As the year winds to a close, you’ve seen plenty of “best of 2011″ lists — and we’ve certainly contributed a few of our own to the mix. Wading through them can lead to a sense of fatigue; yes, we liked The Artist and Hugo and The Descendants and The Tree of Life just fine too, but it feels like we’re reading praise for all the same movies and performances, everywhere we look. So, late in the “best of” season, we wanted to take a moment to spotlight a few films and actors who, we feel, are getting overlooked in the year-end shuffle. Our picks are after the jump; yours (we hope) will join in the comments.
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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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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 this week, including, yes, Hunger Games; check ‘em out after the jump. Read More »
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, with an emphasis on family-friendly fare. Check ‘em out after the jump.
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Musicians have long had a place in films, whether rock stars, jazz sidemen, or tormented composers. What follows is a selection of memorable ones taken from ten films. They range from drug-addicted cult favorites to ambitious hip-hop stars, from showtune composers to sidemen now living in small-town obscurity. What they share is a certain quality: a lingering sense that, if these characters were real, we’d want to seek out more of their music. Sometimes that’s accomplished through a deft performance, and sometimes via a writer or director who brings an insider’s knowledge of a particular style of music. In all cases, there’s something utterly compelling, and something that endures past the last frames of film.
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When asked if he was planning to push the envelope as the host of tonight’s Golden Globe Awards, Ricky Gervais told Natalie Morales, “It depends on how drunk I am — I’ve got a few things that I might do. It depends how cruel I feel.” From the way things turned out, we’re guessing that he had a lot to drink over the next hour or so — quite possibly via an intravenous drip. Click through for 10 of the best zingers of the night, and be sure to add any that we missed in the comments.
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1. Weezer’s new album Hurley, which includes guest appearances by Ryan Adams and Michael Cera, is now streaming on MySpace.
2. The Man Booker Prize shortlist has been announced, with Tom McCarthy’s novel C as bookies’ favorite to win. [via Independent]
3. Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote has run out of funding, but he refuses to give up the project: “Robert Duvall is Quixote, Ewan McGregor is also there, and we are looking for new financing right now.” [via Variety]
4. Pavement is looking for someone to play guitar with them on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on September 23, and it could be you. [via Pitchfork]
5. The first cast photo from the US version of Skins leaves us feeling underwhelmed about the remake. How about you? [via Digital Spy]
Bonus link: DragonCon Parade 2010
Behold! The international trailer for The Ghost Writer, aka the thriller that Roman Polanski was polishing up while in Swiss prison, has hit the internets. It has nothing to do with Nathan Zuckerman or Philip Roth, rather, it’s based on a book called The Ghost by Robert Harris. Ewan McGregor stars as a writer working on a former British prime minister’s (Pierce Brosnan) memoir. Kim Cattrall whips out a British accent to play Amelia, who we presume is Brosnan’s aide. From what we can tell, McGregor uncovers some juicy secrets in his research, including the fact that the PM’s previous collaborator on the book may have been killed. Not exactly an original plot, but it looks beautiful.
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[Editor's note: Enter to win a DVD/Bluray prize pack featuring our favorite titles from this all-star cast by leaving a comment on this post. Titles include Burn After Reading, Moulin Rouge, American Beauty, and The Big Lebowski.]
Some movies have a premise too ridiculous to be true, and it ends up ruining what would otherwise be a great film. There’s a rarer breed of film, however, that has a premise that is too ridiculous not to be true. The Men Who Stare at Goats is just such a film, and it’s not afraid to put that fact in your face by slapping the message, “More of this is true than you would believe,” across the opening scene.
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The Men Who Stare at Goats, a new film which stars Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey, Robert Patrick, and Jeff Bridges, opens in theaters this Friday. It was inspired by reporter Jon Ronson’s eponymous non-fiction bestseller, which explored the U.S. government’s “attempts to harness paranormal abilities to combat its enemies.” Yep. After the jump, a clever new ad for the film which spoofs the little horror movie that could, Paranormal Activity.
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