What does it mean to be one of the “hottest” or “buzziest” titles in a film festival sales market if there’s no stars drum up that excitement? Or if there’s little likelihood of an all-night bidding war by a streamer spending in the 7-figures to land their next Oscar contender?
As we reported earlier today, those are all ways in which the strike threatens to weigh on the film markets at Venice, Telluride, and Toronto. A handful of those films are directorial debuts by famous actors-turned-filmmakers, and some even have interim agreements from SAG-AFTRA that will let them promote. But all these films should stand on their own merits and could catch the eyes of the many non-amptp distributors that need creative ways to fill out their slates.
In part because of the strikes, the Venice and TIFF slates are loaded with independent movies without U.S. distribution,...
As we reported earlier today, those are all ways in which the strike threatens to weigh on the film markets at Venice, Telluride, and Toronto. A handful of those films are directorial debuts by famous actors-turned-filmmakers, and some even have interim agreements from SAG-AFTRA that will let them promote. But all these films should stand on their own merits and could catch the eyes of the many non-amptp distributors that need creative ways to fill out their slates.
In part because of the strikes, the Venice and TIFF slates are loaded with independent movies without U.S. distribution,...
- 8/28/2023
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
Liv Tyler is an American actress who began her modeling career at the age of fourteen before transferring her skillset to the world of cinema just three years later. She is best known for her roles of Grace Stamper in Armageddon as well as Arwen in The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.
Liv Tyler Biography: Age, Early Life, Family, Education
Liv Tyler was born on July 1, 1977 (Liv Tyler’s age: 45) in New York City to Bebe Buell and Steven Tyler. Her mother was a model and a singer while her father was the lead singer of the rock band Aerosmith. Tyler was named by her mother after Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann.
Her parents were never married, and her mother kept her father a secret from her early on in her childhood, claiming that Todd Rundgren was her father. Tyler only discovered that Steven was her father when they met...
Liv Tyler Biography: Age, Early Life, Family, Education
Liv Tyler was born on July 1, 1977 (Liv Tyler’s age: 45) in New York City to Bebe Buell and Steven Tyler. Her mother was a model and a singer while her father was the lead singer of the rock band Aerosmith. Tyler was named by her mother after Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann.
Her parents were never married, and her mother kept her father a secret from her early on in her childhood, claiming that Todd Rundgren was her father. Tyler only discovered that Steven was her father when they met...
- 6/21/2023
- by Trevor Hanuka
- Uinterview
The 23rd annual Black Reel Awards took place Monday, February 6th, with “The Woman King” leading the field, snagging six awards including Best Picture. BAFTA nominee Gina Prince-Bythewood‘s historical epic is inspired by true events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” was close behind with five wins.
Special honorary award winners were Angela Bassett (Sidney Poitier Trailblazer Award), Effie T. Brown (Vanguard Award), Debra Martin Chase (Oscar Micheaux Impact Award) and Kerry Washington (Ruby Dee Humanitarian Award).
The Black Reel Awards, or the “Bolt”, is an annual American awards ceremony hosted by the Foundation for the Augmentation of African-Americans in Film (Faaaf) to recognize the excellence of African-Americans, as well as the cinematic achievements of the African diaspora, in the global film industry, as assessed by the Foundation’s voting membership.
Special honorary award winners were Angela Bassett (Sidney Poitier Trailblazer Award), Effie T. Brown (Vanguard Award), Debra Martin Chase (Oscar Micheaux Impact Award) and Kerry Washington (Ruby Dee Humanitarian Award).
The Black Reel Awards, or the “Bolt”, is an annual American awards ceremony hosted by the Foundation for the Augmentation of African-Americans in Film (Faaaf) to recognize the excellence of African-Americans, as well as the cinematic achievements of the African diaspora, in the global film industry, as assessed by the Foundation’s voting membership.
- 2/7/2023
- by Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
Filmmakers Thom Zimny and Oren Moverman capture the seven decade-spanning legacy of one of America’s greatest living musicians in Willie Nelson & Family, a seven-part docuseries that weaves together archival and present-day footage to create a non-linear portrait of an iconic artist. Dp Bobby Bukowski talks about lensing the series, touching upon his longtime collaboration with Moverman and how “no artificial enhancement was employed” on the shoot. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to […]
The post “It Was up to the Subject To Choose Their Own Eyeline”: Dp Bobby Bukowski on Willie Nelson & Family first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “It Was up to the Subject To Choose Their Own Eyeline”: Dp Bobby Bukowski on Willie Nelson & Family first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/4/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Filmmakers Thom Zimny and Oren Moverman capture the seven decade-spanning legacy of one of America’s greatest living musicians in Willie Nelson & Family, a seven-part docuseries that weaves together archival and present-day footage to create a non-linear portrait of an iconic artist. Dp Bobby Bukowski talks about lensing the series, touching upon his longtime collaboration with Moverman and how “no artificial enhancement was employed” on the shoot. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to […]
The post “It Was up to the Subject To Choose Their Own Eyeline”: Dp Bobby Bukowski on Willie Nelson & Family first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “It Was up to the Subject To Choose Their Own Eyeline”: Dp Bobby Bukowski on Willie Nelson & Family first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/4/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
These days everything and everyone is “iconic.” But here, at the center of five rich and unrushed episodes, is the real deal. As he approaches his 90th birthday, the composer of such immortal numbers as “Crazy,” “Night Life” and “On the Road Again” is still writing songs, still playing to concert crowds. Delving into the incomparable songbook, directors Thom Zimny and Oren Moverman show how Willie Nelson broke the country mold and transcended genre boxes, again and again. Their authorized biography — the musician’s wife and his manager are executive producers — is a love letter, to be sure, and like Nelson himself it doesn’t dwell on negativity, but there’s nothing simplistic or naive about it. Willie Nelson & Family is a portrait of a man who has made music and lived life on his own terms, in good times and bad.
The series is a reminder to the casual...
The series is a reminder to the casual...
- 1/25/2023
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Click here to read the full article.
Three-quarters of the way through Till, Mamie Till, played by Danielle Deadwyler, takes the stand in a Mississippi courtroom where two men are being tried for the brutal murder of her 14-year-old son, Emmett, a Black boy from Chicago who’d been visiting relatives in the South when his life was mercilessly cut short. Photographed first in profile, then in close-up, she describes how she was able to identify her son’s mangled body and then recounts the warnings she’d given him about the necessity of acting deferential toward white Southerners. We hear the voices of the prosecutor and a defense attorney offscreen as they question her, but the focus remains steadily focused on Mamie for more than six excruciating minutes as the camera slowly pans around her, capturing every moment of her pain as she fights to hold back tears and...
Three-quarters of the way through Till, Mamie Till, played by Danielle Deadwyler, takes the stand in a Mississippi courtroom where two men are being tried for the brutal murder of her 14-year-old son, Emmett, a Black boy from Chicago who’d been visiting relatives in the South when his life was mercilessly cut short. Photographed first in profile, then in close-up, she describes how she was able to identify her son’s mangled body and then recounts the warnings she’d given him about the necessity of acting deferential toward white Southerners. We hear the voices of the prosecutor and a defense attorney offscreen as they question her, but the focus remains steadily focused on Mamie for more than six excruciating minutes as the camera slowly pans around her, capturing every moment of her pain as she fights to hold back tears and...
- 1/2/2023
- by Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The story of Emmett Till continues to stir emotions in our collective hearts and minds nearly 70 years after his 1955 murder in Mississippi. Chinonye Chukwu’s acclaimed film “Till,” in theaters now, follows the inspirational plight of Emmett’s mother Mamie Till (played by Danielle Deadwyler) to advocate, educate and bring attention to the vicious hatred that led to her son’s violent death when he was 14 years old.
At The Wrap’s recent in-person screening of “Till,” the emotional experience of making the film resonated deeply among the department heads present for the post-screening Q&a. During a conversation moderated by The Wrap’s Elija Gil, the on-stage participants included the film’s production designer Curt Beech, makeup department head Denise Tunnell, hair department head Deaundra Metzger, composer Abel Korzeniowski and cinematographer Bobby Bukowski.
