changeling

Defamer Halloween Costume Ideas, Vol. VI: The Icon

6:41AM Seth | We realise our ongoing Halloween costume ideas series has so far overwhelmingly catered to the mannish among you, so we thought we’d now throw one out to all you sexy ladies in the house. Some old-fashioned roller skates, a period hat, vampishly red lipstick and an assortment of ethnically diverse dolls are the essentials for this ensemble. See the finished product after the jump! More »

‘Porno’ Livens Up Weak Halloween Party at the Multiplex

1:42AM STV | Happy Halloween, and welcome to another edition of Defamer Attractions, your weekly guide to everything new, noteworthy and potentially stillborn at the movies. Today we survey a wasteland of R-rated comedies, Disney leftovers and Oscar-season prestige offerings, all battling the holiday for audience dollars. Among them we’ll spot this week’s likeliest underachiever and its most worthy underdog, with a few worthwhile DVD releases bringing up the rear. As always, our opinions are our own, but they will be the envy of all your friends when sorting through your candy later tonight.

EXCLUSIVE: Clint Eastwood Likens ‘08 Election to Oprah Car Giveaway

7:40AM STV | Clint Eastwood took himself and his new film Changeling to its US premiere last weekend at the New York Film Festival. Just like we had for our audience with Mickey Rourke, we sneaked in via a film canister to check out the scene and lob a question his way; still, as lovely and reliably austere as Changeling is, we had more pressing issues on our mind than how little Eastwood rehearsed with Angelina Jolie (answer: hardly at all). To wit: How is a long-time conservative, former elected official and John McCain supporter like Eastwood getting his head around the Celebrity Election of ‘08 — Sarah Palin’s candidacy in particular? Was this a circus anyone could have foreseen 57 years ago when he joined the Republicans? More »

Shocker! Clint Eastwood and Angelina Jolie Make Oscar-Bait Drama Everybody Loves

2:00AM Defamer Hollywood | Ho-hum. Clint Eastwood went to Cannes and all he got were more late-career raves, award mentions, his star Angelina Jolie on his arm and perhaps the most meta title switcheroo in Hollywood history: The Exchange (née Changeling) has all kinds of fans at the festival, where the child-disappearance drama premieres today in competition and already has Variety’s Todd McCarthy running back at his hotel room to change his pants: The intercutting of two heavyweight proceedings, a murder trial and a landmark City Hall hearing, provide the story’s dramatic crescendo, although even greater tension stems from what comes thereafter. In the end, Changeling joins the likes of Chinatown and L.A. Confidential as a sorrowful critique of the city’s political culture. More »

Today in Cannes Hell: ‘Blindness’ Still Bad, ‘Indy 4′ Making Few Friends and Egregious Oscar Hype

6:00AM Defamer Hollywood | The pandas have been euthanized and Sean Penn is still lighting up despite you on the first full day of the Cannes Film Festival, which we continue to study from our vantage point in the salt mines. We continue to wince at the reaction to the opening-night film Blindness, whose bad buzz we were nervous about back when the festival waited forever to announce its selection. Variety’s Justin Chang piled on this morning — “Blindness emerges onscreen both overdressed and undermotivated, scrupulously hitting the novel’s beats yet barely approximating, so to speak, its vision” — with an only slightly happier James Rocchi following suit at Cinematical. Then there’s the anticipation for Indiana Jones and Whatever the Fuck, whose anxious makers are taking precautions to dodge the lynch-mob on their own tail: