Today at Flavorpill, we wondered why Daniel Craig is giving Rooney Mara a piggyback ride on the cover of this week’s Entertainment Weekly (seriously, we only imagine Lisbeth Salander being OK with that scenario if it was reversed). We thought that having the Muppets host the Oscars was a great idea — if only for the Statler and Waldorf commentary. We felt sorry for the more than 700 Twihards who are already waiting in line to see the cast of Breaking Dawn at the film’s premiere in LA on Monday. We considered having a Thanksgiving spread that consists entirely of cupcakes this year. We were happy to see the Olsens land their first cover of Vogue, and for the special edition “Best Dressed” issue to boot. We discovered that back in 1996, Whit Stillman directed an episode of Homicide. We wanted to plaster our walls with these hilarious teeny-bopper posters of a young Jason Bateman. We were curious how much rent we’d have to pay to live in this amazing treehouse in Brooklyn. And finally, we traveled back in time thanks to this video compilation of deaths from old school video games. Ah, to be young and really bad at Space Invaders again…
Filmmaker Gary Winick died on Sunday at the age of 49. While in recent years he was known for his work on larger movies like 13 Going On 30 and Bride Wars, we’ve always been partial to his breakthrough film: an indie comedy from 2002 called Tadpole. The premise is simple: Oscar Grubman, a 15-year old preppie with an ancient soul (think Max Fischer), has a crush on his oblivious stepmother, Eve. But because the film is set in the affluent social circles of the Upper West Side, our protagonist likes to randomly speak in French and quote Voltaire; when characters fight, the heated exchange takes place over a game of tennis; and a romance between an adult woman and a young boy seems plausible rather than illegal. It’s a very adult world for a teenager to inhabit, and one that has only been captured a handful of times on film. Click though as we revisit some of our favorite examples.
1. Robert De Niro and Richard Price have sold a crime drama to CBS called Rookies that’s about “a team of six freshman cops who are sent into high-crime trouble spots.” They will also executive produce the series. [via THR]
2. Indie filmmaker Whit Stillman is busy at work shooting his first movie since The Last Days of Disco. It’s called Damsels in Distress, stars Greta Gerwig and Adam Brody, and tells the story of “a group of style-obsessed college girls” at a grungy school. [via THR]
3. Sorry iPhone users: An anti-sexting patent filed by Apple back in 2008 has finally been approved. Now you’re going to have to get a lot more creative with your spelling. [via Gawker]
4. E! is launching a new reality show about three women married to members of famous rock bands, including Perry Farrell’s wife Etty. [via LF]
5. Some unknown artist named Alisa Apps is challenging Lady Gaga to a sing-off with a $1 million prize because she believes her to be “just a plastic doll generated by the music money marketing machine.” [via NME]
In 1990 Whit Stillman gained both critical acclaim and a cult following with his debut film, Metropolitan, a low-budget, high-comedy masterpiece about a group of college-age Upper East Siders who talk their way through Christmas break, riffing on everything from strip poker to Lionel Trilling’s take on Mansfield Park, all the while attending debutante balls. Subsequently, Stillman completed a trilogy with Barcelona — perhaps the greatest movie ever made about the American experience abroad — and The Last Days of Disco, a haunting, hilarious meditation on lost innocence and the end of the disco era. Disco was released last week by Criterion Collection – an honor rarely bestowed upon recent films, and the second time Criterion has chosen a Stillman film; Metropolitan came out a few years ago. Stillman, who currently lives in France, but was in route to LA to help fight the forest fires, was gracious enough to answer a few questions over email. Read More »
On Attractive Qualities in Men: Metropolitan, Nick: “Rick Von Slonecker is tall, rich, good looking, stupid, dishonest, conceited, a bully, liar, drunk and thief, an egomaniac, and probably psychotic. In short, highly attractive to women.”
NYC Prep, Taylor: “I’m, like, attracted to Sebastian. I like his hair.”
- The Faster Times compares dialogue from “WASP Woody Allen” Whit Stillman’s classic Metropolitan with the verbiage of the possibly morally and definitely grammatically bankrupt teens of Bravo’s NYC Prep. BTW, who watched last night? We hope the producers feel at least a little ashamed after they achieved their goal of convincingly insinuating that a 17-year-old girl did something slutty. Team Camille!
