The Jordanian film Captain Abu Raed was well-received when it toured the festival circuit in 2008, winning the World Cinema Audience Award at Sundance that year among its several honors, but it never obtained wider distribution in theaters. Now that it's available on DVD, maybe it will finally get a broader audience it requires -- after all, you can't make a message film about helping others and changing young lives without wanting the world to see it.
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She's Out of My League is a mood piece. Lacking substance, originality, or a coherent treatment of its putative subject matter -- self-image and the defeatist hierarchies we compose from social and superficial assumptions -- it's the kind of goob-fest that relies almost completely on the amenability of its viewers. But the thing is, if you know that, on the right day, you are entirely capable of losing it over a perfectly delivered sexy yoda joke, a "slapshot regatta" sequence, or even the kind of nasty body humor you might sneer at in a more sensible (or harassed) frame of mind, director Jim Field Smith has made a movie just for you. This can be a tough thing to accept, especially if you (and your horrified seatmates) don't see it coming; there were a couple of points where I thought I might accidentally suffocate myself in my attempt to maintain some kind of cool. Which actually just moves me farther into the ranks of the film's classic band of misfits.
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A snappy U.S. trailer is making the rounds today for the upcoming film Boogie Woogie, which makes the ensemble satire look like, as Vulture notes, "Valentine's Day but about art." You know what doesn't make the movie look like that? The original international trailer, which is just one hot lesbian sex scene after another, with the occasional shot of Heather Graham, Gillian Anderson, and Amanda Seyfried. (There's just something about Seyfried, international trailers, and girl-on-girl action, isn't there?) Movieline's got both trailers for you. Go ahead and pick your favorite -- the verdict is yours.
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The elements! Earth! Air! Fire! Water! Taffeta! The first four of those things live inside Nina Garcia's "You really wasted my time" glare, and that's worth commemoration according to Bunim-Murray. Last night's Project Runway reunited us with the immaterial world, and for that we'll always resent it a little.
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· Coming Soon has the first look at Pixar's upcoming, Toy Story 3-attached short film, Day & Night.
· After Howard Stern's post-Oscar criticism, Jessica Simpson has come to Gabourey Sidibe's defense: "It's unfortunate because she walked the red carpet at the Oscars and she owned it."
· Quentin Tarantino's rep says he will not be providing a voice to the Smurfs movie, though if they want to send over any barefoot Smurfette footage, he's totally fine with that.
· Disneyland is planning a Tron monorail! A Tronorail?
· The Princess and the Frog may have inspired little girls to kiss amphibians and catch salmonella. This imitative behavior never would have happened if they'd called it The Gender-Neutral Monarch Who Might Even Be a Boy and the Frog.
You always knew last year's rare Universal hit Couple's Retreat had to experience some economic misfortune somewhere along the line. Today it arrives from an unexpected place: Meet Irina Krupnik, a former model who was more than a little troubled to learn that her photograph had been used as a "masturbatory prop" by Jon Favreau's character. This calls for a lawsuit!
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Teenage babysitters are one of the most-overlooked demographics in unemployment reports these days, but that doesn't mean they aren't suffering. Increasing lay-offs mean less date nights which means that your 15-year-old neighbor isn't saving up nearly enough cash for that Acutane treatment. But she, and all gig-less teens on your block, can rest easy tonight knowing that Jo Malone's primetime tutorial could give them the marketable skills that will make them indispensable to parents of bratty children in the future.
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After a near-miss with an ill-conceived Harvey remake (whew!), the contenders for Steven Spielberg's first post-Tintin project have narrowed to a shortlist of five, reports the tireless Mike Fleming at Deadline. Read on for a handy illustrated field guide to help tell apart your Gershwins from your Lincolns, and your War Horses from your robo-soldiers.
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Any review of the maudlin, meandering Robert Pattinson drama Remember Me will always get around to mentioning the Big Twist Ending, so let's just get it out of the way now: There's a Big Twist Ending that anyone paying attention to the film's internal clock and visual cues can see coming a mile away. I won't spoil it, because one of the film's few involving qualities lies in spotting these hints as director Allen Coulter and first-time screenwriter Will Fetters deliver them. Other than that, get ready for a marathon of angst, grief, romance and loving close-ups of gorgeous young people in the middle of it all.
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We've known for a while that most of James Cameron's cultural references still date back to the 80's, and new news just confirms it. According to Mike Fleming, Cameron has been brought on board the remake of the 1981 animated anthology Heavy Metal, and he, David Fincher, and Zack Snyder will all be directing separate segments. Just imagine the Martini Ranch video in fully animated 3D, starring Amazonian space cowboys. I'm salivating already. [Deadline]
Whether they serve as the marquee name on a network show or edify an ensemble with fast-deployed zingers, these women of primetime substantiate 2010 as a golden age of comedy. In our countdown we embrace live performers, scripted superstars, supporting cast members, new talent, veterans, and cable outlaws. The No. 1 pick is also our candidate for the task of Uncontested Comic Dictator For Life.
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Pop quiz: You're producing a late night talk show and one of your guests for the next night cancels. What do you do? If you're the Late Show, your talent department speed dials Regis Philbin. If you're the Tonight Show, you cue up some last-minute Headlines or text message Chelsea Handler and ask props to come up with some kinky set ideas. And if you're the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, you enlist that day's guest (Lisa Kudrow) to just tape four segments to spread across the next two shows and bribe your comedian friend to do a last-minute segment for free gin and tonics. Of course, the latter option has consequences, like a destroyed set, but those are the risks you take on CBS, as any CBS host would tell you. Click through for that clip, as well as the other highlights you missed last night while consulting your new psychic manager.
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Aside from The Runaways, Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart have appeared in three other projects together -- two Twilight installments and the Kate Hudson-directed short Cutlass -- but it's only in next week's band biopic that the two finally get to show off the rapport they've always had in real life. Each is well-cast in The Runaways, and when Movieline spoke to Fanning and Stewart yesterday in Los Angeles, they recalled their characters both literally and subconsciously: The 16-year-old Fanning is as California wholesome as Cherie Currie with the same cool, intellectual drive, while the 19-year-old Stewart is all inchoate passion and feeling, channeling Joan Jett's emotional thrusts despite her own delicate frame.
So what was it like to play two young girls on the precipice of fame when both Fanning and Stewart have been dealing with it all their life? I asked them how that felt, and how they navigated the movie's tricky depictions of sexism and teen sexuality.
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Aw, hell no. Four times over. Last night's Idol showed that the voting public hates texting in for middle-of-the-pack contenders. That's the only explanation for these four eliminations, besides game theory. With tears in our eyes, Movieline has written memorials for the loser quartet.
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· Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess are in talks to co-star in One Day, the Lone Scherfig-directed adaptation of David Nicholls's novel about a man and a woman who meet for one day every year -- for 20 years -- before they realize that, yes, maybe they're in love. Unbelievable. Everybody knows that a fake Vatican business card and any decently tailored suit can close that deal in a matter of minutes. [THR]
Captain America circles a villain, Avatar plots a comeback, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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