Also in Tuesday morning's round-up of news briefs, the European Film Awards named 47 films to be considered for nomination for its December 1 ceremony. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sarah Polley's latest Toronto title is headed to theaters. IFC Films picks up a thriller. And Kristen Wiig and Annette Bening's comedy is also en route to a theater near you.
more »
For the 14th consecutive year, the folks at Time Magazine have once again passed me over when considering their annual roster of the world's 100 Most Influential People. Heretics! So be it — even an incomplete list is worth visiting judgment upon. Let's check out (and rank, naturally) the film personalities included this year. And to my publicist: You're fired!
more »
It's a natural career progression for Saturday Night Live stars to depart for greener pastures for the sunnier climes and star salaries of the big screen, but has that time come for current standouts Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis and Andy Samberg? So says a report by US Weekly, whose insiders claim the trio are ready to leave after this season. And that wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility, considering that Wiig, Sudeikis and Samberg have all been taking concerted steps towards film in recent years. So let's prognosticate: Which of these possibly-departing SNLers will make the smoothest transition out of SNL?
more »
For an independently produced comedy that mostly revolves around adults talking to each other — sometimes with child accessories — in varying degrees of inebriation, Friends with Kids is finding a modest amount of success. It’s not perfect, but somehow it manages to be funny without any accidental drug trips, grandmas shooting guns at the dinner table, or Tom Cruise rescuing Cameron Diaz from a crashing plane. Writer-director-co-star Jennifer Westfeldt has returned us a bit to the days of comedies of manners, instead of the awful dichotomy between shrill “romantic” comedy and Apatovian gross-out comedy where Hollywood seems stuck these days. In that spirit, here are four lessons future adult comedies should take from Friends with Kids.
more »
Stephanie Zacharek's review pretty much confirmed this, but! For the record, Dear Consumer: "The advertisements emphasize the Bridesmaids pseudo-reunion, making it look like it's a rollicking comedic romp with Kristen Wiig, Jon Hamm, Maya Rudolph, and Chris O'Dowd all just giggling and making silly faces. [...] Those four, the Bridesmaids folk, they really don't have much to do other than pop in every 20 minutes or so to comment on the action, a sort of Greek chorus surrounding our two heroes. It's also worth noting that none of them is actually funny, by design. You know that scene you've seen the commercial where Wiig and Hamm sneak out of the restaurant bathroom, post coitus? That's in the first five minutes of the movie, right before a 'Four Years Later' insert. Wiig spends the rest of the film crying into various glasses of wine while Hamm yells at her. It's a real laugh riot." [Deadspin]
Jennifer Westfeldt's sort-of romantic comedy Friends with Kids is on to something, even if in the end it suffers from a failure of nerve. This is actor and screenwriter Westfeldt's directorial debut (she co-wrote and starred in the 2001 feature Kissing Jessica Stein), and it's polished to the point of shallow glossiness -- it could benefit from being a little rougher, a little messier.
more »
This year's Oscars may have average nominee ages of 47, 61 and 62 in such categories as Actor, Director and Supporting Actor (respectively), but trust producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer to rope in the youngs where they can. To wit: If the Academy won't nominate the four-quadrant blockbuster
Bridesmaids for Best Picture, then at least the cast can drop by to present an award.
more »
As yet another incredible season begins to gradually wind down, we're roughly 48 hours away from one of the year's most closely watched, hotly competitive high-stakes all-star showdowns to date. But enough about the New York Giants' journey on Sunday to battle their NFC-rival Green Bay Packers. We've got the 69th annual Golden Globe Awards to predict!
more »
For many fans a Bridesmaids sequel moving forward without star Kristen Wiig is nearly unthinkable, and that goes for would-be sequel star Melissa McCarthy. E! Online's Marc Malkin asked McCarthy if she'd be in without Wiig at last weekend's Palm Springs International Film Festival. "God, I wouldn't want to," she said. "I would never want to. I think it's a terrible idea...I don't [know] anything about it," she said. "But I know that nobody wants to do it unless it's great. If it is, I will show up wherever those ladies are." Those ladies -- as in, all the Bridesmaids ladies? That's solidarity, sister. [E! Online]
As someone who sparked to Paul Feig's Bridesmaids back when it first played SXSW last year in no small part because it gave Kristen Wiig the showcase she deserved, it's hard to imagine a Bridesmaids sequel going forward without the SNL star. But with Wiig reportedly reluctant to reprise her role for another go-round with the Universal hit that seems a very good possibility, according to The Hollywood Reporter. And so I ask, fellow Bridesmaids fans: Who wants a Bridesmaids 2 without Wiig?
more »
Another year, another couple hundred entries in the ever-deepening conversational archive known as The Movieline Interview. They're the collective backbone of our site, and in 2011, it was at its strongest. Look back with us now at the highlights, including the luminary likes of Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jason Segel, Jodie Foster, Paul Giamatti, and a certain honey badger of a director.
more »
Once you start commemorating an entire year in film, it's hard to stop. I'd apologize, except I think I'm onto a provocative topic: What is the single funniest line of dialogue in 2011? Was it in a straight comedy, or did a serious actor utter it in a moment of surprise levity? Or is a woman responsible for the year's most hilarious quip?
more »
Hot off the critical and commercial success of Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiig will channel her higher profile and star power into Imogene, a NYC-set comedy about a playwright (to be played by Wiig) who fakes suicide to win back an ex and finds herself stuck in the custody of her gambler mother, trapped among family. More details within!
more »
How did Rose Byrne become the most unexpected comedic actress of her generation? After 15 years of acting, the Aussie native broke out of her dramatic shell with a fearless turn as Aldous Snow's pop star ex in Get Him to the Greek, and this week's Bridesmaids continues the streak: Byrne plays Helen, the rich and beautiful new BFF who tries to steal Maya Rudolph away from maid of honor Kristen Wiig. As director Paul Feig insisted to Movieline, "That woman should always be doing comedy."
more »
Behind the femme-dominated laughs of this Friday's Bridesmaids -- the movie that will prove ladies can carry blockbuster comedies, or not, but probably so -- is writer, actor, director, Judd Apatow compatriot, and creator of the well-loved cult series Freaks and Geeks, Paul Feig. After a successful run directing episodes of your favorite shows (The Office, Arrested Development), Feig is finally staking his claim in the film world with the Kristen Wiig starrer, about a woman tapped to play maid of honor at her best friend's wedding. But Feig, on the brink of a likely summer hit, is noticeably nervous.
more »
