Lilo has a new Man?

I have often likened Lindsay Lohan to former train wreck Robert Downey Junior in that she will one day pull herself out of the gutter and become something more than a joke in Hollyweird. I think she has the potential to be a decent actress and unlike some of her current contemporaries in the tabloids (Paris Hilton, any Kardashian) I think she has actually contributed to the world with her craft as opposed to sapping the life force and IQ points from anyone that they encounter.

Unfortunately, I may need to rethink this position. I Know Who Killed me was on TV last night. And I cannot recall when I have seen such unmitigated crap before. And not only the ludicrous story. The acting was also pretty dismal. Actually it was beyond pretty dismal. At least Lindsay got in some practice on a stripper pole right? Cause the way things are going for her, she may be looking at an alternate career in the next few years.

I follow Lilo on the Twitter. Mainly for the Lulz. Most of her recent tweets have been pretty innocuous. The crack tweets that provide so much fodder for the bloggers have been few and far between in the past couple of weeks. But her random tweets to her ‘friends’ are amusing enough. Jumping into conversations between Samantha Ronson and Mindy Kaling, but never receiving a reply from either. She comes across as just another typical fan…. Someone just like the rest of us who @replies to celebrities, even though they rarely respond. It is honestly a little pathetic. But funny as hell for me, so I say @reply on Lindsay, @reply on!

I am also highly amused by her quiet trips to AA meetings surrounded by the paparazzi. As if she didn’t tip them off herself.The pictures are those above. And I gotta give Lilo props. She doesn’t look at all like a crack whore in these photos. Perfectly staged, fresh faced Lilo! Ready to be hired. Not gonna cause any problems on set at all. What is so interesting is that tons of celebrities are working the program, but I don’t really recall seeing photos of anyone else – except those fresh out of rehab – attending meetings. Lindsay is trying really really hard to convince us that she has buckled down and is working hard on a number of new projects.

Apparently that is what she was doing when she spent the night at How I Met Your Mother star Jason Segel’s house the other night. An overnight business meeting is how it was explained. Sure. They are “co-workers”. Pfft. We all know exactly what kind of business these two likely got up to. And to that, I say to Jason Segel….. snap the f*ck out of it. You can do better. Much much better. Even Barney wouldn’t go near that. And he would bang pretty much anything with a pulse.

XO

Brothers - A Review

On paper, Brothers is exactly the kind of movie I should love. It has an extremely talented cast, a gripping story, and eye candy in the name of Jake Gyllenhaal. It upsets me more than you will ever know to say that I did not love it. It was good enough, but I wanted it to be and thought it should have been great. I expected to walk out of the theatre simply blown away by the experience, when in reality I walked out thinking… that’s it? Much Sadness.

Brothers is the remake of a Danish movie of the same name, and as generally happens with remakes, I suspect some things were lost in the translation. Jim Sheridan's film, adapted from Susanne Bier's 2004 movie, concerns Captain Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) a Marine who receives orders to ship out for yet another tour of duty in Afghanistan. But before he leaves his supportive wife, Grace (Natalie Portman), and his two elementary-school-age daughters, Sam picks up his black sheep brother, Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal), who has finished a prison stretch for robbing a bank. While overseas, Sam's aircraft gets shot down and he's thought dead. Back home, irresponsible Tommy gets his act together in order to be an anchor for Grace and the girls, and the two grow emotionally -- though not physically -- close. As the family finally begins to make peace with their grief, soldiers rescue POW Sam and he returns home. Sam's experiences overseas have caused him such emotional turmoil, he has a difficult time adjusting to civilian life, and soon his fear and paranoia manifests itself in the form of jealousy for his brother's relationship with his wife. Sam Shepard and Mare Winningham co-star as the brothers' father and step-mother. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

As I said in an earlier post, if you have seen the trailer for this flick, you pretty much know what happens. For me, as a whole, the movie felt unfinished. It just ends, pretty abruptly, with no real resolution. Sam tells Grace what happened while he was held captive, they hug….. and what…. Everything is okay again? Sam isn’t crazy anymore? Lame.

Also one major part of the story just didn’t work for me. I don’t want to completely spoil the film for the dozen or so of you reading this, but what Sam does as a POW, what tips him over the edge mentally, is so completely out of character, so totally the opposite of everything he has done thus far in the film, it feels as if it was added in simply to amp up the drama.

Happily though, this is a movie that is redeemed by the fantastic performances of Maguire, Portman and Gyllenhaal. Tobey Maguire is outstanding as the conflicted and emotionally damaged Sam. Apart from Pleasantville, I really haven’t seen him in anything but the Spiderman series. After this movie, I deffo think he needs to be in more films. His performance was disturbing, scary and heartbreaking all at the same time.

I am a huge fan of Natalie Portman. Not only for her acting (Stars Wars movies not withstanding), but also for how she has managed to avoid the pitfalls of stardom. She even went to Harvard to study psychology, and didn’t demand a security detail a la Ashley Judd. Anyways, she is also impossibly beautiful, something that I found stood against her a little in this film. She seems too gorgeous to live in that town, with those people, living that life. Performance wise though she was fabulous as always.

Do you agree that no one does puppy-dog eyed dreaminess like my boy Jake Gyllenhaal. He plays the bad boy who turns his life around perfectly. And watching Tommy horse around with his two nieces, helping them overcome their grief over the supposed death of their father made my shriveled black uterus skip a beat for just a second.

I thought the performances by the actors playing the young daughters – Bailee Madison and Taylor Grace Geare with natural and impressive. And to see Mare Winningham on the big screen again. Yay! I have adored her since St Elmo’s Fire. Her unrequited love for Rob Lowe's Billy..... sigh.


Overall, Brothers was a decent film. It was good - not great. The flaws in the film were redeemed by the impressive performances by the three leads. But I just wish it had been more ya know? I think that nine times out of ten, a remake of a foreign film falls a little bit flat. Things are typically lost in translation and the powers that be often seem hesitant to allow American audiences to see the film as it was intended to be. Don't get me started on one of my favourite foreign flicks - The Vanishing - and the travesty it became when they remade it. Bastards gave it a f*cking happy ending. Boo Hiss.

XO

Confessions of a Music Lover's I-pod

Trying very hard to be consistent with this. You know the game: "shuffle all" your electronic listening device and write down the first 15 songs that come up..... only skip if the same artist shows up.....no cheating. Give me your shameful musical secrets. I can handle it. I even have a few of my own :)

Here we go:

1. Black Hole - She & Him
2. Get on Your Boots - U2
3. When I Go - Brett Dennon
4. What I Got - Sublime
5. Little White Lies - Alexz Johnson
6. My Interpretation - Mika
7. Nan You're a Window Shopper - Lily Allen
8. Polly - Nirvana
9. Just a Girl - No Doubt
10. Season of the Witch - Terry Reid
11. Don't Drink the Water - Dave Matthews Band (Central Park Concert)
12. Another Brick in the Wall - Pink Floyd
13. Manhattan - Kings of Leon
14. Teeth - Lady Gaga
15. Secret - Missy Higgins

Wowsers. This is an odd mix. Good, just a little odd. I am seeing both Brett Dennon and Lady Gaga this week.... Weee!!!! Much excitement for both.

And much love and congratulations to my eternal musical boyfriend - The Dave Matthews Band for their Grammy nomination this year!! Yay yay yay! Not that this makes up for the Le Roi diss at last years awards, but it goes a little toward it.

Happy Sunday y'all. I am off to the movies......

XO

Bella Swan ain't in Forks anymore.....

After the insane press tour for Twilight last November, Kirsten Stewart quietly slipped back to New Orleans to continue filming an indie flick she wasn't sure would ever find an audience. That film is Welcome to The Rileys and also stars James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano) and Academy Award nominee Melissa Leo. In Jake Scott's (son of Ridley Scott) feature directorial debut, Stewart plays Mallory, a stripper and prostitute who comes into the lives of the Riley's (Gandolfini and Leo), who are struggling with the death of their daughter.

