Philip Seymour Hoffman Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Tethered to reality by only a slender thread, Pirate Radio quickly cuts loose and floats off into its own imaginary layer of the Earth's atmosphere, where only good-hearted, pleasant-thinking, die-hard romantics can survive. Welcome home, Richard Curtis, where have you been?

Writer/director Curtis rose to fame on the basis of his screenplay for Four Weddings and a Funeral, featuring an ensemble of quirky yet appealing men and women chasing love and happiness, followed, notably, by his script for Notting Hill, but he's been writing off-kilter comedy sketches and episodic television for many years. Pirate Radio proves that his gift for writing witty one-liners and creating funny situations remains intact. His skills as a film director and shaper of material are a little more fuzzy and undefined, however.

As with Love, Actually, his previous directorial effort, Pirate Radio (AKA The Boat That Rocked) is filled with episodes that feel randomly assembled, knit together by proximity and happenstance more than narrative necessity. For all the laughter and positive feelings that Pirate Radio generates, it's a lightweight treatment of a potentially heavyweight subject.

One of my pet peeves about the movies is that they can never seem to get nightclubs right. Usually, it's too bright, the music isn't loud enough, and you just never feel like you are in a honest to goodness night-spot -- except for Spike Lee's 25th Hour. In today's installment of Scenes We Love, I decided to avoid the obvious choice, and went with one of the many fantastic scenes that take place in the oh-so-hip night club on Monty's (Edward Norton) last night of freedom, and Jacob (as played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) lets his flirtation with his student (Anna Paquin) go a little too far -- and we even get not one, but two of Lee's trademark dolly shots.

25th Hour is easily one of my favorite Spike Lee films, but I chose today's scene for three reasons: first off is the club (as I've already explained), the second is the song from Cymande, Bra (and if this song doesn't make you want to dance, you might want to check for a pulse), and the final reason is what Lee called on the DVD commentary, (I'm paraphrasing, here) the "Oh F**k face". Usually, when you see these sexed-up Lolita scenarios, it's all very erotic and taboo. But in Lee's version the whole thing is just ill-advised, and Hoffman brings that all home in one facial expression. Lee uses Paquin's ability to play a little girl messing with adult behaviors to every advantage, and what might have just been an inappropriate kiss with an 'E'd up teenager becomes something so much worse, and Hoffman makes you feel the panic as reality comes crushing in on him.

After the jump; "But it's all right, we can still go on"...

It really seems like Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen's Green Hornet is cursed, doesn't it? We've all followed the ups and downs of the production and just when it seemed like we were out of the woods, now we're short one villain. Earlier reports had Nicolas Cage making an appearance as an unnamed villain in the action comedy, but according to The Hollywood Reporter's Heatvision blog, Cage has officially left the production. I can only assume that Cage left hornet to work on the recently announced Drive Angry and the Hungry Rabbit Jumps.

Not much was known about what Goldberg and Rogen had planned for their Hornet's baddie, and over the years The Green Hornet has fought everyone from bootleggers to the Axis of Evil and communists. But in some of the earlier incarnations of the Hornet, his major villains were Mr. X, a shadowy crime figure, and Oliver Perry, a sleazy P.I. who was constantly threatening to 'unmask' our hero. No one knew for sure who Cage was going to play, and frankly I think he could have pulled off either role, but it's not like he's the only actor who could. Luckily for Columbia, Gondry had yet to shoot any footage with Cage, so when they find his replacement, they can start from scratch.

That said, I thought it would be fun to engage in a little casting wish-fulfillment and I've got five actors who I think can pick up where Cage left off. Now, some of the actors might not be who you would expect to show up in a Seth Rogen movie, but hey, this is my fantasy casting pool, so why not aim for the top?

After the jump: my picks for a brand new bad guy...

I can think of at least three movies in the coming two weeks that feature scenes that are strikingly out of tone with the film they're a respective part of and yet seemingly included as a means of getting people to tell their loved ones how ridiculous Bit X in Movie Y is. And so today's Cinematical Seven list will be an arbitrary, far from ultimate compilation of the most distractingly disgusting and supremely superfluous parts in recent movies. Sure, most of these are comedies, and yes, most of them seem to have been released from the year 2000 on, and as always, we welcome your comments below. Just make sure they're not too gross.

(Speaking of which, NSFW clips follow after the jump.)

When actors grab the directorial chair, my response is usually dictated by two things: the person's charisma, and their film choices. Considering how awesome Philip Seymour Hoffman is, and how his recent roles include Synecdoche, New York, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, The Savages, and Capote, the thought of him as a director is downright lovely. And now Variety reports that he's going to helm Jack Goes Boating -- an adaptation of Bob Glaudini's Off Broadway play.

The play is "an unconventional romantic comedy about two misfits in New York City, laced with cooking classes, swimming lessons, and illegal drugs." Hoffman will divide his time between directing and starring as the stoner limo driver, alongside Gone Baby Gone's Amy Ryan. Finishing off the cast is John Ortiz and Daphne Rubin-Vega, who are both reprising their roles from the stage.

