“It’s A Hit”: Top Actress/Singer Double Threats
It’s the eternal question: Can successful movie stars be equally-as-successful rock stars? Negative, ghost writer. I don’t know about you, but I blame Keanu Reeves. More specifically, I blame Dogstar, Reeves’ musical attempt at alt-rock greatness that was so horrible, it ensured the future ridicule of any actor who dared to dream of musical stardom. Regardless of how good your band is/was, actors-slash-singers would always have the weight of Johnny Utah on their shoulders.
Thankfully, in the past decade, a couple of lovely ladies from the silver-screen have managed to buck tradition by receiving both critical praise and mainstream success from their musical endeavors. Don’t believe me? Then check out the tunage from She & Him (feat. Zooey Deschanel), Rilo Kiley (feat. Jenny Lewis) and Scarlett Johansson (feat. herself and the beauteous voice of my hypothetical-boyfriend Pete Yorn). Dogstar be damned! These gals are proving that, when it comes to actors trying their hand at music, something’s gotta give.
1. ZOOEY DESCHANEL (Band: She & Him / Acting credits: All The Real Girls, Elf, (500) Days Of Summer): Zooey Deschanel is adorable in a basket-full-of-puppies kind of way. Despite how cold your heart is, her illegal levels of cuteness cannot be quelled—or denied. I, too, tried to fight my overwhelming feelings of adoration when I first saw her on the big screen in films like Almost Famous and The Good Girl, but once I heard her sweet coos with She & Him (specifically on songs like “Sentimental Heart” and “Change Is Hard”), I was officially a smitten kitten. Blast you, Zooey, and your obnoxiously catchy Cotton commercials! With a newly released album—Volume Two—and doo wop-influenced ditties like “Get Along Without You Now (Skeeter Davis)” and “In The Sun”, She & Him has truly become the fabric of my life.
2. JENNY LEWIS (Band: Rilo Kiley / Acting credits: Troop Beverly Hills, The Wizard, Foxfire): As a young tyke, did you ever have go-to movies for when you were sick? I totally did. Every time I stayed home from school with a scratchy throat, stomach bug or case of the Mondays, I would make my mom run to the video store to pick up my stock feel-better flick: Troop Beverly Hills. Honestly, I didn’t think much of Jenny Lewis at the time (other than admiring her pastel stirrup pants and gravity-defying side ponytails) but when I discovered the former child actresses’ band Rilo Kiley years later, I would have nothing but fond “Cookie Time” memories of her and the whole Wilderness Girls gang. Thanks to the band’s sunny disposition and breezy melodies (heard on songs like “The Execution Of All Things” and “The Good That Won’t Come Out”), Lewis & Co. was one of the few non-Omaha-based bands to earn a place on the Saddle Creek Records roster, which was no easy feat back in 2002. Yes, Jenny may’ve started her career as an actress, but after six albums—both with Rilo Kiley and as a solo artist—she’s proved that she’s a musician first and foremost.
3. SCARLETT JOHANSSON (Band: Solo album of Leonard Cohen covers & duet album with Pete Yorn / Acting credits: Ghost World, The Nanny Diaries, Iron Man): When I first heard that Scarlett Johansson was going to attempt a music career, I rolled my eyes so hard they almost popped right out of their sockets. I mean, isn’t it enough that she’s the face of Dolce & Gabbana, the wife of Ryan Reynolds and, basically, the most desired girl in Hollywood? Her first vocal foray was an album of mostly Tom Waits covers, which was celebrated by critics but I thought it was a bunch of hooey—mostly because I would rather listen to pebbles in a blender than Tom Waits. That said, when I heard Mrs. Reynolds was going to release a duets album with my beloved Pete Yorn, I was skeptical. In fact, I kind of wanted it to suck. Instead, once I opened my mind—and my ears—I was quickly silenced by how amazing Scarlet sounded on songs like “Relator” and “Clean.” No matter how hard I fought it, it was love at first listen. Homegirl might have dumbest-looking tattoo since Spring Break ’99, but she can serenade me any night of the week!
