“Braff will play the role of Frank, the loyal but under-appreciated assistant to Oz (James Franco), a charismatic circus magician who is treated as a powerful wizard after his balloon blows off course into Oz and the townsfolk want him to eradicate a Wicked Witch and bring peace.”

Multiple James Francos Converge On 'General Hospital'

Boom. Not only do you now know the character Braff is playing, but you also know what the movie is about, and that James Franco is in it. Boom.  More infobombs: Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams, and Rachel Weisz are all in it too. Can you handle all this information? (Deadline)

How you feel about this news is probably determined by how you feel about Michelle Williams. She’s unarguably a great actress, but she hasn’t really done a lot of this kind of blockbuster movie acting before. She does look the part, though, being blonde, pretty, and having the ability to teleport and force dwarfs to sing in unison. Seriously, I’ve seen her do this at parties. (Variety)

The Oz: The Great and Powerful director is championing Swank to play the elder witch but Disney has noticed that most of her films tank hard, and they aren’t so up on the idea. Their solution: Michelle Williams. Which seems kind of left field.

Raimi famously fought for Tobey Maguire over Wes Bentley back when he was making Spider-Man. And look how that paid off. Maguire still does a movie from time to time and Wes Bentley recently captivated audiences with his performance in Jonah Hex.

Nobody’s sure how far Raimi is going to let the battle go, but I don’t see him backing down that easily. Besides if he stalls long enough, Michelle Williams is likely to be snatched up by some indie that needs an actress really good at scenes that require crying in the shower. (Vulture)

Starring Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, and Paul Dano, the Oregon Trail western focuses less on fording your little guys across rivers and takes a realistic look at the monotony and suckiness of traveling via covered wagon. Greenwood plays Meek, a hired guide who leads three families to a supposed shortcut but may have sinister intentions. Or he’s just kind of a dumb-ass.

The bleak, non-sensationalized film really puts into perspective the struggles of our ancestors. In today’s modern world, it’s easy to take for granted the sacrifices that had to be made so that we can all smoke some of that really good Portland weed while watching “Tim and Eric.”

In a move that sounds like something out of Pacey’s playbook, the director one night told Gosling to go into Williams’ bedroom and try to have sex with her. Gosling refused and slept on the couch. Thus, costing Popeater one article.

This plan was stupid from the outset. If it was realism that Cianfrance wanted, he got it. Married couples don’t have sex. (Huffington Post)

This week we throw our Best Actress contenders into the Thunderdome, arm then with cudgels and see who among them has the fortitude to grab blood-smeared victory.  Of course I meant metaphorically, but am I the only one sporting chub right now? And speaking of boners, were this category decided by the turgidity of my cervix-hammer alone it would be a “hard” choice to make.  Because unlike some of last year’s nominees (*cough* Gabourey Sibide), our 2011 contenders, oiled-up and bikini clad, would make for a fine Maxim spread.  You’ve got Grade-A Kosher Natalie Portman, Michelle Williams and her bodacious bod, barely legal babe Jennifer Lawrence, MILFerific Nicole Kidman, and rounding things out in the cougar category, Annette Bening. Though my loins love them equally, on Oscar night there can be only one winner.

FRONTRUNNERS:

NATALIE PORTMAN

Pro: Hype is certainly on her side, and not undeservedly. As I stated in last week’s column, Black Swan was the performance of Natalie Portman’s career… although frankly, that ain’t saying a lot. Yeah, she’s nice to look at, but her previous actressing turns have run the gamut from “decent for a movie-of-the-week” to outright embarrassing. I have no idea how she managed to become leading lady du jour for many of today’s “serious” directors (at least when Scarlett Johansson wasn’t available); she acts about as well as ScarJo sings. However with Black Swan, Portman finally earned some credibility and proved that she’s ready to be taken seriously.

Con: She’s pregnant, and no one is more loathed than a pregnant woman. Men hate them because they’ve been tainted by another man’s seed. Women hate them because of jealousy and because they wish they could have babies too. Also: If she wins, there’s the risk that she’ll laugh again like at the Golden Globes. I’d rather hear the death rattle of my own child than that hideous cackle.

ANNETTE BENING

Pro: The other half of our Sapphic showdown. In The Kids Are All Right, Bening took a decidedly more realistic approach in her portrayal of a lesbian character, looking like someone you’d actually see at an Indigo Girls concert (whereas Portman’s bi-curious ballerina was the sort of lesbian that exists only in my Jergen’s fueled three-way fantasies). Bening is a seasoned veteran and an excellent lesbian thespian. In the scene where her character discovers her partner’s infidelity, Bening showed more range with subtle facial expressions than Portman has shown with an entire career of overacting.

Con: The Kids Are All Right’s strength was its ensemble cast, and to give an award to Bening and not Julianne Moore (who didn’t even get nominated) or Mark Ruffalo (who’s a long shot going up against Batman Bateman) would be a slight to her co-stars. Also: I know it was what you were going for, Annette, but couldn’t you have prettied it up just a little? At first I thought I was watching a Chuck Klosterman biopic.

LONG SHOTS

MICHELLE WILLIAMS

Pro: Underrated, underutilized, underappreciated… these words apply not just to Michelle Williams’ breasts but to Williams herself.  She’s an incredibly talented young woman who’s capable of showing her prodigious skills without getting all up in your face with it (like Portman).

Con: People often confuse her with Brian Williams. And for all the controversy, the sex scene that earned Blue Valentine its NC-17 rating was about as hot as scrambled Skinemax softcore. My penis was not pleased.

