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Hooray! I’m finally going to be able to see Paper Heart, the new film starring Charlyne Li and Michael Cera, as it will be released in the UK on the 13th of November. The saddest thing is that I recently found out they aren’t a real couple, which is disappointing as it was lovely to think that a sweet, nerdy girl like Charlyne could date the current indie boy heartthrob.

Nicholas Hoult was the biggest star in Skins when it started, but now he has been far outdone by the success of Dev Patel in Slumdog Millionaire. However, he’s got some big projects coming up and may just overtake Dev if his performances in Clash of the Titans and A Single Man (fashion designer Tom Ford’s first film) go down well. And don’t forget he’s still only 19 years old!

Keira Knightley has already played one of literature’s best known female characters, Elizabeth Bennet, and now she’ll take on the role of Eliza Doolittle in the new film of My Fair Lady. Having shown some singing talent in The Edge of Love, presumably Keira will not mime (like Audrey Hepburn did in the original) so she could have a song or two in the charts if the film does well.

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After the complete disaster that was What Goes Up, described as ‘pointless and pretentious’ by Variety magazine, Hilary Duff hasn’t given up on trying to star in cool indie teen films, and you can see the trailer for her latest, Greta, here. It actually looks like quite a sweet and interesting film, so I’ll probably try to see it if it ever gets released.

Did you know that the classic 90s teen film Ten Things I Hate About You has been made into a TV series? It recently started on ABC Family in America and although it’s not a patch on the fantastic original, I’m quite enjoying it so far. Perhaps this is simply proof that I’ll watch anything as long as it’s aimed at teenage girls!

Once upon a time, Thora Birch was the coolest of all teen stars with her lead roles in Ghost World and American Beauty. Having not heard from her in a while, I looked her up on IMDB, only to find that her next project is a feature film remake of the CBBC series Cavegirl. Super-random! It also stars Jacob Zachar, who plays Rusty in my current fave TV show, Greek.

Trailer: An Education

I found Carey Mulligan quite annoying as Catherine in the ITV version of Northanger Abbey, but I think she might be quite good in this new film from Lone Scherfig and Nick Hornby. The storyline of an ordinary school girl becoming romantically involved with a rich older man (played by Peter Sarsgaard) is quite interesting here, as it differs from the typical cliché of a sleazy older man dating a slutty teenage girl. The film had a very positive response when shown at Sundance earlier this year, and I’m pleased that for once there is a British film I’m looking forward to seeing, because that’s quite a rare occurence.

Trailer: Whip It!

Drew Barrymore has never directed a film before, but she’s starting on a very high note by casting the wonderful Ellen Page as her heroine. Ellen plays a teenage girl who has been brought up as a pageant queen but longs for something more, and gets her chance when she joins a roller-skating team. Drew starred in Never Been Kissed, one of the best teen films around when I was the perfect age for them, and I hope that Whip It! will have the same effect on girls who are that age now.

Trailer: Paper Heart

I mentioned in my previous post that I love films which are made by and about the same person, particularly when that person is charming and talented, like Scott Prendergast or Miranda July. Charlyne Yi is another example, and I can’t wait to see her film, Paper Heart, which blurs the line between fiction and reality as a fictionalised account of her real relationship with ace young actor Michael Cera. I loved Michael in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and from what I’ve seen of Charlyne, I think I’ll love her too. They’re such an adorable couple. I haven’t watched a trailer as many times as this since The Science of Sleep, and that turned out to be an all-time favourite of mine, so I have a very good feeling about Paper Heart and hope it will get a UK release not too long after it’s out in America in August.

Review: Kabluey

With the huge success of films like Little Miss Sunshine and Juno, cute and quirky independent cinema is no longer a niche market. This has always been one of my favourite genres, so it’s nice that it’s becoming easier to see such films at the cinema, but I do sometimes wonder why certain examples get such huge praise while others, very similar and equally entertaining, go just as unnoticed as ever. Kabluey is an example of the latter. I’d be surprised if you’ve heard of it, but if cute and quirky is your cup of tea then you might just love it.

