Casting Coup Week: Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

My Retro Hollmanns were an accident. One day, The Godfather: Part 2 was on one of the movie channels, and I watched it because I'd never seen it. Then I saw that Lenny was on Netflix, and I watched it because I'd never seen it. Then I saw that such was the case with The Conversation, The Towering Inferno, Claudine...really, so much of '74 was available that I had to take a look back.

One of those films was also Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.

So, in Alice, Ellen Burstyn plays Alice, whose husband Donald dies, leading her to take herself and her bratty kid on a road trip to Monterey so that she can pursue a singing career. She winds up staying in Tucson, a greasy spoon waitress trying to make enough to get back on her feet. While there, she winds up befriending tough-talking Flo and falling for rancher David. It's a character study, a romance, a comedy, all in one go. It won Oscars, inspired a hit sitcom, and solidified director Martin Scorsese's presence in the 70s film scene.

Burstyn made the film happen. After the success of The Exorcist, the studio allowed her to pick any script any wanted, with a director of her choice. She made the right choice, of course, and although Scorsese did not make it as far as the Oscars, writer Robert Getchell did, in the category of Original Screenplay. Neither he nor Supporting Actress nominee Diane Ladd won their categories, but Burstyn's triumph over Chinatown's Faye Dunaway and A Woman Under the Influence's Gena Rowlands was as unexpected as it was deserving. Ok, maybe not over Dunaway, but it's still one of the best performances of that year.

How then, could I possibly recast it? Well, it wasn't that easy. I kept considering and rejecting strong actresses like Charlize Theron and Amy Adams. I just couldn't see them filling Burstyn's shoes. Then, like the Voice of God, the name just popped into my head. Of course! And all I had to do was fill in the rest.

Here is the beginning of my post.

DONALD

Who is He: Alice's first husband, not a warm guy, not supportive, doesn't like the kid. His sudden death prompts Alice's journey to pursue a singing career.

Originally played by:

Billy Green Bush (Five Easy Pieces, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday)

My Choice: Academy Award/Golden Globe Nominee for Best Actor - Drama (Hustle & Flow), SAG Award Winner for Best Ensemble (Crash)

Terrence Howard (Ray, Red Tails)
The audience just wouldn't expect him to be a one-scene wonder, but he would establish with ease the character's distance from his family and less-than-active mind.

BEN

Who is He: A charming younger man who courts the flattered Alice for a little bit...until his wife turns up, leading Ben into a violent outburst.

Originally played by: Academy Award/Golden Globe Nominee for Best Supporting Actor (Bugsy)

Harvey Keitel (The Last Temptation of Christ, The Bad Lieutenant)

My Choice: SAG Award Nominee for Best Ensemble (The Hurt Locker)

Anthony Mackie (Night Catches Us, Real Steel)
Yeah, he's got the charm Ben would need to sell us and Alice on...himself. And Mackie, too, is a very fine actor who could play that sudden shift uncomfortably, believably.

VERA

Who is She: A waitress at Mel's, noted for her odd quiet, her emotional fragility, and those pigtails.

Originally played by: Academy Award Nominee for Best Original Screenplay (And Justice For All)

Valerie Curtin (All the President's Men, Down and Out in Beverly Hills)

My Choice: SAG Award Nominee for Best Ensemble (Bobby)

Joy Bryant (Antwone Fisher, Baadasssss!)

MEL

Who is He: The chef and owner of Mel's, a roadside greasy spoon. Mel keeps the oddest people on staff, but he appreciates them as one big family. He really does love them, even as he argues with them.

Originally played by:

Vic Tayback (Loverboy, All Dogs Go to Heaven)

My Choice:

Terry Crews (The Expendables, Bridesmaids)
Very underrated comic actor. 

DAVID

Who is He: A rancher frequenting Mel's diner who takes a shine to Alice. A warm, supportive presence who's also not afraid to help her with her shortcomings.

Originally played by: Academy Award Nominee for Best Song Score (Songwriter), Golden Globe Winner for Best Actor - Musical/Comedy (A Star is Born)

Kris Kristofferson (Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Blade)

My Choice: SAG Award Nominee for Best Ensemble (American Gangster)

Idris Elba (Prom Night, Thor)
Earthy, sexy, masculine -- such is the way of Elba, who can play big-hearted just as well as he can play authoritative.

