I don't know what this says about me, but when I go to a movie, I want to see actresses that can, you know, act. Sure, I like looking at beautiful women, but I can see beautiful women walking down the street. When I'm actually spending my time and/or money to watch a movie, I don't want to watch a wooden bimbo who's only on the screen because of her physical assets. I mean, if I want to see that, I can watch reruns of Girls Next Door on E!.
Some of my favorite actresses are decidedly less than world class beauties. Oh sure, I likes me some Audrey Hepburn, but I also like Katharine Hepburn -- and Cate Blanchett's tremendous performance as the inimitable K. Hepburn in The Aviator (really freealonzo, you should see this movie sometime) made me love both of them, Katharine and Cate. Meryl Streep is no beauty queen, but put her in a movie about cooking and I'll plunk down $9.50 a ticket and not even feel a fleeting amount of self-loathing for having agreed to do so. (And pity the woman who played Julie in that movie. Half the movie was about Julia Child decades before the other half of the movie, so there are no scenes between Julie and Julia and whenever they cut back to Julie, I couldn't wait to get back to the Julia scenes -- they were infinitely more interesting with the greatest actress of our generation.)
Jodie Foster isn't exactly glamorous and my thoughts about her over the years have obviously been misplaced (at least I didn't shoot the President), but damn, she is a tremendous actress. She doesn't do much these days and perhaps she's not exactly in demand, but I think she's just about as good as it gets.
I guess what these woman have in common is that they seem like real people on the screen. I believe what they are selling. Who are your favorite actresses (other than Kelly Wells)?
In the last two weeks I've seen a couple of chick-ish flicks that are also guy friendly (and is related to the question the boss laid out above).
500 Days of Summer is a nice little film with Zooey Dashanel (who is a cutey and can act up a storm). The movie does tell a great story about 20-somethings relationships without being stoopid like most Kate Hudson/Matthew McGonhagy rom coms. Also Derek Jeter's squeeze Minka Kelly makes a nice little appearance at the end. This is one you and the lady friend/wife will enjoy.
We also saw Whip It this past weekend and wholeheartedly recommend. It's a little rough around the edges but funny with a strong grrrl power message but with some roller derby good action for the guys. It might be a little slight to drop $10 a ticket on, but a fun date movie nonetheless. Definitely check it out when it comes out on DVD.
Agree on Audrey Hepburn but I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on that big piece of stinking cinematic crap called The Aviator.
Am I the only person who thought 500 Days of Summer stunk?
With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 87 apparently you are one of a select few
)
Also don't get me wrong, 500 Days isn't The Greatest Movie Evah! It's a nice little date movie that, IMHO, both the guys and gals can enjoy and is reasonably intelligent, well written and acted, and interestingly made. Which is more than can be said for most movies these days.
On that note, the trailers for the movies we saw before Whip It made my hair stand on end. Duane (The Rock) Johnson as the tooth fairy? Robin Williams and John Travolta as new dads? Another dumb looking vampire movie? oy vey!
Can't be worse than the previews my friend and I saw before Inglorious Basterds. Six previews, and the only one that didn't make me retch was the one for The Road (which at least looked sort of interesting). Everything else was reprehensible garbage.
I read The Road in August and am incredibly curious about how they are going to convert that into a movie. I would probably avoid it, but Viggo Mortensen is a phenomenal actor IMHO.
I have some similar reservations but I;m looking forward to the movie. The trailer seems to suggest more involvement and screen time for the mother, iirc she isn't really that present in the book.
In the entire book, there were about 3 pages total that included a reference to a woman (and I don't think any of those references were to the mother).
The mother is referenced in the book, but slightly. Early reviews say the mother comes up in flashbacks. She gets more screen time than was in book, but still a very small part. I'm definitely intrigued by The Road, but it's going to be a different kind of movie, that's for sure.
The Man's wife is referred to in the scene where they watch the explosions, he fills the bathtub with drinking water, and if I recall she's pregnant with the Boy. Later the Man asks her if she is going to say goodbye to the Boy, but she refuses, and the Boy sees her body in the morning as they trudge on down the road. These are the only instances I can remember the Woman being mentioned, but then again I read this book a while back and my have fabricated these
didn't see 500 days, but i gotta say, i don't get what the big deal is about zooey deshanel. yeah, she's cuteish, but i haven't really been impressed with the things i've seen her in. same thing, to a lesser extent, with scar-jo.
Aw heck, she can sing, too! Her duet with Leon Redbone on the Elf soundtrack is classic.
She's pretty darn good as a part of She & Him.
This same video was my birthday present to myself on my old blog.
