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Pop Culture

The Top 10 Cry-Faces in Hollywood

By Jennifer Lewis on

A cry-face is like a snowflake; each one is a special and unique work of art. For that reason, ranking the effectiveness of cry-faces is harder than you’d think. We took a whack at the task, and are proud to present our top ten cry-faces in Hollywood, judged by believability, tear duct dexterity, and lip-quiver technique. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term “cry-face,” it’s exactly what it sounds like — the face an actor makes when he or she cries, of course! Simple as that.) Check out our rankings after the jump, and hit the comments to let us know who would top your own list of oh-so-intense criers. … Read More

Music

Watch David Lynch’s Alternate Video for Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”

By Judy Berman on

You remember Herb Ritts’ music video for Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”: that black-and-white footage of Isaak rolling around on the beach with Helena Christensen, getting sand in all the wrong places. But did you know that there’s an entirely different video for the “No ahhhhhhh” song, directed by the one and only David Lynch? “Wicked Game” appeared on the soundtrack to Lynch’s campy 1990 film Wild at Heart, and Lynch made the video as an extra for the movie’s VHS release. Dangerous Minds has dug up that rarely seen clip, and depending on how you feel about seeing Isaak in eccentric suits and David Lynch hair, tender and intense scenes between Wild at Heart co-stars Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern, close-ups of flames, and the general suggestion that the song is more than just fuel for steamy make-out sessions, you might just prefer it to Ritts’ version. … Read More

Film

The Best Beatles Cues in Movie History

By Jason Bailey on

Happy 70th birthday, Sir Paul McCartney! (Oh, he’s a big Flavorwire reader, you didn’t know? Comments a lot. Really bad about the “first!” thing. ) The Beatles have been on our mind a lot lately, after their song “Tomorrow Never Knows” was used so hauntingly in the “Lady Lazarus” episode of Mad Men. Much of the subsequent chatter about the song’s appearance on the show was centered on its hefty price tag ($250,000), and indeed, the high cost of using Beatles songs is part of the reason why you hear so few of their original recordings in movies and on television (at least compared to, say, The Beach Boys). Producers will more often go the cheaper route of using covers or even sound-alikes, but a few films have made the effort to use the original Fab Four tracks, and to great effect. After the jump, we’ve compiled a few of our favorite Beatle moments in modern movies. … Read More

Film

Directors and Their On-Screen Muses

By Alison Nastasi on

We hope Laura Dern has a wild at heart and weird on top kind of birthday. The actress celebrates tomorrow, but we’re stealing our slice of cake a day early by taking a look at Dern’s relationship with director pal David Lynch. While the star has been busy filming Paul Thomas Anderson’s scientology-inspired drama The Master, her early career days were spent with the king of strange, Lynch. Dern’s appeared in three of the director’s films — keep in mind he’s only made 10 features since starting out in the late ’70s — and has been a unique, expansive female character in his canon, as this article from The Awl has also pointed out. It’s clear that there’s a depth to Dern’s dramatic allure Lynch greatly admires. While we hope to see the director take up with his muse once more, we thought it’d be a perfect time to celebrate a few other inspired collaborations. Click on to see some of our picks, and tell us yours, won’t you? … Read More

Film

2011′s Most Underrated Films and Performances

By Jason Bailey on

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. … Read More

Television

HBO Renews ‘Enlightened,’ Cancels ‘Bored to Death’

By Judy Berman on

As much of our recent TV coverage suggests, we are big fans of HBO’s Enlightened. So it is our great pleasure to bring you the news that Laura Dern and Mike White’s sitcom about life post-nervous breakdown has been renewed despite garnering an average viewership of only 210,000. The network’s decision… Read More

Television

Flavorpill’s 10 Most Anticipated New TV Shows of Fall 2011

By Judy Berman on

There’s not much to celebrate about the end of summer, but at least we can look forward to the end of re-runs and a new crop of fall TV shows. While they don’t all look like winners, and several will surely be canceled within the first few weeks of the season, quite a few series have caught our eye. Now that The TV Addict has put together a helpful calendar of premiere dates, this seems like a good time to count down our top 10 most anticipated shows debuting in September and October. Check them out and tell us what you’ll be watching after the jump. … Read More

Film

The Mother Ode: A Cinematic Pantheon of Mamas

By Jason Jude Chan on

Since the Lumières’ first homespun projections, there have been umpteen films about, and for, mothers. The portraits have ranged from adoring to crazed to Camus-cold (“Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can’t be sure.”). After the jump, peruse our categorized list — more Mamma Rosa than Mamma Mia, but by no means the maternal final word. Add your favorites in the comments.  … Read More