F

Flavorwire

Jeff Daniels

Film

Flavorwire’s Flick of the Week: ‘Looper’

By Jason Bailey on

What gets your attention first about Rian Johnson’s Looper is its speed — on a basic level, it’s just a very fast movie, the text, cuts, and exposition coming at the audience hard and sharp. That pace is established in its opening scene, in which its hero (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) stands in a field, checks his watch, takes out his earbuds, and waits. The second a hooded body magically appears in front of him, he blows the poor soul away. Boom, cut, next scene.

Looper is a movie that wears its jazzy, ebullient style on its sleeve. Writer/director Johnson, who previously crafted the smashing Brick and the enchanting Brothers Bloom, is one of our giddier filmmakers — he’s intoxicated with the sheer act of movie making, and his enthusiasm is infectious. But he’s also got a magician’s gift for diversion; in retrospect, one of the most remarkable things about Looper is how it starts as one movie, and then slyly transforms itself into something else entirely. … Read More

Television

Review Roundup: Why Are Critics So Disappointed in ‘The Newsroom’?

By Judy Berman on

We — and every other TV connoisseur in America — have been counting down the days till the debut of Aaron Sorkin’s new HBO drama, The Newsroom, since the show was announced several months ago. But while we’ll still be watching the premiere this Sunday, the sheer number of negative reviews that have already been published is starting to worry us. While a few critics are sticking up for the show — The Hollywood Reporter praises its strong cast and engagement with complex issues — the majority seem fairly unhappy. How could critics possibly like an Aaron Sorkin TV show about cable news (Metacritic score: 56) less than the Dallas reboot (62)? After the jump, we take a look at the reviews to see what’s turning them off. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Alison Nastasi on

Today at Flavorpill, our faith in humanity was restored after looking at these photos. We read what Jeff Daniels had to say about HBO’s The Newsroom and more. We looked at the remnants of World’s Fairs across the world. We wondered if our cats and dogs would hate us if… Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Ashton Kutcher has signed on to play Steve Jobs in a new indie film that “chronicles Jobs from wayward hippie to co-founder of Apple and one of the most revered creative entrepreneurs of our time.” While it seems like a bit of an odd casting choice, we suppose there is a slight resemblance. [via… Read More

Film

12 of the Greatest Movie Roles Almost Played

By Jason Bailey on

The weekend’s big movie, as you well know, was The Hunger Games, while DVD and Blu-ray players have been firing up Fincher’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo since its release last week. The two films have a lot in common: powerful female protagonists, adaptations of bestsellers, probable franchise kick-offs. As such, they were also each objects of carefully considered casting. It’s become part of the pre-production process, the bandying about of potential name actors for high-profile roles; Fincher reportedly talked to Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman, Kristen Stewart, and Scarlett Johansson before settling on Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander, while Hunger Games director Gary Ross’ alternate Katnisses included Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Emma Roberts, Chloe Moretz, and Saoirse Ronan.

Contemplating proxy casting choices is a fun parlor game for movie fans (perhaps second only to considering movies that never came to pass at all). After the jump, we’ll take a look at a dozen iconic movie roles, and the actors who almost, almost filled them. … Read More

Daily Dose

Daily Dose Pick: Howl

By Tanja M. Laden on

In this biopic of famed American poet Allen Ginsberg, Jon Hamm, Mary Louise-Parker, Treat Williams, and Jeff Daniels join lead actor James Franco to reenact the 1957 trial following the publication of Howl.

A year after printing the epic Beat poem, publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti was arrested and charged with obscenity. The film takes us up to that point through insightful chronicling of Ginsberg’s early years as a writer and revolutionary, carrying us through to the case that represented American society’s conflicting values during a time of change. … Read More

Theatre

Exclusive: Talking with the New God of Carnage Cast

By Chris Kompanek on

When we first saw God of Carnage last year, we were blown away. Yasmina Reza’s tightly constructed one-act packs a wallop of a theatrical punch into eighty minutes on stage. The brutally funny comedy of (bad) manners stems from a playground altercation between two preteen boys that escalates to full-on war when their parents get involved.

The curtain comes up as Henry and Benjamin’s parents Michael (Jeff Daniels) and Veronica (Janet McTeer)/Alan (Dylan Baker) and Annette (Lucy Liu) respectfully, fine-tune an official statement on the incident over coffee and clafouti (kind of like fruitcake), which gives way in real-time to brandy and cigars. Blame is doled out, and uncomfortable truths are revealed, such as what really happened to a certain pet hamster. Translator Christopher Hampton sets the mayhem in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn for a refreshing New York feel. Director Michael Warchus‘ fast-paced staging teems with physical comedy that’s explosive. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Leftist historian Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States and a favorite of celebrities like Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, and Bruce Springsteen, has died at 87. [via NPR]
2. Charlize Theron and David Fincher are collaborating on a new drama series for HBO called Mind Hunter that will… Read More

Theatre

Vanity Fair’s Idea of Theatre Looks Like a Random Assortment of Hollywood B-Listers

By Caroline Stanley on

Humor us for a second: Wouldn’t it have been interesting if Vanity Fair actually talked to respected, less well-known stage actors instead of honing in on every celebrity with a project on Broadway for the upcoming theatre feature in their June issue? … Read More

Film

Sundance ’09 Films We’re Already Falling For

By Caroline Stanley on

Prop 8 boycotters be damned, the slate for this year’s Sundance Film Festival has been announced, and as always it reads like an overwhelming buffet of tasty cinematic treasures along with a few movies that we would never, ever want to see. The ones that we’re the most excited about? The films that star the actors who we love most, naturally.

(Admittedly this is a flawed way of doing things, as last year it meant that we completely missed out on Momma’s Man and Man on Wire, but our screening powers are only as good as our unhealthy crush on Michael Cera.)

After the jump, the five flicks that we’ll be vying for good seats at come January; leave your own picks in the comments. … Read More