i recently started following a tumblr by two lovely ladies in texas. recent college grads, which would put them around 22, 23 years old. just the age my daughter would be, if i had a daughter at 18.

one of them recently posted her amazement at alec baldwin being in beetlejuice. does that make me feel old? kind of. but it also makes me imagine the awkward conversation i’d have to have with my [FICTIONAL!] daughter about how hot alec baldwin was.

i mean, lawdy.

(yes, yes, he’s still attractive now, blah blah blah. but come on. the young alec baldwin? i would put his utilities under my name.)

i’ve been in the mood for movies lately, so i pulled a double feature today, young adult and the artist. i guess i have feelings & opinions on both, but right now i want to talk about one of the stars of the artist, jean dujardin. so great. he had the perfect face for this movie. where did they find him? [France, you idiot. The director is French & he’s done a number of comedies with Dujardin as his leading man. Don’t you retain anything from those articles you read? - Grumpy Ed.]

even though he was supposed to be a silent film star, dujardin was giving me a serious case of the gene kellys. here’s dujardin…

… and here’s g.kells.

now, jean dujardin is no dancer - don’t let the stiff tap dancing fool you - but he still had a good bit of kelly’s grace, which is tough to duplicate. you either have it or you don’t. he also looked good in high-waisted trousers and that was gene’s whole steeze.

so, among other things, the artist made me want to watch gene kelly clips all night.

to recap, jean dujardin:

gene kelly:

gene kelly dancing:

real talk: i have always thought miss piggy was one of the most beautiful females ever.

(also, please check the full body glance before piggy decided on “sister.” brilliant.)

my fall fashion inspiration is long duk dong’s sexy american girlfriend.

His coming roles suggest that the vengeance-fueled “Drive” is just the beginning of a new tough-guy phase. Mr. Gosling described “Place Beyond the Pines” as “very aggressive” and said of “Only God Forgives,” in which he plays an expat who runs a Thai boxing club in Bangkok, “The first line of the film is ‘I love violence,’ which should give you some indication.” Apart from a childhood fascination with Sylvester Stallone movies — “First Blood” compelled him to attack classmates with steak knives (he was suspended), and “Rocky” inspired a parking-lot brawl — he said he has never been drawn to brutality. But now “something’s changed,” he added. “I’m just compelled to make very violent films right now. I don’t really know why.”

the downside of working with a room of straight men is that there are no straight women who can get excited with you about ryan gosling decided to do more violent movies. there’s nobody who can stand in the kitchen with you & discuss how even though you’re not into violence AT ALL, you’re going through some sort of change of life and the idea of seeing a ryan gosling with a black eye makes you swoon - like, actually catch the vapors. there’s no one around to nod in agreement when you draw comparisons to the ryan gosling of now & the brad pitt of fight club and snatch.

[courtesy of the fine people at blackbookmag.]