FLO

Who is She: A tough-talking waitress with a foul mouth and an open heart. Winds up becoming Alice's great friend.

Originally played by: Academy Award/Golden Globe Nominee for Best Supporting Actress (Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Wild at Heart, Rambling Rose), BAFTA Award Winner for Best Supporting Actress (Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore)

Diane Ladd (Chinatown, Christmas Vacation)

My Choice: SAG Award Nominee for Best Ensemble (Precious)

Sherri Shepherd (Beauty Shop, One for the Money)
Handy with the one-liners, her comic timing is always pitch-perfect. She stole One for the Money, and her scenes on "30 Rock" are among the best. 

ALICE HYATT

Who is She: Our heroine! A widowed mum whose dream of a singing career is delayed by work and romance. Occasionally self-pitying, mule-headed, temperamental, and much too indulgent of her son, Alice is imperfect -- but who isn't? She's also honest, hard-working, passionate, protective, funny, resilient.

Originally played by: Hollmann Award Nominee for Best Actress (Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore), Academy Award/BAFTA Award Winner for Best Actress (Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore), Golden Globe Winner for Best Actress - Musical/Comedy (Same Time, Next Year), SAG Award Nominee for Best Actress (Requiem for a Dream) and Best Ensemble (How to Make an American Quilt)

Ellen Burstyn (The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, The Mighty Macs)

My Choice:

Kimberly Elise (John Q, The Manchurian Candidate)
An actress who has showed us time and again that she can play all sides of a woman and still have us rooting for her. Also, an actress who should be getting more lead roles than she's offered.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Best Actress: Kimberly Elise

Best Supporting Actor: Idris Elba, Terry Crews, Anthony Mackie

Best Supporting Actress: Sherri Shepherd

Casting Coup Month: Airport

NOMINATIONS

Best Picture

Best Supporting Actress - Helen Hayes (WON)

Best Supporting Actress - Maureen Stapleton

Best Adapted Screenplay - George Seaton

Best Cinematography - Ernest Laszlo

Best Film Editing - Stuart Gilmore

Best Scoring: Original Music - Alfred Newman

Best Costume Design - Edith Head

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration - Alexander Golitzen, E. Preston Ames, Jack D. Moore, Mickey S. Michaels

Best Sound - Ronald Pierce, David Moriarty

You've seen my thoughts and feelings on Airport. Let's get right to the Casting Coup madness!

ON THE GROUND

CINDY BAKERSFELD

Who is She: Mel's wife, a woman climbing the ranks of Chicago society without her husband. Realizing their marriage was dead long ago -- and citing the airport as one of the problems -- Cindy has started seeing other people. Because he chooses the airport over another society to-do tonight, Cindy goes to Lincoln personally to have it out with him one last time.

Originally played by:

Dana Wynter (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Something of Value)

My Choice: Indie Spirit Nominee for Best Actress (Woman Thou Art Loosed)

Kimberly Elise (Diary of a Mad Black Woman, For Colored Girls)
See, Cindy's not a bad person, she just has different needs that her husband is unwilling to serve. Elise can be classy like Cindy, but she can also play that complicated storyline without making her into a bitch.

INEZ GUERRERO

Who is She: The naive, struggling wife of D.O. Knowing that they're behind on the rent, the kids are living with her sister, and her husband got laid off, she's utterly confused by the appearance of a receipt for a ticket to Rome. It's not until later that she also realizes that some dynamite is missing...and becomes lost and horrified when she puts the two together.

Originally played by: Academy Award/BAFTA Award Winner for Best Supporting Actress (Reds), Golden Globe Winner for Best Supporting Actress (Airport)

Maureen Stapleton (Lonelyhearts, Interiors)

My Choice: Academy Award/Hollmann Award Nominee for Best Actress (Frozen River) and Best Supporting Actress (The Fighter), Golden Globe/SAG Award Winner for Best Supporting Actress (The Fighter), Indie Spirit Winner for Best Actress (Frozen River)

Melissa Leo (The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Everybody's Fine)
Strangely enough, the Guerrero's are neither Spanish nor Italian. What the what? So yeah, I went to Leo when it came time for a working-class role, but for a different reason. See, we rarely get to see Leo in a weakened state, though we see her vulnerable. This would be a change-up for her, allowing her to play a woman who nothing but vulnerability. And she'd be great.

TANYA LIVINGSTON

Who is She: Public relations agent for Trans America (Trans Global in the film). Tanya is an efficient woman who takes her career very seriously. Divorced with a daughter, Tanya is strong and capable enough, but there is one man whose company she enjoys -- Mel Bakersfeld.

Originally played by: BAFTA Award Nominee for Best Foreign Actress (Breathless), Golden Globe Nominee for Best Actress in a Drama (Lilith)

Jean Seberg (The Mouse That Roared, Paint Your Wagon)

My Choice: Academy Award/BAFTA Award Winner for Best Supporting Actress (Michael Clayton), Golden Globe Nominee for Best Actress in a Drama (The Deep End) and Best Supporting Actress (Michael Clayton), Indie Spirit Nominee for Best Actress (The Deep End), SAG Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actress (Michael Clayton) and Best Ensemble (Adaptation, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Hollmann Award Nominee for Best Actress (I Am Love) and Best Supporting Actress (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

Tilda Swinton (The Limits of Control, We Need to Talk About Kevin)
She can be professional and buttoned-down, but she can also feel passion. It's that combination that she's been so adept at conveying in many of her roles, actually. Swinton likes to have fun, too -- doesn't Airport seem like the type of thing she'd do just 'cause?

JOE PATRONI
Who is He: The frank TWA menchanic who is charged with getting the Aereo-Mexican 707 off the main runway. Bad enough the plane got stuck in the mud, but that runway is the only thing standing between life and death for the passengers of The Golden Argosy. Patroni loves chewing on cigars and making love to his wife, reportedly at the same time. He's a guy who knows his job, and a few others', too.

Originally played by: Academy Award Winner for Best Supporting Actor (Cool Hand Luke), Golden Globe Nominee for Best Supporting Actor (Cool Hand Luke, Airport)

George Kennedy (Death on the Nile, Charade)

My Choice: Academy Award Nominee/SAG Award Winner for Best Supporting Actor (Cinderella Man), Golden Globe Winner for Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy (Barney's Version), Indie Spirit Winner for Best Actor (Sideways), SAG Award Winner for Best Ensemble (Sideways)

Paul Giamatti (Duplicity, The Last Station)
Can he play blue-collar roughness? What do you think? I think yes, obviously, and I also think he's comfortable with a cigar.

HARRY STANDISH
Who is He: Customs official. He's trained to notice the odd behavior people exhibit when they're hiding something, and the way Guerrero holds his briefcase makes Standish suspicious. Unable to check himself -- Guerrero isn't coming into the country, but leaving for Rome aboard The Golden Argosy -- Standish reports his suspicions to Tanya. Good thing, too: his niece is aboard that same flight.

Originally played by:

Lloyd Nolan (Peyton Place, Hannah and Her Sisters)

My Choice:

John Cho (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, Star Trek)
I didn't think of him as being as old as Nolan. Cho is old enough to have been with customs a while -- he's thirty-eight, you know. An underused actor, really; he's more than Harold (though he's great in those films).

IN THE AIR

D.O. GUERRERO
Who is He: A demolitions man in construction, nothing ever goes right for Guerrero. Blessed with a short temper and poor judgment, Guerrero has single-handedly left his family broke. So what is his final solution? Take out a life insurance policy on himself, then detonate a deadly bomb aboard The Golden Argosy, heading across the Atlantic for Rome. A nervous, twitchy kind of guy, Guerrero is bound to screw something up. A defensive, dangerous individual.

Originally played by: Academy Award Winner for Best Supporting Actor (Johnny Eager), BAFTA Award Nominee for Best Foreign Actor (Shane)

Van Heflin (Black Widow, 3:10 to Yuma)

My Choice: Academy Award/SAG Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actor (Fargo), Golden Globe Nominee for Best Supporting Actor (Seabiscuit), Indie Spirit Winner for Best Actor (Fargo), SAG Award Nominee for Best Ensemble (Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Seabiscuit, Bobby)

William H. Macy (Marmaduke, The Lincoln Lawyer)
Macy himself once joked about the amount of losers he has to play in films. The book described the character as tired-looking, with a sandy mustache. Refer to that picture above, please. Consider his desperation in films like Fargo and Magnolia and you'll understand where this is coming from.

