Festivals past are populating a busy specialty market this weekend with films from Sundance and Venice. Sony Pictures Classics is giving Randall Park’s Shortcomings a substantial 400+ screen release. See Deadline review. Mubi is out with Passages in New York and LA – both premiered to critical acclaim in Park City.
There’s been some drama around the latter after the MPA gave the Ira Sachs film an Nc-17 rating, which Mubi “officially rejected.” The distributor/streamer/producer said it “remains committed to releasing Passages nationwide in its original version as the filmmaker intended, with our full backing, unrated and uncut.” Rates a 94% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, Deadline review here.
Casey Affleck and Noah Jupe-starring Dreamin’ Wild from Roadside Attractions on 400 screens follows the life of singer-musician brothers Donnie and Joe Emerson. Deadline review. Magnolia’s A Compassionate Spy, coming in the wake of blockbuster Oppenheimer, is an espionage...
There’s been some drama around the latter after the MPA gave the Ira Sachs film an Nc-17 rating, which Mubi “officially rejected.” The distributor/streamer/producer said it “remains committed to releasing Passages nationwide in its original version as the filmmaker intended, with our full backing, unrated and uncut.” Rates a 94% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, Deadline review here.
Casey Affleck and Noah Jupe-starring Dreamin’ Wild from Roadside Attractions on 400 screens follows the life of singer-musician brothers Donnie and Joe Emerson. Deadline review. Magnolia’s A Compassionate Spy, coming in the wake of blockbuster Oppenheimer, is an espionage...
- 8/4/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
In Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, a fair amount is made of Klaus Fuchs, the German theoretical physicist who passed secrets from Los Alamos to the Soviet Union. But nowhere in this substantive blockbuster do we hear about Theodore Hall. A wunderkind physicist from Far Rockaway, New York City, recruited to the Manhattan Project as an 18-year-old Harvard senior, Hall, too, shared atomic secrets with the Soviets, for what he later claimed were purely moral reasons: He thought the possibility of the U.S. — or any country — having a monopoly on...
- 8/4/2023
- by Chris Vognar
- Rollingstone.com
While the fall movie lineup continues to shift due to studios adamantly deciding not to fairly pay the writers and actors responsible for them being in business in the first place, not much has changed when it comes to August. Aside from A24 yanking Julio Torres’ Problemista from its August 4 opening, the rest of the calendar has stayed intact and here are the films that should be on your radar.
13. What Comes Around (Amy Redford; Aug. 4)
One of the most divisive films to premiere at TIFF last year was Amy Redford’s What Comes Around (formerly titled Roost). Led by Grace Van Dien, Summer Phoenix, Jesse Garcia, and Kyle Gallner, the thriller tracked a young love affair that becomes a menacing game of cat-and-mouse where nothing is what it seems. Jared Mobarak said in his review, “What Comes Around is a tricky film to talk about without massive spoilers unless,...
13. What Comes Around (Amy Redford; Aug. 4)
One of the most divisive films to premiere at TIFF last year was Amy Redford’s What Comes Around (formerly titled Roost). Led by Grace Van Dien, Summer Phoenix, Jesse Garcia, and Kyle Gallner, the thriller tracked a young love affair that becomes a menacing game of cat-and-mouse where nothing is what it seems. Jared Mobarak said in his review, “What Comes Around is a tricky film to talk about without massive spoilers unless,...
- 8/3/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Autlook Filmsales handles international sales at EFM on story of nuclear physicist Ted Hall.
Magnolia Pictures has picked up North American rights from Participant to A Compassionate Spy, Steve James’s documentary about the controversial American nuclear physicist Ted Hall who passed secrets to the Soviet Union.
At age 18 Harvard graduate Hall became the youngest recruit to the Manhattan Project in the early 1940s. After the United States detonated its first nuclear bomb he became concerned his country had a potentially catastrophic monopoly on the technology and provided confidential information to the Soviets.
The film is told from the perspective of Joan,...
Magnolia Pictures has picked up North American rights from Participant to A Compassionate Spy, Steve James’s documentary about the controversial American nuclear physicist Ted Hall who passed secrets to the Soviet Union.
At age 18 Harvard graduate Hall became the youngest recruit to the Manhattan Project in the early 1940s. After the United States detonated its first nuclear bomb he became concerned his country had a potentially catastrophic monopoly on the technology and provided confidential information to the Soviets.
The film is told from the perspective of Joan,...
- 2/16/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Previous | Image 1 of 7 | NextSteve James, director of ‘A Compassionate Spy.’
