Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. This week’s seven trailers include several big-franchise sequels and (sort of) prequels (we think); check ‘em all out after the jump.
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Young Adult, the dark comedy starring Charlize Theron that re-teams Juno director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody, went into wide release last weekend (after hitting a few screens the weekend before), and now that it’s out, we’re again in the odd position of wanting to talk explicitly about the film’s ending — specifically about its closing scenes, which are (for our money) where Young Adult stops being a good movie and becomes a great one. Of course, not everyone sees movies within the first three days, so we’ll wait to get into this further until after the jump — where you’ll find some thoughts on the closing scenes from us, and from director Jason Reitman. So, y’know, duly noted, spoiler warnings, etc., etc. Read More »

For all the remakes and reboots and 3-D blockbusters, 2011 was a great year for film actors, with a wealth of terrific performances for us to choose from. What’s more, in sharp contrast to most years in recent memory, there was a bumper crop of terrific roles for great actresses — a trend that we’d like to see stick around for a while. After the jump, we’ll tell you about some of the best performances we saw this year, and why we’re still talking about them. Read More »

Everybody loves a good holiday movie. When we wrote last week about the beginning of the season, and our favorite annual Christmas movies (Die Hard and It’s A Wonderful Life), our readers threw in their favorites: A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, Bad Santa, Muppets Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34^th Street, etc. But, lest we forget, every film of the season ain’t White Christmas; there are plenty of rotten holiday movies. (And, in fact, one of them is coming out tomorrow: steer clear of New Year’s Eve as though your life depends on it.) As many great Christmas movies as there are, it’s also a very tricky style to get right, requiring the proper mix of holiday cheer, sentiment, laughs, and warmth. It is pretty easy to screw that elixir up, and end up with something sickly sweet and utterly unwatchable. After the jump, we’ll gather up a few lumps of coal from our previous Christmas stockings.
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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, Charlize Theron was a hot, surprise surprise, in large part because of her Charlizeness. Serena Williams: also hot. So was Jessica Simpson (no, seriously!). Something must be going around. In other news, Meryl Streep blew our minds by hanging out with some Real Housewives, China Chow sported a festive luau poncho, Kate Beckinsale went out in what looked like granny panties, and Piper Perabo’s hair looked like something out of Star Trek married to a pastry. Finally, we decided that someone at Cosmo must really hate ScarJo — and her boobs. Can anyone explain what’s happening on this cover and why?

1. Nicki Minaj announced via Twitter last night that her second album — Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded — will drop on Valentine’s Day of next year. Given the title, it’s a bit unclear whether the project is a reissue, or will feature new material. [via MTV]

2. Aaron Sorkin is apparently “strongly considering” Sony’s offer to write the Steve Jobs biopic that’s currently in the works. “Right now I’m just in the thinking-about-it stages,” he says. “It’s a really big movie and it’s going to be a great movie no matter who writes it.” [via Slashfilm]

3. Jimmy Fallon has apologized to Michele Bachmann via Twitter after his house band, The Roots, played “Lyin’ Ass Bitch” as her intro music on his show. “I’m honored that @michelebachmann was on our show yesterday and I’m so sorry about the intro mess,” he says. “I really hope she comes back.” [via The Daily Beast]

4. A leaked version of Lady Gaga’s cover of “White Christmas” — which will feature on her forthcoming EP A Very Gaga Holiday — has landed online. Give it a listen here.

5. Here are some rather exciting photos from the set of Ridley Scott’s highly-anticipated sci-fi flick Prometheus, which ties in with the Alien universe. The highly-anticipated blockbuster, which hits theaters this summer, has an ensemble cast that includes Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, and Patrick Wilson.

Bonus Buzz: People Sleeping On The Subway Next To Jake Gyllenhaal

Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. We’ve got six new trailers this week, and — for the first time in the feature’s history — they all look varying degrees of worthwhile. Check ‘em out after the jump.

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Last week we had one of our periodic Flavorwire editorial meetings, and the conversation turned to Zooey Deschanel. Contrary to whatever direction you might presume we’d lean on her, there were a wide variety of opinions in the room, from indifferent to stubbornly affectionate (yours truly) to exhausted (“I’m about up to here with her”). While everyone basically agrees that her new show New Girl is nothing to write home about, there is a divergence as to why — some say it’s ill-conceived and mediocre, while others place the blame squarely on Ms. Deschanel. When I heard the phrase “She always just plays herself,” my ears perked up. Here’s a favorite topic that I’d not had the chance to engage in for a while: the question of persona vs. versatility in acting.

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[Editor's note: Welcome to the second installment of our new Friday feature 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 their favorite looks of the week in this space. There will be some good outfits; there will be some bad outfits; there will be some fugly outfits -- actually, we've got our fingers-crossed that there will be lots and lots of latter. We hope you enjoy it!]

This week, on Go Fug Yourself, we took a long look back at Shania Twain’s Wardrobe Through The Years. Hint: IT’S BAD. When we weren’t humming, “That Don’t Impress Me Much,” we were feeling impressed indeed by the gorgeous and fabulously dressed duchess formerly known as Kate Middleton. We didn’t ignore the actresses of the world, either, as we devoted a considerable amount of time to redressing Nicole Kidman for the CMT Awards, giving props to Kristen Stewart at the MTV Movie Awards, keeping a wary eye on Cate Blanchett, and wondering if something looked weird with Charlize Theron’s face. Then we realized that even if it does, we’d be lucky to look so weird. So consider this an apology, Charlize, and carry on.

We’ve been excited about Hesher ever since we first heard about the film, which debuted at Sundance last year. So we’re definitely planning to see it when it makes its theatrical debut this weekend. But despite our anticipation, we do have one worry: that we’ll never be able to look at Joseph Gordon-Levitt the same way again. You see, he plays Hesher‘s title character, a greasy, ratty-haired, tattooed metal guy with bad teeth and penchant for farting. Thankfully, Gordon-Levitt is hardly the first actor to sacrifice beauty or likability for a good role. After the jump, we recall ten more roles that killed our crushes, on everyone from Charlize Theron to Christian Bale.

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