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30 Rock Gets James Franco and Maybe Julianne Moore

BuzzSugar — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:30:35 -0800

I can't wait to see James Franco head to General Hospital later this month, but if soaps aren't your thing then maybe today's news will be more up your alley. Franco is the latest actor to make an appearance on 30 Rock! He'll be playing himself, but the best part is that he'll be involved in a showmance with Jenna. If you've seen any of Franco's Funnyordie videos (of which there are many), you know this guy has no problem poking fun at himself, and a fake relationship between James and Jenna should be hilarious.

But wait - there's more! Jack Donaghy will be getting a love interest as well (though his a real one) for a handful of episodes. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but word on the street is that it may be Julianne Moore. Salma Hayek had a great run as Jack's girlfriend last season, but can Moore measure up?

What do you think of 30 Rock's newest guest stars? Do you think they'll be as funny as Jon Hamm and Jennifer Aniston?

Movie Preview: Colin Firth in A Single Man

BuzzSugar — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:39:22 -0700

When was the last time you were transfixed by a preview completely without dialogue? The trailer for the 1960s-set A Single Man instead relies on its visual strength, which it has in spades - not a complete surprise considering this is designer Tom Ford's directorial debut (and word is they have Mad Men's production design group).

Based on the Christopher Isherwood novel of the same name, A Single Man focuses on the unraveling of a man (Firth) after his partner dies. The trailer is filled with beauty and beauties in pain - watch for Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode, Ginnifer Goodwin and Lee Pace in the moody clip. I'm very curious about this movie, if only to see how fashion force Ford handles himself in this entirely different medium. His aesthetic is very sensual, which I hope translates to the screen. And I'd see nearly anything Coiln Firth is in.

To watch the trailer, just read more.

A Single Man opens November 30.

Movie Preview: The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

BuzzSugar — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:30:41 -0700

Though the stars of The Private Lives of Pippa Lee were walking the red carpet for the film months ago, the movie still won't hit US theaters until Nov. 27. From the trailer, it doesn't look half-bad, and it features some well-known actors like Robin Wright Penn, Julianne Moore, Alan Arkin, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, and Blake Lively.

Robin Wright Penn and Blake Lively play older and younger versions of Pippa Lee, a woman who finds herself reflecting on her wild past when her much older husband suddenly decides that they should leave New York for a retirement home. The film is written and directed by Rebecca Miller, writer/director of The Ballad of Jack and Rose and writer of the Proof screenplay.

Pippa Lee looks like she's rather different from the character Lively's playing now in Ben Affleck's The Town, and she's certainly a far cry from Serena Van Der Woodsen. To see the Gossip Girl actress as an edgier, rebellious teen in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, read more.

Hope Davis Replaces Julianne Moore in Hillary Clinton Role

BuzzSugar — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:41:26 -0700

As much as I like Julianne Moore as an actress, I had a tough time picturing her as Hillary Clinton in the HBO Films/BBC Films movie The Special Relationship (is it sad that whenever I see that title I think of Hugh Grant, as Prime Minister, saying that to sleazy US President played by Billy Bob Thornton in Love Actually?). Now, due to a scheduling conflict, Moore has pulled out of the project and Hope Davis has taken her place.

This makes much more sense to me, as Davis resembles Clinton a bit more, and I think she is such a versatile, engaging actress, and she deserves more roles and more recognition. I can't wait to see what she does with this one. She'll be working alongside Dennis Quaid as Bill Clinton and Michael Sheen (reprising his role from The Queen) as Prime Minister Blair. Written by the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of The Queen, Peter Morgan, the movie "chronicles the unique and sometimes turbulent political relationship between newly installed British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s."

Who Should Play Bill Clinton - Now and Forever?

BuzzSugar — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:30:36 -0700

I've been monitoring some interesting casting news for a movie titled Special Relationship, about the Clinton White House, which will be written and directed by Peter Morgan (of Frost/Nixon). The project is the latest in a group of movies penned by Morgan - including The Queen - and it will "show how Bill's 'inappropriate relationship' with White House intern Monica Lewinsky nearly ended his time in power." Yowza, right? Morgan is associated with and respected for his personal, fictionalized portrayals of those in power, so this will most likely be more than a melodramatic retelling of the the former president's indiscretions.

Anyway, there have been lots of rumors about who's playing the ex-prez, but the latest is Dennis Quaid! Can you believe it? Supposedly, Russell Crowe, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alec Baldwin, and Tim Robbins were also in the running. Julianne Moore has been cast as Hillary Clinton, and Michael Sheen will once again play British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Now, Clinton is no stranger to having actors fill his shoes on the big and small screens (John Travolta played a character based on him in Primary Colors, and both Darrell Hammond and the late Phil Hartman portrayed him on Saturday Night Live) but I'm curious who you guys imagine playing Bill Clinton in a movie like this. Is it Quaid? Or is there someone else you picture in your mind forever and always as Bubba?

