The Top Favorite Male Fictional Characters on Film
(Characters either created for film or adapted from literary works) as chosen by the viewers of this blog (in no particular order):

James Bond (Sean Connery) in 6 "official" James Bond films including: Dr. No (62), From Russia, With Love (63), Goldfinger (64), Thunderball (65), You Only Live Twice (67), Diamonds Are Forever (71) and the "unofficial" Bond film: Never Say Never Again (83)

Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (75)

Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) in Ghostbusters (84)

Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) in To Kill a Mockingbird (62)

Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt/Edward Norton) in Fight Club (99)

Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (86)

William "Bill" Munny (Clint Eastwood) in Unforgiven (92)


each selection listed above recieved 2 votes each

lookin' for love...

A Love Song for Bobby Long
Written and directed by Shainee Gabel, based on the novel by Ronald Everett Capps. Starring: John Travolta, Scarlett Johansson, Gabriel Macht and Deborah Kara Unger.

What it's about (from nytimes): "Bobby Long (John Travolta) is a washed up former literature professor with a voracious drinking habit. He lives in a rundown house in New Orleans with Lawson Pines (Gabriel Macht of The Recruit), his former star pupil, also an alcoholic. Lawson is allegedly writing a novel about Bobby. Their depressive little corner of the world is disrupted when Lorraine, the beloved eccentric singer who owns their house, dies. Her teenage daughter, Pursy (Scarlett Johansson), who hasn't seen her mother in years, arrives in town too late for the funeral, and crashes at the house.

Afraid of being thrown out on the street, Bobby convinces Lawson to tell Pursy that the house has been left to all three of them. Pursy, having little else to do, decides to move in, and starts cleaning up the place, making it her own. Lawson is involved with Georgianna (Deborah Kara Unger), who works at the local bar, but he quickly develops a crush on the comely Pursy. The cantankerous Bobby seems determined to drive the girl away. As Pursy settles into the diverse little community, all of Lorraine's old friends tell her how much she looks like her mother, and she begins to uncover some startling truths about her family history. A Love Song for Bobby Long is based on the novel Off Magazine Street, by Ronald Everett Capps. It was adapted for the screen and directed by Shainee Gabel, who co-directed the documentary Anthem."

From a commentator on imdb: "Travolta wants his Oscar so bad he is willing to cry drunkenly in the bathroom after urinating blood." Travolta may not get an Oscar nom (he didn't even score a Globe nom for this film - but Johansson did) but that's okay - I'm sure we can just add this to the growing list of films that he never recieved any notice for: Blow Out (81), White Man's Burden (95), She's So Lovely (97), Primary Colors (98, Oscar-worthy performance), A Civil Action (98) and Lucky Numbers (00). Travolta has always been a great character actor. That's probably what he was born to do. The more big budget Hollywood starring roles that he does (for 20 million a picture no less - his going rate) the more wooden and lazy he seems to get. It's the little films, and the more riskier projects that make him a true force to be reckoned with.

John Travolta's favorite film: Yankee Doodle Dandy (42)

Dog Day

As a friend of mine recently pointed out: all of Shakespeare's plays are either classified as comedies, tragedies or histories. Which then would The Merchant of Venice fall under? Officially, it is comedy. But there isn't much laughing going on in this, one of Shakespeare's least-filmed, often debated (not to mention controversial) and most under-appreciated works. So what then is The Merchant of Venice all about? I'm glad you asked. Antonio, the merchant of Venice (played in the film by Oscar-winner Jeremy Irons) is asked for a loan by his well-born but habitually penniless friend Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes) in order that the latter may be enabled to pursue his courtship with the heiress Portia (Lynn Collins). Antonio, whose money is tied up in ships that have not yet returned to port, borrows 3,000 ducats from the Jewish usurer Shylock (Al Pacino in a return to form) who makes Antonio promise to forfeit a pound of flesh if he is unable to pay on the agreed date. Bassanio goes off to Belmont to successfully win the hand of Portia, in a test set by the terms of Portia's father's will (a game involing three caskets). Eventually unable to pay his debt, Shylock demands his pound of flesh from Antonio. After a hasty wedding with Portia, Bassanio returns to Venice and, as soon as he has left, Portia and her maid, Narissa (Heather Goldenhersh) who is married to Bassanio's freind Gratiano (Kris Marshall) follow incognito (disguised respectively as a lawyer and a clerk). In court, the disguised Portia first pleads with Shylock for mercy; rebuffed in this approach, she conceeds the legality of Shylock's claim, but points out if he exacts more than a pound of flesh, or if one drop of blood is shed, his life and lands are forfeit. Moreover, she points out, death is the penalty for conspiring against the life of a Venetian citizen. The Duke of Venice (Anton Rodgers) pardons Shylock from the death sentence, but orders that his fortune be divided between Antonio and the state. Antonio returns his share to Shylock, with the stipulation that he must leave it in his will to his daughter Jessica (Zuleikha Robinson), disinherited when she eloped with Lorenzo (Charlie Cox) a Christian, and finally that Shylock himself must become a Christian. Portia and Nerissa (whose real identity remains unknown to the others) will accept as payment only the rings Bassanio and Gratiano have recieved from their wives. Back at Belmont, the wives reproach their husbands for no longer having the rings, but - after much teasing, reveal the fact of their disguise, and with the news that Antonio's ships have also returned - all ends happily.

