BuzzSugar

2009 Sundance Spotlight: The Missing Person, Paper Heart, Spread

BuzzSugar — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:30:51 -0800

While I won't be heading down to the 2009 Sundance Film Festival this year, I will be sorting through the humongous pile of festival entries to share with you some of the films I think look most promising. From quirky documentaries to talented young filmmaker debuts to a potential runaway hit, Sundance is filled with entertainment possibilities. Here are today's selections:

The Missing Person
Michael Shannon is getting all kinds of attention for the creepy role he plays in Revolutionary Road, which is one of the reasons this movie is already earning some early buzz out of the festival. Also starring Amy Ryan, The Missing Person looks like a slow-boiling noir that follows "a private detective prone to sardonic wit, gin, and the endless repercussions of what happens when you mix the two." Intrigued?

You can check out the trailer for this one and see some more of my picks (which include Ashton Kutcher and cutie Michael Cera) if you read more.

Paper Heart
What would a film festival be without an adorable Michael Cera film? This time around he's paired with Charlyne Yi (who was one of my favorite things about Knocked Up), his friend (maybe girlfriend?) who came up with the idea for this movie. The movie is semi-autobiographical and follows Yi on her quest to find the kind of love that isn't "fairy-tale love or the Hollywood mythology."

While there isn't a preview clip available just yet, check out this YouTube video of Yi auditioning for Saturday Night Live to get a sense of her comedy style:

Spread
And what would a film festival be without Ashton Kutcher? Well, normal. That is to say, he's not exactly who I think of when I think Sundance. But he'll be there this year starring in Spread, which is described thusly: "Set in modern-day Los Angeles, Spread is a hard-biting story about a high-end lethario, Nikki (Ashton Kutcher), who has slept his way into a life of privilege. He shares his secrets with us as he hosts parties and beds scores of women, all while living it up at the Hollywood Hills home of a middle-aged female attorney, Samantha (Anne Heche)." I can definitely buy Kutcher as someone women would rather sex up than talk to. This thing can either go really well for him or really badly. Check out a clip from the movie below:

Source and photos and Spread clip courtesy of Sundance

Buzz News Roundup, 1/16

BuzzSugar — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:30:14 -0800

Metallica and Run-D.M.C. are among this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees. - E! Online
The Japanese anime TV series Cowboy Bebop is being adapted for the big screen, with Keanu Reeves attached to star as a bounty hunter traveling through space in 2071. - The Hollywood Reporter
Amy Ryan has joined the cast of Philip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut, Jack Goes Boating. - Variety
Also, Amy Ryan will return to The Office at some point. - Entertainment Weekly
Casey Affleck will direct a documentary on the musical career of Joaquin Phoenix who is embarking on a new path as a rapper. - ComingSoon
Kath and Kim's episode order has been cut to 17. - The Futon Critic
A guide to the musical acts appearing at Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration. - Billboard
Kieran Culkin has been cast as Wallace Wells in Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. - ComingSoon

Source

Changeling: An Emotional Meat Grinder

BuzzSugar — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 05:30:10 -0700

Clint Eastwood sure isn't one to shy away from dark, gut-wrenching material for his directorial projects, and Changeling is no exception. I went into the screening bracing myself for sorrow and pain, but I didn't brace myself enough. Changeling contains all the heavy sentimentality of Million Dollar Baby and that punch-in-the-stomach anguish of injustice found in Mystic River. Add to this the terrible real-life tragedy involving innocent children and you've got a very difficult (though worthwhile) movie-watching experience.

In 1928, single mother Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) returns home from her job at the telephone company to discover that her son Walter has gone missing. After a few months, the LAPD claim they've found her son and they bring a child, claiming to be Walter, to Christine. She insists he isn't her child but the shady police captain, J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan), desperate for the LAPD to have a positive story in the news, bullies Christine into believing that she's just a woman who has been driven to hysterics by grief and worry. All of Christine's further attempts to convince the police department that her son is still at large are shot down until Jones finally hauls Christine away to a mental institution to shut her up. For more of the story and some of my thoughts on it all, read more.

Christine's only ally is Gustav Briegleb, a Presbyterian reverend who makes it his mission to expose the corruption of the LAPD. Ultimately, detective Lester Ybarra follows a lead that brings him to Wineville, California where the disturbed Gordon Northcott (Jason Butler Harner) has been committing heinous crimes against children. Gordon's trial comes about at the same time that Christine and Gustav are bringing charges against the LAPD. All the while, Christine doggedly continues her search for Walter, spurred by her belief that he's still out in the world.

There are so many aspects of this movie that claw at the heart. There's the missing child storyline, and the infuriating treatment of Christine Collins when she asks for a decent amount of help from the LAPD. Then there's the horrifying situation (made more horrifying by the fact that it's a true story) involving Gordon Northcott in Wineville. And there's the outrageous incarceration of Christine Collins (and any other woman who dares take the LAPD to task) in the mental institute. It's just a constant barrage of emotional beatings that had me squirming in my seat, more uncomfortable than I've been at a movie in a long, long time. By the end of it, I was exhausted.

Eastwood has captured the time period remarkably well, down to the last careful detail, and any film that can evoke such fury, horror, and aching sympathy is certainly one for the ages. Angelina Jolie's performance is excellent and focused, and while it's strange to see her play someone so meek, I easily bought her as a gentle, average mother caught up in a situation more harrowing than your worst nightmare. An equally powerful performance, however, is Jason Butler Harner's as the mentally unstable Gordon. Of course we loathe this character, but Harner somehow brings a bewildering and terribly sad humanity to an otherwise monstrous person. Amy Ryan is also riveting - making her role both pitiable and strong - as another woman who has been wrongfully committed to the mental institute. These performances, along with Eastwood's direction make for a staggering film, even if it does leave your heart feeling shredded.

Photos courtesy of Universal

Link Time! 9/25

BuzzSugar — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:31:54 -0700

This redesign of the Changeling poster is cracking me up. - FilmExperience
Ray LaMontagne has made a great song about Meg White called, well, "Meg White." - Stereogum
Isn't it about time House gets some new opening credits? - TV Squad
This post about the American Psycho stage musical (I'm not kidding) is making me smile through the tears. - Popwatch
A chat with Supernatural's new angel. - TV Filter
FYI: Sex and the City Blue-ray discs come with digital copies. - geeksugar
I will never get sick of interviews with Amy Ryan. - Vulture
Welcome online, MySpace Music. - Rock&Roll Daily

The Office's HR Folks Dish on Season Five

BuzzSugar — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:30:26 -0700

Some of the best news I heard all Summer was that Amy Ryan would be returning to The Office as new human resources representative Holly Flax. So when NBC offered up a chance to talk to the Oscar-nominated actress - and her HR predecessor and Office writer Paul Lieberstein - I couldn't say no. The two chatted with reporters yesterday, sharing some of their favorite on-set moments and spilling a few details on the upcoming season. Some highlights:

Michael Scott and Holly Flax: a love story for the rest of us? Ryan wouldn't say much about what's coming up for Holly and Michael, but she said Michael gets a lot of credit for trying. "I think that it gives us all hope that there’s a lid for every pot - or, I like to say, there’s a lid for every cracked pot out there," Ryan said. "Everyone has a chance at some form of love."
Toby's not gone forever. "I think what brings him back is failure to escape," Lieberstein said. And if he were to tell Pam a story to impress her about his time away? "Maybe the time his camera was stolen by a monkey, or the time he was attacked by a monkey in Costa Rica, or the time when a monkey took his wallet," he said. "Probably one of those three."
The show is getting some Brit flavor this season. Stephen Merchant of the original British series will direct the Halloween episode. "He brings . . . kind of that initial integrity of the documentary that the British had," Lieberstein said. "And so he calls us out every once in a while - he’s like, 'How are they going to do that with a little documentary?' You know, when we seem to go a little too far or get too personal with them. We’ll set a scene in the bathroom and he’s like 'Really, I don’t think they follow them in there.'"
Also directing: Jason Reitman. Yay!

