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 film geeks like us, one of the most exciting new releases of the past year wasn’t a movie at all — it was a wonderful anti-texting PSA created by the fine folks at the Alamo Drafthouse back in June in response to some really annoying behavior from one of their patrons. For some reason, Patton Oswalt and his Young Adult director Jason Reitman have decided to do their own version of the viral clip, with Oswalt taking on the juicy role of the Angry Texter. Put on some headphones (there’s quite a bit of swearing) and click through to check out their version now; be sure to let us know in the comments how you think it stacks up against the original. Read More »
This Thursday Film Independent and LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) launches their new Film Independent at LACMA series, which brings together filmmakers, artists, and more for a series of special guest-curated programs — ” … presenting cinema in an artistic and historical context.” The latest program will host Jason Reitman who will direct a live reading of John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club. The Juno director recently announced on Twitter that Patton Oswalt would be taking on the role of Brian Johnson, Anthony Michael Hall’s character who had a penchant for flare guns. The Office’sMindy Kaling takes on the curiously quiet Allison, while Spider-Man 2 star J.K. Simmons will read the part of school janitor (and blackmailer) Carl. Reitman is expected to announce other cast members this week, but for now the rest remain a mystery. The event will be a really cool opportunity to see Hughes’ beloved 1985 classic in a new light and performed more spontaneously. Visit the official event site for further details, and click through to head back to high school detention.
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.
1. Arcade Fire and Spike Jonze worked on a short film accompaniment to The Suburbs: “It’s like a science-fiction B-movie companion piece for the record.” [via Pitchfork]
2. There’s a 3D Justin Bieber biopic in the works that will be directed by Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim, the same man who helmed An Inconvenient Truth. Oh, and it gets better: Bieber will be playing himself. And it comes out on Valentine’s Day, 2011. [via Deadline]
3. Paul McCartney wants Ryan Murphy to use the Beatles’ songs on Glee — so badly, that he sent him a mixtape with some suggested tracks. [via Vulture]
4. Jason Reitman and Charlize Theron are in talks to direct and star in Young Adult, a Diablo Cody film about “a thirtysomething, divorced, young-adult fiction writer in Minneapolis who returns to her hometown to chase the ex-boyfriend, who’s now married with a kid, that got away.” [via THR]
5. Would you spend $200,000 on this 7-year-old’s paintings? [via Gawker]
The world of Twitter can be hard to navigate. We know that you’re already following us @flavorpill, but we decided it would be fun (and possibly helpful) if we rounded up some of our other Twitter favorites in a series we call “The Followables.” This seventh installment of Twitter all-stars spotlights the tweeting directors who we love. Do us a favor and leave a comment with anyone who you enjoy who didn’t make our list — especially if they are a non-white, non-male director. Are they the only filmmaker demographic interested in tweeting their thoughts?
1. Pitchfork‘s top 100 tracks of 2009 list is up, and Animal Collective nabbed the number one slot with “My Girls.” (Dirty Projectors‘ “Stillness Is the Move” came in second; Phoenix, “1901,” third.) [via Pitchfork]
2. Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air swept this morning’s 2010 Golden Globe nominations with six nods. Glee dominated the TV categories with four nominations. [via ArtsBeat]
3. Are its latest privacy settings a sign that Facebook has crossed over to the dark side? [via Gawker]
4. ABBA and The Stooges are among this year’s inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Unfortunately for Gene Simmons and his family jewels, Kiss got dissed. [via Rolling Stone]
5. Australia — a democracy, mind you — is planning to introduce an Internet filtering system that would block “obscene and crime-linked Web sites.” [via HuffPo]
September 11, 2001: planes were crashing, hearts were breaking, and Walter Kirn’s most recent novel, Up in the Air, was plummeting in sales. It could have had something to do with the fact that the cover featured men in suits whizzing around and plummeting to the ground like rogue jets. (One of them was even on fire.) Nevertheless, the story of Ryan Bingham, a frequent-flyer-mile-hoarding management consultant who specializes in firing corporate workers seemed doomed for anonymity. Then, in 2005, Thank You For Smoking director Jason Reitman pulled through, locking down George Clooney as leading man in the book’s film adaptation.
