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INTERVIEW: Zac Efron & Dennis Quaid Stick With Independent Film 'At Any Price'

INTERVIEW: Zac Efron & Dennis Quaid Stick With Independent Film 'At Any Price'

The studios want him, but, these, days Zac Efron only has eyes for indie film.  After making a splash at the New York Film Festival with The Paperboy last fall, Efron is back in the Big Apple, at the Tribeca Film Festival, with At Any Price.  What's the deal? more »

Awards || ||

Hey Academy! Time To Take Nicole Kidman's 'Paperboy' Role Seriously!

Hey Academy! Time To Take Nicole Kidman's 'Paperboy' Role Seriously!

Once, Nicole Kidman barely had to raise an eyebrow to get awards attention. Now, she barely can raise an eyebrow and her best work in years is being completely ignored in the Oscar conversation. The Paperboy stars Kidman as Charlotte Bless, a damaged attention-seeker who becomes sexually obsessed with a convicted murderer (John Cusack), while cock-teasing the only man—or really, teenager—who truly loves her (Zac Efron). It's Kidman's bravest, boldest, and most committed performance ever, and no one cares for the short-sighted reason that the movie is terrible.

How unfair. The Nicole Kidman of To Die For used to have a bright future before that bright future came true and blinded everyone to her comedic gifts. Once Kidman scored her first Oscar nomination for 2002's Moulin Rouge, she became the prey of the Hollywood awards hunt, in which the chase for For-Your-Consideration goes like this: take one prestigious actress (see Kidman, Berry, Jolie, Swank), make her play someone vulnerable (see Cold Mountain, Things We Lost in the Fire, The Changeling, Conviction), then cross your fingers. This is why we've had a full decade of Kidman drifting about in period costumes or, god forbid, stretching herself to play a movie star in Nine. And people, this is why the Oscar season is boring. This formula guarantees a chase to the middlebrow, and it's why every Best Picture Oscar winner since Silence of the Lambs is something your grandma would see at an arthouse matinee.

There's only one thing we can do to save the Academy Awards: nominate Nicole Kidman for The Paperboy.

Just because The Paperboy is bad doesn't void the bravery it took to make it. Kidman's Charlotte is a balls-out wonder. She's pure sex and need, at once over-confident and fragile. Slithering around in her neon polyester pants, Kidman is fully alive for the first time since Baz Luhrmann murdered her with tuberculosis. And The Paperboy even has not one but two stand-out scenes that will live on in infamy—Sally Field standing on a table in Norma Rae can't compete with Kidman peeing on Zac Efron or giving John Cusack an orgasm just by breathing at him from across a prison cell.

Imagine if Oscar voters were able to parse the jewels from the schlock. Why should Les Misérables clutter up every acting category? What if this year's ceremony didn't just include the dull favorites like Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln and Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty—roles everyone respects, but no one loves—but made room for Michael Shannon in Premium Rush and Michael Sheen in Breaking Dawn – Part 2. Imagine just being able to say, "The Academy Award-nominated bike messenger thriller Premium Rush."

Plus, this wouldn't be the first time we've given an actor a statuette for good work in an awful film. We did it three years ago when Mo'Nique won for Precious. It's no coincidence that Precious and The Paperboy were both directed by bizarro auteur Lee Daniels, a former casting agent and producer with the clout to get serious actors to take him seriously. He convinced the likes of Helen Mirren, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Joseph Gordon-Levitt to star in his debut film, Shadowboxer—-and that's despite a script which opens with Stephen Dorff shoving a pool cue up a guy's ass.

In fact, let's go one step further. Not only does Nicole Kidman deserve a Best Actress nomination for The Paperboy, Lee Daniels deserves Best Director. He's clearly one of the greats. Not because his films are any good, but because his actors would do—and do do—anything for him. Anthony Minghella, Sidney Pollack, Rob Marshall only wish they could pull as passionate of a performance out of Kidman, and Daniels behind-the-scenes alchemy is that powerful with every single one of his actors. He not only convinced Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr. to shoot a strip scene in Shadowboxer, he convinced them to commit to it like it was high art. And The Paperboy performs more stunt-casting miracles: An American sweetheart, John Cusack, is loathsome; Macy Gray is the next great actress and Zac Efron, convincingly, can't get laid. Could Steven Spielberg swing that? Never.

Luckily, we're not alone in appreciating this wonderful, terrible gem. In October, a group of rogue cinephiles launched a For Your Consideration Facebook page flogging Nicole Kidman's outstanding work in The Paperboy. As of today, the page has 10 fans. Let's get that number growing.

Biz Break || ||

Harrison Ford, Zac Efron Eye Rob Reiner Drama; Jennifer Garner Eyes Matthew McConaughey Pic: Biz Break

Harrison Ford, Zac Efron Eye Rob Reiner Drama; Jennifer Garner Eyes Matthew McConaughey Pic: Biz Break

Also in Thursday afternoon's round-up of news briefs: Christoph Walt is in talks to star in a Muppets sequel; Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty officially gets new nationwide release; And a Brad Anderson thriller finds a U.S. release.
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Festivals || ||

The One Thing Nicole Kidman Wouldn't Do For Lee Daniels' The Paperboy

The One Thing Nicole Kidman Wouldn't Do For Lee Daniels' The Paperboy

All decked out, Nicole Kidman received a gala tribute at the New York Film Festival Wednesday night ahead of the U.S. premiere of her latest starrer, The Paperboy, directed by Lee Daniels. Appearing like audiences have never seen her before, Kidman said she pushed her boundaries in the role in which she plays a sultry vixen who is carrying on with a convicted murderer in prison (played by John Cusack). Kidman opened up about the role and why she decided to take on the part which required her to — among other things — spread her legs and even pee on fellow co-star Zac Efron; she also shared why she never spoke to John Cusack on the set outside of their characters. But despite pushing herself into admittedly uncomfortable territory, there was one thing she would not do.
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Review || ||

REVIEW: Lee Daniels Delivers A Lurid, Jumbled Southern-Fried Sleaze Saga In 'The Paperboy'

REVIEW: Lee Daniels Delivers A Lurid, Jumbled Southern-Fried Sleaze Saga In 'The Paperboy'

The act of directing suggests, well, direction — that whether it comes together as planned or not, a filmmaker is pursuing a particular vision he or she wants to put on screen. But this is not the sense you get from The Paperboy, the new film from Precious' Lee Daniels, a feature that feels like it's been assembled scene by scene on whatever whims were guiding the director that day. No return to an opening framing sequence with narrator Macy Gray? Zac Efron's face superimposed over the bright Florida sky? The already infamous jellyfish-enabled watersports scene? Another in which Nicole Kidman and John Cusack have mind sex in a prison visiting room in front of an audience?
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Festivals || ||

39th Telluride Film Fest Lineup Announces Haneke, Baumbach, Hyde Park On Hudson, More

39th Telluride Film Fest Lineup Announces Haneke, Baumbach, Hyde Park On Hudson, More

The Telluride Film Festival offers a bright spotlight, showcasing a small selection of films over Labor Day weekend just as summer movies give way to a more serious season of cinema. Later this year, moviegoers will be talking about Bill Murray as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Marion Cotillard as a woman who loses her legs to a killer whale and even a small town story starring Zac Efron as an aspiring NASCAR racer and Dennis Quaid as his father, an Iowa farmer. Those three films - Roger Michell's Hyde Park on Hudson, Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone and Ramin Bahrani's At Any Price - lead a roster of acclaimed and anticipated new movies that will screen at this weekend's tony Telluride Film Festival. 
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Close Reads || ||

Zac Efron In The Lucky One: An Appreciation

Zac Efron In The Lucky One: An Appreciation

Only 20 percent of reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes, roughly one out of five, recommend April's military-themed romance The Lucky One, about an ex-Marine who walks across the country to find the girl whose photograph he believes saved his life overseas. But having already seen it on opening weekend months ago I've been waiting for today, the day it hits DVD and Blu-ray, for one very special reason: Zac Efron.
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Watch This || ||

