La Link en Rose

I'm feeling uninspired right now, so here are some links to occupy your time.

Indiewire looks at this year's Foreign Language Film Oscar race. There's not much there that we don't already know, but you should read it for the offensive, insulting and downright pathetic grovelling of La Vie en Rose producer Alain Goldman:

"It's so bizarre," says "La Vie en rose" producer Alain Goldman. "Obviously, they did not think let's get the one that has the most chance to win, because then they would have picked 'La Vie en rose.' It was such a good contender to win this year, and they knew that, so I would really like to understand why," he wonders. "What was their goal?"

He goes on further to discuss how Persepolis should be religated to it's own Animated Feature category and leave Foreign Language Film to the hystrionic time-shifting weird ritilin-deficient musical biopics.

Nat at Film Experience has a (surprisingly) long list of GLBT directors and actors working in today's film and television business. It's not exactly the number of gay performers, but more that so many of them seem stuck in the indie/gay ghetto. That's a shame.

On a similar not SameSame has a list of the 25 most influential Gay and Lesbian Australians. On the list is Neil Armfield who has worked in stage and film, including last year's Heath Ledger-Abbie Cornish drug drama Candy. There's Darren Hayes whose album This Delicate Thing We Made was all kinds of excellent, and iOTA who portrayed Hedwig in this year's production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Awards Daily has some stuff on Control, the Ian Curtis biopic that is a) out soon, b) better than La Vie en Rose and c) actually quite good period. I saw Control at MIFF and it went on to win the Audience Awards or somesuch. I still can't help but feel in the back of my Oscar-guessing mind that Samantha Morton is gonna make a play for Best Supporting Actress. She doesn't get much to do but what she does is very noticable. She got nominated for lead for In America (as implausable as that sounded then and now) so all she needs is some buzz and some plaudits before making a move.

The new Golden Compass poster at My New Plaid Pants is much much better than that awful crap they gave us earlier. And Movie Marketing Madness has the new I Am Legend poster. It too is better than the first. So, huzzah's all 'round.

Dear Go Fug Yourself, I think I can speak for the 18.5 million Australians who don't watch McLeod's Daughters that truck stops and psychics named "Mystic Miranda" do not make a good show.

Lastly, TimesOnline is reporting that Al Gore is the favourite to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Oy...

Australink Idol

Let it be forever known, Sunday the 17th of August was the worst night on Australian Idol ever. So very true. Scott to be Certain has the low down. The low, low, low, very low pathetically low down. Ugh. Tarisai to the rescue!

Awards Daily has the poster for Francis Ford Coppola's "comeback" Youth Without Youth, which you can view to the left there. The best thing about it is the title design. But, what's with all the roses lately?

Somebody tell Sarah Michelle Gellar to fire her agent, stat!

Apparently the Emmys were on yesterday? These are such a non-event these days in Australia (the programs rate even worse here than in America, The Sopranos and The Office are on at Midnight!) that the telecast is being edited to an hour and a half and being screened at some ridiculous time like 10.30pm after Californication. As long as they never do that for the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes then I won't give a hoot.

"He sells reproductions! His furniture's as fake as my orgasms!"

Somebody's decided to make a list of the Top 100 Actors who are still breathing and demanding bowls of green m&ms for their dressing room. It's to be updated yearly and whenever someone carks it and die they get booted off! How lovely. It's like Australian Idol or something. For the record #100 is Susan Sarandon. Whoever it is that has done this list has done the annoying thing of ranking upwards! Ugh. How silly. Still, it's sort of fascinating if not also an entire load of wank.

Lastly, the William Wyler blog-a-thon is on this coming weekend over at GoatDogBlog. I haven't seen enough Wyler movies if you ask me, but I do love love love the ones that I have.

Linkalia

Here's some links to jog to glance your eyes over.

Time has an article about the lack of romance in cinema these days, with much of the early passages relating back to Baz Luhmann's upcoming (and very much anticipated by moi) romance epic Australia. Sleepless in Seattle was on TV yesterday and I recorded it because I was out, but I just love that movie. It's kind of sad that My Big Fat Greek Wedding is the rom-com that has stuck from the last few years. It's certainly no Sleepless in Seattle or Moonstruck is it?


I've been following the Melbourne Film Blog during MIFF to see what Paul has been saying. His thoughts on David Gordon Green's Snow Angels are very positive, so I'm a tad miffed (lol, pun not intended) that I forgot all about it. I was a fan of Green's Undertow afterall.

XO's Middle Eight has a review of the new Darren Hayes (discussed earlier) album This Delicate Thing We've Made. I have yet to get my hands on a pretty copy of the album, but when I do I will be expecting one of the best albums of the year/decade/forever.

Kevipod has the new Girls Aloud video. Sexy? Yes! Yes! Yes!

Electronic Cerebrectomy (I will never tire of typing that blog name) found a funny/disturbing thing at Roger Ebert's site. I admit to finding Rush Hour 2 a guilty pleasure of sorts, but I have no desire at all to see the third film. It's tired.

I'm not sure where JD got these billboard photos but they're funny as all get out! My favourite is the Christian Coalition of America, although it is true that only we can prevent bears in hats. Also, proof that Anna Faris can make anything funny.

I have to agree with Kenneth in the (212) about Pat Rafter. He's a dish. And even though we don't get to see him running around in small shorts anymore, he does still do underwear advertisements and, well, that's a-okay with me.

Victim of the Time takes a quick (well, 69 minute) look at Christopher Nolan's early film Following. I'd never heard of this and, shockingly (right?), I'm still not interested.

