The music of The Beatles and the Vietnam War form the story of the 2007 romantic film Across the Universe by Julie Taymor. Who is the actor starring opposite Evan Rachel Wood
LEVEL 2 — 🎬 FILM ENTHUSIAST
Welcome to the Film Enthusiast level — a round for those who don't just show up for the popcorn. You've argued about directors over drinks, gone back to rewatch something you weren't sure about, and have strong opinions about at least one universally praised film that left you cold. You talk about movies the way other people talk about sports. These twelve questions are for you.
Julie Taymor's Across the Universe (2007) takes the entire catalogue of the Beatles and weaves it into a love story set against the turbulence of the Vietnam War era. Songs are reimagined, recontextualized, and in some cases startlingly transformed. One of the film's more quietly remarkable moments is the song "Because," performed by exactly nine actors — a deliberate nod to how the Beatles themselves recorded it, their three-part harmony overdubbed three times to produce nine voices in all. Joe Anderson and Dana Fuchs appear in supporting roles. Evan Rachel Wood plays the female lead, opposite a young British actor whose name the question asks you to provide.
Greg Mottola wrote and directed Adventureland (2009), a romantic comedy set during the summer of 1987. Jesse Eisenberg plays James Brennan, a recent college graduate who takes a job at a run-down Pittsburgh amusement park to scrape together enough money for graduate school in New York. Ryan Reynolds plays against type as a charming, unreliable figure hovering over the story, with Wendie Malick and Kristen Wiig rounding out a strong supporting ensemble. The question concerns the actress who plays Brennan's love interest.
A 1985 dystopian fantasy imagines a retro-futuristic world strangled by bureaucracy, in which a low-level government clerk begins to slide between reality and dream after becoming entangled in a case of mistaken identity. Jonathan Pryce plays the central role, surrounded by a memorable ensemble: Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin, Ian Richardson, Peter Vaughan, and Jim Broadbent. Robert De Niro had lobbied hard to play the character of Jack Lint, but the role had already been promised to Palin; the director found another part for him instead. The film held deep personal significance for River Phoenix, who considered it his all-time favorite. Jonathan Pryce, knowing this, quietly arranged for Phoenix to meet the director — his hero. The meeting was scheduled for the very day Phoenix died outside the Viper Room. He never got there.
Jane Campion's In the Cut (2003) is a dark, unsettling thriller that represents a significant departure from the director's earlier work. It was co-written by Campion with Cypriot writer Stavros Kazantzidis, based on Susanna Moore's novel, with Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Jason Leigh in key supporting roles. Kevin Bacon appears, uncredited, as a stalker. Nicole Kidman, originally approached for the lead, turned it down — she was in the middle of her divorce from Tom Cruise and found the emotional weight of the role too close to home — though she took a co-producing credit. The actress who ultimately stepped into the central role is the answer the question is looking for.
Assassins (1995), directed by Richard Donner, features Julianne Moore in a significant part, but its backstory is arguably as compelling as the film itself. The original screenplay was written by the Wachowskis and sold for one million dollars to producer Joel Silver — at almost exactly the same moment Silver purchased their script for The Matrix for the same price. The Wachowskis later attempted to have their names removed from the finished film but were blocked by the Writers Guild of America; Brian Helgeland, who performed a complete page-one rewrite, shares a co-screenwriter credit. The film turns on the rivalry between two assassins — a seasoned professional and a younger rival — whose identities the question asks you to name.
Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles (1974) is one of American comedy's great sustained provocations, dismantling the mythology of the Western while simultaneously delivering a film that works on its own genre terms. Cleavon Little plays the sheriff. The film holds the informal distinction of being the first to deploy flatulence as a comedic sound effect. The casting of its title song has its own story: Brooks placed an advertisement for a "Frankie Laine-type" vocalist — and two days later, Frankie Laine himself walked through his office door, unaware the film was a parody. Laine performed the song in complete earnest and was reportedly quite satisfied when he eventually saw the finished result. The question concerns the actor who plays alongside Little as his partner.
Elektra (2005), directed by Rob Bowman, holds a specific historical footnote in the Marvel universe: it was the first Marvel film to center the story entirely on a female protagonist. Based on Frank Miller's comic book, it features Goran Visnjic, Kirsten Zien, Terence Stamp, and Natassia Malthe in supporting roles. The actress playing Elektra had previously embodied the character in another Marvel production, and takes the lead role here. Her name is the subject of this question.
One of the defining American films of the 1970s, this 1975 thriller had a turbulent production from the start: its original director was removed before principal photography had properly begun. On set, two of the three male leads developed a famously combative dynamic — their tensions on screen a product, at least in part, of genuine friction off it, including at least one incident involving a fire hose. Years later, one of them would describe the other as "the largest personality I have ever met on this earth," and recalled a standing invitation to perform Shakespeare together — a plan that circumstances would never allow to be fulfilled. Lorraine Gary appears alongside the three men. Steven Spielberg directed.
One of the great ensemble pieces of late-1980s American cinema gathers Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah, Tom Skerritt, and Sam Shepard in a drama that moves between laughter and grief with unusual ease. The man who wrote the original stage play — composed as a tribute to his late sister — appears on screen as the pastor who officiates both a wedding and a funeral. In 2012, the story was remade for television with an all-Black cast. The question asks you to name the film.
Hitman: Agent 47 revisits territory previously covered by the 2007 film Hitman, which starred Timothy Olyphant and Olga Kurylenko, both films drawing from the video game Hitman: Codename 47. Hannah Ware, Zachary Quinto, and Ciarán Hinds appear in supporting roles. The film also served as the directorial debut of Aleksander Bach. The leading actor — playing a genetically engineered assassin known only by his designation — is the subject of this question.
Mike Figgis's 1990 crime thriller maps the collision between a corrupt Los Angeles police officer and the Internal Affairs investigator brought in to build a case against him. Richard Gere plays the cop. Nancy Travis, Laurie Metcalf, and William Baldwin appear in supporting roles, with small parts for Annabella Sciorra and a very young Elijah Wood. John A. Alonzo served as cinematographer. The question asks for the name of the actor on the other side of the badge.
Penny Marshall's A League of Their Own (1992) tells the story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which kept the sport alive on the home front while men were at war — inspired in part by the real career of Dottie Collins, who pitched 17 shutouts across six seasons. Tom Hanks plays the team's reluctant manager. Lori Petty and Madonna both feature prominently, with Madonna contributing the film's title song, "This Used to Be My Playground," and Hans Zimmer providing the score. The question concerns the actress at the heart of the team — the one player everyone else is trying to keep up with.
Twelve films, twelve questions — from a Beatles love letter to a shark that rewrote the rules of summer cinema, from a women's baseball league that deserved to be remembered to a comedy Western that broke every taboo it could find. If any of these films shaped your moviegoing life, you're in the right place. Let's see how well you were paying attention.