So Bruce Willis, Steve Martin, and John Cusack have all had the glory of being featured on our wall of cool stuff. I figured it was high time an actress had her turn. I barely had to think about who I would choose.
Cate Blanchett of course!
She can handle the meaty dramatic roles, dry comedic ones and can even pass for an ethereal, yet creepy elf. So I grabbed a selection of Cate’s film’s from the shelves to share with our customers.
In her most recent role Cate plays Daisy, the love of Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Cate’s Daisy must deal with loving Benjamin as he ages backwards through his adventurous life.
In Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Cate plays Irina Spalko, a Soviet psychic hell bent on taking a crystal skull from Dr. Jones and gaining power that could endanger the Western world. Not my favorite Indy movie, but Blanchett is a great bad girl!
Cate did the best at embodying the spirit of Bob Dylan in I’m Not There. She plays Jude, a character so Dylan like it is positively eerie. Also starring Heath Ledger, Richard Gere and Christian Bale as other incarnations of Dylan.
In Notes on a Scandal, Blanchett plays Sheba Hart, a free-spirited art teacher who catches the attention of the nearly retired battle-ax of a teacher, Barbara Covett (an always brilliant Judi Dench). Covett soon discovers Hart’s sexual indiscretion with a student and feeling betrayed, plots revenge on Hart.
Cate plays Susan Jones in Babel. The wife of Richard Jones (played by Brad Pitt), the couple is struck with tragedy as they are vacationing in Morocco. This touches off an interconnecting story of four groups of people who, while divided by distance and cultural differences, will discover a shared destiny.
In Charlotte Gray, Blanchett plays a young Scottish woman who joins the French Resistance during World War II to rescue her Royal Air Force boyfriend who is lost in France.
Her ethereal turn as Galadriel, the elfin princess/witch in Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring as well as all the other Rings movies, gives me the willies every time I see her. Spooky and beautiful, that’s Cate!
Finally, we have one of the films that helped propel Cate to A list actress. She plays the title role in Elizabeth, the story of Queen Elizabeth I. In this role Cate handles war, romance and the possibility of losing her head if she does not please her country and those running it.
All in all a good selection. While I wish we currently had copies of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou or The Missing, two of my more favored Blanchett roles, I think there is always plenty to choose from in her repertoire!
Enjoy!!
Greetings Earthlings, I bring you the mid-week mishmash of Moviecycle news.
New release this week is Where The Wild Things Are, the Spike Jonez adaptation of the classic beloved children’s story by Maurice Sendak. Features original songs written and performed by Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs (I did not know that).
Cool new trades lately include a Wes Anderson trifecta: Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tennenbaums and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou; Lawrence Of Arabia, Singin’ In The Rain, Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb, The Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, The Long Kiss Goodnight, a super-duper special edition Sin City, Princess Mononoke and The Muppets Take Manhattan. And a metric butt-load of VHS.
Hot recent releases are hot: Moon, The Invention Of Lying, Surrogates, Whip It and A Perfect Getaway to name but a few.
And let’s not forget we have a coupon over in the land of special offers: 20% off anything in the store through March 17th. Save yourself a pot of gold, don’tcha know.
It’s yet another gorgeous day in Ballard and if you don’t get out and enjoy it you only have yourself to blame. Perhaps one or more of the recent arrivals on our new trades wall will entice you out into the sun long enough to come into the store.
How about Gary’s all-time number one favorite movie Boogie Nights? Perhaps a more comical look at the subject of s-e-x (can you whisper in text?) in Woody Allen’s Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask (which bears little resemblance to the book of the same name, just FYI) and also The 40-Year-Old Virgin. And while we’re on the subject, maybe you want to visit the darker side of the street in Todd Solondz’s Happiness. Or maybe American Beauty.
Maybe you’re after a gritty crime drama? One of my all-time favorites in the genre is L.A. Confidential, and there’s one here just waiting for you to take it home, dear readers. We also have Reservoir Dogs in the Mr. Brown edition for the collectors out there and Fargo, too! Or how about one of Jack Nicholson’s finest performances in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, probably the best movie about not-so-crazy crazy people ever (look for early performances from Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd!).
We seem to be scratching the darker underbelly of our new arrivals in this post, but fear not! I’ve saved a handful of the more light-hearted titles for last. First up we have The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The Wiz (yes, the Motown version of The Wizard Of Oz, with Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Richard Pryor, Lena Horne and Nipsey Russel!) and finally, a trio from Trey Parker and Matt Stone: South Park Bigger, Longer and Uncut, Baseketball, and the best musical about real-life cannibal Alfred Packer ever made: Cannibal! The Musical. I couldn’t make that up.
Whatever your tastes, I’m sure there’s something here to satisfy you, so come on in and see us. We don’t bite.