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Film

The Sad, Desperate Cruelty of ‘The Hangover Part III’

By Jason Bailey on

The best thing that can be said about The Hangover Part III is that it isn’t the beat-for-beat, scene-for-scene duplication of the original film that we got in The Hangover Part II, a film less sequel than mirthless remake. Not that co-writer/director Todd Phillips will admit to that film’s miserable artistic failure: “I think it’s human nature that any time people want to try something for a second time, people go to a negative,” he told Empire recently. “I think in five or ten years time, people will come to realize how brilliant Hangover II is… My feeling is that it’s the better movie of the two.” (Surely irrelevant side note: Mr. Phillips has a screenplay credit on the second film, but not the first.) But in that same interview, he explained how much darker the franchise was going this time around. “People die in this movie,” he bragged. “Nobody’s died in them before.” Wow, so edgy. … Read More

Film

Flavorwire’s Guide to Movies You Need to Stream This Week

By Jason Bailey on

Welcome to Flavorwire’s streaming movie guide, in which we help you sift through the scores of movies streaming on Netflix, Hulu, and other services to find the best of the recently available, freshly relevant, or soon to expire. This week, there’s good stuff from Bradley Cooper, Ethan Hawke, Paul Rudd, Julie Delpy, Amy Poehler, Zach Galifanakis, and Akira Kurosawa, plus a must-see documentary and one of our favorite stand-up specials. Check them out after the jump, and follow the title links to watch them right now. … Read More

Film

Flavorwire’s Guide to Movies You Need to Stream This Week

By Jason Bailey on

Welcome to Flavorwire’s streaming movie guide, in which we help you sift through the scores of movies streaming on Netflix, Hulu, and other services to find the best of the recently available, freshly relevant, or soon to expire. This week, there’s good stuff from Kristen Bell, Greta Gerwig, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Helen Mirren, Felicity Jones, Sarah Polley, Julie Christie, and the Star Trek crew; check them out after the jump, and follow the title links to watch them right now. … Read More

Film

The 10 Most Painfully Awkward Moments of the 2013 MTV Movie Awards

By Jason Bailey on

At risk of putting too fine a point on it, complaining about the crassness and low entertainment value of the MTV Movie Awards is somewhat akin to complaining about the impersonal touch at your local whorehouse. While the show has yielded a few memorable moments over the years, it’s usually a vapid exercise in Twilight and Transformers recognition, wrapped up in the by now pro forma technical clumsiness and vaguely directionless air of any MTV live show. The 2013 MTV Movie Awards, which went out live (or not quite live, considering the number of Samuel L. Jackson’s “motherfuckers” that didn’t make it to air) last night, was about what we expected it to be: non-stop shilling for this summer’s big movies, back-patting for last summer’s big movies, awards for those who showed up (which is about the only way we can explain, as one example, Tyler Lautner beating Channing Tatum for Best Shirtless Performance), a few laughs and more than a few winces for host Rebel Wilson, and endless, endless vaguely patronizing thank-yous for “all the faaaaans” who voted for the winners. But beyond the expected yuckiness, there was awkwardness a-plenty, and our picks for the night’s most peculiar moments await you after the jump. … Read More

Film

It May Star Gosling As a Stunt Rider, But ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ Is Far Stranger Than ‘Drive’

By Jason Bailey on

Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines opens with a long, weary tracking shot through a carnival midway and into a raucous tent, where motorcycles are revved and an announcer cranks up the crowded assemblage of looky-loos. The camera is following Luke (Ryan Gosling), a stunt rider, who proceeds to climb on top of a motorcycle and follow two of his fellow riders into a steel ball, where they cross within inches of each others’ paths. The audience goes nuts. But the camerawork is casual, almost bored; this doesn’t do it for Luke anymore. It’s as dull and uninspiring as working in a cubicle. … Read More

Film

Director Derek Cianfrance on ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ and the Magic of Ryan Gosling

By Jason Bailey on

It’s tricky to talk to Derek Cianfrance about his new film The Place Beyond the Pines, due to a series of bold narrative turnabouts that would fall squarely into the realm of “spoilers.” I explained my hesitancy to him in a recent telephone interview. “It’s challenging for reviewers,” he grants. “You can’t just go and spend two-thirds of your review describing plot – unless you hate the movie. The reviewers that hate the movie have no problem… they’re excited to go out there and crush it for people.” I don’t hate the movie, and I don’t want to crush it for people. Suffice it to say that it starts as one thing, and then unexpectedly becomes another, and then something else entirely. That seems a safe way to put it — and for Cianfrance to explain how he arrived at the picture’s unique “triptych” structure. … Read More

Film

Exclusive Supercut: “The Early Roles of Your Oscar Nominees”

By Jason Bailey on

Here at Flavorwire, nothing delights us more than the creative archaeology of an actor’s early years: the opportunity to observe raw talent in its embryonic form, to marvel at how far they’ve come, to observe the humble beginnings of bit roles and low budgets. For this exclusive supercut, we dug up some of the early film and television performances of the ten nominees for acting Oscars at this year’s Academy Awards. One of them, of course, has a much more slender resume (her early role is her Oscar-nominated one); the rest have decades of little breaks that brought them to Oscar night. Check them all out after the jump. … Read More

Film

Flavorwire’s Most Anticipated Movies of 2013

By Jason Bailey on

2013 promises about what you’d expect: lots of sequels and comic book movies and sequels to comic book movies. But we’re not snobs — some of those look awfully exciting, and some of the smaller, more indie-minded titles have got us mighty interested as well. Join us for a look ahead at the ten pictures we’re looking forward to the most — and, of course, add your own in the… Read More

Film

The Year in Film: 2012′s Sexiest Scenes [NSFW]

By Jason Bailey on

There was a remarkable disconnect happening this year between pop culture and political culture, with the former getting kinkier (the ubiquitous 50 Shades of Grey on bookshelves, the Presidential handjob-heavy Hyde Park on Hudson on movie screens) while the latter threatened to get more prurient and Victorian. Points for trying, but good luck — movies were plenty sexy this year, and after the jump, we’ve assembled ten of the year’s hottest moments. … Read More

Fashion

The Fug Report: Highs and Lows from the Week in Fashion

By Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan on

Editor’s note: Welcome to The Fug Report! Each week our fashion blogger friends Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, the sartorial geniuses behind Go Fug Yourself, will feature some of the most memorable looks of the week in this space. We hope you enjoy it!

This week on Go Fug Yourself, we celebrated the fact that