Everything is coming up parties and games this week. I've been busy making a kickass birthday cake for a friend, planning for the party, and finally picking up a belated gift of Scrabble for another friend. Top that off with news stories about Kevin Kline and chess, and getting sent pictures of really cool Blue Velvet cakes, and, well, I've got games and parties on the brain.

Picking this week's films was a bit of a challenge, but it all depended on the angle. Did I just want movies with games in them? Did they have to be performed at parties? Would I consider the likes of Bobby Fischer or Jumanji? Nah. Instead, we've got two films that boast insanely great ensemble casts, have some pretty fierce competition, and yet are wonderful for completely different reasons: The Anniversary Party and Clue.

Last month, I wondered how Jennifer Jason Leigh could sign on for an indie romcom starring Ashton Kutcher -- the man notorious for his bad romantic comedies. She was set to co-star in Spread, the classy-titled indie comedy where Ashton is a serial womanizer and Jennifer would be the thwarted lover -- so, not only a goofy Kutcher movie, but one where he gets to cast her off! But now, however, The Hollywood Reporter posts that one week after signing on, Leigh backed out of the project for undisclosed reasons. Her replacement will be -- Anne Heche.

Rumors suggest that Leigh is pregnant, but you can't help but wonder if she just got cold feet. Production is starting immediately, so it's not like the pregnancy worry would impact things that much right now. As for Heche, well, I'm less surprised about her casting, although maybe a Kutcher film isn't the best thing to follow up her success in Men in Trees. Eh, we'll have to wait and see. Maybe this will be a great romcom, and Jason Dean Hall's script and David Mackenzie's direction will make it all come up roses.

I've got to wonder now... According to IMDb, Laura Linney is attached. What on earth attracted Linney and Leigh to a Kutcher romcom?

I just don't know what to say about this news. It's not like Jennifer Jason Leigh only picks the cream of the crop as far as films go. She has done voices for things like Spawn and Hey Arnold!, but for the most part, she picks decent films or some sort of art house/indie fare. So, what in the world made her decide to co-star with Ashton Kutcher in a sex comedy? Well, it is indie, but that doesn't sound like enough of a qualifier to me.

Variety reports that Kutcher and Leigh will star in the comedy, which has the lascivious name of Spread, and Ashton's Katalyst shingle is producing. The film will "chronicle the adventures of a serial womanizer (Kutcher); Leigh will play a thwarted lover." It's Jason Dean Hall's first feature script, and will be helmed by David MacKenzie, the director behind Young Adam and Hallam Foe. Maybe Ashton nabbed the part because of his production company?

Yeah, I know that I'm being hard on the guy. But really, aside from That '70s Show, or even Dude, Where's My Car?, he's left a wasteland of crappy romcoms -- Just Married, My Boss's Daughter, Guess Who, A Lot Like Love... I'm pretty sure What Happens in Vegas will soon be on the list as well. But you have to give him credit -- he still keeps getting the roles.

Pictured: Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr. re-create a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief (click on the image for a larger version).

There's been lots of talk surrounding Vanity Fair's 2008 Hollywood Portfolio edition (March issue), which features several notable celebrities re-creating memorable scenes from Alfred Hitchcock films. VF loves to do stuff like this, but I have to say this one is my favorite so far. Among the celebs who took part are Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Downey Jr. (seen above), Jodie Foster, Seth Rogen, Naomi Watts, Keira Knightley, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Marion Cotillard, James McAvoy, Emile Hirsch, Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem, Charlize Theron and many more. You can scope out Johansson and Bardem re-creating a scene from Rear Window (one of my personal Hitchcock favs) below, then head after the jump to see more (and click on all photos for larger versions).

[via Oh No They Didn't, Slashfilm]

I was going to headline this post with something about 'being there in spirit,' but I decided that's a lame way to start things off. Obviously, I'm being lame anyway by pointing out that I wasn't going to begin that way, while in effect beginning that way. So, why don't we just get to the news about the Independent Spirit Award nominations, shall we?

Todd Hayne's I'm Not There received four nominations, including one each for Cate Blanchett and Marcus Carl Franklin, who are up for supporting actress and supporting actor, respectively, for their semi-portrayals of Bob Dylan. The film was also recognized in the Best Feature category, in which it's competing against Juno, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Paranoid Park and A Mighty Heart, and Haynes was nominated for Best Director, going up against Jason Reitman (Juno), Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), Gus Van Sant (Paranoid Park) and Tamara Jenkins (The Savages) -- meaning A Mighty Heart's Michael Winterbottom was shut out despite his film's receiving the Best Feature nomination. I'm Not There is already the winner of one Independent Spirit Award, the newly conceived, and appropriately titled Robert Altman Award, which honors the film's director, casting director and ensemble cast. Because of that win, I'm Not There has been labeled the leader of the nominated films, although Juno, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and The Savages all received the same amount of actual nominations as Haynes' film.

Since I haven't seen any of the major nominees (yet), I will take this opportunity to celebrate a few films, which I have seen, that have been deservedly recognized in other categories. First, I'm excited to see that Adrienne Shelly is up for Best Screenplay for Waitress. I doubt she'll win, unless enough voters want to further highlight her posthumous success, but I'm happy to see her included. I'm delighted to see Jennifer Jason Leigh nominated for Margot at the Wedding, considering Nicole Kidman, who wasn't nominated, has been receiving most of that film's accolades. And finally, I am ecstatic to see that Vanaja, which I loved, has been given two nominations, one for Best First Feature and one for Best Cinematography. Overall, we should all be glad that this year's crop of nominees includes few huge stars, Angelina Jolie being the one major exception, in the acting categories. The 2008 Independent Spirit Awards will be presented on February 23.

Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding did smashing business at two theaters in Manhattan, earning a per-screen average of $39,800, according to estimates compiled by Leonard Klady at Movie City News. Was it the sparkling dialog, the witty performances, the star wattage of Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black? The critics were mixed: our own Ryan Stewart opined that the film was "torpedoed by its own self-indulgence." A. O. Scott of the New York Times was kinder ("frequently brilliant, finally baffling") and Lou Lumenick of the New York Post was not ("I've had root canals that were more enjoyable"). Check Metacritic for more critical coverage.

Opening in a single Manhattan theater, What Would Jesus Buy? performed quite nicely according to Box Office Mojo, making $11,600. Personally, I thought Rob VanAlkemade's documentary was timely and entertaining, although quite scatter-shot in its approach.

Opening in a single Los Angeles theater, Smiley Face earned an estimated $5,700 over the weekend, according to Mr. Klady. Distributor First Look has been criticized for changing their plans from a wider release last April; filmmaker Sujewa Ekanayake comments: "It is sad to see a film that screened at 4 incredibly well known festivals [Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, Toronto] being released in only 1 theater." Amen! Both Jette Kernion and Monika Bartyzel reacted positively to Gregg Araki's stoner comedy starring Anna Faris; the movie hits DVD in January.

Redacted ($1,760 per screen; 13 theaters) and Southland Tales ($1,780 per screen; 63 theaters) appeared to fall victim to bad buzz. Everyone kept saying that no one would want to go see Brian DePalma's Iraq War project and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Critical response was lukewarm overall, though a number championed it, according to Rotten Tomatoes. (Ryan Stewart felt it "doesn't ever truly gel.") The same site estimated that only 34% of the Southland Tales reviews were positive; its champions are fewer but no less appreciative -- but not Nick Schager, who called it "monumentally vapid."

The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men expanded into 148 theaters and soared into the overall Top 10, scoring a scorching per-theater average of $20,540.

Writer-director Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding, his follow-up to his Oscar-nominated The Squid and the Whale, portrays the friendship -- and friction -- between sisters Margot (Nicole Kidman) and Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Pauline, mother to Ingrid (Flora Cross), is marrying her boyfriend Malcolm (Jack Black) -- and Margot comes to lend her support for the big day, bringing her son Claude (Zane Pais) along. But the sisters aren't really the best friends they claim to be, and the Pauline's coastal home soon seethes with judgments and resentments and secrets. And yet, according to Leigh, the tension on-screen wasn't on-set: "It was a pretty happy set, actually -- and also the scenes are exciting; it was exciting to have scenes with this much going on them. So you never went home bummed out; they were exciting and really good scenes, and the tension was alive. ..." Of course, Leigh also had the fairly unique experience of working with her husband as her writer-director. ... Leigh spoke with Cinematical in San Francisco about working with the people you love, what happened when the cameras were off, which of her movies she doesn't flip past when they come up as she channel-surfs and the sort of movie she considers a "crowd pleaser."

Cinematical: To start with a fairly obvious question, is it easier or harder when at the end of the day's shooting, you're going home with the director? Does that make your job as an actor easier, or more difficult?

Jennifer Jason Leigh: A lot easier -- because of our relationship, too, but it was a lot easier. Because not only can you talk about the day, but you can talk about the next days to come, and what you want from the scenes and what you're striving for -- and also you have the person you love most with you through it all, so you get to have this great creative collaboration doing something you love together and be together. For me, it made it easier. Also, if there was a scene I wanted a little extra rehearsal on, I could get it at home.

