Free and funny? Two of my favorite things

Actually, before I get into that, now that Joaquin Phoenix's sabbatical from acting appears to be over and his "I'm Still Here" freakout exposed as a hoax (albeit, from what I've heard, a very entertaining one), it's good to know he's quickly going to jump into things that should be fascinating.

First up, if some financing issues are resolved, will be an indie oddity titled "Big Shoe," about a foot fetishist (Phoenix, presumably) who doubles as an amazing footwear designer. Ingenue Mia Wasikowska, who has yet to make a movie I haven't liked quite a bit (especially the Southern drama "That Evening Sun," out on DVD now, so watch it already), has been cast as the female lead in this craziness.

Sound like an odd subject for a feature film? Well, it comes from director Steven Shainberg, who has been missing for about five years, but when he makes movies enjoys rather lurid subjects. He made his debut with the S&M flick "Secretary" starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, and also made "Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus," which starred Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey Jr.

Here's hoping that somehow comes together, but more likely and even better would be if he takes the part that Clint Eastwood has reportedly offered him in Eastwood's upcoming J. Edgar Hoover biopic.

With a script from "Milk" scribe Dustin Lance Black and Leonardo DiCaprio hired to play Hoover, this was already shaping up to be pretty great, but now with Phoenix being offered the role of Hoover's protégé and reputed paramour Clyde Tolson, who was Hoover's longtime associate director of the FBI, it just gets much better.

It's a fascinating subject now apparently to be paired with an equally great cast, so this 2012 flick is definitely one to keep your eyes on.

OK, now on the titular offer of free and funny, which comes in two doses (actually, I suppose the latter is actually more cute than funny, but it's still pretty great.)

First up comes the new Louis CK standup flick "Hilarious," which fortunately both lives up to its boastful title and is being streamed for free at Epix. I've watched about half of it so far, and even if CK's often morose humor isn't for everyone, it certainly is for me, and this is really good stuff. To see it, go here and sign up by entering your e-mail (yes, you have to), and then enjoy.

And finally today, what OK Go is doing with music videos is really something not to be missed. The band's actual music is just the breeziest brand of pop, but as visual artists, they clearly put a lot of effort in to their work and have a lot of fun doing it.

If you've never seen their giant Mousetrap game video for the song "This Too Shall Pass," I've included that too at the end, because it really is a pretty amazing visual feat (and apparently all real - no computer tricks.)

But first up comes their new video for the song "White Knuckles," which, while not as visually ambitious, is guaranteed to make you smile. It features an adorable and remarkably trained cast of rescue dogs doing all kinds of tricks on cue. And, best of all, OK Go is donating a portion of any profits they make from this to the ASPCA. To learn more about that, go here. Enjoy the videos, and have a perfectly bearable Wednesday. Peace out.

Which of these crazy movie ideas are real?

Actually, I probably shouldn't spoil it, but they all are, which doesn't make them any less bizarre.

1. Anyone who's been here before (and there are apparently somehow a few of you) knows that I'll watch Carla Gugino in just about anything. And even though I enjoyed watching her play a porn star who dresses like a nun in "Women in Trouble," even I wouldn't have guessed that one of her next movies would be called "MILF."

Really? Yes, really, but no matter what you might be thinking that means (keep it clean, people), the acronym here stands for "Mothers I'd Like to Fight", and the movie, which Gugino is apparently in talks to star in, would be a revenge story about a woman who, recently released from prison, returns to the street to take care of some unfinished business.

And yes, cheap, attention-grabbing acronym aside, I'd watch that, though I'd probably buy a ticket from the machine rather than have to actually ask for one to something called "MILF." Just sayin'.

2. Anyone who's been here before also knows that David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's "The Social Network," about the invention of Facebook, is one of the movies I'm most psyched to see this fall. That said, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that in Hollywood, imitation is the most frequent substitution for inspiration, but I just really didn't think it would come quite so quickly.

Apparently at least some people who saw those YouTube and Twitter movie spoofs (I posted one here, and they're actually quite funny) didn't realize that they were meant to be a joke, because brace yourself now for the Google movie (and again, yes, really.)

