Sheet-y Saturday.

Where we take a look at posters for upcoming features.

Up until a few minutes ago I had no idea what Moonrise Kingdom was about, now that I know, this poster is a thing of beauty. However before finding out what the plot was, the poster gave me a slightly creepy vibe, it reminded me of a Todd Solondz movie and we all know those aren't exactly fuzzy and cute.

What does the Moonrise Kingdom one-sheet say to you?

SAG Style.

I was busy watching The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo for the third time last night and forgot all about the SAG awards. I loved the winners, so there's that and now let's focus on what really mattered, how everyone looked:

Again, as much as I loved pregnant Natalie Portman, that baby bump robbed us of some magic last year, just look how stunning Natalie looks in this plum Giambatista Valli. Her figure has never been better and the simplicity of the makeup and hair are to die for. 

I have come up with a theory. Every time Meryl Streep looks good she loses at awards shows. It's like they have something against the greatest living actress looking beautiful when she wins...

You want proof o my theory? Should I write a full post on this? Help me decide... 

Anyway she was fantastic in Vivienne Westwood last night.

Marchesa does no wrong when well used. Viola Davis is a true goddess in this flowy Greek inspired dress.

Tilda Swinton is a true vision in this astonishing Lanvin creation, which might just be the exact opposite of the liquid fabric Lanvin she collected her Oscar in. The red lips and hair remind me a bit of Marilyn Monroe and I'm imagining the late genius Derek Jarman doing Marilyn with her...

Is there anyone more adorable than Octavia Spencer? She's looking fierce in this light grey Tadashi Shoji. The high hairdo might be the best we've seen her in so far and the lovely top make her look truly regal.

Oh, actually yes, there is someone more adorable than Octavia, her The Help co-star Jessica Chastain. Want proof of that? Here you go. Anyway, the lovely actress stunned in a blue Calvin Klein that highlighted her upper body in a way she's failed to do recently. Doesn't she look dreamy?

Rose Byrne is gorgeous and this dazzling Elie Saab jumpsuit (and her new bob!) make her look even better! Only someone with real guts can pull off such a daring look on a red carpet. She's ace!

I will keep including Lea Michele in these lineups for as often as she looks completely ridiculous in her extreme posing and affected, almost constipated, in her facial gestures. This Versace dress is awesome, but Lea always manages to cheapen everything with her sluttiness and need to be in the spotlight. Sigh.

The always lovely Emma Stone rocked this Alexander McQueen tea-length dress which pays homage to The Help while reminding us of what a genius McQueen was...that top is SO Lee!

A Valentino red dress seems to be what Michelle Williams needed to finally look alive. She's a picture of joy in this column dress with delicate lace appliqués.

Someone needs to feed Angelina Jolie, she looks cadaverous in this Jenny Packham dress. The gown itself is lovely but Jolie's bracelet looks heavier than her entire body. 

Who were your best dressed at SAG? 

Sheet-y Saturday.

Where we take a look at posters for upcoming features.

This week we have two throwbacks to classic horror films, starting with this lovely illustrated quad poster for The Woman in Black. The color palette is simply terrific and the fonts are magnificent. This movie has been doing a superb job so far with its advertising. The one thing missing from this would've been a sensationalist tagline. Something like, well, "it's simply sensational!". Still without that, this is still pure genius. 

Inspired by the poster for Rosemary's Baby, this one sheet for We Need to Talk About Kevin does an inventive job but pretty much gives the movie away, which is what bothered me from the movie itself. It's making up your mind before you even see it, giving you no choice but to surrender to its ideas.

What's your take on these posters?

Girls on Film.

Head over to PopMatters and read out list of the Best Female Performances of 2011. You'll be in for quite a treat!

Style Sunday.

Is it me or is this the first year where people dress up for the Critics Choice Awards? They're usually in the Indie Spirit side of informality and "relaxed" style. Emma Stone embodies the transition beautifully in this joyful Jason Wu dress that's appropriate for the beach and this awards ceremony. Also, redheads should always wear green!

Elle Fanning is a beautiful girl and somehow this Rodarte dress makes her look like an old lady. Not sure if it washes her out or if the flowers are a bit too much. Anyone can tell me what's wrong with it?

These two make such a perfect couple! Can you imagine how fashion forward they would be together? Sigh. Charlize looks absolutely stunning in this simple Azzedine Alai and the superb Tilda Swinton pulls off a Marlene Dietrich in this gorgeous YSL ensemble.

Don't you hate it when someone dresses awesomely and then just does something like this? Whoever told Jessica Chastain that this dress was doing her any favors, seriously messed with her.

Diane Kruger always looks breathtaking and this Prada design is nothing short of magnificent. Gotta love that she dares to highlight her boobs like this and still pull it off effortlessly.

Kiki oughta learn not to stand with her legs so wide cause she's making this Christian Dior cocktail dress look butch. Otherwise she's pure perfection.

Michelle Williams is such a boring dresser, somehow this Chanel gown screams Nicole Kidman and would probably have looked gorgeous on her, but it feels so dull on MiWi. 

Oh Elizabeth Olsen bless you for proving that the Olsens have taste. This Emilio Pucci minidress is absolutely wonderful. Did you see the level of detail it has?

It deserves a million more pictures to admire its level of craftsmanship! Too bad the awards season has denied us the pleasure of her presence more. Lizzie should be nominated for everything!

Who's your favorite in this lineup? Excited about the actual winners in the show?

Short Take: "We Need to Talk About Kevin", "Carnage" and "Higher Ground".

Evil doings always bring up questions about origins: where do people learn to be evil? Is it something you're born with? Is it something the world teaches you? Art has always been fascinated with the subject and artists have tried to tackle it from psychological, spiritual and sociological points of view. The fascination with the subject and the subject itself have become a "chicken or egg" situation. Cinema in particular has a shown a fetish for showing evil children who wreak havoc on their parents or the world (if they happen to be the Antichrist). Movies like The Omen for example deal with how people react around these demonic infants and more often than not give them a protector, someone who believes in the good within them or someone who wants to encourage their evil. We Need to Talk About Kevin isn't precisely that kind of movie but it doesn't steer too far from it either. Lynne Ramsay's adaptation of Lionel Shriver's novel gives us the title child, who goes from being a rebellious baby to committing a massacre as a teenager. The movie seems to have decided that there is something very wrong with Kevin from the start, giving the audience no choice but to observe how Ramsay captures his behavior through offbeat framing and artsy sequences. Kevin is shown as a cute but creepy child, who grows into a cute but creepier teenager (played by Ezra Miller) who likes to frown all day long. Ramsay seems to have a ball displaying Kevin's darkness and the film relies too much on the facile horror conventions it's also trying to escape. Since the film has already settled his evil for us, it's up to Tilda Swinton as his mom to try and convey some humanity within the movie. As always, Swinton creates a precise portrait of someone whose humanity overflows the screen. How is it that she results such an otherworldy, almost extraterrestrial public figure, yet she always embodies imperfectly perfect humanity when she acts? As Kevin's mom, Swinton delivers yet another masterful performance that lingers between Mia Farrow's delicious work in Rosemary's Baby and Swinton's own in the remarkable The Deep End: she makes us understand that she would go to the confines of the world to rescue her child's soul, even if she has to lose hers in the process.

Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly play a liberal couple whose kid was beaten up by another kid whose parents are A types played by Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz. Over the course of an afternoon (the film happens in real time) both couples try to come up with a civilized solution to their problem. The problem is, nobody really knows what the problem is. For the parents of the victim, it's something about having their child's integrity restored, for the parents of the abuser, the issue has to do with how many time they're losing trying to understand "child's play". Before soon, the couples are going at each other like their kids did. Roman Polanski, who's always been a fan of confinement, takes the concept to a whole new level in his adaptation of Yasmina Reza's play about the Russian doll-ness of our society. The film is superbly acted (Foster is phenomenal!) but more often than not its purpose seems to be rather vacuous. Is it an exercise for its thespians? A playground diversion for its director? Or can it be simply that the source material never had that much to say?

