Media Morsels 12.31.10

• Happy New Year!
  Ring in the New Year with American Idiot! The cast will be performing on NBC's New Year's Eve with Caron Daly. (You may remember that the Tribe performed on a New Year's Eve special last year.) Also appearing on the show will be Bono and The Edge, who will chat with Daly about Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. (Scroll down for the latest injury and casting updates.) After counting down to 2011 with the Idiots, why not start off the year right? On New Year's Day, Billie Joe begins his return engagement with the powerful show. He's only appearing for 50 performances, so catch him now.
  
  
• Casting News
  I'm very excited to report that the multi-talented Raul Esparza (!) is joining Billy Crudup (!!) in the upcoming Broadway revival of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia!!! Crudup's return to the stage (and this work) was announced several weeks ago, but this week we learned that Esparza would join him and that the play will run at the Barrymore Theatre (home to the Esparza-starring Speed the Plow a few seasons ago). The play begins previews February 25 in anticipation of a March 17 opening. This limited engagement will run through June 19, barring any extensions. Read the announcement on Playbill.com for more casting details. (Side note: I guess that Esparza's run in Arcadia means Leap of Faith, in which he starred in LA this fall, isn't coming to NY this season.)
  
  
• The Last Five Years Movie
  If you're a Jason Robert Brown fan, like musicals or just like good, compelling stories told in a fresh way, you'll be excited, as I am, to know that Brown announced he is in pre-production for a film adaptation of his beautiful two-hander musical, The Last Five Years. This musical tells the story of Cathy and Jamie. We take a look at their five year journey from two different perspectives: We meet Cathy on the day she and Jamie divorce ("Still Hurting") and we continue backwards on the journey with her, ending on the night of their first date. Simultaneously (the songs volley back and forth with regard to point of view), we meet Jamie on the day he meets Cathy ("Shiksa Goddess") and continue on his journey forward, to the divorce. Along the way, there are lovely, emotional songs. I never got to see this fully staged but I did catch the composer and Lauren Kennedy give a concert of the musical a couple of years ago. The cast recording, featuring Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott - both at the top of their games - is available from Sh-k-boom records. There's no IMDB listing for the film yet, so keep checking back here for updates.
  
  
• Jon Stewart is Our Hero
  On The Daily Show, Al Gore once lauded Jon Stewart's societal role, saying that for ages, the jester got away with the most truth-telling remarks and that Stewart carries on that important tradition of speaking truth to power. This week, the NY Times took a look at America's jester and the impact his impassioned on-air editorials had on the passage of the 9/11 First Responders Health Care bill. In the article, Stewart is rightly put in the pantheon of great journalists like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, despite Stewart's continual protestations that he's a satirist, not a journalist. That which we call a journalist by any other name would present the news so honestly, and so Stewart does, though he is not journalist call'd.
  
  
• Spider-Man Update
  Natalie Mendoza, the actress who plays Arachne and who suffered a concussion during the show's first preview performance, has left the show. The actress was out of the show for two weeks while she recovered from the concussion. She went on on December 20, the night that the recovering Christopher Tierney fell, and has not performed since. Spider-Man's producers confirmed this week that Mendoza is departing the show. Her replacement has not been announced. (Tierney, by the way, has been discharged from the hospital and is being treated at a New York City rehabilitation center. Tierney will be interviewed on the CBS evening news on January 3 at 11pm.)
  
  
• Andrew Garfield Interviewed
  Speaking of Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield, who will play Petey on screen in (500) Days of Summer's Marc Webb's reboot of the film franchise (which is on holiday but has begun shooting), was interviewed by the Guardian. The podcast is online and also includes an interview with director Edward Zwick, who was at the helm of the recent Love and Other Drugs and Leo's Blood Diamond. (Fast forward to about 28 minutes in for Garfield's interview.)
  
  
• Comings and Goings
  This week we learned that Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown will close three weeks early, playing its final Broadway performance this Sunday, January 2. We also learned that John Leguizamo will return to Broadway with a new show called Ghetto Klown. This one-man show will play the Lyceum Theatre for 12 weeks this spring. Previews begin February 21 in anticipation of a March 22 opening.
  
  Sadly, this January will see the closing of 15 Broadway shows. Some are ending limited engagements but many are closing due to lagging sales. I've already bemoaned waning artistry in favor of waxing profits, but as a final send off, I suggest taking a look at this NY Times article profiling five actors - including Benjamin Walker (BBAJ) and Adam Chanler-Berat (Next to Normal) - whose shows are closing in January.
  
  
• Kennedy Center Honors
  The 33rd Annual Kennedy Center Honors were presented earlier this month and the gala performance was broadcast this past Tuesday night. This year's honorees were choreographer Bill T. Jones, country legend Merle Haggard, Oprah, Broadway composer Jerry Herman and Sir Paul McCartney. Of Sir Paul, Alec Baldwin said, "He married rock and roll to beauty and forever raised the bar for composers, musicians and fans." Several notables were on hand to pay tribute to the honorees, including Matthew Morrison, Sutton Foster, Dave Grohl, Claire Danes, James Taylor, Kid Rock, Chris Rock, Julia Roberts and Chita Rivera. (And West Wing alumna Mary-Louise Parker was in the audience just for fun!) Visit Playbill.com for photos and video, and visit Broadwayworld.com for more video fun. Rollingstone.com has video of No Doubt honoring Sir Paul.
  


