Armchair Commentary

Iron Man 3 Director Shares "The Big Secret" of Screenwriting

Writer/director Shane Black, an action hero to screenwriters everywhere, served as a guest judge for the Amazon Studios April awards – and took some time to answer a few questions for us (and dodge a few about Iron Man 3).

             Shane Black’s voice, so deliberate and enunciated, takes on a conspiratorial tone. I hold my breath. “Here’s what people don’t know,” he says. “Here’s the big secret.” It’s not about Iron Man 3, the blockbuster sequel he’ll be directing for release in 2013 (he can’t say much about that). This secret is about screenwriting. “I don’t just say this for me, I’ve heard this from many people,” he said. “You write a script. It’s very difficult, but then you finish it. You think if you write, say, seven more, you’re cruising, everything’s great.”

            Yeah, that sounds about right. Especially when you’ve written scripts like Lethal Weapon, The Long Kiss Goodnight and The Last Boy Scout, as Black has. “But each one is more difficult. If you’ve written nine scripts, the tenth is going to be even harder,” he says. Wait, what? “Maybe it’s just that you know more about writing and you’re not satisfied with less. But it never gets easier, only more grueling with every script. I’ve never had an easy one.”

            Can’t help it; heavy sigh. Some secret! “That’s not to say it was all misery,” he continues quickly. “Difficulty doesn’t mean it was a miserable process. Difficult means you had to burn brightly and pace around 1,000 times and go through 10 reams of paper, but you get it. … I think it’s important to feel like you’ve really smashed at the envelope, flailed away at all the corners until you’ve exhausted the pool of ideas that exist for a project you’ve chosen, even if you don’t use most of them.”

            He seems to still be in envelope-smashing mode for Iron Man 3, which he will be writing (with Drew Pearce) as well as directing. The movie is a reunion of sorts with Robert Downey Jr., who starred in Black’s directorial debut, the snappy neo-noir Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.  

            Black can’t get all plot-specific, but he can talk about what excites him about Iron Man, which he describes as a “distinctly entrepreneurial story” about someone who’s a genius, who makes wonderful machines, “a guy who can kick your ass, but also has a reason for doing it that he thinks is justified.” The story is a “coming of age for a rich guy, a pampered guy, who has to get back to his grassroots.”

            As much as that though, or more than that, it’s a story about science, and how it can unite humanity. Lately, particularly post-Fukushima nuclear meltdown, science and its seeming gifts have been more divisive and painful. Black is excited by the space-age vibe of scientific discovery: “Iron Man is something for the 16-year-old boy with a copy of Popular Science under his arm and a dream. … Optimism combined with real-world kickass sentiment.”

            And then there’s the chance to work with Downey again, to “encounter someone who is a brilliant talent, decent guy, a friend, see where he’s at and get reacquainted creatively,” he said. “I have utmost respect for this guy. I have never worked with anyone who is just so effortlessly good.”

            It’s odd to think that in the mid-2000s, when Kiss Kiss Bang Bang came out, Downey was considered less than a sure thing as a leading man. But a superhero franchise and Sherlock Holmes reboot later, and perceptions have changed for Downey. And Kiss Kiss Bang Bang certainly changed perceptions of Black. “The most rewarding thing was that I don’t think people realized that I had weird taste,” he said. “Everyone just assumed that I was trying to make big-budget movies, but I really wanted to try some new things.”

Read more at the Amazon Studios blog. -- Steph, Amazon Studios

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Saying Goodbye to Kenickie

After a long-documented battle with drugs and alcohol, 60-year-old Jeff Conaway died after being taken off life support while in a medically induced coma. The actor had been found unconscious in his home. Conaway's manager Phil Brock told the Hollywood Reporter that the actor had overdosed on painkillers. However, Dr. Drew Pinsky, who worked with Conaway on Celebrity Rehab, tweeted that the actor that the actor was suffering from pneumonia and sepsis, a possibly deadly blood infection.

Conaway was best known for his role as Kenickie, in the 1978 film Grease. He had played John Travolta’s role of Danny Zuko on the Broadway stage, but on film Conaway made bad-boy Kenickie come alive with lines like, “A hickie from Kenickie is like a Hallmark card, when you only care enough to send the very best!” 

