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What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:30:33 -0700

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 my picks below, you can now watch Cadillac Records, Let the Right One In, and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas in the comfort of your own home.

Milk
If you still haven't seen Milk after all the months of accolades and awards, now's your chance to learn what all the fuss is about. In addition to being an incredibly moving story based on the real life of San Francisco gay activist Harvey Milk, it's wonderfully acted and directed. It's everything a biopic ought to be, right down to beautifully recreating the events of such an extraordinary life.

The cast is full of talented, adorable actors, like Sean Penn (who won the Oscar for his portrayal of Milk), James Franco, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, and Emile Hirsch. I am anxious to watch it again, even though it's so heartbreaking.

Special features include deleted scenes, a featurette about remembering Harvey, and another titled "Hollywood comes to San Francisco."

So much more to recommend, so read more.

Rachel Getting Married
Even though this heavy portrayal of familial heartache and forgiveness is intense to watch, I highly recommend it. You may have noticed Anne Hathaway at a couple of awards shows this year - all due to this movie (not Bride Wars, just in case there's any confusion on that). Rosemarie Dewitt, also a phenomenal actress, is another reason to add this to your queue.

Special features include deleted scenes, filmmaker and cast commentaries, and "A Look Behind the Scenes of Rachel Getting Married."

Synecdoche, New York
You know him as the writer of such films as Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and now Charlie Kaufman can add "Director" to his filmography with Synecdoche, NY. The movie stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as Caden Cotard, a local theater director struggling to maintain his marriage with his more-famous wife, Adele (Catherine Keener). When she takes off for Germany with their daughter and Caden receives a grant, he decides to stage a giant-scale theater piece about life, setting it inside a towering replica of New York. It's a complicated, difficult, sometimes frustrating piece of cinema but I found the experience to be totally worthwhile.

Featurettes include "The Story of Caden Cotard: In Conversation With Philip Seymour Hoffman," "Infectious Diseases in Cattle: Blogger's Roundtable," and "NFTS/Script Masterclass with Charlie Kaufman."

Happy-Go-Lucky
I called this movie a sweet slice of life when I first saw it and I was thrilled when the talented Sally Hawkins won the Golden Globe for her performance in it. The movie is essentially plotless, focusing mostly on a woman whose outlook on life remains defiantly sunny despite the world's inevitable darkness and sorrow. It's so moving because despite it's bright and colorful surface, the film is also a meditation on sadness, longing, confusion, and hopefulness. You know, the stuff of life.

Special features include commentary by director Mike Leigh and the featurettes "Behind the wheel of Happy-Go-Lucky" and "Happy-in-character."

BuzzSugar's Must Haves For March

BuzzSugar — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:30:23 -0800

It's still cold outside, so thankfully there's plenty of at-home entertainment to be had in March. For starters, it's a great month for music with one album coming out by one of my favorite female vocalists and another by a band that I hope pumps out new music for years to come. There's also an Oscar-nominated movie arriving on DVD, along with a holiday holdover that will warm your heart during this final stretch of Winter. Ready to see my March picks? Just hit "Start."

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Rosemarie DeWitt on Being an In-Demand Screen Sister

BuzzSugar — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 06:00:49 -0800

Depending on your attitude, Rosemarie DeWitt either has great luck or terrible luck with on-screen sisters. She recently starred as Rachel opposite Anne Hathaway's Kym in Rachel Getting Married, and now she's the foil to Toni Collette's Tara in United States of Tara, which just premiered to strong ratings. At TCA, I chatted with DeWitt about her film families, how she got the Tara gig, and how much Rachel was like a real wedding. Here are highlights:

How did you get the role of Charmaine?
It was just like a straightforward, old-school audition that I had. I read the script, I thought it was fantastic, and when I auditioned for it I think the part of the sister was a guest star. So it wasn't a super high-pressure situation . . . I auditioned where Spielberg and Dreamworks is all set up, and I remember thinking, "I just want to work here."

When did you find out that you were getting the upgrade to a regular character? Did that give you a chance to get more into playing Charmaine?
It was over the Summer where they invited me back, and we spoke and they said, "We're going to change Charmaine a little bit." TV I feel like you have to play - in most ways I'm nothing like Charmaine, but you have to play it a little closer to yourself, because they do change things at the 11th hour, and if you were doing some crazy character with a hunchback and now you're running a marathon - I don't know, you just have to be able to do it, basically. So they made her a little bit more quote-unquote normal. I was happy that there was a lot more love between Tara and Charmaine. She's an outsider but it would have really been hard to be like Anne Hathaway and I are in Rachel.