• Best of 2010
  2011 begins tomorrow and as is typical for this time of year, everyone's making year-end lists.
• Rollingstone.com rounded up all their best-of lists in one place. Here you'll find their picks for best album, best (The Social Network!) and worst movie and best Rolling Stone article, including a stellar Matt Taibbi piece.
• Broadway.com reminisced over its top five video clips, including Next to Normal's Kyle Dean's backstage vlog.
• Broadwayworld.com posted their favorite curtain call photos from 2010, including a shot of Billie Joe taking a bow, alongside a palpably giddy Michael Esper and John Gallagher, Jr., after making his Broadway debut. (See part two here.)
• The New York Times's two theatre critics chose their favorite moments of 2010. Ben Brantley's list includes Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Clybourne Park and Red, while Charles Isherwood's list includes American Idiot, The Aliens and Time Stands Still. (Find explanations of their choices on nytimes.com: Brantley and Isherwood)
• And I'll add my voice to the madding crowd. Here's my list of 11 amazing shows, films or other artistic moments of 2010. (I'm only choosing eleven items for this list (What? There's a law it's gotta come in fives and tens?), but there was plenty to celebrate or remember - like Next Fall and Raul Esparza and Sutton Foster together in Anyone Can Whistle - that didn't make the cut. Scroll through my archives on the right for a review of a year of reviewing.)
  

1. American Idiot - Really everything about it. From the bliss of the show finding a home to the thrill of the first preview to the overwhelming excitement of opening night to the unparalleled energy of the audience as they embraced Billie Joe on Broadway. I am in love with this show and the 12 times I saw it in 2010 were 12 of the best moments of the year.
   
   
2. The Social Network - Obviously, I was going to relish any chance to devour new Sorkinese. But I was equally as excited to see Charlie Wilson's War a few years ago and the results were no where near the same. The Social Network represents an almost impossible combination of perfect elements - script, direction, performances, scoring - and at the same time manages to fully capture the zeitgeist. It is as much a classic film as it is of-the-moment.
   
   
3. "Estancia" - A brilliant and thrilling new ballet from modern legend Christopher Wheeldon. I happened to see it (for the first time) on its world premiere night this spring, which, without a doubt, added to the excitement. But I saw it again in the fall and without the fanfare still found it to be the best narrative ballet I've ever seen.
   
   
4. Would Things Be Different Release Party - The Spring Standards called out to their fans to help produce their first full-length LP. So, as one of those fans, it was particularly exciting to be among those on hand this April at Le Poisson Rouge to help the uber-talented trio celebrate the release of that record.
   
   
5. The Aliens + The Metal Children - I saw these on consecutive nights this May and was amazed at their greatness. The Aliens cemented Annie Baker's place as the playwright to follow and The Metal Children brought us an eloquent comment on artistry from Adam Rapp and a masterful performance by Billy Crudup.
   
   
6. Rolling Stone - The venerable rock and roll magazine may be the last bastion of responsible print journalism. Through the power of unflinching, honest, analytical reporting, Rolling Stone articles felled a general and a coal magnate. And, contributing editor Matt Taibbi continued with his scathing reports on the bubble economy and the vampire squid that is Goldman Sachs in both the magazine and his brilliant new book, Griftopia. (Plus, movie critic Peter Travers couldn't stop gushing about The Social Network and there was a great profile of Leo (complete with some appealing photos) and an enthralling Bruce Springsteen interview.)
   
   
7. Kathryn Bigelow Wins One for the Women - When Babs announced the winner for Oscar's Best Director, she said, "It's about time," before calling out Kathryn Bigelow's name, in recognition of her work on Best Picture, The Hurt Locker. It's a shame that it's noteworthy that a woman won in this category; even more shameful that it took this long (82 years), but it's wonderful that that ceiling has been shattered. (And that Bigelow beat her hubristic ex, to boot!)
   
   
8. Joe Iconis - He's been tickling the ivories for a while, but this year he held several concerts, had a show produced at Ars Nova (Bloodsong of Love), enjoyed a staged reading of ReWrite at Joe's Pub and saw the cast recording of his song-cycle Things to Ruin released on Sh-k-boom Records. He's got "lots of things to do," and I'm so glad I'm along for the ride.
   
   
9. Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson - "An original? On Broadway? Baby that is risky!" It is risky, but this dive bar musical that has roots at the Public (where I first saw it this spring) is a reminder of just how great musical theatre can be. It's thoroughly entertaining; it's poignant; it's funny; it holds a mirror up to society and teaches us something. It's one for the canon.
   
   
10. Inception - I'll never dream the same again. The inventive Christopher Nolan created an enthralling dream-scape and filled it with top-notch actors, including Leo, for truly spectacular results.
    
    
11. Ab-Ex at MoMA - The Abstract Expressionist exhibit at the MoMA was glorious. Many of the pieces in the exhibit are on view year round but to see them all together, to see the different styles of the painters, to go from a Pollock to a Rothko and back again was almost too much fun!
    

I leave you now with a New Year message from Reno Sweeney and the folks at Anything Goes:

True Grit

The Coen Brothers seem to like prologues. If I remember correctly, A Serious Man, which was out at this time last year and justifiably earned various nominations for the brothers and the film’s star, Michael Stuhlbarg, began with a tale of a dybuk. In their adaptation of Charles Portis’s novel True Grit (in press appearances, they and their stars have made clear this is an adaptation of the novel, not a remake of the John Wayne movie) they begin by quoting Proverbs: “The wicked flee when no man pursueth, Proverbs 28:1” appears on screen. Then the movie begins. What I found interesting (and I didn’t know this at the time - I had to look it up) was that the rest of that Proverbs quote is really what the movie is all about: “But righteous are bold as a lion.”