Have a peak at the poster for Paul Haggis' latest, In The Valley of Elah. It's... umm... well, it's sort of shit. I can't even tell that that is Charlize Theron. And there's no Susan Sarandon on the poster! It's all very rah rah Americah, isn't it?

And lastly, Ja at My New Plaid Pants discusses The Blair Witch Project. I concur with every letter of every syllable of ever word. That movie just taps into something that so few films can (for me).

Linky Warhol

Here's some links.

Aleisha won Big Brother, which means Zach did not. At least Travis or Billy didn't! But here is Scott to be Certain discussing Australia's previous Big Brothers. Obviously, he reckons Vesna rocked as does everybody and everyone realised the injustice of Logan Greg winning 2005.

Sight and Sound has an interview with Gus Van Sant (who's next film Paranoid Park doesn't even have a distributer, I believe) about Andy Warhol. Interesting stuff.

Our costumer on Finding Forrester went to the Carnegie Institute at the same time as Warhol. We were begging her for information. She said, "I don't know. He was a weenie. We didn't talk to him." ­Perhaps there was a relationship between having an entourage around him all the time and his origins as the weenie in the class.

StinkyLuLu has another Supporting Actress Smackdown. Who will be the victor? Cusack, Davis, McDormand, Pfeiffer for Weaver? I haven't seen Mississippi Burning so I can't comment on McDormand, but I think I would have passed my vote for Sigourney Weaver for Working Girl.

I've discussed Rachel Stevens before. And now PopJustice are too. But for the wrong reasons. Oy... They also have new Debbie Harry material, which is very exciting.

Lastly, Cinematical has an interview with the luminous Julie Delpy. On discussion is the end of recently released (in America) Broken English. "You're gonna miss your plane..."

JD: Really?

RS: Yeah. It was like, why would she do that?

JD: Why would she do that? That's weird. Was it conscious?

RS: I don't know. I thought maybe you two were friends, and it was an homage. Who knows?

JD: Maybe it's an homage.

RS: Anyway ...

JD: Really? She says that line?

RS: It's something close to that. You have to rent it now, I guess.

JD: Yeah, yeah. It's odd. I was planning on seeing it. It doesn't matter. Before Sunset has been done, you know, a while ago.

Link, Baby, Link

Here's some links to pass your time!

Despite my dust up last year with Kris from InContention I still enjoy some of the features of his site. New writer Brian Kingsley has taken on the 'From Page to Screen' feature and the first one is Gone Baby Gone, the new film written and directed by Ben Affleck. I predicted Oscar glory for this movie, but the following quote doesn't exactly fill me with confidence:

As far as awards potential goes, I don’t think we’ll see much. It’ll deserve a lot I imagine, specifically for this script and, given the potential, Casey Affleck, but it’s not an Oscar picture. It’s brutal, it’s scary and it doesn’t scream Oscar (as many contenders this year do) more so than genre. However, this can certainly be a critic’s darling if it rouses the right amount of passion.

We'll see. Might be interesting to see Ben Affleck be a writing nominee again though, hey?

The Age has an article about writer/director Tom Kalin (Swoon) and his new film - the Julianne Moore-starring Savage Grace. I'm seeing this film on August 10 as part of MIFF and I'm excited. The Age also has a roundup of how the Aussies did with the Emmy voters. In one category - Best Supporting Actress in a TV Movie or Miniseries - three of the nominees are Australians! That'd be Judy David, Gretta Scacci, Toni Collette. Plus, Anna Paquin is from New Zealand. We stole Russell Crowe from them... Oh and Rachel Griffiths got nominated too, which was great!

I'm not gonna discuss the Emmy nods because many of the shows aren't even on down here (stuff like 30 Rock) but I'm happy about the multiple nods for Heroes and Ugly Betty - a show I am loving despite it's immense flaws - compared to Grey's Anatomy, which I am falling rapidly out of love with with each and every passing episode because of it's immense flaws. Hmmm. Seriously though, can they just give Kyra Sedgwick the Emmy right now? She owns it. Where was Brothers and Sisters though? I thought the Emmys would eat that show up for a breakfast!

MNPP has a quote of the day from Chris Evans. It's gold and it's all about him being shirtless all the time. Apparently some people think he's "too hairy"! Blasphemy! He's the perfect amount of hairy, thank you very much.

The Hot Blog has the poster for Wes Anderson's upcoming release The Darjeeling Limited. It has a very similar design to The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (below). I've had an up and down history with Wes Anderson. I'm in the minority of Rushmore in that I think it's not very good at all. But then I absolutely love love love The Royal Tenenbaums. The Life Aquatic was somewhere in the middle there. I wonder where Darjeeling will fall when it's released later in 2007. Somebody makes a curious comment in the replies to the entry at The Hot Blog - all three of these actors have distinctive noses. Also, if you look in the credits it also has Anjelica Huston and the costumes are done by Milena Canonero. !!!


Electronic Cerebrectomy discusses the new plans for Michael Moore's possible next documentary - gay rights and the Christian left's inability to be rational. Tricky subject, but Moore can do it justice I think. We need someone like him to get it out there on CNN and not just have some obvious panel of "experts" or something on the sidelines at some fringe festival.

And lastly Dave at Victim of the Time discusses how amazing Six Feet Under is. It wouldn't be my favourite of all time (although it would be top 5 probably along with Twin Peaks, Seinfeld, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and with Sex and the City and Golden Girls battling it out for the final spot) but, those final ten minutes? AMAZING. A few weeks ago there was an interview, in the TV guide that comes with the Herald Sun on Wednesdays, with Rachel Griffiths in which she stated she thought the final ten minutes of Six Feet Under were the finest ten minutes of television in history. I pretty much can't argue with that.

So, naturally, here's the clip! Don't watch it if you intend to watch the entire series (six seasons) some day because it'll ruin everything. If you've seen it already then just... I dunno. Sit there in stunned silence and take it all in. It's stunning. Again - the finest ten minutes ever in the history of television. Don't even try to tell me it's not.

I'm crying by the one minute mark!

Australian Screen

Today was quite a marvellous day for the Australian film industry with the Australian Film Commission's launch of Australian Screen Online, a database for Australian film and television, much like the Internet Movie Database but, obviously, focusing only on Australian product. At the current moment it features 564 titles, amongst them films, television programs, television films, documentaries, newsreel footage and shorts from over the past 100 years of Australian filmmaking with more being added at a regular basis.


Recent titles such as Clubland and Romulus My Father sit next to titles like Lantana (2001), Romper Stomper (1994), The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972), Northern Safari (1956) and The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906). The earliest title is, amazingly, a 6 minute short film documenting the 1896 Melbourne Cup horse race! This Clip shows men at the races posing for a photograph, not realising that they are being filmed, not photographed.

I could even direct you to the page for Ten Canoes and let you view clips from that! There are even episodes of David and Margaret At The Movies! Crazy.


Alongside the regular features such as cast and crew lists, plot descriptions and rating information each title will have three clips that can be viewed in the imbedded video program. Some even feature study guides. It's all pretty nifty. Here is what they said at the launch.

The website contains more than 500 moving image clips gathered from the collections of the AFC's partners in australianscreenonline, including the National Film and Sound Archive, The National Archives of Australia, the ABC, SBS and AITSIS (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies) and from the country's independent production sector.

That figure is expected to grow to more than 2,500 clips by July 2008 and will continue to expand.

Clips from recent Australian films Romulus, My Father and Clubland feature alongside a collection of historical footage that has previously never been freely available to the public.

Works by acclaimed directors Gillian Armstrong, Jane Campion and Phillip Noyce are sampled along with footage of the Snowy Mountain Scheme and film of the first nuclear explosion in Australia.

The aim is that by the time the site is completed it will be a complete resource for Australian films. Of course there are features on the IMDb that aren't on here such as awards, soundtracks and images. But, in the end, the website will prove to be incredibly resourceful. It's definitely a bookmark to keep!

The Blair Link Project

The Star Tribube has an article about the new from from, wait for it, Daniel Myrick! Don't know who that is? Well, he is one of the directors of The Blair Witch Project. He's somehow finally gotten around to making a new film. It's all about dead people and cults and an ambulence driver. Interesting? Not sure.

The Chicago Tribune's Marc Caro sighs at the inevitable: Citizen Kane at #1 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies. I gotta agree. Yawn. Citizen Kane is a darn good movie, don't get me wrong, but while I wouldn't have it on my own top 100 if I did one, it's just frightfully dull to see it top every single poll in the history of cinema. Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons didn't even show up on the entire countown! Ugh.

I've been resisting the new Simpsons movie because the television series has just been so downhill for the last 5 years or so, but the trailers have been funny, and now with this new exlusive trailer I am finally convinced. I can't wait for this movie. It looks great. "Spider pig. Spider pig. Does whatever a spider pig does." Although, in terms of animation, Dave Poland reckons that Ratatouille is the best film of the year (so far). Niiice.

Nat at The Film Experience has a great piece on the new members of The Academy (Jennifer Hudson, Jennifer Aniston, Daniel Craig, Chiwetel Ejiofor among them - Rinko Kikuchi, Abigail Breslin not).

Adam wants to know who's hotter between River Phoenix or Johnny Depp. That's so easy for me (River!), but I know many others probably disagree, right?

I was going to write something for the Film Music blog-a-thon at Windmills of My Mind but I forgot all about it.

Big Bad Blog discusses Reichen Whathisname's new jewellery line. I've never liked this guy, but I found it entirely hilarious and true-to-form that he was model his own brand wearing next to no clothes and looking like a spokesman for gym queens.

Toweload makes mention of the fact that Isaiah Washington (he of the "faggot" incident on the set of Grey's Anatomy and the Golden Globes) reckons they fired the wrong man. I never understood this man's deal, nor why he would go to rehab because he was a bigot. I've also neverunderstood how minorities can be so ignorant of other minorities. I know being African American and being homosexual are two completely different things, but have we not faced similar battles? Have we not both been seen as lesser people? So when a black man goes around using words like "faggot" I find it incredibly ridiculous. I'm surprised he didn't come out and say they were being racist for firing him. Ugh.

Also, I love the new banner at My New Plaid Pants. Scream was my life for a while. I seriously watched it every day for a few months. ...don't look at me like that!

Linkabout

I'm not feeling inspired right now, so here's some links.

The New Yorker has a fabulous article by Jeffrey Eugenides about a longlasting summer movie-going experience. It's not Jaws or Star Wars. It's actually the Australian/British film by Nicolas Roeg, Walkabout that starred a young David Gulpilil. It's a fascinating read. I wish I was that articulate.

Friez.com discusses David Lynch's experimental opus INLAND EMPIRE as well as his future plans (he really likes Poland, apparently). The film has had it's June 21 release date vanquished and is, as far as I can tell, in limbo with Australian distribution. I hate the world. I think it's out on DVD in August in America so I may just have to import it. How incredibly depressing.

[It was here where I did a quick link to Dave Poland's Hostel Part II review, but then it spun out of control in my brain and turned into a blog entry all of it's own. Nice how that stuff happens from time to time.]

