Spotlight On: Johnny Depp

He's been mentioned in a lot of my other blog posts, so now I thought that it was time to give Johnny Depp his own spotlight. He is one of my all-time favorite actors and has appeared in several of my favorite films. I just love the different types of roles that he has played. I love how he can play super serious roles, but also ones that are completely goofy. Say what you will about Johnny Depp, but one thing you could never say is that he is boring. He is an actor who, when I see his name attached to a project, makes me instantly want to go see it. He is also incredibly handsome, so that is a definite plus. Here are some of my favorite Johnny Depp films.

Nightmare on Elm Street

Depp's very first films role was in the classic Freddy Krueger film. While he is basically just playing the love interest role to the main character, he does have one of the most memorable NOES deaths...



Cry-Baby

This is a John Waters film, so naturally it is going to be over the top and cheesy as hell. But...that is why I like it I guess. Depp also looks mighty fine in that 50s bad boy look!



Edward Scissorhands

I love this movie! This was Depp's first film directed by Tim Burton, and is also one of my favorite movies. It is a sort of Beauty and the Beast type story, except here the beast has scissors for hands and is really sweet and softspoken.



Benny and Joon

This is a really cute movie where he plays a really eccentric guy who does sort of Charlie Chaplin/ Buster Keaton type routines. The scene at the park and the scene at the diner where he does the Charlie Chaplin roll dance are really cute scenes, but my favorite was always the part where he swings by Joon's window.



Ed Wood

This is another Burton/ Depp film that is also one of my personal favorites. It is about B-movie director Edward D. Wood Jr. and all of the shitty movies he made. I have never seen any of Wood's movies, but if they are anything like they are portrayed in this film, then I know that they are pretty bad.

Donnie Brasco

I don't think that I've seen this entire movie, but there is always a scene that sticks in my mind. It is the scene where Depp's character is explaining what "forget about it" means.



Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

My favorite thing about this movie is hearing Depp's inner monologue. His character is a paranoid, drugged out journalist, so everything he thinks is just twisted and funny. This is probably my favorite of Depp's not-Tim Burton films. It is just really odd and hilarious, and there aren't really any other films like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.



Sleepy Hollow

"It was a horseman, a dead one...headless!" I love Johnny Depp's portrayal of Icabod Crane. Apparently he wanted to add prosthetics to his face because Icabod is supposed to be ugly, but I am really glad that they didn't...



Blow

This is another movie where I have only seen bits and pieces when it was on TV, but I always remember the ending. The part where he gets arrested and can't pick up his daughter always makes me sad. Another really good scene is when he is making the recording for his father.



Pirates of the Caribbean

You don't see too many people getting Oscar nominations for playing pirates. I love Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow! I remember that I was so excited to see this movie when I was 13 that I read the novilization of the movie, and showed up to the theatre while the previous showing was still playing. And I wasn't disappointed! (With the first one anyway...)



Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Although noone will ever been Gene Wilder's portrayal of Willy Wonka, I still think that this one is worth mentioning. This is my least favorite of all the Depp/ Burton films, but I do think that its still a fun movie that has its good parts here and there.



Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

I love musicals and I love gore, so when you mix them up and add Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter you know I'm gonna love it! While he didn't do his own singing in Cry-Baby, he does do his own singing here, and I must say that he's pretty good!



Public Enemies

While this film wasn't my favorite as a whole, I did love Depp's performance as John Dillinger. My favorite scenes were the ones with him and Marion Cotillard.



Alice in Wonderland

It came as no surprise to me (or to anyone else I'd imagine) when I read that Depp was cast as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. He was the obvious choice really...

Upcoming:
He has two movies coming out within a year that I am really excited about. The first is The Rum Diary, which is another film version of a Hunter S. Thompson novel. The one that I am REALLY excited for, however, is Dark Shadows. It is directed by Tim Burton, and Depp plays a vampire! It also has greatest cast. Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, and more! It is going to be awesome!

Just Finished Reading: (catch-up edition)

The internet here wasn't working for a few weeks, which totally sucked. Thank the lord, however, because it magically started working again today. In the time that the internet has been broken I have read three different books. Instead of writing three separate blog posts about each different book, I have decided to combine them all into one big one, so here we go...

Pride and Prejudice

This is my second Austen book that I have read, but unlike Emma, I already knew pretty much everything that was going to happen. I have seen both the 1940 and the 2007 film versions of this novel, and really liked both of them. The book was definitely worth the read, however. I never thought that I would be a Jane Austen fan, but reading this and Emma really make me want to read her other novels.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

I actually bought this book for my little sisters for Christmas, but neither of them have read it yet. I decided to have a crack at it because its a book that I've always wanted to read. I ended up reading it all in one day (which is something that I never do.) What I love about this particular book is that it has really cool illustrations by Camille Rose Garcia. Every single one of her illustrations in the book is just awesome.

Enchantment: The Life of Audrey Hepburn

I've actually had this book since I was in high school, but never read it until now. It was a really interesting read, and it was cool reading about how she lived through a war and how she got started in show business. The entire time I was reading this it made me really want to watch Roman Holiday, Sabrina, and Breakfast at Tiffany's (because those are the movies of hers that I own...) and made me really want to rent The Children's Hour. One thing that did kind of bug me was that the author seemed to go on tangents about other actors, like Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly. I really like them, but I'm reading this to learn about Audrey, not them.

Spotlight On: Helena Bonham Carter

This week's spotlight is on one of my favorite actresses, Miss Helena Bonham Carter. She is both extremely talented and beautiful, and I love the fact that she can play both an English Rose and an insane person. I haven't come close to seeing her entire filmography, but these are some of my favorite performances from what films of hers I have seen.

