Tag: Christina Hendricks

Check Out The New Trailer And Poster For A24’s DARK PLACES

_DSC7274.NEF

Here’s a first look at the new trailer & film poster for A24’s DARK PLACES starring Charlize Theron.

The film opens in theaters nationwide on August 7th and is currently available for a 30-day exclusive window on DIRECTV. The book has been on the NY Times best-seller list for over 2 years and is currently # 9.

Libby Day (Charlize Theron) was only seven years old when her mother and two sisters were brutally murdered in their rural Kansas farmhouse. In court, the traumatized child pointed the finger at her brother, Ben (Tye Sheridan), and her testimony put the troubled 16-year-old in prison for life. Twenty-five years later, a broke and desperate Libby has run through donations from a sympathetic public and royalties from her sensational autobiography, without ever moving past the events of that night.

When Libby accepts a fee to appear at a gathering of true-crime aficionados led by Lyle Wirth (Nicholas Hoult), she is shocked to learn most of them believe Ben is innocent and the real killer is still at large. In need of money, she reluctantly agrees to help them reexamine the crime by revisiting the worst moments of her life. But as Libby and Lyle dig deeper into the circumstances surrounding the murders, her recollections start to unravel and she is forced to question exactly what she saw – or didn’t see.

As long-buried memories resurface, Libby begins to confront the wrenching truths that led up to that horrific night. Also starring Christina Hendricks, Corey Stoll and Chloë Grace Moretz, DARK PLACES is an ingeniously twisted thriller based on the best-selling novel by Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl).

http://darkplacesmovie.com/

DP Film Poster

Watch The Trailer for Ryan Gosling’s LOST RIVER

LOST_RIVER_SXSW_OneSheet

Warner Bros. Pictures today announced that Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut film, LOST RIVER, will open April 10 for a theatrical run in New York and Los Angeles and will also be available same day via national digital release in the U.S.

This news comes the same day as the announcement of the film’s North American premiere being part of the SXSW Film Festival, running March 13 – 21 in Austin Texas.

The film, from Sierra Affinity, Phantasma Films and Bold Films, stars Christina Hendricks (TV’s “Mad Men”), Saoirse Ronan (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”), Iain De Caestecker (TV’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”), Matt Smith (TV’s “Doctor Who”), Reda Kateb (“Zero Dark Thirty”), Barbara Steele (TV’s “Dark Shadows”), with Eva Mendes (“The Place Beyond the Pines”), and Ben Mendelsohn (“The Dark Knight Rises”).

In addition to directing the film, Gosling also wrote the screenplay. The producers are Marc Platt (“Into the Woods”), Gosling, Adam Siegel (“Drive”), Michael Litvak (“Nightcrawler”) and David Lancaster (“Nightcrawler”). Gary Michael Walters and Jeffrey Stott served as executive producers. Johnny Jewel (“Drive”) composed the film’s music.

LOST RIVER is a dark fairy tale about love, family and the fight for survival in the face of danger. In the virtually abandoned city of Lost River, Billy (Christina Hendricks), a single mother of two, is led into a macabre underworld in her quest to save her childhood home and hold her family together. Her teenage son Bones (Iain De Caestecker) discovers a mystery about the origins of Lost River that triggers his curiosity and sets into motion an unexpected journey that will test his limits and the limits of those he loves.

“I am excited that ‘Lost River’ is being released by Warner Bros. and having its North American premiere at SXSW,” said Gosling. ”It’s a small specialty film, so for me, this day-and-date theatrical and digital release plan provides the best of both worlds. It allows those who are interested in seeing my film in a theatre to do so without excluding the majority of people who don’t have access to a specialty cinema. VOD is giving a new life to independent cinema and I’m very excited to have the opportunity to showcase the wonderful work of my cast and crew on such a broad platform.”

LOST RIVER composer Johnny Jewel will be releasing the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack on his record label, Italians Do It Better, on March 30, ahead of the film’s theatrical release on April 10. The soundtrack features original score by Jewel, vocal performances from LOST RIVER stars Saoirse Ronan and Ben Mendelsohn, as well as songs written for the film by Jewel’s groups Chromatics, Glass Candy, and Desire. The soundtrack will be released on CD and digitally as well as a collectible double record pressed on purple vinyl. “Lost River” reunites the collaborative efforts of writer-director Ryan Gosling and critically acclaimed musician Johnny Jewel, who first worked together on the soundtrack success of ”Drive.”

Get a free download of “Yes (Love Theme from Lost River)” by Chromatics featured in the trailer:

Visit the film’s official site: LostRiverMovie.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/LostRiverMovie

Twitter: @lostrivermovie

Instagram: http://instagram.com/LostRiverMovie

GOD’S POCKET – The Review

godspocket

Just a week after the release of a feature film directed by a prominent actor, I’m speaking of FADING GIGOLO by John Tuturro, comes another one helmed by an actor. But this is his feature film debut, oh, and he’s not in front of the camera (but Tuturro is, the busy guy!). GOD’S POCKET is helmed by John Slattery who has attained TV immortality as indulgent “bad boy” Roger Sterling on AMC’s “Mad Men”, where he cut his film making teeth calling the shots on five episodes. With this feature he’s back doing a period piece (his TV show is set from 1960-69, while this film appears to be from the late 70’s early 80’s…no cell phones or computers and everybody drives a big ‘gas-guzzler’), but the characters are laborers and petty thieves, not ad execs. Same general  East Coast area though. The film’s title refers to a working class section of New York state. He’s brought one of his TV co-stars along for this project, but besides Mr. Tuturro, the film’s great hook may be the chance to see a bit more of one of modern cinema’s greatest character actors who was taken from us much too soon.

The film opens with a somber funeral, then quickly backs up several days prior to the sad farewell. Mickey Scarpato (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is a transplant living in the neighborhood of God’s Pocket. He’s the second husband of gorgeous native Jeanie (Christina Hendricks) and is the stepfather to her twenty-something son Leon (Caleb Laandry Jones). After dropping Leon off at his job at the concrete plant, Mickey joins his pal Arthur (John Tuturro) and a local loan shark as they hijack a big truck full of frozen meat. Next the film introduces us to burned-out, boozy newspaper columnist Richard Shellburn (Richard Jenkins) who has penned many odes to the “working-class stiffs” from the Pocket (“where everybody knows everybody’s business”). That morning the motor-mouthed Leon bullies the wrong guy at work and meets his maker. His boss and co-workers tells the authorities that a “freak accident” claimed the kid. Jeanie doesn’t believe this and contacts the local newspaper editor who puts Shellburn on the story, much to his aggravation until he meets the grieving bombshell. Meanwhile Mickey struggles to collect the cash to pay the conniving funeral director “Smilin'” Jack (Eddie Marsan) for Leon as the gambling-addicted Arthur tries to stave off those nasty debt-collectors.