The play was probably written in 1596 or 1597. It's interesting to note that anti-Semitism was alive and well even in England and during Shakespeare's time. In 15th century Britain, many Jews were sadly persecuted in the streets for no apparent reason. Oh yes, the play is most anti-Semetic (but not in the way you might think). Thus the controversy. To construct his play, Shakespeare combined two stories: the Bond of Flesh (from India) and the Casket Choice, both of them with long traditions in folklore. The Shylock figure of course (coming from the Bond story) was not however a Jew. Il Pecorone, a collection of prose romances, by Ser Giovanni Fiorentino was probably used as a source of this original story, coming in part from the Mahabharata (compiled between 500 and 200 B.C.). Another version of the Bond of Flesh story that Shakespeare might have used is contained in Zelauto (1580) by Anthony Munday, although here the moneylender is no Jew but a usurer, and the forfeit demanded is the young man's eyes. There was also a contemporary ballad "shrewing the crueltie of Germutus a Jew," but this may be of later date than Shakespeare's play. Marlowe's The Jew of Malta was also no doubt a huge source. Shakespeare's decision to write a play cenetered on a Jew may have been influenced by the revivals of Marlowe's play in 1594 and 1596, and probably also by the trial and execution of Roderigo Lopez, a Portuguese Jew, for allegedly attempting to poison the Queen. Two of Shakespeare's most famous characters are in this play: Portia, the woman turned lawyer, and Shylock, for the Elizabethan age an unusually sympathetic characterization of a jew. This is one of the biggest misconceptions about The Merchant of Venice. It's "happy ending" is also the give-away of it being labeled one of the Bard's comedies. Was Shakespeare condemning the Jews, or making their persecutors out to be the ignorant oppressors that most anti-Semites are? Or was this aspect of the play a simple examination of an isolated character and his own personal prejudice? That all depends on the viewer. But just who is this Shylock, really?

Down to the time of famous stage actor Charles Macklin (1699-1797), the part was played by the low comedian and was grotesque to the extent of buffoonery. Macklin transformed it from "the grimacings of low comedy to the solemn sweep of tragedy," and made Shylock a vengeful, inexorable moneymaker. Shakespeare was ahead of his time in seeing that the bitterness and spite of Shylock resulted in part from his cruel and inhuman treatment at the hands of a Christian society. The literary scholar Harold Bloom writes in his book, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, "One would have to be blind deaf and dumb not to recognize that Shakespeare's grand, equivocal comedy The Merchant of Venice is nevertheless a profoundly anti-Semitic work." When confronted with this statement by journalist Lawrence Grobel in a recent interview (Premiere Magazine), Al Pacino had this to say: "I know it has anti-Semitism in it, but I was hoping that the movie version would change that, since you would be able to understand more visually and in movie storytelling where Shylock was coming from." Grobel goes on to state: "Bloom believes that Shylock is a villain." Pacino: "I don't see Shylock as comic or villain. My interpretation of Shylock is someone who has been abused, victimized, and through his rage gets hoisted by his own petard. To me, it looks like Shylock is a profoundly depressed man who lost his wife and is living under the oppression of the Christians in Venice. His daughter leaves him to marry a Christian. This allows him the feeling that it's within his right to get revenge. He's not a happy man, but he has a lot of dignity and heart and courage. Probably one of the greatest speeches ever: 'I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands? Organs? Dimensions? If you prick us, do we not bleed? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.' It's the most anti-racist speech I've ever heard. Shakespeare could not help himself from being human; it was his genius." Pacino has not only clearly penetrated this character - but he may have just enlightened the whole context of racism in the play.

