Cinema Hype

1. Fistfight, Bridget Jones’s Diary
Rarely has a single scene given me so much joy so many times over—after seven years, you’d think the honeymoon would be over, but by now I think we can pretty much assume that Hugh Grant and Colin Firth flailing at each other out in the street (with “It’s Raining Men” blaring in the background, naturally) will never not be funny to me.

2. Launch party, High Fidelity
This is a scene of such relief and contentment—for one thing, Jack Black sheds his metal-band persona, belting out a killer cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” as part of Barry Jive and the Uptown Five—that it’s nearly impossible to not be happy. Everyone’s swaying, everyone’s worked things out for the moment, and Black can actually sing. Wouldn’t it be great if, at some point in our lives, everybody got to live this moment, or something like it?

3. Wedding/football match sequence, Bend It Like Beckham
I’m not sure when I last saw a musical montage work as the climax of a movie, but Bend It Like Beckham may have been it. Watching Jess and Pinky do what they do best, respectively, with some kind of crazy aria playing in the background? It’s one of those utterly triumphant movie moments, where everybody wins (well, not everybody. Somebody’s got to lose the game, after all). What great treatment of two great characters.

4. Road-trip diner scene, When Harry Met Sally
Not to be confused with the more famous Katz’s Deli “I’ll have what she’s having” scene—you know the one I mean. This one starts with Meg Ryan explaining how “women are very practical, even Ingrid Bergman” as she uncaps and lets loose with an enormous can of Aquanet, and it ends with the famous “you know, of course, that we can never be friends” theory. And in the middle? Days-of-the-week underpants. What could be more perfect? This scene is a dialogue triumph, useful in all situations. Learn it. Love it. Make it your own.

5. Flood, O Brother, Where Art Thou?
There are many, many things I love about the Coens’ geekiest comedy, but if I’m going for atmosphere, the flood scene never fails to give me tiny, tiny goosebumps—the way you hear it coming, the scene it (fortunately) interrupts, the little tins of Dapper Dan. And then there’s the roll-top desk at the bottom. After all the intricate twisty-turny Coen-style storytelling, the grand gesture of the flood seems refreshingly complete and nonverbal.

What about you, readers? What scenes bring joy to your heart and a smile to your face?

*Right now.

Top Fives, Top 5s, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, fistfight, High Fidelity, Jack Black, Marvin Gaye, Let’s Get It On, Bend It Like Beckham, When Harry Met Sally, diner, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Coen brothers

Check out the trailer here.

1. Somehow graphic novels tend to be—how can we put this politely?—altered by the Hollywood Machine. Diluted, maybe. One could say butchered, in some cases. Persepolis was written and directed by the author of the graphic novels, Marjane Satrapi.

2. There might be a better time for the American people to brush up on their Iranian history and culture, but I’m not sure when. Not to, you know, give anything away for the future. I’m just saying.

3. Persepolis is a graphic novel for people who don’t like graphic novels: not a super-power, sidekick, or busty heroine in sight. Instead, we get an outspoken adolescent in 1979 Tehran and her family and friends. That doesn’t sound so bad, does it? Try it! You’ll like it! Even Barnes & Noble shelves it under Biography. With pictures!

4. Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni as Marjane and Mrs. Satrapi

5. It won the Jury Prize at Cannes last year, and most of Europe’s already seen it. Thousands of Belgians can’t be wrong!

See Persepolis today at your local art-house theater!

Persepolis, Persepolis movie, Marjane Satrapi

Happy New Year, CHers! The confetti’s been tossed, the champagne’s dripped all over the floor, and we’re looking at a stormy, gray January as we stare down our lists of resolutions (or in my case, “suggestions”). But never fear: with a new year comes a whole new crop of movies to anticipate, and things are looking positively spring-like for 2008.

Here, to start things off, is the Cinema Hype Top Five Most-Anticipated Movies of 2008:

1. Leatherheads

There is no way, in my humble but accurate opinion, that this movie can be anything but awesome. Intern George directing and starring! Renee Zellweger unscrunching her face for the first time since “you had me at hello!” And look how dreamy John Krasinski is. In the uniform, with his hair all slicked? Also, uh, football. Sure. We like sports movies. Count us in.

2. The Time Traveler’s Wife (No trailer available)

If this movie isn’t good, expect an uprising: cranky bookworms of the world, unite! On the other hand, how can it be bad? This story about a man who time-travels involuntarily and the woman he falls in love with feels like a good movie. Kleenex required, though.

3. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Why does this trailer make me feel all fluttery inside? I’m not gonna lie: it might be Lee Pace with a tux and a British accent. But doesn’t it just look like fun? Snappy dialogue-ish, big-band, Amy Adams-as-ingenue fun? I want to hang out with this movie.

4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (no trailer available)

Another chrono-ambulatory love story, this time based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald story of the same title. Brad Pitt stars as Benjamin Button, who’s born an old man and ages backwards. Unfortunately for everyone, he falls in love with a 30-year-old woman (Cate Blanchett). Sounds cool, no? And if all else fails, sign us up for a theme-DVD night (with The Time Traveler’s Wife and, I don’t know, Somewhere in Time? Oh, you know you love it. Don’t lie).

5. Get Smart

AHAHAHAHA. I’m so looking forward to this, to the point where I’m considering liking Anne Hathaway (as Agent 99). Strong words, no?

So that’s where we stand. What are your top movies for 2008?

Leatherheads, George Clooney, Renee Zellweger, John Krasinski, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Lee Pace, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Get Smart, Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Top 5s, upcoming movies, trailers

1. I may have laughed louder at Talladega Nights, but I laughed far longer at Blades of Glory. Eat that, Ricky Bobby!

2. Amy Poehler and Will Arnett as the semi-incestuous brother-sister pair everybody recognizes except the international skating community.

3. Excellent use of actual figure skaters in various stages of embarrassing decline

4. Jon Heder’s hair: the perfect feathered fluff, a la Farrah. Golden, glowing, and mesmerizing.

5. Chazz: We’re gonna dance to one song, and one song only: “Lady Humps” by the Blackeyed Peas. “What you gonna do with all that junk, all that junk inside your trunk? I’m a get you, get you drunk, get you drunk off my lady humps, my humps, my humps, my lovely lady humps.
Jimmy: [disgusted] I’m not skating to anything with references to lady humps. I don’t even know what that means.
Chazz: No one knows what it means. It’s provocative.