We caught a screening of The Runaways last night, and the big surprise—other than Kristen Stewart’s extensive collection of leather pants—was the band’s manager, Kim Fowley, played by an unusually manic Michael Shannon. He’s quite possibly the perfect rock ‘n’ roll guru: cartoonish, relentlessly cynical and, in his way, a true believer. (Trying to drum up on-stage aggression, he drops this gem: “Imagine your sister just fucked your boyfriend in your parents’ bed.”) It’s an act later perfected by no less than Malcolm McLaren, so it’s nice to finally see it on-screen. Naturally, an outlandish wardrobe is part of the bargain. Just don’t trust him with your royalty checks.

We’ve already tipped our hat to Jeff Bridges, and he’ll probably be getting all the praise he needs come Sunday. But at the risk of piling on, we thought we’d pay our respects to an icon that’s drifted out of the public eye: the drunken rambler.

Check amongst yourselves»

Hulu just got a lot cooler. As part of Criterion’s foray onto the free streaming site, they’re hosting six of the famous Zatoichi movies, free of charge. It’s a pretty fantastic move—and Criterion deserves all the buzz it’s getting—but it’s leading to a very understandable question: Who the hell is Zatoichi?

At the risk of gushing, he’s basically awesomeness personified»

With rumors of an American reboot making the rounds, we thought it might be time to dust off one of the best police procedural shows ever made, a slow burner called Prime Suspect, featuring an unusually hardass turn from Helen Mirren.

Take a peek here»

Spider-Man’s had a pretty good decade, even counting his most recent stumble, but we just got word of two new developments that make us a little worried. First, he’s got a new director, the aptly named Mark Webb fresh off (500) Days of Summer. Second, he’s going back to high school. Yes, again.

Here’s why we’re worried»

We’re a bit late to this party, thanks to our long weekend, but our main takeaways from the Golden Globes were as follows:

1) Christina Hendricks is quite comely.

2) Jeff Bridges has had this coming for quite some time.

We’re guessing the first point’s self-explanatory, so we’ll give you a little more on the second»

We’re not much for Oscar-watching, but by now the field has narrowed enough for us to make the following prediction: There will be at least one glorious ‘stache on the red carpet, courtesy of Lee Daniels.

The man who directed Precious has been making the publicity rounds for months now, but every time he shows up on daytime TV, his badass horseshoe mustache overwhelms just about everything he says, shining forth like he’s the second coming of Melvin van Peebles. Even if he doesn’t take home anything, a few primetime cutaways to a mustached man in a tuxedo should be enough to keep the soupcatcher revival going through the summer.

As for the Best Picture race…he’s got a lot of institutional support.

We’d rank Fantastic Mr. Fox as easily the best-dressed film of the year, but it looks like the academy is going to let this one slide. Unfortunately for the corduroy lovers of the world, Wes Anderson handled all the designs himself, so there’s no official costume designer for the movie and an Oscar nod is off the table. It’s the first time we’ve seen them penalize a director for being an auteur, but there’s always next time. Maybe he can nab a special achievement in back-split suits?

If you caught a screening of Brothers this weekend—or even a trailer, really—you may be just about melodrama’d out. In which case, we’d suggest a pulpier take on the “soldier’s return” genre. With a side of hook-hand.

Feast your eyes on Rolling Thunder»

Baseball and football movies are thick on the ground, but without crowds to go wild or a big game to close on, skiing movies tend to be a pretty dicey proposition. Luckily, Criterion has dug up what might be the best one, and you can pick it starting tomorrow—just in time for ski season.

Downhill Racer takes Robert Redford through the thrills and doubts of the downhill ski circuit circa 1969. Over the course of 100 minutes, he bristles under authority, makes the acquaintance of an appropriately appealing Swedish woman, and tears through some of the Alps’ better scenery—all a good deal more cinematic than anything you’ll find on a gridiron.

Like The Hustler, it stretches the underdog sports premise into a conflicted meditation on the nature of success. Redford’s great, and so is Gene Hackman as his coach, but for our money the real credit goes to the writer, James Salter, who got the gig by writing some of the era’s best books on machismo. (Further reading here.)

Watch close and you might even pick up a few slalom tricks.

Wes Anderson can usually be counted on for a pretty impeccable sense of filmic style, but dressing melancholic sea captains is one thing, and dressing stop-motion foxes is quite another. Fortunately, he seems to be up to the task.

His latest, Fantastic Mr. Fox, hits theaters tomorrow, and in honor of today’s national holiday, it’s only fitting that we point out the title character’s impeccable corduroy suit. As far as we’re concerned, it’s the real star of the movie. Granted, the fit could be a little bit better—that can happen when the garment in question splits at the back—but it might be the perfect sartorial choice for the movie’s offbeat style.

And since the suit’s only a few inches tall, it means the mini-costume designer tracked down some truly tiny wales. Well played, Wes.

A Serious Man, the Coen Brother’s latest, hits theaters this week, and if you’re a frames nerd like us, you’ll notice one sartorial item getting an unusual amount of screen time. In addition to a shlubbified Mad Men closet and a truly impressive selection of early 60s ties, Larry Gopnik spends the film sporting an enviable pair of Moscot Lemtoshes. In fact, it may be the only enviable thing about him.

Gopnik also spends the movie being pummeled by metaphysical torment, which is probably why the Coen connection hasn’t found its way into more press releases. As a costume, it’s pitch-perfect: Moscot’s such a beloved brand because people like your dad wore them—or at least the better dressed version of your dad who ends up in movies—but mortgage payments rarely find their way into that particular pitch.

Personally, we came out of the movie with a greater desire for nebbish frames…but results may vary.

The fashion world has provided fodder for dozens of movies, but this week’s model is definitely the most portable…

It’s called Rage, it features both Lily Cole and Jude Law (the latter in drag), and at the moment, the only place you’ll see it is on a mobile phone. The film takes the form of a series of faux-interviews—with a murder thrown in to keep the plot moving—so it should play pretty well on the small screen…but how many folks are willing to watch it there remains to be seen. Babelgum has been posting sections of the film serially through their mobile app, and you’ll be able to see the whole thing there by the time Monday rolls around. Of course, with a single camera setup and limited sets, it’s not quite as monumental as what you’ll find in theaters…but as the film equivalent of fast fashion, it does just fine.

See the trailer»

It’s been centuries in internet terms, but it wasn’t that long ago that soccer moms and proto-lifehackers were buzzing about something called the Mozart Effect, which claimed extended exposure to Austrian string quartets could improve everything from spatial reasoning to IQ and SAT scores. A lot of people listened to a lot of good music, but somehow the new generation of chamber music geniuses never quite materialized…

Well, get ready for another go-round. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and the University of British Columbia (via BehanceMag.net) have found that working your way through Kafka’s “The Country Doctor” or David Lynch’s Blue Velvet can spur creativity, just like good old Wolfgang. Apparently the absurdism shocks the brain into out-of-the-box thinking by presenting what the researchers call “meaning threat.” Which, come to think of it, is a pretty Lynchian turn of phrase…

What does it all mean? It means the next time you’re getting ready for a brainstorming session, you may want to consider a Twin Peaks marathon. The jittery, loosely paranoid feeling means it’s working. Just don’t watch it on a telephone.

It was a long time coming, but we were sad to hear we’re now living in a world without Swayze. In his wake, we’ve got a couple of kickass action movies—in particular, Road House and Point Break—and two of the best chick flicks of all time—that would be Ghost and, more importantly, Dirty Dancing. Along the way, he added a bit of zen introspection to a decade that was sorely in need of it. Well done, sir.

With the Weinstein kingdom resting on the success of Inglourious Basterds, it’s no surprise to see Quentin Tarantino hitting the press circuit as if his scalp depended on it. Knowing Harvey, it just might. But what’s bad news for the director’s sleep schedule is good news for connoisseurs of amusingly pompous movie rants.

Watch your ass, Danny Boyle»

Anyone curious about the recently released sci-fi flick District 9 might be even more curious about a few recently unearthed short films dug up from his archive. They’re an interesting look at what you can expect from a more or less unknown filmmaker and, unlike the feature, they’re all on YouTube.

XBox fans may already know about the shorts Blomkamp made with Peter Jackson to promote Halo 3, but we were more intrigued by a short called “Alive in Joburg,” an effective dry run for his current project. Like District 9, it concerns an alien population kept in Apartheid-like conditions, and uses documentary style shooting to give it more realism than rubber suits usually allow for. Of course, if he was able to do this on a shoestring, it should be interesting to see what he can do with $30 million.

See “Alive in Joburg”»

James Bond seems to be having a bit of trouble with the ladies.

His latest failed conquest is Megan Fox, who just turned down a Bond Girl part in the 23rd Bond film in favor of a potential leading role elsewhere, but she’s just the latest in a long line of women too good for Sir James. Frieda Pinto passed on the same part, and the list of Craig-era would-be Bond girls also includes larger names like Sienna Miller, Charlize Theron and Rachel McAdams. Maybe the old boy’s losing his knack?

Something tells us Sean Connery never had this problem. But maybe Roger Moore…

We were skimming through Vanity Fair when we came across this alluring picture and potentially earth-shaking bit of information: Eva Green’s next film—demurely titled Cracks—concerns lesbian awakenings at an all-girls school. Ms. Green plays the stern-but-curious swim coach, naturally.

