Anna Wintour, the legendary editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine for twenty years, is the most powerful and polarizing figure in fashion. Hidden behind her trademark bob and sunglasses, she has never allowed anyone to scrutinize the inner workings of her magazine. Until now. With unprecedented access, filmmaker R.J. Cutler’s new film THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE does for fashion what he did for politics in The War Room, taking the viewer inside a world they only think they know. Every August a record-breaking number of people can’t wait to get their hands on the September issue of Vogue. The 2007 issue was and remains the biggest ever, weighing over four pounds, selling thirteen million copies, and impacting the $300-billion global fashion industry more than any other single publication. An intimate, funny and surprising look at Anna Wintour and her team of larger-than-life editors as they create this must-have Bible of fashion, Cutler explores the untouchable glamour of Wintour’s Vogue to reveal the extraordinarily passionate people at its heart. He takes us behind the scenes at Fashion Week, to Europe, on shoots and reshoots, and into closed-door staff meetings, bearing witness to an arduous, entertaining, and sometimes emotionally demanding process. At the eye of this annual fashion hurricane is the two-decade relationship between Wintour and Grace Coddington, incomparable Creative Director and fashion genius. They are perfectly matched for the age-old conflict between creator and curator. Through them, we see close-up the delicate creative chemistry it takes to remain at the top of the ever-changing fashion field.

I had the immense pleasure of attending a screening of The September Issue last night. I can’t even tell you how much I enjoyed this documentary. I was completely sucked in, the moment Anna Wintour took the screen.  She is such a fascinating character, you instantly want to know more about her – know what makes her tick. R.J. Cutler’s new documentary is pure GENIUS, an hour and twenty-eight minutes of excitement!

If you saw The Devil Wears Prada – and liked it, you’re going to see The September Issue and LOVE it. We all heard that Meryl Streep’s character was based off of Anna Wintour – and it’s very interesting to watch the real Anna Wintour in all her glory. She is both scary and wonderful, and you can tell almost instantly why she is the success she is.

I absolutely loved the behind-the-scenes look into the world of Vogue. I have to be honest, I’ve never bought the September issue of Vogue, but after seeing the movie – I’m half tempted to go pick it up.  After seeing how much work goes into it, and the time an effort that goes into every single picture, I think I need to respect that and go get a copy myself!

You need to grab a bunch of your girlfriends, and go see this movie when it opens on Friday. Have I ever steered you wrong? The September Issue is an absolute joy! It was such a great movie, I enjoyed every single minute. I could have watched it for five hours. It was absolutely thrilling. Listen to me – GO SEE IT!!!

THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE is now playing in New York and will expand nationally on Friday, September 11, 2009.
Fresh off the runway, THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE opens nationwide this Friday, September 11th!!

THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE will be opening in:

• Los Angeles, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Washington, D.C.
• Boston, MA
• New Haven, CT
• Philadelphia, PA
• Chicago, IL
• Kansas City, MO
• Minneapolis, MN
• St. Louis, MO
• Atlanta, GA
• Charlotte, NC
• Dallas, TX
• Austin, TX
• Jacksonville, FL
• Denver, CO
• Portland, OR

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“Inglourious Basterds” begins in German-occupied France, where Shosanna Dreyfus(Mélanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as “The Basterds,” Raine’s squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich.

This is not my type of movie. Since I had my kids, I haven’t been able to watch any scary or gory movies. I knew going into this movie that I was going to have to close my eyes half the time. Buuut with that said, I knew that I HAD to see this, and see for myself what all the hype was about.

The first scene of the movie, in which a Nazi Colonel interrogates a war-crime suspect had me hooked. I LOVED this movie. Yes there was gore – but not as much as I thought there would be. I did close my eyes during the scalping scenes, but there were only a handful of those anyway.

I thought Inglourious Basterds was genius. I think Quentin Tarantino is genius. This movie was amazing. It’s  so wonderfully made, and wonderfully written. It’s pure Quentin Tarantino – in the sense that it moves from dramatic to violent to comical – all in a few minutes. That drove my husband completely mad – but we’ve since determined he may not be a Tarantino fan, like I am.