He went on to star as Bobby Wheeler in the television show Taxi for three seasons and was nominated for two Golden Globe awards for the role.  His role as a luckless actor on that show seemed to foreshadow the ups and downs of his career. Though he had success for three years on the TV show Babylon 5, his post-Taxi career primarily consisted of made-for-TV movies and short-lived series, such as Wizards and Warriors and Berrengers.

Conaway was born on Oct. 5, 1950 and had his first Broadway role at age 10 in All the Way Home, opposite Lillian Gish and Colleen Dewhurst. His first film was 1971’s Jennifer on My Mind, in which he co-starred with a young Robert De Niro. Conaway played a heroin addict in the film. He guest starred on TV shows such as Barnaby Jones, Happy Days, and Mary Tyler Moore, before finally landing the role of Kenickie.

In recent years, Conaway became famous for his stints on Celebrity Fit Club and Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. On Dr. Drew’s show he revealed that he’d been an addict since his teen years and admitted to suicidal thoughts. 

In 2010, the actor fell in his home and suffered a broken hip, broken arm, brain hemorrhage, and fractured neck. 

Conaway’s co-stars never forgot him. Taxi co-stars Marilu Henner and Tony Danza reportedly visited him in his final days, and Travolta reportedly offered to pay for the actor to go back into rehab. 

“He’s a wonderful man,” Brock told Reuters prior to Conaway's death, “As a human being, he’s the person who’d literally give the shirt off his back for someone.” -- Paige Newman

 

Henry Rollins Talks "Green Lantern: Emerald Knights"

When he isn’t perusing the Sudan, performing in Prague or recording for public radio, Henry Rollins takes to another of his true passions: voiceovers for animated projects. Rollins’ latest animated incarnation is in the guise of Kilowog for the next DC Universe Animated Original Movie, Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. Rollins voices one of the most beloved characters in the entire universe of Green Lanterns – Kilowog, the hardcore drill sergeant-style trainer of Green Lantern recruits. Written by Peter J. Tomasi (based on “New Blood” by Tomasi & Chris Samnee) and directed by Lauren Montgomery, the “Kilowog” segment of the film depicts the gruff character’s initial days as a young recruit under the abusive tutelage of Deegan, an equally gruff character who shows Kilowog the true “tough love” principles of training. As the segment play out, Kilowog must assume an integral leadership role within the ranks.

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights is far from Rollins’ first venture down the animated path. For Warner Bros. alone, Rollins has recorded over the years for Batman Beyond, Teen Titans and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. And then there’s his more recent forays into voiceovers for series like Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time and the primetime series American Dad! Rollins is joined in the voicecast of the intergalactic animated film by Nathan Fillion, Elisabeth Moss, Jason Isaacs (the Harry Potter films), Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy), Kelly Hu (The Vampire Diaries), Wade Williams (Prison Break), and professional wrestling legend Rowdy Roddy Piper . No stranger to the spoken word, Rollins spent some significant time after his initial recording session chatting about his character, his love of great literature, Too Much Coffee Man, his need to travel the Earth, and much, much more. Read on …

QUESTION: How did you approach the character of Kilowog for this story?

HENRY ROLLINS: For me, Kilowog is a man who's pure of heart. He's a warrior. He's a soldier. And he loves his rookies. Deegan is the guy who broke him in – in boot camp – and kind of brought him into command position. So Kilowog came up through the ranks by being brave and by being a take-charge leader. In the Kilowog segment, you see that he had a grasp of the leadership idea from the get-go. He's with other recruits and he immediately takes the leadership position. So I think he's a good guy, but he always knew he was gonna be running things.

QUESTION: Were there any challenges to finding the character for you?

HENRY ROLLINS: I assumed what the character needed before we went in. I said, “Andrea (Romano), this guy has a flat top, thick neck, but he’s a good guy and if you get past all the yelling, you know he's got a good heart.” She said, “You got it. That's, that's the guy.” So I kind of had him dialed in and then we went forth. It was really just finding his subtleties working with the great direction of Andrea. The character, for me, wasn't all that hard to find. He's not a complex guy. He takes his orders. He gives orders. He knows right and wrong. He takes care of bad guys, and keeps people alive. On that level, his life is pretty simple.

QUESTION: You’re so often a one-man show, or at least the leader of the band. What’s it like to be directed by Andrea Romano?

