while Daisy intones in a plummy voiceover about the Depression, her lonely life taking care of her aunt and her growing closeness with FDR: “I helped him forget the weight of the world,” she says around the time that the president shoos his security away, pulls over in a picturesque field and pulls her hand toward him. The camera retreats to a decorous distance, the breeze blows over the wildflowers, FDR’s custom-built convertible begins a-rocking, and it takes a second to realize…why yes, FDR just got his spinster cousin to give him a handy. Directed by Roger Michell ( Notting Hill , Morning Glory ) and based on a radio play by Richard Nelson, Hyde Park on Hudson is an arthritically stilted production that looks even more rickety when measured against the ranks of the awards contenders to which it aspires. It’s half an unconventional and underdeveloped romance and half a recounting of the 1939 visit King George VI (Samuel West), aka Bertie, and Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Colman) paid to FDR at his Dutchess County estate to firm up the relationship between the UK and the US in the lead-up to World War II, the first time a reigning British monarch did such a thing. With the exception of FDR’s rural interlude, neither of these two tales unfolds with any momentum or satisfaction. (The latter story actually centers around whether or not Bertie will loosen up enough to eat a hot dog at a picnic.) In combination, they’re even more awkward, however. Overlapping without really interacting. the two stories are like strangers who’ve been invited to the same weekend getaway but not introduced. Presumably because of the nature of the source material, the film relies heavily on Daisy’s narration for large swaths of story. Instead of being shown the growing connection between her and FDR, we’re baldly told that’s what’s happening. And we know she’s fallen in love with him because she says “How I longed for him.” Daisy has little personality or purpose other than to serve as an observer on the outskirts, but there are major portions of the film for which she isn’t present and couldn’t be serving as the point of view, as Bertie and Elizabeth debate in their room about whether or not they’re being made fun of and how best to approach their social engagements. The pair were the focus of 2011 Oscar winner The King’s Speech , but are made a little stuffier and more ridiculous here — “Hyde Park is in London, it’s so confusing,” Elizabeth says as they travel to the house, and the two discuss the meaning of the humorous prints on the wall of Bertie’s room and who in the house is sleeping with whom (an issue well worthy of speculation). Murray is the movie’s main attraction, but he turns in a deflatingly one-dimensional impression-as-performance, twinkling with all his might as he charms Bertie over cocktails and seduces Daisy with his stamp collection. His FDR comes across as everyone’s blithe uncle, seen mainly through the admiring eyes of our narrator, so that even the earthier side that leads him to instigate their affair and to indulge in others she learns about later (to her dismay) is laboriously sublimated into something that uncomfortably recalls a lord and his concubines. Daisy’s main qualities are to be accommodating and to have not done anything in her sheltered life, giving Linney little to do except gaze worshipfully at Murray. “My husband loves the adoring eyes of young women,” laughs a brusque Olivia Williams, playing an Eleanor characterized with a delicacy that falls just short of having her stomp around in a Carhartt jacket and fauxhawk bellowing that she likes the ladies. Hyde Park on Hudson is a sort of high-stakes comedy of manners, but it’s one in which the extremely mannered are placed in contrast with the merely very mannered. Its instances of culture shock deal with less than naturally dramatic decisions, such as whether it’s appropriate to serve cocktails or hot dogs to royals. The film allows that FDR had an unconventional personal life — with multiple mistresses and a wife who lived apart from him — but it treads around these most interesting speculative details, with a fussy decorum, preferring to dwell on shots of vintage wallpaper. There’s one moment in which an emotionally wounded Daisy imagines screaming at FDR that “You’re not getting off that easy, you son of a bitch!” She never says it out loud, though, and the other characters in this film never say what’s on their minds either. They’re just pale shadows of real people who were probably far more interesting and complicated than this film allows them to be.
As previously reported, Ashton Kutcher will play Steve Jobs in an upcoming biopic about the late Apple founder, and the first image from the film has hit the web. Check out Ashton as vintage Jobs, circa 1983: The film, jOBS (not a typo, that’s how the movie title is stylized), will premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, which released the above image yesterday. Outfitted in a button-down shirt, jeans, and a goatee, the Two and a Half Men star leans against a desk in front of an IBM poster with the slogan THINK . Physically at least, he bears an uncanny resemblance to Jobs. Not convinced? Follow the jump and see the actual Steve Jobs photo upon which this is based: Sundance describes the Jobs biopic as the “true story of one of the greatest entrepreneurs in American history,” which “chronicles the defining 30 years of Steve Jobs’ Life.” jOBS also stars Dermot Mulroney, Josh Gad, Lukas Haas, J. K. Simmons, and Matthew Modine. It will close out the January 17-27 event in Park City, Utah. Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs : He’s a perfect choice! He’s an insulting choice! View Poll »
Megan Fox is making a comeback for some movie called over 40 that hired her to be in it….I guess they figured people want to see her and she was the right price and talent level…. The comeback involves doing press for the movie…which is what these pics are from…. Luckily she left her new baby, that I like to refer to as Brian Austin Green’s way of trapping her more than he already has, at home… But brought out her new body that people say she got back from baby making thanks to laser-lipo….and more importantly…her new Botox face that looks so youthful and natural…and not like a horror movie/cartoon mask….of a desperate girl who doesn’t want to look her age…but instead wants to look like a clown…weird…but I’d still do her…or more importanlty eat her placenta because it clearly possesses the powers of the fountain of youth…right?! To See the Rest of the Pics FOLLOW THIS LINK
After an illustrious career playing intimidating characters, Ray Liotta got to see how the other half lives (and begs for mercy) in Killing Them Softly . I sat down with the actor to discuss his harrowing beating scene — which will be much-discussed after the movie’s opening weekend — and the underlying politics of Brad Pitt and director Andrew Dominik’s stylish film noir. Criminals who listen to NPR? During Oscar season, anything’s possible. Check out my full interview with Ray Liotta below: Follow Movieline on Twitter . Follow Grace Randolph on Twitter .
