This week at the theater, Channing Tatum goes home for his high school reunion in 10 Years, Philip Seymour Hoffman entrances lost soul Joaquin Phoenix in Paul Thomas Anderson's latest drama The Master, and Josh Radnor captures the interest of mature coed Elizabeth Olsen in Liberal Arts. Take a look through pictures of these starkly different new releases and tell us what you'll be seeing this weekend!
Josh Radnor's second directorial effort, Liberal Arts, is out in theaters today. We caught up with the actor, writer, and moviemaker recently to get the scoop on where he found inspiration for the picture and how he knew he'd found the perfect leading lady in Elizabeth Olsen. Plus, Josh dished about bringing back his character Ted Mosby to the small screen when How I Met Your Mother returns to CBS on Sept. 24. Watch Josh fill us in on what we can expect after last season's big cliffhanger ending — and what does he have to say about possibly doing a ninth HIMYM season?
Tired of watching movie trailers over and over so you can try to catch a couple of song lyrics and see if Google knows what you're listening to? I know the feeling. Today is your lucky day, 'cause I did all that drudge work for you! Watch the latest trailers for movies, including Trouble With the Curve, Liberal Arts, and Cloud Atlas, and let us know which tracks (conveniently located on each slide) you'll be adding to your playlist!
Photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures, The Weinstein Company, and IFC
Many actors would be content with a starring role on one of TV's most popular sitcoms, but not How I Met Your Mother's Josh Radnor. After the release of his directorial debut, HappyThankYouMorePlease, Radnor has another project he wrote, directed, and stars in. In Liberal Arts, he plays a disenchanted college admissions counselor who travels back to his alma mater and encounters a lively and charming sophomore (Elizabeth Olsen) who inspires him. In turn, he responds by telling her, in so many words, that her liberal arts degree will prepare her for a life of disappointment.
As impressive as it is that Radnor is blazing a trail for himself in the film industry, this trailer feels like something we've seen before (Woody Allen has done the whole semidepressive leading male romancing a young woman story to death). If anything, I'm excited to see the excellent Richard Jenkins and Allison Janney as Radnor's former professors. Check out Liberal Arts when it opens Sept. 14, and take a peek at the trailer when you read more.
Josh Radnor has taken another turn as writer and director for his latest film to hit the Sundance Film Festival, Liberal Arts. Hear how his all-star cast, which includes Elizabeth Olsen and Zac Efron, came to be in our chat from Park City, Utah!
Josh Radnor's character on How I Met Your Mother may not have his main love interest yet, but in the movies, Radnor is lining them up. After the recent release of his directorial debut, HappyThankYouMorePlease, which Radnor wrote and starred in, too, he has just sealed a deal for his next project, a film called Liberal Arts, which he also wrote and will direct and appear in. The movie is about a 35-year-old professor (Radnor) who falls for one of his 19-year-old students, who will be played by Elizabeth Olsen (sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley). The movie will shoot while How I Met Your Mother is on hiatus.
Five American women's colleges are taking their admissions presentations overseas — to the Middle East. School officials have been speaking with young women in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.
The appeal to Middle Eastern women is paradoxically natural and awkward. Single-sex education is the norm in the Middle East; however, liberal ideas espoused on traditionally free-thinking American female institutions do not find a home in the conservative region.
Middle Eastern women attending a "Sister" say they enjoy the invigorating political climate on campus. But, one thing did shock many at first — open displays of homosexual affection. One student said:
At the beginning, there were times when I’d have to close my eyes and say, "O.K., I’m at Mount Holyoke, and it’s different." But that lasted only a week or so, and now I have so many friends who are openly gay, and it makes no difference.
Ironically, the biggest challenge for the admissions officers isn't appeasing fears that the schools will be too wild, nor the opposite — convincing them that they are not nunneries. Instead, the schools must sell the value of a liberal arts education, as opposed to a professional degree. Do you think they can pull that off in the Middle East?