To hear why the writers' strike was actually good for The Office, what the fate of Andy and Angela could be, and how Amy Ryan had an on-set breakdown, just read more.

The writers' strike had an upside. "I think in the Spring came a group of our strongest episodes," Lieberstein said. "It let us do two groups of 12 instead of this giant block where we have to kind of guess how things are going to come out."
Sometimes, it's hard not to laugh. "One of my favorite things was almost to see who’s going to go first" when it came to breaking down with laughter in the middle of a scene, Ryan said. "And the day that I went first I was mortified. I was like, 'That’s just not done with the new kid. You can’t do that!' But I laughed so hard at one point that it turned into just bawling tears. So I’m not sure where the laughter began and sorrow took over, but makeup had to come in and reapply . . . I’m trying to hide behind my hair and just my shoulders are convulsing. And Steve [Carell] just carried on like, you know, no bother. I couldn’t believe it."
Toby's not a real threat to Jim and Pam. "Pam’s going to take an internship in New York and they’re going to try long-distance dating," Lieberstein said. "And that’s going to be, you know, the source of obstacles for them . . . Toby is less of a threat than the price of gas for Pam."
Will Andy and Angela make it to the altar? "They will make it to an altar of sorts," Lieberstein said. "But probably not what you’re thinking or in the way you’re thinking." Hmm . . .
The office will throw Jan a baby shower! There's also an ethics training episode coming up that I can only hope is as good as "Diversity Day" and other episodes of that ilk.
There's going to be a Toby bobblehead. And when the reporter who asked the question joked to Lieberstein that he'd then be able to play with himself, Ryan responded with a perfectly timed "That's what she said."

Photo courtesy of NBC

Amy Ryan's Still Working at The Office

BuzzSugar — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:32:50 -0700

Hooray! Amy Ryan, who was one of the funniest parts of the exceptionally funny season finale of The Office, will be returning to Dunder-Mifflin this Fall.

Ryan will reprise her role as Holly, the new HR woman replacing Toby (and possibly wooing Michael), for at least five episodes next season. I foresee so much more "special Kevin" that my stomach already hurts from laughing.

Ryan's known for more dramatic fare (Gone Baby Gone, The Wire), but her performance as Holly was completely spot-on. And how much do I love her? Here's what she told Variety: "It's a funny thing to enter a show that you're a great fan of - and it's nice to tell lighter stories. I love the dark, grittier side of life, but it's nice to take a break from that, put a skirt on and brush your hair."

So, what happens with Holly now? Will Michael have finally met his match? Nobody's saying, though Paul Lieberstein (who played Toby and is one of the show's writer/producers) had this to say: "Amy gave the character of Holly an openness and matured innocence that exposed a new side of Michael. She placed her character right on his level."

Whether it's a love story in the making or not, I can't wait to see what else the writers come up with for Holly's story. Hey, maybe Michael will reject her and Kevin will get to "totally bang Holly" after all.

Photo courtesy of NBC

What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:30:00 -0800

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue. In addition to the titles below you can view the thriller We Own the Night starring Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg. Also on DVD today is Romance and Cigarettes, a musical that's definitely not for the High School Musical set.

Gone Baby Gone
For his directorial debut, Ben Affleck brings together a talented ensemble cast that includes his brother Casey Affleck, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris and Amy Ryan. The film is set in the Affleck brothers' hometown of Boston and is adapted from a novel by the author of another dark Boston tale, Mystic River.

Casey plays Patrick Kenzie, a private detective hired to help bring home a missing 4-year-old girl. In the process, he discovers a complex and disturbing underworld based on the broken dreams of families living in one of the country's toughest neighborhoods.

