WEIRDLAND

Sunday, July 13, 2008

"The Dark Knight" & Maggie

"There isn't a more anticipated movie this summer than THE DARK KNIGHT. Viral games have worked fans up into a frenzy. The early reviews have been stellar. Screenings sold out weeks in advance. People are practically pulling their hair out with excitement. So what better way to celebrate what could be the best superhero movie all time by giving stuff away! Yup, it's time for another one of our patented JoBlo.com contests, this time chock full of DARK KNIGHT swag. Show off your love with a Joker tee or check the time of the next DARK KNIGHT screening on your fancy watch, valued at over $100. So what to do to win you ask? Easy, just enter your name and email address below (double entries will be disqualified), return on Monday, July 21st to see if you're one of the randomly picked winners". Source: www.joblo.com

"If Maggie Gyllenhaal were a superhero, she'd combine the power of strength with invisibility. The actress, 30, has opted for an existence that's removed from Hollywood and Manhattan, living in Brooklyn with her fiancé, Peter Sarsgaard, 37, and their daughter, Ramona, who turns 2 in October. She could become easier to spot after her co-starring turn in The Dark Knight, out July 18, one of this summer's most awaited films.

Gyllenhaal takes over for Katie Holmes, who appeared in 2005's Batman Begins, as Rachel Dawes, Gotham's ambitious, nattily attired prosecutor who's torn between DA Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and Batman himself (Christian Bale). Gotham, meanwhile, is being terrorized by a demonic, disfigured criminal: the Joker (Heath Ledger).
The film is Gyllenhaal's first bona-fide behemoth of a movie, a prospect that leaves her a little leery.

"I really didn't know if I wanted to do a huge blockbuster," she says. "And I don't think I realized how big it was going to be. I'm really proud of the movie, to be a part of something really great. When you see Dark Knight, you see that it's in no way a compromise."She's more circumspect when it comes to Ledger, who died of an accidental drug overdose in January. Gyllenhaal recently saw Dark Knight for the first time, but she isn't one to share any intimate memories of working with Ledger and has been critical of the circus-like coverage of his death and funeral. But she does say that watching him on screen left her "really emotional."

"In the middle," she says, "you sort of get lost in him being the Joker. … I felt like someone could hate this or love this, or think it's a wrong choice or a right choice, but really there's no way to qualify it. Sometimes in my work, you're just alive and being the person you're playing. It's unusual. It's difficult to get there. And I think Heath did. Nothing Heath could do was wrong."

Despite the film's dark subject matter, the set at times resembled a day care center. Gyllenhaal shot the film when Ramona was an infant and brought her to the set. There, she was often greeted by Nolan's four children. "Sometimes it was the only way we could see our kids," Nolan says. "She always came prepared, but that side of her helped keep things light on set."

Adds Eckhart: "Maggie brought her child to set, and Heath brought (daughter) Matilda. Gary (Oldman) has two beautiful young boys. So the baby talk was rampant in the makeup trailer. I remember just watching Maggie as she talked with such excitement about her daughter: 'She pumped out her cheeks,' and I'd be like, 'All right!'"

In interviews, Gyllenhaal is less revealing. She's crisply polite and friendly without ever bordering on cuddly. Forster says some may confuse her reticence with coldness, when in fact, "I'd say she's more quiet, a little bit shy."

She'll happily demonstrate the correct way to eat an artichoke or talk about her latest read, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. But she's not sharing baby photos or anecdotes.

And she's on a tight schedule, thanks to her daughter's nighttime regimen: "This is an intense time with a kid. It's the time for the dinner and bath and bed, and I'd like to catch some of it."

Being a mom changed Gyllenhaal's outlook; at least for a while, working was out. "I read so many things that I could do, but it wasn't worth it to me," she says. "I don't know what it would take. Some kind of little spark? I didn't have it for a long time. I didn't, until she was about a year old. I really didn't feel ambition."

Now, that drive is back. And she's looking for "something hard. I want to find a really good, hard drama. But there are things I can't do anymore. There was a movie that wanted to shoot off the coast of Tasmania, on an island that had no inhabitants, no store.

"Peter was great. He said, 'If you want to do it, we'll figure it out; I'll go with you and take care of her.' I think it would be irresponsible. I can't do that anymore. Your priorities shift."

One thing she did last year: show serious skin in a campaign for luxe lingerie label Agent Provocateur.

Gyllenhaal was a fan of the line, especially after Ramona's birth left her "a good 20pounds heavier" and in need of a confidence boost.

"They make nursing bras, and I went right in there and bought three pairs of matching bras and underwear that made me feel so good about myself. All of a sudden, to have a hot-pink something peeking out from my shirt a little bit — it made me feel so good," she says.

And then, the British label asked her to pose in their racy campaign, which made its debut in September.

"I found myself, six months after having a baby, in my underwear, getting my picture taken. How did I get here?" says Gyllenhaal, smiling. "It was like playing a character. They're sexy, but they also have a little bit of irony in them. I love that."

But, like with Dark Knight, the scope of the project — and the attention she'd get for it — didn't really register with Gyllenhaal until later.

"I didn't know how scrutinized I'd be. My brother called me and said, 'I'm in Heathrow, and there's a 12-foot picture of you upside down in a negligee.' People are really rough on you when you do things like that. But I had a good time."
Source: www.usatoday.com

"Maggie Gyllenhaal has admitted that watching Heath Ledger's Dark Knight scenes will be "painful".

The actress, who plays Rachel Dawes in the Batman sequel, explained that she was deeply affected by Ledger's death and believes that seeing the movie will bring it all back."My heart really broke when he died", Gyllenhaal told Marie Claire. "I think seeing the movie will be painful. I saw this new trailer, which I loved, but Heath was all over it, and it was very sad to see it. Hard to watch." Source: www.digitalspy.co.uk

Also read this interview to Maggie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Liv Tyler: Source: www.usaweekend.com

Michael Cera (Make me smile)



Michael Cera makes me smile, so here you have almost 4 minutes of Cera smiling.
Btw, I keep on vacationing in the Expo and on low profile (borrowing laptops), and I met this funny Japanase girl named Akari who works in the Expo "Pabellón" of Japan, if you have the opportunity, go to visit the Expo in Zaragoza (Spain)!


Friday, July 11, 2008

On the set of "500 days of summer"

"I was already all sorts of excited for 500 Days of Summer, mostly because it stars two of the coolest actors in the business: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. Gordon-Levitt has mad talent and a pretty unbeatable taste in projects (though G.I. Joe is an eyebrow-raiser); Deschanel is just all-around wonderful and charming -- yes, even in The Happening. I'd be psyched to watch them in anything, but I'm especially psyched to watch them in an elaborate fantasy musical, which is what 500 Days of Summer has turned out to be.
This is from an MTV story, which has a detailed plot synopsis, and descriptions of some of the film's highlights. Those apparently include a scene with fifteen (15) Zooey Deschanel body doubles, and several choreographed dance numbers led by Gordon-Levitt. The movie is a fractured, stream-of-consciousness narrative about a guy who looks back on his long relationship with the girl who just dumped him (that would be Deschanel's Summer), his reminiscences taking on the flavor of a pop musical.This is particularly exciting news, since Zooey Deschanel is, among other things, a dynamite singer -- if you haven't checked out She & Him, her wonderful 60's-pop collaboration with indie singer-songwriter M. Ward, you're missing out. She has a sweet, lovely voice, and the songs are killer; try "This is Not a Test." I should also note that Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel worked together before either of them was a Name, in the solid, underseen psych-ward drama Manic.

The IMDb isn't the most reliable source for this sort of information, but it has the movie as being in post-production -- which makes sense since it started shooting in early May. Might it show up at Toronto this September? Source: www.cinematical.com

Joe flips out over GI Joe


"I admit that I’ll never be as excited about anything as Joseph Gordon-Levitt is about “G.I. Joe.” Seriously. Asked a question about the movie, the man who would be Cobra Commander displays a level of excitement about one step below needing Lithium".
Source: moviesblog.mtv.com

Also watch this video with Joseph Gordon-Levitt From A Soldier's POV ("Stop Loss"):

Blogcritics in Amazon Kindle

Keep on Bloggin' in the Free World
2:17 PM PDT, July 10, 2008, updated at 2:22 PM PDT, July 10
"We have recently added a slew (I love the word slew and use it liberally and with great enthusiasm. How much cole slaw would you like? A slew, a slew of slaw, please) of blogs to Kindle. As of today, you can download and keep updated with these popular favorites:

Gothamist: where else can you read about cakes spiked with Dulcolax alongside the results of New York's harrowing tap-water-taste test? Many other cities are available under Gothamist's umbrella, including Seattlest, Bostonist, and Chicagoist.

Also available as of today are the Blogcritics blogs. Being the tech geeks and bookworms we are on the Kindle Team, our personal favorites are Blogcritics.org Books and Blogcritics.org Science and Technology".

Source: amazon.com

Juno's mix tape


Source: http://tillscreen.rhino.com

Happy Birthday, Greg Mottola!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

"Boy A" Trailer

"Boy A" is a powerful coming-of-age drama that raises difficult questions about the morals of our times.

