Smart People is a blackly comic drama set in Pittsburgh, which focuses on widowed professor Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid), his study-mad daughter Vanessa (Ellen Page) and his student poet son James (Ashton Holmes).
Lawrence struggles to communicate with his family and his colleagues at the university where he teaches literature, even though his is a "smart person".
When his adopted brother Chuck (Thomas Haden Church) moves in, the slacker brings some much needed warmth in to the family, which is further improved when Lawrence gets involved with another "smart person", Dr Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker).
Drew Barrymore kept an eye on things from behind the scenes on the set of her directorial debut
Whip It in Austin in Monday as Ellen Page got a piggyback ride from a costar. Their project is carrying on despite Justin Long
dropping out earlier this Summer when he was too sad about the split to work with his ex Drew though he seems fine
consoling himself with Kirsten Dunst. Meanwhile it looks like Drew is pouring all her energy into her career — her production company
recently acquired the rights to turn the book
How to Be Single into a movie.
This month I'm looking forward to various acting treats. There are two big films hitting our cinema screens on 5 September, and then the excitement of live performance as a major US actor takes to the West End stage. I'm also excited for the DVD release of three movies.
Variety has issued its annual
Women's Impact Report, highlighting women who have made an impression at all levels of entertainment. Just like
last year, the list includes executive powerhouses, household-name performers, and lesser-known talents. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be spotlighting some of the women whom I find particularly noteworthy.
Get your mind out of the gutter! I'm talking about
Whip It!, the film adaptation of
Shauna Cross's novel Derby Girl, which
just added Alia Shawkat (a.k.a. Maeby Fünke) to the cast.
All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and
Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in
What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue.
Smart People
I had high hopes for
Smart People, mainly due to the stellar cast that includes Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, Thomas Haden Church, and Dennis Quaid.
OK, look: we all gotta make a living, I understand that. But this commercial for the family resort Atlantis featuring the Moldy Peaches single "Anyone Else But You" is kind of crazy. The song was made famous by
Juno and to many it will remain a delicate and simple love song that Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) and Juno (Ellen Page) sing to each other.
Drew Barrymore jumped right into work on her directorial debut,
Whip It!, with her costar Ellen Page in Saline, MI, a few days ago. Breakups can be hard — especially when you are an
inseparable PDA-intense couple — but it looks like this project is just the distraction Drew needs to keep that big smile on her face after splitting with Justin. Still, it can't be fun to hear the rumors that Justin's healing his own breakup wounds
with Kirsten Dunst.
One of my favourite recent movies –
Juno – is released on DVD on Monday, and I'm super-happy I can add it to my collection.
If you didn't catch it at the cinema, it's a warm-hearted film centered on 16 year old Juno Macduff (Ellen Page). She's an uber-hip girl who finds herself pregnant after sleeping with her best friend Bleeker (Michael Cera) and decides to give her baby up for adoption to a perfect couple.
There were the goodie two shoes of the
MTV Movie Awards and then there were the bad girls. Or well, wannabe bad girls. Guess which group can kick the asses of the other?