Also Read:
‘Till’ Review: Danielle Deadwyler Delivers a Riveting Performance as Mourning Mother Turned Civil-Rights Legend
In a particularly poignant exchange,...
At The Wrap’s recent in-person screening of “Till,” the emotional experience of making the film resonated deeply among the department heads present for the post-screening Q&a. During a conversation moderated by The Wrap’s Elija Gil, the on-stage participants included the film’s production designer Curt Beech, makeup department head Denise Tunnell, hair department head Deaundra Metzger, composer Abel Korzeniowski and cinematographer Bobby Bukowski.
Also Read:
‘Till’ Review: Danielle Deadwyler Delivers a Riveting Performance as Mourning Mother Turned Civil-Rights Legend
In a particularly poignant exchange,...
- 11/21/2022
- by Joe McGovern
- The Wrap
When “Nanny” cinematographer Rina Yang shoots TV shows “I think we framed differently … We might go a little tighter” for a project that’s going to end up on the small screen. That’s the question these days when it comes to shooting projects. Your film or TV show could be seen on a giant movie screen, on a 4K television set, on a 10-inch tablet, right down to a pocket-sized smartphone. Does that affect one’s approach to the photography? We asked Yang as well as James Friend (“All Quiet on the Western Front”), Bobby Bukowski (“Till”) and Luc Montpellier (“Women Talking”) as part of our “Meet the Experts” Film Cinematographers panel. Watch our roundtable discussion above. Click on each name above to watch that individual person’s solo chat.
Bukowski agrees with Yang about the differences of television photography where “people could fill up the screen more,” but...
Bukowski agrees with Yang about the differences of television photography where “people could fill up the screen more,” but...
- 11/19/2022
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
“I knew the story very well,” says cinematographer Bobby Bukowski about the story of Emmett Till, whose 1955 lynching at the age of 14 is depicted in the new docudrama “Till.” “My mother was a lefty Democrat in New York … Even as a child, we were very active with her in demonstrations for racial equality. So it was a story that was close to my heart.” We talked with Bukowski as part of our “Meet the Experts” film cinematographers panel. Watch our exclusive video interview above.
But while “Till” deals with dark subject matter, it’s not a visually bleak film. “That was the main thing that I wanted out of this film was a celebration of Blackness. [Director Chinonye Chukwu] did not want to see murky shadows, she wanted to literally and figuratively shine a light on the community and shine a light on this very specific injustice.”
See‘Till’ Oscar buzz:...
But while “Till” deals with dark subject matter, it’s not a visually bleak film. “That was the main thing that I wanted out of this film was a celebration of Blackness. [Director Chinonye Chukwu] did not want to see murky shadows, she wanted to literally and figuratively shine a light on the community and shine a light on this very specific injustice.”
See‘Till’ Oscar buzz:...
- 11/19/2022
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
Four top film cinematographers will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2022/2023 awards contenders. They will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Wednesday, November 16, at 4:00 p.m. Pt; 7:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Daniel Montgomery and a roundtable chat with all of the group together.
RSVP today to our entire ongoing contenders panel series by clicking here to book your free reservation. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.
This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following Oscar and guild contenders:
All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix)
Synopsis: A young German soldier’s terrifying experiences and distress on the western front during World War I.
Bio: James Friend was a BAFTA winner for “Rillington Place” and a nominee for “Your Honor.
RSVP today to our entire ongoing contenders panel series by clicking here to book your free reservation. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.
This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following Oscar and guild contenders:
All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix)
Synopsis: A young German soldier’s terrifying experiences and distress on the western front during World War I.
Bio: James Friend was a BAFTA winner for “Rillington Place” and a nominee for “Your Honor.
- 11/9/2022
- by Chris Beachum and Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
We have Denzel Washington’s single teardrop. We have Viola Davis’ runny nose. And now, we have Danielle Deadwyler’s lip quiver, expertly executed in Chinonye Chukwu’s deeply moving drama “Till.” Another best actress contender emerges although I wish the film could rise to the level of Deadwyler’s performance.
The sturdy drama follows Mamie Till-Mobley (Deadwyler), the mother of Emmett Till, whose abduction and lynching in 1955 sparked global outrage and served as an important catalyst in the civil rights movement. “Till” charts Mamie’s grief, as well as her pursuit of justice. But getting people to see a movie about such a horrific event will be a tough sell, even if the film avoids depicting much of the brutality of Emmett Till’s killing.
In the weeks leading up to its debut at the New York Film Festival where it had its world premiere on Saturday, I’ve told dozens of people – colleagues,...
The sturdy drama follows Mamie Till-Mobley (Deadwyler), the mother of Emmett Till, whose abduction and lynching in 1955 sparked global outrage and served as an important catalyst in the civil rights movement. “Till” charts Mamie’s grief, as well as her pursuit of justice. But getting people to see a movie about such a horrific event will be a tough sell, even if the film avoids depicting much of the brutality of Emmett Till’s killing.
In the weeks leading up to its debut at the New York Film Festival where it had its world premiere on Saturday, I’ve told dozens of people – colleagues,...
- 10/1/2022
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Robin Wright was presumably compensating for her part in House of Cards when she nabbed the script for Land to be her directorial debut. The acclaimed actress puts in a sound performance as mourning self-exile Edee, but doesn’t direct with any passion or verve. Wright has certainly built up enough goodwill in Hollywood to get more chances behind the camera – ever since The Princess Bride, she’s seemingly been everywhere – but her sophomore film must be more of a springboard than the empty trampoline Land unfortunately proves.
Some time after a horrible shock which leaves her alone in the world, Edee moves to the woods to be alone. A single line in voiceover explains her rationale, but nothing she does particularly makes sense after this. An isolated cabin in Wyoming becomes her adopted home, with all the weather difficulties you might expect. There’s lots of opening sad cans...
Some time after a horrible shock which leaves her alone in the world, Edee moves to the woods to be alone. A single line in voiceover explains her rationale, but nothing she does particularly makes sense after this. An isolated cabin in Wyoming becomes her adopted home, with all the weather difficulties you might expect. There’s lots of opening sad cans...
- 6/8/2021
- by Adam Solomons
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Ten years ago, actresses struggled to find substantial leading parts. Today, they’re increasingly creating their own. “Land” doesn’t just give Robin Wright an enormous canvas on which to prove herself behind the camera, it also offers us another chance to admire her work in front of it.
In her feature directorial debut, Wright plays Edee Holzer, a woman clearly shattered from some overwhelmingly enormous tragedy. As the film begins, she is already leaving her former life behind by purchasing an isolated cabin on a Wyoming mountain, tossing her cell phone in the trash and having her truck towed away as soon as she arrives.
These choices are so irrational that one might assume she’s chosen a spot to conclude her pain. But she’s also brought the sorts of books and camping supplies a city dweller might use to try and survive the unknown. The mountain, of course,...
In her feature directorial debut, Wright plays Edee Holzer, a woman clearly shattered from some overwhelmingly enormous tragedy. As the film begins, she is already leaving her former life behind by purchasing an isolated cabin on a Wyoming mountain, tossing her cell phone in the trash and having her truck towed away as soon as she arrives.
These choices are so irrational that one might assume she’s chosen a spot to conclude her pain. But she’s also brought the sorts of books and camping supplies a city dweller might use to try and survive the unknown. The mountain, of course,...
- 3/5/2021
- by Elizabeth Weitzman
- The Wrap
When Robin Wright first read the script for “Land,” she thought the story was a perfect antidote to troubling times and the “encouragement to be mean over the last four years.”
The film not only marks Wright’s feature directorial debut, but she also stars in the drama as Edee, a woman who decides to go off the grid by moving to a remote cabin in the woods after experiencing a horrific tragedy. There, she is befriended by a mysterious stranger, Miguel, played by Oscar-nominee Demián Bichir.
“This movie just was so beautiful about human kindness,” Wright says on Tuesday’s episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. “And yes, you’re going on a journey with a woman who has experienced an unfathomable event in her life that has changed her life forever and she decides to go off the grid. And it’s about being saved by somebody else.