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Blindness: To See, a Brutal Gift

BuzzSugar — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:30:08 -0700

I saw Blindness by myself, with nothing to occupy me on the way home but a copy of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Bad idea. This movie requires a funny friend or mindless magazine afterward to decompress. I don't shy away from depressing films, but Blindness is one of the bleakest things I've ever seen on screen. At times bleaker even than Babel or Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. But cheery isn't really an option when portraying a dystopia plagued by a mysterious epidemic "immune to bureaucracy."

Based on the novel by Nobel laureate Jose Saramago and directed by Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardner), this apocalyptic allegory is imperfect but powerful. Reminiscent of Children of Men and old zombie flicks, Blindness begins with a man going blind while driving. His eye doctor (Mark Ruffalo) is puzzled by the affliction, in which eyesight is obscured by white rather than cloaked in dark. But soon the doctor is also rendered blind by the contagion, so read more.

To prevent an epidemic, the blind are quarantined - first by the handful then by the hundreds - in an abandoned sanitarium. Apart from the viewers, the only person who can see what filth results when a bunch of newly blind people are essentially abandoned by their government is the doctor's wife (Julianne Moore), who retains her sight but keeps it a secret. As food rations become scarce and the conditions more squalid, the ward devolves into a sinister, Lord of the Flies-like atmosphere ruled by an opportunistic villain (Gael Garcia Bernal).

Painted in a washed-out palette, the horror is heightened by the fact that as viewers, we're prevented from getting our bearings. Some of the techniques are predictable but effective - interludes of white between scenes, an overall jumbled tone - while others are downright arresting. We never learn the characters' names, and the nameless setting - shot in Sao Paolo, Tokyo, and Toronto - is beautiful and disorienting.

But Meirelles also draws attention to our sightedness by making us witness some sickeningly ugly truths - actions that you can imagine unfolding in such a dystopia but that are very difficult to watch nonetheless. (The people next to me walked out during a particularly disturbing scene.) The horrors are not without a message - to me, how hunger and suffering can drive people to immoral ends - but I certainly didn't leave the theater feeling good. Though I haven't read Saramago's novel, I'd imagine that message of Blindness is better made through literary allegory than a hyperrealistic film. But depending on your movie tolerance, Blindness is worth seeing for both its beauty and its brutality.

Photos courtesy of Miramax

Tribeca Review: Savage Grace

BuzzSugar — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:32:38 -0700

As is the case with many movies, you can kinda tell how you'll feel about Savage Grace from how you feel watching the trailer. For me, I thought the trailer was tense, dark and disturbing. Julianne Moore looked powerfully off-kilter, exhibiting that magnificent control she utilizes with every role she takes on, but ultimately the trailer left me with a bleakly ominous feeling. Physically, it was like I'd swallowed cement.

The full movie left me with that feeling times a thousand. Julianne Moore's character is appalling in this story, and yet Moore makes us sympathize with her. But aside from that, this supremely messed up film is just hard to watch. Moore portrays the real-life American socialite Barbara Daly Baekeland whose hostile marriage with plastics heir Brooks (Stephen Dillane) Baekeland produced one son, Antony (Eddie Redmayne). After the dissolution of Barbara and Brooks' marriage, Antony became Barbara's closest friend and confidant. Barbara and Antony's relationship was really close, if you know what I mean. If you don't (even if you do), read more.

Antony's upbringing was transient and often lonely as he moved from place to place, always living the high-class lifestyle of a young socialite. Worse, he often had to care for his mentally unstable mother, to the point of dressing her wrist wounds after she attempted suicide. Irritated by the fact that Antony was homosexual, Barbara desperately wished to make Antony "a real man" and this desire extended into an incestuous relationship, which is believed to be the thing that drove Antony to stab his mother with a kitchen knife in November of 1972, killing her.

Though it's all very creepy, the only performance that truly packs a punch is Moore's, whose Barbara is both hateful and pitiable. Redmayne and Dillane seem to have latched onto the emptiness of these peoples' lives to the point that even their performances ring empty. This is the terribly sad telling of a real-life tragedy, and while it's often fascinating to delve into the inside worlds of the rich and famous, the inside of this particular story is merely full of ugliness and pain. Though interesting enough, the movie isn't artful or polished enough to make the incredibly bleak experience of watching it anything more than depressing.