14 year old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) is our guide through the West. Her daddy was killed by Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) and Mattie wants revenge. The “eye for an eye” kind of revenge. She asks a law man to pursue the wicked man; he declines, saying Chaney isn’t too high on the most wanted list. The man suggest three US Marshals who, for a price, might be willing to help Mattie avenge her father’s death. Being a precocious, plucky youth, Mattie enlists Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), described as equally effective and ornery - a man with, wait for it, true grit. Along the way, Rooster and Mattie cross the path of La Boeuf (pronounced La Beef and played by Matt Damon), a Texas Ranger who is also after Chaney over the murder of a Texas senator. At the movie’s climax, Mattie comes face to face with Chaney and the bold lioness must take her shot. The falling action (literally - she falls down a crevasse) then wraps up the story, once justice has been served.

I have no idea how faithful Joel and Ethan Coen’s True Grit is to the novel or what similarities it shares with its celluloid predecessor, but it’s a good movie, with Coen-trademark dark humor and careful and plush cinematography. There are also good performances from all: Jeff Bridges is both funny and assured as an aging, overweight, one-eyed Marshal; Matt Damon seems to be having a blast in a funny supporting role; and Hailee Stenfeld gives a breakout performances as the headstrong, righteous and determined Mattie.

But all of this combines for just a good movie - not a great one, in my mind. I didn’t have much in the way of expectations so I certainly wasn’t disappointed. I’ve never particularly disliked the Coen brothers’ films, though, for the most part, I’ve never loved - to the point of gushing - them, either. I totally dig The Big Lebowski, though it took a couple of tries, probably because I was too young when I saw it the first time. I liked A Serious Man, found No Country for Old Men engrossing, appreciated Fargo and found Burn After Reading to be just kind of eh. (A couple seasons ago, Ethan Coen presented Offices, a slate of three one-acts at the Atlantic. They were smart, slightly bleak and characteristically darkly humorous. What seemed to work best about them was that each one-act was brief, so Coen could make his point and move on, rather than he and his brother having to fill up 90-120 minutes with plot and character development.)

I mention this to give you, dear readers, some context as to my reaction. If you’re a Coen brothers fanatic then this may be the perfect swig of whiskey for you. If you like watching great performances - even brief ones - by some of your favorite actors, then you might like this. For my taste, True Grit was a mostly enjoyable way to pass some time (except for a scene with snakes. Like Indy, I hate snakes.) but not something I can enthusiastically recommend.

Black Swan

Black Swan is a coming of age story, albeit a thrillingly horrific one. In just under two hours, we watch a girl become a woman. It’s a thoroughly engrossing story - a narrative ballet on film - enhanced by just-right direction and terrific performances.

Nina (Natalie Portman) is a soloist at a ballet company in New York City. (Much was filmed in and around Lincoln Center and the State Theatre, though this company is definitely not City Ballet.) Though she is twenty-something, she still lives and is treated like a 12 year old girl. Her room is full of plush stuffed animals and way too much pink. She lives on the Upper West Side with her failed-dancer mother, Erica (Barbara Hershey). Mommy Dearest is completely overbearing and fully infantilizes her daughter, enabling Nina in her obsessive drive toward perfection.

It’s the start of a new season. (We know this through dialogue and also through a montage of Nina breaking and breaking in her pointe shoes - a montage not unlike the one in Center Stage) and Nina is hoping the company’s director, Thomas (Vincent Cassel), will make good on his promise to feature her more. When Beth (a stunning, slightly meta, Winona Ryder), an aging dancer (think Wendy Whelan or the just retired Darci Kistler) involuntarily announces her retirement, Thomas must find a new little princess to play the Swan Queen in his stripped down version of Swan Lake. Nina wants this part and, as is typical for her, she practices and practices and practices as she strives for perfection. Watching her dance, Thomas says if he was casting only the White Swan, the part would be Nina’s. But the role of the Swan Queen also dances the Black Swan, the White Swan’s evil twin who tricks Odette’s true love, and Thomas doesn’t believe Nina. She needs to feel the role, not just dance it.

Enter Lily (Mila Kunis), who is a transfer dancer fresh off the bus from San Francisco. While Thomas and Nina watch Lily dance, Thomas comments that her technique is a little lacking but she is free. She is feeling the dance. In order to truly perfectly dance the Black Swan, Nina, the virginal, sheltered White Swan, must become a woman; she must seduce her prince (and the audience); she must let loose and become free. Through her relationship with Lily, encounters with Beth, a seductive pas de deux or two with Thomas, brawls with her mother and visceral, explosive battles with her own psyche, Nina grows up and fully embodies her Black Swan.

Though the acting is great and I’ll comment on that in a moment, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that this scintillating backstage story (written by Mark Heyman, Andrés Heinz and John McLaughlin) works so well because of Darren Aronofsky’s incredible direction. This particular story is a tricky one to tell. It’s not quite any one genre. If it had been left to a horror director, say Wes Craven, it would likely have come off as campy and the thrills would feel cheap. If it had been treated as solely a psychological character study, say in the hands of Gus Van Sant, it would likely have come off as staid or even melodramatic. It takes Aronofsky’s skill to balance the psychological thriller, complete with moments of pure pathos, hints of horror, raging reality and flights of fantasy, and make the film so satisfying and terrifying to watch.

The dance also helps to tell the story - obviously. Much like how last year’s Crazy Heart would have been nothing but a washed up musician and desert without the music (wonderfully done by T. Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham), Black Swan could not work without the dance, all choreographed by City Ballet’s own Benjamin Millepied. We don’t see tons of dancing, but what we do see helps to tell the story. We see the White Swan’s dance, which is light and ethereal. Then there’s the Black Swan, whose dance with - or rather, seduction of - the prince (played by Millepied!) is, when finally danced perfectly (in spirit and technique) is rapturous. Kudos to Millepied for bringing excitement and freshness to one of the most well known ballets in the cannon. (Other dancers, including City Ballet’s Megan Fairchild and Tiler Peck, were also consulted to help bring authenticity to the film.)

As for the cast, there’s not a weak member among them. Barbara Hershey is top notch as a mother who is living vicariously through the daughter she is controlling. Her attempts to choreograph every one of Nina’s moves become less and less potent as Nina becomes the Black Swan, and Hershey does a good job of unspooling at just the right pace.

Mila Kunis’s Lily walks delicately and well along the line of free spirit and vindictive competitor. Because Nina just might be going crazy, Lily must be played carefully, so as to not give away anything at the wrong moment. Kunis has a contagious smile, which makes her great for showing off, particularly to Nina, the freedom and seductive powers a woman can possess. But in the blink of an eye, she’ll break the smile and give you the iciest stare - keeping Nina and the audience en pointe the whole time.

Perhaps most crucial among the supporting characters was Vincent Cassel’s performance as Thomas. In many dance movies (I’m thinking in particular of Robert Altman’s The Company), the

head of the company is depicted as controlling; maybe a womanizer; always a jerk. Thomas isn’t quite a new dance, but rather a variation on a theme. Instead of this figurehead being only that, Cassel’s enticing performance allows us to see why he’s doing what he’s doing. In one of his first encounters with Nina, when she has come to him to ask for the role of the Swan Queen, he grabs her and kisses her. This isn’t some sexual power play: He’s the bait, trying to get Nina to bite (not literally, though she does that, too). He needs to see that Nina has more than technique in order to properly dance the Black Swan. He’s trying to get Nine to show him something - to show some ruach... good, bad - something honest, something felt in the moment, not rehearsed for hours on end. It’s a credit to Cassel that Thomas, in spite of his sexually explicit conversations and roving hands, is not some one-dimensional sexual pervert but rather a ballet director trying to get the best performance from his dancer.

And that dancer is virtuosically played by Natalie Portman. In order to play a dancer who transforms herself, Portman the actress transformed herself, training for nearly a year so she could look and move like a prima ballerina. But it’s not just the dance moves. Portman usually talks in a low, dry, unimpressed voice. When the film begins, her words are clipped. She loses some of the rasp and speaks in a higher register, so when she cries out “Mommy,” she sounds like a lost little girl. By the end of the film, when she is in the middle of destroying her demons and yells out, “It’s my turn!” her voice tells you she is a woman - not someone to be trifled with. Portman has brilliant moments of both innocence and possibly demonic possession, but all of them are raw and feel honest - true to Nina’s transformation.

Swan Lake on stage is not one of my favorite ballets (though I liked Peter Martins's version last winter). But Swan Lake on film, with the story of the ballet being paralleled by Nina’s journey, is fantastic. The attention to detail in Black Swan, right on down to the end credits, along with sensational directing and chilling performances, make this a crazy scary good film.

Bonuses:

• Photo Coverage: New York premiere arrivals; after party
• Wendy Whelan, a NYC Ballet principal dancer, reviews Black Swan
• Anatomy of a Scene: NY Times feature with Darren Aronofsky

Media Morsels 12.24.10

• Dancing Through Vanity Fair
  On the heels (or pointe shoes) of the recent Robbie Fairchild/Chase Finlay profile in the current issue of Vanity Fair, the magazine posted to its website a photo pictorial of dancers featured in VF over the years. The look back begins with the photo of City Ballet’s Fairchild and Finlay and ends with an in-motion Gregory Hines. The pictorial also features a photo of dancer/choreographer Christopher Wheeldon (Estancia), along with a link to a 2007 article and slide show, featuring Wheeldon wearing a Giants jersey!
  

• Spider-Man Update
  The seemingly cursed new musical spectacular, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which announced last week it would delay its official opening until February, suffered another set back this week: Actor/stunt-man Christopher Tierney fell from a raised set piece meant to pose as the Brooklyn Bridge (“The Boy Falls From the Sky” now seems tragically ironic) and into a pit below the stage. The actor, who is making his Broadway debut, is currently in serious condition at Bellevue Hospital. According to a hospital spokeswoman who spoke to Playbill.com, the actor “suffered broken ribs and internal bleeding.” (Actors’ Equity has concluded that his fall was due to human error.) This comes after Arachne actress Natalie Mendoza had to miss several performances after being concussed by a rigging device, and two other stunt doubles sustained broken bones during tech. (Late in the week, the Department of Labor explained the new safety protocols put in place to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.)
  
