I love listening to intelligent, talented, self-aware (but not self-important) actors talking about their craft and their process. One of the reasons I adore Viola Davis is that she is so fiercely intelligent and well-spoken.  Unlike athletes, whom I would prefer were never allowed to speak (well, not never but certainly not into a microphone), I find it fascinating to hear actors, the kind of people who speak for a living, talk about the things or the people that inspire them. Since it is their job to move an audience, I want to know what moves them. Actors go to the movies too. What do they feel when sitting in the dark and watching a particular performance? Do they relax and enjoy or are they critiquing? Were they moved by the same things that moved me?

Time magazine, in celebration of Oscar month, has gathered together some of the actors who gave the best performances of the year. While most of them are Oscar nominated, it is very teling that one of the included actors, who did indeed give one of the best performances of the year, is Michael Fassbender, who as we know, was NOT nominated. We also know how I feel about that slight. It would appear that TIME agrees with me.  I could go on and on about each of the actors included in this clip,  I’ll let them speak for themselves.  (I love that they included Uggie!)

Enjoy the video. Then go to the link and read the very entertaining copy. To hell with the best performance by an actor,  I just know they're going to hand George Clooney an Oscar for being the coolest guy on the planet.

By the way, the video was shot by Sebastian Kim who photographed Michael Fassbender for that incendiary cover of Interview magazine.

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Last week we showed you a first look at Take This Waltz, from indie Queen Sarah Polley, which debuted last fall at TIFF and has since traveled to a number of film fests before becoming one of the more popular films at Sundance. It stars Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams in yet another beautiful and nuanced performance. Her performance has been nominated for a Genie Award, which is Canada’s equivalent of the Oscars. It also contains what’s been described as a “career best” performance from Seth Rogan. (Apparently this is the year for those better known for comedic roles to expand their repertoires.) The script, written by the director (for her 2^nd feature), was part of the 2009 “Black List” which is a listing of the best as-yet-unproduced scripts in Hollywood for any given year.

Take This Waltz, has been described as a funny, bittersweet and heart-wrenching story about a woman struggling to choose between two different types of love within a surreal, fairy tale-like love triangle. Margot (Michelle Williams, always great) is in a loving five-year marriage with Lou (Rogen), a cookbook author with whom she shares a rickety, comfortable townhouse. On a work trip to Nova Scotia Margot meets Daniel (Luke Kirby), a handsome artist and flirt who turns out to live directly across the street from her and Lou. The more they try to stay away from each other, of course, the stronger the attraction becomes.

The supporting cast includes Sarah Silverman as Lou’s recovering alcoholic sister and Aaron Abrams as well as the city of Toronto, Polley’s hometown which she has painted with a light and airy brush full of color. Take This Waltz will get a limited release in the US starting June 29.

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New Year, lots of new movies! We’ve got some first looks and a bit of news on a slew of films coming your way in the next few months.

First up is Your Sister’s Sister which received a standing ovation at its Sundance screening this weekend. It stars Emily Blunt and Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel’s Getting Married) who reportedly replaced Rachel Weisz after she dropped out due to ‘scheduling conflicts’.

The film tells the tale of Iris (Blunt) who invites her friend Jack (Mark Duplass-one half of the directing team of the Duplass brothers) to stay at her family's island getaway after the death of his brother. At their remote cabin, Jack's drunken encounter with Hannah (DeWitt), Iris' sister, kicks off a revealing stretch of days.

Apparently, according to the video below, about 85% of the movie was improvised. The best thing about the video, is Blunt and DeWitt’s reaction to Michael Fassbender’s The Hollywood Reporter cover story.

Your Sister’s Sister, which had its world premiere at TIFF, is slated to open the Seattle International Film Festival at the end of May. No word yet on what happens after that but I think it’s a safe bet it will get a theatrical release this year.

7500 is a thriller which stars Amy Smart, Ryan Kwanten, Scout Taylor-Compton, Jerry Ferrara, Jamie Chung, Christian Serratos, Nicky Whelan, Leslie Bibb and Johnathon Schaech. The story follows an estranged married couple (Smart, Kwanten) that boards a flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo only to encounter malevolent supernatural forces on the airplane. Written by Craig Rosenberg (The Uninvited) and directed by Takashi Shimizu (Grudge 2), 7500 lands in theaters August 31 in the US.

