Culturegeeks

Just announced for production is Whip It. Ellen Page as derby girl = awesome! Bring It On style movie title = double awesome. Script by derby star = promising. Drew Barrymore directing = questionable.

I hung out with Ellen Page a couple of years ago while she was swinging through Boston and she is really smart and funny and so much more interesting than 99% of the actors out there (young and old). The NPR interview with her is quite entertaining, and talks a bit about the film I first noticed her in, Marion Bridge (a great Canadian sleeper with Molly Parker). This interview in New York is just further example of her awesomeness. In other words, I’m glad to see her profile growing thanks to Juno.

However, Juno is a film that I really wanted to like, but found to be over-cutesy in a really distracting way. The dialogue was forced (”Honest to blog!”) and the twee music omnipresent (if they had saved the cutesy songs until that very final scene, it would have played out much better). But the performances saved the film - not only Ms. Page, but Allison Janey and J.K. Simmons as her parents really grounded the film. Jennifer Garner made me want to hurl, but in fairness to the film she has always had that affect on me.

Still, as far as performance of the year, I’m going to go with Cate Blanchett. I know, she already gets way too much praise, and won the Golden Globe and all that. But the reason I like her as an actress isn’t just that she is great on screen, but because she also seems so down to earth. By the way, I can’t even calculate how much would I pay to have a long, drunken dinner with her and Helen Mirren.

Blanchett deserves every bit of praise she has received for I’m Not There (here’s a great behind the scenes article on the film). And it was Margi who put it best as to why in this email she sent to me after we watched the film last week:

“A lot of times when an actor plays someone of the opposite sex their acting is very deliberate and studied, which makes the fact that they’re NOT really of the sex they’re portraying the focal point of their performance. The end result is oftentimes that the audience sits there and marvels at how well they’re playing someone of the opposite sex rather than getting lost in the character. I didn’t find myself doing that at all. She just WAS Bob Dylan without making an issue out of it.”

Another reason to see I’m Not There - and a good illustration of why it is the most affecting music film I’ve ever seen - is that Margi knew very little about Dylan going in (I am already a junky), but still was completely moved by the film. She even cried during one of the most beautiful and nonsensical scenes in the film, which featured this amazing cover of Goin To Acapulco (that’s an MP3 link for y’all) by Calexico & My Morning Jacket’s Jim James. Not to out Margi for crying, as I did so myself the first time I saw the film. And the kicker is, I still can’t exactly explain why. Like I said, the scene is nonsensical, yet amazingly moving. Much like Dylan’s best songs.

Now we are catching her up on the Dylan mythos by watching Scorsese’s documentary No Direction Home, which is party about Dylan’s early career, but also about the whole history of American music. Tasty stuff.