Behind the Scenes

Note to self: Never use the word “Oomph” ever again.

F. Gary Gray is the Manny Pacquiao of filmmaking. Small and spry, just when you think you’ve got him figured out, he cold cocks you with a total knockout. The man who was able to make Mini Coopers bad ass in The Italian Job is back with Law Abiding Citizen, a thriller that is almost entirely contained yet stunningly visceral. With a nod to Silence of the Lambs, Gray continues his oeuvre of creating brilliantly winning yet decidedly corrupt heroes.

When the Coen Brothers come knocking on an actor’s door, it’s time to get serious.

When you’re hot, you’re hot, and Megan Fox is a brand of caliente that Hollywood hasn’t seen since another Jolie fille, one who Fox has begged to no longer be compared to, burst onto the scene in 1998 as a lesbian supermodel who loved drugs and nudity. Come on, Megan; your last name is Fox! Your exquisite sexiness was practically pre-ordained. Embrace it, drink it in.

Since 1999, Shane Acker has been fixated on a post-apocalyptic world inhabited only by stitchpunks (Acker’s term) and the robots that hunt them. While studying at UCLA, he began work on a short thesis film which became an eleven-minute animated piece entitled 9. The short, about nine puppet-like creatures who inherit the earth after machines destroy humanity, was eventually nominated for an Oscar, won a Student Academy Award and, on 9-9-09, the big screen version landed in theaters with the voice talents of Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly and Christopher Plummer.

Taking Woodstock, Ang Lee’s latest film about the accidents, desperation, and missteps which led to the 1969 generation-defining concert, shares certain key elements with Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous. They both chronicle the power of music to band and unite, or tear asunder; each illuminates a generation through rock ‘n’ roll; and both are responsible for introducing a rapturously captivating star.

Picture this: a college graduate with big dreams of making it out on her own is hit with a cold, hard dose of reality when she finds, despite a good education, willingness to start at the bottom, and just the slightest whiff of desperation, she can’t find a job anywhere and is forced to move home with her crazy family.

At first glance, It Might Get Loud could be misperceived as just three guys sitting around a room talking about the electric guitar. Except the three guys are Jimmy Page, Led Zepplin’s legendary ax-man, U2’s The Edge and Jack White of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and the recently formed Dead Weather. Basically, three of the coolest, most influential and dynamic guitarist alive today. (No disrespect, Richie Sambora.)

A master of Wushu and sword work, Ray Park initially made a career playing the faceless and voiceless, but on August 7th, with his role as Snake Eyes in G.I. Joe, everyone will know his name. After an auspicious start in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and as the headless horseman in Sleepy Hollow, Ray Park burst to the fore of the cinematic combat world with his role as Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace.

In Adam, a beautiful, simple, heartbreaking film, Rose Byrne and Hugh Dancy play New Yorkers who meet in the laundry room of their glorious Manhattan brownstone. She’s lovely, he’s handsome, she’s a school teacher who wants to write children’s books, he’s got Asperger’s Syndrome, which essentially means he’s high functioning autistic. 

Whoa! The record scratches.