Costume Crush: Can a Song Save Your Life?

I've been a movie buff since I was a little girl, and one of my favorite parts about any movie is the costume design. Period pieces always offer up the best costume porn, and fashion-y movies are fun even though by the end you're like "Enough already - I want jeans and tees!", but my favorite costumes are the ones that can take perfectly normal clothes and style them in a way that lets you know exactly who that character is. I'm seeing a lot to like in these images from a movie called Can a Song Save Your Life?, which stars Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo and is due in theaters in 2013.



That is a great red dress. You could wear that shirtdress on a hot summer day in any city in the world and look perfectly pulled-together. I'll take the car too, please.



According to imdb.com, this movie tells the story of a dejected music business executive who forms a bond with a young singer-songwriter new to Manhattan after he discovers her singing in a coffee shop. I'm assuming that Ruffalo is the music executive, mainly because he's the one wearing the (adorably rumpled) suit. Knightley is the singer-songwriter, and I'm really digging the easy feminine/tomboy vibe I'm getting from her character's wardrobe. She and I could go shopping at Madewell together :)




Hailee Steinfeld is also in the movie. You'll remember her from her Oscar-nominated performance in 2010's True Grit. She looks cute and age-appropriate here (she's almost 16 irl), and I think it's always nice for teens to see how you can find your own "look" without showing lots of skin or coating yourself with glitter.



How adorable does she look here in her pencil skirt???



Keira Knightley has been in some of my favorite period movies (the green dress in the library in Atonement? SWOON), but it's so refreshing to see her in modern clothes. I'm sure it's a nice change for her too, not having to shoehorn herself into a corset every day for three months straight. If you look at the place where her dress meets her upper thigh, you can see her Spanx peeking out. I hear that most of the starlets in Hollywood wear Spanx even if they are very slim - shapewear gives you a smooth line under your clothes and can even squeeze inches off of hips and thighs. It's rumored that Beyonce will double Spanx for red carpet events.



Another red dress and I LOVE it. Simple, polished, flattering, with a romantic quality. Keira has a long narrow torso with shorter legs and fuller hips (well, full being a relative term for a movie star), and this style of dress is perfect for her figure. That's something else I do when I watch movies: if one of the actresses has a similar figure to mine, I pay attention to what looks most flattering and try to incorporate those ideas into my wardrobe. Keira is pictured here with Adam Levine of Maroon 5, who apparently plays her boyfriend at the beginning of the film. Nice beard. I guess he's sporting the... Amish Hipster look? He's got the moves like Jedediah.



This is obviously her "creative working artist" look. Cute brogues and boyfriend jeans.



Yeah, now I'm convinced that the costume design team spent some time shopping at Madewell - Keira looks like she walked right out of the catalog.



Digging this look. Very cool. Simple silk blouse, linen trousers cuffed just so, perfectly worn in leather accessories, and a messy ponytail. She's your always stylish yet low maintenance best friend.




Get it, gurl! Kiss that Ruffalo! Mark Ruffalo is such a terrific actor - I've loved him in every role I've seen him play. He was so perfect in 13 Going on 30, and he was the only thing that made Just Like Heaven watchable. I haven't seen The Kids are Alright yet, but it's on my Must Watch list.




Keira is obviously enjoying her job. "What did you do at work today?" "Oh, not much, just made out with The Incredible Hulk on a sidewalk in Manhattan." What a strange life that must be... no wonder most of them are batshit crazy.




Nice little bit of on-set cameraderie here, and I love the addition of "Creepster Neighbor Guy" in the window in the background. This movie already looks fun to watch and I like the cast a lot, so it's likely that I'll fork over $12 to see it in the theater next year.

All images from LaineyGossip.com and The Daily Mail online.

New Trailer for Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby

The first full-length trailer for Baz Luhrmann's movie version of The Great Gatsby was just released yesterday. I have thoughts. Click on the link below to watch - I'll wait for you right here.

The Great Gatsby 2012 Trailer

As a fan of the original novel, and as someone who has been following the news about this movie since the casting search began, I have probably watched the trailer about 20 times already, and I'm still trying to decide how I feel about it and what it says about the movie itself.