CAPTAIN ANSON HARRIS
Who is He: Line captain aboard The Golden Argosy. He's flying tonight, but is in the middle of his six-month checkup, run by Captain Demerest. Harris is a nice guy, a flawless pilot, a man who refuses to put his personal moral standards on anyone else.

Originally played by:

Barry Nelson (Johnny Eager, The Shining)

My Choice:

Matthew Fox (My Boyfriend's Back, Speed Racer)
I just wanted someone who could believably be on the same level as Hamm, not be too old or too young, who I could see as a pilot. Some actors just pop into my head when I'm reading a book; this is one of them.

GWEN MEIGHEN
Who is She: An English stewardess having an affair with Captain Demerest, she now carries his child. Gwen, a level-headed young woman and first-rate stewardess, is deciding whether to adopt or abort the baby when the whole rigmarole with the bomber begins. She is genuinely in love with Vernon, but doesn't expect anything in return...due to his married state.

Originally played by: Golden Globe Nominee for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy (Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe) and Best Supporting Actress (Under the Volcano)

Jacqueline Bisset (Murder on the Orient Express, Domino)

My Choice: SAG Award Nominee for Best Ensemble (An Education)

Rosamund Pike (Made in Dagenham, Barney's Version)
A beautiful English actress who's displayed a remarkable range of class and pluck in her film roles. She's just on the brink of filmmakers and audiences in the US discovering and appreciating her talents, and putting them to good use.

MRS. ADA QUONSETT

Who is She: An elderly widow from San Diego who frequently stows away on passenger planes to visit her daughter in new York. Caught by Tanya Livingston, she commits the ultimate rebellion by slipping out from TransAm's clutches and stowing away on The Golden Argosy. Anyplace is better than a return to California! What she doesn't realize is that the empty seat she chooses to occupy is right besides Guerrero and his bomb!

Originally played by: Academy Award Winner for Best Actress (The Sin of Madelon Claudet) and Best Supporting Actress (Airport), Golden Globe Nominee for Best Actress in a Drama (Anastasia) and in a Musical/Comedy (Herbie Rides Again)

Helen Hayes (A Farewell to Arms, TV's Murder with Mirrors)

My Choice:

Betty White ("The Golden Girls", Lake Placid)
Yeah, we all saw this coming. Again, the most obvious is sometimes the best, and who would be better at playing this part than Betty White? If the First Lady of the American Theatre can handle it, I think it's good enough for the First Lady of Television.

YOUR PROTAGONISTS

MEL BAKERSFELD
Who is He: General manager of Lincoln International Airport. Bakersfeld has his hands full tonight: a snowstorm tying up air traffic and burying runways; a plane stuck in the middle of the main runway; protestors from a neighboring town demonstrating outside; a looming divorce with his wife of fifteen years; and a bomber on The Golden Argosy, piloted by his brother-in-law, Vernon Demerest. Mel is a serious man, formerly a sort of enfant terrible before a promised FAA appointment went sour. He's a logical person, but he doesn't always make the right decisions. Nevertheless, if there's someone you want in charge on a night like this, it's Mel Bakersfeld.

Originally played by: Academy Award/Golden Globe Winner for Best Actor [in a Drama] (Elmer Gantry), BAFTA Award Winner for Best Actor (Birdman of Alcatraz, Atlantic City)

Burt Lancaster (From Here to Eternity, The Rainmaker)

My Choice: Academy Award/Golden Globe Nominee for Best Actor [in a Drama] (Hotel Rwanda), BAFTA Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actor (Crash), Indie Spirit Winner for Best First Feature (Crash) and Best Supporting Actor (Things Behind the Sun), SAG Award Winner for Best Ensemble (Traffic, Crash)

Don Cheadle (TV's The Rat Pack, Iron Man 2)
The novel described a lean man, and when I thought to myself, "Hm, who's a lean actor that could believably portray a leader strong enough to handle an airport?" Automatically, my brain latched on to Don Cheadle.

