Is It Too Soon For The Wackness?

I guess it was inevitable after Interpol's second album tanked that late-80's postpunk recurrence was fated to be as short-lived as Ian Curtis. But how the hell did we reach 1994 in our retro cycle so quickly? The Wackness (trailer after the jump), the indie feature directed by Jonathan Levine, opens this weekend, revisiting the broiling New York City summer that you might not have before realized was so zeitgeisty. The film's being cited as much for its splenetic anti-Giuliani politics as for its remember-when hip hop soundtrack. Our hero Luke Shapiro (think a smarter version of Telly from the Larry Clark film Kids) is a virginal high school drug dealer who runs a mini-cartel of Jamaican weed out of an Italian shaved ice cart. Cosmopolitan! But his skanking around town with Ben Kingsley, a fiending Jewish psychotherapist dressed like Kramer, is about to be interrupted by broken windows law enforcement. Where were you standing when Newt Gingrich took over Congress? More »

Mary-Kate Olsen Vs. Spencer Pratt: The Backstory Behind Their War Of Words

Right on the heels of Mary-Kate Olsen’s passive aggressive jabs at ex-classmate and David Letterman punching bag Spencer Pratt last night, the professional Hollywood sleazeball has promptly retaliated by releasing a few downright cruel and unoriginal insults to Us today. As Pratt tells the weekly: More »

Mary-Kate Olsen Joins David Letterman In Taking Down Spencer Pratt One 'Oily' Insult At A Time

Mary-Kate Olsen is en fuego these days. First she proved that she’s able to smile without looking like Renee Zellweger, then her Wackness co-star Ben Kingsley announced she is quite the siren when it comes to on-screen kissing skills, and now she’s teamed up with David Letterman to slowly and swiftly decapitate Hills villain Spencer Pratt. On Dave’s couch to plug her film, MKO's stoner voice waxed rhapsodically about her hippiefest of a birthday celebration at Bonaroo, and what it was like to, as Dave put it, “kiss a really old guy.” But things turned far more interesting after Olsen slyly inserted the robotic nobody Pratt into the conversation. And Dave couldn’t have been more pleased. Hear what MK had to reveal about going to high school with Pratt, and join us in applauding her ability to spark an insult-laden bout of commentary from Dave regarding the “wormy,” “oily” Pratt. More »

Breaking: Mary-Kate Olsen Capable Of Smiling, Making Dirty Old Men Horny

Only a week after our careful study of the Olsen Twins’ trademark Prune faces, clever little Mary-Kate Olsen pulled a fast one on us at last night’s screening for her new film The Wackness: the minx bore actual teeth for photographers, pose after forced pose. And even though it looks like putting on a smile in public is taking every last bit of effort and strength MK's tiny body can muster, the acrobatically trained twin has admittedly perfect chompers. Why she’s been holding back on us remains a mystery, but what doesn’t is where Olsen would rank on yesterday’s roundup of celebrity make-out partners. Her 64-year old Wackness co-star Ben Kingsley clued interested parties in on the talents Mary-Kate’s de-pruned grin is capable of, after the jump. More »

Your 2008 Sundance Festival Buzz-Movie Cheat Sheet

Tonight marks the beginning of yet another Sundance Film Festival; we'll be covering the proceedings from a safe distance, far from the intoxicating allure of all-night Ketel One-and-Strawberry Hot Tub parties with the juggsiest indie film execs in Park City. Like the breakout hits of Sundance past, such as Once, Little Miss Sunshine, and Hustle & Flow, all your film really needs to get the buyers to come knocking at your condo door is a good antihero (Dublin busker, hip-hop pimp), a major disease or problem to overcome (death, lack of demo CD), an engaging solution (madcap road trip, recording of demo CD), and an unconventional romantic angle thrown in for good measure (love in a piano store, falling for your ho). With that in mind, we've taken the time to break down for you this year's crop according to their fundamental, Sundanciest elements: More »

What It's Like Making Out With Mary-Kate Olsen

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