Tag: film

Spinning Platters Interview: Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim on “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie”

Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar Movie

Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie is a play on precision and expectation. Ricocheting, hazy-vision precision, and constantly fragmenting expectation. The movie stars Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim as actors/directors facing unmitigated evil after wasting a billion dollars. Their solution: revitalize a mall. Such wonkiness is the epidermis of a diseased body containing awkward, obtuse, and hilariously horrible circumstances. Here is an interview elaborating on said horribleness. Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie is now available in theaters and VOD. Enjoy.  Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim on “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie””

Spinning Platters Interview: Glenn Close on “Albert Nobbs”

Glenn Close in ALBERT NOBBS

Glenn Close has long been perceived as an intimidating woman, which likely stems from a number of factors. Maybe it’s because of her unhinged work in the iconic role of Alex Forrest, the psychotically unstable mistress who will not be ignored, in the ’80s landmark Fatal Attraction. It could be due to her impossibly imperious turn as the scheming, vicious Marquise de Merteuil in Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons. The under-21 set likely grew up cowering from her scenery-chewing Cruella De Vil in the live-action 101 Dalmations. Not even the small screen has been safe from Close’s fire-breathing intensity, whether it be her hugely acclaimed work on The Shield, or her two-time Emmy-winning turn on Damages as Patty Hewes, the ferocious litigator who will stop at nothing — nothing — to win a case. So even though Close is currently promoting what is arguably the least threatening character she has ever played, this does not necessarily make her more comfortable to be around. At least not when she turns the tables during our interview and begins grilling me about my thoughts on her Oscar-nominated new film, Albert Nobbs.

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Spinning Platters Predicts the 2012 Oscar Nominations: What Should — and Will — Be Nominated

Ellie Kemper, Oscar hopeful Melissa McCarthy, and Wendi McLendon-Covey in BRIDESMAIDS

The Academy Awards are commonly referred to as the gay Super Bowl, and for good reason: they each represent the culmination of months of grueling, bone-crunching competition, tend to feature misguided musical numbers, and are ultimately about impossibly wealthy people fighting over trophies while the rest of us cheer from the breadlines. In short: it’s the best thing that happens all year. My post-Oscar depression is far more devastating than even the worst case of post-Christmas blues. Such emptiness. The nominations for this year’s 84th Academy Awards will be announced in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, January 24. After the jump, check out my picks for what should be nominated and what we’re likely to read about on Tuesday.

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The Spinning Platters Guide to the Best Films of 2011

Welcome to our list of the best films of 2011! I’m Jason LeRoy, the film editor of this fine website, and I’ll be your guide to the most excellent cinema this year had to offer. I have to say, this is a pretty exciting moment for me. While I’ve been writing about film in one form or another since 1995, 2011 is the first year I’ve managed to see just about everything. It is with no small amount of consideration (or afternoons and evenings spent slumped over in theaters around town) that I’ve compiled this list. So look after the jump for my top 10 films of the year, some honorable mentions, and a handful of staff-pick rebuttals for Best Film of 2011. And especially since this year was uncommonly lacking in unifying critical favorites, please leave your own picks in the comments below.

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Spinning Platters Interview: Gary Oldman on “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”

Gary Oldman stars as "George Smiley" in Focus Features' release of Tomas Alfredson's TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY. Credit: Jack English

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when it seemed like maybe we’d already seen the best of Gary Oldman. After establishing himself as a fearlessly intense and committed film actor with Alex Cox’s seminal British indie, Sid and Nancy (1986), he spent the next decade delivering unforgettable performances in roles ranging from Lee Harvey Oswald to Dracula to Beethoven, pivoting nimbly from blockbusters like Air Force One and The Fifth Element to cult favorites like The Professional and Romeo is Bleeding. But after the disastrous Lost in Space (1998), he seemed to vanish into an infrequent series of TV appearances and little-seen films.