CAPTAIN VERNON DEMEREST
Who is He: The womanizing captain of The Golden Argosy, though he's not flying tonight. Instead, he's checking on the performance of Captain Harris, a routine checkup for all pilots every six months.  Demerest hates his brother-in-law, Mel, especially after Mel allows insurance vendors inside the airport. Demerest is convinced such a thing encourages bombers and wouldn't you know it? Despite his blunt, sometimes hostile, manner with Mel and subordinates, Demerest is tender with Gwen...he even thinks that he may love her back. Oh, and he may be a pompous pilot, but he puts that money where his mouth is. Even people who hate him know he's the best damned pilot out there. It's Demerest who keeps a cool head and devises a plan for taking out Guerrero. Will it work?

Originally played by: Golden Globe Nominee for Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy (Who Was That Lady?)

Dean Martin (The Sons of Katie Elder, The Cannonball Run)

My Choice:

Jon Hamm (The Town, Sucker Punch)
Hamm playing a womanizer? Shocking! Mais serieuse, what I like about Hamm is his combination of the cad and the carer, as Demerest definitely is. Hell, get Jon Hamm and Matthew Fox in pilot's uniforms and you've got the female audience and half the male one (Pike in the stewardess uniform is the other half). Besides, Hamm's a pretty great actor, so the more we get of him, the better.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Best Actor: Don Cheadle, Jon Hamm

Best Supporting Actor: Paul Giamatti, William H. Macy

Best Supporting Actress: Kimberly Elise, Melissa Leo, Rosamund Pike, Tilda Swinton, Betty White

Not Just For Colored Girls

I know Rotten Tomatoes is imperfect system, but it still seems absurd to me that For Colored Girls is at a 33% "Rotten" rating. Tyler Perry turns in his most mature, subtle, courageous, beautiful work to date, and people are going to smack it with a one-star rating? Surely there's some bias and denial at work here, for I went to see For Colored Girls this evening with a Tyler Perry hater -- I mean teeth-gnashing, head-smacking HATER -- who loved what he saw. Me, I don't hate Tyler Perry, so perhaps I have a different bias, but I also loved what I saw.

For Colored Girls is, of course, based on Ntozake Shange's for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, a collection of 20 choreopoems to be performed by seven women, all identified by a color. Tyler Perry writes much of his own material for the film, but incorporates the poems sometimes powerfully, sometimes out-of-place. Tessa Thompson's "graduation nite", for example, comes out of nowhere, with no one reacting to it. It's a long monologue set beautifully to some dance exercises, but the overall feel of the scene is off; it's a recitation. Compare that to her later "abortion cycle #1": her performance is natural, unforced, beautiful. The transition between Perry's dialogue and Shange's is fluid here, whereas in "graduation nite" the leap from one to the other is alarming.

That was always going to be the challenge. Shange's masterpiece is an abstract theatre piece, relying on dance and poetry, with the Ladies sometimes interrupting each other, taking over a verse, finishing a thought. Her poems are not always direct, but they are consistently moving. Perry, known primarily for his Madea films, is generally unsubtle and inconsistent, his broad comedy usually peppered with alarmingly melodramatic treatment of serious issues (the incest/rape dialogue in Madea's Family Reunion is a perfect example of this).

That he makes it work as well as he does is impressive. This isn't faint praise either, for Perry has upped his game considerably. Most of the poems do work with the rest of the film, and exposure to such complicated material has clearly done some good. In a typical Tyler Perry film, morality is black and white, the villains twisting their wicked mustaches as the damsel in distress waits for a man to save her from her plight. In For Colored Girls, there are no such clear divisions. One need look no further than the powerhouse scene between Thandie Newton and Whoopi Goldberg for evidence. Even Janet Jackson's two-timing husband is sympathetically, almost tragically, portrayed by Omari Hardwick. Jackson is fine, too, and her performance of "sorry" is layered and heartfelt. It's too bad she and Hardwick are saddled with the weakest  and least interesting storyline.

Let it not be assumed that this is merely a good movie for Tyler Perry; it's a great movie, period. Flawed, but fantastic. Perry never loses sight of the connection and sisterhood between these women. He even remembers to bring them together, as the play so often did, in dance: the film opens with Anika Noni Rose's ballet and closes with a party. The final shot of the ladies in their "layin' on of hands" is effective, and it is not clear that everyone will be okay. The layers each actress puts into this final moment is incredible.

