TV @ The Movies: "Glee" and "The Walking Dead"

What is the ideal format for talking about tv? I'm beginning to think it's Twitter since even in the days of next day recaps and the 'watch it on your own time' DVR reality, people often watch it in great masses, round about the same time -- only staggered with everyone in their own slightly skewed time zones. I'm on NESST (Nathaniel's Eastern Stop & Start Time). TV has never been the all immersive experience that the movies can be... so it makes sense that people are now tweeting as they're watching. TV is jerry-rigged to withstand distractions: housework, phone calls, commercials. Twitter and Facebook only amplify this and now everyone has become their own tv critic, ringleader, announcer, omniscient narrator, diarist. I always wish that the movies were this accessible to people to enjoy en masse but... sigh.

With deeper immersion comes less accessibility I suppose.

If she's growling and decomposing, shoot her! 

Anyway, Sunday night I opted not to tweet through AMC's much ballyhooed THE WALKING DEAD. I was curious before the series even began how they would work around television restrictions, only to realize that there are no restrictions. You can apparently show anything on non-premium cable during prime-time hours including little girls and grown men getting their brains blown out (in slo-mo!) and men getting their heads smashed to bits with baseball bats as long as nobody says the naughty "F" word or shows the naughty boobies, butts or dangly man-bits.

[Lots on GLEE & more WALKING DEAD after the jump]

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30 Seconds To Link

Time Warner Do you want to be an indie film icon? Time Warner is hosting a short film competition on their YouTube channel. The prize is a trip to Sundance and presumably the festivities there.
Spangle the slippery slope of the new MPAA ratings. Yes, they're now warning you if a movie shows male nudity. Female nudity is the regular kind, see. No funny stuff!
Self Styled Siren great rangey entertaining review of the Romanian drama Tuesday After Christmas. Though I have to disagree on one major point: I thought the oaf at center was hot in the ways one can be if one happens to be oafish...
/Film Daniel Craig on the set of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

TCM Fredric March is the star of the month. Yay. Make sure to watch The Best Years of Our Lives... since we just discussed it (in case you haven't). I'm DVRing One Foot in Heaven tonight because it's never been able for home viewing.
Mind of a Suspicious Kind on Canadian Oscar submission Incendies
This Recording Molly Lambert wrote a zingy personal runaway train piece on Aaron Sorkin. Loved it but for that "artistic meritocracy" detour sent me spinning. I don't believe in any true meritocracy anywhere. I think believing it it only leads to unhappiness. Success is always about a combo of things including luck, getting to the right places first, knowing the right people, looking the right way, saying the right thing at the exact right time, being in the right mood at the right times, noticing opportunities when they whiz by,  and then... then and only then (and maybe even further down the list) merit. Sorry! There's just too many wildly successful people / things that are indifferently executed, lazily created, or unspecial to believe in merit. Personal button: Pushed! Beep Beep. But Molly is astute...

The internet has taught me that people are radically transparent even when they try not to be. It is a way to channel your id directly, sometimes dangerously, and everyone's id is going "I'M THE BEST LOOK AT ME I'M THE BEST" and then also simultaneously "OH GOD FUCK I AM THE WORST" as an extension of the same thing. Namely that people are fucking fragile, even the accomplished ones.

Dead on. Which is why I try to be transparent. Iwish I was more successful! I'mthebestlookat-ohfuckI....

Antagony & Ecstasy "Beating a Dead Horse" I almost don't want to see Secretariat now. I've been enjoying the merciless reviews too much. The movie might spoil the reviews!
Coming Soon Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly in Back to the Future. What could have been as DVD extras. (Though I'm surprised that contractually, studios can do this?)
MTV Rhys Ifans will play Spider-Man's villain. No word on which villain but if they're going with the canonic Gwen Stacy story it'd be The Green Goblin again.
OUT Cheyenne Jackson's career continues to blossom on television. I'm so embarrassed that the movies are still so hung up about out actors but TV is getting over it already. Oh, movies. Catch up!NY Times Courtroom sketch of Woody Allen & Mia Farrow circa 1993. Ohhhhh...


Refinery and Boy Culture have new Terry Richardson shots of Jared Leto. And speaking of...
Cineboobs Katey drew our attention yesterday to this incredible Jared Leto transformation.



Wow.

Top Ten: NC-17 Box Office Champs

Robert here. Did you know that yesterday was the twenty year anniversary of the NC-17 rating?  That tag, applied to the most controversial of films, has developed the most controversial reputation itself, with artists and advocates complaining that it's implemented unevenly and scares away theaters an rental providers.  We're going to leave all that be for now and instead celebrate the ten films that, despite or because of their NC-17 reputations, lead the pack.  Here are the top ten money-making NC-17 films.

10. Wide Sargasso Sea (1993) $1,614,784
Rated NC-17 for strong, explicit sexuality
Does this one not sound familiar to you?  Released early on in the rating's lifetime, speculation is that while there's plenty of sex, it was the full-frontal male nudity that pushed the MPAA rating's board over the edge, probably the sort of thing that would easily get an R today (but you never know).  NC-17 films were relatively rare early on (not that they're plentiful today) and the rating's promise of scandalous titillation added interest to this film that history has forgotten.

9. Bad Lieutenant (1992) $2,000,022
Rated NC-17 for sexual violence, strong sexual situations & dialogue, graphic drug use.
While most of the films on this list can attribute their rating almost entirely to violence or sexual content, Bad Lieutenant serves up a healthy helping of other material as well, specifically it's prolonged scenes of drug use.

Not that the rape of a nun and Harvey Keitel's almost legendary full nude scene are things to scoff at (and we may wonder if the drug use alone would have earned an NC-17).  The film's sacrilegiously controversial reputation undoubtedly has helped boost it's earnings (the quality product behind the hype doesn't hurt either) and continues to buoy the film's position as a cult classic.

8. Crash (1996) $2,038,450
Rated NC-17 for numerous explicit sex scenes.
Sex and car crashes.  Crash is a film which, fifteen years later, still divides audiences and still provokes shock.  It's a testament to Cronenberg's skill and bravery as a director that he can delve head-first into such unspoken fetishes and ending up with a film that many still consider a masterpiece.  As is always the case, the NC-17 film was both a boost and a hindrance, allowing producers to slap the tagline "The Most Controversial Film in Years" on the film while simultaneously cutting an R-rated version for more sensible tastes.

7. The Dreamers (2004) $2,532,228
Rated NC-17 for explicit sexual content
It's fitting that Bertolucci grabs a spot on this list, as his work has always advanced the cause of intelligent erotica.  The trick here, as it always has been, is giving you passionate sex and nubile bodies (in this case Louis Garrell, Eva Green and Michael Pitt) to gaze at packaged in a manner that makes you wish you hadn't been turned on.  In the case of The Dreamers, we're presented with an incestuous love triangle with enough full frontal that the eventual rating couldn't have shocked anyone.  Cinema lovers can enjoy the classic cinema homages.  Francophiles can drool over the setting of 1968 Paris.

6. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990) $4,087,361
Rated NC-17 for scene of strong adult sensuality with nudity.
With a title that promised Sado-masochistic treats and s director coming off his biggest hit to date Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! boosted Pedro Almodovar's reputation as a chronicler of obsession and sexuality to the point where now we expect content for Almodovar that borders on the NC-17 line.  The film itself is the most delightful dark romp present on this list.

5. Lust, Caution (2007) $4,604,982
Rated NC-17 for some explicit sexuality.
Ang Lee's follow up to his Oscar win is a great example of how a distinct confluence of events can temper the NC-17 boogey man.  Combine a high profile director, and independent release and a sex scene so essential to the film, that to cut it would be disrespectful to said high profile director, and you've got uncensored success.

A brief aside about the bizzare marketing that accompanies NC-17 films.  The censored Lust, Caution DVD made for rental chain shelves, promises "the R rated film, not seen in theaters" and if you didn't know that was a downgrade, you'd assume, as I imagine is the point, that you're getting added kinkiness.

4. Bad Education (2004) $5,211,842
Rated NC-17 for a scene of explicit sexual content.
Pedro Almodovar's second entry on this list is a film where the sexual content is most definitely not meant to  arouse.  The film is a neo-noir based around the victim of an abusive priest.  As with his last NC-17 film, Almodovar uses the springboard of his greatest success to release a film that can only work with the content that most distributors would quickly flinch at.

3. The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and Her Lover (1990) $7,724,701

Rated NC-17 for adult situations/language, nudity, sex
My great old film professor's story goes, he showed this film to a class and got into a bit of trouble.  Truth told, the violence, death by forced feeding, sex in meat lockers and cannibalism can overwhelm some of the films other creative visual constructs (for example, the colors of characters' outfits change as they walk from one room to another).  But director Peter Greenaway knew what he was doing and knew what he wanted.  This film is still that for which he's most known.  And it's hard not to ignore the bizarre courageousness of any film where Helen Mirren utters the phrase, "Try the cock... it's a delicacy."

2. Henry & June (1990) $11,567,449
Rated NC-17 for adult situations/language, nudity, sex
The first film ever slapped with the NC-17 distinction and it shows.  The story of Anais Nin's unconventional relationship with Henry Miller and his wife June and how it inspired Tropic of Cancer these days seems, if not tame, certainly unworthy of the rating.  But as the ratings board was still figuring out what would qualify (apparently three-way sex and brothel scenes made that list) they handed Henry & June a PR victory and the movie practically marketed itself.

1. Showgirls (1995) $20,350,754
Rated NC-17 for nudity and erotic sexuality throughout, and for some graphic language and sexual violence.
I give you, the grand champion.  Look at the difference between the moneys made by this monster and our number two film.  Showgirls is the only movie on this list that still has a place as a pop culture phenom.  That place may not come with the most respect in the world (although I'd argue it never was meant to) but the combination of good marketing, quality camp and copious nudity (hiring a previously "good girl" actress didn't hurt) propelled Showgirls easily to the top of this list.  Considering the small-release, art house atmosphere that most NC-17 films niche into today, I wouldn't expect a challenger to Showgirls' crown any time soon.

How many of these films have you seen?
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Before There Were Websites... (Pt 1)

...there were scrapbooks!

My parents are moving, abandoning my childhood home, and I spent my holiday going through old boxes in storage. It's hard to part with any of these secret keys to unlock my childhood. There's heaps and heaps of homemade comic books featuring my own superhero creations which I shan't share (because they were never optioned for movies... not because they are totally embarrassing. Uh, yeah. Not because of that). Plus lots and lots of drawings of various X-Men, Madonna, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker.

Many photo scrapbooks were uncovered including "MOVIES OF THE EIGHTIES"

front cover: Raging Bull (I hadn't seen it. I just knew it was
"important" somehow), E.T. and Aliens

Turns out The Film Experience was no fluke. I was always writing about movies... but when I was in junior high and high school, the writing was in list-making form and smelled like rubber cement instead of Apple computer.

inside covers: Silkwood , Crimes of Passion, Terms of Endearment

The front and back covers are completely mainstream / boy friendly, and yet the inside jackets are so actressexual. It's as if my love for actresses was still reasonably contained, with Meryl Streep and Kathleen Turner whispering to me in pupa stage.

I was absolutely obsessed with the unseen-by-me Crimes of Passion (MPAA ratings scandal!) though I'm not sure I ever asked myself why... Kathleen Turner was enough cover for and emblem of any prurient reason.

back cover: the infamous gold bikini, Return of the Jedi

Somewhere -- I cannot find it! -- there is a half-formed MOVIES OF THE NINETIES scrapbook which I began in college... but abandoned once the glorious internet took over my life and made scrapbooks actual items of nostalgia rather than just containers for the same.

Part 2 coming soon. some random funny clippings from the book.
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The Terminator (1984)

Part 1 of 3 Terminator Franchise Special.
Spoilers abound but you've had 25 years to see this picture...

