Posts Tagged ‘Joaquin Phoenix’

“You loved him on “SNL.” You hated him in movies. Now you’re ambivalent. Please welcome… Jimmy Fallon!” That’s one of the potential openings announcer Steve Higgins considered, according to Entertainment Weekly. Ironic because that’s also how I feel since Fallon’s show started Monday night.

The “SNL” alum shows his former Weekend Update roots when he does his opening monologue. Rather than the loose, somewhat improvisational monologues of fellow late night comedy hosts Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and David Letterman, Fallon moves at a rat-a-tat pace and overly emphasizes the set-ups and punch lines.

As he reads off cue cards too much or awkwardly handles guests, he lacks O’Brien’s lovable craziness, Leno’s confidence, and Letterman’s charming curmudgeoness. Rather than playing up an interview with an odd guest like Letterman did with Joaquin Phoenix last month, Fallon didn’t know quite what to do with his first guest Robert De Niro who was aloof and quiet.

His interviews fare better when they’re with his friends like Tina Fey. Yet, then the audience is stuck feeling alienated as we listen to a one-on-one private conversation between two friends talking about old times or parties they attend together.

One thing Fallon’s got down pat though is his appeal to the youth demographic. Not only is his audience primarily made up of 20-somethings, he draws them in by incorporating Facebook into his gags and doing a soon-to-be recurring Internet Video of the Day skit. He also makes for a really nice, personable guy running up into the audience every night clapping hands and bringing a girl onstage to sing karaoke alongside Jon Bon Jovi.

The skit, however, where he brought young audience members up to the stage to lick things for $10, like most of his other skits, fell flat. Where’s the humor in watching a kid lick a lawnmower? It wouldn’t be any funnier if Fallon gave me $10 to watch either.

Given Fallon’s nice guy attitude and his funny days on “SNL,” his show is worth keeping an eye on though. Plus, late night comedy shows do take time. Case in point is O’Brien who notoriously got pounded by the critics for the first year of his show and came dangerously close to getting canceled way back in 1995. But now look at him. Starting this June, he takes over from Leno as new host of the “Tonight Show.”

In the meantime, I loved him on “SNL,” hated him in movies (well “Fever Pitch was alright”), and right now I’m ambivalent about him.

Best surprise: With song/dance man Hugh Jackman as host, surprise presenters, and funny gag bits, the Oscar’s was one of the most entertaining it’s been in a long time. (Ratings were even up 6 percent from last year’s telecast.)

Worst surprise: Chances are you won your office pool because just about no surprise winners threw off our ballots. “Slumdog Millionaire” cleaned up winning 8 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay as predicted, and Kate Winslet, Heath Ledger, and Penélope Cruz won as expected. The biggest upset was Sean Penn winning Best Actor over Mickey Rourke, but really we all knew it was between the two anyway.

Worst use of presenting the Best Pictures:  Up until the last ten minutes of the show, you wouldn’t even know which films were nominated for Best Picture, and isn’t this what the night was really all about? Instead of showcasing clips throughout the night like usual, the clips were only shown right before the award was handed out. Even worse, they were intermingled with previous films that have similar themes making the clips confusing and taking attention away from the nominees.

Best presentation of movies: The montages of film genres recapping the best of 2008 were done so in great pop culture fashion. Coldplay’s “Lovers in Japan” played to the great romance flicks, Wall-E the adorable robot found a tape of the best animation movies, and the hilarious James Franco and Seth Rogen reprised their “Pineapple Express” roles as they watched DVDs of the funniest comedies.

Worst use of presenting the Best Songs: The song nominees, which are usually played in their entirety throughout the night, also weren’t given their full due. The two “Slumdog Millionaire” songs and “Wall-E” song were shortened and played one after the other. We all knew “Jai Ho” was going to win, but “Wall-E” should have been given it’s own set piece rather than making John Legend sing with “Slumdog’s” Indian back-up dancers and drummers.

Best use of presenting awards: Rather than randomly presenting awards, the telecast walked the audience through the making of a movie starting with the screenwriting process to art direction to editing. Stars associated with the category was also a nice touch like action hero Will Smith presenting Best Visual Effects and Sound Mixing and “Religious” filmmaker Bill Maher presenting Best Documentary.

Best presenters: Steve Martin and Tina Fey presented the screenplay awards humorously (“Don’t fall in love with me” Martin stoically told a googly eyed Fey) and controversially (poking fun at Hollywood-favorite Scientology). And don’t forget about Ben Stiller who delivered a dead-on impression of Joaquin Phoenix’s bizarre appearance on the “Late Show with David Letterman” while presenting with Natalie Portman. It would have been even funnier though if it wasn’t just parodied at the previous night’s Independent Spirit Awards.

Best use of presenters: Keeping most of the identities of the presenters top-secret beforehand made for a more exciting show because you never knew who was going to come out next. Hello Will Smith, hello Reese Witherspoon!

Worst use of presenters: While it was fun seeing past winners like Nicole Kidman, Robert De Niro, and Christopher Walken, presenting the nominees, it came off too self-congratulatory. Instead of comments like “You really nailed it” and Marion Cotillard clasping her hands together cooing “Thank you” to Winslet, let’s see some clips instead. Most viewers at home haven’t seen all the movies, so it’d be more interesting to see the performances for which they’re nominated. 

Best acceptance speech: Instead of the director or co-stars accepting on his behalf, the acceptance of Heath Ledger’s Oscar by his family was much more touching. “Tonight we are choosing to be happy and celebrate what he has achieved,” his mother, Sally Bell, said.