NICOLE KIDMAN

Pro: This Oscar veteran already has a shiny gold dude on her mantle. The Academy knows she can handle Oscar glory.

Con: Unfortunately, Kidman’s actressing has been seriously hampered by the large amounts of Botox that have virtually eliminated her facial expressions. In The Rabbit Hole she looks like she’s wearing a Nicole Kidman Halloween mask. Also: No one saw Rabbit Hole.

JENNIFER LAWRENCE

Pro: The Academy does love their ingénues. Think Anna Paquin, Tatum O’Neil, Jean Benet Ramsey… they’re like dancing monkeys. Dance little monkey!

Con: Hailee Steinfeld is already a lock for the Junior Achievers category.  And Steinfeld is only 14; which means that at age 20 Jennifer is practically over-the-hill. But the good is she’s bang-legal. In your face, Chris Hansen!

ADVANTAGE: Natalie Portman

Blue Valentine is like (500) Days of Summer for the people who ended up marrying Summer. And Summer’s the guy in this. It’s a risk to tell the story out of order, not a narrative risk but a risk of being lame. So many movies do it cheaply. I don’t think Blue Valentine breaks any new ground but it’s one of the good ones. It at least knows how to position scenes for context and impact, and doesn’t push it into pretentious realms.

Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) are a married couple with a daughter. As the scenes unfold, we get to see how characters in their lives played unexpected roles in their relationship, and how circumstances had surprising effects on their outcome. I think Cindy’s the one deluding herself that Dean is a good match, which is why I say he’s the Summer in that comparison.

The film conveys that awkward pressure of talking. Just filling the silence leads to trouble, and haven’t we all been there? Cindy mentions running into Bobby (Mike Vogel) and there’s nothing she can say that doesn’t sound threatening to Dean. Later in the movie you see how Bobby assaulted Dean, and how Dean supported Cindy in the aftermath of that relationship. So maybe he has a reason to freak out about Bobby.

Cindy tries to encourage Dean to be more than a house painter, but it only sounds like criticism to Dean. Dean asks Cindy to come away with him but he can’t see he’s being a needy burden. It’s fascinating to see these conversations devolve. Sad, but maybe there’s a good lesson for viewers.

Considering the ratings issues, the sex scenes are rather conservative. In one, Cindy keeps her shirt on and her former lover Bobby keeps his pants on. However, the sound in that scene is more explicit than any visual. There is a shower scene, but I think it’s the central sex scene between Cindy and Dean that got Blue Valentine the rating.

We know the MPAA allows a certain number of thrusts in an R-rated sex scene, and you know what? The MPAA is right. This many thrusts makes the scene way more intimate than a quick shot of a couple in action. We can recognize the intensity of this act and it feels a little dirty watching something so intimate.

There’s an abortion scene that will actually be more upsetting than the sex. That’s good though. It’s healthy to portray a sensitive subject in an intimate manner so people can deal with it.

Williams is the standout performance here. Gosling gets the showy role because Dean is the one who freaks out several times. We know Gosling can do that but Williams conveys all of Cindy’s frustration with subtlety that feels real and doesn’t feel like mugging for an Oscar clip.

This may sound like a downer, but it’s a healthy downer. You can appreciate the drama and feel a catharsis without having to share the actual misery. You’ll like this couple so you’ll want to see what they’ve been through, on both sides.

So what do you guys think? Does Williams make a good Monroe? She’s not quite as thick as the official blonde that gentlemen prefer, but I can see her embodying the role quite well.

Those zan Brothers Weinstein have dropped the trailer for Blue Valentine. Awww, it looks sweet, but also equally heartbreaking. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams play a couple going through the ups and downs of a relationship full of kisses and hugs that turn into tears and shoves.

I didn’t get the opportunity to see this film at Sundance but I hear it’s impressive and moving from an acting standpoint. Hell, Ryan Gosling made me feel sorry for a sex doll in Lars and the Real Girl so he’s probably even better with a girl with a pulse. Furthermore, the MPAA just slapped the film with a NC-17 rating. I can only imagine it was for “sexual situations” but could it possibly be worse than Boogie Nights? Dude pulls his wee wee out at the end of that.

Blue Valentine hopefully runs in theaters December 26, 2010.

Check out the trailer after the jump…

Blue Valentine — Trailer – Watch more Movie Trailers

Director: Derek Cianfrance

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams

Synopsis: The film centers on a contemporary married couple, charting their evolution over a span of years by cross-cutting between time periods.

Release Date: December 26, 2010

Michelle Williams may always be the “other girl” from Dawson’s Creek, but she earned herself an Oscar nomination for Brokeback Mountain and all Katie Holmes has is Tom Cruise and a washed brain. Maybe her performance in Shutter Island will give people something other to associate her with than a dead Heath Ledger.

A word from Michelle: “Outside of the business during a dry spell, I scooped ice cream at a country fair, and I ate more than I sold.”

Becoming a fatty is no way to win auditions, Michelle. But bringing the casting director ice cream is… What a conundrum!

The pics after the jump are very straight-forward.

Martin Scorsese’s newest film, Shutter Island, a drama set in an insane asylum got a new trailer today and… well… it looks suitably insane.  Some may say it’s off-the-hook insane.  Those people would possibly be using a combination of hyperbole and street slang.  Check out the trailer after the jump and see star Leonardo DiCaprio descend into the deepest, darkest bowels of madness, where even Michelle Williams manages to still look really hot.

SHUTTER ISLAND Trailer – Watch more Funny Videos

Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Mortimer, Max von Sydow, Michelle Williams, Mark Ruffalo

Synopsis: Drama is set in 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels is investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding on the remot Shutter Island.