Today in Great Movie Quotes

He'd KILL us if he had the chance.

OR is it . . . ?

He'd kill US if he had the chance.

With all due respect to JD, I have to disagree.

'Vicky Cristina Barcelona': Most Gorgeous Cast of 2008?

I think so.

Is Mia Wasikowska the future of Hollywood?

I first became aware of Mia Wasikowska when I caught her in a great little indie Australian film called September. Marking the debut of filmmaker Peter Carstairs, the film is certainly one of the most beautiful that I've seen in quite some time. It's lush photography of the wind swept Australian countryside called to mind the work done by the likes of Néstor Almendros.


In it, Mia stars as the new girl in town whose sun kissed beauty plays a part in the unraveling friendship between the two boys at the center of the film. If the part sounds like a hoary cliche (which, I must admit, is true in theory), the ways in which she and Carstairs handle her role as the central impetus for the straw that breaks the camel's back manages to sidestep any weariness that might come from a motif that has been handled in so many other films before.

Carstairs praised her in an interview published by an Australian news site:

Mia is in an exceptional class as an actor. She is one of those gifted actors who doesn't appear to be doing anything. You just put a camera on her and she hardly moves, but is just so engaging.

I spoke previously about my love for this film here.

A few months after I saw September, I began to notice the name Mia Wasikowska popping up in quite a few places (remarkable considering the name's length). She starred in the eternally troubled Australian crocodile flick Rogue, co starring Michael Vartan and fellow up and coming Australian Sam Worthington, and was recently critically lauded for her work on the HBO series In Treatment, a role that required her to go toe to toe with Gabriel Byrne.

All of this is impressive, but what prompted this post are the three high profile projects she is attached to over the course of the next three years. This year sees the release of Defiance, Ed Zwick's World War 2 themed appeal to the Academy starring Daniel Craig. In 2009, Mia will appear as pilot and prodigy Elinor Smith in Mira Nair's Amelia Earhart biopic opposite Hilary Swank. Smith is known for a number of reasons, most notably for becoming the youngest woman to fly solo at age 15 and for becoming the youngest person to earn a pilot's license in the U.S. at age 16.


News came out this week that Tim Burton has chosen her to play Alice in his 2010 release of Alice in Wonderland, rumored to co star Johnny Depp (a safe bet considering recent history).

Now relocated to L.A., the 18-year-old actress ruminated on her recent success in the same article containing the praise from Carstairs:

It's all been a huge learning curve and really unexpected to be where I am at the moment. I want to just do my job and do it well

If history repeats itself, she will continue to do just that. Vanity Fair can tout Emma Roberts on the cover all it wants as the future of Hollywood, but I suspect that the future might just be with Mia Wasikowska.

When did Alison Lohman become so chic?

Girl looks like she belongs in a Factory.

The picture was taken at a Comic-Con panel for Sam Raimi's new horror flick Drag Me to Hell. You may remember it as the film Ellen Page signed on for briefly following Juno before pulling out soon after.

The plot, according to IMDB:

An unsuspecting young woman (Lohman) becomes the recipient of a supernatural curse cast upon her by an older Eastern European woman who was defied and humiliated by others.

Well . . . it certainly looks horrifying

Happy 63rd, Dame Helen Mirren

I would wish you luck for a great year, but I don't think you need it.

Cuteness Overload

Jim Henson owns my childhood.

Judi Dench is 16, Going on 17 . . .

No, seriously . . . she is.

Huh?

The actress delivered Sunday Rose Kidman Urban early on Monday morning, reports People.com.

Lemme get this straight: their daughter was born on Monday, and they named it Sunday? Me thinks the Urbans were a smidge bit confused.

How Do You Like Your McAvoy?

New poll on the sidebar. Just humor me . . .

All Racist on the Western Coast

Over at Nick's Flick Picks the third entry in the Best Picture series conducted by him, Goatdog, and Nathaniel has been posted examining 'The Message Movies' or the Academy's third and 78th choice for Best Picture.

You've probably already read it, but do so if you haven't.

Remember What I Said About 'Reprise'?

You still need to see it.

Picture comes via Nathaniel who calls it the best film of 2008 so far (and who am I to disagree?)

Adrien and Emmanuelle Take on 'Giallo'

Anyone who has seen The Mother of Tears can attest to the fact that Dario Argento is just a wee bit off his game lately. Not that I don't enjoy good cheesy fun involving Asia Argento and suprisingly easy to defeat witches dressed like Robert Smith groupies, but it seems a bit lazy not to reshoot a scene of a baby being thrown off of a bridge in which the arm of the stand-in doll pops off mid air.

Regardless, I find it hard NOT to anticipate his upcoming 2009 release Giallo, starring slim and sultry Academy Award winner Adrien Brody and Mrs. Roman Polanski and Eurotrash pop star herself Emmanuelle Seigner as an Italian detective and American stewardess on the hunt for a mysterious serial killer preying on young women in Turin. (I'll let you figure out who plays which character.) A few stills have been released on Argento's official website, these featuring our two leads:



I hesitate to call them romantic leads for I don't think as a general rule Argento has shown a tendency to wrap his films up with lovebirds walking off into the sunset. He does, however, end films with his daughter covered in sewage and laughing while surrounded by the remnants of a collapsed demonic mansion.

As much as I think this film will probably be as silly as its predecessor, I can't help but anticipate seeing these two walking cheek bone machines run in peril around the shady back streets of Dario Argento's vision of Italy. Set the date on your calendar.