We’re understandably excited, partially because of Ms. Green’s involvement and partially because of the plot’s similarity to a number of straight-to-cable films we saw in the mid-90s. We’d say Sapphic boarding school dramas are about due for a comeback.

Director Kathryn Bigelow has had a high profile lately thanks to her Iraq war flick The Hurt Locker, but she’s got a deep catalog of awesome movies behind her, and not all of them are limited to the arthouse circuit.

The wonder that is Near Dark»

Ever since Brick, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been one big movie short of movie star territory…which explains why you’ve seen so much of him in GQ. His chance this year—politely ignoring G.I. Joe—is 500 Days of Summer, a wistfully romantic flick with Zooey Deschanel that’s already earning a few favorable comparisons. Today’s New York Mag profile makes a good case for Gordon-Levitt as a potential star, but also lets loose two troubling facts: 1) Ms. Deschanel’s character is named Summer…just like the title. 2) There’s a dance sequence.

We’re guessing it has to be seen to be believed.

These days, David Lynch mostly known for directing feature-length anxiety trips, but as anyone who’s seen The Straight Story will tell you, he’s got a hokey, latter-day Capra side as well. And it may have just found the perfect forum.

The Interview Project is Lynch’s WPA-style web project and, starting today, it will be posting a brief interview every three days for the next year. The first interview is with Jess, a Vietnam vet living on the road (they caught up with him in Needles, California) who makes for a surprisingly dissolute subject. He drops gems like “I ain’t proud of anything except just being alive” and “I’m six foot tall, so what?” at well-edited intervals, and offers a generally sobering look at life off the grid.

As far as web documentary goes, it’s among the better projects out there. And we can always use another James Agee.

1991’s Bad Lieutenant is notorious in New York film circles as one of the tawdriest movies ever made, so the prospect of a polished Hollywood remake is enough to get our interest up. And since it’s the brainchild of German New Cinema vet Werner Herzog—who’s been on quite a roll lately—we’re more than a little excited.

The trailer just landed, and the best news is the brilliant and inexplicably bankable Nicolas Cage. He’s at his best when he’s at his craziest, so the chance to play a drug-addled, rapidly disintegrating cop is something he can really sink his teeth into. He’s in full Pacino-mode for just about the whole trailer, and the hallucinated iguanas in the trailer suggest nobody’s playing this one for subtlety.

At the very least, it’ll tide us over until National Treasure 3.

See the trailer»

The trailer for Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes just made it to the internet, and while it’s not quite as bowler-heavy as we’d hoped, it’s enough to get us excited. Although we don’t remember quite so many hammer fights in Mr. Doyle’s version…

See the trailer»

Daniel Day-Lewis earned quite a vacation after There Will Be Blood, and it looks like he’s taking it in Rome, surrounded by some of the most beautiful women in the world. The trailer for Nine just landed, with Mr. Day-Lewis enduring the temptations of Penelope Cruz, Sofia Loren, Marion Cotillard, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman…and someone called “Fergie”? Well, five out of six ain’t bad.

The bar is pretty high for this one, given that it’s a quasi-remake of one of the most stylish movies of all time (and best, while we’re at it). In fact, we’re already a little peeved that they changed Guido’s shades…but we’re willing to let it slide for Ms. Cotillard’s sake

See the trailer»

It’s been a long time since Scarface, but the world of drug trafficking has been through some remarkable changes. For instance, it looks a lot more like a Batman movie than you’d think…

A Vice TV doc just tipped us off to the strange phenomenon of narco-subs, underwater crafts that carry up to 10 tons of cocaine across the Pacific with as low a profile as possible. Naturally, they’re every bit as makeshift as you’d expect, but it’s still amazing what you can do with a bit of carpentry and fiberglass…

See the video»

Film sets are pretty hectic places, so it’s always remarkable when a bit of self-possessed style slips through. And as you might have guessed, Mr. Bond is involved…

These snaps (via NotCot) come from behind the scenes of the last two Bond movies, and find Mr. Craig at his most McQueen-ish. Of course, the odd pair of aviators don’t hurt…and neither does the Baracuta-style jacket.

See more Bond pics»

Nobody does brooding crime dramas quite like the brits. And while the best of the lot is already a bonafide masterpiece and a touchstone for modern style…there’s plenty more where that came from.

For instance, Stephen Frears’ The Hit was just rescued from obscurity by way of a Criterion release. The plot’s pretty simple—Tim Roth and an unusually Astley-esque John Hurt chauffeur mob informer Terrence Stamp across Spain to an all-but-certain death in Paris—but the real draw is the casual bleakness, flights of existential fancy, and practical lessons in how hired killers dress for the desert.

