For Natalie & Benjamin: A Swan-Themed Wedding.

By now you've probably heard the exciting news that Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millipeid, the Black Swan pair who've been our "crush of the moment" for too many moments now (see sidebar), are pregnant and engaged.

a photoshopped imagining of their wedding cake
top from The Film Experience.

There's no exact word on when either of the blessed events (baby & wedding) are to occur though hundreds of thousands of years of human history tell us that the genetically lucky baby, certain to possess both dark haired beauty and physical grace, is coming in 2011.

We immediately tweeted advocating for a swan-themed wedding. Which is an obvious joke but come on. Swan has to be a common theme for weddings anyway and the possibilities are endless. Here are some other great suggestions from friends @jigsawlounge, @joereid and @moviedork18 on twitter.

I told Joe Reid that Timothy Hutton (Beautiful Girls) has to share that duty with Jean Reno (The Professional) if we're going there. But we shouldn't go there. That said, it does cause the mind to wander into Natalie's large filmography for wedding ideas. I still haven't figured out a way to work Clive Owen (Closer) in. Moviedork's comment made me giggle because it reminded me that Black Swan isn't the first time Natalie has had doubles. Remember those Queen Amidala decoys in the Star Wars prequels?!

He's sleeping with Natalie Portman and you're not.
The future Mr. Natalie Portman, choreographer/dancer/actor Benjamin Millipeid.

 But we digress...

Congratulations to the happy couple.

What would you suggest for Natalie's wedding? How would you work her filmography into the nuptials?
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My Favorite Thing About "The Fighter" Is...

I saw The Fighter last week and didn't even deliver a "this is all the time I have" 7 word review. I have more than 7 words on this one though what follows is not a traditional review. The first thing I tweeted was...

It still applies. Yep, Christian Bale is doing his best work ever in the co-lead role of Dicky Eklund (Let's call it The Fighters) or at least his best since American Psycho (2000). Barring Geoffrey Rush's mutant power (awards magnetism) the "supporting" Oscar is most definitely Bale's to lose. And this is an important distinction: It'd be his to lose even without his baity penchant for putting his health at risk to dwindle down to anorexic nothingness for a role. This is his third time doing so. We hope it's the last.

A Tale of Two (Half) Brothers

But what's my favorite thing about The Fighters other than him?

I guess it'd be the way Melissa Leo (playing the mother to both fighters) and Christian Bale are always believably in sync as mother/son. They're practically twins with their darting hollow eyes, perpetually nervous body language and emotionally vampiric yet super vibrant energy. Would that more actors would co-author such compelling familial bonds while playing at "family". What's more, Bale and Leo have mastered the weird arms-length charisma of charming people who are simultaneously completely off-putting. Alice Ward and Dicky Eklund are the type of people you can't help but want to hang out with... but from a very safe distance, with plentiful escape routes.

Melissa Leo's on fire.

No, no. it's not that. That sympatico style is great but it's not my favorite thing about the movie.

Also worth loving is the everyman mundanity of Amy Adams and Mark Wahlberg, a somewhat perverse use of their combined star power. (Though they both have it, they're more recognizably "human" and thus smaller than giant film stars, here and elsewhere). Charlene (and Adams who plays her) and Micky (and Wahlberg who plays him) are constantly drowned out by the cacophony of Much Bigger Personalities surrounding them. It's hilarious how often they both just shut right down in the center of a scene with an 'I give up' pout. And they're the "Stars" for lack of a better word!

No, no.

The best element has to be the idiosyncratic humanity that director David O. Russell keeps breathing into the proceedings. By all rights, The Fighter ought to feel far more generic than it does; make no mistake, this is a "true story" inspirational sports biopic. Russell keeps finding ways to vary the tone, play with the moodswings (even perpetually "on" people like Alice & Dicky have quiet days) and have fun with the framing, which generously allows the orbiting cast members to contribute to the movie as well (the standout being Jack McGee as Alice's impressively sturdy husband George). Sports movie fans won't like the film quite as much, one suspects, since the boxing scenes are arguably the most generically executed part.

And then there's the subplot involving the making of the unflattering HBO documentary on Dicky "High on Crack Street" (1995). Dicky willfully deceives himself about it but the doc scenes gives the film tremendous tragicomic boost.

There's also a choice scene in which Micky & Charlene go to the movies and... well, I don't want to spoil it.

David O. Russell loves a rangey ensemble.

 Oh wait, I know.

My favorite thing is the clown car chorus of Dicky & Micky's trashy big haired sisters (John Waters will be green with envy). There are so many of them. They're the most abrasively comic gaggle of sisters since the perpetual assault of Adam Sandler's siblings in Punchdrunk Love.

Or. Well...

The best thing might be the way The Fighters manages to slide so easily into David O. Russell's undervalued filmography even though it's much less original than his other films. When some auteurs make stabs at mainstream genres or popular appeal they lose themselves. Such is not the case here. Russell is still in love with the juggling act of impossibly noisy mixes of disparate acting styles (Flirting With Disaster, I Heart Huckabees), he's still fond of Oedipal undercurrents (Spanking the Monkey, Flirting...), he can still turn a film on a dime from comedy to 'wait, that's not funny' disturbing (Three Kings, Huckabees)  and he's still just about the only director who Mark Wahlberg should ever work with (though, that said, "Micky Ward" has nothing on Wahlberg's Kings or Huckabees performances... the character's too much of a cypher this time.)

But no, it's not that. It's... NO. 

No. No. No. You have to stop somewhere.

Needless to say, The Fighter is incredibly watchable. It's a solid good time at the movies. More importantly, it's a total K.O. for fans of Bale, Leo and O. Russell. A-/B+

TIFF: A Glimpse of Rabbit Hole Enthusiasm To Come?

Nicole Kidman and hubby hit Toronto for the film festival. I haven't seen more than one true review yet, but she wore Prada. Just Jared has pics from the premiere.

As for the review(s)? Well it's mostly tweets at this point though I expect more reviews to emerge soon. Let's start negative and get positive.

Negative

• @ioncinema "Belly flop for JCM. Wish entry point into story was at the 10month point. Wish final scene was extended by 90 mins."
• @matt_mazur "Rabbit Hole was really mediocre. Kidman was great but the rest uninspired. Let down"

Positive

• The Playlist "honest and powerful"
• Deadline NY "Nicole Kidman making a major artistic comeback"
• @PeterKnegt of IndieWire says 'Bad buzz be damned. Quietly haunting and very affecting. Very strong and naturalistic work from Nicole Kidman'
• @Scott_Tobias "B+) Movie about loss of a child, on no sleep and a week away from my own kid? No way this wasn't going to wreck me."
  
• @juanmgc "Powerful. Remarkable. Kudos to John Cameron Mitchell for pulling Kidman and Eckhart's best performance of both their careers."
  

Juan is the only tweeter among the positive voices that I wasn't really familiar with. But I never trust "career best" statements from anyone until I've seen the film in question. That's a common heat of the moment statement and with Kidman, that would basically position it as a best of the decade contender just as the decade has begun. But at any rate this is good news (so far) and we share @GuyLodge's feelings... "Very excited about early praise for Kidman: that "best of her generation" claim I've doggedly stuck to needs new foundations."

Finally, here's a tweet adressed to me from friend of TFE Katey Rich


There's also a strangely lengthy non-commital post at Awards Daily about why they haven't covered it much. The rest of what I've seen is various tweets with "quotes" around them as if more people have reviewed it than I can find. Curious. Perhaps my coffee isn't strong enough this morning or I have forgotten how to type words into search engines. Next!

A couple of clips hit the net too. In the best of these (thanks for the tip Kaye), we get a peak at the tense relationship between mom (Dianne Wiest) and daughter (Nicole Kidman) in a bowling alley...



There's also another clip about a grief support group in which I kept getting distracted by Aaron Eckhart's superhero chin. He really is a cartoon. In a good way, mind.
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Kristin Chenoweth, Film Critic

I follow way too many people on Twitter and thus miss updates from the few celebrities I follow. But since Kristin Chenoweth, one of my favorite peeps in the world, is in the news today being an Emmy nominee (she won previously, and deservedly, for Pushing Daisies) for Glee. I thought I'd share her film tweets.


She misspels her new favorite movie Greenberg but we hear it's quite good and who doesn't love Quentin Tarantino movies? So maybe she has good taste but then... NOOOooooooo she loves Forrest Gump -- god, I hate that movie -- and even gives the Zeéeeee major props so, ungh...

But thanks for sharing, Cheno! Love you always. Can't wait to see you in concert again whenever that may be.

Further Only Tangentially Related Reading:
Movie|Line on the mad subject of Lindsay Lohan's sh*tshow tweeting
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Cannes Tweets & Treats: Bernal, Bingbing and Brolin

I woke up with a serious case of Cannes Envy this morning. There's no way around unwanted feelings so you plunge in them to get to the other side. That's the way to do it, right? Or that's the way Nathaniel (c'est moi) does it. Maybe that's the masochist's way? So herewith... random thoughts on Cannes photos, fashions, and tweets from people I was exceptionally jealous of all day. Cuz they're... you know... there. In the thick of it.

