Sometime after getting her start on NBC’s short-lived but well-loved cult series Freaks and Geeks, starring in two live-action studio Scooby-Doo movies, appearing for six seasons on ER, and turning in various screen performances (including a role as Ennis del Mar’s waitress fling in Brokeback Mountain), Linda Cardellini took a break to reassess her career. “I wanted to step back and reevaluate myself as an actress and find out what I was capable of,” she told Movieline, describing her turn as a shell-shocked female soldier readjusting to life at home in this week’s Return, “and this was sort of the perfect role for that.”
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There's a moment at the end of Gavin O'Connor's MMA drama Warrior in which two men who have been relentlessly beaten and pummeled in the octagon stand dripping with exhaustion, rivers of sweat mingling with the tears running down their faces. It doesn't matter that you can't tell the sweat from the tears; that's partly the point of Warrior anyway, which makes you feel every emotional wound just as acutely, if not more so, than the bruising, rib-crunching body blows. Yes, this is a mixed martial arts movie (distributed by genre specialists Lionsgate, no less). But it's also one of the most heart-wrenching and deeply felt films of the year.
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Deadline reports that pop phenom Justin Bieber, who showed off his acting chops on the small screen on CSI, may make his feature debut in a basketball drama to co-star and be produced by Mark Wahlberg. And how did the idea come about in the first place? Well, never say never nothing ever came from the tried and true legacy of Rock 'n' Jock-style celebrity sporting events.
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