Chicago – Opening Night was a sensation for the 58th Chicago International Film Festival (Ciff). Besides the Opening Night Red Carpet for the film “A Compassionate Spy,” a Block Party took place on the streets in front of Chicago’s historic Music Box Theatre, in a memorable beginning to a Fest that runs through October 23rd.
HollywoodChicago.com was there through intrepid photographer Joe Arce, and he captured these images of the Red Carpet. In addition, some Block Party pictures from the 58th Ciff Opening Night. Photos One-Four: © Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com. Photo Five: © Timothy M. Schmidt ChicagoFilmFestival.com. Photo Six: © Barry Brecheisen ChicagoFilmFestival.com. Photo Seven: Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com.
CIFFOPEN1: Steve James, director of ‘A Compassionate Spy.’ CIFFOPEN2: Lucy Zukaitis portrayed Joan Hall in ‘A Compassionate Spy.’ CIFFOPEN3: J. Michael Wright...
Chicago – Opening Night was a sensation for the 58th Chicago International Film Festival (Ciff). Besides the Opening Night Red Carpet for the film “A Compassionate Spy,” a Block Party took place on the streets in front of Chicago’s historic Music Box Theatre, in a memorable beginning to a Fest that runs through October 23rd.
HollywoodChicago.com was there through intrepid photographer Joe Arce, and he captured these images of the Red Carpet. In addition, some Block Party pictures from the 58th Ciff Opening Night. Photos One-Four: © Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com. Photo Five: © Timothy M. Schmidt ChicagoFilmFestival.com. Photo Six: © Barry Brecheisen ChicagoFilmFestival.com. Photo Seven: Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com.
CIFFOPEN1: Steve James, director of ‘A Compassionate Spy.’ CIFFOPEN2: Lucy Zukaitis portrayed Joan Hall in ‘A Compassionate Spy.’ CIFFOPEN3: J. Michael Wright...
- 10/15/2022
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Previous | Image 1 of 7 | NextSteve James, director of ‘A Compassionate Spy.’
Chicago – Opening Night was a sensation for the 58th Chicago International Film Festival (Ciff). Besides the Opening Night Red Carpet for the film “A Compassionate Spy,” a Block Party took place on the streets in front of Chicago’s historic Music Box Theatre, in a memorable beginning to a Fest that runs through October 23rd.
HollywoodChicago.com was there through intrepid photographer Joe Arce, and he captured these images of the Red Carpet. In addition, some Block Party pictures from the 58th Ciff Opening Night. Photos One-Four: © Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com. Photo Five: © Timothy M. Schmidt ChicagoFilmFestival.com. Photo Six: © Barry Brecheisen ChicagoFilmFestival.com. Photo Seven: Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com.
CIFFOPEN1: Steve James, director of ‘A Compassionate Spy.’ CIFFOPEN2: Lucy Zukaitis portrayed Joan Hall in ‘A Compassionate Spy.’ CIFFOPEN3: J. Michael Wright...
Chicago – Opening Night was a sensation for the 58th Chicago International Film Festival (Ciff). Besides the Opening Night Red Carpet for the film “A Compassionate Spy,” a Block Party took place on the streets in front of Chicago’s historic Music Box Theatre, in a memorable beginning to a Fest that runs through October 23rd.
HollywoodChicago.com was there through intrepid photographer Joe Arce, and he captured these images of the Red Carpet. In addition, some Block Party pictures from the 58th Ciff Opening Night. Photos One-Four: © Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com. Photo Five: © Timothy M. Schmidt ChicagoFilmFestival.com. Photo Six: © Barry Brecheisen ChicagoFilmFestival.com. Photo Seven: Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com.
CIFFOPEN1: Steve James, director of ‘A Compassionate Spy.’ CIFFOPEN2: Lucy Zukaitis portrayed Joan Hall in ‘A Compassionate Spy.’ CIFFOPEN3: J. Michael Wright...
- 10/14/2022
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Chicago – The 58th Chicago International Film Festival (Ciff) is here, and opens Wednesday, October 12th, 2022, at Chicago’s historic Music Box Theatre with “A Compassionate Spy,” from master documentary maker Steve James (“Hoop Dreams”).
Besides the screening of “A Compassionate Spy,” Opening Night includes a Block Party, click Ciff Opening for details.
A tale of espionage, romance, and profound moral questions, “A Compassionate Spy” follows the remarkable story of Theodore Hall, a University of Chicago graduate who at age 19 was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project, the project that built the first atomic bomb in the 1940s. But soon after he joined the group, he passed crucial military secrets to Soviet intelligence. The story was reported in the 1997 book “Bombshell,” but has since been forgotten. Hall’s widow Joan is the main interview subject, and her memories are history, providing insight to love, intrigue, and the lengths to which...
Besides the screening of “A Compassionate Spy,” Opening Night includes a Block Party, click Ciff Opening for details.
A tale of espionage, romance, and profound moral questions, “A Compassionate Spy” follows the remarkable story of Theodore Hall, a University of Chicago graduate who at age 19 was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project, the project that built the first atomic bomb in the 1940s. But soon after he joined the group, he passed crucial military secrets to Soviet intelligence. The story was reported in the 1997 book “Bombshell,” but has since been forgotten. Hall’s widow Joan is the main interview subject, and her memories are history, providing insight to love, intrigue, and the lengths to which...
- 10/11/2022
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Click here to read the full article.
Steve James takes a break from his duties as Chicago’s documentary poet laureate with the new unscripted feature A Compassionate Spy, a topical and stylistic detour that still has a place within the director’s ongoing exploration of the blurry line between justice and injustice.
A Compassionate Spy borrows the look and feel of a historical espionage thriller and builds some momentum and moral complexity along the way, but it finds its real potency as a generational family drama.
Ted Hall was recruited to join the Manhattan Project when he was still a teenager. A brilliant young physicist, Ted went to Los Alamos with no clue what he would be working on, but when he learned the nature of the weapon being designed, he began to worry that if only the United States possessed nuclear technology, the post-war risks might be great.
Steve James takes a break from his duties as Chicago’s documentary poet laureate with the new unscripted feature A Compassionate Spy, a topical and stylistic detour that still has a place within the director’s ongoing exploration of the blurry line between justice and injustice.
A Compassionate Spy borrows the look and feel of a historical espionage thriller and builds some momentum and moral complexity along the way, but it finds its real potency as a generational family drama.
Ted Hall was recruited to join the Manhattan Project when he was still a teenager. A brilliant young physicist, Ted went to Los Alamos with no clue what he would be working on, but when he learned the nature of the weapon being designed, he began to worry that if only the United States possessed nuclear technology, the post-war risks might be great.
- 9/2/2022
- by Daniel Fienberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Just before director Christopher Nolan’s upcoming “Oppenheimer” plants a fixed image of Ted Hall in the popular imagination, along comes Steve James’s sensitive, studious documentary “A Compassionate Spy” to preemptively set any records straight. Unpacking the life and work of the prodigious teenage Manhattan Project physicist who passed key information about the endeavor to the Soviet Union — cuing an adulthood dogged by suspicion and secrecy — the film demonstrates its director’s characteristic nose for strong material and knack for gripping, straightforward storytelling. If the filmmaking is more televisual than in James’s best work, with its flourishes limited to some unnecessary dramatized passages, that should be no impediment to “A Compassionate Spy” commanding a sizable audience on multiple platforms.
“It would be nice to be proud, but I’m not a proud person,” says the septuagenarian Hall, in interview footage captured not long before his death in 1999. It...
“It would be nice to be proud, but I’m not a proud person,” says the septuagenarian Hall, in interview footage captured not long before his death in 1999. It...
- 9/2/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Arriving at a fateful time in the history of handling top secrets, “Hoop Dreams” filmmaker Steve James’s new documentary “A Compassionate Spy” aims to suggest that not all disloyalty is so clear-cut.
Though James couldn’t have foreseen the country being gripped by speculation about the motives of an unprincipled ex-president in suspicious possession of sensitive documents, this slice of history — making its world premiere at the 2022 Venice Film Festival — nevertheless offers up a story of unambiguous espionage with idealistic motive: a Harvard physics undergraduate recruited for the Manhattan Project who, in 1944, passed on its secrets to the Soviet Union to safeguard the world from monopolistic power and atomic annihilation.
His name was Ted Hall, and though he was suspected his whole life by authorities, he lived free from prosecution, raising a family and working at Cambridge University on pioneering biophysics until his death in 1999.
Also Read:
Why ‘City So Real...
Though James couldn’t have foreseen the country being gripped by speculation about the motives of an unprincipled ex-president in suspicious possession of sensitive documents, this slice of history — making its world premiere at the 2022 Venice Film Festival — nevertheless offers up a story of unambiguous espionage with idealistic motive: a Harvard physics undergraduate recruited for the Manhattan Project who, in 1944, passed on its secrets to the Soviet Union to safeguard the world from monopolistic power and atomic annihilation.
