AliaShawkat Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It looks like things are getting more interesting each day when it comes to the music biopic The Runaways -- and I'm not talking about Joan Jett making Kristen Stewart cry. No, instead, there is news that Alia Shawkat (who will forever be known as Maeby Fünke) is joining the cast as famed bassist and 'Bangle' Micki Steele ... or at the very least an approximation of Steele. Latino Review is reporting that Shawkat has joined the cast as an 18-year-old bass player named Robin (aka Steele), and judging by the photo above, you have to admit that Shawkat would be a great choice to play the sexy bassist. I mean, just look at those lips.

Rather than get into a long and convoluted explanation about the awesomeness that is Steele, here is a little primer: Steele was one of the first members of The Runaways when they were touring the club circuit in L.A. and was considered the 'feminine' one in a group of bad girls. By 1976 she had left the band after the addition of Lita Ford (played in the film by Scout Taylor-Compton) and Cherie Currie (played by Dakota Fanning). Steele would go on to join another famous girl band, The Bangles, and create music history by teaching the world about 'Manic Mondays'.

There has been no word on why Steele isn't going to be named in the film; possibly because the film makers didn't secure the rights to use her image, or maybe her split from The Runaways wasn't an amicable one. My guess is that the character of Robin will be based on Steele, but also be an amalgam of some of the other band members that won't be featured prominently in the film.

The Runaways is still filming on location in L.A., but will arrive in theaters in 2010.

I've always found it tricky to navigate the indie world by trailers alone. Many mundane trailers taint great films, and many decent trailers leave the nagging question: Is it cute in two minutes, but falls flat at an hour-plus? Armed with a great review and the solid trailer above, I don't think we'll have to worry about that with Bart Got a Room.

Unlike the hordes of teen comedies where the kids all look "perfect," the lives seem more Clueless than real, and it's all thrust into the mainstream pop mindset -- a habit that really must die -- Bart Got a Room sets snarky realism against a far-from-flashy South Florida backdrop. There's the obligatory teen trauma: Getting a date for the prom, but as Erik said in his Tribeca review last year: "It's not complex, it's not much different from other nerdy-teen-needs-date-for-prom flicks, but it sure as hell packs a ton of heart and has a lot of fun."

And you've gotta feel for a kid (Steven J. Kaplan) who can't find a prom date when the school loser (Bart) can -- which only leads mom (Cheryl Hines) to secure a hotel room for the kid in extreme pity, while dad (William H. Macy) goes on and on about sex. The film hits theaters on April 3.

90210 might be gearing up for more high school magic, but Ian Ziering has other projects to worry about. Serious projects that challenge his skills and should throw him into serious Oscar territory. No, I kid. Variety reports that he does have a new film on the way, but it certainly won't be a great one for the acting scorecard. He's going to star in a new National Lampoon's "sword-and-sandals spoof" called The Legend of Awesomest Maximus. But wait -- there's more. He'll play "Testiclees, a hero who can only be wounded in his gonads." I thought that was any man, but maybe he's got it worse.

In other news, Michael Cera isn't the only Arrested Development kid getting work. Aside from showing up in Bart Got a Room, Variety reports that Mae 'Maeby' Fünke, otherwise known as Alia Shawkat, has nabbed a role in Whip It! She's playing a gal named Pash, and is joining the awesome female-led cast of Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore, Marcia Gay Harden, Juliette Lewis, Zoe Bell, and Kristen Wiig. This pic better be good, because the cast is making me really anxious to see this sucker.

I'm happy to say one of the films I was most looking forward to this year actually lived up to my expectations -- and though it's still very early in the festival, Bart Got a Room is easily my personal favorite so far. It's not complex, it's not much different from other nerdy-teen-needs-date-for-prom flicks, but it sure as hell packs a ton of heart and has a lot of fun. It's alive, it's colorful, it's got well-written characters and more than a handful of memorable scenes; if I had to describe this film in one sentence, my pitch would go something like: Picture a contemporary version of Brighton Beach Memoirs if it featured an only child and was set in South Florida. That's Bart Got a Room.

Danny's (Steven Kaplan) a skinny Jewish kid with low self-esteem, eccentric, over-protective parents and no prom date. While he can easily take his best friend Camille (Alia Shawkat), Danny would rather take a girl he might have a romantic chance with. Like the pretty, flirtatious blonde cheerleader he carpools with, or the reserved Asian classmate who writes exotic, pornographic poetry. He'd let his friends set him up with "that girl who sleeps around," he'd throw open the phone book and dial up a girl he hasn't seen in years -- all of which makes Danny a man on a mission. And that mission becomes even more complicated (and important) when Bart, the school's biggest loser, not only secures a prom date ... but also a hotel room. Yup ... even Bart got a room.

One of the films I'm most looking forward to at this year's Tribeca Film Festival is Bart Got a Room, directed by Brian Hecker (in his feature debut) and starring William H. Macy, Cheryl Hines, Steven Kaplan, Alia Shawkat and Jon Polito. Before I go any further -- I'm sorry, but how awesome does Macy look with that haircut? Only he can pull off the White Man's Fro and do it with style (click on the image to enlarge).

Bart Got a Room centers on any teenage kid's worst nightmare: Imagine the school's biggest dweeb not only secured a date for the prom before you, but he also got a hotel room. That's what happened to Danny (Kaplan), and now he's on a desperate quest to find a date while his divorced parents, Beth and Ernie Stein (Hines and Macy) independently search for love. Oh man, a skinny Jewish kid with major prom anxiety and nutty parents. This film will certainly take me back a few years.

We'll have a full review and interview with writer-director Brian Hecker later on this month. Oh, and when a trailer is available, we'll let you know.

It is hard enough being a nerdy kid searching for love. It is doubly hard to be that kid when you know love sucks and rarely works out. I remember being a teen conflicted by the desire for a date and the constant reminder that divorce is the best-case scenario for what that date will lead to. Now it seems Plum Pictures is making the story of my life, in the indie teen comedy Bart Got a Room. According to Variety, the film will star Steven Kaplan as a nerdy kid living with his parents (William H. Macy and Cheryl Hines) in a retirement community in Hollywood, Florida. At the moment in his life when he's seeking love, or at least a prom date, his parents are going through a divorce. Playing his best friend -- and let me guess also his eventual love interest -- is Alia Shawkat, who is best known as "Maeby" from the best television show ever, Arrested Development. The film is the feature debut of writer-director Brian Hecker and it will be produced by Grace is Gone's Celine Rattray, Galt Niederhoffer and Daniela Taplin Lundberg.

I have to point out -- because my mom reads Cinematical -- that my own parents divorced much, much earlier than my teen years, and I wasn't actually completely traumatized nor did the divorce ruin my ability to find love. So, Bart Got a Room will not parallel my life, though I do think I could relate to it anyway. And I'm sure I won't be alone there. The high school years are probably the most formative time in our lives regarding love and relationships, and certainly we look around us, to our parents, friends and relatives for guidance in how to figure it all out. Certainly a failing marriage in the home could have a negative impact on the experience, and I'm sure that's what Hecker is focusing on here. It kinda reminds me of Sixteen Candles, actually, in that it probably deals with a selfish lack of attention on the parents' part. Of course, with great talents like Macy and Hines at the reigns of Bart's family, we'll hopefully see more concentration on the parents in this than in that.