Andrew Garfield in "Lions for Lambs" (2007).
Boy A is a fictional story starring Andrew Garfield (Evening Standard and Critics' Circle theatre awards winner 2006) as Jack. His involvement in the murder of another child means Jack, at 24, has spent most of his young life in juvenile prisons. Released from prison into an unrecognizable adult world, Jack is given a new name, new job, new home; a new life. But anonymity is both a blessing and a curse as Jack has to contend with not being able to tell the people he gets to know, and love, of his true past and the monstrous secret he must keep hidden.

The drama also stars acclaimed actor and director Peter Mullan ("The Magdalene Sisters," "Children of Men") as Terry, Jack's care worker and the only person he can really trust.

Co-starring Shaun Evans ("Teachers") and Katie Lyons ("Green Wing"), Boy A is based on the award-winning novel by Jonathan Trigell, has been adapted for the screen by writer Mark O'Rowe and is directed by John Crowley ("Pinter's Celebration," "Intermission"). Source: www.traileraddict.com

Café Triste

"Juno B-Sides: Almost Adopted Songs, a sequel to the chart-topping Juno soundtrack, will be released on April 8 as an iTunes exclusive before hitting other digital retailers in May. "None of these songs made the movie, but they are all essential members of the Junoverse," says Juno director Jason Reitman, who will pay dearly for coining the term "Junoverse." Dearly.

Along with the Kimya Dawson and Belle & Sebastian ditties you'd expect to find in the refuse of the "Junoverse." We'll also get the chance to hear "Zub Zub," a song written by Oscar-winning pariah Diablo Cody. Here's the deleted "Zub Zub" scene, with some sextra wit at the end (like the word sextra? Don't use it, its in my screenplay).

Sadly, the eight-minute song about Danny Trejo will not also be available". Source: idolator.com

Kirsten waits her turn


"Temporarily living outside of her natural celeb-friendly West coast habitat where any late-night messiness is handily kept on the DL by celebrity-catering club warlords, the recently rehabbed star is currently staying in New York while filming All Good Things. And the many sightings sent in by helpful Manhattanites haven’t exactly painted Dunst as the soberific poster child perfected of late by Miss Lindsay Lohan. The NY Post chimes in today reporting that Dunst continued her boy-crazy habits of yore by making out with the DJ at the celeb-infested Beatrice Inn two nights ago. But a Defamer tipster had the pleasure of spotting Kirsten last night at the same bar, and rather than cozying up to the same DJ, the actress spent the entire night flirting, following, and eventually frisking another Beatrice regular: that talented thespian, Josh Hartnett. But it seems that as soon as master thespian Josh showed up around 1am, Dunst abandoned her cigarette bumming and devoted all her attention to the newly shaven star:As soon as Josh came in with a couple of wingmen of his own, Kirsten went straight towards him and spent a good half hour laughing and chatting him up by the bar — their faces were so close, they might as well have been eskimo-kissing. And even though Kirsten followed Josh whenever he changed rooms, up the stairs when he went up to survey the dance floor still lorded over by the seated Olsen, and down the stairs when he needed a refill, he was definitely reciprocating. The one non-nauseating sight? Didn't see Dunst take one sip of anything. MK/Olsen/Whichever, on the other hand..."

The icing on the cake? Another source tells us, "My friend saw Josh and Kirsten leave together." Source: defamer.com
Kirsten Dunst waits her turn at the bar
"It seems that being a Hollywood star doesn’t guarantee you’ll be served quickly at a bar. Kirsten Dunst patiently waited her turn at the opening party of Derrick Cruz’s new art installation in New York". Source: www.glamourmagazine.co.uk

Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight"

"The word tragic is possibly the most over-used in the English media, but that's the only way to describe Heath Ledger's death at 28 at the beginning of this year.

The Australian actor had already completed his role as The Joker in Christopher Nolan's sequel to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and here's a first, world exclusive look (barring the bravura but blurry five-minute clip of the opening sequence which keeps popping up online before being unceremoniously felled by the relevant authorities) at this most menacing of performances.

Hard to tell whether talk of an Oscar nod is appropriate from this short segment, which centres on the unwelcome arrival of the super-villain and his henchmen at a black tie dinner, but I love the hunched, feral intensity of Ledger's Joker. The facially scarred, heavily made-up criminal is looking for Harvey Dent, Gotham's new district attorney, and a man who (at the start of the film at least) has cleaned up the city's streets so effectively that Batman wonders if it might be time to hang up his Batcape for good.