His name was Ted Hall, and though he was suspected his whole life by authorities, he lived free from prosecution, raising a family and working at Cambridge University on pioneering biophysics until his death in 1999.
Also Read:
Why ‘City So Real...
- 9/2/2022
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
High-profile espionage cases in the post-war period often invoke the grisly fate of the Rosenbergs, the first U.S. citizens to be convicted and executed by electric chair for sharing atomic secrets with the Soviet Union in peace time. But in the new documentary “A Compassionate Spy,” filmmaker Steve James tells the incredible story of Manhattan Project scientist Ted Hall, who shared classified nuclear secrets with Russia — and got away with it.
The Participant and Kartemquin Films-produced documentary, which has its world premiere in Venice on Sept. 2, is one of a number of films at this year’s festival that tackle the topic of nuclear disaster: Projects from Noah Baumbach’s feature adaptation of Don DeLillo’s “White Noise” through to Oliver Stone’s on-the-nose documentary “Nuclear” all contemplate some aspect of our nuclear past and future.
“There will be people who will look at what Ted did and say,...
The Participant and Kartemquin Films-produced documentary, which has its world premiere in Venice on Sept. 2, is one of a number of films at this year’s festival that tackle the topic of nuclear disaster: Projects from Noah Baumbach’s feature adaptation of Don DeLillo’s “White Noise” through to Oliver Stone’s on-the-nose documentary “Nuclear” all contemplate some aspect of our nuclear past and future.
“There will be people who will look at what Ted did and say,...
- 9/2/2022
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Given the direction of the world in recent years, it’s perhaps no surprise that Participant — Jeff Skoll’s socially conscious production powerhouse — has been as prolific as ever. But its output isn’t all about shining a torch on today’s most pressing concerns, as Academy Awards winners such as Roma, Green Book and Spotlight attest.
That said, the studio comes to Venice with two somewhat topical documentary features. In All The Beauty and the Bloodshed, Laura Poitras (an Oscar winner for her Participant film CitizenFour) follows artist and activist Nan Goldin in a deeply personal battle as she fights to hold the Sackler family to account for the opioid crisis.
Meanwhile, A Compassionate Spy from Hoop Dreams director Steve James (also behind Participant’s first TV series, America to Me) tells the story of Ted Hall, who as a physicist on...
Given the direction of the world in recent years, it’s perhaps no surprise that Participant — Jeff Skoll’s socially conscious production powerhouse — has been as prolific as ever. But its output isn’t all about shining a torch on today’s most pressing concerns, as Academy Awards winners such as Roma, Green Book and Spotlight attest.
That said, the studio comes to Venice with two somewhat topical documentary features. In All The Beauty and the Bloodshed, Laura Poitras (an Oscar winner for her Participant film CitizenFour) follows artist and activist Nan Goldin in a deeply personal battle as she fights to hold the Sackler family to account for the opioid crisis.
Meanwhile, A Compassionate Spy from Hoop Dreams director Steve James (also behind Participant’s first TV series, America to Me) tells the story of Ted Hall, who as a physicist on...
- 9/1/2022
- by Alex Ritman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The 18th edition of the Camden Intl. Film Festival, kicking off Sept. 15, will feature a handful of award-contending documentaries fresh off showings at Telluride and the Toronto film festivals. The Maine-based festival will unfold in a hybrid format, with both in-person events over a three-day period concluding Sept. 18, and online screenings available from Sept. 15 to Sept. 25 to audiences across North America.
This year’s Ciff highlights include the U.S. premiere of Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen’s Netflix release “In Her Hands,” which follows one of Afghanistan’s first female mayors during the months leading up to the Taliban takeover the country in 2021; Chris Smith’s “Sr.,” centered on the life and career of Robert Downey Sr. and his relationship to his son, Robert Downey Jr.; and Steve James’ “A Compassionate Spy,” about Manhattan Project physicist, Soviet spy and University of Chicago alum Theodore Hall. Each of the three...
This year’s Ciff highlights include the U.S. premiere of Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen’s Netflix release “In Her Hands,” which follows one of Afghanistan’s first female mayors during the months leading up to the Taliban takeover the country in 2021; Chris Smith’s “Sr.,” centered on the life and career of Robert Downey Sr. and his relationship to his son, Robert Downey Jr.; and Steve James’ “A Compassionate Spy,” about Manhattan Project physicist, Soviet spy and University of Chicago alum Theodore Hall. Each of the three...
- 8/22/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Ted and Grace are one of the cutest acts to perform on Britain’s Got Talent this year.
