Jessica Lange

SAG Award Winners Announced; THE HELP Wins Best Ensemble, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 29th, 2012 at 7:13 pm

The 2012 Screen Actors Guild Award winners were announced tonight, and The Help took home the top film prize, “Outstanding Performance By A Cast In A Motion Picture”.  The drama also took home awards for Best Actress (Viola Davis) and Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer).  If you think that’s no big deal in terms of affecting the Oscar race, I have one word for you: Crash.  Granted, The Help didn’t even pick up an Oscar nomination for Best Director, but actors make up the largest block of Academy voters (25 percent).  And as we’ve seen, actors really like movies that make us think we’ve defeated racism, which we totally have.  That’s why all African-American actors pull in huge salaries.  Actors like Will Smith and…Will Smith.  I wouldn’t put The Help ahead of The Artist just yet, but Davis and Spencer should now be considered serious contenders in their respective catagories (Spencer is almost at a lock at this point).

2012 Golden Globe Winners Announced; THE ARTIST and THE DESCENDANTS Take Top Prizes

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 15th, 2012 at 8:20 pm

I’ve just spent the past three hours watching and live-blogging the 2012 Golden Globe Awards.  My brain feels mushy.  After the jump and presented without comment is a list of this year’s winners. If you don’t even want to hit the jump, The Artist and The Descendants won Best Comedy/Musical and Best Drama, respectively.  If you want to awards prognosticate, I’ll save you the trouble: both were nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.  Those nominations haven’t been announced yet, but they were nominated.  Trust me.  I’m a professional.

Also, feel free to sound off on the winners and losers.  Lord knows I’ve been doing it for the past three hours.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY Season Finale Recap: Afterbirth

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: December 21st, 2011 at 8:10 pm

This is it, folks-the moment you’ve all been waiting for! We’ve followed the Harmons from day one as they picked up their dysfunctional lives back in Boston and set their sights on familial rehabilitation in Los Angeles. What Ben (Dylan McDermott), Vivien (Connie Britton) and Violet (Taissa Farmiga) found was much, much more than they bargained for; as viewers, we can say the same. In what could have easily been a one-note series about a family living in a haunted house, American Horror Story used that device to explore social relationships, psychological trauma, and grisly moments in Hollywood history all while giving us memorable, complex characters and a helluva good time. If you’ve missed out on the fun that is Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy’s (Glee and Nip/Tuck) twisted creation, check out all of our previous recaps here. For the AHS initiated, hit the jump for my recap of season one’s final episode, “Afterbirth,” as well as my retrospective.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY Recap: Birth

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: December 14th, 2011 at 8:07 pm

When last we left the Harmons, their family ties were being stretched to the limits while the ghosts of the house were busy plotting ways to kidnap Vivien’s (Connie Britton) soon-to-be-born twins. If the above sentence makes little sense to you, I suggest catching up on our previous recaps before reading any further. Tonight’s episode “Birth” begins the conclusion of the opening season of FX’s American Horror Story. Viewers who have been with the series from the beginning have watched the Harmon family discover the secrets of the Murder House as well as a host of secrets they’ve been hiding from each other. Unlike many other suspense series on TV, American Horror Story doesn’t keep you waiting and guessing for long. Tonight’s episode proved no different, giving us answers to some questions we haven’t even asked yet as well as one big shock I didn’t see coming. Hit the jump for my recap.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY Recap: Smoldering Children

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: December 7th, 2011 at 8:01 pm

This is a fair warning to anyone who is reading this and hasn’t been keeping up with our American Horror Story recaps: turn back now or risk ruining some fantastic surprises from this series. When last we left the Harmon house, we learned that Vivien’s (Connie Britton) twins had, not one, but two fathers. We also watched as Ben (Dylan McDermott) came to certain revelations about the house and its inhabitants. Hayden (Kate Mara) was up to her old tricks again and ill-advisedly added a new member to the ghost line-up: Travis (Michael Graziadei). The episode “Spooky Little Girl” ended with a spoon-fed foreshadowing of the birth of Vivien’s demonic (read: antichrist) baby. But what have the other kids, Violet (Taissa Farmiga) and Tate (Evan Peters) been up to? Hit the jump to find out.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY Series Premiere Review

by Ethan Anderton    Posted: October 5th, 2011 at 4:22 pm

With a title as generic as American Horror Story, I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that this new horror venture from Glee creators and executive producers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk contains plenty of horror clichés that merely add up to an amalgamation of various horror movies thrown together in a blender with the story of a dysfunctional and troubled family serving as the weak backbone to link them all together. Hoping for a series that’s twisted, scary and edgy, like the creepy S&M ridden ads have implied, this new endeavor from FX is visually interesting, but otherwise flat, plain and lacking any substantial evidence of direction towards anything original that hasn’t been recycled through horror films countless times before. More thoughts on the series premiere of American Horror Story after the jump.

