It seems almost redundant to say this but Mike Leigh has once again created an amazing film. Its called Vera Drake and it takes place in 1950s London. Vera lives in a small flat with her husband Stan, and their grown-up son and daughter, Sid and Ethel. The family is not rich, but their combined incomes make for a reasonable life. Vera is a cleaner, Stan a mechanic in his brother’s Frank’s garage, and Ethel works in a light-bulb factory. Sid is an apprentice tailor. The Drakes have something money can’t buy; they are a genuinely happy family.
Unbeknownst to the rest of the family Vera performs abortions, and when the police finally track her down after one of her patients goes to the hospital it has major ramifications.
As Vera Drake, Imelda Staunton gives one of the most powerful performances of the year that is sure to be noticed around Oscar time. Mike Leigh begins creating his films almost a year before they start rolling any film. He works with his actors by giving them their characters and they create the scenes in rehearsal with improvisation.
“That feeling, that tingly feeling when somebody touches you and kisses you is the most incredible feeling you can ever get.”
– Chantal Claret
Chantal Claret is a very satisfied pleasure seeker. The Morningwood front lady, who admits she was once “a very naughty girl,” has just released the album she’s always wanted to make – The One, The Only… her solo debut – and is currently being gratified by a residency at the Hard Rock’s swanky Vinyl club in Las Vegas and by a husband (Jimmy Urine of Mndless Self Indulgence) whom she tells us is “one of the good ones.”
Her freshly minted music – which might come as quite a surprise to those used to the pop-infused rock of Morningwood – is perfect for Sin City, being a glamorous and gutsy mix of ‘60s inspired retro rock & soul.
A longtime friend of SuicideGirls, we thought is was about time we caught up with the sexy chanteuse and kick-ass woman’s woman. During the course of our conversation she shared her recipe for finding love, and spoke about the wonders of real women (with real asses) and the joy of making out.
“This is a point in my career where I get to do what I want to do.”
– Danny Glover
Danny Glover has had a career of contradictions. While he has appeared in the highly successful Lethal Weapon franchise, he has also been very politically active on issues involving minorities in the US, global human rights and AIDS. He was also appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program.
Of course that’s besides the point, because he has a starring role in the balls out sick and twisted horror thriller SAW. A young man named Adam [Leigh Whannell] wakes to find himself chained to a rusty pipe inside a decrepit subterranean chamber. Chained to the opposite side of the room is another bewildered captive, Dr. Lawrence Gordon [Cary Elwes]. Between them is a dead man lying in a pool of blood, holding a .38 in his hand. Neither man knows why he has been abducted; but instructions left on a microcassette order Dr. Gordon to kill Adam within eight hours. If he fails to do so, then both men will die, and Dr. Gordon’s wife, Alison [Potter], and his daughter will be killed. Recalling a recent murder investigation by a police detective named Tapp [Danny Glover], Dr. Gordon realizes he and Adam are the next victims of a psychopathic genius known only as “Jigsaw.”
“The more uncomfortable someone is with something, the more uncomfortable I have to make them.”
– Selma Blair
I figured that Selma Blair would be a pretty cool chick. She’s not some bloated and pretentious movie star that only does movies set in the 16th century or biographies of the first women to walk on the moon. Instead Blair does nutty independent films like Storytelling with Todd Solondz. Her big budget studio film Hellboy has the added factor of geek director, Guillermo del Toro. Plus any woman who gets married to a Zappa in Carrie Fisher’s Beverly Hills mansion has got to have an awesomely cool aura. Her latest flick is A Dirty Shame, in which she plays the big titted go-go dancer Ursula Udders who has fallen under the spell of Ray-Ray the sex god of Baltimore.
“It hits me as a filmmaker because when you are allowed to make a film with a lot of control it’s a very intimate experience.”
– Alexander Payne
Alexander Payne is the handsome young director of the films Citizen Ruth, Election and About Schmidt. His latest picture is Sideways, starring Paul Giamatti and Payne’s wife Sandra Oh.
Sideways is the story of Miles Raymond [Paul Giamatti], a failed writer who teaches junior high school English. He takes his best friend, former hot actor Jack [Thomas Haden Church] on a weeklong drive up to wine country in California. There they explore the nature of their failures and question their relationships. Jack, who’s about to get married, has an affair and wonders whether he should call it off. Miles, recently divorced, questions whether or not he made the right choice.
“As long as we enjoy playing music together, then thats what I want to do.”
– Gary Powell
The Libertines have had a tough time during the past couple of years. After breaking out with their first song, “What a Waster,” they quickly descended into a Behind the Music-like hell when their frontman Pete Doherty became a heavy drug addict, nearly causing the breakup of the band.
But thats all behind them now; They’re releasing their latest self-titled album and it’s their best one yet. I got a chance to talk with Libertines drummer Gary Powell.
“I love the idea that masochism is a reincarnation of prudery.”
– Bill Condon
Bill Condon is the Oscar winning screenwriter and director of Gods and Monsters which was released to great acclaim in 1998 and launched Ian McKellan as a legitimate film actor. Since then Condon wrote Chicago and finally brought to light his long gestating project, Kinsey, which is a look at the life of Alfred Kinsey, a pioneer in the area of human sexuality research, whose 1948 publication Sexual Behavior in the Human Male was one of the first recorded works that saw science address sexual behavior.