Wanna read more of my musings? Hoof it over to http://www.leslie-simon.com. Plus, if you’re not following me (@redpatterndress) on Twitter, what are you waiting for? I’m not scared to sic Morpheus on your tush. “Is this real?” Hell to the yeah!
No uncertainty about Uncertainty
We are all faced with hundreds, maybe thousands, of minuscule decisions each day. Bus or subway? Where and when to go to lunch? Work late or cut out early? The other day during a much-needed day of hookey from the YIL-factory I was walking by the IFC Center and saw a poster for Uncertainty, next showing in twenty minutes. I was sick of walking the streets in the cold and not buying Christmas presents so I ducked into the theatre and am very glad I did.
Manhattan or Brooklyn?
Easy question. Where to spend the 4th of July. Your girlfriend’s family’s party in Brooklyn or your buddy’s party in Manhattan. Flip a coin.
That’s how Uncertainybegins. With the flip of a coin. What follows are two separate movies: one follows Bobby (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his girlfriend Kate (Lynn Collins) to Brooklyn. Intertwined is the second movie – what would have happen had the two chosen to spend the day in Manhattan.
At first glimpse the premise is reminiscent of the less-than-stellar Gwyneth Paltrow 1998 film Sliding Doors (I much prefer her Great Expectations from the same year). To keep both Uncertainy story lines separate the film’s writers/directors used color: Yellow for Manhattan (clothes, taxi that brings them there) and Green for Brooklyn (clothes, minivan that brings them there). A much more clever device than Paltrow’s odd blonde/brunette hair cut and coloring.
What follows are two incredible stories as different as can be. In Manhattan Bobby and Kate find a cellphone in the back of a cab that leads to a fast-paced, gripping espionage story of murder, blackmail and what two people would be willing to do for more money than they could ever fathom having with action scenes of roof jumping that rival the Jason Bourne films. Not an easy feat for an independent film.
In Brooklyn, surrounded by her family, Bobby and Kate come to terms about their feelings for each other, their future, her mother’s disapproval. It is an intense, sometimes stifling, family/relationship drama.
The in-depth, claustrophobic nature of the film and the relationship presented on screen set to a defined period of time of both the Manhattan and Brooklyn films reminded me of a mix of Ethan Hawke/Julie Delpy Before Sunrise and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers/Scarlett Johansson Match Point.
While not the perfect movie – a few of the loose ends seem to tie up a bit too easy at the end – Uncertainly certainly is a movie to be seen. Levitt, once again as he did in (500) Days of Summer (which you may or may not have heard I kinda liked), proves his ranking as one of the top actors under thirty today and Lynn Collins shows her dramatic abilities are far superior to her roles in True Blood and X-Men: Wolverine (which is a damn good show and a fine movie themselves).
Its too late to see Uncertainty at the IFC Center in New York (though it does seem to be still playing in LA), but the smart folks over at IFC released the movie On Demandsimul with the theatre release. So look for it there.
Scarlett Johansson Duets with Pete Yorn
Scarlett Johansson and singer/songwriter Pete Yorn are releasing their duets album in September.
Yes, you read that correctly. The sexy Hollywood actress, from recent hit He’s Just Not That Into You, has recorded an album with award-winning indie singer-songwriter Pete Yorn.
The album is called Break Up, and includes eight original songs by Pete/Scarlett, and a cover of the art-rock classic “I Am the Cosmos.” The album re-enacts the tempestuous course of a love affair on the rocks. The album is done in the spirit of French singer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg’s 1960s recordings with Brigitte Bardot (most famously recording “Bonnie and “Clyde”).
The idea to record a duets album came to Yorn after a breakup in 2006. While the idea to capture the emotions of a breakup and each side of the story through duets may seem too high-concept to pull off, I think this may be just the kind of thing that works.
Spin magazine calls the first single “Realtor” “funky and clever” and I’m inclined to agree. This may be just thing we need to bring together artists to create something really fresh. “Realtor” is catchy, atmospheric, and remnicsent of their ’60s inspiration.
This is a surprising combo, but not Johansson’s first time in a recording studio. If you remember in 2008 she released an album of Tom Waits covers called Anywhere I Lay My Head.
OK, ScarJo, I’m intrigued.
