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Your Favorite Actors on Their Favorite Actors

By Jason Bailey on

The Ryan Gosling fan club is getting even more crowded. Recently, James Franco took to the Huffington Post to do what countless fans and stalkers have spent the past several years doing: writing on the Internet about Ryan Gosling. “I want to make love to this section,” Franco writes of the first, Gosling-heavy hour of The Place Beyond the Pines. “He played the role to a T. Look at the funny glasses he wears when he robs banks, green on the sides; look at the writing on the bike before he paints it black; Gosling touches, all, I’m sure of it.” Actors obsessing over actors — they’re just like us! And let’s be honest: there’s something kind of wonderful about actors and actresses who genuinely love each other’s work, and who can articulate what makes it great. So we went on the hunt for the favorite actors of some of our favorite actors, to find out who they love, who inspires them, and… Read More

Film

10 Awesome Meta-Movies That Will Melt Your Mind

By Jason Bailey on

The Cabin in the Woods, the wickedly funny and winkingly knowing horror/comedy from director Drew Goddard and co-writer Joss Whedon, hits DVD and Blu-ray tomorrow, after a long-delayed theatrical run last spring that sent cinephiles spinning with pleasure. You see, Cabin is the latest example of our old friend the “meta-movie,” the films in which the act of moviemaking (and movie-watching) is part of the experience, and part of the narrative. After the jump, some thoughts on Cabin and nine more of our favorite self-aware motion pictures. … Read More

Film

10 Movie Franchises That Lost Their Lead — And What Happened

By Jason Bailey on

If you felt a slight gust from the west yesterday, it may have been the folks at Universal Pictures letting out a sigh of relief; The Bourne Legacy, the newest (and Bourne-less) entry in their venerable franchise put up respectable numbers over the weekend, selling $40 million of tickets to a picture that was, from the outset, a bit of dicey proposition. Its success got us thinking about other film series that lost their lead actors, and whether those franchises succeeded or failed in their absence; we collect and analyze the data for you after the jump. … Read More

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Wes Anderson: The Flavorpill Interview

By Jason Bailey on

When Suzy (Kara Hayward), the 12-year-old heroine of Wes Anderson’s marvelous new film Moonrise Kingdom, runs away from home to spend a week camping with her pen pal and potential beau Sam (Jared Gillman), she brings along a battery-powered record player, her kitten, and a big suitcase filled with books (as seen in our exclusive clip below). Their import does not feel accidental (as, indeed, nothing seems accidental in a Wes Anderson film), and although the books are made-up, they echo a specific kind of young adult literature of the 1960s and 1970s, the kind of books E.L. Konigsburg or Virginia Hamilton would write, books where children were the protagonists, but the themes were contemplative and mature. And Moonrise Kingdom is that way too. … Read More

Film

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

By Jason Bailey on

Welcome to Flavorpill’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, we’ve got the likes of Matt Damon, Clint Eastwood, Warren Beatty, Alec Baldwin, Mila Kunis, Jason Bateman, Edward Norton, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Jane Lynch, Paul Rudd, Kristen Stewart, Jessica Alba, and Jesse Eisenberg; check them all out after the jump, and follow the title links to watch them right now. … Read More

Film

The Most Notorious Actor/Director Feuds in Movie History

By Jason Bailey on

A couple of weeks back, we spotlighted a few of the most fruitful and (presumably) harmonious filmmaker/actor collaborations in moviedom. But as we all know, filmmakers can also be a prickly lot, and the recent (mostly tabloid) coverage of director Kevin Smith’s recent swipes at his Cop Out star Bruce Willis (more on that below) got us thinking about some of the less cordial actor/director relationships. We’ve assembled some of the more contentious ones for your reading pleasure after the jump. … Read More

Film

Video Essay: "Encore — More Famous Faces in their Film Debuts"

By Jason Bailey on

We had no idea everyone was so interested in seeing the first film appearances of your favorite stars when we posted our video essay “And Introducing…” a month ago, but the damn thing up and went viral, so as with anything movie-related that does well, there has to be a sequel. After the jump, you’ll find 30-plus more famous faces in their first feature films, all in just about three minutes. Enjoy! … Read More

Film

Oscar’s Most Insane, Illogical Award Choices

By Jason Bailey on

This year’s Academy Awards are just around the corner (well, okay, they’re still a week and a half away, so it’s more like around the corner, down a little, second door on the left), and while we can’t help but get a little excited about Hollywood’s big night, we’re also being very careful to keep our expectations in check. We’ve already lamented the many worthwhile films and performances that were unduly snubbed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the nominations phase; when Sunday the 26th rolls around, you can bet the farm that the AMPAS will confound us again by making at least a couple of spectacularly bone-headed choices. There’s a long and storied history of the Oscar simply going to the wrong damn person or movie, countless cases where a peek back at the list of nominees and the eventual winner provokes confusion, rage, or at the very least, a bit of head-scratching. After the jump, we’ve gathered ten of the most egregious examples. … Read More

Film

Trailer Park: Of Spies and Spider-Men

By Jason Bailey on

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 eight new trailers for your Friday viewing enjoyment; check ‘em all out after the jump. … Read More

Film

Trailer Park: Coming of Age and Going to War

By Jason Bailey on

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 seven new trailers for you this week; check ‘em all out after the jump. … Read More