Many wondered whether Ledger, a relative ingenue compared to Jack Nicholson, could match the veteran's famous turn in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, but in my opinion this visceral new take on the character makes his predecessor's look like a hammy pantomime act.

The Dark Knight hits cinemas here on July 25".

Here you can see the clip in blogs.guardian.co.uk

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AVIVA!!

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

My reality deficit: Cinema & Self-Involvement

My reality deficit:

"My mom says that I'll alway be a perpetual teenager, and I hope she is right about it. [...] So highschool is like an embryo of how your adult life probably will develop. It's the time you secretly begin to take notes in your mind about things you didn't suspect they existed" -maybe those jv years marked me so hard that after watching "Brick" I developed a crush on Joseph Gordon-Levitt, remember? and now, well, we have umpteen videos being uploaded by me dedicated to Mike Cera, so let's see, it seems to me this can be called a new crush in Weirdland. Kendra is in love again after watching two "high-school" movies as "Superbad" and "Juno", which partially were about pre-college days, both starred by Michael Cera. I resisted at first (mainly because he's way younger than me -although don't be fooled, my mental maturity is far away from my age- so that balances things a bit, k?) This canadian blonde guy Mr. Awkward Character reminds me of my high-school crush with whom I shared my little luxurious world at the time, he conquered my insouciant teen soul when he played -he actioned the play button- in a secret session a song that tuned my heart (although my heart got hurt in the process). Just in the moment we (very shyly) started to dance together I had this crazy thought of when the peak of the song would come maybe I couldn't stand it, that's why I was hurt, I was afraid of that moment coming, that could become real [...] how many times does the dull mute soundtrack outside of weirdland make me remember that song that melts my thought, that dissolves my fears?
from the previous post New affiliate Michael Cera Source.

continued:

I weighted for one moment the options I had with him, the shy interesting guy, and I got lost in a dubious jungle of cognitive decline. He approached to me and I parted from his loving ways... I was living in the librarian league, I read a lot the same four books that never were returned and I used glasses, my social life was very limited, whereas he was the outcast who attracted a variety of people, most of them very different of me. And I knew a relationship between us would make us an irreparable damage, so although it was painful cutting our bond out just after our particular prom dance I chose to leave it that way. Painful like an open wound, like a broken nerve, which in troublesome times would bleed again, and it would hurt because it had never healed. The good part is neither me or him are too dramatic persons, and as far as I know he chose another girl, very different from me. Probably she would flip when she figured out who his first girlfriend had been in highschool but whatever. So my mind would fly to under-construction Phantastes fields and in these episodes I imagined him turned into a rock star singing in front of highschoolers and receiving good critics from independent fanzines. His life had to be good, just to justify my own lack of it.


And a Saturday evening we would find each other in a Chinatown corner, like in that tale, and his eyes would turn yellow and he would hide them wearing sunglasses, and only me would know his secret, like in that story “Rage” by Bachman/King, when in the Palahniukesque ending Charlie lives in a mental asylum, pretending he likes flan dessert when he actually hates it; one normal guy wouldn’t understand why he eats a dessert he finds disgusting, but Charlie says he likes to have a secret, something nobody knows about it, because that secret makes him more powerful.


It’s intriguing how much this idea about a constrained mind by a secret can create a pathological blessing, how much our movie secrets are part of our starved minds and how these smooth motions alter our perception forever.
And this guy, like Michael Cera could do, would sit in front of me inside an unknown bistro in a similar city to L.A. and would say “We have no idea where this will go" and he would try to explain me some hollywood novelties, but I would be very far away, and he would go on talking about self-generated awareness, deadpan encoding and his favourite tea brands, and I would be smiling at him, patient and quiet.

He would stand up and a window panel, sort of a hollow screen, would slide down, just like a theatre curtain would do over his shoulders, showing a transparent world where neither him or me would ever belong. And he'd drink from my glass, without noticing my traces of lipstick on it. "I liked your performance, and the line you had in the end" -I would whisper. And he would say: “you know that line, It was you”, but I wouldn’t want to believe him. “That world seems empty when you look at it outside”, and we, our words, the bistro, the stained glass, his awarded line, that highschool
dance, his relucient lips, that kiss, all would become dust.
And I wouldn't blush anymore.

In response to Culture Snob' Blogathon

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Happy birthday, Sophia Bush!

At Scotts restaurant, London

July 7 - Jake & Reese going to have dinner at Scotts Restaurant in London.
Photos courtesy by
Iheartjake.com

Monday, July 07, 2008

Friday, July 04, 2008

HAPPY 4TH JULY!

I wish you have a happy 4th of July to my American readers!

