marley shelton Tagged Articles at Cinematical

By Jette Kernion (reprint from 3/17/09 -- SXSW Film Festival)

I'm wary of movies that try to be instant cult/camp classics, with intentionally overdone dialogue and outrageous costumes and actors who are metaphorically winking or even non-metaphorically mugging for the camera. When the characters are in on the joke, it isn't all that funny. And when I learned that the writer-director of Women in Trouble also co-wrote Snakes on a Plane, I grew even more skeptical. But the actresses who populate Women in Trouble tend to play it straight, even when they're wearing assless spandex pants or smoking invisible cigarettes, and that's what keeps this film fun instead of tiresome.

Women in Trouble has a multi-story, anthology-like structure. Writer/director Sebastian Gutierrez said before the SXSW screening that he originally had one ten-page sequence that he wanted to shoot, then thought it might be easy to shoot several of them, all with different actresses, to make a good movie quickly. Apparently it wasn't all that easy, but the result is a large cast of mostly actresses playing a variety of the traditional exploitation "women in trouble." These include porn stars, tag-team hookers (one in a Catholic school uniform, natch), stewardesses (they're not flight attendants when we're poking fun at the exploitation genre), unmarried-and-pregnant women, and a very understanding masseuse.

Cinematical has received three exclusive teaser posters for Women In Trouble, that filthy, good-for-nothing tramp of a film from writer-director Sebastian Gutierrez (Snakes on a Plane) that's caused quite the stir online with its provocative tone and Carla Gugino awesomeness. Described as a serpentine day in the life of ten seemingly disparate women, the film dishes out one of those multi-layered storylines full of sex, intrigue and a damn whole lotta trouble. Co-starring alongside Gugino are a bevy of Hollywood's most underrated seductresses, like Marley Shelton, Adrianne Palicki, Cameron Richardson, Connie Britton and my personal favorite, Emmanuelle Chriqui. And if those names aren't enough to turn you on, then maybe the promise of assless spandex pants and this behind-the-scenes video will.

Still not convinced? Here, our own Jette Kernion said this about Women In Trouble from its SXSW premiere: "Women in Trouble is a fun addition to the current trend of revisiting and reworking exploitation-film themes in a lighthearted way." She later adds, "There's a certain pleasure in seeing a movie where the men are relegated to the Supportive Spouse and Lust Interest roles, after I've seen so many films where those are the only roles for women."

Check out all three eclectic posters in the gallery below, and be sure to keep the light on for Women In Trouble when it dips into theaters in New York and Los Angeles on November 13.

Agatha Christie had it figured out. Ten victims, one killer. Set it up, knock 'em down.

And while there's something to be said for simplicity -- writer-director David Twohy opts for three couples with two killers among them -- A Perfect Getaway can hardly sustain itself until the suspense can kick in. Unable to cut to the chase, Twohy takes his time and decides to get coy, and as it turns out, the only thing deadlier than a killer in a thriller is a screenwriter.

Did you like Quantum of Solace? Neither did I. Despite all the bombast and the film being billed as "The first direct James Bond sequel EVAR!" I just found myself bored throughout it, except maybe during that opening car chase. Otherwise, it was snoozeville. I lay part of that blame on the fact that we didn't get a decent Bond girl to go with it. Olga Kurylenko bored me to tears with her monotonal portrayal of a daughter seeking revenge, and I would have much rather seen more of the redhead who is all-too-briefly seen as another MI6 agent sent to guard Bond. So, with that in mind, here are seven women who I'd like to see fill the Bond cups, er... shoes.

Alright, this list is partly SXSW-influenced, and that's because of the sheer amount of hotties shown onscreen in Sebastian Gutierrez's Women In Trouble. Carla Gugino spends a good amount of time in nothing more than a bra and panty set, and you could practically see the humidity steaming off the screen because of it. Yes, she's seriously that hot, don't let her middle-aged turn in the recent Watchmen fool you. But lined up right behind her is even more hotness from the film, and you'll have to read on to see how it plays out.

Carla Gugino
I'll be honest here, and Ms. Gugino I sure hope you aren't reading this. But ... I just didn't think you had the chops. However, I loved your powerful (and all-too-brief) turn in Sin City, and enjoyed your portrayal of Vincent Chase's agent Amanda in Entourage, and now I realized that you have the curves a Bond girl needs, but you really deliver on the icy cold ball-busting looks that a Bond villain thrives on. Let's give Bond a good villainess to do battle with, and one that stands on equal footing with him in the smouldering looks department. When you appear as aging boozehound Sally Jupiter and pornstar extraordinaire Elektra Luxx a few weeks apart, it's bound to pop a few eyes out. Thanks for proving to us that you've got both the acting ability and the jigglewatts to pull this off.

I'm wary of movies that try to be instant cult/camp classics, with intentionally overdone dialogue and outrageous costumes and actors who are metaphorically winking or even non-metaphorically mugging for the camera. When the characters are in on the joke, it isn't all that funny. And when I learned that the writer-director of Women in Trouble also co-wrote Snakes on a Plane, I grew even more skeptical. But the actresses who populate Women in Trouble tend to play it straight, even when they're wearing assless spandex pants or smoking invisible cigarettes, and that's what keeps this film fun instead of tiresome.

