MICHELLE WILLIAMS has an Academy Award nomination, the open adulation of major filmmakers and a résumé that is striking in its worldliness and creative ambition. But if her career has seemed to progress almost inconspicuously, it is partly because of its introspective bent — small movies, subtle performances — and partly because it has lately existed in the shadow of her personal life.Ms. Williams’s maturity and capacity for quietly wrenching pathos were apparent even on the teenage soap “Dawson’s Creek,” on which she played the troubled Jen Lindley. In her film roles she has revealed a gift both for screwball comedy (“Dick,” “The Baxter”) and bruising emotional drama (most memorably in her Oscar-nominated performance as the spurned wife Alma in Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain”). She has repeatedly taken chances on under-the-radar indies (“The Station Agent,” “The Hawk Is Dying”) while catching the attention of auteurs like Wim Wenders (“Land of Plenty”), Todd Haynes (“I’m Not There”) and Martin Scorsese (the forthcoming “Shutter Island”). But Ms. Williams, who turns 28 on Tuesday, has become a very public figure for reasons that have little to do with her work. While shooting “Brokeback Mountain” in 2004 she fell into a much-chronicled romance with her co-star Heath Ledger. Stalked by paparazzi, their every move monitored in the gossip pages, the couple set up house in Brooklyn and had a daughter, Matilda. It has been a difficult year, to say the least, and Ms. Williams acknowledged in a recent interview — her first in eight months, since Mr. Ledger’s death — that she has coped to some extent by throwing herself into her work. She has shot four films in quick succession since last summer, two of which had their premieres at the Cannes Film Festival in May and are due to open this fall.In the anguished, comic head trip “Synecdoche, New York” the directorial debut of the screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (“Adaptation”), she is part of a vivid ensemble cast orbiting around Philip Seymour Hoffman’s harried theater director. In “Wendy and Lucy,” the independent filmmaker Kelly Reichardt’s follow-up to the acclaimed “Old Joy” she’s in every scene as a young woman living hand to mouth on the road when her car breaks down and her dog goes missing in a blue-collar Oregon nowheresville.
“I thought a lot about what you look like when you think nobody’s looking at you, when you feel completely invisible,” Ms. Williams said of her character Wendy. “Your entire life happens inside because you don’t think anyone notices you. Which is very different from me. Not that I don’t have any inside life, but I feel watched, all the time.”
As she spoke over a long lunch at a restaurant near her home in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, Ms. Williams occasionally paused and smiled wryly as if to acknowledge the unspoken connections with her off-screen life. “It’s all so personal, isn’t it?” she said. “It’s hard to talk about work without talking about things that are personal. Work is personal. I don’t want to talk about my personal life, but it’s on my mind, and it’s in my work.”
Confessing to being apprehensive and out of practice, she thought long and hard before answering questions, searching for the right words — “I want to actually represent how I feel” she said at one point — but also taking care to avoid unintended disclosures. “It’s a fine line between wanting to be known and understood but also knowing what’s sacred,” she said.
One subject on which she willingly opened up was “Wendy and Lucy” — “probably the smallest film I’ve made” she said, “and I’ve made some pretty small films.” (It is set to open Dec. 10, and will be shown Sept. 27 and 28 at the New York Film Festival.) Ms. Reichardt was worried that Ms. Williams would have trouble adapting to the microbudget conditions and to her plain-Jane role. “I feared that she was too pretty for the part sometimes, and I was concerned about asking her to go without makeup and not wash her hair for two weeks,” Ms. Reichardt said. “But I think she found that completely liberating.”
Ms. Williams said she relished the intimate scale. Shooting a tiny film on the outskirts of Portland at a time when she “felt particularly adrift” — she and Mr. Ledger had just broken up — she was grateful to find her character’s anonymity rubbing off on her. “I didn’t stand out in that community,” she said. “It was this perfect safe haven.”
“Making something out of nothing,” she added. “I’ve always liked that phrase, and I feel that way about this movie. We were working with so little in every way.” That minimalism extends to her tamped-down performance. Wendy is allowed one outburst but otherwise endures her downward spiral with stoic resilience.
To convey the character’s stubborn sense of purpose Ms. Reichardt showed Ms. Williams films like Max Ophüls’s “Reckless Moment,” with Joan Bennett as a suburban supermom driven to protect her family at all costs, and “Mouchette,” Robert Bresson’s single-minded portrait of a teenage outcast. “Kelly called me her Mouchelle,” she said.
