Stage and film veteran Ben Gazzara, whose career spanned five decades and included a stint directing television, has died at age 81 in New York. According to The New York Times , Gazzara succumbed to pancreatic cancer today in Manhattan, where he lived. Let’s bid a fond farewell to the Emmy-winning, Golden Globes-nominated Gazzara by remembering some of his most indelible work. After getting his start in the 1950s in television and on stage in productions like Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955, for which he originated the role of Brick. Film highlights include Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder (1959), although he may be best known for his collaborations with John Cassavetes ( Husbands , The Killing of a Chinese Bookie , Opening Night ) and later highlights in Road House , Buffalo ’66 , The Big Lebowski , and Todd Solondz’s Happiness . For me and many of my generation the Gazzara role I’ve rewatched a zillion times is his turn as Jackie Treehorn in The Big Lebowski ; Click here for the film’s memorable (but nonembeddable) Jackie Treehorn scene and let’s take a brief hopscotch through the actor’s filmography over the years.
It’s official: Comedienne-activist Roseanne Barr is a Green Party Presidential Candidate. “As POTUS I will forgive all student loans and ALL HOMEOWNER DEBT AND ALL CREDIT CARD DEBT [sic],” she Tweeted shortly after her candidacy was announced. “As potus, I will pursue all lawbreakers-financial terrorists first,” she continued , adding an aside to a follower regarding health tips : “u will have 2 stop using diet coke if u r to survive.” Let’s follow this woman into the future! [ @therealroseanne ]
In New Zealand! And how’s this for a welcome from “New Zealand First” leader Winston Peters: “‘To reside in New Zealand indefinitely, well, what does that mean? Full-time, part-time? … If someone was coming to live in New Zealand and become a New Zealander, that is a different matter.’ Mr Peters criticised the decision as typical of the ‘stupidity’ of the Government and the ‘rubber-stamp merchants’ at the OIO. ‘If [the applicant] was bringing some expertise to expand this country’s export wealth, particularly if it was land to be developed, or better utilised, that would be a different matter.'” Seriously! It’s not like Avatar sequels grow on trees. [ NZ Herald ]
Hunger Games fans, here’s your chance to be among the first to see Lionsgate’s highly anticipated YA novel adaptation — Movieline is giving away a pair of tickets to the Los Angeles premiere of The Hunger Games , starring Jennifer Lawrence as teen warrior Katniss Everdeen, based on the novels by Suzanne Collins. To decide our winner, we’re holding a Cornucopia of words: A Hunger Games Haiku contest! Channel your inner mockingjay and get to composing in the comments below! To celebrate the 50-day countdown to the Hunger Games nationwide release on March 23 (Twitter hashtag #HUNGERGAMES50), Movieline’s Hunger Games Haiku contest will close February 22 at 5pm PT/8pm ET , so make sure to enter with your best, most inspired Hunger Games -themed haiku. Winners will be announced on February 29. [ Browse Movieline’s Hunger Games cast gallery here ] In order to be eligible, entries must follow these guidelines: – Haiku entries must follow the 5-7-5 syllable format (otherwise that ain’t a haiku, duh). – Entries must be original writings. Write it in Katniss’s voice! As an ode to the series! Compose a ditty about pretty baker’s sons! Run wild with it! – Entrants must be 18 years of age and must be able to attend the premiere in Los Angeles at the Nokia Live on March 12, 2012. – Entrants must register with their email address in order to be contacted if selected. – Only one entry per person. Now remember, candidates: Entries will be judged by Movieline’s editors so put your best haiku forward! Elegance, wit, and razor-sharp concision are key, along with a healthy dose of Hunger Games knowledge. Wow us, and as always — may the odds be ever in your favor. For more information on the Hunger Games movie and premiere info, head to Facebook . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Everyone wants to be the one to discover the next low-budget and/or indie supernatural shocker, the stylish, wicked little thing that scares the bejesus out of you and sends you running to your friends, saying, “You’ve gotta see this!” UK filmmaker Ben Wheatley’s Kill List isn’t that wicked little thing — not by a long shot. Yet it’s a frustrating case. Wheatley drops enough unnerving bread crumbs in the first two-thirds to leave you wondering where the hell he’s headed, and even the big finale should be satisfying enough: It just belongs to a different movie, and it’s unsettling in a way that doesn’t feel earned. That Kill List begins, seemingly, as a standard domestic drama is just one of Wheatley’s intentional red herrings. (He co-wrote the script with Amy Jump.) In the movie’s opening scene Jay (Neil Maskell) is bickering with his wife, Shel (MyAnna Buring), in the presence of their somewhat daft-looking young son, Sam (Harry Simpson). It turns out Jay, an altogether regular-looking and somewhat doughy husband type, hasn’t worked for months: He’s a hit man and the hits just haven’t been coming, since he botched his last job. Then buddy and former associate Gal (Michael Smiley) shows up at the couple’s home for a dinner party, a leggy stretch of girlfriend in tow: He wants to loop Jay into a gig he’s been offered, which requires offing a number of targets. Meanwhile, the sultry, doe-eyed girlfriend, Fiona (Emma Fryer), who looks pretty friendly and normal-like (she explains to her hosts that she works in “human resources”), slips into the couple’s bathroom, removes a mirror from the wall, and does something funny to the back of it. It’s the first of the movie’s numerous “What the — ?” moments, some of which involve episodes of grim brutality that are at first discreetly presented, and then less so. That’s part of Wheatley’s MO: When the violence first kicks off, he cuts away, lulling you into thinking he’s not going to be exploitive. Surprise! Get ready for – and there’s a minor spoiler ahead, though it has nothing to do with the movie’s allegedly supershocking finale – seeing a bunch of brains blown all over a table, like the contents of the world’s ewkiest piñata. Later, we’re treated to a partial view of a rabbit skinning – yum! Should we commend Wheatley – who previously made the 2009 crime comedy Down Terrace – for putting us off guard only to pull the rug out from us? Or is he really just being a sneaky cheat? The more I think about Kill List, the cheaper its shockeroo tactics seem, despite the fact that through its first two-thirds, the picture is compelling almost in spite of itself. Kill List features lots of unapologetic art-house cutting: Scenes are edited into jagged shards, the better to dislocate us with. And in places, it’s bitterly funny. When Jay and Gal approach the first mark on their list – I won’t tell you who it is, but it’s the type of person neither you nor I would be particularly happy about killing – Gal says dryly, “Well, at least it’s not a toddler.” But the plot of Kill List depends too much on Jay’s descent-into-madness routine, and it doesn’t quite wash. This is definitely a guy with a habit of flying off the handle: He threatens physical harm to a bunch of meek, happy Christians who break into a spirited rendition of “Onward Christian Soldiers” in a restaurant. (OK, maybe that’s not so bad.) The idea is that this seemingly devoted family man has, you know, a dark side. This is a guy who’s so used to killing without reason that he no longer needs a reason: Kill List has been carefully and disingenuously front-loaded with post-Iraq meaning. And that’s before it takes a sharp left turn into Wicker Man -style folderol. Kill List is meticulously designed to be a cult film, which means it can never truly be one: It grabs its audience by the collar instead of beckoning seductively and carelessly. The conclusion of Kill List would be more unsettling if the subtle gradation of clues leading up to it didn’t raise so many unanswered questions, just for the hell of it. A mysteriously infected hand, instances of people thanking other people for things they haven’t even done yet – those could have been superb little macabre touches, if only they’d been woven more tightly into the narrative and not just left dangling like shabby hangnails. By the time Kill List jumps off the deep end into occulty weirdness, it’s almost too late for shock value. The ending is designed to make us recoil in horror. But you might be left wondering why you’d bothered with any of it in the first place. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Need poetic inspiration for the Hunger Games haiku you’re composing for tickets to the premiere ? Look no further than the newly unveiled Hunger Games Super Bowl trailer, which will air this weekend and features new footage of special moments with Prim, Gale (Liam Hemsworth), Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), and Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci), the all-important mockingjay pin, and the deadly goings-on in the Games. Via Yahoo! Movies : Quite a breathless, pulse-quickening 60 seconds. And a reminder that these kids aren’t playing with pads on for points; could this spot actually bring in the male-driven Super Bowl demographic? Don’t forget to enter Movieline’s premiere giveaway contest , candidates!
