What She Has Been In:
Rosamund Pike, 35, got
her start, while still as university, with small roles on British television.
Her first big break came in 2002 when she was cast as Bond Girl Miranda Frost
in Die
Another Day. Since then, she has been working consistently, taking mostly
supporting roles waiting for her next big break (which seems to have taken
twelve years to materialize). She has made many bad Hollywood films (and the
British equivalent) to pay the bills, including: Doom, Surrogates,
Johnny
English Reborn, Wrath of the
Titans, and A Long Way Down.
Yet, Pike is always good in them, even when they are terrible. She also made a
few decent smaller films, including: The Libertine,
Fracture,
Fugitive
Pieces, Made
in Dagenham, and The Big Year.
Pike, however, has made some
excellent films as well. She is fantastic in Joe
Wright’s Pride
& Prejudice, playing Elizabeth Bennet’s (Keira
Knightley) older, somewhat hapless sister Jane. She is also wonderful in An
Education playing the glamourous and maybe a little clueless girlfriend of
Danny (the chum of David, the older man Carey Mulligan’s
Jenny falls for). She too is great playing one of Barney Panofsky’s ex-wives in
Barney’s
Version, a little gem that most have not seen, but should.
More recently, she has started to
appear in bigger profile films (finally). She co-starred along with Tom Cruise in his
action/thriller Jack
Reacher and ended up as one of the gang in Edgar
Wright’s fantastically fun The
World’s End.
October Film:
Pike has always had the talent to
be one of the best actresses working today. She just has had a tough time
finding/getting great roles (there are a lot of very good actresses right now,
and not many good parts). That is, until now. In October, she stars opposite Ben Affleck in David
Fincher’s mystery drama/black comedy (as many are calling it for its
treatment of modern news media) Gone Girl,
based on the very popular Gillian Flynn
novel (Flynn also penned the screenplay). The film is brilliant, and might
contend for a Best Picture Oscar (it is definitely good enough a film to do
so). Pike, too, may even find herself nominated for an Oscar. Here is the
trailer.
Upcoming:
Pike does not have a lot on her
schedule right now; but after the critical and commercial success of Gone Girl,
she will be getting some calls.
Career Highlights:
*Editor’s picks
What She Has Been In:
Kaitlyn Dever, 17, started
her career at the age of five, enrolling in acting school. From there she took
single-episode roles in many TV series, highlighted by: Modern Family
(the Fizbo
episode), Party
Down (the Company
Picnic episode), and Curb Your
Enthusiasm (The Divorce
episode). She also has small supporting roles in Bad Teacher,
J. Edgar,
and The
Spectacular Now (a brilliant teen drama, if you have not seen it yet).
Dever has also found bigger roles
on television as well. She is a series regular on the Tim Allen comedy Last Man
Standing, playing his daughter Eve. She is also very good in a reoccurring
role on the modern western Justified
(one of the best
shows currently on TV). She plays Loretta McCready, a troubled young girl
who Timothy
Olyphant’s Raylan takes a liking to and helps out of a bad situation. She
is mostly in season two, but pops up in seasons three and five as well.
Dever had a minor breakthrough,
feature wise, in 2013 with her great supporting work in Short
Term 12. I say minor, because not many people saw the film, which is too
bad because it is wonderful. She plays one of the troubled girls that Brie Larson looks
after, Larson’s Grace taking a special interest in her.
October Films:
Dever has two films due out in
October. First, she stars in Jason Reitman’s
new film Men,
Women & Children, playing the daughter of Jennifer Garner
(who is a crazy over-protective mother). The film is about love, relationships,
and communication in the modern age (the internet, everyone online technology age).
The film was originally thought to be a potential Oscar hopeful and would have
served as a great springboard for Dever (as she has a good role in it), but
critics have not been kind to the film. Maybe it will find its audience,
however, once it opens wide. Here
is the trailer.
Later in the month, Dever has a
supporting role in Laggies –
the new comedy/drama from Lynn Shelton. The
film stars Keira
Knightley, Sam
Rockwell, and Chloe
Grace Moretz. Dever plays Moretz’s high school friend. The film is about
Knightley’s Megan, a woman approaching her thirties who is just not ready to
grow up. In fact, she actively fights against it, deciding to hang out with
Moretz, a high school student, instead of facing her own life. It looks like a
great little dramedy (and is one of the films I most want to see this month). Here is the
trailer.
Upcoming:
Dever has a few indie dramas in
the pipeline including Grass Stains
and The
Greens Are Gone, and continues to star on Last Man Standing. She has a lot
of talent and should have a bright future as she grows into meatier parts.
Career Highlights:
*Editor’s picks
What He Has Been In:
Logan Lerman, 22, always
wanted to be an actor, auditioning for parts and commercials as early as the
late 1990s. His first role came in 2000’s The Patriot
in which he played one of Mel Gibson’s sons.
He continued to take small roles in films including: What Women Want,
Riding in
Cars with Boys, The Butterfly
Effect, and The Number 23.
He started to get bigger roles starting with taking leading roles in the TV
series Jack
& Bobby and the young adult film Hoot.
Lerman then started to get more
substantial films roles. He plays Christian
Bale’s son in 3:10 to Yuma,
plays the ‘gamer’ in the awful action film Gamer, and
has a supporting role in Stuck in Love
(something moviegoers like, but critics not so much – I agree with the
critics). He also got big parts in Hollywood. He stars in Percy Jackson
& the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and its sequel Sea of Monsters,
as well as playing D’Artagnan in the latest adaptation of The Three Musketeers
(it too is not very good, but I found it highly entertaining – it has a
fantastic cast and is just so ridiculous).
Other than 3:10 to Yuma, Lerman
had not really appeared in good work, however; but, that has changed recently.
In 2012 he starred in The
Perks of Being a Wallflower opposite Emma Watson and Ezra Miller.
Lerman plays Charlie, a troubled high school kid who desperately wants to make
friends and fit in at his new school, but he is also fighting his own demons.
It is a great film that I highly recommend, especially for fans of teen dramas.
Earlier this year, Lerman again worked with Watson in Darren Aronofsky’s
ambitious telling of the Noah’s Ark Bible story (called Noah). It
is very dark and dramatically powerful.
October Film:
In October, Lerman co-stars with Brad
Pitt in David
Ayer’s WWII action/drama Fury.
It also features Shia
Labeouf, Michael
Pena, and Jon
Bernthal. It is about a five-man tank crew who are tasked with an
impossible mission in April of 1945. It is likely they will not come back.
Lerman plays a rookie soldier who joins the crew for the mission. It looks like
it will be a strong drama with great action. Many believe it is in contention
for a Best Picture Oscar nod (although, no one has seen it yet). Here is the trailer.
Upcoming:
Lerman does not have anything
firm on his upcoming schedule, but as one of Hollywood’s best up-and-coming
actors, that should change soon.
Career Highlights:
*Editor’s picks
