Moulin Rouge!

So lord knows I looooove this movie.

But until "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend," I feel like you have to be severely high to appreciate it.

My mom said...

...Atonement was the worst movie she'd ever seen.

:(

I'm not one of those insane Atonement fanatics (in fact, I just took away its Adapted Screenplay win like 2 days ago), but it's still an A- film. I can see how you wouldn't like it. But the worst movie she'd ever seen?

My mom also hates Moulin Rouge! and The Piano. And thinks Gandhi is amazing. :(

Justine visits Australia

You'll notice I seem not all that excited for Australia, Baz Luhrmann's latest spectacular, spectacular. After all, I am batshit crazy for Moulin Rouge!. But, here's the thing. I didn't really like Strictly Ballroom. I didn't like Romeo + Juliet that much. Musicals just suit Baz's style. I mean, if your films are going to be insane, why not have them singing U2 and Elton John? Why not have them break into a can-can number and sing atop a giant elephant while the moon sings to them? I totally understand why people (my mom included, who normally has really good taste in movies) can hate Moulin Rouge!. But one of the things I like about it so much is that it's so willing to take chances and explode off the screen with its insanity. Australia...is a historical epic. Baz's films would be epic if they were about fixing toasters. Don't get me wrong; after Moulin Rouge!, I will go see anything Baz Luhrmann tells me to, especially if it stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. I just...wish I was more excited, that's all. (when November rolls around, though, I'll probably be screaming in antici...pation.)

happy birthday to the gorgeous and ridiculously talented...

...Nicole Mary Kidman. GOD, I WANT TO BE HER IN MOULIN ROUGE! SO BADLY. Minus the whole consumption dying-at-the-end thing. But besides that. I love you, Nicole!

You might be pretentious if

every high schooler likes this movie!
except...you know...not

...you're 16, and your 25 favorite movies are the following:

1. Leaving Las Vegas
2. Moulin Rouge!
3. The Dreamers
4. The Edukators
5. Buffalo '66
6. Dogville
7. Breaking the Waves
8. La dolce vita
9. Love Me If You Dare
10. Cries and Whispers
11. Elephant
12. Bande a part
13. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
14. Belle du jour
15. Before Sunrise
16. An Affair to Remember
17. The Sweet Hereafter
18. Almost Famous
19. Titanic
20. The Virgin Suicides
21. The Piano
22. The English Patient
23. Punch-Drunk Love
24. In the Mood for Love
25. Paper Moon

I'm sorry, the only movies any actual 16-year-old should have on their favorites list that's on this list are Titanic, Moulin Rouge!, and Almost Famous. Maaaaybe The Virgin Suicides and Punch-Drunk Love or Before Sunrise if you were a real weirdo in high school. It's certainly not a bad list (though I can't stand The Dreamers or Buffalo '66 or Almost Famous, and I have serious problems with Breaking the Waves, the rest of the movies that I've seen on the list are in fact respectable), it's just terribly snobby and alienating for a 16-year-old. And I can assure you: no teenager in the entire history of humankind has ever watched The English Patient all the way through. And anyone in general who has Breaking the Waves on their "favorites" list makes me seriously question their status as a member of humanity. If this person really has a movie about sad, desperate alcoholism as their #1 movie of all time at 16 years old, then well, more power to them. I'm just saying, it's a little unlikely. Be yourself. If your favorite movie is Zoolander, your favorite movie is Zoolander. Fuck the haters.

IMDb, you amuse me so very much.

Nicole Kidman: re-ranked

So one of my first posts on this blog was a ranking of Nicole Kidman's performances. And well...it is not correct in any way, shape, or form. Time for me to redo that, from best to worst.

1. Dogville
2. Moulin Rouge!
3. Birth
4. To Die For
5. Eyes Wide Shut (the only time I'm able to give her one of my Oscars, sadly)
6. The Others
7. The Hours
8. Fur
9. Portrait of a Lady
10. Bewitched (for serious, it's good)
11. Cold Mountain
12. Birthday Girl
13. The Stepford Wives
14. Batman Forever

or thereabouts.

If you hate this movie, you're probably a Nazi.

Seriously.

I see how you could hate Pulp Fiction. It's got lots of cursing and blood and it's really stylized. I see how you could hate Lost in Translation. It's a little too much like real life, in that people actually have pauses in between when they talk and stuff. It's slow, too. I see how you could hate Magnolia. Like Pulp Fiction, it's incredibly stylized and long. I see how you could hate Moulin Rouge!. That movie is batshit insane. I see how you could hate Raging Bull. It's violent and hard to watch. I see how you can hate Manhattan. You...okay there's no real reason why you should ever hate Manhattan. But still.

Why the hell, though, would you EVER hate The Shawshank Redemption? Do you hate HOPE? Do you hate HUMANITY? Do you hate MORGAN FREEMAN? Only assholes hate Morgan Freeman. The Shawshank Redemption is not my favorite movie ever, but it is up there, and it is, in many ways, a perfect movie. It's just impossible to hate it.

UNLESS YOU'RE A NAZI! Or a person nobody likes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOTSTUFF!

yup, Ewan McGregor is hot (and 36?!). Watch Moulin Rouge! and worship him all over again.

Also, it's Christopher Walken's birthday (he's not quite so hot...to say the least). His performance in The Deer Hunter is one of my favorites ever, and... well... his performance in that "Weapon of Choice" video from a few years ago! YouTube it.

when it rains, it pours.

After a week of watching shit like Derailed on TV and desperately wanting to buy Sherrybaby or Scoop or The Prestige or whatever to watch on demand, now Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is on. This AND Moulin Rouge! the night before? Movies, you are too good to me.

random delight.

Moulin Rouge! has been on IFC twice tonight.

I have watched it both times.

I FUCKING LOVE THIS MOVIE AND ALL ITS INSANITY

2001

2001 was a pretty darn good year...I like my top 10 a lot. It's super idiosyncratic, and probably closer to a "favorites" list than a "best" list, but I did hate/dislike a lot of the critics' darlings of this year (Ghost World, Amelie, Donnie Darko...).

Best Picture
1. Moulin Rouge!
2. In the Bedroom
3. Lantana
4. Gosford Park
5. In the Mood for Love
6. Shrek (it's become trendy to hate this movie, but I will always love it)
7. Memento
8. Zoolander (!) (it was my favorite movie until like...last year, when I started seriously wathcing movies. I can't help it.)
9. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
10. Bridget Jones' Diary

Best Director
1. Baz Lurhmann for Moulin Rouge!
2. David Lynch for Mulholland Dr.
3. Robert Altman for Gosford Park
4. Wong Kar Wai for In the Mood for Love
5. Stephen Spielberg for AI: Artificial Intelligence
6. Christopher Nolan for Memento
7. Todd Field for In the Bedroom
8. Alejandro Amenábar for The Others
9. Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
10. Wes Anderson for The Royal Tenenbaums

Best Actor (GREAT year, and I stand by my #1 100%)
1. Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind
2. Tom Wilkinson in In the Bedroom
3. Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge!
4. Denzel Washington in Training Day
5. Haley Joel Osment in AI: Artificial Intelligence
6. Tony Leung in In the Mood for Love
7. Jake Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko
8. Anthony LaPaglia in Lantana
9. Eric Bana in Chopper
10. Jack Nicholson in The Pledge

Best Actress
1. Naomi Watts in Mulholland Dr.
2. Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge!
3. Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones' Diary (one of the best comedic performances maybe ever)
4. Charlotte Rampling in Under the Sand
5. Nicole Kidman in The Others
6. Maggie Cheung in In the Mood for Love
7. Lena Endre in Faithless
8. Sissy Spacek in In the Bedroom
9. Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde
10. Brooke Smith in Series 7: The Contenders

Best Supporting Actor
1. Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast
2. Ian McKellen in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
3. Steve Buscemi in Ghost World
4. Jim Broadbent in Moulin Rouge!
5. Jude Law in AI: Artificial Intelligence
6. Brian Cox in L.I.E.
7. Jim Broadbent in Iris
8. Tony Shaloub in The Man Who Wasn't There
9. Owen Wilson in The Royal Tenenbaums
10. Justin Theroux in Mulholland Dr.

Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Connelly belongs nowhere near this list)
1. Kate Winslet in Iris
2. Marisa Tomei in In the Bedroom
3. Laura Elena Harring in Mulholland Dr.
4. Gwyneth Paltrow in The Royal Tenenbaums
5. Helen Mirren in Gosford Park
6. Kerry Armstrong in Lantana
7. Maggie Smith in Gosford Park
8. Scarlett Johansson in Ghost World
9. Uma Thurman in Tape
10. Cameron Diaz in Vanilla Sky

Best Screenplay
1. Lantana
2. In the Bedroom
3. Gosford Park
4. Memento
5. Shrek
6. The Royal Tenenbaums
7. Together
8. Mulholland Dr.
9. Sexy Beast
10. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

You probably haven't seen or maybe even heard of Lantana...and that's silly. Go see it now.

That's a neat coinky-dink

Last night I was all excited about Fur, and now, today, it's La Goddess Kidman's birthday. Yay! Since separating from her ex-husband, who then frankly went batshit crazy not unlike his turn in Magnolia, I really do think she has proven herself as an actress (not that she hadn't before, but she really got public notice, along with two Oscar nominations, one which led to a win). Nicole, despite being undoubtedly A-list, is not afraid to do projects approximately five people will see, like Dogville or Birth. She's always good to extremely excellent. She's not the best at comedy (errr... The Stepford Wives anyone?) but she's getting better (I really did love her in Bewitched). My favorite performances of hers:

1. Dogville
2. Moulin Rouge! (pictured above - too fabulous for words.)
3. Birth
4. The Hours
5. To Die For
6. The Hours
7. Eyes Wide Shut
8. Portrait of a Lady
9. The Others
10. Cold Mountain (I think I'm the only person on Earth who liked this movie.)
11. Bewitched
and The Stepford Wives would theoretically be #12, but it's nowhere near as good as these performances (yes, even Bewitched).

Ooh, a substantial post!