Few actresses are as magnetic and fascinating as Vera Farmiga. She always conveys a sense of mystery and parallel earthiness that make her seem like a pre-Raphaelite goddess who's come to life out of a painting to say something about our world. In Higher Ground, her directorial debut, she does just that by teaching us a lesson about newborn evangelical Christians. While the movies often have conversion as the twist and usually the enemy of liberal purposes, Farmiga takes her time to observe these people and show us that - gasp - they too are human! Despite their narrow minded world views, despite their beliefs that rely on an unseen force and despite their constant bible quoting, they are not "the enemy". That Farmiga manages to do this without being preachy and instead injecting the film with a languorous sensuality might be the real miracle in store.

Grades:

We Need to Talk About Kevin **½

Carnage **

Higher Ground **½

(My) Best of 2010: Actress.

5. Hilda Péter in Katalin Varga

Some of 2010's greatest female performances had actresses playing heroines of archetypal myths, fairy tales and urban legends (off the top of my head, Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone, Paprika Steen in Applaus and my number one choice come to mind...)

Few played them with the authority and command of Hilda Péter; playing the title role she's the embodiment of motherhood at its most primal.

In the film, Katalin is vanished from her village, after her husband discovers their child was fathered by another man. Instead of begging for forgiveness, Katalin decides to leave with a mission: to kill the man who raped her years before.

The directorial debut of Peter Strickland bursts with natural beauty (Terrence Malick must've influenced him) and an Eastern European, ominous dread worthy of Lars von Trier. Péter shines in all of her scenes, giving a performance so committed and steady that you never catch her trying. Katalin acts as if commanded by the gods but we know Péter is the driving force behind.

4. Noomi Rapace in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Modern legend has it, that when Stieg Larsson was writing The Millennium Trilogy, he had originally centered it on journalist Mikael Blomkvist. The character of goth hacker Lisbeth Salander was just a peripheral creation.

Then he realized that Lisbeth was getting out of his hands and overtaking his original intentions. When the books were adapted into films, Lisbeth continued her bewitching effect over popular culture as the beautiful Noomi Rapace took on the role.

Making Lisbeth's introverted nature and her violent demeanor, all her own, Rapace delivered an action heroine that had us rooting for her unconventional methods, even when we could detect a morbid sense of evil delight in her deceiving, crooked smile. Because we don't know whether to love or fear her, Lisbeth Salander gets under your skin.

Rapace's "best" performance might not be in the first movie but without her iconic work in the first installment we wouldn't be curious about the rest of the series.

Perhaps in the very same way that Larsson found himself typing her name compulsively page after page.

3. Tilda Swinton in I Am Love

Like some of the greatest screen icons, Tilda Swinton has the ability to take violent hold of the screen and command our eyes towards her, just as she can blend herself in the background with distressing effortlessness.

In Luca Guadagnino's operatic I Am Love, she does the latter, turning in a beautifully quiet performance as Emma Recchi.

We learn that she's a Russian immigrant who married an Italian heir, but other than that her character flowers in front of our eyes with each passing scene. As usual Swinton impresses; her Russian accent over her mastery of Italian is unique to say the least, but the beauty of Emma is how she allows us to watch her being seduced (by food, by the senses, by idealism, by a younger man...) without the self-consciousness that comes whenever "sinful" or forbidden behavior is portrayed onscreen.

If you thought you'd seen Tilda do it all, think again. She makes eating a meal seem like a master course in acting.

2. Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole

Becca is a truly damaged soul who lost all the will to live after the death of her only child. However she doesn't opt for an easy path of destruction, instead she lives her life as penance for not having been there, for not having seen...

Yet seen through the eyes of Nicole Kidman, her tragic character reaches an unexpected amount of humanity and soul.

Watching the actress take control of this controlling character, is watching something that resembles supernatural possession. Kidman breathes each of Becca's breath. She lives her pain and delivers a uniquely crushing portrayal of self pity and eventual enlightenment.

When Becca achieves catharsis, she does it in the most unexpected of places and under the strangest circumstances, with Kidman acting as her very own exorcist.

1. Natalie Portman in Black Swan

The first time I watched Black Swan I hated it. Its crescendo of ballet, histrionics and horror seemed like a parody in the making. One thing blew my mind off though, and that was Natalie Portman.

Her performance is unlike anything she's ever done before and not because she plays an insane person but because it's the first time where she completely surrenders to the power of her creation.

In the past, whenever she attempted to play "dark", you could see her acting, she's an actress who has trouble hiding discomfort and it usually gets the bes of her. But playing ballerina Nina Sayers in Darren Aronofsky's masterpiece, she tapped on a level of artistry that's both disturbing and inviting.

As Nina goes from mommy's girl to Kafkaesque tragedy, we see that Portman has vanished. How could she not you might say when she's playing a ballerina, who's playing two different characters. Yet the truth is that her performance is effective because it goes beyond technique and mannerisms (bonus points for acting so seamlessly along with the visual effects, something she never achieved in those little space fantasy movies...).

There's one particular scene that lingers long after the credits have rolled and it's the one where Nina realizes what she's done, minutes before her big performance.

Then and there she makes a choice and it's so powerful that even we feel it, for a second Nina stares right into the camera, right into our eyes and she's telling us "I will give you the show of a lifetime, even if it kills me".

As her harsh director in the movie asks her to try harder, the truth is that Natalie has done it all along. The moment the movie begins Rothbart has already put his spell on her, she's been the black swan all along.

I Am Love ***½

Director: Luca Guadagnino
Cast: Tilda Swinton
Flavio Parenti, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Alba Rohrwacher
Pippo Delbono, Maria Paiato, Gabriele Ferzetti, Mattia Zaccaro
Waris Ahluwaia, Marisa Berenson

I Am Love feels like watching an opera on mute. Despite its baroque qualities, strokes of Sirkian melodrama and decadent visuals, its intensity seems muffled, brilliantly contained, so that we're forced to face what we see under a new light.
Anchored by an astonishing lead performance by Tilda Swinton, the film concentrates on the slight downfall of an Italian industrialist family.
The Recchi family is formed by patriarch Edoardo (Ferzetti) and his wife Allegra (Berenson). Their son Tancredi (Delbono), his Russian wife Emma (Swinton) and their children: Edoardo Jr. (Parenti), Elisabetta (Rohrwacher) and Gianluca (Zaccaro).
When we first meet them they are celebrating Edoardo Sr.'s birthday where he announces he's retiring from business and passing the business to his son Tancredi and his grandson Edoardo Jr.
His grandson's inclusion sends the first ripples of change as family and friends begin to wonder why the patriarch would do such a thing, especially considering Edoardo has just come from losing a race earlier that day, to a chef.
When the chef, Antonio (Gabbriellini), arrives at the party that night bringing a cake as a peace offering, or perhaps aware that he has unintentionally imbalanced the Recchi clan, there is a strange feeling of discomfort in the film.
Coming from the lush, long sequences where we saw the family smile and toast over expensive silverware and in even more expensive gowns, we suddenly come to the image of this young man standing outside in the snow with a box.
He opens the box to show the cake to Edoardo and his mother but we never see it and any feelings you might have that this mysterious cake is in fact a bomb about to explode, will be completely justified as the film unfolds.
As Edo takes a liking to Antonio so does his mother and in an exquisite scene we see her realize she might be attracted to the young man as she relishes in a prawn dish.
As they embark on an affair, the film's title begins to make sense as love lands on the Recchis with complete aplomb. Emma who at first had been more of a supporting character suddenly takes prominence (and you have to see how surprisingly easy it becomes for the fantastic Swinton to not steal the show). It's almost as if the film begins to get rid of the layers that concealed who she really was to begin with.
If you thought you had seen all that Tilda Swinton could do, you are in for a real treat with her subdued performance as Emma.
The chamaleonic actress slips into this woman with such ease that you have to wonder where one ended and the other began. Swinton's worldly features take on the quality of someone who know nothing and it's a thing of beauty to see her light up as she begins to discover the world for the first time.
Watch her in scenes with Rohrwacher (a strike of genius mother-daughter casting) as she shifts from flawless mother figure to full blown woman and later in scenes with Gabbriellini as she completely disregards these maternal qualities and turns them into complete sensual surrender.
Despite what the character makes us believe at the beginning, Swinton is in full command in this film; you can feel her love for challenging art in every frame (it helps that she's dressed by Jil Sander and Fendi) as she exploits and bends established genre conventions.
Because in the strictest sense, I Am Love is an efficiently executed melodrama with a straightforward plot we've seen a million times before but its mise-en-scene and planning reveals layers that serve as means to explore European economic history, various artistic movements and metaphysical notions of what is to love.
For example on the surface, Emma's affair comes off as something typical of a romantic novel (she's even named after Madame Bovary) but she's also used to explore the role that Russia came to figure in non-communist Europe.
We realize how Emma had to overcome her entire legacy in order to fit in this wealthy Italian clan. We learn that Emma isn't even her real name (her husband gave it to her) and we can assume she's come to form part of a life that would've been considered the antithesis of what she was before.
Therefore when she begins her affair, besides all the sentimental and carnal connotations, we can detect something else being said. Why is she so attracted to this young man who's so outside her social circle?
It can be no coincidence that Emma becomes attracted to the only character in the movie who is not bourgeois. Is she identifying with him, because like her Antonio didn't receive everything on a silver platter?
Is this affair an actual rebellion towards the forces of capitalism that the Recchis represent? This is particularly striking because in a subplot we see Edoardo Jr.'s refusal to sell the company to a huge industrial group out of loyalty to tradition. Guadagnino doesn't invest too much in this particular story but he is trying to say something about the way in which love subverts the notions we have of materialistic success.
Besides these political strokes, Guadagnino also pays homage to Hitchcock, Malick and especially Visconti (the first part is straight out of The Leopard and it's no coincidence he named one of the characters Tancredi...) as he indulges himself in long takes of these people's lives and surroundings.
Everything about I Am Love can get to be so majestic and pompous that we often are left wondering how it's also able to haunt us so much.

Style Sunday.

The always phenomenal Tilda Swinton looks straight out of a Romantic novel in this simple Fendi frock.
Her paleness makes a beautiful match with the darkness of the ensemble and her Mary janes are simply to die for.


Julianne Moore is one good looking MILF in this beaded Mulberry minidress.
The kids in her new movie might be getting all the attention but Juli shows them no one can do it quite like her.

(My) Best of 09: Actress.

5. Giovanna Mezzogiorno in "Vincere" (read my review)

Love is the devil for Ida Dalser (Mezzogiorno), her devotion to Benito Mussolini is such that she sells her goods to support his newspaper and when he refuses to acknowledge the existence of their son and sends her to a mental institution she assumes he's just testing her love.
Few actresses would convince us this insane looking behavior would be real and Mezzogiorno does so with enough inspiration that we even find her plea romantic sometimes.
Her eventual realization that the man of her life might be the monster the rest of the world thought him to be is heartbreaking as few things you've seen.


4. Charlotte Gainsbourg in "Antichrist" (read my review)

Seeing how she plays an archetype more than an actual character, it's remarkable to see what Charlotte Gainsbourg does in "Antichrist".
As a woman grieving the loss of her young son she embodies some of the most heart wrenching pain put on screen (watching her physical reactions to sadness makes your blood cold and punches your gut).
And when she goes all von Trier on Willem Dafoe's ass-and genitals-in the controversial ginocyde chapter she is so convincing that we can't just judge her for her actions.
Few actors commit themselves so fully to their performances in the way Gainsbourg does in this film. Despite the horrors she subjects herself to her work is a thing of beauty.


3. Penélope Cruz in "Broken Embraces" (read my review)

As the obscure object of desire in Pedro Almodóvar's "Broken Embraces", Penélope Cruz gives the most mature performance of her surprising career.
She plays Lena a secretary/actress/mistress/lover/muse that sets the film's labyrinthine plot in motion. Considering how she represents something different to almost every character in the movie, Cruz's ability to maintain a definite personality for Lena is magical.
Pedro often concentrates on her beauty and her look in the movie has often been compared to Audrey Hepburn. However the essence of her performance here is owed to another classic beauty, the great Ingrid Bergman who the movie refers to more subtly than Hepburn, but in the end becomes the moral, aesthetic and emotional axis for Lena.


2. Tilda Swinton in "Julia" (read my review)

Once every couple of years comes a performance with the kind of raw energy that the movie around them becomes elevated to the point where it makes the film seem much better than it actually is.
In 2009, awards groups decided to acknowledge this element to the more conventional choices and have all shown unanimous marvel for the work of Sandra Bullock and Mo'Nique.
Sadly it's the thunderous work of Tilda Swinton in "Julia" that should have gotten this recognition. Unlike Bullock's one note performance-and probable one time awards opportunity-we already knew Swinton could act, the only surprise here being that she could push herself even further and use genre in her favor.
And unlike Mo'Nique who made a big deal about the ugliness of her character, Swinton's Julia is the kind of monster that's never merely a prop like something out of a Spielberg blockbuster, but an actual human being who happens to lack any morality and sense of decency.
It's a shame her performance went by so unsung but Julia probably wouldn't give a damn about what others thought of her.


1. Abbie Cornish in "Bright Star" (read my review)

If you have never been in love you will want to have the kind Fanny Brawne (Cornish) has in "Bright Star", tragic ending and all.
And if you have been, you'll doubt the nature of your own feeling upon seeing the intensity of the one Ms. Brawne has for John Keats (Ben Whishaw).
She has the kind of movie love that doesn't even require physical intimacy but still convinces us of its overwhelming spirit.
But perhaps more marvelous than her love for Keats, is Fanny's love for herself. Cornish plays her like a free soul ages ahead of her time-the kind which Jane Campion has always specialized at-but the actress makes Fanny appropriate for her time as well.
There is not a single anachronistic detail in her revolutionary methods; her clothes, her designs, the forward way in which she addresses people she dislikes, her equality with John...all are time specific yet timeless.
It helps of course that Cornish has the ability to make harshness seem delicate and part of Fanny's charm is how she sees herself as more mature than she actually is. But Cornish succeeds in all the unexpected moments, she pulls off a butterfly sequence with enough innocence and airiness to make us sigh with her and later in the film she provides a moment of grief with emotional pain that overflows into the physical.
Abbie Cornish gives in to Fanny's romantic whims with such conviction that you never doubt she inspired Keats.

Two Ladies.

It's been a sad day for the fashion world with the death of the great Alexander McQueen.
But what better way to celebrate his legacy than by taking a look at the people who remind us that fashion is an art?
With the opening of the Berlinale and the upcoming Fashion Week, movie stars will fill red carpets in both continents.
In Berlin the incomparable Tilda Swinton wears a Haider Ackermann creation (straight out of the runway!) to the opening night.

While jury member Renée Zellweger, in what I'm assuming is Carolina Herrera, wears practically the same color as Swinton but adds an open back and a gorgeous classic bow.
On another note it'll be interesting to see what wins the top prize in Berlin this year, considering how last year's winner is now competing for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Wishful Thinking (Oscar Edition).

With Oscar nominations less than twenty four hours away it's our last time to look up on the skies, find a star, make our biggest wishes and then watch the following day how AMPAS shatters them.

This year mine would be:
"Bright Star" getting in for Best Picture and Best Director but since I know those are laugh-out-loud lost causes, then would they please please nominate Abbie Cornish for Best Actress?
After all the buzz she got in Cannes she seemed one of the most sure causes come awards season, but they have replaced her with the likes of Emily Blunt in a mediocre biopic, Helen Mirren in a we-haven't-seen-it-but-it must-be-good-because-you're-in-it biopic and most terrifying of all Sandra Bullock in a racist trying to pas of as feelgood biopic.
Considering how Cornish is almost a lost cause as well, I'll cross my fingers for Bullock and Blunt, maybe that'll jinx their chances.

Oh and if "Bright Star" is ignored in Costume Design and especially Cinematography someone will need to give me a tranquilizer or shoot the Academy.