HENRY ROLLINS: I've been working with Andrea for well over a decade, and it is one of the fun moments of my year when I get the call. Watching her work with a whole group of people is like watching a combination of air traffic controller, director and producer all at once. And she has as much fun or more fun than all of us combined. Her level of energy is quite remarkable. I've done every kind of voiceover with her – entire casts, one on one, Batman Beyond, Teen Titans – and she always brings a tremendous bolt of energy. It's infectious and it’s fun. It’s like she always says, “Thanks for coming in and playing.” Andrea really allows you to have fun with it and not take yourself too seriously, which allows you to work really hard.

QUESTION: You're such an intense, intelligent, driven individual who actively lobbies for so many worthy, worldwide causes. Do voiceovers for animation fulfill some sort of need for play, or does it offer another challenge?

HENRY ROLLINS: The reason why I come and do voiceover, for animation or documentary or whatever, is because I'm really not suited for it. And so I have to somehow pass myself off as someone who can actually pull this off. It makes me work really hard, and I love the challenge. I've been in a lot of films, and yet I’ve never taken an acting lesson. I've done a lot of voiceovers for all kinds of things, and I've never taken any lessons there. I've just shown up with a whole lot of enthusiasm, a great fear of failure, and a desire to please the people who have somehow trusted me to do the work. I come from the minimum wage working world of the late '70s, early '80s, so stuff like this, to me, is gravy. It is so not standing on my feet, carrying something to the back of a truck. I know how to do all of that. Many of us do. So, for me, it's just a really fun thing. There's pressure certainly to perform – not the same pressure that I take out on stage every night, when there's a lot of people who are there to hear me or see me. The voiceover thing, in order to be good at it, you have to have a laugh at yourself. I mean, you're doing funny voices. We're larger than life here. So you have to throw your seriousness away and be able to laugh at yourself. You have to throw out your ego. The more I do it, the more I realize that you have to approach it that way – and then you get super involved in the moment. I think that's what the job requires. You have to think “Oh, no, here comes the meteor storm. We’ve got to go.” When I'm doing something like that, believe me, I'm really in that moment. When you can throw away your self-importance and have fun with it, that’s when you really deliver.”

QUESTION: What’s your motivation to perform in this odd world of entertainment?

HENRY ROLLINS: Like many of us in the entertainment world, I think we are making up for the lack of attention that we did not get as kids through the need for attention and approval from an audience. I tell audiences now that I'm only here for your attention and your approval. I need you way more than you'll ever need me. And you'll be done with me way sooner than I'll ever be done with you. It's a pity. And welcome to the show. (he laughs) And it's so true. QUESTION: Are you more comfortable performing in front of large groups or alone in a studio with you and the microphone? HENRY ROLLINS: I love being in front of tons of people, and I really enjoy being one-on-one with the microphone. I love both micromanaging the part, and having the ability now to give the director exactly what he or she wants, and then really being able to nail it. In the booth it’s fun because they’re directing you, and you’re trying to hit those notes. It’s like Andrea will say “Can you lighten it up just a little? Remember, you're kind of sad, because on page 11 you had that thing happen.” And then you can dial in with such extreme subtlety that she can hear it and go, “That's what I needed. Thank you very much, we’re moving on.” To be able to deliver that is really enjoyable.

QUESTION: Did you read comics as a kid?

HENRY ROLLINS: I was not a comic book-guy growing up. My stepbrother had them. I would look at them with not a great of interest. My first job was throwing newspapers for the long-defunct Washington Star. I’d throw 80,000 tons of newspaper a year for about $4.60. So I’ve got maybe $12 to my name, but I was a kid, I didn't know what to do with it. And so I went to the drugstore and I bought a couple of comics. I dragged them home, and I looked at them. Quite honestly, it didn't do much for me, and I've never gone back except for when someone sends me the odd modern comic. A few years ago, I did come across this character called “Too Much Coffee Man.” And he used to worry about the world. He had a coffee cup strapped to his head. I eventually made friends with Shannon Wheeler, who draws the comic. He illustrated a book for me – putting some illustrations at the beginning of each chapter. And Shannon used to kindly send me these collections of “Too Much Coffee Man.” But that's the only comic I would really pay attention to, because I like the idea. “Too Much Coffee Man” has a lot to say. He's a great apocalyptic philosopher for our very troubled times.

QUESTION: Comics don’t have an impact on you, but do you believe they have a social relevance for society?

HENRY ROLLINS: I think that it's important for young people who are maybe sensitive. Maybe they're not gonna be the quarterback and they're not gonna get the pretty cheerleader to go to the senior prom. But it's great for them to have an escape. Because some people who are often aren't the one who can throw the football the furthest, they have interesting minds. And I think that comics help someone with an imagination have fun and play around … I think anything that inspires young people to have imagination – it’s what gives you things like, oh, the Internet and renewable energy. And progress. So I think anything that is a seed to imagination, that enhances imagination, I think is safe. Growing up, I loved great literature. I lived for your Steinbecks and your Hemmingways as a kid, and I read them all again as an adult and got the better version of the story. My comic books were reading things like the The Grapes Of Wrath, and stuff like that that my mom turned me on to. So I understand anything that makes the imagination go as being a good thing.

QUESTION: Is there a super hero or villain role you truly covet?

HENRY ROLLINS: No. I'm happy for anything that would come my way. And I'll be so happy if someone said, “Here is three years work on this series and you get to be that guy.” It’s all been so much fun. There's nothing I'm wanting to do but more.

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights will be distributed by Warner Home Video on Blu-ray, DVD, and Instant Video June 7.

"Titanic" Coming to 3D: Will You Watch?

Paramount and 20th Century Fox announced today that James Cameron's Titanic will be re-released in 3D on April 6, 2012, to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the ship's sailing.

Like most of the world, I watched this back in 1997 in the theater (3rd row, it was pretty crowded even on a Monday night), and even in 2D I remember feeling like I was actually bobbing in the water with the passengers, out in the vast, pitch-black ocean. While Titanic has its many, many detractors, the conversion to 3D will be an intriguing one given that the only film that has made successful use of 3D since it hit the mainstream is Avatar, also directed by Cameron.

How will the epic scenes play out in 3D? The boarding of the ship, the submarine exploration, "I'm flying!" and of course, the entire last hour of the film. Would you watch it again in 3D? What other older films do you think might actually benefit from a 3D conversion? --Ellen

"Rowdy" Roddy Piper Talks "Green Lantern: Emerald Knights"

On June 7, fans can experience professional wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper’s acting chops in his very first voiceover role for animation as the barbaric Bolphunga in Green Lantern: Emerald Knights.

Piper’s character – Bolphunga the Unrelenting – is the central antagonist in the episodic segment entitled “Mogo Doesn’t Socialize.” Based on the 1985 story created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the story centers on Bolphunga’s search for Mogo, the largest Green Lantern, in hopes of engaging the famed warrior in a battle worthy of the villain. The role serves as a perfect vehicle to showcase Piper’s strength and wonderful sense of humor.

QUESTION: Green Lantern: Emerald Knights was your first-ever voiceover for animation. How was the experience?

RODDY PIPER: That was about as much fun as I could ever hope to have. You can really lose yourself in an animated role. There’s so much freedom, so much room for creativity. It’s a blast.

QUESTION: Professional wrestling gave you plenty of experience being both the villain and the hero. How does the public perceive you today?

RODDY PIPER: I guess a lot of folks have grown up with me and, in an awkward way, for people who really have seen the good sides of me, I’m like a father figure. It’s remarkable – every place I go, there’s somebody that has an inspiring tale to tell. At one of my shows, there was a policeman named Paul who had been awarded a Congressional citation for saving someone’s life. He came up and gave me his citation. He said that when he was a little boy, he had troubles – but he would watch me and that’s where he found inspiration and direction. So when he goes into a tough situation, he relates to (my actions), and he says it saved his life. The profession that I took upon is a lawless, tough piece of work, and so many of my friends are dead now. So in my one-man show, I tell the folks about people that they grew up with, people that they may have related to in different ways. My profession is very renegade. But as crazy as it seems, it’s as real as it gets.

QUESTION: What’s your approach to performing these one-man shows?

RODDY PIPER: I was with Burt Reynolds at his house in Jupiter (FL) and he said to me, “The one thing I try to convey as actors is that we don’t get enough ‘Atta Boys.’ So I try to make them leave with an ‘Atta Boy.’ And that really sticks with me. Encouragement is an essential.

QUESTION: You seem like a natural for animation. What’s your attraction to playing an animated character?

RODDY PIPER: I like the fact that I can go away and lose myself so I don’t have to live in the world of courage that everyone else does. I like creating, it’s what I do, and acting allows me to stretch all those different muscles in all kinds of ways. That’s pretty cool.

QUESTION: There are those that would claim wrestling is acting. What are the key differences in those two performances?

