ROBsessed™ - Addicted to Robert Pattinson

Grab yourself a cuppa (or some french fries) and sit down and read this article from the LATimes it's a good one!

NEW YORK — Jon Stewart tried to bait him with Ben & Jerry's Karamel Sutra. (Kate: I have GOT to keep a lookout for that flavour!) "Good Morning America" host George Stephanopoulos offered him Cinnamon Toast Crunch. But maybe French fries would have been a better ploy to get Robert Pattinson to spill some juicy personal details about his breakup with costar Kristen Stewart.

"Media culture is a monstrous thing," Pattinson lamented Wednesday afternoon, jamming fries into his mouth between puffs on his electronic cigarette. "You can't win. The annoying thing is that you can't attack them, but you can't defend yourself. The best thing you could possibly do is punch a paparazzi and give them their big payday."

The 26-year-old actor has run a gantlet of publicity this week that was nominally about promoting his new film, "Cosmopolis," which opens Friday. But the promotional blitz, which also included a New York premiere and other stops, seemed to be as much about proving his emotional resilience in the wake of the tabloid bonanza that exploded after photos surfaced of Stewart in compromising positions with 41-year-old Rupert Sanders, who directed her in "Snow White and the Huntsman."

Sitting alongside Pattinson for moral support at the Mandarin Oriental hotel on Columbus Circle was "Cosmopolis" director David Cronenberg. (Kate: Robenberg FTW) The Canadian filmmaker, whose challenging art house films almost never garner such wide attention, was there as a sort of buffer but also appeared to be quietly amused by the media circus. The actor's manager would not allow Pattinson to sit alone for an interview with The Times, (Kate: GO Nick!) and even suggested that reporters not ask him about his personal life, or "Twilight."

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Cosmopolis Reviews Part 7: "No one will be able to walk away from this movie thinking [Robert Pattinson] can’t act"

PromoRob has left ~~the building~~ NYC! My oh my he took that city by storm. And frankly, the world since everyone was watching. This weekend, the film opens up in only a few theaters in NYC and LA and Rob had a specific wish...

Challenge?? We love a challenge! Especially when Rob gives us the answer...

Whoa. Rob took BAT4Rob to another level. He's basically saying go big or go home. Sounds good to me :) I have 4 shows I'm seeing in NYC and 4 in LA. Sure sure...you might say he was exaggerating for humor but I'm just going to go with the literal translation. If you can get out this weekend to support the film and Rob, you won't regret it. :)

BUY TICKETS: Click HERE and HERE if you're in New York or HERE for Los Angeles

The film will expand beyond LA and NYC and we're keeping track of theaters. Click HERE for more theater information for the wider release on Aug. 24th

At this point, we have an awesome collection of reveiws for Cosmopolis and specifically, Rob's work in the film. They're worth a reread.

A new slew of reviews have been coming out with the release of the film in the US. Rotten Tomatoes still doesn't have a consensus percentage on the film's fresh rating but it's hovering in the mid-60%. Here are excerpts from some of the best:

Excerpt from Ropes of Silicon (B grade):

Robert Pattinson is primarily known as Edward from the Twilight series, a franchise that has done him no favors. However, in Cosmopolis all the work he's put in before is washed away as if it never existed. This is Pattinson's finest hour, his performance compliments everything I just described having to do with Cronenberg's filmmaking achievements, all leading up to an outstanding final scene in which Pattinson goes toe-to-toe with Paul Giamatti and the two knock it out of the park.

Excerpt from Film Comment Magazine:

Pattinson is as subtle as he is spectacular.