Kabluey mixes realism with surrealism – the main characters (played by Scott Prendergast, who also wrote and directed the film, and Lisa Kudrow) have ordinary, quite depressing lives, but the story is sweet and charming and there are many entertaining moments. Everything is a little bit funnier when one of the characters involved is dressed as a cute blue creature who always looks quite glum.  Look out especially for the moment which provokes the line, “Leslie, call the police, we’re being attacked… BY CHEEEESE!”

I think what’s great about Kabluey is its individuality. It does fit into a genre that’s currently popular, but it doesn’t particularly remind me of any other film I’ve seen. The fact that Scott (seen above, inside his blue costume) had complete creative control over the project means that it’s simply his vision and that doesn’t appear to be diluted by the need to please any industry bigwigs. It’s really nice to see someone left to their own devices and I think more creative types should be allowed to do this, as it has worked so well with Kabluey and also with Me and You and Everyone We Know. I’ll definitely be looking out for more of these artistic solo projects in the future.

Kabluey hasn’t actually been released in the UK, but someone has kindly risked a criminal conviction to put it online for our entertainment, here .

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Daniel Bruhl is reuniting with the director of Good Bye Lenin for a new film, Ich und Kaminski, which will be released in 2010. No other stars have been announced yet, but we know Daniel will play a character called Sebastian, a young journalist writing an article on an artist called Manuel Kaminski.

Speaking of cute foreign-language actors, Gael Garcia Bernal’s new film is out this weekend in the UK. Rudo y Cursi reunites Gael with Diego Luna and the makers of their previous film, Y Tu Mama Tambien, and the storyline involves Gael becoming a popstar!

The third in my trio of favourite foreign actors is Romain Duris, and he also has a new film out soon. Afterwards is his first film in English, but sadly it doesn’t look like my kind of film at all. After Moliére and Paris were both a little disappointing, I think I must concede that Romain will never live up to L’Auberge Espagnol.

Review: Sunshine Cleaning

For their latest project, Little Miss Sunshine’s producers, Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletaub, haven’t strayed too far from what they’re good at. Apart from the same word in their names, Sunshine Cleaning and Little Miss Sunshine also share one cast member, and the two films have a similar tone. Both focus on three generations of one family, including a cute kid and a grandad, who in both cases is played by Alan Arkin. There is even a van at the centre of both stories.

The two sisters who take the lead roles are played by Amy Adams, who I love, and Emily Blunt, who I’m not usually so keen on. Amy was as great as ever as Rose, the older sister whose life has been on a down-turn since her days of being the most popular girl at school, and even Emily created a likeable character as the younger girl, Nora, who lacks direction in her life and is still dealing with the death of her mother, who she can barely remember. Together they start a business cleaning up at crime scenes, which provides us with a few stomach churning sights, but they are balanced out with sweet and funny moments.

Just the other day I was thinking about how I hadn’t seen a really great film in ages (the last was either Milk or Nick and Norah), so I’m pleased to say that I finally found one. Anyone who enjoyed Little Miss Sunshine should definitely see it, as it fills the same function of being cheery but not meaningless. Both of the lead roles are very well performed and I now have much more admiration for Emily as an actress. My only criticism was that it could have been a bit longer as I would have liked to know a little more about what happened next in Rose’s love life.

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After writing, directing and starring in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, John Cameron Mitchell then made waves with the controversial Shortbus, but the high profile cast list for his next film suggests it’ll be a little less daring. Rabbit Hole will be out in 2010 and stars Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart and Sandra Oh.

I’ve loved him since he played Daniel Deronda for the BBC, but Hugh Dancy is fast becoming more popular in Hollywood than fellow British Hugh, Mr Grant. He was lovely in Confessions of a Shopaholic and new film Adam, in which he does a very convincing American accent, is set to be another big hit.

One of my favourite TV shows of all time is Gilmore Girls, so I’m pleased to see that both Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel have new films coming out. The girls can be seen in The Answer Man and Post-Grad respectively, and both of the films look well worth seeing, especially Answer Man which has had great reviews.

Trailers: Teen Musical Special

My favourite types of films are teen films and musicals, so as you can imagine, I always get quite excited when a new teen musical is coming out. Thanks to the success of High School Musical, they’re much more common these days. Recently, we’ve had Spectacular!, The American Mall, and Were the World Mine, and Bandslam and Fame will both be released over the next few months. I can’t wait to see them!

Fame

Bandslam