Exclusive: Samuel Goldwyn Films has picked up North American rights to Kyra Sedgwick’s second feature directorial, Space Oddity, based on Rebecca Banner’s Black List script.
Planets and lives collide as Alex (Kyle Allen) longs to travel to outer space and finally gets the opportunity to do so thanks to a privately-funded Mars colonization program. In the midst of his rigorous preparation, he meets Daisy (Alexandra Shipp), the new girl in town who’s trying to start over. The two wayward souls connect in unexpected ways, both of them harboring secrets that they’re desperately trying to overcome. However, when questions about the legitimacy of the program and the future of his parents’ flower farm begin to crop up, Alex finds himself questioning whether it’s easier to confront his past or fly away into the stars. The movie also stars Madeline Brewer (The Handmaid’s Tale), Carrie Preston (The Good Fight...
Planets and lives collide as Alex (Kyle Allen) longs to travel to outer space and finally gets the opportunity to do so thanks to a privately-funded Mars colonization program. In the midst of his rigorous preparation, he meets Daisy (Alexandra Shipp), the new girl in town who’s trying to start over. The two wayward souls connect in unexpected ways, both of them harboring secrets that they’re desperately trying to overcome. However, when questions about the legitimacy of the program and the future of his parents’ flower farm begin to crop up, Alex finds himself questioning whether it’s easier to confront his past or fly away into the stars. The movie also stars Madeline Brewer (The Handmaid’s Tale), Carrie Preston (The Good Fight...
- 11/1/2022
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
At the Award Ceremony of the 24th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) awards were handed to the winners of the four competition programmes of the festival and PÖFF’s sub-festivals Youth and Children’s Film Festival Just Film and International Short Film and Animation Film Festival PÖFF Shorts.
The jury of Official Selection – Competition headed by Mark Adams selected director Ivaylo Hristov’s drama “Fear“ as their favourite, handing the film the Grand Prix of the festival. Blending drama with deadpan comedy, the film’s story is set on the Bulgarian border, on a new route for African migrants arriving from Turkey with hopes to reach Germany. The protagonist, the former school teacher, comes across an African man who will bring a dramatic turn to her life.
The Best Director award goes to Turkish director Nisan Dağ for “When I’m Done Dying“, a vibrant portrayal of an upcoming hiphop artist struggling with drug addiction.
The jury of Official Selection – Competition headed by Mark Adams selected director Ivaylo Hristov’s drama “Fear“ as their favourite, handing the film the Grand Prix of the festival. Blending drama with deadpan comedy, the film’s story is set on the Bulgarian border, on a new route for African migrants arriving from Turkey with hopes to reach Germany. The protagonist, the former school teacher, comes across an African man who will bring a dramatic turn to her life.
The Best Director award goes to Turkish director Nisan Dağ for “When I’m Done Dying“, a vibrant portrayal of an upcoming hiphop artist struggling with drug addiction.
- 12/2/2020
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Nisan Dağ wins best director for ‘When I’m Done Dying’.
Director Ivaylo Hristov and producer Assen Vladimirov have won the Grand Prix for best film, for Bulgarian drama Fear, at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF).
The event presented its awards in Tallinn, Estonia this evening. Hristov and Vladimirov share the €10,000 grant that comes with the win.
Scroll down for the full list of awards
They were awarded the prize by a jury consisting of Mark Adams, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, Izabela Kiszka-Hoflik and Ester Kuntu.
The jury praised “a beautifully-made film that astutely balances dry humour with important contemporary drama.
Director Ivaylo Hristov and producer Assen Vladimirov have won the Grand Prix for best film, for Bulgarian drama Fear, at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF).
The event presented its awards in Tallinn, Estonia this evening. Hristov and Vladimirov share the €10,000 grant that comes with the win.
Scroll down for the full list of awards
They were awarded the prize by a jury consisting of Mark Adams, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, Izabela Kiszka-Hoflik and Ester Kuntu.
The jury praised “a beautifully-made film that astutely balances dry humour with important contemporary drama.
- 11/27/2020
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
In today’s Global Bulletin, Well Go USA takes North American rights to “Here Are the Young Men,” Beta Films and 1-2-3 Production team on two series, Keshet closes deals in Europe, Asia and Australia, and Tallinn Black Nights honors Margarethe Von Trotta.
Acquisition
Well Go USA has acquired North American distribution rights for Eoin Macken’s Irish drama “Here Are the Young Men,” and plans to release the film sometime in 2021.
Based on Rob Doyle’s eponymous novel, “Here Are the Young Men” unravels in 2003, over the last days of summer for three Dublin high school graduates. Amidst their revelries, the trio witness a catastrophic accident, which forces them to face their own personal demons.
“’Here Are the Young Men’ is an unflinching depiction of the realities of tragedy, temptation and the depths of human nature,” said Doris Pfardrescher, president and CEO at Well Go USA. “It shines...
Acquisition
Well Go USA has acquired North American distribution rights for Eoin Macken’s Irish drama “Here Are the Young Men,” and plans to release the film sometime in 2021.
Based on Rob Doyle’s eponymous novel, “Here Are the Young Men” unravels in 2003, over the last days of summer for three Dublin high school graduates. Amidst their revelries, the trio witness a catastrophic accident, which forces them to face their own personal demons.
“’Here Are the Young Men’ is an unflinching depiction of the realities of tragedy, temptation and the depths of human nature,” said Doris Pfardrescher, president and CEO at Well Go USA. “It shines...
- 11/20/2020
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
The festival is underway in Estonia with 80 international guests in town.
When the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia opened last Thursday November 12, festival director Tiina Lokk stood in front of a socially-distanced, fully masked audience at the Coca-Cola Plaza cinema before a gala screening of Oskar Roehler’s Rainer Werner Fassbinder biopic Enfant Terrible.
Images were streamed around the world to accredited guests. For as has become commonplace in 2020, the festival is taking place as a hybrid event this year, with around 80 international guests, down from 1,500 last year.
But on opening night, Lokk admits she was unnerved; after...
When the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia opened last Thursday November 12, festival director Tiina Lokk stood in front of a socially-distanced, fully masked audience at the Coca-Cola Plaza cinema before a gala screening of Oskar Roehler’s Rainer Werner Fassbinder biopic Enfant Terrible.
Images were streamed around the world to accredited guests. For as has become commonplace in 2020, the festival is taking place as a hybrid event this year, with around 80 international guests, down from 1,500 last year.
But on opening night, Lokk admits she was unnerved; after...
- 11/20/2020
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
New award to recognise diversity and inclusion in cinema.
Filmmakers Armando Iannucci and Francis Annan are to be the first recipients of the Dda Spotlight Award at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia.
The new honour has been established to recognise diversity in inclusion in cinema. UK writer-director Iannucci will be honoured for his latest feature, The Personal History Of David Copperfield, which has an inclusive cast led by Dev Patel.
Fellow UK filmmaker Annan will be awarded for his latest feature, Escape From Pretoria, which stars Daniel Radcliffe as anti-apartheid activist Tim Jenkin, who was sentenced to...
Filmmakers Armando Iannucci and Francis Annan are to be the first recipients of the Dda Spotlight Award at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia.
The new honour has been established to recognise diversity in inclusion in cinema. UK writer-director Iannucci will be honoured for his latest feature, The Personal History Of David Copperfield, which has an inclusive cast led by Dev Patel.
Fellow UK filmmaker Annan will be awarded for his latest feature, Escape From Pretoria, which stars Daniel Radcliffe as anti-apartheid activist Tim Jenkin, who was sentenced to...