Ms. Williams related to the self-sufficiency of her character: Wendy, heading north to find a job in the Alaskan fisheries, is something like a pioneer heroine for these depressed and exhausted times. “Maybe I read too much Emerson and Whitman at an impressionable age,” Ms. Williams said, referring to her tendency “to do everything” by herself. Her independent streak dates to her teenage years. After a childhood in rural Montana, she completed a high school correspondence course and moved to Los Angeles at 15, declaring herself legally emancipated from her parents. Mr. Kaufman cast her in “Synecdoche” (Oct. 24) partly because he had fond memories of her oddball turn in “Dick” as a nerdy teenager who lives at the Watergate and develops an improbable crush on Richard M. Nixon. “She can be really funny in really surprising ways,” he said. “I love watching her face change.”
Mr. Wenders, who wrote “Land of Plenty” with her in mind, spoke of her honesty, which “transcends any beauty and turns it into goodness, for lack of any other expression.” There has been no shortage of fulfilling work, especially since her widely praised performance in “Brokeback Mountain.” Mr. Scorsese’s “Shutter Island,” an adaptation of a Dennis Lehane novel that also stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, is due to open next year, and two other films are awaiting United States distribution: “Mammoth,” directed by the Swedish provocateur Lukas Moodysson, and Sharon Maguire’s drama “Incendiary,” which had its premiere at Sundance.
Ms. Williams would seem to be entering her professional prime, but she is reluctant to capitalize on her recent successes. “I’m going to take a year off,” she said. “I think I stopped feeling creative a while ago, and I’m just realizing it now.” She admitted to feeling the strain of being a working single mom. She reads bedtime stories to Matilda, now nearly 3, in whatever accent she’s practicing — East London for “Incendiary,” Boston for “Shutter Island” — but has had a hard time balancing the immersive demands of acting and the consuming duties of motherhood. “I used to have all the time in the world to daydream and even just to dream and let your unconscious do some of the work for you,” she said. “Now I’m up at 5 in the morning, and I don’t remember what I dreamed about.”
The bleakness of some of the roles has also taken a toll. In “Incendiary” she plays a wife and mother who loses her family in a terrorist attack; while preparing for “Shutter Island” she read case studies on infanticide. “When I work again maybe it should be a comedy,” she said. “I’ve always had a tendency for darker, more lifelike material. I think I had this sense that important things are heavy things. I don’t know if that’s true any more.”
In person Ms. Williams seems like nothing so much as your average 20-something Brooklyn hipster, which should perhaps be no surprise since she has been a New Yorker all her adult life. While making “Dawson’s Creek” she split her time between Wilmington, N.C., where the series was shot, and New York, where she found “wonderful friends who were all orphans in some way, not just actors but writers and musicians and painters.”
She is a little resentful but mostly rueful that she can no longer experience the city the way she used to. “I feel like that’s been taken away from me,” she said. “I’m worried what people are saying or thinking, or if they’re going to follow me, or if someone is going to pop out of a bush with a camera. I’ve started to shut down, but I also know I can’t let it dictate my life.”
She still finds herself reacting to the tabloid intrusions with bewilderment. (In recent months the talk has turned to a rumored relationship with the filmmaker Spike Jonze.) “It feels so surreal,” she said. “How is this my life? When did it get so out of control?”
To be a celebrity is to negotiate a gulf between private self and public image. “It’s a bit of an isolating problem to have,” Ms. Williams said, and so she was gratified to find that this was among the themes of Milan Kundera’s novel “Immortality,” which she read on the plane to Cannes, though she said she wasn’t sure she agreed with the book’s conclusion, “that the self people perceive is just as real because it exists.”
She is an avid reader who favors poetry over novels while filming so she’s not distracted by competing narratives. Looking ahead to her year off she said that she wanted to pick up a skill, some kind of handicraft. “I want to humble myself in front of a task like embroidery,” she said. “I like how physical work can really free your mind.” At a low point last year she signed up for night classes in bookbinding and calligraphy. “I was prouder of my little foldout book than of some movies that I’ve made,” she said.
Despite her claims of burnout, she still talks about acting with a kind of reverential awe. “I’m a Virgo, and I want everything to be fair and equal and clear, and acting just isn’t,” she said. “It’s kind of an incantation or a rain dance.” She loves the research process but is less thrilled about watching the end results (and often doesn’t). “If only the damned things never came out,” she said. “I get far too self-critical when I watch myself.” Source: www.nytimes.com
TORONTO - SEPTEMBER 04: Actors Michael Cera and Kat Dennings visit MuchOnDemand to promote their new film 'Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist' on September 4, 2008 in Toronto, Canada.
