“Where will we run away to this time?” asks Soraya Bakri (Nadine Labaki) of her husband Walid (Saleh Bakri), partly joking but mostly not, when what looks like all the trash in Beirut appears on their rural hideaway’s doorstep. Mounia Akl’s “Costa Brava, Lebanon,” is mostly a bittersweet dramedy built from an intimate, sprightly understanding of internal family dynamics, but it is fringed with the implicit melancholy of Soraya’s question. When she and Walid left noisy, polluted Beirut eight years prior to raise chickens, vegetables and two daughters on a little plot of land in the countryside, were they running-toward or running-away-from? And if living off-grid is your dream — or the dream of the one you love most — what do you do when the grid comes to you?
Dealing with an issue that locates it sometime during the 2015 Beirut Garbage Crisis, when the streets of the city were overflowing with uncollected trash,...
Dealing with an issue that locates it sometime during the 2015 Beirut Garbage Crisis, when the streets of the city were overflowing with uncollected trash,...
- 9/14/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
In something of a “Frozen” reunion, Kristen Bell and Jonathan Groff will reunite in a musical film called “Molly and the Moon” from the creators of “How I Met Your Mother,” Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.
Bays and Thomas wrote the script and will also direct the live-action musical comedy that is being presented to buyers at the American Film Market by CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group. FilmNation is handling international sales.
The music will also come from “The Get Down’s” Stephanie Diaz-Matos as music supervisor and composer Nathan Larson, as well as executive music producer Harvey Mason Jr., who worked on the “Pitch Perfect” films and “Sing.”
Bell and Groff play a couple who are expecting a child and sing to their unborn baby in the womb. But the film also takes us inside the womb...
Bays and Thomas wrote the script and will also direct the live-action musical comedy that is being presented to buyers at the American Film Market by CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group. FilmNation is handling international sales.
The music will also come from “The Get Down’s” Stephanie Diaz-Matos as music supervisor and composer Nathan Larson, as well as executive music producer Harvey Mason Jr., who worked on the “Pitch Perfect” films and “Sing.”
Bell and Groff play a couple who are expecting a child and sing to their unborn baby in the womb. But the film also takes us inside the womb...
- 11/5/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Exclusive: In what becomes one of the hot packages of the American Film Market, Kristen Bell and Jonathan Groff will star in Molly and the Moon, an original musical that How I Met Your Mother creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas scripted, and they will direct. Harvey Mason Jr (Sing and the Pitch Perfect films) will be the executive music producer, Stephanie Diaz-Matos (The Get Down) will be the music supervisor and Nathan Larson the composer.
CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group will introduce the package to buyers today and FilmNation is handling international sales.
The script for Molly and the Moon might be a welcome diversion for buyers who like everyone else are feeling that post-election high anxiety today. Like their sitcom, Bays and Thomas’ film creation has comedic elements, but there are real stakes; it is grounded in a personal crisis experienced by Thomas shortly after...
CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group will introduce the package to buyers today and FilmNation is handling international sales.
The script for Molly and the Moon might be a welcome diversion for buyers who like everyone else are feeling that post-election high anxiety today. Like their sitcom, Bays and Thomas’ film creation has comedic elements, but there are real stakes; it is grounded in a personal crisis experienced by Thomas shortly after...
- 11/5/2020
- by Mike Fleming Jr and Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Earlier this week, I took a look at Ethan Hawke’s latest directorial effort. Today, we’ll be looking at his newest starring role. The movie in question is Juliet, Naked, which is based on the charming Nick Hornby book of the same name. This week, the adaptation hits theaters, offering up something mellow and nice for audiences. Hawke getting to play an elusive rock star would suggest a far harder edged affair than this, but it makes for a nice little change of pace. You won’t necessarily see any raves about this kind of flick, but you need them. They’re comfort food, cinematically speaking. The film is described, via IMDb, as such: “Juliet, Naked is the story of Annie (the long-suffering girlfriend of Duncan) and her unlikely transatlantic romance with once revered, now faded, singer-songwriter, Tucker Crowe, who also happens to be the subject of Duncan’s musical obsession.
- 8/16/2018
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
“Juliet, Naked” charmed the roof off the Eccles Theater at the Sundance Film Festival when it premiered there in January, and no wonder.
Jesse Peretz’s adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel is a lovely low-key comedy with a rock ‘n’ roll heart, with Rose Byrne, Chris O’Dowd and Ethan Hawke delivering a trio of deftly and subtly drawn performances from Hornby’s deep trough of memorable characters.
Hornby’s books have been adapted into the commercial and critical successes “High Fidelity,” “Fever Pitch” and “About a Boy.”
Also Read: 'The Children Act' Film Review: Emma Thompson Grapples With Conscience in Sluggish Legal Drama
“Juliet, Naked” is the story of Annie, a British woman in her late 30s whose longtime boyfriend, Duncan, is one of the leaders of a somewhat motley online community of music lovers and nutcases that has grown up around the slim but influential output of one Tucker Crowe,...
Jesse Peretz’s adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel is a lovely low-key comedy with a rock ‘n’ roll heart, with Rose Byrne, Chris O’Dowd and Ethan Hawke delivering a trio of deftly and subtly drawn performances from Hornby’s deep trough of memorable characters.
Hornby’s books have been adapted into the commercial and critical successes “High Fidelity,” “Fever Pitch” and “About a Boy.”
Also Read: 'The Children Act' Film Review: Emma Thompson Grapples With Conscience in Sluggish Legal Drama
“Juliet, Naked” is the story of Annie, a British woman in her late 30s whose longtime boyfriend, Duncan, is one of the leaders of a somewhat motley online community of music lovers and nutcases that has grown up around the slim but influential output of one Tucker Crowe,...
- 8/15/2018
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
"You want to join them?" Samuel Goldwyn Films has debuted the first official trailer for an indie musical titled Saturday Church, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year. The film is being described as Moonlight meets La La Land (of course these two films are named), but set in New York City. The story follows a 14-year-old boy named Ulysses, struggling with gender identity and religion, who begins to use fantasy to escape his life in the inner city and find his passion in the process. Broadway up-and-comer Luka Kain stars as vibrant youngster Ulysses, with a cast including Margot Bingham, Regina Taylor, Mj Rodriguez, Marquis Rodriguez, and Indya Moore. Saturday Church also features songs and music composed and co-written by musician-turned-film composer Nathan Larson. This looks like a triumphant, uplifting, inspiring film from NYC. And this reminds me of the excellent documentary Kiki. Worth a watch.
- 12/5/2017
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Exclusive: Sales deal for feature produced by Maggie’s Plan producer Rebecca Miller; first-look image.
WestEnd Films has acquired international rights to Saturday Church, the musical produced by Damon Cardasis and Rebecca Miller from Round Films (Maggie’s Plan) and Mandy Tagger Brockey and Adi Ezroni from Spring Pictures (A Late Quartet).
Cardasis (Vicky & Lysander) has directed the movie, of which Screen can reveal the first look.
The score is composed by Nathan Larson (Boys Don’t Cry).
The movie follows Ulysses, a teenager from the Bronx struggling with gender identity and religion, who uses fantasy and music to escape his real life and figure out who he truly is.
The film stars newcomer Luka Kain alongside Margot Bingham (The Family) and Regina Taylor (I’ll Fly Away).
Currently in post-production, WestEnd will introduce the film to buyers at the Afm. CAA is representing the North American rights.