It was interesting to hear Diablo Cody say that Charmaine is looking for attention.
She's got a lot of issues. It's funny, because she's really awesome, and she just, I think, doesn't like herself that much. The vitamin sales, I think, are a little bit of a self-help program in and of themselves, and she's got some body issues, and issues with men, so there's just so many places to go with her and so many women in my own life to observe and draw from.

To hear more about Charmaine and Tara's relationship and how it differs from Rachel and Kym's, read more.

I'm assuming we'll be seeing more of those issues coming out throughout the season.
Yeah, and again, a lot of love. Annie and I would talk about Rachel and say, "They're sisters, they're not friends." But as Toni and I went through the season, we're discovering [Charmaine and Tara] are friends. I mean, they get on each other's nerves, and in ways they're nothing alike, but they can really be - they're kind of all that they had sometimes.

The show strikes a really delicate tone - it's not hilarious, for a comedy, but it's not heartbreaking all the time either. What about it appeals to you?
I am very impressed with the tone of it, because it could go a lot of different ways and I think they found a happy balance. The thing that kind of gets me about the show - besides Toni's performance as an actress, that gets me every day when I go to work - is seeing what we see through the children's eyes. Some people won't relate to this disorder, many people will, many people have someone with depression in their family. But it's just seeing that thing that kids have to go through where maybe they have to parent themselves or grow up before it's time. I think that's sort of the heartbeat of the show. With Juno as well, [Cody] can really find the truth of what kids are up against and then, in this case, also really write about marital problems and a woman in her 30s who can't find love, and write those with sophistication and grace.

Now, I have to ask about Rachel Getting Married, because I don't think I've ever seen a movie that just felt so much like a real wedding.
Oh, I felt like it might be legal in the state of Connecticut. You know, after he said our vows, I was like, "Does that mean . . . " I looked at Tunde [Adebimpe] and said, does that mean it's you and me? That's all [director] Jonathan Demme. He always says that we got to hang out and plan it, but we didn't - he just had all these crazy ideas. At one point he was like, "I think Rachel comes in on a white pony," but then he axes it, but then he comes in with some other fabulous element. We really just did it, that was the thing - we really just had a reception. Like, the rehearsal dinner scene, it was a 45-minute take, and we just did it three or four times.

That was something I was wondering - what the timing was like.
We went and lived in this house in Connecticut, and like, in the rehearsal dinner, Anne's speech was scripted, as were the best man and the maid of honor, but beyond that Jonathan just had anybody speak as they saw fit, and I'm sure there'll be some great toasts on the special features on the DVD, because everybody in that room spoke. And then he cut it down, and it was still really long and felt like you were really at a rehearsal dinner, in a good way.

Anne's character is such a strong personality. What was it like to play off of that?
It was sort of a wake-up call on the first day. We shot their first encounter in the movie and I felt like her character was taking all the oxygen out of the room. And I thought, "Wow, this is going to be a harder mountain to climb than I thought," just coming up against that sort of narcissistic personality. I think it's pretty classic addict behavior. In terms of the doing of it, Anne and I just had a really great experience on that. We didn't do a lot of sisterly bonding beforehand, I think because it was going to defuse the necessary tension. But then when we were working, there was never a nice-off. Nobody ever said, "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, did I just spit in your eye?" We just were horrible to each other when it called for it and loving to each other when it called for it and then gave each other a hug at the end and said, "See you tomorrow."

Photos Source and courtesy of Showtime and Sony Pictures Classics

Anne's Beautiful In Bold Blue For Rachel Getting Married

PopSugarUK — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 05:00:00 -0700

Two Lovers was not the only film screening at the London Film Festival last night. Anne Hathaway was out in a stunning blue floor-length frock at the premiere of her movie Rachel Getting Married, directed by Jonathan Demme. In the movie she plays Kym, a woman who has been in and out of rehab for ten years and returns home for her sister's wedding. I'm really looking forward to this one, and it seems that some stars are too as Alan Rickman, and Thandie Newton and her man also showed up! If you love Anne's look as much as I do, BellaUK has details to recreate her makeup, so check it out!

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Gwyneth Talks Madonna, Anne and Thandie Celebrate Films

PopSugar — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:30:00 -0700

Gwyneth Paltrow and Anne Hathaway were among the stars on the red carpet at the London Film Festival tonight - check out all of PopSugar UK's coverage here. Anne was joined by her Rachel Getting Married cast mates for their screening, while Thandie Newton checked out the scene alongside her husband Ol Parker. Gwyneth Paltrow went solo to support Two Lovers at a nearby theater and opened up about Madonna's divorce. She said, "You know, she's a dear friend, and I'm supporting her in all [the] ways that I can . . . I'm just here for her. I'm just here on the other end of the phone, really . . . I speak to her a lot." It's great to see that Gwyneth is being a good pal - even if Madonna didn't take her advice about staying together for the kids.

To see more of the ladies in London, just read more.

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Images include: Anne Hathaway, Anisa George, Robyn Hitchcock, Jonathan Demme, Thandie Newton, Ol Parker, Alan Rickman, Gwyneth Paltrow

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Rachel Getting Married: Riveting and Painful Realism

BuzzSugar — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:30:53 -0700

I normally cry at weddings (and wedding scenes), so spending a whole wedding weekend with Rachel and her family in Rachel Getting Married was quite the teary experience. It’s not all weeping and sighing (though there's a lot of that, in both the joyful and the heart-wrenching scenes) - there is also silliness and humor. It's a movie about forgiveness, heartache and the tenderness of human frailty. So, despite the lovely main plot point (a backyard wedding overflowing with the generosity of friends and family), it's incredibly heavy.

Rachel (Rosemarie Dewitt) is indeed getting married at her father's home in Connecticut, and her recovering addict sister Kym (Anne Hathaway) is coming home from rehab to spend the weekend with her family. The duration of the movie takes place over this weekend as we watch the roots of the family's dysfunction unravel before us. There isn't a ton that happens in the story, but an awful lot is said and even more implied. The family spends the weekend in the warm company of friends and family, but while the guests are in full wedding celebration mode, the simmering emotions between the sisters, their father and their mother boil over, creating some majorly messy drama. For more of my thoughts on the film, read more.

Anne Hathaway's performance as Kym is touching and pitiful, though in truth, every performance in this film is top-notch. This is as much a testament to director Jonathan Demme as it is to the actors. The plot lurches in fits and spurts, with banal, everyday moments buffering the appalling and intensely sad ones. Each character is portrayed in a hyper-realistic light and their relationships are sticky and exhaustingly complex, with much of the disappointment in one another coming from their expectations of what a sister/father/mother should be doing or saying. It makes you cringe, even as (or because) you find some of these arguments or judgments familiar.

The handheld shaky-cam filming style makes the whole thing feel like documentary footage, or like we're just spying on these people. In the same way you're captivated by an interesting conversation taking place one table over in a restaurant, this movie is absorbing because it seems like we're really eavesdropping, almost to the point of feeling voyeuristic. This isn't a bad thing, really, though it's not for people who like their movie drama to be pretty or sugarcoated.

In reality, I think a lot of people like to see what's going on in other peoples' lives. It's why rubbernecking happens, why people "love to see a train wreck." Not (necessarily) to ridicule the victims but to feel like all of human experience is common and shared. There are plenty of tearful fights and screaming matches and tense showdowns in Rachel Getting Married. But there are just as many moments when you feel like you actually are at someone's wedding, what with all the heartfelt toasts and the warm embracing and the sweetly shy introductions between families. It's as fascinating and painful as any real-life human journey, which is both sad and comforting at the same time.

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Chihuahua's Bark Is Loud at the Box Office

BuzzSugar — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:30:31 -0700

You know, the reviews for Disney's Beverly Hills Chihuahua were not as bad as I thought they might be, so that coupled with the fact that it's a family film meant that the movie about little talking dogs took the No. 1 spot at the box office over the weekend. The top dogs brought in a seriously impressive $29 million. That's about the same amount that Eagle Eye earned last weekend. This weekend, the Shia LaBeouf action-thriller came in second place.

Meanwhile, some smaller movies (a.k.a. "specialty films") also did well. Both Bill Maher's documentary Religulous and Anne Hathaway's Rachel Getting Married had terrific opening weekends. This was especially striking as "three of the new wide releases didn’t even crack the top 10 chart," including Flash of Genius, Blindness, and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

Finally, both Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Appaloosa enjoyed solid debuts, coming in third and fifth respectively. Lots of options this weekend! Which one did you see? (And come on, you can admit it if it was the chihuahua movie - this is a safe place.)

Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

Anne Wears All Her Apparel In Venice

PopSugarUK — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:00:00 -0700

Anne Hathaway arrived at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday to promote her movie Rachel Getting Married, a film I'm looking forward to for the chance to see Anne playing against her usual type. In Jonathan Demme's movie she plays Kym, a woman who has been in and out of rehab for ten years and returns home for her sister's wedding – and at Venice she showed off the shorter choppy hairstyle that she had cut for filming. Check out the trailer after the jump. Anne had also packed a fair few outfits in her suitcase, showing off four outfits in her first two days in Venice.

