I just added a movie soundtrack to my iTunes.

I know what you’re going to ask: Away We Go, or (500) Days of Summer? If I were you, I’d think the same thing. An awful lot of people that like the same things I like are celebrating the summer of 2009 and the rise of the hipster romance by discovering Alexi Murdoch and rediscovering The Smiths, and with good reason. Good guess.

So I won’t be offended if you smirk a little when I tell you what I’m really bopping along to these days: Hairspray. Not even the original; the re-make. I love it, you guys. I’ve had “Without Love” and “You Can’t Stop the Beat” and (randomly) “Ladies’ Choice” for a long time; somehow, I thought that I didn’t need the whole thing. And oh, was I wrong. You think you don’t need Christopher Walken singing “You’re Timeless to Me,” but you do. You think Elijah Kelley on “Run and Tell That” isn’t totally necessary in your life, but you’re wrong. And by you, I mean me.

Movie soundtracks are like that, though. They’re eclectic; they’re just as likely to be riddled with bad (or at least not-great) songs as they are to be good to the last drop—as with (500) Days of Summer, where you can get Regina Spektor’s “Us” if you also want Hall and Oates’s “You Make My Dreams Come True” to spring up every time you use the Shuffle function. Or, if they’re tied immediately to the story (as in a musical), they can be extremely specific—good background for a fictional life, maybe, but not so much for a real one. Soundtracks, ironically, sometimes don’t make the best background music.

On the other hand, when they’re good, they can be great, and for many of the same reasons that they’re not great. They’re eclectic; they introduce us to artists we would never have heard otherwise. And they’re specific: they’re a little reminder, over and over again, of the time we went to see that movie, and we felt just the way the songs make us feel, and we liked it enough that we wanted to hear that experience over and over again.

So, readers, what’s your favorite movie soundtrack, and why?

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Regular watchers of this space will be shocked—shocked!—to discover that I am, once again, running behind on the movie quotage. Or, really, it’s the rewardage to the movie quotage that’s suffering: faithful reader Brady correctly identified the last Quotation Sensation (from the Sex and the City movie) something appalling like three weeks ago, and here I am going on vacation and nattering on about roller derby, and totally denying him his rightful cheer.

So let’s fix that, shall we?

We don’t ever wonder why
You watch Sex and the Ci-T-Y
It’s bold
It’s gold
You break the mold
Go Brady!

And now, let’s move on to a new Sensation, shall we?

The Rules

I will post a quotation from a movie. The first person to comment with the character, actor, and film that contains this quotation gets a special eyelash batting and a tailor-made Cinema Hype cheer, which might actually rhyme, even if it doesn’t make any sense.

The Deadline

If somebody guesses correctly, the prize cheer goes up as soon as possible. If nobody gets it right, I’m off the hook cheer-wise, and the next quotation is posted on Friday (…or not, like this week, but Friday is the norm) (Actually, this is proving to be the case less and less often. We’ll say I’ll shoot for sometime around the weekend. Friday, Sunday, Monday…something around there.)

The Quotation

“‘Hey, um, great suit. Is that an Armani?’
‘Yes. Yes, it is.’
‘I thought so. So, what do you do?’
‘I’m a suit salesman.’
‘Would you excuse me? I cut my foot before and my shoe is filling up with blood.’”

Think you know the answer? Leave it in the comments.

Sex and the City, Sex and the City movie, Quotation Sensation, movie quote game, movie quotes

Before I start writing about Whip It, the upcoming roller derby movie slash Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, you should probably all know that I’m going through a bit of a roller derby phase lately. Maybe it’s my desire to be Pamie when I grow up; maybe it’s my friend Donna, who’s down in Richmond and supplements her double life as a PBS employee and mom to a four-year-old with a third existence as a derby girl. I like the culture of it—the combination of challenge and support, of sheer bloodlust and weird sorority-style bonding. (DC does have roller derby, and don’t think I haven’t looked into it–I’m currently without a team sport. But I don’t know, you guys. I worked really hard to grow all of these teeth.)

