Did you just see that glass of water tremble à la Jurassic Park ? Could that distant rumbling be Harvey Weinstein barreling T-Rex style down the endless red carpet leading to the Kodak Theater in February? Indeed, with the announcement this week that Seth McFarlane will be hosting the 85th Academy Awards , Oscar season is now officially under way. Screeners and For Your Consideration ads shall soon be raining down upon us. So this seems as good an occasion as any to assess the buzz around Oscar hopefuls in the major categories. Prognosticating about the Oscars so early in the race, when many of the most anticipated prestige movies of the year ( Lincoln, Django Unchained, Les Miserables ) remain to be seen, may be premature, like discussing the prospect of a Gingrich/Perry 2012 ticket a year ago. But what self-respecting pundit waits to be fully informed? After all, the jockeying has already begun . BEST PICTURE ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Like last year, there could be as few as five and as many as ten nominees in this category. The locks so far are Lincoln (a biopic of Abraham Lincoln directed by Steven Spielberg could be made with animated stick figures and it would still be a shoo-in—actually, I’d like to see that…); Les Misérables (a lavish, crowd-pleasing period musical that couldn’t be more upfront about its Oscar ambitions); and Argo (Ben Affleck’s film about a CIA hostage rescue mission in Tehran under the guise of a Hollywood production — Zero Dark Thirty meets Tropic Thunder ? — got a terrific jump out of the Telluride and Toronto gates). Silver Linings Playbook , a romantic comedy with just enough of a serious edge to please Oscar voters, also had a solid Toronto run. Ang Lee’s lyrical Life of Pi delighted New York Film Festival audiences last week and there’s every reason to believe the Academy will be just as enchanted, especially since there’s a feeling Lee was screwed over when Crash was voted best picture over Brokeback Mountain in 2005. I’d be surprised if The Master didn’t get nominated for best picture, but Kristopher Tapley and Anne Thompson over at Indiewire point out that, while the acting and cinematography are spectacular, the film itself left many critics cold. Michael Haneke’s rueful rumination on love and death, Amour , which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is a bit of a long shot since it’s in French. But if Weinstein, who is distributing the film in the U.S., can get a French silent film a best picture Oscar, as he did last year with The Artist , there’s no saying what he can do with a French talkie. Rounding out the frontrunners is the oneiric bayou fantasy Beasts of the Southern Wild, which could provide this Oscar season’s feel-good, indie underdog narrative. (NB: This category will be shaken up in December, when many major contenders will be released, including Django Unchained ; The Hobbit ; Promised Land ; Zero Dark Thirty ; and The Impossible .) BEST DIRECTOR Ben Affleck Back in 1998, we all made jokes about how Ben Affleck was the luckiest man alive for tying his fate to Matt Damon’s and winning a screenwriting Oscar. But Affleck, who’s proven to be one of the best mainstream directors of his generation, may well get the last laugh — in addition to a nomination for helming Argo . Spielberg’s seat at this table has been booked for years. The Master auteur Paul Thomas Anderson is a near lock, too. Les Miserables director Tom Hooper, who won this award two years ago for The King’s Speech , will almost certainly get recognition for his use of live-action singing, which, to believe the featurette Universal put out last week, has never been attempted before in a musical of this scope. The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow could get a shot at a repeat victory with Zero Dark Thirty . The same goes for Ang Lee, who took home the best-director consolation prize in 2005, and breaks new ground this year with his innovative use of 3D in Life of Pi . If David O. Russell’s reputation as an on-set tyrant hasn’t blacklisted him so far — and judging from his 2010 nomination for The Fighter, it hasn’t — there’s a good chance he’ll get a nod for Silver Linings Playbook . Rounding out the category are heavy hitters Robert Zemeckis ( Flight ), Peter Jackson ( The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ); and Quentin Tarantino ( Django Unchained ).
