This is a fantastic, and certainly unnerving, movie.  Elizabeth Olsen was incredible, as was John Hawkes (per usual).  Excited for this to get it’s release.

gq:

The Olsen Actress

GQ’s  Mickey Rapkin on the Olsen sister you’ve been waiting for:

It’s like a tween gothic novel or What Ever Happened to Baby Janes. Your elder twin sisters—stars since infancy—are faces-on-lunchbox famous. Your summer vacations are spent on a celebrity cruise so the twins can sign autographs. Back in L.A., shopping at the mall equals mayhem. “The paparazzi were really frightening,” says Elizabeth Olsen. “I thought, Maybe I’ll just skip that part.”

Good idea. Renouncing that hotbed of mediocrity, Olsen trained with the Atlantic Theater Company, then went all the way to Russia to study acting, dialect, and stage combat. Now, at 22, she’s a legitimate Oscar contender for her haunting performance as a young woman under the sway of a creepy cult leader in the indie thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene. The most unnerving scene has her offered up naked as a ritual shag. Olsen didn’t think twice about the nudity. “The movie wouldn’t have been as disturbing without it,” says the actress. “Taking away someone’s sexuality, making it something you don’t even own anymore—that’s the scariest thing.”

Photograph by Matt Jones

Ok…. without further ado, I’m back from a LOOOOOONG time off.  And in typical tumblr fashion, it’s with a re-blog.  During my long dry spell of not posting (generally known as my first year of business school), Jessica Lea Mayfield has become one of my go-to artists.  Check it out, y’all.

tuneage:

Jessica Lea Mayfield - “Kiss Me Again”

The first song on Jessica Lea Mayfield’s debut album tells you all that you need to know… this girl has been through some stuff and she’s really good at writing songs about it.  

At the age of eight, Jessica and her brother David Mayfield were living in Nashville and playing in their family’s bluegrass band, One Way Rider. A few years later, Jessica had taken over rhythm guitar duties and started writing her own songs. Her first demos caught the ear of Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys, who lived not far from Mayfield’s hometown of Kent, Ohio. He would go on to produce her first two albums, With Blasphemy So Heartfelt and Tell Me.

If you are looking for a cute girl to sing cute, upbeat songs then this probably won’t be up your alley.  By her own admission, Mayfield can only write songs when everything is going wrong. 

When I’m happy I have a dry spell of writing songs, and when I’m depressed or [going through] a breakup or things aren’t going right in my life, then I have a million songs.

Despite that, the songs don’t come off as whiny or “emo”. They are executed with a precision that you wouldn’t expect from a 20-something 

poptarts:

New Vid: The New Pornographers “Crash Years”

really loving the new album a lot and this adorable video is pretty perfect for the Neko dominated tune.

(via P4K.tv)

My only complaint would be that there isn’t enough Neko in the video.  But agreed on loving this album

I loved this movie as a child.  I mean Fred Savage was the man (boy?). And Mario 3 was only the greatest game ever.  Now I love it even more because that saucy red head is none other than Jenny Lewis!  No wonder little Fred had the hots for her.

popculturebrain:

On HBO Family right now. #FredSavage4lyfe. The final competition scene with the unveiling of Mario 3 is epic.

twentyfourbit:

Now free from her record label of seven years, ex-Dresden Doll Amanda Palmer can legally follow her every musical whim, starting with a pleasantly bizarre side project, Evelyn Evelyn, a production of Cabaret, impromptu webcasts, YouTube song debut, and what else? Only an EP of cover songs by one of the most important rock bands of our time: Radiohead.

In an email to AFP fans (comme moi), Palmer conspicuously dropped the news:

i’m going to unveil my NEW ALBUM PROJECT, which *might* be an EP, and it *might* be an EP of radiohead songs, and i *might* be playing those radiohead songs on a magical instrument like, oh, a little ukulele.

 

Read More

Yes, please!

***Editor’s Note:  This was written last night but I clicked save instead of Post, so just pretend you read it last night***

Umm…so I warned you yesterday that I wasn’t really going to get a chance to take a look at the shows ABC previewed at their upfront today, but for the most part it doesn’t look like they’re making too many changes.  I’ll try to get to it tomorrow in some detail.  Anyway, tonight was a GREAT night of television.  The penultimate outing from Lost, entitled “What They Died For”, should put anyone at ease who was worried about the direction of the show for the final 2.5 hours on Sunday.  I feel completely at ease (well besides the fact that I’m losing my favorite show) and excited for the finale.  Also, I think this episode retroactively should validate last weeks embattled “Across the Sea”.  But that’s all I’m going to say, as Lost can be covered much better on many different places on the internet.

What I do want to spend some time on is taking another look at Glee.  A couple weeks ago I posted about my concerns for the direction the show was taking, and I’m happy to say that I’ve only felt the show has gotten better each week since then.  Tonight’s episode, “Dream On” with special guest star Neil Patrick Harris (always a nice addition), directed by The Joss Whedon (I think he needs to make that a thing), and featuring recurring guest stars Jonathan Groff and Idina Menzel, was strong, well-balanced, and completely enjoyable.

The A-story was one we’ve seemingly dealt with before, and at first I was a little hesitant.  Glee Club faces adversity as some one (this time NPH as Bryan Ryan) attempts to shut them down.  However, it didn’t feel as re-used as I would have worried, and this was largely due to the presence of NPH and his work opposite Matthew Morrison.  This week NPH fills the Sue Sylvester role with the hilarious diatribes in his role as “The Big Bad” (more on this later).  Morrison certainly hasn’t been my favorite character (and usually his musical performances irk me a bit), but matched with NPH the story carried well.  The highlight was of course the Dream On duet.  Certainly one of the top performances to date on the show.

The B-story had the elements that we’ve learned Glee does really well: melodrama.  After, for my taste, too long spent away from Artie and Tina, they finally return to the forefront. We got to see into their relationship, how it has developed over time, and got to see Artie struggle (yet again) with the fact that he is in a wheel chair.  This time Tina tries to help.  Did it come off a litle schmaltzy?  Sure.  Did Glee piss me off again with a dream sequence song that, while being obviously a dream sequence song, was tried to be represented as a non-dream sequence until the end?  Sure.  (But I’ll take any opportunity to listen to the “Safety Dance” and see a really fun dance performance.)  But ultimately, I found the story to have emotional resonance (and I really thought that Jayma Mays pulled the whole story arch together when she told Artie to be realistic), and I really like Artie and Tina and wish they were given more air time.

The C-story was the one we (read: I) have been waiting for all season.  We finally find out that Idina Menzel is Lea Michelle’s mother.  Predictable? Yes.  But totally worth it for the chance to see Idina and Lea sing “I Dream a Dream” together (which I will undoubtedly be replaying all day on Hulu).  (Also, it really disturbs me every time I realize just how young these character’s are supposed to be.  This week Rachel mentions she was born in 1994.  Egad!).  

Two things of note from this episode.  First, Sue Sylvester was limited to one big scene.  I know we love the Sue Sylvester diatribes, but I think they work best in small doses.  Similarly, I don’t think we got a great Brittany one-liner in this episode.  I almost think they’ve been pushing too hard to get those in recently, and I’m fine to see them pull back for a week.  Also, Finn was basically non-existent this week.  As his is the character that bother’s me the most (and reminds me way too much of every high school aged character Chris Klein has ever played), a week off from him doesn’t bother me at all.

Any way, I think Glee has settled in nicely.  Will it fill the high expectations I had for it last year this time?  Probably not.  But when it hits with strong musical performances, and decent story-telling, like it did tonight, it’s definitely a show I want to watch (but not over-analyze like I did tonight.)

(via popculturebrain)

Putting it all in perspective, as always.  Thanks, Sue.

For some reason, both Fox and NBC scheduled their upfronts today. (Alan Sepinwall explains:For those who care, this weird double-booking came about because NBC - which traditionally owned Monday of Upfront Week, while Fox went Thursdays - had the brainstorm a few years back to do an “infront” in April instead of an upfront, at which point Fox decided to claim the vacant Monday date. Then when NBC realized this year that the infront was just as pointless as Leno-in-primetime, neither network wanted to blink on Monday, so we got them both. And boy am I tired. ) So here comes another post on my thoughts.  First thought, I never thought I’d see the day when Fox was consistently the top network.  Ok, now actually onto my thoughts on the schedule.

MONDAY
8:00-9:00 PM  House
9:00-10:00 PM Lonestar (new)

In truth, I had a grand plan of writing this while watching tonight’s finale of House.  Sadly, I had DVR failure and didn’t record it.  Guess I’ll have to wait 8 days until it’s streaming on Hulu.  Anyway.  Lonestar big picture description is: “modern-day Dallas, written by the Party of Five team”.  Say what?!?  I love Dallas.  I love Party of Five.  Without even seeing a promo I’m in.  And then I watched the promo. Yep.  I’m in.

It’s gonna be soapy awfulness, and I’m going to love EVERY SECOND of it.

TUESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM Glee
9:00-9:30 PM Raising Hope (new)
9:30-10:00 PM Running Wilde (new)

Look who gets to put on its big boy shoes this Fall.  Glee, with a solidly entrenched audience, leading off the night for a pair of live action half-hour comedies.  Been a while since we’ve seen one of these succeed on Fox, hasn’t it?  And I’m not sure either of these will be hits either.  Raising Hope is by the creator of My Name is Earl, which I never got, and unsurprisingly, I can’t really say I’m all that interested in this either (despite having both Martha Plimpton and Garrett Dillahunt).  Next is Running Wilde. Quick sell:  Will Arnett re-teams with the Arrested Development writers.  Should be good, right?  (I said that about Sit Down, Shut Up too, and…well…we all know how well that turned out.  Ugh.)

The promo has it’s moments, and quite frankly I’ll need something to replace LOST on Tuesday so this will have to be it.  That being said, I’m not sure either of these shows will really benefit from the Glee lead-in.

WEDNESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM Lie to Me
9:00-10:00 PM Hell’s Kitchen

Next.

THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 PM Bones
9:00-10:00 PM Fringe

This day is in tact.  Good for them.  But, I don’t watch either of these shows (although I hear I should try to catch up on Fringe during the summer, maybe).

FRIDAY
8:00-9:00 PM Human Target
9:00-10:00 PM The Good Guys

So I’m really excited for this Wednesday’s premiere of The Good Guys.  Buddy cop comedy starring Colin Hanks, Bradley Whitford and Bradley Whitford’s mustache.  But they’re already burying it on Friday at 9?  I seem to remember another show I was really excited for getting buried at Friday at 9.  It was called Dollhouse.  And it died.  I believe in the power of the mustache.  So should you.  Check it out this Wednesday.  

SATURDAY
8:00-8:30 PM COPS
8:30-9:00 PM COPS
9:00-10:00 PM America’s Most Wanted

Never gets old, does it?

SUNDAY
7:00-8:00 PM The OT (NFL post-game)
8:00-8:30 PM The Simpsons
8:30-9:00 PM The Cleveland Show 
9:00-9:30 PM Family Guy
9:30-10:00 PM American Dad

The most consistent night on TV.

Fox midseason schedule

MONDAY
8:00-9:00 PM House
9:00-10:00 PM Lonestar / Ride-Along (new)

Ride-Along is a cop drama by the guy who did The Shield.  Yeah, I don’t really do cop dramas (except for The Unusuals which I loved, but was apparently the only one), but this could do well.

TUESDAY
8:00-9:30 PM American Idol performance show
9:30-10:00 PM Running Wilde (new) / Mixed Signals (new; spring)

Mixed Signals is a relationship comedy, so it could thrive if Idol is strong next year.  That seems to be becoming a bigger if every day.  Anyway, I won’t watch either.

WEDNESDAY
8:00-8:30 PM Raising Hope
8:30-9:00 PM American Idol results show
9:00-10:00 PM Glee

Don’t you do it, Fox.  Don’t you have the Idol results show run over into Glee for another season.  Figure that shit out this summer.  Anyway, this will continue to be a very stellar day for Fox, and a very difficult day to compete with.

THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 PM Bones
9:00-10:00 PM Fringe

FRIDAY
8:00-9:00 PM Human Target
9:00-10:00 PM Kitchen Nightmares

For the record, The Good Guys disappeared because it will be airing episodes this Summer as well as in the Fall.  Friday becomes irrelevant for me again.

SATURDAY
8:00-8:30 PM COPS 
8:30-9:00 PM COPS 
9:00-10:00 PM America’s Most Wanted

Yep.

SUNDAY
7:00-7:30 PM The Simpsons (encores) 
7:30-8:00 PM American Dad
8:00-8:30 PM The Simpsons
8:30-9:00 PM Bob’s Burgers (new) 
9:00-9:30 PM Family Guy
9:30-10:00 PM The Cleveland Show

Animation Domination finds another contender in Bob’s Burgers, by the guy who did Dr. Katz.  It’s about a man, his family, and their floundering burger joint.  I’m sure my DVR will pick it up once or twice.

Anyway, Fox’s day certainly wasn’t exciting as NBC’s.  Hell, they aren’t trying to save a network, they’re just trying to maintain they’re lead.  Can’t say I’m all that excited by too much of what they’re bringing in, but they only need one or two to stick around, and the rest will be gravy.  That and Fox seems to have a knack for sticking with shows until they become hits (I’m looking at you, Thursday night).

Oh yea, forgot to mention that Spielberg project “TerraNova”.  I’m hesitant to get my hopes up for a show that relies so heavily on FX for a network show, especially in this era of reduced budgets.  But I can’t really question Spielberg, can I?

Guy, it’s my favorite week of the year!  And this year it’s especially amazing.  Not only are we getting the LOST finale (you’ll notice I’ve done a pretty good job of refraining from talking about LOST on this blog), but it’s also Upfront Week!  For some reason, the TV critics always seem really cynical of upfronts, but I love this week.  It’s like the NFL Draft but for TV geeks.  I’m gonna try to give my thoughts about each networks announcements each day as they officially come out and my initial thoughts on the new shows where previews are available.  (I can’t promise I will be able to tomorrow, what with the LOST penultimate episode happening and all.)  So let’s begin with NBC.

Technically NBC’s sched leaked on Sunday, but they didn’t officially give me previews til today.  

MONDAY
8-9 p.m: Chuck
9-10 p.m: The Event (new)
10-11 p.m.: Chase (new)

Obviously, I’m psyched that Chuck has survived.  Would have loved to have seen it get a lead-in, or perhaps even teamed up with Undercovers as a spy superblock (more on that show later), but a begger will not be a chooser.  As for The Event and Chase….I think we’ve seen these shows before the past couple years (especially from ABC) and they haven’t worked yet, so I’ll be surprised if it does this time.  The Event looks cool.

But, and I say this without having seen anything but that preview, I don’t see how it’s sustainable.  Even if it’s any good, it’s another show that will immediately need an expiration date.  That’s fine with me, but I don’t think it’s fine with NBC, a network in desperate need of a new flagship.  Ultimately looks just like another FlashForward, and we all saw how that turned out.   But with a cast that includes Blair Underwood, Scott Patterson, and Željko Ivanek, I’ll give it a shot.

TUESDAY
8-10 p.m.: The Biggest Loser
10-11 p.m.: Parenthood

The only day that stays the same.  I don’t watch Loser, so I won’t comment on it.  Glad to see Parenthood, which has grown nicely, gets to continue at it’s timeslot with a solid lead-in.  

WEDNESDAY
8-9 p.m.: Undercovers (new)
9-10 p.m.: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
10-11 p.m.: Law & Order: Los Angeles (new)

Here we go.  A JJ Abrams-led spy drama?  Count me in.

Now, I’m not sure it has commercial hit written all over it (how were Alias’ ratings that first season, I don’t really remember…although this seems a little more commercially viable than that), but who doesn’t enjoy a fun spy drama (I know a certain Texan definitely does).  What I don’t get is the pairing.  Why put it as a lead-in to the procedurals?  They won’t benefit from it.  Hell, they don’t need to benefit from it.  It won’t benefit from them.  If NBC thinks it has the juice to be an 8PM show, why not pair it with Chuck and see what Chuck can do with a lead-in?  

THURSDAY
8- 8:30 p.m.: Community
8:30-9 p.m.: 30 Rock
9-9:30 p.m.: The Office
9:30-10 p.m.: Outsourced (new)
10-11 p.m.: Love Bites (new)

And here is where NotSoPop gets NotSoHappy.  Where is Parks & Rec?!?  Held until Winter?  Really?  The best comedy on TV, not getting a Fall season?  Announcing this after the most recent episode gave the show even more juicy with the additions of Adam Scott (permanent) and Rob Lowe (part time…for now)?!?  I understand what NBC is trying to do.  They need to find a show to be their flagship comedy once The Office goes away (which is obviously showing its age these days).  But, first, why do it with Outsourced which just seems…well…awful.

Second, if we’re auditioning shows behind The Office, why not give Parks & Rec a shot?  I know they’ve technically premiered it twice now, but if I remember correctly, it took The Office a couple seasons (and a ton of iTunes downloads) to gain its commercial audience.

Then there is Love Bites.

I can’t say I love the preview.  But I do love the cast.  Becki Newton and Jordana Spiro are great.  And the rotating cast idea is kind of fun.  And clearly NBC believes in it by giving it the golden Thursday 10PM time slot.  So who knows.

FRIDAY
8-9 p.m.: Who Do You Think You Are?/School Pride (new)
9-10 p.m.: Dateline NBC
10-11 p.m.: Outlaw (new)

Outlaw seems kind of interesting.  And who doesn’t love Jimmy Smits?

But I like the first half of the preview a hell of a lot more than I like the second half.  I fear that the show is a lot more the second half (feel good, schmaltzy do-gooding) than the first half (Jimmy Smits being a bad ass).

SUNDAY
7- 8:15 p.m.: Football Night in America
8:15-11:30 p.m.: NBC Sunday Night Football

SUNDAY (midseason)
7-8 p.m.: Dateline NBC
8-9 p.m. – Minute to Win It
9-11 p.m. – The Celebrity Apprentice

Other shows in the pipeline seem interesting, namely Harry’s Law (which has an Emmy nomination written all over it for Kathy Bates) and The Cape (someday NBC will get superheroes right, I think), but they can’t be that good if they were held til mid-season, right?  My biggest impression is that a lot of these new shows seem better fit for either 1 great season or a movie than a serialized drama.

Anyone disagree?

popculturebrain:

Yes, that Charlie Kaufman. What the what?!

In a 24 hour time period full of interesting news (all the Network decisions), I would say this has to be one of the more interesting bits of news.  Does the Kung Fu Panda believe in existentialism?

popculturebrain:

Fake Trailer: ‘How I Met Your Mother’s ‘The Wedding Bride’

Starring Malin Ackerman, Jason Jones, and Chris Kattan as super douche “Jed Mosely.”

Hilarious, awesome. 

Can this save what has been a rather lackluster season for HIMYM?  Doubtful, but I’m hopeful, at least.

Miley Cyrus - Can’t Be Tamed

I’m not sure if I love it because it’s awesome, or if I can’t look away because it’s a train wreck, but either way I’m going to keep watching.  Or as @flavorpill put it: “Now watch as miley cyrus discovers sex and Gaga (as well as awesome costuming) in REAL TIME”

popculturebrain:

Multiplex #468: It’s a Miracle

I’ve now seen this movie twice (in 3D), and it’s incredible.

azizisbored:

MTV Movie Awards Promo: Who is Aziz AnsarI?

Chances of me watching the MTV Movie Awards?  Slim.  However, chances without Aziz Ansari hosting would have been none…so that’s saying something.  Also, who was that guy after P Diddy (Puffy?  Diddy?  What are we supposed to call him these days?)

Whitney Houston - Home (from The Wiz)

Remember when Whitney Houston was awesome?  Also, how much would she have dominated an American Idol competition?