Some guys have all the luck. And then there's John Alighieri, the hapless, modestly ambitious insurance adjuster played by Steve Buscemi in this week's St. John of Las Vegas. A one-time compulsive gambler whose unparalleled of run of crap luck thrust him into self-exile from his beloved Vegas, John has since settled well enough into his job that he requests a raise from his mildly sadistic boss (Peter Dinklage). To get it, though, will require John to embark on a quirky, dangerous, Coens-esque road trip inspired by Dante's Inferno, accompanied by his adversarial anti-mentor Virgil (Romany Malco) and greeted along the way by a wheelchair-bound stripper (Emmanuelle Chriqui), a survivalist/nudist hybrid (Tim Blake Nelson), a human torch (John Cho) and other citizens in the circles around the Hell that is Las Vegas. Sarah Silverman rounds out the ensemble as John's smiley face-obsessed co-worker/girlfriend.
Buscemi spoke recently with Movieline about St. John and the glitzy yet sad allure of Las Vegas in movies, his belief in luck, his forthcoming HBO series Boardwalk Empire and the rapidly approaching 20th anniversary of Reservoir Dogs.
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If Jonah Hill could tell you one thing, it would be this: You don't know Jonah Hill. That was a point the star of Superbad and Funny People couldn't emphasize enough when I met with him in Park City yesterday to discuss his hilarious and affecting work in Cyrus. In Jay and Mark Duplass's first foray into the semi-big leagues, Hill plays the title character -- a devious, passive-aggressive man-child who makes John C. Reilly's life a living hell when he starts to infringe upon the cozy domestic arrangement Cyrus shares with his young mom, played by Marisa Tomei. We spoke with Hill about the fun of showing fans some creepy new colors, the horrors of Twitter identity-theft, and what is shaping up to be the "proudest year" of his life.
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The last year's been good to Anthony Mackie. Not only did he star in one of the most acclaimed and awarded movies of 2008, Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq War thriller The Hurt Locker, but he's got Night Catches Us at Sundance, where he acts opposite Kerry Washington as a former Black Panther.
Mackie's always a fun, candid interview subject, and when Movieline spoke to him just before the festival began, the 30-year-old actor opened up about his new film, his bold Bigelow prediction, and the problems he's faced lately in Hollywood.
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Jennifer Lawrence isn't the only actor to make an impression in Winter's Bone -- as her terrifying, tattooed uncle Teardrop, John Hawkes (Deadwood, Me and You and Everyone We Know) goes from antagonist to unlikely ally in a riveting arc. Movieline sat down with Hawkes and several others from Winter's Bone yesterday and we'll have more from that chat soon, but until then, Hawkes was happy to talk about another recent arc he's done on the upcoming sixth season of Lost.
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If I were a betting man, I might put a little cash down on Jennifer Lawrence, who's hotly tipped to take home a special acting prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival for her work in Debra Granik's Ozark drama Winter's Bone. The 19-year-old Lawrence has put in good work before in little-seen films like The Burning Plain and The Poker House, but Winter's Bone immediately announces her as a major new actress. As Ree, who struggles to provide for her brother and sister while investigating her father's disappearance, the magnetically somnambulant actress suggests Scarlett Johansson gone hillbilly.
Ree may be quiet, dirty and opaque, but in real life, Lawrence is an energetic stunner. Movieline sat down with her shortly after Winter's Bone premiered at the festival.
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Josh Radnor is suddenly a very busy man. Most people know him as the titular character from How I Met Your Mother (he'd be the "I," not the mother), but over his summer hiatus, he wrote, directed and starred in a relationship dramedy called happythankyoumoreplease that's suddenly become one of the buzziest films at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
How is Radnor dealing with his film's sudden anointment as a must-buy? Movieline sat down with him hours ago in the midst of all the frenzy.
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I just sat down with the cast of one of Sundance's early breakouts, the Josh Radnor-directed happythankyoumoreplease, and I've come back with a message for you, Internet. Radnor's love interest in the film is played by Kate Mara, and after the two of us discussed Sundance for a spell, I had to ask her about Iron Man 2. When Mara joined the cast, the trades didn't name her role, which led many to guess (and then assume) that the part was a top-secret one, most likely Tony Stark's sometime love interest Bethany Cabe.
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Here at Movieline, we're proud Franco-philes. Whether we're watching James Franco's guest appearance on 30 Rock, dissecting every episode of his General Hospital stint, or unmasking the real reason behind his soap opera inspiration (as Franco's artistic collaborator Carter told us, it's all background for an upcoming film the two are planning), we're happy to follow Franco's every move simply because the moves make up such a notable zig-zag.
Now, the actor has come to Sundance with two more feathers in his multimedia cap. Festivalgoers caught him last night in Howl, where he stars as poet Allen Ginsberg for directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, and he'll soon be screening his NYU student film Herbert White, which he wrote and directed himself. Movieline caught up with Franco today to shed some light on his novel career.
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When Movieline met up with Joseph Gordon-Levitt yesterday at Sundance's New Frontier area, he taped a video for Movieline readers to convey just how much he wants to work with you at his site hitRECord.org. As you'll be able to tell from our extended talk, he really means it! Gordon-Levitt is evangelical about discovering new artists online and collaborating with them, regardless of whether they're a first-timer. (Hey, it certainly worked for Marc Webb!) Here are some of the highlights from our conversation:
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Tina Majorino's career is like a dissertation in ways to go niche. Her most famous films have attracted ardent devotees (Napoleon Dynamite, and the most expensive cult favorite ever, Waterworld), and her most notable TV roles have their own fanatics (Veronica Mars, Big Love). Now, on the cusp of starring in her first glossy network drama The Deep End (which premieres tonight on ABC), Majorino finds herself appealing to her largest demographic yet. The 25-year-old actress talked to Movieline about this step forward in her career and how she's ready for a TV show that more people don't "hate."
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As the 2010 Sundance Film Festival beings today, Kerry Washington's accomplished the the indie cred-burnishing feat of having two buzzy films here. The first is Tanya Hamilton's Night Catches Us, where Washington reunites with her She Hate Me costar Anthony Mackie in the story of two ex-Black Panthers, and the second is Rodrigo Garcia's female triptych Mother and Child, which made its well-received debut in Toronto last fall and costars Annette Bening and Naomi Watts.
Before either of us left for Sundance, I spoke to Washington about her festival entries, the limits of control, and the challenges of her current Broadway stint in David Mamet's Race.
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At 19-years-old, Charlie McDermott is coming into his own as the hormone-fueled teenager who terrorizes the Heck household on ABC's freshman series The Middle. As the show's first season progresses, McDermott's character Axl has been upgraded from the belching, semi-nude teen preying on his insecure sister and his blue-collar parents (played by Patricia Heaton and Neil Flynn) in the background to an adolescent carrying his own fleshed-out story lines each week. When he is not working on the series, the eastern-Pennsylvania native juggles a handful of film projects including last year's Oscar-nominated Frozen River and March's Hot Tub Time Machine.
Movieline recently caught up with The Middle actor to discuss the benefits of working on a network show, how he was discovered at a 4,000 person casting call, and which role he agreed to brave the woods for.
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It's been a long while since we've last cracked open the Movieline One-Page Screenplay vault and added another starlet-slim volume to its stacks. For those microscript lovers among you, then, we have some good news: The writing team of Michael Colton and John Aboud, whom many of you might recognize as the sassy, plus-sized African-American comedy duo on VH1's Best Week Ever [ed. note: can we have an intern fact check that?], have contributed one! Planning Joanna lies just beyond...
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Imagine the most sincerely encouraging, feel-good movie you've ever seen. Then imagine the 180-degree opposite -- the most sincerely helpless-making, devastating movie you could ever see. Then imagine not being able to look away. That's Collapse in a nutshell, director Chris Smith's one-man show featuring journalist, intellectual and former L.A. cop Michael Ruppert (pictured at right) holding forth about the surpluses, shortages, conspiracies and other looming crises that threaten the world as we know it. Filmed in an empty warehouse setting with its chain-smoking subject fielding the skeptical filmmaker's questions, Collapse is designed to let viewers draw their own conclusions while underscoring the consequences of those conclusions; Smith lets nobody off the hook. The doc's scope and power have demanded reckoning from the Toronto Film Festival (where it premiered last September) to the Berlinale (where it will screen next month) to theaters and even homes nationwide, where it's currently available on demand.
Movieline recently caught up with Smith to inquire about what Collapse means to him, how to factcheck a doomsayer, and how his 1999 classic American Movie holds up after a decade.
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Daniel Dae Kim's Jin has been able to say a lot with just a little bit of dialogue -- or often, none at all -- over six seasons of Lost. Still, as ABC's epic adventure drama nears its endpoint, both Jin (who's finally become conversant in English) and Kim himself have plenty to say.
I caught up with Kim while he was in Los Angeles recently for the TCA press tour, and we indulged in our own series of flashbacks (find out the most difficult -- and rewarding -- surprises of Jin's character arc) and flash-forwards (will Jin and his star-crossed wife Sun reunite this year?) in advance of the final season's premiere on February 2.
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