WestEnd Films has acquired international rights to Saturday Church, the musical produced by Damon Cardasis and Rebecca Miller from Round Films (Maggie’s Plan) and Mandy Tagger Brockey and Adi Ezroni from Spring Pictures (A Late Quartet).
Cardasis (Vicky & Lysander) has directed the movie, of which Screen can reveal the first look.
The score is composed by Nathan Larson (Boys Don’t Cry).
The movie follows Ulysses, a teenager from the Bronx struggling with gender identity and religion, who uses fantasy and music to escape his real life and figure out who he truly is.
The film stars newcomer Luka Kain alongside Margot Bingham (The Family) and Regina Taylor (I’ll Fly Away).
Currently in post-production, WestEnd will introduce the film to buyers at the Afm. CAA is representing the North American rights.
- 11/4/2016
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Review by Dana Jung
Traitors screens Friday November 14th at 2pm and Thursday November 20th at 12:15pm as part of the St. Louis International Film Festival. Both screenings are at the Plaza Frontenac Theater. For ticket information for the screening on the 14th, go Here. For ticket information for the screening on the 20th, go Here.
When asked why she doesn’t have a boyfriend, Malika replies, “It’s not my priority.” For Malika, the central character in the new film Traitors, the main focus in her life is her music. We are introduced to Malika’s passion for rock and roll in the movie’s introductory scene, as she practices with her all-female band. “I’m so bored!” she half sings, half screams into the microphone in a fierce expression of punk angst. But boredom is the least of Malika’s problems, because Malika is a young Moroccan...
Traitors screens Friday November 14th at 2pm and Thursday November 20th at 12:15pm as part of the St. Louis International Film Festival. Both screenings are at the Plaza Frontenac Theater. For ticket information for the screening on the 14th, go Here. For ticket information for the screening on the 20th, go Here.
When asked why she doesn’t have a boyfriend, Malika replies, “It’s not my priority.” For Malika, the central character in the new film Traitors, the main focus in her life is her music. We are introduced to Malika’s passion for rock and roll in the movie’s introductory scene, as she practices with her all-female band. “I’m so bored!” she half sings, half screams into the microphone in a fierce expression of punk angst. But boredom is the least of Malika’s problems, because Malika is a young Moroccan...
- 11/13/2014
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Ioncinema.com’s Ioncinephile of the Month feature focuses on an emerging filmmaker from the world of cinema. This September, we put the spotlight on the writer-director of The Skeleton Twins. After exploring the thirtysomething slackerhood with the 2009 SXSW Film Festival preemed True Adolescents, Craig Johnson’s sophomore feature visits a paralleled (re)union of sibling spirits where the pursuit of happiness is challenged by the skeletal remains of what was left in one’s past. An examination of the sometimes vacuous, sometimes endearingly noir phases that the psyche tends to visit, the Sundance U.S. Dramatic Competition Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award winning film mowed down Park City auds with the versatile Kristin Wiig and Bill Hader proving that comedy and drama do mix.
Johnson’s delicate empathetic portrait of the misfits carries some vintage moments, and was instantly picked up by Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions for distribution and is landing in theatres September 12th.
Johnson’s delicate empathetic portrait of the misfits carries some vintage moments, and was instantly picked up by Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions for distribution and is landing in theatres September 12th.
- 9/7/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
While Kristen Wiig has already played her breakout role in "Bridesmaids," and has used that opportunity to forge her own path in Hollywood, including lining up a new directorial gig, we've been waiting for her "Saturday Night Live" co-star Bill Hader to get his shot. He's certainly lined up no shortage of small roles in a number of movies (everything from "Superbad" to "The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby"), but in "The Skeleton Twins" he co-stars with Wiig with the pair leading the dramedy. Premiering earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, the movie follows an estranged brother and sister, reunited after ten years, who face the various challenges in their lives. Craig Johnson ("True Adolescents") directs the film, which has a score from Nathan Larson, and while we had mixed feelings on the movie, we noted out of Park City that that the film "proves to be a fine showcase for Wiig and Hader,...
- 6/30/2014
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
By Terence Johnson
Managing Editor
Not all of the films at the Sundance Film Festival can be winners. God’s Pocket, the feature film directorial debut of Mad Men‘s John Slattery, is a mildly competent film that outside of a few visual gags and famous actors, doesn’t manage to do anything of note or really impresses at any turn.
God’s Pocket is a movie about a blue-collar town filled with crazy characters whose lives can’t help but intersect after Leon Scarpato (Caleb Landry Jones) is killed in a construction “accident.” Mickey (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) just wants to bury his son, but financial troubles and his wife’s (Christina Hendricks) insistence that the death wasn’t an accident force him to address much of his circumstance and deal with his crumbling life. In addition to this, he has to deal with a friend (John Turturro) who has...
Managing Editor
Not all of the films at the Sundance Film Festival can be winners. God’s Pocket, the feature film directorial debut of Mad Men‘s John Slattery, is a mildly competent film that outside of a few visual gags and famous actors, doesn’t manage to do anything of note or really impresses at any turn.
God’s Pocket is a movie about a blue-collar town filled with crazy characters whose lives can’t help but intersect after Leon Scarpato (Caleb Landry Jones) is killed in a construction “accident.” Mickey (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) just wants to bury his son, but financial troubles and his wife’s (Christina Hendricks) insistence that the death wasn’t an accident force him to address much of his circumstance and deal with his crumbling life. In addition to this, he has to deal with a friend (John Turturro) who has...
- 1/18/2014
- by Terence Johnson
- Scott Feinberg
It’s that time again. The biggest American film festival is upon us, and this year the Ioncinema crew will be descending on Park City with eight feet on the ground and eight eyes on Park City’s various and plentiful screens. Eric Lavallee, Nicholas Bell, Caitlin Coder and I will be covering just about every inch of this year’s festival here at Ioncinema.com, as well as on that ever increasingly vibrant instanews network – Twitter. Be sure to follow @ioncinema and, as stated above, my personal handle @Rectangular_Eye, as we’ll be tweeting throughout the festival with breaking news, reviews, and sightings, all the while trying to keep up with the massive amount of content sure to be coming from this year’s Sundance filmmakers themselves, most of which have their own Twitter accounts and are listed at length below (minus the world & short programs). Whether you...
- 1/16/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
The first in this year’s Guide to the Sundance Twitterverse series is the complete U.S. Dramatic Competition, which just at first glance has an immense amount of tweeting going on. Don’t miss the Hellion crew, headed by Writer/Director Kat Candler (@katcandler), nor the official Dear White People feed, (@DearWhitePeople). There’s more to come throughout the day.
U.S. Dramatic Competition
Camp X-Ray - @CampXRayMovie
Cold in July
Producer René Bastian - @renebastian
Dear White People - @DearWhitePeople
Writer/Director Justin Simien - @JSim07
Producer Lena Waith - @hillmangrad
Producer Julia Lebedev - @thisisresearch
Actor Tyler James Williams - @TylerJamesWill
Actress Teyonah Parris - @TeyonahParris
Fishing Without Nets - @fishing
Writer/Director Cutter Hodierne – @MyNameIsCUTTER
Writer/Producer John Hibey - @somaliproduced
Producer Raphael Swann - @raphaelswann
Producer Brian Glazen - @bglazen
Cinematographer Alex Disenhof – @adisenhof
God’s Pocket
Producer Sam Bisbee - @sambisbee
Composer Nathan Larson...
