These days, Brad Cooper is a world-famous, preposterously handsome actor nominated for best actor at this Sunday’s Oscars for his work running around in a garbage bag in Silver Linings Playbook. But back in 1999, he was just a fresh-faced, preposterously handsome, 24-year-old with a Hugh Grant haircut studying at the actor’s studio. Sean Penn was in the studio, and young Mr. Cooper even got to ask him a question. A very actor-y question:
The market that once existed for indie movies that broke people like Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarantino mostly died with the economy, and these days, the big studios only care about the “potential franchise” movies, which is understandable, but shortsighted (a point I’ve made more here than once) in terms of maintaining film’s long-term cultural relevancy. Sean Penn makes a similar argument in a recent interview with Esquire, which isn’t new, except that he also points a finger at his fellow actors, who he says contribute to the system by making “monkey-f*ck-rat” movies. I dunno, that doesn’t sound so bad. I like that chimp-mouthf*cks-toad movie.
In a new interview with Esquire, Penn, who appeared in this fall’s indie drama This Must Be the Place, rips into today’s film industry — including his fellow actors.
“I just did this picture that I enjoyed doing. Gangster Squad. But I do think that in general the standard of aspiration is low,” he told the magazine. “Very low. And mostly they’re just doing a bunch of monkey-f*ck-rat movies, most actors and actresses. And I blame them just as much as I do the business. I know everybody wants to make some money, everybody’s got a modeling contract, everybody’s selling jewelry and perfume. I’m blinded by it. Bob Dylan said in an interview one time — somebody asked him, Are you really this reclusive? He says, No, I’m not reclusive, man. I’m exclusive. Exclusivity is like intimacy.”
I’m with him on the actors-need-to-try-harder-too thing, but he lost me quoting Bob Dylan. You can’t tell if Bob Dylan is singing “Blowin in the Wind” or “The Hurricane” these days, maybe it’s time we stopped treating him like an oracle. “I’m tellin ya, brother, integrity is just a cat screamin’ in a dishrag.”
"Hey girl, sorry I'm not making eye contact, but I'm on the lookout for no-gooders."
Due out on September 7, Gangster Squad technically doesn’t qualify as a summer blockbuster, but it’s most likely going to produce like one at the box office. Starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, and Vince’s spirit animal, Nick Nolte, Gangster Squad is the story of a team of Los Angeles police badasses in the 1940s that does everything within the law and beyond to keep the mafia from planting its roots on the west coast. Basically, it’s a lot like Three Ninjas.
In the new trailer – after the jump – we’re shown a lot more yelling and crinkled facial expressions by Sean Penn, but not as much Baby Goose as we deserve. That got me thinking – you know what would be great? An animated film called Gangster Goose, in which Gosling plays a daddy goose who teaches kids that it’s important to put family first. But instead of violence, he’ll defeat the police with hugs.
So I just read a CNN story entitled “Sean played a role in hikers’ release from Iran.” Now I’m full of questions. Perhaps you can help. Take this ride with me.
Actor Sean Penn helped play a role in securing this week’s release of two U.S. hikers imprisoned in Iran for more than two years, his representative confirmed Friday.
His representative “confirmed?” That implies that someone else had previously suggested, or suspected, that Sean Penn helped play a role. Quit skipping steps, CNN, I’m lost.
The report was first published by the Reuters news agency, which cited a source close to the release process as saying that Penn flew to Venezuela months ago to speak about the hikers’ plight with President Hugo Chavez, an ally of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mara Buxbaum, a rep for Penn, confirmed the Reuters report but declined to provide additional details.
Venezuelan state media reported Friday that Chavez was part of the mediation process that resulted in the release of Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer on Wednesday.
Okay, let’s break this down: Hugo Chavez took credit for getting the hikers released through state-owned Venezuelan media. Sean Penn went to see Hugo Chavez a few months earlier. Ergo, Sean Penn played a role in the hikers’ release. Because, after two years and a full court trial including conviction on espionage charges, “Hugo Chavez says that Sean Penn says that he vouches for these dudes and that they’re cool” was what finally got them realized.
I… I can’t tell if that story is retarded or the world is.
(*graciously accepts Oscar for ‘Lamest Pun Headline’*) Oh thank you, thank you, no, no, please, you’re too kind. Anyway, as you may have guessed, this is the first official trailer for This Must Be the Place, starring Sean Penn as an aging, Robert Smith-esque rock star who sets out to find the Nazi who tortured his father. It looks eerily similar to Frotcast Brendan’s idea for a film about a superhero who just goes around to nursing homes smothering super-old Nazis with a pillow. Only in Penn’s case in this movie, I’m assuming he plans to just talk to them in that creepy baby voice until they blow their brains out.
Paul Rudd set to star in an Errol Morris film based on an Ira Glass story. The beloved actor joins the acclaimed documentarian for a narrative feature about TV repairman and cryonics pioneer Robert Nelson, based on a segment from Glass’s This American Life called You’re As Cold As Ice. Rudd. Morris. Glass. Together. Quick, someone find some vegan, non-soy smelling salts, I think Zooey Deschanel just fainted into her iced Chai. Dammit, the cardamom is hell on a ukulele finish. |/Film|
Dark Knight writer David Goyer to write Godzilla reboot. The Legendary Pictures project is set to be directed by Monsters director Gareth Edwards, and I’m sure it will be really good, not like all those other times Hollywood tried to make a Godzilla movie every five years. |ScreenJunkies|
Finally, and this is neither here nor there, but an Austrian Atheist was allowed to wear a colander on his head in his driver’s license photo, after he claimed the “religious headgear” was an important tenet of his religion, “Pastafarianism.” Actual BBC page description: “Austria embraces pasta headgear.” |BBC|
