The next Johnny Depp

"The struggle I have in mind is the far weightier struggle over who will be the Johnny Depp of the Millennial Generation.So yes, Depp is a hero to us all, this despite the undeniable fact that he is a goateed Francophile, which is saying rather a lot about his redeeming qualities. For years I've wanted to write a book titled Captain Jack's Guide to Management, divining the Shinto-inspired code of business success buried deep beneath Captain Jack Sparrow's wild-eyed witticisms as spouted in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Alas, there have been no takers as yet.I'll also add, briefly, that I really love the movie Edward Scissorhands and that when I met a really lovely yet very skinny and pale young woman, my brilliant friend dubbed her, "Edward Sisterhands," as though she were, um, Edward Scissorhands' sister. Oh heck, you get the idea.Anyway, I loved Holes and Disturbia as much as the next red-blooded American, but when LaBeouf addressed the assembled hordes at Comic-Con in San Diego last year, he was a punk. Harrison Ford, the wonderful Karen Allen, Steven Spielberg: all were class acts who recognized that the fans are decent, hard-working people who spent a lot of dough to ooh and aah with many like-minded Indiana Jones nerds. Yet Shia slouched and muttered and behaved in a generally impish, prima-donnaish fashion. I'll never forgive him. Rest assured, there are many millions of people who will throw rose petals at this young man's feet, and it's true that he's a decently talented actor. But you're no Depp and you never will be, LaBeouf. So you might want to develop some humility. Oh yes, the ladies love cool Shia. Merry Christmas, and damn you to Hades! What troubles me most is that he's rumored to be the first pick to play Yorick Brown in the forthcoming Y: The Last Man picture. More on Y to come.
Emile Hirsch, in contrast, is a true talent, as demonstrated by his remarkable star turn in Sean Penn's Into the Wild, easily one of the most affecting performances of 2007. Even in The Girl Next Door, a silly yet mildly diverting teen sex comedy, Hirsch gave a moving performance that ranged from earnest naif to smolderingly intense proto-pimp. This kid is going places, and my hope is that he will take a brief detour on the way there to trample on Shia LaBeouf. Metaphorically.Then there is Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who has been making many strategically shrewd choices -- playing despised, marginalized types, starring in the awesome Brick (which also starred the awesome Nora Zehetner, who also played the young Helena Bonham Carter in the criminally underrated Conversations with Other Women). JG-L is a bit older, and he certainly has the inside track to be the sleeper indie Depp. My sense is that once LaBeouf is out of the way, say his massive ego leads to some kind of temporary brain rupture, Hirsch will have to face off against Gordon-Levitt in a battle to the death. Just as the end of the Second World War saw a a globe-spanning conflict between two former allies, this hitherto unforeseen battle may prove the most consequential of them all. And the balance will be in the hands of celebrated tween icon Miranda Cosgrove, who I predict will become the Helena Bonham Carter of Generation Z" -by randfashions in the Hitrecord Message Board

Post-Valentine’s Date

"Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon play it shy, hiding their faces from paparazzi while enjoying a post-Valentine’s date night out in Los Angeles on Friday".
Source: Justjared.buzznet.com

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, NORA!!

HAPPY BELATED 27th BIRTHDAY, NORA ZEHETNER!!
Nora, you know you will be our particular noir princess, the femme-fatale of our most inconfesable dreams forever, I wish you all the best!

"All the young dudes" video

Holden Caulfield, Donnie Darko, Juno

"A boy can't deal with real people, so instead he befriends a giant, grotesque rabbit"."Donnie hardly recognizes himself: Plagued by fits of sleepwalking and vivid hallucinations of a six-foot metallic rabbit with monstrous teeth, he feels totally out of control, unable to decipher what is real. Panicked by the world around him and terrified of being alone, he finds himself unable to connect with other people. [...] A contemporary Holden Caulfield, he alternates between kindness and cruelty, boldness and fear, hope and despair. The film never sugarcoats its protagonist's failings, and Gyllenhaal doesn't sweeten the portrait, revealing a rebellious teenager so rude to his mother, we cringe".
Source: www.clevescene.com

