Best Movies of 2010

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NY Times Magazine: Fourteen Actors Acting

Oh my goodness.  I’m loving everything about this.

The NY Times released a collection of videos entitled “Fourteen Actors Acting”, which consists of about one minute performances from an array of well known actors.

All of the pieces are silent, which is super cool because they demonstrate how dialogue is only one element of an actor’s performance.

The group of fourteen actors consist of Anthony Mackie, Tilda Swinton, Michael Douglas (who makes me crap my pants), Robert Duvall, Lesley Manville (who rocks it), Vincent Cassel, Naomi Rapace, Jennifer Lawrence, Chloe Moretz, Jesse Eisenberg, Natalie Portman, James Franco, Javier Bardem…

… and Matt Damon.  Yes, Matt Damon. Go right now.

* Directed:  Solve Sundsbo * Music:  Owen Pallett * Produced:  The New York Times Magazine *

Tuesday Links (on a Thursday)

Okay, so this week’s Tuesday Links ended up falling on a Thursday.  This week has become somewhat of a cluster, but I didn’t want to leave you hanging.

So, without further ado…

* It’s true that I automatically love anything that Mark Wahlberg is associated with, but this third trailer for his upcoming film, The Fighter, looks legitimately good.

* Levi Maestro put together a video showcasing one of my favorite designers, Benny Gold, who works out of San Francisco.  These two guys are amongst the most inspiring that I’ve ever come across.

My friend Benny Gold. from levi maestro on Vimeo.

* The trailer for the upcoming documentary on A Tribe Called Quest hit the internet yesterday.  The film is entitled by Beats, Rhymes, and Fights and is directed by Michael Rapaport.  OH HELL YES!  It still makes me want to cry that these guys fell out of  friendship, and I will always love them.

* If you’re a screenwriter that spends any time on the internet, I’m sure you’ve heard about PJ McIlvaine being sued by Twentieth Century Fox for $15 million buckaroos in damages for distributing screenplays online.  I personally think it’s ridiculous, but the way that the online screenwriting world is reacting is pretty crazy.  Maybe we should stop spending time crapping on each other and instead use it to focus on improving our craft, eh?

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YESTERDAY’S PRODUCTIVITY:
Reading:  NONE
Writing:  5 freelance articles, character work for script
Movies:  Hollywood Homicide <- wish I could get those two hours back

Cowboys and Aliens? Yes, please.

Friday night we ventured out to catch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:  Part 1. 

I’m a bit of an old lady when it comes to crowds in the theater.  I go there to watch the movie.  So, I was slightly annoyed when the teeny-boppers behind me wouldn’t stop squealing as Daniel Radcliffe took off his shirt, when the lady next to me kept waiting for every tense scene in the film to blow her fog horn of a nose, and when the 300 people decided to clap and cheer and cause me to miss some dialogue.  Like I said, I’m a bit of a scrooge. 

Well, my fellow movie goers could care less about the previews before Harry.  They talked through The Fighter, didn’t change their volume during The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’s, and seemed to get even louder during the horrible preview for Red Riding Hood.

They shut up immediately, however, when the final trailer of the night came on.

And for good reason.   Cowboys and Aliens looks like pure crack.

Cowboys and Aliens * written by Damon Lindelof and Mark Fergus * directed by Jon Favreau * featuring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde

Thankful Friday 11/12

Can’t complain about this past week.  I wasn’t able to put as much time in on my treatment as I wanted, but I’ll be able to make it up over the weekend.

+ Shared some great food and wine with a couple of incredible friends last night.

+ Finally watched I Am Love.  I don’t know what to tell you… I wanted to see it.   Check it out if you like movies that have very slow pacing, spend time giving you close ups of beautiful surrounding elements, and incorporate love and tragedy.  It sounds lame, but I dug it.

+ Read J.F. Lawton’s script for Pretty Woman.  As my wife says, “Some of Julia Roberts’ lines are pretty corny.”  But, it was a good read.

+ Although pick-ens have been slim as of late, I was able to find freelance articles to write.  Yay for being able to afford groceries.

