Clive Owen gets 'The Confirmation'; Olivia Cooke may Join 'Ben-Hur'; Haley Bennett Boards 'The Blunderer'

Bob Nelson, Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Alexander Payne's Nebraska, has gathered a terrific cast for his directorial debut, The Confirmation. Clive Owen, Maria Bello, Patton Oswalt, Tim Blake Nelson, Robert Forster, Matthew Modine, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Jaeden Liebherer (St. Vincent) will star in the film about "8-year-old Anthony (Lieberher) and his estranged father (Owen) spending two days together for the first time in forever, as the boy’s mom (Bello) and new husband (Modine) head off to a religious retreat. Their mutual unease is exacerbated when the father’s truck breaks down, his landlord locks him out of his house, and the toolbox that provides his living gets stolen. As they search for the stolen tools with help from an odd neighbor (Oswalt), the father and son begin to establish a connection." [Deadline]

Bates Motel and Ouija star Olivia Cooke is eying a role in the Ben-Hur remake directed by Timur Bekmambetov. If she agrees, which is up in the air because of other high-profile projects she's been offered, Cooke would play Tirzah, Ben-Hur's sister. Jack Huston stars as the Jewish prince forced into slavery by his former friend. Morgan Freeman, Ayelet Zurer, and Toby Kebbell are also on board with a release date set for February 2016. [TheWrap]

Imogen Poots has dropped out of the untitled adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel, The Blunderer, with Haley Bennett (Kaboom) coming aboard to replace her. Andy Goddard is directing the film, which stars Patrick Wilson and Jessica Biel. The story takes place in 1960s New York and follows "Walter Stackhouse (Wilson), a successful architect married to the beautiful Clara (Biel); they lead a seemingly perfect life. But Walter's fascination with an unsolved murder leads him into a spiral of chaos as he is forced to play cat-and-mouse with a clever killer and an overambitious detective while at the same time lusting after another woman."  [THR]

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Patton Oswalt Announces the Newest Member of Agents of SHIELD!

Of all the shows I started watching this year, Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is the only one for which I had a deep love/hate thing going on. I know this is the norm for alot of series watchers out there but, for me, this was something totally new. Generally speaking if I get bored with or annoyed by a show I just stop watching. Something about AoS had me tuning in weekly even when I had all but given up hope, and no it wasn't just Chloe Bennet....I'm really more of an Elizabeth Henstridge type of guy anyway. I guess it was the fanboy in me holding out against hope that the series would turn itself around, lucky me...it did! By the end of season 1 some truly compelling comic based television was upon us. When it was announced that AoS was renewed for a second season it became a no-brainer that they would have a serious presence at this year's San Diego Comic-Con.

The big announcement was that Barbara Morse, aka Mockingbird, would be joining the team in season 2. For those who don't know Mockingbird is kind of like a female Hawkeye, in the sense that she's not technically a superhero...or at least doesn't have any superpowers, but rather is so highly trained that in combat she may as well be superhuman. That's why this is so awesome, for a show aimed at a superhero fanbase the characters were, for the most part, very normal. Having an actual comic book hero on the team can't do anything but up the expectations for this show in it's sophomore season.



The announcement comes via a short video starring pop culture favorite Patton Oswalt as the Koenig brothers..that's right, two Oswalts for the price of one. The video was pre-recorded to air during the Marvel TV panel, so it doesn't exactly translate well to watching from home by yourself...it comes off like one of those pseudo-interactive pre-ride videos that you're likely to see at Disney World or your local amusement park. Still, it's not without it's laughs and Oswalt's always fun to see in a geek-centric role. Check it out and remember Marvel: Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D. season 2 premiers September 23rd, 2014!

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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Debrief: Episode 1.19, "The Light in the Darkness"

So here we are, back again! After two pretty decent episodes (even though you couldn’t tell that from my writing about it), we are somehow back to a monster/bad guy-of-the-week episode. I really don’t know why they chose to do that when it seems they have enough possible stuff to draw from, with the whole fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the team on the run. Yet here we are with Team Coulson, off to deal with another D-list Marvel comic villain when we could have more HYDRA or even that grand Hulk hater Talbot.