The Luhrmann Treatment
I mean, you can see from the first frame that the movie has been "Baz'd" pretty hard: Exaggeration! Dancing! Champagne! GLITTERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! This isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm a big fan of Luhrmann's body of work - I even liked Australia (I maintain that it wasn't a hit due to a) how long it was and b) the disconcerting fact that Nicole Kidman can no longer move the muscles in her face), but it took me a few viewings to warm up to Moulin Rouge and I'm pretty sure that Gatsby will be the same way for me. Why is that? Because I don't like it when period pieces are modernized to appeal to Katy Perry fans. I like my history straight-up. I don't need anyone to treat classic literature like it's a plate of broccoli with the "here comes the airplane, open up the hangar" game to get me to eat it. That broccoli is delicious on its own! However, as the BF pointed out: "The studios aren't trying to appeal to people like you who love the novel already - they know you'll see the movie. They're trying to get the kids who only know The Great Gatsby as some boring old book that they were forced to read in 9th grade to spend their money to see it." *sigh* He is wise. Cinematically, though, I have no complaints - it looks like it will be stunningly beautiful.



The Cast
Leo has proven his talent 10 times over by now, and Tobey Maguire will be suitably earnest and conflicted enough to play Nick. I think that the biggest question regarding who would play Daisy was perfectly answered with the casting of Carey Mulligan. Girlfriend can act. Go watch An Education if you're not familiar with her (and then go watch Drive because GOSLING) - she is terrific. Blake Lively also tested for Daisy, and she really might have almost pulled it off since she is very pretty and appears to have the emotional depth of a mud puddle following a brief Spring rain, but I'm sure that her tendency to mumble her way through her lines made ol' Baz lean in Mulligan's direction. Blake's voice is not "full of money" by any stretch of the imagination. The only actor that I'm iffy about is Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan, because Edgerton looks "crafty mean" as opposed to "stupid mean". I always thought that Tom and Daisy Buchanan were so well-suited to one another because they were both so dumb, but it appears that Baz is going to make Tom much more villainous in his movie adaptation from what I can see in the trailer.



The Chemistry
You should be able to pair two gorgeous people onscreen and the chemistry should just naturally be palpable, but it often doesn't work out that way. The lack of chemistry between Robert Redford and Mia Farrow is what caused the 1974 film version to fall flat, and you would think that merely standing next to Robert Redford could cause anyone to burst into flames of desire onscreen. Leo looks amazing in character as the golden Gatsby - he's only gotten better looking with age (as men tend to do, damn their hides). Carey Mulligan looks blonde and delicate and stunning in her flapper gear as Daisy. So far, though, the only hint of chemistry that I'm getting from the two of them together is the scene where they are both staring at one-another, breathless, framed by bouquets of white orchids. I need more than that! I need to see the yearning, I need to know why James Gatz felt like he needed to re-invent himself and his entire life in order to win back the love of a vapid little fool like Daisy. I'm sure they'll do another trailer that showcases the more romantic tones of the movie, though, so I'm content to withhold my judgement until then.

The 3D Issue
I don't understand why Luhrmann wanted to film Gatsby in 3D, other than $$$$. It's totally unnecessary. It's gimmicky. It makes it impossible for me to enjoy the movie I'm watching because it gives me a massive headache. I can see the motivation for 3D filming in the case of movies like Tron or Avatar since the point is to showcase all of today's new CGI technology, but all I can think of when I see "The Great Gatsby: in 3D" is watching poor old Myrtle's body flying at me from the hood of Jay's yellow Rolls. I don't need that experience.

What do you think of the trailer? Are you excited for the movie? Please share your thoughts!

Images from imdb.com.

The Hunger Games: Team Katniss

Last night, the BF and I went to a midnight showing of The Hunger Games (and I still made it to work on time this morning - yay!). I read all three books in quick succession last year after hearing that the protagonist was a strong-willed coal miner's daughter from Appalachia, and I have been eagerly anticipating the movie's release for months. It did not disappoint.

For those who are unfamiliar, the story takes place in a dystopian future in which North America has been destroyed by war, re-built, and re-named as Panem. The 12 Districts of Panem are controlled by the Capitol, whose residents live in luxury as most of the citizens of the rest of the Districts starve. As punishment for their past rebellions, all 12 Districts are forced to participate in the annual Hunger Games in which a boy and a girl, ages 12-18, from each District are forced to fight each other in a televised battle to the death until only one child remains. 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12, where she must illegaly hunt wild game to provide for her fragile mother and 12-year-old sister, Prim, after the death of their father in a mining accident years before. On the day of the reaping, Prim's name is chosen as tribute and Katniss, knowing that her beloved younger sister will never survive the arena, volunteers to take her place.

Read the books before you see the movie, because it really is a terrific series whether you are a fan of Young Adult fiction or not. Katniss is by turns brave, angry, selfless, prickly, sullen, stoic, and kind, a complicated teenager who wins the respect of the reader not because she is a hero, but because of her defiant determination not to become a victim as she fights for her survival. There is a love story involved (because teenagers are basically one giant throbbing bundle of hormones), but it is secondary to the challenges that are faced by Katniss and the other characters. Thank goodness...I was so afraid that Hollywood would take these books and turn them into Twilight 2: Electric Boogaloo. I'm pretty sure that pathetic little Bella Swann would be one of the first to get killed in the arena as she stood around chewing her lip and waiting for some sparkly vampire to come and rescue her.

The Hunger Games opens nationwide today.


Image from www.examiner.com.

Blogs That I Like: Celebrity Gossip, Academic Style

The Academy Awards are tonight! Hollywood Awards Season has always been my Superbowl (being forced to watch sports is my idea of cruel and unusual punishment), so I always get excited for this time of year and all of the great movies that are on tv. The stories, the costumes (oh, the costumes), the drama...both in front of and behind the scenes.

My love for movies and celebrity gossip began with my paternal grandmother when I was a little girl. I'd spend the night at her house and we would bake sugar cookies and read through her old Golden Age of Hollywood books like "LIFE Goes to the Movies". I loved looking at the pictures of the Classic Hollywood stars, but the stories that she could tell me about them rivaled the images on the page and on the screen. That's why I was so delighted a few years ago when a friend told me that I needed to read this blog.



Celebrity Gossip, Academic Style is written by a woman named Anne Helen Petersen. Anne has a Ph.D. in The History of Celebrity Gossip from the University of Texas-Austin. This alone pretty much makes her my idol, but she is also terribly insightful and funny, and incredibly knowledgeable about the topics upon which she writes. She also contributes articles on Scandals of Classic Hollywood to the terrific and terrific-ly funny ladyblog, The Hairpin, and I have lost myself for hours reading those stories. You learn so many fascinating things about the private lives of these stars, many of which were covered up or totally fabricated by the big studio publicity machines.

Here are two of her articles that I loved:


Ava Gardner: The Second-Look Girl


Cary Grant's Intimate Bromance

If you love movies, Old Hollywood, celebrity gossip, or PR spin, you will love reading Anne Helen Petersen's work. It's the perfect thing to get you in the mood for Oscar Night!

Images courtesy of The Hairpin and Celebrity Gossip, Academic Style.

Guilty Pleasure: Chasing Liberty

Have you ever had to pretend that you didn't like something that you really, REALLY liked because you were pretty sure that people would make fun of you for liking it? Well, to my delight I have discovered that the older I get, the less I care about what people think, so I'm willing to admit how much I love Chasing Liberty.

For those not familiar with the story, it is about the US President's daughter, Anna, who is tired of being sheltered and stalked by the secret service all the time, and she wants to be allowed to have a little freedom. Her father agrees to this while they are doing a goodwill tour of Europe, but, unbeknownst to Anna, he requests that a young *very cute* undercover agent follow her around and keep her safe while reporting back to him (her secret service code-name is "Liberty", hence the title). Hijinks ensue, the agent falls for the President's daughter and vice-versa, and then the drama occurs when Anna finds out that she has been duped by her father and lied to by the boy she loves.

Is it a rip-off of Roman Holiday? Sure, but Mandy Moore is delightful as Anna, Matthew Goode is adorably sexy as the secret agent, and they travel through Prague, Venice, and Berlin, so you get to see gorgeous European scenery. Best of all? There is a happy ending which involves riding through the streets of London on a Vespa while Puccini's "Nessun Dorma" plays in the background. Sometimes I wish Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck could have had an ending like that.

Who is Salt?

She's Angelina Jolie, of course! Salt was originally written for Tom Cruise, but Hollywood decided that Angie could play the role with little to no changes in the script - pretty much the only actress in Hollywood who could pull it off. I think Angie is awesome, I love spy thrillers, and I can't wait to see the movie.