Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Scoop!

1) I wonder if she's representative of South Carolina as a whole...


2) What does $1 million buy in Seattle? Apparently not as much as in some other states, where mini-mansions, real mansions and all that are not that out of reach.

3) What do you do when you win Project Runway? Sell iPod cases, apparently.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Predictably Skanky...

I'm not going to apologize for linking to (NSFW!) this or this. Everybody needs a little skankiness in their lives. I'm just happy to provide it.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Gasp(ard)!

Alleluia! This is old, from this past Spring, but any magazine cover with Gaspard is worth posting. Vogue Paris obviously has their priorities in order if they were wise enough to have Steven Klein shoot Doutzen Kroes (in Lanvin by Elber Elbaz!) and Gaspard Ulliel, probably two of the most gorgeous people in the world (in my opinion, at the moment, but you know how quickly I get bored and that can change...).

Monday, August 20, 2007

Great News!

I know I'll seem like a massive loser, but when it comes out in 2008, I'm totally going to watch the new Star Trek movie. James McAvoy is going to play Scotty in the J.J. Abrams-directed iteration. And I'd like to say that isn't my main motivation for watching the film, but I'll admit that I've never seen a Star Trek movie before. But that's because of a lack of opportunity! Well, whatever. I'm completely shameless.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Good News!

Craving something good? Get your McFix right here! Atonement, starring James McAvoy and Keira Knightley, comes out this December!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Bad News!






Baaaaaad news! The release date for Penelope has been pushed back to at least February because the production company has decided to shift their focus and now the film has no distributor! For those craving a McFix, Netflix something fast!

More Skankiness...

Made in Brazil is an excellent source for all things involving Brazilians and fashion (especially the models. Oh, the models!). They really make me wonder why I haven't learned Portuguese yet. David, my only reader, don't click on any of those links.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Movie Watch! - Starter for 10












Starter for 10 (2007) - Whatever happened to the good old American romantic comedy? It seems like Hollywood has been outdone by the Brits. It's hard to compete when you've made a film that features a fresh ensemble cast (as opposed to Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Garner, or anyone else ever romantically linked to Ben Affleck), a slyly intelligent script that focuses on character-based humor (in contrast to drab slapstick), and doesn't feel one bit forced or familiar. It's exciting to watch something done well, to observe what happens when one succeeds in breathing new life into an otherwise pointless, overdone genre. It's pretty clear that I'm a big fan of James McAvoy. He doesn't disappoint here. He plays Brian Jackson, a working class chap from Essex who has a genuine thirst for knowledge and the doors it can open for him. He's caught between his old friends and his new life. Sound familiar? This should have been a boring romp through the same old class conflicts, but it wasn't. It's nothing entirely revolutionary, but Jackson's quest to become a better man when he enters university, to become valiant in the classroom and to fall epically in love, it's something endearing and admirable and all too familiar to the youth of today, even as this movie takes place in 1985. I won't ruin the film, but it's definitely worth a watch. 9/10

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Movie Watch! - Becoming Jane










Becoming Jane (2007) - Yowza. I saw Keira Knightley's Pride & Prejudice, which was the latest adaptation of a Jane Austen novel, sometime two years ago. I liked it moderately well, as much as a desperate-to-charm romance starring a desperately starving actress and balding actor could possibly be liked. This, with an upgrade in cast, is a rather more splendid affair. Anne Hathaway plays the real-life Jane Austen, the woman behind all the words that have won over generations of women (and men). Hathaway is fit for the part, able to bring a certain winsome vulnerability to a woman who is so brashly independent and forthright in her thinking. Her pale, doe-eyed beauty is a sight to behold, even though it's obvious that she's been dumbed down to a certain dowdy extent. The real charmer here is James McAvoy as Tom Lefroy, Austen's greatest love and the inspiration behind many a love interest in many of her novels. McAvoy possesses a surprising and impressive versatility, from the titular lady's man with muscular dystrophy in Rory O'Shea Was Here to Idi Amin's suave personal physician in The Last King of Scotland. The binding tie in all his roles is a certain charm, one that is never solely arrogant, but rather one that masks a level of vulnerability, leaving one to wonder whether they should detest his very nature or fall madly in love. You don't want to root for him. You don't want to like. You know there's always something just a little off about his character. But nonetheless, it's inevitable that you'll be hopelessly attracted to whatever you can't quite categorize about his character. Hathaway and McAvoy hold together a story that is somewhat thin at times, somewhere between dryly comic and apologetically drab anytime the two are not on screen. It's their pleasing chemistry that keeps us watching, even as we know exactly how the story will end. If you have any ounce of admiration for either Hathaway or McAvoy, it's really quite worth a watch. 7.5/10

Sunday, August 12, 2007

More Jeans, Jeans, Jeans!

This is the type of thing that keeps ads on my blog, so suck it up and get used to it.

I've gone through the whole jeans shopping process for at least a good week of my life, I'm quite sure. That said, here are the current favorites in my closet:

1) Habitual 'Skinny Little Sister' jeans in The City wash - Perfectly skinny and super-long, which allows for agreeable bunching and gathering. Very nice back pockets too. The dark indigo wash is absolutely awesome, and they're the first jeans I've ever worn that were amazing enough to get two Bellevue...teenage girls...to stop dead in their tracks and comment on how they're "like, freaking the cutest jeans, like, ever." Like, whatever! Either way, they're surprisingly comfortable and haven't really stretched too much yet. They have them at Revolve Clothing, but I guarantee I spent nowhere near $200 on them. Not even $100. Yay!

2) Corpus 'Rye' jeans in Rinse wash - I got them from Revolve Clothing on sale, which I then used a coupon code on and got for an extra 20% off the sale price. Anyways, they're slim, but not skintight, meaning they're perfect with many more types of shoes and occasions. Corpus jeans run true to size, so I probably should've sized down, but I didn't. The wash is almost black, but not over-dyed, which means that they're a little more like raw denim than true black denim. Either way, they feel sturdy as can be, but the label says hand-wash or dry-clean. I'll figure that out when I get to that point...

3) Kasil 'Whitman' straight leg jeans in Baltic Blue wash - Azalea in San Francisco, now tobi.com, has some amazing clearance items from time to time, which is where I got these jeans for like $41, off from some extremely absurd price. They're simple and wearable and I wear them all the time when I don't feel like thinking about what I'm wearing. I think that means they're my "default jeans." It's nice not having to think about that, which makes their awesomeness even more awesome.

Who doesn't love comfortable denim? Is there anything more perfect than the perfect pair of jeans? And wouldn't it be nice if you clicked on any of the ads on the right side of this blog? I sure think so!

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Now playing: Tapes 'n Tapes - Insistor
via FoxyTunes

Movie Watch! - Hannibal Rising

Hannibal Rising (2007) - Ewwww. Ick. But whatever. That was to be expected. Gaspard Ulliel
plays the young cannibal, Hannibal Lecter, in the first English-speaking role for the actor. It's awkward and bizarre and rather gory, thanks to uncomfortably squishy noises relating to various body parts being manipulated in ways no body part ever should. But whatever. Not really worth a watch, honestly. 2.5/10

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Movie Watch! - Jeux d'enfants


Jeux d'enfants (English Title: Love Me If You Dare) (2003) - In the world of psychotic, twisted French cinema, this movie certainly works hard to cement its place high atop the insanity. Marion Cotillard, who recently won raves for her portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Vie en rose, plays Sophie Kowalsky, a pretty, lower-class Polish girl who becomes the best of friends with Julien Janvier, played by French heartthrob delicieux Guillaume Canet. Their childhood friendship is based on their absurd dares, trading off the craziest stunts and pranks with the simple phrase <>. The years go by, they grow closer, then apart, things get complicated and all that jazz. Director Yann Samuel has created a stunning visual delight. His colorful, dreamy France isn't quite Amelie romantic, but it has a captivating charm all its own. Ultimately, the film decidedly falls short, collapsing under the weight of two characters who I really wanted to love and adore, but ended up simply watching. I didn't cheer for them, as much as I wanted to. They're beautiful trainwrecks, yes, but like Lindsay Lohan, the emphasis is somehow more on the trainwreck part than the beautiful, which means they must be plenty crazy. Cotillard and Canet are cute and handsome and oh-so-charming when they aren't playing these characters, and I love the idea of l'amour fou, but here I just wished there wasn't such excessive neurosis. A mental trip, but still very much worth a watch. 6.5/10

Movie Watch! - The Break-Up

The Break-Up (2006) - A surprise, but certainly not a very pleasant one. Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn play a Chicago couple so impossibly hateful and spiteful that it hurts to watch. They fight in a manner that I suppose could have been bleakly comical, darkly humorous, but only if I had not been prepped to watch a more gentle romantic comedy. Thank the most horrendously misleading marketing campaign in the history of cinema. This movie was #1 the weekend it opened. I can imagine the hoards of people that left the movie feeling depressed and anxious about their own relationship status. It's like a slow-motion car accident you can't stop watching. I mean, it wasn't bad in terms of the script. The explosively bitter chemistry between Aniston and Vaughn is so needling and ripe that it does in fact achieve a level of believability that maintains my interest for the first hour or so. But then you just start questioning why anybody would want to watch all of this horrendously painful crap go down. It's simply masochistic. But Jennifer Aniston looks great, and not just because of her impossibly chic Prada dresses. Well, maybe because of the Prada dresses. But still. She looks better here than she usually does. It's a shame because there's really no reason to watch her. 3.5/10.

Web Watch - Skank Edition!

I hate to do this, but too bad. Who's reading this anyways? Haha!

1) Made in Brazil proves that living in Brazil may have severely negative effects on your own self-esteem. But it still may be good for your health overall...

2) Oh La La Paris has some great things to see. But dear god, don't click here. Or here. And definitely not here. Quelle skanky!

3) I'm going to watch Becoming Jane because I like Anne Hathaway better than Keira Knightley and James McAvoy more than Matthew Macfadyen (yes, that's how you spell it apparently).

Okay, no more skankiness for me...for now.