Room With A View

Helena's portrayal of Lucy Honeychurch in this film was one of her earliest film roles as well as her first starring role. She plays a young girl who is engaged to marry a rich man, even though she is in love with another. (Yet another Heathcliff/ Cathy/ Edgar love triangle.) I first saw this movie about a year ago and I almost didn't recognize Helena, she is so young in this film. This is the first of her many English Rose roles, and definitely one of her best.




Frankenstein

I love the story of Frankenstein, so I was really pleased to see that Helena portrayed Elizabeth in the 1994 film version. They do something really interesting in this adaption, and that is that instead of Victor making a bride for the monster, he reanimates Elizabeth after the monster kills her. Thats not at all how it happens in the novel, but I still thought that it was a neat choice. And I love how Helena still looks really pretty without hair and covered in stitches. You can find a clip from the film HERE

Fight Club

I love love love her in this movie! She just plays this totally crazy, disfuntional, messed up woman, and she is absolutely amazing! I honestly can't see anyone else playing Marla Singer. I mean when she walks on screen and says "this is cancer, right?" she just hooks you!



Planet of the Apes

I just love her in this movie because she is in full ape make-up, so for the longest time I had no idea that it was her. She plays the ape that sympathizes with the humans and tries to help them out. This is also the first movie she did with Tim Burton

Big Fish

No matter what accent she is speaking with, she always sounds so charming and refined. In this film she has a southern accent, which she pulls of beautifully. I love her so much in this movie because she plays both a young pretty girl and an old witch that shows you your future. It is just further proof of her versatility.



Conversations with Other Women

I randomly chose this movie to watch one day when I was scrolling through the different choices on Netflix movie viewer. At first I just thought that it was just a cute movie, but then I found myself watching it whenever I was bored. Now I own this movie. It is just filled with great dialogue spoken by both Helena and her costar Aaron Eckhart, who she has great chemistry with. I thought that the split screen thing would get annoying after a while, but I guess I got used to it.




Harry Potter

I've never been a big Harry Potter fan, but I love Helena as Bellatrix Lestrange. I have only read the first three books, so I have no idea if she is anything like the character in the book, but I just love it when Helena gets to be batshit crazy.




Sweeney Todd

Helena gets a chance to sing in this movie, where she plays Mrs. Lovett, the pie-maker who makes meat pies out of the people that Sweeney Todd kills. She doesn't have the best voice in the world, but she does do a decent job. She sings in my two favorite songs in the movie, and here is one of them. (The other one is Little Priest.)




Alice in Wonderland

Her performance of The Red Queen was a bit over-the-top, but I think that it suit the movie perfectly. It makes me smile everytime I watch the part where she yells, "IDIOT!"

The King's Speech

It came as no surprise to me when I read that Helena Bonham Carter recieved an Oscar nomination for her supporting role in this film. This is the kind of role that she is perfect at. I loved her in the scene when she goes to Geoffrey Rush's office for the first time.

Upcoming Projects: She is going to be in the last installment of the Harry Potter series which comes out sometime this year, and she is going to be in another Tim Burton film titled Dark Shadows with Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Eva Green.

Spotlight On: Colleen Atwood

Somewhat related to last weeks spotlight, this week's spotlight is on costume designer Colleen Atwood. She has worked on several movies with Tim Burton as well as many other films. She has been nominated for nine Oscars and has won two. I am hoping that she will win her third on Sunday because her costumes for Alice in Wonderland were so much better than the costumes in the other nominated film. I am about as far as it gets from a fashion expert, but here are some of my favorite costumes that she has designed.

Edward Scissorhands

Colleen does a great job in Edward Scissorhands making costumes for both the dark, gothic looking title character and the pastel-clad inhabitants of the little suburb. I just love the look of Edward's costume. There is just so much detail and I'm really curious about whether he can take it off or not. He wears it throughout the whole movie, even under his normal clothes, so I'm wondering if his costume is actually a part of him.

Ed Wood

In Ed Wood she had to create costumes for characters that were actual people, including director Ed Wood and Vampira.

Little Women

Period costumes are always really cool in movies, and these are two of my favorite costumes in Little Women. my favorite is probably the one that Winona is wearing. Its a pretty simple dress, but I like the black lines going up the front.

Mars Attacks

Mars Attacks is a movie thats not necessarily well-known for its costumes, but my favorite costume in the movie is the one for the Martian girl.

Sleepy Hollow

I love everything that Katrina Van Tassel wears in Sleepy Hollow! All the costumes that Colleen made for her are gorgeous!

Chicago

Chicago is the movie that Atwood got her first Oscar win for, and it was well-deserved. I adore the outfit that Catherine Zeta-Jones wears to court, and all of the sparkly costumes for the musical numbers are amazing!

Big Fish

Wow, all of the movies that she does with Tim Burton have the most amazing costumes! All of Alison Lohman's costumes look gorgeous on her, but my favorites are the costumes for the people from the circus.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

All the costumes in this movie are really cool, but Emily Browning's are my favorites.

Memoirs of a Geisha

This is the movie that got Colleen Atwood her second Oscar. There are tons and tons of absolutely gorgeous kimonos in this movie. Visually speaking, I don't think that this movie would have been nearly as beautiful without Atwood's amazing costumes.

Sweeney Todd

Lots of black and white stripes, with the ocassionaly pops of colors like blues and reds, these costumes are very Tim Burton-esque. I was actually really disappointed when she didn't win for Best Costume Design for this movie because I think that she did a fantastic job.

Nine

This movie wasn't my favorite, but I did like the costumes. My favorite has to be the costume that Kate Hudson wears for her musical number.

Alice in Wonderland

If Colleen Atwood doesn't win Best Costume Design on Sunday I will be pissed! Every single costume in this movie looked fantastic and fit the character perfectly!