My favourite has to be the dramatic pale green dress she wore at the premiere of her film on Wednesday – it looks different from every angle, although FabUK and I are not sure if she's wearing the dress, or the dress is wearing her. Since I last updated you on the comings and goings in Venice, we also had another peek at Natalie Portman looking casual at the festival on Tuesday, as well as odd couple Evan Rachel Wood and Mickey Rourke, who are there to promote their movie The Wrestler.

To see more photos from the last couple of days in Venice, as well as the trailer for Anne's movie Rachel Getting Married (let me know what you think!), just read more.

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Movie Preview: Rachel Getting Married

BuzzSugar — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 14:00:03 -0700

Yes, that is Anne Hathaway with a choppy little haircut standing next to Rosemarie DeWitt, who played one of my favorite characters on Mad Men, Don's mistress Midge. The two women play sisters in Rachel Getting Married, a family drama focusing on Hathaway's character, Kym returning home for her sister Rachel's (DeWitt) wedding.

I like Hathaway a lot and I love watching DeWitt, but I kinda think this indie movie looks like a long string of hysterical conversations. The wacky dysfunctional family shtick can get pretty tiresome pretty quickly (see also the similarly themed Margot at the Wedding, which is a hard movie to like). I'll probably still see the movie anyway, though, to find out what these talented women do with their characters. Rachel Getting Married opens in limited release October 3. To see the trailer, read more.

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Glee-ful Highlights and Video From Episode "Mash-Up"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:30:00 -0700

The Glee train is chugging right along, and I don't just mean the new episodes. This week we learned that Madonna has given the green light for the show to use her music and the first 13 episodes will be available on DVD in December. Now, on to the good stuff.

This week the tables turned on the glee club's king and queen, as Finn and Quinn learn that they're no longer safe from getting the slushie treatment. Ken tries to make the football guys choose between the team and the club as a retaliation for Will's relationship with Emma, and Sue finds love! For a minute. Oh, and Puck and Rachel team up and Mr. Schue has his own dance dance revolution, so read more.

I was happy that this week's episode is Terri-free but has tons of Emma. Emma singing! Emma dancing! Emma in a wedding dress! I still can't forgive her for agreeing to marry Ken, but she's pret-ty adorable all dolled up staring into Will's eyes. Speaking of which, the tension between them is more palpable than ever. They're almost like the new Jim and Pam.
So, Rachel and Puck? I guess it was only a matter of time, but their little love affair still feels totally random. On the other hand, I guess that's what high school is all about. When Rachel shows a bit of maturity and asks Puck to be friends, Puck pulls a typical jerk move and gives her the cold shoulder. So the real question is - how long before Puck gets Quinn and Rachel gets Finn? Between Emma/Schue and the gleeks, there's just unrequited crushing up the wazoo.
Let's talk about the performances. I know that Mr. Schue is a talented singer and dancer, but I have to admit that I was cringing during "Bust a Move" and almost couldn't watch the "Thong Song." Can't they use those pipes and moves on something a little less embarrassing? Puck's rendition of "Sweet Caroline" is, for lack of a better word, sweet, and I loved Emma's surprise performance of "I Could've Danced All Night."

Need to watch Schue's "Thong Song" serenade again? Check it out!

Emma isn't the only one getting dance lessons, though. Sue swing dancing with Schue is genius. It's by far my favorite moment of the episode, particularly that Sue plays the guy, literally sweeping Will off his feet in the end. Sue finally shows that she's got a mushy side when she falls for the news anchor, but obviously it doesn't last long. However, her lovestruck episode does deliver some memorable moments, like that zoot suit.

Check out a cute behind-the-scenes video of Matthew Morrison and Jane Lynch practicing their dance number:

The episode isn't without a few cheesy after-school special moments, too. Poor Kurt shows Finn the true meaning of friendship, taking a slushie to the face "for the team." Then Finn answers back when he returns to glee with high hopes to pave the way for all the singing, dancing, football players of the future. The week's winning mushy moment goes to the kids happily giving Mr. Schue a slushie facial of his very own.

What'd you think? Should Finn and Quinn just break up already? Will Sue get another shot at love? Did you miss crazy Terri? Don't forget to join the Glee Club in the Buzz Community to keep the conversation going!

Photos courtesy of Fox