More on The Hit»

Apparently The Girlfriend Experience is a whole lot closer to our TVs than we thought. Amazon’s offering a 3-day web rental of the film less than a week after it premiered at Tribeca (hat tip to Gizmodo), which means you’re just a few clicks away from watching it in its entirety.

It’s not quite the same as catching it in theaters, but this isn’t exactly Lawrence of Arabia either, and when you’re facing down almost omnipresent bootlegging, we’re betting you take what you can get. If our tips are to be believed, the movie’s already showing up in hotel rooms too…which is only fitting.

In these media-saturated times, criticism can come in many forms. But the recontextualized dance mix is a new one on us.

The Brooklyn-based video group Eclectic Method chopped up Quentin Tarantino’s film work for this AV/DJ set, which boils down into a stew of kung fu, drug use, gunplay, blood spatters, female feet, and retro dancing.

In other words, it’s pretty much what Tarantino gave them to start with. But the set lays out Q’s obsessions better than a whole crowd of critics, with a few handclaps and sirens thrown in for appropriate emphasis.

Just imagine how it looks with a real sound system behind it.

See the mashup»

One of the wonderful things about web culture is how well it accommodates the idiosyncratic and the strange. With a low budget and a dedicated audience, there’s no telling how far out you’ll go. And we’d say the sex lives of limpets is pretty far out.

Isabella Rossellini just returned for another season of her cardboard biology short films, titled Green Porno, and newly hosted by the Sundance Channel. And it’s only getting weirder.

The series started by detailing the mating habits of house flies and honey bees, but now they’re onto sea creatures like limpets, starfish and whales. There are still plenty of hermaphroditic invertebrates, but the sets are a whole lot more involved, and the new mood is more mournful than scientific.

In other words, it’s pretty offbeat stuff—even for the geeked-out world of nature documentary. Even with the help of the Sundance Channel, it’s hard to imagine this kind of project making it to television without a long string of miracles.

But a computer screen…that’s another story.

See the Praying Mantis episode of Green Porno»

Steven Soderbergh has dabbled in low-budget experiments before, but this time it looks like he’s going straight for the box-office jugular. The Girlfriend Experience takes a peek at an Ashley Dupre-esque callgirl, and combines a few time-tested box office draws in the process: sex, lifestyle voyeurism, and a lead actress crossing over from porn. Ladies and gentlemen, Ms. Sasha Grey…

Early reviews suggest it’s more about money than sex, but a trip through the world of high-rent prostitutes is still a trip we’re more than willing to take. It’s also one of the first films to use the new Red One digital camera in place of good old film, which gives the whole endeavor an appropriately grainy feel.

We can only imagine what Che would make of it all.

See the trailer»

Filmmaker and noted Rubik’s cube enthusiast Michel Gondry just launched MichelGondry.com (via NotCot), and it’s well on its way to becoming the most whimsical thing on the internet. As you might imagine, it’s a pretty competitive title.

The site’s launch is timed to coincide with the director’s second music video compilation, but trust Gondry to use rudimentary Flash animation to create something both childlike and strangely troubling. The site begins with a mountain-nosed caricature of the Gondry standing at attention, and each product is explained by a new arm emerging, Quatto-like, from one of the director’s orifices with an informative placard.

The products include custom sketches, pre-drawn sketchpad toilet paper (“Wipe your ass with Michel’s good ideas”), and a disaster-themed calendar for 2007—which, the site notes helpfully, will be date-accurate again in 2018.

Regardless of what you think about Sean Avery, you have to agree he’s entertaining. If only there weren’t so much hockey involved…

Well, Mr. Avery’s long-gestating biopic is finally getting a bit of worth press. This New York Times article even goes so far as to grace it with a title: Puckface. It’s not the most flattering name we could think of, but he did always seem a bit puckish.

A recent British survey has unearthed a dour but somehow unsurprising statistic: nearly a third of the women who have slept with James Bond have died shortly afterwards.

Usually within 90 minutes.

It’s unnerving news for any man, but it gives the whole Bond oeuvre (yes, we said it) a new tone. If we were in his brogues, we’d be a bit more nervous about the eventual fate of the latest comely recruit. Of course, this does put the volume of martini consumption in perspective.

The spy business is starting to seem downright unsafe.

Anyone who’s seen an action movie in the last ten years can probably recognize the work of Michael Bay—our particular favorite would be The Rock which, along with Armageddon, has the honor of being the unlikeliest Criterion edition we’ve come across—but now that he’s the recipient of everything from fake screenplays to a fake twitter persona, it might be time to dig a little deeper into the enigma that is Mr. Bay.

Luckily, some hapless assistant on the western coast has spent their morning uploading all of Mr. Bay’s commercial work onto Vimeo, with an almost unbelievably pretentious title card at the beginning of each spot. If you were looking for the core of the Bay aesthetic, this is pretty much it. Let the car commercials begin!