I would also love to see "The Hurt Locker"'s Anthony Mackie or Brian Geraghty get in Best Supporting Actor over people like Matt Damon whose whole movie is a big pile of "huh?" in the face of art.

I rest assured that the Foreign Language Branch won't fuck up this year and snub "The White Ribbon" or "A Prophet" and they would make for a perfect trio if they also remembered "The Secret in Their Eyes" (with "The Milk of Sorrow" and "Samson and Delilah" rounding up the lucky five). If any of these is snubbed and "Winter in Wartime" or "The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner" made it, it truly would be outrageous.

As usual I won't even bother with predictions, they are perhaps one of the most frustrating and Sisyphean endeavors any Oscar buff can get into and even if none of my wishes get granted, a boy has the right to dream, doesn't he?

The Limits of Control *1/2

Director: Jim Jarmusch
Cast: Isaach de Bankolé, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton
Gael García Bernal, Hiam Abbass, John Hurt, Paz de la Huerta

Watching "The Limits of Control" two questions come to mind: does Isaach de Bankolé ever smile and what the hell was Jim Jarmusch thinking when he made this movie?
The stone faced de Bankolé stars as a hitman on some sort of a mission that has him traveling across Spain where he meets with strange characters that give him matchboxes.
Somewhere in between conversations about molecules, Rita Hayworth, bohemians and old guitars Jarmusch expects us to have an epiphany about existence.
What he fails to see is that he's the one who's going through an existential crisis and a plot-less movie will not help him solve it.
The movie plays out like a really bad dream (if Jarmusch was trying to pay homage to David Lynch he never reaches the fascinating creepiness and surprising universality of Lynch's stream-of-consciousness movies) with selfindulgent cinematography by Christopher Doyle who does capture beautiful images, that play like awkward Renault commercials.
The saddest thing is that Jarmusch is probably aware of how empty his movie is and often tries to justify himself in the silliest ways.
When a gangster (played by Murray) asks de Bankolé "how did you get here?" he answers "I used my imagination". This response plays more like "The Matrix" by way of "Sesame Street" than as a spark to make us reflect on how the whole thing might be a dream within a dream.
During the film's only interesting scene Swinton appears as a blond (Jarmusch references tons of film noirs here) with a movie obsession.
She tells de Bankolé that she likes movies where you don't know if you're having a dream or watching a film.
Jarmusch should've learned that sometimes dreams, like films, should be kept all to oneself.

Julia ***1/2

Director: Erick Zonca
Cast: Tilda Swinton
Saul Rubinek, Kate del Castillo, Aidan Gould
Jude Ciccolella, Bruno Bichir, Kevin Kilner

"You're out of control, suicidal, blind, alcoholic..." says Mitch (Rubinek) to his best friend Julia (Swinton) after rescuing her from yet another night of passing out from drunkenness.
The difference is that this time she woke up next to him, someone she knows for a change and feels that he has violated their friendship.
She immediately assumes he has feelings for her, which he denies, instead replying with a tale of how he lost his wife and daughter to alcoholism.
Of course Julia has nothing and nobody to lose, after getting fired from her most recent job she receives the offer of her lifetime when her neighbor Elena (del Castillo) asks her to kidnap her son Tom (Gould).
The young boy is living with his rich grandfather who refuses to let her see him. Elena offers to pay her 50,000 dollars.
Julia accepts and after a while figures out that Elena might not even be needed for the plan, what if she handles the kidnapping by herself and gets more money from the grandfather?
This sets in motion the plot that will consequently include desert hideouts, helicopter chases and some scary Mexican gangsters.
Directed by Zonca with the visuals of a documentary and the guts of a thriller "Julia" stays grounded because of Swinton who gives one of her finest performances to date.
With flaming red hair and colorful, tight dresses that scream more than she does (think Julia Roberts in "Erin Brockovich" but with her boobs actually falling out once or twice) and a fastidious contempt towards everything, Swinton gives this woman a backstory we can grasp without need for anyone specifying it.
She's completely dislikable, that she agrees to kidnap isn't half as ruthless as the lies she tells the kid once she's accomplished her mission. She only exists for herself.
A, darkly, funny recurring joke in the movie is how she changes the ransom amount depending on who she's dealing with.
Swinton keeps a straight face all the time, not because she doesn't see how morbidly funny this is, but because that's Julia's m.o.
Interacting with Gould (who is fantastic for his age!) Swinton develops a materialistic, never maternal, instinct. She feeds him, but dopes his water with sleeping pills so he won't escape.
The fact that he's a child doesn't mean she will treat him any different than she would a grownup in the same situation. All she needs is for him to survive so she can make a living.
Which is why when the film comes to its finale, the redemption she receives is something that some people in the audience will be highly against.
Swinton makes us see that Julia wouldn't give a damn, and that's what makes her such a magnificent actress.