At the very least, this will be a slice of laughs and romance without the trite and overused stereotypes. But I'm betting it will also be one heck of a fun film -- it's not everyday that Manhattan-based drug films deal with cooking and swimming classes, nor is it everyday that a romcom gets Hoffman and Ryan as the leads.

Does this whet your cinematic appetite?

As many movie fans know by now, the prologue to last summer's Tropic Thunder features some brilliant spoof trailers, including one for a phony film called Satan's Alley (which won the "coveted Crying Monkey Award at the Beijing Film Festival"). Better seen than described, it's a brilliant deconstruction of every pompous award-hungry film that comes out in December. The trailer for John Patrick Shanley's Doubt looks a lot like that, but if I've learned one thing this year, it's to not trust trailers. Happily, the real Doubt is a great deal sprightlier, cleverer and more powerful than its dreadful promo would suggest.

Shanley is a playwright who occasionally forays into movies, and he adapted his own 2004 play into the screenplay for Doubt. He won a Best Screenplay Oscar for Moonstruck (1987), and his other writing work ranges from Five Corners (1987) to an adaptation of Congo (1995). As a director, Doubt is only his second feature; his first came 18 years ago, with the bizarre, wonderful, underrated Joe vs. the Volcano (1990). That movie was a highly stylized, colorful, very dry, very black romantic comedy that left most Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan fans (or, to put it another way, just about everybody on the planet) completely baffled. Shanley brings some of that same skill and style to Doubt, although this time expectations and delivery are more in harmony.

Did you watch Almost Famous and wish that Philip Seymour Hoffman would do a full retro film that has him chatting on the radio? Have you ever wished that you could see Nick Frost lounging lasciviously on a bed? Do you like/love Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually, and/or Notting Hill? If you can answer yes to any of the three, watch the clip above.

This is the UK trailer for Richard Curtis' The Boat That Rocked, which follows rogue DJs in the '60s who fuel a pirate radio movement from the most logical and appropriate place -- a ship at sea. (ARR!) The idea itself sounded good, but seeing it ... man, 2009 cannot come fast enough!

However ... this is making me wish for a remake of Pump up the Volume with Hoffman as Hard Harry. He's too old, and it would be ridiculous, but I can't get the image out of my head.

Having just seen the film version of Doubt, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, I was encouraged to dig up this Defamer post in which Philip Seymour Hoffman goes off on a junket journalist who couldn't help but ask whether or not his priest character had indeed done the dirty with a young boy at his Catholic school.

Don't worry, there aren't any spoilers to be heard there or read here, but believe me when I say that whether or not Hoffman knows the truth is more important than whether or not we, the audience, know. To a greater point, such an admission would dilute only the whole purpose of the film and play, the relentless ambiguity of the story at hand, and Hoffman -- surely having feared this inquiry, and perhaps already having tackled it elsewhere -- clearly suffers no fools.

For my money, though, that still has nothing on this bout of humiliation.

See below gallery for larger images of each

Above you will find the two For Your Consideration ads for The Dark Knight that have been running in Variety this week. One promotes Heath Ledger for Best Supporting Actor, while the other targets a Best Picture nomination for the film itself. With The Dark Knight approaching $1 billion at the box office, it'd be a stupid move on the Academy's part to not give this flick the credit it deserves. From a ratings standpoint, knowing The Dark Knight is up for a few big awards (including Best Picture) would probably bring in tons more viewers, and, well, from a normal human being standpoint, the movie is freaking awesome! Give it some love!

Of course, it's a comic book movie and we all know the serious adults who vote on Oscars don't take too kindly to them comic book kids stuff. Hopefully, though, they'll see what a terrific job Nolan did with his Batman follow-up and the unbelievable performance Ledger gave as Joker. Should Ledger find his way into a nomination, he'll most likely be up against folks like Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt), Josh Brolin (Milk), Ralph Fiennes (The Duchess) and Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic Thunder).

Check out larger versions of the above ads in the gallery below.



[via BoF]

Here are some stuff and things for your (very cold, if you're on the East Coast) Wednesday:

-- Nicole Kidman may join Joaquin Phoenix in actor's retirement land real soon as she told press in Australia that she's not too sure she wants to keep going at it. Kidman says, "In terms of my future as an actor and stuff, I don't know. I am in a place in my life where ... I've had some great opportunities and I may just choose to have some more children. I've no idea what is in my future but I am very at peace with where I want to be. There are many things I want to do besides act." Like ... become the next Top Chef? Which is worse for Hollywood: The loss of Kidman or Phoenix ... or do you not care much either way?

-- The 2009 Sundance Film Festival has announced its opening film ... and it's a clay-animated feature starring the voices of Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette. Directed by Adam Elliot, Mary and Max "follows a 20-year, pen-pal friendship between an 8-year-old girl in Melbourne and an obese, 42-year-old man in New York." Calm down Dateline, it's only a film! Sundance director Geoffrey Gilmore says, "This portrait of a global friendship between two marvelously dysfunctional people is an exceptionally moving, funny and thought-provoking work." [Variety]

-- If you've been wondering where The Soloist (starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.) has moved to, Variety reports that the current release date has been pushed to April 24 instead of March 13. In addition to this move, Paramount has shifted Paul Rudd's I Love You, Man from January 16 to March 20.