According to Deadline, Ken Auletta's bestseller "Googled: The End of the World as We Know It" is being made into a feature film. The book tells "the biographical story of Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the famously private founders of Google, and their meteoric rise to becoming two of the most powerful men on the planet."

OK, that does make it sound like it could actually be pretty good, but could this please be the end of movies about computer breakthroughs (one can dream, I suppose, but since Peter Berg is actually making a movie from the game Battleship, I know it's futile.)

3. When a sentence starts with "Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy have signed up to star in a romantic comedy ...", it would probably just make me say meh, except for the sentence ends "... about the invention of the first vibrator."

Per Variety: "The period drama, titled Hysteria, centres on two doctors in Victorian London who experiment with an electrical device to treat irritable and angry women. Dancy and Jonathan Pryce will play the physicians."

That actually sounds pretty funny to me already, and just in case you were wondering if Gyllenhaal might play one of the test subjects, again, keep it clean - she's actually set to play the daughter of Pryce's character, assuming this ever gets made.

OK, enough of that. All I have left today is a picture that immediately caught my eye and Lewis Black's "review" of "Eat, Pray, Love."

First the picture. If Martin Scorsese weren't filming "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" in 3D, you could call it probably the movie I'm most psyched about for next year (actually, since it's based on a book I truly adore, it still is, but why the 3D? Sheesh.)

And even though Scorses has apparently also shortened the title from Brian Selznick's novel down to simply "Hugo Cabret," the story is still a real charmer. The book is about an orphan who lives a secret life in the wall of a Paris train station, where he gets drawn into the magical world of George Melies and his automatons. There's a lot more going on in the book, and it's all a lot of fun.

As you'll see from the first picture below, Asa Butterfield plays the titular Hugo, and Chloe Moretz is his young co-star, and if the sight of Hit Girl in period costume doesn't make you smile at least a bit, well, you probably don't smile enough. Enjoy.


And finally today, in a clip that I'd have to say is just about perfect for a Friday morning, here's Lewis Black's seriously funny "review" of "Eat Pray Love" from "The Daily Show." Black, who screams way too much for my taste, isn't always my kind of funny, but I guarantee that by the time he gets around to his "Eat, Pray, Love machete," you'll be laughing at this. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend. Peace out.

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Back in Black - Eat Pray Love
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Thursday tidbits about people I like to watch, plus a trio of clips

In case you somehow haven't seen it, that really is Maggie Gyllenhaal in the trailer for "Nanny McPhee Returns." Just plain odd. And though I have no obligation to go see that flick and so won't, I certainly would go see her in the project she's been talking up while making the press rounds for the "Nanny McPhee" sequel.

It was announced a while back that hubby Peter Sarsgaard would be playing bluegrass legend Bill Monroe in a biopic, and while that's enough to catch my eye, it gets infinitely more interesting when she's joining him in the flick. Here's what Gyllenhaal had to say about the project.

“Bill Monroe, who invented bluegrass music had a kind of Sid and Nancy style affair with this woman Bessie Lee Mauldin throughout his life and T-Bone Burnett’s going to do the music and Callie Khouri — who wrote Thelma & Louise — wrote the script so we’re going to do that together.”

Sounds like nothing but cool there, especially with Burnett doing the music (on a completely tangential note, those adorable little Peasall sisters from "O Brother Where Art Thou," no longer so little and probably no longer too fond of being called "adorable," are coming to play at a Macon church next week - yeah, I'm gonna check that out.) No idea when this will all come together, but it's certainly something worth keeping an eye on.

And in other news about an actor I really like, I've always wondered why Hollywood can't seem to find good roles for Stringer Bell, aka Idris Elba (Tyler Perry being the exception - that "Daddy's Little Girls" starring Elba is still his best flick, and if you've never seen a Tyler Perry movie, a great introductory rental.) Otherwise, it seems like he most often gets cast as some kind of bank robber in generic heist flicks (in fact, there's another one coming very soon, "Takers.") Racism? Who knows, but this guy is a seriously good actor, so there's got to be more out there for him to do, right?