Excerpt from MSN (5/5 stars):

"Cosmopolis" is almost certainly some kind of masterpiece, but I have to admit it's probably not for everyone
...
Packer is played by "Twilight" heartthrob Robert Pattinson with an arrogant smirk and a weirdly mutating accent that gets more New Yorkese as his limo nears the Hudson. He is a whiz-kid financial master who can conduct every conceivable transaction -- sexual congress with his art dealer to a full physical with his physician -- from the throne-room-like back seat of his vulgar white stretch. As he passes violent protests, mourns the death of his favorite rap star and petulantly pouts over the concept that there's something out there that's not only not for sale but which "belongs to the world," he tests the limits of his power and his prescience by disastrously betting against a particular currency fluctuation. (And he also makes bizarre conciliatory talk in various quaint diners and bookshops, rest stops along the way, with his oddly dainty but steely new wife, a billionaire heiress herself.)

Excerpt from the New York Times:

A series of events, some involving the mysteriously unpredictable yuan, forcibly and with escalating violence shake Eric out of his torpor. Nearly affectless at first, Mr. Pattinson makes a fine member of the Cronenbergian walking dead, with a glacial, blank beauty that brings to mind Deborah Kara Unger in the director’s version of J. G. Ballard’s “Crash.” Mr. Pattinson can be a surprisingly animated presence (at least he was on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” where he recently put in a game appearance), and he may be capable of greater nuance and depth than is usually asked of him. Certainly, with his transfixing mask and dead stare, he looks the part he plays here and delivers a physical performance that holds up to a battery of abuses, including that prostate exam and some anticlimactic tears.

Excerpt from Rolling Stone (4 out of 5 stars):

In this fever dream of a movie, Pattinson is incendiary, notably in a climactic gun scene with the great Giamatti. Cosmopolis, demanding as it is daring, is no easy ride. I mean that as high praise.

Excerpt from Collider (8.4 out of 10)

It also functions as a superb meta-commentary on the value of celebrity by casting Pattinson in the lead. There could be no better choice, because not only does Pattinson break free of his romantic-lead mold, but by the very fact that we note his freedom. Robert Pattinson is a commodity. He first gained value by getting cast in Twilight, he has maintained his value by appearing in other romance films like Remember Me and Water for Elephants, and Cosmopolis is a calculated 180 for the actor. It’s the only way his career continues to grow, and it’s the smart move because he has attached his value to an indie feature, and split his risk by having David Cronenberg at the helm. Pattinson gives an intentionally stilted performance, but no one will be able to walk away from this movie thinking he can’t act. He acts to the piece, and we’ll have to wait for another role to “test” him.

This is how we measure a person. One could argue that we’re valuing his talent and not him, but he carries the Twilight franchise with him. The industry will write about this move, his fans will decide if they want to see him in a role that couldn’t be further away from Edward Cullen. Is Pattinson trying to lose everything like Packer? Of course not, but he also shares his character’s desire for freedom. I can only imagine the feelings of a Pattinson fangirl who sneaks into the movie only to see her on-screen crush engage in act after act of meaningless sex. Hopefully, it will drive her to see Cronenberg’s other movies and observe that sex is always a primal force rather than an expression of love.

Excerpt from Movieline (7.5/10 stars)

Pattinson does a quietly marvelous thing in finding vulnerability in Eric without making it seem like softness. The film depicts Eric's financial kingdom (and with it his sense of self) crumbling over a day, but his breakdown is a gradual one. His panic rises in barely perceptible increments.

Excerpt from TheFilmStage:

There are about a million places you could start with this thing. Oh, hell: “Brilliant.” Cosmopolis is certainly a brilliant film, one filled with all the subtext and qualities we call “cinematic” that you could ask for, but it presents this in a manner so deceptively simple it can only feel like genius.
...
So much of this rides on Pattinson’s shoulders — the man is in virtually every scene — making it all the more fortunate that he’s got the character down to a T. On the page, Packer is a selfish and sociopathic lout that no one should have any right to sympathize with. He’s not much different when played by the heartthrob, so Pattinson makes a genius move: using his appealing physical image as something of a tool against whatever resistance an audience might otherwise raise toward his character. He’s terrible, but not much less charming and magnetic, and the thrill one gets from watching him — the very, very legitimate thrill — is only part of a weird collective shame on an audience’s part. (It’s also funny to reflect and realize that Pattinson’s notoriously pale skin blends right into Peter Suschitzky‘s pallid cinematography.)