Pacino: "To me, it's a man against the system. And I like those parts. It's sort of in the tradition of Dog Day Afternoon (75) and Serpico (73). A man wronged. And then going too far. I don't see Shylock as controversial. The film directs itself toward an understanding of a character that's given great passion. My hope is that that's how the movie is percieved." When asked if he thought Shylock would take the pound of flesh if he had not been challenged, Pacino said: "I think he has driven himself into such pitch that even he doesn't know if he will or not. He's working himself up to it. But to have executed that, he would have been driven insane. It's a very somber affair. It's like what they said about Dog Day: It's this man's moment to have his say in court. The final insult is that they are so cavalier with the contract that he made just because he's a Jew; they assume that he will kowtow to their outrageous demands not to honor a contract. He's ganged up upon. It's his way of saying, 'Stop spitting at us!' It's almost like Michael Corleone letting his brother go. Part of his identity was tied up in that. Shylock is a man first, and a Jew second. Witness him as a human being first before you make an assessment about Semitism. Because every other Jew in the play is sympathetic; they go to support him in the court, so he doesn't feel he's alone - but they're against this act he is about to commit." If Pacino can actually portray on film what he feels so passionately about in words, he may be on his way to another Oscar nomination.

Director Michael Radford (Nineteen Eighty-Four, 84, Il Postino, 94) has apparently stayed very close to the play, and it has been sumptuously filmed by cinematographer Benoît Delhomme. This film will more than likely be a front-runner come Oscar time for Sammy Sheldon's costume design, Jon Bunker's art direction, Bruno Rubeo's Production design and of course Big Al himself (probably in the Supporting Actor category). Whether or not the film wins any Oscars, I for one am glad that someone else (other than Branagh and Luhrmann) has a chance to tell a Shakespeare tale on screen. I have a theory that after Al Pacino recieved little to no notice for his brilliant and under-stated work as real life CBS producer Lowell Bergman in Michael Mann's The Insider (99), he went back to giving those "loud" performances that people have come to expect from him. Still, a bad Pacino performance is still a hell of alot more interesting than most other actor's masterworks. I would love to think that this is Al Pacino's comeback movie - after several dissappointing film ventures (post-The Insider): Insomnia (02, over-rated), S1m0ne (02, just plain awful), People I Know (02, nearly never-seen by anybody), The Recruit (03, phoned-in the performance), Gigli (03, well I don't have to say anything at all about this one, do I?), and Angels in America (03, watching Pacino in this film is like watching a train wreck), but the truth is, his performance is already getting mixed reviews, ranging from "hammy" to just plain "over-the-top." Well, isn't that the point of the whole character? I mean, this is "comedy" after-all, remember. One of the huge obstacles of the play is: none of the characters are very likable. They range from pathetic to just plain despicable. It's sort of like voting for President - you're supposed to just go with the guy who's the lesser crook. Kinda like The Merchant of Venice - out of all the characters, I'll guarantee you which crook you'll remember the most - like it or not...

"The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven"
William Shakespeare, "The Merchant of Venice", Act 4 scene 1

zen and the art of blowing brains out

There is an action scene that occurs at about the 3/4 mark in the Michael Mann film, Collateral, that is so well staged and presented that it makes me wonder if he will ever be able to revisit this genre of film-making ever again. It happens at a night-club in L.A.'s Korea-town. Music is thumping - a sea of people adrift in constant motion. The scene is shot in real-time but it is so hypnotic that it seems as if it is happening in slow motion. Three sets of characters are moving in. The hero/anti-hero (protagonist/antagonist) team of Jaime Foxx and Tom Cruise, as cab driver and hit-man respectively; an uneasy alliance of cops - one part LAPD Homicide and the other Federal Agents; then the bad guys, who are sent to make sure that the job actually gets done and to clean everything up if it does not. The mark is in place - a Korean heavy, surrounded by bodyguards. The beat is relentless. Then, like a piston - the moment springs into action. It is very quick - but I'm sure it took days/weeks/months to prepare. Cruise (as Vincent) begins to fire into the crowd. Not at just anyone - his shots are precise. He takes down the goons protecting the Korean, then it gets complicated. To see it, is to experience one of the greatest moments in main-stream action films. To give anymore away would be criminal, but this is the cinema of violence at it's best and most unforgiving. Having said that, this is not one of Michael Mann's best films, but it is pretty damn good.