FX Orders 13 Episodes of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s AMERICAN HORROR STORY

by Jason Barr    Posted: July 18th, 2011 at 12:26 pm

FX has ordered 13 episodes of the horror/drama series American Horror Story. Created by Nip/Tuck and Glee co-creators/executive producers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, the series stars Dylan McDermott as psychiatrist Ben Harmon, the patriarch of a family of three who move from Boston to Los Angeles in an attempt to “reconcile past anguish.” The series also stars Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights), Jessica Lange (Grey Gardens), Taissa Farmiga, Evan Peters (One Tree Hill), and Denis O’Hare (The Good Wife).

Per the press release, the series will premiere on FX in October but Comic-Con attendees may be able to catch an early screening of the pilot as the network has announced a “Sneak Peek Screening” for an unspecified upcoming pilot from 9:30 – 10:30 pm on Saturday, July 23rd in Room 6DE of the San Diego Convention Center. For more on American Horror Story, hit the jump for the full press release.

Casting Call: Christopher Walken Rides DARK HORSE; Vanessa Hudgens on JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND; Jessica Lange & Sam Neill Take THE VOW

by Brendan Bettinger    Posted: October 14th, 2010 at 9:40 pm

Christopher Walken, Mia Farrow, Selma Blair, Jordan Gelber, Aasif Mandvi, Justin Bartha, Zachary Booth, and Donna Murphy have all joined the cast of Dark Horse, the latest from writer/director Todd Solondz (Life During Wartime).  THR provides a brief outline for the indie drama:

The film centers on a thirtysomething man (Gelber) in arrested development who lives with his parents (Walken and Farrow), reluctantly works for his father and avidly collects toys. He seeks out a thirtysomething woman (Blair) in arrested development in an attempt to shed the “dark horse” status in his family and finally accomplish something.

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Mandvi plays Blair’s “not quite ex-boyfriend,” Bartha and Booth are Gelber’s more successful brother and easygoing cousin (respectively); Murphy will portray Walken’s secretary.  Filming began earlier this week in New York.

Hit the jump for news details on Vanessa Hudgen’s role in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and the teaming of Jessica Lange and Sam Neill for The Vow.

Stephen Moyer Joins THE DOUBLE and THE BIG VALLEY; Dania Ramirez to Co-Star in PREMIUM RUSH

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: June 8th, 2010 at 9:05 am

We have two pieces of casting news for you this morning.  To start off, True Blood star Stephen Moyer has landed roles in two projects.  First up, he’ll be starring alongside Richard Gere and Topher Grace in the spy thriller The Double.  Co-written and directed by Michael Brandt, the film “centers on a retired CIA operative (Gere) forced to partner with a young FBI agent (Grace) to hunt down the killer of a senator in Washington.”  Heat Vision doesn’t mention what role Moyer will play.

The actor has also signed on to star opposite Jessica Lange in The Big Valley.  The film is an adaptation of the 1960s ABC western-drama TV series that starred Barbara Stanwyck as the matriarch of the Barkleys, a family of ranchers in 19th century California.  Lange is playing the Stanwyck role while Moyer will play “Jarrod Barkley, the family’s respected attorney who represents ranchers fighting to keep their land from being taken by railroad companies.”  Daniel Adams (The Lightkeepers) wrote the screenplay and will direct.

Hit the jump to learn about Dania Ramirez’ casting in Premium Rush.

MAD MEN and 30 ROCK Win Emmys Again for Best Drama and Best Comedy So No One Will Be Upset

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: September 20th, 2009 at 8:34 pm

Imagine if the same six or seven movies and their actors, writers, directors, etc. kept getting nominated for Oscars every year.  There would be slight deviations but for the most part, Academy members would just take their ballot from last year, peruse a couple of For Your Consideration ads, maybe read a critic’s list or two as a second source to make sure they weren’t making any selection deemed interesting, and you’d wonder if they just showed a repeat except they somehow replaced Jon Stewart with Hugh Jackman.

“TV’s Finest Night” is always a repeat and you cherish just about anyone who hasn’t won an Emmy in the past no matter the quality of the show.  Yes, “Mad Men” and “30 Rock” are excellent shows but barring a steep decline in quality, I already know who’s going to win next year because the Emmys are a bunch of lazy wimps who don’t watch anything outside the ten shows they already love.  Hit the jump for a list of tonight’s winners and only grumbling since this farce isn’t worth the energy of a blinding rage.

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