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Tribeca Preview: Savage Grace

BuzzSugar — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:30:43 -0700

Similar to a few other Tribeca-bound movies like The Wackness and Baghead, Savage Grace was screened at this year's Sundance and I was disappointed to miss it. I adore Julianne Moore and am interested in seeing her in this difficult, controversial role as the real-life Barbara Daly Baekeland, a striking and charismatic woman who married Brooks Baekeland, heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. The couple's only child, Antony, developed a unique relationship with his lonely mother in which they shared everything and which apparently delved into incest. This relationship ultimately drove Antony to murder his mother in November of 1972.

The reviews of Savage Grace have been rather mixed, and clearly the story is incredibly disturbing, but I'm curious to see how the filmmakers handle one of the most scandalous socialite stories in American history. To check out the trailer for Savage Grace, read more.

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Teaser Trailer for Blindness With Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo

BuzzSugar — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:31:17 -0700

Don't be fooled by the chipper, easy-breezy morning routine at the beginning of this teaser trailer for Blindness - it gets scary. Really scary. Based on the novel by Portuguese Nobel prize winner Jose Saramago, Blindness is an apocalyptic thriller in which an entire town - save one doctor's wife - succumbs to a blindness epidemic.

The cast is fantastic: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Gael Garcia Bernal and Sandra Oh, among others. Just watching this teaser trailer gave me chills, so I'm a little afraid of the final full-length movie. Then again, I have until October 3 to build up some courage. Have you read this book? You can check out the teaser trailer if you read more.

Next: Predictably Bad

BuzzSugar — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 02:58:41 -0700

In Next, the action/sci-fi thriller based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage) has a special gift that is also a burden: he can see two minutes into the future - only his - and he can also choose an alternate outcome. “Every time you look at it,” he says of the future, “it changes because you looked at it, and that changes everything.”

In a sense, I, too, had the ability to look into the future within a few minutes of viewing Next. I knew I was in for about an hour and a half of ridiculousness, but unlike Nicolas Cage’s character, I was unable to change the outcome for the better. To find out just how bad it gets, read more

Traumatized by a lifetime of being poked and prodded by authorities wanting to exploit his abilities, Cris hides out in Vegas, performing as a magician in a cheesy Vegas lounge act under an assumed identity, “Frank Cadillac.” When Next begins, terrorists have stolen a nuclear bomb and threaten to detonate it in Los Angeles and Cris is being pursued by FBI special agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore) who wants him to use his clairvoyant powers to prevent the disaster.

The first sign that I was in for an unintentional comedy was Nicolas Cage’s appearance. Cage has never been considered a great Hollywood beauty, but his hangdog appearance once lent comedic poignancy to such screen gems as Raising Arizona. In Next, the aging Cage is caked with too-dark makeup and sports the ugliest hairdo I’ve ever seen on a leading man. (For the record, it’s a straggly page boy.)

This walking embalmed look, needless to say, does nothing for his credibility as an action hero or love interest. When Ferris observes Cris on a surveillance video at the casino, it’s his performance taking down a would-be casino robber that seals her decision to pursue him. As they play cat-and-mouse, the foreign terrorists become interested in Cris as well. The bulk of the film involves these warring sides chasing after the prized clairvoyant in dramatically staged action scenes.

As if this ludicrous storyline wasn’t enough to have me laughing out loud (“FBI and Global Terrorists Pursue Grizzled Vegas Magician to Save The World - or L.A. - from Nuclear Holocaust”), in comes love interest Liz (Jessica Biel), the only premonition of Cris’s he’s had for years. One day she arrives at the diner where he waits for her every day and an unlikely series of events turns them into lovers in no time. Sample dialogue cementing their love? “I like rain.” “I like rain, too.”

Jessica Biel has a pretty thankless role as Cage’s love interest. Her job in Next mostly consists in her looking surprised (in soft focus) at Cage’s revelations and pursing her distractingly glossy lips. But it’s Julianne Moore’s performance I was most disappointed in. Instead of assuming an air of authority, Moore overplays Agent Ferris’s tough act, spitting out lines like the bullets she shoots at target practice. Okay, Moore, we get it... you’re butch.

Next has some decent special effects (Nicolas Cage nonchalantly dodging bullets, splitting into multiple figures) and plot twists one would expect from a film that plays with time - but not much else. It has a silly storyline, miscast leads, and laughable dialogue. I predict you’ll be hearing about Next at an awards show soon - the Razzies. In the meantime, I’m going to wash my movie-going eyeballs out with another film. Next, please!

Photos courtesy of Paramount Pictures