Since its Saturday world premiere at the SXSW 2010, reviews on the Chris D’Arienzo-directed comedy Barry Munday have begun surfacing online — and we have been most pleased to find them largely positive! Out of 8 reviews we have so far read, only two have been negative, and a few have even commended Chloë Sevigny for her role of Jennifer Farley in the film, a supporting role though it is.

Below is a list of reviews we’ve so far uncovered and read; all comments on Chloë’s performance in the film have been cited here:

“It helps that their family members are played by veterans Malcolm McDowell, Cybill Shepherd, Jean Smart, and Chloe Sevigny, the latter at her most playfully smoldering.”
- Peter Martin, Cinematical

“Judy Greer is also great as the homely mother-to-be, and Chloe Sevigny and Malcolm McDowell (as Ginger’s younger sister and father, respectively) bring life to otherwise paper-thin characters, but this is Wilson’s show. And when you’re playing the title character of a movie that proudly presents his name in all caps, that’s the way it should be.”
- Jason Zingale, TV.com

External Links to Barry Munday Reviews:

• CinemaBlend.com (positive review; Chloë’s performance not mentioned)
• Cinematical (positive review; Chloë’s performance mentioned)
• ComingSoon.net (positive review + filmmaker interview; Chloë’s performance not mentioned)
• Entertainment Weekly (positive review; Chloë’s performance not mentioned)
• Film School Rejects (positive review; Chloë’s performance not mentioned)
• IndieWire (negative review; Chloë’s performance not mentioned)
• The Hollywood Reporter (via Reuters) (negative review; Chloë’s performance not mentioned)
• TV.com (positive review; Chloë’s performance mentioned)

We’ve found another interesting article today from last Saturday’s Barry Munday World Premiere from the ongoing SXSW 2010 festival in Austin, Texas.

HollywoodNews.com has an interesting piece on the film up on their website, with some new comments from the festival screening of the film from Chloë Sevigny and director Chris D’Arienzo regarding Chloë’s supporting role in the comedy as Jennifer Farley. According to the website, the film is currently seeking distribution.

Read the article in full at HollywoodNews.com; extract follows:

“I still don’t think I’m that comedic in this film,” Chloe Sevigny said with a laugh.

That’s not exactly what you want to hear from the star of a comedy. But Sevigny, in all honesty, might be the sixth or seventh funniest person in the all-star Barry Munday ensemble, which includes Judy Greer, Cybill Shepherd, Patrick Wilson, Malcolm McDowell, Missi Pyle, Colin Hanks, Christopher MacDonald, Kyle Gass, Jean Smart and Lando Calrissian himself, Mr. Billy Dee Williams.

And she’d be the first to admit that. “It was very challenging and very intimidating, especially because (co-stars Wilson and Greer) were so funny,” said Sevigny, an Oscar nominee and recent Golden Globe winner for her role on HBO’s Big Love. “I’ve been playing this character, Nicolette, (on Big Love) for so long that I’m so comfortable there. I hadn’t been doing a lot of films because of the schedule with HBO that then when I work on a film like Barry Munday, I am just terrified to be out of my comfort zone. I’m just, like, so scared!”

She overcame her fear to play Jennifer, the beautiful and flirtatious sister of Greer’s homely character, Ginger, in Chris D’Arienzo’s comedy. “For me, Ginger’s sister, Jennifer, needed to be the coolest person. And I was like, ‘Well, who is the coolest person?’ It’s Chloe,” said D’Arienzo.

But Sevigny was hesitant, even though she adored D’Arienzo’s screenplay about a woefully injured man (Wilson) who can’t remember impregnating a geeky woman (Greer). “I have never been in a kind of straight up comedy before,” Sevigny said. “But it’s something that I have been attracted to and have wanted to do for a long time, but haven’t had that many opportunities presented to me. When this one came around, I just jumped at the opportunity.”

I love the way Chloë always talks about her role on Big Love in this sort of introductory way, as if thinking no one’s ever heard of it… So cute and unassuming!

More pictures from the ongoing SXSW 2010! Yesterday, as previously reported, Chloë Sevigny was at hand at the festival Mr. Nice premiere in Austin, Texas. The screening for the Howard Marks-biopic was also attended by co-star Rhys Ifans and director Bernard Rose. Check out the first 10 medium-res photos of Chloë at the event at our gallery!

We furthermore have a couple of new medium-res pictures from Saturday’s Barry Munday premiere. Didn’t she just look great at both events? As always, we’ll keep looking for more pictures and will post them if and when we find them.

New & Updated Photo Albums:

• Appearances in 2010 > ‘Barry Munday’ SXSW 2010 Premiere on Mar 13
• Appearances in 2010 > ‘Mr. Nice’ SXSW 2010 Premiere on Mar 14

As previously reported, Barry Munday premiered yesterday afternoon to audiences at the ongoing SXSW 2010 in Austin, Texas. As expected, Chloë Sevigny, who stars in the Chris D’Arienzo-directed comedy in a supporting role as Jennifer Farley, was at hand at the premiere, from which we’ve been able to update the gallery with the first two pictures. Naturally, we’ll keep our eyes peeled for more.

Furthermore, the Austin 360 Movie Blog has posted a great article covering Chloë’s appearance at the premiere, including interview excerpts with the actress. The article features some great new and interesting details regarding her Barry Munday role of Jennifer, and gives a generally encouraging and positive view of the film and its festival reception.

Read the article in full at Austin360.com; excerpts follow:

Chloe Sevigny excused herself from the Q-and-A session after the screening of her comedy Barry Munday on Saturday afternoon at the Paramount. “I have stage fright,” she said, seemingly hiding on the theater’s mezzanine as a huge ovation erupted inside the auditorium while writer-director Chris D’Arienzo and co-stars Patrick Wilson and Judy Greer took the stage.“They always tend to ask the main actors all the questions, so it’s kind of like why do it?” she added.

Sevigny has a small but assertive role as a libidinous bad-girl in Barry Munday, a highly entertaining offbeat comedy about a rudderless guy (Wilson, hilarious) who, in a drunken haze, gets a mousey, 30-something virgin (Greer) pregnant, upending both of their loserish lives. Festival audiences are historically a generous lot, yet Munday earned its laughs and applause. “I was surprised how well this played. It’s really funny,” said Sevigny, who hadn’t even seen a clip of the movie until today. “I thought it was great. I was really amused.”

Sevigny — known for Kids, Boys Don’t Cry, American Psycho, Zodiac and HBO’s Big Love, for which she won a Golden Globe this year— loved D’Arienzo’s script for Barry Munday, finding it “charming, humorous and very tender.” She originally went for the lead role, Ginger, played to comic perfection by Greer. “There aren’t a lot of great parts for females out there, obviously,” Sevigny said. When Greer got the part, “I said, ‘I want to be in it even more now that Judy’s in it.’ She’s one of my favorite actresses. Since Jawbreaker I’ve been a huge fan of hers.”

Sevigny’s character, Ginger’s salacious younger sister, secretly dances at a strip club that Wilson’s character frequents. “That was me dancing, sadly,” Sevigny laughs. “I always promised myself I’d never play a stripper or a hooker, but I did this because it was comedic.” She dances to Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again,” ‘80s hair-band pop that can either be loved on its own terms or in a protective Snuggie of irony. “I love that song!” Sevigny says, and we believe her.

New Photo Albums:

• Appearances in 2010 > ‘Barry Munday’ SXSW 2010 Premiere on Mar 13

As previously reported, Chloë Sevigny is indeed at hand this weekend at the ongoing SXSW 2010 in Austin, Texas, where she is not only premiering the Chris D’Arienzo-directed comedy Barry Munday, but also the Howard Marks-biopic Mr. Nice, which is currently slated for an October 2010 UK release. According to the SXSW program, Mr. Nice will premiere at the festival tomorrow, March 14. Chloë, as one of the film’s stars, is expected to attend the film’s interview panel with co-star Rhys Ifans and director Bernard Rose — check out the event details at SXSW.com.

“When I thought I couldn’t have children, I thought Heavenly Father had forsaken me. Because of some things that had happened. Things I’d done.”
- Nicolette “Nicki” Grant

Our final recap of the season! Hopefully, y’all were able to tune in last Sunday to the exciting Season 4 finale of Big Love, the critically acclaimed HBO polygamist drama series starring Chloë Sevigny opposite Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ginnifer Goodwin. Here’s our recap of episode 4.09 “End of Days”, concluding the series’ fourth season; more under the cut (and please mouseover to read). As most of you will know, Big Love has been renewed for a fifth season. The recap:

(Continue reading…)

Check out this new, fascinating interview with Chloë Sevigny from The Advocate (US), a monthly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender magazine. Chloë was last interviewed for the publication for a Boys Don’t Cry cover story in March 2000, scans from which are available at our gallery.