This is episode is called "The Only Light in the Darkness." It starts with some guy walking around at night looking quite disheveled, and somehow all the electricity goes away when he walks past it. He asks a guy for a ride to Portland but the guy refuses so he touches this guy and kills him to steal his truck. With that we head back to the secret Koenig base, where the team is talking to Ward as he lies to them about what happened to the Fridge (which he just doesn’t say he was in fact robbing and killing too). Once Coulson finds out all the bad guys got out, he goes all altruistic and decides on taking a small team to go and find this Marcus Daniels, a.k.a. the guy that just killed a dude for truck because he is dangerous. Agent Koenig says no one can leave before orientation, which is basically a S.H.I.E.L.D. lie-detector test. Everyone passes, and we find out that Agent Triplett is a legacy agent since his grandfather was a Howling Commando (probably Derek Luke’s Gabe Jones from Captain America: The First Avenger) and that Simmons is a Doctor Who fan. After that Ward goes last, and after almost being shot for lying, he saves himself by basically saying he’s thirsty for Skye and Koenig is like, "OK, I can understand that" and gives him a lanyard (so dumb).

So with everyone cool Coulson takes Fitz, Simmons, and Triplett on this mission to Portland to get Daniels. All the time Fitz is treating Triplett mean because clearly Simmons is into Triplett and Fitz has got it bad for Simmons. I’m telling you this show is too focused on teenage love triangles to really be about super spies; I tell you! The four get into the cool S.H.I.E.L.D. Johnny Quest-like jet after Coulson and May have another argument about trust. You know he doesn’t trust her and won't forgive May for following Fury’s orders, like he never mislead anyone or not told the truth, like say to a rich industrialist or a Thunder God’s girlfriend or nothing. Just saying.

On the jet Coulson tells the group about Daniels and how basically he’s going after Coulson’s ex-girlfriend Audrey Nathan, who thinks Coulson is dead because you know Loki deaded him in The Avengers. Fitz and Simmons cook up some super flashlights to fight this guy because “pure light” hurt him before. They get to him, just as he found Audrey, to shine those flashlights on him, just to find out that S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn’t helping these people agents like Coulson locked up; they ran tests on them to make them more powerful (actually it could’ve been them secret HYDRA agents, though) so he easily blows up the flashlights with powerful Darkforce energy. During all of this Audrey escapes and Daniels leaves as Mini Team Coulson licks its wounds.

Then the team goes back to the jet to make something all new to fight this guy while hearing the sad story about Coulson’s lost love Audrey. How she can’t know he’s alive but he must protect her and all of that. The three besides Coulson actually meet up and keep Audrey informed about what’s going on as she tells her respect for S.H.I.E.L.D. and about Coulson.  Fitz keeps asking questions since it seems he doesn’t have the courage to tell Simmons his feelings for her. The two brainiacs make a new bigger version of the flashlights based on designs by Bruce Banner. They decide to use Audrey as bait for Daniels so they can corner him and the boogeyman with the super flashlights. Of course he comes after her, falling directly into their trap, but he overpowers the team with his powers, but once Audrey is in true danger Coulson grabs one and it’s somehow more powerful than before and the man is defeated and blown up or disintegrated, knocking Audrey back. Coulson goes over to her in slightly unconscious state and tells her that he’s always going to protect her and then he skates out before she fully wakes up. Letting her think it was all a dream.

On the jet back, Coulson and Fitz talk again as he asks Coulson why he didn’t tell her he’s alive and if he ever will. Coulson gives him some Coulson dad talk and advice and has now lost all his current cynical nature. He also resolves to forgive May when they get back to the secret base. Simmons then talks to Fitz to understand why is he so mean to Triplett, which Fitz just lies about and says he’s just not into change, instead of just saying how he feels about her.

Now during all that, back at the base Skye and Koenig are there having big nerd conversations as Ward creeps around the base being a creep. Ward ends up talking to May about the Bus, which is fine, but also sees that she’s leaving. May is bummed that Coulson doesn’t trust her and that she isn’t needed, so she decides to go away. Skye suggests they hack into NSA satellites, which Koenig is afraid to do but then goes ahead and lets her win. Skye does that as Ward does away with poor Koenig in secret. Ward then decides to put on his best sorry bad boy I have feelings too game for Skye and before things get hot and heavy Skye sees some blood on his ear (which is Koenig blood) and he goes to clean it up. This lets Skye wander around looking for stuff. She finds Koenig's tablet with the map of base that lets him track everyone with a lanyard. She follows a dot right to dead Koenig, and at that point this episode becomes like House at the End of the Street or something. Skye goes to hide in the bathroom as she figures out that Ward is HYDRA; she then, I guess, makes a plan. She starts counter seducing him and he takes her to the Bus so they can leave because Skye’s encryption on the hard drive (the whole reason he’s here) is location-based.  Off they go with Ward thinking he’s successful in his trickery with Skye going headfirst into the unknown danger, per usual.

Mini Team Coulson gets back to see no Bus and wonders where everyone is. The last thing we see is that May is walking the street like 70s Bruce Banner, then her mom picks her up. Her mom checks her a bit and then gives her an envelope with some secret stuff in it, being that her mom is also a spy or something. It seems that spying is the May family business.

Did You Know:

So Marcus Daniels in the comic is known as Blackout. As I said earlier a pretty D-list bad guy that first appeared and fought Nova in the 70s. He popped up later facing Captain Marvel Monica Rambeau and then later on the Inhumans and Dazzler. He ended up being used a lot by Baron Zemo in the Masters of Evil and really never amounted to much bad guy wise. His powers do come from a place called the Darkforce dimension, which he got by accident while working as a lab assistant. From that point on the powers drove him crazy. Maybe he’s in here to put a little fan Easter egg connection to Guardians of the Galaxy since the Nova Corp is pretty important to the plot of that film, along with the Kree.

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Patton Oswalt to Guest on 'Agents of SHIELD'

We already know that Patton Oswalt has an odd sense of humor for superheroes, Star Wars, and anything geeky for that matter, but now he gets to act on that in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. Oswalt has signed on to appear as SHIELD agent Eric Koenig in an upcoming episode, and he's a genuine character from the comics and not somebody designed just for him. Although Oswalt did notice that he resembles another Marvel character far more than he does Koenig. In an interview with Marvel.com he said...

Oswalt: “When they first told me the character’s name, I’ll admit the first thing I did is I went on Wikipedia and looked up the M.O.D.O.K. character to see if Koenig was maybe his name before he became M.O.D.O.K., but it wasn’t,” laughs Oswalt. “They keep on talking about the Clairvoyant in the show and I’m like, ‘is that M.O.D.O.K.? Am I M.O.D.O.K.?”

The original Koenig was a member of Nick Fury's Howling Commandos during WWII and assisted in the formation of SHIELD.  The current version will obviously be tailored to fit Oswalt's skills, so hopefully he gets a chance to crack a few jokes.

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Review: Ben Stiller's 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'

One can't help but chuckle at the irony; the boring and insignificant Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) works at LIFE Magazine. It's an obvious, fairly easy gag for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, but then again it's a fairly obvious film with a clear mandate to be a big, uplifting, charmer about taking life by the horns. Directed with ambition that occasionally exceeds Stiller's grasp, it's a film that's easy to mock but has enough good heart and whimsy to be just as easy to love.

Stiller dials down the goofy antics just a tad as the shy and forgettable Walter Mitty, a negative aspect manager at LIFE magazine, and yes the job is as boring as daily existence. When we first meet him he's staring at the EHarmony profile of Cheryl (Kristen Wiig), a colleague he's been crushing on but never had the stones to talk to. Does he even have the guts to electronically reach out and make the first move? At times of indecision and great anxiety, Walter's vivid imagination takes over, imagining himself to be more confident, more adventurous, manlier, more EVERYTHING than he is in reality.

Stiller balances Walter's surreal escapism with a dose of cold hard truth; the print world is dying and LIFE magazine is going digital, firing most of the staff and putting his own job in jeopardy. The villainous corporate stooge designed to oversee the change (Adam Scott, in a ridiculous beard that screams "bad guy") doesn't see much value in Walter's job developing photos, but that changes when renowned photographer Sean O'Connell (Sean Penn, enigmatic as ever) sends in an image that is said to capture the very essence of the magazine. The only problem is that Walter can't find this life-changing photo, and in an effort to save his job must break out of his shell and start living.

In his fifth directorial effort, Stiller shows real signs of growth, and with the aid of cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh the film has a dreamlike malleability not unlike the work of Michel Gondry. In one stirring scene a flock of birds circle to form Cheryl's loving face; in another his breathy words are scrawled across the screen like a journal log, capturing his newfound explorer's spirit.  As Walter's journey takes him from Greenland to Iceland and the highest mountains of the Himalayas, the gap between the life he leads and the one he desires begins to close.

As Stiller indulges visually, he shows a total lack of restraint elsewhere in ways that hurt the film tremendously. Embarrassing levels of distracting product placement too often resemble one long commercial ad, and much of Walter's trek is condensed through song-heavy montage. We can't help but wish there was a little more magic on display in his magical adventure. Patton Oswalt voices a pestering EHarmony rep who is constantly calling in while Walter expands his horizons, and their conversations don't really need anything other than to emphasize what we can see with our own eyes. Despite these problems, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is an earnest and sincere story about turning one's dreams into positive action. As other movies this Christmas seem to be about pushing the limits of good taste, Ben Stiller is delivering the one true feel-good movie of the season.

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Review: 'Odd Thomas' Starring Anton Yelchin and Addison Timlin

It didn't take long for Dean Koontz's Odd Thomasnovels to hook me. Literally within a couple of pages he had established this wonderfully weird concoction, an offbeat paranormal mystery and hard-boiled gumshoe story with a protagonist as odd as his name.  Through a series of mostly compelling adventures Koontz has walked a very fine balance, one where inherent quirk of the premise must often give way to darkness of a brutal nature. See, Odd Thomas can see the lingering spirits of the dead, and uses that ability to avenge their deaths. It's not the sort of tone one would expect an unabashed tentpole director like Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) to be able to pull off, and while it's far from perfect, fans of Koontz's titular hero will be more than happy.

To Sommers' credit he sticks with what he knows, picking up the face and sprucing up Koontz's story, so that the film resembles an episode of dearly-departed series, Dead Like Me. It's a change that works better than one would think, mainly due to a confident star in Anton Yelchin and the peculiarity of the lead character. Odd, his parents meant to name him Todd but forgot the 'T', is a seemingly normal fry cook living in Pico Mundo, Nevada where there are all sorts of weird occurrences he's more than equipped to handle. More than just "seeing dead people", Odd can see the nastiest secrets murderers try to hide, and he can even glimpse future horrors before they happen in an effort to stop them.

At a brisk 90 minutes, Sommers wastes no time introducing us to Odd's world, with extensive narration cutting down on the massive amounts of exposition that occasionally bog down Koontz's books. More casual viewers will appreciate the steady presence of Willem Dafoe as town sheriff Wyatt Porter, who shares in Odd's secret. His greatest source of back-up is his feisty and loyal girlfriend, Stormy Llewellyn (Addison Timlin), and together they have a little Nick & Norah Charles thing goin' on as they try to decipher the latest weirdness around town. A carnival fortune predicted they were "destined to be together forever", and it's a fate constantly put to the test by crazy cultists, ethereal death demons known as bodachs, and gun-toting madmen.

Koontz's original story doesn't call for a lot of huge set pieces, but what few there are Sommers brings his big studio muscle to at least give them a nice polish. The bodachs are appropriately sinewy and slithery, but you can tell that there's been some significant trimming during the explosive finale. Mostly the budgetary constraints are a minor bump that can be easily overlooked thanks to Yelchin, who makes for a more dashing hero than Odd Thomas was ever designed to be. It works in this context, though, and he's even better when bantering back-and-forth with Timlin. It's safe to say that everything about their relationship in the novels is faithfully recreated here, including the stuff that isn't so much fun. Sommers, who adapted the screenplay himself, clearly has a passion for the material and Koontz's bizarre short order cook.

It's a shame there's been such a negative stigma attached to this film due to the months of legal wrangling that has kept it out of theaters indefinitely. Some will see that, Sommers' name and the fact that it's only available On Demand and take that as a reason to stay away. But fans of the book will be extremely happy, and those less familiar will find Odd Thomas to be a funny and endearing curiosity.

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Ben Stiller Travels the World in New 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' Trailer

The line between reality and the surreal are blurred in Ben Stiller's rather ambitious The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, an adaptation of the classic, uplifting James Thurber story and 1947 film. Pulling double-duty as director and star, he plays a powerless sad-sack LIFE Magazine employee who indulges in his overactive imagination to escape a boring existence. A new 3-minute international trailer has been released offering us perhaps the most complete look at the film yet.

Co-starring Kristen Wiig, Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn, Patton Oswalt, and Sean Penn, the story goes into sweeping epic territory as Mitty must finally begin to experience life and go on an exotic global adventure. Stiller is in new territory tackling a film of this scope, and early reviews have been split on how well he pulled it off. The trailer definitely veers towards the overly sentimental, but it also looks like the sort of film that audiences could easily fall in love with.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty opens Christmas Day.

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Patton Oswalt's epic 'Star Wars' rant gets animated

My only question is: What took the Internets so damn long? It was more than a month ago that footage of Patton Oswalt's incredible 8-minute spiel on Star Wars: Episode VII hit the web, and while we did get this cool fanmade poster, it was only a matter of time before somebody with too much time on their hands took it a step further. That guy turns out to be Isaac Moores, who has gone ahead and brought the epic rant to life in animated form, throwing in all of Oswalt's ridiculous and hilarious Star Wars/Marvel crossovers. It's pretty slick, and definitely worth a watch.

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Awesome poster for Patton Oswalt's 'Star Wars/Marvel' crossover

If somehow you didn't get around to watching Patton Oswalt's ultra-geeky rant from NBC's Parks & Recreation, then you might want to get on that. A deleted scene from the show had the comedian going off on a hilarious stream-of-consciousness tangent about what Disney should do with Star Wars: Episode VII, leading to the inclusion of a a bunch of Marvel characters in what can only be described as a total nerdgasm.

Well now EW has created a cool fake poster it, titled Star Wars VII: The Gauntlet of Infinity. It's a pretty awesome piece of work, and speaks to how ridiculous the whole thing would be. Of course, with Disney planning to release a new Star Wars film every year, would anyone be surprised if they just cave in and do something like this?

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New 'Star Wars' film every summer beginning in 2015; watch Patton Oswalt pitch the story

When Disney paid a kingly sum to purchase Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise, there was never any doubt they would try to get more than their money's worth. The question was always how far would they go?  Today during their CinemaCon presentation, Disney revealed their plan is to make a new Star Wars film an annual event.

As promised from the very beginning, Star Wars: Episode VII will be arriving in 2015, landing in theaters that summer. From there, they will release a brand new film every single summer, alternating between the new trilogy and the solo spinoff films we learned about months ago. It's going to be a crazy season for Disney that year with Star Wars and The Avengers 2 battling one another for box office dollars, but the Mouse House is smart enough to give them a wide berth from one another.

Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher are all expected back for 'Episode VII', which J.J. Abrams is developing now with screenwriter Michael Arndt. Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg have been tapped for the spinoffs, which may or may not follow a young Han Solo, Boba Fett, and Yoda.

Personally, I think Disney is going to run Star Wars right into the ground with a move like this, and the novelty of the franchise will be killed. It should be special when a new film comes out, not a perfunctory thing like Paranormal Activity on Halloween.

If this is the approach Disney is going with, then it's likely that Kinberg and Kasdan have been working on scripts for quite some time. Whatever those stories may entail is anybody's guess, but Patton Oswalt has a pretty good idea for one of them. In an outtake from Parks & Recreation, Oswalt goes on a hilarious rant about the plot for 'Episode VII'. It starts off fairly lucid and reasoned, but veers into sheer lunacy as he tosses in ideas for a Marvel crossover involving characters that have no business intermingling. It's more than eight minutes long but definitely worth the investment.

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New red band trailer for 'Nature Calls' with Patton Oswalt and Johnny Knoxville

If you found the boy scout scenes in Moonrise Kingdom charming and nostalgic, then....well, Nature Calls probably isn't the movie for you. In the newly released red band trailer we see people peeing on camp signs, waving guns around, crucifixion, and general misbehavior in a way far more vulgar than anything we saw in Meatballs. I tend to like movies like this, but even with a promising cast this just looks awful.

The camp comedy stars Patton Oswalt as Scoutmaster Randy Stevens, who attempts to show up his macho big brother Kirk(Johnny Knoxville) by taking his apathetic scout troop on a highly unauthorized camping trip. Rob Riggle and the late great comedian Patrice O'Neal join Knoxville in tracking the boys down, and basically what we get is a lot of screaming expletives but nothing that's actually funny. Frankly, I get worried any time I see that irritating kid from Role Models in anything, as his presence usually indicates crap is on the horizon.

Nature Calls is directed by Todd Rohal and hits VOD on October 4th before opening in theaters on November 9th....

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Patton Oswalt circles 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'

Patton Oswalt makes every film he's in better. Period. Not only is he a brilliant stand up comedian with a nerdy streak a mile wide, but he's been fantastic in a number of supporting roles on the big and small screen. When he finally got a chance to play the leading man, in 2009's Big Fan, he gave a performance that I considered to be Oscar worthy, although it was mostly ignored.  He was just snubbed again for a scene stealing turn opposite Charlize Theron in Young Adult, but whether the Academy recognizes him or not, producers do. Which is why he keeps snagging key roles in some great films.

Variety reports that Oswalt is now circling a supporting gig in the remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, to star and be directed by Ben Stiller. Taking it's cues from the 1947 Danny Kaye classic, which was based on a James Thurber short story, the film follows a sad sack pushover who daydreams an exciting, fantastic life for himself, which causes problems when he returns to reality. Kristen Wiig will play one of Mitty's co-workers and his dream girl, while Shirley MacLaine is Mitty's mother. Oswalt's role is said to be that of an eHarmoney rep who helps Mitty create an online profile.

If you saw last night's trailer for Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, you probably noticed Oswalt in that as well. He'll be seen next in that film on June 22nd.

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Young Adult, starring Charlize Theron and Patton Oswalt

This must be the year for unlikable movie heroines. Young Adult marks the return of director Jason Reitman with screenwriter Diablo Cody, their first film together(unless you count Jennifer's Body, which he produced) since Juno four years ago. The combination of Cody's ear for whip smart dialogue with Reitman's knack for smart, insightful directorial choices has produced gold in the past, but this is a departure for them in a sense. Young Adult is undoubtedly one of the most uncomfortable comedies anyone will ever experience. That's a good thing, by the way. But for Reitman and Cody, with expectations for them so high, the film feels a little bare, and they pull their punches just enough to cause disappointment.

While Cody has slipped into pointless genre before with Jennifer's Body, Reitman has mostly stayed lofty with Thank You for Smoking and his Oscar nominated Up in the Air. Young Adult is a comedy, first and foremost, and the actions of spoiled teen fiction writer, Mavis Gary(Theron) are designed to make you laugh between cringes. Mavis is a beautiful, successful woman, and the Twilight-esque franchise she writes for makes her a sort of celebrity, although not nearly as much of one as she thinks.  A perpetual drunk who exists on alcohol, random sex, and watching reality TV brats for inspiration, Mavis might as well be one of the legions who read her books.

Determined to be the center of the universe again, Mavis leaves the big city of Minneapolis to her eyeblink of a small town in Minnesota to reclaim old glories. There's just one problem. Mavis is a scathing snot. She's utterly self centered, cruel, and dismissive of everyone. She has complete tunnel vision on what she wants and nothing else matters, and what she wants right now is to hook up with her old love, Buddy(Patrick Wilson). There are just a couple of problems: Buddy's married, and he just became a father. Oops.  Not that it matters to Mavis, and her oh so obvious ploy isn't making her too popular.  To Mavis, everybody in town should still her as the "mean girl" prom queen she was. They should ignore the obvious disgust she has for them and small towns in general. They should worship at her feet, basically.

One person still digs her, though, and that's Matt Freehauf(Patton Oswalt), a former classmate Mavis totally ignored in high school, except when he became notable for being crippled by a bunch of thugs who thought he was gay. He becomes her Jiminy Cricket, the angel on her shoulder warning her against the destruction she's about to cause, not only to this apparently happy family but also to herself.

Mavis is such a vile human being inside and out that she makes Cameron Diaz's character in Bad Teacher look like Mary Poppins. There's nothing wrong with a film that features a terrible character like that. Nor is it a requirement to have that character learn some valuable lesson and remake themselves. In fact, Cody and Reitman deserve all the credit in the universe for not making this some cookie cutter story of redemption. The problem isn't with Mavis, but with the blank people who have to put up with her. "Minnesota nice" only stretches so far, but nobody treats Mavis in the way any rational person would. Clearly insane, with sociopathic tendencies, Mavis should either be drummed out of town or locked in a rubber room. Instead everybody just sort of watches while she unravels, knowing full well what the result will be. Maybe Cody is trying to say something about mid-western values in their treatment of her, but it could've been more clear. By having everyone respond so casually, they are in essence letting Mavis off the hook. This becomes a huge problem in the film's final moments.