Cinematical: You had unlimited access to the writer.

JJL: Writer, director, yeah. "Could we work on that scene. Could I rehearse with you?"

Cinematical: What was it like working in these very intimate dramatic scenes with Jack Black -- who people don't automatically think of as an actor, who people think of more as a presence, or a comic actor. Did you do a lot of preparation, or did he just show up bringing his "A" game?

JJL: We did rehearse; we all rehearsed. Jack was Noah's first choice, and Jack's someone I've always wanted to work with, and I've known Jack a really long time, so I knew he could be great. I just think he's a wonderful actor, so ... he would always joke about having his "A" game on, and all that, but ... he's just so good. There was never a doubt in my mind. And I knew we'd have good chemistry, because we're friends, and I just enjoy him anyway. It's always nice to work with people you know and like, just because you already have that history - and it shows, in a way, and you can feel it on the screen a lot of the time, I think. He's a wonderful actor; everything you would hope he'd be, he is. He's warm, he's available; he's funny, he's smart as hell ... he's lovely.

Margot at the Wedding is a film torpedoed by its own self-indulgence. The film starts by offering us a thin premise -- a frosty, New England writer named Margot comes to town for the occasion of her quasi-bohemian sister Pauline's wedding to a slob -- and then more or less does nothing in the way of development, opting instead for ninety minutes of hints and innuendo. Nothing in this family dysfunction drama ever rises to the surface, even in the third act. Usually, you at least know what the director was going for, whether they succeeded or failed, but not here. Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh have to be given some amount of credit for doing the requisite character-building work, playing past the obvious physical dissimilarities between them and creating a workable, sisterly dynamic that can go from warm to freezing in an instant, but there's so little in the way of compelling events for them to react to that it's almost hard to maintain interest. Margot at the Wedding is a ninety minute film, with about twenty minutes worth of content.

Jack Black is the third lead as Malcolm, Pauline's soon-to-be-husband who has no job and no ambition to do anything except possibly commit infidelity. It's hard to say whether Noah Baumbach hired Black to play a thinly-disguised version of himself or whether he intended to have him do heavy lifting, acting-wise, because there's an odd mixture of both on display. There are moments when he's simply playing his part with none of his usual verbal or physical affectations, and there are other moments, such as in a late scene where he's supposed to be doing some crying, when he's unwisely allowed to lapse into a light version of Jack Black schtick. Both incarnations of his character seem to be a noticeably bad match for Jennifer Jason Leigh, by the way. Her natural gravitas doesn't mesh well with his absurdist persona, and whenever they are together on screen, there's a palpable sense of 'acting' going on that undermines Jason Leigh's seemingly honest attempts at character development. Theirs is just one of several of the film's actor pairings that don't seem very natural.

I'll be quite honest with you: The only reason I love to read these "Where are They Now" pieces is for the photos. When you remember a particular actor for a certain role -- and then never hear from them again -- it's often fun to see what they turned into. Fortunately, some actors and actresses age very well (ahem, Jennifer Jason Leigh). Others ... not so much (poor Brian Backer). Moviefone is currently hosting a "Where are They Now" for the cast of Fast Times at Ridgemont High; the classic teen sex comedy (that DOESN'T suck) currently celebrating its 25th anniversary. Yup, it's already been 25 years since Jeff Spicoli ordered a pizza to his classroom (I always dreamed of doing this growing up, but never had the balls), and so why not catch up with the crew and see what they've been up to since.

Of course, we all know what happened to Sean Penn. Following Fast Times, he went on to never star as a stoner surfer dude in another movie again -- even if Spicoli will most likely go down as his most memorable role of all time. With the exception of folks like Penn, Leigh, Forest Whitaker, Anthony Edwards, Nicolas Cage (originally credited as Nicolas Coppola in the film, aka "Brad's Bud"), Eric Stoltz and -- for a majority of the '80s -- Judge Reinhold, everyone else sort of faded away into oblivion. Phoebe Cates has been having kids with Kevin Kline, Brian Backer went from scoring with Jennifer Jason Leigh to scoring a feel-sorry-for-ya spot in Amy Heckerling's 2000 flick Loser (heh), and Robert Romanus (ticket scalper Mike Damone) fell so far into obscurity, there's not even a current pic of the guy. Then again, I'd rather have a starring role in one classic film than appear in 20 duds. So check out the gallery, and let us know what your favorite Fast Times memories are ...