And joe, I won't have you talking bad about my imaginary girlfriend. Consider yourself on notice. If you want to pick on someone's imaginary girlfriend, say something about Karen O and take it up with New Guy.
Hey Andrew, heard you're back in the country, call me sometime.... Love, Z.
If only!
If you want to pick on someone's imaginary girlfriend, say something about Karen O and take it up with New Guy.
Don't anyone dare.
I think there are two things guys see in Scar-Jo.
scar-jo is just another pretty face.
she has a face??
I really like Laura Linney and Reece Witherspoon (although I haven't liked many of her movies the past ten years).
On another note, has anyone seen Where The Wild Things Are? My wife and I have decided to get a sitter and go to it without the kids so we can decide which ones it is appropriate for. I've heard people say that it isn't really appropriate for little kids. Of course, many of those people seem totally clueless that they are taking their 2 year olds to a PG movie with monsters in it. I enjoyed this perspective.
I'll be curious as to what other citizens have to say about this, as both of my older kids want to see the movie. I don't think my six-year-old will have a problem with the violence, but I'm worried about the three-year-old. OTOH, if I take one without the other, I open up another set of problems. I usually check out Kids in Mind for kid movies, but that may be overly conservative.
You take a three year old to the movie theater?
No. She's never been. But after the discussion of the book here at the WGOM, I brought home a copy and it is now one of her favorites. "Wiiiild rumpus, rumpus, rumpus! Wiiiild rumpus, rumpus, rumpus!"
And she has seen the commercials. Her older brother is excited to see it and therefore she wants to go too. More to the point, if her brother goes and she doesn't, there will be hell to pay for me.
I watched Miller's Crossing again this weekend (continuing the eldest daughter's Coen Bros. education), and had forgotten that nearly every character uses the phrase, "What's the rumpus?" as a greeting.
I've heard that the movie isn't inappropriate for younger kids because of violence/scary situations it's just that it may not be very interesting for the younger set. No slapstick, googly-eyed sidekick, poop jokes, etc that those young tykes just eat up in the movies.
I'm not worried about that--just scary monsters. I bet if she sat on my lap, she'd be fine.
I saw it. I thought it was fantastic. It was everything I hoped it would be, heartfelt and funny, plus Karen O songs throughout. But I'm pretty sure that it would have scared the hell out of me if I saw it as a little kid. I was a pretty big wimp when it came to movies though (I cried so much during Fantasia that we had to leave the theater) so your kids might be better equipped to handle the slightly intense scenes. With what freealanzo said, not only is there a dearth of cliche "kids humor," but there is lots and lots of dialogue and essentially no plot. It's mostly just character interaction throughout, which is great for adults but maybe not so great for easily distracted kids. It really was an amazing movie, though.
Laura Linney is fantastic.
Laura Linney is my favorite actress, even among a sea of worthy contenders. She's unstoppable.
Moss is on board with Ms. Linney too.
I like Reese Witherspoon, too. I got to meet her, Christine Taylor, and Paul Rudd when they were in town filming Overnight Delivery. They were shooting at a hotel in St. Paul they were using as a girl's dormitory in the movie. The whole place was full of extras, all of them quite attractive coeds. I interviewed Witherspoon, Taylor, and Rudd for E!, then basically sat around for six hours, shooting the breeze with them in one of the rooms until I could interview the director. I ate lunch with Paul Rudd in the catering tent, and all the stories about him being a genuinely nice guy are absolutely true, he was friendly to everyone - cast, crew, the driver, the extras, me, the hotel people, I mean everyone. So I made 200 bucks to hang out for a day with some pretty cool up-and-coming movie stars. Not a bad gig.
That's a cool story, twayn. I've always gotten the impression that Paul Rudd is a cool dude. He's definitely one of my favorite actors. Has anyone else heard his guest spot on the audiobook version of John Hodgman's Areas of my Expertise where Rudd narrates "Jokes that have never produced laughter"?
I, too, have it first-hand that Paul Rudd is a major mensch. He's definitely one of my favorite comic actors.
The free On Demand shows had a special about character actors that I watched a few days ago. Interestingly, a couple of the people it featured were Stephen Tobolowsky (Remember me? Ned Ryerson?), William Sanderson, and John C. McGinley. In addition, some others they had were:
Missi Pyle
Galaxy Quest, Dodgeball, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Danny Trejo
Runaway Train, Desperado, Spy Kids, Con Air
Luis Guzmán
Boogie Nights, Traffic, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Daniel Roebuck
The Fugitive, US Marshalls, Final Destination, Lost (TV)
In 2001 my wife and I were in NYC visiting friends. We saw a lot of commotion near Rockefeller center - they were shooting Mr. Deeds. Was I excited to see Adam Sandler and Winona Ryder? Not so much.