Indie auteur Joe Swanberg has established himself as the reigning poster child of mumblecore, for better or worse , but as the most surprising filmmaker contributing to the Sundance hit horror anthology V/H/S (in theaters Friday) he begins branching out of his comfort zone with a newfound energy; his entry, The Sick Thing That Happened To Emily When She Was Younger , was filmed using Skype — and a script! — and is also one of the more memorable and inventive shorts in the midnight crowd-pleasing omnibus. Between his V/H/S segments (he also acts in Ti West ‘s road trip gone horribly wrong) and the forthcoming Drinking Buddies , which blends his improvisational style and mainstream stars Anna Kendrick and Olivia Wilde, Swanberg says he sees 2012 as a turning point in his creative evolution. “I feel like I’m ready to be a filmmaker,” he declared to Movieline. Read on for more with Swanberg on how he and West accomplished a lot with very little for V/H/S , why acting in Adam Wingard’s Your Next reinvigorated him as a director, and how his Drinking Buddies stars took to the Swanberg method. You’re involved in two of the segments that most scared me, so well done. How did you first get recruited for V/H/S as a director and as an actor in Ti West’s short? I might venture to say that you out of the entire slate of filmmakers are not so much, or at all, thought of as a horror filmmaker. I would agree! One of the cool things about V/H/S is I think it’s one of the first times it’s actually visible how interconnected the independent film world is, and how easily it crosses genres. I think there was a perception for a long time of mumblecore being this very inclusive little group of [Andrew] Bujalski or Aaron Katz and the Duplasses and I or something, and that the horror world did its own thing and the documentary world did its own thing. But all of us have been friends for a really long time and we just make different kinds of movies. I think Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard went to bat for me as a director for V/H/S , and it helped that [producer] Roxanne Benjamin had seen some of my other films. But I acted in Ti [West]’s first, so that was my first involvement in the project. He shot his in May and I didn’t shoot mine until August, so it was a while where I feel like Adam and Simon were lobbying for me to get the chance to do one of these. Simon wrote your segment, which makes your V/H/S segment the first time you’ve directed something you haven’t written yourself. Not only is it the first time that I’ve directed something I haven’t written, it’s also the first time that I’ve directed something that was scripted. My own films are all improvised. So it was really fun for me to play with somebody else’s material. And Simon wrote it knowing that I was going to direct it and I think he expected that I would just throw the script away once we started, but I actually really loved his script and thought it was a good first chance to go ahead and do that. Your segment uses a Skype chat as its set up for tension; we watch as Emily (Helen Rodgers, pictured with Swanberg above) experiences something strange as she chats online with her boyfriend. How did you fake it, or did you? For V/H/S we actually just used Skype, we didn’t fake it. I did a bunch of research into the best way to fake it and I realized the best way was not to fake it. We were going to build this crazy, elaborate rig with multiple cameras that were connected to each other, and the more I looked at it and researched screen capture stuff I realized we could do high definition screen capturing and actually record live Skype conversations. So it’s a film made without a camera – laptops were our cameras. But you used lighting rigs and such? Adam Wingard DPed my segment and I wouldn’t describe it as a typical lighting set-up but it was modified for our purposes. Adam was usually moving with Helen – the other funny thing is because it’s a real Skype conversation, Helen was the camera operator, essentially. She not only had to act, she was in charge of what was seen and what wasn’t seen. So we had to do pretty elaborate choreography about where and when to turn the computer, when to set it on the bed, all these sorts of things, and Adam was usually following her off-camera with lights. The computer gives off a decent glow so we had some light motivated by the computer but we also had back-up lights, and the cool effect of that is, because it’s a real Skype conversation, one of the reasons we decided it had to be real Skype was that every time it gets bright on Helen’s screen you actually see that reflected on Daniel’s screen. If it wasn’t a real Skype conversation it’d be really difficult to get those lighting rigs set up right, but it’s fun to watch and it adds to the realism because when Helen turns on a light on, Daniel’s room brightens as well. It felt almost like directing dance. And we ended up editing after the fact but most of the takes are long, unbroken, four or five minute takes involving starting in the bedroom and going out to the living room, or weaving around the kitchen, so we had to light and choreograph these long 360 set-ups. That’s pretty fantastic a feat