The other day The Film Experience linked to the trailer for Neil Jordan's new Jodie Foster-starring film The Brave One. I'm glad Jodie is out of the claustrophic-thriller sub-genre (although I still reckon Panic Room is pretty darn amazing). After a bit of searching I found that the (amazing) song used in in the second half of the the trailer is the (amazing) "Auto Rock" by the (sometimes amazing) Mogwai. I didn't mention him for some reason, but he worked on Clint Mansell's score to The Fountain. And we all know how that one turned out. I just have a feeling about this movie that I'm gonna really like it, even if it's not incredibly well-liked by others. I don't know why I have that hunch, but whatever. Jodie's looking feisty in the image below.


Who knew a Franz Ferdinand remix of an LCD Soundsystem track ("All My Friends") could be so good?!

So, I was having a discussion with The Brother last week about Saw and Hostel (a popular topic these days) and when I mentioned that they were making a Saw 4 he said that it'd be even more pointless than the other movies in the franchise **SPOILERbecause the two villains diedEND SPOILER** I joked that there'd be an evil twin or something. Well, that may or may not be the case. Blah yada etc. The vicious cycle of doom continues.

Does this picture (below) of Will Ferrell and Sasha Baron Cohen freakin' anyone else out? It was from the MTV Movie Awards held last week. It's so... :/ I dunno. Is it good or bad that a gay kiss (as in between two men) has won the Best Kiss category two years in a row? Although, I do have the urge to watch Brokeback Mountain again now. Hmmm....



And lastly, as the deathtoll continues to rise the Victorian train disaster, I send my thoughts out. What a terrible accident. Sad.

Don't Stop The Links

Online music bible PopJustice quite literally has a list of 100 things that aren't as good as Rihanna's new CD. The list of 100 things that Good Girl Gone Bad (which I thought was a bit of alright) is better than includes: "Trees", "The last Rihanna album", "The rare sight of a sheep sprinting across a field and jumping over a small stream", "The sight of a small child throwing themselves on the floor in the supermarket because they are not allowed a Kinder Surprise", "The last Beyonce album", "Seeing someone almost trip over in the street then pretending they meant to do it with some sort of elaborate and completely unconvincing cover-up", "Scotland", "Shower curtains", "Getting quite a good grade for an essay you knocked out in fifty minutes while coming down from a four-day-long drugs binge", "Shelves", "Bathroom radios in the shape of dolphins which don't really get any reception and take three batteries when you only ever have two lying around because you bought a packet of four batteries and EVERYTHING ELSE EVER INVENTED uses two batteries" and "Lampshades". It's pretty much all true. I now love the Ne-Yo duet, which is something I never thought I've ever imagine possible.

Scott over at Scott, To Be Certain has faith in Kelly Clarkson. "Never Again" is really kind of quite dull, but even though the album cover does look sort of like Amy Lee's own private fancy dress party, it is artsy and purdy and, well, let's face it, Kelly is so much better than Amy Lee who isn't exactly where it's at.

The Hollywood Reporter has the nominees for the Key Art Awards. They are the only awards group, as far as I know, that gives out awards for marketings. There are some great posters and trailers nominated. Although why the Devil Wears Prada's trailer wasn't nominated can be explained easily (it's just the opening scene, basically), you also can't deny how effective it was (everyone wanted to see the movie immediately after watching it).

Hmmm. Clearly the winner of the Best Drama Poster category will be Hard Candy because, let's face it, that poster was about as amazing as finding something at the charity op shop for a fiver and then going on Antiques Roadshow and discovering it's actually worth, like, 100 times that much and then you get to do that face that they all do. You know the one. The mix of "wow, who cares if this is a family heirloom, I just made a thousand bucks" and "oh, yes, that's about what I expected."

I share Ja's immense pain: You can locate such pain here, here, here, here and, well for some it's more a pain in their pants, but here too. Kristen is yummy. (please, nobody mention any spoilers though!)

I continue to be a firm believer that Brangelina have been replaced by hideous wax robots (picking up all those adopted babies must have made Ange's arms really skinny, right?). I wish they wouldn't compare Brad to Robert Redford. Cause, seriously.

So, in Box Office Prophets entertaining Monday Morning Quarterback segment they discuss last weekend's quite giant $122mil opening for Shrek the Third (roughly $7mil more than Shrek 2). I ask this: Is this the quietest $100mil ever. Has anyone seen this movie? And if they have, have they even mentioned it. Nobody other than Dave Poland seems to be talking (and it ain't positive). My favourite part of the Quarterback article was this line "I compare Shrek to Pixar as Family Guy is to the Simpsons. The Shrek films appeal directly to the "Oh, I get jokes" crowd." As y'all know I sorta loathe that franchise.

Speaking of Dave Poland, he had lunch with Sarah Polley. As I say in the comments, I'm glad she's apparently done so well behind the camera because her on camera work reached it's nadir (but it wasn't as low as Marcia Gay Harden's, *snicker*).

Adam poses a head-scratcher. I can't for the life of me guess who he's talking about. I'll take a stab at it though... umm... oh! Lisa Scott-Lee?!?! No? Oh... damn. (Don't feel bad for not getting that. Nobody really gets Lisa Scott Lee. Except Lisa Scott Lee, of course.) There's a picture of Lisa to your right. She's knitting with giant needles and a ball of wool that is five sorts of "That's Huge!" Wait, why am I going off onto a Lisa Scott-Lee tangent or all possibly tangents.

