 Stars in Shorts is a film/television special (courtesy of Shorts HD) featuring a collection of seven shorts that famous (or should be famous) stars…well, you know…star in. If I haven’t reiterated that four-letter word enough yet, I hope you’ll catch my drift by the end of the review. The good news about the inconsistent, if at times alarming wonderful, Stars in Shorts is that nearly every actor diverges from the roles one might normally see them play on the big or small screen, especially those of Hollywood British Royalty. I reckon that the people who are interested in watching this special will be more invested in the performances from big-name celebrities — who ironically are given the chance to show more range as an actor in a far shorter space of time — than the actual short stories they are meant to uphold. Film director/screenwriter/playwright Neil Labute pens three of the shorts, and proves that when he is not exclusively sitting in the director’s chair, he could be a major writing force in Hollywood. His writing style strikes a unique chord by never really defining its tone: there are elements of drama and black comedy in his works, and I find this purgatorial realm he’s living in utterly fascinating. Neil Labute is the true star in this slice of celebrity potpourri.
Read more on Stars in Shorts (***)…
Categories: Film Reviews Tags: Benjamin Grayson, Colin Firth, Friend Request Pending, Jason Alexander, Jennifer Morrison, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, judi dench, Julia Stiles, Keira Knightley, Kenneth Branagh, Lily Tomlin, Neil LaBute, Not Your Time, Penny Ryder, Philip Jackson, Prodigal, Rupert Friend, Sarah Paulson, Sexting, Shorts HD, Shorts HD Channel, Stars in Shorts, Stars in Shorts Review, Steve, The Procession, Tom Mison, Wes Bentley
And the Nominees Are:
Kenneth Branagh – My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill – Moneyball
Nick Nolte – Warrior
Christopher Plummer – Beginners
Max von Sydow – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
This category has often been dismissed as a way to award “distinguished” (read: old) actors with Oscars to honor their career as opposed to the individual performance in question. While I do have some major gripes with this category, this particular accusation always struck me not only as ageist (what, senior actors can’t legitimately give award-worthy performances?!) but not as backed up by recent history as the reputation would suggest. Christian Bale, Christoph Waltz, Heath Ledger, Javier Bardem, George Clooney and Benicio Del Toro were hardly old vet actors looking for a swan song trophy. In fact, the last elderly “career-honor” winner we had was arguably Alan Arkin is 2006, and even then it was a close call between him and Eddie Murphy. That’s why this year presents an interesting complication to the debate. With the average age clocking in at 62, this year’s Best Supporting Actor slate is the oldest ever, and three of them could legitimately claim this award as a career capper. Read more on Oscar Circuit: Best Supporting Actor…
Categories: Oscar Circuit Tags: Beginners, Best Supporting Actor, Christopher Plummer, extremely loud and incredibly close, Jonah Hill, Kenneth Branagh, max von sydow, Moneyball, My Week With Marilyn, Nick Nolte, Oscar Circuit, Warrior
 Below are the reactions for this year’s Screen Actors Guild Award Nominations. It was quite interesting with surprises coming from Janet McTeer nominated for Best Supporting Actress and the great Demian Bichir receiving a Best Actor nomination for his work in “A Better Life.” This will be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Demian Bichir – A Better Life
George Clooney – The Descendants
Leonardo DiCaprio – J. Edgar
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
Brad Pitt – Moneyball Read more on Screen Actors Guild Nominations Reactions…
Categories: Editor, Screen Actors Guild Tags: Berenice Bejo, Brad Pitt, Bridesmaids, demian bichir, Editor, Glenn Close, janet mcteer, jean dujardin, Jessica Chastain, Kenneth Branagh, Leonardo DiCaprio, Melissa McCarthy, Michelle Williams, Midnight in Paris, My Week With Marilyn, Octavia Spencer, SAG, Screen Actors Guild, Screen Actors Guild Awards, the artist, The Descendants, The Help, Tilda Swinton, Viola Davis
 The two stars belong to Michelle Williams and in fact her performance gets four stars (****) while the film just two, and I am bring most kind at that.
There is but a single reason to see this film, a fact, and that is to behold the astonishing performance of Michelle Williams as icon Marilyn Monroe. Williams goes beyond a mere transformation into Monroe, she seems to be channeling the spirit of the star into her very soul so that often we are not seeing a portrayal but a flesh and blood Marilyn before us, as though she were with us once again in all her sensual glory. What makes the performance as great as it is, and words do not do it justice, is that Williams seems to understand what others have failed to appreciate in portraying Monroe, that the greatest role she ever played was of Marilyn Monroe!! Sadly, only later in her career did she realize she had painted herself into a corner playing that role, because Hollywood would never give her a chance to go beyond that character. Williams knows when to turn on the star power as Monroe, and when she does we realize at once why she is the greatest actress of her generation, perhaps the next generation’s Streep. To portray star wattage is something entirely different than giving a performance because she must take the performance to another level altogether, one that is not quite real in the sense that the rest of her performance is. Understand that she is playing a woman who came to life before the cameras, who under lights and the intense scrutiny suddenly lit up and became something otherworldly, and Williams manages to bring that to her remarkable performance. Physically she is not Monroe’s equal, but manages to move like Monroe, so that all eyes are on her, speak like her, and those eyes, those magnificent eyes that pull you into her world, or at least the world she wanted you to see, are spectacular.
Read more on My Week with Marilyn (**)…
 Without the Academy Award worthy performance of Michelle Williams in the title role, there wouldn’t be too much to get excited about with ‘My Week with Marilyn’. Nothing is bad, but everything pales in comparison to Williams. She’s so good as Marilyn Monroe, you hardly notice the rest of the film. This is nowhere near the disaster some anticipated, and Williams is far better than even the most generous predictions had hoped for. The thing is, her phenomenal work (second only in her career to last year’s turn in ‘Blue Valentine’) is stuck in an only decent movie. Director Simon Curtis is sure to make sure Monroe is handled perfectly, he kind of loses sight of the rest of the production. This is in some ways a movie in search of a story. A docudrama more than a biopic, it’s never too heavy or too light, but much of it feels inconsequential. I liked the characters and the acting, but I just wish they had more to do. It’s not quite a missed opportunity, but there’s a much better movie that could have been made than this one. That being said, it’s still satisfying enough and I can’t say enough about Williams’ performance. The rest of the cast, including Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne, and Judi Dench do their part, but they’re merely orbiting around this stunning performance. But what a performance it is!
Read more on My Week with Marilyn (***)…
 Acting is supposed to be a replication of life.
We know its pretend, we know its play acting but we give over our suspension of disbelief as we enter the cinema making a bargain with the filmmakers and actors that if they convince us for the next two to three hours that what is happening is realistic, we will go with them on this journey.
Real, meaning authentic, as though the characters on the screen were experiencing what they were going through for the very first time. At least that was what I was taught while studying the Method in the early eighties, and teaching the art ever since. I gave up on acting, being terrible but my professors believed I had some talent as a director and acting coach so that is where I focused my energies. Before I fulfilled a dream to become a film critic I was a stage director, writing reviews just for me while directing more than fofrty four plays. Among them were the American classics, Agnes of God, The Crucible, Death of a Salesman, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Picnic, and several others including modern classics such as The Shadow Box and Bent. Acting was everything in those plays, the audiences’ connection to the piece, so every ounce of my work was spent making sure the actors were comfortable in a good place to create. Loyal readers will know that I watch first the acting when I watch a film, as that is the connection to the picture.
Read more on Olivier — Hugely Over Appreciated…
For the first time ever, I’ll be starting off my preview of the week’s new films with the limited releases. Not because there’s anything lacking about the wide releases. Far from it, this Thanksgiving weekend is yielding several amazing-looking films both mainstream and indie. No, I’m only switching things around to keep up the theme of David Cronenberg Week. So y’all can guess by now that I’ll first be analyzing…
A Dangerous Method, based on Christopher Hampton’s play The Talking Cure, centers on the professional relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud as well as the complicating presence of the beautiful, intelligent but deeply troubled Sabina Spielrein. The film has been enjoying mostly positive reviews, with its performances, dialogue and production values being singled out for particular praise. Nevertheless, it’s clear that there is a hint of disappointment in its critical evaluations, as many (including yours truly) had initially pegged it as “the” film; the one that would finally catapult the legendary David Cronenberg to an Academy Award nomination for Best Director after a long, distinguished career ignored by the staid organization. While it’s still possible, competition from the likes of The Descendants, The Artist and War Horse required A Dangerous Method to garner more effusive “best of the year!” acclaim to stand a fighting chance considering its subject matter. Even if he personally doesn’t make it, one should still look for it in other categories. Keira Knightley, despite giving a divisive performance with a questionable accent, is showy enough and has been gushed over by quite a few critics, so she is at least on the radar. Viggo Mortensen has been cited as one of the most purely entertaining parts of the film, and Michael Fassbender could get a consolation nomination if his more acclaimed work in Shame proves too transgressive for the Academy to embrace (think Dennis Hopper). It could also get possible nods for its screenplay, art direction and costumes. Read more on Holiday Openings (November 23-27)…
Categories: Weekend Openings Tags: arthur christmas, Berenice Bejo, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, best picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, biopics, David Cronenberg Week, Hugo, jean dujardin, Keira Knightley, Kenneth Branagh, Michael Fassbender, Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn, Oscar hopefuls, Rampart, the artist, The Muppets, viggo mortensen, Weekend Openings, Woody Harrelson
 To begin with, let’s be clear, Marilyn Monroe was a movie star who wanted to be taken seriously as an actress, but lacked the dramatic skill to do so. She should have been happy with the God given comic talent she was given, that wonderful sense of timing, breathless delivery, and wide eyed look that suggested both a naive woman and one capable of carnal pleasure beyond your wildest dreams. She cultivated an image for herself, and played Marilyn Monroe for all of her life.