- 11/13/2020
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Viaplay, the streaming service run by Nordic Entertainment Group (Nent Group), is launching in the U.S. next year. The service is rolling out into 10 international markets by the end of 2023. including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland also by the end of 2021. The focus of the American roll out will be showing Nordic drama series. “Viaplay is a proven Nordic success story and we are now ready to expand internationally and become the European streaming champion. We have one of the world’s most flexible and scalable technology platforms, and aim to be the most diverse and inclusive storyteller with our amazing range of original, acquired, local and live content that offers something special for everyone,” said Anders Jensen, Nent Group President and CEO.
Executives from the likes of All3Media and Facebook has been invited to sit on a panel that will advise a UK governmental committee on the future of...
Executives from the likes of All3Media and Facebook has been invited to sit on a panel that will advise a UK governmental committee on the future of...
- 11/10/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
In today’s Global Bulletin, “A Simple Plan” cinematographer wins Tallinn award; Zinc’s Red Sauce adds producers; LGBTQ-themed streamer Froot launches; and Sony Pictures Television-backed Eleven reveals training program for people of color.
Estonian-Canadian cinematographer Alar Kivilo will receive the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival‘s inaugural lifetime achievement award.
Born in 1953 in Montreal into a family of Estonian emigres, Kivilo began his cinematography career shooting documentaries and short films, including “Boys and Girls,” which won an Academy Award for best live action short in 1984. He then shot several music videos and Bessie, Clio and Cannes Award-winning commercials. In 1987, Kivilo lensed his first dramatic feature film, “Da,” followed by Sam Raimi’s “A Simple Plan” (1997).
For his work on the small screen, he received an American Society of Cinematographers Award for outstanding achievement in cinematography for HBO movie “Taking Chance” (2009).
The festival runs Nov. 13-29.
Appointments
Zinc Media Group...
Estonian-Canadian cinematographer Alar Kivilo will receive the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival‘s inaugural lifetime achievement award.
Born in 1953 in Montreal into a family of Estonian emigres, Kivilo began his cinematography career shooting documentaries and short films, including “Boys and Girls,” which won an Academy Award for best live action short in 1984. He then shot several music videos and Bessie, Clio and Cannes Award-winning commercials. In 1987, Kivilo lensed his first dramatic feature film, “Da,” followed by Sam Raimi’s “A Simple Plan” (1997).
For his work on the small screen, he received an American Society of Cinematographers Award for outstanding achievement in cinematography for HBO movie “Taking Chance” (2009).
The festival runs Nov. 13-29.
Appointments
Zinc Media Group...
- 11/10/2020
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
“Breakups,” as millennial comedian Cat Cohen once said, “are cool because it’s like you have a best friend and then they die.” What do you do after the end of the affair to memorialize what was, and what now isn’t? Natalie Krinsky’s romantic comedy “The Broken Hearts Gallery” doesn’t quite get at the psyche-shattering, soul-reconfiguring effects of a breakup — the exhausting burden it casts on your friends, the face-melting substance abuse, the self-doubt, the social-media stalking in the aftermath. Don’t forget the vomiting.
But what this sweet, fleet-footed little trifle does capture is how to start a whole new you after you and me is no more. This certainly makes for an overly idealistic experience, but “Broken Hearts Gallery” is a far-cry from the algorithm-driven uncanny valleys of romantic human behavior as seen on Netflix’s versions of the same kind of film, and it...
But what this sweet, fleet-footed little trifle does capture is how to start a whole new you after you and me is no more. This certainly makes for an overly idealistic experience, but “Broken Hearts Gallery” is a far-cry from the algorithm-driven uncanny valleys of romantic human behavior as seen on Netflix’s versions of the same kind of film, and it...
- 9/4/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Scott Frank wrote some of the best films of the past 20 years. His work on Out of Sight, Get Shorty, and Minority Report is nothing short of fantastic. After plenty of experience as a screenwriter Frank finally got behind the camera in 2007 with The Lookout. His snowy neo-noir was a hit with critics, but didn’t perform quite as well at the box office. That’s a shame, because it’s an exceptional dramatic thriller, boasting outstanding performances from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Isla Fisher, Matthew Goode, and Jeff Daniels. You also couldn’t ask for a more rewarding script: it takes its time for quiet moments, and yet moves at an exceedingly fast clip; everything set up has a satisfying payoff; and Frank’s original story plays with archetypes. The friendly cop could’ve been a bumbling moron with a gun, but when he’s in a shootout, he’s portrayed as a genuinely competent enforcer. Frank...
- 9/4/2014
- by Jack Giroux
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Tweens. Fallen angels. Supernatural occurrences. A love triangle. Lots and lots of brooding. Yep it's a familiar formula and you'll find it in spades once the big screen adaptation of Lauren Kate's Fallen gets here. Speaking of which, we have your first look... furrowed brows and all.
From the Press Release
Based on the worldwide bestselling book series, Fallen is seen through the eyes of Lucinda “Luce” Price, a strong-willed seventeen-year-old living a seemingly ordinary life until she is accused of a crime she didn’t commit. Sent off to the imposing Sword & Cross reform school, Luce finds herself being courted by two young men to whom she feels oddly connected. Isolated and haunted by strange visions, Luce begins to unravel the secrets of her past and discovers the two men are fallen angels, competing for her love for centuries. Luce must choose where her feelings lie, pitting Heaven...
From the Press Release
Based on the worldwide bestselling book series, Fallen is seen through the eyes of Lucinda “Luce” Price, a strong-willed seventeen-year-old living a seemingly ordinary life until she is accused of a crime she didn’t commit. Sent off to the imposing Sword & Cross reform school, Luce finds herself being courted by two young men to whom she feels oddly connected. Isolated and haunted by strange visions, Luce begins to unravel the secrets of her past and discovers the two men are fallen angels, competing for her love for centuries. Luce must choose where her feelings lie, pitting Heaven...
- 5/2/2014
- by Steve Barton
- DreadCentral.com
Scheduled for a 2015 theatrical release, here’s a first look at Fallen. Based on the worldwide bestselling book series by Lauren Kate, Australian filmmaker Scott Hicks (Shine) will direct from a script by Michael Ross.
Fallen is seen through the eyes of Lucinda “Luce” Price, a strong-willed seventeen-year-old living a seemingly ordinary life until she is accused of a crime she didn’t commit. Sent off to the imposing Sword & Cross reform school, Luce finds herself being courted by two young men to whom she feels oddly connected. Isolated and haunted by strange visions, Luce begins to unravel the secrets of her past and discovers the two men are fallen angels, competing for her love for centuries. Luce must choose where her feelings lie, pitting Heaven against Hell in an epic battle over true love.
Fallen stars Addison Timlin (Stand Up Guys), Jeremy Irvine (War Horse), Harrison Gilbertson (Need For Speed...
Fallen is seen through the eyes of Lucinda “Luce” Price, a strong-willed seventeen-year-old living a seemingly ordinary life until she is accused of a crime she didn’t commit. Sent off to the imposing Sword & Cross reform school, Luce finds herself being courted by two young men to whom she feels oddly connected. Isolated and haunted by strange visions, Luce begins to unravel the secrets of her past and discovers the two men are fallen angels, competing for her love for centuries. Luce must choose where her feelings lie, pitting Heaven against Hell in an epic battle over true love.
Fallen stars Addison Timlin (Stand Up Guys), Jeremy Irvine (War Horse), Harrison Gilbertson (Need For Speed...
- 5/2/2014
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 14 Nov 2013 - 06:19
The overlooked greats of the year 1998 come under the spotlight in our list of its 25 underappreciated movies...
Dominated as it was by the financial success of two giant killer asteroid movies, gross-out comedy hit There's Something About Mary and Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, 1998 proved to be an extraordinary year for cinema.