And lastly, following on from all my harping about Grindhouse (it still tortures my soul to this very day, teehee) it was with hightened interest that I follow it's Cannes fate. I'd find it incredibly amusing if Death Proof (the now elongated segment of Grindhouse that is competing for the prestigious Palme d'Or) won an award. How about Best Actor for Kurt Russell? Or some wildly inventive special prize created by the jury as a means of, effectly, masturbating all over Quentin Tarantino. Some still don't like it much some apparently had a blast and if this quote is anything to go by (and, with Cannes audiences, you never know what's truthful and what's a big fat lie.)

Judging by the whoops of delight and loud cheering the new version received at its premiere on the Croisette this was a very good idea.

I can only hope it's true and that the Weinsteins and Village Roadshow get the fuck on with releasing these movies. Seriously. NOW.

Linksville, Pop. 5

I loved Jindabyne, y'all know that (it may or may not be up for an obscene 9 UMA awards in the major categories alone, *looks around with shifty eyes*) and I love this interview with Ray Lawrence from the LA Weekly. He's such an intelligent man and he gives great interview.

L.A. WEEKLY: Even though you once nearly made a film about a woman crossing the Australian outback by camel, the three films you’ve directed are all group portraits and ensemble pieces.

RAY LAWRENCE: I do seem to like the ensemble thing. I guess I might get bored [working] with just one or two people for eight weeks. Somebody said that the films are a trilogy on death and family, and you could also look at it that way, I suppose.

Here's hoping that the "Australian Terrence Malick" works again quickly. I need his movies to feed my desire for good mature drama, which is increasingly rare, unfortunately. Even if nobody outside of Australia seemingly wants to go see them. Except Ja. I love Ja for loving Ray.

Speaking of Ja, his Pic of the Day (not the one to the right) is from another horror film (surely you remember the last one) but this time I am not objecting. I am quietly agreeing. Quietly? I don't do anything quietly. But I am here because as much as the idea of a remake of Halloween fills me with equal parts bile and hilarity (the minds of those Hollywood folk) I am an unabashed fan of the previously most maligned horror remake, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Still, I don't really have faith for this Halloween remake after all the stuff we've heard about it. And I adored Rob Zombie's Devil's Rejects (a grindhouse homage if ever I saw one.)

Have you seen the trailer for Day Watch. It looks absolutely bonkers and I love it. There's a horse charging through a brick wall, there's the wheel sequence from Pirates of the Caribbean 2 en masse, there's vertical car chases and there appears to be ample melodrama, nudity and quirkiness. I haven't seen Night Watch, but maybe I should.

This picture of Mark Wahlberg certainly amused me, alright. But one of the comments really bugged me. "Poor guy didn't age very well." Ugh. I'm assuming this person (and the other 40-year-old fat men/twentysomething size queens just like him) are of the "if he isn't a 21-year-old muscle queen then he ain't hot" or whatever. If Mark Wahlberg ain't sexy then I don't know who is. Did these people see him during the awards season. He was damn fine. Ugh. Gay people annoy me so much sometimes. Lord knows what would happen if it turned out Wahlberg was actually gay. He'd probably be seen as ancient. Don't people realise men (and women!) get better looking as they age. It's the reason why so many of my celebrity crushes are actually men who, if in real life, would be way too inappropraitely aged for me. Anyway. People are stupid.

Have y'all heard Rihanna's follow-up to "Umbrella"? To quote music bible PopJustice, "With 'Shut Up And Drive' she has already equaled the previous Rihanna record - two listenable songs on one album". So way to go Rihanna. Your last two albums weren't worth the dog shit they were covered it, but with the amazing "Umbrella" and the not-as-amazing-but-amazing-all-the-same "Shut Up and Drive" you're on your way to making me care. Listen to it over yonder.

And lastly, can I just give out a reminded to all Aussies, Brits and Europeans (not sure about elsewhere) but Groove Armada's Soundboy Rock album was released this week. It's a pretty great album, but you should check it out for the most amazing super-dooper terrific amazing amazing amazing thrilling amazing song of the year. I made a passing reference (yeah, as if) to it earlier in the year. If you are as-of-the-moment unaware of how flatout genius "Song 4 Mutya (Out of Control)" -featuring the divine Mutya Beuna- is, just wait a month for when the single is released and it, by all deserved rights, explodes and becomes the song of the UK/European summer. I still stand by my below quote. It's brilliant.

It's like they took everything that was great about Annie's "Chewing Gun", Space Cowboy's "My Egyptian Lover" and Basement Jaxx's "Good Luck" and then injected the unreleased techno soundtrack of a futuristic sci-fi rip-off of Kill Bill!

Steal This Movie (But Not These Words)

So, earlier today Nat made mention of websites that steal people's work. He wrote about his own experience as well as that of MaryAnn the Flick Filosopher of websites just blatantly stealing blog entries and claiming them as their own (or, at least, not attributing it as otherwise). I have indeed noticed this several times before with my own stuff through the magic of technorati. Mostly Fametracker taking entries about Steve Carell, Natalie Maines and Rinko Kikuchi, but my understanding of Fametracker is that they are just a site that accumulates work from all over the web and everyone knows.

However, there are several sites such as Celebrity News which seem to be stealing work and passing it off as their own. They even stole Ja's recent entry about not being able to see Twin Peaks' first season. What use is an entry like that to anyone other than My New Plaid Pants readers? That site also stole my When Bad Posters Strike entry on I Could Never Be Your Woman. People who don't read me would have no freakin' clue what they're on about! This other site called Sexy Celebrity took my entry about The Home Song Stories and popped it up on their site. And because I'm going through the archives and giving all my older entries labels (to benefit y'all) all my older entries are floating to the top and even those are being stolen. I mean, the news is old so I don't get it at all.