Relative newcomer Amy Ryan earned herself an Oscar nomination for her portrayal as the little girl's drug addict mother, and our very own Boston native Molly really enjoyed this heart wrenching flick so it's a pretty safe bet for your Netflix queue.

A little depressing? Two more lovey titles are next so read more.

No Reservations
It's often the charming, warmhearted little films like No Reservations that slip off peoples' radars in the summer movie season due to the noise that giant big-name mega-blockbusters make that time of year. If you missed this sweet romance starring Catherine Zeta Jones and Aaron Eckhart I highly recommend warming up some delicious treats and settling in for the night with this movie that I really enjoyed.

Based on the the German film Mostly Martha, the movie follows a hard-hearted top chef, Kate (Zeta Jones) whose sister dies suddenly, leaving Kate's little niece (an adorable Abigail Breslin) now resting in her care. As Kate struggles to adapt to parenthood, she also soon finds herself involved with the new chef in her kitchen (Eckhart). Special features include a Marc Summers visit to the set to talk to the film's stars for an episode on his Food Network Series.

Why Did I Get Married
Tyler Perry sets aside his alter-ego Madea, but preserves his keen ability to create relatable characters in this drama exploring the ins and outs of married life. The movie stars Perry himself, along with Malik Yoba, Sharon Leal, Michael Jai White, Denise Boutte, Lamman Rucker and music hit-makers Janet Jackson and Jill Scott.

Based on one of Perry's plays, Why Did I Get Married? follows a group of married friends that gather in a mountaintop resort to confront their various marital issues. Perry's trademark melodrama and preachiness combined with a more serious subject matter proved to be a very potent mix that really hit home with audiences.

Movie News Roundup: Biel, Arkin and Tisdale - Oh, My!

BuzzSugar — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:30:06 -0800

Lots of movie casting news these days - from Marley and Me to aliens lurking upstairs.

Alan Arkin will join Jennifer Aniston and Owen WIlson in the film adaptation of bestselling memoir Marley and Me. Wilson plays a newspaper columnist who adopts a dog with his wife (Aniston). Arkin will play the editor of the newspaper.
Jessica Biel will star as the lead in the romantic comedy Easy Virtue, based on the Noel Coward play. The movie follows Biel's character, "an American divorcee who travels to the South of France and marries a young Englishman, played by Ben Barnes, on the spur of the moment. The couple return to England to face his family, including his parents, played by Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas."
Amy Ryan is the lucky lady chosen to star opposite Matt Damon in an untitled Iraq war thriller directed by Paul Greengrass, the director of two of the Bourne movies and United 93.
High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale will make her feature film debut in "the adventure comedy" They Came From Upstairs about "a group of teens who have to defend their Maine home from the aliens who invaded the top floor." Just the top floor? Huh.

Gone Baby Gone: Good Baby Great

Molly — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:34:32 -0700

Note: After much pleading, Buzz let me go see this movie to review. Thanks, Buzz!

As a Boston area native, movies about the city usually fall within two distinct categories. There are movies about the city’s academia - Good Will Hunting. And there are movies about the gritty parts of the town - a la Mystic River or even Boondock Saints. At this point, Ben and Casey Affleck have seen, lived and made movies on both side of this off Boston dichotomy (most famously in the first example), but I’m happy to say that their foray into the serious, Gone Baby Gone, is more than a success. From the first five minutes on, GBG is a movie wrought with moral dilemmas, seedy characters, and lies told for questionable reasons. None of these are easy to put into film without being heavy handed, but thanks to an excellent cast, script, and in Ben’s able hands, they created a gut wrenching and, ultimately, great movie.