The film not only marks Wright’s feature directorial debut, but she also stars in the drama as Edee, a woman who decides to go off the grid by moving to a remote cabin in the woods after experiencing a horrific tragedy. There, she is befriended by a mysterious stranger, Miguel, played by Oscar-nominee Demián Bichir.
“This movie just was so beautiful about human kindness,” Wright says on Tuesday’s episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. “And yes, you’re going on a journey with a woman who has experienced an unfathomable event in her life that has changed her life forever and she decides to go off the grid. And it’s about being saved by somebody else.
- 2/23/2021
- by Marc Malkin
- Variety Film + TV
Buried in an avalanche of painfully obvious cliches, surface-deep characterizations, and unexamined privilege, Land, Robin Wright’s feature-length, filmmaking debut is about as far from auspicious as any feature-length debut can be. Elevated by Wright's impressively committed performance as a grief-haunted woman who chooses self-quarantining in the wilds of Wyoming over human company and Bobby Bukowski’s (99 Homes) sublime cinematography, Land becomes almost watchable at times (operative word being "almost"). Wright’s character, Edee Mathis, consciously uncouples from every comfort and convenience of modern life or human connection to live in an isolated, ramshackle cabin in the woods with only the natural beauty of the surrounding mountains and later, the inexplicably helpful presence of an itinerant Mexican-American trapper and hunter to keep her company...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 2/9/2021
- Screen Anarchy
There is a scene about halfway through Land, directed and starring Robin Wright, in which Miguel (Demián Bichir) reveals a tragedy in his past. Edee (Wright), also grieving, reacts silently and subtlety, though we see so much happening on her face. Nothing said, only felt. It is, truly, a perfect moment captured on film. The kind of thing one will not easily forget. Often actors who step behind the camera will admit that they focused less on their own on-screen performances while directing, sometimes to the detriment of the picture they were making. This cannot be the case here, as Wright the filmmaker wrings out one of Wright the actor’s career-best performances.
Working off a script from Jesse Chatham and Erin Dignam, the director tells the story of Edee, a woman determined to escape people altogether. Naively, she stows away in a cabin in the Wyoming wilderness. She quickly...
Working off a script from Jesse Chatham and Erin Dignam, the director tells the story of Edee, a woman determined to escape people altogether. Naively, she stows away in a cabin in the Wyoming wilderness. She quickly...
- 2/1/2021
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Back during his time hosting The Daily Show, Jon Stewart was among the smartest and most biting political satirists out there. Ever since he departed, Stewart’s voice has been missing from the day to day discourse. Now, for his sophomore feature as a filmmaker, he’s tackling a political satire with Irresistible. More mainstream, at least on the surface, than his directorial debut, Rosewater, this is a sneakily effective delivery system for his beliefs. Initially seeming like a broad comedy, Stewart has a subversive streak just beneath the surface, waiting to be sprung on viewers. Hitting VOD services this week, Stewart is about to make his voice heard once again. The film is a political comedy and satire, looking at how the most extreme versions of politics can seep into even a very small town. In the aftermath of the 2016 election, Democrats are looking for a new strategy, and...
- 6/23/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
The stumbling block for political satire is that it’s almost always partisan — which is great if it flatters your views, and grating if it doesn’t. But not for Jon Stewart. In his first writing-directing gig since 2014’s docudrama Rosewater, the former late-night fixture ingeniously makes it impossible to take sides … since both sides totally suck. As host of The Daily Show between 1999 and 2015, Stewart knew that the only way to deal with the toxic mix of politics, media, and money afflicting the body politic was to resist. Or...
- 6/23/2020
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
There has to be an explanation for what went wrong here. How does a project, co-written and directed by Dee Rees, her follow up to the Academy Award nominated Mudbound, fall so far off the rails? Rees not only once again had the supporting of Netflix, but was adapting the Joan Didian novel The Last Thing He Wanted. Somehow, despite the considerable talents of Ben Affleck, Willem Dafoe, and Anne Hathaway, the movie of the same name is an utter disaster. One of 2020’s worst so far, it seems destined to end the year in a position of dishonor. It boggles the mind how wrong this all went. The film is drama mixing conspiracy thriller, crime, and mystery elements. Taking place in the mid 1980s, we follow journalist Elena McMahon (Hathaway) as she investigates what will eventually become the Iran Contra controversy. Along with a fellow veteran D.C. journalist...
- 2/22/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
There are myriad reasons why a film can fall far short of its ambitions. A lack of funds to truly achieve a vision, an unpolished script forced into production too early, the powers at be wanting more sellable stars that may be miscast, stubborn dedication to the source material that results in those involved getting lost in cinematic translation. The tell-all exposé on why exactly The Last Thing He Wanted is a failure on almost every level is likely many years away, but it’s been some time since such a promising concoction of talented ingredients has resulted in something so impossibly dull, gratingly lethargic, and utterly incoherent.
Directed by Dee Rees following her incredible debut Pariah and sturdy, resonant second feature Mudbound, she’s adapted Joan Didion’s novel with co-writer Marco Villalobos and cast the impressive leading trio of Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck, and Willem Dafoe. Elena McMahon...
Directed by Dee Rees following her incredible debut Pariah and sturdy, resonant second feature Mudbound, she’s adapted Joan Didion’s novel with co-writer Marco Villalobos and cast the impressive leading trio of Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck, and Willem Dafoe. Elena McMahon...
- 1/31/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Anyone who thinks Kristen Stewart isn’t one of the under-sung actresses of her generation just isn’t paying attention. For years now, Stewart has been doing incredibly interesting work in films that fly largely under the radar. One of these days, it’s going to turn into an Academy Award nomination. Last year, she was buzzed about for Oscar attention with the biopic Jt LeRoy. A somewhat mixed reception at the Toronto International Film Festival pushed it back into 2019, erasing the buzz in the process. Well, opening this week, I can vouch for Stewart being excellent in it, with a tremendous turn from Laura Dern as well. The Tiff reviews got this one wrong, plain and simple. The movie is a biopic of Savannah Knoop (Stewart), who would spend about six years pretending to be a celebrated author by the name of Jt LeRoy. The write was merely the...
- 4/22/2019
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Top 100 Most Anticipated American Independent Films of 2019: #16. Dee Rees’ The Last Thing He Wanted
The Last Thing He Wanted
With Mudbound certifying her prowess (and the promise of her 2011 micro indie portrait in Pariah) Dee Rees moved onto The Last Thing He Wanted in late 2017, and went into production in Puerto Rico in June of 2018 with dp Bobby Bukowski at her side and Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck and Willem Dafoe as the main trio of players. Netflix didn’t waste much time jumping on ship either.
Gist: Based on Joan Didion’s 1996 novel, this centers on a hardscrabble journalist, Elena McMahon (Hathaway), who inherits her father’s position as a dealmaker — an arms dealmaker.…...
With Mudbound certifying her prowess (and the promise of her 2011 micro indie portrait in Pariah) Dee Rees moved onto The Last Thing He Wanted in late 2017, and went into production in Puerto Rico in June of 2018 with dp Bobby Bukowski at her side and Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck and Willem Dafoe as the main trio of players. Netflix didn’t waste much time jumping on ship either.
Gist: Based on Joan Didion’s 1996 novel, this centers on a hardscrabble journalist, Elena McMahon (Hathaway), who inherits her father’s position as a dealmaker — an arms dealmaker.…...
- 2/8/2019
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
By any reasonable expectation, the casting of Kristen Stewart in the role of Savannah Knoop, the young woman who impersonated the fictional literary sensation Jt LeRoy, which was created by her brother’s unstable girlfriend Laura Albert (Laura Dern), should have been enough of a coup. Stewart’s own prickly relationship with celebrity, her androgynous beauty and embrace of queer identity, would by itself have added more than enough layers of metatextual intrigue to the story of a bisexual woman who pretended to be a bisexual man who was entirely the creation of another woman.
But the timing of Justin Kelly’s film about a literary hoax that exposed the hypocrisy surrounding the idea of authenticity in the publishing world has repercussions that far outstrip the original plan. Uncomfortably thrust into close proximity to the allegations of sexual abuse leveled against #MeToo pioneer Asia Argento, as enjoyable as the film...