I thought, for about a minute, that maybe a roller derby movie would be my next creative project—that with the little renaissance swelling up in American derby these days, maybe the genre’s time had come. Before I even got the thought out, Barrymore beat me to the punch. She’s like the Jesus to my Brian: SHE found a script written by, you know, an actual derby girl. SHE knew Ellen Page. SHE had money. And, like, cameras. So when you put it like that, I think I’ll take my cue. Good day, sir!

I would be so sad if the movie looked bad; maybe I should be even sadder that it looks so awesome. Because it does look awesome. I’m calling it out now: I am going to see this, and I’m going to love it, and so is everybody else, and then statistics for self-propelled mobile violence among women in this country are going to skyrocket. Take my word for it.

(On a related note: If you are even remotely interested in Drew Barrymore, or if you want to know how she pulled off Little Edie’s crazy voice in Grey Gardens, or if you just like cool interviews of any kind, you MUST listen to her Fresh Air conversation with Terry Gross, available for free here. Not kidding. You’ll be a fan forever.)

Whip It, Drew Barrymore, Ellen Page, roller derby, Terry Gross, Fresh Air

One of the top-flight movies making a debut was Iron Man 2, with a panel including director Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle (replacing Terence Howard as Rhodey), and new cast members Sam Rockwell(!) and Scarlett Johansson. The preliminary footage shown went over so well that Cheadle demanded that they show it twice. Audience members did not object.

Jason Bateman–who is maybe taking over movies, like, as a genre?–turned up to promote his upcoming Mike Judge movie, Extract, which takes place in a food-extract factory and stars Bateman, Ben Affleck, Mila Kunis, and J.K. Simmons, and therefore cannot fail. Period.

Cameron Diaz and James Marsden showed up to talk about their new “what would you do?”-type thriller, The Box, which comes out October 30 and is sure to be a hit, at least among the genre crowd: think director Richard “Donnie Darko” Kelly adapting Richard Matheson’s short story-turned-Twilight Zone episode “Button, Button.” Awesome and creepy.

Lastly–and much-posted-about; if the robots take over, I suspect the tweens will be responsible–Twilight: New Moon chatted about…well. Something that I’m sure I would know about were I to actually watch the panel. Should you choose to watch this, you might also close the windows: you won’t hear anything, but every dog in the neighborhood will suddenly appear at your door.

Finally, if you think Comic-Con is all about panels and celebrities, you’ve got it all wrong. This is world-class people watching. Here, some guy from Mania.com checks out (and talks to) some of the “characters” roaming the halls of the San Diego Convention Center. Just in case, you know, you’ve missed your spandex quota for the day.

Enjoy! And think of next year.

Comic-Con 2009, ComicCon 2009, Comic-Con, Comiccon, Iron Man 2, Ironman 2, Robert Downey Jr., Jon Favreau, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, The Box, Richard Kelly, Richard Matheson, Donnie Darko, Twilight: New Moon, Twilight New Moon, Extract, Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Ben Affleck, Mike Judge, J.K. Simmons, costumes

To all of you in San Diego this weekend, to all of you who took time off from your (ostensible) jobs to indulge the passion for pop culture, to the true fans among us who know it all and want to see it all (and especially to those of you who clog up the question queues with your unpreparedness and your photo requests), I have three words: We hate you.

Sure, it’s very much against the generally friendly Comic-Con vibe, but we’re not ashamed. We hate that you and Sigourney Weaver get to talk about “Wonder Women: Female Power Icons in Pop Culture,” and that we don’t even get to ask our pal Sig (we get to call her that) whether she’ll shave her head again. We hate that you can see Jim Caviezel in the AMC miniseries remake of The Prisoner, while we just think he’s Jesus. We hate that there’s a Pixar panel with Hayao Miyazaki (what?!) and we’re stuck at home with his mind-altering, award-winning hand-animated movies (by HAND? Who DOES that?). We hate that you can bring your sketchbook and draw a posing Amanda Palmer—the singer and Dresden Dolls “frontwoman” who is also dating Neil Gaiman and is the subject of the photographic book Who Killed Amanda Palmer? and this confusing yet?—and all we get to sketch is, like, regular things. If we were to, you know, sketch regular things. We hate that you’re going to see which adorably outlandish British outfit Doctor Who’s David Tennant’s going to wear, and we haven’t even finished season four yet. We hate that you’ll be at the panel called “Bram Stoker: The Joss Whedon of His Day?” and, well, we won’t. We’re sorry that you get to experience world-class people-watching, and we’ve just got the National Mall for our entertainment. (WHATEVER, LINCOLN.)

