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Review by David DiMichele

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Seldom does a movie come along that manages to engulf the audience in panic, uneasiness and claustrophobia. But the due to its absolute originality, the artsy The Diving Bell and The Butterfly does this with ease. Right off the bat we’re in this world of Elle fashion magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), who is awakening from a coma. He’s told by his doctor that he can’t speak and that he is paralyzed from the head down. The only way he can communicate is by blinking his left eye. One blink for yes and two blinks for no. The doctor comes up with the most frequently used letters of the alphabet and she reads them to him and when he hears the letter he wants to use, he blinks. Amazingly, using this method, he wrote an entire book - a memoir - and had it published in 1997, just before he passed away.

"Many of today's stars are primed to be even bigger tomorrow -- but who among them has staying power? " ...

Some of today's top talents started young - quite young in fact. Before Christian Bale became Batman, he was Jamie, the young kid in Spielberg's greatly underrated movie Empire of the Sun. Then there's Nicholas Cage and Matthew Modine (Birdy), Jodie Foster (Taxi Driver), Ethan Hawke (Dead Poet's Society) and the late River Phoenix (Stand by Me) to name just a few who started early in the biz. So, here's part two of our list:

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There was this David Duchovny flick called House of D that starred a very young but talented Anton Yelchin. The Russian-born talent was already making a name for himself in TV and it was just a matter of time before he started making movies. Duchovny cast Yelchin as the young Tom Warshaw (the older version is played by Duchovny himself), an American artist living in Paris, who begins to discover who he really is, and returns to his home to reconcile with his family and friends.

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After that, Yelchin went on to play one of the leads in Alpha Dog. But it was in Charlie Bartlett that Yelchin took his career to the next level...

"Although hundreds of hopefuls auditioned for the role of Charlie Bartlett, Anton Yelchin essentially sealed the deal in his first meeting with Poll. “He blew me away,” recalls Poll. “I just felt like here’s Charlie Bartlett. He was incredibly empathetic and really funny. And what made me realize he was perfect is that he said it was the honesty and optimism of Charlie that drew him to it. If anyone was ever destined to play a part, I think it was Anton as Charlie Bartlett.” says director Jon Poll.

Yelchin is also in the new star-studded Star Trek flick, playing Pavel Chekov.

Malinged by some critics, but praised by audiences worldwide, Joe Wright's second feature Atonement was voted Best Picture at the 65th Golden Globe Awards by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Based on Ian McEwan's critically acclaimed novel of the same name, Atonement features the outstanding performances of Keira Knightley and James McAvoy in the lead roles. Both were also nominated for major acting awards.

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Also big winners are Daniel Day-Lewis, best actor (Drama) for There Will Be Blood, Johnny Depp, best actor (Comedy or Musical) for Sweeney Todd, Julie Christie, best actress (Drama) for Away from Her and Marion Cotillard, best actress (Comedy or Musical) for La Vie En Rose. Chosen as best foreign film is The Diving Bell And The Butterfly while Ratatouille won Best Animated Feature Film.

See the complete winners...

Oh, and they starred in some of the most acclaimed films today! Some are leading men, some are the most hated of villains, while a few you might have seen in a nice love story or horror flick or perhaps that cool French movie your friend recently recommended that you see.

Anyway, here's our initial list of 5:

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"With just a few films, twenty-five-year-old Nicolas Duvauchelle has become one of the most disconcerting presences in the French cinema.

It was Erick Zonca (La Vie rêvée des anges- The Dreamlife of Angels) who gave him his first great role in Le Petit Voleur [The Little Thief] (1998), in which he plays an apprentice baker doing battle with a gang of yobs. With his tattooed arms and angelic looks, Duvauchelle soon caught the eye of the best French film directors, including Claire Denis, who gave him a role in Beau Travail [Good Work] in 2000, then in Trouble Every Day in 2001, in which he is literally devoured by vampire Béatrice Dalle.

A mysterious actor with an imposing presence, Duvauchelle is regularly sought out for films about sport or physical performance, such as Snowboarder in 2002 and Poids léger [Lightweight] in 2003, in which he plays respectively a snowboarder and a boxer. The advertising world is taking an equal interest in him; he was recently chosen by clothing labels Hugo Boss and Levi’s as an emblem of the new manliness. "

What a perfect description for France's rebellious star! It was in the movie Le Grand Meaulnes, that made us instant converts! Duvauchelle is not only charming, he has this sort of reckless devil-may-care type of attitude that lights up the screen. In this film, Duvauchelle plays Augustin Meaulnes.