From Crave (9/10):

I have been waiting for a film like this. A film that earnestly and satirically confronts the economic crisis without reducing it to a hack plot, or a rote thriller. But also presents the large hulking machinery of the world economy as a bizarre game, with unseen rules, being played by inhuman creatures. Indeed, Pattinson plays the kind of archetypal rich guy you picture when we (the 99%) have discussions about rich guys. This film is a meditation, almost an abstraction, that muses on the very very very very rich, and manages to cast them in a new light. Pattinson is not playing the usual mean-spirited yuppie go-getter that we’re used to from the Reagan era. Pattinson is acquisitive, but doesn’t seem particularly ambitious or passionate. He glides through the system like an eel casually feeding on poor creatures it doesn’t even notice are nourishing it. The speeches of Gordon Gecko are a thing of the long ago past in this world. In this world, one must be born with inorganic parts in order to survive.
...
Weird, difficult, and important, Cosmopolis may be one of the best films of the year.

Excerpt from Very Aware (4 out of 5 stars):

Pattinson shines when he embraces his character’s descent into darkness. Uneven at times, it’s a nuanced performance that will make you want to see more of this in the future. Peter Suschitzky’s cinematography is crisp, polished, and effused with a warmth Pattison’s character sorely lacks. It’s that juxtaposition that makes Cronenberg’s framing all the more addicting to watch.

Excerpt from Film.com (A-):

[Eric Packer's] played, quite wonderfully I might add, by Robert Pattinson, and “Cosmopolis” offers in fine detail his dreamlike journey across Manhattan to get a haircut.
...
“Cosmopolis’” trump card is a remarkable, dead-pan humor. As a critic, I oftentimes scribble a quote when a particularly witty, insightful line of dialogue pops up. I wasn’t ten minutes in to “Cosmopolis” when I put down my pen; I realized I’d essentially been taking dictation.
...
Pattinson is more than just a haircut here. Initially, he seems as smug as any man whose building has different elevators depending on his mood. As his journey moves on, and his intangible deals on international currency commence to breed ruin, he sheds more of his facade, until a Noo Yawk accent emerges and he ends up face to face with his destiny.

Excerpt from Screen Crush (7/10:

I must confess that I didn’t always follow what Cronenberg was up to in ‘Cosmopolis,’ but I always enjoyed the ride. The atmosphere is dark and bizarre, and deadpan too — it’s sometimes hard to tell whether the joke is on the capitalists, the anti-capitalists, or the audience. I suspect the film’s unconventional structure and tone will turn off a lot of viewers, who may balk at the meandering, talky narrative and the ambiguous and anticlimactic ending.
Personally, I loved the final shot. That’s exactly how this dream would end just a second before you woke up.

Excerpt from BoxOffice.com (4/5):

Don't panic, but Robert Pattinson may have been neutered. He still looks like a vampire and behaves like an alien, but in David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis—which the scowling actor carries like a cross—when Pattinson finally gets to uncork all of the sex that the Twilight franchise had him bottle for centuries, he does so with all the damp enthusiasm of a dog humping a fire hydrant at the mercy of his instincts.

Excerpt from DeadSpin (B+):

If Cosmopolis leaves you feeling nothing for its main character, that's by design. Even as Eric's possible comeuppance seems imminent near the end, Pattinson doesn't try to make us care about this poor, heartless bastard. Cronenberg's claustrophobic construction of Eric's world is brilliant and monochromatic and entirely unnerving. Cronenberg and Pattinson have given us a frightening image of the modern power player as utterly soulless cipher. So often, Hollywood's Wall Streeters are arrogant young twits hellbent on screwing over everyone in sight. Cosmopolis suggests something even more frightening: They're so disconnected from the world that they no longer remember what emotions even are. Maybe Pattinson isn't playing a vampire in this movie—he's a zombie.