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Everyone from Rick Ross to Drake to Jay Z has, at some point, in one way or another claimed, “summer is mine”—proudly, if not always accurately, declaring that they have made the hits most often blasted from convertibles. But they’re talking about music, and even those guys rule every summer. With Labor Day weekend marking the unofficial end of summer, we took a look back at the movies, music, and other media to pick the best of a long summer spent in the theater, on the couch and at the beach. Guardians of the Galaxy
Many comics fans were totally incredulous when Marvel announced in 2012 that the rag-tag space brigade known as the Guardians of the Galaxy would be getting their own flick. “Seriously?” was the general reaction. Not only was the series relatively obscure, but it had, you know, a talking raccoon and a talking tree. In space. The addition of talent like Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, and Bradley Cooper did little to inspire confidence with the target audience, either. The first few trailers brought a measure of optimism, but the film was by no means a slam-dunk.
But then Guardians of the Galaxy premiered, and to the surprise of everyone (save, perhaps, the movie’s cast and crew), even WIRED, it was one of the funniest, best-written (thanks, Karen Gillian) movies of the year. Critics lauded it for its visuals, its music, and its complete lack of self-seriousness. Indeed, some even noted that any confusion the plot left in its wake—a criticism that would sink nearly any other movie—was completely forgivable because of just how much entertainment the gang served up. Even Diesel’s Groot birthed a whole sub-fandom thanks to his bonus-scene dancing at the end of the movie. The whole thing was so ridiculously fun that, so far, it’s grossed half a billion dollars worldwide. That’s not Avengers-level numbers, to be sure, but for a movie many feared might be as bad as, say, Daredevil and Batman and Robin, that’s one hell of a win. —Devon Maloney DJ Mustard
Mustard on the beat, ho. Which beat? These days, just about all of them. The reign of everyone’s favorite condiment-turned-beat-maker officially began in early 2012, with Tyga’s “Rack City,” but two-and-a-half years later Mustard’s empire has expanded, Alexander the Great-style, to encompass the whole of hip-hop radio—and by extension, barbecues, house parties, clubs, and beaches. Last summer belonged to Pharrell, thanks to Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” and Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”; this summer, virtually any big song came off of young Dijon (yes, that’s why he’s called DJ Mustard) McFarlane’s hard drive. A-list rappers (T.I.’s “No Mediocre”), new-school R&B stars (Jeremih’s “Don’t Tell ‘Em”), young breakouts (YG’s “Who Do You Love,”), and got-next ingénues (Tinashe’s “2 On”) have all benefited from the Angeleno’s hot hand. Even holdovers from early 2014 like Ty Dolla $ign’s “Paranoid” or Kid Ink’s “Show Me” are still coming out of every car window in the western United States. Every summer gets a soundtrack, but few get such a flavorful one. —Peter Rubin Eva Green
Being pretty and talented is barely enough to cause a ripple in Hollywood. And if you want to really make waves, to take roles for the art instead of just the paycheck, you need to be a part of that magical Five Percent—that group with a maddening alchemy of good looks, preternatural skill, and mysterious intangibles that elevate them above us mere mortals. Eva Green is one of those people. She’s stunning. She’s possessed of a ferocious talent. She’s fucking crazy on screen, and through quiet seduction, she brought the summer of 2014 to its knees.
It started when she became the beating black heart of this spring’s 300: Rise of an Empire, making an otherwise unnecessary sequel worth the price of admission thanks to her frightening, powerful, sexy Artemisia. Then she laced up her corset to anchor Showtime’s Penny Dreadful, playing the gothic temptress Vanessa Ives to maximum slow-burn effect. Then she graduated from dreadful to sinful in the long-awaited Sin City: A Dame To Kill For. Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez’s joint venture may be crashing headlong into the crushing expectations of its hype, but the critics are hailing Green, with outlets like The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and WIRED calling her performance as the titular dame representative of everything the movie could have been if it had lived up to its promise.