Oscars 08: Best Dressed

1. Penélope Cruz
The moment I saw her on the red carpet she just took my breath away.
I loved the way she looked like a bride or a queen about to be crowned and instantly knew her dress just had to be vintage.
I found out until much later that it indeed it was vintage and Balmain nonetheless. Watching how gracious and beautiful she was when she won the Oscar I had a sudden epiphany (at least fashion and Oscar wise).


'Nuff said.


2. Anne Hathaway
Shirley MacLaine herself said that we love Anne as a princess, and a modern one she was in her stunning Aramni Privé white dress with crystal appliqués. It would've been great to see her win if only to see the way she would've matched that gorgeous Swarovski curtain above the stage.
Her best accesory? As always her million dollar smile.

3. Marion Cotillard
Last year she rocked in an unexpected Gaultier mermaid dress, this year she rocks once more in black and blue Dior gown, with a Tinkerbell-ish top that gives path to a risqué skirt with almost transparent folds that makes the Oscar winner look like a punk princess.

4. Kate Winslet
The first time Oscar winner didn't stray too far from what she'd been doing all season long.
And too far is the key part here. Her Yves Saint Laurent dark blue and black dress looks like a variation on what she wore to the Golden Globes in January, with some extra black lace.
Classy and simple yes, but way too safe for an actress known for her wild characters.

5. Halle Berry
This is how you do black and gold Beyoncé...

6. Sarah Jessica Parker
Poor SJP has been cursed with fashion double duty. She played Carrie Bradshaw, a modern Holly Golightly inspired fashionista, for more than five years in "Sex and the City" and outside the show she became a fashion icon herself.
So she must juggle constantly and fend Carrie/Sarah comparisons. With her mint Dior she brings the two women together. The top with the NYC retro, deco art and unusual belt is all Carrie, but from the waist down, the delicate tulle and ample skirt are as deliciously sweet as only Parker can be.

7. Nicole Kidman
One could almost swear Nicole Kidman has worn this dress before (that baby blue YSL from 2004 which also included feathers if I can recall) but then again she rarely varies her column with a detail look.
She might've looked a bit uncomfortable on stage, but after a few seconds she was absolutely radiant.

8. Tilda Swinton
Once again wearing Lanvin (after last year's black ensemble which seemed to be made out of liquid silk) the iconic Tilda Swinton pushes the envelope by wearing two similar pieces in different colors. Her blonde hair and ruffly, folds recall both dandies and classic Greece and like nobody else she looks so damn comfortable in avant garde couture.
You either love or hate Swinton's style.
She obviously won't give a damn either way.

9. Marisa Tomei
The very deserving, and very very beautiful, Best Supporting Actress nominee had been making some of the craziest choices of the season (I was a big fan of her bright yellow SAG dress) and for the Oscars she shows off her quirkiness with a pleated tail that gives her Versace Atelier gown a little something extra, not too common, but not too outrageous.

10. Evan Rachel Wood
After her split from Marilyn Manson, the beautiful Wood, who had gone to the very dark side, has resurfaced like a princess. For the Oscars she was one of the many to wear creams and whites; her classic Elie Saab and simple jewelry make her look like Grace Kelly even when her unusual nail color suggests she's not that innocent.

Oscars 08: Fashion Split Decisions
Oscars 08: Worst Dressed
Oscars 08: Fashion Tendencies
Oscars 08: Post-Show Column