See our favorites after the jump, including the timeless “Aaron Burr”»

Apparently the Lincoln revival is in full swing. He’s already meriting a mini-film festival and apparently there’s a Spielberg bio in the works. Hopefully he can keep it short of Che-length, but the real question is who gets to step into Lincoln’s abnormally large shoes. It’s good news for emancipation-chic, but it remains to see whether the look will get any further than the set.

Then again, we’ve always thought the stovepipe hat was due for a comeback.

By now, there are far more deluxe editions than there are movies that deserve the treatment, but that’s not to say we don’t get excited from time to time.

Being There, the swan song of the impeccable Peter Sellars, just hit its 30th anniversary, is getting a retrospective edition from Warner Brothers. The plot is the usual holy fool business: Sellars’ mentally stunted gardener (named Chance, aptly) manages to rise to a spot just shy of the presidency through a combination of beatitude and luck.

A how-to guide to being there»

If you’ve walked past a newsstand this past week, you might have seen an uncharacteristically craggy Brad Pitt staring back at you. And, for once, it isn’t CGI.

The special effects come from the photographer and photorealist painter Chuck Close, apparently at the request of Mr. Pitt himself. We don’t doubt that Pitt can get whoever he wants to take his picture, but Close isn’t a glamour artist like Annie Liebowitz, and the result ends up looking positively Eastwood-esque.

But, you know, in a good way»

David Fincher isn’t doing terribly well in the Oscar-buzz arms race—and he isn’t doing himself any favors in interviews—but the lackluster Benjamin Button may be covering up one of Hollywood’s more interesting directors.

No, seriously»

Speaking of the movies, the most recent Bond outing recently brought our attention to an entirely new kind of director: the Kansas City graphics firm MK12.

You may have seen their work before in the titles of The Kite Runner or detailing Will Ferrell’s humdrum existence in Stranger than Fiction (both from Quantum director Marc Forster), but the opening titles of a Bond film are iconic enough to be any animation worker’s dream job. Add in a desert setting and Jack White and Alicia Keys’ fantastic title song, and you’ve got one of the best intros in the series.

Well played, gentlemen.

See what we’re talking about»

The trailer for Mickey Rourke’s comeback vehicle, The Wrestler, just hit the web, and we’re suitably impressed. The Rocky parallels are piling up, right down to the fresh wounds in the economy, but the real show is bound to be the morbid fascination with what the last twenty years have done to Mickey Rourke. At this point, he’s every bit as humiliated and broken as the role requires, so we should be in for some real life pathos. And anything that gets Darren Aronofsky out of director’s jail is fine with us.

See the new trailer here»

from LIFE

Frank Sinatra has been an icon of pre-counterculture masculinity for upwards of half a century now, but as anyone who’s heard “It Was a Very Good Year” can tell you, there’s more to him than the old playboy routine.

One example is Watertown, his 1970 sendoff dedicated to the isolation and despair that comes in the wake of a divorce, but Lincoln Center has dug up another paean to Frank’s softer side. It’s called Some Came Running, and it might be the most honestly emotional work he ever did…on film, at least.

More on Frank’s lost masterpiece»

The line between the fans and the artists just got a little thinner.

Boston Globe arts reporter Geoff Edgers is taking it upon himself to reunite the Kinks. Luckily, he’s bringing someone along to document the process and wrapping the packaging the whole thing as a feature documentary titled Do It Again. The whole thing’s still in-progress, but that didn’t stop them from putting together this trailer to keep the ball rolling with crucial endorsements from Zooey Deschanel and Sting, among others.

Of course, the Kinks have only been broken up for twelve years, and their last decade of activity was kind of a shambling embarrassment…but hope springs eternal. And they still deserve a victory lap more than the Eagles.

See the trailer here»

We’ve gotten pretty jaded to gadgets over the years, but every once in a while we come across something so cool we have no choice but to completely geek out over it.

This is one of those times.

It’s called a Red Scarlet, and we doubt anyone’s getting ready to drop ten grand on it just to videotape their kid’s birthday parties, but anyone who wanted to make a movie in their backyard just got quite a boost. Even three years ago, a camera like this would have cost twenty times as much, and as more Scarlets reach more places, a lot more ideas are going to see the light of day. Don’t be surprised if the next decade’s multiplex fare looks a little more homemade.

As we know all too well, it can be hard to get attention on the internet. But tacking a James Bond fan fiction in front of everything you write is the blogging equivalent of driving a snowmobile down a mountain with one hand while using the other hand to shoot the bad guys who are chasing you in faster snowmobiles until you drive off a cliff and unfurl your Union Jack parachute while they all crash and explode on the rocks below.

In other words, it’s risky.