But the timing of Justin Kelly’s film about a literary hoax that exposed the hypocrisy surrounding the idea of authenticity in the publishing world has repercussions that far outstrip the original plan. Uncomfortably thrust into close proximity to the allegations of sexual abuse leveled against #MeToo pioneer Asia Argento, as enjoyable as the film...
- 9/16/2018
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
How far will the new American aristocracy go to protect its privileges? Oren Moverman’s intense four-way war of wills is sourced from a novel but shapes up as an intense stage piece in a chi-chi restaurant interrupted by flashbacks and other stylistic flourishes. The acting foursome is excellent, with Steve Coogan a standout as a truly disturbed character. Four adults debate their sons’ high crimes and misdemeanors over designer cuisine.
The Dinner
Blu-ray + Digital HD
Lionsgate
2017 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 120 min. / Street Date August 8, 2017 / 24.99
Starring: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Hall, Chloë Sevigny, Charlie Plummer, Adepero Oduye, Michael Chernus, Taylor Rae Almonte, Joel Bissonnette.
Cinematography: Bobby Bukowski
Film Editor: Alex Hall
Written by Owen Moverman from the novel by Herman Koch
Produced by Caldecott Chub, Lawrence Inglee, Julia Lebedev, Eddie Valsman
Directed by Oren Moverman
Herman Koch’s novel The Dinner comes to America after two successful European versions,...
The Dinner
Blu-ray + Digital HD
Lionsgate
2017 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 120 min. / Street Date August 8, 2017 / 24.99
Starring: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Hall, Chloë Sevigny, Charlie Plummer, Adepero Oduye, Michael Chernus, Taylor Rae Almonte, Joel Bissonnette.
Cinematography: Bobby Bukowski
Film Editor: Alex Hall
Written by Owen Moverman from the novel by Herman Koch
Produced by Caldecott Chub, Lawrence Inglee, Julia Lebedev, Eddie Valsman
Directed by Oren Moverman
Herman Koch’s novel The Dinner comes to America after two successful European versions,...
- 8/5/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Principles of Privilege: Moverman Dresses Morality Drama in American Clothes
Susan Sontag once famously wrote, “The white race is the cancer of human history,” an epithet which dangles like a deadly albatross throughout the fourth film by Oren Moverman, The Dinner, a drama about morality based on the novel by Dutch writer Herman Koch. Once meant as a property for the directorial debut of Cate Blanchett, Moverman swoops in for a heady, Pinteresque examination of WASPish mentality one would expect from A.R. Gurney if he were searching for an infinitely fouler disposition of his favored subject. However, Moverman elevates and refines this material for his own particular purposes of skewering white affluent folks intent on wielding their inherent privilege to protect the virtuous futures of their troubled broods in what stands as the third cinematic treatment of the novel (following a 2013 Dutch version and a 2014 Italian adaptation).
The Lohmans are a tense bunch as of late. Ex-high school teacher Paul (Steve Coogan) and wife Claire (Laura Linney) have opposing feelings about meeting Paul’s brother Stan (Richard Gere) and his second wife Katelyn (Rebecca Hall) for dinner. With Stan in the middle of a troubled run for governor, the importance of the dinner seems odd during such a touchy period. Until we learn both sets of parents have come together to decide what to do about their kids, who recently committed a monstrous act, something which could go unpunished…as long as no one says anything.
Moverman expands upon the stagey theatricality of the narrative scope, beginning with its troubling, lavish opening credits, highlighting frivolousness amidst colorful splashes of gourmet cuisine, as the credits of a high profile cast and crew (including Moverman’s reunion with Dp Bobby Bukowski) march over them. This time around, we become manipulated to sympathize with several of these characters’ perspectives only to be flayed by dismay when it sinks in—the quartet of well-bred, wealthy, emotionally stagnant white people we have been watching, are without a doubt, highly flawed, incredibly unlikeable beings. But how Moverman manages to trick us into making them seem compelling is where the absolute power of his version of The Dinner lies.
Initially, we gravitate towards Steve Coogan’s withering, Civil war enthusiast, who sets a tone of trenchant sides, one against the other. Breaking the fourth wall in narration, he’s the snide, withering voice of reason, or so we assume, leading up to the eponymous, cryptic meal he will be sharing with his brother, a suave smooth talker (or as he’s described, a “deal maker”). Until we get a clearer composite of his psychological background, and Moverman’s film takes pains (and delights) in stomping on our initial understandings of each of these surely good people. Gere is as exceptionally believable as Coogan is superbly dour, and there’s a definite switch at a certain point, where we’re led to abandon the side of one and root for the other.
Their wives are defined in more troubling, murky terms, particularly Laura Linney (who steals a handful of sequences with resplendent facial expression). Rebecca Hall, looking fantastic, has the less dynamic role as a trophy wife who desires to be rewarded for her saintly efforts by becoming the wife of a governor. But what exactly happened to Barbara, the socially conscious first wife of Stan, who fled the marriage and her children for an ashram in India? Chloe Sevigny delights in her two flashback sequences as the opinionated, arguably ideal character. The audience becomes complicit in this game of shifting alliances, where family becomes collapsed as another ideation of the political arena.
And Moverman perhaps spends a bit too much time in these flashbacks, revolving between past periods of the adults’ lives, while reenacting the terrible act committed by two insensitive young white boys against a homeless, racial other. Although these continual snippets of the heinous act are there for a purpose, meant to slowly inform us of what kind of people we’re spending an unusually expensive dining experience with, they are also greatly at odds with the formal hustling and bustling of the dinner, to the degree where these Bunelian interruptions from the topic at hand take on a tone of artificial comedy. At one point, a teary Hall gets an aside where she clutches at Linney and Coogan, informing them they’re all blessed (she doesn’t have to spell out she means white and wealthy by such a statement), but these devoted moments eventually seem like a belabored way to cement the callousness of all.
Although not about race, per se, the trio of racial others on the periphery of this narrative irrevocably inform and trouble the proceedings. The black son Beau (Miles J. Harvey), whom Barbara adopted with Stan (before she abandons him) is particularly interesting, because it is both Paul and his son Michael’s relationship with the boy which explain their hardwired disdain for the current state of affairs. Coogan gets a particularly telling tirade when he accuses the eight-year old Beau of playing the ‘race card’ when he’s terrorized by his son, claiming his views are not racist because he’s a teacher who sometimes educates black students.
When the boys are teenagers and on the eve of their defining moment, Moverman pads an exchange pertaining to Michael’s internalized racism a bit too directly just prior to what they do to their unfortunate victim. And then, there’s a curious role for Adepero Oduye (Pariah, 2011) as Gere’s valiantly tireless assistant, a character who likely informs is own approach to the scenario, but only to a point. Moverman’s dinner is certainly barbed, and often venomous, but in spending two solid hours with such unlikeable company is an ordeal in itself, even one as handsomely crafted and executed as this.
Reviewed on February 10 at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival – Competition. 120 Mins.
★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
The post The Dinner | Review appeared first on Ioncinema.com.
Susan Sontag once famously wrote, “The white race is the cancer of human history,” an epithet which dangles like a deadly albatross throughout the fourth film by Oren Moverman, The Dinner, a drama about morality based on the novel by Dutch writer Herman Koch. Once meant as a property for the directorial debut of Cate Blanchett, Moverman swoops in for a heady, Pinteresque examination of WASPish mentality one would expect from A.R. Gurney if he were searching for an infinitely fouler disposition of his favored subject. However, Moverman elevates and refines this material for his own particular purposes of skewering white affluent folks intent on wielding their inherent privilege to protect the virtuous futures of their troubled broods in what stands as the third cinematic treatment of the novel (following a 2013 Dutch version and a 2014 Italian adaptation).
The Lohmans are a tense bunch as of late. Ex-high school teacher Paul (Steve Coogan) and wife Claire (Laura Linney) have opposing feelings about meeting Paul’s brother Stan (Richard Gere) and his second wife Katelyn (Rebecca Hall) for dinner. With Stan in the middle of a troubled run for governor, the importance of the dinner seems odd during such a touchy period. Until we learn both sets of parents have come together to decide what to do about their kids, who recently committed a monstrous act, something which could go unpunished…as long as no one says anything.
Moverman expands upon the stagey theatricality of the narrative scope, beginning with its troubling, lavish opening credits, highlighting frivolousness amidst colorful splashes of gourmet cuisine, as the credits of a high profile cast and crew (including Moverman’s reunion with Dp Bobby Bukowski) march over them. This time around, we become manipulated to sympathize with several of these characters’ perspectives only to be flayed by dismay when it sinks in—the quartet of well-bred, wealthy, emotionally stagnant white people we have been watching, are without a doubt, highly flawed, incredibly unlikeable beings. But how Moverman manages to trick us into making them seem compelling is where the absolute power of his version of The Dinner lies.
Initially, we gravitate towards Steve Coogan’s withering, Civil war enthusiast, who sets a tone of trenchant sides, one against the other. Breaking the fourth wall in narration, he’s the snide, withering voice of reason, or so we assume, leading up to the eponymous, cryptic meal he will be sharing with his brother, a suave smooth talker (or as he’s described, a “deal maker”). Until we get a clearer composite of his psychological background, and Moverman’s film takes pains (and delights) in stomping on our initial understandings of each of these surely good people. Gere is as exceptionally believable as Coogan is superbly dour, and there’s a definite switch at a certain point, where we’re led to abandon the side of one and root for the other.
Their wives are defined in more troubling, murky terms, particularly Laura Linney (who steals a handful of sequences with resplendent facial expression). Rebecca Hall, looking fantastic, has the less dynamic role as a trophy wife who desires to be rewarded for her saintly efforts by becoming the wife of a governor. But what exactly happened to Barbara, the socially conscious first wife of Stan, who fled the marriage and her children for an ashram in India? Chloe Sevigny delights in her two flashback sequences as the opinionated, arguably ideal character. The audience becomes complicit in this game of shifting alliances, where family becomes collapsed as another ideation of the political arena.
And Moverman perhaps spends a bit too much time in these flashbacks, revolving between past periods of the adults’ lives, while reenacting the terrible act committed by two insensitive young white boys against a homeless, racial other. Although these continual snippets of the heinous act are there for a purpose, meant to slowly inform us of what kind of people we’re spending an unusually expensive dining experience with, they are also greatly at odds with the formal hustling and bustling of the dinner, to the degree where these Bunelian interruptions from the topic at hand take on a tone of artificial comedy. At one point, a teary Hall gets an aside where she clutches at Linney and Coogan, informing them they’re all blessed (she doesn’t have to spell out she means white and wealthy by such a statement), but these devoted moments eventually seem like a belabored way to cement the callousness of all.
Although not about race, per se, the trio of racial others on the periphery of this narrative irrevocably inform and trouble the proceedings. The black son Beau (Miles J. Harvey), whom Barbara adopted with Stan (before she abandons him) is particularly interesting, because it is both Paul and his son Michael’s relationship with the boy which explain their hardwired disdain for the current state of affairs. Coogan gets a particularly telling tirade when he accuses the eight-year old Beau of playing the ‘race card’ when he’s terrorized by his son, claiming his views are not racist because he’s a teacher who sometimes educates black students.
When the boys are teenagers and on the eve of their defining moment, Moverman pads an exchange pertaining to Michael’s internalized racism a bit too directly just prior to what they do to their unfortunate victim. And then, there’s a curious role for Adepero Oduye (Pariah, 2011) as Gere’s valiantly tireless assistant, a character who likely informs is own approach to the scenario, but only to a point. Moverman’s dinner is certainly barbed, and often venomous, but in spending two solid hours with such unlikeable company is an ordeal in itself, even one as handsomely crafted and executed as this.
Reviewed on February 10 at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival – Competition. 120 Mins.
★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
The post The Dinner | Review appeared first on Ioncinema.com.
- 5/5/2017
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Oren Moverman doesn't make movies so much as set traps. His films as writer and director – the military-vet drama The Messenger, the bad-cop character study Rampart, the incredible portrait-of-a-homeless-man Time Out of Mind – are built to detonate. And when the explosion comes, the dust never really clears; you're left with shards that keep digging in, provocations you can't get out of your head. The Dinner, the latest missile from this brilliant Israeli-American filmmaker, is no exception. Based on the 2009 global bestseller by Dutch author Herman Koch, the movie follows the...
- 5/3/2017
- Rollingstone.com
Oren Moverman is responsible for two of the most impressive American screenplays of the past 10 years, “I’m Not There.” and “Love & Mercy,” both of which turn ambitious approaches to personal stories into surprisingly accessible dramas. As a director, Moverman has shown a rougher edge.
His first two features, “The Messenger” and “Rampart,” were gritty, intimate stories of angry men screwed by the system that employs them (the military and the police force, respectively), while 2014’s “Time Out of Mind” took a similar approach to a man rejected by the system altogether (Richard Gere, playing a decrepit homeless man in New York). Moverman assembles these rickety dramas in piecemeal, gradually developing psychological tension out from the moments that form their lives, like a series of sparklers ignited one by one until they form a blazing whole.
His latest effort, “The Dinner,” is a firecracker from the start. While hobbled by...
His first two features, “The Messenger” and “Rampart,” were gritty, intimate stories of angry men screwed by the system that employs them (the military and the police force, respectively), while 2014’s “Time Out of Mind” took a similar approach to a man rejected by the system altogether (Richard Gere, playing a decrepit homeless man in New York). Moverman assembles these rickety dramas in piecemeal, gradually developing psychological tension out from the moments that form their lives, like a series of sparklers ignited one by one until they form a blazing whole.
His latest effort, “The Dinner,” is a firecracker from the start. While hobbled by...
- 2/10/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
The Guard and Calvary were two of my favorite films to release in their respective years. Both reel with a jet black sense of humor and western style morality play where various shades of grey face off in cessation. They also happen to be gorgeous, shot by Larry Smith (Gaffer/Chief electrician on Barry Lyndon/The Shining turned Only God Forgives/Bronson D.P) and composed in sickening symmetry. In short, I was ecstastic to meet the man behind it all, and his down to earth, silly, demeanor, ended up putting me at ease. John Michael McDonagh, talks about his third and bleakest feature film: War On Everyone.
Did anything, such as something in the media, provoke the start of War On Everyone?
There was no sort of big initializing point really. I guess having done The Guard with one kind of obnoxious cop, [that] I wanted to double down on that a little bit.
Did anything, such as something in the media, provoke the start of War On Everyone?
There was no sort of big initializing point really. I guess having done The Guard with one kind of obnoxious cop, [that] I wanted to double down on that a little bit.
- 3/22/2016
- by feeds@cinelinx.com (Aaron Hunt)
- Cinelinx
A dense, believable drama about the plight of a drifter on the streets of New York
“I’m just a fuck up, and I need to sleep.” Last week, The Benefactor gave us Richard Gere as a millionaire philanthropist with homes to give away. This week, this 2014 movies finds him on altogether more convincing ground as an itinerant New Yorker who wakes up in a bath, gets thrown out onto the street, and gradually comes to the awful realisation that he is homeless. Wandering through the hospitals and homeless shelters of NYC, Gere’s George is consistently spied at a distance, cinematographer Bobby Bukowski’s long lenses viewing him through bars, through windows, across crowded streets, engulfed by his environment. Meanwhile, co-writer/director Oren Moverman (The Messenger, Rampart) and his sound team build up a heavily layered montage of other people talking, laughing, shouting, screaming and singing, a cacophony in...
“I’m just a fuck up, and I need to sleep.” Last week, The Benefactor gave us Richard Gere as a millionaire philanthropist with homes to give away. This week, this 2014 movies finds him on altogether more convincing ground as an itinerant New Yorker who wakes up in a bath, gets thrown out onto the street, and gradually comes to the awful realisation that he is homeless. Wandering through the hospitals and homeless shelters of NYC, Gere’s George is consistently spied at a distance, cinematographer Bobby Bukowski’s long lenses viewing him through bars, through windows, across crowded streets, engulfed by his environment. Meanwhile, co-writer/director Oren Moverman (The Messenger, Rampart) and his sound team build up a heavily layered montage of other people talking, laughing, shouting, screaming and singing, a cacophony in...
- 3/6/2016
- by Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
- The Guardian - Film News
Let’s Be Bad Cops: McDonagh’s U.S. Visit an Overworked Episode
Director John Michael McDonagh makes his first foray to the Us with third feature, War on Everyone. Brother of writer/director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges; Seven Psychopaths), he exudes a similar sense of bleak, misanthropic comedy mixed up in shaggy genre thrills, and his first feature, the celebrated The Guard (2011) remains the most financially successful independent Irish film of all time. McDonagh reteamed with Brendan Gleeson on his second feature, the equally idiosyncratic and enjoyable Cavalry (2014). But even though McDonagh isn’t crossing a language barrier, something tenuous seems lost in this trip to New Mexico wherein two affably crooked cops are determined to ruthlessly exploit the criminals they’re supposed to be arresting. This pronouncedly off-kilter motley crew of characters bears a similar resemblance to McDonagh’s past troubled social landscapes, but his deliberate refusal of...
Director John Michael McDonagh makes his first foray to the Us with third feature, War on Everyone. Brother of writer/director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges; Seven Psychopaths), he exudes a similar sense of bleak, misanthropic comedy mixed up in shaggy genre thrills, and his first feature, the celebrated The Guard (2011) remains the most financially successful independent Irish film of all time. McDonagh reteamed with Brendan Gleeson on his second feature, the equally idiosyncratic and enjoyable Cavalry (2014). But even though McDonagh isn’t crossing a language barrier, something tenuous seems lost in this trip to New Mexico wherein two affably crooked cops are determined to ruthlessly exploit the criminals they’re supposed to be arresting. This pronouncedly off-kilter motley crew of characters bears a similar resemblance to McDonagh’s past troubled social landscapes, but his deliberate refusal of...
- 2/15/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
By Cate Marquis
When you imagine Richard Gere playing a homeless man, you may scoff. Yet director Oren Moverman, who also directed The Messenger, put the movie star on the streets of Manhattan dressed as a homeless man and sent him out in the crowds. No one recognized him, which says a lot about how invisible the homeless truly are.
Gere turns in an outstanding performance as George, a man who seems to have teetered on the edge of homelessness for sometime, in this quiet, subtle drama shot in a striking realist style. Moverman plunges right into this story, without giving us any kind of background for George – we do not even learn his name until later in the film. We first meet him as he is roused from sleep and evicted from an apartment by a building manager (Steve Buscemi), where George had been staying with a friend, although...
When you imagine Richard Gere playing a homeless man, you may scoff. Yet director Oren Moverman, who also directed The Messenger, put the movie star on the streets of Manhattan dressed as a homeless man and sent him out in the crowds. No one recognized him, which says a lot about how invisible the homeless truly are.
Gere turns in an outstanding performance as George, a man who seems to have teetered on the edge of homelessness for sometime, in this quiet, subtle drama shot in a striking realist style. Moverman plunges right into this story, without giving us any kind of background for George – we do not even learn his name until later in the film. We first meet him as he is roused from sleep and evicted from an apartment by a building manager (Steve Buscemi), where George had been staying with a friend, although...
- 10/9/2015
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
This review was originally published during our coverage of Tiff 2014.
For more than a century, great artists, novelists and filmmakers have examined the question: What is the American Dream? Their stories of men and women rising from rags to riches, in means dignified and corrupt, have electrified audiences. The latest masterwork to explore that dream state (or the lack thereof) is Ramin Bahrani’s 99 Homes, a masterfully acted and searing look at a fractious time of modern American history: the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, which left both rich and poor out of their homes. However, in a world of enormous disparity between the ultra-rich and the paycheck-to-paycheck poor, a better question would be: Where is the American Dream?
Well, it is certainly not in Florida, where 99 Homes is set, a state where the prosperity of gated communities meets the grind of small-town poverty. Bahrani’s drama opens on a...
For more than a century, great artists, novelists and filmmakers have examined the question: What is the American Dream? Their stories of men and women rising from rags to riches, in means dignified and corrupt, have electrified audiences. The latest masterwork to explore that dream state (or the lack thereof) is Ramin Bahrani’s 99 Homes, a masterfully acted and searing look at a fractious time of modern American history: the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, which left both rich and poor out of their homes. However, in a world of enormous disparity between the ultra-rich and the paycheck-to-paycheck poor, a better question would be: Where is the American Dream?
Well, it is certainly not in Florida, where 99 Homes is set, a state where the prosperity of gated communities meets the grind of small-town poverty. Bahrani’s drama opens on a...
- 9/25/2015
- by Jordan Adler
- We Got This Covered
Time to Time: Moverman’s Austere Portrait of Homelessness
There’s a deliberate soul-crushing methodology to Oren Moverman’s third feature Time Out of Mind (taking its title from a Bob Dylan album) more in line with his loosely defined sophomore effort Rampart in its freewheeling psychological portrait of man on the state of decline. Or, perhaps this time around, it’s more the apathetic inclination of the effort required to rejoin society’s expectations after a significant period of stagnation, though this hardly seems Moverman displaying optimism.
Relayed with a visual arrangement akin to viewing the world if sifting through shards of shattered glass, it’s a somber, painstaking effort centered intriguingly by Richard Gere in one of the least showy performances of his career. Strikingly neorealistic despite the familiar faces, Moverman proves, once again, to be a wholly idiosyncratic indie filmmaker who grows more and not less intriguing with each of his offerings.
There’s a deliberate soul-crushing methodology to Oren Moverman’s third feature Time Out of Mind (taking its title from a Bob Dylan album) more in line with his loosely defined sophomore effort Rampart in its freewheeling psychological portrait of man on the state of decline. Or, perhaps this time around, it’s more the apathetic inclination of the effort required to rejoin society’s expectations after a significant period of stagnation, though this hardly seems Moverman displaying optimism.
Relayed with a visual arrangement akin to viewing the world if sifting through shards of shattered glass, it’s a somber, painstaking effort centered intriguingly by Richard Gere in one of the least showy performances of his career. Strikingly neorealistic despite the familiar faces, Moverman proves, once again, to be a wholly idiosyncratic indie filmmaker who grows more and not less intriguing with each of his offerings.
- 9/9/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Richard Gere plays a homeless man in Oren Moverman’s arty odyssey Time Out of Mind, though it takes him half the movie to admit that he’s homeless, and he bridles whenever he hears his name, George Hammond. He tells people he’s with someone called Sheila who’s nowhere to be seen, and when social workers ask for an I.D. or birth certificate, he looks bewildered. Moving blank-faced from nowhere to nowhere, using any money he can get to buy beer or hooch, Hammond exists out of time — if he can even be said to exist.No movie has ever looked like this. Cinematographer Bobby Bukowski’s frames are rigorously decentered, with key objects pushed to the periphery or semi-seen via reflections or through glass. The soundtrack maintains a constant low drone and babble: The dialogue rarely comes from someone whose mouth you see move. (This is...
- 9/9/2015
- by David Edelstein
- Vulture
In the movies we’ve seen countless tales told through the eyes of (usually now grown-up) children all about the wild, wacky adventures they experienced with their unconventional, non-conformist parents or caregivers such as Mame, Gypsy, even the inventor pop of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. But what if they were more than zany, and didn’t break into song. The father of this new autobiographical film is unlike the lovable eccentrics embraced in past films. He’s has a real diagnosed, clinical disorder. How would children really deal with that? This film’s title comes from the younger daughter’s interpretation of her beloved poppa’s condition. Instead of saying that he’s bi-polar or manic-depressive, she says that her daddy is an Infinitely Polar Bear.
This story’s focus is the unconventional Stuart family. Well, unconventional for the late sixties and early seventies. Cameron “Cam” Stuart (Mark Ruffalo) comes...
This story’s focus is the unconventional Stuart family. Well, unconventional for the late sixties and early seventies. Cameron “Cam” Stuart (Mark Ruffalo) comes...
- 7/23/2015
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Exclusive: Divergent star Theo James joins cast as shoot gets underway and first still is revealed.
John Michael McDonagh’s follow-up to Calvary, War On Everyone, has rounded out cast and booked some key deals with the shoot now underway in New Mexico.
Divergent star Theo James is the latest young talent to join McDonagh’s black comedy, which has begun principal photography in Albuquerque.
Michael Peña (Fury), Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood) and James are starring in the story of two corrupt cops who set out to blackmail and frame every criminal unfortunate enough to cross their path…until they intimidate someone who is seemingly more dangerous than they are. Or is he?
Joining in supporting roles are Tessa Thompson (Dear White People), Caleb Landry Jones (X Men: First Class), Paul Reiser (Whiplash), Stephanie Sigman (Miss Bala) and David Wilmot (The Guard).
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions and Icon are among distributors to have swooped on rights to the...
John Michael McDonagh’s follow-up to Calvary, War On Everyone, has rounded out cast and booked some key deals with the shoot now underway in New Mexico.
Divergent star Theo James is the latest young talent to join McDonagh’s black comedy, which has begun principal photography in Albuquerque.
Michael Peña (Fury), Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood) and James are starring in the story of two corrupt cops who set out to blackmail and frame every criminal unfortunate enough to cross their path…until they intimidate someone who is seemingly more dangerous than they are. Or is he?
Joining in supporting roles are Tessa Thompson (Dear White People), Caleb Landry Jones (X Men: First Class), Paul Reiser (Whiplash), Stephanie Sigman (Miss Bala) and David Wilmot (The Guard).
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions and Icon are among distributors to have swooped on rights to the...
- 4/20/2015
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Divergent star Theo James joins cast as shoot gets underway.
John Michael McDonagh’s follow-up to Calvary, War On Everyone, has rounded out cast and booked some key deals with the shoot now underway in New Mexico.
Divergent star Theo James is the latest young talent to join McDonagh’s black comedy, which has begun principal photography in Albuquerque.
Michael Peña (Fury), Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood) and James are starring in the story of two corrupt cops who set out to blackmail and frame every criminal unfortunate enough to cross their path…until they intimidate someone who is seemingly more dangerous than they are. Or is he?
Joining in supporting roles are Tessa Thompson (Dear White People), Caleb Landry Jones (X Men: First Class), Paul Reiser (Whiplash), Stephanie Sigman (Miss Bala) and David Wilmot (The Guard).
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions and Icon are among distributors to have swooped on rights to the anticipated title sold by...
John Michael McDonagh’s follow-up to Calvary, War On Everyone, has rounded out cast and booked some key deals with the shoot now underway in New Mexico.
Divergent star Theo James is the latest young talent to join McDonagh’s black comedy, which has begun principal photography in Albuquerque.
Michael Peña (Fury), Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood) and James are starring in the story of two corrupt cops who set out to blackmail and frame every criminal unfortunate enough to cross their path…until they intimidate someone who is seemingly more dangerous than they are. Or is he?
Joining in supporting roles are Tessa Thompson (Dear White People), Caleb Landry Jones (X Men: First Class), Paul Reiser (Whiplash), Stephanie Sigman (Miss Bala) and David Wilmot (The Guard).
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions and Icon are among distributors to have swooped on rights to the anticipated title sold by...
- 4/20/2015
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
99 Homes
Written by Ramin Bahrani and Amir Naderi. Story by Ramin Bahrani and Bahareh Azimi
Directed by Ramin Bahrani
USA, 2015
“America doesn’t bail out losers, America bails out winners!” preaches Richard Carver (Michael Shannon), like a modern day Gordon Gekko of real estate to the young, innocent but determined Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield). This is what the American dream is now. It’s not enough to work hard anymore, achieving the American dream is to win at all costs. Ramin Bahrani’s examination of the American dream and the corrupt nature of it follows Dennis Nash, a young father who with his son and mother (Laura Dern) are evicted from their family home. To get it all back, Dennis begins working for the man responsible for his troubles, greedy real estate broker Richard Carver. This is the American dream.
Bahrani paces the film with the mechanics of a well-oiled and precisely constructed thriller,...
Written by Ramin Bahrani and Amir Naderi. Story by Ramin Bahrani and Bahareh Azimi
Directed by Ramin Bahrani
USA, 2015
“America doesn’t bail out losers, America bails out winners!” preaches Richard Carver (Michael Shannon), like a modern day Gordon Gekko of real estate to the young, innocent but determined Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield). This is what the American dream is now. It’s not enough to work hard anymore, achieving the American dream is to win at all costs. Ramin Bahrani’s examination of the American dream and the corrupt nature of it follows Dennis Nash, a young father who with his son and mother (Laura Dern) are evicted from their family home. To get it all back, Dennis begins working for the man responsible for his troubles, greedy real estate broker Richard Carver. This is the American dream.
Bahrani paces the film with the mechanics of a well-oiled and precisely constructed thriller,...
- 2/2/2015
- by Dylan Griffin
- SoundOnSight
Solitary Confinement Is Boring: Stewart’s Adaptation Of Bahari’s Lengthy Detainment is a Slick, Tame Affair
Jon Stewart’s first foray into the fictional film arena is as topical and slick as one might expect from the premier late night comedy newsman whose highly attuned fingers happens to live on the pulse of world politics and whose industry connections must run deeper than most, yet in parts, Rosewater is either screwed in too tightly or not enough. Depicting the brutal facts with humanity and style, Stewart let’s a surprising amount of heart shine through his signature ironic cynicism, so much so that his film tends toward bland melodrama rather than the hard hitting realism this story of media righteousness might require.
This follows the highly publicized story of real life Iranian born, Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari’s attempt to cover the controversial Iranian 2009 elections and his subsequent arrest and 118 day detainment,...
Jon Stewart’s first foray into the fictional film arena is as topical and slick as one might expect from the premier late night comedy newsman whose highly attuned fingers happens to live on the pulse of world politics and whose industry connections must run deeper than most, yet in parts, Rosewater is either screwed in too tightly or not enough. Depicting the brutal facts with humanity and style, Stewart let’s a surprising amount of heart shine through his signature ironic cynicism, so much so that his film tends toward bland melodrama rather than the hard hitting realism this story of media righteousness might require.
This follows the highly publicized story of real life Iranian born, Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari’s attempt to cover the controversial Iranian 2009 elections and his subsequent arrest and 118 day detainment,...
- 11/13/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Nyff continues. Here's Glenn looking at Richard Gere in 'Time Out of Mind'.
“The Richard Gere homeless movie” is a bit of a glib way to describe Time out of Mind, but that is the moniker that Oren Moverman’s third feature has found itself labelled with. I mean, it’s not like it’s without merit; Richard Gere does indeed play a homeless man, something far removed from the type of roles we’re more typically used to seeing the 65-year-old actor portray – and something one critic at the post-film Q&A attempted to allude to by asking the actor to compare this role to that in Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo, much to the actor’s and the crowd’s confusion.
I wish I could say there was more going on in Oren Moverman’s film, but I’m not sure I can. At least outside of the formal aspirations,...
“The Richard Gere homeless movie” is a bit of a glib way to describe Time out of Mind, but that is the moniker that Oren Moverman’s third feature has found itself labelled with. I mean, it’s not like it’s without merit; Richard Gere does indeed play a homeless man, something far removed from the type of roles we’re more typically used to seeing the 65-year-old actor portray – and something one critic at the post-film Q&A attempted to allude to by asking the actor to compare this role to that in Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo, much to the actor’s and the crowd’s confusion.
I wish I could say there was more going on in Oren Moverman’s film, but I’m not sure I can. At least outside of the formal aspirations,...
- 10/2/2014
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
If you live in a decent-sized city, much less a metropolis, you probably see someone like George every day. Having fallen on hard times, George lives on the street; if he's not able to procure a bed at the chaotic, prison-like local shelter, he's apt to be sleeping in a cardboard box or, if he's lucky, the basement of an apartment building he's snuck into. He spends his days shuffling around the city, occasionally panhandling for change. A winter coat he's picked up from a church is pawned for money for a bottle.
- 9/15/2014
- Rollingstone.com
For Jon Stewart, last night’s screening of his directorial debut, Rosewater, was a glorious homecoming of sorts. After all, he filmed Death to Smoochy in Toronto. But last night’s standing-room-only showing at the Toronto Film Festival was a true celebration, and before the screening, Stewart joked that Canada’s earnest warm reception felt like sarcasm to a cynical New Yorker like himself. Afterwards, the audience responded with a standing ovation, as much for the real Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari, who was imprisoned and accused of being a spy by Iranian authorities, as the cast and their first-time director.
- 9/9/2014
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
Telluride — In recent years, Journalists have come under siege all across the world from governments trying to minimize their influence either through subtle or not-so subtle means. One of the more dramatic instances in recent memory was chronicled in Maziar Bahari's 2011 memoir "Then They Came for Me" which has been adapted into the new film "Rosewater." The film, with director Jon Stewart on hand, debuted Friday night at the 2014 Telluride Film Festival. "They Came For Me" depicted the 118 days the noted reporter and documentary filmmaker spent in an Iranian jail after being falsely accused of acting as a spy for Western powers. The London-based Bahari had returned to Tehran to cover the 2009 presidential election where Mir-Hossein Mousavi was providing a revolutionary challenge to the president at the time, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Controversy reigned after the latter was announced the victor prompting millions of Iranians to protest the results in cities across the Islamic state.
- 8/30/2014
- by Gregory Ellwood
- Hitfix
Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix has added a new credit to his résumé: Associate Producer. He’s come aboard youth leadership project Camp: The Documentary, which will track a diverse group of 20 teens from across the country who gather in Big Bear, CA, to participate in a transformative weeklong art and leadership project called Camp M.O.R.E. Phoenix, the Be More Heroic org, and The River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding are currently stumping for an Indiegogo campaign to raise a $40K budget with aims to begin filming with Dp Bobby Bukowski (Arlington Road, Saved!) in mid-July. Here’s Phoenix’s video appeal in support […]...
- 6/28/2014
- Deadline
99 Homes
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Writers: Ramin Bahrani, Amir Naderi, Bahareh Azimi‐Khoie
Producer(s): Ashok Amritraj (see pic above), Ramin Bahrani, Andrew Garfield, Justin Nappi, Kevin Turen
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Laura Dern, Michael Shannon, Tim Guinee
At Any Price came from the same earnest place as Chop Shop and Goodbye Solo and Ramin Bahrani had the luxury of working with a bigger budget/name cast garnishings, but the end result was a poorly conceived and executed cornhusk melodrama. My thinking is that this portrait of Americana will include a bit more bite. Employing the services of cinematographer Bobby Bukowski, with thesps Laura Dern and Michael Shannon in the mix, it’s fair to say that we might reach some authentic dramatic heights with the curiously titled, 99 Homes.
Gist: Set against the backdrop of the economic crisis, the drama revolves around an unemployed contractor who...
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Writers: Ramin Bahrani, Amir Naderi, Bahareh Azimi‐Khoie
Producer(s): Ashok Amritraj (see pic above), Ramin Bahrani, Andrew Garfield, Justin Nappi, Kevin Turen
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Laura Dern, Michael Shannon, Tim Guinee
At Any Price came from the same earnest place as Chop Shop and Goodbye Solo and Ramin Bahrani had the luxury of working with a bigger budget/name cast garnishings, but the end result was a poorly conceived and executed cornhusk melodrama. My thinking is that this portrait of Americana will include a bit more bite. Employing the services of cinematographer Bobby Bukowski, with thesps Laura Dern and Michael Shannon in the mix, it’s fair to say that we might reach some authentic dramatic heights with the curiously titled, 99 Homes.
Gist: Set against the backdrop of the economic crisis, the drama revolves around an unemployed contractor who...
- 2/21/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
With an impressive list of credits already to his name including "The Messenger" and "Arlington Road," cinematographer Bobby Bukowski comes to Sundance with another acclaimed film and discusses the many challenges of pulling off "Infinitely Polar Bear," a family drama directed by Maya Forbes and starring Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana, in which a bipolar father struggles with taking care of his daughters. Which camera and lens did you use? Alexa. Angenieux Optimo Lightweight zooms. What was the most difficult shot on your movie, and how did you pull it off? Pretty much the entire shoot was a challenge. I had a small crew and very few days in which to shoot this film. That all translates to not enough time or resources to set up. As a result, night interiors are lit with carefully selected practical lights. As for daylight interiors, I asked the production designer to supply dark...
- 1/24/2014
- by Ziyad Saadi
- Indiewire
He took a noticeable leave of absence from the Daily Show back in July to shoot a project close to his heart. With an A-team comprised of Shohreh Aghdashloo, Gael García Bernal and the presence of DS gagster Jason Jones, Jon Stewart shot his directorial debut in Jordan side by side with cinematographer Bobby Bukowski (Rampart). If ready on time, it certainly feels like a perfect match between the anti-Argo, Iranian political drama and the politicized festival.
Gist: Written by Jon Stewart, Maziar Bahari and Aimee Molloy, and based on the Then They Came For Me: A Family’s Story Of Love, Captivity, And Survival, this is about a journalist is detained in Iran for more than 100 days and brutally interrogated in prison.
Production Co./Producers: Oddlot’s Gigi Pritzker, Scott Rudin and Stewart. Exec Producing: Lila Yacoub, Eli Bush and Chris McShane.
Prediction: Buyer interest through the roof for...
Gist: Written by Jon Stewart, Maziar Bahari and Aimee Molloy, and based on the Then They Came For Me: A Family’s Story Of Love, Captivity, And Survival, this is about a journalist is detained in Iran for more than 100 days and brutally interrogated in prison.
Production Co./Producers: Oddlot’s Gigi Pritzker, Scott Rudin and Stewart. Exec Producing: Lila Yacoub, Eli Bush and Chris McShane.
Prediction: Buyer interest through the roof for...
- 11/20/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
The scribe behind Monsters vs. Aliens and The Rocker would normally be the last person I’d associate with Sundance, much less the director’s chair…but sometimes it’s a question of who and what you know. Equipped with excellent technical folk such as cinematographer Bobby Bukowski and editor Michael R. Miller, Maya Forbes expands on a story inspired by personal events and is surrounded here with A listers Zoe Saldana and Mark Ruffalo. Shooting of Infinitely Polar Bear began back in April in Providence, Rhode Island, so logically this is in the clear for a festival showing and might be a high sale price.
Gist: Ruffalo plays a bipolar husband and father who goes off his medication, and then loses both his sanity and job while struggling to hold onto his marriage. Saldana would play his put-upon wife, who, after going back to work, ends up moving out of the house,...
Gist: Ruffalo plays a bipolar husband and father who goes off his medication, and then loses both his sanity and job while struggling to hold onto his marriage. Saldana would play his put-upon wife, who, after going back to work, ends up moving out of the house,...
- 11/19/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s mom Naomi Foner might be a rookie behind the camera, but she has been in the biz for quite some time now. Production began in May, filming in June and post-prod in August for Very Good Girls – a Groundswell Productions produced coming-of-age drama featuring the talents of Cinematographer Bobby Bukowski and Sundance alumni in actors/actresses Dakota Fanning, Elizabeth Olsen, Demi Moore, Ellen Barkin, Peter Sarsgaard, Richard Dreyfuss, Clark Gregg and newbie actor Boyd Holbrook.
Gist: Two New York City girls pact to lose their virginity during their first summer out of high school. When they both fall for the same street artist, the friends find their connection tested for the first time.
Production Co./Producers: Herrick Productions’ Norton Herrick, Groundswell Productions’s Michael London (Win Win) and Next Wednesday Productions’ Mary Jane Skalski (Hello I Must Be Going)
Prediction: Premieres section
U.S. Distributor:...
Gist: Two New York City girls pact to lose their virginity during their first summer out of high school. When they both fall for the same street artist, the friends find their connection tested for the first time.
Production Co./Producers: Herrick Productions’ Norton Herrick, Groundswell Productions’s Michael London (Win Win) and Next Wednesday Productions’ Mary Jane Skalski (Hello I Must Be Going)
Prediction: Premieres section
U.S. Distributor:...
- 11/22/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
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