David Robert Mitchell's Myth of the American Sleepover is the anti-teen movie teen movie. It's American Graffiti by way of mumblecore; it's Kids by way of Norman Rockwell. The film follows a group of moderately well-behaved teens on the last night of summer, and features enough awkward inter-sex interactions to fill up a battalion of big studio teen comedies. The one difference? The cast is filled with many new performers and -- at the time of filming in 2008 -- actually teenagers. Like Claire Sloma.
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After auditioning "five or six times" for the role of Steve Rogers, a/k/a Captain America, 27 year-old Sebastian Stan didn't get the gig. But he did get a call to discuss a different iconic character in the WWII-set Marvel comics blockbuster: James "Bucky" Barnes, Cap's best friend, sidekick, and, in Joe Johnston's big screen adaptation (in theaters Friday), a soldier who could potentially undergo big changes in future Captain America sequels.
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You know John Francis Daley from the Freaks and Geeks shrine you maintain in your rec room, but you may not realize that you also know him from his success as a screenwriter: His Horrible Bosses, which he co-wrote with Jonathan Goldstein (whom we also interviewed -- stay tuned), pulled in $28 million over its premiere weekend, edging out even Bridesmaids's debut. We caught up with the 25-year-old scribe, whose future projects with Goldstein include the Steve Carell starrer Burt Wonderstone and a remake of Vacation, and asked about Horrible Bosses's original ending, dealing with success, and residual Freaks and Geeks fanaticism.
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Twenty four-year-old Lyndsy Fonseca has been familiar to television fans since her days on The Young and the Restless (she also appeared on Boston Public, Big Love, Desperate Housewives, and as Ted Mosby's future daughter on How I Met Your Mother) but she made herself known in fierce fashion last fall as Maggie Q's cunning and loyal protégé, Alex, on The CW's lady spy series Nikita. This week Fonseca adds to her growing film slate with a turn in John Carpenter's The Ward, a '60s-set psychological horror tale also filled with complex female relationships, themes of survival, and endless twists and turns.
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In a second floor of The Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, someone left an apple on the conference table. Not that Jacob Wysocki minded. "I wish someone was like, 'Here's an apple for your interview!' I would just eat it the whole time. Crunching in the microphone." The young star of the new indie film Terri (out Friday) was in good spirits during his first ever trip to New York two weeks ago -- animated and excited to endure his first press day. Put another way: He was the exact opposite of Terri.
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Writer-director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean makes his feature debut with the L.A. Film Fest entry On the Ice, a character tale about two Alaskan teenagers wrestling with guilt after the accidental murder of a friend. With its isolated setting, cast of non-actors, and rollercoaster ride of a Sundance premiere, the indie drama isn't the easiest sell for mainstream America, but it's a film that deserves to find an audience -- a window into a generation of Alaskan teens balancing native culture with hip-hop, at a unique crossroads between community traditions and the volatile influence of urban culture.
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Utah native Riley Griffiths landed the opportunity of a lifetime when he scored a role in J.J. Abrams' Super 8. Discovered during a nationwide search for the mostly unknown young actors (including Joel Courtney, Ryan Lee, Zach Mills, Gabriel Basso, and Elle Fanning), the 14-year-old makes his film debut as the ringleader of a group of amateur filmmakers who stumble upon a mysterious government conspiracy one night when a train crashes -- literally -- across their makeshift film set.
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If J.J. Abrams' nostalgic summer sci-fi adventure Super 8 is intentionally evocative of producer (and Abrams mentor) Steven Spielberg's E.T. (1982), then 15-year-old newcomer Joel Courtney is its Elliott, the young, sensitive boy hero caught in the middle of an otherworldly mystery. It's a big role to hang on the shoulders of a newcomer -- one who won the part after visiting L.A. in hopes of landing a modest commercial gig -- but, as it turns out, the Idaho native now has bigger career goals in his sights.
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As unlikely showbiz career tracks go, Shawn Ku has one of the funkiest: Harvard-educated scientist. Passes up Columbis Medical School to hoof it on Broadway. Dabbles in acting for the camera. Moves behind the camera. Directs a teen musical for MTV. Wins big at Toronto for his theatrical feature debut Beautiful Boy, a heavy drama starring Maria Bello and Michael Sheen and opening this week. What could possibly be next?
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From her first leading role in the tiny horror thriller Rest Stop to her casting on the cult-darling TV series Kyle XY, Jaimie Alexander already knows a thing or two about career milestones. But little could prepare her for Thor, the Marvel blockbuster that over the last month has put her on silver screens and red carpets around the world.
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Before he made his screen debut in the 2009 biopic Notorious portraying his own father, the late rapper Christopher "Biggie" Wallace, newcomer Christopher Jordan "CJ" Wallace had no aspirations for a Hollywood career. But the acting bug hit and a call from writer-director Dan Rush followed, and within a few years Wallace, now 14, found himself playing opposite Will Ferrell in the achingly bittersweet indie drama Everything Must Go, about an alcoholic salesman struggling to cope with losing it all.
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The story behind the making of Go For It! -- a decade-long DIY saga encompassing three cities, two career changes, at least one extra job, untold failed locations, one broken mirror, and one of Madonna's choreographers, among other distinguishing qualities -- is not necessarily so different than that of scores of other hand-to-mouth independent-film productions you've heard or read before. But it's one worth telling, if only because Carmen Marron, the woman responsible for it, is living a dream she didn't even know she had.
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After chipping away at the mainstream with the screenplay for the 2005 psychological thriller The Jacket, screenwriter Massy Tadjedin finally makes her directorial debut this week with the subtle, sleek relationship drama Last Night. And by "finally," I mean Hollywood almost swallowed Tadjedin's film -- with a power cast including Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington amd Eva Mendes -- in one bite before it could make its way to screens.
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In Disney's high school dramedy Prom, newcomer Thomas McDonell plays an archetypal bad boy straight out of a John Hughes flick -- sensitive, rebellious, and enticingly misunderstood. In real life, the 24-year-old former art student seems such the antithesis of the typical teen idol that you could call him the Judd Nelson of the Tiger Beat set. (His follow-up to Prom: Playing the young Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows.) Surely, McDonell's the only Disney star in history that can make legions of tween girls scream with one brooding glance and say he's performed Ionesco on stage in Scotland. So how did McDonell shoot into the spotlight so quickly -- and what's Jackie Chan got to do with it?
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From its lengthy introductory shot of a nude protagonist fussily mixing feminism, art and vanity to a cryptic, haunting closing shot I shouldn't spoil, a number of factors make writer/director Zeina Durra's feature debut The Imperialists Are Still Alive! among the year's most fascinating films.
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