Onlyknives.com was recently graced with a post on a do-it-yourself knife wallet, introduced by a 400 word vignette starring Mr. Bond himself. The funniest part is how much it reminds us of actual ad copy. Didn’t we see this on an Amiga poster somewhere?

Named “A Quantum of Mini-Tools,” the story chronicles Bond’s love for his Slimline Wallet and the raw sensual magnetism of said wallet. We would have preferred “The Wallet Who Loved Me” or “The Man with the Golden Wallet,” but nobody’s perfect.

The manuscript in full»

The internet is atwitter lately over one aspect of the Bond movies you might have overlooked: the architecture.

The UK Guardian’s in-house pontificator Steve Rose takes some time out from the usual culture warring to point out all the lovely hideouts the Bond villains have set up—usually with the help of an unnamed post-modern architect or two. It’s quite an education, even if most of those lovely concrete angles are in ruins by the end of the film.

A explanation of Bond’s demolition drive»

The Bond movies have been overstuffed with product placement from the very beginning, even when they were shilling for products that didn’t exist like the ejecto-seat or the razor hat. It makes sense, since the Bond market tends to be interested in fast cars, sharp suits, shiny phones and the like. But we didn’t expect them to expand into the world of matching drapes.

Apparently we were mistaken. The interior design gurus at Wallpaper have an extended Q&A with Quantum of Solace’s set decorator detailing Bond’s Bolivian bed in Quantum of Solace. It’s a custom job from B&B Italia, made larger so it would be easier to shoot.

We always heard he favored bespoke.

Now that Tom Ford can do whatever he wants, he’s decided to direct a movie. He’s roped in Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, and the sainted production designers from Mad Men, so he’s off to a good start, but we’re still a little unsure about Ford’s new incarnation as movie mogul.

The movie is adapted from A Single Man, a day-in-the-life novel about a bereaved gay college professor in California in 1962. The novel is a gay touchstone—Elton John named an album after it, to give you some idea—so Ford’s interest isn’t completely out of left field, but it still seems like an odd choice. Ford’s ads and even clothes seem designed to project a guy’s-night-in-Vegas aesthetic. How well will he transition to measured musing about the passage of time? Is this just getting back at Thom Browne for snagging the Mad Men wardrobe? We’ll have to wait and see.

At least those goggles are going to a good cause.

With all our attention to the new James Bond, we may have overlooked the old one. The 1967’s loveably ramshackle Casino Royale is getting a belated 40th Anniversary Edition, giving you a chance to check out the film that almost killed the franchise.

Shared between five auteur-minded directors and even more diva-minded stars, Casino Royale is pretty much the disaster you would expect, but as disasters go, it’s pretty fantastic. Abandoned by Peter Sellers halfway through production, the movie ping-pongs between a sinister Orson Welles, David Niven trying his best to add a shred of dignity to the proceedings, and Woody Allen doing his best to turn everything into a proto-Austin Powers sex farce.

In short, it was ripe for a remake.

Product placement is nothing new to the James Bond movies, but we were pleased to hear that the new film is going to feature a whole lot of one of America’s most prominent designers.

Of course, Daniel Craig is already on record as being much-impressed with Tom Ford, but apparently he’s got a bit more clout these days, which means we’ll be seeing less Brioni and a lot less of those miniscule swimming trunks from Casino Royale. (Something tells us Roger Moore didn’t have to put up with that sort of thing…)

It’s rare to see a choice like this made by the star and not the marketing or wardrobe department, but it looks like Mr. Craig is moving up in the world. After all, what’s the point in having an acting gig if you can’t use it to score a good suit every now and then?

Let’s just hope he can keep them clean.

We’ve had our eye on Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards for a while now, but this snap is the first sign that it might be a breath of fresh air on the style front.

Bastards is Tarantino’s take on war movies—specifically The Dirty Dozen, which deserves a post all its own—and rumors have been swirling around it since the script leaked onto the internet. Since then, there’s been a steady stream of casting rumors, including The Office’s B. J. Novak as “the little one,” torturey director Eli Roth as Donny Donowitz a.k.a. “the Bear Jew,” and, of course, Mr. Jolie playing Lt. Aldo Raine, the group’s leader. In other words, it’s classic Tarantino madness, with equal doses of ultra-violence, obscure filmic references and general profanity.

And anyone interested in army boots and coarse wool coats is about to get a big boost of inspiration…and maybe even sales.

INFDaily via Jezebel

We’ve known about Guy Ritchie’s upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie, but the fine ladies at Jezebel were kind enough to draw our attention to this picture of the leading man (the inestimable Robert Downey Jr.) in full costume.

Unfortunately they were more interested in his coffee cup than his ascot, but we’ll call this one a victory without seeing another frame. Between the striped waistcoat—which has a touch of Mr. Smith about it—and the finely checkered pants, we’re ready to declare Dr. Holmes the unlikely style icon of the year.