As this is the first post-passing Hoffman feature to be released, it’s hard to view the Mickey character without looking for hints at the actor’s fate. His appearance is puffy, lethargic, and subdued. How much here was the role interpretation and was any of it the performer’s physical limitations. A sequence in which he chases his truck down the street may have been meant as comedy, but it now plays as harrowing and disturbing. Besides the tragedy, we wonder what Hoffman saw in the character in the first place. He could play this schlubby, put-upon guy in his sleep. And what does the bodacious Jeanie see in this nebbish? This sad mother has none of the smarts that Hendrick’s Joan character possesses on “Mad Men” in addition to the “va-va-voom” factor. With her raven tresses and too-tight dresses Jeanie resembles a pasta-fed Jessica Rabbit. But besides the loss of her son, she’s has another heartache as she resign herself to using her body in order to get things done (like the mystery of her son’s demise). Jones as said son (Jeanie must have been a child bride) is such an obnoxious creep we wonder how the stringy-haired thug lasted a full day on the job (were they smitten with his Mom too?). Leon’s not that different from the screw-up Jones played in last year’s CONTRABAND, so the guy’s in dangerous of being typecast. Tuturro’s not as calm and cool as his hustler in GIGOLO, but he’s not given much to do other than advising Mickey and conning the thugs on his heels (there’s hint of his MILLER’S CROSSING work here). Jenkins is doing a take on the colorful, hard-drinking news writers of the past like NYC’s Jimmy Breslin and Chicago’s Mike Royko, but he comes off as so sullen and manipulative. A scene in which an eager journalism major a third his age “services’ him as he’s arguing with his frustrated editor is quite repugnant. He’s a low-level celeb using his past glories on everyone and is shocked that the Pocket residents find his portrayal of them unflattering. Like his co-stars, the talented Jenkins gives more to the role than it deserves.

And as far as talent goes, Slattery proved himself a gifted director with the “Mad Men” episodes he’s helmed (getting many great performance from himself!), but here the flimsy, disjointed material does him in. There’s a desire for us to become enamored of the community’s blue-collar, “salts of the Earth”, but they come off as cruel and petty. The eccentrics of the local watering hole aren’t colorful eccentric, but sad, pathetic barflies. Slattery and his co-screenwriter Alex Metcalf adapting Peter Dexter’s 1983 novel try to give this a Scorsese vibe with random, out-of-left-field violence to punctuate scenes, but it comes off as heavy-handed and desperate. A subplot involving the moving of a corpse seems like a clumsy, half-hearted swipe at Hitchcock’s THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY. These uninvolving characters and scenes never really connect into a compelling narrative. Once Roger Sterling flies off into TV series heaven next year, let’s hope that the promising Slattery will find more engaging original material because GOD’S POCKET is not worth the effort to exit the turnpike.

2 Out of 5

GOD’S POCKET opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Tivoli Theatre

 

godspocketposter

Win Run-Of-Engagement Passes To GOD’S POCKET In St. Louis – Stars Philip Seymour Hoffman

GP_ONE SHEET_FINAL_4.27.14

When Mickey’s crazy stepson Leon is killed in a construction ‘accident’, nobody in the working class neighborhood of God’s Pocket is sorry he’s gone. Mickey tries to bury the bad news with the body, but when the boy’s mother demands the truth, Mickey finds himself stuck in a life and death struggle between a body he can’t bury, a wife he can’t please and a debt he can’t pay.

The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christina Hendricks, Richard Jenkins and John Turturro.

Acclaimed actor John Slattery makes an impressive jump behind the camera with an assured directorial debut that shows he has a razor-sharp eye for conveying the absurdity, cruelty, desperation, and tragic optimism of the people he portrays. Like life, his scenes seamlessly fuse humor and heartbreak, but it’s Slattery’s wit and confident style that make the portrait so authentic. Featuring a top-shelf cast and impeccable cinematography, GOD’S POCKET oozes with talent and marks the emergence of an inspired directorial presence.

With a screenplay by John Slattery and Alex Metcalf, GOD’S POCKET is based on the novel God’s Pocket by Pete Dexter.

The film opens in St. Louis on Friday, May 16.

The Run-Of-Engagement Passes are Admit Two (2). Good in the St. Louis Area.

FOR A CHANCE TO WIN, ENTER YOUR NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW.