We do not hate that you get to attend the Twilight: New Moon panel, but that’s what you get, isn’t it?

Also, would you mind sticking some of this up on Youtube for us? That’ll almost make up for your callous betrayal of the poor and the far-away. Almost.

Sincerely and with malice,

Liz

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But even I cannot, in good conscience, hang with the trailer for The Ugly Truth, which comes out Friday.

So let’s see: under the guise of “educating” Abby (Katherine Heigl) about men (gee, how nice of him), Mike (Gerard Butler) gets to turn her into his own perfect girl, no questions asked? The way I see it, this turns out one of two ways: 1) Abby falls for Mike and vice versa, and as they lean in for the first kiss of their happily-ever-after life, she thanks him for imparting so much knowledge to her feeble brain; 2) Abby plays Mike and gains a modicum of self-respect, and then thanks him for imparting so much confidence to her feeble psyche; or 3) Mike falls for Abby “just as she is” (thank you, Bridget Jones), reforms or doesn’t, and she gets to thank him for screwing with her self-confidence and then putting it all back together. In none of these cases does anybody get the karmic pleasure of beating him over the head with that baseball stadium hot dog. So, basically, tragedy ensues.

Why does “If he doesn’t like you, it’s his loss” have to become “If he doesn’t like you, it’s your fault”? Doesn’t this girl have any friends? Sure, we all do crazy things in these situations, but this would be their cue. Even worse, maybe the self-esteem pep talk comes out of Mike’s mouth, in which case Abby can officially thank him for teaching her the ways of the big, manly world (and then make out with him). As Liz Lemon so wisely pointed out that one time, “It’s like those Dove commercials never even happened!”

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s a marketing thing. I notice that The Ugly Truth is written by two women; maybe it has hidden depths and is actually all about self-actualization, and Abby decides she’s happy being her awesome self without the benefit of all these handsome man-gods running around. We can only hope. But as it currently stands, I think even Rebecca Bloomwood would roll her eyes and go shopping instead. As well she should.

The Ugly Truth, Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler, romantic comedies, rants, feminism, Liz Lemon

Sweet of him, don’t you think? But I wonder what he’s doing with that machine gun?

Johnny Depp, Public Enemies, vandalism, funny pictures

Whoever told us that ignorance is bliss was on to something.

I’ve read Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince twice, but I suffer from what I suspect is a fairly common (made-up-on-the-spot) affliction: Rowling’s Amnesia, where I completely forget the details of Harry Potter’s life while still remaining totally conversant with his universe. Really: Ask me anything. Floo powder? Time-turners? Bertie Bott’s Every-Flavor Beans? I’ve got your back. On the other hand, what exactly happened to Dumbledore’s wand? Fuzzy. What was the deal, exactly, with Cornelius Fudge in Goblet of Fire? Couldn’t tell you. What’s going on with Dobby right now? Not a clue.

When I saw Half Blood Prince, I thanked my lucky stars for impending senility.

I loved it. Director David Yates is working hard at refining the series’s visual style, and, free of the bitterness that comes with actually remembering the events of the novel, I was free to enjoy the show. Yates is a fantastic visual storyteller–his economy with words and his generousness with the camera are perfect for Rowling’s expansive sense of place (known in some circles as overdescription), and even the well-placed CGI adds lushness and decisiveness to the picture. I loved the horror-show feel of the cave scene and the (apparently non-canon, not that I would remember this) burning of the Burrow; I loved the obsession with Scottish scenery; I loved Half Blood Prince as the Sweet Valley High of the Potter series. I remember Harry and Ginny being different in the book, but I didn’t mind the change. I know there were other detours away from the novel, but I didn’t notice them much—I was too wrapped up in what Yates was doing to obsess over what he wasn’t doing, plot-wise. If nothing else, we know he’s also directing both installments of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—yes, it’s split into two films—and can hope that the continuity of the series remains intact.