Please note: If y'all don't start commenting soon, we're likely to take a long summer hiatus and see you ungrateful beyootches in October when Oscar buzz heats up. Comments are like food. Feed the insatiable Film Experience Beast!

We begin with two questions starring Gael García Bernal.


1. Is he, like, inviting us to pose with him here? Won't he be crushed in the mass forward rush of crazed lustful exhibitionist fans?

2. Wouldn't he be super easy to lose at a black tie party?
He's so tiny.
You'd never find him again.

And now some funny or interesting movie tweeting...

on Mike Leigh's Another Year which is garnering awards buzz for both the film and Leigh regular Lesley Manville

@erickohn "Finally, a top-notch competition film. Mike Leigh's ANOTHER YEAR is a startlingly honest and understated character study."
@ebertchicago "Imbecilic Cannes question of the day (to Mike Leigh): "Why did you make Sally so sad?"
@totalfilm Mike Leigh's Another Year: kind of a greatest hits movie; pleasure to watch scene to scene if a little familiar.
@guylodge "Mike Leigh's "Another Year" is the best thing I've seen at Cannes so far: and Lesley Manville is stunning

on You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Woody Allen's annual sweet and sour cinematic dish. Sweet and sour because well... you know. You never know if it's going to be a Vicky Cristina Barcelona or a Hollywood Ending.

@JustinCChang "Odd, really, to go straight from the bracing humanity of Mike Leigh to the cardboard inhumanity of Woody Allen"
@eug "Clearly they love Woody Allen in Cannes: Serious pushing, shoving & yelling at the entrance to screening now. Survived."
@jamesrocchi "Light, slight Woody Allen with an unexpectedly vicious streak hidden beneath the farce and ruptured romances."
@awardsdaily ""Cannes - funny rapport between Woody Allen and Josh Brolin at press conference. Woody killed, of course. CANNES Woody Allen press conference - Woody says of death, 'I do not recommend it.' And of aging, 'try to avoid it if possible.'"

Josh Brolin and Woody Allen meet the press

on Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, which also stars Josh Brolin. He busy busy... like 2007 busy again in 2010.

@onthecroisette Wall Street moved me immensely, despite it's happy-ending. Is there something wrong with me? That's what my friends say.THEY ARE WRONG!
@cobblehillis WALL STREET: THE QUICKENING (Stone): 2.5 hrs of bullet-point speeches about $$$. Mulligan cries, Langella hams, Sheen cameos, Shia lebeoufs.
@gemko Wall Street: Let Me Be Clear This Time, Greed Is In Fact Bad ('10 Stone): 43. Not a train wreck, sadly, just didactic-bombastic.

Best Dressed!
You have to have a huge international profile to win "Best Dressed" kudos in the media so Fan Bingbing (or Bingbing Fan, whichever you'd prefer) won't get enough credit for that deep groove she wore into the Cannes carpet.


ShareThe Chinese beauty was there to promote Chongqing Blues (previous credits include: Bodyguards and Assassins and The Matrimony) and she was working way more diverse looks in the first few days of Cannes than any of the high profile American stars or oft-photographed jury beauties Kate Beckinsale or Aishwarya Rai. Well done, Bingbing!
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French Tweets #1: Cate, Robin Hood, Market Titles

Robert begins his daily Cannes roundup tomorrow afternoon and Julien you'll hear from soon directly from France. I'll pop in occassionally with snippets for those of you who aren't tweeting or are just plain desperate to see what Cate Blanchett is wearing.

Here are my nine favorite recent tweets from Cannes

You know @guylodge of In Contention (made breathless by the Blanchett) and Sasha from AwardsDaily well. I believe both of them are at Cannes for the first time this year. Maybe next year or the year after or the year after (when will my ship come in?) I'll be able to pop my Cannes cherry. @jamesrocchi is totally worth following if you aren't already.

Tweets from @anupamachopra on market titles (always a curious bunch of films), slashfilm (everyone seems to think this Robin Hood is problematic) and @akstanwyck from Thompson on Hollywood who asks if Russell Crowe's arrogance surprises.

Um... Is this a trick question?


@scott_tobias from the AV Club and @gemko from The Man Who Viewed Too Much share Robin Hood concerns.

But yes... yes... Blanchett. You're here for the pictures of the red carpet queen.

Cate at the photo call | Cate at at the premiere

She is beautiful in 3 dimensions, though only 2 are represented her... and in Robin Hood for that matter. (Ridley Scott could not attend the festivities due to recent surgeries so we wish him well.)