Green has been chewing up screens with fearless role selections and uncompromising performances since breaking out in Bernardo Bertolucci’s 2003 film The Dreamers. Later this fall she’ll do it again, starring alongside Shailene Woodley in White Bird in a Blizzard, but for now, the summer is hers. —Jordan Crucchiola Mad Max: Fury Road
Yes, it seems ridiculous to have a movie that won’t be out for another year on a Best of Summer list, but bear with me.
Generally speaking, reboots are a risky proposition that must traverse a minefield with explosives labeled “Pleasing Hardcore Fans” and “Appealing to a New Audience.” But Fury Road has something many reboots don’t: franchise originator George Miller, who directed the original Mad Max way back in 1979. If the teaser he used to basically conquer Comic-Con International is any hint, then he’s been dying to take us on this ride for a long time.
So what makes this trailer so mind-blowing? Short list: Gritty visuals in a color palette you want to roll around naked in, Charlize Theron’s badass shaved head, Charlize Theron’s badass self, impossibly epic desert car chases, IRON FACE MASKS, Tom Hardy as Max himself, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley vogue-ing for no reason with Zoë Kravitz and some other inexplicably well-moisturized model friends. There’s just so damn much. I don’t even care what happens in this movie, I just want to be lost in this world. Who needs water when you’ve got guns and motocross in the dustbowl? I, for one, didn’t see Mad Max coming. Now I can’t wait for it to get here. —Angela Watercutter John Oliver
When Jon Stewart transformed The Daily Show from a lackluster Craig Kilborn program into the first name in satirical news back in 1999 it felt like the smartest, sharpest news critique on television and a desperately needed breath of fresh air in the fetid world of cable news. While it remains relevant, the show has greyed a bit, even as it’s propelled now-familiar names to prominence: Steve Carell, Ed Helms, Stephen Colbert, and most recently, John Oliver.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver premiered on HBO in April, and—although Oliver is still finding his footing—has come compellingly close to out-Stewarting Stewart. Moreover, there’s an edge—sometimes a roughness—in Oliver’s satire that is refreshing, especially compared to the smooth familiarity of the well-oiled Daily Show machine. Not only can Oliver drop F-bombs uncensored, but HBO’s ad-free premium model means he need not worry about the displeasure of any corporation that ends up in his crosshairs. Just watch his blistering 13-minute take on net neutrality: “The cable companies have figured out the great truth of America: If you want to do something evil, put it inside something boring. Apple could put the entire text of Mein Kampf inside the iTunes user agreement and you’d just go ‘Agree.'”
His excoriations of everything from FIFA to Ferguson have made a lot of well-deserved hay online, a phenomenon that provoked its own response from Oliver; he subsequently responded to the overblown headlines by announcing that “the internet does not know how to describe things anymore” while bludgeoning a pinata. Who will Oliver go after next? Who knows, but I’m glad to see him shouting from the HBO megaphone—and carrying an awfully big stick. —Laura Hudson Fall (Like, the Season)
It’s not that this summer was filled with flops, by any stretch of the imagination—Guardians of the Galaxy, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes all rocked it at the box office, after all—but there was something particularly underwhelming about this season. A lot of this stems from familiarity, and the fact that we’ve seen a lot of these kinds of mega-movies before; even breakout hit Guardians was pretty much a mash-up of Star Wars and all the other Marvel movies when it comes down to it.
It was even worse on television, with Penny Dreadful and The Knick, and (to varying degrees) Masters of Sex and The Leftovers being the rare bright lights in a dark, dull season. Maybe it was the one-two punch of Fargo and True Detective in the spring, and the continuing awesomeness of Game of Thrones, but TV this summer felt particularly unexciting compared with what came before. Did anyone really want to watch Welcome to Sweden or Married, never mind Sing Your Face Off, when they could just dive into a good binge-watch?