Michael Cera (The other way)

Training for The Prince Of Persia

Jake learning to sword fight on a horse in England, on 3rd July.

Source: http://www.dailymotion.com/mrpaparazzi
"Jake Gyllenhaal and bond girl Gemma Arterton doing horse riding training in preperation for the upcoming film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. They are seen riding around in a training pen with Jake sporting a beard and sunglasses".
Source: www.mrpaparazzi.com

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Lou Reed and company


You have to know Lou Reed was maybe my first teenage crush (on par with James Dean, Matthew Broderick in "Ferris Bueller's day off" and a long etc.) Always protected behind his sunglasses and his skeptical rictus, he had a deadpan quality that seduced me into listening to his songs; in back-alley terms, he wrote about people, as Lester Bangs observed "about whom nobody else gives a shit". So I'd like to compare him with some of my current crushes (Jake, Michael Cera and Joseph Gordon-Levitt).


Jake in a photoshoot for "Dazed & Confused Magazine". Michael Cera in "Clark & Michael" series.Also I'd compare Michael with Jon Arbuckle, the friend of Garfield, isn't he exactly as Bleeker in this vignette?

But coming back to Mr. Reed, Joe Gordon-Levitt as Brendan was cold as a frozen hell:In these pictures below, they are in company of attractive women (blonde and red-haired ladies):Lou Reed with Deborah Harry.

"I love women, I think they're great. They're a solace to the world in a terrible state" -Lou Reed lyics in "Women".Alison Lohman and Jake.
"The most important job for a man is to find the right woman"
-Jake Gyllenhaal. Michael Cera and Aviva.
"One thing I like to do is respecting women" -Michael Cera.Isla Fisher and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
“Few things are more erotic than a woman speaking in a French accent.” -Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Toronto Film Festival

"The curtain is slowly being drawn back on the Toronto International Film Festival and a hometown hero is among the actors in the spotlight.

Brampton's Michael Cera (Juno) stars in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, a romantic comedy about an unlikely pair's wild night in New York.

The movie was one of four world premieres and two North American premieres announced as part of the Special Presentations lineup at TIFF, Sept. 4 to 13.

Cera will be at TIFF to promote the film, a studio source confirmed.

"We're trying to stay away from that (Juno) word, but it's hard to avoid," laughed TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey when asked if Nick and Norah will garner the same buzz as Juno, which had its premiere as a Special Presentation at TIFF last year.

"It has a great, hip soundtrack, very funny, a great romantic comedy," added Bailey, who likens it to Martin Scorsese's 1985 comedy After Hours". Source: www.thestar.com

TIFF ANNOUNCES HIGH PROFILE SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Toronto – The Toronto International Film Festival is pleased to announce the addition of six Special Presentations to the programming lineup for TIFF08, running September 4 to 13. Included are works from critically acclaimed filmmakers Kathryn Bigelow, Spike Lee and Paolo Sorrentino featuring performances by John Malkovich, Viggo Mortensen, Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce, John Leguizamo, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Michael Cera. The official website for the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, tiff08.ca, is now live. Ticket packages for TIFF08 will be available for purchase by Visa† cardholders as of 10 a.m., Monday, July 7, 2008, and by cash, debit or Visa as of 10 a.m. on Monday, July 14, 2008. Purchase online at tiff08.ca, by phone at 416-968-FILM or 1-877-968-FILM or in person at the Festival Box Office at Manulife Centre, 55 Bloor Street West (main floor, north entrance). Box Office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Saturday.

Good Vicente Amorim, United Kingdom/Germany
World Premiere
John Halder (Viggo Mortensen) is a good, decent individual with family problems: a neurotic wife, two demanding children and a mother suffering from senile dementia. A literature professor in the 1930s, Halder explores his personal circumstances in a novel advocating compassionate euthanasia. When the book is unexpectedly enlisted by powerful political figures in support of government propaganda, Halder finds his career rising in an optimistic current of nationalism and prosperity. Seemingly inconsequential decisions lead to choices, which lead to more choices...with devastating effect. Directed by Vicente Amorim (The Middle of the World, TIFF 2003), Good also stars Jason Isaacs, Jodie Whittaker, Mark Strong and Gemma Jones.
Miracle at St. Anna Spike Lee, USA
World Premiere
Directed by Spike Lee from a screenplay written by James McBride, the author of the acclaimed novel of the same name, the film chronicles the story of four black American soldiers who are members of the US Army as part of the all-black 92nd “Buffalo Soldier” Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy, during World War II. They experience the tragedy and triumph of the war as they find themselves trapped behind enemy lines and separated from their unit after one of them risks his life to save an Italian boy. Starring Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso, Omar Benson Miller, Matteo Sciabordi, John Leguizamo and Joseph Gordon Levitt, Miracle at St. Anna explores a deeply inspiring story that transcends national boundaries, race and class to touch the goodness within us all.

Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist Peter Sollett, USA
World Premiere
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist is a comedy about two people thrust together for one hilarious, sleepless night of adventure in a world of mix tapes, late-night living and live, loud music. Nick (Michael Cera) frequents New York’s indie rock scene nursing a broken heart and a vague ability to play the bass. Norah (Kat Dennings) is questioning pretty much all of her assumptions about the world. Though they have nothing in common except for their taste in music, their chance encounter leads to an all-night quest to find a legendary band’s secret show and ends up becoming the first date in a romance that could change both their lives". Source: twitchfilm.net

25 funniest American people

The 25 Funniest People in America:

25. AUGUSTEN BURROUGHS

Burroughs’ best-selling memoir Running with Scissors — about being raised by a nutso shrink who studies his poo and rents the back shed to a pedophile — is unbelievably disturbing. And sidesplitting. At first we felt guilty giggling at his adventures with an electroshock therapy machine, but Burroughs knows that laughter is the best antidepressant. Much better than booze, which the author struggles to kick in his equally effervescent follow-up, Dry.

24. CATHERINE O’HARA

After her run on SCTV in the late ’70s, Hollywood didn’t know what to do with O’Hara. Fortunately, Christopher Guest did. In Waiting for Guffman, she and Fred Willard are tracksuit-wearing answers to Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire; in Best in Show, she’s a onetime floozy with a prize terrier and a torrid past; and in A Mighty Wind, O’Hara shows off a subtler comic touch, proving that humor doesn’t always mean a pie in the face.
23. SARAH SILVERMAN

The Lenny Bruce of the 21st century might be this hot, foul-mouthed, button-punching stand-up. Silverman is ruthlessly funny about topics like sex, the Holocaust, and 9/11, which may be why The Sarah Silverman Program has a permanent slot on our DVR. Oh, and if you hadn’t heard, she’s f—ing Matt Damon.

22. DAVE CHAPPELLE

The fact that Diamond Dave is all but absent from the comedic stage these days doesn’t invalidate his funny. After all, Chappelle’s revered Comedy Central show — on which the wiry comic gleefully engaged in crass T&A humor, swore like a sailor, and mocked everyone in the multiculti rainbow, confronting race in a way that is positively Pryor-esque — is still the best sketch comedy this country has seen in more than a decade. For that alone, he deserves a spot on any list like this.

21. DEMETRI MARTIN

You know what’s funny? Palindromes and anagrams. ”Shut up, Grandma,” you say, but we say shut up yourself and watch Demetri Martin work a stand-up mic. ”A drunk driver’s very dangerous. Everybody knows that. But so is a drunk backseat driver — if he’s persuasive.” The floppy-haired heir to Steven Wright won a prestigious award at last year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, taking him from the comedy underground to…the comedy slightly less underground.
20. DIABLO CODY

Not to be partial, but the newly minted Oscar winner showed off her comedic — and emotional — chops with her debut screenplay for Juno. Did we mention it won an Oscar?

19. CRAIG FERGUSON

Late night is the province of the mono-name. Jay! Dave! Conan! Then there’s that Scottish guy, two-name ID required: Craig Ferguson. You know, the one who can’t quite be pinned down. Since taking over CBS’ Late Late Show from Craig Kilborn in 2005, Ferguson has brought a fresh burst of energy to the format. He’s reinvented the opening monologue, doing away with most of the topical jokes and just ad-libbing about his life. Along with fresh energy, he’s brought something else — ratings. Ferguson, 45 and a brand-spanking-new U.S. Citizen, doesn’t get as much media attention as time-slot competitors Jimmy Kimmel or Conan, but with an audience of just under 2 million, the great Scot outperforms the former and has climbed within 500,000 viewers of the latter.
18. JACK BLACK

Black is an entirely new classification of human: the frenetic slacker. Before his turn as doofus band reject/inspirational teacher Dewey Finn in School of Rock, he was the Ritalin-deprived half of Tenacious D (along with his partner, Kyle Gass) and the list-obsessed record-shop shlub in High Fidelity. He is, inarguably, the coolest fusion of music and comedy since Spinal Tap. (And, if Tropic Thunder is as good as we’ve been led to believe, we’ll forgive him that whole Nacho Libre business.)

17. DAVID LETTERMAN

With a receding hairline and a jogger’s grim jowls, Dave is no one’s idea of a hip comic, and he likes it that way. New-school gone old-school, the upstart who first pumped irony into the talk show still rails against the stupidity of the powerful and yet has the charm to melt Julia Roberts.

