Thompson on Hollywood

#Sundance: Stewart's Welcome to the Rileys, Keener's Cyrus, Hoffman's Jack Goes Boating

Two of this year's Sundance it-girls are women of a certain age: Catherine Keener, who rocks in both Please Give and Cyrus (as John C. Reilly's ex-wife), and Melissa Leo, who stars in both The Dry Land and Welcome to the Rileys. The straight-forward Jake Scott drama is well-written by Ken Hixon (executive produced by Steve Zaillian) and executed by Kristen Stewart as a damaged stripper-prostitute and James Gandolfini as a lonely man still recovering from the teen death of his daughter. Leo is his equally wounded wife. It will be fascinating to see how distribs navigate the distance between Stewart's younger Twilight fanbase and this hard-R drama. This is also an issue for Apparition's The Runaways.

By Anne Thompson
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January 24, 2010 7:30 AM
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Emily Blunt Talks Young Victoria, Golden Globes

Brit actress Emily Blunt walks the red carpet at the Beverly Hilton Sunday afternoon as a best actress drama nominee for The Young Victoria, which is holding well ($6.3 million so far in North America), and should get a boost from her Globes appearance. She has been there before: she's now an old hand.

By Anne Thompson
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January 17, 2010 7:55 AM
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Composer Zimmer Talks Sherlock Holmes, Inception, Dark Knight, It's Complicated

In many ways, the best thing about Sherlock Holmes is its score (released January 12), featuring exotic Hungarian and gypsy instruments. It's one of about a hundred movie scores delivered by prolific German composer Hans Zimmer, who has earned six Oscar nominations; he won for The Lion King in 1994. On February 2, he earned a seventh Oscar nomination for Sherlock Holmes.

By Anne Thompson
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January 16, 2010 6:23 AM
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Avatar's VFX Master: Weta Digital's Joe Letteri

People in Hollywood tend to put film directors up on pedestals, and as far as Avatar is concerned, Jim Cameron deserves to be up there. I'm calling nine Oscar nominations for Avatar. But its one sure-shot win will be Peter Jackson and Joe Letteri's Weta Digital team for Avatar's visual effects. What they accomplished in the The Lords of the Rings trilogy and King Kong changed the way movies are made. And so does Avatar, which will have a huge impact on movie FX to come, from Tintin to Gemini Man. Nothing, it seems, will be impossible to put on film anymore.

By Anne Thompson
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December 23, 2009 11:16 AM
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Fassbender Talks Fish Tank, Inglourious Basterds, Jane Eyre, Centurion, Jonah Hex

The second I saw Michael Fassbender's performance in Steve McQueen's Hunger, in which he starred as an IRA fighter on hunger strike, I knew the Irish actor would be a star.

By Anne Thompson
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December 23, 2009 12:26 AM
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The Long Road to Invictus

Morgan Freeman was born to play Nelson Mandela.

By Anne Thompson
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December 22, 2009 1:45 AM
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Fourteen Questions for It's Complicated's Nancy Meyers

During a few scenes in It's Complicated, the latest comedy from writer-director Nancy Meyers (What Women Want, Something's Gotta Give), I laughed so hard that tears came out of my eyes.

By Anne Thompson
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December 21, 2009 1:14 AM
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Tarantino Starts His Ten Best List

By Anne Thompson
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December 15, 2009 2:25 AM
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Avatar: Cameron Delivers Joyous Cinema

James Cameron's Avatar takes you to an exotic world, Pandora, seen through the sad eyes of paraplegic marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) as he falls in love with tribal princess Neyteri (Zoe Saldana) and her people, the Na'vi.

By Anne Thompson
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December 11, 2009 3:22 AM
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Jeremy Renner Talks The Hurt Locker

Jeremy Renner has been breaking out for a long time. The 38-year-old Californian has starred in more than 20 movies, from S.W.A.T. to Dahmer and now, delivers the performance of his career as a fearless, focused dismantler of bombs in Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq thriller The Hurt Locker. There's a good chance that he could land in the fifth slot for the best actor Oscar. My flip cam interview is divided in three parts: