Rarely has a pop star just starting out been so loved and loathed as Lana Del Rey, the 25-year-old who has filled acres of newspaper column inches even before her debut album “Born to Die” hits shelves next week.

First came the “breakthrough” when her video for the song “Video Games” was viewed millions of times on YouTube leading to the sultry chanteuse becoming the talk of the music business.

That success prompted the question ’just who is Del Rey?’ and inquisitive fans quickly uncovered that the New York native, whose real name is Elizabeth Grant, was the daughter of Internet domain investor Rob Grant and came from a wealthy background.

Then, it was learned singer had previously been signed to a label, which fueled debate about her authenticity as an indie music artist garnering success through a viral video. The backlash picked up steam after Del Rey’s recent, shaky singing as the musical guest on U.S. sketch comedy show “Saturday Night Live.” It was attacked with vitriol by fans and critics alike.

“She’s hit a nerve in some way, which is both a good thing and a bad thing as people are talking about her,” said Lyndsey Parker, blogger at Yahoo! Music.

“There’s a huge curiosity about her and if that was what the label wanted, they’ve done a great job.”

But rather than addressing the criticism directly, Del Rey’s response has been to retreat from the public eye and shun live performances ahead of the album’s release — a rarity these days when promotion is the name of the game in show business if stars want to sell records, books, movies or TV shows.

She appears to have given only one interview following the “Saturday Night Live” performance, published last week in British newspaper The Telegraph.

“I don’t want to talk about how it (the criticism) made me feel because I think it’s disrespectful to God to go to a dark place with this kind of thing. People just want to see me go off the rails. That’s the only reason they’re watching,” Del Rey told the Telegraph.

That interview has seemed only to add to the intrigue surrounding the singer who many have tipped as the next big thing among female solo acts. Del Rey, through her representatives, declined an interview with Reuters.

“It’s really hard to get people to stop and pay attention to you, and Lana Del Rey has done that. So, she’s cleared a hurdle that ninety-nine percent of millions of artists never clear,” said Bill Werde, editorial director of Billboard. “The next hurdle is, can she deliver a hit song or hit album?”

“HITCHCOCK HEROINE”

Part of Del Rey’s appeal has been her manicured, vintage-inspired appearance, with waves of tumbling auburn hair framing an often expressionless demeanor in a look that Yahoo’s Parker likened to an “icy, Hitchcock heroine.”

Del Rey has denied that her look, which has earned her a modeling contract, and on-stage persona is a gimmick. But whether pre-meditated image-making or just personal taste, one thing is certain: the singer’s retro style and attractive features have won over fans and critics.

“The image matches the music and it does make her stand out in an era where a lot of people dress in hotpants, almost naked, and her throwback image is kind of cool,” said Parker.

Del Rey’s voice ranges from syrupy sweet to huskily haunting on what Freddie Campion at Vogue calls “epic, scene-setting melodies” when she sings lyrics such as “You were sorta punk rock, I grew up on hip hop, but you fit me better than my favorite sweater” on her single, “Blue Jeans.”

Lyrically, the “Born To Die” album tracklist fluctuates between dark tales of star-crossed lovers in “Lucky Ones” and “Blue Jeans” and gritty stories of broken dreams in songs like “Carmen.” She references teen drinking and drug abuse in the ode “National Anthem” and in “This is What Makes Us Girls.”

Whether Del Rey earns hit status with her new album remains to be seen. Early reviews have been mixed.

New York Times’ Jon Caramancia likened “Born To Die” to “a multiple choice test with every answer scanned ’C’.”

Andrew Hampp at Billboard.com called the record “as puffy as the singer’s oft-debated lips,” adding that some of the songs became stale throughout the album.

But there has been positive, too. James Lachno at The Telegraph gave the record four out of five stars, saying the “misty-eyed retro-pop makes for compelling listening.”

For Del Rey, the album marks a personal achievement after her struggle to break in to the industry.