So maybe if I didn’t have a brain like a sieve, I’d be shaking my fist right now, and writing angry compare-and-contrast papers, just like my seventh-grade English teacher taught me. Instead, I’m enjoying the starry-eyed thrill that comes with not really remembering the details, and seeing it as if for the very first time.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Harry Potter, Half Blood Prince, HBP, David Yates, movie reviews, Harry Potter reviews

In the next few weeks, the new movie (500) Days of Summer will be called a romantic comedy over and over, and each time, writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber will die a little inside. The movie they wrote is not a romantic comedy, not the way audiences are used to seeing romantic comedies. Instead, it is a comedy about romance—a fine but important distinction. First thing, the narrator warns us, “This is a story about love. It is not a love story.”

It speaks to the power of the term “romantic comedy”—a designation that, in association with this movie, I picked up from some anonymous media source and not from my own experience of either the ads or the movie itself—that, even as the climax came and went, I was not sure what to believe about the ending. The writers had warned me, had essentially shown me the future. And yet. “They said it was a romantic comedy!” I thought, around Day 488. “So maybe they’re leading me on.” They weren’t.

It’s–somewhat self-consciously–a collage of a movie, told in bits and pieces, out of order, in mixed media. Director Marc Webb comes from music videos, and it shows, but in a good way. The wide variety of vintage-y visual techniques he employs descends into self-consciousness from time to time (a total catch-22: he’s called boring if he doesn’t use them, and twee if he does), but Webb is saved by the bell—or, rather, the script. For every cutely hip moment, there’s a joke to cut the sweetness, some almost Coen-esque left hook of dialogue to remind us who we’re dealing with and where we’re ultimately going. It’s a very funny movie, full of quick humor and wry raises of the eyebrow, and for the most part it works—especially due to Gordon-Levitt and his total commitment to being an adorable sap. (In addition, for every acid joke, there’s a moment of crushing despair. This also helps to curb the sugar level a bit.)

For what it’s worth, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel make the perfect hipster couple—he is scandalously good-looking but comes off as if he doesn’t really buy it; she runs on charm, a swingy ponytail, and a killer singing voice. Eventually, the relatability question comes up: would we like Tom and Summer in real life? Would we want to go to their parties and hang out in their version of L.A.? Would we root for them? I’m not sure I would—Tom makes even his fictional friends roll their eyes with his sensitivity and also his total inability to listen to reason, while Summer makes herself clear but also leads Tom on in a way that isn’t totally attractive. But that’s one of the writers’ victories: we might not like them, exactly, but we certainly recognize them, possibly even in (hopefully younger, less mature versions of) ourselves. And in a comedy about romance, well, that’s just about the highest compliment there is.

(500) Days of Summer, 500 Days of Summer, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, romantic comedy, hipster movies, summer movies, Marc Webb, Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber

I expect that the only people that are more excited about this trailer than I am—the basic fact of its release, anyway—are the people who made it. The Amelia Earhart biopic has been bopping around Hollywood for at least a decade now—originally, Meg Ryan was slated to star, and this was before her hair got long and her lips got big. Think You’ve Got Mail-era Meg hopping into a biplane, and here we go.

On the other hand, whether it’s the spirit of Earhart or just the irresistible nature of a woman pilot lost at sea, somebody was going to put this on the big screen eventually. Leading ladies come and go, but a spunky woman who dares and fails, well, that’s catnip to the filmmaking type—even if it happened in 2032 and starred Elle Fanning as the original flygirl, Amelia Earhart was inevitable.

That said, I hope it’s fun. I trust Hilary Swank to be excellent, but I’m not sure I trust her to have a good time, in which case I’d frankly rather watch Amy Adams’s adorably screwball Earheart from Night at the Museum 2. This is, after all, a woman that titled her autobiography For the Fun of It—surely anything dry or over-serious, anything resembling Seabiscuit with a woman instead of a horse, wouldn’t have (sorry about this:) flown. I’m not saying the drama isn’t there; I’m not saying Earhart’s courage and pluck aren’t significant. But we’d better get at least a hoot and/or a holler out of Swank, or this critic will be mightily disappointed.

Amelia Earhart, Hilary Swank, Amy Adams, Richard Gere, Night at the Mueum 2, Amelia Earhart movie, biopics, Seabiscuit