Depending on the state of your own family network, the relationship between the trio of grown siblings at the center of “The Adults” may strike you as intensely, skin-crawlingly familiar or quite desolately alien. Either way, Dustin Guy Defa’s determinedly quiet family-reunion drama seeks to be discomfiting, gradually giving the viewer that hollow, lurching, pit-of-the-stomach feeling that either precedes a dreaded encounter or follows a disappointing one. That might not sounds like a good thing, but in the context of this small, expansively sad film, it is one: From that queasiness comes bristly tension, tautening and deepening what otherwise seems a low-key, low-stakes character study, and eventually a sweet, conciliatory sliver of hope too.
Defa’s previous feature, 2017’s meandering, windblown New York City mosaic “Person to Person,” was already a tiny microbudget enterprise, so it wouldn’t quite be accurate to describe “The Adults,” with its more contained ensemble and thematic thrust,...
Defa’s previous feature, 2017’s meandering, windblown New York City mosaic “Person to Person,” was already a tiny microbudget enterprise, so it wouldn’t quite be accurate to describe “The Adults,” with its more contained ensemble and thematic thrust,...
- 2/18/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
With this year’s selection, the Berlinale seems to be creating space in the festival calendar, between Sundance and SXSW, for a particular type of American indie: the melancholy, slight, intensely personal and hence rather divisive kind, in which vaguely famous actors—usually the comedic kind—play downbeat iterations of their more familiar selves. It may not be a coincidence that Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg debuted here rather than home turf in 2010, but Dustin Guy Defa’s The Adults, which premiered in the festival’s Encounters strand, makes Baumbach’s problem child seem positively commercial by comparison. Fortunately for all involved, Universal have already picked it up; this is definitely not the type of movie to thrive in today’s marketplace.
It begins in a hotel room, where Eric (Michael Cera) is making plans to see an old friend after three years away. Eric’s attempts to breeze back into...
It begins in a hotel room, where Eric (Michael Cera) is making plans to see an old friend after three years away. Eric’s attempts to breeze back into...
- 2/18/2023
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
The independent film business is again showing signs of rude health as the global film industry struggles to recover post-pandemic. Sundance is often taken as the pace-setter, and distribution deals were plentiful this year, with seven- and eight-figure sales for the likes of Theater Camp (to Searchlight for an estimated 8 million), Flora and Son (Apple TV+, 20 million) and Fair Play (Netflix, 20 million), just the biggest of around a dozen 2023 Park City pickups. But Berlin’s European Film Market will be the industry’s true acid test.
“Sundance is more U.S.-focused in general,” says Alice Laffillé, vp sales at FilmNation, which did the Apple TV+ deal for Flora and Son. “There are always some big, splashy deals with streamers and U.S. buyers like Neon, A24 or Magnolia. Berlin is the first real international market, where we see where things stand.”
Berlin deals, which often involve the entire world,...
“Sundance is more U.S.-focused in general,” says Alice Laffillé, vp sales at FilmNation, which did the Apple TV+ deal for Flora and Son. “There are always some big, splashy deals with streamers and U.S. buyers like Neon, A24 or Magnolia. Berlin is the first real international market, where we see where things stand.”
Berlin deals, which often involve the entire world,...
- 2/13/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Oscars are approaching, which means you’re running out of time to watch all the nominated films before the big ceremony. There are 10 films nominated for Best Picture this year, and if you missed them in theaters, worry not. You can still find them before the Academy Awards ceremony on March 27.
This year, “Belfast,” “Coda,” “Don’t Look Up,” “Drive My Car,” “Dune,” “King Richard,” “Licorice Pizza,” “Nightmare Alley,” “The Power of the Dog” and “West Side Story” all landed Best Picture nominations. So, where exactly do you need to go to see them and give your at-home ballot a better chance?
We run it down below.
Belfast “Belfast” / Focus Features
“Belfast” picked up seven nominations in total on Tuesday, including Best Picture. Written and directed by record-breaking Oscar nominee Kenneth Branagh, “Belfast” is a semi-autographical film about a young boy named Buddy who lives in Belfast, Ireland in the late 1960s.
This year, “Belfast,” “Coda,” “Don’t Look Up,” “Drive My Car,” “Dune,” “King Richard,” “Licorice Pizza,” “Nightmare Alley,” “The Power of the Dog” and “West Side Story” all landed Best Picture nominations. So, where exactly do you need to go to see them and give your at-home ballot a better chance?
We run it down below.
Belfast “Belfast” / Focus Features
“Belfast” picked up seven nominations in total on Tuesday, including Best Picture. Written and directed by record-breaking Oscar nominee Kenneth Branagh, “Belfast” is a semi-autographical film about a young boy named Buddy who lives in Belfast, Ireland in the late 1960s.
- 3/26/2022
- by Andi Ortiz
- The Wrap
Italian playwright Stefano Massini’s sweeping saga of family and finance “The Lehman Trilogy,” which is a hot ticket on Broadway in a Sam Mendes-directed adaptation, is being developed as a TV series for the international market by Italy’s Fandango, the prominent shingle behind Elena Ferrante skein “The Lying Life of Adults” for Netflix.
Fandango chief Domenico Procacci said he has acquired an option for TV rights to Massini’s “Lehman Trilogy,” which follows the three Lehman brothers, from their arrival from Germany in New York in 1844 to the 2008 bankruptcy of the global financial services company they founded.
Procacci, who is known to have a sharp eye for Italian IP that can travel –– having previously optioned Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels besides “Adults,” and Roberto Saviano’s “Gomorrah” mob saga –– said he is now developing the TV version of “Lehman Brothers” with Massini on board to oversee the series adaptation.
Fandango chief Domenico Procacci said he has acquired an option for TV rights to Massini’s “Lehman Trilogy,” which follows the three Lehman brothers, from their arrival from Germany in New York in 1844 to the 2008 bankruptcy of the global financial services company they founded.
Procacci, who is known to have a sharp eye for Italian IP that can travel –– having previously optioned Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels besides “Adults,” and Roberto Saviano’s “Gomorrah” mob saga –– said he is now developing the TV version of “Lehman Brothers” with Massini on board to oversee the series adaptation.
- 11/29/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
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