to pull off. In Ti’s segment you acted and also operated the camera, home video-style. It’s cool to see performers having to innovate and actually work with the technology, whether in laptop or camcorder form. One of the cool things about this project was the chance to do that. I’ve used Skype before in Young American Bodies , the webseries I do – we recorded a few scenes in that which were like Skype conversations – but outside of that it becomes really gimmicky if you were to do a whole feature film based around Skype or iChat. That becomes the thing. And one of the great opportunities of VHS is I feel like all the directors were liberated to play around with ideas that might not hold up for a feature running time but that work as shorts. The Skype thing was really fun when I realized that people only have to watch it for 20 minutes, and not for an hour and a half. Well, now Paranormal Activity 4 is running with the Skype thing. I’m not saying they copied you, but yours did come first… [Laughs] I know those guys, and I doubt that they’ve seen V/H/S . It’s unlikely that it influenced them. I don’t know when they shot that movie… In Ti’s segment, what did you actually shoot on and how difficult was it to be mindful of your performance and operating the camera at the same time? I forget the model of the camera we used but it was a little handheld portable – Ti did a bunch of research on cameras. We needed one with a light, because some of the real scary things about Ti’s are when the light switches on in the hotel room from the camera. As an actor it was a fun challenge to have to be mindful of that stuff, and it’s helpful in a way because one of the difficult things about acting especially when the goal is naturalism or realism is to not overthink it. You have to just be in a situation and react. So having the camera and having something to do with my hands that was occupying my brain I think made it easier for me performance wise to react to Sophia [Takal] and be in those scenes. It’s a much different experience than having a crew and a camera pointed at my face feeling like, ‘Okay, here’s the big moment – now act natural,’ with 30 people watching and we only get to do it two times so get it right. Both you and Ti seemed to pull off these segments using so few resources. These must be two of the most affordable short films ever made. Yeah, especially going to Sundance with V/H/S was really crazy – Ti’s and my segments were not the most effects-heavy of the bunch. The Radio Silence one at the end has a lot of really amazing visual effects, and David Bruckner’s, they built that monster creature and Glenn McQuaid’s has that video killer. Ours have pretty much practical effects. But all of them were really affordable. Even the super effects-heavy ones were made on moderate budgets, so it was great to go to Sundance and have the movie feel big despite the fact that it’s a low budget movie. In your career so far you’ve made so many films in such a short time – you’re one of the busiest filmmakers around, especially since you’re not only directing movies, you’re also acting in other people’s films. How do you feel like 2012 Joe Swanberg is most changed from 2005 Joe Swanberg? Starting with going to Sundance with V/H/S , I’m having the time of my life in 2012. It’s been the best, most fun year of my life as a filmmaker and it’s because I feel like I’m doing so much outside of what I’m typically known for. All the movies that I made in 2010 and 2011 when I was hyper-productive, that was sort of my last big push almost as a student; I was making a lot of work in an effort to keep getting better as a filmmaker and keep pushing myself to try things I hadn’t done before. Now I feel like with V/H/S and Drinking Buddies , which I just finished and stars Olivia Wilde and Anna Kendrick and Jake Johnson and Ron Livingston – it’s a much bigger production than I’ve done before – I feel like I’m ready to… be a filmmaker. I’m embracing being a director and what that means. Obviously I’ll be practicing and learning my whole life, but I feel like the kind of workmanlike attitude I’ve had the last couple of years is paying off now in the sense that I’m getting to put that practice into bigger productions that are being seen by more people. Do you feel like this evolution is marked in your process, or your creative choices? It’s in both, actually. A big turning point for me came when I was acting in You’re Next , Adam and Simon’s movie. Getting to be on the set of not a big budget movie, but one much bigger than the ones I make, and seeing Adam, who I’ve worked with really closely on $10,000 movies directing a much bigger movie with a full-sized crew and 20 actors and all these elaborate action sequences, I realized I’m interested in challenging and pushing myself. I don’t just want to shoot conversations in apartments. It would behoove me as a filmmaker, I realized, to know how to do that other stuff. Even if I never make an action movie it would be useful as a director to know how to shoot an action sequence. So I came away from that acting experience feeling energized as a director, to try new things. And V/H/S was the first thing I did. After that I went with