Plus, bowlers are coming back in a big way. And the usual double-brim is so last century.

One of the quintessential masculine movies is getting a Blu-Ray enhancement, complete with a restored print, a set of somewhat off-the-wall appreciations (Sara Vowell?), and the usual commentary tracks and deleted scenes.

A lot’s been written about The Godfather, but so many elements of it seem worth their own film, from the corrosive effects of power, the decaying family unit, and the increasing paranoia of postwar America. The unflinching brutality of the killings still strikes a chord, even after twenty years of horror-movie densitization, and the cinematography is still some of the best in American film.

And, in case you’d forgotten, Part III still sucks.

Speaking of the Kennedy era, the Great American Novel of the period is getting the film treatment. The book is Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, and the movie is coming down the pike with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the leads. Winslet’s husband Sam Mendes is behind the camera to ensure impeccable production design, which should help if you’re more interested in lightweight jackets than suburban ennui.

The book came out in 1961 offering a criticism of middle-class conformity before most people had even given it a name. It’s no coincidence the story is being dug up now—it’s a hot era at the moment, and this is one of its best relics—but we wonder how well it will translate. Like Mad Men, Revolutionary Road is more interested in burying the past than praising it, but it may pack a lot more raw desperation than we’re used to in our period pieces. At any rate, you’ll have to wait until December to find out.

See the trailer here»

As the hype crescendos around Quantum of Solace’s impending release—new Bond Girls!—it’s a good time to consider the flick in its historical context. Especially as a smashing collection of classic 007 placards are hitting the block at Christie’s in London tomorrow. The prized Bond lot in the auction house’s Vintage Film Posters sale is a mint condition 1964 Goldfinger sheet in the rare British quad style B format, estimated at $7,00 - $10,000.

We’re partial however to this quirky and equally scarce Aston Martin promo piece produced for Thunderball in 1965, which is a much better deal at est. $3,000 - $3,500. Also included are classics from Dr. No (1962, est. $2,700 - $4,500), From Russia With Love (1963, est. $2,700 - $4,500) and the rest of the pantheon, with several variations of each. Mr. Craig would do well to study these masterpieces if he hopes to err on the side of Connery.

We’re already more than hyped for Quantum of Solace, the new Bond film due in November, but before now we were relying on a teaser trailer and a few posters, which didn’t reveal much more than our protagonist’s preference for lightweight fabrics and heavyweight weaponry. Until now, that is.

The newly released trailer gives us a closer look at the sequel, a closer look at new Bond girl Gemma Arterton, and a glimpse at the surprising direction our favorite secret agent is heading. Apparently one place he’s heading is towards sequential plots; this one picks up right at the end of Casino Royale, with a heartbroken Bond out for vengeance. Unlike Connery’s Bond—whose relationship towards his companions was somewhat more casual—this Bond is shaping up to be mopey, vengeful and more than a little emo.

Not that we’re judging. We’d find Eva Green pretty hard to get over too.

See the trailer here»

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

With The Dark Knight poised to take its place among the highest grossing movies of all time—and the statute of limitations of spoiler alerts solidly past—it’s time to consider what made this the most commercially successful movie of our decade. (Well, except for Shrek 2.)

Consider this your spoiler warning»

Since the advent of DVD, the world of film can be divided into three territories: the out-of-print wasteland (which includes a few gems and a lot of of waste), the middle tier of casually-packaged cash-ins, and the select few who qualify for the special edition treatment. (We’re looking at you, Criterion.)

Unlikely as it may seem, The Big Lebowski is moving up a notch, getting the 10th Anniversary treatment from Universal, in packaging that includes four featurettes, a photo book, and a full-size screw-top bowling ball to keep it all together.

The movie’s come a long way from barely breaking even on release, to say nothing of its slightly addled NYT review, but Lebowski deserves its cult following. It’s not the Coen’s best—or even their funniest—but coming from filmmakers often pegged as cold, it’s hard to think of a more genial movie. It’s no wonder Lebowskifests have caught on; the movie’s a party by itself.

More on the cult of the dude»

As more than one rapper has memorably commented, haters are everywhere. Eventually, they were bound to get around to Warren Beatty.

A recent Entertainment Weekly post took aim at the actor’s AFI nomination, charging Beatty with a thin filmography and a late career full of clunkers. We’re not going to defend Ishtar—although some have—but judging Beatty by that standard is like judging Michael Caine by The Muppet Christmas Carol. Let’s remember the good times, shall we?

Defending Mr. Beatty from the haters»

There are some pretty great life stories out there, but Hugh Hefner has to be one of the better ones. So we’re understandably excited to hear that someone’s finally thinking about the movie version.