"Holy truck you guys, George Michael Bluth (you may know him as Michael Cera) is going to be on MOD in an hour. Someone will have to hold me back from screaming "it's Mr. Manager!!" when he's answering a half serious question". Update!! Omg, he's so skinneh! What a cutie pie. He was here with Kat Dennings to promote Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist... Source: blog.muchmusic.com
"Comedy's current wunderkind, Michael Cera, stars in another super-smart teen comedy with the cool-factor of an indie-rock music mix. Cera plays the perennially hapless Nick, hopelessly in love with his ex-girlfriend and anaesthetized when it comes to the idea of finding anyone else. His special talent is making killer mix CDs, the entire series of which has been dedicated to his unrequited love. When his bandmates secure their struggling indie-rock group a gig in the city, he is vaguely excited. A legendary band is playing a secret show on the same night, and the chance to see them is a good argument for getting out of the house. But he lucks out when, after his gig, he meets Norah (Kat Dennings), who is cute, hassled and equally dissatisfied with the world of relationships. Nick and Norah embark on a wild chase through New York City as they endeavour to track down the secret show, find Norah's walkabout friend Caroline (Ari Graynor) and placate Nick's over-excited mates.These young protagonists are middle-class and music-obsessed. The wry, smartly written script and savvy pop-culture references make this a great companion piece to the 2007 Festival hit Juno, while Nick and Norah's apathetic shtick recalls the hip ennui of Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World.
Cera's comic timing is impeccable. His delivery is as meek and mawkish as his George Michael Bluth days, and his chemistry with charming newcomer Dennings simply crackles with the awkwardness of adolescence. Sollett's underground eye gives New York City a beating heart, and his choice of music – and musical cameos – will have you trainspotting the indie-rock playlist". Source: tiff08.ca
TORONTO - A constellation of Hollywood's biggest stars will materialize as the Toronto International Film Festival, North America's largest, unspools 249 features beginning tomorrow.
Some of the mostly hotly anticipated titles, all world or North American premieres, include:
* "Burn After Reading" - Joel and Ethan Coen's follow-up to the Oscar-winning "No Country for Old Men" is a spy comedy starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton and Frances McDormand.
* "Religulous" - Scaldingly funny documentary about organized religion, which Bill Maher treats with the same respect that Michael Moore showed for President Bush in "Fahrenheit 9/11." Directed by Larry Charles ("Borat").
* "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" - Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks in a title-described comedy from Kevin Smith.
* "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" - Michael Cera, who became a Canuck sex symbol in Toronto with "Juno" a year ago, returns in a quirky romantic comedy with the up-and-coming Kat Dennings.
* "Miracle at St. Anna" - Spike Lee's answer to "Flags of Our Fathers" is a World War II drama set in Italy starring Derek Luke.
* "Rachel Getting Married" -Jonathan Demme directs a dark comedy about a woman (played by Anne Hathaway) who leaves rehab for the nuptials of her sister.
* "The Duchess" - Keira Knightley dons period garb again as the extravagant 18th century Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, with Ralph Fiennes as the philandering duke.
* "The Secret Life of Bees" -Dakota Fanning as a 14-year-old in 1964 North Carolina who finds solace in beekeeping after the death of her mother.
* "Pride and Glory" - NYPD family saga stars Colin Farrell and Edward Norton as brothers-in-law caught up in a corruption scandal.
* "New York, I Love You" - 12-part film whose directors include Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Brett Ratner. Among the stars: Shia LaBeouf, Ethan Hawke, Julie Christie, Kevin Bacon and Orlando Bloom.
* "The Lucky Ones" - Rachel McAdams, Tim Robbins and Michael Pena as Iraq war vets on a road trip across America.
* "Flash of Genius" - Greg Kinnear as the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper who battled Detroit for years. Source: www.nypost.com
"2007 witnessed a considerable spike in the number of films willing to wade into thorny issues stemming from everything from the war in Iraq to the American intelligence community's conduct at home and abroad. The range of films were of varying quality and clarity (in terms of getting a message out) but perhaps most surprising was the fact that, by and large, moviegoers stayed away in droves, making works like In the Valley of Elah or Redacted box office flops.
Director Gavin Hood, following his electrifying 2005 breakthrough Tsotsi, fell victim to audience indifference as well, as his grim, angry polemic Rendition came and went with hardly any notice. It's a film, written by Kelley Sane, that feels a bit diffuse with its myriad characters and shifting narrative, but can't seem to shake its righteous fury long enough to connect with the story it's telling. It's a bit like Crash goes to Guantanamo Bay, as the turbulent world of geopolitical intrigue is uncomfortably welded to intimate, domestic drama.
Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), an Egyptian-American, is on his way home to wife Isabella (Reese Witherspoon) and son Jeremy (Aramis Knight), when he's detained by American officials en route from South Africa to Chicago. Thus begins his hellish nightmare, being trapped in North Africa and enduring first-hand "extraordinary rendition," a controversial and unseemly practice that entails shadow agents of various governments relying on torture to secure information. Swept up in Anwar's ordeal is analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) and steely senator Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep), both of whom want vastly different outcomes from Anwar's brutal interrogation. Parallel to this narrative runs that of Abasi Fawal (Yigal Naor), a high-level North African government operative whose personal and professional lives are more deeply entwined than he thinks.
All that exposition and I haven't even touched on the several other layers that make up the fantastically busy Rendition; I kept thinking throughout the film that it would be so much more compelling if the filmmakers would simply let the key stories breathe. But in order to drive home their point -- these insidious government practices have impact far beyond those spirited away from their lives -- Rendition must breathlessly leap between plotlines, stitching madly away in hopes that the finale comes together flawlessly.
But it ultimately does not -- there are plenty of astonishing performances (Metwally, Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, in particular) but the biggest problem with Rendition is that it stifles the drama. Just as anything notable or pulse-quickening transpires, Hood cuts away, letting the audience catch its breath, but also slowly loosening the film's grip.The DVD
The Video:
The 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer is immaculate, with no dirt or damage to be seen. It's a recently filmed production, so detail is sharp, colors are vivid and the overall image is spectacularly crisp, even during the numerous nighttime sequences. If there are any flaws, I didn't see them pop up in any noticeable way.
The Audio:
With a couple action sequences and some blood-chilling "interrogation" scenes, Rendition's Dolby Digital 5.1 has a few opportunities to shine, and does so. The dialogue is heard clearly, with no distortion or drop-out, while the score and sound effects fill in to subtle effect. An optional Dolby 2.0 track is on board, as are optional English and Spanish subtitles.
The Extras:
Few in number, but worthwhile, Rendition's bonus features are appropriately somber. Gavin Hood contributes an amiable, informative commentary track, touching on visual elements and the project's origins. The 27 minute, 38 second documentary "Outlawed: Extraordinary Rendition, Torture and Disappearances in the 'War on Terror'," directed by Gillian Caldwell independently of the feature film production is presented in fullscreen and aims to put a human face on this mysterious practice. The 30 minute, five second featurette "Intersections: The Making of Rendition" (presented in anamorphic widescreen) is standard behind-the-scenes fare, with the film's theatrical trailer, presented in anamorphic widescreen, completing the disc". Source: www.dvdtalk.com
In part two of the series premiere, Naomi finds herself in trouble when she fails an assignment, and Ryan and Kelly bring the issue to Harry's attention. Meanwhile, Dixon must deal with jealous teammates on the lacrosse team and Annie meets a potential love interest.