The film isn't totally without perception, as it does have some things to say about our treatment of celebrity, both on a large and small scale. Mavis sees herself as a star, but she's mistaken in numerous ways. In her hometown she was just a big fish in a small pond, the one girl who and found success. But Mavis also finds out just how popular(or not) she really is when she confronts someone who knows the books intimately, but has no clue who she is. Theron's look of combined shock and disgust at this moment is priceless, and it's clear she's reveling in playing a broken character like this, where her outward beauty is only matched by the ugliness within.  When paired up with Oswalt, the pair make a great team. The bulk of the film's biggest laughs come with them together on screen, where she's free to fire as many politically incorrect jabs at him as possible.

There's something to be said about the talent of Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman that Young Adult is as good as it is. Imagine it in the wrong hands, and Young Adult would've turned into "Sweet Home Minnesota" or some other forgettable comedy. Young Adult may be a little disappointing, but one thing it isn't is a film worth dismissing.

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Trailer Time: Young Adult, starring Charlize Theron and Patrick Wilson

After flying under the radar for months, recent weeks have seen an upswing in buzz for the latest film from director Jason Reitman(Up in the Air, Thank You For Smoking). Young Adult sees him teaming up with his Juno writer, Diablo Cody, for a story that looks like it may be a bit meaner(but no less thoughtful) than expected.

Charlize Theron plays a writer of successful teen romance novels, who goes back to her hometown to live it up and relive old glories, mostly be stealing back her high school sweetheart(Patrick Wilson). One problem: He's a happily married man. Not that she seems to care. Patton Oswalt plays an old friend who tries to talk a little sense into her. Unsuccessfully it seems. Check out the new trailer below...




Anybody else get a Bad Teacher vibe from this? This looks really dark, and with Reitman's penchant for taking stories in unfamiliar directions, I'm curious to see just how far this goes. I don't expect any redeemable characters to emerge here, but we'll see when Young Adult hits theaters on December 9th.

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New poster for Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody's Young Adult

Of all the many high profile films coming out in the packed month of December, one has remained relatively under the radar, strange considering the wealth of talent involved. That would be Young Adult, the new comedy from the Juno pairing of director Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody. A brand new one-sheet has been dropped into our laps, and it's one of the most inspired we've seen all year, looking like some teen queen's diary of her high school misadventures.

One glimpse at the plot will explain the reasons for this unique design. Charlize Theron plays an author of teen literature(think Twilight or Sweet Valley High) who yearns for her high school glory days. She goes back to her hometown in Minnesota and tries to spark up a romance with her now married high school sweetheart(Patrick Wilson), but finds things aren't as cool as she remembers. Patton Oswalt plays an old classmate she strikes up a friendship with.

The marketing push for this one has been quiet, but expect it to amp up in the coming weeks. Look for Young Adult to hit theaters on December 9th.

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Patton Oswalt and Johnny Knoxville to team-up for untitled comedy

 I was hoping that Patton Oswalt would finally start getting the Hollywood attention he deserved after a borderline award worthy starring turn in Big Fan. And while he's got some good stuff on the way, notably a co-starring role in the adaptation of Odd Thomas(my favorite book of the last few years), he's fallen back down into the realm of the supporting player. But there is hope, as possibly his biggest role since Big Fan is literally a few days away.

Deadline reports that Oswalt will pair up with Johnny Knoxville(The Dukes of Hazzard) in an untitled comedy from producer David Gordon Green(Your Highness). Todd Rohal wrote the script and will direct, with filming kicking off this week. The story centers on two brothers(Oswalt and Knoxville) who take a troop of boys on an ill-fated camping trip as a means of honoring their ill father.

Rob Riggle, Maura Tierney, and Patrice O'Neal co-star. It's been six years since we've seen Knoxville on the big screen in anything where he wasn't forced to get gored by a bull or poop his pants. That film was The Ringer, and despite being terribly politically incorrect, it wasn't half bad.

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