  Accidents happen. It’s entirely possible—though Thespis forbid—that a hook could come undone during the aerial ballet in American Idiot and the Extraordinary Girl and Tunny could fall and hurt themselves. It’s entirely possible that the chandelier in Phantom could malfunction and come crashing down on the actors or audience. It’s entirely possible that one of the Jersey boys could slip on stage and break an ankle. I don’t wish for any of this to happen or mean to downplay the seriousness of Tierney’s injury. I only mean to point out that there is risk involved in everything we do; just because there have been multiple accidents in Spider-Man doesn’t mean the show is not looking out for its cast. Director Julie Taymor said in a statement, “Nothing is more important than the safety of our Spider-Man family, and we’ll continue to do everything in our power to protect the cast and crew.” I believe Taymor. And I also mean to point out that the injuries are not indicative of the show’s quality. (It’s lame excuse for a book is, but that’s apparently being worked on.) For now, please think lovely thoughts for Tierney and the rest of the Spider-Man cast and crew. (Tierney is on the mend, according to the latest report.)
  

• Pee-wee on Your Tee-vee
  The Pee-wee Herman Show, currently treading the boards at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, will be filmed after it closes on January 2 and will be broadcast on HBO sometime in 2011. (You may have noticed that Carrie Fisher’s Broadway show from last season, Wishful Drinking, is currently on HBO; you may also remember that this was done for Will Ferrell’s You’re Welcome America.) No specific broadcast date has been announced at this time. For more Pee-wee news, check out this first person account by director Alex Timbers (yep, the dude with the great hair who wrote and directed Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) on what it was like to bring Pee-wee to life.
  

• Extensions and Openings
  The Merchant of Venice, starring Al Pacino as Shylock, will extend its run through February. The production, originally scheduled to close on January 9, will take a brief hiatus after the performance on the 9th and return for another three weeks, February 1-20. Tickets for this three week extension go on sale next week.
  
  The rumors are confirmed: Jerusalem, a new play by Jez Butterworth and starring the always terrific Mark Rylance, will bow on Broadway (at Rylance's current home, the Music Box Theatre) for a limited 16-week engagement. The play will begin previews on April 2 in anticipation of an April 21 opening. Rylance will be reprising his critically acclaimed turn (in the West End’s Royal Court Theatre production) as Johnny “Rooster” Byron, and will be joined by Mackenzie Crook and much of the Royal Court cast. If Mark Rylance is on a stage, you know I’ll be there. Check back in the spring for a review!
  
  Driving Miss Daisy, starring James Earl Jones, Vanessa Redgrave and Boyd Gaines, will extend its run through April 9, 2011 with its three stars in tact. The play was originally to have closed on January 29. Likely reason for the extension? The box office, obviously. More specifically? The fact that the show has recouped its initial $2.6 million investment – the first show of this season (and perhaps the only way, the way things are going) to do so.
  

• Glee Scoop
  Can’t wait until February for Glee? Well, Glee, Season Two: Volume 1 will be available for purchase on January 25, 2011. Volume 2 and the complete second season will be available in fall 2011, likely just weeks before the third season premieres.

• Bloody Bloody Ben
  BBAJ’s star, sexypants Benjamin Walker, stopped by Broadway.com to answer fan questions. The hunky leading man has (and sometimes still does) performed stand-up comedy so some of his answers are laugh-out-loud funny. Head over to the site to find out what Walker thinks makes someone sexypants, what his political slogan would be (it’s quite catchy) and his eyeliner tips.
  

• TV Premieres
  As this year winds down, E! Online is looking forward to next year and the return or premiere of some great shows. Visit eonline.com for the full winter premiere calendar. Here are some dates I’m putting on my calendar (in order of premiere date): How I Met Your Mother, January 3; Parenthood, January 4; Modern Family, January 5; The Good Wife, January 11; White Collar, January 18; 30 Rock, Community, The Office, Parks & Recreation and Royal Pains, January 20; Glee, February 6 (this will air on Sunday immediately after Super Bowl XLV); and Mr. Sunshine, February 9 (a new show starring Matthew Perry and Allison Janney).
  

• Under the Boardwalk
  E! Online reports that Jack Huston’s Boardwalk Empire character Richard Harrow (you know, the Phantom of the Boardwalk) will return for the show’s second season… as a cast regular. Great news! For a Boardwalk Empire fix while the show is on hiatus, head on down to the Barrow Street Theatre where Michael Shannon is starring – to critical acclaim – in Mistakes Were Made (I’m trying to get a ticket for early next year); and head over to the (gross corporate sponsorship alert) Red Bull theatre to catch Michael Stuhlbarg in a reading of A Spanish Tragedy on December 28.
  

• Theatre Year in Review
  Playbill.com listed what their editors felt were the top theatre stories of 2010. Included on the list is Next to Normal’s Pulitzer Prize win, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (and other risky subjects) on the Great White Way, Spider-Man (duh!) and, much to my delight, American Idiot, Michael Mayer’s incredible vision and Billie Joe’s Broadway debut.

• Big Bucks for Big Stars
  Forbes announced its list of Hollywood’s Highest Grossing Actors this week. Can you guess who topped the list? No, it wasn’t some inane teeny-bopper. It was my man, Leonardo DiCaprio! Forbes reports that the combined global box office for his two films, Shutter Island and Inception, neither of which used 3-D, mind you, is a whopping $1.1 billion. (Forbes also reports that Leo struck a back-end deal on Inception, which means he gets a cut of the profits. Not too shabby, huh?) Next is youngster Mia Wasikowska, due in large part to her role as Alice in Alice in Wonderland. (Though, her performance in The Kids Are All Right is more note worthy.) Mia shares the number two spot with her Wonderland co-star, Johnny Depp. For the full list of high-grossing actors, visit forbes.com.