"Tech Noir"
In March of 1984 when The Terminator began filming, the director James Cameron and the producer Gale Ann Hurd were no Hollywood heavyweights. Cameron was no one's idea of a visionary (except for perhaps his own) and had only one feature under his belt, Piranha 2: The Spawning -- auspicious beginnings! Hurd had learned the production ropes on B movies for Roger Corman. Cameron and Hurd intended for the dark, fast and cheaply made robot movie to be their calling card. Seven months later in October the movie premiered with only its deceptively simple premise (killer machine hunts woman) and Conan the Barbarian (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to sell it. The Terminator was an immediate hit, though not quite a blockbuster. It earned a Conan-like $38 million gross in its initial run (which I believe is something roughly in the ballpark of $90 million in 2009 ticket sales).

As a franchise it was a slow starter but as a stand alone movie The Terminator was anything but.

The movie begins with a bone crushing (literally) view of "The Year of Darkness", in which massive machines hunt humans in desolate post-apocalyptic ruins. Very quickly we're thrown back to present day Los Angeles ...present day in in the 80s at least.

The T-800 meets Cameron regular Bill Paxton (blue haired punk). Check out
the lengthy tongue accompanied stare his friend (genre movie regular Brian
Thompson) directs at the T-800's realistic looking man parts. Ha!

An electric storm begins and a naked crouching man rises from the clearing smoke. He proceeds to walk emotionless through LA and slaughters some punks for clothes. A second electrical storm follows dropping another naked man into downtown LA. The twin sequences are mostly wordless but already Cameron's story instincts are shining: The first man (we don't technically know he's a machine) is already embedded in the audiences mind as an cool collected deadly force to be reckoned with, the second Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) is, in contrast, a scurrying, less capable and frankly desperate looking man.

Kyle Reese's famously cold and harsh entrance. His arrival isn't pain-free
and before he even has his bearings "What Year!?!" he's being hunted.

In short, he's mortal. We don't know why he's there but his world is already merciless with him (damn that pavement smacks him hard). Soon both men are armed and searching for the same woman "Sarah Connor". A smartly recurring shot has all three lead players scanning the phone book for the name, followed the first time by an expository cut to the Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) we're looking for.

The large stone faced man quickly dispenses with the first two unlucky Sarah Connors. We learn that dogs don't like Terminators. We learn that the Terminator can mimic voices. The police realize someone is scrolling down the list and even Sarah Connor herself, the Sarah Connor, hears about the first murder. As she gets ready for a night out, we realize she's next... and that her roommate is probably done for, too, even if the remain ignorant to the bad omen the first murder portends.

Check out the 80s fashions! Sarah's a simple waitress, not a fashionista. Earlier
in the film she wears a Jetsons t-shirt. Is it a fun nod to the sci-fi genre?

All of this happens very swiftly, sometimes with almost inhuman proficiency (thank the sharp editing by Mark Goldblatt) like the brutal unfeeling demise of the first Sarah. In its early sequences, The Terminator has the timber of a slasher movie. It's over in a flash. Cameron wastes no time in his calling card film. Would that more action filmmakers would have learned from his economy. He doesn't stop to explain. He just shows with clarity and moves on. His films are so precise that sometimes I think he's a Terminator himself, a T-Auteur2000.

Next comes the pivotal plot braiding sequence as all three lead characters are finally threaded together at the brilliantly named dance club Tech-Noir. This leads to possibly the most brilliant shot in the movie as the T-800 stands firing his heavy artillery in front of the blinking sign. Tech-Noir, indeed: He's a futuristic machine and this movie is pitch black with menace.


The night club sequence ups the ante considerably. We're finally shown, without a shadow of a doubt, that Schwarzenegger's character is, in fact, a machine. He rises from what should be death and we get our first shot from inside his head as he targets the fleeing Sarah and Reese. We're nearly 40 minutes into the movie before Cameron finally stops and lets us breathe a little, letting the exposition in. Reese tells Sarah what the T-800 is, putting the sci-fi threat in all too human terms

It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity. Or remorse. Or fear. And it absolutely will not stop. Ever. Until you are dead

Reese and Sarah are caught by the police after a high speed chase with the T-800 and in the police station the psychiatrist also gets to restate the franchise plot and laugh at the absurdity of it all.

