Ruffalo and Adams go GREEN(BURG)
Two of my favorite current actors, Mark Ruffalo and Amy Adams, have signed on for Noah Baumbach’s (THE SQUIDE AND THE WHALE and MARGOT’S WEDDING) latest film, GREENBURG. Nobody knows yet what it’s actually about except it being a relationship comedy-drama. Given that in theory one could call THE SQUID AND THE WHALE a comedy, and given Baumbach’s past work, rest assured this probably will be a little bit darker and bleaker than your usual dramedy. That being said, Ruffalo is a veteran of such films, and this may just be the right project for Amy Adams to break away from the kind of roles she’s starting to be pigeonholed in.
Prince Caspian becomes Dorian Gray
Ben Barnes, whom you can now see on screens in PRINCE CASPIAN (looking pretty damn hunky), has been cast in an upcoming adaptation of one of my favorite novels: Oscar Wilde’s THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY. The film will be directed by Oliver Parker and produced by Barnaby Thompson, both familiar with Wilde material, as they were involved with the recent adaptations of AN IDEAL HUSBAND and THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST. Of course, DORIAN GRAY is considerably darker than either of those, but there’s no arguing its themes are perhaps more important now than ever. As for Barnes, he looks ideal for the role. His acting chops? I have no real complaints about his performance in PRINCE CASPIAN, but it’s not really a role that required a lot of acting chops beyond looking serious and stoically royal a lot.
George Clooney’s LEATHERHEADS is two movies when it should have really been one. The film fumbles in and out – seemingly blindly at times – of being a nostalgic throw-back to the screwball comedies of the 1930s and an underdog sports movie, when it should have forfeited the later for the former. Instead the film awkwardly shifts its rickety frame from one genre to the next, never successfully melding the two together well enough for it all to work. It’s too bad because there’s a delightfully fun screwball film buried beneath it all, and when it peeks out you wish the rest of the film were like it.
The basic sports story centers on Dodge Connelly (George Clooney), who runs the Duluth Bulldogs football team, a down-and-dirty professional football team before rules were brought in, and the fun removed When the team goes broke, Dodge hatches a plan to hire a superstar college football player and war hero, Carter “The Bullet” Rutherford (John Krasinski) to save the team, and legitimize – or at least popularize – the sport.
It’s because of things like this that I wish George Clooney were my best friend. Yes, he’s devilishly handsome, talented, charming and – as this video indicates – really funny, but most of all what I love about the guy is that when you’re watching things like this, you’d be hard pressed to even realize this guy is one of the biggest movie stars in the planet right now. He comes off as nothing more than just a dude (as he did here). Just like me and my (real) friends, he seems prone to inappropriate jokes, gentle and humorous insults, trash-talking, the occasional use of the word “brah,” and horrible renditions of The Robot. While I’m at it, I wish John Krasinski were my friend too.
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