The interview covers a lot of Chloë’s sexual orientation-related film and television work (such as her roles e.g. on Will & Grace, and in the films Broken Flowers and If These Walls Could Talk 2) as well as her own sexual orientation and her thoughts on the subject in general. She also talks about what happened onstage at this year’s Golden Globes in January, when the usher escorting her to accept the award for Best Supporting Actress (Television) accidentally stepped on and ripped her Valentino gown. It’s a really fun, honest and interesting article, so be sure to have a look!

Excerpts from the interview below; read it in full at Advocate.com:

Whenever I read about you turning down big-budget films like Legally Blonde to maintain your indie cred, I think, Why does Chloë hate money?
[Laughs] Well, it wasn’t the Reese Witherspoon part — let’s set the record straight — it was the Selma Blair part. But I was offered a Joe Orton play off-Broadway, What the Butler Saw, which I thought would be more challenging. I guess I didn’t realize the full potential of Legally Blonde at the time, but now I love those films — they’re hilarious.

Selma Blair interviewed you some years later for Interview magazine. Was the fact that you turned down her role an elephant in the room?
Aw, no, that stuff happens all the time. And so many girls have been offered parts that I’ve ended up doing, and I see them all the time — like the girl [Mia Kirshner] that got fired from Kids, which was the reason I got the role. Those are the breaks.

What attracted you to Monet, the apartment-flipping lesbian, on Will & Grace — Edie Falco as your sugar mama?
I was a huge Will & Grace fan! I loved Sean Hayes, and I just wanted to try a sitcom and see what that was all about. But what’s funny is that after I appeared on the show I could never watch it again. It lost the magic. We shot for two days, and the first day I was doing my quiet-whatever kind of acting that I do, but then I was like, If I don’t turn it up 10 notches, I’m just going to blend into the walls. So the next day I went in rip-roarin’ and ready to go, trying to ham it up, but it’s really hard to ham it up next to that cast.

[...] Another gay Big Love writer, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, did an impressive job of fleshing out the Alby and Dale relationship in the “Strange Bedfellows” episode earlier this season.
He did. He invited me to some bowling benefit for Second Stage Theatre the other night, so I went out to support them and hang out with him. He’s actually writing a musical version of American Psycho right now, which is really odd.

You don’t want any part of that?
No. [Laughs] But I would love to do Broadway. I guess I’m waiting for the right thing and the time. It’s hard to commit to anything like that when you’re on television.

[...] A few days after the Golden Globes ceremony, when I discovered on Greginhollywood.com that the escort who stepped on your dress, Joe Everett Michaels, was gay, I thought, Great, another reason for people to hate us: As if our pesky demands for equal rights weren’t enough, now we’ve gone and ripped Chloë Sevigny’s Valentino!
Oh, geesh, I know. He actually found me in the ballroom afterward, came up to me, and was going on and on, like, “I’m so, so, so, so sorry!” The poor guy. Accidents happen, so of course I accepted his apology. You know, I had a feeling something was going to happen. I thought I was just going to stain the dress or that I was going to trip, but leave it to the gays! [Laughs]

Just a friendly reminder to y’all that Big Love concludes its fourth season tonight with episode 4.09 “End of Days”. Be sure to tune in to what is surely going to be an exciting season finale at 9 PM on HBO. Below is the episode trailer and overview that we forgot to post earlier this week:

Bill faces last-minute threats to his candidacy; the three wives feel the strain as Election Day arrives.

“‘Nicki wow’ what? [...] What, Barb? Don’t you wanna put your two cents in?”
- Nicolette “Nicki” Grant

As always, we hope you were able to tune in last Sunday to the season’s second-to-last episode of Big Love, the critically acclaimed HBO polygamist drama series starring Chloë Sevigny in her Golden Globe-winning role of Nicolette “Nicki” Grant opposite Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ginnifer Goodwin. Here’s our recap of last Sunday’s episode, 4.08 “Next Ticket Out” (under the cut), please mouseover to read:

(Continue reading…)

Just a quick heads-up regarding Mr. Nice. The Bernard Rose-directed Howard “Mr. Nice” Marks-biopic which was previously expected to premiere in February this year in the UK is according to this report from WalesOnline currently set to premiere in October 2010:

Mr Nice is due out in October.

Chloë Sevigny stars opposite Rhys Ifans and David Thewlis as Judy Marks.