- #13. ReligulousDirector: Larry CharlesProducers: Bill Maher, Jonah Smith and Palmer West (A Scanner Darkly)Distributor: Lionsgate Films The Gist: This follows Bill Maher as he travels around the globe interviewing people about God and religion. Known for his astute analytical skills, irreverent wit and commitment to never pulling a punch, Maher brings his characteristic honesty to an unusual spiritual journey.Fact: Charles last directed: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of KazakhstanSee It: Though it has been delayed several times, you should gather your atheist and religious friends for a movie date followed by a convo right after. Release Date/Status?: After a showcase at Tiff, Lionsgate Films releases this on October 3rd. ...
- 9/4/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
NEW YORK -- Bold Films is heading Into Hell. Dominic Morgan and Matthew Harvey have been hired to write the action thriller.
Hell revolves around a group of English soccer hooligans who travel to Istanbul for a match. The gang soon finds themselves in over their heads, however, when they get framed for a political assassination.
Producer Ian Carrington, who is producing with Bold's Miche Litvak and David Lancaster, helped develop the project with longtime friend and action star Jason Statham in mind. Once the script draft is complete, he plans to submit it to Statham, a star player on the United Hollywood soccer team he manages. Statham is in production on Transporter 3.
Carrington brought the project to Bold (Legion) with fellow producers Timothy Peternel and David Hillary of Deviant Films.
Bold's Gary Walters will executive produce the project, which is being overseen by the production/financing company's Jon Oakes.
Morgan and Harvey recently penned The Coral Sea for Working Title and The Twelfth Apostle for A Thousand Words and producer Palmer West.
Hell revolves around a group of English soccer hooligans who travel to Istanbul for a match. The gang soon finds themselves in over their heads, however, when they get framed for a political assassination.
Producer Ian Carrington, who is producing with Bold's Miche Litvak and David Lancaster, helped develop the project with longtime friend and action star Jason Statham in mind. Once the script draft is complete, he plans to submit it to Statham, a star player on the United Hollywood soccer team he manages. Statham is in production on Transporter 3.
Carrington brought the project to Bold (Legion) with fellow producers Timothy Peternel and David Hillary of Deviant Films.
Bold's Gary Walters will executive produce the project, which is being overseen by the production/financing company's Jon Oakes.
Morgan and Harvey recently penned The Coral Sea for Working Title and The Twelfth Apostle for A Thousand Words and producer Palmer West.
- 4/17/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Sounds a little premature to be speaking about it this early in the game, but what's more fun than predicting and prognosticating some of the choice offerings that we'll be seeing at the next Oscar ceremonies. There are less than 10 months to go before the next round of noms and plenty of film offerings ahead will easily change all this speculating below. Today we begin with what I think will be the Best Non-Fiction nominations for 08’. Always a tough nut to crack – simply put, the Academy are predictable in selecting some obscure choices, this in part due to the voters whose agenda relates more to what a 60+ year old might consider of value. This year we should see some clearer, more popular choices that are part of broader critical consensus. Stay tuned for tomorrow's next Oscar category. Best Documentary Predictions: Four Noms: American Teen (Paramount Vantage) Nanette Burstein, Eli Gonda,
- 3/24/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
- #15. Religulous Director: Larry CharlesProducers: Bill Maher, Jonah Smith and Palmer West (A Scanner Darkly) Distributor: Lionsgate Films The Gist: This follows Bill Maher as he travels around the globe interviewing people about God and religion. Known for his astute analytical skills, irreverent wit and commitment to never pulling a punch, Maher brings his characteristic honesty to an unusual spiritual journey. Fact: Charles last directed: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan See It: It was the hottest reel property at Cannes and I've seen about 5 clip-sized portions of the film to vouch by this one: this flips religion over on its back. Get ready for the backlash! Release Date/Status?: Lionsgate Films is releasing this June 20th. ...
- 2/1/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
San Sebastian, Spain -- Austrian director Hans Weingartner, in San Sebastian with his competition entry Reclaim Your Brain, is teaming with City of God screenwriter Braulio Mantovani for his next project, Nanny.
Nanny revolves around two women who leave their families in South America to become domestic servants in the U.S. As with Weingartner's previous two films -- Brain and The Edukators -- it is an undisguised attack on the abuses of modern capitalism.
"It looks at the perversion of the system, where rich countries have to import love and caring (for their children) from the Third World," Weingartner told The Hollywood Reporter. "How these women are forced to leave their own families to go and provide for the rich."
Weingartner made his name on the international film scene with his second feature, Edukators, which debuted in Cannes and went on to win several awards, including the German Film Critics prize for best film. Palmer West and Jonah Smith of production outfit Thousand Worlds have picked up the U.S.
Nanny revolves around two women who leave their families in South America to become domestic servants in the U.S. As with Weingartner's previous two films -- Brain and The Edukators -- it is an undisguised attack on the abuses of modern capitalism.
"It looks at the perversion of the system, where rich countries have to import love and caring (for their children) from the Third World," Weingartner told The Hollywood Reporter. "How these women are forced to leave their own families to go and provide for the rich."
Weingartner made his name on the international film scene with his second feature, Edukators, which debuted in Cannes and went on to win several awards, including the German Film Critics prize for best film. Palmer West and Jonah Smith of production outfit Thousand Worlds have picked up the U.S.
- 9/25/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- Canadian distributor TVA Films on Tuesday said it has picked up the Canadian rights to Larry Charles and Bill Maher's untitled comic religion documentary for a spring release.
Yves Dion, president of Montreal-based TVA Films, said he attended a sneak preview of the untitled project in Cannes and only recently struck a deal with the film's producers, who are represented by CAA.
The Charles documentary features Maher traveling to world hot spots where talk of God and religion often sparks conflict for a comic take on local events.
The film also marks Charles' first film outing since the critical and boxoffice success of "Borat".
Last week, Lionsgate said it had picked up the Charles project for a stateside release. The documentary, which is being produced by Jonah Smith and Palmer West of Thousand Words, employs some of the same comic interview and guerilla shooting techniques behind "Borat".
Dion gave no indication how wide the Canadian theatrical release for the still-untitled project will be.
Yves Dion, president of Montreal-based TVA Films, said he attended a sneak preview of the untitled project in Cannes and only recently struck a deal with the film's producers, who are represented by CAA.
The Charles documentary features Maher traveling to world hot spots where talk of God and religion often sparks conflict for a comic take on local events.
The film also marks Charles' first film outing since the critical and boxoffice success of "Borat".
Last week, Lionsgate said it had picked up the Charles project for a stateside release. The documentary, which is being produced by Jonah Smith and Palmer West of Thousand Words, employs some of the same comic interview and guerilla shooting techniques behind "Borat".
Dion gave no indication how wide the Canadian theatrical release for the still-untitled project will be.
- 7/18/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
CANNES -- This film involved a painstaking animation process that required up to 500 hours to create one minute of screen time. And, with each minute of screen time, it has delivered back all that pain to the viewer; in multiples, since the indie-heaven cast and the hand of Richard Linklater promises so much.
Audiences compelled by professional obligation will be this film's most likely outreach, with those sitting in the middle of the aisles most likely to last through the duration. Commercially, "A Scanner Darkly" should be quickly remaindered to video, although on the upside, it may rejuvenate attention to Philip K. Dick's original novel to see exactly what inspired all these talented people to perpetrate this.
Throughout his creative life, Philip K. Dick battled his own demons of drug addiction, and the work upon which this trippy film is based, "A Scanner Darkly", is one of the author's bestsellers. Characteristically set in the Dick universe of the near future, "A Scanner Darkly" centers on the institutional fight against drug addiction, as an undercover cop is assigned to spy on his friends, and, in the complex convolutions of the plot, to eventually spy on himself.
The story itself is a mind-bender of big issues: addiction, surveillance, paranoia and personal rights. Unfortunately, filmmaker Richard Linklater gets swamped by the book's grand philosophical pinions and resorts to verbal explication rather than dramatization.
Indeed, movement-wise, there is nothing animated about this animated feature. It is static. Scene after scene of verbose fiddle-faddle: Characters orate at each other, while sitting in cars, sitting at dining tables, sitting in living rooms, sitting at office desks. The film might be better titled "The Big Sit".
What is going on? Well, a lot of verbiage about the ravages a drug dubbed Substance D is perpetrating on beautiful downtown Anaheim. Unfortunately, filmmaker Linklater further fuddles the works by allowing the actors histrionic excess. Not surprisingly, the most entertaining is Robert J. Downey's hyper-active performance as a fey and haughty friend of the undercover cop. Popped way-over-the top, Downey delivers what William F. Buckley, Jr. might seem like if plied with uppers. Fortunately, other performances are more subdued, namely, Keanu Reeve's myopic turn as the undercover cop. Remarkably, Reeves seems to be doing an imitation of Clint Eastwood, mumbling in the soft cadence of early Dirty Harry. In short, audiences will have to seek out their own peculiar diversions in order to last the whole course of this demi-dud.
Visually, this "Scanner" is no phantasmagoria, unlikely to inspire comparison to great animated head-trips of the ‘60s past. The film's muted pallet of pastels, while immensely suited to bath soaps, is less dynamic as a filmic eye-grabber. While acknowledging the craftsmanship and creativity of the animation team, "A Scanner Darkly"'s colorings and shadings make the real-life characters look like wood carvings.
A SCANNER DARKLY
Warner Independent Pictures Presents
In Association with Thousand Words
A Section Eight/Detour Filmproduction/3 Arts Entertainment Production
Screenwriter/director: Richard Linklater; Based on the novel by Philip K. Dick. Producers: Anne Walker-McBay, Tommy Pallotta, Palmer West, Jonah Smith, Erwin Stoff. Executive producers: George Clooney, Steven Soderbergh, Jennifer Fox, Ben Cosgrove, John Sloss; Director of photography: Shane F. Kelly; Production designer: Bruce Curtis; Music: Graham Reynolds; Editor: Sandra Adair; Animators: Sterling Allen, Evan Cagle, Nick Derington, Christopher Jennings, Lance Myers. Cast. Bob Arctor: Keanu Reeves; James Barris: Robert Downey, Jr.; Ernie Luckman: Woody Harrelson; Donna Hawthorne: Winona Ryder; Charles Freck: Rory Cochrane.
MPAA Rating: R, running time 100 minutes.
Audiences compelled by professional obligation will be this film's most likely outreach, with those sitting in the middle of the aisles most likely to last through the duration. Commercially, "A Scanner Darkly" should be quickly remaindered to video, although on the upside, it may rejuvenate attention to Philip K. Dick's original novel to see exactly what inspired all these talented people to perpetrate this.
Throughout his creative life, Philip K. Dick battled his own demons of drug addiction, and the work upon which this trippy film is based, "A Scanner Darkly", is one of the author's bestsellers. Characteristically set in the Dick universe of the near future, "A Scanner Darkly" centers on the institutional fight against drug addiction, as an undercover cop is assigned to spy on his friends, and, in the complex convolutions of the plot, to eventually spy on himself.
The story itself is a mind-bender of big issues: addiction, surveillance, paranoia and personal rights. Unfortunately, filmmaker Richard Linklater gets swamped by the book's grand philosophical pinions and resorts to verbal explication rather than dramatization.
Indeed, movement-wise, there is nothing animated about this animated feature. It is static. Scene after scene of verbose fiddle-faddle: Characters orate at each other, while sitting in cars, sitting at dining tables, sitting in living rooms, sitting at office desks. The film might be better titled "The Big Sit".
What is going on? Well, a lot of verbiage about the ravages a drug dubbed Substance D is perpetrating on beautiful downtown Anaheim. Unfortunately, filmmaker Linklater further fuddles the works by allowing the actors histrionic excess. Not surprisingly, the most entertaining is Robert J. Downey's hyper-active performance as a fey and haughty friend of the undercover cop. Popped way-over-the top, Downey delivers what William F. Buckley, Jr. might seem like if plied with uppers. Fortunately, other performances are more subdued, namely, Keanu Reeve's myopic turn as the undercover cop. Remarkably, Reeves seems to be doing an imitation of Clint Eastwood, mumbling in the soft cadence of early Dirty Harry. In short, audiences will have to seek out their own peculiar diversions in order to last the whole course of this demi-dud.
Visually, this "Scanner" is no phantasmagoria, unlikely to inspire comparison to great animated head-trips of the ‘60s past. The film's muted pallet of pastels, while immensely suited to bath soaps, is less dynamic as a filmic eye-grabber. While acknowledging the craftsmanship and creativity of the animation team, "A Scanner Darkly"'s colorings and shadings make the real-life characters look like wood carvings.
A SCANNER DARKLY
Warner Independent Pictures Presents
In Association with Thousand Words
A Section Eight/Detour Filmproduction/3 Arts Entertainment Production
Screenwriter/director: Richard Linklater; Based on the novel by Philip K. Dick. Producers: Anne Walker-McBay, Tommy Pallotta, Palmer West, Jonah Smith, Erwin Stoff. Executive producers: George Clooney, Steven Soderbergh, Jennifer Fox, Ben Cosgrove, John Sloss; Director of photography: Shane F. Kelly; Production designer: Bruce Curtis; Music: Graham Reynolds; Editor: Sandra Adair; Animators: Sterling Allen, Evan Cagle, Nick Derington, Christopher Jennings, Lance Myers. Cast. Bob Arctor: Keanu Reeves; James Barris: Robert Downey, Jr.; Ernie Luckman: Woody Harrelson; Donna Hawthorne: Winona Ryder; Charles Freck: Rory Cochrane.
MPAA Rating: R, running time 100 minutes.
- 5/26/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- Brad Anderson has been tapped to adapt and direct a remake of Hans Weingartner's political German film The Edukators. Palmer West and Jonah Smith of production outfit Thousand Words will produce the film. The story centers on three youths whose concern over global capitalism leads them from acts of protest to serious crime. The original, released domestically last summer by IFC Films, won top honors at the German Critics Film Awards and top honors at several European film festivals. "What excites me most is the way the story straddles genres," said Anderson, who most recently directed The Machinist. "On the one hand it's a suspenseful thriller, and on the other, it's a provocative and timely political debate. Yet at its heart it's really a very sly, very dark romantic comedy. In my films I've always tried to artfully 'mash up' genres. Palmer and Jonah get this. I couldn't ask for better collaborators."...
- 4/25/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"The Clearing" centers on the kidnapping of a successful businessman by a down-on-his-luck malcontent, but the goal of debuting director Pieter Jan Brugge -- who developed the screenplay with novelist Justin Haythe -- is to portray a troubled marriage. By inducing the extreme stress of such a violent separation on a husband and wife, played by Robert Redford and Helen Mirren, the movie wants to worm into the fissions and weak spots of their lives together. It's a risky strategy, for audiences may grow inpatient with such introspection during a time of emergency. But the real problem is that Brugge and Haythe fail to satisfactorily pull off either the thriller or the marital deconstruction.
The disappointment of this film is even more keenly felt when we realize that Redford, creator of the Sundance Institute and its famous festival that showcases independent works, is appearing for the first time in the kind of film of which he is such a staunch advocate. (It played in unfinished form at this year's Sundance Film Festival.) Redford's name virtually assures the film's drawing power in specialty theaters, but it is unlikely to venture much beyond upscale suburban cinemas.
As we watch Wayne and Eileen Hayes (Redford and Mirren) get ready for a seemingly uneventful day, we realize that the couple apparently has it all: a tasteful estate outside Pittsburgh, married children, grandkids and an easy camaraderie that comes from 30 years of marriage.
Another man gets ready for his day, too, but he is filmed in close-ups, so we know little about his circumstances. When the man, Arnold Mack (Willem Dafoe), brazenly kidnaps Wayne at the front gate to his estate, the film divides into parallel story lines.
Arnold, who claims to be a cog in the wheel of a kidnapping conspiracy, transports Wayne at gunpoint to a forest. As the two trudge high into the mountains, their verbal exchanges lay out the striking disparity between a tycoon and a bitter failure, whose unemployment provokes severe self-doubts. Meanwhile, once Eileen realizes that Wayne's disappearance is a crime rather than a desertion -- a momentary mistake that speaks volumes about the seemingly perfect and placid Hayes marriage -- the FBI moves in, her family gathers, and nervous speculation begins.
Federal prying and Eileen's own self-interrogation yield a picture of a marriage beset by infidelity, suspicion and unspoken fears. Yet none of this is particularly compelling: a poor man jealous of a rich man; a wife worried about her husband's affair. Can we dig no deeper than this? The characters and their woes are too generic and the dramatic interplay between story lines too tepid to produce much heat.
The time frame also remains vague until much too late. Eileen's story spans a number of days, while Wayne's lasts a few hours. However, this is unclear until the latter half of the movie. Wayne's story also contains one of those movie moments, designed to inject much-needed melodrama, that rings false. At one point, he gets the upper hand in his struggle to survive against the determined kidnapper. But he squanders that opportunity in a most unbelievable way for a man whose life is at stake.
One wishes that Brugge had used Redford's iconic status to build the character of a self-made man shaken to discover that he may lose everything in a matter of hours. Nevertheless, Redford quietly conveys the essential point that the trauma refocuses his character's thoughts on his family rather than on his own safety. Mirren can do little more than fret and worry but does achieve a poignancy. Dafoe creates another memorable villain, one whose rage is buried beneath extreme politeness.
The careful craftsmanship and meticulous cinematography by Denis Lenoir and designer Chris Gorak give the movie muted colors and a well-upholstered decor that contain a touch of melancholy -- not unlike that in Redford's directing debut in "Ordinary People". Craig Armstrong's music has a suggestion of "American Beauty", where a few select chords are meant to reverberate tellingly through these peoples' lives.
THE CLEARING
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Fox Searchlight and Thousand Words present in association with Mediastream III a Thousand Words/Wildwood Enterprises production
Credits:
Director: Pieter Jan Brugge
Screenwriter: Justin Haythe
Story by: Pieter Jan Brugge, Justin Haythe
Producers: Pieter Jan Brugge, Palmer West, Jonah Smith
Executive producer: Karen Tenkhoff
Director of photography: Denis Lenoir
Production designer: Chris Gorak
Music: Craig Armstrong
Co-producer: Dara Weintraub
Costume designer: Florence-Isabelle Megginson
Editor: Kevin Tent
Cast:
Wayne Hayes: Robert Redford
Eileen Hayes: Helen Mirren
Arnold Mack: Willem Dafoe
Tim: Alessandro Nivola
Agent Fuller: Matt Craven
Jill: Melissa Sagemiller
Louise Miller: Wendy Crewson
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 95 minutes...
The disappointment of this film is even more keenly felt when we realize that Redford, creator of the Sundance Institute and its famous festival that showcases independent works, is appearing for the first time in the kind of film of which he is such a staunch advocate. (It played in unfinished form at this year's Sundance Film Festival.) Redford's name virtually assures the film's drawing power in specialty theaters, but it is unlikely to venture much beyond upscale suburban cinemas.
As we watch Wayne and Eileen Hayes (Redford and Mirren) get ready for a seemingly uneventful day, we realize that the couple apparently has it all: a tasteful estate outside Pittsburgh, married children, grandkids and an easy camaraderie that comes from 30 years of marriage.
Another man gets ready for his day, too, but he is filmed in close-ups, so we know little about his circumstances. When the man, Arnold Mack (Willem Dafoe), brazenly kidnaps Wayne at the front gate to his estate, the film divides into parallel story lines.
Arnold, who claims to be a cog in the wheel of a kidnapping conspiracy, transports Wayne at gunpoint to a forest. As the two trudge high into the mountains, their verbal exchanges lay out the striking disparity between a tycoon and a bitter failure, whose unemployment provokes severe self-doubts. Meanwhile, once Eileen realizes that Wayne's disappearance is a crime rather than a desertion -- a momentary mistake that speaks volumes about the seemingly perfect and placid Hayes marriage -- the FBI moves in, her family gathers, and nervous speculation begins.
Federal prying and Eileen's own self-interrogation yield a picture of a marriage beset by infidelity, suspicion and unspoken fears. Yet none of this is particularly compelling: a poor man jealous of a rich man; a wife worried about her husband's affair. Can we dig no deeper than this? The characters and their woes are too generic and the dramatic interplay between story lines too tepid to produce much heat.
The time frame also remains vague until much too late. Eileen's story spans a number of days, while Wayne's lasts a few hours. However, this is unclear until the latter half of the movie. Wayne's story also contains one of those movie moments, designed to inject much-needed melodrama, that rings false. At one point, he gets the upper hand in his struggle to survive against the determined kidnapper. But he squanders that opportunity in a most unbelievable way for a man whose life is at stake.
One wishes that Brugge had used Redford's iconic status to build the character of a self-made man shaken to discover that he may lose everything in a matter of hours. Nevertheless, Redford quietly conveys the essential point that the trauma refocuses his character's thoughts on his family rather than on his own safety. Mirren can do little more than fret and worry but does achieve a poignancy. Dafoe creates another memorable villain, one whose rage is buried beneath extreme politeness.
The careful craftsmanship and meticulous cinematography by Denis Lenoir and designer Chris Gorak give the movie muted colors and a well-upholstered decor that contain a touch of melancholy -- not unlike that in Redford's directing debut in "Ordinary People". Craig Armstrong's music has a suggestion of "American Beauty", where a few select chords are meant to reverberate tellingly through these peoples' lives.
THE CLEARING
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Fox Searchlight and Thousand Words present in association with Mediastream III a Thousand Words/Wildwood Enterprises production
Credits:
Director: Pieter Jan Brugge
Screenwriter: Justin Haythe
Story by: Pieter Jan Brugge, Justin Haythe
Producers: Pieter Jan Brugge, Palmer West, Jonah Smith
Executive producer: Karen Tenkhoff
Director of photography: Denis Lenoir
Production designer: Chris Gorak
Music: Craig Armstrong
Co-producer: Dara Weintraub
Costume designer: Florence-Isabelle Megginson
Editor: Kevin Tent
Cast:
Wayne Hayes: Robert Redford
Eileen Hayes: Helen Mirren
Arnold Mack: Willem Dafoe
Tim: Alessandro Nivola
Agent Fuller: Matt Craven
Jill: Melissa Sagemiller
Louise Miller: Wendy Crewson
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 95 minutes...
- 7/22/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARK CITY -- "The United States of Leland" is a complex and often compelling melodrama, at times almost verging on soap opera.
Writer-director Matthew Ryan Hoge in an eye-catching debut is attempting to demonstrate what a slippery slope morality can be. Good people do bad things, sometimes very bad things, and while it is easy to pass judgment from afar, the more one examines a single immoral act, the less certain those judgments become.
This is tricky dramatic stuff, certain to displease some and at times a bit didactic. (It mirrors Sundance's opening-night film, "Levity", both by writer-directors who have worked in juvenile detention centers and strive to make a "monster" comprehensible.) Despite how well made the film is with finely nuanced performances from a stellar cast and a fascinating jigsaw-puzzle narration, its commercial potential is limited. Paramount Classics, which acquired the film during Sundance, will need judicious marketing to reach sophisticated adult viewers.
A murder in a Southwestern community is so seemingly senseless that it makes no sense. Leland Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling), an intelligent but impassive young man, stabs an autistic boy 20 times. He is arrested and sent to a detention center where a teacher, Pearl Madison (Don Cheadle), attempts to penetrate this student's alienation to discover the "why" behind the crime. He does so with an ulterior motive: A struggling writer, Pearl senses a good book in the youth's story.
In conversations between these two and a journal Leland starts writing, the story moves out into the community to survey the fallout of the heinous crime. Several people may have contributed to Leland's mental state, starting with his remote, terribly famous father (Kevin Spacey), a novelist living in Paris who hasn't seen his son in years. Leland's divorced mom (Lena Olin), from whom he has many secrets, struggles to make up for this absence. Then there's Becky (Jena Malone), the victim's sister and Leland's junkie girlfriend, who sends him packing in favor of her drug-dealer lover.
The tragedy has severely impacted the victim's family as the boy's father (Martin Donovan) and mother (Ann Magnuson) cannot cope with their grief. It also upsets the relationship between the victim's older sister (Michelle Williams) and her caring boyfriend (Chris Klein), whose mother died the year before.
Leland's community stretches implausibly to include a family of strangers that takes him on a solo trip to New York. Even here, dysfunctionalism greets him as the wife (Sherilyn Fenn) later discovers her husband's infidelities.
Pearl becomes the character through whom we view the story. As he gains insight into Leland's thinking, Pearl is forced to look at his own life along with the small crimes and misdemeanors he tends to dismiss by declaring, "I'm only human". What, the movie asks, is this connection between humanness and morality?
The "why" never becomes fully clear as it would in a murder mystery. Rather, the lives of these individuals shed light on Leland's psychological makeup and his dark outlook on life. It is a bit of a stretch that everyone is such an emotional mess, but the actors give precise and subtle performances that make the soapier aspects of the narrative credible.
Hoge is admirably supported in his first film by expressive camerawork, editing and design. Paramount Classics might consider toning down that soft-rock soundtrack, though, as it threatens to drown out many scenes.
