Tuesday, October 04, 2016

Grace Becomes the Dancer

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Wanna hear something shocking come out of my mouth? Or fingers, anyway. Here goes: Julianne Moore was actually worse that Chloe Grace Moretz in the remake of Carrie. Y'all know how I feel about these two actresses. It's Day (the bright red goddess daylight of Julianne) and Night (the dark stormy nightmare winds of Chloe), and yet it's true, a fact, indisputable. Even more problematic than either of them though was the film-making of Carrie, which had no idea what it wanted to be. (Sorry, Kimberly Pierce, but you messed up.) 

Anyway that's my long way to getting around to not blaming Carrie on Chloe, who y'all know I have had my problems with in the past. And Carrie sort of marked a turning point, even - it was around the same time that she was being very funny on 30 Rock. I began to see some light at the end of the dark, dark tunnel. Hell she didn't even bug me in Clouds of Sils Maria, even though she seemed to grate on most other people as the weak link. (That said I'm certainly not saying she was better than Binoche or Stewart - let's not go nuts.)

Which leads us to yesterday's news that Chloe is slated to be the lead opposite Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton in A Bigger Splash director Luca Guadagnino's remake of Dario Argento's stylistic masterpiece of Italian giallo, the 1977 classic Suspiria. Suspiria, as anyone who's been on this site for longer than five seconds knows, is one of my favorites. I watch it at least once a year and I find something new to luxuriate in or laugh along with every damn time. And I've been following the news of a remake for over a decade - you might recall it came very close to being remade with David Gordon Green directing Isabelles Huppert & Fuhrman and few years back.

Point being... I am not going to freak out about this. I am willing to give Luca, and yes Chloe, a chance. Chloe is better cast for this role than she was for Carrie, at least - this girl should be confident enough to annoy and disrupt the closed off world she pirouettes into, and Chloe lacks no confidence that's for sure. But I'm more confident with Luca and his choices - he hasn't steered me wrong yet. We'll see how Call Me By Your Name, his gay romp with Armie Hammer, turns out, and we'll keep our eyes trained on this one. Emphatically, no doubt. So... thoughts? Anybody?
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2 comments:

Aquinas1220 said...

As much as I love the original Carrie (LOVE both Sissy S and Piper L in that), no one has cast Carrie correctly. I believe in the novel she was called fat and 'bovine', something no cinematic Carrie has attempted

pony said...

I think we should just be happy and thankful that Luca G. is working steadily, even if what he's making is an unnecessary remake. And hey, he's teaming with Tilda yet again, so that's great! And she's playing a witch (I think), and the last time she did that in that Narnia movie she knocked it out of the fucking park, so they can count me in for the *sigh* remake of Suspiria... having said that, I disagree about Chloe. I did like her in 30 Rock and Sils Maria, and didn't mind her too much in a couple of other things, but she was awful in Carrie. She was all twitches and silly faces and all around terrible, and also badly miscast for everything you said. Let's hope she's a right fit for this, and it turns out to be a very good movie we don't have to suffer through.