Indeed, if one is to commend the film for anything, it is the performances: Phylicia Rashad, Whoopi Goldberg, Thandie Newton, Kimberly Elise, Macy Gray, Anika Noni Rose and Loretta Devine are unforgettable. Rashad and Devine have several poems apiece, and they are the most natural and entertaining of the actresses to watch. Certainly, every time Devine showed up, my entire theater was overjoyed. Goldberg is unhinged, delivering her most un-Whoopi'd performance in ages. She's frightening and pitiful, but the aforementioned scene with Newton adds so much to both characters. Newton, an actress I usually cannot stand, is sexy and angry, and though she just about straddles the line between camp and believable hysteria...she maintains a balance. Gray's cameo as a back-alley abortionist is creepy and genuine; her "i used to live in the world" is one of the stand-outs. Rose is beautiful, as always, but also vulnerable as the dance teacher raped by a man she trusts. And Kimberly Elise? Astonishing. She will break your heart and uplift it.

But again, it's not perfect. The journey to the back-alley abortionist is almost silly: gamblers, junkies, drug dealers, and a pit bull all congregate outside, played to the rafters by pantomiming actors in close-up. Truly a bizarre moment. The decision to intercut a rape scene with an opera is interesting, but the staging of the latter takes away the impact of the former; it also goes on for way too long. Jackson's character is underwritten, Thompson is inconsistent (though promising), and Kerry Washington is both. The editing is sometimes too abrupt. And while I usually commend a director for holding on a performance, Jackson's "sorry" monologue goes on for about three minutes without so much as a push-in. I admit, I started zoning out in the middle of it. Where utilized, the special effects are, shall we say, unpolished. This is no small matter, as it very nearly kills "a nite with beau willie brown", arguably the most important sequence in the film.

But then I come back to the score by Aaron Zigman, the costumes by Johnetta Boone, the production design and art direction of Ina Mayhew and Roswell Hamrick, the performances by Rashad and Goldberg, Devine and Elise. I come back to it all and think, "Damn!" It may not be completely successful in its attempt to bring Ntozake Shange's work to the screen, it certainly does the play justice.

"For Colored Girls" Trailer

Sorry, I am awful at embedding things. 'Til I figure it out, do follow the link:

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810076902/video/21894591http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810076902/video/21894591

For Colored Girls May Be For Me

Since it's announcement, I've been following whatever news I could find on the film adaptation of For Colored Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. I keep silent here because I don't want to blow the proverbial load prematurely, but so much about it has me chomping at the bit. I'm familiar with the show from my days in high school theatre, and have recently re-read the original play by Ntozake Shange, who also wrote the screenplay. If anyone can bring this choreo-poem to the big screen, surely it would be the original author!

Oh, sure, there was the initial thought of "uh-oh" at the idea of Tyler Perry directing...but then I realized how unfair that was. I've never seen a Perry film, my only exposure to his work being the cliche-ridden trailers, his two awful and unfunny TV shows, and his performance in Star Trek. But I've never seen Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Meet the Browns, I Can Do Bad All By Myself, etc., etc., so to have a knee-jerk reaction against Perry just because the majority of the other cinephiles do is dishonest. Having decided this, I could continue on with my excitment.

Which, of course, is all about the cast. I love me some strong female performances, ever since I was in third grade and fell for Dianne Wiest in Edward Scissorhands (her performance, that is; I actually fell for Winona Ryder). To be able to see an actress-dominated film with strong roles is catnip enough, but to have those roles embodied by this legion of actresses?! What did I do to reap this reward? There's deserved Oscar Winner Whoopi Goldberg, Hollmann Award Nominee Anika Noni Rose, old favorite Loretta Devine, legendary MILF Phylicia Rashad, undervalued chanteuse Macy Gray (who was great fun in Idlewild), jaw-droppingly beautiful Kerry Washington...and, fine, there's Thandie Newton, who I've never seen deliver a good performance, and Janet Jackson, who I've never seen act. And, truth be told, I don't know who Kimberly Elise is. But look at the rest of that cast list! Amazing!

I was willing to wait until January to catch it, but when it was announced that For Colored Girls... would be released this year on November 5th? You better believe I texted my friends, e-mailed my professor (we're reading the play in her class soon), cleared my calendar! And there it was. Two months. I had to sit on this for two months, but I could do it. I could always read my copy of the play if the anticipation got to be too much, just to calm me down. I was excited, but able to keep it in check.

Then the posters came out. Lord, I want this movie now:

How excited are all y'all right now? Because I am PUMPED.