Well, according to Deadline, he's finally getting a role that sounds meaty enough to work with, following in the footsteps of Morgan Freeman as Dr. Alex Cross, from the series of novels by James Patterson. Freeman played the character in two crime thrillers, "Along Came a Spider" and "Kiss the Girls" that, while by no means being great movies, were still pretty far from awful.

In "Cross," based on Patterson's 12th novel in the series, Dr. Cross has left the FBI and now works for a private practice, consulting to stop a serial killer called The Butcher who may be connected to the murder of Cross' wife. Juicy stuff that, and this will be directed by David Twohy, who made "Pitch Black" and the much less enjoyable "Chronicles of Riddick" movie, among others. I have no idea, of course, if anything good will come from this, but it's just nice to see Stringer finally getting some respect. 'Nuff said on that.

OK, all I have after that today is a trio of clips, starting with the first trailer I know of for director Doug Liman's "Fair Game," which if you scroll back a couple of days will see managed to make my top 10 for fall list. Judging from the clip below, this seems to lack the claustrophobic feel that made the true spy tale "Breach" so engaging (I think I just might be the only person in the world that loves that Billy Ray movie), but the story of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, should still be a winner when it comes out in November. Enjoy.

While on vacation in Philly with mi hermano, we of course went to a lot of movies, and it seems like the trailer for Mesrine appeared before each one. The French gangster saga of Jacques Mesrine, played by Vincent Cassel, instantly rose to near the top of the flicks I'd go see on opening day if I lived in New York or L.A., but I had no idea that it's actually two movies.

Mesrine, from what I can gather, was one seriously bad dude, robbing, kidnapping and murdering his way across several continents, and breaking out of several prisons along the way before his death in 1979. He was helped along the way a la Bonnie and Clyde by Jeanne Schneider, to be played in the movies by Cecile de France.

The first chapter, "Mesrine: Killer Instinct," is set to hit at least some theaters Sept. 27, to be followed the next Friday by part two, "Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1." From what I've read, these are very violent flicks that are made worth watching by Cassel's intense performance. "Enjoy" the clip from chapter one, but be warned that it's a violent one, and if you speak French or can read English subtitles, a profane one too, so be careful watching it at work.



Now, where better to end up today than with the trailer for "Wu-Tang Revealed," the movie about the rap collective directed by the GZA himself. Though I have serious doubts this will ever play in a theater anywhere near me, I'll definitely check it out on DVD, because it looks to be a whole lot more "behind the music" than anything that's ever appeared on VH1. Be warned, of course, that they throw around the N-word and all kinds of other profanities often enough to make even Dr. Laura blush, but there's just something serenely entertaining about watching the Wu-Tang crew bicker in a pristine kitchen with pink flowers on the table. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

Just what in the world is "Secret of the Kells," and what will Jason Reitman do next?

Although the Oscar nominations always leave me with as many questions as answers, this was the biggest one I had after yesterday's nominations announcement.

After all, I just assumed that, after a truly banner year for animation, one of my favorites - "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" - would get a nomination, especially since the field grew to five entries this year. Instead, it went to something called "Secret of the Kells," and I can't be the only person who had never heard of that before yesterday.

So, what in the world is it? Well, an animated movie, obviously, from co-directors Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey. As you'll see from the fairly long trailer below (and, even though it labels the movie "Brendan and the Secret of the Kells," I assure it's genuine), it's animated in a charmingly simple style. As far as the story, here's an official synopsis:

In the movie “The Secret Of Kells,” young Brendan lives in a remote medieval outpost under siege from barbarian raids. But a new life of adventure beckons when a celebrated master illuminator arrives from foreign lands carrying an ancient but unfinished book, brimming with secret wisdom and powers. To help complete the magical book, Brendan has to overcome his deepest fears on a dangerous quest that takes him into the enchanted forest where mythical creatures hide. It is here that he meets the fairy Aisling, a mysterious young wolf-girl, who helps him along the way. But with the barbarians closing in, will Brendan’s determination and artistic vision illuminate the darkness and show that enlightenment is the best fortification against evil?

