"Everybody's an act. Including you." -- Angela Chase

Film I have a Google News search set up in Bloglines for My So-Called Life (1994). Sometimes the results point to nostalgia pieces or if a former cast member randomly marries a rich scotsman (I wonder how AJ Langer's doing in that castle). But usually it's the Claire Danes news channel and lately there have been hundreds of interviews and reviews of her new film, Shopgirl (2005) in which she plays opposite Steve Martin and is generally being described at this year's Lost In Translation (2003). Actually the word has been mixed, but only in that wildly opposite 'Love It!' 'Hate It!' way of things. This review in Buffalo News is the best yet and frankly creates a warm glowy feeling. The final paragraph does it:

"And it gives a lot of people what they've been waiting for since she was an ultra-realistic smart-aleck teen on TV's "My So-Called Life" - Claire Danes as a major American movie actress."

I suppose you have to be certain age watching that darn television series to understand the cult of Danes. I've probably seen all of her released films and although some of them have been bad, she hasn't been awful in any of them. In fact often she's been the one performance which has held them together. Even in something like Terminator 3 (2003) when she'd be forgiven for being overshadowed by the special effects, the best moments are the characters scenes between her and that other underated actor Nick Stahl. I thought that Stage Beauty (2004) was going to break her but that got largely ingnored because it wasn't another Shakespeare In Love (1994) or Romeo and Juliet (1996) for that matter. So if this is the film which finally garners her the screen recognition she's always deserved, good luck to her. Now about that re-union film ... Bess Armstrong's available ...