Ted, a retired Army recruit, and Grace, a Lady Gaga tribute act, are grandfather and granddaughter who first started singing as a duo when Grace was little. They admitted tonight that they were worried about the 92 year old elderly singer missing his cue, because his hearing isn’t what it used to be.
In the end, he did miss the first few words, but soon caught up and did a great job of singing his rendition of the 1915 World War One song, ‘Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag’
However, we were stunned and even more impressed when Grace – looking a lot like Christina Aguilera – entered the stage and sang ‘Pack Up’ by Eliza Doolittle.
We could hear the nerves in her vocals but she still did a great job...
Ted, a retired Army recruit, and Grace, a Lady Gaga tribute act, are grandfather and granddaughter who first started singing as a duo when Grace was little. They admitted tonight that they were worried about the 92 year old elderly singer missing his cue, because his hearing isn’t what it used to be.
In the end, he did miss the first few words, but soon caught up and did a great job of singing his rendition of the 1915 World War One song, ‘Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag’
However, we were stunned and even more impressed when Grace – looking a lot like Christina Aguilera – entered the stage and sang ‘Pack Up’ by Eliza Doolittle.
We could hear the nerves in her vocals but she still did a great job...
- 5/30/2011
- by Lisa McGarry
- Unreality
Ted Hall has put his newfound fame to good use.
The 92-year-old was seen wowing the Britain’s Got Talent judges on Saturday night when he sang a version of If I Were A Rich Man alongside his granddaughter Grace Bower, 21. The audience and the panel loved him and Amanda Holden, David Hasselhoff and Michael McIntyre unanimously voted to send the duo through to the next round.
Speaking on Daybreak yesterday, Ted admitted that he wants to make the most of the opportunity he’s been given and is now searching for his long lost aunt.
He said: “My grandmother had nine children, eight boys and the ninth was a lady, and I’ve lost touch with them.
“But she’s living somewhere, and if she’s looking into this programme, ‘It’s Ted, we knew each other when we were about 40′.
“She was only a few months older than...
The 92-year-old was seen wowing the Britain’s Got Talent judges on Saturday night when he sang a version of If I Were A Rich Man alongside his granddaughter Grace Bower, 21. The audience and the panel loved him and Amanda Holden, David Hasselhoff and Michael McIntyre unanimously voted to send the duo through to the next round.
Speaking on Daybreak yesterday, Ted admitted that he wants to make the most of the opportunity he’s been given and is now searching for his long lost aunt.
He said: “My grandmother had nine children, eight boys and the ninth was a lady, and I’ve lost touch with them.
“But she’s living somewhere, and if she’s looking into this programme, ‘It’s Ted, we knew each other when we were about 40′.
“She was only a few months older than...
- 4/26/2011
- by Lisa McGarry
- Unreality
Britain's Got Talent star Ted Hall has revealed that he is searching for a missing family member. The 92-year-old dancer and singer, who appeared on last weekend's auditions show, said that he has lost touch with a female relative and is hoping that his new reality TV fame may help him reconnect. "My grandmother had nine children, eight boys and the ninth was a lady, and I've lost touch with her," he told Daybreak. "But she's living somewhere, and if she's looking into this programme, (more)...
- 4/26/2011
- by By Alex Fletcher
- Digital Spy
Ted Hall and Grace Bower were seen impressing the judging panel on last night’s Britain’s Got Talent, with their touching musical act and Grace has since revealed that they started performing together, after her Grandmother Gloria died.
Ted’s 85 year old wife passed away eighteen months ago and the 92 year old moved in with his family, including his granddaughter Grace.
Speaking about how they started singing together, she told The News Of The World: “When gran passed away my grandad didn’t cope but we looked after him.
“He needed to find something to fill his time, so he started doing karaoke. Bgt is something we can do that we’ll share forever. He sings an old song and I do a modern version.”
Watch the full video of the duo’s audition below and let us know if you think the judges were right to send them through to the next round.
Ted’s 85 year old wife passed away eighteen months ago and the 92 year old moved in with his family, including his granddaughter Grace.
Speaking about how they started singing together, she told The News Of The World: “When gran passed away my grandad didn’t cope but we looked after him.
“He needed to find something to fill his time, so he started doing karaoke. Bgt is something we can do that we’ll share forever. He sings an old song and I do a modern version.”
Watch the full video of the duo’s audition below and let us know if you think the judges were right to send them through to the next round.
- 4/24/2011
- by Lisa McGarry
- Unreality
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