Okay, so history doesn't look back too fondly on Roland Emmerich's mishandled Godzilla remake, and Lethal Weapon 4 was hardly the best buddy-cop flick ever made, despite its handsome profit. But search outside the top-10 grossing films of that year, and you'll find all kinds of spectacular modern classics: Peter Weir's wonderful The Truman Show, John Frankenheimer's rock-solid thriller Ronin, and Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line.
Then there was The Big Lebowski, the Coen brothers' sublime comedy that has since become a deserved and oft-quoted cult favourite.
The overlooked greats of the year 1998 come under the spotlight in our list of its 25 underappreciated movies...
Dominated as it was by the financial success of two giant killer asteroid movies, gross-out comedy hit There's Something About Mary and Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, 1998 proved to be an extraordinary year for cinema.
Okay, so history doesn't look back too fondly on Roland Emmerich's mishandled Godzilla remake, and Lethal Weapon 4 was hardly the best buddy-cop flick ever made, despite its handsome profit. But search outside the top-10 grossing films of that year, and you'll find all kinds of spectacular modern classics: Peter Weir's wonderful The Truman Show, John Frankenheimer's rock-solid thriller Ronin, and Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line.
Then there was The Big Lebowski, the Coen brothers' sublime comedy that has since become a deserved and oft-quoted cult favourite.
- 11/13/2013
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
Scott Hicks adapts the Nicholas Sparks novel The Lucky One to the big screen with two more than capable leads that manage to find a strong connection in a somewhat weak story. Zac Efron‘s strength as a growing actor is almost surprising as he believably transforms himself from high school superstar to a full-blown Marine. His co-star Taylor Schilling also impresses with a performance that should put her on the map as an actresses capable of displaying a wide range of raw emotional intensity. The Lucky One isn’t the best Nicholas Sparks adaptation, but it’s far from the worst.
Logan (Zac Efron) is a celebrated Marine that has finally returned home after three grueling tours that ended in death for most of his friends. He somehow made it out alive and he mostly thinks he owes his life to a mysterious girl on a picture he found while on duty.
Logan (Zac Efron) is a celebrated Marine that has finally returned home after three grueling tours that ended in death for most of his friends. He somehow made it out alive and he mostly thinks he owes his life to a mysterious girl on a picture he found while on duty.
- 8/26/2012
- by Jeremy Lebens
- We Got This Covered
In theaters Friday, April 20, Zac Efron stars with Taylor Schilling and Blythe Danner in the romantic drama The Lucky One, directed by Academy Award®-nominated writer/director Scott Hicks (“Shine”), based on Nicholas Sparks’ bestseller The Lucky One.
U.S. Marine Sergeant Logan Thibault (Efron) returns from his third tour of duty in Iraq, with the one thing he credits with keeping him alive.a photograph he found of a woman he doesn’t even know. Discovering her name is Beth (Schilling) and where she lives, he shows up at her door, and ends up taking a job at her family-run local kennel. Despite her initial mistrust and the complications in her life, a romance develops between them, giving Logan hope that Beth could be much more than his good luck charm.
Warner Bros Pictures and Wamg invite you to enter for your chance to win passes to the advance screening of The Lucky One.
U.S. Marine Sergeant Logan Thibault (Efron) returns from his third tour of duty in Iraq, with the one thing he credits with keeping him alive.a photograph he found of a woman he doesn’t even know. Discovering her name is Beth (Schilling) and where she lives, he shows up at her door, and ends up taking a job at her family-run local kennel. Despite her initial mistrust and the complications in her life, a romance develops between them, giving Logan hope that Beth could be much more than his good luck charm.
Warner Bros Pictures and Wamg invite you to enter for your chance to win passes to the advance screening of The Lucky One.
- 4/10/2012
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Release Date: Out Now Director: John Lee Hancock Writers: Hancock (screenplay), Michael Lewis (novel) Cinematographer: Alar Kivilo Starring: Sandra Bullock, Quinton Aaron Studio/Runtime: Warner Bros., 128 mins. The Taylor Swift of Oscar nominees This is the story of a blonde female on the bleachers. And if you’re thinking of Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me,” you’re wrong—but you’re close. The Blind Side, another seemingly innocuous story set in Tennessee, is also less about sports and more about relationships. And despite the rising acclaim of their artistic adversaries, both the film and Swift remain crowd favorites....
- 3/4/2010
- Pastemagazine.com
Here's an oddity this awards season: A top movie honor not going to "The Hurt Locker" or "Avatar."
This bit of news comes courtesy of the American Society of Cinematographers, which gave its feature film prize to "The White Ribbon" and cinematographer Christian Berger. The black-and-white German film, directed by Michael Haneke, is an Oscar nominee for cinematography and for best foreign-language film.
"The White Ribbon" beat out "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker," as well as "Inglourious Basterds" and "Nine," to win the feature film prize at the Asc's 24th annual awards Saturday night (Feb. 27).
In the TV series category, Eagle Egilsson won for the "Venice Kings" episode of TNT's "Dark Blue." Other nominees were "FlashForward" ("The Gift"), "Ugly Betty" ("There's No Place Like Mode"), "CSI" ("Family Affair") and "Smallville" ("Savior").
Alar Kivilo won the TV movie/miniseries honor for HBO's "Taking Chance," topping fellow nominees "Jesse Stone: Thin Ice...
This bit of news comes courtesy of the American Society of Cinematographers, which gave its feature film prize to "The White Ribbon" and cinematographer Christian Berger. The black-and-white German film, directed by Michael Haneke, is an Oscar nominee for cinematography and for best foreign-language film.
"The White Ribbon" beat out "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker," as well as "Inglourious Basterds" and "Nine," to win the feature film prize at the Asc's 24th annual awards Saturday night (Feb. 27).
In the TV series category, Eagle Egilsson won for the "Venice Kings" episode of TNT's "Dark Blue." Other nominees were "FlashForward" ("The Gift"), "Ugly Betty" ("There's No Place Like Mode"), "CSI" ("Family Affair") and "Smallville" ("Savior").
Alar Kivilo won the TV movie/miniseries honor for HBO's "Taking Chance," topping fellow nominees "Jesse Stone: Thin Ice...
- 2/28/2010
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
Austrian Christian Berger won the American Society of Cinematographers' feature competition for "The White Ribbon" during the 24th Annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza on Saturday.
The other nominees in the feature film category -- which along with "The White Ribbon" are also up for Oscars in cinematography -- are Barry Ackroyd for "The Hurt Locker," Mauro Fiore for "Avatar" and Robert Richardson for "Inglourious Basterds." "Nine," photographed by Dion Beebe, rounded out the Asc feature nominees.
Commenting on the range of looks and approaches to this year's nominated films, Berger said backstage: "It was quite good to have that contrast ... to see what is photography today in cinema -- or what will be the future."
The frontrunner in the Academy Awards race for foreign-language film, "The White Ribbon" is the second black-and-white film in the past decade to earn the Asc's feature award. Roger Deakins...
The other nominees in the feature film category -- which along with "The White Ribbon" are also up for Oscars in cinematography -- are Barry Ackroyd for "The Hurt Locker," Mauro Fiore for "Avatar" and Robert Richardson for "Inglourious Basterds." "Nine," photographed by Dion Beebe, rounded out the Asc feature nominees.
Commenting on the range of looks and approaches to this year's nominated films, Berger said backstage: "It was quite good to have that contrast ... to see what is photography today in cinema -- or what will be the future."
The frontrunner in the Academy Awards race for foreign-language film, "The White Ribbon" is the second black-and-white film in the past decade to earn the Asc's feature award. Roger Deakins...