Season 1 Episode 1 - We’re Not in Kansas Anymore
In part one of the series premiere, Harrison Wilson accepts the job position as principal of West Beverly Hills High, forcing the Wilson family to relocate from Kansas to California and adjust to new life in the city - all while keeping a close watch on their troubled grandmother Tabitha. Watch 90210 pilot episode online
"Jessica Simpson has expanded into the world of fashion with her own line of Jessica Simpson shoes. You saw her western boots in the movie. You saw ‘em in the hot video. Now you can wear ‘em yourself! What A Pair is excited to introduce the new line of Jessica Simpson footwear. Jessica mixes quality materials with innovative designs in order deliver a product worthy of her name. Jessica Simpson shoes are here at What A Pair!Jessica Simpson's Like wedge pump is here. This fashionable leather wedge pump is like a ballet flat on a wedge. Beautiful bow detail, a matching pinched stacked wedge, pleats on the upper and a suede tip make the Like wedge pump unique.Quality. Price. Variety. Customer Service. WhataPair.com makes shopping for women’s footwear online fun, simple and easy on the purse. Shop by brand, price or style- the choice is your. Enjoy a safe and secure shopping experience at WhataPair.com where finding the right shoe is easy. Need sexy? We got ‘em! Need funky? We got ‘em! Need attitude? Look at all these varieties of women shoes and find a lot of fun while you're shopping online… If you are looking for a quality rain boot or rain shoe that is designed to suit how you live and is stylish to wear then Cougar Boots has a product for you. Waterproof winter boots and shoes that are fashionable, colorful, and fun all at an affordable price. Däv Rain Gear has a hip and sophisticated line of rain boots, umbrellas and totes if you are looking for the complete set of rain wear. The hottest trend this season is gladiator sandals and WhataPair.com has a variety of styles to offer. For the girl on the run there are sneakers to get you there available from Draven, Rocket Dog and Sugar to name a few. If you can’t picture a high heel sneaker check out Jump for the People they have created a line of wedge sneakers that are comfortable and stylish. When you buy a Cleo and Patek handbag you will get a timeless piece that you will be proud to carry everyday. Check out the Minnetonka Moccasins collection and you will find winter boots, sandals, hats and handbags. Alegria shoes by PG Lite promote health and wellness as well as a large color palette to brighten your day. And don't forget the vegetarian shoes. (Vegans do not use or consume animal products of any kind.)" Purple Paloma pump shoes, from the vegan collection designed by Natalie Portman. "Natalie is, of course, wearing pumps from her very own vegan shoe line. “Poppy” black faux-patent pump". The Natalie Portman Collection arrives February 2008 online and at the NYC boutique located at 382 West Broadway. The shoes are available for pre-order on January 15. 5% of all vegan shoe profits will be going to charity. Nat’s shoes will run you about $200, far cheaper than the Stella McCartney vegan heels". Source: JustJared.buzznet.com"Jocks like him always want freaky girls. Girls with horn-rimmed glasses and vegan footwear and Goth makeup". -"Juno".
A scene from Lovely & Amazing (2001). Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal) is conducting an interesting job interview with candidate Michelle (Catherine Keener).
· Went to the Wilco show last night- 8/29 at the Greek Theater. They played their last song, and I'm walking out of the aisle when this woman barrels down on me obviously in a rush. She apologizes over and over again and calls me sweetheart. I suddenly recognize the distinct voice of Catherine Keener. She apologizes again. Very nice and cool for being a Wilco fan. Love her. Source: defamer.com Jake Gyllenhaal and Catherine Keener. Catherine Keener and Ellen Page have starred in "An american crime" (2007) based on the true story of suburban housewife Gertrude Baniszewski, who kept a teenage girl (Sylvia Likens) locked in the basement of her Indiana home during the 1960s.
"Moving on to disc two, one will find the remainder of the supplemental programming: Deleted And Extended Scenes (seven scenes), Line-O-Rama (adlibs), Gag Reel (self explanatory), Cop Car Confessions (cut cameos), The Making-Of Superbad (self explanatory), Vag-tastic Voyage (web porn), Original Table Read 2002 (Seth Rogen reads for the part of "Seth"), Cast Audition Footage (Jonah Hill, Michael Cera & Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Michael's Voicemails From Jonah (prank calls), Snakes On Jonah (comic cast fear factor), Dancing Title Sequence (how it was done), TV Safe Lines (Watch Jonah Hill try to record alternate "safe" lines appropriate for television), On-Set Diaries (cast & crew interviews), The Music Of Superbad (soundtrack), Everybody Hates Michael Cera– The Unfortunate True Story (mocumerntary), Press Junket Meltdown (mock interview) and Pineapple Express: Exclusive First Look (upcoming flick). Source: www.thecinemalaser.com
Michael Cera also enjoyed making little prank calls when he was a teenager student with his buddy in Heart Lake Secondary school in Brampton, Ontario. As well as his character George Michael made this innofensive prank call in his usual innocent naughty way in Anne's company in "Burning love" episode of "Arrested Development".
"A prank call, also known as a crank call, hoax call, phone scam or phony phone call, is a form of practical joke committed over the Telephone. As with all practical jokes, prank calls are generally done for humorous effect, though there is a thin line between humor and harassment. Prank phone calls began to gain an America-wide following over a period of many years, as they gradually became a staple of the obscure and amusing cassette tapes traded amongst musicians, sound engineers, and media traders beginning in the late 1970s. Among the most famous and earliest recorded prank calls are the Tube Bar prank calls tapes which centered around Louis "Red" Deutsch, and the Lucius Tate phone calls. Comedian Jerry Lewis was an incorrigible phone prankster, and recordings of his hijinks, dating from the 1960s and possibly earlier, still circulate throughout the country to this day.
