| A sly 'Simpsons' opening by graffiti artist Banksy By FRAZIER MOORE 2010-10-11T17:44:50ZNEW YORK (AP) -- The always clever and often subversive opening sequence for "The Simpsons" took a darker-than-usual turn with Sunday's episode, depicting the animation process for the Fox cartoon series as sweatshop drudgery performed by an exploited Asian underclass.... hosted.ap.org |
Q&A: 'Frasier' Star and Broadway Actor David Hyde Pierce The former star of Frasier returns to Broadway this week in La BÊte. He talks to TIME about the stage, bullies and being openly gay feedproxy.google.com |
AP source: Mel Gibson gets cameo in 'Hangover 2' By JAKE COYLE 2010-10-19T16:47:30ZNEW YORK (AP) -- Mel Gibson will make a cameo in "The Hangover 2" as a tattoo artist.... hosted.ap.org |
Let the Right One In: No 8 best horror film of all time Tomas Alfredson, 2008The snow whirls, the nights draw in and a gloomy Swedish housing estate becomes a pocket murderess's hunting ground. Let the Right One In is based on a book by John Ajvide Lindqvist and directed by Tomas Alfredson, a former comedian. Here is a vampire story born out of the shadows; a film of whispered secrets. But don't lean too close: it may well pull out your throat.Oskar (KÃ¥re Hedebrant) is a bullied 12-year-old schoolboy who befriends Eli (Lina Leandersson), who is pale of skin and dark of eye and wise beyond her years ("I've been 12 for a very long time," she explains). Eli has recently moved into the estate with a man who may possibly be her father, or a paedophile (as he was in the novel), or a lover who has grown old while she remains young. She needs constant feeding and her blundering, alcoholic neighbours provide easy pickings.Yet it would be too easy to file Let the Right One In as a tale of a hunter and her prey, or of light and dark, good and evil. Most of its inhabitants are victims of one stripe or another. They are the marginalised and the dispossessed, living their lives below the parapet and sustaining themselves with blood and alcohol. And while these people may, at times, be able to help each other, and even love each other, the transaction comes with a terrible price. Eli helps Oskar confront the bullies and so Oskar helps Eli when she is left abandoned in her decaying apartment. But the film's finale does not quite offer the happy resolution we've been wishing for. We are left wondering just where these characters go from here.On its release in 2008, Let the Right One In (which is soon to be subjected to an American remake) found itself billed as the antidote to the Twilight pictures, a movie that brought a little mystery and magic back to the hoary old bloodsucker yarn. Perhaps it gave it some red meat as well. The Twilight kids would presumably never be caught scaling the walls of a hospital to feast on a patient, or snuffling spilt blood from a dirty stone floor, as Eli does. Alfredson's heroine is sensitive and sympathetic. But we are never allowed to forget that she is also a stone-cold killer; the embodiment of the old adage about the snake that winds up biting the cowboy who gives it shelter: "Because I'm a snake, stupid. It's what I do."Earlier this year, the horror author Stephen King bemoaned the way in which the vampire genre has recently been hijacked by "lovelorn southern gentlemen and … boy-toys with big, dewy eyes". I'm guessing he has yet to see Let the Right One In. Alfredson's film is by turns tender and terrifying, funny and sad. And yes, OK, it is also a romance, albeit of the richest, strangest, most provocative kind.Think of it as a boy-meets-girl love story in which the girl may not be a girl at all, and where the boy knows this – and doesn't care.HorrorWorld cinemaXan Brooksguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Bieber, Perry, Ke$ha take on American Music Awards By SANDY COHEN 2010-10-27T11:53:34ZLOS ANGELES (AP) -- A newlywed, a teen heartthrob and a glittery pop star are set to take the stage at the 38th annual American Music Awards.... hosted.ap.org |