RODDY PIPER: Wrestling and acting couldn’t be anymore different in terms of what it takes to entertain. Wrestling is explosion, acting is implosion. One really screws up the other. That’s why Hogan sucks. If I came out on camera like I do in Madison Square Garden, it would look crazy. Clint Eastwood just shakes his head and raises his eye and it works. But when you’ve got 96,000 people at Wrestlemania, I need to get through to the back row. Fighting is not internal, but it can be very spiritual. Everything acting is internal. One of my problems in making the transition is pulling back, but I’m working on it.

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights will be distributed by Warner Home Video on Blu-ray, DVD, and Instant Video June 7.

The Education of Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is one of those actors who grew up in front of us. As a child star on TV he showed charm, sweetness, and humor before making a studied move into movies as his body and mind became sinewy, smart, and bursting with barely restrained intensity. On screens now as the title character in Hesher, Gordon-Levitt is again testing his range as a severely damaged mystery man who drives a beat-up van and carries a rage with deep roots that we never really see unearthed. Wearing a grungy fright wig and anarchic death-metal attitude to match, he enters the life of an equally damaged family in desperate need of the help only a character as desperate as he can give. Gordon-Levitt's physical grace is extraordinarily compelling as he pushes and punishes his lithe body in complete commitment to the role. It’s a new peak in a career that deserves a look backward for clues on how he came to be so possessed and confident in roles that have been sweet, terrifying, enigmatic, and everything in between.

3rd Rock from the Sun,1996-2001: Jospeph Gordon-Levitt made his TV debut at age seven and appeared had a few small screen guest shots (including Family Ties and Roseanne) before landing the role of all-American space alien Tommy Solomon at age 15 in 1996 for the acclaimed six-season run of Third Rock From the Sun. He was the youngest member of the family in Earth years, but it was never clear who among the wacky Solomons had the highest level of maturity. With his shoulder-length locks and cute, shy, loveable demeanor, Gordon-Levitt was a favorite character who often was the smartest in the cobbled-together family of dim bulbs played with separate but equal wackiness by John Lithgow, Kristen Johnsten, and French Stewart. His skill at comic timing and ingenuous charm grew rapidly over the series’ life, and when the ensemble show folded his options were open to both comic/romantic offerings or more substantial actorly roles, both of which he pursued vigorously.

10 Things I Hate About You, 1999: On hiatus from Third Rock, Gordon-Levitt took a supporting role as a fully human high school kid in this well-received teen reimagining of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. He had the aw-shucks teenage charisma down pat and nicely complimented the large cast that was headed by Heath Ledger and Julia Styles. It wasn’t his first big screen outing (he had minor preteen parts in the John Grisham adaptation The Juror and Robert Redford’s fly fishing reverie A River Runs Through It), but it made a big impression on industry types that this was a good-looking, sharp-witted professional young man with a career to look forward to.

Manic, 2001: This relatively obscure drama starring Don Cheadle as a counselor at a psychiatric lockup for teens was Gordon-Levitt’s first real break from his blithe past as a sweet kid with a carefree spirit. He plays a troubled kid with a violent streak and a dangerous future ahead of him unless he can reach down and get at his inner turmoil. The glimmers of intensity he brings to the role of a kid who’s crossed the cusp to adulthood show the method-like passion that will soon explode in many more serious roles that unleash real depth of character. His co-star is the relatively unknown doe-eyed cutie Zooey Deschanel who brought him a different kind of romantic turmoil a few years later in (500) Days of Summer.

Mysterious Skin, 2004: This haunting, mysterious, and quietly unsettling indie drama from bad-boy underground director Greg Araki was a major turning point for Gordon-Levitt as a serious actor who brought physical grace, toughness, genuine strength, and an underlying vulnerability to the role of a teenage hustler and victim of childhood sexual abuse. It’s an unflinching portrait, both direct and compellingly oblique about the ways that trauma can manifest itself in the molding of a young mind and how a victim copes with an aftermath that may never heal. Gordon-Levitt took risks that paid off with devastating clarity for his director and for himself as an actor eager to push himself into unfamiliar territory.
 