- 2/28/2010
- by By Carolyn Giardina
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Los Angeles, February 27, 2010--Christian Berger, Aac, Alar Kivilo, Asc, Csc and Eagle Egilsson claimed top honors in the three competitive categories at the 24th Annual American Society of Cinematographers (Asc) Outstanding Achievement Awards celebration here tonight at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel. Berger won the feature film competition for The White Ribbon. Egilsson earned top accolades in the episodic category for Dark Blue ("Venice Kings"). Kivilo was the recipient of the television movie/miniseries award for Taking Chance. Actor Timothy Dalton espoused some poetic insights about the diverse range of films that were nominated for top honors in the feature film [...]...
- 2/28/2010
- by Nikki Finke
- Deadline Hollywood
TNT's "Dark Blue," ABC's "FlashForward" and "Ugly Betty," CBS's "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and the CW's "Smallville" all figured in the American Society of Cinematographers' nominations in two television categories, announced Thursday.
Nominated in the episodic/pilot TV category for the 24th annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards are Eagle Egilsson for the "Venice Kings" episode of "Blue"; Jeffrey Jur for "The Gift" from "FlashForward"; Michael Price for "Betty's" "There's No Place Like Mode"; Christian Sebaldt for the "CSI" episode "Family Affair"; and Glen Winter for the "Savior" episode of "Smallville."
"The rapid evolution of high-definition televisions in homes has made the role cinematographers play in creating content for episodic television more challenging and more important than ever," ASC awards committee chairman Richard Crudo said.
In the TV movie/miniseries category, the nominees are Alar Kivilo for HBO's "Taking Chance"; Rene Ohashi for CBS's "Jesse Stone: Thin Ice," and Jerzy Zielinski...
Nominated in the episodic/pilot TV category for the 24th annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards are Eagle Egilsson for the "Venice Kings" episode of "Blue"; Jeffrey Jur for "The Gift" from "FlashForward"; Michael Price for "Betty's" "There's No Place Like Mode"; Christian Sebaldt for the "CSI" episode "Family Affair"; and Glen Winter for the "Savior" episode of "Smallville."
"The rapid evolution of high-definition televisions in homes has made the role cinematographers play in creating content for episodic television more challenging and more important than ever," ASC awards committee chairman Richard Crudo said.
In the TV movie/miniseries category, the nominees are Alar Kivilo for HBO's "Taking Chance"; Rene Ohashi for CBS's "Jesse Stone: Thin Ice," and Jerzy Zielinski...
- 12/17/2009
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
More a valentine to Chicago's architecture than the aching love story it purports to be, "The Lake House" is a slow-moving, never-igniting tale of calendar-crossed lovers that grows less convincing as it proceeds.
Facing no direct competition from romantic dramas and boasting the marquee allure of Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, it will entice initial interest, particularly among women, before word travels that this tale of frustrated love is an unfulfilling fantasy, lovely to look at and confounding to the core.
Time-slip sagas have a built-in intrigue, and film is a perfect medium for exploring ruptures in the temporal continuum. But concept alone isn't enough. The not-quite fully baked idea at the center of "Lake House" is an appealing metaphor for romantic destiny: Two lonely souls who live in the same house at different times begin communicating across a distance of two years. Adoring shots of building facades notwithstanding, the story's passion is subdued to the point of absence. And even within its wobbly framework of metaphysical logic, the payoff is such a cheat that viewers who aren't punch-drunk from being pingponged between the film's two time periods will be left only with questions -- but not the kind that will bring them back for second viewings.
Adapting "Il Mare", a 2000 South Korean fantasy/romance, Argentine director Alejandro Agresti ("Valentin") and screenwriter David Auburn ("Proof") strain for a sense of portent and wonder. Auburn forsakes dramatic tension and pacing to fill characters' mouths with dialogue that spells out his themes with such obviousness that Vanna White or Akeelah wouldn't be out of place. He further lards the proceedings with forced literary and cinematic allusions.
With the help of Rachel Portman's restrained score, Nathan Crowley's production design and the elegant, sumptuous precision of cinematographer Alar Kivilo's compositions, "Lake House" does capture the way certain places become imbued with feeling. The titular abode is a breathtaking glass box on stilts (built for the film), whose symbolism is helpfully explained by characters using words like "disconnected" and "incomplete." Moving from the North Shore retreat to take a hospital job in Chicago, Dr. Kate Forster (Bullock) leaves a letter for the next tenant requesting that her mail be forwarded. The note's recipient, Alex Wyler (Reeves), having moved into the "abandoned dump" his father designed years earlier, is baffled by her claims. But soon they're exchanging daily missives via the house's mailbox, only to discover that he's writing from 2004 while she lives in 2006.
Introspection and solitude are rich cinematic subjects, but here the reunited "Speed" stars play characters whose personalities are so recessive that they inspire only indifference. Bullock is quite good at conveying Kate's discontent without overstating the matter, even if the script does, pushing the worn notion that single career women are the saddest people on the planet. Kate plays chess with her dog; her only real-world contacts are unsatisfying exchanges with an ex-boyfriend (Dylan Walsh), her mother (Willeke van Ammelrooy) and a colleague (Shohreh Aghdashloo).
Reeves, who like his co-star has done his most interesting recent work in small independent films and whose true forte is comedy, brings an inscrutability to Alex That's a detriment. He's an architect who, unlike his younger brother (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), has taken a gauche detour into condo development. Agresti stops the action, as it were, so that Christopher Plummer, as their imperious father, can deliver a lecture on the quality of light with a mad-artist twinkle in his eye.
But there is no illumination at the end of this time-lapse tunnel, whose participants sense a connection that the audience never does. Though it's not without lovely moments -- a tree Alex plants for Kate in 2004 suddenly appears before her, full-boughed -- too much of this would-be love story unfolds via voiceover readings of letters loaded with backstory, trying to fill in what the film can't bring alive in the present.
THE LAKE HOUSE
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents in association with Village Roadshow Pictures a Vertigo Entertainment production
Credits:
Director: Alejandro Agresti
Screenwriter: David Auburn
Based on the motion picture "Il Mare" produced by Sidus
Producers: Doug Davison, Roy Lee
Executive producers: Erwin Stoff, Dana Goldberg, Bruce Berman, Mary McLaglen
Director of photography: Alar Kivilo
Production designer: Nathan Crowley
Music: Rachel Portman
Co-producer: Sonny Mallhi
Costume designer: Deena Appel
Editors: Lynzee Klingman, Alejandro Brodersohn
Cast:
Alex Wyler: Keanu Reeves
Kate Forster: Sandra Bullock
Simon Wyler: Christopher Plummer
Henry Wyler: Ebon Moss-Bachrach
Kate's mother: Willeke van Ammelrooy
Morgan: Dylan Walsh
Anna: Shohreh Aghdashloo
Mona: Lynn Collins
MPAA rating PG
Running time -- 97 minutes...
Facing no direct competition from romantic dramas and boasting the marquee allure of Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, it will entice initial interest, particularly among women, before word travels that this tale of frustrated love is an unfulfilling fantasy, lovely to look at and confounding to the core.
Time-slip sagas have a built-in intrigue, and film is a perfect medium for exploring ruptures in the temporal continuum. But concept alone isn't enough. The not-quite fully baked idea at the center of "Lake House" is an appealing metaphor for romantic destiny: Two lonely souls who live in the same house at different times begin communicating across a distance of two years. Adoring shots of building facades notwithstanding, the story's passion is subdued to the point of absence. And even within its wobbly framework of metaphysical logic, the payoff is such a cheat that viewers who aren't punch-drunk from being pingponged between the film's two time periods will be left only with questions -- but not the kind that will bring them back for second viewings.
Adapting "Il Mare", a 2000 South Korean fantasy/romance, Argentine director Alejandro Agresti ("Valentin") and screenwriter David Auburn ("Proof") strain for a sense of portent and wonder. Auburn forsakes dramatic tension and pacing to fill characters' mouths with dialogue that spells out his themes with such obviousness that Vanna White or Akeelah wouldn't be out of place. He further lards the proceedings with forced literary and cinematic allusions.
With the help of Rachel Portman's restrained score, Nathan Crowley's production design and the elegant, sumptuous precision of cinematographer Alar Kivilo's compositions, "Lake House" does capture the way certain places become imbued with feeling. The titular abode is a breathtaking glass box on stilts (built for the film), whose symbolism is helpfully explained by characters using words like "disconnected" and "incomplete." Moving from the North Shore retreat to take a hospital job in Chicago, Dr. Kate Forster (Bullock) leaves a letter for the next tenant requesting that her mail be forwarded. The note's recipient, Alex Wyler (Reeves), having moved into the "abandoned dump" his father designed years earlier, is baffled by her claims. But soon they're exchanging daily missives via the house's mailbox, only to discover that he's writing from 2004 while she lives in 2006.
Introspection and solitude are rich cinematic subjects, but here the reunited "Speed" stars play characters whose personalities are so recessive that they inspire only indifference. Bullock is quite good at conveying Kate's discontent without overstating the matter, even if the script does, pushing the worn notion that single career women are the saddest people on the planet. Kate plays chess with her dog; her only real-world contacts are unsatisfying exchanges with an ex-boyfriend (Dylan Walsh), her mother (Willeke van Ammelrooy) and a colleague (Shohreh Aghdashloo).
Reeves, who like his co-star has done his most interesting recent work in small independent films and whose true forte is comedy, brings an inscrutability to Alex That's a detriment. He's an architect who, unlike his younger brother (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), has taken a gauche detour into condo development. Agresti stops the action, as it were, so that Christopher Plummer, as their imperious father, can deliver a lecture on the quality of light with a mad-artist twinkle in his eye.
But there is no illumination at the end of this time-lapse tunnel, whose participants sense a connection that the audience never does. Though it's not without lovely moments -- a tree Alex plants for Kate in 2004 suddenly appears before her, full-boughed -- too much of this would-be love story unfolds via voiceover readings of letters loaded with backstory, trying to fill in what the film can't bring alive in the present.
THE LAKE HOUSE
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents in association with Village Roadshow Pictures a Vertigo Entertainment production
Credits:
Director: Alejandro Agresti
Screenwriter: David Auburn
Based on the motion picture "Il Mare" produced by Sidus
Producers: Doug Davison, Roy Lee
Executive producers: Erwin Stoff, Dana Goldberg, Bruce Berman, Mary McLaglen
Director of photography: Alar Kivilo
Production designer: Nathan Crowley
Music: Rachel Portman
Co-producer: Sonny Mallhi
Costume designer: Deena Appel
Editors: Lynzee Klingman, Alejandro Brodersohn
Cast:
Alex Wyler: Keanu Reeves
Kate Forster: Sandra Bullock
Simon Wyler: Christopher Plummer
Henry Wyler: Ebon Moss-Bachrach
Kate's mother: Willeke van Ammelrooy
Morgan: Dylan Walsh
Anna: Shohreh Aghdashloo
Mona: Lynn Collins
MPAA rating PG
Running time -- 97 minutes...
- 6/12/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Austin Film Festival
AUSTIN -- Say what you will about recent "hard-R" comedies, few mainstream films in recent years can compete with "The Ice Harvest" for sheer sleaze. Set in a Wichita, Kan., underworld, the movie spends most of its time in dour strip clubs with such names as the Sweet Cage and Tease-O-Rama; every one of its characters is in the grip of one serious vice, if not a handful.
But where "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and company had ample humor to carry viewers along, "Harvest" (despite coming from comedy vet Harold Ramis) has only a little -- not nearly enough to suggest that a wide audience will take to it. Unfortunately, it also isn't entirely convincing on its own nasty terms.
That's largely because the film never convinces us that its main characters really belong in this seamy world. Among the leads, only Randy Quaid is fully credible here: Bloated and bellicose, his viciously amoral character truly seems like a man who would have been a kingpin whatever his career path -- whether as a smut-peddler or as a Bible-thumping preacher bilking widows out of their savings.
But Quaid only arrives toward the film's end. Until then, we watch while John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton act out a familiar narrative as men who have stolen $2 million together and suddenly realize they can't trust each other. Their plan was to flee Wichita, but roads are iced over and the pair must go about their business until the morning thaw.
The night is longest for Cusack, who starts off tipsy and gets drunker the more he suspects he's holding the short end of the stick. Forced to contend with Thornton's possible betrayal, thugs on his tail and his ex-wife's husband (Oliver Platt, providing the most successful comic relief here), Cusack's Charlie Arglist really doesn't need another challenge. Enter Connie Nielsen's Renata, whose Veronica Lake hair and business-slutty wardrobe scream "femme fatale" even before cinematographer Alar Kivilo starts giving her those improbable shafts of light across the eyes so familiar from film noir.
Screenwriters Richard Russo and Robert Benton come close to capturing the sense of place they had in "Nobody's Fool", bouncing among the members of this small community as the night creeps toward dawn. But other elements undermine the illusion: The imprisoning effect of the weather (upon which the plot depends) doesn't come across in the film's look and feel; various threats to Arglist's well-being almost never add up to a visceral menace; and Ramis seems reluctant to nudge his leading man away from that familiar, sympathetic persona.
A little more "Grifters" would have gone far here. Not toward making the film palatable for the mainstream, perhaps, but at least toward selling its neo-noir story to an audience already inclined toward such seedy material.
THE ICE HARVEST
Focus Features
Focus Features/Bona Fide Prods.
Credits:
Director: Harold Ramis
Screenwriters: Richard Russo & Robert Benton
Based on the novel by: Scott Phillips
Producers: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa
Executive producers: Richard Russo, Glenn Williamson
Director of photography: Alar Kivilo
Production designer: Patrizia von Brandenstein
Music: David Kitay
Co-producer: Thomas J. Busch
Costumes: Susan Kaufmann
Editor: Lee Percy
Cast:
Charlie Arglist: John Cusack
Vic: Billy Bob Thornton
Renata: Connie Nielsen
Bill Guerrard: Randy Quaid
Pete Van Heuten: Oliver Platt
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 90 minutes...
AUSTIN -- Say what you will about recent "hard-R" comedies, few mainstream films in recent years can compete with "The Ice Harvest" for sheer sleaze. Set in a Wichita, Kan., underworld, the movie spends most of its time in dour strip clubs with such names as the Sweet Cage and Tease-O-Rama; every one of its characters is in the grip of one serious vice, if not a handful.
But where "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and company had ample humor to carry viewers along, "Harvest" (despite coming from comedy vet Harold Ramis) has only a little -- not nearly enough to suggest that a wide audience will take to it. Unfortunately, it also isn't entirely convincing on its own nasty terms.
That's largely because the film never convinces us that its main characters really belong in this seamy world. Among the leads, only Randy Quaid is fully credible here: Bloated and bellicose, his viciously amoral character truly seems like a man who would have been a kingpin whatever his career path -- whether as a smut-peddler or as a Bible-thumping preacher bilking widows out of their savings.
But Quaid only arrives toward the film's end. Until then, we watch while John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton act out a familiar narrative as men who have stolen $2 million together and suddenly realize they can't trust each other. Their plan was to flee Wichita, but roads are iced over and the pair must go about their business until the morning thaw.
The night is longest for Cusack, who starts off tipsy and gets drunker the more he suspects he's holding the short end of the stick. Forced to contend with Thornton's possible betrayal, thugs on his tail and his ex-wife's husband (Oliver Platt, providing the most successful comic relief here), Cusack's Charlie Arglist really doesn't need another challenge. Enter Connie Nielsen's Renata, whose Veronica Lake hair and business-slutty wardrobe scream "femme fatale" even before cinematographer Alar Kivilo starts giving her those improbable shafts of light across the eyes so familiar from film noir.