If summer did anything, it made me look forward to the fall: A time when television gets an influx of new shows (hey, The Flash looks pretty good!) and movies—released from the blockbuster season with eyes cast towards the Oscars—get a little bit more interesting. It’s not that summer is a bad time for pop culture, per se, but as this season made clear, it’s not the best time for those looking for novelty. Here’s to the changing of the seasons.—Graeme McMillan
Here’s to Green’s refreshingly European comfort with baring all on screen. Dimension Films
Is there any actress out there as desired by the straight male (and
lesbian) population as Eva Green right now? The French star has been an
eye-opening cinematic presence throughout 2014, first for her kinky,
twisted performance in 300: Rise of an Empire, and then in last week’s
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, where she once again cemented her status
as one of the film industry’s trustiest go-to femme fatales. If you need
a strong, sexy, seductive female for a role, there’s not really anyone
better than Green at the moment.
Still, Green’s willingness to strip down for a part isn’t exactly
something new, and despite her own (scarcely believable) claims that
she’s in fact rather shy, she’s been taking her clothes off ever since
her 2003 debut in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers, and been the
object of desire of millions ever since. While it would be a mistake to
simply view Green as a sexual object and little else, given that she
also happens to be a fantastic actress, it’s somewhat unavoidable given
her recent career choices that her nudity is getting more press than her
otherwise presence in the films themselves.
To that end, here’s to Green’s refreshingly European comfort
with baring all on screen, and 10 raunchy scenes where Green’s searing
sexuality has shone through.
Eva Green loves extreme shades when it comes to her hair.
The former Bond girl is known for her striking looks and raven hair. Her natural colour is actually dark blonde which the 35-year-old has always found dull so she likes to experiment - but has had some mishaps along the way.
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"I've dyed my hair black since I was 15. One of my mum's friends had very dark hair and blue eyes and I just thought, 'OK, I have to try it!'" she told British InStyle. "I felt more like myself after I made the colour change. I love extreme shades - I've been dark blue, a dark brown and even red at one point. That was a challenging shade because it eventually went green!"
One colour Eva would love to try is bright blonde. But just like Kim Kardashian, who had to give up her platinum locks after only a few weeks earlier this year, the actress thinks it would be too much strain on her tresses.
"I've done movies with a blonde wig and I'd love to go blonde. But colourists say it would destroy my hair because of how much I'd have to bleach it," she explained. "My hair got very damaged because it's super straight and I always use tongs to give it texture. I've just had the new L'Oréal Professionel Pro Fibre Revive in-salon treatment - it makes your hair shiny and healthy."
Eva likes to be experimental when it comes to her make-up looks too, although it wasn't always the case.
"I was shy until I was 16 and started at the American School of Paris. It was a chance to be a new me," she said. "I had new black hair and would match my eyeshadow with my clothes so I'd wear purple or green. It was very theatrical."
Eva Green is a multitasking maven. She recently took time out from filming the Tim Burton movie “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” to appear at the press launch in Paris of the new L’Oréal Professionnel Pro Fiber line. Green might have been named the international face of the L’Oréal-owned professional hair-care brand just a few months ago in late January, but hair has played a leading role all her life. The actress, sporting a long black Hervé Leroux dress, sat down with WWD at the Le Meurice Hotel to have a discussion.
WWD: You first dyed your hair dark around the age of 15. What made you do that?
Eva Green: I wanted to change something. You know, like when you go through your teenage years. I hated school. I was a good student, but I just wanted to breathe in something new. I was in awe of a friend of my mum who had dark hair. She was quite weird, beautiful. I was like: ‘Oh wow, I’ll go to the hairdresser and try that.’ So I went there, I dyed my hair blue-black and came back home. It took me a while to get used to it, and then I actually really liked it. I felt more like myself. It’s weird.
WWD: Has hair played an important part of your character creation at work?
E.G.:Hair defines your character, your state of mind. At the moment I’m in a Burton film, and it took weeks and weeks to find the right hairdo. It’s kind of a weird character. Her name is Miss Peregrine, so there is a bit of a birdlike hairdo in her. It helps you to create the character when you find the hairdo. It’s also like a costume.
WWD: What have been some of the interesting hairstyles you’ve had during your career?