Rumours abound that Stewart will be nekkid in this role, but I doubt it. She was only 18 when this was being filmed and there are many ways to cut a film to hide the nekkidness. Regardless, it looks like she will be barely clothed for much of it, if these first images are anything to go by. I have read the script and I have to say that the film has potential. The cast is impressive and story is interesting.

Gone is the sweet, doe eyed girl Twihards know and idolise. "Bella" is replaced instead by a heavily made-up, stringy haired girl who swears like a sailor and continually offers herself to a man old enough to be her father. Oh and if my memory of the script serves me correctly, she does work the stripper pole at some point during the film.

Welcome to the Rileys will be shown at The Sundance Film Festival in January, and hopefully will find a distributor so that the rest of us can see this film at the theatre as opposed to DVD. I am a fan of Kristen. I truly believe that she will go far beyond the Twilight Saga and will be able to overcome the potential stigma of being attached to such a cheesy franchise. Thankfully, she doesn't seem to be interested in the celebrity of acting, but the craft. Either that or she is an even better actor than I thought!

Before she even signed on for Twilight, Kristen made another indie flick that has yet to see the light of day. The Yellow Handkerchief is the story of three strangers who embark on a road trip through post Katrina Louisiana. The trio head out together, each motivated by his/her own reasons: Brett (William Hurt) must decide whether he wants to return to the uncertainty of his life and his ex-wife May (Maria Bello) for whom he longs, Martine (Stewart) yearns to escape her family, and Gordy (Eddie Redmayne) hopes to get close to Martine. Likely based partly on Kristen's probable ability to open a movie, The Yellow Handkerchief is now scheduled for an April release.

Stewart also has the Joan Jett biopic The Runaways set to open next year and the James Wood directed An American Girl in the works, amongst other things. Busy, busy time for my girl Kristen. Thankfully she seems to have had a little break for the past few weeks. I haven't heard a peep from her (or should I say, I haven't seen a shot of her anywhere). Yay to some small semblance of privacy.

XO

Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire - A Review

Precious – Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire is a devastating film. Set in Harlem on the late 1980’s the protagonist of the movie – Clareece Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) - is 16 years old. She has one child who has Downs Syndrome and lives with her maternal grandmother and is pregnant with her second. Both of her children were conceived through rape at the hands of her now absent father. Precious lives with her physically and emotionally abusive mother (Mo’Nique) and she seems destined to a life of welfare and illiteracy. All of this potentially changes when she is offered a chance to try an alternative education led by the inspiring, beautiful and educated Ms Rain (Paula Patton).

Personally, I do not have any frame of reference to understand how someone can grow up this way. I am a white middle class chick whose parents were together. I had my issues and personal traumas, yes, but compared to Precious my baggage was nothing. This girl had pretty much every hardship known heaped upon her. And I guess she triumphed over most of them by the end of the film.

For me, this film rested on the performances and the acting was generally impressive. Gabourey Sidibe in the title role was very good. Considering this was her first professional role, she tackled the incredibly challenging material admirably.

Mo’Nique as Precious’ abusive mother was revelatory. There was nothing remotely sympathetic in her character. I don’t think I have ever seen Mo’Nique act before. She is a best know for her comedic roles and stand-up, but in this, she left behind her weave, her makeup, her rumoured diva attitude and lost herself in the role. She was outstanding and definitely award worthy.

Mariah Carey has redeemed herself from the travesty that was Glitter, and while she was by no means the strongest performance in the film, she held her own in her couple of scenes. She was barely recognizable as was Sherri Shepard (from The View) as the receptionist at the alternative school. I actually did not know who it was until I heard her speak. Lenny Kravitz brought in some much needed (for me) eye candy. But I do have to wonder if Kravitz and Carey’s castings were simply to garner some star power?

This film was not perfect for me however. I do not quite agree with the glowing reviews I have been reading. Although I understand that many people have hard, tough lives… what this girl goes through is every horrific thing you can imagine. This, for me, made the film not at all grounded in reality. Also, when Precious steals food, did it have to be a bucket of fried chicken? Really? Could there be a bigger cliché?

The dream sequences that Precious escapes into whenever she is being mistreated I found a little overdone. In particular there is a “scene” from an Italian movie that the practically illiterate Precious is watching on TV – an Italian movie, with subtitles, that the practically illiterate Precious is watching on TV – who knew that basic cable channels showed Italian movies that no one has heard of. And that practically illiterate teenagers would enjoy watching them. It was a little contrived.

Don't get me wrong, Precious is raw and powerful and numbing. I enjoyed it as much as you can enjoy a film about rape, abuse, incest, teen pregnancy, extreme poverty and morbid obesity. But to those who say it uplifting, I would ask them what part of being an HIV positive teenage mother of two children, one of whom has downs syndrome is uplifting? Yay to a probable death sentence?

XO

I spent the week (end) on the Jersey Shore

Back in my early twenties I spent four months on a cross country road trip through Canada and the US. I was with my best friend from University and we drove and slept all over the US and Canadialand in our two tone blue Mercury Marquis - cleverly named "Bluey". One of our stops was New Jersey to meet up with one half of an awesome couple we had met in the US Virgin Islands.

This couple had an incredibly romantic story. They had dated in High School, broken up and gone on with their lives. She had gotten married, had kids and sadly divorced. He had remained single. They reconnected and were living happily ever after. Great story, great couple. They took us to the this great bar on the other side of the island and introduced us to the most fantastic drink ever - a Bushwacker (Bailey's, Amaretto, Kahlua, Rum, Grand Marnier, Creme of Coconut - deadly delishness!!!). They were fun and interesting and had a great story. They said that if we were ever heading to Jersey (where she lived) or Ottawa (where he lived), we could deffo stay with them.

So we called her from Maryland and the silence on the phone when we announced that we were on our way was a little scary. After a few moments of awkward silence she confessed to us that 99% of the romantic story outlined above was true. The one tiny detail they had left out was that she was still married. So instead of a romantic vacation between two former flames who had magically reconnected, we had been privy to a dirrty weekend between a cheater and her lover.

So long story short, we were welcome to come stay, but she was actually heading to the famed Jersey Shore for a week with her children, friends, friends kids, nannies, and her secret lover and we should go down there with them instead. And we did. It was one of the crazier weeks of our life. Not only did we meet her husband and have to continue the lie she had told about her trip to the Caribbean, but we also had to aid in the cover-up during the week away with a bunch of kids. It was a little nutty. There were two houses and hotel room to aid in the conspiracy, an elaborate story about why her lover was there, and we had to continually lie to a bunch of children and their nannies (who clearly knew what was up & were snickering about it the whole time).

It was a wild and crazy week on the Jersey Shore. But my week ain't got nothing on the insanity that is MTV's newest reality show - aptly titled Jersey Shore. Eight 20-something Italian-American shacked up in a house together for the summer. From the first two episodes I have generalised that all Italian-Americans have nicknames - like Sweetheart and my personal favourite "The Situation". Also, all Italian-American males look like poster children for roid rage. Apparently guido and guidette are acceptable terms of endearment for people of Italian-American descent. It takes some guidettes about 4 hours to get ready to go out to a club. Italian-Americans pray before meals, but have no problem f*cking the first skank that takes her g-string off in your hot tub. I think that this show will fill the void left by The Hills and The City very nicely.

It has vapid whores who do not know how to dress, obscenely muscled chauvinistic men who like to punch things, high dramarama, higher hemlines, and even higher hair. There are more styling products in this show than I have ever encountered on television - even more than Susan Lucci on All My Children. It is crazy ridiculously atrocious television and I will be watching it every week.

I do not recall any Guido's or Guidette's in my week at the Jersey Shore. The dysfunction I was dealing with was total and complete WASP dysfunction. We do not keep in touch with either of them. We did stay with him in Ottawa, but lost touch after a few years. One day I will write a book, or at least a different kind of blog about my travel stories...... This one is one of the saner normal things that happened during those 4 months on the road. Eek! The memories....

XO

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Award Season!

Oh happy happy day!!!!!! The IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards were handed out last night. The Independent Spirit Awards nominations were announced this morning. Squeeee! You know what that means. Award Season has begun!