While my situation isn't anywhere near as frustrating as Nat or MaryAnn because I don't get any revenue from writing this blog (although when I get a full time job and start living in Melbourne sometime in the next year, who knows...) so I'm not losing money, but it's still frustrating that these weird news services steal people's work and just pop it up without even a hint that it's not their own, let alone whose it actually is. I'm sure it's happening to you.

It's incredible bizarre when these sites steal either very person entries about people we know in real life (like, for instance, my friends Georgie and Hannah who I have mentioned on occasion) or link entries. I just... ugh.

I know none of you guys read these weird sites so I can't really tell you to stop (well, no, if you read them STOP) but if you do come across something that you know is written by me or anybody else then please fire off an email (addresses in the top right corner) and (if possible) leave a comment. I'm not sure how to stop it (none of these places have contact info) but my work and everyone else's that is written by them is under copyright from the moment they put it into the public domain (I've studied this so, at least, that's the law in Australia as I remember it from hazy studying two years ago) so it's actually illegal, and it's also just unfair and really stupid.

I'd really like to investigate this further. I should get in contact with one of my former teachers who was all about copyright. She'd know. Anyway. Thank you for letting me get this off my chest.

edit: I got an email from Joe at Low Resolution. That "Fametracker" thing I mentioned isn't www.fametracker.com it's another one that I can't seem to locate now (they've all disappeared from my Technorati page). So, yeah, don't think that that actual fametracker steals stuff. Cause they don't.

April Fools Links

er, no fooling here actually. Y'all should all follow these links.


I usually skip Movie City News' Digital Nation column, but this weeks is really interesting. It's all about the 3D boom as of late. I'm neither for or against 3D to be honest, but as long as it's done well I don't see why it can't have a place. One of the problems I had with 2006's charming Monster House was that watching it in the confines of my living room the obvious fact that it was meant for 3D viewing was a bit annoying for a while. However, I've mentioned before how much I enjoy when things are waved in front of me like crazy.

Here is the first teaser for one of the many trilogy-enders coming this US Summer, The Bourne Ultimatum. Not much there, but it gets my blood pumping. BRING IT ON! Also, I love Joan Allen.

I've given Beyonce some hard times recently, but now she's gone and make me respect her. It's hard for me to even think of a mainstream artist who would even contemplate doing what Beyonce's done, let alone actually go through with it, but Beyonce has created video clips for every single song off of her B'Day clip. Way to go, Beyonce! Giving your fans a treat. She is rereleasing the album with something like seven extra songs plus videos for every song from the album (yes, including songs not released as singles). Not all the vids are as fun and awesome as "Get Me Bodied" (inspired by Sweet Charity), and not all the songs are as good as "Freakum Dress", but I give her big props for actually planting down the cash and doing this. I'd like to see others try a bit of concept in their marketing.

Many people give the MPAA grief (rightly so, they're idiots sometimes), but (like Beyonce!) I gotta give them the props that they deserve after the official warning and sanctions given to After Dark and Lions Gate over the advertising of the new Roland Joffe (yeah, ROLAND JOFFE) film Captivity. Good on the MPAA for stickin' it to them for blatantly disregarding their disapproval of the offending billboards and bus posters, which showed a woman's capture, captivity, torture and death (image below). The billboard is sort of sick and if these sanctions mean they lose money and have to move the release date then fine by me. It's about time the MPAA went hard on violence again and not just sex like usual.


Who's Who Behind The Do? It's rated PG for, amongst other things, "momentary teen smoking". Let the MPAA-are-idiots argument continue...

She's a bitch. No seriously.

The delightfully enthusiastic Adam from Crumb by Crumb has gone ballistic over Todd Haynes' I'm Not There in relation to Oscar (what else?)? Some would say that Haynes was snubbed for his direction of Far From Heaven (he was nominated for writing), I say it's his 1995 film [safe] that is his masterwork so far. And while I would love for the Academy to go all orgasmic about Haynes I don't think I'm Not There is the film to do it. You know, the Bob Dylan biopic that features the role of Dylan being played by a multitude of actors including Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard Gere and, ahem, Cate Blanchett (who he predicts for Supporting Actress). I don't see it happening, but all the best to Haynes. I hope he knocks it out of the park! Let's just hope the Weinsteins don't screw it up. They seem to be doing that a lot lately.

The best review of 300 I've read yet.

Oh man... I laughed so hard... honestly, this shit is the funniest stuff i've seen in ages. The dialogue is painfully bad and just as you think it couldn't get any more idiotic David Wenhams narration kicks in. That's when it moves from hilarity to pure pain.

The best possible way I could describe this is like an episode of Rome moved to Sparta and written specifically for spastics, retards, mongoloids and 5-year-olds then dumbed down a little more for our American friends.

The action scenes were okay but nothing to rave about.

3/10

Scott, To Be Certain discusses Natasha Bedingfield and her bonkers new song "I Wanna Have Your Babies". The song is ridiculous and, yes, bonkers, but my god is it catchy or what?! "Button my lips so the truth don't slip." Aagh. I'm glad that, for now at least, she hasn't whored herself out to American hip-hop (and by "hip-hop" I mean the foul rotten shell of a corpse that the genre of hip-hop has become) that could has easily happened when she made it big over there. YAY!

And lastly, because I like it when others talk about me (it gives me a rest from talking about myself so much) I'm gonna give a shout out to J.D. (edited) from Joe's Movie Corner. Hugs and kisses, mate!

(I've found myself saying "mate" way more often than usual lately. I think I should stop.)

Pan's Links

I'm gonna discuss Pan's Labyrinth in a tick, but right now - here are some links.

The Envelope has an article about cinematography. I ooh and aah over this category every year (it's my absolute favourite outside of the "majors") and this year was an exceptional year. I haven't seen Dick Pope's work on The Illusionist (that movie is out next week down here), but the other four nominees (Vilmos Zsigmond for The Black Dahlia, Emmanuel Lubezki for Children of Men, Wally Pfister for The Prestige and Guillermo Navvaro for Pan's Labyrinth) are all in my own personal ballot (alongside David Williamson for Jindabyne).

The Age takes to the Oscars from an Australian point of view. But the writer sort of lost me when he mentioned the Brownlow. Don't compare the two, please.

Thank god for Lizzy Gardiner's American Express Gold Card dress, and for Bjork and Cher and people prepared to live dangerously and flirt with the sartorial absurd.

How about a HELL YES! The Kramer Vs Kramer jibe on page 2 warmed the cockles of my heart.

We all know about Penelope Cruz' padded arse in Almodovar's Volver, but was some of Cruz's hair fake as well? I loved her hair in that movie. So big.

At The Gilded Moose I was a runner up on the Prove Your Wit competition. Not only did I throw an insult Oprah Winfrey's way, but I also poked fun at The Last King of Scotland. I make myself so proud sometimes.

In Dreamgirls news - those you thought you would never get to see the original (and apparently the best) Effie White will actually get the chance to when Jennifer Holliday takes to the stage in an Atlanta Dreamgirls revival.

Annette Bening at the Film Experience offers up who she ticked the boxes for on her Academy Award form. She's smart. She knows that finally she'll have a change to win (aka, she won't be up against The Skank) and the Academy will feel they "owe" Kate Winslet.

Adam at Crumb by Crumb offers his predictions, which I pretty much agree with. I'll offer my final predix in a day or so.

RC over at Strange Culture goes through the archives and details explicitly his Oscar-prediction shortcomings. I think we're all guilty of doing that. I thought Judy Davis was surely gonna get nominated for Marie Antoinette back in 2005. LOL, right?

I am immediately intrigued by Zoo. Is this some sort of Equus-on-film or what? Man turns into horse? WHAT?

Arden (Not her real name) over at Cinephilia reviews George Hickenlooper's abstract ode Factory Girl. The reasons why she liked it are the exact reasons I've wanted to see it for ages and why I just know I'll like it. It's that time period and all that stuff. I wish they'd release it down here. We got Miss Potter and Breaking and Entering pretty much at the same time, so why not this?

Lastly, did you know you could order flavoured m&ms?

Link It Up

I dunno. I can't be bothered right now. Still sick. So here's some links for you.


I enjoy the symmetry in Rod Zombie casting a relative unknown in the form of Scout Taylor-Compton for the role of Laurie Strode in his Halloween remake/revamp/reinterpretation due out... this year (or is it 2008?) I've apparently seen her on Gilmore Girls, but I don't remember her. I do, however, remember her in the mindblowing egregriously Oscar-snubbed classic Sleepover (sample scene). Is this Scout Taylor-Compton the new, similarly three-named may I add, Jamie-Lee Curtis? Jamie has recently quit acting, so it would be highly amusing to see the actress taking over Jamie-Lee's most famous role then go on to become a star in her own right. We'll see. Maybe.

Towlerod reports of a hilarious lawsuit against the makers of Brokeback Mountain. That last line says it all: "One wonders if Scott-Blanton is aware that Brokeback is adapted from a short story by Annie Proulx first published in The New Yorker in 1997." What a dumbass.

RIP Sally Spectra! When I used to watch The Bold and the Beautiful when I was 10 (so much of it went over my head, I presume) Sally Spectra was always my favourite. She was such a weird nutter. I was legitimately taken aback when I read the other day that actress Darlene Conley had passed away due to cancer. Watch the clip, it's both moving and completely and utterly hilariously bonkers. Loves it.

My New Plaid Pants always provides good funny and today he's got 150-word re-enactments of The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, Babel, The Queen and I presume Letters From Iwo Jima whenever he sees it. They're hilarious.


How freaky is that?!?

Also, I watched Dave Chappelle's Block Party for the second time in a row today. Just an amazing film. Makes you forget all the shit that's going on in the world and wish that everybody could have their own block party to make themselves feel good. Sure, watching fictional characters be happy is one thing, but seeing real people like the ones in here just puts the biggest smile on my face. Plus, the chance to watch Jill Scott is enough to warrent many many viewings.

Linkssss

I feel like writing something but I don't. Like, I wanna write something out for you guys but I can't think of anything and the idea I do have is something I'm gonna do later (AFI predix). Oy.

So, umm, enjoy some links?

Jim Shembri at The Age discusses this year's crop of Australian films. He's definitely 100% correct on many points, but it's a bit much to ask somebody like Ana Kokkinos to give two wanks worth of interest to a movie like Kenny. I mean, really, she seems like the sort of director who cringes at the mere thought of watching a movie that's considered "mainstream". But, yes, 2006 was a very good year (there was also some really bad stuff, but thankfully all the movies that were successful were good) and was an improvement over 2005, which was a big fat giant improvement over 2004. A year I couldn't only get three contenders for the Best Australian Film category in the UMAs (which I'm gonna do this week hopefully).

The European Film Awards awarded their Best Film prize to Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's (I love that name) The Lives of Others, which also won Best Actor and Screenwriter. Almodovar's Volver won four including Best Director and Best Actress for Penelope Cruz.