E.G.: In “Dark Shadows” I wear a blonde wig. I was really worried at the beginning, … I was not sure [but] Tim Burton was like: ‘No, no I want you blonde.’ That made total sense for the character and actually was a very good idea, kind of a trashy Barbie. And that helps you tremendously to find the character.
I dyed my hair red six years ago, seven years ago for a role that I ended up not doing, but you feel different. I had a fringe, as well, a year ago for a movie called “White Bird in a Blizzard.” I kind of loved it. It’s a tiny detail, but you feel different. It’s funny.
WWD: What have been some of your favorite roles?
E.G.: I loved a movie called “Cracks” by Jordan Scott. It’s a small film, lots people haven’t seen it, unfortunately, but it’s a beautiful, passionate love story between a swimming teacher in the Thirties, that I play, and one of her students. I really loved that story. It was kind of a gift for an actor.
WWD: Are there any sorts of roles you’ve not gotten to play that you’d like to try?
E.G.: Yes, of course. It’s always hard as an actor because you’re being put in a box. Lots of journalists ask me: “Oh my God, why do you just play evil characters or dark characters?” I feel like I’ve played other characters, maybe that’s what you’ve seen only of me. I like complex characters, complicated people. In darkness you have light; you have different facets in the darkness. So maybe a comedy or something that people don’t expect me in — but the comedy is always a challenge, and it’s rare and it’s quite funny. But yeah, I’d like something kind of [like a] dark comedy.
WWD: Any directors you’ve not worked with yet that you’d like to try?
E.G.: I don’t know where to start. So many. Something simple. I’m sick of people saying that I do femmes fatales or I’m sexy. So I think I have to be careful now and play dirty hair, raw, a Mike Leigh movie or something, you know. No lipstick. I don’t know. Dirty hair for L’Oréal.
Something not too sophisticated, that’s what I mean. In “Penny Dreadful” I’m not very sophisticated. It’s not glamorous, let’s say.
WWD: What about stage acting?
E.G.: I’ve done plays. I get very nervous. I had a few blanks on stage so now I’m like, “Oh my God.” But it’s very electric, and it’s true that there is something kind of magical because there is a direct response with the audience. You’re not cut in the editing room. You are your own master, so that’s great but that’s really scary at the same time. I have to gain confidence again.
WWD: Back to beauty, what are your secrets?
E.G.: Sun cream, protection, food — what we eat is the most important: lots of green vegetables, raw vegetables, organic. Everything has to be organic.
For a former 007 actress, Eva Green knows how to keep under the
radar. Ahead of the new series of Penny Dreadful, she tells Patricia
Danaher why she's found happiness in Ireland.
Retiring type: Eva Green freely admits she’s battled shyness
Eva Green has been doing so much work in
Ireland in recent years that the Paris-born actress jokes that she
should get herself an Irish passport.
Living in Dalkey, Co Dublin, for the past two years, she is very at
home in a house by the sea, to which she retreats each night, after days
at Ardmore Studios filming Penny Dreadful
A self-described introvert - who says she took up acting to
help with her acute shyness - the embrace of the coastline of Dublin Bay
comforts her.
"There's something very magical and very spiritual
in Ireland. The nature is very particular here and there are forces,"
she tells me in her very quiet voice. It's a statement befitting of
Vanessa Ives, the mysterious clairvoyant that Eva plays in supernatural
TV series Penny Dreadful.
Though set in Victorian London, the show
- which also stars Timothy Dalton and Josh Hartnett and is now in its
second series for American network Showtime - is filmed in Dublin. When
we meet on the set at Ardmore Studios, 34-year-old Eva is dressed in a
purple silk shirt and black tie from Dolce & Gabbana over a pair of
black leather trousers and high boots. She's friendly and wants to give a
decent interview, but there's also an arms-length reserve which she
can't help but give off. There's almost no trace of a French accent when
she speaks.
"I shot Cracks here in Ireland, it's a small film. A
long time ago, I did a TV show here also, called Camelot. I've spent two
years here now doing Penny Dreadful, so I think I should get an Irish
passport," she says.
