Shirley MacLaine Believes In Psychics, Right?

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I know she believes in that past life stuff at least, so let's just assume she believes in psychics too, which is a coincidence you see, because I am totally fucking psychic! A couple of weeks ago I joked on Twitter that Downton Abbey's explosive success was going to make it the hot spot for guest stars like a Merchant Ivory version of The Love Boat. I was completely kidding - it didn't seem like a likely thing at all. It's absurd, right? Cue the first domino:

"Shirley MacLaine ("Terms of Endearment") is joining the third season of Masterpiece Theatre's 'Downton Abbey,' which starts filming next month. She'll be playing the American mother of Lady Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern)."

Read more here. Next stop Charo! (Okay okay Shirley MacLaine is a super actress and I love her and she's by no means on a Charo level and I can't wait to see her on the show. But still. It always starts out well-meaning, the guests showing up, and then by Season 5 you've got Gilbert Godfried spritizing soda water in Maggie Smith's face.)

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50/50 in 150 Words

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A movie in search of a movie. Everybody's good - it took a fraction of a second for Angelica Huston to make me cry - but even with CANCER breathing down everybody's neck there's no momentum, it just kind of sits there. In theory I admire the film's approach to addressing what it's like for a young person to go through this, but it felt more like a series of moments than an enveloping narrative, and it made it hard to get involved on an emotional level. I wish we'd gotten to know JGL's character better before the doomsday diagnosis so it meant more once it came. As is the impact is dulled, since we don't really know his world without the cancer in it, and since he becomes shell-shocked at that point it's hard to find a way in other than to just watch what happens from a distance.

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Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... crashing Christian's pool party 

to wish him a happy 38th birthday.

I'd rather bypass the phone and go straight to blowing bubbles up his trunks but whatever, we take what we can. Happy birthday, Batman! Happy birthday, Bateman! I still love you, Dickie. Even if you've proven yourself a bit humorless slash insane the past couple of years. If you were a sane person you wouldn't have made American Psycho such a eye-bugging spectacular. And I don't even mean just your ass. 

There's not really much left for me to do with Christian to wish him a happy birthday at this point, I've done it all before. I've listed my favorite performances, I've cluttered the internet with every frame of his cinema-changing Psycho nakedness (I divide Cinematic Male Nudity into B.B. (Before Bateman) and A.B. (After Bateman).   So uh... here are a bunch of pictures I haven't posted before from movies not named American Psycho. I guess that'll do. Hit the jump.

The Town That Dreaded Spark Plug

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Seems downright obscene that I hadn't seen the 1976 true-story slasher The Town That Dreaded Sundown until this weekend, but the problem can probably be pin-pointed to two things. One: it's impossible to find - it's never been released onto DVD and the VHS-quality copies on the internet are pretty shoddy-looking. Thankfully TCM aired the film - and a beautifully pristine copy at that - last week. And two: how very much I disliked the experience of watching the director Charles B. Pierce's previous low-budget pseudo-doc horror flick The Legend of Boggy Creek. God that movie annoyed me. But it's a shame I was put off for so long, because what works in The Town That Dreaded Sundown works incredibly well. 

And lucky for us, what works is all the scary stuff. The stalking and killing scenes are genuinely terrifying - I'm a sucker for a bag-head killer, and the Phantom Killer (as he was called in the real world case this film's based on) is a total creeper. He's got the scary wild eyes peering out from inside the bag that are given, but he adds a dash of hyperventilating, sucking the bag in and out at a furious rhythm, that pushes it over into even more unsettling territory. And these scenes are shot beautifully, lighting up the middle-of-nowhere forests just enough to show us all we don't want to see. The seemingly amateur (except for Gilligan's Island's own Mary Ann, aka Dawn Wells!) actors sell their fright really well in ways that don't feel redundant to these sorts of scenes that I've seen before, which gives them an honesty that's... discomfiting, to put it mildly. And holy hell, that trombone.

But. Those scenes amount to a little bit less than half the movie's runtime. The rest of the movie is an inexplicable Hee Haw episode, with banjos twanging while a slack-jawed yokel cop named Spark Plug dresses up in lady clothes to get his fake tits honked and then falls into mud puddles. So you take the good, and you fast-forward the bad, I guess. The good is very good! Alas the bad is very bad. A remake - sans Spark Plug - wouldn't be a bad idea, if you ask me. 

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Happy 32, Wilmer Valderrama

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Five Frames From ?

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What movie is this?

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That's What Sports Are For

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I thought the Super Bowl was yesterday? It's next week? Huh. I mean I'll be avoiding it either way, but I thought I'd successfully avoided it already, and now I see I've still got one more week of purposefully avoiding it. Exhausting! Except for this sort of thing, and by this sort of thing I mean David Beckham prancing around in his fancy little panties for an ad during the show. The ad is already online, see:

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(via) I was kind enough to take some screencaps too, 

so hit the jump for those. Yay football!

Kevin Zegers Seven Times

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(via)

I Am Link

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--- Hot Vamp - Finally some official confirmation of Jim Jarmusch's vampire movie with Tilda Swinton! Hooray! Not so hooray - unlike when we first heard about this movie, it doesn't look like Michael Fassbender's attached anymore. Boo. Okay, but he is being replaced with the awesome Tom Hiddleston, so hooray again! Mia Wasikowska's in there too, plus John Hurt. The thing is called Only Lovers Left Alive, which is a gorgeous title.

--- Setting Sail - Cinematographer Matthew Libatique says that Darren Aronofsky's Noah movie will start shooting in July, for a Fall 2013 release. Fingers crossed. And toes crossed that it's Michael Fassbender taking on the lead role!

--- And speaking of Fassy again, Brad Pitt told THR (via The Playlist) that his role in Steve McQueen's Twelve Years a Slave is a small one, a cameo, but that Fassy's role is a big one. This is helpful because until now we really had no idea how big a part anybody but Chiwetol Ejiofor had in the lead. More Fassy = good.

--- My Martha - Over at Stale Popcorn Glenn's praise-riddled review of Martha Marcy May Marlene worked me into a lather of "must see it again right this second" if only it were out on DVD already. It really seems like it should be by now, but it ain't out until February 21st. It should have come out sooner, maybe it could've rebuilt some buzz and gotten the Oscar nominations it deserved. Not that I can pretend to know how these things works. I mean, I can. I just did. Anyway. It is an excellent film, I concur!

--- Bagged A Baggins - I haven't really been too thorough keeping up with Hobbit news - at this point it's inevitable I'll be seeing the movie opening weekend, so dipping too deeply into all the pre-release stuff is only going to muddy that first viewing experience so it seems pointless, to me. But here's a new picture of Martin Freeman as Bilbo anyway, in case you don't feel that way.

--- Winter Folk - If you want to see the first real trailer for the second season of A Game of Thrones, click on over to EW to watch it. I watched it last night and when Dany starts getting all assertive-like I may have gotten erect.

--- Getting Stranger - The director of The Strangers, Bryan Bertino, is finally starting work on his second film - it's called Mockingbird, and it's a found footage flick about a couple that receive a video camera with the instructions to do as told or somebody dies. So kind of Saw meets The Strangers? Anyway he's talented and we were sick of waiting for him to do something new, so yay.

--- Mia May I - I need to thank Adam at Club Silencio for this week's banner from Rosemary's Baby - I stole the image from one of his invaluable Obscure Beauty posts. So lovely.

--- Loony Rooney - The world has made it clear to Blake Lively that we'd rather just say no, thanks very much, right? That's what this news of her getting replaced by Rooney Mara in Steven Soderbergh's next move called The Side Effects, about a drugged-up girl and co-starring Channing Tatum (I'm starting to think SS and Chan are an item) and Jude Law, should be telling her right? Let's hope so. Yay Rooney! And by the way, I know this shocks none of you, but the more stand-offish and weird and annoying things that spill out of Mara's mouth, the more I like her. 

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Good Morning, World

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Ahh, so this is what Shameless is there for! It airs Sunday nights so we can start out a new week with shirtless (or more) pictures of one of the always-getting-naked guys on it, whether they be Justin Chatwin or Mr. Gaga (aka Taylor Kinney)(that link is NSFW) or this here fella, James Wolk. We've only mentioned Mr. Wolk here at the blog once before, when he was momentarily mentioned for Superman (Henry Cavill went on to get the role, of course) - everybody fell in love with him from that short-lived show Lone Star... well I suppose I can't say "everybody" since nobody watched it, but somebody did and they fell in love with him, and it is not hard to see why. In fact, see some more whys after the jump...

Adam Brody Pornstache Alert

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JJ has pics of the actor on the set of Lovelace, where he's playing vintage penis Harry Reems. They also have shots of James Franco as Hugh Hefner, if you're interested. This has been your Adam Brody Pornstache Alert. Have a nice day.

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Today's Mood

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Mozart was born 256 years ago today.
Rock me all the time to the top, Wolfie.

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Johnathon Schaech Two Times

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Inspired by yesterday's bucking belt buckle remembrances.

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Pic of the Day

There really aren't any words that I can add to this banned Hungarian version of the poster for Shame that will add anything to the experience of looking at it, so I will not bother. There it is! Close up shop everybody, we've done our job here. (via)

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Liam Neeson Then And Now

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Alright so those pictures are actually more "Then and Slightly Less Then," but I think you'll forgive me since he looks hot in those pictures. Anyway over at Celebrity Beehive I am ruminating upon the Old Liam Neeson (that is, the Younger Liam Neeson, the one who starred in Serious Movies like Schindler's List) and the New Liam Neeson (that is the Old Liam Neeson, who turns 60 in a few months, starring in the likes of The A-Team and Taken).

Why am I yammering on about Liam Neeson? Because he is out there punching wolves in this weekend's new release The Grey, that's why. I hadn't paid any attention to this movie until this week - I don't begrudge Liam Neeson making some money for himself, he seems a good fellow so go to town, good sir, but I don't especially feel inclined to go see his movies these days either. Only now I am hearing excellent things about The Grey - Roger Ebert gives it 3.5 stars and says "I sat regarding the screen with mounting dread" - and might end up going after all. I mean, I like a good "dudes getting eaten by wolves" flick as much as the next guy! (Hopefully the next guy like that a whole lot.)

Other movies out this weekend: One For the Money with That Blonde Everybody Except Joe Reid Professes To Hate But Then Her Movies Seem To Keep Making Money And I Don't Understand, and Man on a Ledge with Sam "My Middle Name Is Blah" Worthington. Read all about them, or rather read my rambling thoughts vaguely based upon them since I haven't seen any of them, over at Celebrity Beehive!

I'm going to take this opportunity to mention another movie that I didn't mention over there though - the sequel to the 1973 classic horror freak-out The Wicker Man, from the same director and called The Wicker Tree, is apparently out this weekend too! I know it is here in New York, at least - I can't imagine it's getting that wide of an opening so I can't really say "At a theater near you!" with this one. Unless you're me, or near me, since as I just said it is open here in New York. Anyway. Yes, please, I will gobble this one right up. All I needed to know I found out from this capture I took from the movie's IMDb page:

Even better is that Miss Honeysuckle Weeks (I want her to marry Benedict Cumberbatch and become Honeysuckle Weeks-Cumberbatch so bad) is playing a character named "Lolly." There aren't enough Lollys in my life. I'm going to start calling my boyfriend Lolly. (That is, if he's not already named Lolly. You don't know!)

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Five Frames From ?

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What movie is this?

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Be My Big Bro

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I don't watch Glee anymore - even with the wonder of Jane Lynch I only lasted a few episodes into the first season before the happy faces and jazz hands drove me back into the wilderness - but that doesn't mean I don't know who Darren Criss is, or that I don't enjoy the news that Matthew Bomer will be guest-starring on the show as Darren's older brother for all its surely-will-remain-imaginary but awesome-all-the-same incesty possibilities.
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Charlie's Angels

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Hot news alert! Kate Winslet and Catherine Keener, two of the greatest actresses of a certain age, have joined the cast of Frank or Francis, Charlie Kaufman's next movie! This is the one that Kaufman wrote and is directing, not the one that he wrote that Spike Jonze is directing - both are supposedly in the works, ya know.

Frank or Francis is the "Hollywood satire" that already has Nicolas Cage and Kevin Kline and Steve Carell and Jack Black cast - I wrote a bunch about it at The Film Experience way back when, if you care or don't know all about it already.

The main thrust here is just Winslet and Keener in a Charlie Kaufman movie, hooray! As Slash points out they were both nominated for Oscars in roles in movies written by Kaufman before - Keener in Being John Malkovich and Winslet in Eternal Sunshine. They both should have won Oscars for those roles too, if you ask me. (You didn't.) Keener was also in Charlie's first directorial effort Synechdoche New York, aka the best movie of the past however many forever even years. Do you think this is my most anticipated movie ever? Do ya?
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Hey Didja Hear That...

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... the "Tom Hardy and Chris Pine fight over whatshername" movie This Means War just got an R-rating for "sexual content"? Yeah I think you know where I'm going with this. Make it happen.

Good Morning, World

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Some vintage pics of a very young Jude Law on the stage (via). He's 22 here, the play was called Indiscretions, and anybody who was there is an asshole. I say we demand a revival. I'm surprised I'd never posted any of these pictures before, though. Hrm. Anyway see a random assortment of a couple more pictures of Jude Law after the jump because why not he's Jude Law.

RIP Eiko Ishioka

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Oh this makes me very sad - the designer Eiko Ishioka died this past Saturday at the age of 73. I wrote up an ode to her costumes for Bram Stoker's Dracula back in October (filled with lots of great pics; you should click over if you missed it) saying:

"Nowadays with television programming like Project Runway where we see people told on a weekly basis to make a dress that looks like a Tupperware full of spaghetti it might seem quaint, but at the time for a kid in a small town this sort of symbolic expression through costuming seemed revolutionary.

It wouldn’t be until years later that I’d see similarly hallucinogenic outfits in the films of Kenneth Anger and Alejandro Jodorowsky, obvious precursors to this sort of thing, so there will always be a scorch-mark inside my head that looks like that billowing orange gown that Lucy meets her wolf-man lover in. And I wouldn’t have it any other way."

She changed the way I looked at movies, and her work was part of the reason I became so obsessed with them, and I mourn all the amazing costumes we'll never get to see without her. But I'm sure her work opened up the minds for future generations of costume designers, and we'll see her influence for as long as people make movies. Her work for Tarsem's Mirror Mirror will be her swan song, as it were.