Brookswords

Half Nelson

A few summers ago, my daughters & I went to see Half Nelson on its opening night in Los Angeles. It had opened earlier in New York, & I had learned that Ryan Gosling's performance was garnering early Oscar buzz for Best Actor. In Half Nelson, he plays a teacher, teaching about the civil rights movement--I did the same a couple of lifetimes ago at the University of Iowa, so there was no way I could ignore this film. We went, we saw, we loved it.

The very next day, we went to the  Sunset Junction Music Festival in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, next door to my own neighborhood of Echo Park.  We were having quite a good time, and as we were about to leave, we saw--or thought we saw--Ryan Gosling! Walking around with a few friends & carrying a motorcycle helmet. (Guess he got to Sunset Junction on a motor bike--safely.) We looked at each other; either we were engaged in a multiple hallucination after seeing a great movie or that was the real Ryan Gosling.

Finally one of my daughters resolved our doubts by striding up to Ryan Gosling's back, tapping him on the shoulder, then asking 'Are you Ryan Gosling?'

With my 'be nice to my daughter' gears in full force, I watched protectively as he said he was; then she said 'I saw your new movie last night & really liked it'; he smiled sweetly and thanked her, then even asked about her & her name.

It's nice when a celebrity turns out to be a nice guy.   

Lars & The Real Girl

The upcoming Ryan Gosling film, 'Lars and the Real Girl', is getting a lot of positive buzz after its debut at last month's Toronto Film Festival, and is already at 91% at Rotten Tomatoes.  It appears to be one of those risky mixtures of comedy & drama that I've written about in an earlier post.  Gosling, fresh off his Oscar nomination for 'Half Nelson', has, from what I've seen in the trailer, taken a 180% turn from from previous roles--he has a touch of Stan Laurel in him this time.  And it seems from the trailer that Emily Mortimer, a neighbor of mine here in Echo Park, also shines.

Here's part of a Canadian article about the Toronto fest.  Gosling is even dabbling in comedy in his interviews now; here he reflects on the life size doll Bianca's presence on the set of 'Lars And The Real Girl'.

As the assembled media chuckled at their stories of how the cast and crew treated Bianca with respect and reverence throughout the shoot, Gosling chided playfully: "Laugh all you want, but I challenge all of you to spend 20 minutes in Bianca's presence and not fall in love."

His bond with Bianca became so real, claimed the grinning Gosling, that he now owns one of the two Biancas used during the film - but he refused to say in what room in his house the doll resides. Gosling sheepishly acknowledged that his girlfriend, Canadian actress Rachel McAdams, isn't so thrilled about Bianca's presence.

Serious for a moment, Gosling acknowledged he fell in love with the script by Nancy Oliver, adding that he's on pins and needles waiting to see how the film is received. It goes into mainstream release on Oct. 21.

"I'm really proud of it and I'm more anxious to see what people think of it than any movie I've ever done - it's so special and there's nothing really that I can compare it to," he said.

Gosling has nothing to worry about if the positive buzz about the movie on the festival circuit is any indication.

Here is the trailer, followed by an interview with Ryan Gosling by Canadian ET.

Canada Loves Ryan Gosling

The Golden Globes and the Screen Actor's Guild awards are considered early precursors to the Oscars; the SAG nominations were announced today, and Canada was pleased.  Native Canadian Ryan Gosling's nomination for Best Actor for 'Half Nelson' was trumpeted with touching provincialism.  The photo accompanying the article, however, makes him look not at all happy about the nomination. 

The press coverage reminds me of when I lived in Iowa.  I remember headlines such as Two Iowans Die in British Plane Crash...then below it would be noted 180 Others Die. 

But don't get your hopes too high, Canada.  Though he has already won best actor for 'Half Nelson' at the Stockholm Film Festival  (remember the media madness over that?), it looks like this is Peter O'Toole's year, since he's an overwhelming sentimental favorite for the film Venus.  Oh, and the Irish newspapers were themselves deeming O'Toole's nomination as the news of the day.