No purchase necessary.

http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/gods-pocket

still7

still4

Philip Seymour Hoffman (Mickey Scarpato), John Turturro, and John Slattery behind the scenes of his film GOD’S POCKET. Courtesy of Seacia Pavao. An IFC Films release.

still6

DARK PLACES, Starring Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Chloë Grace Moretz, Begins Production

Nicholas Houltcharlize theron00002371-253x379

DARK PLACES, the film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling novel starring Oscar winning actress Charlize Theron (SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMEN, PROMETHEUS, MONSTER), Nicholas Hoult (ABOUT A BOY, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, JACK THE GIANT SLAYER ), Chloë Grace Moretz (upcoming CARRIE, HUGO, KICK-ASS), Emmy Award nominated actress Christina Hendricks (MAD MEN, DRIVE), Corey Stoll (MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, HOUSE OF CARDS), and Tye Sheridan (upcoming JOE, MUD, TREE OF LIFE), commenced principal photography this week on location in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Written and directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner (SARAH’S KEY), DARK PLACES tells the story of Libby Day (Theron), a woman who, at the age of 7, survives the massacre of her family and testifies against her brother as the murderer. Twenty-five years later, a group obsessed with solving notorious crimes confronts her with questions about the horrific event.  Told in a series of flashbacks from the points of view of Libby’s mother, Patty, and her brother, Ben, Libby is forced to revisit that fateful day and begins to question what exactly she saw – or didn’t see – the night of the tragedy.

Rounding out the cast alongside Theron, Hoult, Moretz, Hendricks, Toll and Sheridan are supporting cast members Sterling Jerins (WORLD WAR Z, THE CONJURING) who will play Young Libby and Shannon Kook (THE CONJURING).

The novel Dark Places was published in 2009 and was listed on The New York Times Best Seller List for more than 25 weeks.  The book was also shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and won the Dark Scribe Magazine Black Quill Award for Dark Genre Novel of the Year.  Gillian Flynn is one of today’s leading suspense writers with her current novel, Gone Girl, spending eight weeks at No. 1 on the hardcover fiction best-seller list of The New York Times.  Gone Girl has sold more than two million copies in print and digital formats.

darkplaces

DARK PLACES is co-financed by Exclusive Media and Cuatro Plus Films. Exclusive Media is producing with Stephane Marsil of Hugo Films, Charlize Theron’s Denver and Delilah Productions partners Beth Kono and AJ Dix; and Mandalay’s Cathy Schulman and Matt Rhodes. Exclusive Media’s Matt Jackson will produce, with the company’s Guy East, Nigel Sinclair, Tobin Armbrust and Alex Brunner Executive Producing. Peter Safran will also serve as an Executive Producer.

Charlize Theron is repped by WME, Moretz is repped by WME and 3 Art, Hoult is repped by UTA and 42 andChristina Hendricks is repped by Kritzer Levine Wilkins Griffin Nilon Entertainment and ICM, Corey Stoll is repped by WME, Shannon Kook is repped by DBA and Gary Goddard & Associates, Tye Sheridan is repped by Mosaic and WME, Sterling Jerins is repped by ICM Partners, Principle Entertainment, and Bloom Hergott Diemer, LLP, and Andrea Roth is repped by Domain Talent and Industry Entertainment.

Watch Sally Potter’s New GINGER & ROSA Trailer

Ranging from 1992’s ORLANDO to 2009’s RAGE, writer/director Sally Potter has added a seventh feature to her intriguing list of films with her latest movie GINGER & ROSA. The coming-of-age drama, which screened at the Telluride, Toronto, New York and London Film Festivals in 2012, stars Elle Fanning, Alessandro Nivola, Christina Hendricks, Timothy Spall, Oliver Platt, Jodhi May, Annette Bening and Alice Englert.

London, 1962. Two teenage girls – Ginger and Rosa ­- are inseparable; they play truant together, discuss religion, politics and hairstyles, and 
dream of lives bigger than their mothers’ frustrated domesticity. But, as
 the Cold War meets the sexual revolution, and the threat of nuclear
 holocaust escalates, the lifelong friendship of the two girls is shattered 
- by the clash of desire and the determination to survive.

Potter says,

“… they grow up friends in only the way that girls can be – mirroring each other, sharing their secrets, their private worlds, thinking big and interested in the details: hair, clothes, jeans, jumpers.”