Women in Trouble has a multi-story, anthology-like structure. Writer/director Sebastian Gutierrez said before the SXSW screening that he originally had one ten-page sequence that he wanted to shoot, then thought it might be easy to shoot several of them, all with different actresses, to make a good movie quickly. Apparently it wasn't all that easy, but the result is a large cast of mostly actresses playing a variety of the traditional exploitation "women in trouble." These include porn stars, tag-team hookers (one in a Catholic school uniform, natch), stewardesses (they're not flight attendants when we're poking fun at the exploitation genre), unmarried-and-pregnant women, and a very understanding masseuse.

The good news: We are still in fact giving away a trip for two to India to the winner of last week's Darjeeling Limited contest. The bad news: Contrary to what some ill-informed stooge (me) stated in last week's post ("Winner will be announced Friday, October 11 12 @ 4:00 PM EST), we are still in the process of confirming our winner and will most likely not announce his or her name (and caption) until next Friday. As the expression goes, with free trips to India for photo caption contests comes all sorts of legal technicalities the average stooge doesn't take into account. But thanks to the thousand-plus of you who entered, we were rooting for you.

So onward with more prizes... But following up a free trip to India is hard. So below please find a photo of "two hot chicks on a motorcycle." You may also know them as Rose McGowan (soon to be Mrs. Robert Rodriguez) and Marley Shelton, stars of Rodriguez's 1973 2007 zombie movie Planet Terror, released in theaters as one-half of Grindhouse. Writers of our favorite caption will win a framed poster signed by Rodriguez, as well as the DVD and an action figure (of McGowan, not Rodriguez). Two runners up will win the DVD and action figure.
Good luck!

UPDATE: WINNERS ANNOUNCED! Click Here

Kurt Russell

How did Quentin first approach you about the film? "Well, I was in Tahiti actually. I was on vacation, and I had worked with Freddy Rodriguez on Poseidon and Dreamer. The release of Poseidon was still in the future. I forget how I got this message, but I called him back, and we played a little phone tag, and finally when I got ahold of him, he said 'I'm doing this movie with Robert Rodrigeuz and Quentin Tarantino is doing his own movie, and they're gonna put 'em together for a double feature under the name Grindhouse. And I said 'that sounds like fun, that sounds interesting.' And he said 'yeah, I think Quentin is gonna come to you with this, I know Mickey Rourke is maybe happening, maybe not happening.' Then I found out later there were also other people -- Ving Rhames was a name. I kind of got the gist of what the character might sort of be in the vein of. Then somewhere along the line, Quentin called and then I called him back, and we played phone tag, but in our phone messages we began to strike up a relationship.

Then all of a sudden, he just said 'I want you to do this.' He said 'I want you to add this to your rogue's gallery of characters.' He said 'you've played some phenomenal characters and I want you to do this one.' And I remember sending a message back to him saying 'I suppose it is about time we worked together.' I knew what he meant. I had spent an hour with him, and I knew that he knew a lot of the things I'd done, and I knew that he was specifically interested in some of the stuff I'd done with John Carpenter. And I knew that Rodriguez was, because he came down to the set of Escape from L.A., when he was just kind of getting going. So I got the drift, the gist of what was going on. Then I read the script and my only concern was, as has happened sometimes in the past, there's a director you want to work with, but then you read the part and you go 'ehh ... I don't wanna do that guy,' or 'that's not the kind of movie I want to do with this director'...It would be like getting a script from Sam Peckinpah and he wants you to play, I don't know, the gay smithee. And you go, 'well, that could be fun ... but I don't want to do that with him.'

There was an interesting piece in yesterday's Times about Grindhouse. The writer, Whitney Joiner, got some good access to the post-production facilities and had a chance to talk to the filmmakers about what they were aiming for with this project. Joiner also confirms what we've heard before, that in addition to adding scratches and dust to the print to dirty things up, Tarantino and Rodriguez have each "purposefully cut out" a segment from their films, to "play with the audience." They want to remind us of what it's like to watch a film in a one-dollar theater, where anything goes.

"When it pops up 'Missing Reel,' the entire theater is going to scream," Tarantino said. "They might very well be screaming my name: 'Quentin, you bastard! We hate you!'" The piece also gives a brief outline of the Josh Brolin/Marley Shelton needle-pricking segment, as well as the Kurt Russell muscle car-that-can't-be-crashed segment, which is a riff on the fact that automobile stuntmen can build cars that are more or less un-crashable. "You could drive it 100 miles an hour into a brick wall just for the experience," Tarantino says.

The first posters for Grind House have been popping up around the web for the past week or so, and whether you like them or not, it's hard to deny that they fit perfectly into the pulpy tone that's been created around the movie. So far there are three posters in the wild, two for Planet Terror (the Robert Rodriguez, zombie half of the film) and one for Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino's killer-car extravaganza); nothing has yet surfaced that promotes Grind House as a whole.

The two for Planet Terror are pretty fantastic, in an over-the-top sort of way. One features the previous-discussed image of Rose McGowan with a machine gun for a leg, and proclaims her "Fully loaded."; the other offers a shot of Marley Shelton with runny eye-liner, holding one of those scary-looking, old-school syringes by its metal grip, accompanied by the tagline "You might feel a little prick." On the other hand, rather than actually featuring imagery from the film, The Death Proof poster is a mock advertisement for a screening of ... itself (Oooh, meta!) at Austin's now-defunct Burnet Rd. Drive-In.

While I think all three posters are cool and all, they're really just another indication of how good Tarantino is with hype, and building expectations. As I've said in earlier posts on Grind House, the longer we go on with the vaguely troubled rumors, and without seeing any actual footage from the movie, the more worried I get about its quality. I'm hopeful, understand, just concerned.