We've been warned about Rabbit Hole's unremarkable qualities, but I'm still jonesing to see it. Its Pulitzer-winning source material is a modern classic, the flawless Dianne Wiest co-stars, and no holiday season is complete without a big cinematic downer. But in a new poster for the film, the devastation that pervades Nicole Kidman's life is captured in an image that might be suitable for something less classic -- like, say, a Zoloft ad.
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· Susan Boyle sings like an angel...except when she gets a frog in her throat and can't finish "O Holy Night" on The View. It's awkward, but for the 40ish or so seconds before she bails, it's also breathtakingly beautiful. What? She has a good voice, OK?! Click ahead to watch, and stick around for more Buzz Break.
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Remember Jimmy McMillan? Of course you do! The New York state gubernatorial candidate from "The Rent is Too Damn High" party was all the rage back in late October, when his crazy debate antics led to viral videos, Saturday Night Live impersonations and the other accouterments that come with 15 minutes of fame. Like a documentary.
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It's been quite a 12 hours for Winter's Bone. After winning Best Feature at Monday night's Gotham Awards, the acclaimed indie grabbed seven Spirit Award nominations, including Best Feature, Best Director (Debra Granik) and Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence). Trailing close behind with five nominations was The Kids Are All Right, though perceived Oscar contender Julianne Moore neglected to garner a notice. Click ahead to see the full list of nominees.
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As Twitter has become a legitimate source of news, opinions and even a place for television pitches, movie studios have warmed to its other feature: Promotion. Toy Story 3 was the first film to buy "ad time" in the trending topics section, but many others have partaken in this bit of nuevo-marketing madness since then. The latest is How Do You Know, the James L. Brooks dramedy scheduled for release next month. Too bad that particular promoted hashtag isn't going as well as Columbia Pictures probably hoped.
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Also in today's edition of The Broadsheet: Ben Affleck editorializes... @Vincent_Gallo wants a fake (?) word with you... You'll probably never see Leslie Nielsen's final movie... David Simon is optimistic so not optimistic about the future... Picassos found... and more...
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Remember that surprisingly serious trailer for Cowboys & Aliens? Well, supposedly we can expect the same dark tone in the actual film. Jon Favreau has said that the film is a straight Sergio-Leone-style western crossed with Ridley Scott's Alien. That sounds great! But apparently Universal is very worried that audiences are expecting a silly action-comedy instead. Hmm. This seems a bit disingenuous considering that the movie is called, um...Cowboys & Aliens. If this is the title they decided on while hoping to market a "deadly serious" film, I can only imagine the list of titles they rejected. And so, in Movieline tradition, here is that list.
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Winter's Bone made a serious bid to hang on to its Best Picture nomination in Movieline's Oscar Index at last night's Gotham Awards, taking home two awards including Best Feature. On the other hand, Best Documentary winner The Oath probably won't make much Oscar headway, since it wasn't even shortlisted. Check out the full list of winners and a rundown of the upsets in what was actually a fairly unpredictable awards show after the jump.
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· If you have 14 minutes to spare, spend them remembering Leslie Nielsen with this comprehensive montage from the master of deadpan's sixty-year career. So long, friend.
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We might have the market cornered on fine Irvin Kershner eulogies, but I hand it over to Patric Hruby to do the honors for this weekend's other illustrious deceased: "Enrico Pallazzo, an acclaimed Italian opera singer who achieved greater international fame by thwarting an assassination attempt on the queen of England while working as a baseball umpire, died Sunday. He was 84." Slow clap. [ESPN via Twitter]
While there is not much confusion about (or variation among) the themes Sofia Coppola has explored in her four feature films, she has encountered some speculation and rumor-mongering about the inspiration for some of her male characters. Continuing this trend, Coppola has recently copped to basing Somewhere's disillusioned actor (played by Stephen Dorff) on a collection of famous actors, including one Coppola family member. In honor of this acknowledgment, Movieline reviews the famous men from whom Sofia gleaned both alleged and admitted inspiration the past decade.
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· Because what everyone wants is a new HBO series that looks like Lord of the Rings and stars Sean Bean, here's an extended look at Game of Thrones. Apologies to the nerds that will likely flame me in the comments section, but the idea of watching an adaptation of George R.R. Martin's fantasy series on a weekly basis interests me none. Cool decapitation though. Click ahead to watch, and stick around for more Buzz Break.
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Bludgeoned from all sides by hype (Nicki Minaj), hubris (Kanye West), cosmetically enhanced treacle (Katy Perry) and/or some unholy hybrid of all three (Glee), I can't really overstate the palliative rush to be had from David Lynch's swell new electro-pop single "Good Day Today." Yes -- that David Lynch. And yes -- it lives up to its name.
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By now you've had a few hours to digest the news that James Franco and Anne Hathaway will host the Academy Awards next year, something that is likely a dream come true for Twentieth Century Fox (perhaps Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis can do an interpretive dance to commemorate the ten Best Picture nominees, too!). But who else was considered? Ahead, Movieline imagines 20 rejected Oscar-host pairings based on the selection of Franco and Hathaway.
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Irvin Kershner has died at the age of 87. He leaves behind some recognizable films (The Flim Flam Man with George C. Scott; Eyes of Laura Mars with Faye Dunaway) and several sequels of various prominence (The Return of a Man Called Horse, Robocop II and the renegade James Bond film Never Say Never Again), never afraid to explore and extend the story of someone else's work. So, really, it's not a huge surprise in hindsight that he accepted the challenge of The Empire Strikes Back, the 1980 effort continuing the story that George Lucas started three years earlier with Star Wars . But could anybody have expected Kershner to knock this particular sequel out of the f*cking park?
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