Few people I write about inspire as much passionate hatred as Michael Cera, which sort of bums me out because I truly believe that there aren’t many comedy actors out there who can pull off the kinds of scenes he can. I assume most of the hate comes from him playing a lot of similar characters (a complaint no one makes about Jack Nicholson), but as if to throw the haters a bone, here’s Cera playing a weird, fruity, drunken ex-pat in Chile who becomes some kind of fatal attraction for Juno Temple in director Sebastián Silva’s Magic Magic, which played at Sundance and hits DVD August 6th. At least it’s a departure, right? And don’t tell me Michael Cera isn’t totally pulling off creepy here.

Incidentally, “Hey, you wanna come pull off creepy?” is one of my favorite pick-up lines.

Never trust ANYONE wearing a cable-knit sweater.

FYI, Cera and Silva have another collaboration, Crystal Fairy, getting a limited theatrical run from IFC in July.

[hat tip: SlashFilm]

The trailer for The Brass Teapot, directed by Ramaa Mosley starring Juno Temple and Michael Angarano, has just hit, and it looks potentially like the most out-there high concept, big-budget comedy since the eighties. The eighties was a great decade for batshit high-concepts, and probably not coincidentally, also for cocaine. As I’ve said, it was like an entire decade of people getting stuck in quicksand and complaining about anchovies on pizza. Some movies we take for granted and forget how nutty they actually are because they pulled it off. But try explaining Ghostbusters to someone who’s never heard of it. It has a ghost in it that’s a big ball of snot who ruins dinner parties. Whose ghost was that? Was there a living snot ball at one point? Every plot point in that sounds f*cking insane. Then there was Mannequin, Weird Science, Innerspace, etc. etc.

Point being, aside from the occasional body-swap romp, we haven’t had too many genuinely weird high-concept comedies for while. But The Brass Teapot could change that. It appears to be about a down-on-their-luck couple who discover a mysterious teapot that spews money, but only when they hurt each other. So they spend the rest of the trailer finding more and more elaborate ways to hurt each other. Until one day, some orthodox Jews show up saying their grandma saved the teapot during the Holocaust. Whoa. Is this an elaborate way to explain the self-hating Jew stereotype? Or some kind of anti-Jew propaganda about how the Jews caused the Holocaust themselves by being greedy? (I mean really, I didn’t even have to read much into this to get here). Whatever it is, it looks f*cking weird. Not necessarily good, but weird.

"It's a dreamcatcher."

From director William Friedkin (French Connection, Rules of Engagement, The Exorcist), Killer Joe premiered at TIFF (T.oronto I.nternational F.ilm F.estival) last year and was recently slapped with an NC-17 rating by the MPAA. That they’re sending it out to theaters with the NC-17 still intact is enough to have me intrigued.

When 22-year-old Chris (Emile Hirsch) finds himself in debt to a drug lord, he hires a hit man to dispatch his mother, whose $50,000 life insurance policy benefits his sister Dottie (Juno Temple). Chris finds Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a creepy, crazy Dallas cop who moonlights as a contract killer. When Chris can’t pay Joe upfront, Joe sets his sight on Dottie as collateral for the job. The contract killer and his hostage develop an unusual bond. Like from a modern-day, twisted fairy tale, “Killer Joe” Cooper becomes the prince to Dottie’s Cinderella. Based on the play by Pulitzer and Tony Award winner Tracy Letts, stars Emile Hirsch, Matthew McConaughey, Juno Temple, Thomas Hayden Church, and Gina Gershon. [Apple]

Apparently, the end of the film is the clincher and also the main reason for the NC-17. [JoBlo]

It’s hard to tell what makes it NC-17 from the trailer, other than that Juno Temple and Gina Gershon never wear bras, but I imagine that was just part McConaughey’s contract rider.

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UPDATE: Entertainment Weekly claims an even-more-insidery inside source than Variety who says Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s role is NOT Alberto Falcone. Aw, remember when the trades were always bashing blogs for wanting to be “first rather than right?”  Those were the days.

It appears the rumors are true, with Variety now reporting that Joseph Gordon-Levitt will be joining his Inception co-stars Tom Hardy and Michael Caine in Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, currently scheduled for July 20th, 2012.  He also joins Anne Hathaway, who was recently confirmed as Catwoman. Boy, it’s amazing what changing “cat lady” to “cat woman” will do for a character’s perceived attractiveness.

Insiders tell Variety that Gordon-Levitt will play Alberto Falcone, the son of Mafia cheiftain Carmine Falcone, the character Tom Wilkinson played in “Batman Begins.”

Alberto Falcone, who is also known as the Holiday Killer, would bring Nolans’ superhero trilogy full circle. The character fits with the helmer’s stated desire for continuity and preference to pit Bruce Wayne against “realistic” illains, as opposed to cartoonish nemeses such as Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy.

While Nolan has elected to keep fans in the dark — for now — it’s known that Juno Temple is being eyed for a supporting role as a street-smart Gotham girl. [Variety]

That’s right, “it’s known” that Juno Temple “is being eyed” for a role. In related news, Randy the Helpful Paperclip from a Variety writer’s copy of Microsoft Word just committed suicide. Anyway, here’s to hoping Juno Temple plays Catwoman’s bicurious cousin, Pillowfight. She’s extremely ticklish and hates showering alone.

[the top picture came from GQ. Oh sure, blindfolds are funny when it's a famous actor. That's Claudia Schiffer, btw.  Who's 40.]