I found no fault with Cruise's performance. He was exceptional in his first ever "bad guy" role. There were times where I thought he was doing Charlie Babbitt the Hitman - but he played a very methodical and completely believable "professional" who makes a serious claim at being one of the screen's all-time best hitmen. He shed his usual Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell cocky persona and fleshed out a fully-realized portrait of conflicted psychosis kept just under the cool surface of a man without feeling. We never really get to know Vincent - but that's okay. That's Mann. This was also not the first time that Cruise played a character named Vincent. The Color of Money (86) with Paul Newman was the first. The other star of the film, besides Michael Mann's trade-mark style-becoming-the-substance, was of course Jaime Foxx. Much has been said and written about Foxx in this film. He is also a sure-fire Oscar-nominee for Collateral in the Supporting Actor category. But that has less to do with his actual performance and more to do with the fact that he's Jaime Foxx. He is also excellent in the film - but there were times where I could see him acting. This is not neccessarily a derogatory thing, but his natural charisma was kept so far at bay, I could see him struggling to find the essence of the "Max" character - and often times he just appeared too uncomfortable in the role, for the wrong reasons. He plays a man, who, if he never had an ulcer before his night with Vincent, he sure will afterwards. The plot of the film is pretty simple (from indb): "A cab driver finds himself the hostage of an engaging contract killer as he makes his rounds from hit to hit during one night in L.A. He must find a way to save both himself and one last victim." This is the basis from which director Mann sculpts his tale of fate and spiritual emptiness.

There is alot of talk in the film about how we are all disconnected as a Human Race. While this is not new information - it is enlightening to be found in a film such as this. But, over the years, I have come to expect great things from Mann. He gives the film little touches that make it special. The scene where Max almost doesn't let Vincent into his cab is an early indication of the role that Fate will play in the film. It isn't until Max has seen Vincent commit several murders first hand that he begins to particpate in his own life. He is a dreamer - a man who is not a complete failure - but one who takes a back-seat to the world around him (like so many of us). How ironic is it that it takes a few deaths and an icy hit-man to essentially teach him how to live. The casting (other than the two leads) is touch and go. Mark Ruffalo is badly miscast in an under-written part, and Peter Berg does not have quite enough screen chemistry with anyone to make any of the cop roles seem interesting. This was unfortunate - but perhaps dilberate on Mann's part - to not make the cops as important a focus as the criminals. This is not Heat (95) afterall. Bruce McGill (who appeared in Mann's The Insider, 99) was a bit wasted as well. The true tragedy of the film however was the under-use (or rather mis-use) of the great Javier Bardem as a totally throw-away character. If this one scene (which is crucial to the development of not only Foxx's character but the whole film in general) had featured a better-utilized Bardem - the film might have been elevated. As it stands, this may be the first film that I have actually thought Bardem to be insignificant in. I do not feel that this is Mann's fault, however - he is such a control freak on his projects that it is hard to understand why he would allow so many holes in the writing, and especially in some of the character development.

Thief (81) was Mann's first hard-boiled crime film. It may also be his true under-rated masterpiece. The testament to this is the fact that Heat is almost a shot-for-shot remake (or at least a theme-for-theme remake) of Thief. The next significant Mann "crime" film came in 1986: Manhunter. To put it simply, Manhunter is one of the best films of the eighties and absolutely one of the top 5 greatest pshycological thrillers ever made for film. He was working with great material: Thomas Harris' novel Red Dragon, which was later remade in a hack big-budget Hollywood studio rip-off version by the phenominally un-talented director (and loud-mouth) Brett Ratner. Ratner had the gull to say that his film was going to be superior to the Mann version. By the way, if you hadn't noticed - he's only made one film since Red Dragon (02) - the piss-poor After the Sunset. He's beginning production on Rush Hour 3 (enough said) for 2005. I'm through talking about this guy - except to say that if left alone in a room with any one of Mann's bad-ass career-criminal character creations for 5 seconds - he would wish that he stayed in film school. Mann directed his "other" crime masterpiece Heat with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. Rarely has a film featured two heavyweight performances and balanced them with equality than Mann did for this brilliant cops and robbers epic. After Heat came The Insider (99). This film features criminals of a different kind. Nameless, faceless, white-collar criminals: big business and politics. The Insider may be Mann's undisputed masterwork. A flawless film that rewards on many levels (including spiritual) and features one of Pacino's most restrained and under-appreciated performances. He may never act as well in any other film than he did in The Insider. The sad thing is (despite not even being nominated for an Academy Award) is that Pacino probably knows it. With Miami Vice just around the corner (starring Foxx and Colin Farrell), Mann will finally be able to realize his life-long dream of bringing his hit TV show from the eighties to the big screen. Mann did not create Miami Vice, that would be Anthony Yerkovich (who has been feuding with Mann for many years), but he was responsible for inventing the style that became the show - and in essence: an entire decade.

