What begins as a barbed satire of our pill-popping, self-medicating society morphs into something intriguingly different in Side Effects. Steven Soderbergh's elegantly coiled puzzler spins a tale of clinical depression and psychiatric malpractice into an absorbing, cunningly unpredictable entertainment that, like much of his recent work, closely observes how a particular subset of American society operates in a needy, greedy, paranoid and duplicitous age. Discriminating arthouse audiences not turned off by the antidepressant-heavy subject matter should be held shrink-rapt by what Soderbergh, after years of flirting with retirement, has said will be his last picture "for a long time." more »
Calling all Steven Soderbergh fans and movie-loving hypochondriacs. Time to cue up Pink's "Just Like A Pill" on Spotify and get your haiku mojo working. Movieline will give away a Side Effects poster signed by cast members Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, Jude Law, Vinessa Shaw and Dr. Sasha Bardey to the armchair bard who, in our opinion, writes the most addictive haiku inspired by his or her favorite pharmaceutical or the movie itself. more »
Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Channing Tatum and Catherine Zeta-Jones were all on the red carpet for the premiere of Side Effects in New York City, and I asked them what it was like making a modern Hitchcock film. more »
As ads for pharmaceuticals go, this clip for the anti-depression drug Ablixa is textbook perfect. Wooden actors progress from sad to happy with the help of digital dark clouds, sun rays, and, presumably, the being advertised. And there's the de rigueur reading of possible side effects. more »
The first wave of Sundance 2013 programming has been unveiled (find the full list of U.S. and World narrative and documentary titles, plus the NEXT line-up, here) along with some intriguing first images from films like David Lowery's Ain't Them Bodies Saints, starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck as 1970s outlaw lovers, and Primer director Shane Carruth's sophomore film Upstream Color.
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Hollywood's biggest (and possibly most anticlimactic) night is upon us, which can only mean one thing: Movieline's third annual Oscar Liveblog Extravaganza! Join your Movieline editors and loyal readers as we parse the Academy Awards to within an inch of their glamorous lives. The fun begins on the red carpet at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, with the Oscarcast proper commencing at 8:30 p.m ET/5:30 p.m. PT. And in any case, keep abreast of this year's Oscar class with our commentary after the jump.
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The 2nd Annual YouReviewers Movie Awards aired on YouTube this past weekend, and we've got to say, it was quite a show! This year, our friends at ENTV played host as YouTube heavy hitters Jeremy Jahns, The Schmoes, and a host of other notables from the ever-opinionated YouTube film community presented their favorite films, performances and trailers (because, after all, this is YouTube) of 2011.
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*: As determined by Movieline's Institute For the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics after crunching 23 weeks of data from the awards cognoscenti and beyond. Thank you for reading; our work here is done.
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The Academy Awards are not a contest, the humble nominees might demur, taking the high road through the gory scrum that is awards season. But do you really think, say, Glenn Close wouldn’t cut a bitch for an Oscar? Alas, the odds are against her, literally; online books have her at as much as 100:1 odds to win her first statuette for Albert Nobbs. Take a peek at how the internet’s enterprising bookies have handicapped the 84th Academy Award nominees and adjust your bets accordingly.
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You know that when two of the most respected pundits in all of Oscardom argue (within days of each other!) for curtailing both the epic Academy Awards season race and the ceremony in which it culminates, patience for all this crap is wearing thin. With that in mind — and also considering that the "race" for most of these categories ended weeks or months ago — who's up for an Oscar Index lightning round? (The entire staff at Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics raises its hands.) OK, then — to the Index!
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"Let's have a moment of silence for the suffering Oscar bloggers as they enter the most trying and mortifying weeks of their labors." Such was Glenn Kenny's tweeted lament earlier this week -- one eerily anticipating today's latest, sanity-thrashing edition of Oscar Index. And that's just its effect on readers! You really don't want to see the catatonic pall saturating Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics. On the other hand, we're gonna make a fortune recycling this mounting pile of wine bottles. To the Index!
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After spending the last year with her Oscar and her new baby, Natalie Portman is set to return to acting with a busy year with not one, but two Terrence Malick films. The Black Swan star will join Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett to film Knight of Cups this summer, with all three reuniting in the fall to film Malick's Lawless with Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, and Haley Bennett. Plot details for both films have been kept under wraps, so tee off with your thoughts on the Portman addition and the unusual double film casting move below. [Deadline]
It's a little difficult for the specialists at Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics to come into work these days, what with the pall of predictability settling in over the awards landscape and the painstaking studies into backlash physics yielding less and less of practical substance. What's a frustrated kudologist to do? Besides drink for the next four weeks straight, I mean. Let's look for ideas and encouragement for all in this week's Oscar Index.
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Let's see, what day is it? Jan. 31? Oh, then it must be time for everyone to fulminate over the Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue, specifically its lack of diversity among the featured cover stars. It's a seasonal ritual almost as inviolable as Groundhog Day, with equally severe implications of who made the cover (and where). To wit, a lot of white chicks. Cue six more weeks of winter! At least in the grocery checkout aisle, anyway.
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There's good news and bad news to begin this post-nomination, next-to-next-to-next-to-next-to-last installment of Oscar Index. The good news? It's kind of almost over! The bad news? Oy. Please don't make me repeat it.
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