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Recently Released In Theaters Reviews
The Dark Knight Mamma Mia! Take Space Chimps Hellboy II: The Golden Army Journey to the Center of the Earth Garden Party August Diminished Capacity Kabluey Hancock Wall-E Wanted Finding Amanda Get Smart Recently Added Spotlights Heath Ledger Christian Bale Aaron Eckhart Maggie Gyllenhaal Gary Oldman Minnie Driver Brendan Fraser Anita Briem Josh Hutcherson James McAvoy Brittany Snow Matthew Broderick The Jonas Brothers Mike Myers Romany Malco |
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 Heath Ledger
Interview By: Benjamin Lee When the teen movie had an unexpected comeback in 1999, Hollywood was bombarded with a new rush of fresh faces. Many believed that the Brat Pack mk II had arrived as stars such as Tara Reid, Freddie Prinze Jr, Julia Stiles, Mena Suvari and Jason Biggs showed us how tough it was to be a teen all over again. But like the Brat Pack, the burnout rate was scarily high. So while Freddie Prinze Jr mugs his way through a pitiful sitcom and Tara Reid drunkenly flashes her breasts for the umpteenth time, there’s only a select few teens who have managed to carve a successful career and rise above the expectations. Step forward Heath Ledger. 10 Things I Hate About You was a cut above most high school movies with its intelligent Shakespearean origins and helped to make the Australian Ledger a teen heartthrob. This was further cemented in 2001 with A Knight’s Tale. But it wasn’t until 2005 that Ledger managed to appease all possible contingents of the audience. Brokeback Mountain was the surprise smash of the year, garnering Ledger endless critical acclaim and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. His perfectly nuanced turn as a ranch hand struggling to come to terms with his sexuality made critics stand up and take notice and suddenly Ledger was part of Hollywood’s A-list. But instead of following it up with one of the inevitably mainstream scripts he would have surely received, Ledger decided to return to his roots with the low-budget Australian drama Candy. Based on the cult novel by Luke Davies, Candy tells the story of a destructive relationship between two heroin addicts played by Ledger and by rising starlet Abbie Cornish. It’s a harrowing tale that doesn’t compromise in its unflinching portrayal of the devastating effects drugs can have on the lives of those who can’t live without them. It’s a dysfunctional love story and one that has not two but three elements keeping it together. ‘I guess it’s a love triangle’, Ledger believes, ‘between them and the drug. I think they’re just kind of intertwined. But I think we were all telling ourselves that it was more a love story than a story of heroin’. The love story which centers the film is between Ledger who plays Dan, a reckless young poet and Candy, played by Cornish, a middle-class painter who is lured into his way of life. For Ledger, it’s a far cry from the lighter films he first burst on the scene with. But it wasn’t necessarily the subject matter that drew him to the film. ‘It was just the opportunity to work from home again. The scripts in Australia are slim pickings these days and it was the best one available’ he admits. ‘It had been 8 years since I’d used my own accent in a movie and I was curious to see what that would be like’. Up until a few weeks ago, Ledger would have |
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