16. AMY SEDARIS AND DAVID SEDARIS

Big brother is the best-selling author of the sublime autobiographical essay collections Me Talk Pretty One Day and Naked, full of terrific riffs about stuff like his cuckoo-clock North Carolina clan and his midget guitar teacher. Little sis was the rubber-faced star of Comedy Central’s truly strange Strangers With Candy, as well as coauthor of the book Wigfield.

15. WILL FERRELL

See, there’s this man-child who latches onto Will Ferrell in most every role he plays — and good luck getting the little guy to let go. As a result, we are treated to inspired displays of dolt-trapped-in-the-headlights hijinks, be it in the form of Old School’s keghead Frank the Tank (who goes from repressed to regressed to undressed) or Talladega Nights’ Ricky Bobby, the dumbest, most earnest NASCAR driver on the circuit — who’s also the most comfortable with his sexuality.
14. RICKY GERVAIS

Okay, so he doesn’t spend all that much of his time in America. We don’t care. Whether as the creator of The Office and Extras, a supporting actor in movies like For Your Consideration or Night at the Museum, or doing killer stand-up (as seen most recently in Grand Theft Auto IV), he’s still as funny as the dog’s bollocks.

13. ELLEN DEGENERES

DeGeneres, whose career seemed all but kaput a few years ago, has earned back adoration simply by being her affably dry self on the Emmy-winning The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Whether it’s her circuitous monologues, her deadpan celebrity interviews, or that vocal turn as Dory in Finding Nemo, she remains one of the cleanest, coolest funny ladies around.

12. DAVID CROSS

All conversations about his genius start here: Along with Bob Odenkirk, he created the cunning HBO sketch series Mr. Show, which routinely put SNL to silly shame. And not only does Cross work little miracles in supporting roles (remember his role as feckless freak-job Tobias on Fox’s Arrested Development?), he can drop some pretty fearsome stand-up (who else talks about being raped by the Virgin Mary?). Simply put, this dude never kowtows for his funny.

11. CONAN O’BRIEN

Smarty-pants isn’t usually a compliment, but O’Brien wears them so well. When this Harvard geek isn’t riffing on Muammar Gaddafi in his monologue, he’s making absurd innovations in low-brow comedy. Now, let’s see if those absurd innovations will play on The Tonight Show….

10. KRISTEN WIIG

The Saturday Night Live scene-stealer has found her stride in her third season, thanks to breakout characters like the Target clerk and the obsessively competitive Penelope, as well as spot-on impressions of Jamie Lee Curtis and Suze Orman.

9. LARRY DAVID

Because he’s a balding, neurotic, self-consumed, multimillionaire malcontent who reacts to most social interactions as if he just took a whiff of some really bad cheese. Because the only thing he hates more than these situations is himself. Because he’s the most hilariously doomed white-guy antihero we’ve ever seen, and has no problems taking on every sacred cow. Because we have no idea how much of this Larry David — from the HBO comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm — is swiped from the real Larry David. And because both Larry Davids co-created one of the best comedies ever, Seinfeld.

8. AMY POEHLER AND WILL ARNETT

The funniest married couple on the list. (Sorry, Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann.) When they’re apart (she, on Saturday Night Live and in Baby Mama; he, late of Arrested Development and currently guesting on 30 Rock), they’re great. But when they’re together, as when they played brother-and sister figure skaters in Blades of Glory, they’re resplendent. So let’s get those crazy kids together more often, shall we?

7. MATT STONE AND TREY PARKER

Now in their eleventh season of South Park, these potty mouths with a purpose continue to remind us what full creative control gets you: moments so wrong, they’re right (Ben Affleck falling in love with Cartman’s hand comes to mind). Added bonus: The ninth season episode, ”Trapped in the Closet” contains the most sober explanation of the background of Scientology you’ll ever hear.

6. CHRIS ROCK

Television failed him (Saturday Night Live didn’t know what to do with his bright-bulb humor, and his HBO talk show couldn’t contain him). The movies didn’t get him (though this is as much Rock’s fault as anyone’s, given he wrote and directed his most recent starring vehicles, the underperforming Head of State and I Think I Love My Wife). But on the stage, Rock is a man on a mission, mercilessly tackling race, religion, money, and relationships. And his missionaries are legion.

5. STEVE CARELL

Sometimes, it hurts so good. The pain, the discomfort, the agony of watching Carell’s Michael Scott work himself into another awkward scenario on NBC’s The Office…and almost work himself out. And the fact that we don’t hate Michael — on the contrary, we feel a warm, chocolatey pity for him — is a testament to Carell, who leavens the bald incompetence with wide-eyed awe.