This computer thinks it can win by killing him before he's even conceived. A sort of retroactive abortion?

Apparently, in the 80s you could say the word "abortion" onscreen. How far we've regressed.

'Come with me if you want to live have sex.' Kyle's aim is true.

Nine months later Sarah will give birth to new savior of the human race.

Speaking of regression... in the 80s action/horror hybrids were rated R (It's called The Terminator. It needs to be violent and scary) and women were usually naked when they had sex instead of leaving their bras on or rolling around in strangely adhesive sheets. It's true. I'm not trying to be a horndog by why shouldn't Sarah Connor be naked? We're visualizing the conception of our savior J.C. (John Connor) and that's important. If The Terminator were made today they would cut out the goriest bits and make Sarah wear a bra during her world-saving orgasm.

But I digress... in the last half of the film we basically morph from a sci-fi horror film to a chase picture, as Sarah and Reese run from the increasingly robotic looking killing machine and fight him when they have to. Unless there was a heroic woman in Piranha 2 (I haven't seen it) this 1984 classic also gives us our first ultra satisfying taste of James Cameron's respect for powerful women. When Reese is finally put down by the big bad machine, there's no prince to rescue Sarah Connor and she takes matters into her own hands.

You can see her pooling her strength to help Reese and then herself in the last intense fights in the movie. The damsel in distress within her has to die. She's her own savior. And she's the killer now.

You're terminated, fucker

The Terminator gets uncomfortably close to Sarah Connor's sweating face. I like
to think that David Fincher stole this shot in homage for that famous
Alien³ moment when the alien breathes on a terrified Ripley

Sarah Connor crushes this machine but the story isn't over. Storm clouds gather in the sky as she drives away to Mexico and the credits roll. A

The first poster for this 80s classic referred to the original T-800 as "something unstoppable." It was a rare case of marketing as prophecy. The Terminator wasn't a critical sensation and received no Oscar nominations (not even for that brilliantly metallic and frightening theme by Brad Friedel, something like the The Jaws of sci-fi). It started life as a mid-sized hit but snowballed into a massive one on home video in the following years, eventually becoming a billion dollar avalanche of a franchise.

What a calling card The Terminator turned out to be.

PART TWO: "Model Citizen" Terminator 2
PART THREE: Terminator Salvation Discussion
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Saturday Night Link

Moon in the Gutter uploads an Elisabeth Shue clip from 14 years ago (!) and reminisces about Leaving Las Vegas.
Fin de Cinema has a ton of Cannes 09 posters. Love it
/Film a glossary of terms to explain the new Alice in Wonderland screenplay
Screengrab kicks Winona Ryder when she's down (fearing that she might get back up)
Carpetbagger looks at spring's limited release sleeper success. Can you guess which movie? I haven't seen it yet but I did take note here.
Big Monster Cinema has awesomely weird posters and taglines. I wish movie marketing would go completely B-Movie again.


Bleeding Tree apologizes for his original support of the PG-13
Birth of a Notion gives update and personal notes on Farrah Fawcett and her battle with cancer.
Cinema Styles has a thought provoking post on acting and 'career-long characters'

ULTRA SPECIFIC POINTLESS RANT
Have you heard of the film The Tree and the Forest? It just won the Jean Vigo Prize in France. That award honors films of independent spirit and style... they don't have to be considered perfect, just passionate and original. I find it maddening that in 2009 in the magical world of the internets I can't find any info about this film other than the names involved in making it. Boo. There are so many creatives out there making movies, music or art or whatever who still haven't realized that you have to have an internet presence. I've bitched about this before with struggling actors... it's self-sabotage not to have a website in the new century. Even semi-successful people make this mistake. For instance: I was looking up Sutton Foster the other day online. The first website that comes up (underneath Wikipedia) claims to be official but it hasn't been updated since 2005. Meanwhile Sutton has a new album out but you wouldn't know it was available for purchase unless you were friends with her on Facebook or you happened to know the title of the album and you searched for that. Get it together people (Sutton's hardly the only minor celebrity failing in this regard). You can sell more records, movie tickets, merchandise, even (theoretically) get more jobs if you are easy to find / accessible.
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¡Átame! ...and Brüno?

Antonio Banderas was on my mind. I blame Fernando in the comments. Happy b-day Fernando

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! So many exclamation points. ¡But it's worth exclamating! Tis one of the very best films of 1990.


If you ask me this one never gets enough attention in the Almodóvar oeuvre. It's the MPAA's fault (It's fun to blame things on them. Try it). 'Round about '89/'90 a lot of specialized films were having huge problems with the ratings board. Films like The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover and Henry & June were just too much for the simple "R". Regarding the latter film, I still maintain it was the fully clothed Uma Thurman that did it in with the board. She was unbelievably smoldering in that picture. And you can't really edit a title character out of the picture, can you? In this climate was born the NC-17 rating which is still protecting fragile Americans from ever being subjected to films as permanently scarring to their psyches as....

Lust, Caution

(I'm sorry to scare you out there. Settle down, it was only an Ang Lee movie!)

There are a few violent pictures on the list of films that got slapped with 'the new X' but mostly it's sex that gets them angry enough to outlaw any parent from bringing their teenagers into the theater with them. Meanwhile, it's totally OK for a parent to bring their 5 year old into Saw XIV. "All is right with the world", he typed sarcastically.

The new victim of the NC-17 is... Brüno ???

The Wrap reports that the new Sacha Baron Cohen comedy, his follow up to Borat, got slapped with the dread rating. Perhaps reading the full (informal / gifted?) title will make the MPAA's objections more comprehensible.

Brüno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt

The film hasn't even opened yet and Brüno's already achieved his purpose. They're visibly uncomfortable. The comedy, presumably with a few snips, cuts and resultant "R" rating, will open July 10th in theaters everywhere.
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Link Me Gently With a Chainsaw

Bad Taste pics of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland
Candy Kirby "George Clooney: The Other White Meat"
The Guardian is a fan of Mark Strong, supporting man
THR They're making Heathers into a musical? What rhymes with "F*** me gently with a chainsaw"?
Pop Elegantarium "Girl Power". So cute


The Film Doctor About the red herring opening act in Psycho. Basically, I can read about that movie every day of the week
Showbiz Cafe has a bunch of scenes from Almodóvar's Broken Embraces. I personally don't watch anything but trailers from a movie -- I like to keep the experience for the theater and in proper context -- but I realize I'm in the minority in online non-spoiler viewing habits)
Carla Gugino picks five favorite films. Barring Casino she has extremely good taste. I just expressed my love for her and now I must multiply
The Big Picture wonders, in the wake of Last House on the Left if the MPAA is ever going to be disgusted enough by rape to give a movie the NC-17 that they'll slap you with instantly if a woman actually enjoys consensual sex onscreen? See also: This Film is Not Yet Rated. No really, see it. My answer is not until American culture learns to love women more than they love violence against them and that seems a long way off... (sigh)
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The Book of Links

Where am I? Where are you? Help meeeeeeee
[Nathaniel is tired of being away from home, man, cat... and blog]

Defamer Seems that Richard Dutchmer, the kick-off auteur of that mini Mormon movie trend (and yes I saw one of 'em) is leaving the church. Damn! [expressed as in surprise rather than in the eternal damnation sense ~editor]
<---- Empire has teaser posters (of a sort) for Australia. But with Baz Luhrmann's Australia there's been so much teasing I think we're approaching extensive foreplay. Time to put out. Is it November yet?
Just Jared has three teaser posters for Oliver Stone's W. How about that tagline?
OMG! even Bruce LaBruce (Raspberry Reich) has made a zombie movie. The genre is officially oversaturated. Though since it's LaBruce we'll see it.
The Book of Lies Brad Meltzer's latest novel gets a trailer. Do you think we'll start seeing more movie trailers for books?
Sunset Gun Kim Morgan remembers Coal Miner's Daughter

Michael Phillips on the odd language of MPAA ratingss
---> Wonderland Magazine has an interview with Miss Julianne Moore. Yummy new photos ahoy. I love this self-love for her red hair

she did dye her hair blonde for Blindness – the first time in her career she hasn’t opted for a wig. “I thought, ‘This’ll be fun,’ but I hated it!” she blurts. “I was bizarrely visible – people would yell at me as if there was a light shining on my head. The minute I wrapped, I came home and dyed it back to red. I was more strongly identified with my hair colour than I thought.”