Brick, 2005: If Mysterious Skin represented Gordon-Levitt testing the waters of his range, the brilliantly conceived homage to literary noir of Brick cemented his ability to run deep with a complex character in a somewhat less experimental, more accessible style. Still in the realm of serious indie, he plays a moody high school kid on the fringe of social cliques who is thrust into a mystery worthy of Chandler or Hammett when his ex-girlfriend ends up dead. Brick creates a sort of alternate reality populated by teens who act and speak in a lightning fast vernacular of 1940s pulp against a backdrop of hardcore drug deals and intricate relational dynamics that unfold in a sort of alternate reality. The script, dialogue, and direction by first time director Rian Johnson were integral to the many accolades Gordon-Levitt won as a noteworthy young actor riding a crest to much bigger things.

Stop-Loss, 2008: Ryan Phillippe starred in this well-intentioned but poorly received drama about a soldier returning from a tour in Iraq, only to find he’s been stop-lossed and redirected back in country for another deployment. Gordon-Levitt has a great time venting all the rage and barely restrained psychosis of his friend in a supporting role that was perhaps his most daring and unexpected to date. Boys Don’t Cry director Kimberly Pierce stumbled over a sometimes clunky script, but the performances were strong all around, especially Gordon-Levitt’s turn as an unpredictable muscle-bound alpha-male with a sense of patriotism that upends and undoes him.
 
(500) Days of Summer, 2009: In what suddenly seemed like a rare departure from his slightly-psycho, super-serious roles that showcased his dramatic intensity, Gordon-Levitt sparkled in this sweet, gentle, and genuinely poignant romantic comedy about a sweet, gentle writer of greeting cards who falls for an irresistible girl who breaks his heart. He’s a true romantic, dedicated to the notion of true eternal love, but she (the irresistible Zooey Deschanel) doesn’t believe in love and is simply looking for a uncommitted fun time with a nice guy for the right now. Showing off his innate physical grace to great effect, Gordon-Levitt sings and dances, reveals great tenderness and depth of emotional feeling that’s the total opposite of his ample capabilities for rage and hostility, that’s further demonstration of his seeming unlimited range.
 
Inception, 2010: Though his performance sometimes seemed a little out of tune with his costars and his character somewhat underdeveloped, Gordon-Levitt was suave and self-assured as the immaculately groomed corporate espionage operative in Christopher Nolan’s ambitious opus. Again showing off his lithe form and skillfully physical presence, he danced and fought on walls and ceilings with the elegance of Fred Astaire, and handled guns and high explosives with the dexterity of James Bond.

It’s exciting to imagine what we’ll be seeing from Joseph Gordon-Levitt in future projects including Christopher Nolan’s next Batman installment, The Dark Knight Rises, in which he’ll play a shadowy Gotham City police detective, and opposite a stove pipe-hatted Daniel Day-Lewis as the only surviving son of Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming historical biopic. --Ted

It's Time to Reclaim the Chick Flick

Let’s face it, calling a movie a “chick flick” is an insult. No wonder the stars of the new film Bridesmaids pointedly avoided the term in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly. But a chick flick doesn’t have to mean a miscast Gerard Butler or women tearing each other apart over some man. It’s time to own the term and apply it to movies that worth watching. Here are a few that rise to the top:

Wedding movies don’t have to be as annoying as Bride Wars. There are films in which friends actually like and respect each other. Walking and Talking (1996) stars Catherine Keener and Anne Heche as a pair of best friends whose relationship must evolve when Anne Heche decides to get married. It’s funny and heartbreaking and features a great performance from Liev Schreiber as Keener’s would-be boyfriend. The film’s director Nicole Holofcener has made a lot of terrific movies, including 2010’s Please Give and the very funny Friends with Money--a film that proves Jennifer Aniston can act if she’s given a decent role.

For some reason, women of a certain age seem to fare better in chick flicks than young ones. Perhaps because even if they get a fairytale ending, you get the sense that they’ve worked for it. Something’s Gotta Give (2003) is all about the chemistry between Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. Keaton once confessed on Oprah that she harbors a crush on Nicholson and it shows in her performance. And there’s nothing better than listening to Keaton describe why she’s decided in her post-divorce life not to have a “side of the bed.” Keaton has taken some wrong turns in her career, but when she’s on--Annie Hall, The Family Stone--she feels like one of us, completely relatable.

Jane Austen is a great source of when it comes to better-than-average chick flicks. Whether you prefer Clueless or Emma, both films will reawaken the romantic in you. Nothing that bad ever happens in Austen, and all the adaptations tend to be great: Emma Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility, any version of Pride and Prejudice (though who wouldn’t choose Colin Firth’s version of Darcy), but my favorite is 1995’s Persuasion. Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root are magical as a couple who has to put their love on hold, only to find it again. You will swoon.