an attitude of, like, cool – here’s an opportunity for me to do something I’ve never done before and to really mess it up. Not take the easy route. Figure out how to do this camera work and figure out how to do special effects and really make something that’s going to push me out of my comfort zone. And did that extend to Drinking Buddies ? The same was true with Drinking Buddies , which was still improvised but improvised on a much bigger level, with a full crew that I had to learn to work with. I basically took the process that I normally use with three actors and two crew and do it with 20 actors and a 40-person crew. I’m looking for those challenges now. I’m looking to broaden my spectrum a bit. Drinking Buddies is your biggest movie to date, and it features mainstream actors – how did they adjust to your process? You’ve practically established your own indie subgenre working in a specific style and with regular collaborators. When you were casting did you find that many mainstream actors fell into step with your sensibilities? I went into the casting with the same attitude that I’ve used to cast all of my movies with my friends, which is, who are these people? Are they easy to talk to? Do they have interesting lives and things they’re interested in outside of acting that we can use in the movie? Are they fun to be around? It really was almost the identical process, and the result was I ended up with more people who I love and who gave amazing performances and who are totally ready to show up and figure it out every day. It’s possible they were intimidated by the situation but they never let on. They were really excited to collaborate with me and create these characters. I’m deep into editing right now, and the performances are amazing. Everybody’s going to look at these actors in a new way because of this movie – they’re all really alive in an exciting way. So it’s given me confidence to keep doing this and to feel like I can work with bigger name actors, and that the process isn’t antithetical to the kind of work I’ve been doing in the past or that they’ve been doing. What did you learn about Anna and Jake and Olivia that you then integrated into their characters? All of them, the way that I like to work is that everybody is kind of playing a version of themselves. I write characters and create a very simple set-up, and with the actors I flesh it out. There’s not one specific thing I could point to other than to say when you watch this movie you’ll be watching a really interesting hybrid of my ideas that I came into the movie with and their personalities that they brought to it. There’s a lot of acting happening, and there’s a lot of real stories being told. As is always the goal, I feel like I came out of the film feeling these people were my friends and not just actors I hired for a movie. We all learned a lot about each other during the shoot because that’s how the process works. The more everybody shares, the better the movie is and also the easier it is to create these relationships that don’t actually exist in real life. Side note: I noticed that when you announced your cast for Drinking Buddies you earned a mention on Perez Hilton. Was that the moment when you realized you’d made it in Hollywood? I actually wasn’t aware of that! One of the things about making movies that people started to watch and write about is that they also write mean things a lot of the time. [Laughs] I’ve been pretty disconnected for the past couple of years from any of the press stuff surrounding the movies, so I typically hear about it via friends. I certainly never go looking for it anymore. But now I know! V/H/S is in select theaters Friday. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Here are the fattest chicks on TV at the Emmy Awards showing off their tits that hardly impress me – not cuz I don’t love tits…but cuz I don’t love tits that come with fat chicks…. I know they didn’t get dressed thinking how they can impress me – but I do know for a fact that at least Kat Dennings knows who I am because she blocked me on twitter but more importantly tried to sue me for posting some topless pics she leaked in efforts to get noticed and land a TV gig……which shee did. And like Christina Hendricks she challenges the capacity of wide screen TVs pretty fucking aggressively every week…. I know you are all gonna get mad at me….cuz she has fans and cuz you are used to fatter chicks…and I know you don’t care about fat if it comes with tits….but you are all blinded by the cleavage..and really I don’t care either way, I have better shit to worry about than these twats, like when I am going to get to take another nap today, but I will say I’m not impressed with cleavage on a fat chick ever…cuz cleavage on a fat chick is the only fucking move a fat chick has…and cleavage on a fat chick from overeating is about as impressive as watching a bitch overeat…but I am still a dude, and I still love tits, cuz tits are fun to play with… and should be celebrated even when they come with obesity, even when I hate obesity, cuz I married obesity….but as these two prove, tits have the power to distract from diabetes in training…. TO SEE THE REST OF THE PICS CLICK HERE
When Taylor Swift is not filling her pussy up with 18 year old Kennedy cock she is trying to marry….she’s filling it up with fabric…. She’s a wholesome for the sake of her career, money maker with the best scam…singing tedious…poptart…candy coated generic bullshit tween songs that have the intellectual substance of a kids show….that say all the obvious shit that have the same depth as a fucking puddle…for the retards of the world to relate to….cuz most people don’t have fucking brains…. Her shit is on the radio whenever I turn on the radio and that’s the kind of shit that makes me want to blow my fucking brains out…but instead all wait for this cartoon character of a teen icon to fucking crack…cuz you know it will…and one day her stage show will involve her screaming death medal or obscure lesbian art songs about rape and torture while fisting herself covered in pigs blood…cuz flowers and butterflies bullshit with no substance only last so long before serious fucking collapse….you can only be a marketing tool….corporate puppet for so long before the real you wants to break free….and this fabric insertion is a start….a foreshadow of what’s to come… TO SEE THE REST OF THE PICS CLICK HERE
Rihanna posed in some high waited shorts and a bikini top like a teen girl who listens to too much Miley Cyrus….because she’s likely got less of an education that them.. you know pulled out of school at 14 and unregulated like the American kids in show business because she wasn’t American…but more of a refuge, stowaway, orphan, child bride…whatever you want to call it….it worked for her and she’s famous and rich and doesn’t need an eight grade education….all she’s gotta do is post pics of bikinis on the internet and sing the occassional song and bitch is set…in ways even tourists who visit her country aren’t….and as long as she’s putting up the bikini pics and there is a volume button on the radio…I dig it…cuz There’s just something about Rihanna, and that thing is not that she lets her men beat her, but cuz she just speaks to my soul….and by soul I mean penis…and by penis I mean I’d love to make sweet love to her even if all she’s into is fucking…..since no one makes love anymore…we are all just emotionless, porn influenced, perverts grinding out….it is really tragic…
They’re all coming back. Despite rumors and quotes to the contrary, all Season 2 cast members – including Camille Grammer and Taylor Armstrong – will play at least some role on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 3. Bravo confirmed as much this week by releasing the first official cast photo for new episodes, which kick off November 5. It includes many familiar faces along with two brand new ones: Yolanda Foster and Marisa Zanuck . What can fans expect when these newbies join the scripted action? Season 3 will feature tension between Adrienne Maloof and Lisa Vanderpump, along with Kim Richards trying to remain sober and Armstrong continuing to suck as a human being. WATCH THE OFFICIAL TRAILER BELOW.
The popular gay men’s social network / meetup site referenced in Paris Hilton’s anti-gay comments has Tweeted a response … and it’s pretty hilarious. If you missed it, Paris was secretly recorded in a cab with a gay male friend, going off on how gays are horny, disgusting and probably AIDS infected. Seriously. In context, she was referring only to those who use Grindr. Grindr tweeted at her after the clip leaked, writing, “Frankly, we’re surprised that you hadn’t heard about Grindr sooner, given some of the guys you date.” The site then links, amusingly, to a similar version of this photo: This would be Paris and her ex-boyfriend Doug Reinhardt at a 2009 costume party, with Doug dressed like a … we don’t even know, but well played, Grindr. Paris Hilton’s exact quote about Grindr was that “Gay guys are the horniest people in the world … they’re disgusting. Dude, most of them probably have AIDS.” No word if Grindr also plans on linking to pics of Paris Hilton and Stavros Niarchos.
Lady Gaga’s revealing costumes have been getting plenty of attention lately, but not for the usual reasons. They’ve been revealing … significantly more Gaga. Her recent weight gain has sparked rumors that Taylor Kinney got Lady Gaga pregnant , but that’s not the case. The 26-year-old has just put on a few pounds. Like 25, if we’re counting. So she admitted in an interview with Elvis Duran, telling the radio host that it’s all due to one thing: Too much Italian food! “I love eating pasta and pizza,” says Gaga. “I’m a New York Italian girl. That’s why I have been staying out of New York. My father opened a restaurant. It’s so amazing.” “It’s so freaking delicious, but I’m telling you I gain five pounds every time I go in. So my dad wants me to eat [there] and I’m, like, I’ve got to go where I can drink green juice.” Gaga says she’s all good with the extra padding, but is now on a diet. “I’m dieting right now, because I gained, like, 25 pounds,” the singer told the radio show . “And you know I really don’t feel bad about it, not even for a second.” “I have to be on such a strict diet constantly. It’s hard because it’s a quite vigorous show, so I tend to bulk up, get muscular, and I really don’t like that.” “So I’m trying to find a new, improved balance now.” That includes smoking weed on stage apparently. [Photo: WENN.com]
My name is Pauline, I’m 16 and I live in Paris, France . I’ve been a belieber since 2009. I’ve seen Justin for the first time in February 2011 for the ‘Never Say Never 3D’ premiere in Paris. I waited 11 hours outside and I saw him 5 minutes but I was the happiest. I’ve been to the MWT in Paris but before, I waited the whole day in front of his hotel and I saw him less than a minute but I didn’t care, I was happy. The next time I saw him was in November 2011, it was very fast but I had the chance to get an autograph. I always did my best to see him even if it was only 5 minutes. I skipped school and I waited hours and hours in front of the hotel. When I’ve heard he will be back in Paris in June, I entered all the contests to win tickets for the NRJ Music Tour or to see him inside the radio but I lost all of them. Then I’ve entered to win a M&G but I was continuing to loose every contest. It was Wednesday and Justin was coming the next day. I was totally losing hope. Thursday, I skipped school so I could go to his hotel. It was 11am and I saw on Twitter I lost another contest, there was only one contest left but I was totally hopeless. Someone tweeted me I was one of the winners! I was so happy, happy is not even the word, I was freaking out. It was incredible. The M&G was that Friday. I had to be in front of the back doors of Universal at 1pm. (But let’s go back to Thursday) Everything was crazy: I went to Justin’s hotel with my best friend and waited until 2am. Justin had a private showcase with only a few beliebers who won a contest and he had an accident, he ran into a glass door but he didn’t’ stop the show. We were all so worried, we saw Justin’s car going into the parking. Scooter came outside and told us what happened, he told us a doctor was coming to see Justin. My best friend and I went home. I didn’t really sleep, I was thinking about all the things I wanted to tell him during the M&G. The next day, 1st June 2012, my mom drove me to Universal and waited with me. She is so supportive and knows how much meeting Justin was to me . I really can’t thank her enough. A guy came out with a list of names and started reading it. We went in a room and waited, I met some amazing beliebers, I was so happy to be there. We were living this together and it was priceless. We waited 30 minutes and Justin came, I still can’t believe I met him. He was so sweet, he shook everyone’s hands. We talked with him, he told us he felt better than yesterday. It was the moment of the picture, I was with two of my friends, I was near Justin, I always thought the day I will meet him, I will start crying but I didn’t. I was so happy, I was the most happiest girl in the world at this very moment. We asked him how he felt and he shows us his bump on his forehead and let us touch it. He was so sweet, you just have to look in his eyes to know how much he loves his fans. We took the picture and I asked for a hug and he said, “Of course come here.” It was the most incredible thing ever. I was dreaming of this since 2009 and it was finally happening. It was a real hug, not just a 2 seconds hug, he cares about his fans. I remember saying, “I love you Justin” at the end and he told me he loved me back. I never wanted to let him go. It was the hardest part of the M&G. We were all speechless and happy. Justin was going to sing at the balcony so we ran outside and waited for him to sing. This day was one of the best day of my life. I know sometimes it’s hard to believe in “Never Say Never”, I know how sometimes you feel hopeless. But please, to everyone who didn’t meet Justin yet, you will. Dreams really do come true if you never stop believing, because of Justin I never gave up even if I felt hopeless. He is my inspiration and I love him with all my heart. I want to thanks Justin for everything. He truly is an amazing person. He loves us and he cares about us. So if you ever feel hopeless, remember I was too. – @itspauline_ Here’s my video when I met Justin. Read the original: My name is Pauline, I’m 16 and I live in Paris, France….
Bang! Bang! Chief Keef is a relative newcomer to the rap game. After gaining some local fans in his hometown of Chicago last year, Keef’s buzz went viral this year thanks to some videos and his March mixtape, Back From The Dead . Included on that mixtape was the banger “I Don’t Like.” What really helped Keef’s name get the computers putin’ and into the mainstream masses though, was when Kanye West , along with Pusha T, Big Sean and Jadakiss, remixed the song. Seems like you can’t turn on the radio, hit the block or get to a red light without hearing the roaring chorus “THAT’S THAT SH** I DON’T LIKE!!” cementing itself into your membrane. None of this seems to matter to Chief Keef, who took to Twitter this past weekend to let everyone know that he doesn’t think Kanye’s major musical cosign deserves much credit for helping his young career: Now this is some isht we don’t like. No one knew who this ashy mop head rapper was before Yeezy remixed his song. Why bite the hand that clearly is trying to help? Someone get this child a seat. Twitter