Being that the movie is based on another of Dennis Lehane’s novels (with a vaguely similar story line, and a punch-in-the-gut ending), it will suffer from the constant comparisons to Clint Eastwood's Mystic River. Luckily, Ben's first effort at directing can withstand those criticisms, even if he's not yet Eastwood. Or, to be fair, dealing with a cast of Eastwood proportions. That being said, one of the best things that Ben had going for him was his actors, especially his brother Casey.

To read the rest of my review just read more

Time and time again, Ben has asserted that he gave the role to the best actor, who just happened to be his brother. But he was also in the unique (and fortuitous) position for Casey to be one of the first actors to come to mind for the lead character. Casey's crackling voice and boyishly handsome face are perfect for the role. He plays Patrick Kenzie, a private detective hired by the aunt of a missing 4-year-old girl, whose quest to bring the child back home uncovers sides of his city and its people that anyone would be loathe to admit exist.

Smaller roles taken on by greats like Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris, embattled police chief and detective respectively, are stand-out performances in the movie, but the ladies hold their own, too. Relative newcomers like Michelle Monaghan, who plays Patrick's girlfriend/partner and Amy Ryan, who plays the drug addict mother of the missing girl, each bring their own well-constructed intricacies to the story.

The acting carries the movie, but the script provides an excellent vehicle for the complicated and multi-dimensional characters to shine. Or, as the case may be, not shine at all. As with Lehane's other book, this movie deals with the lengths that people will go to do what they feel is right and the vast, gaping gray areas of morality it can create. Bringing children into the mix takes a depressing look at society and makes it utterly heart wrenching. And at times, completely sickening. Honestly, parents of young kids be warned - it may be hard to watch.

The only real downfall of the movie is that the story is sometimes too complicated for its own good. After leaving the theater if I were asked to repeat the whole plot, I would surely get a bit muddled somewhere in the middle. It's not enough to ruin the movie, thankfully, and considering the film's strong points, it's easily forgivable.

Walking out of the theater, you will feel like the wind got knocked out of you. Just like in life, there are no real answers of right vs. wrong and morality changes depending on who you ask. Thankfully (and I will say that I've been rooting for Ben the whole time), Gone Baby Gone takes this difficult subject matter and manages to succeed, above and beyond my wildest expectations.

Photos Courtesy Miramax

Twilight Leads the People's Choice Awards Nominations

BuzzSugar — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:43:12 -0800

The 36th annual People's Choice Awards nominees are here, and last year's Twilight is leading the charge! American Idol's Kris Allen was among the announcers this morning for the nominees, which also include lots of nods for The Proposal - but of course, everyone's favorite bloodsucking love story landed in many categories, including favorite on-screen movie team.

Why didn't they look to 2009's New Moon? Because last year's nominations debuted before the first movie in the Twilight saga.

To see the full list of nominees, just read more.

MOVIES

FAVORITE MOVIE
Twilight
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Star Trek
The Hangover
The Proposal

FAMILY MOVIE
Hannah Montana: The Movie
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Up
Where the Wild Things Are

COMEDY MOVIE
17 Again
Bride Wars
He's Just Not That Into You
The Hangover
The Proposal

INDEPENDENT MOVIE
(500) Days of Summer
District 9
Inglourious Basterds
Paranormal Activity
Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail

FAVORITE MOVIE FRANCHISE
Twilight
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Star Trek
Transformers
X-Men

FAVORITE MOVIE ACTOR
Brad Pitt
Hugh Jackman
Johnny Depp
Robert Pattinson
Ryan Reynolds

FAVORITE MOVIE ACTRESS
Anna Hathaway
Drew Barrymore
Jennifer Aniston
Kristen Stewart
Sandra Bullock

FAVORITE ACTION STAR
Christian Bale
Gerard Butler
Hugh Jackman
Shia LaBeouf
Vin Diesel

FAVORITE COMEDIC STAR
Adam Sandler
Ben Stiller
Jim Carrey
Ryan Reynolds
Vince Vaughn

FAVORITE BREAKOUT MOVIE ACTRESS:
Anna Kendrick
Emily Osment
Ginnifer Goodwin
Miley Cyrus
Zoe Saldana