U.S. Dramatic Competition
Camp X-Ray - @CampXRayMovie
Cold in July
Producer René Bastian - @renebastian
Dear White People - @DearWhitePeople
Writer/Director Justin Simien - @JSim07
Producer Lena Waith - @hillmangrad
Producer Julia Lebedev - @thisisresearch
Actor Tyler James Williams - @TylerJamesWill
Actress Teyonah Parris - @TeyonahParris
Fishing Without Nets - @fishing
Writer/Director Cutter Hodierne – @MyNameIsCUTTER
Writer/Producer John Hibey - @somaliproduced
Producer Raphael Swann - @raphaelswann
Producer Brian Glazen - @bglazen
Cinematographer Alex Disenhof – @adisenhof
God’s Pocket
Producer Sam Bisbee - @sambisbee
Composer Nathan Larson...
- 1/16/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
I'm always impressed when male filmmakers use the horror genre to say something interesting about women. Obviously we need more female writers, producers, and directors (a lot more) in the horror genre, but at least we can enjoy it when creative men step up and represent the female gender in frank and honest fashion. Filmmakers like Lucky McKee (May, The Woman), Paul Solet (Grace), Mitch Lichtenstein (Teeth), Pascal Laugier (Martyrs), Neil Marshall (The Descent), Richard Bates (Excision) and several others are plainly interested in how women can function within the realm of horror as heroines, anti-heroines, victims, and victimizers, which makes each new discovery sort of exciting.
Add Austin Chick's low-key but coolly fascinating Girls Against Boys to the list of indie horror films, written and directed by men, that aspire to give young women something new to do in horror films. Veteran of the indie circuit -- he...
Add Austin Chick's low-key but coolly fascinating Girls Against Boys to the list of indie horror films, written and directed by men, that aspire to give young women something new to do in horror films. Veteran of the indie circuit -- he...
- 2/26/2013
- by Scott Weinberg
- FEARnet
With Anchor Bay Films’ psychological rape/revenge feature Girls Against Boys opening theatrically in New York and Los Angeles on February 1st, we conducted a lengthy interview with the flick’s acclaimed writer and director, Austin Chick.
Girls Against Boys (review here), which lands on Blu-ray and DVD on February 26th, stars Danielle Panabaker (2009’s Friday the 13th ), Nicole Laliberte (“Dexter”), Liam Aiken (Road to Perdition), Michael Stahl-David (Cloverfield), and Andrew Howard (2010’s I Spit On Your Grave) in a film which revolves around the character of Shae (Panabaker), a naïve New York college student, who, after being tormented by several men in a matter of days, reaches her breaking point and is drawn into co-worker Lu’s (Laliberte) twisted plan for revenge.
Filmmaker Chick chatted with us at length regarding the production. Dig in!
Dread Central: In ways the film seems the offspring of Baise-moi and Fight Club, although with a more languid,...
Girls Against Boys (review here), which lands on Blu-ray and DVD on February 26th, stars Danielle Panabaker (2009’s Friday the 13th ), Nicole Laliberte (“Dexter”), Liam Aiken (Road to Perdition), Michael Stahl-David (Cloverfield), and Andrew Howard (2010’s I Spit On Your Grave) in a film which revolves around the character of Shae (Panabaker), a naïve New York college student, who, after being tormented by several men in a matter of days, reaches her breaking point and is drawn into co-worker Lu’s (Laliberte) twisted plan for revenge.
Filmmaker Chick chatted with us at length regarding the production. Dig in!
Dread Central: In ways the film seems the offspring of Baise-moi and Fight Club, although with a more languid,...
- 1/12/2013
- by Sean Decker
- DreadCentral.com
My friend’s dad took us to see Willow one sunny summer’s day in 1988. It was a good movie and all, but honestly I was extremely distracted throughout the whole thing. All I could think about was one of the coming attractions I’d seen for a film called Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I’d seen Bedknobs and Broomsticks and other fare where cartoons were mixed with live action. But this flick looked much different—it had sex and violence and swear words. Mix those with cartoons, and it was everything my almost adolescent heart could desire.
Thing was I was gonna have to wait until the next summer. Sharp-eyed kid that I was, though, I’d seen in the trailer credits that the flick was based on a book called Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by a guy name of Gary K. Wolf. The next weekend, I rode my...
Thing was I was gonna have to wait until the next summer. Sharp-eyed kid that I was, though, I’d seen in the trailer credits that the flick was based on a book called Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by a guy name of Gary K. Wolf. The next weekend, I rode my...
- 10/1/2012
- by Jimmy Callaway
- Boomtron
Chicago – “Silent House” inspires the same strange mixture of feelings that I felt while watching fascinating yet severely flawed pictures like “The Life Aquatic” or “I Heart Huckabees.” My rational mind recognizes that the film doesn’t quite work, and yet my inner cinephile urges me to recommend it anyway. Here’s a movie that’s nearly worth seeing in spite of itself.
The directing team of Chris Kentis and Laura Lau made an enormous impression on horror fans with their 2003 indie hit, “Open Water,” which remains one of the scariest films of the last decade. For the majority of its running time, the film centered on the bobbing heads of a couple hopelessly stranded in the middle of shark-infested waters. By following the premise to its logical conclusion, the film refused to loosen its grip on viewers’ imaginations, while masterfully playing on their most primal fears.
Blu-ray Rating: 2.5/5.0
In their latest feature effort,...
The directing team of Chris Kentis and Laura Lau made an enormous impression on horror fans with their 2003 indie hit, “Open Water,” which remains one of the scariest films of the last decade. For the majority of its running time, the film centered on the bobbing heads of a couple hopelessly stranded in the middle of shark-infested waters. By following the premise to its logical conclusion, the film refused to loosen its grip on viewers’ imaginations, while masterfully playing on their most primal fears.
Blu-ray Rating: 2.5/5.0
In their latest feature effort,...
- 8/2/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Dewey Decimal, the amnesiac post-apocalypse obsessive-compulsive P.I., returns in his second novel.
Nathan Larson comes with a pretty high pedigree. Not only did he used to play bass for D.C. hardcore band Swiz and then guitar for Shudder to Think, he also composed the scores of such films as Choke, Margin Call, and Our Idiot Brother. And for the last couple of years, he’s been writing speculative-detective fiction.
I know, what a big show-off, huh?
Well, when you’ve got it, you’ve got it, and Larson’s got it. Last year’s The Dewey Decimal System easily made my top five books of 2011, and I have little doubt that its follow-up, The Nervous System will have any trouble doing the same in 2012.
The Nervous System finds Dewey in his normal situation: all fucked up. After the cataclysmic events of the last book, Dewey is a bit unmoored,...
Nathan Larson comes with a pretty high pedigree. Not only did he used to play bass for D.C. hardcore band Swiz and then guitar for Shudder to Think, he also composed the scores of such films as Choke, Margin Call, and Our Idiot Brother. And for the last couple of years, he’s been writing speculative-detective fiction.
I know, what a big show-off, huh?
Well, when you’ve got it, you’ve got it, and Larson’s got it. Last year’s The Dewey Decimal System easily made my top five books of 2011, and I have little doubt that its follow-up, The Nervous System will have any trouble doing the same in 2012.
The Nervous System finds Dewey in his normal situation: all fucked up. After the cataclysmic events of the last book, Dewey is a bit unmoored,...
- 7/3/2012
- by Jimmy Callaway
- Boomtron
Boarded up windows, locked doors, and dimly lit rooms . . . these are all ingredients for a haunted house. Throw in an unwelcome house guest or two and your about half-way there in terms of what to expect from Silent House. However, in an attempt to not let you be bored by the all too familiar scenario, directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, have employed the same gimmick that the original Uruguayan film boasted: one long continuous camera shot. Though it may be this clever device that gets you into the theater to see the film, it will be the engaging performances and intense experience that will leave you remembering it.