4. JON STEWART AND THE ‘DAILY SHOW’ TEAM

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is the most consistent laugh machine on TV — and the only news source for scores of cynics and slackers. It’s not often that a comedy show can tackle politics, embrace a cogent point of view, and still maintain its anarchic spark. The scribes at The Daily Show pull it off four nights a week. As the heart and soul of the show, Stewart is evenhanded but never meek; as an interviewer, he can make his guests comfortable even as he’s taking them apart. Then there’s his gang of ”correspondents,” who soldier straight-facedly into the great American absurd and take no prisoners. Empirically speaking, there’s nothing funny about what’s going on in the world right now. Yet here we are each week, chortling.
3. TINA FEY

It takes a certain self-confidence to play a woman who accidentally dates her third cousin, erroneously assumes her neighbor is a terrorist, and gets called the C-word by a colleague (especially when said character is based on you). ”I love going to those uncomfortable places,” says Fey, who stars as 30 Rock’s workaholic TV maven and is also the NBC show’s creator and exec producer. ”I’ll go down any weird avenue.” Maybe this year’s surprise Emmy win for best comedy will empower Fey to pursue some dreams for her alter ego. ”Liz Lemon could do an international adoption for a Russian baby and get the paperwork wrong with the European dates and somehow end up with a huge, muscular 13-year-old. Yeah, I could see that.” Hopefully we will too.

2. STEPHEN COLBERT AND THE ‘COLBERT REPORT’ TEAM

The once (and, we’re sure, future) presidential nominee, author, and dedicated windbag also happens to be one of the smartest satirists working today. Heck, if all the dude had on his resume was the legendary 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner, he’d go down in comedy history. But week-in and week-out, Colbert takes aim at the political-industrial complex — and I don’t care if there’s no such term — and spins the facts into truth. Or truthiness. Whichever’s easier.
1. THE JUDD APATOW POSSE

Can you even remember what movie comedy looked like before writer-director-producer Judd Apatow and his ever-expanding comedy clan (including Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Jonah Hill, and Paul Rudd) came along last summer with two stiff shots of cathartic humor — the oops-she’s-preggers romp Knocked Up and the high school raunchfest Superbad? Today, when studio execs have a comedy that feels flat or formulaic, the call goes out to ”Judd it up” — sweet irony for a man once best known for critically beloved flops like TV’s Freaks and Geeks. ”It was always my dream to become a verb,” Apatow deadpans. ”That’s what I wrote in my high school yearbook.”

Source: gone-hollywood.com

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Tracey fragments

"If you're in Boston, Houston, or Cleveland, you get a chance to check out THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS on the big screen.

If you live in Boston, you have two more days to catch Tracey over at the highly esteemed (and for good reason) Brattle Theater. Tickets are available here: https://www.vendini.com (and while you're there, don't forget to pick up tickets for a July 10th double feature of Polanski's THE TENANT and REPULSION, and probably best to make an appointment with your therapist afterward to heal your shattered nerves).

If you live in Houston, now's the time! Tracey starts tonight at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in their state-of-the-art Brown Auditorium. She'll be around for one show per day- but hurry, because the last show is Saturday night. Tickets are available here: Source: www.mfah.org (and while you're there- On August 6th, they've got Wong Kar Wei's DAYS OF BEING WILD, which absolutely demands a big screen viewing).

On Saturday, July 5 at 9:40pm, and Sunday, July 6th at 7pm,, be at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque, sit down in their plush seats, and let Tracey take you on a nice, dark ride. Tickets are available at the venue (and with 616 seats, no need to worry about a sellout), and you should most certainly pick up some tickets to the hip-hop breakin' documentary, PLANET B-BOY.
For those of you in Toronto who have missed The Tracey Fragments in it's big screen awesomeness, or just want a chance to see it again and catch up with the director Bruce McDonald.

Come out this SUNDAY JULY 6TH to THE ROYAL - 9.15pm
608 College Street. DVD Launch - Giveaways of DVDs (with bonus features including interviews on the set with Ellen Page and Bruce McDonald), the original soundtrack album - featuring new music by Broken Social Scene, comic books and even a few of the exclusive and impossible to buy anywhere Posters!

ALSO - a special screening of the some of the finalists and winning entries of the Tracey: Re-Fragmented contest, cut from footage of the film.

and FINALLY, a special sneak peek at something new from director Bruce McDonald".

The Tracey Fragments is available on DVD everywhere JULY 8th: Source: www.amazon.ca