FAVORITE BREAKOUT MOVIE ACTOR
Chris Pine
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Sam Worthington
Taylor Lautner
Zachary Quinto

FAVORITE ONSCREEN TEAM
Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, The Proposal
Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner, Twilight
Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds, will.i.am, Dominic Monaghan and Daniel Henney, X-Men Origins: Wolverine

TELEVISION

FAVORITE TV DRAMA
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Grey's Anatomy
House
Lost
NCIS

FAVORITE TV COMEDY
Desperate Housewives
How I Met Your Mother
The Big Bang Theory
The Office
Two and a Half Men

FAVORITE TV DRAMA ACTOR
Hugh Laurie
Kiefer Sutherland
Mark Harmon
Matthew Fox
Patrick Dempsey

FAVORITE TV DRAMA ACTRESS
Anna Paquin
Blake Lively
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Katherine Heigl
Mariska Hargitay

FAVORITE TV COMEDY ACTOR
Alex Baldwin
Charlie Sheen
Jim Parsons
Neil Patrick Harris
Steve Carell

FAVORITE TV COMEDY ACTRESS
Alyson Hannigan
America Ferrera
Amy Poehler
Eva Longoria Parker
Tina Fey

FAVORITE TV OBSESSION
Dexter
Gossip Girl
The Hills
The Secret Life of the American Teenager
True Blood

FAVORITE TV TALK SHOW
Chelsea Lately
Live with Regis & Kelly
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Tyra Banks Show

FAVORITE TV SCI-FI/FANTASY
Heroes
Lost
Supernatural
The Vampire Diaries
True Blood

FAVORITE TV COMPETITION SHOW
American Idol
Dancing With the Stars
Project Runway
So You Think You Can Dance
Survivor: Samoa

FAVORITE ANIMAL SHOW
Animal Cops
DogTown
Dog Whisperer
It's Me or the Dog
Rescue Ink

FAVORITE NEW TV DRAMA
Eastwick
FlashForward
Melrose Place
Mercy
The Forgotten
The Good Wife
The Vampire Diaries,
Three Rivers
NCIS: Los Angeles
V

FAVORITE NEW TV COMEDY
Accidentally on Purpose
Brothers
Community
Cougar Town
Glee
Hank
The Cleveland Show
The Middle
Modern Family

MUSIC

FAVORITE MALE ARTIST
Eminem
Jason Mraz
John Mayer
Keith Urban
Tim McGraw

FAVORITE FEMALE ARTIST
Beyonce
Britney Spears
Carrie Underwood
Pink
Taylor Swift

FAVORITE COUNTRY ARTIST
Brad Paisley
Carrie Underwood
Keith Urban
Rascal Flatts
Taylor Swift

FAVORITE BREAKOUT MUSIC ARTIST
Adam Lambert
Demi Lovato
Kris Allen
Lady Gaga
Susan Boyle

FAVORITE HIP-HOP ARTIST
Eminem
Flo Rida
Jay-Z
Lil' Wayne
T.I.

FAVORITE ROCK BAND
Daughtry
Green Day
Kings of Leon
Muse
Paramore

FAVORITE MUSIC COLLABORATION
Cobra Starship & Leighton Meester, "Good Girls Go Bad"
Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat, "Lucky"
Jay-Z, Rihanna & Kanye West, "Run This Town"
T.I. & Rihanna, "Live Your Life"
The Lonely Island & T-Pain, "I'm on a Boat."

FAVORITE R&B ARTIST
Alicia Keys
Beyonce
Jennifer Hudson
Mariah Carey
Usher

FAVORITE POP ARTIST
Britney Spears
Katy Perry
Lady Gaga
Taylor Swift
The Black Eyed Peas

FAVORITE WEB CELEB
Andy Samberg
Ashton Kutcher
Miley Cyrus
P. Diddy
Will Ferrell