Normally, I like to lead my Sundance coverage with the positive. At this festival, it’s an article of faith that a terrific movie, no matter how small, takes precedence over a lousy movie, no matter how big. But I Melt With You, a men-behaving- badly “shocker,” may be a special case. Fifteen minutes into it, I wanted to walk out; 45 minutes in, I wanted to commit seppuku. And there was still more than an hour to go! Through the torture of it all, I began to grasp that this was no ordinary bad movie. It’s howlingly, outrageously bad. Imagine some drug-drenched hetero version of The Boys in the Band written by Andrew Dice Clay and directed like the most badass Michelob commercial of 1991. I Melt With You is an artifact of awfulness, a cinematic train crash that should be studied in screenwriting and directing classes for years to come, as a kind of one-film encyclopedia of what not to do. READ FULL STORY »
Archive: January 2011 (21-30 of 237)
Sundance: 'I Melt With You,' featuring Jeremy Piven, Thomas Jane, and Rob Lowe behaving badly, is one of the worst movies I've ever seen
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'Beginners' trailer: Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer will make you cry happy tears
I didn’t know anything about Beginners when I watched the preview. When Ewan McGregor started talking to his dog, my interest was piqued. When Christopher Plummer appeared as McGregor’s father, with the twin revelations that he was dying of cancer and was (surprise!) gay, I was legitimately intrigued. And that’s about when Mélanie Laurent — who played the vengeful Shoshanna in Inglourious Basterds — showed up as McGregor’s love interest. Decide for yourself whether Beginners looks charming or twee, but you have to admit: It looks unusual. READ FULL STORY »
Sundance: Will somebody please buy 'Tyrannosaur'?
Image Credit: TURE LILLEGRAVEN FOR EWOf the 10 movies I saw over the weekend I spent at Sundance, hands down the best one was Tyrannosaur, the directorial debut of English actor Paddy Considine (In America). Based on Considine’s 2007 BAFTA-winning short film Dog Altogether, Tyrannosaur stars powerhouse Scottish actor Peter Mullan (My Name Is Joe, Boy A) as a rage-filled West Yorkshire alcoholic who develops a shaky friendship with an unhappily-married woman who works at a Christian charity store. The lead female role is played by Olivia Colman, a British comedian in an atypically dramatic performance. READ FULL STORY »
Box office preview: Will Anthony Hopkins have 'The Rite' stuff?
Some may say October is the scariest time of the year, but for moviegoers it’s really January. The first month is a spooky graveyard where badly reviewed movies can rise from the dead, hungry for brains and dollars. This week sees the release of two newcomers, The Rite and The Mechanic, both of which will do battle with last weeks’ Nos. 1 and 2, No Strings Attached and The Green Hornet. On the higher-quality end of the spectrum, Academy Award nominations were announced this week, which may drive some crowds to more prestige-y options, but for the most part, it will likely be a battle between these four flicks. Here’s what my Magic Movie 8-Ball says:
1. The Rite: $18 million READ FULL STORY »
DGA and SAG this weekend: Who will win?
Image Credit: Merrick MortonOn the heels of The King’s Speech’s surprising win at the Producers Guild Awards, the industry’s two other major guild prizes, the Directors Guild and the Screen Actors Guild, will be handed out this weekend. As is the case with the PGA, there is significant overlap between the other two guilds and the Academy. But don’t expect unanimity in this year’s ultra-tight race. Although Speech director Tom Hooper has a great shot to win the DGA on Saturday night, I’d still say The Social Network‘s David Fincher is the favorite to take home the prize. (The other nominees are Black Swan‘s Darren Aronofsky, Inception‘s Christopher Nolan, and The Fighter‘s David O. Russell.) The SAG nominees for Best Cast, meanwhile, are The King’s Speech, The Social Network, The Fighter, Black Swan, and The Kids Are All Right. Though Speech‘s large, prestigious, and mostly British cast could certainly land the trophy on Sunday, my money is on The Fighter for the win.
Should my predictions come to fruition, it would be the first time three movies split the guilds since 2005. That year, The Aviator won the PGA, Million Dollar Baby took home the DGA, and Sideways was the SAG winner. Interestingly, in that case it was the DGA that ended up presaging the Best Picture winner. So even though it has four fewer overall nominations than The King’s Speech, we shouldn’t count out The Social Network just yet. If Hooper takes the DGA on Saturday, however, then Speech may be a done deal.