Sounds like slightly heavy stuff for a children's animated movie, but as you see from the clip below, it will be pretty fun too. Enjoy.



And when will we get to see this? I'd have to imagine that, even with the Oscar love, this will be an arthouse release in the U.S.A., meaning I'll have to drive to Atlanta when it comes out March 10.

As for the rest of the Oscars, I'd have to say the 10 movie field for Best Picture was certainly a success, especially if the goal was to recognize some box office smashes along with the usual suspects. I haven't seen "The Blind Side," but is it really Best Picture material? I doubt it, but that along with "Up," "Avatar" and "District 9" should at least stop the ratings slide.

As for things that made me smile, certainly the fact that Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," my favorite, got eight nominations (second only to the nine nabbed by both "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker"), including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and of course, Best Supporting Actor for Christoph Waltz (one way to make the interminable broadcast shorter would be to just give him and Mo'Nique their statues now.)

There a few other little things I liked, too. The single best nomination would have to be Armando Iannucci and crew for Best Adapted Screenplay for "In the Loop." That was easily the wittiest movie of the year, and any script that moves that fast without ever faltering certainly deserves the recognition. It was also nice to see Maggie Gyllenhaal get a Best Supporting Actress Nomination for her work in "Crazy Heart." The Dude seems to be the favorite for Best Actor for his role in that flick about an aging country music star of sorts, but you wouldn't care a lick about his character if he didn't have Gyllenhaal's journalist and single mother to play off of and pitch woo at. Huzzah to both of those.

And though it has seemed to be losing steam over the weeks (I tried to see it a second time, but it had already disappeared from theaters), that "Up in the Air" only got six nominations is a bit of a surprise. It did, however, get all the big ones: nominations for all three actors, adapted screenplay, director and Best Picture.

Which brings us to the next topic: What will Jason Reitman do now? Well, according to The Playlist, he let that cat out of the bag in a visit with Roger Ebert. Here, according to The Playlist, is what he had to say:

"The book I'm adapting is 'Labor Day' by Joyce Maynard. I re-read it over the weekend and when I finished the book [on] Monday morning, I was kind of on the verge of tears and I remembered at the moment, 'alright, my job is to make sure the audience feel exactly what I'm feeling right now.' And that's it, thats the gig. The test is with each film, 'can I do that?' and 'is that something the audience wants to feel at the end of the day?' And in this case, I think it is. This ones a very very tricky love story. It's very dramatic."

"I know what actors I want for it. I'll be able to go to them easily and, presumably, it'll be an easier greenlight than my first movie. Or my second movie."

Fair enough, but what in the world is "Labor Day," which I will now be reading soon, about? Here, with some editing, is what it says on Maynard's own Web site:

With the end of summer closing in and a steamy Labor Day weekend looming in the town of Holton Mills, New Hampshire, 13-year-old Henry - lonely, friendless, not too good at sports - spends most of his time watching television, reading, and daydreaming about the soft skin and budding bodies of his female classmates. For company Henry has his long-divorced mother, Adele, a onetime dancer whose summer project was to teach him how to foxtrot; his hamster, Joe; and awkward Saturday-night outings to Friendly's with his estranged father and new stepfamily. As much as he tries, Henry knows that even with his jokes and his "Husband for a Day" coupon, he still can't make his emotionally fragile mother happy. Adele has a secret that makes it hard for her to leave their house, and seems to possess an irreparably broken heart.

But all that changes on the Thursday before Labor Day, when a mysterious bleeding man named Frank approaches Henry and asks for a hand. Over the next five days, Henry will learn some of life's most valuable lessons: how to throw a baseball, the secret to perfect piecrust, the breathless pain of jealousy, the power of betrayal, and the importance of putting others - especially those we love - above ourselves. And the knowledge that real love is worth waiting for.

That all sounds great to me. There's nothing up about this yet on the IMDB, but I'd imagine that as he rather immodestly claims, he can indeed get this greenlit just about whenever he wants to. And, since I'm so enamored of my new laptop, I might just make "Labor Day" the first purchase to read with my new "Kindle for PC" thingie from Amazon.