Screenwriters Richard Russo and Robert Benton come close to capturing the sense of place they had in "Nobody's Fool", bouncing among the members of this small community as the night creeps toward dawn. But other elements undermine the illusion: The imprisoning effect of the weather (upon which the plot depends) doesn't come across in the film's look and feel; various threats to Arglist's well-being almost never add up to a visceral menace; and Ramis seems reluctant to nudge his leading man away from that familiar, sympathetic persona.
A little more "Grifters" would have gone far here. Not toward making the film palatable for the mainstream, perhaps, but at least toward selling its neo-noir story to an audience already inclined toward such seedy material.
THE ICE HARVEST
Focus Features
Focus Features/Bona Fide Prods.
Credits:
Director: Harold Ramis
Screenwriters: Richard Russo & Robert Benton
Based on the novel by: Scott Phillips
Producers: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa
Executive producers: Richard Russo, Glenn Williamson
Director of photography: Alar Kivilo
Production designer: Patrizia von Brandenstein
Music: David Kitay
Co-producer: Thomas J. Busch
Costumes: Susan Kaufmann
Editor: Lee Percy
Cast:
Charlie Arglist: John Cusack
Vic: Billy Bob Thornton
Renata: Connie Nielsen
Bill Guerrard: Randy Quaid
Pete Van Heuten: Oliver Platt
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 90 minutes...
- 11/4/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Austin Film Festival
AUSTIN -- Say what you will about recent "hard-R" comedies, few mainstream films in recent years can compete with "The Ice Harvest" for sheer sleaze. Set in a Wichita, Kan., underworld, the movie spends most of its time in dour strip clubs with such names as the Sweet Cage and Tease-O-Rama; every one of its characters is in the grip of one serious vice, if not a handful.
But where "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and company had ample humor to carry viewers along, "Harvest" (despite coming from comedy vet Harold Ramis) has only a little -- not nearly enough to suggest that a wide audience will take to it. Unfortunately, it also isn't entirely convincing on its own nasty terms.
That's largely because the film never convinces us that its main characters really belong in this seamy world. Among the leads, only Randy Quaid is fully credible here: Bloated and bellicose, his viciously amoral character truly seems like a man who would have been a kingpin whatever his career path -- whether as a smut-peddler or as a Bible-thumping preacher bilking widows out of their savings.
But Quaid only arrives toward the film's end. Until then, we watch while John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton act out a familiar narrative as men who have stolen $2 million together and suddenly realize they can't trust each other. Their plan was to flee Wichita, but roads are iced over and the pair must go about their business until the morning thaw.
The night is longest for Cusack, who starts off tipsy and gets drunker the more he suspects he's holding the short end of the stick. Forced to contend with Thornton's possible betrayal, thugs on his tail and his ex-wife's husband (Oliver Platt, providing the most successful comic relief here), Cusack's Charlie Arglist really doesn't need another challenge. Enter Connie Nielsen's Renata, whose Veronica Lake hair and business-slutty wardrobe scream "femme fatale" even before cinematographer Alar Kivilo starts giving her those improbable shafts of light across the eyes so familiar from film noir.
Screenwriters Richard Russo and Robert Benton come close to capturing the sense of place they had in "Nobody's Fool", bouncing among the members of this small community as the night creeps toward dawn. But other elements undermine the illusion: The imprisoning effect of the weather (upon which the plot depends) doesn't come across in the film's look and feel; various threats to Arglist's well-being almost never add up to a visceral menace; and Ramis seems reluctant to nudge his leading man away from that familiar, sympathetic persona.
A little more "Grifters" would have gone far here. Not toward making the film palatable for the mainstream, perhaps, but at least toward selling its neo-noir story to an audience already inclined toward such seedy material.
THE ICE HARVEST
Focus Features
Focus Features/Bona Fide Prods.
Credits:
Director: Harold Ramis
Screenwriters: Richard Russo & Robert Benton
Based on the novel by: Scott Phillips
Producers: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa
Executive producers: Richard Russo, Glenn Williamson
Director of photography: Alar Kivilo
Production designer: Patrizia von Brandenstein
Music: David Kitay
Co-producer: Thomas J. Busch
Costumes: Susan Kaufmann
Editor: Lee Percy
Cast:
Charlie Arglist: John Cusack
Vic: Billy Bob Thornton
Renata: Connie Nielsen
Bill Guerrard: Randy Quaid
Pete Van Heuten: Oliver Platt
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 90 minutes...
AUSTIN -- Say what you will about recent "hard-R" comedies, few mainstream films in recent years can compete with "The Ice Harvest" for sheer sleaze. Set in a Wichita, Kan., underworld, the movie spends most of its time in dour strip clubs with such names as the Sweet Cage and Tease-O-Rama; every one of its characters is in the grip of one serious vice, if not a handful.
But where "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and company had ample humor to carry viewers along, "Harvest" (despite coming from comedy vet Harold Ramis) has only a little -- not nearly enough to suggest that a wide audience will take to it. Unfortunately, it also isn't entirely convincing on its own nasty terms.
That's largely because the film never convinces us that its main characters really belong in this seamy world. Among the leads, only Randy Quaid is fully credible here: Bloated and bellicose, his viciously amoral character truly seems like a man who would have been a kingpin whatever his career path -- whether as a smut-peddler or as a Bible-thumping preacher bilking widows out of their savings.
But Quaid only arrives toward the film's end. Until then, we watch while John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton act out a familiar narrative as men who have stolen $2 million together and suddenly realize they can't trust each other. Their plan was to flee Wichita, but roads are iced over and the pair must go about their business until the morning thaw.
The night is longest for Cusack, who starts off tipsy and gets drunker the more he suspects he's holding the short end of the stick. Forced to contend with Thornton's possible betrayal, thugs on his tail and his ex-wife's husband (Oliver Platt, providing the most successful comic relief here), Cusack's Charlie Arglist really doesn't need another challenge. Enter Connie Nielsen's Renata, whose Veronica Lake hair and business-slutty wardrobe scream "femme fatale" even before cinematographer Alar Kivilo starts giving her those improbable shafts of light across the eyes so familiar from film noir.
Screenwriters Richard Russo and Robert Benton come close to capturing the sense of place they had in "Nobody's Fool", bouncing among the members of this small community as the night creeps toward dawn. But other elements undermine the illusion: The imprisoning effect of the weather (upon which the plot depends) doesn't come across in the film's look and feel; various threats to Arglist's well-being almost never add up to a visceral menace; and Ramis seems reluctant to nudge his leading man away from that familiar, sympathetic persona.
A little more "Grifters" would have gone far here. Not toward making the film palatable for the mainstream, perhaps, but at least toward selling its neo-noir story to an audience already inclined toward such seedy material.
THE ICE HARVEST
Focus Features
Focus Features/Bona Fide Prods.
Credits:
Director: Harold Ramis
Screenwriters: Richard Russo & Robert Benton
Based on the novel by: Scott Phillips
Producers: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa
Executive producers: Richard Russo, Glenn Williamson
Director of photography: Alar Kivilo
Production designer: Patrizia von Brandenstein
Music: David Kitay
Co-producer: Thomas J. Busch
Costumes: Susan Kaufmann
Editor: Lee Percy
Cast:
Charlie Arglist: John Cusack
Vic: Billy Bob Thornton
Renata: Connie Nielsen
Bill Guerrard: Randy Quaid
Pete Van Heuten: Oliver Platt
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 90 minutes...
