Scarlett Johanssen: One to watch?

You'll be telling me that being lazy is over-rated next.

Mark is headed for a kick in the pokemon if he keeps going on like that!

thora birch (as enid, mind) = beyond rowr.

Ah, well - I wasn't an adult was I first saw it, and I ain't one now.

"One of the Best Movies of 2003!" - me, on ILX, just now

And Lost in Translation was the most disappointing movie I've seen this year.

(xp) Chaki, are you referring to the NYT Magazine interview? She doesn't seem like a dolt so much as she seems like she's 18. Which she is. (Christ, she was born in 1984!)

http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/gallery/1125647/LostinTranslation-photo_18.jpg

http://www.nbc.com/Golden_Globes/gallery/images/live_30.jpg

To be fair to the photographer, I expect there were a few other flashes than theirs going.

I just think her hair look horrid.

Do you mean these Scorpions?

http://www.metalgospel.com/Reviews/MGInquisition/scorpions2.jpg

She is sex. But pictures aren't enough, the voice is key here.

She did a rather appealing cover version of 'Summertime' with that voice.
http://www.mediamax.com/snuh/Hosted/scarlett_johansson-summertime.mp3
(Not sure how long link will last, stolen from blog at http://snuh.livejournal.com/183002.html )

seriously, she's better than Portman or Bana in The Boleyn Bunch

well whoop ti do

no, not at all.

that boleyn movie is horrible and she is the worst of the three, well, tied with bana, who seems to be trying to keep his head down and speak as little as possible.

All I can say is, 'nice rack'. There's something about her little trumpet nose and piglet eyes that I find off-putting.

sorry, dudes

canada wins

take her, dudes

WE WILL OK??

He was previously engaged to Alanis Morissette.

o_O

hell ya

maybe now with this and the album she'll finally stop acting

She already has!

It is indeed sad news.

Meanwhile:
http://www.thequietus.com/2008/05/scarlett-johannson-anywhere-i-lay-my-head-review/

That is:

Scarlett Johannson
Anywhere I Lay My Head
ATCO/RHINO

By Chris Roberts

It’s the 2007 Grammy Awards: I’m watching this nauseating crap on telly because I’m being paid to write a biography of Scarlett Johansson and, for a brief period, have to document the actress’ every profound public utterance. Scarlett, though infinitely less skint than me, also has to sell her soul sometimes, and is presenting an award to The Dixie Chicks, alongside Don Henley. The pair begin their scripted banter. “So”, says Don, “you’re making your first record, Scarlett?” “Yes”, replies Scarlett, peering for the autocue, “you got any advice for me, Don?” Don pauses and replies, “No.”

There is an awful moment where the audience are supposed to laugh and, quite understandably, don’t. Scarlett is visibly confused, embarrassed. You can see her young brain whirring, saying: what the fuck am I doing here with all these old farts? Why was I talked into it? I comprehend that I am not just A-list tits-and-ass but also a signifier of “alternative cool” among a certain demographic, but this is not helping. Also, when you think about it, I have made, in my career, about five completely shit films for every good one. What I really need to do is chuck away the album of standard lounge covers of Tom Waits songs I’ve just done, and start afresh with some fashionably non-mainstream types, the kind of names to whom music journalists on both sides of the Atlantic give blanket approval. Yes, that’s it.

At least she may have been thinking that. Or she may have simply been thinking: Don Henley is boring me, I need to ditch this sucker and go snog Justin Timberlake in his new video to the point where Cameron Diaz gets hacked off with me. Then, cheque cashed, I’ll counter that and redeem my cred by joining The Jesus And Mary Chain onstage, maybe squeeze in a Dylan video.

So Scarlett Sings Tom Waits - as it was once to be called - is now a borderline hip piece of indie art-rock called Anywhere I Lay My Head. Scarlett has a useful contacts book. This was produced in Louisiana by David Andrew Sitek of TV On The Radio, who brought in a fleet of musos. Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner guests, as does Celebration’s Sean Antanaitis. Sitek says he shot for something akin to Debbie Harry singing for This Mortal Coil. It’s also been tagged as Nico backed by The Flaming Lips or Marianne Faithfull fronting My Bloody Valentine. These descriptions err on the side of generosity but do, in fairness, give you an (idealised) entry point. There is also the small matter that backing vocals on two tracks (the interesting, grower single ‘Falling Down’ and the excellent, dramatic ‘Fannin’ Street’) are provided by David Bowie, who, in my mediocre book, Scarlett named as her childhood idol. Well, him and David Hasselhoff.

