George Clooney's The Ides of March is an actors' movie, a picture that gives performers some provocative things to do without necessarily providing a great story for them to hang onto. It's also a movie made for grown-ups, and Lord knows there are few enough of those around today. But this story of an idealistic young press secretary who finds his principles eroded at the hands of a corrupt Democratic presidential candidate keeps getting in the way of its own chin-stroking: It's carefully designed to make us think it's making us think, but in the end, what's it really telling us? That politics -- and politicians -- can be dishonest and ugly? Please don't stop the presses for that one.
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It's week three of the 2011-12 Oscar Index, and the latest measurements, readings and conclusions are in from Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics. And aside from a few startling exceptions, they don't look that different than the ones disseminated here last week. But make no mistake: Like it or not, stuff is happening! Read on for the latest developments.
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"I love George Clooney's movie, The Ides of March," Harvey Weinstein raved recently when asked for an Academy Award prediction. "I love politics, and this movie is the best political movie -- it's gotta be right up there with the best of the best. Seriously, it is the toughest, most incisive, no-bullshit movie I've seen this year. And [Ryan] Gosling hits it out of the ballpark. And the entire cast is great. Clooney just nailed it. It's an appropriate movie for these times. So Oscar prediction? That that gets nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. And it's not mine." [Vulture]
George Clooney may have been voted Sexiest Man Alive twice by People magazine but you still might want to think long and hard before hiring the Oscar winner to maintain your inground pool. The Ides of March writer/director/star certainly looks pretty while wielding a leaf skimmer but in a new clip for Alexander Payne's The Descendants, he misses an entire forest's worth of foliage in his pool while barking frustrated parenting cues at his daughters. Pool Boy Union of America, you may want to avert your eyes.
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Labor Day weekend calls for more than a celebration -- it calls for validation of this thing we call work. Before you canter drunkenly into the long holiday, here are five movies that will reaffirm your faith in your own employment. It'll add extra grace to your three-day break while making your return on Tuesday much easier. Let's punch in and tune out!
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John Goodman is reportedly negotiating to join Ben Affleck's Argo, the period political drama about a real-life covert operation to rescue six U.S. diplomats during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979. The kicker, and where Goodman comes in, is in the unusual circumstances of said rescue, in which the Canadian government enlisted Hollywood make-up and effects experts John Chambers and Bob Sidell to help the Americans escape in disguise as crew members of a fake science fiction film.
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The entertainment industry has rallied en masse following some of the world's most devastating recent tragedies, organizing relief efforts for survivors of 9/11, the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, Hurricane Katrina, and last year's earthquake in Haiti. The latter crisis alone prompted -- mere days after the disaster -- a star-studded charity telethon spearheaded by George Clooney and Wyclef Jean and which raised $57 million for the stricken nation. So why, in the wake of last week's 9.0 magnitude Japan earthquake -- and its resulting tsunami and nuclear crisis -- have we heard so little from Hollywood this time around?
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