- 11/1/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Too much of a Baby Boomer sci-fi fantasy of the Rod Serling variety to lure post-"Matrix" younger audiences in astronomical numbers, New Line Cinema's strong April 28 wide release "Frequency" is nonetheless a crowd-pleaser with a fairly fresh premise--what if a Mets-loving father and his son thirty years in the future could communicate, save each other from harm and change history?
Director Greogory Hoblit ("Primal Fear", "Fallen") is partly if not mostly successful with this deadly serious cinematic channeling of a wildly improbable scenario, written by newcomer Toby Emmerich, who has been president of New Line's music division for five years. The excellent production values and tuned in cast are key elements in exploiting the inventive payoffs. One goosebump-raising example is an ecstatic cop played by Andre Braugher (NBC's "Homicide: Life on the Streets"), silently becoming a believer as he watches with fore-knowledge a key moment in an historic baseball game.
Leads Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel ("The Thin Red Line") ham it up, but in a good way, as fireman father Frank and cop son John Sullivan, who through time-jumbling magnetic storms caused by the sun reach out to each other across the decades via the same ham radio. The film's biggest obstacle for some viewers is ostensibly its biggest selling point to genre fans, a convoluted plot that several times resorts to spacy montages as a way to help the fantastical premise move along.
Otherwise, there's no real romance, a bit of baseball and, yep, a serial killer. The front-end story of Frank takes place in October 1969, with the aurora borealis lighting up East Coast skies at night in beautiful, slowly shifting curtains of light and the Amazing Mets headed into the World Series against the Baltimore Orioles. The Mets still win in five games, but a lot of other headlines are messed around with in one of those puzzling science fiction conundrums that has the past and future co-existing on different planes and in weird ways medling together.
The movie seesaws between the two worlds after we're introduced to both, starting with upright, honest, solid-as-a-rock Frank (Quaid) in '69, who is loved dearly by his wife Julia Elizabeth Mitchell) and worship by young son Johnny (Daniel Henson). Best friends include Frank's fellow public servant Satch (Braugher), a police detective, and Johnny's neighbor Gordo (Stephen Joffe). All appears hunky-dory as the northern lights mystify and Frank's heroic tendencies seem to go along with a charmed life.
Drifiting off into cosmological areas best dealt with tangentially, we suddenly find ourselves with grown-up Johnny, now just John (Caviezel), still living in the family house thrity years later. He's also still friends with Gordo (Noah Emmerich), who remembers John's dad and his love of ham radios. You see, Frank died in a fire before the end of the Series, and John's life has not turned out too hot. Indeed, we're introduced to the near rock-bottom John when his mate (Melissa Errico) is leaving him.
Once contact has been made and both Sullivans believe they are communicating across time, John tells Frank about his impending death and history is changed. But in a nifty device whereby family photos and scrapbooks in the John's time keep changing, every action has a consequence. Frank still dies before his time from lung cancer, so John gets him to quit smoking. But when John starts fearing for his mother--after a random visit by Frank to the hospital where Julia works results in a killer (Shawn Doyle) surving poor doctoring--the movie morphs into a thriller/detective story.
As such, it can get mighty entertaining but eventually hinges on a violent resolution that lacks the desired punch. But the long running time is put mostly to good use. Many unanswered questions remain, but there's no mystery to the timeless contributions of cinematographer Alar Kivilo, production designer Paul Eads, editor David Rosenbloom and costume designer Elisabetta Beraldo in making the widescreen production a visual home run.
FREQUENCY
New Line Cinema
Director--Gregory Hoblit
Screenwriter--Toby Emmerich
Producers--Hawk Koch, Gregory Hoblit, Bill Carraro, Toby Emmerich
Executive producers--Robert Shaye, Richard Saperstein
Director of photography--Alar Kivilo
Production designer--Paul Eads
Editor--David Rosenbloom
Costume designer--Elisabetta Beraldo
Music--Michael Kamen
Casting--Amanda Mackey Johnson, Cathy Sandrich
Color/stereo
Cast:
Frank--Dennis Quaid
John Sullivan--Jim Caviezel
Jack Shepard--Shawn Doyle
Julia Sullivan--Elizabeth Mitchell
Satch DeLeon--Andre Braugher
Gordo Hersch--Noah Emmerich
Samantha Thomas--Melissa Errico
Running time -- 115 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13...
Director Greogory Hoblit ("Primal Fear", "Fallen") is partly if not mostly successful with this deadly serious cinematic channeling of a wildly improbable scenario, written by newcomer Toby Emmerich, who has been president of New Line's music division for five years. The excellent production values and tuned in cast are key elements in exploiting the inventive payoffs. One goosebump-raising example is an ecstatic cop played by Andre Braugher (NBC's "Homicide: Life on the Streets"), silently becoming a believer as he watches with fore-knowledge a key moment in an historic baseball game.
Leads Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel ("The Thin Red Line") ham it up, but in a good way, as fireman father Frank and cop son John Sullivan, who through time-jumbling magnetic storms caused by the sun reach out to each other across the decades via the same ham radio. The film's biggest obstacle for some viewers is ostensibly its biggest selling point to genre fans, a convoluted plot that several times resorts to spacy montages as a way to help the fantastical premise move along.
Otherwise, there's no real romance, a bit of baseball and, yep, a serial killer. The front-end story of Frank takes place in October 1969, with the aurora borealis lighting up East Coast skies at night in beautiful, slowly shifting curtains of light and the Amazing Mets headed into the World Series against the Baltimore Orioles. The Mets still win in five games, but a lot of other headlines are messed around with in one of those puzzling science fiction conundrums that has the past and future co-existing on different planes and in weird ways medling together.
The movie seesaws between the two worlds after we're introduced to both, starting with upright, honest, solid-as-a-rock Frank (Quaid) in '69, who is loved dearly by his wife Julia Elizabeth Mitchell) and worship by young son Johnny (Daniel Henson). Best friends include Frank's fellow public servant Satch (Braugher), a police detective, and Johnny's neighbor Gordo (Stephen Joffe). All appears hunky-dory as the northern lights mystify and Frank's heroic tendencies seem to go along with a charmed life.
Drifiting off into cosmological areas best dealt with tangentially, we suddenly find ourselves with grown-up Johnny, now just John (Caviezel), still living in the family house thrity years later. He's also still friends with Gordo (Noah Emmerich), who remembers John's dad and his love of ham radios. You see, Frank died in a fire before the end of the Series, and John's life has not turned out too hot. Indeed, we're introduced to the near rock-bottom John when his mate (Melissa Errico) is leaving him.
Once contact has been made and both Sullivans believe they are communicating across time, John tells Frank about his impending death and history is changed. But in a nifty device whereby family photos and scrapbooks in the John's time keep changing, every action has a consequence. Frank still dies before his time from lung cancer, so John gets him to quit smoking. But when John starts fearing for his mother--after a random visit by Frank to the hospital where Julia works results in a killer (Shawn Doyle) surving poor doctoring--the movie morphs into a thriller/detective story.
As such, it can get mighty entertaining but eventually hinges on a violent resolution that lacks the desired punch. But the long running time is put mostly to good use. Many unanswered questions remain, but there's no mystery to the timeless contributions of cinematographer Alar Kivilo, production designer Paul Eads, editor David Rosenbloom and costume designer Elisabetta Beraldo in making the widescreen production a visual home run.
FREQUENCY
New Line Cinema
Director--Gregory Hoblit
Screenwriter--Toby Emmerich
Producers--Hawk Koch, Gregory Hoblit, Bill Carraro, Toby Emmerich
Executive producers--Robert Shaye, Richard Saperstein
Director of photography--Alar Kivilo
Production designer--Paul Eads
Editor--David Rosenbloom
Costume designer--Elisabetta Beraldo
Music--Michael Kamen
Casting--Amanda Mackey Johnson, Cathy Sandrich
Color/stereo
Cast:
Frank--Dennis Quaid
John Sullivan--Jim Caviezel
Jack Shepard--Shawn Doyle
Julia Sullivan--Elizabeth Mitchell
Satch DeLeon--Andre Braugher
Gordo Hersch--Noah Emmerich
Samantha Thomas--Melissa Errico
Running time -- 115 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13...
- 4/17/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Even the simplest things can get out of hand pretty fast, as witnessed in this terse small-town thriller starring Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton and directed by Sam Raimi.
Flecked with the sparse, rich detail of rural Minnesota, this well-made drama unfortunately lurches into motivational lapses under the girth of its trip-wire plotting. Still, "A Simple Plan" is filled with ample pleasures, most prominently Thornton's addled and endearing portrayal of -- you'll never believe this -- a rube simpleton.
High-coastal cognoscenti who have formed their opinion of the Midwest through the Coen brothers' fractured frivolities will possibly be disappointed by this starkly naturalistic and chillingly accurate depiction of small-town life -- which is likely to harvest some initial interest on the select-site circuit, primarily in the upper Midwest. But this dimly scoped drama may be unappealing in the sunnier, noisier parts of the country, and the select-site viewers it draws may find its complex plottings a tad obvious after a bit.
A mite bigger (but not much) than those four-corner burgs with three taverns and a gas station, this town has a Main Street and a couple perpendiculars and then immediately congeals into a mix of tidy white houses and borderline stand-ups. In one of these frugal-but-homey domains resides "A Simple Plan"'s touchstone couple -- hard-working, underpaid bookkeeper Hank (Paxton) and his pregnant wife (Bridget Fonda). Like every respectable little-town guy, Hank still has goofy friends from school days (of course, they're not too far away) including his simple-minded brother Jason Thornton) and his beer buddy Lou (Brent Briscoe). They're not the kind of duo that conscientious Hank should hang out with.
Against his big-brotherish better judgment, Hank gets together with the pair one late-winter afternoon and, naturally, they get in trouble. After an auto mishap, they wander into the woods and trip upon a crashed private plane. No one knows it's there (the pilot is dead), and it's carrying a suitcase with $440,000 in cash. What to do? Good-guy Hank has the urge to do the right thing. But he is outvoted: His brother and buddy decide to keep the dough. After all, who will know?
Narratively, "A Simple Plan" is one of those philosophical/narrative constructs structured around a "what if"-type happenstance -- namely the opportunity to do something unbelievably prosperous with little chance of getting caught. Unfortunately, screenwriter Scott B. Smith's scenario is decidedly predictable, and we soon catch on to the trio's antics and outcome. There are some plot inconsistencies and motivations that diminish the story line. Nevertheless, the film is layered with canny moral underpinnings that make for provocative questions.
Overall, "A Simple Plan" is highlighted by the superb acting. Thornton is moving as a simple-minded middle American; he's sympathetic and maddening. Paxton exudes complexity as the fair-minded brother. Briscoe is smartly startling as the frantic friend.
Technical contributions are well realized, particularly cinematographer Alar Kivilo's stark lensing that illuminates the complex moral ambiguities in the story. Also, special praise to production designer Patrizia Von Brandenstein for the shrewd and perceptive layout.
A SIMPLE PLAN
Paramount Pictures
Mutual Film Co.
In association with Savoy Pictures
A Sam Raimi film
Producers: James Jacks, Adam Schroeder
Director: Sam Raimi
Screenwriter: Scott B. Smith
Executive producers: Gary Levinsohn, Mark Gordon
Co-producer: Michael Polaire
Based upon the novel by: Scott B. Smith
Director of photography: Alar Kivilo
Production design: Patrizia Von Brandenstein
Editors: Arthur Coburn, Eric Beason
Costume design: Julie Weiss
Music: Danny Elfman
Casting: Ilene Starger
Sound mixer: Ed Novick
Color/stereo
Cast:
Hank: Bill Paxton
Sarah: Bridget Fonda
Jacob: Billy Bob Thornton
Lou: Brent Briscoe
Tom Butler: Jack Walsh
Carl: Chelcie Ross
Nancy: Becky Ann Baker
Running time -- 121 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Flecked with the sparse, rich detail of rural Minnesota, this well-made drama unfortunately lurches into motivational lapses under the girth of its trip-wire plotting. Still, "A Simple Plan" is filled with ample pleasures, most prominently Thornton's addled and endearing portrayal of -- you'll never believe this -- a rube simpleton.
High-coastal cognoscenti who have formed their opinion of the Midwest through the Coen brothers' fractured frivolities will possibly be disappointed by this starkly naturalistic and chillingly accurate depiction of small-town life -- which is likely to harvest some initial interest on the select-site circuit, primarily in the upper Midwest. But this dimly scoped drama may be unappealing in the sunnier, noisier parts of the country, and the select-site viewers it draws may find its complex plottings a tad obvious after a bit.
A mite bigger (but not much) than those four-corner burgs with three taverns and a gas station, this town has a Main Street and a couple perpendiculars and then immediately congeals into a mix of tidy white houses and borderline stand-ups. In one of these frugal-but-homey domains resides "A Simple Plan"'s touchstone couple -- hard-working, underpaid bookkeeper Hank (Paxton) and his pregnant wife (Bridget Fonda). Like every respectable little-town guy, Hank still has goofy friends from school days (of course, they're not too far away) including his simple-minded brother Jason Thornton) and his beer buddy Lou (Brent Briscoe). They're not the kind of duo that conscientious Hank should hang out with.
Against his big-brotherish better judgment, Hank gets together with the pair one late-winter afternoon and, naturally, they get in trouble. After an auto mishap, they wander into the woods and trip upon a crashed private plane. No one knows it's there (the pilot is dead), and it's carrying a suitcase with $440,000 in cash. What to do? Good-guy Hank has the urge to do the right thing. But he is outvoted: His brother and buddy decide to keep the dough. After all, who will know?
Narratively, "A Simple Plan" is one of those philosophical/narrative constructs structured around a "what if"-type happenstance -- namely the opportunity to do something unbelievably prosperous with little chance of getting caught. Unfortunately, screenwriter Scott B. Smith's scenario is decidedly predictable, and we soon catch on to the trio's antics and outcome. There are some plot inconsistencies and motivations that diminish the story line. Nevertheless, the film is layered with canny moral underpinnings that make for provocative questions.
Overall, "A Simple Plan" is highlighted by the superb acting. Thornton is moving as a simple-minded middle American; he's sympathetic and maddening. Paxton exudes complexity as the fair-minded brother. Briscoe is smartly startling as the frantic friend.
Technical contributions are well realized, particularly cinematographer Alar Kivilo's stark lensing that illuminates the complex moral ambiguities in the story. Also, special praise to production designer Patrizia Von Brandenstein for the shrewd and perceptive layout.
A SIMPLE PLAN
Paramount Pictures
Mutual Film Co.
In association with Savoy Pictures
A Sam Raimi film
Producers: James Jacks, Adam Schroeder
Director: Sam Raimi
Screenwriter: Scott B. Smith
Executive producers: Gary Levinsohn, Mark Gordon
Co-producer: Michael Polaire
Based upon the novel by: Scott B. Smith
Director of photography: Alar Kivilo
Production design: Patrizia Von Brandenstein
Editors: Arthur Coburn, Eric Beason
Costume design: Julie Weiss
Music: Danny Elfman
Casting: Ilene Starger
Sound mixer: Ed Novick
Color/stereo
Cast:
Hank: Bill Paxton
Sarah: Bridget Fonda
Jacob: Billy Bob Thornton
Lou: Brent Briscoe
Tom Butler: Jack Walsh
Carl: Chelcie Ross
Nancy: Becky Ann Baker
Running time -- 121 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 12/9/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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