Elizabeth Olsen Woos Josh Radnor in Liberal Arts Trailer

Elizabeth Olsen Woos Josh Radnor in Liberal Arts Trailer

Josh Radnor has spent much of his time on television including most recently in How I Met Your Mother, but the actor also has two Sundance features he's directed, written and also starred in, including his latest, Liberal Arts, which premiered at the festival in January. The feature stars Radnor along with Elizabeth Olsen, Zac Efron, Allison Janney and Richard Jenkins. The trailer sets up the main premise of film. Disenchanted and newly single student counselor Jesse Fisher (Radnor) falls for younger college student, Zibby (Olsen).
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Watch This || ||

The Paperboy Trailer Gives Some Good Zac Efron & Nicole Kidman And a Creepy John Cusack

The Paperboy Trailer Gives Some Good Zac Efron & Nicole Kidman And a Creepy John Cusack

The new trailer of Oscar-nominated director Lee Daniels' The Paperboy hit Wednesday. Shots of the film, which premiered in Cannes this past May give a great tease including Zac Efron dancing with sex kitten Nicole Kidman in his tighty-whities and it shows John Cusack as the frightful villain (stalking in a Florida swamp no less).
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Biz Break || ||

Lee Daniels' Paperboy Gets Delivery Date, Ryan Phillippe Readies Directorial Debut: Biz Break

Lee Daniels' Paperboy Gets Delivery Date, Ryan Phillippe Readies Directorial Debut: Biz Break

Also in Wednesday afternoon's round up of news briefs, Rob Reiner may join Martin Scorsese's latest project and Zooey Deschanel has a round about kind thing to say about the internet. And what does Piranhaconda director have to say to a critic who panned his latest? It isn't pretty...
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Cannes || ||

Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron and Lee Daniels's Polarizing Paperboy Storms Cannes

Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron and Lee Daniels's Polarizing Paperboy Storms Cannes

This is Thursday in Cannes: Zac Efron in tighty-whities, Nicole Kidman as a luscious sex kitten, Matthew McConaughey as a journalist with a sexual secret and a very creepy John Cusack. Such was just the tip of the iceberg this morning in Lee Daniels's outrageous The Paperboy, which will have its world premiere tonight as the festival hits its final swing. Opinions seemed to range wildly in all directions following the film's early morning screening: Applause and cries of "Bravo!" mixed with boos, laughter and a swift rush out of the huge Lumière Theatre to get reaction from Daniels and the cast at the press conference. The conversation in the press room took cues from the film's flamboyant flare, and then it went from there.
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Cannes || ||

Sony Classics Says Oui to No, Django Unchained Peek: Biz Break

Sony Classics Says Oui to No, Django Unchained Peek: Biz Break

Also in Tuesday morning's news round up: Icon will produce Lee Daniels' next project, James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain team for a double-feature, Zac Efron and Seth Rogen will pair for a new project, and more...
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Biz Break || ||

TWC Nabs Cannes' Sapphires, Student Academy Award Winners, Fellini in LA: Biz Break

Zac Efron (Getty Images)

Also in Tuesday afternoon's Biz Break: Exclusive Media takes rights to Zac Efron/Dennis Quaid starrer, Universal picks up rights to Kathryn Bigelow's untitled bin Laden film, and with the initial craze over 3-D fading comes scrutiny over the medium.
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Caption This || ||

Help Movieline Caption This Picture of Nicole Kidman Having a Moment in The Paperboy

Help Movieline Caption This Picture of Nicole Kidman Having a Moment in The Paperboy

A flurry of new images recently hit offering a sweaty, revealing look at Lee Daniels' Precious follow-up, the '60s-set adaptation The Paperboy -- so how's about a round of Caption This! After the jump, help Movieline caption this startling image of Nicole Kidman as the sensual woman at the center of this dark Southern potboiler, here seen having what I can only imagine is quite a moment while sandwiched between Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey, and David Oyelowo.
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Close Reads || ||

The Nicholas Sparks Quotient: How Sparksian Is The Lucky One?

Nicholas Sparks Quotient

There are a number of givens when one is confronted with a Nicholas Sparks story, the surest thing being that you will cry. Oh yes, you will weep. That is, if you're one of the many out there predisposed to falling under the spell of Sparks's carefully crafted, timeworn magic formula of love, tears, and tragedy. But how does this week's Zac Efron-starring The Lucky One measure up to its predecessors in terms of The Sparks Quotient?
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