The Satellite Award nominations were announced last week too. Umm... pretty standard, I reckon although I was surprised to see even they chose something like Venus over A Prairie Home Companion or Borat!. Oh well, there's no real threat of it getting a Best Picture nod at the big ceremonies, nor at the Globes where it's considered a Drama not a Comedy. I was happy to see Lily Tomlin nominated (for Prairie), Gretchen Mol (The Notorious Bettie Page) and the movie Aurora Borealis, which shows even they can have passionate choices out of left field. They laughably nominated seven movies for Best Picture Drama. That's 13 films nominated for Best Picture in total!

*sigh* Looks like Dave Poland gonna go ga-ga over Letters from Iwo Jima and say that it's a lock for Best Picture and Director. I was hoping for an Eastwood-free year, especially after the weird (in a bad way) Flags of our Fathers.

Seriously, download "Ghosts". It's pretty much the greatest song you'll hear all year. I've had it for ages, but i only just realised it's available for free download.

Links!

Sorry folks, I don't really have anything to say. And I didn't yesterday, either. What you gonna do? I've had work and social commitments and just a lack of interesting things. So for pure shits and giggles, go to some of these links if you haven't already. Oh, i'll mention that the sidebar is slowly revamping itself, so hopefully I'll have all the links put in again soon. But it takes time y'all!

Ja at My New Plaid Pants talks about Michael Haneke's Funny Games. This is an English-language remake of Haneke's own 1997 film. I'm only new to the world of Michael Haneke, and I've only seen three of his films (Hidden, The Piano Teacher and Code Unknown, which I discussed earlier this week. The Time of the Wolf is on tele next week though so I'll defo try to catch that). Unfortunately Funny Games isn't available down here yet, but as I said in the replies to that entry I made, the good thing about American remakes is that somebody always releases the original on DVD just in time to make some quick cash. So, anyway, Ja has some links to new images of the English-language version starring Naomi Watts and Tim Roth as the couple and Michael Pitt and Brady Corbit (from one of my absolute favourite films of last year, Mysterious Skin) as the psychopaths. Interesting.

It's this time of the year that Nat at the Film Experience really hits his stride, and he's doing so as I type. He has a review of Running with Scissors, he has more Best Foreign Language Film news than you can shake a stick at (go TEN CANOES!!!!), the ever-incestuous relationship between Burton-Depp-Carter continues with Burton's Sweeney Todd and he weighs in on the eternal battle of good vs evil... aka Martin Scorsese vs Clint Eastwood. I like Eastwood (well, I liked his last couple of movies. I haven't seen Unforgiven), but come on. Scorsese! But, I still wish The Aviator had of won a couple of years back.

GQ lists the 25 most Stylish films of all time. Of course, being a men's mag means it's all about men. I haven't seen a lot of those movies, but I gotta ask. They mention James Dean three times I believe yet not one of his films (Rebel Without a Cause being the obvious one) is listed. The white tee, red jacket and denim jeans is iconic, folks.

Top 10 World War II Movies. Pardon me while I yawn, but WWII is a topic that I just don't care about in movies anymore. Yes, Saving Private Ryan is good blah blah blah, but WWII movies are just like Hollywood blockbusters sometimes. Big fight sequence followed by quiet dialogue followed by fight scene (a path that Flags of Our Fathers seems to have taken. I find it amusing that the best ones on there are typical war films - Casablanca and Mrs Miniver. I haven't seen Schindler's List though. I really want to, but they never send it to me.

Dave Poland's 20 weeks to Oscar columb. And stuff.

Arden at Cinephilia says Little Children is for "Winslet and Field fans only" I'm a Winslet fan, but not a Field fan (I didn't like In the Bedroom that much) so should I still watch it? Hmmm.

I love reading Tech Support over at Kris' In Contention. The Tech departments don't get enough love.

The Envelope Buzzometer is up. The Queen, Flags of our Fathers and Dreamgirls take the top three spots for Best Picture buzz, but the actress category? Well... that's a shambles right now. So many possibilities. Mirren and Dench take spots #1 and #2, but at #3 is another Brit, but this time of a much younger generation: Sienna Miller. I actually predicted Sienna Miller for a nomination all the way back in April when nobody else even gave her a second thought, so it's funny seeing her get buzz let alone actually be in contention. I don't think she'll get a nom anymore, but ya know. I also predicted Cruz all the way back then too, so give me props please (lol, don't). Winslet and Bening round out the top 5. So... yeah, it actually is a shambles. No Streep. Huh? And apparently Ed Norton is in contention for Best Actor with The Illusionist or The Painted Veil. I... didn't see that one coming.

The Prestige gets a For Your Consideration ad. Alongside a Best Picture and Director consideration, they have two for Best Actor (Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale), one for Best Actress (Scarlett Johansson), three for Best Supporting Actor (Michael Caine, David Bowie and Andy Serkis) and two for Best Supporting Actress (Piper Perabo and Rebecca Hall). Something tells me they'll be getting none of those. Although, how much would it KICK ASS to see David Bowie as an Academy Award nominee?! A lot! That's how much.

I love No-Necked Monsters run by fellow Victorian Michael Scott (oh, the memories of that name). Today he has a review of Children of Men. I must admit to also being guilty of being filled with joy that we're getting a highly-anticipated Hollywood production a full two months before the United States. I'll hopefully be seeing it on Tuesday. eep. He also has a great write-up for the little Aussie gem from about 8-years-ago called Soft Fruit. I liked it when I saw it on VHS about five years ago, but it's true that nobody seems to remember it. Well, I do Michael! I DO!!!

And that's all for now, cause I need to eat and then get ready for work. Ciao.