[004] Elektra Luxx – Stills
[001] Elektra Luxx – Posters

While she is no stranger to television, having starred in the short-lived sci-fi series Threshold and the short-lived cop drama Karen Sisco as well as guest starring roles on Californication and Entourage, actress Carla Gugino has made a name for herself in films such as The Watchmen, the Spy Kids franchise, Race to Witch Mountain and most recently Mr. Popper’s Penguins, she will be coming back to TV in the lead role in the new TNT movie HIDE, which is based on the book by Lisa Gardner.

Her lead role in the made-for-TV movie will be that of Boston police detective D.D. Warren. The story will revolve around Warren, who will investigate the mummified remains of six missing women found inside a buried chamber at an abandoned mental hospital. The case will lead Warren to investigate Annabelle, a woman with a secret past and twisted family history.

Hide is part of the cable network’s new lineup of original movies under its upcoming TNT Mystery Movie Night that will feature six contemporary crime dramas based on true-crime stories and fictional mysteries. Other projects in the this new franchise include Good Morning, Killer.

TNT will launch its Mystery Movie Night franchise in November.

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[030] January 17th – 2003 Sundance Film Festival – The Singing Detective Premiere
[004] January 19th – 4th Annual Instyle Post-Golden Globes Party
[007] January 19th – Focus Features Golden Globes After Party
[007] January 25th – 2003 Sundance Film Festival – Carla Gugino with the Cadillac Escalade
[004] January 25th – 2003 Sundance Film Festival – The Motorola and Air Party
[012] January 25th – 2003 Sundance Film Festival – The YAHOO! Movies Portrait Studio
[001] January 26th – 2003 Sundance Film Festival – Guess at Sundance

[004] February 9th – 33 Variations Opening Night
[211] March 4th – Elektra Luxx Los Angeles Premiere
[025] March 6th – 33 Variations Closing Night Reception
[090] March 7th – Girl Walks Into A Bar Los Angeles Premiere
[022] March 7th – Girl Walks Into A Bar Los Angeles Premiere – After Party
[026] March 11th – 2011 SXSW Music, Film + Interactive Festival – Girl Walks Into A Bar Premiere
[011] March 19th – Sucker Punch Press Conference
[124] March 23rd – Sucker Punch Los Angeles Premiere
[062] March 30th – Sucker Punch London Premiere
[006] March 30th – Sucker Punch London Premiere – After Party
[016] April 7th – The Planned Parenthood National Awards Gala
[004] April 11th – Scream 4 Los Angeles Premiere
[002] April 11th – Scream 4 Los Angeles Premiere – After Party
[020] April 28th – IWC Schaffhausen Presents Peter Lindbergh’s Portofino

Inspirational, true story of the original Cinderella in women’s basketball will open Oct. 21, 2011

Los Angeles, May 23, 2011 – Quaker Media, in association with Ocean Avenue Entertainment and The Maximus Group, has announced that The Mighty Macs, the inspirational underdog drama that captures the true story of the 1972 women’s college basketball championship, will open in theaters on Oct. 21, 2011. Set in suburban Philadelphia, The Mighty Macs features Carla Gugino (“Spy Kids,” “Race to Witch Mountain,” “Night at the Museum”), David Boreanz (Fox TV’s “Bones,” “Angel”), Marley Shelton (“Eleventh Hour,” “Pleasantville”)

and Academy Award®-winner Ellen Burstyn (Best Actress, “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”). Burstyn is among an elite group of performers who has won the “Acting Triple Crown” – an Oscar®, an Emmy and a Tony.

The Mighty Macs recounts the original Cinderella story of women’s college basketball. It’s about faith, commitment and the triumph of the human spirit … about anyone who has ever had a dream.

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New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre is presenting a reading/workshop of a stage adaptation of William Styron’s “Sophie’s Choice.”

The work, staged by artistic director Gordon Edelstein, features Carla Gugino (Broadway’s “Desire Under the Elms,” “After the Fall” and off-Broadway’s “Suddenly Last Summer”), Oscar Isaac and(Off-Broadway’s “Grace,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” “Beauty of the Father”),  Bobby Steggert (Broadway’s “Ragtime,” “The Minister’s Wife”).

The adaptation is by David W. Rintels, who worked with the cooperation of Styron before his death in November, 2006. The project has the support of the Styron family, says Edelstein.

The adaptation is based ion the 1979 book which was made into the 1982 film by Alan J. Pakula starring Meryl Streep (who won an Oscar for her role), Kevin Kline as Nathan and Peter McNichol as Stingo.

Long Wharf Theatre will be announcing its 2011-12 season tonight.

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[052] January 11th – Every Day Los Angeles Premiere
[029] January 14th – Showtime’s 2011 Winter TCA
[018] January 16th – 2011 InStyle/Warner Bros. Golden Globe Awards Party
[084] January 26th – The Rite Los Angeles Premiere

Have you ever watched a movie, thought to yourself “hey, that wasn’t bad” and then, not even an hour later, forgotten most of what you’ve seen? Elektra Luxx is one of those movies. And it’s a shame because the performances and characters are actually more than decent. Unfortunately, the story itself isn’t very interesting and, when all the parts come together, it just feels off.

A sequel to 2009′s Women in Trouble (also written and directed by Sebastian Gutierrez), Elektra Luxx takes place a few months after the events of the first film and features three different plots. The main story follows the title character, played once again by Carla Gugino, who has retired from the porn industry after finding out she was pregnant with now-deceased rock star Nick Chapel’s (played in the first by Josh Brolin, complete with lame British accent) baby. Instead of being a porn star, she is now teaching everyday women to be porn stars at a community center in her class “How to Be a Porn Star in Bed,” which I’m sure their husbands approve of.

After one of her classes, she is approached by Cora (Marley Shelton), the flight attendant in the first film who was the last to see Chapel alive. Cora has in her possession the lyrics to what would have been Chapel’s next album. It turns out that all the songs were about Elektra. Cora says she will give her the folder (no one uses flash drives in 2010?) if she seduces Cora’s husband and sleeps with him in order to wash away her guilt over cheating on him. Through some shenanigans, Elektra also ends up running into a private detective hired by the band to find those lyrics, played by Timothy Olyphant. And that’s just the BEGINNING of her story.

While that goes on, Elektra Luxx also focuses on porn stars/hookers to the rich Bambi (Emmanuelle Chriqui) and the dim-witted but lovable Holly Rocket (Adrianne Palicki, soon to be the next Wonder Woman). The two are vacationing in Mexico and while Bambi wants to do their usual thing of seducing rich guys, Holly just wants Bambi and fights to get the guts to tell her how she feels. And on top of those two stories, we also get the continuing saga of sex blogger Bert Rodriguez (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who is distraught over Elektra’s retirement and struggles to make it through the experience while also dealing with his wannabe pinup little sister and a potential love interest.

That’s a lot of story to balance in a 90-minute movie, rendering Elektra Luxx as merely passable when it could be so much more; the movie will shift from story to story at random intervals, taking the viewer out of one tale and into another too abruptly to elicit any real emotion or narrative interest. Elektra’s thread is the heart of the movie obviously, and Gugino knocks it out of the park as the both vulnerable and cocksure ex-porn star, but the situations that happen to, and around, her are over-the-top to the point of annoying, especially when it comes to a bizarre and wholly unnecessary cameo by Julianne Moore. It’s frustrating because Gugino is so good in the role, and Guitierrez doesn’t let her breath.

Holly and Bambi’s story is sweet, but nothing really happens. Holly pines for Bambi secretly and blah blah blah. I’m pretty sure you can guess how it works if you’ve watched a romantic comedy before. And once again, it’s a shame that the story is so dull because the two ladies are great, especially Palicki who makes her dumb porn star character Holly ridiculously adorable. I’ve never been a fan of her work, few people who’ve seen Legion would be, but she shows something here.

The highlight of the three stories has to be Bert Rodriguez. Though his part is the smallest, it’s the most lively and entertaining, and all the credit has to go to Gordon-Levitt. The guy is just fun to watch in everything and he continues it here; even though he’s barely featured, he has the funniest moments and the best lines and it almost feels like his parts have been inserted to break up the dullness of the other two on purpose, like the people involved knew they were going to lose the audience if they didn’t. Levitt can do no wrong at this point.

All in all, Elektra Luxx is a bit of a chaotic mess that fails because of exactly that. There’s too much going on too much of the time. There are three stories to pay attention to here, and without a good chunk of time to devote to all three in a real meaningful way, we seem to only get the duller parts. It’s a real shame too, because the cast is top notch and the characters are actually really likable. They would just be more likable if they had their own movies to shine in instead of having to fight for screen time.

Elektra Luxx hits theaters March 11th, 2011.

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In 2009, director Sebastian Gutierrez debuted a film called Women in Trouble at SXSW Film Festival. That film featured several women whose story-lines converged throughout the film, and it  became a cult classic of sorts. Elektra Luxx is the sequel to that film, and features several returning cast members.

Carla Gugino plays the title character, who is newly retired from the porn industry. She’s also pregnant, and the baby daddy  is recently deceased.  What’s a single sex siren to do?  Elektra shows some ingenuity and starts teaching some sex classes at the local community college for income. She struggles with insecurity about her pregnancy and the end of her career.

Things become further complicated when Elektra is visited by Cora (Marley Shelton), who has an unexpected and troubling connection to her deceased ex-boyfriend.  Cora asks Elektra to seduce her fiance. In exchange, Cora will give Elektra a set of song lyrics that Elektra’s musician boyfriend wrote about Elektra. A madcap series of events ensues when Elektra seduces the wrong person.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a sex blogger who has taken Elektra’s retirement very, very hard. He records a documentary style history of Elektra’s career in his mother’s basement.

There is also a storyline about two porn actresses (and friends) who are on a vacation in Mexico together. Holly Rocket (Adrianne Palicki) decides this is the perfect opportunity to tell her friend Bambi (Emmanuelle Chriqui) that she is in love with her.

The film bounces back and forth between these storylines, and it never feels like a cohesive narrative. I can appreciate that Gutierrez threw in a few random vignettes, but that is exactly what the whole film feels like-a series of shorts or vignettes shown in random order.  Julianne Moore appears as the Virgin Mary in one scene that left me scratching my head.

The film has a distinctly retro feel to it, and Gutierezz employs dream sequences, flashbacks, and black and white scenes to tell the story. This results in a film that feels disjointed at best.  I am curious if viewing Women in Trouble would have altered my perception of the film.

Elektra Luxx has a really amazing cast, particularly for a low-budget film. Gugino is wonderful and lovely, as usual. Gordon-Levitt is a treat as the blogger. Timothy Olyphont, Malin Ackerman, Julianne Moore, Justin Kirk, and Kathleen Quinlan all appear in the film as well.

The talented cast elevates the material;  it would be easy to write off the film if not for the actors. Though I didn’t love the film, I would marginally recommend it for its innovative approach to story telling.  You can view the trailer below.

Rating 2.5/5  Elektra Luxx is rated R.  Directed by Sebastian Gutierrez.  Starring Carla Gugino, Timothy Olyphont, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Justin Kirk, Malin Ackerman, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Marley Shelton, Adrianne Palicki.

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