Hollywood starlets everywhere have stopped eating. Plastic surgeons and personal trainers are booked solid. Stylists are scratching each other's eyes out to get *the* perfect dress(es) for their clients. Political backstabbing f*ckery is in full force as production companies jostle to get their best shots front and centre in the minds of the voting panels. Most importantly though, I am ready to judge and judge and judge. Not only the outfits, but also the winners, losers and everyone in between. This is my favourite time of year. I much prefer this to Christmas! I make a concerted effort to see as many of the films that are touted as "award-worthy" so that when I rant about the winners and losers I know a little about what I am ranting about.

The 19th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards were handed out in New York City on Monday night. These awards have never really been on my radar before, probably because they only give out a few pieces of hardware. Apparently they are a good early indicator of possible Oscar nominations. I hope so cause one of my fave movies of the year - The Hurt Locker - took home Awards for both Best Feature and Best Ensemble Performance. Yay! I hope that the film ges continued recognition through award season. This was a very powerful movie about an Army bomb squad stationed in Iraq. Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie were fantastic. Soo good. The film's director - Kathryn Bigelow - was also honored at the festivities on Monday and I am hopeful that she will be one of only a handful of female directors to have received a Best Director Academy Award nomination, when the nominations are announced in the New Year.

One of my girl-crush's Natalie Portman was also honored at this Award Show, who, along with Stanley Tucci and Ralph Fiennes received Career Tribute Awards. Natalie is busy promoting her new movie - The Brothers - which could quite possibly result in yet another Academy Award nomination for this phenomenally talented young woman. I still think a Ryan Gosling - Natalie Portman coupling would be amazing and wonderful, unless Ryan get's back together with his one true love - Rachel McAdams. The incomparable Meryl Streep was on hand to honour her friend and frequent co-star Stanley Tucci. Her speech was fantastic and funny and made me love her even more. There is no-one like Meryl. Srsly. No-one. And did you see she is on the cover of January's Vanity Fair. Can't wait.

Nominations for the Indpendent Spirit Awards - held the day before the Oscars - normally in a tent on a beach in Malibu, where it is not unusual for attendees to stroll down the green carpet barefoot or in flip flops were announced today. They are seen as the anti-Oscars, but it is not unusual to see a number of nominees at both Award Ceremonies.

Leading the race is Precious - Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire with 5 nominations including acting nods for breakout star Gabourey Sidibe and Mo'Nique. I saw this movie on the weekend it pretty much wrecked me. Such a hard movie to watch, and Mo'Nique for all her supposed diva attitude gives a performance that is phenomenal and gut wrenching. Mariah Carey has redeemed herself for the travesty that was Glitter, and Lenny Kravitz is some very welcome eye-candy in an otherwise depressing film. I don't think it helped that I saw The Road straight after Precious. The Road is probably the bleakest, most numbing film I have seen in a long time. Amazing (except for the boy always calling his dad "poppa" - that made me want the kid to be a victim of cannibalism), but bleak. Seeing both these films back to back was pretty silly on my part. Made me very depressed. Thankfully though I was to depressed to do anything about my depression. (Strange but true fact; that "too depressed to do anything" line is my bastardization of a line from Pump Up the Volume - starring Christian Slater... who I am watching in The Forgotten right now.)

I was happy to see my indie movie of the summer - 500 Days of Summer get both a best acotr nod for Joseph Gordon Levitt as well as a best picture nomination. Honestly not surpised that Zoeey Deschanel was excluded, while she was good, her perfroamcne was not earth shattering for me. I am perplexed that such a critically panned movie as Gentleman Broncos received any nominations, even if it is for the fabulously funny Jermaine Clement from Flight of the Concords. I would have expected this at the Razzies, not an actual award ceremony. You may think that The Hurt Locker was snubbed, but fear not - it was nominated for the Independent Spirit Awards last year.

For a full list of nominations click here.

Yay to award shows! Yay to red (or green) carpets. Yay to primped and polished starlets who do not know how to dress and do not have the balls to stand up to their handlers and stylists. Yay to me having my Oscar Party again! Boo Hiss to the Oscars being postponed until after the Olympics. Stupid Olympics ;)

XO