Nick Hoult, or How can I please watch A Single Man now?

With talk of Colin Firth snagging an Oscar nomination for his role in Tom Ford's adaptation of Chirstopher Isherwood's A Single Man (following a win in Venice and an upcoming 'Performance of the Year Award' at Santa Barbara fest), it's great to see his co-stars getting some press.

In particular, Nicholas Hoult (that adorable kid from About A Boy, and that conniving teen from BBC's Skins) is having quite a week: he was spotlit by the New York Times as one of four 'Breakout Performances' and was featured in Variety as one of '10 Actors to Watch.' Which is all an excuse for me to keep amping the anticipation for this film and to post a pretty picture of Mr Hoult:

A Single Man, or How Tom Ford's debut looks gorgeous

I already voiced my (albeit sceptic) anticipation for Tom Ford's debut film A Single Man(based on Christopher Isherwood's novella of the same name) but after this trailer, well... I can't wait to see this. Colin, Julianne, Matthew, Lee, Ginnifer & Nicholas all look gorgeous and considering I love them all from giving me things I adore (Shakespeare in Love, Boogie Nights, Match Point, Pushing Daisies, Big Love & Skins) I don't know how their cumulative endeavor won't win me over.

That every screengrab looks likes a beautiful photographs is probably not incidental but golly aren't they all mouth-watering?

Watch Out for 2009, or How what are you looking forward to?

Okay, so 2008 is far behind us, and it didn't quite make an impression on anyone (can someone tell me why Slumdog is taking every and all prizes other than because its competition is horribly weak?) In any case: let's look ahead people! I mostly look forward to films because of the people involved so that's why the list skews more towards films made by/starring people I love. "Big Movies" and the "Blockbusters" don't really get me excited though I do end up watching them, so that's why stuff like Watchmen, Terminator and Avatar don't quite make it to the list. Without further ado:

Top 20 Films I'm Most Looking Forward to

20. Cherie (Stephen Frears)

Michelle Pfeiffer in a costume drama. Need we say more?

19. Shutter Island (Martin Scorcese)

Despite The Aviator I still look forward to any Leo/Marty pairing.

18. Duplicity (Tony Gilroy)

You had me at Julia Roberts headlining a film. Add in Tony 'Bourne/Michael Clayton' Gilroy and a shirtless scene with Clive Owen and you've got me really intrigued for this film.

17. A Single Man (Tom Ford)

You have to give props to Mr Ford for bringing together three stars I love: Julianne, Lee & Colin. Also, I love the original story so I'm interested to see how this turns out.

16. An Education (Lone Scherfig)

If there was one deafening pronouncement coming from Sundance this year, it was the breakthrough of a certain Ms Carey Mulligan in this Nick Hornby-penned film. Add in Peter Saarsgard and an academic environment and I'm sold.

15. Rudo y Cursi (Carlos Cuaron)

Gael. Diego. 'Nuff said.

14. Brothers (Jim Sheridan)

Is it just me or was this supposed to be an '08 release? In any case, this remake of a Danish film of the same name has me intrigued, mainly for the talent involved (Ms Portman, Jake and Tobey).

13. Ponyo at the Cliff (Hayao Miyazaki)

I'm an animation freak, so of course I would be

looking forward to Miyazaki's new retelling of Anderson's Little Mermaid. Also, is this not the best voice acting cast since... ever? You had me at Tina Fey.

12. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (David Yates)

This was on my list last year: Warner Bros better make our wait worth while!

11. Los Abrazos Rotos (Pedro Almodovar)

Penelope. Pedro. 'Nuff said.

10. The Princess and the Frog (Ron 'n John)

These are the guys that brought us The Little Mermaid, Hercules and Aladdin, and while I'm unsure about the whole 'Randy Newman writes New Orleans tunes' is gonna work out, I have high hopes for this return to form among the Disney crowd.

9. Away We Go (Sam Mendes)

This is why doing research for upcoming films is fun: you realize John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph Maggie Gyllenhaal, Cheryl Hines, Alison Janney and Catherine O'Hara are starring in a new comedy film by Sam Mendes!

8. Julie and Julia (Nora Ephron)

Meryl. Amy. 'Nuff said.

7.The Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson)

The novel tells the story of a girl who watches from heaven as her family deal with her murder. Intriguing no? We'll see what Mr Jackson cooks up for us.

6. Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (Edgar Wright)

Have you really not picked up the wonderful comic books that trace the trials and tribulations of a certain Scott Pilgrim? What is wrong with you? And now, with a wonderful cast, I can't wait to see what this film looks like.

5. Sunshine Cleaning (Christine Jeffs)

Amy. Emily. 'Nuff said. (This film also closes the Amy-Emily-Meryl-Anne square - wait no. Amy and Anne now need to star in something...)

4. 500 Days of Summer (Marc Webb)

I already talked about how much I was looking forward to this film starring Zoey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt here.

3. Nine (Rob Marshall)

Nicole. Penelope. Kate. Sophia. Judi. Marion. 'Nuff said. Well, no - add to it the directorial vision of Rob Marshall and you've got yourself the most anticipated musical this year.

2. Talking Woodstock (Ang Lee)

When has Mr Lee disappointed us? (If you're answer was "Hulk" please go skulk in the corner right now, shame on you!) Also: Emile, Paul (Dano), Liev, Imelda, Demetri Martin (just saw him on Flight of the Conchords - so cute!) and Jonathan 'Spring Awakening' Groff!

1. Up (Pete Docter)

Is this a surprise to anyone? Of course PIXAR's latest installment would make my number 1 (the fact that Ratatouille and Wall‧E were my top picks for the last two years proves that I have yet to be disappointed by Lassetter & co).

A Single Man, or How had I not discussed this earlier?

Okay so I have no clue what Tom Ford will do with Christopher Isherwood's beautiful book A Single Man, but I'll be damned if he didn't bring in a great team of thesps to help him (Colin Firth, Julianne Moore and Matthew Goode) - oh and glasses (see his glasses in the pic? That shows he's a 'thinking-man' director!)

Isherwood (who you might know from being the guy on whose stories (The Berlin Stories) the musical/film Cabaret is based on, only y'know, less gay)'s book is a meditation on gay life. I pulled up a meditation I had written about Isherwood's novella. Indulge me in my academic narcissism:

Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man accounts for the last day in the life of George: the single man from the title. But we all know that. And what happens that day, while important to the ‘plot’ of the novel, is the least important and (in my mind) less relevant aspect of the story when framed in light of a gay experiment in narrative. The exploration of George as a character that is at once a unified individual and at times a diluted and fragmented subject is one of the most striking aspects of Isherwood’s narrative. The seemingly internalised third person narrator shows us George as a subject that sleeps, drives, teaches and so on, but also at times, gives us the feeling that the character whom we are intimately getting to know can’t be dissociated from a performer: his subjectivity becomes then a creation and can only exist with an audience.

George presents himself always framed in a stage-space, always in need of being interpellated by an (imaginary) audience: “George slips his parking card into the slot (thereby offering a piece of circumstancial evidence that he is George)” (Isherwood 43). From the moment he gets up and the narrator conflates being and time in the axiomatic “I am now”, George is being hailed into being by the reader in the act of reading his present tense narration. It is when “he gets out of his car, [when] he feels a surge of energy, of eagerness for the play to begin…He is all actor now – an actor on his way up from the dressing room, hastening through the backstage world of props and lamps and stagehands to make his entrance” (44, emphasis added). While we can take this instance as the initial point where his performative nature begins and take it as an isolated event in the narrative, we should pay attention to the ways in which, for example, George talks of his ‘chauffeur’ and his ‘head talking’ personas as independent from the body/actor subjectivity he feels he has: “George realizes this with the same discomfiture he felt on the freeway, when the chauffeur-figure got them clear downtown…But here in broad daylight, during campus hours, when George should be on-stage every second, in full control of his performance!” (54).

But, even when George is not dissociated from his stage persona, his life seems to work as if he was always an actor: he has the part of a ‘single man’ that the title bestows on him; the role of professor that he enjoys playing; the narrative endows him with child-like qualities in response to Kenny’s “nanny-like” behaviour (163), and more poignantly, the last scenes with Kenny portray how Isherwood’s narrative constructs George as always performing a role. The last pages of the book work to (re)create George as role-playing a masochist educator following (if anything) the homosocial order of Classical Greece: Kenny enjoys calling George “sir”, Kenny’s attire “turn[s] itself into a Greek garment, the chlamys worn by a young disciple – the favourite, surely – of some philosopher.” (169); and lastly their relationship as framed in the platonic/symbolic dialogue places them with restricted roles to play: the masochist educator/teacher and sadist disciple/student. 

When this framework collapses and his fellow actor/audience leaves, it is the reader who is left alone with George and Isherwood’s narrator. And George, as if addressing us, takes it upon himself to change his role: “And I’m about to get much crazier, he announces. Just watch me, all of you!” (180) and “Daytime George may…question the maker of these decisions; but he will not be allowed to remember its answers in the morning” (181). Sadly for George the narrative and the irrepressible force of the past (overflowing with the finality of the preterit) engulfs him and forces him to portray the ultimate role: ‘the cousin of the garbage bag’.

In other words: read up children cause it's a short, brilliant piece of queer writing.

[Photo of Ford with (obviously scantily clad) extras via Towleroad]