Stars like Barbara Stanwyck, Katherine Hepburn, and Bette Davis basically invented the genre. Stanwyck could do anything from screwball comedy to noir femme fatale. Some of my favorites are: Ball of Fire, in which Stanwyck seduces a staid professor played by Gary Cooper; The Lady Eve, in which she tries to trick the hapless Henry Fonda into marrying her; and Christmas in Connecticut, where she plays a columnist pretending to be a homemaker, only to be found out. The key to Stanwyck: She never played dumb.

And maybe that’s the key to a great chick flick. Let the ladies be intelligent, let them like each other, and, for goodness sake, let them like themselves. --Paige Newman

'The Hunger Games' Movie: Haymitch is Cast!

We here at Armchair Commentary have been closely watching the casting of The Hunger Games, the movie adaptation of Suzanne Collins' bestseller (which is as addictive as Twilight but much more guiltless). We've been waiting for the last piece of the main cast to be announced, and today it's here: Woody Harrelson will play Haymitch Abernathy, mentor and former champion of the Hunger Games, who is simultaneously cranky, kind, and drunk throughout the book. (Robert Downey Jr. and Hugh Laurie had been mentioned in various fan polls as Haymitch possibilities)

So that rounds out most of the primary characters. Here's a rundown of who is who:

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence): The Oscar-nominated Lawrence (Winter's Bone, the upcoming X-Men: First Class) will play Katniss, who volunteers to take her sister's place in the Hunger Games, an annual fight-to-the-death tournament among teenagers in a dystopian future, organized by the oppressive government as a punishment for attempting a past uprising.

Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth): The star of The Last Song (with Miley Cyrus, also his offscreen ex) and brother of Thor Chris Hemsworth will play Katniss' best friend, who becomes part of her love triangle.

Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson): Hutcherson (The Kids are All Right, Bridge to Terabithia) is the gentle baker who becomes Katniss' fellow District 12 representative in Hunger Games, as well as her love interest.

Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks): Banks plays Effie, the escort of the District 12 tributes, serving as publicist and spin doctor.

Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley): Bentley (American Beauty) will play the head Gamemaker, who designs the Hunger Games for maximum entertainment and bloody thrills.

Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci): The smooth TV personality interviews Katniss and the other tributes on air, coaching the tributes to their most positive public image.

Primrose Everdeen (Willow Shields) and Mrs. Everdeen (Paula Malcomson): Playing Katniss' young sister Prim is Willow Shields, a newcomer, while Malcomson, who'll play their mother, has appeared in Caprica, Sons of Anarchy, and The Event.

The rest of the tributes, including Glimmer and Foxface, have been cast with relative unknowns. You can find the full gallery of who's officially in at EW.com. What do you think of the cast so far? And who do you think should play the flamboyant costume designer, Cinna? --Ellen

Happy 50th Birthday, George Clooney: His Five Best Roles

If Hollywood has a BMOC, it's the vintage throwback that is George Clooney. And he's 50 today (Happy Birthday!). He's the quintessential movie star: An actor who exemplifies what famous people should really be doing with their influence (not just his numerous humanitarian efforts, but throwing his support behind the small projects), but also one who's humbly embraced his long road to stardom (no one has brought up his failed turn as Batman as much as he has). Plus, the man can wear a suit.

To celebrate we're taking a look at his five best performances to date (Not in order).

1). Dr. Doug Ross, ER (1994-1999): As the womanizing pediatrician who couldn't keep his %$@! together enough NOT to chew out/punch bad parents and always defied the administration, Clooney's role wasn't a groundbreaking one, but he infused it with so much humor and charm and dislikability (remember when he brought in the epileptic woman who OD'd in his bathroom after a one-night stand, and he didn't know her name?). That he found his happy ending, including a one-episode return in ER's final season, makes his one of the most satisfying arcs of the show. His cameo in Julianna Margulies' final episode is one of the show's best moments.

2). Jack Foley, Out of Sight (1998): This box-office failure is the best movie Jennifer Lopez has ever been in, one of the best Steven Soderbergh has ever directed, and the movie that should have made Clooney a movie star (that never actually happened with one movie, it kind of crept up on you by the time Ocean's Eleven came out). It also houses two of the sexiest film scenes ever (one is a conversation in the trunk of a car, one a bar conversation that intercuts with a winking striptease). If you have not seen it, watch it now (it recently came out on Blu-ray). Do not pass Go.