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Spinning Platters Interview: Jason Reitman on “Young Adult”

Charlize Theron and Jason Reitman on the set of YOUNG ADULT

On Wednesday we chatted with Patton Oswalt about his scene-stealing turn in Young Adult, the unnerving black comedy opening in San Francisco today. And now we’ll check in with its director, Jason Reitman. In the six years since his beloved feature debut, Thank You For Smoking, Reitman has become one of the most celebrated and in-demand directors in the film industry. In addition to earning back-to-back Best Director Oscar nominations for his second and third features, Juno and Up in the Air, he has established himself as one of the few filmmakers who can create acclaimed character-based films that also resonate with mainstream audiences at the box office. But with Young Adult, his second collaboration with Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody, he is taking a bold and risky step away from the accessibly charming and likable protagonists of his earlier films.

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Spinning Platters Interview: Patton Oswalt on “Young Adult”

Patton Oswalt and Charlize Theron in YOUNG ADULT

It has been proven many times over the years that comedians can bring an unexpected and singular potency to their performances when given the opportunity to play a dramatic role. Actors from Tom Hanks to Robin Williams to Jim Carrey have graduated from broad comedy to dramatic leading-man status when finally given the chance to play the right character. And now Patton Oswalt, best-known for voicing the mouse protagonist in Ratatouille and his 122 episodes as Spence on The King of Queens (in addition to his decades of stand-up and countless cameo appearances), is poised to make a similar breakthrough with his poignant performance in the new Jason Reitman-Diablo Cody collaboration, Young Adult.

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Spinning Platters Interview: Steve McQueen on “Shame”

Michael Fassbender (actor) and Steve McQueen (writer/director) of SHAME at the BFI London Film Festival

In the several months since its premiere on the film festival circuit, Shame has quickly become one of the most talked-about films of the year. While this is certainly due in part to prurient interest in its more lurid aspects – its nudity and sexuality were deemed explicit enough to warrant the dreaded NC-17 rating from the MPAA – it is also because of universally ecstatic reviews for the brutally fearless performances of stars Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, as well as the hauntingly artful direction of today’s exclusive interview subject, Steve McQueen.

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Spinning Platters Interview: Judy Greer on “The Descendants”

Judy Greer with Matthew Lillard in THE DESCENDANTS

The Descendants is a very strong contender for the best film of 2011. Directed by Alexander Payne (Sideways, Election) from a script he co-wrote with Jim Rash (Dean Pelton from Community) and Nat Faxon, it tells the story of Matt King (George Clooney), a Hawaii lawyer whose life is turned upside down after his wife is left comatose following a jet-skiing accident. He attempts to rally their daughters, troubled teen Alexandra (Shailene Woodley in a revelatory performance) and tween Scottie (Amara King), but is devastated when Alexandra spitefully informs him their mother was having an affair. As his wife’s condition continues to deteriorate, Matt and his daughters embark on a journey of emotional discovery that eventually leads to Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard, in a surprisingly potent dramatic performance), the other man. It also leads to his wife, Julie, who is played by Judy Greer.

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Spinning Platters Interview: Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone, Nikki Reed, and Charlie Bewley on “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1”

left to right: Charlie Bewley, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed, and Jackson Rathbone promoting THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN - PART 1 at The Fillmore in San Francisco. Photo by Erika Everett.

On Thursday, November 10, the earth shook a bit more than usual in dear old San Francisco. And I’m not referring to that troubling rash of tremors we’ve been dealing with over the last few weeks. No, I’m talking about the kind of shaking that can only be attributed to a pack of stampeding Twi-hards barreling toward an opportunity to personally accost one of their big-screen idols in the flesh. And the Breaking Dawn Cast & Concert Tour, which came to the Fillmore last week, provided them with one such rare occasion. As a red carpet novice who recently tasted blood and was eager for more, I decided to subject myself to this spectacle in the name of…adventure? Journalism? Bragging rights around 12-year-old girls and the mothers who brazenly steal their Twilight books? Hard to say. But I did it. And it was an eye-opening and occasionally overwhelming glimpse into one of the most powerful and efficient machines in American culture.

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