The course of equal opportunity raunchy comedy never did run smooth. Like Bridesmaids, Bachelorette is a foray into proving that ladies are capable of wielding gross-out humor just as ably as the gentlemen, with the obvious comparison piece being Todd Phillips' The Hangover. Written and directed by first-timer Leslye Headland (who previously worked as a writer on Terriers) and produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, Bachelorette sends its trio of dysfunctional bridesmaids into all kinds of night-before-the-wedding misbehavior, including cocaine use, falling-down drunkenness, physical altercations, promiscuity, theft and general nastiness.
But then, as if afraid that all of this misdeeds will drive the audience away, the film tries to add a last minute portion of heart, explaining away the actions of its three main characters as the result of damage and pairing them all up with guys to get them through to an at least temporary happy ending.
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Bachelorette had my attention from the moment I saw that Lizzy Caplan is in it, but wait until you see the Red Band trailer. Caplan plays Gena, a secret romantic with a memorably filthy mouth — isn't that always the case — who joins her longtime friends and fellow bridesmaids Katie (Isla Fisher), and Regan (Kirsten Dunst) for a wild night out in Manhattan after their bride-to-be bestie insists on a tame bachelorette party. more »
Kristen Stewart has been in the news a lot lately, but less so for her movies. But the latest international trailer for On the Road is out, so perhaps a small diversion is due. The film is the first real attempt to bring Jack Kerouac's legendary novel of the same title to screen, over 30 years after Francis Ford Coppola bought the rights to the book. Walter Salles directs the film, which had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May. On the Road stars Stewart, Garrett Hedlund, Kirsten Dunst and Sam Riley.
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In Wednesday afternoon's round-up of news briefs, Ed Helms may take a Vacation of his own. 1962 classic What Ever Happened to Baby Jane may get a re-make. And casting news for Toby Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.
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It seems like only yesterday comic book fans were all excited about the very first Spider-Man movie — Sam Raimi's 2002 take on the webslinging superhero, starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. With Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone stepping in to lead Marc Webb's high school-set The Amazing Spider-Man, a lot of people are wondering if the reboot is any different at all. Time will tell if fans decide Amazing is better or worse, or maybe just the same as Raimi's Spider-Man — but looking back on interviews from 2002's Spider-Man junket, it turned out some of the exact same questions were asked of both sets of directors and stars.
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Bachelorette was dubbed the "indie Bridesmaids" at Sundance. OK, maybe there are some similarities. There are females and there's a pending wedding and the proverbial "shit hits the fan," but that's about it. Based on a play of the same name by Leslye Headland who directed the screen version, the story is quite frankly not going to be a hit with everyone. But for the segment of the population that gets a thrill off of bad ass humor, Bachelorette offers up a load of laughs. John Waters appeared to enjoy himself at the screening of the film, which opened up the Provincetown International Film Festival this week, so that is a stamp of some sort of approval, right?
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I know, I know — to paraphrase a popular rejoinder to the overexposed, "How can I ever anticipate On the Road if it won't go away?" Nevertheless, consider the two new clips released by IFC Films as complements to Brian's coverage from Cannes, where the long-awaited Jack Kerouac adaptation premiered this morning.
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More than half a century has passed since Jack Kerouac's On the Road was published and over 30 years since Francis Ford Coppola bought the rights to the book. Only today, in one of the Cannes Film Festival's most anticipated events, has director Walter Salles's adaptation finally screened for its first audience.
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The 2012 Cannes Film Festival remains a week away, but the wheeling and dealing is already underway — and probably not coincidentally, for competition films starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Last week it was Pattinson's edgy David Cronenberg collaboration Cosmopolis going to E One, and tonight it's Stewart's long-awaited Jack Kerouac adaptation On the Road — just announced as the proud acquisition of IFC Films and Sundance Selects. Read on for the full details, and stay tuned to Movieline for more fest news as Cannes 2012 approaches.
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The first trailer for the lonnnng-awaited adaptation of On the Road is here — an international/market spot (the film doesn't yet have US distribution) showcasing Jack Kerouac's shambolic literary stylings and director Walter Salles's ensemble including leads Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart and a kind of staggering supporting ensemble: Viggo Mortensen? Kirsten Dunst? Amy Adams? Terrence Howard? Steve Buscemi? Elisabeth Moss? You can't Beat it!
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Thanks to the wonders of Twitter, we already know how Albert Brooks feels about this morning's brutal Oscar-nomination snub. But how is the rest of the Academy's snubculture faring? We may never know entirely, but at least their unofficial ambassador Patton Oswalt has the fan-fiction angle covered -- and it sounds like this group has the Governors Ball beat.
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No matter how many gifting suites, D-list "celebrities" and/or head-splitting parties the malevolent forces of modern commerce may stuff into the wintry idyll of Park City over the next week, we'll always have the movies. And as usual, "we" also means studios and distributors with money to burn and release slates to fill. Let the Sundance bidding wars begin!
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When Lars von Trier's latest masterpiece Melancholia last had any real time in the awards spotlight, Kirsten Dunst was accepting the Best Actress hardware at Cannes. News came over the weekend that their drought is over: The National Society of Film Critics voted Melancholia its Best Picture of 2011, with Dunst again earning Best Actress for her role as a depressed bride coming to grips with the end of the world. Other honorees included Terrence Malick, Brad Pitt, Albert Brooks and Jessica Chastain; read on for the full list of winners, runners-up and voting totals.
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The premise for Argentinean director Juan Diego Solanas's English-language sci-fi romance Upside Down has one helluva gimmick: Kirsten Dunst and Jim Sturgess find true love against huge odds, the hitch being that they live on inverted planets and are forbidden to cross over to each other's world. Hell, some people won't date outside of their area code. Watch the dazzling first trailer and appreciate how much easier relationships are should be on a single planet by comparison.
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There is a group of individuals whom Movieline would like to salute: The passionate, faceless people who lovingly record, in surprising detail and with confounding care, the full plot summaries for horrible movies on Wikipedia. Wikipedia movie plot historians, your day has come.
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