“I think it’s beautiful. I think it’s gorgeous. This album is myself in song form,” she told The Telegraph. “All I wanted to do was make something beautiful, and I think I’ve done that.”

“Born to Die” will be released on Interscope, part of the Universal Music Group, on Jan. 30 in the United Kingdom and Jan. 31 in the United States.

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One of the best films I saw at this year’s Sundance Film Festival^[1] was writer-director Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal‘s first feature, The Words^[2]. The film stars Bradley Cooper as a writer who, after discovering an extraordinary lost manuscript, passes the work off as his own and receives overwhelming critical acclaim.  Jeremy Irons plays the man who originally wrote the manuscript, and the film weaves multiple narratives to tell the story.  The Words also stars Zoe Saldana, Dennis Quaid, Olivia Wilde, Ben Barnes, and JK Simmons.  CBS Films bought the film after its first screening and they plan to release it later this year.  It’s definitely a film you should be excited to see.

Shortly after watching the movie, I got to sit down with Ben Barnes for an exclusive interview.  We talked about what it means to be at Sundance, how he got involved in The Words and who he plays, karaoke^[3], video games, and and he tells a funny story about how Colin Firth kept him laughing on the set of Dorian Gray.  In addition, Barnes talked about his other upcoming projects like The Wedding^[4] (which stars Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Amanda Seyfried, Susan Sarandon and Robin Williams), The Seventh Son^[5] with Jeff Bridges (which he starts to film next month and says it’ll be PG-13), and reveals that Overdrive^[6] with Karl Ubran has fallen apart.  Hit the jump for more.

As usual, I’ve time indexed the interview so you can watch the parts that interest you.  Look for Matt’s review of The Words very soon (I know he also thought it was great).

Ben Barnes Time Index

• :18 Talks about the Sundance experience. This is his first time at the festival and he’s wanted to go for years.
• 2:12 Gives a quick synopsis of the film and talks about what attracted him to the project. Says his agent initially told him to pass because the role didn’t have a lot of lines.
• 5:17 Talks about how many takes he prefers to do. Discusses how actors don’t generally get to choose how many takes they want.
• 6:40 Reveals the most amount of takes he’s ever had to do. The project was Dorian Gray with Colin Firth and he couldn’t keep a straight face during one particular scene.
• 8:06 What’s his go-to karaoke song? Says depending on how drunk he is, he’s either trying to be Jay-Z or Whitney Houston.
• 8:57 What’s the last video game he played? He learned American football by playing Madden on PS3.
• 9:41 Talks about The Wedding. Reveals that he plays the adopted Columbian son of Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton who’s preparing to marry Amanda Seyfried’s character. His Columbian mother, whom he neglected to tell that De Niro and Keaton got divorced, decides to come to the wedding. He asks De Niro’s new wife, played by Susan Sarandon, to leave for the duration of the wedding and Robin Williams plays the priest who’s marrying Barnes and Seyfried.
• 11:10 Talks about having to up his game when working with a cast as talented as The Wedding. Says he tries to do the opposite and become extremely relaxed.
• 12:30 Discusses The Seventh Son with Jeff Bridges. Says he starts filming next month. The film is loosely based on a series of books called The Spook’s Series. Bridges plays a grizzled and grumpy witch hunter who needs a new apprentice, which is Barnes. Says the movie will be PG-13.
• 14:45 Says the shoot for The Seventh Son will last three months and they’re filming in Vancouver and China. Says Overdrive with Karl Ubran fell apart.
• 15:23 Talks about how lucky he is to work with so many incredible actors.

References

1. ^{^} Sundance Film Festival (collider.com)
2. ^{^} The Words (collider.com)
3. ^{^} karaoke (collider.com)
4. ^{^} The Wedding (collider.com)
5. ^{^} The Seventh Son (collider.com)
6. ^{^} Overdrive (collider.com)

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Charlie Sheen has a new ex-wife – on TV at least.

Actress Shawnee Smith has been cast as Sheen’s onscreen ex in his upcoming TV comedy Anger Management, in which the actor will play a former baseball player with rage issues who becomes an unconventional anger management counsellor.

Selma Blair is in talks to play the therapist to Sheen’s character – and it seems the actor is keen for her to land the role.

Earlier this week, Sheen told news show Access Hollywood, “She’s (Blair) a strong front runner and she’s a very special lady and I think as pretty as the day is long and she has never really had the opportunity to do something where she can really shine. Off camera she’s hilarious.”

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Just a few days ago, Demi Moore was forced to drop out^[1] of her cameo role as Gloria Steinem in the biopic Lovelace^[2]. Now it appears producers have settled on a replacement, as EW reports that Sarah Jessica Parker will now take over the Steinem role. The film stars Amanda Seyfried as the titular Linda Lovelace and chronicles the actress’ rise to fame following Deep Throat. The film centers on Lovelace’s tempestuous relationship with her husband (Peter Sarsgaard), who she accused of coercing her into the profession.

I don’t necessarily think Parker is a fantastic choice to play the feminist icon, and I much preferred the rumored Mary-Louise Parker as Moore’s replacement. No matter, the role is ultimately a small one in the film. Steinem founded Ms. Magazine, which published an article entitled “The Real Linda Lovelace” that discussed Lovelace’s abusive relationship with her pornographer husband. The pic also stars Sharon Stone, Adam Brody, Chloe Sevigny, Juno Temple, and James Franco as Hugh Hefner. Lovelace is currently filming in Los Angeles.

References

1. ^{^} was forced to drop out (collider.com)
2. ^{^} Lovelace (collider.com)

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Out beyond the circle of firelight, eyes gleam in the night in “The Grey.” Two eyes. Six eyes. Ten. More.

A lot more.

Hostile, unblinking eyes. Eyes coldly regarding a handful of men cowering close to the flames. Then there are the sounds in “The Grey.” Howls. Snarls. Screams.

The sounds of men being torn to pieces by wild beasts.

It’s man against nature in “The Grey.” And nature has the upper hand. It can kill in so many ways, and does, often in spectacularly bloody fashion.

Filmmaker Joe Carnahan (“The A-Team”) has made a movie of primal power in “The Grey.” The tale, which he co-scripted with Ian Mackenzie Jeffers (whose short story “Ghost Walker” is the inspiration for the movie), is elemental in its simplicity. A plane crash strands a small group of survivors in the Alaskan wilderness in the dead of winter.

The crash site is in the frigid, snowbound middle of nowhere. The survivors, a scruffy bunch of oilfield roughnecks played by a group of mostly little-known character actors, have no radio. They have no guns. They have little food and less hope that they’ll be rescued. No one knows where they are.

What they do have is about a zillion ferocious wolves closing in for the kill. But they also have Liam Neeson as their leader, so perhaps all is not lost. Neeson is the ultimate alpha male actor in movies today, and consequently the character he plays might be just the guy to save the exhausted, frightened group from the snapping fangs of the wolf pack and its enormous alpha male lupine leader.

Or maybe not. Neeson’s character is a man in torment. Early on he’s seen chewing on the muzzle of a high-powered rifle, his finger tightening on the trigger. He’s in the grip of suicidal despair over the loss of the love of his life, a nameless beauty (Anne Openshaw) glimpsed only in fleeting flashbacks. Can he rouse himself from his funk to lead the other survivors to safety?

In addition to his commanding physical presence, Neeson has the ability, unmatched by any other Hollywood leading man, to convey soul-deep anguish. It comes from somewhere deep inside him. In this picture, it’s shattering in its intensity.

Filmed in British Columbia, “The Grey” is a harshly beautiful movie. Sawtoothed mountains, frigid rushing rivers and snowy forests as far as the eye can see are captured with such vividness by director of photography Masanobu Takayanagi that you feel you can practically see your breath as the story unfolds.

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