Life in '63

This is one of those posts from Life Magazine I was telling you about. It shows an interesting side of the life of an actress living in 1963. This is Natalie Wood, an actress from such films as Miracle on 34th Street and West Side Story. I wouldn't say she's a favorite actor of mine, but her performances were always passionate. I recommend taking a look regardless. The clothes are fabulous. I mean, the fur hat alone makes this worth a look.

 

Luck Testers

In honor of the weekend--for all of you who don't live in Hollywood and haven't been inundated with it for the past three months, it's the Academy Awards this Sunday-- I'd like to show you some pictures from Life Magazine like I told you I would. This particular series is comprised of photographs of legendary actresses from the 40's, 50's, and 60's just before they hit their big break. You'll see Marilyn, Audrey, Shirley, Julie, Barbra, all the greats. Here's to the ladies!

 

To see the full series, click here. 

Cut To:

Hello, all. I apologize for the long absence. I think I just like to write here when I'm inspired, not necessary on a timed schedule. This leads to less posts, but ones that mean more to my heart, I think.

Lately, I've been surrounded by inspiring women. Women that have had sudden accellerations in their professions, women who choose to be brave in relationships, and women that live their lives for themselves and no other.

My career is acting, so whenever I see women who've pushed the boundaries, braved the odds, and succeed, I take it as an encouraging personal victory. Wide-Awake, directed by Tierney Gearon, features 13 outstanding actresses who have done just that this year in film. It presents beautiful costuming, sets, and dream-like moments. Each actress is given a cut-away of time. Anne Hathaway's is particularly stunning, so maybe save that one for last. Some of the other actresses include Elle Fanning, Naomi Watts, Keira Knightly, and Rebel Wilson, among others.

Click here to watch Wide-Awake

You learn, and learn.

This is touching. This short film by Rob Chiu shows the beginning and end as it happens in far too many relationships. Hope it speaks to you too.

"How many things we held yesterday as articles of faith which today we tell as fables..." 

-Michael De Montaigne

Momma Like

Ladies---Ladies. If I have the power to steer you anywhere, let me steer you towards beautiful men. For those of you who don't know, Magic Mike came out last weekend. Let me say--I highly recommend it. It's just so...satisfying. It's everything I hoped it would be. Nakedness, sex appeal, some laughs, man candy.

One of these things is not like the other.

I highly, highly recommend you wrangle up a group of your girlfriends or gay man friends and have yourself a night of pretty men.

And then go over to your boyfriend/boy toy/friend with benefits/stranger you meet after the movie's house, because you are not gonna want to end the night alone in bed. If only I'd known.... learn from my mistakes, friend.
 

Lauren's Movie Rating: 9.7 cat calls out of 10 washboard abs.


Thanks to EW.com for the pic.

Do Some Time With The One You Love

Time for a movie review, people! We are ever-expanding our horizons and today is another day in that effort. Yesterday I was feeling a bit under the weather, so it called for an all day lazy movie time. I just wanted to watch a comedy to get me out of my sick funk, and so I stumbled upon "I Love You Phillip Morris" (available instantly on Netflix). 

I had no context going into this movie. All I could remember is I saw one preview many years ago, and the only thing I could remember from that was that it was about two gay guys. ThasallIgot. Little did I know, it was the gay man's version of "Catch Me If You Can" (the one with Leo DiCap and Tom Hanks). 

Starring in this version, however, was Jim Carrey playing conman Steven Russell and Ewan McGregor as his love, Phillip Morris. It really was quite an interesting true story of a guy who could slip in and out of prison like it was dollar shot night at the corner burlesque bar. Plus, there was a sweet love story as the through line. It was entertaining but had its slow moments where I could doze in my sickened state. So, all in all, really good for a lazy movie choice.

Lauren's Movie Rating: 7.8 men's size hooker heels out of 10 prison guards

Marilyn Michelle

Last week I was lucky enough to get to attend a screening of My Week with Marilyn followed by a Question and Answer session with Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh. 

Here's a trailer:

I was impressed. She does deserve all the acclaim she's getting. I will say her acting, for me, started a little weak, but it got progressively better and better throughout the film until she really was just killin it. And Michelle as a person is really interesting. I didn't know quite what to expect , but she is very intelligent and well spoken. And Kenneth Branagh was very intelligent, quite humble, and charming. As a pair, I thought they were very complimentary. I was obvious that both had an immense respect for the other. 

I highly recommend that you--especially if you are interested in fashion--go see this movie. You won't regret the 8 bucks. 

Here's some of the footage (taken on my iPhone, so, sorry about the quality) from the Q and A:

Michelle on Marilyn's magic and how she recreated it:

Kenneth on fear and how to overcome it:

Lauren's Rating: 9.1 red lipsticks out of 10 pumps

Midnight to 50

Los Angeles is really good for my movie star dreams. This week I was lucky enough to attend a screening of Midnight in Paris and 50/50 hosted by the Malibu Film Society. The director of 50/50, Jonathan Levine, stopped by to talk about the film afterwards. He was really interesting. I got to speak with him after the screening. Normally, I never talk to celebrity-type people (remember how I was a foot away from Xzibit and didn't say a word?), but this was a smaller venue so I felt braver than usual. He was nice. He talked about his early days in film school and the trials and errors of working on projects with few resources.

So, if you think about it, I am now one degree away from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogan. Think about it.

Just in case you didn't know, Midnight in Paris is an Oscar-nominated film about a man's love of Paris and days gone by. There's plenty of Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams and Marion Cotillard. A lot of people love this movie. Most people love this movie. ....I find it a bit silly. You know that discussion you had with your girlfriends in middle school about which decade you would live in if you could live in a different time? (answer: 1920's) This movie is basically just two hours of talking about that. I don't know...to me, it's just a little predictable. But, don't let me influence you, because most everyone I know likes the movie.

Lauren's Rating: 7.8 dulling cocktail dresses out of 10 bottles of Champagne

Now, 50/50 was an interesting bag. It was simultaneously terribly sad and really funny. Despite the sadness of the material (cancer in a young man), you never felt very hopeless. If you know a little about the movie, you know that it was written by the man that this happened to (Will Reiser), so you know he lives in the end. I hope that's not too much of a spoiler...if it was, oops! Sorry 'bout it. Ultimately, I really enjoyed it.

Lauren's Rating: 8.4 medical marijuana cards out of 10 pube razors

White Christmas

It's officially December and Christmas time is here! I was lucky enough to steal a moment at home to decorate my tree this weekend. I ate candy canes. I wore a Santa hat. It was glorious. I will spare you pictures. It's nothing you need to see, trust me. But in the spirit of things, I wanted to share the best kept secret of Christmas: the movie, White Christmas. It is the happiest, cheeriest, musicaliest of all the Christmas movies I've ever seen. It's a yearly tradition and it really puts me in the mood for all the tinsel and lights. It's truly a must-see! Here is a trailer for it:

By the way, this trailer is epic. It's interesting to see how film styles and even trailer styles change so much over the years.


Lauren's Rating: 10 song-and-dances out of 10 Bing Crosbys 
Thanks to Amazon for the pic.

Here's to A Better Life

I had the good fortune of attending a screening of A Better Life tonight with a Q & A afterwards with the movie's director: Chris Weitz (director of American Pie and About a Boy, and producer of A Single Man). 

Here is the trailer:

And while the movie was good and really socially relevant--especially in California and other border states--I found the discussion afterwards to be most interesting. I love hearing from directors about their process and their interaction with actors. Mostly I just love hearing from successful people how they got to be so successful. And from careful listening, I've discovered the secret: BLIND OPTIMISM. These people may not have known entirely what they were doing or how they were doing it, but they prepared themselves for the task at hand and worked hard to convince other people that they could be counted on.

So, it's time to no-holds-barred convince yourself and those around you that you are the most fantastic version of whatever it is you'd like to be. Let's inject a little naivete, optimism, and stubbornness into our everyday lives and see where it takes us. Hopefully, just as far as we expected.

He who seeks beauty will find it.

Inspiration comes in many forms. Sometimes it's a song or a flower or a beautiful painting. Other times it is an old man with a camera and wily smile. In this case, it would be Bill Cunningham, a photographer for The New York Times who practically invented the form of photography known as "Street Style". In the documentary, Bill Cunningham New York, (available on Netflix) Bill is followed and reveals his process, values, and life as a man dedicated to fashion photography. It's a nice, slow, easy movie, but it's comforting, so if you're just wanting to relax to a sweet story of ambition, simplicity, and oddity, this docufilm is for you. 

8.2 "I got the shot"s out of 10 street cleaners jackets

"The wider world perceives fashion as, sometimes, a frivolity that should be done away with in the face of social upheavals and problems that are enormous. The point is, in fact, that fashion, you know, in point of fact...it's the armor to survive the reality of everyday life. I don't think you could do away with it. It would be like doing away with civilization. That's what I think. I'm like this crazy fanatic, but anyway, that's what I think about it."

Hysteria

And another movie about sex...these are flying off the shelves today.

This film, Hysteria, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal describes the invention of the vibrator. Apparently there was a time where doctors would cure women's "hysteria" by giving them a little pleasure downtown. 

(I hear it releases endorphins.) Anyhow, the doctors who were giving this treatment realized they had too much work and too few hands for the, ahem, necessary procedures. Hence the invention of the vibrator. 

Hysteria looks like a grand old time if you ask me. Here's the trailer:

A Dangerous Method

A Dangerous Method--a movie about Freud and Jung.

“Why should we put so much effort into suppressing our most basic natural instincts?”

Prepare yourselves, I'm going to be terribly Freudian today. This movie looks so messed up--penis--but I kind of love it. It seems like--big penis--there's going to be some incredible performances in this movie. It's getting loads of Oscar buzz--on your PENIS.

It's going to be released--sexually, if you know what I mean--on November 23. Just in time for the holidays.

Life goes easy on me. Most of the time.

We don’t want to lie, nor can we say the truth.
--Closer

We turned after twelve steps, since love is a duel, and we looked at each other for the last time.
--On the Road






Closer, Deviantart, Daniel Albrigo, Average but not, Deviantart, Gaga, Tumblr, Unknown, Tumblr, Roanoak, Closer, Closer

Clemence Poesy

Clemence Poesy is a pretty French actress, and I like her clothes. AAANnndd Blog over.  KIDDING>!!@*#($ Whew, that was a close call. The blogosphere almost imploded. 

Continuing on: Most of you probably know her from the Harry Potter movies as Fleur Delacour. I haven't seen the movie, but I've read the books and I have a feeling they cast it just right. In my humble opinion.

In unrelated news, as most of you know, I was in Los Angeles this past week. And get ready, because I'm about the blog the whole darn experience. You're gonna get so many photos and restaurant suggestions your head will spin! Tomorrow, that is.

Photos are random....not quite sure...some of them are from google images. It's a guessing game at this point.

The New Olsen

I like The New Olsen! This is a great interview with Elizabeth Olsen about her upcoming movie, Martha Marcy May Marlene. The movie looks intelligent and creepy. I can't wait to see this movie now!


Martha Marcy May Marlene:

Book of The Foreseeable Future: One Day

'Ello you fine folks! In another installment of "Book of the Foreseeable Future," I bring to you: One Day by David Nicholls. This was a truly lovely book. I carried this all around Big Bear, and I had no shame in people seeing me with this book like I do when I'm reading other sleezy romance novels Hemingway or Proust. 

I was recommended this book by a few of my reader-friends. A girlfriend said I would love it, and my gay boyfriend said after reading the first chapter, he knew this was just my kind of book. It's true. It's romantic and complicated, but also intelligent. It covers these friends' lives for one day over a twenty-year period--get the title now--nudge nudge--and how their relationship evolves and changes as they change.  Plus, its plot is unexpected, and I can say, I was shocked--like audibly gasped shocked--more than once while reading this. 

I give it 9 awwws out of 10 perfect kisses.

And I hear chatter--just quiet rumblings--that a movie is out about it with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess. For a little peek:

http://www.focusfeatures.com/video/one_day_anne_hathaway

I gotta go see that movie now. I hear it's good. Tissues might be necessary.

Clever Cate

"Someone might have a germ of talent, but 90% of it is discipline and how you practice it, what you do with it. Instinct won't carry you through the entire journey. It's what you do in the moments between inspiration." 

Cate Blanchett

L'Officiel Singapore via Fashion Gone Rogue