In an interview with Comingsoon.net, Hef gives some details on the project including attached director (Brett Ratner) and hopeful star (Robert Downey Jr.). Although Hef claims Iron Man has nothing to do with it, it’s hard to ignore Downey’s recent take on Tony Starks as a techier version of the Playboy magnate. As for Ratner, we assume he’ll go easy on the car chases.

More on Hef: The Movie»

Today sees the Blu-ray rerelease of the Dirty Harry series. As with most series, the law of diminishing returns sets in pretty quickly—and the less said about Slash’s cameo in The Dead Pool, the better—but the first movie hasn’t lost any of its iconic magic. The trick was the timing: Harry took the free-floating animosity of the era, put a right-wing twist on 60s anti-establishment sentiments, and wrapped it all in a tweed blazer. With elbow patches»

Kempt bids a fond farewell to Sydney Pollack today, a filmmaker who made his name on restraint, subtle humanism and consummate professionalism. In short, a man in full. As his recent co-star George Clooney put it, “Sydney made the world a little better, movies a little better and even dinner a little better. A tip of the hat to a class act. He will be missed.”

More on Mr. Pollack»

Any brand with a decent bit of history behind it is bound to have a few stories in its files. Take, for instance, Rolls Royce’s famous hood ornament, a statuette with enough history to have a movie deal behind it.

The movie is The Silver Ghost, set to star Christian Bale and currently making the pre-production rounds. But the story itself is better than you might think»

The Talented Mr. Ripley

In the wake of Anthony Minghella’s unexpected death, we thought we might take a look at the sartorial legacy his short body of work has left. His longtime collaboration with costume designer Ann Roth—beginning with The English Patient—cast a long shadow over his short body of work. His movies had a real sense of style, remarkable for both its faithfulness to the period and its emotional effect.

More on Anthony Minghella»

We applauded Daniel Day-Lewis’ Oscar win Sunday night as recognition for both a great actor and a great man of style, but also an excellent cobbler.

Everyone needs a hobby.

More on the Oscar-cobbling connection»

Ah, the Bond Girl—intended as a paragon of her species, the female foil and flame of cinema’s ultimate embodiment of masculinity says more about what we wish women were than what they are. Beginning with Ursula Andress (who emerged Aphrodite-like from the surf), the history of Bond’s beauties is a long and luscious chronicle of our desires both sublime (Barbara Bach’s Agent XXX) and ignoble (Denise Richards’ Dr. Christmas Jones).

Read more about the new Bond beauty »

It appears that the “brutal” new James Bond is something of a prima donna. At the cover shoot for GQ’s December Men of the Year issue, deconstructed 007 Daniel Craig refused to wear any of the designer duds the magazine’s fashion mavens picked out for him, insisting instead on a suit of his own. Having caught wind of the clothing contretemps, we asked GQ’s Adam Rapoport, who wrote the Craig cover story, what went down.

His report from the shoot after the jump »

Now that the weather feels like Manchester, we thought it appropriate to chime in on the much ballyhooed Ian Curtis biopic Control. While The Clash’s Joe Strummer worked hard to achieve style icon status, Joy Division frontman Curtis only really reached his posthumously—and even then to a much lesser degree. Of course, since he killed himself in 1980 at the age of 23, he didn’t get much of a chance. But rakish rock’n’roll photographer Anton Corbijn goes some way toward setting the record straight in his supercool film.

More on the stylish trappings of Curtis’ life »

Few rock bands have had a greater influence on the cultural landscape than The Clash. Trying to trace all the evidence of their inspiration on fashion alone would be a Herculean task, but their influence on modern menswear can be seen in the designs of everyone from Helmut Lang to Hedi Slimane.

The Clash’s frontman, Joe Strummer, who died in 2002, was responsible for most of what made them great. You can see how it all went down in punk auteur Julien Temple’s excellent new documentary, Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten—and maybe pick up a few style tips of your own.

Strummer was a genius with color and contrast for one thing; after all, this is the guy who mixed preppy pink and green with an iconic punk rock photograph on the cover of London Calling.

It turns out that American Gangster costume designer Janty Yates was being semi-truthful when she said that Denzel Washington wore bespoke Savile Row suits in the flick. “Page Six” notes in passing that Denzel’s dapper duds—some 30 suits, worth well over $100,000—were in fact made by English custom tailor Leonard Logsdail of… East 53rd St. in Manhattan…

In American Gangster, Denzel Washington’s up-and-coming Harlem druglord character Frank Lucas eschews the pimp aesthetic in favor of some very sharp suits. On his journey from bumpkin to kingpin, Lucas learns some important sartorial lessons; the quiet, understated elegance of his clothing allows him to pass as a respectable businessman while flashier rivals get picked off by the cops.

—J.P.S.