Jon Hamm and Nicole Kidman to bestow SAG Awards
Jon Hamm, Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Renner, and Sofia Vergara, who each has been nominated for a guild acting trophy this year, will be presenters at Sunday night’s 17th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. Jason Bateman and Robin Wright will also present awards during the ceremony, which will air live on TNT and TBS at 8 p.m. ET.
Read more:
SAG seating assignments: Who’s sitting where?
Screen Actors Guild Awards on EW’s Must List
Awards Season Calendar 2011: See it here!
SAG Awards give ‘True Grit’ stars some love: A look at Oscar implications
SAG’s TV nominations: What did they miss?
SAG Awards: ‘Modern Family’ and Betty White(!) nab honors
Oscar predictions: Post-SAG rankings
Sundance video: 'Homework' star Emma Roberts finally plays a real girl
Image Credit: TURE LILLEGRAVEN FOR EWKind of like a female Pinocchio, all Emma Roberts wants to be is a real girl.
The actress (who turns 20 in February) has snooped around as Nancy Drew, kept a mermaid in Aquamarine, and maintained a Hotel for Dogs, but Roberts tells EW that she rarely gets to play a normal person her own age. (In last year’s dramedy It’s Kind of a Funny Story, she came close — but even that character was more emotionally damaged than “normal.”) Her character in the Sundance drama Homework is perhaps even more normal than she is, given that she’s actor Eric Roberts’ daughter and Julia Roberts’ niece. READ FULL STORY »
Will Kristen Stewart play Snow White?
Image Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Getty ImagesLast month we wondered which Hollywood lady might be best to play Snow White in Universal’s upcoming Snow White and the Huntsman. Today brings a new and interesting twist, as Kristen Stewart is the latest name being mentioned for being in talks with the studio to play the fairy tale princess. Plus, as Variety reports, the studio is courting Viggo Mortensen to play the role of the titular Huntsman.
If Kristen Stewart (who is still at work on the last Twilight installment, Breaking Dawn) came aboard, along with Mortensen and Charlize Theron — long rumored to be in negotiations to play the evil Queen — this Snow White project directed by Rupert Sanders is shaping up to have some major star power. Between the rival Snow White project, all this new casting news, and Catherine Hardwicke’s Red Riding Hood on the horizon, can we surmise that this is, in fact, all part of the Twilight effect?
Read more:
Who do you think should play Snow White?
Snow White is slowly taking over Hollywood
10 Disney Princesses: Ranking their Hairdos
'Life in a Day': Tonight, attend the Sundance premiere from the comfort of your home
Wish you could attend a Sundance Film Festival premiere without, well, making the trek to snowy Park City, Utah? You’re in luck — for the first time, Sundance is live-streaming a film’s premiere, including the screening itself and a post-screening Q&A. You couldn’t find a more appropriate film for this honor than Life in a Day, a documentary that took more than 5,000 hours of footage submitted on YouTube and whittled it down to a 90-minute film about living during a single day. On July 24, 2010, director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) and executive producer Ridley Scott invited YouTube users to film their lives during that single day. More than 80,000 individuals participated — I do not envy editor Joe Walker’s task of condensing that material to a feature-length film.
I’ll be attending the premiere tonight and will report back, but if you’d like to watch the screening as well, visit the film’s premiere site (which is, naturally, hosted on YouTube). The live-streaming coverage starts tonight at 8 p.m. EST. See you there!
Sundance: Vera Farmiga triumphs in the evangelicals-are-people-too drama 'Higher Ground'
Image Credit: Molly HawkeyI don’t agree with most of the attacks on Hollywood by Christian fundamentalists, but there’s one criticism — and it’s a major one — that they’re absolutely right about: When it comes to portraying people of faith, Hollywood is worse than disrespectful — it’s shamefully disinterested. When a comedy like Saved, much as I’m a fan of it, passes for a vital vision of American Christian experience, you know that there’s something missing in our movie culture. (Robert Duvall’s The Apostle is a great film, but it’s about as far from the lives of everyday Christians as you can get.) READ FULL STORY »
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