Monroe was an enigma in movies, a star who for the most part played a continued variation on herself, rarely stepping out of character, rarely bringing anything other than Marilyn to the screen, though Marilyn was always enough. There was something at once sexual the moment she came onscreen, as though her smile hinted at carnal pleasures to come if she so desired, and make no mistake it would always be her idea. No man would have the courage to even attempt to seduce this sex machine for fearing laughter erupting from her. She lacked the dramatic depth of a Jane Fonda or a Meryl Streep, though she was talked into believing she had it by Lee Strasberg, who was infatuated with her while she at the Actors Studio. Strasberg, a notorious nightmare with actors, believed in getting actors dependent on him alone and did more damage to American acting than will ever be known. Monroe’s husband, the great American playwright Arthur Miller was horrified at how Strasberg exploited Monroe for his own gain at the Studio and making every attempt to sleep with her. In his thick autobiography, director Elia Kazan writes about his affair with Monroe shamelessly, making it clear he was among many the blonde bombshell took to her bed in hopes of being taken seriously as an actress. She felt these men had something she nee3ded to know and used her body to gain that knowledge. That’s her business, but it sickens me the number of men who exploited Monroe, (including the Kennedys) because by all accounts she was a trusting soul betrayed over and over by men she had hoped loved her. In the new film My Week with Marilyn it is suggested that Monroe understood exactly what she was doing at all times and manipulated many men through the course of her life. Maybe, I don’t know I know what I have read and most accounts of Monroe paint her a victim.
Read more on The Best of Marilyn Monroe…
"…but what if I told you Anonymous was full of BS?"
So, Roland Emmerich. Word is that he has a new film coming out about Shakespeare and how he was a fraud. Personally, I find the revelation that critics are not overwhelmingly calling his newest a steaming pile far more groundbreaking than a crackpot theory that has not only been roundly debunked, but reeks of offensive class snobbery (“Why, it’s impossible to believe that a mere grammar school graduate could have written the plays and poems attributed to Shakespeare. Wouldn’t it make more sense to suppose that William Shakespeare was only the stand-in for a better educated author?”*). Whatever…I guess just because there’s no truth to it doesn’t mean it can’t be entertaining. I mean, look at JFK.
Anyway, we at The Awards Circuit actually respect history and the contributions of William Shakespeare. Luckily, so do a lot of other filmmakers, so to counteract his desecration by the man who once tried to convince us that alien technology is compatible with Macintosh, here are the top ten films inspired by the Bard of Avon, but first… Read more on Top Ten Films Inspired By Shakespeare…
Categories: Article Tags: anonymous, crimes against art, Kenneth Branagh, Laurence Olivier, masterpiece, Roland Emmerich, Shakespeare in Love, Titus, Top Ten, West Side Story, William Shakespeare
 Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe…finally – we get a look! After the jump. Read more on Trailer: “My Week With Marilyn”…
|
Stars in Shorts is a film/television special (courtesy of Shorts HD) featuring a collection of seven shorts that famous (or should be famous) stars…well, you know…star in. If I haven’t reiterated that four-letter word enough yet, I hope you’ll catch my drift by the end of the review. The good news about the inconsistent, if at times alarming wonderful, Stars in Shorts is that nearly every actor diverges from the roles one might normally see them play on the big or small screen, especially those of Hollywood British Royalty. I reckon that the people who are interested in watching this special will be more invested in the performances from big-name celebrities — who ironically are given the chance to show more range as an actor in a far shorter space of time — than the actual short stories they are meant to uphold. Film director/screenwriter/playwright Neil Labute pens three of the shorts, and proves that when he is not exclusively sitting in the director’s chair, he could be a major writing force in Hollywood. His writing style strikes a unique chord by never really defining its tone: there are elements of drama and black comedy in his works, and I find this purgatorial realm he’s living in utterly fascinating. Neil Labute is the true star in this slice of celebrity potpourri.