"The people here are amazing. It's the
kindest crew I've ever worked with and I'm not just saying that. They're
full of heart, they're sincere, they're funny, they're raw. It's a real
pleasure." Filming of season two of the popular show is currently close
to completion and although Eva looks more like a contemporary Goth,
with those smoky dark eyes, there's something about her temperamentally
that seems right in the lavish 19th century elegant set. But then, she's
never been one to shirk from stretching herself from Bond Girl to
Action Girl with the melancholy sexiness that is so much her hallmark.
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"Psychologically,
it's hard. I love it, but it's so intense that I can't wait to lie down
on a beach and have a tequila very soon. I might end up in a cuckoo
home after this TV series. But I know how to read the future with tarot
cards now, which is kind of cool, to connect with the universe and all
this, the elements … It sounds like kind of witchcraft, but it makes you
more aware of yourself and connected to the earth."
Penny
Dreadful does indeed have a lot of darkness and violence and includes
lots of appearances by literary characters ranging from Frankenstein to
Dorian Gray to Dracula. Does the role allow Eva to unleash her inner
demons?
"I'm not that confident in real life, so sometimes I'm
drawn to playing strong women because I wish I could be like this in
reality. Like if somebody annoys me, I wish I could say: 'Off with his
head!' In general, I am very scared, so it's kind of a dream to be so
ballsy on-screen, even to be rude and evil. In reality, I'm really quite
an introvert.
"Although I'm an actor now and have been for
several years, I was so shy in school. I never talked and I thought I
was going to pass out every time the teacher asked me a question.
"So,
weirdly, maybe even masochistically, I decided to take theatre classes
to be somebody else and to maybe gain some confidence. Then, I found I
really enjoyed it and then I knew it was okay, that what I wanted to do
was be other people."
Despite the urgings of her successful
actress mother, Marlene Jobert, not to follow her into the same
profession, Eva studied acting as a teenager at London's Webber Douglas
Academy of Dramatic Arts. While in London, director Bernardo Bertolucci
spotted her and cast her in his sexually charged movie The Dreamers,
which effectively put her on the map - eventually leading to a 'Bond
girl' role in 2006's Casino Royale.
"People always recognise me as Vesper from Casino Royale and I am very, very grateful and proud of that role.
"It
was a nice love story in Bond. She was the only one he ever loved and
always looks quite cool. But my favourite Bond girl I'd have to say is
Judy Dench! She broke my heart in Skyfall."
Her heart is otherwise
unclaimed - she's been single since she split from New Zealand actor
Marton Csokas, who she worked with on Kingdom of Heaven.
Eva
appears to have compartmentalised the various aspects of her personal
life and her work life. She realises the power of her beauty and has
become very wealthy from advertising campaigns for Armani, Lancome and
Dior.
Her eyes appear to be very much wide-open about the work
she's doing and the double standards that exist for women in the world
in which she works.
"As actresses, it's very boring, but you have
to drink lots of water and eat vegetables - because otherwise I am very
naughty," she says. "Doing all the intense training I've had to do lets
me have my glass of red wine and cheese at night, or a glass of
Guinness, which I wouldn't be able to do otherwise.
"But you have
to look after yourself and even despite that, sometimes you're made to
feel like an old woman. You hear them talking about the next big thing
saying 'Oh, she's 20' and you are like, 'Oh God, I'm 30'.
"They
make you very aware of yourself to the point where sometimes you have to
just put earplugs in and just not listen to their b*******, because
it's very ruthless.
"But sometimes, I am also very hard on myself.
I feel like I'm kind of schizophrenic, that's what my mother would say.
I can be confident about some things; I can be frank and very
determined. But I would say I am not very confident when I feel like I
really have to prove myself. And in this business you have to keep your
armour on and be strong. At the same time, you have to keep your
vulnerability for the set - to be able to act. So it's kind of hard. I'm
still learning."