+ Exercise efforts were on point this week.

+ Not much scheduled for the weekend, which is always good and means I can put some time in on work around the house, such as cleaning the gutters.  Does anybody have a ladder they want to sell me?

Hope you have a great weekend!

Tuesday Links 10/19

I’ve been a little backed up as of late, just like everyone else in the world.  But, here are this week’s collection of cool links that I hope will inspire, motivate, and entertain you.

* David Weedmark offers 20 surprising facts on happiness based on recent research.

*Analecta, the Official Literary Journal of the University of Texas at Austin published an old short story they found written by Wes Anderson, published in 1989 (thanks to Kat for the heads up on this one).

* Scott Myers at Go Into The Story discusses how to balance writing and family time.

* FCKH8 works to promote civil rights for all.  If you don’t mind the f-bomb, check the video.

* The Back to the Future 25th Anniversary Edition will feature footage of the original Marty McFly, Eric Stoltz, before he was replaced by Michael J. Fox.

* Some important advise from cartoonist Alex Noriega.

Emma Stone’s a bad-ass

This is the official, “Yo, I swear I’m not a groupie, but Emma Stone is a bad-ass and needs more work,” post.

My wife and I checked out Easy A last night and it was hilarious.  The script falters a little bit at the end, but Emma Stone is captivating to watch.  She’s super talented and needs to be in more movies.

Luckily it looks like she has some things lined up, including recently being attached to the upcoming addition to the overdone, you-can’t-tell-me-there-are-no-other-original-concepts, Spiderman films.

If you’re unfamiliar with Emma Stone, please get acquainted:

1.  From Easy A, featuring a scene in which after telling her best friend she lost her virginity, exposes what she really did over the weekend:

2. From Zombieland, where Emma Stone freaking nails an impersonation of Annie Potts from Ghost Busters.

3.  And lastly, from Superbad, where she got her feature film start.

‘Blindness’ made me wish I were blind

Tonight my wife and I are heading out to the movies, which is great because it’s one of our favorite things to do and I’m hoping it’ll also flush out the horrible experience of us watching Blindness over the weekend.

What. the. hell.

I may not know everything about creating a successful screenplay, but I know that the most important element for me to enjoy a flick is to have a main character that isn’t a complete wuss.

Blindness attempts to tell the story of a blindness epidemic that forces a group of “sick” to be quarantined together.   What follows is a power struggle between the multiple wards of the facility.  Julianne Moore’s character is able to get into the facility and follow her infected husband, played by Mark Ruffalo, simply by telling the authorities that she’s “just gone blind.” 

So, let’s see here.  Julianne Moore can see while every single person around her is blind.  Hmm… and yet, with the struggles going on around her, she fails to step up numerous times throughout the film. 

Just walk up and snatch the gun out of his hand lady!  Problem solved!

I actually got up to do the dreaded dishes during the climax of this damn movie.  Let this be a reminder to all of us to keep our protagonists pansy-free.

* Roger Ebert shares my sentiment for the film.

The best scene ever

I’m lucky enough to have my own office at home, and I spend way too much time figuring out what to put on the walls.

I decided I’m going to frame Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s script pages from my all-time favorite scene, which is taken from my all-time favorite movie, All About Eve.

Geez… please let me be able to write dialogue like this some day.

All About Eve was the flick that really opened my eyes that there were possibilities in film that went beyond the goofiness of movies like Dumb & Dumber (which still rocks, but you know).

Oh hell yes.  The script pages are going to look incredible on my wall.

Do you have that one favorite movie scene you wish you would have written?

Tuesday Links 9/21

Here are this week’s collection of  Tuesday Links:

* I loved M. Night as much as anybody else and it continues to kill me to watch him crash and burn, but this video from College Humor making fun of him is classic.

* I will always be a fan of Marky Mark.  Check out the new trailer for his upcoming film, The Fighter.  Besides Mark Wahlberg, the film features Christian Bale and Amy Adams.

* Total Film puts together a list of the “32 Coolest Movie Moments.”