Elle Fanning was picked by New York Times in early December as one of the Hollywood Heroines of 2012. Click HERE to read. For more on these intelligent women and the character’s friendship, watch Potter and stars Elle Fanning and Alice Englert discuss GINGER & ROSA at the BFI Film Festival in 2012. It’s interesting to note in this 10 minute video how these 3 amazing women interact with each other, the experiences we all can relate to and the choices we make along life’s journey.

With it already having it’s opening in British cinemas in October, the film was described by critics as “intimate and sensual” (Indiewire), “with a gleaming intensity” (The Guardian) and a central performance from Elle Fanning that is “simply extraordinary” (Hollywood Reporter). GINGER & ROSA will open in limited release in the U.S. in March.

https://www.facebook.com/GingerAndRosa

https://twitter.com/gingerandrosa

STRUCK BY LIGHTNING – SLIFF Review

High school is a tough place. We all know that. Its a struggle to survive at a time when hormones rule and pressure builds from every angle. Parents, teachers, friends, where to go to college, whether to even go to college? For Carson Phillips, everything is boiling to a point and all he wants is one simple thing… to get into his dream college.

Chris Colfer (GLEE) not only stars as the sharp-tongued Carson Phillips, he wrote this darkly comical satire on the high school experience. Directed by Brian Dannelly, the film is a good fit for someone whose resume includes TV shows like WEEDS, PUSHING DAISIES and THE UNITES STATES OF TARA. STRUCK BY LIGHTNING begins with the death of Carson Phillips. I know, its a risky way to start a film. After all, it goes to reason that Carson never makes it to college, but that’s not really what its all about, as we come to learn while Carson’s recently departed spirit narrates the film in retrospect.

Carson is the editor of his school’s newspaper. This would be a commendable accomplishment, except that he attends a small, rural country school, where everyone assumes they are destined to be stuck in the dreadful town of Clover for the remainder of their days and therefor aspire to do next to nothing with their lives. That is, all but one… Carson Phillips. Smarter than the average Clover resident — by his own measure — Carson dreams of becoming an accomplished journalist. The problem is, no one at his school cares.

Rebel Wilson (BRIDEMAIDS) plays Malerie, an odd character and Carson’s only friend. Allyson Janney plays Carson’s alcoholic mother, devastated when Carson’s father Neil (Dermot Mulroney) leaves them, she takes it out on Carson, day after day. Things for Carson are looking grim, until he comes up with not just a plan to get into his dream college, but a master plan for forcing the student body to contribute by way of blackmailing them with their dirty little secrets in exchange for their help.

STRUCK BY LIGHTNING features all the high school stereotypes, dialed up to be especially unlikeable. For that matter, even Carson is difficult to like, with his smart mouth and arrogant attitude, but we root for him as the lesser of all evils. Clover is not a town most people will find inviting, but it lends to an idea that small town teenagers often struggle with what to do with their lives and how to achieve such goals. On the other hand, Carson ultimately learns a valuable lesson about life, albeit a short one in his case.

Like so many high school comedies today, STRUCK BY LIGHTNING does fall into the same general melting pot of modern teen-life stories. This is no DONNIE DARKO, but the film does still have a personality of its own buried just beneath the many cliches. The supporting cast offers an added touch of talent, including Christina Hendricks as Carson’s dad’s new fiance, Sarah Hyland as Claire, the stuck-up lead cheerleader who “probably sh*ts cupcakes,” Ashley Rickards as Vicki, the apathetic Goth girl, Angela Kinsey as the absent-minded blond bimbo school counselor, and Brad William Henke as the jaded high school principal with anger management issues.