The Oranges stars Hugh Laurie as a who guy falls for the daughter (Leighton Meester) of a family friend (Oliver Platt), making life just a bit awkward for himself and the family. Queen of the Indies, Catherine Keener plays his wife while Alison Janney plays the wife of the friend. Alia Shawkat, Adam Brody, Tim Guinnee and Boyd Holbrook round out the cast. The Oranges is directed by Julian Farino (Entourage, How to Make it in America) from a first script by Ian Helfer and Jay Reiss. No word on a release other than “2012”. It’s been in the can since late 2010, but screened at TIFF in ’11 and ATO pictures has just dropped this first still. With a cast like this I can’t imagine it won’t get a theatrical release. We’ll keep you posted.

The release of The Good Doctor which stars Orlando Bloom as physician Martin Blake and Riley Keough (who will forever be known as Elvis’ granddaughter) as his patient, was delayaed after it was originally slapped with an R rating for “some crude sexual references” by the MPAA's Classification and Rating  Administration. However, Co-producer Jonathan King and writer Julia Lebedev appealed the rating and won a reversal, so now the movie will be rated PG-13 for “thematic material, disturbing situations and some crude sexual content.” It had better be good to justify the fuss.

Dr. Martin Blake, who has spent his life looking for respect, meets an 18-year-old patient named Diane, suffering from a kidney infection, and gets a much-needed boost of self-esteem. However, when her health starts improving, Martin fears losing her, so he begins tampering with her treatment, keeping Diane sick and in the hospital right next to him.

I’m sure we’ll here more once an exact date is announced. For now, color me skeptical.

Another TIFF favorite that is sure to get a US release now that Michelle Williams has been nominated for a Genie Award (Canada’s Oscar) for her performance in Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz, described as a funny, bittersweet and heart-wrenching story about a woman struggling to choose between two different types of love. Seth Rogan, Sarah Silverman and Aaron Abrams costar.

Finally (for this post anyway), we have your first look at This is 40, which is being called the sequel to Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up. It stars Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann reprising their roles as Pete and Debbie and basically it’s a look at their lives a few years after the events from that film. Pete's music label is in trouble, consequently Debbie, with her dress shop staffed by Megan Fox andCharlyne Yi, becomes the primary breadwinner.

Melissa McCarthy has been added as the mother of a classmate of one of Pete and Debbie’s kids. Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl are not in it, but Jason Segel is back, as are Maude and Iris Apatow as Pete and Debbie’s kids.

Mann told the LA Times, “"It's the kind of stuff about marriage that you don't get to see in movies.  It's about getting older. What the hell happened? Am I making all the right choices? Is this where I'm supposed to be? Is this it?”  Married or not, everyone asks themselves those questions when they hit 40. The answers will probably be the same as  the ones we get when we look in the mirror and ask those questions, but at least in Apatow’s hands the asking will be funnier.

Universal has staked out prime awards season territory for This is 40 with a release date of December 21.

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Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier, gets a dressing down from Dame Sybil Thorndike, played by Judi Dench, in this clip from My Week with Marilyn. I can not even imagine anyone talking to Sir Larry this way, but apparently if you’re a both a Dame and an esteemed lioness of the English theater, you can get away with it. He certainly looks abashed.  Dame Sybil is offering moral support to the perpetually tardy Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams pictured above with Dougray Scott as Arthur Miller) on the set of 1957’s The Prince and the Showgirl, a film which starred and was directed by Lord Olivier.  Apparently the experience so rattled him that he didn’t direct another film until 1970 (Chekov’s The Three Sisters).

My Week with Marilyn, directed by Simon Curtis is about Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), an employee of Sir Laurence Olivier's, who documents the tense interaction between Olivier and Marilyn Monroe during production of The Prince and the Showgirl, as well as his own relationship with the star.

Enjoy the clip, the film opens Wednesday November 23 in the US and Canada and Friday the 25^th in the UK.

If there were an award for best impersonation of a dead celebrity, I'm pretty sure this year's winner would be Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn. Look at that poster! She looks amazing! 

I will say that Kate Winslet has given her quite a run for her money, channeling both Marilyn and Elizabeth Taylor for photo shoots this year. Kate is an over-achiever after all. Still, I think she gets edged out by Williams.

Williams, of course, plays Marilyn Monroe in a film about a week she spent in London filming The Prince and the Pauper with Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh). At the time, Olivier was married to Vivien Leigh (Julia Ormond),  and Monroe was married to playwright Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott). According to the film, Monroe has an affair of sorts with one of Olivier's young and naive assistants (Eddie Redmayne).

The fantastic cast also includes Emma Watson, Dominic Cooper, Toby Jones, Derek Jacobi and Judi Dench. My Week with Marilyn opens November 23 in the US and Canada and 25 November in the UK.

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