"This tragic love story as seen through the eyes of Francois Seurel concerns the larger than life Antoine Meaulnes affectionately known as Le Grand Meaulnes by his classmates. Set during their final years at school this is an adolescent story of love and longing. " [ read more ]

The movie also stars another tMF favorite, Jean-Baptiste Maunier.

One of the most anticipated movies this year is Jumper, starring Hayden Christensen, Jamie Bell and Samuel L. Jackson. It's an awesome sci-fi thriller, the only spoiler is having Hayden Christensen play the lead.

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I can't help it but I think Tom Sturridge could have played Davey (the lead character) better. Not that Hayden Christensen is a bad actor - he's not. He was quite decent in Shattered Glass, the true story of a young journalist who fabricated the stories he wrote for a political journal. But he sucked big time in Star Wars, not to mention the recent disaster, the absurd and inept Awake. He simply doesn't ring any bells for me - and I'm not talking about Jamie Bell if that's what comes to mind! Bell rocks and he has proven this time and again.

It would have been great to see two outstanding Brits fight it out in this sci-fi film. Based on the Steven Gould novel, Jumper tells the story of a young man from a broken home who discovers that he has the ability to teleport. In his quest to find the man he believes is responsible for the death of his mother, the kid draws the attention of the National Security Agency and discovers another kid with the same abilities.

If it's any consolation, Sturridge will play one of the leads in the upcoming movie Maestro. Set in the 1960s in the Australian outback, "Maestro" is the story of a young pianist (Sturridge) and his piano teacher (Klaus Maria Brandauer).

"Oh my God, anyone that would release an album as an actor is the biggest fool ever" but I happen to have sung all my life before I was an actor. Why are musicians allowed to become actors? No one ever gives them flack for that," says the actress.

That seems to be the proper reply to those who keep on asking why she has to sing? Just because she replaced Pink in the movie, she has to take all this flack? It seems pathetic to me.

"You have to keep reminding yourself it's not about money, because there is a lot of money to be made in this business if you're willing to do whatever. But that's not what I'm thinking about. I continue only to take movies because I love the script and because I really want to do it," says the actress.

Other projects for the actress include two high profile movies. She will star opposite Mark Wahlberg in M. Night Shyamalan's environmental thriller The Happening, and opposite Jim Carrey in the romantic comedy Yes Man.

Armed with nervous energy? That seems to be a perfect description for Ben Whishaw. The talented British actor is on the verge of becoming one of today's most important leading men. But unlike some of his comtemporaries who relish the limelight and the tag of being a 'celebrity', the 27-year-old actor favors a more subdued public persona.

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"I went to a youth theatre near where I live, where I'm from, and the guy who ran the youth theatre knew an agent in London, a child agent, and took me along to meet her. I think I met her when I was 14 and sat on her books for a couple of years doing nothing, and I got my first job when I was 17. Then I did bits and pieces of work, still at school at the time, doing A-levels. I thought, I'll do my A-levels then I'll just work. I'll work as an actor. So I finished my A-levels. Nothing. Not a single audition, I didn't get a job. Nothing. I thought, this is hopeless, so I decided to apply for Rada and finished last May [2004," replied Ben to the question of how he started acting.

It may not have been an 'explosive' beginning, but once Whishaw started playing Hamlet, that's when things started to heat up...

tMF is a proud member of LAMB!

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What is LAMB? There are hundreds of blogs out there featuring movie reviews and news, so it's often hard to keep track of them all, let alone find what you're looking for. For bloggers, it's equally hard to carve out a niche in this highly competitive field of entertainment. So it is definitely time we had some sort of association that could offer viewers diverse and interesting content on movies, actors and filmmakers - and it's LAMB!

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For movie blog readers: rather than hunting through Google or through any number of blog directories and/or blogrolls looking for a site that fits your liking, this is your one-stop shop. Read up on the latest sites: who's behind them, what their focus is, their goals and what you can expect when visiting. For movie bloggers: this is a place for your blog to be spotlighted, in its own feature post, for all to see."

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