Hi there. I’m an 21 year old american sort of person with the good fortune to be living in Bristol until August. As I’m here as just a visitor (my parents are academic types and the stuff they work on is being worked on in Bristol, so I’m living with them) I’m a little limited in what I can do, but I don’t want to just be sitting around in their flat all day. So I thought I’d ask in here and see what I should be doing. Any ideas as to where I could volunteer or just generally help out? I’m a photographer/filmmaker sort of person, are there any productions or publications or just generally creative people I could carry tripods/fetch coffee for?
… or would anyone on here want to meet up for a beer/coffee/whatever?
A Twitter row kicked off recently between whoever it is that mans (deliberate choice of word) the Mock the Week feed, and a number of people who are sick of the lack of women on TV panel shows.
However, it was interesting to hear Caitlin Moran and Grace Dent picking up the thread on…
A brilliant existentialist comedy, also starring Dustin Hoffman, Mark Whalberg, Naomi Watts and Lily Tomlin, a mind-fucking but cute as hell little movie.
And David O. Russell calls Lily Tomlin a cunt on set. FAB.
I was busy trying to revise, when in an essay on realism I came across Spanking The Monkey (1996) which tells the story of a young man, um, “consummating” his love with his mother.
Without further a do, a said “screw you, exam-that’s-in-less-than-24-hours, this shit needs investigating!” Upon which, I have discovered that this young man is played by Jeremy Davies, who is one of those character actors that you always recognise but never remember the name of and find kinda weirdly attractive. He’s in shit loads of amazeballs stuff including Solaris, Saving PrivateRyan, Secretary and films that don’t begin with the letter ‘S’; Dogville, Manderlay and Rescue Dawn.
However, further to this, as well as Spanking The Monkey seeming to be a movie right up my street with it’s uncomfortable depiction of American suburbia (look to my love letter to Todd Solondz) it also transpires to be the first directorial effort of David O. Russell, of The Fighter and Three Kings fame.
However, that’s not what I want to talk to you about today.
Today, I want to tell you about his 2004 film I ♥ Huckabees.
This film.
Oh this film.
There was a time when I watched this film every week.
Once, when I was heartbroken, I watched it twice in one day. But don’t let that allow you to suppose this is a romantic film. It’s not. This is a film about existentialism. And it’s a comedy.
Yeah.
In I ♥ Huckabees, indie darling and Wes Andersson fave Jason Schwartzman plays Albert Markovski, a leader of an environmental group who tries to save the environment by reciting brilliant poetry.
He goes seeking for answers after he coincidentally sees the same tall African three times in one day. As such, he hires existential detectives, Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin, befriends Mark Whalberg, an anti-petroleum firefighter….
You can download his brilliant EP “Islands” here: http://itsadamsmith.bandcamp.com/album/islands You can decide how much you want to pay, even if it’s 0 pence, but I think he’s worth a bit dollar.
A little while back I wrote a list of 10 films I want to see but I’m a lazy cretin. It features mostly small independent films, and expresses my interest in the dark and surreal.
Now this little British film is not on that list, but it bloody well should be. But instead of me explaining to you why, go over to my friend Kit’s new blog HOWL, as he is far more of an authority on it that I am, what with having done an interview with the directors and all. And it’s a pretty damn good read (but don’t tell him I said that)!
We do love a good gape at a human being of our preferred gender. Some of us are greedy and like to gape at both. Some of us are weird and even like to gape at animals/wounds/childlings, but we shan’t address their existence.
For the most part, our lusting glances are directed at the sort of people who evolutionarily will make us want to procreate with them, which I guess is why it makes sense why we might not naturally feel attracted to the older members of society. However, exposure in the media suddenly up’s a person’s hotness ten-fold (because we are fickle! Yes we are!). And who are more exposed than actors!
So here it is, my top 10 sexy thespians who have reached their 7th Decade.
Kicking things off at number ten…
10. Donald Sutherland - 75
There is many a thing that make a man attractive. Looks, style, intelligence, humour. With Donald Sutherland, it’s his voice. It’s that sort of kindly deep drone, with his Canadian lilt that makes me think of the old Werther’s Originals commercials - not that I am some sort of kiddy/grandpa-scenario perv. Furthermore, the guy can certainly raise a sardonic eyebrow!
09. Clint Eastwood - 80.
Simply put, a BAD-ASS motherfucker! It’s comforting to think that if you were being raped, Clint would probably castrate the guy with a pair of gardening shears and let him choke to death swallowing his own penis - all without so much as a furrowed eyebrow. (I saw it in a movie, not just my sick imagination…).
08. Bill Nighy - 61
I think this is a bit of an obvious one. C’mon, I bet you too wanted to bang him in Love Actually. Leather trousers galore! However, you might get bored waiting for him to finish speeaakinnng hiiiss seeenteeennceesss…
07. Jeff Bridges - 61
Going outside in dressing-gowns and slippers, not so sexy, but being as chilled out as the The Dude is. It has been noted that Jeff is pretty much the same guy in real life, he loves a smoke, he loves his wife and is just a cool cucumber. What’s not to love?
6. Alan Rickman - 64
This is another very obvious one I think. In fact, I am 100% certain that there is a bit of a sexy-older-man following for Rickman, as I found this disturbing monstrosity on the first page of google images. READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE
