The Screengrab : joseph gordon-levitt

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Online: Shooting Off "Sparks"

Phil Nugent — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Like every successful and talented young actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt wants to direct. He recently completed his first effort, a short film called Sparks starring Carla Gugino, Eric Stoltz, and Xander Berkeley, which Gordon-Levitt also produced and adapted from an Elmore Leonard story. Then, he invited his members of his on-line community to improve on the poster art. For five years, Gordon-Leavitt has been tinkering with his own web site, hitRECORD.org, which, as Jason Guerrasio explains in Filmmaker magazine, is conceived as "a site where artists and filmmakers can go to post their work and then collaborate with a community of users who can contribute to the work by adding their own tweaks, or as Gordon-Levitt puts it, remixing."

"This is my whole take on the Internet creative culture," Gordon-Levitt says, stressing that anything goes so long as people's users' attitudes towards others' work is encouraging rather than snarky. "Why would you take time out to be negative? Instead of posting something that’s negative I’d rather move on and look for something good. Everyone understands this and has built a positive community." He continues: "What is good about hitRECord is that you don’t have to confront that blank page. I see what’s getting a lot of hearts (the way works are rated on the site), I add something to it and reupload it. The idea is if lots of people do that we’ll get a collective refining of our records. It’s not about an individual author; it’s the desires of what I hope will be hundreds of refinements."

Gordon-Levitt, who labors at the site under the username "RegularJOE" ("The old media tends to call me Joseph Gordon-Levitt, that being my name and all."), created the site with his brother, "Burning" Dan, and now hopes "to take the site to the next level by making more user-friendly features and building awareness of the site’s existence. Currently Gordon-Levitt says there are about five to 10 dedicated registered users who put up their work or add their talents to others. But he’s shocked there are even that many, as up until now the site has only been a hobby of his." Hobby or not, he seems to feel that hitRECORD has the potential to be the vanguard of something. "The truth is the traditional forms of entertainment are outdated. This is how I would like to do my work in front of and behind the camera in the future. Soon the Internet is going to be the only platform.

Anna Faris: The Meryl Streep of Bong Hits

Phil Nugent — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Ty Burr celebrates Anna Faris, "the very best thing in very bad movies." At a time when good actresses are plentiful and good parts for them seem to be scarcer than ever, Faris is hard-working yet remains cruelly underappreciated by critics, because it's been her fortune to have been kept busy by the makers of the some really tacky movies. Faris's big break came with the Scary Movie series, and though she's had a couple of small but attention-getting roles in classier fare such as Lost in Translation and Brokeback Mountain, her bread and butter has remained comedies pitched at, shall we say, the undemanding audience. Burr writes that "not many people want to admit they sat through the execrable 2002 Rob Schneider film, The Hot Chick, those who did know that Faris just about made it bearable as a woman weirdly turned on by a man's soul in her best friend's body. Or how about the silly romantic comedy Just Friends (2005)? If not for her slapstick turn as a Courtney-Love-style rock star, the movie would be landfill."

Now, Faris has finally landed a starring role in a movie by a major, big-name director. Fat lot of good it's done her. Gregg Araki's Smiley Face, a stoner comedy with political pretensions, should have done at least as much for Faris's career as Araki's previous movie, Mysterious Skin, did for its star, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who needed to give a brilliant performance in a challenging role to elevate his image from Third Rock from the Sun kid to serious young actor. Smiley Face isn't as strong a movie as Mysterious Skin — it's a goof, and Araki's attempts to make it a goof with something to meaningful to say just weigh it down. But Faris gives an amazing slapstick performance as an endearing Los Angeles pothead who's lost in her own world. It would be a star-making turn in anyone saw the movie, but after a successful screening at Cannes, Smiley Face was slipped into theaters in New York and L.A. at the tail end of last year for a "limited engagement" run that turned out to be a sneak preview for the movie's appearance on DVD this week. Anyone who's interested to see what brilliant comic acting looks like these days is advised to rent it. In the meantime, Faris will still be out there someplace. The promise of Scary Movie 5 beckons.

How Bad Will "G.I. Joe" Be?

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:30:00 GMT

As Paramount slowly dribbles out information on who will be involved in its megagabudgeted toy adaptation and why, we eagerly make note of each new announcment and work it into a complex mathematical formula that will help the Screengrab to scientifically determine whether it will merely stink, stink on ice, stink to high heaven, totally reek, or actually be just good enough to sneak in and catch five minutes of on the way to the snack bar. (Your humble author is particularly interested as to the potential quality or lack thereof of G.I. Joe, since it is set to release on his 40th birthday, and he is anxious to learn whether going to see it will constitute a celebration or a punishment.)

So, based on what we know so far, how bad is it likely to be?

ONLY SORT OF BAD: The screenplay is being written by Stuart Beattie, who has done acceptable blockbuster work in the Pirates of the Caribbean series and in 30 Days of Night.

PRETTY BAD: A previous version of the script was written by the man responsible for Swordfish.

BAD: The director is Stephen Sommers, who brought us all three Mummy films and Van Helsing. And Van Helsing was really, really bad.

QUITE BAD: Sienna Miller, who is not nearly as good an actress as Sienna Miller thinks she is, is involved. So is Rachel Nichols, who holds the astonishing distinction of making Alias viewers long for the return of Jennifer Garner's mastery of the thespian arts.

NOT SO BAD: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who was perfectly fine in Lost and Oz is in the cast.

ACTUALLY GOOD: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, one of the finest young actors in Hollywood, is also in the cast.

ALARMINGLY, IRREDEEMABLY BAD: Marlon Wayans, who is two billion times more bad than Joseph Gordon-Levitt is good, has a leading role.

Morning Deal Report: Honest to Blog, Juno Gives Birth to Large Profits

Peter Smith — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:50:00 GMT

Juno continues overwriting its way into America's heart — it made as much as I Am Legend this weekend, weirdly enough. To quote Variety, "I liked the movie, but it seemed to me Juno talked [less like a pregnant teenager, and] more like a 30-year-old ex-stripper trying to make a name for herself as a screenwriter." Hey, that's just how the Facebook generation talks, homeskillet!

Michael Showalter will direct Night of the Living Dorks, a German-horror-comedy remake described as "Revenge of the Nerds meets Shaun of the Dead." Given that Shaun of the Dead was already George Romero meeting John Cusack (or someone). . .

Marlon Wayans is Ripcord in the new G.I. Joe. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also circling, weirdly enough. Maybe he'll play Serpentor. Where's that Cheat Commandos movie I'm waiting for?

Trailer Roundup: Stop-Loss

Paul Clark — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:00:00 GMT

If I were more of cynic I would probably roll my eyes and brace myself for the inevitable op-ed pieces about how Americans don't want to see Iraq War movies that would follow the eventual failure of this film at the box office. But if I'm going to be honest, I've got pretty high hopes for this one. Maybe I'm just glad to see Kimberly Peirce making another film, as it's been a full nine years since Boys Don't Cry. Judging by the trailer, it appears she hasn't lost any of her feel for portraying flyover-country (now called "red state") life onscreen. In addition, Stop-Loss looks to be a more ground-level approach to the Iraq War, more a soldier's story than a grand statement, which is a welcome change from all the lofty rhetoric on either side of the issue. Gordon-Levitt aside, the cast isn't especially promising, but we didn't exactly think much of the girl from The Next Karate Kid either before Peirce got her hands on her, and look how well that turned out.