Al Pacino as CBS producer Lowell Bergman in Mann's The Insider (99). Michael Mann loves to showcase scenes of characters sitting across from one another (seperated by some distance), either in intense conversation or contemplation. The negotiation scene in Thief between the judge and the lawyer; the scenes in Manhunter between William L. Petersen and Brian Cox (as Hannibal Lecktor); the scene in Heat in the diner, where Pacino and De Niro discuss their dreams and intentions; the scene in The Insider at the Japanese restaurant, where Pacino and Russell Crowe lay out the facts; the scene at the end of Collateral, between Cruise and Foxx in the subway car are just a few examples.
Should you see Collateral? Absolutely. If you love Michael Mann, it's a no-brainer. It is not one of his best films - but it is an excellent display of Hollywood talent actually earning their keep. Cruise has never been better and it's hard to believe the role could have gone to Russell Crowe, Edward Norton or Colin Farrell (Adam Sandler was even considered at one point for the Foxx character). Val Kilmer was the only other actor I could see stepping into the Vincent role - incidentally, Kilmer was going to play one of the cop parts (probably the Ruffalo character) but bowed out due to prior contractual obligations (this year's Alexander for Oliver Stone). Foxx proves that he's well on his way to becomming a truly experienced craftsman. I do not think that Foxx will win this year in the Supporting Actor category at the Oscars (at least he shouldn't) but he may indeed deserve the nomination. It's a real shame that Cruise (like Pacino in The Insider) will walk away un-noticed by the industry though. Oh well, he's still Tom Cruise. There is a scene toward the end of the film that is an obvious nod to Hitchcock's Rear Window (54 - you'll know when you see it). I did not think that it was unnecessary - but it was a little unbelievable. Still, I'm glad that Mann chose to give his film the heart of a true thriller, and just like Hitchcock, the director of the film is often times the biggest star in the picture. 4 out of 5 stars

This movie begins at an airport and ends in a subway. Michael Mann's Heat (95) begins on a subway and ends at the airport.

Vincent: "Okay, look, here's the deal. Man, you were gonna drive me around tonight, never be the wiser, but El Gordo got in front of a window, did his high dive, we're into Plan B. Still breathing? Now we gotta make the best of it, improvise, adapt to the environment, Darwin, shit happens, I Ching, whatever man, we gotta roll with it."

2005 Golden Globe Nominations
and my picks for who should win

Best Motion Picture - Drama
Nominees:

The Aviator
Closer
Finding Neverland
Kinsey
Million Dollar Baby


Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Nominees:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Incredibles
The Phantom of the Opera
Ray
Sideways


Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
Nominees:

Javier Bardem for Mar adentro (The Sea Inside)
Johnny Depp for Finding Neverland
Leonardo DiCaprio for The Aviator
Don Cheadle for Hotel Rwanda
Liam Neeson for Kinsey


Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Nominees:

Jim Carrey for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Jamie Foxx for Ray
Paul Giamatti for Sideways
Kevin Kline for De-Lovely
Kevin Spacey for Beyond the Sea


Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama
Nominees:

Scarlett Johansson for A Love Song for Bobby Long
Nicole Kidman for Birth
Imelda Staunton for Vera Drake
Hilary Swank for Million Dollar Baby
Uma Thurman for Kill Bill: Vol. 2


Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Nominees:

Annette Bening for Being Julia
Ashley Judd for De-Lovely
Emmy Rossum for The Phantom of the Opera
Kate Winslet for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Renée Zellweger for Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason


Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Nominees:

David Carradine for Kill Bill: Vol. 2
Thomas Haden Church for Sideways
Jamie Foxx for Collateral
Morgan Freeman for Million Dollar Baby
Clive Owen for Closer


Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Nominees:

Cate Blanchett for The Aviator
Laura Linney for Kinsey
Virginia Madsen for Sideways
Natalie Portman for Closer
Meryl Streep for The Manchurian Candidate


Best Director - Motion Picture
Nominees:

Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby
Marc Forster for Finding Neverland
Mike Nichols for Closer
Alexander Payne for Sideways
Martin Scorsese for The Aviator


Best Foreign Language Film
Nominees:

Mar adentro - The Sea Inside (Spain/France/Italy)
Un long dimanche de fiançailles - A Very Long Engagement (France)
Shi mian mai fu - House of Flying Daggers (Hong Kong)
Diarios de motocicleta - The Motorcycle Diaries (Brazil)
Les Choristes - The Choir (France)


Million Dollar Baby gets the Picture, Director, Actress and Supporting Actor noms!

Eastwood has already won Best Director for Million Dollar Baby from the New York Film Critics Circle (he lost the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award to Alexander Payne for Sideways). This is a good sign that he may be on his way to another (belated) Best Director Oscar (for not winning last year for Mystic River). But guess what kids, Million Dollar Baby might just deserve all the honors it gets all on it's very own. Okay, I'll keep the rest brief. Uma Thurman? David Carradine? What the fuck? I know the Golden Globes have always been "low-brow" but this is an all new low. And what the fuck is this shit about nominating Jamie Foxx for Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television category? A mediocre film at best (as well as a minor performance from Foxx). As if anyone stands a chance against Geoffrey Rush for The Life and Death of Peter Sellers anyway. The only thing that remotely makes up for this is the righteous (and expected) nomination of William Shatner for "Boston Legal" in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television. In fact, did they really need to nominate 4 other guys? As a friend of mine would say: "Denny Crane."

At least with the Globes, Bardem and Foxx can share the top honors (being that they are each nominated in a seperate category) - that is unless by some unforseen and strange force of nature that they actually tie for the Oscar (hey, it's happened before)! Bardem has already won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival for The Sea Inside, so being nominated for a Golden Globe doesn't exactly have that same ring to it. I still get excited about this event, even if watching it is a bit like being John Travolta at The Museum of the Moving Image's award for career excellence and having Jeff Conaway and Didi Conn salute you on stage for your work in Grease. Yikes. Boy, The Golden Globes are shaping up to be the second best award show after the Oscars - the first being the People's Choice Awards (insert howl).

Warrior Women + 1 English fop

From imdb: "Hollywood actress Kate Beckinsale is threatening to quit the movie industry, because she's fed up with reading so many false stories about herself. The Underworld beauty's fame rose to prominence this year bringing with it its fair share of problems and tabloid exposure. She says, 'I feel like I'm in an odd new period where suddenly it's sort of, 'Ooh, here it all is', but I don't like it very much. Recently, for instance, I keep reading stories about myself that are totally untrue. I find myself wondering, 'Do I love my job enough to put up with that?' And I'm not sure that I do.'"

Yeah, and I remember when Hugh Grant was going to quit because he was tired of playing English fops. I think that was right before Love Actually (03) - in which he plays the ultimate English fop: the Prime Minister. Buck up, Kate - welcome to the big league.

Grant did his best work to date in About a Boy (02) - and it was the best "variation" on his persona that he's done so far. Cheer up Hugh, Cary Grant played the same role for nearly 40 years - and he won an honorary Oscar for it.


Also from imdb: "Hollywood actress Brooke Shields would love to change her wholesome image by taking on a violent movie role - but only if Quentin Tarantino directs the film. The Blue Lagoon beauty would revel in the opportunity to dole out Kill Bill- style murders onscreen. She says of starring in a violent film, 'I think if Tarantino directed it, yes. I would do it for him. I love that stuff but it has to be sort of so far gone, then you can kind of really play with it. I would trust him with something like that.'"

I say: bring it on. Personally, I would have loved Shields in The Bride role from Kill Bill. I'm sick of Uma Thurman. She's not attractive to me and she has freakishly long fingers and toes. Not that I discriminate against people with long fingers and toes - but I would have more enjoyed seeing the former-Blue Lagoon star wield that Hattori Hanzo sword over the over-rated Thurman. That's all. And by "change her wholesome image" I'm sure what they really mean is: "revive her dead film career." If Tarantino's good at anything - it's reviving people's film careers. Still, if you really want to see the film that inspired the over-cooked Kill Bill films, watch Shurayukihime (73, Lady Snowblood and it's sequel Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance, which are really one long film - did you think the whole Kill Bill vol. 1 & 2 thing was an original concept?) starring the lovely but deadly Meiko Kaji. It's the real deal.

Shields made an impression in Black and White (99) and is set to star in the upcoming Tom Green movie, Bob the Butler (05). Tom Green - he's still hangin' around? I can see why she's looking to "change her image."

American Dream

The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Written and directed by Niels Mueller (writer of Tadpole, 02). Starring: Sean Penn, Don Cheadle, Naomi Watts, Jack Thompson and Michael Wincott
From plume-noire.com: "February 1974: Watergate is getting ready to crash on President Nixon. A man shaves in his car. Close shots on a revolver, a briefcase, and some envelopes; he hides a gun in an artificial limb and heads towards the airport. In a voice-over, he addresses orchestra leader Leonard Bernstein, to whom he tells his story, which is recorded on tapes. Flashback to one year earlier. Sam Bicke has just found a job as an office furniture salesman. He splits his life between his work, his impromptu and awkward visits to his wife (from whom he is separated but would like to reconquer), and Bonny, a mechanic with whom he dreams of starting his own business."

So, do you think that the Academy will honor Penn twice in a row with a Best Actor nomination (or better yet, a second win) following last year's Mystic River (03)? Who do you think he is, Tom Hanks? But in all seriousness, it is likely that he may be nominated for his complex performance in this bound-to-be-a-lost-classic in the making. There are a lot of great actors up for the highest honor this year (see my many Oscar posts below) and Penn would be just as deserving of the nomination (or award) as any of them. With the nominations just around the bend, and the film set for release - we just may be singing the praises of Penn yet again...as well we should. Ironically, along with all of the other high-profile male performances this year - Penn also plays a "real life" person in the film, would-be assassin, Samuel Bicke. His target was to be of course, well - you know the title.
From imdb: "Based on real life events, Assassination is set in 1974 and centers on a businessman (Penn) who decides to take extreme measures to achieve his American dream."

no cane required
for Manny

"A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I'm still doing it."

"For me, music and life are all about style."

"Don't play what's there, play what's not there."

"It's always been a gift with me, hearing music the way I do. I don't know where it comes from, it's just there and I don't question it."

- Miles Davis






Is the time right for a film about Miles Davis? The answer is: it's overdue. My vote for who to play Davis: Brazillian actor, Seu Jorge. He was riveting in his star-making performance as "Knockout Ned" in Fernando Meirelles' City of God (02) and next he stars with Bill Murray in Wes Anderson's anticipated The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (and performs on the soundtrack as well - covering a few David Bowie songs). While the actor is not a "spitting image" of the great jazz-innovator, he more than compensates with being a gifted actor and a musician himself. Check out his website at seujorge.com. He is so famous in his native country (for his music and acting), that he is already considered the successor to Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque, and Jorge Ben - Brazil’s greatest artists. Will Smith "became" Ali, despite looking nothing like him - as does Johnny Depp for most of his character interpretations: Ed Wood, Donnie Brasco, Hunter S. Thompson, George Jung, and most recently J.M. Barrie in Finding Neverland (04). Is Jorge an actor on par with these great performances? It still may be too soon to tell - but see City of God for yourself, and watch how he dominates every scene he's in - often times without saying a single word.

While Miles Davis may not have been considered the most "technical" of the trumpeters of his time - he was undisputedly the most "original." He was also an abstract painter. Davis was more than just a great trumpeter, bandleader, composer and artist - he acted as "inspirational overseer" to many of the great improvisors within the Davis group and he had an uncanny ability of always selecting great sidemen for his recording sessions. His spirit embodies the creative process and has made jazz accessible to more people than any other musician I can name (maybe with the exception of John Coltrane - who deserves his own film as well). Miles Davis passed away on September 28, 1991. It is past time that Hollywood paid their respects.

"Do not fear mistakes. There are none."