Overall, STRUCK BY LIGHTNING is an exaggerated and humorous take on a certain set of truths about high school. Chris Colfer interjects a dialogue clearly inspired by his experience with GLEE, but fails to deliver anything refreshingly original. Instead of a film that could grow into a cult classic of the genre, the film settles for being an entertaining movie worth seeing with a bucket of popcorn in one arm and a lovely companion in the other. The film is not likely to stick with you for long, but you certainly will have a good time and plenty of laughs.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

STRUCK BY LIGHTNING screens during the 21st Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival on Tuesday, November 13th, 7:30pm at the Tivoli Theatre.

“Like” STRUCK BY LIGHTNING on Facebook.

DRIVE – The Review

Nicolas Winding Refn’s DRIVE is simply perfect. Not since Michael Mann’s 1981 crime drama THIEF, has a film of this type had such an impact, and dare I say DRIVE is even better? Yes, I do. Every woman’s newest sweetheart, Ryan Gosling (CRAZY STUPID LOVE) is Driver, a nameless Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver. He lives simply, adhering to a strict set of rules, which keeps him at the top of his game, out of prison… and alive. On the surface, he’s a pretty boy with a quiet disposition, but hidden within is a strong, efficient survivor with the capacity to be brutal when necessary.

Working as a mechanic for Shannon, played by Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, the two men hold a partnership that handles the criminal side jobs. When Shannon approaches former motion picture producer turned organized crime boss Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) about a loan to get his driver behind the wheel of a stock car to race professionally, it marks the beginning of a downward spiral for both men. Shortly thereafter, the driver meets Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her son Benicio (Kaden Leos). This is the moment everything changes for the driver.

DRIVE is adapted from James Sallis’ book by Hossein Amini (THE FOUR FEATHERS, KILLSHOT) and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, a young auteur whose previous films (BRANSON, VALHALLA RISING) have cemented him on my radar of filmmakers to watch like a hawk. The story takes place in the ‘90s, an era not generally known for any memorable, defining nostalgia. Despite this, Refn somehow creates his own nostalgia in which to place the driver, a loner but likable anti-hero. Sporting a pearling white windbreaker with a golden scorpion embroidered on the back, the driver walks with a subtle, unassuming confidence, seemingly invisible to the public eye.

This apparent invisibility is not a chance occurrence. Whatever his training, whatever his life experience up to now, the driver is clearly in control of every aspect of his life, until he meets Irene. Falling almost instantly for her, and bonding as quickly to her son Benicio, the driver takes on a role of responsibility for them. This becomes undeniably crucial when Irene’s past returns to throw everything in jeopardy. Jeopardy is another name for two men; Bernie Rose and Nino, played by veteran character actor Ron Perlman (HELLBOY). One of my personal favorites, Perlman delivers precisely the level of creepy charisma I’ve come to expect, and it works marvelously.

The truly astounding performance in DRIVE however, is Albert Brooks (THE MUSE, DEFENDING YOUR LIFE). Refn has managed to work with Brooks to take every ounce of what makes him such a unique comical character and flips him, fully converted to the dark side. Intelligent, witty and sharp-tongued, Brooks finds that elusive something that equates to a memorably unnerving villain, a bad guy the audience has difficulty disliking. Hands down, Brooks delivers one of the best performances from any supporting actor of 2011.

Ryan Gosling, an actor on the fast lane to greatness, has given audiences stellar work in HALF-NELSON, LARS AND THE REAL GIRL, and BLUE VALENTINE. Unfortunately, he’s probably best known for the lesser quality films he’s done, but has still managed to stand out as the beacon amidst foggier films. Gosling’s performance is quiet, solemn and meticulously paced, much like the film itself. DRIVE is a slowly building roller coaster of tension, the type that takes 90% of its time gradually ratcheting the audience up to the tip top of the incline, before finally letting loose for the final 10% sending the audience into a sudden free-fall, landing firmly within a cushion of existential epiphany.