Sitek’s music throughout is pretty good, always inventive, striving to avoid cliché, not quite able to shake off its debt to the pioneers of shoe-gazing and heyday 4AD (Ivo sequenced it). There is a clear, commendable attempt to re-imagine the Waits songs (’I Wish I Was In New Orleans’ with grit, ‘I Don’t Want To Grow Up’ as Caucasian electro-disco, ‘Who Are You?’ with pathos) rather than simply let the songs’ own merits do the heavy lifting. Obviously the lyrics are great and the tunes are either brilliant or non-existent: that’s Waits. This is a tasteful homage, not lapsing into laziness. Sitek’s done a fine job and will from now on doubtless be the go-to guy for starlets wishing to show their dark side. Let’s remember, 23-year-old Scarlett, who reads Dostoevsky on her coffee breaks, could have done a Lohan and extended (or killed) her brand by popping out a puddle-shallow r&b confection. Only Juliette Lewis has been - in context - this bold. Keanu Reeves, Johnny Depp, Russell Crowe, Minnie Driver - none of them has made music this interesting.

The flaw is: what does Scarlett actually bring to it? She’s the masthead, the genius marketing stroke, the commercial synergy, but her vocals are - here’s the thing - poor. At best they’re blank, robotic: which at least allows music journalists a perfect blank canvas on which to scratch those desired Nico/Debbie references. Sitek works around her, despite her, he hides her amid waves of churning sound. At worst, she sings with comical, flat, stoned, ineptitude. If I hadn’t just emailed someone to say she sings “like a buffalo with strep throat might sing, were it giving birth to triplets in a sandstorm”, I would use that line again here. On the other hand, if she could whistle through a million octaves in her sleep like Mariah, wouldn’t that just suck? Wouldn’t that be more irritating than her plainly being a bit rubbish? Loads of good-looking people make splendid pop stars without being able to sing. Bowie describes her voice as “mystical and twice cool”, but then he always had a way with words.

What’s wrong with Scarlett’s Waits-lifting isn’t that a movie star has made a record. It goes without saying really: Richard Harris, with ‘MacArthur Park’, made the greatest record of all time. Renaissance men and women and egos which flex themselves are good things, even if the more predictable, jealous elements of the media generally scent easy blood. If nobody ever did anything pretentious, nobody would surprise us, and everything would be just OK, just middling, neither grand folly or coup de theatre. If Scarlett wants to show us her paintings next, fine, bring them on. In fact if Megan Fox or Natalie Portman want to exhibit their sculptures, great, I love comedy. There will be plenty worse albums than this made this year, and plenty that are sonically less challenging, and many of them will be raved about. No, all that’s wrong with it is that she’s the weak link, which is a pity, no more, no less. To balance that out, if she wasn’t there to front the videos, it’s very unlikely that that panting creep Salman Rushdie would have wanted to lick David Sitek’s ear, and therefore nobody would be watching, or, by extension, listening. The sheer fascination value alone of this peculiar album ensures that, for Scarlett, tomorrow is another day.

Splendid piece! Having heard virtually no Waits and seen/heard barely any Johanssen - liked Ghost World, hated Lost In Translation, meh re Pearl Earring - I'm still quite intrigued by the prospect of this album.

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.cinematical.com/media/2008/08/scarjo-invite.jpg

http://www.scarlettjohansson.com

O_o

what

I think the Tom Waits thing is one of my favourite albums of the year so far.

and largely due to her singing which I really like, particularly on the title song.

Maybe it's a threesome with Tom Waits.

OMG Alba, you went to the trouble to shop the extra pair o' lips in?! o_O

Actually, I didn't, it was some blog.

Now there's a disclaimer, which wasn't there yesterday, saying "threesome refers to the moviegoing date experience of 3 people".

I can almost hear the sound of thousands of once-erect penises dropping down on keyboards.

Well, that's Finland.

You don't have erect penises and keyboards in the UK?

I've got $5 that says that's already been Excelsior-ized

($5 refers to a rhetorical device, not an actual monetary payment)

excelsior-ized and savannah smiles claims her rhetorical device

i know IKR, i rly need to hear the full waits album

her voice is so pretty on Falling Down, it sounds 70s, kind of janis joplin-y in a weird way

i just love that song, it really gets me

http://www.theonion.com/articles/scarlett-johansson-immediately-rejects-heartwarmin,31748/

"Yes, yes we all know about Thora Birch (what an actress she can wear glasses) but wither Scarlett Johanssen?"

rip thora birch

this chick is so annoying

she seems to be in every film

what is that all about

Has she been in a single wide-release movie this year?

Curious about the Jonathan Glazer pic.

yes some might find her to be the bomb but the truth is I also find her very very very annoying

She has a short neck and a hunchback.
― Melissa W, Monday, November 19, 2001 1:00 AM (11 years ago)

what an unpleasant observation

Melissa W was John Simon's old handle; mostly lurked.

Still don't understand SJ's sex goddess status... Haven't seen her on Broadway, but doing Miller and Williams plays indicates at least some ambition unusual in her generation.

she seems to be in every film

I think you're thinking of Amy Adams. Take a fucking vacation, already!

she is so hot and so terrible, and I don't even have any reason to think she's a bad person or anything, she's just the worst actress

Her Russian accent is breathtaking.

since she's said she believes Woody Allen, the awards season 'discussion' around Marriage Story is gonna be DELIGHTFUL

I guess she turned out to be 'one to watch' after all.

Colin Jost, really? 20 years I wait around and I have to read that?

She certainly has a type.