Reverse calls, baited/unbaited calls:
Typically, prank calls are known for being outgoing phone calls to the victim; however, a method known as the reverse prank call is performed when the victim is actually the caller. As opposed to the hit-and-miss results of traditional prank calling, this style of prank call usually produces humorous results due to the fact that the caller actually believes what they are calling is real, further validated by the prankster answering the phone in a manner that confirms they've reached the right number. Some performers such as The Jerky Boys make a name for themselves producing albums of their recorded prank calls. During the early years of The Simpsons, a popular recurring gag involved Bart making prank calls to Moe's Tavern, inspired by the Tube Bar prank calls. The calls usually followed a set pattern: Bart would ask for a person, Moe would shout loudly for the person Bart asked for, and Moe would catch on only after the bar (usually) erupts in uproarious laughter, also threatening violent revenge upon catching the perpetrator.
Moe never seemed to realize that it was Bart who made the call. Once Bart even told Moe that he made prank calls and Moe still did not catch on: Bart: "Well I make prank phone calls." Moe (in a happy voice one uses when talking to children): "Good for you."
Ms. Williams’s maturity and capacity for quietly wrenching pathos were apparent even on the teenage soap “Dawson’s Creek,” on which she played the troubled Jen Lindley. In her film roles she has revealed a gift both for screwball comedy (“Dick,” “The Baxter”) and bruising emotional drama (most memorably in her Oscar-nominated performance as the spurned wife Alma in Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain”). She has repeatedly taken chances on under-the-radar indies (“The Station Agent,” “The Hawk Is Dying”) while catching the attention of auteurs like Wim Wenders (“Land of Plenty”), Todd Haynes (“I’m Not There”) and Martin Scorsese (the forthcoming “Shutter Island”).
But Ms. Williams, who turns 28 on Tuesday, has become a very public figure for reasons that have little to do with her work. While shooting “Brokeback Mountain” in 2004 she fell into a much-chronicled romance with her co-star Heath Ledger. Stalked by paparazzi, their every move monitored in the gossip pages, the couple set up house in Brooklyn and had a daughter, Matilda. 
It has been a difficult year, to say the least, and Ms. Williams acknowledged in a recent interview — her first in eight months, since Mr. Ledger’s death — that she has coped to some extent by throwing herself into her work. She has shot four films in quick succession since last summer, two of which had their premieres at the Cannes Film Festival in May and are due to open this fall.
In the anguished, comic head trip “Synecdoche, New York” the directorial debut of the screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (“Adaptation”), she is part of a vivid ensemble cast orbiting around Philip Seymour Hoffman’s harried theater director. In “Wendy and Lucy,” the independent filmmaker Kelly Reichardt’s follow-up to the acclaimed “Old Joy” she’s in every scene as a young woman living hand to mouth on the road when her car breaks down and her dog goes missing in a blue-collar Oregon nowheresville.
Mr. Kaufman cast her in “Synecdoche” (Oct. 24) partly because he had fond memories of her oddball turn in “Dick” as a nerdy teenager who lives at the Watergate and develops an improbable crush on Richard M. Nixon. “She can be really funny in really surprising ways,” he said. “I love watching her face change.”
There has been no shortage of fulfilling work, especially since her widely praised performance in “Brokeback Mountain.” Mr. Scorsese’s “Shutter Island,” an adaptation of a Dennis Lehane novel that also stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, is due to open next year, and two other films are awaiting United States distribution: “Mammoth,” directed by the Swedish provocateur Lukas Moodysson, and Sharon Maguire’s drama “Incendiary,” which had its premiere at Sundance.
She admitted to feeling the strain of being a working single mom. She reads bedtime stories to Matilda, now nearly 3, in whatever accent she’s practicing — East London for “Incendiary,” Boston for “Shutter Island” — but has had a hard time balancing the immersive demands of acting and the consuming duties of motherhood. “I used to have all the time in the world to daydream and even just to dream and let your unconscious do some of the work for you,” she said. “Now I’m up at 5 in the morning, and I don’t remember what I dreamed about.”