THE UNITED STATES OF LELAND
Paramount Classics
A Thousand Words presentation in association with MDP Worldwide of a Tigger Street production
Credits: Screenwriter-director: Matthew Ryan Hoge; Producers: Kevin Spacey, Bernie Morris, Palmer West, Jonah Smith; Executive producers: Mark Damon, Sammy Lee, Stewart Hall; Director of photography: James Glennon; Production designer: Edward T. McAvoy; Music: Jeremy Enigk; Costume designer: Genevieve Tyrrell; Editor: Jeff Baetancourt. Cast: Pearl Madison: Don Cheadle; Leland Fitzgerald: Ryan Gosling; Allen Harris: Chris Klein; Becky: Jena Malone; Marybeth: Lena Olin; Albert: Kevin Spacey; Julie: Michelle Williams; Harry: Martin Donovan; Karen: Ann Magnuson.
No MPAA rating, running time 108 minutes.
Writer-director Matthew Ryan Hoge in an eye-catching debut is attempting to demonstrate what a slippery slope morality can be. Good people do bad things, sometimes very bad things, and while it is easy to pass judgment from afar, the more one examines a single immoral act, the less certain those judgments become.
This is tricky dramatic stuff, certain to displease some and at times a bit didactic. (It mirrors Sundance's opening-night film, "Levity", both by writer-directors who have worked in juvenile detention centers and strive to make a "monster" comprehensible.) Despite how well made the film is with finely nuanced performances from a stellar cast and a fascinating jigsaw-puzzle narration, its commercial potential is limited. Paramount Classics, which acquired the film during Sundance, will need judicious marketing to reach sophisticated adult viewers.
A murder in a Southwestern community is so seemingly senseless that it makes no sense. Leland Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling), an intelligent but impassive young man, stabs an autistic boy 20 times. He is arrested and sent to a detention center where a teacher, Pearl Madison (Don Cheadle), attempts to penetrate this student's alienation to discover the "why" behind the crime. He does so with an ulterior motive: A struggling writer, Pearl senses a good book in the youth's story.
In conversations between these two and a journal Leland starts writing, the story moves out into the community to survey the fallout of the heinous crime. Several people may have contributed to Leland's mental state, starting with his remote, terribly famous father (Kevin Spacey), a novelist living in Paris who hasn't seen his son in years. Leland's divorced mom (Lena Olin), from whom he has many secrets, struggles to make up for this absence. Then there's Becky (Jena Malone), the victim's sister and Leland's junkie girlfriend, who sends him packing in favor of her drug-dealer lover.
The tragedy has severely impacted the victim's family as the boy's father (Martin Donovan) and mother (Ann Magnuson) cannot cope with their grief. It also upsets the relationship between the victim's older sister (Michelle Williams) and her caring boyfriend (Chris Klein), whose mother died the year before.
Leland's community stretches implausibly to include a family of strangers that takes him on a solo trip to New York. Even here, dysfunctionalism greets him as the wife (Sherilyn Fenn) later discovers her husband's infidelities.
Pearl becomes the character through whom we view the story. As he gains insight into Leland's thinking, Pearl is forced to look at his own life along with the small crimes and misdemeanors he tends to dismiss by declaring, "I'm only human". What, the movie asks, is this connection between humanness and morality?
The "why" never becomes fully clear as it would in a murder mystery. Rather, the lives of these individuals shed light on Leland's psychological makeup and his dark outlook on life. It is a bit of a stretch that everyone is such an emotional mess, but the actors give precise and subtle performances that make the soapier aspects of the narrative credible.
Hoge is admirably supported in his first film by expressive camerawork, editing and design. Paramount Classics might consider toning down that soft-rock soundtrack, though, as it threatens to drown out many scenes.
THE UNITED STATES OF LELAND
Paramount Classics
A Thousand Words presentation in association with MDP Worldwide of a Tigger Street production
Credits: Screenwriter-director: Matthew Ryan Hoge; Producers: Kevin Spacey, Bernie Morris, Palmer West, Jonah Smith; Executive producers: Mark Damon, Sammy Lee, Stewart Hall; Director of photography: James Glennon; Production designer: Edward T. McAvoy; Music: Jeremy Enigk; Costume designer: Genevieve Tyrrell; Editor: Jeff Baetancourt. Cast: Pearl Madison: Don Cheadle; Leland Fitzgerald: Ryan Gosling; Allen Harris: Chris Klein; Becky: Jena Malone; Marybeth: Lena Olin; Albert: Kevin Spacey; Julie: Michelle Williams; Harry: Martin Donovan; Karen: Ann Magnuson.
No MPAA rating, running time 108 minutes.
- 1/27/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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