Except for that, all I have today is a music video from a woman I had never heard of, but since it's directed by Michel Gondry, it's certainly worth a look. The video is for a song called "Open Your Heart" by a chica named Mia Doi Todd. As the title implies, it's a breezy little ditty, and Gondry uses flashes of color in a deceptively simple way that becomes genuinely hypnotic (hyperbole? Perhaps, but that's the effect it had on me at 6:30 in the morning.) Anyways, enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Wednesday. Peace out.

"The Dark Knight": Chaos under control

Before I dive into discussing Christopher Nolan's often-sensational "The Dark Knight," a brief word of thanks to everyone who turned out for the midnight event at the AmStar Cinemas 16 in Macon. With the crowd lined up so deep it almost stretched out of the parking lot, a radio van playing really bad slow jams at a thoroughly unnecessary volume and folks decked out in their best Joker attire to hand out free pizza in the lobby, it was just the biggest geekfest I've been to in many years, and a thorough blast.

And as to the movie itself, I'll get my one or two minor quibbles out of the way first before I shower it with praise. The opening sequences involving Christian Bale's Batman were just a letdown and could easily have been cut without me missing anything at all. Did we really need to see the Scarecrow again or see Batman go all James Bond in pursuit of a mob money man in Hong Kong?

Even though the latter was surely sweet eye candy (and must have been rather amazing in IMAX, which I just can't justify driving 2 1/2 hours to experience), these set pieces just detract from what Nolan is going for here, the first movie I can think of in a long time that so successfully creates a feeling of chaos from (almost) start to finish. And - thankfully and paradoxically enough - Nolan establishes this mood not by shaking his camera all over the place but instead keeping it under tight control even as Gotham is just melting down all around him.

As you well know by now, Heath Ledger's Joker is Nolan's main co-conspirator in wreaking this havoc, and the best thing I can tell you about his amazing performance is to believe all the hype you've heard about it and expect to find even more to draw you into his weird world. It's the most uncomfortable I've felt while laughing at the screen in many years, because what Ledger and Nolan clearly understand is that - despite his name - Joker isn't a jester or a clown, but just a really sick and twisted f***. You'll hear no morbid speculation from me about whether Ledger let this madness consume him, but he clearly threw himself into the role completely, and for that we can only say thanks.

And he also delivered what, for me, was one of two signature shots from Nolan's flick, when he's driving down the street in a police car, head out the window and clearly reveling in what he's just unleashed. The other came when Maggie Gyllenhaal (who makes the most of not much to do as Rachel Dawes) looks at Bale's Batman with a look of horror/relief/exhilaration after he's managed to save her life from the Joker's grasp. Those two will stick with me for a long time.

What I wasn't ready for, however, was that - as much as this is the Joker's show - the character that really gets to have a real arc as far as character development is Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent, making this also the first flick I can think of in a long time in which the two characters who matter most aren't the "hero."

Bale's Bruce Wayne and Batman - and this isn't a knock of any kind - are just very static characters in "The Dark Knight," as Nolan and co-screenwriter brother Jonathan invest all the ideas they've honed through the years about identity and the obfuscation of it in the story of Gotham's crusading D.A. Much of the fun of "The Dark Knight" comes in seeing how much they've progressed as a team since concocting "Memento" while still exploring similar themes. And the only time their hi jinx just left me scratching my head this time came in the saga of Gary Oldman's Lt. James Gordon, which you won't hear any more about from me just in case you're the last person in America to actually see this flick (if I have my calculations right, it made a rather whopping $60 million Friday alone, and is hopefully now well on its way to eclipsing the first-weekend record set by the simply dismal "Spider-Man 3.")

I've seen "The Dark Knight" twice already, and I'm glad I did, because there's a lot to take in in Nolan's bleak but often blissful ode to chaos. I must confess, however, that I was also happy to hear the strains of ABBA's "Dancing Queen" coming from the screening of "Mamma Mia!" next door as I was lined up to use the restroom afterward. A much-needed dose of levity which brought a smile to my face. Peace out.