And let me just say – will someone give Brad Pitt an Oscar already? He (like Johnny Depp) has such a wide range of what he’s capable of, he can play an 80 year old man (Benjamin Button) in on film, and a raving – scalping lunatic in Basterds.

My one complaint is that there wasn’t enough Brad Pitt. He really was only in the movie for probably 30-40 minutes total (out of a whopping 2 1/2 hour long film).  But I’ll take what I can get, because he was awesome.

Bottom line: I loved it!! It was gory – but I was able to close my eyes for most of it. It’s not a true story – of what really happened – it’s a complete farce, really. But I like that. I like that in the end the bad guy gets it…even if that’s not how history wrote it.

Two thumbs up for Quentin Tarantino and his brilliant Inglourious Basterds!

Nora Ephron adapts Julie Powell’s autobiographical book Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen with this Columbia Pictures production starring Amy Adams as an amateur chef who decides to cook every recipe in a cookbook from acclaimed celebrity chef Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep) in order to chronicle it in a blog over the course of a year. Streep’s Devil Wears Prada co-star Stanley Tucci re-teams with the actress as Child’s husband.

I love, love, love, love, love this movie. In fact I love it so much, that yesterday I saw it in the theater for the second time. (Which rarely happens anymore).

Meryl Streep is a GENIUS! She perfectly portrays the role of Julia Child.  And I’m finding myself loving any film that Amy Adams is in. She’s great too!

There’s nothing negative I can say about this movie, and usually I can find at least one thing. I love how the movie gracefully weaves between both true stories. At the end of the movie, I found myself wanting to learn more about Julia Child.  My next book (after I finish The Thirteenth Tale) is going to be a book on Julia Child. Isn’t she just so fascinating!?

I just think this is the perfect chick-flick. It’s brilliant! Go see it!

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel star in director Mark Weber’s wry, non-linear romantic comedy about a man who falls head over heels for a woman who doesn’t believe in love. Mark (Gordon Levitt) is an aspiring architect who currently earns his living as a greeting card writer. Upon encountering his boss’ beautiful new secretary Summer (Deschanel), Mark discovers that the pair have plenty in common despite the fact that she’s seemingly out of his league; for starters, they both love The Smiths, and they’re both fans of surrealist artist Magritte. Before long Mark is smitten. All he can think about is Summer. Mark believes deeply in the concept of soul mates, and he’s finally found his. Unfortunately for Mark, Summer sees true love as the stuff of fairy tales, and isn’t looking for romance. Undaunted and undeterred by his breezy lover’s casual stance on relationships, Mark summons all of his might and courage to pursue Summer and convince her that their love is real.

I went and saw (500) Days of Summer over the weekend, and I absolutely LOVED it!  My friend and I had it narrowed down to this movie, or Katherine Heigl’s The Ugly Truth. I’m so glad we didn’t go see that one! (It’s been bashed by critics!)

It’s such a great, funny movie! I love Zooey Deschanel, and she was amazing in this movie! It’s nice to see more of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and in such a cute – hilarious movie. He’s definitely come a long way from 3rd Rock From the Sun! And when did he get so hot? (The whole movie, I couldn’t help but think he could be Heath Ledger’s twin!)

You MUST go see it! It was so great!!

“Away We Go” is a contemporary comedy directed by Academy Award winner Sam Mendes from an original screenplay by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. The movie follows the journey of an expectant couple (John Krasinski of “The Office” and Maya Rudolph of Saturday Night Live), as they travel the U.S. in search of a place to put down roots and raise a family. Rounding out the cast are Jeff Daniels, Carmen Ejogo, Jim Gaffigan, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Josh Hamilton, Allison Janney, Melanie Lynskey, Chris Messina, Catherine O’Hara, and Paul Schneider. “Away We Go” is produced and co-financed with Focus by Big Beach.