• More Foo for You
  Dear readers, you know by now that Foo Fighters have been in the studio recording their seventh full-length studio album. You also know that Krist Novoselic (Dave Grohl’s Nirvana bandmate) was in the studio with Dave, Taylor, Chris and Nate. What you may not know is that they played a surprise show in California this week, during which Novoselic joined the rest of the Foos on stage! Rollingstone.com has a full report, including Dave’s mention of a possible title for the forthcoming album (Back + Forth) and a full set list. Turn it up to 11, baby!
  

How Do You Know

Reese Witherspooon’s last movie was an animated one called Monsters vs. Aliens. Keeping with that titular syntax, her latest live-action movie, How Do You Know, could have easily been called Platitudes vs. Attitudes. In James L. Brooks’s relationship dramedy, Reese’s Lisa attempts to steer her way through a fling with Owen Wilson’s Matty and a budding friendship with Paul Rudd’s George, who is currently under federal investigation for some shady business relations, brought to light by his father, Jack Nicholson’s Charles.

Some people have said that the plot is confusing, but I disagree. I found it to be pretty straight forward. The characters and their interactions are a little confusing, like how, for example, it’s even a choice between the jerky Matty and the charming George. But, maybe that’s just because I like Paul Rudd. In any case, on possibly the worst day of their respective lives, Lisa and George go on a date (though Lisa is already involved with Matty). It seems like a disaster but a chance meeting on an elevator several days later allows Lisa and George to see each other in a new light.

All the while, Lisa, Matty and Charles are guided by platitudes: They live their lives based on clichés. To wit: Lisa has tons of colorful Post-It notes with “inspirational sayings” written on them posted throughout her apartment, including an overwhelming collage on her mirror.

(On a side note, when we see these Post-Its, it is actually a very poignant moment: Lisa, an Olympic softball player, has just learned she didn’t make the team. She stands before her mirror, idly brushing her teeth, staring at her reflection. Reese is so good that you see her mind wander to the rejection. As tears threaten to overwhelm her she scans the Post-It collage and staves off the tears. It’s a credit to Reese’s skill as an actress that this came off well, instead of melodramatically.)

Aside from a funny saying from her dad, “Don’t drink to feel better; drink to feel even better,” most of the quotes by which Lisa and the others, except George, live by are bullshit. They’re simple one-liners that are supposed to make you feel better or see you through some challenge, but they are completely lacking pathos. That’s the attitude part, and that’s where George comes in.

George is a pretty honest guy and definitely a rule follower but when his world comes crumbling down from the investigation, he takes stock and decides to follow his heart – meaning he goes after Lisa, despite her protestations and unavailability. Through George’s friendship (and through a touching if slightly saccharine scene involving a birth and a proposal), Lisa must learn to eschew the platitudes and embrace the attitudes.

This wasn’t a great movie, but I liked it enough – mostly because of Reese and Paul. Jack Nicholson was fine, breathing and flaring his nostrils like he usually does. And though Owen is my least favorite of the three Wilson brothers (Luke is number one and Andrew’s number two), he’s the right guy for the likable but douchey Matty, a pitcher for the Washington Nationals. (Most unbelievable part of the movie: the notion that there are Nationals fans.) For me, though, it comes down to the stars.

Reese is good as a young woman trying to figure out what she wants from life. Until this point, things have worked out. But now she’s 31 and jobless; her friends talk about all-consuming romantic relationships, but Lisa doesn’t have a trite saying for that. Reese nails the strong headed, type-A Lisa, while making believable her initial wariness but eventual embrace of George.

And Paul Rudd is nothing if not charming. George is rather down on his luck but, guided by his attitude and heart, he is able to see a brighter path once the luminous Lisa enters his life. Paul has perfected the simultaneously kind of dorky, kind of awkward but always earnest angle (beginning with his breakthrough in Clueless and continuing here) and it worked like a charm on me. He’s so appealing as the lovable loser – you just want to reach through the screen and give him a hug.

Still, the movie was a little slow at moments and my parents, who accompanied me to the movie, didn’t like it at all. (They found the characters’ inaction and inarticulate nature annoying.) I liked it more than the season’s other rom-com, Love and Other Drugs (sorry, Jake Gyllenhaal’s pecs and Anne Hathaway’s breasts) mostly because it wasn’t trying to be something it wasn’t. It’s a story about relationships and answering the age old question: How do you know? While renowned filmmaker Brooks doesn’t give explicit answer, I’d venture to say that his implicit answer is you know not because of some stale expression posted on your wall but rather because, in your heart, you just know.

The Fighter

The movie is called The Fighter, singular, but it really could be called The Fighters, plural, as everyone in Lowell, MA, is fighting for something: Pride; a better life; their own story. The street-wise characters populating this town (and the actors who play them) tell a compelling, true story of redemption.

Our protagonist, (perhaps) the titular fighter, is Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), a boxer and the little brother of Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), also a boxer. Dicky is known as the Pride of Lowell, having taken down Sugar Ray Leonard. (Although, that will come into dispute: Trying to make Dicky recognize his own shortcomings, a couple characters tell him he didn’t knock out Sugar Ray; rather, Sugar Ray slipped.) Dicky is now addicted to crack and when we meet the two brothers, they are being filmed by a documentary crew from HBO. Dicky thinks they are making a film about his comeback; really, they’re making a film about crack addiction.

As Dicky falls deeper and deeper into his addiction, Micky is trying to make a name for himself as a boxer. Helping and hindering him along the way are his brother (who trains him when Dicky actually remembers to show up) and his manager mother, Alice (Melissa Leo). Micky meets and falls for Charlene (Amy Adams), much to the dismay of his seven sisters, who think Charlene is wild and snotty. (She is neither.) With Charlene by his side and after Alice and Dicky force Micky into the ring with a boxer above his weight class – just so everyone can get paid – Micky starts to wonder if his family really has his best interest in mind. As the story unfolds, we watch a young man fight to move out of his brother’s shadow, out from under his mother’s wing and into a life of which he’s in control.