Funniest acceptance speeches: Where to begin? First there’s Phillipe Petit, the subject of the documentary, “Man on Wire,” who not only balanced the Oscar on his chin, he also made a coin disappear.  Then the Japanese director of the Best Animated Short, “Kunio Kato thanked Mr. Roboto.” Finally, Best Director, Danny Boyle, bounced up and down in homage of Tigger for his children.  

Worst camera shots: Awkward alert… Not only did Jennifer Aniston have to present an award mere feet away from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, the camera cut away to Brangelina twice! At least Jolie and Pitt made nice and weren’t giving dirty looks.

Best use of teeny boppers: While baby faced stars like Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Robert Pattinson, and Amanda Seyfried presented and performed on stage to most likely draw in the younger audience, their presence was downplayed and didn’t make the Oscars feel like the Teen Choice Awards.

Best secret talent: Anne Hathaway showed off her really good voice in her pretend-impromptu song and dance number with Jackman. Look out Beyoncé. Maybe you won’t be needed next year.

Here are the winners of the major categories:

Best Picture: “Slumdog Millionaire”

Best Actor: Sean Penn, “Milk”

Best Actress: Kate Winslet, “The Reader”

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”

Best Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”

Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”

We’ve seen him on the big screen playing the role of Johnny Cash, country music icon, in the film “Walk the Line” (for which he earned an Academy Award nomination). Now it seems Joaquin Phoenix is walking over that fine line which separates movies from music – literally.

Associated Press reports that one of the best actors in Hollywood, Joaquin Phoenix, is giving up acting to become a musician. Phoenix learned how to play guitar and did his own singing in “Walk the Line,” and now, it appears, wants to prove his credible portrayal of Johnny was no fluke.

“It’s like greener pastures, you know what I mean?” Phoenix said last Saturday. “I’m just going to try and like, I’ll just be doing the other thing…Hopefully, I will emotionally impact you with that, as well.”

Phoenix is far from the first actor to make the leap from movies to music, but certainly one of the most promising. I know that I speak for the multitude when I say that we’ve all been enthralled from your performances on screen and we hope that talent translates to the big stage. No doubt it will; good luck, Joaquin.

With “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” setting a box office record opening for a musical with $42 million last weekend, it doesn’t look like movie musicals are dead.

The all-time best movie musicals like “The Sound of Music,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Grease,” and “West Side Story,” thrived in the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s; but, that doesn’t mean there haven’t been any movies worth singing about lately. Read on for the best movie musicals to be made within the last decade.

5. Sweeney Todd (2007) Sure most musicals are uplifting, but Sweeney Todd does not lack in musical quality. Based on the Broadway musical, Tim Burton’s dark drama set in Victorian England about a murderous barber out to revenge the man who exiled him and stole away his wife and daughter boasts soaring, melodramatic songs sung by Johnny Depp whose singing is as good as his acting.

4. Walk the Line (2005) Not only does this biography of Johnny Cash tell a moving story, it has the music to match it. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon – as Johnny and June Cash – not only portray the country duo to a hilt; they perfectly capture their singing styles. All together this makes great storytelling and a great soundtrack. Witherspoon won an Oscar for Best Actress.

3. Once (2006) This low-budget film starring real life performers, rather than professional actors, wasn’t a hit at the box office, but the Academy noticed it. Earlier this year, Markéta Irglová and Glen Hansard were awarded with Best Song with the titular “Once.” It’s a simple film that tells the love story of two characters who aren’t even given names through the songs they write, rehearse and record in the course of a week.

2. Moulin Rouge! (2001) Unlike “Once,” this movie musical is stylish, glitzy, and over-the-top, which is what makes it so much fun. Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor play star-crossed lovers in 1899 Paris. Kidman is Satine, a prostitute at the underworld night club (the titular Moulin Rouge) and McGregor is the idealistic, romantic poet who sings beautifully heartbreaking songs to his beloved Satine in a film reminiscent of “Romeo & Juliet.”

1. Chicago (2002) One of a handful of movie musicals to win Best Picture, “Chicago” boasts an all-star cast of Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, John C. Reilly and Queen Latifah; spectacular, jazzy songs and dance numbers, and an intricate, tantalizing story of love and murder set in 1920s Chicago. Zeta-Jones won Best Supporting Actress.

Sure we’ve all seen or at least heard of “A Hard Day’s Night”, “Jailhouse Rock”, and “Don’t Look Back” – all legendary movies about legendary musicians, but what about movies about the music itself? Here’s your accumulative top five:

1) Hustle and Flow – Terrence Howard stars in this great movie about breaking barriers in the music business.

2) The Blues Brothers Movies – Oh yeah. That’s all that can be said about these music, fun, and comedy filled movies that make you want to sing, dance, and laugh at the same time. Memorable characters and memorable guest stars make for some memorable movies.

3) School of Rock – Well, you’re not hardcore (like Jack Black) unless you live hardcore – or maybe that’s unless you can teach a whole bunch of fifth graders what it means to really feel the wonderful music that is rock and roll.

4) Once – This movie didn’t get the largest amount of buzz when it came out around a year ago but since winning that Oscar for the song “Falling Slowly”, it certainly got more notice. A moving, exciting, and inspiring movie.

5) Walk the Line – Joaquin Phoenix shows off some serious acting skills in his portrayal of Johnny Cash, alongside Reese Witherspoon who won a best actress Oscar for her performance. A great movie about the ‘highs’ and lows of making it big in the industry.

Writer’s suggestion: Idlewild – Andre 3000 and Big Boi of Outkast team up together again for a great film about mixing the music of the past with the music of the future. Artistically mastered in all parts of production and a real memorable piece.