..would that more Hollywood redheads would learn to love their own fiery self.
IndieWire TIFF lineup announced

To close, here's a gorgeous tribute to the ailing Paul Newman from the mastermind behind one of the best titled blogs in the 'sphere "And Your Little Blog, Too"

Lust, Caution Fever in Taiwan

Frequent reader and tipster Tony sent me these great photos from a press conference and lavish premiere for Lust Caution in Taiwan. Seems it's getting the blockbuster push there and that 'event' status is paying off big time. Apparently its early box office receipts are even outpacing Ang Lee's own Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. That's quite a bow for a racy 150 minute drama.

It's hard to know how the Oscar voters will react to this film. It was greeted with lots of negativity at Venice only to rebound with the Golden Lion win. Early buzz suggests that its length and its MPAA rating (NC-17) will marginalize it severely for both Oscar and American box office. But wait...

Can one can ever count Ang Lee out?

Consider: His filmography is only 10 movies long and 3 of those have been Best Picture nominees and 3 have been Foreign Film nominees (Crouching Tiger being the only double dipper). He's the only Asian to ever win Best Director and he won that for a gay romantic drama. For someone whose films are so classical in feel and leisurely paced, this man sure is full of surprises.

You Gotta Stand It

By now you've probably heard the story that a family is suing the Chicago Board of Education because a substitute teacher showed Brokeback Mountain to their 8th grader. They want roughly a half a million in damages for "psychological distress" While it's frustrating that a teacher showed poor judgment (it is a rated R film --and however you feel about the silliness of the MPAA you have to know that that's the accepted system) what's outright disgusting is the lawsuit itself. Brokeback Mountain, after all, has a safe and healthy message for society. It details the horrible emotional wounds done to people by intolerance and self negation. Claiming that a child is suffering horrible psychic wounds by having been made to watch it is very troubling. Combined with the fact that this family has complained to the school board before about conflicts to their faith, it suggests two possible things to me, neither of them very pleasant.

1. The 12 year old girl in question has been so inundated with hate messaging that seeing something that didn't fit into that paradigm --seeing something that was powerfully accepting of love (a complete reversal of the child's own experience) was disorienting.
2. This family cannot differentiate between their own feelings and beliefs and the world in which they live.

See... neither of those things are very pleasant. Both indicate that this family is dangerous.

I know that I may have some religious readers and I know that I always risk losing people when this subject comes up but rational humanism has to prevail or we're doomed. Society can only stay peaceful and democratic and civilized if its citizens understand that their feelings and beliefs end with themselves. Those beliefs cannot take precedence over everything else. Government institutions, neighbors and, yes, even your children's teachers have absolutely no obligation to share your personal prejudices and faith.

You really shouldn't be living in "the land of the free" if you can't embrace diversity. We have no right to be free of being offended. I am offended all the time by religious people. They regularly speak about the GLBT community in ignorant bigoted ways and I've never sued any of them. Religions have enthusiastically inflicted "pyschological distress" upon the gay community for a long long time. Maybe we should sue churches? Or better yet, maybe some 12 year old child who had a great experience watching Brokeback Mountain --maybe someone with gay parents or a gay friend or gay themselves should countersue: 'This lawsuit is giving me pyschological distress because I loved the movie and now I am terrified to realize that my classmates family would like to take a tire iron to my parents/friends/me'

I get worked up about these things but I know deep down that most people probably just want to live their lives free of interference. Most people understand that they live in a world where not everyone agrees with them. Most people, even if they've never uttered as much, probably realize that it's for the best that society is not homogenous. To each their own. Not my business. Etc... Why can't religious types get this through their heads? We are all in this together. You only have a civilized world if you understand that you don't get to lord over it. It isn't for you. It's for everyone.