Not much to see here that wasn't covered in the trailer that we passed along a few days ago, but here is the first one-sheet for Nicole Kidman's next film, Margot at the Wedding. Directed by Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale) the film focuses on a 40-something woman, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, whose (apparent) spur of the moment decision to get married prompts the arrival of her disapproving sister, Margot, played by Kidman. The advance buzz on this movie is pretty good, with a few sneak reviews saying that the trailer is covering up more serious elements to the storyline, and that Kidman's performance is what will sell the movie. Jack Black plays the almost-husband of Jason Leigh's character, so I think it's safe to say that he'll be balancing out whatever serious intentions the trailer is masking.

Kidman is currently in Australia, shooting the Baz Luhrmann epic of the same name, and is loosely attached to two future projects -- Need, in which she may co-star with Naomi Watts and Wong Kar Wai's The Lady from Shanghai, which has gone through a lot of shifts over the past couple of years. I'm not up on the latest regarding the project, but something tells me you shouldn't hold your breath for it. As for Jennifer Jason Leigh, she'll next be seen opposite Alec Baldwin in Lymelife, a family dramedy about a marriage that is falling apart. Margot at the Wedding is currently scheduled to hit theaters on October 19.

The first trailer for Margot at the Wedding, Noah Baumbach's follow-up to The Squid and the Whale, has landed at Moviefone. While Jack Black rubs me the wrong way sometimes, I am a fan of both of the female leads -- Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh -- and from the looks of the trailer, they've got at least a couple of big scenes together in this one. The movie tells the story of Pauline (Jason Leigh) a 40-ish woman who impulsively decides to get married to a guy played by Black. The wedding brings Pauline's disapproving sister, Margot (Kidman) and the two of them go at it. Meanwhile, Jack Black's character sort of sits back and takes the brunt of the abuse. There may be a romance triangle that develops, although it's hard to tell from the trailer. John Turturro also has a role in the film, but he's barely even mentioned in the trailer, so it must be a glorified cameo, at best.

The best part of the trailer comes near the end, with Kidman's character inexplicably climbing a tree to prove that she's still young at heart or something, and getting totally stuck. There are definitely enough good moments here to make me anxious to give it a whirl. One observation, though: although Kidman is clearly going with the dressed-down, dowdy look she's used for other films like Birthday Girl, it's still a bit of a stretch to buy her as sharing DNA with Jennifer Jason Leigh, don't you agree? Anyway, Margot is being put out in limited release on October 19 by Paramount Vantage, which will also be putting out one of the films I'm most looking forward to in 2007 -- P.T. Anderson's There Will Be Blood. Fall is shaping up, people.

Odds and ends for Tuesday:

• Master thespian Jack Black will join the cast of Oscar-nominated screenwriter Noah Baumbach's new project, and untitled film starring Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh, aka Mrs. Baumbach. Black will play the husband of a woman (either Leigh or Kidman) who is visited by her sister (whichever one isn't playing Black's wife) and the sister's 12-year-old son. Ok, it sounds boring - but then so does "It's about some people getting divorced," and The Squid and the Whale was fantastic. Let's give the thing a chance.

• Philip Seymour Hoffman (did anyone else notice while watching the Oscars that he's built EXACTLY like Jack Black?) is taking his Oscar-winning ass over to Fox Searchlight, where he'll costar in Savages with Laura Linney. Based on the previous item and this one, it would appearing there's a run on grim little family stories: this one is about a brother a sister who are forced to care for their elderly father, a man who has been distant their whole lives. Needless to say, much is learned by all about family, responsibility, and love. Sorry, I teared up there for a second.

• Isn't royalty just hilarious? Universal is hoping so, because they just invested in a comedy pitch called Once and Future King, about "the tumult felt in the British royal family after it's discovered that an Australian farmer is the rightful king of England." What's insane about this is that it apparently actually happened: the maybe-king is now the 14th Earl of Loudoun, and lives happily (and royally) in New South Wales.
  

Noah Baumbach, whose The Squid and the Whale was one of the best American films of 2005, has signed some pretty big names for unnamed follow-up film. According to wire reports this morning, Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh (AKA Mrs. Baumbach) will costar in the project. Though details about the movie are currently hard to come by, it's known that the two will play sisters, and that the film is, not surprisingly, a comedy-drama. The story will explore the relationship between the sisters over the course of a weekend, during which one takes her son to visit the other.

Despite the lack of detail about its content, the combined success of Squid - as an independent film, its box office returns have been small, but it garnered universally positive reviews and has received a pile of awards - and the stature of its stars render this project an awfully exciting one. Frustratingly, there's no word yet on when production will get underway.