MacaulayCulkin Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Okay, so I've never been much for the company of kids. which may make me extra-susceptible when it comes to the evil deeds and manipulations of a perfectly precious child on-screen. It's an easy button to push, though -- after all, who would ever suspect, let alone harm a vengeful little moppet?

None of that appeal escapes tomorrow's release, Orphan, and it certainly isn't the first time that horror and horseplay have mixed on film. While I'm tempted to include that little girl from [REC] (and also Quarantine, I suppose) for giving me the willies, I won't because she wasn't the chief antagonist, and the only reason I'm leaving Children of the Corn off the list is, well, I haven't actually seen that yet. And although it doesn't hit Stateside shelves until this October, keep an eye out for the very tense import, The Children.

But worry not: even with the exceptions, there's certainly no shortage of other brats to choose from.

Hmmm, seems like this is a film to watch when you're home alone ... (Sorry, I had to make the joke. Had to!) Yes, in case you did not know, Macaulay Culkin and Eliza Dushku star in a film called Sex and Breakfast that's surprisingly already available on DVD here in the states and is currently screening at the Cannes Market in hopes of snagging some international buyers. Not only is it already available on DVD, but you can also skip the whole rental thingy and watch the entire film on YouTube over here. Oh, and that's the trailer above.

Now, based on the trailer, you'd think Sex and Breakfast was a hot, steamy low-budget indie flick featuring young, kinda-still-famous actors doing it all ... night ... long. And THEN having breakfast! Hot! Actually, the film follows two couples who, when difficulties arise in their relationships, visit a sex therapist who's into proscribing group sex to everyone ... or at least that's how Karina over at Spout remembers it. Okay, still hot -- we could do without the Culkin, but the Dushku-on-girl action (as promised in the trailer) is an interesting scenario. But then Karina goes and ruins the whole ending for us (spoiler warning!!): "The couples do finally get around to Doing It, but it's the most boring sex scene of all time, all above-the-shoulders shots of one swapped couple kissing intercut with the meaningful stares of the other couple from across the room." Bummer. But do they have breakfast??

Anyone actually rent this flick? Care to comment?

Last we heard from Dakota Fanning, she was playing an Elvis-impersonating rape victim in the Sundance debacle Hounddog. That performance managed to simultaneously warm the hearts of festival goers, while rendering anti-kiddie porn crusaders appalled, and leaving most critics simply bored. Now, apparently having had a taste of life as a hot topic on MSNBC, Dakota wants more. She's signed on to star alongside little sister Elle Fanning in Hurricane Mary, which, according to Variety, "tells the true story of an Irish-American mother, played by Patricia Clarkson, who fought a long battle for the rights of her handicapped yet gifted daughters to have a public school education."

Elle and Dakota will play "handicapped yet gifted" under the director of Arvin Brown, a television director who has directed just one feature film, a 1980 horror flick called Diary of the Dead. I'm sure Dakota's parents and handlers have a master plan, and I'm absolutely positive they need no advice from internet movie critics when it comes to the handling of the preteen phenom's career. However, I do think now is the time to recall the sad story of Macaulay Culkin. If you remember, the Uncle Buck star was just about Dakota's age when he stuck his own little toe into dangerous waters, first as sidekick to a window-smashing, crotch-grabbing Michael Jackson in the "Black or White" video, and then as the villain in the 1993 thriller bomb, The Good Son.

Like Hurricane Mary, The Good Son was a family affair, co-starring Culkin siblings Quinn and Rory. Within a year after The Good Son's release, little Macaulay all but suffered a nervous breakdown and basically disappeared for almost a decade, only to resurface briefly to play a drug-addicted murderer and get engaged to a cast member from That 70s Show. This could very well all fit into the Fanning' family's plan: maybe the goal is to screw everything up now, wait until 2017, and then get Dakota cast in a remake of Monster and married off to Wilmer Valderrama. If so, well done, Mr. and Mrs. Fanning! Let all your haters stand corrected when this delicious plan comes to fruition.

When Macaulay Culkin ended his nearly 10-year absence from the movies by starring as Michael Alig, a real-life, drug-addled, murderous, gay party-boy in Party Monster (a performance Roger Ebert described as "fearless"), it was clear that he was aggressively avoiding the mainstream cuteness in which he'd spent his entire childhood (though he did work the adorable on Will & Grace). Since then, Culkin has continued to pick his roles carefully, playing only a supporting role in Saved!, a well-review, smart indie comedy that was released two years ago.

According to this morning's Variety, it sounds like Culkin's latest break is over: He's agreed to star in Sex and Breakfast, an indie project being described as a dark comedy. The film, which was written and will be directed by first-time feature helmer Miles Brandman, tells the story of "a couple with problems in the bedroom who seek solace from a therapist. The shrink espouses group sex as a cure-all." Ah yes, the group sex-fix -- I just read about that the other day in Time.

Also in the cast are Alexis Dziena, Kuno Becker and Eliza Dushku; there's no indication of which role Culkin will play.

Insert painfully unfunny "Not Home Alone anymore" joke ... here. In just about the saddest child star gone wrong news I've ever heard, word on the street is has it that an apparently cash-strapped Macaulay Culkin has signed on to join Anna Nicole Smith and Dennis Rodman in a British "celebrity" version of reality hellhole, Big Brother. As if the very fact that Culkin has, at 25, already given up on legitimate success wasn't bad enough, a source involved with the production of the show told a British tabloid that Culkin was primarily asked to be on the show in the hopes that he'd dish the dirt on his sometime best friend ... yes, that's right ... Michael Jackson.

"This is a great coup for us," the source told the Daily Star. "Because of his friendship with Michael Jackson, you're almost getting two for the price of one." It gets worse: the Channel 4 source admits that the network was "desperate to bag Macaulay because we want some big name Americans who will be controversial and have a chequered history...But more importantly he has been privy to Jacko's private world at Neverland."

When D-listers debase themselves on reality television, I'm usually the first to point and laugh (oh, how I crave a Season Two of Breaking Bonaduce). But just a couple of years ago, when he was starring in Party Monster and Saved!, it looked like Macaulay had a decent shot at a merit-based comeback. How did he get from there, to selling out Michael Jackson on trash British television? The mind reels.