You're not helping, Sarah Silverman.

First off, I'm living in a world where I managed to cross off most if not all of my major "to-dos" over a weekend during which the Bears went to 2 and 0. This weekend needs to be inducted into some kind of Weekend Hall of Fame. Second, Sarah Silverman is going to take all of her clothes off.
For The Waltz, the sophomore directorial effort from the talented Sarah Polley, Silverman will go "full-frontal," as she told everyone on the internets, adding validity to her claims by fully describing the scene. I love how comfortable she is with her sexuality, which is a big part of her comedy act and general appeal. I love that this seems to be for a real, artistic movie and not some quick flash for relevancy or moderate return to fame by showing off her goodies. I just wish she wasn't doing it.

Why? Because she's usually the second woman listed after Tina Fey in response to a challenge regarding how there are no "funny women" in Hollywood or in stand-up circuits. I know that some staunch feminists and many others would defend her decision to do whatever she wants with her body, and I agree in principle. It's just that a common response to Silverman's name on a list of funny ladies is "She's only funny because she's hot." That kind of sets the conversation back a bit, as you then have to defend how what makes Silverman funny is her fearlessness, including her total willingness to discuss body issues, and not just that she is in fact pretty cute. CAN she do this? Sure. SHOULD she do this? I don't know. If it leads to a new career for her exploring dramatic roles or something, maybe. But if this is a one-time, attention-grabbing thing, I hope she understands it does kind of hurt a community she was kind of carrying a flag for. That's right, I'm one of the few folks lamenting Sarah Silverman's decision to go nude. There you have it.

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Movie Review: Splice

I'm not reviewing every single movie out there in the world, so here's someone else's opinion for a moment. Justin got to see the creepy Splice this weekend, and here's what he had to say!

It’s Alive!
Splice is Shelley via Cronenberg
Justin Senkbile

Despite its jumping, shrieking trailer, director Vincenzo Natali’s Splice has a lot in common with James Whale’s 1931 Frankenstein and David Cronenberg’s The Fly; these are movies that are not so much terrifying as they are strangely unsettling…and as far as unsettling movies go, Splice certainly earns its place on that list.

After creating Ginger and Fred, two grotesque lab-made creatures that prove the viability of new gene-splicing techniques, scientists Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) probably should've just gone on vacation. Instead, with hopes of making an even larger mark on scientific history, Elsa coerces Clive into joining her on the next step: adding human genes to their DNA cocktails.

What results is a clicking, hissing creature, distortedly human in appearance but mysterious in every other sense. Clive, sensing the possible consequences, wants to kill it. Elsa, on the other hand, finds a long-buried maternal instinct beginning to blossom.

This is where Splice takes its defining turn, devoting its attention to the dynamic within this synthetic family unit. At first, Elsa dotes on her faux daughter, whom she’s named Dren, dressing her up and showering her with gifts. But as the “specimen” matures (it ages several days in a matter of minutes and is, as a young adult, played by Delphine Chanéac), Elsa becomes cold and harsh, like an exhausted mother losing patience with her temperamental teenager.

Polley clearly dominates the film, her manipulative matriarch Elsa being the driving force behind the experiment itself and the story's eventual fall into violence. Her counterpoint, Clive, is played aptly by the perpetually languid Brody. Submissive but not exactly timid, Clive's inability to stand up to Elsa earns him an equal share of the guilt.

Though Chanéac's is the most exciting role, it's also a pretty thankless one. Because she's heavily made-up, partially computer generated and spends most of the film twitching and squirming, it's easy to miss fact that there's also a bit of acting going on here. Despite of the burden of all the physical alterations, Dren ends up as frightening and heartbreaking as Boris Karloff's lumbering monster from 1931, and all of Splice's most moving moments belong to her.

Things do get pretty bizarre near the end (Macgruber has officially lost the "Most Uncomfortable Sex Scene of 2010" award), but Splice is really more of a close-quarters character study than a hunter-versus-hunted scare-fest. After all, Natali is toying with some weighty moral issues here. Technological and scientific responsibility is the most obvious, but the most striking is the focus on the sticky business of parenting, which, as you might imagine, only gets hairier when you're not sure just how human the kid is.

With all of the hyper-weirdness in the third act, it's debatable as to how successful Splice is in raising and articulating its questions. What's undeniable, though, is that it's magnificently creepy, a smart, surprising piece of early summer entertainment that manages to really leave a mark.

Grade: B

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Along came Polley

Sarah Polley starred in Go, one of the best underrated films of all time for my money, but you probably know her from the Dawn of the Dead remake. She looks like this.
Really, that's all irrelevant, because she's a director now. Ya-boo! As you may be aware, females can, in fact, be directors, a fact that Hollywood is slowly realizing after a short century. Whenever a promising young female talent comes up behind the camera, I want to promote that extensively to remind studios that said cameras aren't operated by use of the dingus. So let's all get the excitement rolling for Take This Waltz, which sounds damn good. It's about a woman who has lotsa affairs and realizes she's addicted to the honeymoon phase of relationships. The script was on the black list (the list of hot scripts no one has made into movies yet), and the movie will star this guy:
This awesome girl (Michelle Williams)
And supposedly one more "star to be named later" to round out the cast. It's unknown whether Rogen will play the hubbie that gets cheated on or the guy doing the cheating. All that's known is that Williams will be forced to pretend to want Seth Rogen (I kid). Williams has quietly turned into a bad-ass actress, and I'm excited to see this combination of great script, promising young (FEMALE!) director, and talented young actors. Why, it's almost as though quality is enough of a reason to be excited for a film beyond hype and shenanigans (oh, how I loathe shenanigans).