I hate to be so filled with anger when it comes to religion but I am. I wish more than anything that we'd see some prominent members of the religious community speak out about the need to keep religion out of the public sphere. It is a private matter and should remain such. Government does not belong inside religion and religion does not belong in government. Simple as that. The evangelical community --which I'm admittedly merely assuming this family is part of based on their actions -- has really done a great disservice to Christianity. Christ really should never have become so equated with intolerance, bigotry, and government interference. Kinda antithetical to what he was about.

This Brokeback lawsuit story can't really have a happy ending... either way the lawsuit goes you know this girl is growing up with lots of hateful baggage. So I'll just try to think about the other kids who didn't freak. She's probably outnumbered. Children are the future so hopefully most of the kids in that classroom just thought "what a freaking great movie!" , tossed their backpacks over their shoulder and continued on with their day.

Headlinks

Cate Blanchett Is Going To Die Hollywood's starvation diet
Light, Ultra Light, Menthol the new MPAA ratings
Han Solo in Chocolate Bar what it sounds like...
Orlando's Blue Balls (not that kind!)
Defending Volta Rich loves Björk latest disc
Spider-Man 3 by Jeremy and Clint a FlickSkinny
Who's Hotter? Bale or Jackman?
Lindsay Lohan to Strip Down for I Know Who Killed Me

Box Office, Brad, and Boobs

Cinematical informs us that Brad Pitt’s next project after new fatherhood, Jesse James and Babel promotion (check out the new poster. Wheee.) and another Oceans romp is looking to be The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for director David Fincher. This long gestating development-hell plagued film is about a man that ages backwards. I’m crossing my fingers and offering gifts to the cinematic gods to see this through to a real greenlight. Why? Well the story sounds worthy of imaginative filmmaking and Pitt does great work under Fincher’s hand. Se7en and Fight Club are his two very best performances, say I.

The Stranger Song is a new movie/pop culture blog you should check out. They have a smart and interesting piece on the critical/box office divide in response to AO Scott’s NY Times piece which was in response to the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest box office explosion. Got it? I completely agree that box office does not automatically equal public love and it was a relief to read someone else addressing this issue articulately.

Movie City News's guru David Poland talks about the ever shifting MPAA ratings system and the overall lack of sex at the movies. On this point I agree. Even supposed slutfests like Basic Instinct 2 don’t deliver in this area. I watched that on DVD last night and not only was it just awful in all the traditional ways a movie can be bad but, apart from its filthy mouth, it was pretty tame and dull. And re: Sharon Stone's one major nude scene in the film. Maybe a lesbian or heterosexual man can explain to me the appeal of fake boobs? I don't get it. Do people really like them? The huge amount of boob jobs in Hollywood seem to indicate that someone does. The appeal of large breasts is obvious but fake large breasts? Please to explain if any boob man is reading.

I'll Link To That

Slant’s Ed Gonzalez on the M Night Shyamalan screenwriting grab bag. I love this. I’d like to see some for other directors. Speaking of M Night… WOW Report let’s you know what Haley Joel Osment has been up to…a car crash apparently. Weird to see him all grown up in the photo.

popbytes on superhero stamps. I’ve never understood stamp collecting but I do admit that I enjoy seeing what gets put on stamps and what doesn’t. But to have 10 superheroes only and Plastic Man and Hawk Man get stamps? I call foul. Speaking of superheroes… My New Plaid Pants on the new casting rumor for Batman Begins 2 (er…Batman Continues?). Heath Ledger!

Cinematical covers the MPAA’s anger over IFC’s MPAA-questioning documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated . It will --appropriately for its title I may add—never, in fact, be rated. They’re releasing it without one.

And finally… I’m spending every Wednesday night gleefully watching Project Runway and now a few days later I can gleefully read Four Four’s recaps. Life is good.