Carey Mulligan (AN EDUCATION, NEVER LET ME GO) is almost too cute and adorable to imagine in such a film, has offered audiences far more defining performances. For the role of Irene, she succeeds at being a means to an end for the driver’s character development, remaining just within his shadow, but giving us more than enough reason to believe she is the catalyst for the driver’s shift in purpose. In the first act of DRIVE, Gosling and Mulligan build a fascinating chemistry with barely enough dialogue to fill a single page of script.

This silence is a multifaceted thematic element that runs throughout the film. The atmospheric score from Cliff Martinez (THE LINCOLN LAWYER, CONTAGION) is alluring and gentle, but with an edge, occasionally rising to the surface just enough to grab the viewer by the throat as if to squeeze gently, reminding us of the pending danger the driver willing chooses to face head on for the sake of a woman he barely knows. Newton Thomas Sigel provides the cinematography, but is clearly channeling Refn’s visual flair. DRIVE is filled with softly contoured contrast and deep, saturated color woven seamlessly into the shadows to the point of being a subconscious afterthought.

The palette of DRIVE is not unlike that of BRONSON, but inverted from the hyper-intense into more of an ultra-mellow version of itself. More importantly, Refn continues to play with the visual canvas as a storytelling medium, relying less with each film on the traditional dialogue-driven approach, constructing shots and scenes that may have made Hitchcock raise an eyebrow. The care given to composition of frame, to every moment and measure of camera movement, allows Refn to strengthen the impact of his story on the viewer without exposing his presence. This is particularly true in the final moments of the final act, when the driver confronts his villain. Refn creatively conceals details, forcing the audience to inch up to the very edge of their seats, patiently but anxiously.

DRIVE offers all this, but still engages the viewer in the dirty underbelly of the criminal world. Without being overly flashy, Refn incorporates some of the best car chase sequences in recent years. The kind of high speed, articulate stunt driving that has the crowd in awe. As for myself, I had to fight the urge to replicate the driving as I left the theater. It’s that infectious. Likewise, Refn does not hold back on the violence, displaying key moments of passionate brutality, but only when the driver is cornered, like an angry badger defending its young. DRIVE is an R-rated film at heart, but only in the sense that it’s a mature, honest portrayal of a side of society most of us never experience outside of cinema. DRIVE has a few subdued moments of humor, most of which are presented by Albert Brooks, but ultimately proves to be an exemplary achievement as a film from a director as comfortable with style as he is with the actors, resulting in what I consider to be the best film of 2011.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I DON’T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT – The Review

Well, it ‘s past Labor Day and it’s time for the older adults to head back to the multiplex. Usually this signals the time for those big Oscar-bait dramas, but here’s a genteel comedy for the married with kids set-those hungover frat boys will just have to wait for next Summer’s party flicks. Arriving in cinemas now is Douglas McGrath’s (EMMA) adaptation (along with 27 DRESSES screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna) of Allison Pearson’s book I DON’T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT. Well I’m not giving anything away (thanks to the TV spots and trailers) when I tell you that movie shows how she does do somethings and can’t fully do others. Guess it would be a pretty short flick if everything turned out perfect!

The film’s focus is wife, mother, and career woman Kate Reddy (Sarah Jessica Parker). She’s doing her best to juggle her responsibilities st the office and home. She devotes many hours to the job while traveling across the country for some sort of financial consulting firm (one of the film’s main gags is that no one outside her office knows exactly what she does). Kate’s got a demanding, sometimes befuddled boss (Kelsey Grammar), a goal-oriented single young assistant (Olivia Munn), and a snarky competing co-worker (Seth Meyers) who tries to sabotage her at every chance. On the home front she tries to make time for her working hubby Richard (Greg Kinnear), pre-schooler Ben, and grade-schooler Emily. Thankfully Kate is helped considerably by their nanny Paula (Jessica Szohr) and best pal, single mom Allison (Christina Hendricks) while deflecting the disdainful stares of ‘mom-ster’ Wendy (Busy Phillips). Kate’s busy Boston life is further complicated when one of her proposals attracts the attention of Wall Street guru Jack Abelhammer (Pierce Brosnsan). The many hours spent brainstorming with Jack puts a strain on her relationship with Richard and disrupts their winter holiday plans. And it looks like Jack’s interest in Kate may be going past the professional and into the personal. The question may not be how she does it but whether she can survive it.