No, I swear from across the street I could see Luis Guzman. I kept talking about him to my wife and friends. Don't let the fact that he isn't in the movie deter me...I'm sure it was him.
That same day, my wife and friend asked Ally Walker (from The Profiler) if they "knew her from somewhere". She said, "Oh, well, I'm on a TV show, The Profiler. You may have seen it?" "That's probably it!" My wife followed this woman across 1/4 of central park to make this "chance" meeting possible.
Are you sure it wasn't Adam Sandler and Marisa Tomei shooting Anger Management? Guzman was in that.
If it were that movie, it'd have been great to have been there to punch everyone involved in its making in the face. Sandler twice.
I loved Anger Management!
Its the movie where I decided to never see anything else Adam Sandler was involved in.
Have you seen Funny People or Punch Drunk Love? Both are good offerings despite staring Adam Sandler.
If it just has a staring Adam Sandler, I might not hate that.
But nah, I haven't seen those. I don't really watch enough movies these days to make time for actors I dislike. Plus, I'm about to start season 2 of The Wire, so movies have pretty much completely taken a back seat.
I dunno, something about Punch Drunk Love absolutely rubbed me the wrong way. I barely made it to the end of that one.
Yeah, I'm sure of which movie it was. When Ryder started walking down the block a crowd followed. The scene we saw was around the statue, and in the movie it was very short. Perhaps Guzman was in a longer scene that was cut.
ah - found it
Big fan of all mentioned. Once again, it's rare that non-actors ever mention these people, in my experience. Great gathering of talent.
Moss can't stand Luis Guzman. Brings back too many memories of Luis Rivas and Cristian Guzman.
But seriously, he was atrocious in that revenge movie starring the dude from Memento and Jim "Jesus Christ" Caviezel...um...give Moss a minute...oh yeah, The Count of Monte Cristo. He was BRUTAL.
Eva Mattes
Words of Wisdom from Mrs. Runner: my wife is a huge disaster movie fan, but even after seeing the commercials for 2012, she's suggesting we should wait until we can rent it. Or d0wnl0ad it 1ll3gally (heh). Nice snark, hon.
I really want to be a big disaster movie fan, but man, movies like The Day After Tomorrow just make it so hard. That said, I did significantly enjoy Cloverfield.
I'm more of a "after the disaster" kind of guy. Road Warrior FTMFW.
It's a lot easier to enjoy disaster movies when they're good. 2012 is just going to be hilarious.
you know...I don't think I have a favorite actress.
I watched the movie Hamlet 2 the other day. The last 25 minutes of that movie had me rolling in laughter. The lead guy seemed to overacted a little bit, and the movie had a choppy feel to it, but overall I enjoyed it.
I watched the movie Hamlet 2 the other day. The last 25 minutes of that movie had me rolling in laughter. The lead guy seemed to overacted a little bit
The overacting may have been part of the schtick, but Steve Coogan is one of my favorite sad sack actors, if you haven't seen Tristam Shandy, A Cock and Bull Story, I recommend it.
I finally saw Slumdog last week, whether or not it deserved the best picture Oscar, I enjoyed it quite a bit.
I also watched King of Kong and was amazed at how the movie made me feel about the events onscreen. Its accuracy (like just about every documentary ever made) is disputed, but there's no doubt that it's an extremely effective movie.
I love King of Kong. They couldn't have come up with a better villain if they'd tried.
I also like that the played You're The Best Around from Karate Kid in the background at one point.
I swear the makers of King of Kong owe me some royalties. Ever since I recommended I think the entire WGOM citizenship has gone out and rented that flick.
add to your coffers from me, I watched KoK on demand this morning.
Nightmare fuel:
Holly Goforeveryone.
Give me some Frances McDormand. Also, Maggie Smith. And because I find her intoxicating, Tina Fey.
Frances McDormand and Tina Fey. They've got that accent down. You betcha.
I've always like Julianne Moore, the scene where she comes unglued at the pharmacy in Magnolia is memorable.
She's a wonderful actress. And thorough.
Slightly off topic, do ya'll have any suggestions on documentaries? I'm on a nonfiction kick and am looking for any recommendations.
There's a really fun Spelling Bee doc called Spellbound, but don't watch the opening titles real closely or they'll give away the winner (why did they do that? I have no idea). There's one about the Scrabble tournament circuit called Word Wars that's pretty funny too.
Murderball.
Found this Chinese indie quite refreshing - it's about school chalk.
Last night Mrs. CH was watching Straight-Jacket, which was filmed toward the end of Joan Crawford's career. Not perhaps the most traditional beauty, but there's something about her looks that really appeals to me.
Connie Booth was mentioned a few weeks ago. I'm only familiar with her work in Fawlty Towers and various Python-related productions, but I could easily watch more stuff with her in it. Another foreign actress I really enjoy is Tatiana Samoilova, who starred in one of my favorite movies of all time, The Cranes Are Flying, a pretty bleak Soviet WWII epic. She also starred in the 1968 Soviet version of Anna Karenina. Same goes for Helen Mirren; I could watch Prime Suspect for days on end.
My favorite younger actress is probably Eva Green. However, Monica Bellucci gets my enduring respect for Malèna and Irréversible. Both of those films easily could have descended into smuttiness (or worse), but her dignity really kept those productions out of the gutter, and in the case of Malèna, actually made the movie really sentimental and pleasant.
Also, Danica McKellar.
I don't flinch in movies - pretty much ever - but even though I liked the concept of Irréversible, (and enjoyed most of the movie) I couldn't get through the two scenes that the movie is famous for.
Yeah, they're pretty rough. That Bellucci was able to redeem the film by making the rest of it watchable speaks highly of her talent.
I saw that movie a few years ago and it immediately joined Requiem for a Dream and American History X in the category of "Good movies that I will never re-watch."
Here's how I "watched" Invincible. I was working on my computer and played it on my second monitor, not directly in my field of vision. When the two scenes arrived, I sped the movie to 2x and only looked at it in my peripheral vision.
Brutal.
My favorite younger actress is probably Eva Green.
You probably don't need me to recommend Bertolucci's The Dreamers to you, then. Eye. Popping. NSFWWYW/GF.
For a beautiful woman who can act, I'll take Juliette Binoche.
Pretty please?
Seconded.
Binoche is great in Bleu in Krzysztof Kieslowski's trilogy. White and Red are good as well.
Catherine Deneuve should merit some mention here - classic French beauty both young and old.
Binoche is great in Bleu in Krzysztof Kieslowski's trilogy. White and Red are good as well.
Indeed, pally. Those who don't know Krzysztof Kieslowski, he was a wonderful Polish director who passed away unexpectedly at the age of 54. His work might best be described as luminous. Juliette is fantastic in Bleu. Off the top of my head, she was very good in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Damage, and The English Patient, too.
Catherine Deneuve should merit some mention...
Oui.
A few who spring to mind for me are Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, and Marcia Gay Harden. None of them are exactly ugly, but they don't necessarily have conventional beauty, either. And if you're looking for great acting, you can't go wrong with Judi Dench.
I always get Emily Thompson and Emma Watson messed up in my head, and I don't know why.
mmm. Emma Watson. What an awful actress.
And yet, Emily Watson is fantastic.
Emma Thompson, Emily Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Audrey Tautou. (I just read that EW was cast in Breaking the Waves after HBC dropped out; and later she was the original choice to play Amelie, the role that made AT famous.) Ziyi Zhang. Jennifer Connelly. Big fan of Mary Tyler Moore. Gwyneth Paltrow tends to choose good films. Susan Sarandon is worth watching, whether the film is good or not. I'll watch anything with Myrna Loy or Diana Rigg in it, too.
Somehow I forgot to mention Maggie Gyllenhaal. If she's in it, I want to watch it.
Crap, I meant Emily Watson. I guess that's 3 people I can't keep straight.
I've always been a big fan of Rachel Weisz. I don't know how much of that is because of her acting and how much is because of her smile, but I seem to enjoy most movies I see her in.
Oh, I just thought of another. Toni Collette. She was fabulous in Little Miss Sunshine, About A Boy, and The Sixth Sense.
Watching football on ESPN this evening, and saw a preview for something called The Vampire's Assistan. So I guess shitty vampire movies is hollywood's big thing nowadays, eh? I suppose its at least better than the previous "remake" phase they were in, so there's that.
Not movies, but TV:
Last night the wife and I chanced across "Posh Nosh", a BBC show of uncertain vintage. I found the first episode quite amusing and the second only slightly less so, but I can see it grating at about the 10th episode.
I found the most enjoyable thing the transitive verbs the wife kept using. Slicing the chorizo was "alienating it." I believe vegetables were "humiliated."
It was on immediately following "The Vicar."
Funny Ashley Judd's name hasn't come up...
I know you love her, she being from Kentucky and all.
She was never all that much to look at, but Sissy Spacek is a fantastic actress.
I want to thank the person who recommended the movie Hot Fuzz a few weeks back. I finally got around to watching it and good times were had
You bet.