Leave The Fedora At Home, Please.

I was at Borders today reading the magazines and I came across the March issue of Details Magazine. It had an interesting article called Cool or Tool?. The article focused on the celebrity-induceness of fedoras. It had an interesting topic, but ultimately the article was hallow and provided absolutely nothing meaningful. Don’t believe me? Read it for yourself.

But I do like the topic. Fedoras are very classy when Frank Sinatra and Humphrey Bogart wore it. Even Indiana Jones looked rugged and nice. They are a classy piece when wore right. But with the resurgence of the item, people aren’t wearing it right. Think of celebrities like Kevin Federline, Pete Doherty, and Johnny Depp. It’s a bit excessive. Yes, some can slightly pull it off like Justin Timberlake and Brad Pitt (but really no), but most people shouldn’t. Especially regular people walking into a Starbucks wearing a fedora and a graphic tee (not a good one too since I saw that day too). Leave it for the classics and for dress-up, please! You’ll look tacky. Or worse, an unintentional douche bag.

Grace Kelly: Hitchcock’s Ultimate Blonde

Grace Kelly grew up living a fairy tale lifestyle. From her upbringing as a New England socialite to her legendary work as an actress to her magical marriage to Prince Rainer, there never has been an actress like Ms. Kelly. Her filmography only consists of 11 films, but many are well-known and memorable. One of her first films, High Noon, is a Western classic while her role in The Bridges of Tokyo-Ri and Mogambo proved to be sequential parts to the epic movies. Kelly won her her Oscar in The Country Girl while her final films, High Society and The Swan, leave the indelible mark of a princess. But within her entire film career, audiences will always remember Miss Kelly through her works with the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. With only three films, Grace Kelly epitomized Hitchcock’s ultimate cool blonde. The blonde in which they were perfection and glamour visually, but carried the flaws of mischief, obsession, neurosis, and infidelity. Other actresses have personified Hitchcock’s cool blonde persona like Tippi Hedren, Kim Novak, and Vivien Leigh, but none have matched the iconography like Grace Kelly. So forget the rest, and focus on the best:

Dial M for Murder (1954):

In Grace Kelly’s first collaboration with Hitchcock, she plays the perfect wife until the audience learns she having an affair in which her husband plans to eliminate her permanently. The plot is the most fun as we anxiously wait for the killer’s reveal. Unfortunately, Kelly is sidelined in a great movie, but stands with poise and confidence nonetheless.

Rear Window (1954):

Many viewers can’t help but look at Grace Kelly as she plays the girlfriend of crippled James Stewart. We are confined to his apartment, and possibly question if there is a murder across the hall. Is it in our heads? Well, send the mischievous Grace Kelly as she dazzles the screen with her attire and her gracious poise, and her woman’s intuition.

To Catch A Thief (1955):

Grace Kelly is finally paired with Cary Grant, and the sparks fly as the couple travel the French Riviera to find the burglar. The landscape is beautiful as the two fall in love and their interaction is the stuff of legend as the audience receives witty chemistry from the two most beautiful people in cinematic history. Kelly’s last pairing with Alfred Hitchcock proves to be a classic.

Wolverine Takes Charge Leading The X-Men.

The X-Men comics have been adapted into an animated series four times: the pilot of Pryde and the X-Men in 1989, the popular X-Men: The Animated Series in the 1990s, and X-Men: Evolution in 2000. The most current incarnation is Wolverine and the X-Men, which recently premiered in 2009.

Now, I like all four versions of the X-Men, but this version seems to hit a different mark, albeit a really successful one. The series has the same art crew from X-Men Evolution with acclaimed comic book writers Christopher Yost and Craig Kyle (a la X-Force, New Mutants, and X-23 fame) heading the writing department to create a rich tapestry of the X-Men world. The basic premise is that the X-Men have disbanded after a big explosion that destroyed the mansion leaving Professor Xavier and Jean Grey missing. Through the intervention of Wolverine, he gathers the X-Men but find oppositions through Magneto and his Brotherhood as he creates a mutant haven in Genosha. The X-Men also have opposition from hate monger Senator Kelly and the Mutant Response Division (MRDs), which unethically captures all mutants.

My favorite parts is the series’ classic lineup of core X-Men members with their iconic uniforms. Wolverine gathers Best, Iceman, Shadowcat, Storm, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Angel, and Forge. Along the way, spectators watch as Rogue aligns herself with the Brotherhood with an unlikely initiation of Emma Frost. The characterization is spot on with characters like Cyclops brooding over Jean and the ambiguous treachery of Emma Frost throughout the entire series.

Because of the world the X-Men live in, the viewers are treated to a lot of background characters: the Cajun thief Gambit, the shape-shifting Mystique, the telepath Psylocke, and many others. My only complaint is that Wolverine is given far much importance as the leader of the X-Men. I may be biased as I never was a Wolverine fan. But I am happy that Jean is sidelined while the importance of Xavier is felt from a distance (he‘s stuck in the future). Yost and Kyle weave faithful storylines that only serve to tell really good stories. I’ve watched 18 episodes so far, so the last 7 will surely be explosive.