"Juno has become a bona fide phenomenon — a rare cultural touchstone for millions of young female moviegoers". "Girls haven't had that sort of character before. We don't have our Catcher in the Rye" -Ellen Page. Source: www.ew.com
"Jason Reitman's Juno is a gem. It does for film what J D Salinger's Catcher In The Rye did for literature back in the late Fifties. Both are vivid portraits of adolescents: the former a girl, Juno MacGuff, superbly played by Ellen Page, the latter a boy, Holden Caulfield. Both are highly critical of the society in which they live and have trouble fitting in with the accepted activities of their peers and elders". "She's also keen on Bleeker (Michael Cera), a fellow student in her class who is a bit of a misfit. He's highly intelligent, makes an effort to join in with the jocks on their sporting activities, but doesn't appear to have any close friends amongst them".
Source: www.afca.org.au."Juno’s character is the most interesting thing about the movie. She is written as a feminine Holden Caulfield; highly pessimistic of the world around her and critical of a number of things. For the most part, she is an outcast at her school but by her own will and at the same time, to paraphrase her, she is the nerdy dream girl of a jock or two". Source: jackasscritics.com"Think Holden Caulfield, only female and pregnant. That’s Juno MacGuff". Source: www.kansascity.com
"According to the scooper, the film will largely focus on the relationship between the titular Jennifer, a high-school sex bomb and all around homecoming queen type who is also possessed by satanic forces -- there's a real 80s vibe, apparently -- and her best friend, called Needy. Needy slowly starts to realize that something is seriously wrong with Jennifer, since the boys she goes out with don't come back. But enough about the story -- what's the critique? According to the source, the script is an "oddly-paced, slightly incoherent horror comedy. This is trying too hard to be some genre-smashing cult hit like Donnie Darko..." Source: www.cinematical.com

Female Outcasts

"I say we just grow up, be adults, and die" - Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder).
Veronica Sawyer: You're a rebel? You think you're a rebel? You're not a rebel you're fucking psychotic! -"Heathers" (1989).
"Lux Lisbon, one of the five self-doomed sisters whose lissome dance toward extinction is the subject of Sofia Coppola's first movie (and of Jeffrey Eugenides's first novel, on which it is based), is first glimpsed in the act of finishing a red Popsicle. As played -- incarnated might be a better word -- by Kirsten Dunst, Lux is at once a blond icon of girlish suburban innocence and an emblem of womanly eroticism. Like Sue Lyon in Stanley Kubrick's ''Lolita,'' with her lollipop and her heart-shaped sunglasses, Ms. Dunst turns Lux's every glance and gesture into an ambiguous provocation". Source: movies.nytimes.com

Lux Lisbon: I can't breath in here.
Mrs Lisbon: Lu, you are safe, in here.
"The Virgin Suicides" (1999).

"Maybe Enid Coleslaw - the cynical brat of the movement's lodestone film, Ghost World - sums up our geek girl's philosophy best. When she describes the film's socially inept record-collecting dork, Seymour, it's like a motto for the movement: "I kind of like him. He's the exact opposite of everything I really hate. In a way, he's such a clueless dork, he's almost kind of cool." Source: www.theage.com.au
Enid: This is so bad it's gone past good and back to bad again. -"Ghost World" (2001).Enid: I'm taking a remedial high school art class for fuck-ups and retards. (Brad Renfro, Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson)
Enid: Josh, he's nobody's boyfriend, he's just this guy that Becky and I like to torture.
See the parallels between Becky (Enid's friend -Scarlett Johansson) and Juno's cheerleder friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby): and also between the quirky male characters Josh (Brad Renfro) and Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera):Josh: This guy has every reason to freak out. This is a pretty fucked up thing to do to somebody.
Enid: I think Josh is becoming too mature for us.Bleeker: You're being really immature... You have no reason to be mad at me, I mean, you broke my heart. I should be royally ticked off at you. I should be really cheesed off, I shouldn't want to talk to you anymore. Juno MacGuff: He said her house smells like soup.
Leah: Oh my god it does! I was there like four years ago for her birthday party. It's like Lipton landing! Juno MacGuff: Yeah, you just take Soupy-Sales to prom. I can think of so many cooler things to do that night. Like, you know what Bleek? I might pummus my feet, uh, I might go to Bren's Unitarian Church, maybe get hit by a truck full of hot garbage juice, you know? Cause all those things, would be exponentially cooler than going to prom with you.Juno MacGuff: You're, like, the coolest person I've ever met, and you don't even have to try, you know. -Ellen Page in "Juno" (2007).
Deb (Tina Majorino): Kay, hold still right there. Now, just imagine you're weightless, in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by tiny little seahorses.Deb: Um, hello. Would you like to look like this?
Napoleon Dynamite: This is a girl.
Deb: Because for a limited time only, Glamour Shots by Deb are 75% off. -"Napoleon Dynamite" (2004).

"I’m afraid the backlash against things like Juno or the fucking Decemberists is causing people to abandon the ideals we’ve all grown up with, possibly just for the sake of being contrarians" -Mike Conklin.
Source: the1magazine.com

Michael Cera Video

I really like Michael Cera. I'm revisiting some of his old episodes in the TV sitcom "Arrested Development" and I'm pleasantly surprised of his comedic talent and intuitiveness. He's my geek-crush, weirdos, his awkward smile makes him sweet, unassuming and even naïve, but however keeping at the same time a mysterious gaze beyond his years.