Dublin provides her with the privacy and
solitude she craves. "I live a quiet, reclusive life when I'm not
working. Living by the sea in Dalkey, it's great, after all those
intense scenes during the day, when I can go home at night. I'm just
like a cave woman with nature. Some of the roles that I do, like Penny
Dreadful, are so intense that I really like being lazy when I'm not
working. I love walking and I walk a lot when I can. I've been loving
walking in Dublin and also in Wicklow," she says.
"When I'm at
home in London, I walk all the way through the centre, through Regent's
Park. I love going to the cinema and I love reading. It's very boring
really - I'm not somebody who goes out to clubs and things like that. I
wear no make-up in real life. I'm very simple. I wear jeans and
T-shirts. That may be why I go over the top for the red carpet. But
otherwise, I'm very plain. I am really in my own bubble."
And what
does she do in that bubble in Dalkey? "I have various TV shows that I
like. At the moment, I'm watching Girls, which couldn't be more
different from Penny Dreadful. I adored True Detective and will be very
interested to see what Colin Farrell does with the role. There are so
many good shows at the moment, it's kind of overwhelming."
Eva's
family are still in Paris, except for her twin sister Joy, who lives in
Italy. So far, she hasn't invited her actress mother to visit her here.
"I
didn't bring my mother to the set, because she always has something to
say about my hair or something, so I said to her, 'No, no. Don't come'.
She always thinks it's very extreme and she's like 'Are you okay?' and
making sure I don't lose myself because we are very different
actresses," she says.
"Sometimes in the evenings, she helps me run lines, because her English has improved.
"She's very supportive, whereas I'm fighting with myself all the time."
Eva Green at the premiere of "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For" Photo: Reuters
When your subtitle is “A Dame To Kill For,” you can’t just
cast any ol’ actress. She needs to be so seductive that men would
literally murder for her.
You might not kill for Eva Green, but you’d probably steal a car.
The 34-year-old, French-born actress and former model takes center
stage in this weekend’s “Sin City” sequel, playing a femme fatale.
“Eva just completely won me over with those green eyes of hers,” says “Sin City” creator and co-director Frank Miller.
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Green in NYC in MayPhoto: WireImage
All true, but if we’re really being honest, they probably searched for something else, as well: someone who looks good naked.
Green does. Like everything in “Sin City,” she’s a comic-book
character come to life, with proportions that would seem only to exist
on the page of a comic book read by horny adolescent boys.
And unlike many of her Hollywood contemporaries — both male and
female — Green doesn’t seem to have compunctions about stripping her
clothes for the camera. She broke through with 2003’s NC-17 “The
Dreamers,” directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, and hasn’t put on clothes
since.
“She’s French,” says Jim McBride, founder of Mr. Skin, a Web site
dedicated to celebrity nudity. “They’ll usually do five or six nude
scenes before they’re 25 years old.”
Green has been naked so often, it’s kind of become her thing. Her
body even caused a bit of an uproar in May when ratings agency MPAA
failed to approve the “A Dame To Kill For” poster showing Green wearing a
see-through nightgown with nothing on underneath. The image was later
altered to make the gown less sheer.
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Sin City: A Dame to Kill ForPhoto: Dimension Films
“It seems like it’s all just publicity — a lot of noise for nothing,” she told Vanity Fair of the controversy.
Which it may have been. The Weinstein Company, which is releasing
“Sin City,” has been accused in the past of ginning up controversies.
What can’t be faked though is what God gave Green.
March’s “300: Rise of an Empire” kind of came and went, but the one
thing that did create buzz was Green’s violent roll in the hay with
co-star Sullivan Stapleton. Dresses were ripped. Faces were slapped.
Boobs were bared.
Green has said the scene left her with bruises. Not that other love scenes are much more fun to shoot.
“You feel very awkward and very silly and you don’t feel sexy at all,” Green told the UK’s The Telegraph. “You are just acting.”
The actress has said she’s worried about being known for playing one
kind of role, but it’s unlikely that a large segment of the audience
would object to her getting typecast. It could actually make her more
well-known.
“The fact that she’s willing to show her breasts is a big deal,” Mr. Skin says. “Nudity in a blockbuster movie, it’s a rarity.”