“My early experiences as an agent honed the ‘me against the world’ edge that was always nascent within me, and it served me well: I grew to see everyone, other than my clients, as enemies… When you sign a client, it is almost gladiatorial in that you’re taking away the livelihood of your competitor: It is very visceral and gratifying in a primordial way, not unlike biting into the flesh of an animal you’ve hunted.” [ NY Magazine ]
Bruce Lee as Spidey? Harvey Keitel as Wolverine? Now this is fantasy superhero casting I can get behind. Check out these and more pieces of gorgeous concept art from French artist/creature designer Alexandre Tuis , who racked his pop culture-loving memory banks to envision Marvel’s most famous heroes as played by a roster of legends and favorite actors. Rutger Hauer as Thor? Come on now . Perfection. Tuis is a talented artist who’s contributed concept art to film productions including Dark Shadows and the soundalike Dead Shadows and cites Frank Frazetta as an inspiration; he frequently circles back to his love of movies in his work, hence fun side projects like this Marvel series. Scroll down to see Tuis’s Marvel superheroes, re-imagined (all art work reposted with permission): Harvey Keitel as Wolverine: Eat your heart out, Hugh Jackman. Bruce Lee as Spider-Man: If only! Possibly the best fantasy Spidey casting I’ve ever heard. Arnold Schwarzenegger as Colossus: No need to hide an accent! Plus, the added cheeky nod to the T-1000. Who’s made of metal now? Rutger Hauer as Thor: Hauer in his heyday as the Norse god. Chris Hemsworth who? Head to Tuis’s website for the full set of Marvel superheroes, including some truly inspired choices including Zorro / Lost in Space ‘s Guy Williams as Iron Man and Bill Bixby as (what else?) the Incredible Hulk.
Oscar-winning Man on Wire director James Marsh is clearly unafraid of dropping real talk ; during this month’s Sundance Film Festival he unleashed a tongue-lashing on the Academy for its recent Oscar documentary nominations, which notably did not include Marsh’s own well-received Project Nim . But that’s not the real problem — Marsh laments the entire class of ’12 Academy Awards doc selections, which he claims overlooked the best films of the year and makes the entire branch “look stupid.” Marsh, in Park City with his narrative feature Shadow Dancer , wasn’t terribly precious about Nim ‘s snub in conversation with The Daily Beast ‘s Marlow Stern (via SUNfiltered ). “Putting Nim to one side, if you created a short list of five films that would reflect the best documentary filmmaking of the year, none of those films were nominated.” “I’m a member of the documentary branch so I’m criticizing my own branch here, and it’s really about trying to recognize the best work out there. The system that we have, which I think we’re improving next year, doesn’t seem to do that on a regular basis. Instead, it creates a ‘we look stupid,’ clearly overlooking great ones every year.” Which great docs, then, should have been nominated? Marsh rattled off a laundry list of acclaimed works that many expected to be vying for the Oscar. “I was shocked that film of The Interrupters ’ ambition, quality, and heart didn’t get in…[Its omission from the Top 15 cut ] is a disgrace to our branch, and I don’t mind saying that publicly. And it’s not about taste. I think we can all agree that that is a great piece of documentary filmmaking. Likewise, Senna was a gripping character portrayal of a very interesting man, but also an exciting cinematic experience. Both those films found audiences as well. I was also surprised that Bill Cunningham didn’t make the last, which is a charming and lovely film.” Marsh’s criticism extends to the Oscar documentary selection process, which this year earned a set of revisions . But the branch member also had words for the foreign documentary category, which he says demands attention. “Something is not working here and it’s an annual controversy. I think the system that’s being mooted now is a slight improvement, but [the Best Documentary] category does have a responsibility to getting these films exposure, and we’re also eliminating a lot of foreign documentaries that really should be part of this discussion as well. There was a Danish film called Armadillo two years ago; brilliant film that didn’t get anywhere in that category. We need to try and rectify this.” • Oscar-winning MAN ON WIRE director James Marsh rips Best Doc Oscar noms, talks brilliant new film SHADOW DANCER [SUNfiltered]
Controversial Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani was recently banned from her homeland after the French fashion magazine Madame Le Figaro published topless photos of her, thus prompting a support page on Facebook featuring other Iranian activists posing topless or entirely nude. Oy, guys, you’re doing it wrong. I’m all for freedom and would love to see things like A Separation ‘s dual Oscar nominations and Farahani’s personal choices and just basic human rights of filmmakers like Jafar Panahi respected. Yes to all these things! But let’s be honest: If your goal is to raise global awareness with a Facebook page in Farahani’s name, then you’re probably best off not turning the site into some lo-fi variation on AdultFriendFinder — which was never especially hi-fi to begin with. (Click the image at right for a NSFW look.) I doubt that the conservative-minded leaderships of both Facebook and Iran will be down with this, and then what? We’re right back where we started. Anyway, the page is currently hovering around 3,500 likes. I’d lend it some #ConsiderUggie juice , but he’s nude in his photos, too, so hey. Anyone want to volunteer a more persuasive approach? [via TheWrap ]