The cast is amazing. John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Jeff Daniels, Carmen Ejogo, Jim Gaffigan, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Josh Hamilton, and Allison Janney.

Away We Go was SO GREAT. I knew it would be good, but I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did.  John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph were both so brilliant, I can’t imagine anyone else pulling it off as great as they did.   The story teeters between comedy and drama, and I think it pulls it off expertly.

I didn’t know what to expect going into this movie, so there were many great surprises (including a rather shocking scene with Maggie Gyllenhaal) and many huge laughs.  I loved the movie so much I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to continue watching the couple wander throughout the country and the people they met along the way.

What I didn’t realize until the end, was that this movie was directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road).  It’s no wonder I loved it so much, he’s a genius!

You’ve gotta go see this movie, would I steer you wrong? Go tonight! Perfect date movie!!

Conceived as a marrow donor for her gravely ill sister, Anna Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin) has undergone countless surgeries and medical procedures in her short life. Though their older daughter’s life has no doubt been prolonged, the unorthodox decision of Anna’s parents has cracked the entire family’s foundation. When Anna sues her parents for emancipation, it sets off a court case that threatens to destroy the family for good.

I read this book, by Jodi Picoult about a year ago – maybe two.  When I heard they were turning it into a movie, I was totally thrilled! I loved the book, heartbreaking as it was, and couldn’t wait to see how they would portray it on the big screen!

I had two concerns.  One, how was Cameron Diaz going to pull off the heartbreaking role of the tough – almost bitchy mother? And secondly – please tell me they wouldn’t change the ending! There had been a lot of controversy surrounding the ending of the movie, and Jodi Picoult fans all over the world were begging to keep the movie as the book intended!

I can happily say that Cameron Diaz was amazing. She really was. I thought she nailed the role perfectly. In fact, I thought the whole movie was expertly cast. Everyone played their parts perfectly.

The whole movie is designed to make you cry. From beginning to end – it’s one non-stop cry fest. I actually held out crying until about three quarters in, and then I lost it. It’s one of those movies that’s almost too sad – and they’re trying too hard to make you cry – that you can’t cry.  (Does that make sense?) But almost – because I did eventually cry. And cried HARD I might add.

I’m going to put the rest of my review after the cut because it’s kind of SPOILERISH and I have something to bitch about. Click on more to continue my review. (more…)

The battle for Earth has ended but the battle for the universe has just begun. After returning to Cybertron, Starscream assumes command of the Decepticons, and has decided to return to Earth with force. The Autobots believing that peace was possible finds out that Megatron’s dead body has been stolen from the US Military by Skorpinox and revives him using his own spark. Now Megatron is back seeking revenge and with Starscream and more Decepticon reinforcements on the way, the Autobots with reinforcements of their own, may have more to deal with then meets the eye.

Let me just start out by saying that I loved the first Transformers. I thought it was smart, witty, hilarious and the special effects were amazing.  Sure, whenever the robots opened their mouth -you had to laugh, but still, I really enjoyed it!

But I didn’t enjoy the sequel as much. I thought it was funny only a few times, and in almost 3 hours – you need comedy to keep it going.  The robots were bigger – and “scarier” in this movie, and there were lots more of them.  Maybe that’s what killed it for me – just too much of everything!  The special effects really were amazing. More than once I caught my mouth open, just thinking “how in the world did they do that!”  But unfortunately, all this movie really has to offer, is special effects.

Shia Labeouf is awesome. I’m not going to say anything mean about him.  I love me some “Shala Laboof” as my kids call him. Megan Fox on the other hand, I don’t mind being mean to her! While she’s beautiful, no denying that, she can’t act to save her life.  Her lines are painfully delivered – and I almost felt bad for her. She has to be one of the worst actresses out there. At least she looks pretty!

Bottom line? I thought it was entertaining, but it was just too much.  Too loud, too many robots, too long, too many stupid one liner’s.   I’m sure it will make a ton of money, and there are plenty of people who are going to love it. But I’m just not one of them. I thought it was for the most part, pretty stupid.

But that’s just me!