Once, Nicole Kidman barely had to raise an eyebrow to get awards attention. Now, she barely can raise an eyebrow and her best work in years is being completely ignored in the Oscar conversation. The Paperboy stars Kidman as Charlotte Bless, a damaged attention-seeker who becomes sexually obsessed with a convicted murderer ( John Cusack ), while cock-teasing the only man—or really, teenager—who truly loves her (Zac Efron). It’s Kidman’s bravest, boldest, and most committed performance ever, and no one cares for the short-sighted reason that the movie is terrible. How unfair. The Nicole Kidman of To Die For used to have a bright future before that bright future came true and blinded everyone to her comedic gifts. Once Kidman scored her first Oscar nomination for 2002’s Moulin Rouge , she became the prey of the Hollywood awards hunt, in which the chase for For-Your-Consideration goes like this: take one prestigious actress (see Kidman, Berry, Jolie, Swank), make her play someone vulnerable (see Cold Mountain , Things We Lost in the Fire , The Changeling , Conviction ), then cross your fingers. This is why we’ve had a full decade of Kidman drifting about in period costumes or, god forbid, stretching herself to play a movie star in Nine . And people, this is why the Oscar season is boring. This formula guarantees a chase to the middlebrow, and it’s why every Best Picture Oscar winner since Silence of the Lambs is something your grandma would see at an arthouse matinee. There’s only one thing we can do to save the Academy Awards: nominate Nicole Kidman for The Paperboy . Just because The Paperboy is bad doesn’t void the bravery it took to make it. Kidman’s Charlotte is a balls-out wonder. She’s pure sex and need, at once over-confident and fragile. Slithering around in her neon polyester pants, Kidman is fully alive for the first time since Baz Luhrmann murdered her with tuberculosis. And The Paperboy even has not one but two stand-out scenes that will live on in infamy—Sally Field standing on a table in Norma Rae can’t compete with Kidman peeing on Zac Efron or giving John Cusack an orgasm just by breathing at him from across a prison cell. Imagine if Oscar voters were able to parse the jewels from the schlock. Why should Les Misérables clutter up every acting category? What if this year’s ceremony didn’t just include the dull favorites like Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln and Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty —roles everyone respects, but no one loves—but made room for Michael Shannon in Premium Rush and Michael Sheen in Breaking Dawn – Part 2 . Imagine just being able to say, “The Academy Award-nominated bike messenger thriller Premium Rush .” Plus, this wouldn’t be the first time we’ve given an actor a statuette for good work in an awful film. We did it three years ago when Mo’Nique won for Precious . It’s no coincidence that Precious and The Paperboy were both directed by bizarro auteur Lee Daniels, a former casting agent and producer with the clout to get serious actors to take him seriously. He convinced the likes of Helen Mirren, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Joseph Gordon-Levitt to star in his debut film, Shadowboxer —-and that’s despite a script which opens with Stephen Dorff shoving a pool cue up a guy’s ass. In fact, let’s go one step further. Not only does Nicole Kidman deserve a Best Actress nomination for The Paperboy , Lee Daniels deserves Best Director. He’s clearly one of the greats. Not because his films are any good, but because his actors would do—and do do—anything for him. Anthony Minghella, Sidney Pollack, Rob Marshall only wish they could pull as passionate of a performance out of Kidman, and Daniels behind-the-scenes alchemy is that powerful with every single one of his actors. He not only convinced Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr. to shoot a strip scene in Shadowboxer , he convinced them to commit to it like it was high art. And The Paperboy performs more stunt-casting miracles: An American sweetheart, John Cusack, is loathsome; Macy Gray is the next great actress and Zac Efron, convincingly, can’t get laid. Could Steven Spielberg swing that? Never. Luckily, we’re not alone in appreciating this wonderful, terrible gem. In October, a group of rogue cinephiles launched a For Your Consideration Facebook page flogging Nicole Kidman’s outstanding work in The Paperboy . As of today, the page has 10 fans. Let’s get that number growing.