The story is compelling and even a little tear inducing at moments. The direction, by auteur David O. Russell (Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees), is very good (I particularly like the opening sequence during which Micky and Dicky walk through town saying hello to everyone; this scene is echoed toward the end of the film when Micky and Dicky are training for Micky’s title fight) but the best thing about The Fighter is the stellar cast.

I’ve always liked Amy Adams and she does great work here as Charlene, who’s fighting to turn her life around. Adams, who is beautiful and a successful movie star, is still able to believably bring to life the girl next door. Adams’s Charlene is strong and supportive, but doesn’t take any bullshit. Ultimately, you can see in her eyes that she cares deeply for Micky, and she eventually comes to accept Dicky as part of Micky’s team.

Melissa Leo is fantastic as Alice, Micky and Dicky’s mother. This is a woman who clearly has plans for her boys. She’s a self taught manager, fighting to prove she’s wiser and savvier than her Lowell, working class roots might suggest. In an unglamorous role, Leo brings authenticity and pathos to a character that could have just been a Mama Rose knock-off. Instead, Alice is a determined woman who is trying to look out for her sons.

One of those sons is Dicky, played to jittery perfection by Christian Bale. Dicky doesn’t know it but for about 75% of the movie he is fighting for his life. As Bale plays Dicky, he is something like a tempest – a nearly unstoppable force that rages through Lowell, plowing through – seemingly without care – anything in his path. Bale has been known to drastically alter his body for roles and this is no exception. He dropped several pounds to play the crack addicted fallen champ. He looks sickly, many of his teeth are MIA and he doesn’t stop moving or talking. Bale is nearly unrecognizable, except for his expert performance.

And at the center of it all is Micky, played to quiet perfection by Mark Wahlberg. This entire film was a passion project for Wahlberg and yet after all that fighting, he didn't go for an over the top, look-at-me performance. Instead, he affectingly underplays the fighter who is just trying to make his own way. The strong silent Micky is a terrific foil for Dicky, who is basically chaos incarnate. Wahlberg’s Micky simmers throughout the film, fighting to stay calm and keep everyone happy. When he finally reaches his boiling point, Wahlberg throws a knock out body blow to everyone around him, as he takes a stand and fights for himself: You think you know me? You think you know what’s best for me? Well you don’t. Only I do, so stop fighting with each other and help me. Wahlberg’s quiet strength up to that point makes this pivotal moment all the more powerful.

With a strong script, skillful direction and stellar performances across the board, The Fighter is justifably one of the top contenders this award season.

Media Morsels 12.17.10

Awards, awards and more awards. That’s the theme this week. Nominations came out for the Critics’ Choice awards, the Golden Globes and the Screen Actor’s Guild. This week’s media morsels are a round up of award-related “stuff” (plus a couple of bonus, non-award items).

Let’s begin

• The Critics’ Choice Nominees: Black Swan leads the pack with a record 12 nominations (I’m mostly listing the nominees I’ve seen or simply like their body of work; visit bfca.org for the full list of nominees)
• Picture – 127 Hours; Inception; The Fighter; The King’s Speech; The Social Network; Black Swan
• Actor – Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network; Colin Firth, The King's Speech; James Franco, 127 Hours; Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine
• Actress – Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right; Natalie Portman, Black Swan
• Supporting Actor – Andrew Garfield (!!!), The Social Network; Mark Ruffalo (!!), The Kids Are All Right; Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech; Christian Bale, The Fighter
• Supporting Actress – Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech; Amy Adams, The Fighter; Melissa Leo, The Fighter
• Acting Ensemble (love that they give this award!) – The Kids Are All Right; The King’s Speech; The Social Network; The Fighter
  (Much as I loved, loved, loved The Social Network, if we’re talking about an ensemble really making the movie as incredible as it was, my vote’s for The Kids Are All Right)
• Director – Danny Boyle, 127 Hours; David Fincher, The Social Network; Christopher Nolan, Inception; Tom Hooper, The King's Speech; Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
  (The direction and camera work were my least favorite things about The King’s Speech, so while this nomination is not a surprise, I don’t fully agree with Hooper’s nomination)
• Original Screenplay – Christopher Nolan, Inception; Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg, The Kids Are All Right; Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson, The Fighter
• Adapted Screenplay – Aaron Sorkin (!!!), The Social Network; Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle, 127 Hours;
• Cinematography – Anthony Dod Mantle and Enrique Chediak, 127 Hours; Wally Pfister, Inception; Danny Cohen, The King’s Speech;
  (I’m torn between 127 Hours and Inception. I think for the sheer number of different worlds he had to capture, I’m going for Pfister’s work on Inception)
• Sound – 127 Hours; Inception; The Social Network
  (It’s a toss up for me; each used sound to great effect)
• Action Movie + Comedy – Inception (action); Cyrus (comedy)
• Made for TV Movie – all from HBO: The Pacific; Temple Grandin; You Don’t Know Jack
• Song – "If I Rise," 127 Hours; "Shine," Waiting for Superman (written by John Legend and performed by Legend and The Roots)
• Score – Hans Zimmer, Inception; Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Social Network; Alexandre Desplat, The King’s Speech
  
  
• Other Critics’ Choices
  The Social Network has been cleaning up at several regional critics’ awards, most recently taking top honors from the New York Film Critics Award. The film also won best director. It did not win any acting or writing awards. Normally, I’d say this is a travesty (at least in the writing department), what with Aaron Sorkin being in the running, but in this particular race “best screenplay” isn’t broken down into original and adapted; New York film critics chose Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg’s The Kids Are All Right and that choice is all right by me. Kids’ actors picked up some awards, too. Mark Ruffalo won for best supporting actor and Annette Bening won for best actress, besting the much buzzed about Natalie Portman.
  