Silent House takes you on a single-take camera ride through a creepy house with Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen). She has returned to her family’s desolate home to help out her father (Adam Treese) and uncle (Eric Sheffer Stevens) fix it up in order to sell it.
Silent House takes you on a single-take camera ride through a creepy house with Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen). She has returned to her family’s desolate home to help out her father (Adam Treese) and uncle (Eric Sheffer Stevens) fix it up in order to sell it.
- 3/9/2012
- by Michael Haffner
- Destroy the Brain
'[Elizabeth] Olsen rivets our attention, and the camera's, so fiercely it verges on unbearable,' Kat Murphy of MSN.com writes.
By Kara Warner
Elizabeth Olsen in "Silent House"
Photo: Open Road Films
Although based on a 2010 Uruguayan Spanish-language horror film, "Silent House" is supposedly inspired by actual events, which only adds to its creep factor. It's not a movie for the faint of heart. Elizabeth Olsen stars as a young women who finds herself trapped in a remote cottage where she is haunted and hunted by unknown horrors.
While critics seem divided over whether it is mostly good or bad — the film is currently hovering around the 50 percent Fresh mark over at Rotten Tomatoes — almost all of them had high praise for the technical construction of the film, which was uniquely done by filming the entire movie in one long, continuous shot.
Read on through the "Silent House" reviews ... if you dare.
By Kara Warner
Elizabeth Olsen in "Silent House"
Photo: Open Road Films
Although based on a 2010 Uruguayan Spanish-language horror film, "Silent House" is supposedly inspired by actual events, which only adds to its creep factor. It's not a movie for the faint of heart. Elizabeth Olsen stars as a young women who finds herself trapped in a remote cottage where she is haunted and hunted by unknown horrors.
While critics seem divided over whether it is mostly good or bad — the film is currently hovering around the 50 percent Fresh mark over at Rotten Tomatoes — almost all of them had high praise for the technical construction of the film, which was uniquely done by filming the entire movie in one long, continuous shot.
Read on through the "Silent House" reviews ... if you dare.
- 3/9/2012
- MTV Movie News
'[Elizabeth] Olsen rivets our attention, and the camera's, so fiercely it verges on unbearable,' Kat Murphy of MSN.com writes.
By Kara Warner
Elizabeth Olsen in "Silent House"
Photo: Open Road Films
Although based on a 2010 Uruguayan Spanish-language horror film, "Silent House" is supposedly inspired by actual events, which only adds to its creep factor. It's not a movie for the faint of heart. Elizabeth Olsen stars as a young women who finds herself trapped in a remote cottage where she is haunted and hunted by unknown horrors.
While critics seem divided over whether it is mostly good or bad — the film is currently hovering around the 50 percent Fresh mark over at Rotten Tomatoes — almost all of them had high praise for the technical construction of the film, which was uniquely done by filming the entire movie in one long, continuous shot.
Read on through the "Silent House" reviews ... if you dare.
By Kara Warner
Elizabeth Olsen in "Silent House"
Photo: Open Road Films
Although based on a 2010 Uruguayan Spanish-language horror film, "Silent House" is supposedly inspired by actual events, which only adds to its creep factor. It's not a movie for the faint of heart. Elizabeth Olsen stars as a young women who finds herself trapped in a remote cottage where she is haunted and hunted by unknown horrors.
While critics seem divided over whether it is mostly good or bad — the film is currently hovering around the 50 percent Fresh mark over at Rotten Tomatoes — almost all of them had high praise for the technical construction of the film, which was uniquely done by filming the entire movie in one long, continuous shot.
Read on through the "Silent House" reviews ... if you dare.
- 3/9/2012
- MTV Music News
SXSW is barely 24 hours away from starting (catch up with part one and part two of our preview pieces here), and at this point, it's important to be reminded that one of the things that makes the festival unique is a particular focus on the crossover between music and film, something that's been a special interest of ours since the very earliest days of The Playlist. SXSW doesn't just have a whole sidebar dedicated to music documentaries (with this year's batch including films centered on LCD Soundsystem, Paul Simon and Big Star), and a music festival that runs alongside, but the films screened seem to attract a disproportionate number of scores by indie and rock musicians.
And with more and more names who broke out from the pop and rock world -- from veteran composers like Danny Elfman and Clint Mansell to newbies like Trent Reznor and The Chemical Brothers -- moving into composition,...
And with more and more names who broke out from the pop and rock world -- from veteran composers like Danny Elfman and Clint Mansell to newbies like Trent Reznor and The Chemical Brothers -- moving into composition,...
- 3/8/2012
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
"Sure to be drowned out by the drum circles at Occupy Wall Street, writer-director Jc Chandor's lifeless Margin Call depicts roughly 36 hours at an unnamed Manhattan investment firm at the dawn of the 2008 financial freak-out," begins Melissa Anderson in the Voice. "Chandor's debut feature audaciously asks us to empathize with obscenely overpaid risk analysts and their bosses, a gambit that fails not only because of what's happening at Zuccotti Park, but largely because his characters are little more than mouthpieces for blunt speechifying and Mamet-like outbursts."
Salon's Andrew O'Hehir isn't so quick to dispatch Margin Call to the disc-pile of history. For one thing, he notes that it "features one of Kevin Spacey's best screen performances as the firm's middle-aged ace salesman, trapped between his longtime loyalty and his waning sense of ethics. But explaining how these guys justified their rapacious and immoral behavior to themselves is not...
Salon's Andrew O'Hehir isn't so quick to dispatch Margin Call to the disc-pile of history. For one thing, he notes that it "features one of Kevin Spacey's best screen performances as the firm's middle-aged ace salesman, trapped between his longtime loyalty and his waning sense of ethics. But explaining how these guys justified their rapacious and immoral behavior to themselves is not...
- 10/24/2011
- MUBI
Four new movies are opening in wide release this weekend. Apart from Paranormal Activity 3, which is expected to top the weekend box office and doesn’t feature any original music, the following three movies are receiving a wide release:
The Three Musketeers directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starring Logan Lerman, Milla Jovovich, Orlando Bloom, Christoph Waltz, Matthew MacFayden, Luke Evans, Mads Mikkelsen, Juno Temple and Ray Stevenson features music by Paul Haslinger. A soundtrack album featuring the composer’s score, as well as Take That’s end title song When We Were Young has been released earlier this week by Milan Records. Check out our previous article for the full details and audio clips from the score.
Also opening wide is the action spoof Johnny English Reborn starring Oliver Parker and starring Rowan Atkinson, Rosamunde Pike, Dominic West and Gillian Anderson. The film’s score is written by Ilan Eshkeri.
The Three Musketeers directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starring Logan Lerman, Milla Jovovich, Orlando Bloom, Christoph Waltz, Matthew MacFayden, Luke Evans, Mads Mikkelsen, Juno Temple and Ray Stevenson features music by Paul Haslinger. A soundtrack album featuring the composer’s score, as well as Take That’s end title song When We Were Young has been released earlier this week by Milan Records. Check out our previous article for the full details and audio clips from the score.
Also opening wide is the action spoof Johnny English Reborn starring Oliver Parker and starring Rowan Atkinson, Rosamunde Pike, Dominic West and Gillian Anderson. The film’s score is written by Ilan Eshkeri.
- 10/22/2011
- by filmmusicreporter
- Film Music Reporter
Three new movies are opening in wide release this weekend:
Opening in most theaters is the horror thriller Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark directed by Troy Nixey, produced by Guillermo Del Toro and starring Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce and Bailee Madison. The film’s music is composed by Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders. A soundtrack album featuring the score has been released digitally earlier this week and will be coming out on CD on September 27 on Lakeshore Records. For audio clips and more details, visit our previous article.
Also opening wide is the indie comedy Our Idiot Brother directed by Jesse Peretz and starring Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer, Steve Coogan, Hugh Dancy, Rashida Jones and Shirley Knight. Nathan Larson and Eric D. Johnson composed the movie’s score. Abkco Records has released a soundtrack album including selections of the score, as well as several songs from the movie.
Opening in most theaters is the horror thriller Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark directed by Troy Nixey, produced by Guillermo Del Toro and starring Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce and Bailee Madison. The film’s music is composed by Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders. A soundtrack album featuring the score has been released digitally earlier this week and will be coming out on CD on September 27 on Lakeshore Records. For audio clips and more details, visit our previous article.
Also opening wide is the indie comedy Our Idiot Brother directed by Jesse Peretz and starring Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer, Steve Coogan, Hugh Dancy, Rashida Jones and Shirley Knight. Nathan Larson and Eric D. Johnson composed the movie’s score. Abkco Records has released a soundtrack album including selections of the score, as well as several songs from the movie.
- 8/27/2011
- by filmmusicreporter
- Film Music Reporter
The Our Idiot Brother soundtrack. Some might say that marketing/advertising is a profoundly dishonourable profession. That it’s all a three-ring circus operated by slick-talking snake oil salesman, peddling premium-priced versions of the emperor’s new underpants to gullible schmoes, with this in turn further fuelling the excrement-spewing media pipeline that pumps crap directly into the poor unsuspecting public’s collective cranium.
And when you find that a movie which was called My Idiot Brother just six months ago, when it played to a largely positive reception at Sundance, has now been rechristened Our Idiot Brother ahead of a Us release at the end of next month, it’s hard not to wonder just how many marketing monkeys it took to change that particular re-branding light bulb, and how much green they scored for their (lack of) efforts.
But if the name-change smacks of tinkering for the sake of charging an oversized fee,...
And when you find that a movie which was called My Idiot Brother just six months ago, when it played to a largely positive reception at Sundance, has now been rechristened Our Idiot Brother ahead of a Us release at the end of next month, it’s hard not to wonder just how many marketing monkeys it took to change that particular re-branding light bulb, and how much green they scored for their (lack of) efforts.
But if the name-change smacks of tinkering for the sake of charging an oversized fee,...
- 7/18/2011
- by Paul Martin
- Movie-moron.com
Abkco Records will be releasing the official soundtrack album for the indie comedy Our Idiot Brother. The soundtrack features selections from the film’s score by Nathan Larson and Eric D. Johnson, as well as songs by such artists as Willie Nelson, Generationals, Fruit Bats, Daniel Tashian & Mindy Smith, El May and Carol King. The album will be released on August 23, 2011 and is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Our Idiot Brother is directed by Jesse Peretz (First Love, Last Rites, The Ex) and stars Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer, Steve Coogan, Hugh Dancy, Rashida Jones and Shirley Knight. The movie premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and has been picked up by the Weinstein Company for a theatrical release on August 26. For more information on the comedy, visit the official film webpage.
Here’s the album track list:
1. Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round The...
Here’s the album track list:
1. Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round The...
- 7/5/2011
- by filmmusicreporter
- Film Music Reporter
In his groundbreaking post-hardcore outfit Shudder To Think—particularly the band’s 1994 masterpiece, Pony Express Record—guitarist Nathan Larson helped push rock music into places it had never ventured before. Since then, he’s made his name composing film scores, from Boys Don’t Cry to Dirty Pretty Things. What possessed him to wander into genre fiction is anyone’s guess—but if his frustrating debut novel, The Dewey Decimal System, is any indication, he has a long way to go before rising above the level of enthusiastic dabbler. Larson launches The Dewey Decimal System on a solid platform ...
- 5/5/2011
- avclub.com
Nathan Larson needs no introduction: former D.C. punker and Swiz bassist, math rock wiz + ex-lead guitarist for Shudder To Think, member of the band A Camp, and current NYC based award-winning composer of music for over thirty fine films including My Idiot Brother, Boys Don't Cry, The Messenger, Dirty Pretty Things and The Woodsman to name a few.
Now Larson has now written his debut novel, entitled The Dewey Decimal System.
This is the first book in a literary-noir series featuring an obsessive-compulsive protagonist in a ravaged New York City.
Due out in May on Akashic Press, on offer Now is a very exclusive, very limited Hardbound, Signed edition, individually numbered. Very few of these will be printed, and you can pre-order yours now here!
Here are what people are saying about the novel:
"The perfect blend of dystopia and the hard-boiled shamus. It's great to know that there...
Now Larson has now written his debut novel, entitled The Dewey Decimal System.
This is the first book in a literary-noir series featuring an obsessive-compulsive protagonist in a ravaged New York City.
Due out in May on Akashic Press, on offer Now is a very exclusive, very limited Hardbound, Signed edition, individually numbered. Very few of these will be printed, and you can pre-order yours now here!
Here are what people are saying about the novel:
"The perfect blend of dystopia and the hard-boiled shamus. It's great to know that there...
- 2/16/2011
- by Tiberius
- GeekTyrant
Director: Marcus Graves.
Writers: Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson.
Choose is a film from director Marcus Graves, which premiered at the 2010 Frightfest Halloween All-Nighter in Leicester Square (Quiet Earth). Recently, the film was released on DVD in the United Kingdom through G2 Pictures. The film stars some notables such as Kevin Pollak (The Usual Suspects), Bruce Dern (Monster) and Katheryn Winnick (Amusement). Each actor does their best to sell a tense thriller, but the musical work of Nathan Larson is what creates much of the tension. The story brings back the ancient Jewish law of an eye for an eye for eye, or in this case a life for a life, in what is a mostly solid thriller.
Winnick plays Fiona, a woman stalked by a masked killer. Before the final confrontation, several appearingly random people are subjected to torture and dismemberment, with few actual choices. The connections become clearer later on,...
Writers: Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson.
Choose is a film from director Marcus Graves, which premiered at the 2010 Frightfest Halloween All-Nighter in Leicester Square (Quiet Earth). Recently, the film was released on DVD in the United Kingdom through G2 Pictures. The film stars some notables such as Kevin Pollak (The Usual Suspects), Bruce Dern (Monster) and Katheryn Winnick (Amusement). Each actor does their best to sell a tense thriller, but the musical work of Nathan Larson is what creates much of the tension. The story brings back the ancient Jewish law of an eye for an eye for eye, or in this case a life for a life, in what is a mostly solid thriller.
Winnick plays Fiona, a woman stalked by a masked killer. Before the final confrontation, several appearingly random people are subjected to torture and dismemberment, with few actual choices. The connections become clearer later on,...
- 1/18/2011
- by Remove28DaysLaterAnalysisThis@gmail.com (Michael Allen)
- 28 Days Later Analysis
Collider has the disappointing news that the Academy’s unpredictable music branch has disqualified this year’s scores from three top composers: Carter Burwell, Michael Brook and Clint Mansell. [Mansell's] work...
- 12/21/2010
- by Ryan Adams
- AwardsDaily.com
The 36th Ghent International Film Festival has named "Eyes Wide Open" by Israeli director Haim Tabakman as the Grand Prize for Best Film winner of the event, it was announced Wednesday.
"Eyes Wide Open" tells the story of a married Orthodox Jewish father who falls in love with a homeless Yeshiva student. When he hires him to work as his apprentice at his butcher shop, they form a close friendship which eventually develops into an emotional and sexual relationship. Being a devout religious man, he is torn between his family and devotion to God and his feelings for the student.
The film was chosen by the International Jury for this year, which includes Chairman Niki Reiser, Filip Peeters, Wang Quan'an, and Laszlo Nemes.
Other winners are: "Nathan Larson" for The Georges Delerue prize for Best Music; "Eran Merav (Zion and his Brother) for The Sabam prize for Best Script; and...
"Eyes Wide Open" tells the story of a married Orthodox Jewish father who falls in love with a homeless Yeshiva student. When he hires him to work as his apprentice at his butcher shop, they form a close friendship which eventually develops into an emotional and sexual relationship. Being a devout religious man, he is torn between his family and devotion to God and his feelings for the student.
The film was chosen by the International Jury for this year, which includes Chairman Niki Reiser, Filip Peeters, Wang Quan'an, and Laszlo Nemes.
Other winners are: "Nathan Larson" for The Georges Delerue prize for Best Music; "Eran Merav (Zion and his Brother) for The Sabam prize for Best Script; and...
- 10/15/2009
- icelebz.com
The Cardigans’ Nina Persson singer is as sharp and sassy as ever
Few female artists can trill life into a cold breakup line like “Don’t give me platinum to weigh down my wrist / I’ve got injunctions, so cease and desist.” But sharp-witted, ex-Cardigans crooner Nina Persson is just such a gal, on the lopingly laconic “I Signed The Line.” And she spends this, her second solo outing as A Camp, delivering droll lyrical punches to the solar plexus against a conversely sunny Spectoresque backdrop (aided by her multi-insrumentalist husband Nathan Larson, among others). To complement her sky-blue singing voice, Persson has a cynical view of the world, exemplified in snarky song titles alone-“It’s Not Easy To Be Human,” “The Weed Had Got There First.” In a chiming “Stronger Than Jesus,” she chirps a humalong chorus of “Don’t you know love is stronger than Jesus? / Don...
Few female artists can trill life into a cold breakup line like “Don’t give me platinum to weigh down my wrist / I’ve got injunctions, so cease and desist.” But sharp-witted, ex-Cardigans crooner Nina Persson is just such a gal, on the lopingly laconic “I Signed The Line.” And she spends this, her second solo outing as A Camp, delivering droll lyrical punches to the solar plexus against a conversely sunny Spectoresque backdrop (aided by her multi-insrumentalist husband Nathan Larson, among others). To complement her sky-blue singing voice, Persson has a cynical view of the world, exemplified in snarky song titles alone-“It’s Not Easy To Be Human,” “The Weed Had Got There First.” In a chiming “Stronger Than Jesus,” she chirps a humalong chorus of “Don’t you know love is stronger than Jesus? / Don...
- 5/8/2009
- Pastemagazine.com
More Than You Asked For When I was very young, I worked as a maintenance person at the Maplewood Community Pool in Maplewood, Nj. I think it was around '94 or '95, and a band shot a music video on the high-dive towers at the back of the pool—which meant for this entire day, the diving tank was closed. The towers (as they call the high-dive platforms) were really just a single, three-platformed structure that people could dive off of. I don't remember much from that day, but I do remember a drum set on one of the platforms, people dancing, and people diving over and over again. And, of course, a small film crew. When I asked around about the band, someone said, and I do remember this distinctly, "Shudder To Think." Oddly enough, later in life I became a Shudder To Think fan. I found out about.
- 5/30/2008
- by The A.V. Club staff
- avclub.com
SYDNEY -- For his second feature, director Rowan Woods again proves himself a master at creating a strong mood. Despite echoes of the bleak territory visited in his debut feature The Boys, a grim dissection of the violence in Australia's underclass, Little Fish manages moments of great beauty thanks in no small measure to the presence of lead actress Cate Blanchett in her first Australian role since 1997's Oscar and Lucinda.
After a series of high-profile international roles including her Oscar-winning turn in The Aviator, Little Fish sees Blanchett shake off her fondness for period pieces and do something rare: play her age and speak with her own accent. Despite dark themes of crime, moral compromise and drug addiction, this midbudget Australian film from a fine indie team should benefit from Blanchett's presence and see solid boxoffice interest on the international art house circuit. The film will be released in Australia on Sept. 8.
Little Fish is set in Sydney's multicultural southwest, an area rife with drug addiction and organized crime. Woods' talent lies in investing s unlikable characters with a huge well of heart and soul. Tracy Heart (Blanchett) is doing it tough. She's kicked a serious drug habit, but the dark, tenuous world of addiction is all around her.
The streets are littered with junkies: Her own brother, troubled amputee Ray (Martin Henderson from "Bride & Prejudice"), is caught up in the drug trade; her weakened father figure (Hugo Weaving from the Matrix and Lord of the Rings films) is bent in a web of heroin abuse; and ex-boyfriend Johnny (Dustin Nguyen) has returned after four years in Canada. Trying to start a new life, Tracy soon finds that the past is about to catch up with her.
This is a tough film grounded in authenticity with the feel of Ken Loach's realist British cinema. Genre conventions are in place -- drug deals, murder, criminals -- yet Little Fish is a character study. Screenwriter Jacquelin Perske skillfully steers the narrative into the interconnected stories of those around Blanchett's Tracy.
Family is at the core of the film. As Tracy becomes increasingly desperate, she's pulled apart by two disparate but related forces. Her brother's illicit drug deals claw her back into the old life, while her mother (a wonderfully crackling turn from veteran actress Noni Hazlehurst) works to keep Tracy on the straight and narrow. This clash provides the film's central dynamic from which the characters' flaws are explored.
Little Fish has a grimy authenticity. Homes feel rigorously lived in, and the costume design is scrubbed clean of even the remotest sense of glamour. Thankfully, none of this stops Woods from taking visual flights of fancy. Danny Ruhlmann's cinematography adds an almost surreal gleam, swirling and tilting as it conveys Tracy's inner conflict. Similarly, the strong presence of the haunting score by Nathan Larson (Boys Don't Cry, The Woodsman) gently tugs the film away from a purely realist approach.
Blanchett is loose, natural and wholly believable as Tracy, a character she imbues with a kind of bruised tenderness. Weaving's hopeless junkie is a brave turn from an always-brave actor: He's physically transformed, rail-thin with a nasty goatee beard and hurtles through a bundle of different emotions as a sly seducer one moment, a desperate wreck the next.
Confrontational, raw and always compelling, Little Fish is a film of rare power and conviction.
LITTLE FISH
Icon Films (Australia)
Film Finance Corporation Australia presents
A Porchlight Films production in association with Mullis Capital Independent, the New South Wales Film and Television Office, Myriad Pictures and Dirty Films
Credits:
Director: Rowan Woods
Screenwriter: Jacquelin Perske
Producers: Vincent Sheehan, Liz Watts, Richard Keddie
Executive producers: Robert Mullis, Barrie M. Osborne, Kirk D'Amico, Marion Pilowsky
Director of photography: Danny Ruhlmann
Production designer: Luigi Pittorino
Costumes: Melinda Doring
Music: Nathan Larson
Editors: Alexandre De Franceschi, John Scott
Cast:
Tracy Heart: Cate Blanchett
Lionel Dawson: Hugo Weaving
Brad Thompson: Sam Neill
Ray Heart: Martin Henderson
Janelle Heart: Noni Hazlehurst
Johnny: Dustin Nguyen
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 114 minutes...
After a series of high-profile international roles including her Oscar-winning turn in The Aviator, Little Fish sees Blanchett shake off her fondness for period pieces and do something rare: play her age and speak with her own accent. Despite dark themes of crime, moral compromise and drug addiction, this midbudget Australian film from a fine indie team should benefit from Blanchett's presence and see solid boxoffice interest on the international art house circuit. The film will be released in Australia on Sept. 8.
Little Fish is set in Sydney's multicultural southwest, an area rife with drug addiction and organized crime. Woods' talent lies in investing s unlikable characters with a huge well of heart and soul. Tracy Heart (Blanchett) is doing it tough. She's kicked a serious drug habit, but the dark, tenuous world of addiction is all around her.
The streets are littered with junkies: Her own brother, troubled amputee Ray (Martin Henderson from "Bride & Prejudice"), is caught up in the drug trade; her weakened father figure (Hugo Weaving from the Matrix and Lord of the Rings films) is bent in a web of heroin abuse; and ex-boyfriend Johnny (Dustin Nguyen) has returned after four years in Canada. Trying to start a new life, Tracy soon finds that the past is about to catch up with her.
This is a tough film grounded in authenticity with the feel of Ken Loach's realist British cinema. Genre conventions are in place -- drug deals, murder, criminals -- yet Little Fish is a character study. Screenwriter Jacquelin Perske skillfully steers the narrative into the interconnected stories of those around Blanchett's Tracy.
Family is at the core of the film. As Tracy becomes increasingly desperate, she's pulled apart by two disparate but related forces. Her brother's illicit drug deals claw her back into the old life, while her mother (a wonderfully crackling turn from veteran actress Noni Hazlehurst) works to keep Tracy on the straight and narrow. This clash provides the film's central dynamic from which the characters' flaws are explored.
Little Fish has a grimy authenticity. Homes feel rigorously lived in, and the costume design is scrubbed clean of even the remotest sense of glamour. Thankfully, none of this stops Woods from taking visual flights of fancy. Danny Ruhlmann's cinematography adds an almost surreal gleam, swirling and tilting as it conveys Tracy's inner conflict. Similarly, the strong presence of the haunting score by Nathan Larson (Boys Don't Cry, The Woodsman) gently tugs the film away from a purely realist approach.
Blanchett is loose, natural and wholly believable as Tracy, a character she imbues with a kind of bruised tenderness. Weaving's hopeless junkie is a brave turn from an always-brave actor: He's physically transformed, rail-thin with a nasty goatee beard and hurtles through a bundle of different emotions as a sly seducer one moment, a desperate wreck the next.
Confrontational, raw and always compelling, Little Fish is a film of rare power and conviction.
LITTLE FISH
Icon Films (Australia)
Film Finance Corporation Australia presents
A Porchlight Films production in association with Mullis Capital Independent, the New South Wales Film and Television Office, Myriad Pictures and Dirty Films
Credits:
Director: Rowan Woods
Screenwriter: Jacquelin Perske
Producers: Vincent Sheehan, Liz Watts, Richard Keddie
Executive producers: Robert Mullis, Barrie M. Osborne, Kirk D'Amico, Marion Pilowsky
Director of photography: Danny Ruhlmann
Production designer: Luigi Pittorino
Costumes: Melinda Doring
Music: Nathan Larson
Editors: Alexandre De Franceschi, John Scott
Cast:
Tracy Heart: Cate Blanchett
Lionel Dawson: Hugo Weaving
Brad Thompson: Sam Neill
Ray Heart: Martin Henderson
Janelle Heart: Noni Hazlehurst
Johnny: Dustin Nguyen
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 114 minutes...
- 7/20/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Screened at the Venice International Film Festival
VENICE, Italy -- There are a lot of fine literary quotes in "A Love Song for Bobby Long", from Dylan Thomas to George Sand to T.S. Eliot, but it's one from Robert Frost that best sums up the film's appeal: "Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length." This may not be a big picture, but its pleasures will linger long.
The film will benefit from smart promotion and the loyalty of Travolta fans, and should gain support from audiences who wish to see the latest in a growing list of astonishing performances by the hot young actress Scarlett Johansson ("Lost in Translation", "Girl With a Pearl Earring").
First-time director Shainee Gabel, working from her own script inspired by the novel "Off East Magazine St". by R.E. Capps, has pulled off a remarkable feat in creating a community of characters reminiscent of an early Steinbeck novel. These are people who travel through life like bruised fruit but who always cling to the promise of a fresh harvest.
Travolta takes on a genuine character role in Bobby Long, a dissolute former professor of literature who shares a run-down New Orleans home with a clever but self-doubting young writer named Lawson, played with bright intelligence by Gabriel Macht. In their household, any liquid found in a jar that doesn't smell is a good enough mixer for vodka, while beer and tomato juice is the breakfast of champions.
The film opens following the death of a singer named Lorraine Will, who was adored by even those she abandoned, which was pretty much everybody including a daughter, Purslane (Johansson). When Pursy shows up two days late for her mother's funeral, she discovers that she owns one-third of the house Bobby and Lawson reside in, left to them by Lorraine. Perversely, she moves in.
It's obvious to Purslane, and the audience, that there is more to the story of Bobby and Lawson than meets the eye, but her interest is in finding out about a mother who abandoned her but whom everyone speaks of with affection. As she begins to have a cleansing effect on the misbehavior of the two men, a sense of family develops. While the plot doesn't hold too many surprises, it does play out satisfyingly as mysteries are revealed.
Travolta is gray-haired, unshaven and a bit stooped, but his grizzled and booze-soaked intellect can bring the poets readily to mind and he can still charm the local waitresses with a smiling "Cheese on our grits, darlin', please." Although Bobby has a damaged toe, Travolta even gets to dance a sedate Alabama shuffle.
Johansson is a study in naturalistic acting with her Florida panhandle accent pitch perfect and her ability to convey tough-mindedness and vulnerability, not to mention that the camera adores her.
The film benefits hugely from atmospheric production design by Sharon Lomofsky, which cinematographer Elliot Davis has shot beautifully. There is also a masterful soundtrack with an insightful score by Nathan Larson and a killer set of tracks from music supervisor Jim Black.
A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG
Presented by Columbia TriStar and El Camino Pictures
Credits:
Director and screenwriter: Shainee Gabel
Producers: Paul Miller, David Lancaster, Bob Yari
Director of photography: Elliot Davis
Production supervisor: Sharon Lomofsky
Costume designer: Jill Ohanneson (cq)
Editors: Lee Percy, Lisa Fruchtman
Composer: Nathan Larson
Cast:
Bobby Long: John Travolta
Purslane: Scarlett Johansson
Lawson: Gabriel Macht
Georgianna: Deborah Kara Unger
Cecil: Dane Rhodes
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 119 mins...
VENICE, Italy -- There are a lot of fine literary quotes in "A Love Song for Bobby Long", from Dylan Thomas to George Sand to T.S. Eliot, but it's one from Robert Frost that best sums up the film's appeal: "Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length." This may not be a big picture, but its pleasures will linger long.
The film will benefit from smart promotion and the loyalty of Travolta fans, and should gain support from audiences who wish to see the latest in a growing list of astonishing performances by the hot young actress Scarlett Johansson ("Lost in Translation", "Girl With a Pearl Earring").
First-time director Shainee Gabel, working from her own script inspired by the novel "Off East Magazine St". by R.E. Capps, has pulled off a remarkable feat in creating a community of characters reminiscent of an early Steinbeck novel. These are people who travel through life like bruised fruit but who always cling to the promise of a fresh harvest.
Travolta takes on a genuine character role in Bobby Long, a dissolute former professor of literature who shares a run-down New Orleans home with a clever but self-doubting young writer named Lawson, played with bright intelligence by Gabriel Macht. In their household, any liquid found in a jar that doesn't smell is a good enough mixer for vodka, while beer and tomato juice is the breakfast of champions.
The film opens following the death of a singer named Lorraine Will, who was adored by even those she abandoned, which was pretty much everybody including a daughter, Purslane (Johansson). When Pursy shows up two days late for her mother's funeral, she discovers that she owns one-third of the house Bobby and Lawson reside in, left to them by Lorraine. Perversely, she moves in.
It's obvious to Purslane, and the audience, that there is more to the story of Bobby and Lawson than meets the eye, but her interest is in finding out about a mother who abandoned her but whom everyone speaks of with affection. As she begins to have a cleansing effect on the misbehavior of the two men, a sense of family develops. While the plot doesn't hold too many surprises, it does play out satisfyingly as mysteries are revealed.
Travolta is gray-haired, unshaven and a bit stooped, but his grizzled and booze-soaked intellect can bring the poets readily to mind and he can still charm the local waitresses with a smiling "Cheese on our grits, darlin', please." Although Bobby has a damaged toe, Travolta even gets to dance a sedate Alabama shuffle.
Johansson is a study in naturalistic acting with her Florida panhandle accent pitch perfect and her ability to convey tough-mindedness and vulnerability, not to mention that the camera adores her.
The film benefits hugely from atmospheric production design by Sharon Lomofsky, which cinematographer Elliot Davis has shot beautifully. There is also a masterful soundtrack with an insightful score by Nathan Larson and a killer set of tracks from music supervisor Jim Black.
A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG
Presented by Columbia TriStar and El Camino Pictures
Credits:
Director and screenwriter: Shainee Gabel
Producers: Paul Miller, David Lancaster, Bob Yari
Director of photography: Elliot Davis
Production supervisor: Sharon Lomofsky
Costume designer: Jill Ohanneson (cq)
Editors: Lee Percy, Lisa Fruchtman
Composer: Nathan Larson
Cast:
Bobby Long: John Travolta
Purslane: Scarlett Johansson
Lawson: Gabriel Macht
Georgianna: Deborah Kara Unger
Cecil: Dane Rhodes
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 119 mins...
- 1/13/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Watching beautiful Natasha Gregson Wagner loll around in various states of undress is the most edifying pleasure of Jesse Peretz's feature debut, an adaptation of a short story by British author Ian McEwan.
A languorous look at the erotic obsessiveness and mercurial nature of first love, the low-budget indie from Strand Releasing should garner some attention because of the increased visibility of co-star Giovanni Ribisi, thanks to his turn in "Saving Private Ryan".
"First Love, Last Rites" serves as another lesson, if one were needed, about the difficulty of transferring distinctive literary material to the screen. Shifting uneasily between black humor and drama, the film presents characters with unclear identities and motivations.
Ribisi and Wagner play Joey and Sissel, a young couple enjoying a summer of romantic bliss while staying in a one-room house on a Louisiana bayou. It is, apparently, the first important relationship for both, and they clearly enjoy their all-consuming exploration of each other, emotionally and physically.
The physical aspect is showcased via a series of well-staged, beautifully photographed, sexually charged scenes ranging from playful to passionate. Unfortunately, they must cope with several distractions, including a symbolic rat scampering around the room and Sissel's obnoxious kid brother Adrian (Eli Marienthal).
When not locked away with Sissel, Joey, a Brooklyn boy out of his element, spends time with her macho father Henry Robert John Burke), who enjoys teasing the young man about his daughter's sanctity. The two embark on a dubious scheme involving eel fishing. In his free time, Henry tries to woo back his ex-wife, mainly by driving up and down her driveway blasting Chinese opera on the car stereo.
The film is most successful in delineating the physicality of Joey and Sissel's relationship, but it founders in nearly every other aspect. It offers, however, an opportunity for Burke to display sharp comic exuberance in what, in another film, would have been a breakout role. And it provides further proof that Ribisi is one of the more gifted and quirky burgeoning talents on the scene. His sleepy-headed portrait of a young man out of his element is indelible.
FIRST LOVE, LAST RITES
Strand Releasing
Director: Jesse Peretz
Producers: Scott Macaulay, Robin O'Hara, Herbert Beigel
Executive producers: Jeffrey Livy-Hinte, Amanda Temple
Screenplay: David Ryan
Director of photography: Tom Richmond
Editor: James Lyons
Music: Nathan Larson, Craig Wedron
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sissel: Natasha Gregson Wagner
Joey: Giovanni Ribisi
Henry: Robert John Burke
Sissel's Mom: Jeannetta Arnette
Red: Donal Logue
Adrian: Eli Marienthal
Running time -- 93 minutes
No MPAA rating...
A languorous look at the erotic obsessiveness and mercurial nature of first love, the low-budget indie from Strand Releasing should garner some attention because of the increased visibility of co-star Giovanni Ribisi, thanks to his turn in "Saving Private Ryan".
"First Love, Last Rites" serves as another lesson, if one were needed, about the difficulty of transferring distinctive literary material to the screen. Shifting uneasily between black humor and drama, the film presents characters with unclear identities and motivations.
Ribisi and Wagner play Joey and Sissel, a young couple enjoying a summer of romantic bliss while staying in a one-room house on a Louisiana bayou. It is, apparently, the first important relationship for both, and they clearly enjoy their all-consuming exploration of each other, emotionally and physically.
The physical aspect is showcased via a series of well-staged, beautifully photographed, sexually charged scenes ranging from playful to passionate. Unfortunately, they must cope with several distractions, including a symbolic rat scampering around the room and Sissel's obnoxious kid brother Adrian (Eli Marienthal).
When not locked away with Sissel, Joey, a Brooklyn boy out of his element, spends time with her macho father Henry Robert John Burke), who enjoys teasing the young man about his daughter's sanctity. The two embark on a dubious scheme involving eel fishing. In his free time, Henry tries to woo back his ex-wife, mainly by driving up and down her driveway blasting Chinese opera on the car stereo.
The film is most successful in delineating the physicality of Joey and Sissel's relationship, but it founders in nearly every other aspect. It offers, however, an opportunity for Burke to display sharp comic exuberance in what, in another film, would have been a breakout role. And it provides further proof that Ribisi is one of the more gifted and quirky burgeoning talents on the scene. His sleepy-headed portrait of a young man out of his element is indelible.
FIRST LOVE, LAST RITES
Strand Releasing
Director: Jesse Peretz
Producers: Scott Macaulay, Robin O'Hara, Herbert Beigel
Executive producers: Jeffrey Livy-Hinte, Amanda Temple
Screenplay: David Ryan
Director of photography: Tom Richmond
Editor: James Lyons
Music: Nathan Larson, Craig Wedron
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sissel: Natasha Gregson Wagner
Joey: Giovanni Ribisi
Henry: Robert John Burke
Sissel's Mom: Jeannetta Arnette
Red: Donal Logue
Adrian: Eli Marienthal
Running time -- 93 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 8/10/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.