This film covers a lot of the subject matter that TV (cable and network) have been dealing with for many years. Beside a top flight movie star cast this movie really doesn’t bring anything new to the table. The wintry East Coast settings are lovely, but McGrath has trouble with the pacing. I was surprised at the short running time as the lights went up. McGrath  also employs a couple of film techniques that don’t totally mesh with the film. He uses documentary type interviews with the characters who talk about their dealings with Kate. At other times Kate breaks the fourth wall, suspending time in order to step forward and confide her feelings. We even get to see a flash forward fantasy CNN-style news report in which Kate’s school bake sale fiasco was the reason future adult Emily went on a killing spree. As for the actors, we may as well start with Kate played by SJP (as the tabloids call her). She seems to be entering a more mature phase of her career, going from the girlfriend, rom-com heroine and into the mother roles. Still there are still glimpses of her former characters. Kate is almost Carrie Bradshaw with the sex replaced by Lucy Ricardo-slapstick. Head lice joes… really? She alternates between being  flustered and floundering with more than a little exhaustion. Kinnear’s doing his cute, decent guy thing once more. I kind of miss that old smarmy charm in movies like MYSTERY MEN. Brosnan starts as the cold businessmen who warms after spending time with Kate, He’s another cliche of the perfect romantic older man-he has been married (if he were still single he might be gay!) but he’s not been tainted by divorce, for he’s a noble widower. It takes Kate to open up that heart once more. Uh-huh. Two of the supporting players truly do get to shine. Munn lights up the screen as the upwardly mobile assistant whose life plans gets thrown a curve. And Meyers builds on the screen smarm that Kinnear used to have and brings lots of energy to his role as the “Designated Office A*%#@^e”. The other actors don’t fare nearly as well. Hendricks (so great on TV’s Mad Men) only gets to smile supportively at Kate and sing her praises to an unseen interviewer. Phillips and Jane Curtin as a stereotypical mother-in-law act witchy and Grammar’s ster, but clueless. McGrath has assembled a terrific cast. It’s a shame that they are regulated to some of the sitcom shenanigans in this safe, unoffensive bit of fluff.

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars

New I DON’T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT Trailer And Poster


Photos by: Craig Blankenhorn/TWC

Due in theaters next month on September 16, 2011, watch the new trailer for the Weinstein Company’s I DON’T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT. Based on the critically acclaimed bestseller by Allison Pearson, I Don’t Know How She Does It follows a Boston-based working mother trying desperately to juggle marriage, children, and a high-stress job.

Synopsis:

Kate Reddy (Parker) devotes her days to her job with a Boston-based financial management firm. At night she goes home to her adoring, recently-downsized architect husband Richard (Kinnear) and their two young children. It’s a non-stop balancing act, the same one that Kate’s acerbic best friend and fellow working mother Allison (Christina Hendricks) performs on a daily basis, and that Kate’s super-brainy, child-phobic young junior associate Momo (Olivia Munn) fully intends to avoid. When Kate gets handed a major new account that will require frequent trips to New York, Richard also wins the new job he’s been hoping for – and both will be spreading themselves even thinner. Complicating matters is Kate’s charming new business associate Jack Abelhammer (Brosnan), who begins to prove an unexpected source of temptation.

Sarah Jessica Parker, Greg Kinnear, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Munn, Seth Meyers, Kelsey Grammer and Christina Hendricks star in I DON’T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT, a comedy from director Douglas McGrath (Emma, Infamous) and producer Donna Gigliotti (The Reader, Let Me In).