  
• SAG Awards
  Screen Actors Guild nominations were announced this week. The Social Network, The Kids Are All Right, Modern Family, Boardwalk Empire and Glee all did very well, nabbing individual nominations for some of its stars (like Mark Ruffalo and Jesse Eisenberg) as well as ensemble nods. Visit sag.org for the full list of nominees.
  
  
• Golden Globe Reactions
  The Hollywood Reporter caught up with several nominees to capture their reactions. Among the folks they spoke with are Aaron Sorkin, Laura Linney, Natalie Portman and James Franco. Visit hollywoodreporter.com to get their and other nominees’ reactions.
  
  
• Oscar Update
  The first slew of Oscar presenters were announced this week. Usually presenters include past winners, as it’s customary for last year’s winner (for the acting awards) to present this year's award to their opposite gender counterpart. (So after Reese Witherspoon won her Best Actress Oscar, the next year she presented the Best Actor Oscar.) So naturally, this year Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock will present awards. Joining them will be Halle Berry, Marisa Tomei and Oprah. No official announcement about last year’s winners Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique presenting, but they’ll probably be announced in short order. Visit oscars.org to read the press release.
  
  In other Oscar news, this week we learned which songs are eligible for Best Song nominations. Among those eligible is John Legend for his song, "Shine," from the documentary Waiting for Superman. Read the full list of 41 eligible songs on Playbill.com.
  
  
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Class of 2011
  The next class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees was announced on Wednesday. The class of 2011 is comprised of Alice Cooper, Neil Diamond, Darlene Love, Dr John and Tom Waits. Rolling Stone reports that Leon Russell will receive the Award for Musical Excellence and Jac Holzman and Art Rupe will receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award. The honorees will be inducted at a ceremony in New York on March 14; it will be broadcast live on Fuse. Visit rollingstone.com for more details.
  
  
• Keeping with the awards theme: Ryan Gosling is getting lots of buzz for his work in Blue Valentine (see above). MTV recently caught up with him and are presenting three interview clips in which Ryan talks about why women are attracted to him; a weird internet sensation; and when he’ll tie the knot.
  
  
• Though not a nominee for anything film related, Mark Rylance is a Tony and Olivier winner and will likely be nominated for a Tony in 2011 for his work in either La Bete or Jerusalem. This week, Broadway.com spoke to him about keeping his 30-minute speech in La Bete fresh every night and bringing Jerusalem stateside.
  
  
• Time’s Top Ten
  This week, Time magazine announced its Person of the Year, Mark Zuckerberg, and a slew of Top Ten lists. Some of the tens they rounded up are the ten best plays and musicals (which they got horribly wrong; La Cage? Seriously? A View from the Bridge? That was last year!); top ten TV series, including Boardwalk Empire and The Good Wife; and top ten numbers (check it out). Perhaps the most disturbing thing, though, was the fact that a news magazine dedicated two top ten lists to Twitter-related items and yet had a category for the most underreported news stories. Hello! You’re a news magazine. Get off Twitter and get on the stories!

Bonus Non-Award Items

• American Idiot Comings and Goings
  This past Sunday, American Idiot said goodbye to two original cast members, Mary Faber (Heather) and Joshua Kobak (Swing). Faber is getting ready to start rehearsals for the Broadway revival of How to Succeed… in which she’ll play Smitty and star opposite Daniel Radcliffe. American Idiot welcomed Jeanna de Waal to the company; she takes over the role of Heather. Kobak is heading over to the Foxwoods theatre to swing in to action in Spider-Man.
  
  It was also announced this week that Michael Esper (Will) has been cast in Tony Kushner’s The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures. Esper appeared in the production when it played Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theater in 2009. There’s no official word on when Esper’s last day as an Idiot will be, but I’ll keep you posted.
  
  All this makes me think that the show will close after Billie Joe finishes his return engagement with the show in February. However, at the moment tickets are still on sale through May 1 to if you’re in town, head on over to the St. James Theatre and say hello to the ridiculously talented Idiots.
  
  Happy Holidays, From the Idiots (and Jujamcyn)
  This Wednesday, American Idiot's leading men, John Gallagher, Jr., Michael Esper and Stark Sands traversed cold New York City singing carols. Playbill.com caught them in the act. And click here to see video of the talented Idiots performing. Plus, chcek out this video from Jujamcyn, the production organization supporting American Idiot; it's their way of saying "thank you" to theatre goers for making the year such a good one for them. You're welcome, Jujamcyn!
  
  
• Side by Side by Susan Blackwell
  Susan Blackwell and her sharp tongue are back, this time with Zachary Quinto. Have a peek in on their conversation as they hang out in a dog park and play, obviously, Name That Dog!
  
  
• Spider-Man Delayed
  Seems I'm not the only one to think that Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark's book needs work. Word came this week that the show, currently in previews at the Foxwoods Theatre, will delay its official opening from January 11 to February 7, according to the New York Times, in an effort to work on major revisions to the book.