3). Danny Ocean, Ocean's Eleven (2001) and sequels: Clooney's chemistry with Brad Pitt is even better here than his chemistry with Julia Roberts. There's not much to write about. Most people have seen this movie. Most people have loved this movie, and Clooney in it. He's sly, he's slick, he's funny, he wears a lot of nice suits. He showed it was possible to cram a bunch of big actors into an ensemble movie and make it both entertaining *and* good (not like, in the case of Valentine's Day). 'Nuff said.

4). Michael Clayton, Michael Clayton (2007): True story: As big of a George Clooney fan as I am, I wasn't all that interested in seeing him play a lawyer in a case that involved chemicals and class-action suits (I felt like I had seen this movie before, when it was called Erin Brockovich, or lesser so, A Civil Action). Then I was on a long plane ride with the option of this movie or Eastern Promises. These were not edited for airplane viewing, so the opening scene of the latter (throats getting cut in a barber shop) and the knowledge that a naked knife fight was coming while little kids would be walking past my seat to use the restroom was enough for me to decide to watch Michael Clayton instead. (OK that story was longer than I envisioned). Anyway, Clooney was fantastic in this movie, as a lawyer trusted not for his integrity but for the way he can quietly make loose ends go away. Until he decides that's not what he wants. His facial expressions over the closing credits say everything without a word.

5). Ryan Bingham, Up In the Air (2009): Even though his Oscar was for Syriana, I pick this role because it resonated much more (he's commended for Syriana, which was a more challenging and daring role, but the movie's overall quality doesn't match it). You could argue that he isn't doing anything different, he excels at playing Cads who Can't Commit Until They Meet The Right Woman, and this movie plays to his strengths rather than challenging him to tackle something else. And this movie appears that way, but ultimately it's a depressing movie. It's not scenery-chewing enough to get all the notice, but those nuances are what make Clooney's acting so great in this one. If I were Randy Jackson from American Idol, I would say, "Dude, what I love about you is that you know who you are as an artist. But you can still take something that's up your alley and still make it your own. This could have been a safe choice for you, but we got a hot one right here, dawg! GEORGE IS IN IT TO WIN IT!"

Check out our list of George Clooney Essential movies. What is your favorite Clooney role? --Ellen

Best Movie Moms

Being a good mother is much more than meeting a child's basic needs--it's a complicated balancing act of unconditional love, discipline, emotional support, forgiveness, moral guidance, and encouragement. Just like moms in the real world, movie moms struggle to connect with their kids, support them, and prepare them for adulthood--and while the movies certainly show that no mom is perfect, every mom deserves to be celebrated on Mother's Day and every day.

Animated films probably paint the simplest picture of motherhood, and each of these movies features a mom who excels in her own way:

• Mars Needs Moms
• The Incredibles
• Shrek Forever After
• Rio
• Ponyo
• 101 Dalmatians
• The Lion King
• Aristocats

 

Mothering gets complicated when kids hit their teenage years, and while the moms in these films have wildly differing styles and parenting strategies, they all manage to be a good mother in their own way:

• Ice Princess
• Cadet Kelly
• Freaky Friday
• Camp Rock
• Thirteen
• Anywhere But Here

 

Step-parenting, nannies raising children, and extreme family situations like chronic and terminal illness and financial crisis really complicate the job of mothering, but somehow these moms and mother figures manage to get the job done in spite of difficult circumstances:

• Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
• My Left Foot
• Stepmom
• Beaches
• Eloise at the Plaza
• Mary Poppins
• The Sound of Music
• Ramona and  Beezus

 

And sometimes, it's the most unexpected person that excels at mothering:

• Mrs. Doubtfire
• Mr. Troop Mom
• Nanny McPhee
• Horton Hears a Who
• The Game Plan

 

 

Moms on weekly television shows (both past and present) may just provide the best glimpse of how complicated mothering can be on a daily basis:

• The Good Wife
• Desperate Housewives
• Dennis the Menace
• Leave it to Beaver
• The Cosby Show
• Family Ties

 

So celebrate the mother figures in your life this Mother's Day and give thanks that you didn't grow up with one of the nightmare moms from these films:

• Enchanted
• Another Cinderella Story
• Despicable Me
• Tangled
• Mommie Dearest

 

 

--Tami Horiuchi