Charlyne Yi’s semi-fictional tale about her relationship with fellow actor Michael Cera, “Paper Heart,” was released to generally receptive critical appreciation, but the Time Out New York blog (critics we highly respect) harshly panned the film by saying, “your tolerance for tweeness is tested beyond the limits set by the Geneva Convention,” and also went on to say that, “Yi’s stammering shtick grates within milliseconds.” This doesn’t exactly surprise us. Yi is funny, but her small couch-potato role in “Knocked Up” was a little to much at times, plus the whole idea feels a bit too cute. Despite this TONY review, the Sundance jury awarded it with the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, further adding to the confusion as to whether this thing is a twee-disaster or not. [Tony Blog, Hyphen Blog]
Update: More importantly, and as Vulture points out, Sundance gave “Paper Heart” the Best Screenplay award when no actual screenplay existed. It was all improvised. Wah wah.
Great news for snarky, pop-culture referencing European films, Diablo Cody was chosen last Thursday to sit on the jury for the Berlin Film Festival in February. [Variety]
Remember that $4 Billion we lent to Chrysler a few weeks back, well you can rest assured it is being spent wisely. The failing automotive company has been named as an exclusive sponsor for “Terminator Salvation” as long as the film uses their models in film. Cue John Connor and the crashing K-car. [Comingsoon.net]
This was going through my mind all morning – I was certain “Heart” didn’t even HAVE a script:
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/01/sundance_jury_gives_screenwrit.html
Seems to me like throwing away an award if technicalities as large as having a script are to be ignored.
Which sort of what speaks to what i said about the Sundance Awards: They generally don’t mean anything to anyone aside from the top dramatic prize.
I saw this at Sundance and liked it. It was no Black Dynamite, but it was funny. The interviews with the real-life couples was the high point definitely.