Gotham Awards Choose "Birdman" as Best Picture of 2014; Michael Keaton Named "Best Actor"

Honoring independent films, the Gotham Awards are the first major awards of the film awards season.  This year, the 2014 edition kicks off the 2014-15 season.  The Gotham Awards ceremony was held on Monday, December 1, 2014 at Cipriani Wall Street.

The 2014/24th Annual Gotham Independent Film Award winners are:

Best Feature
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, director; Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, Arnon Milchan, James W. Skotchdopole, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Best Documentary
CITIZENFOUR
Laura Poitras, director; Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky, producers (RADiUS, Participant Media, and HBO Documentary Films)

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Ana Lily Amirpour for A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Kino Lorber)

Best Actor*
Michael Keaton in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

* The 2014 Best Actor nominating panel also voted to award a special Gotham Jury Award jointly to Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, and Channing Tatum for their ensemble performance in Foxcatcher (Sony Pictures Classics).

Best Actress
Julianne Moore in Still Alice (Sony Pictures Classics)

Breakthrough Actor
Tessa Thompson in Dear White People (Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions)


Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ Grant:
For the fourth consecutive year, IFP is proud present the euphoria Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ grant, a $25,000 cash award for an alumna of IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs. This grant aims to further the careers of emerging women directors by supporting the completion, distribution and audience engagement strategies of their first feature film.

WINNER: Chloé Zhao, director, Songs My Brothers Taught Me

The nominees are:
Garrett Bradley, director, Below Dreams
Claire Carré, director, Embers


Gotham Independent Film Audience Award: Boyhood
New this year, IFP members had a voice in determining the 5th Annual Gotham Independent Film Audience Award with nominees comprised of the 15 nominated films in the Best Feature, Best Documentary, and Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award categories. All IFP current, active members at the Individual Level and above will be eligible to vote.  Voting took place online from November 19th at 12:01 AM EST and concluded on November 26th at 5:00 PM EST.  The winner of the Audience Award was announced at the Gotham Awards Ceremony on December 1, 2014.


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2014 Gotham Awards Nominations - Complete List

by Leroy Douresseaux

Honoring independent films, the Gotham Awards are the first major awards of the film awards season.  This year, the 2014 edition kicks off the 2014-15 season.  The Gotham Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, December 1, 2014 at Cipriani Wall Street.

Richard Linklater's Boyhood leads the 24th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards by IFP with four nominations, including “Best Feature.”

The 2014/24th Annual Gotham Independent Film Award nominations are:

Best Feature:

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, director; Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, Arnon Milchan, James W. Skotchdopole, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Boyhood
Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland, Jonathan Sehring, John Sloss, producers (IFC Films)

The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson, director; Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Love Is Strange
Ira Sachs, director; Lucas Joaquin, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Ira Sachs, Jayne Baron Sherman, producers (Sony Pictures Classics)

Under the Skin
Jonathan Glazer, director; Nick Wechsler, James Wilson, producers (A24)

Best Documentary:

Actress
Robert Greene, director; Douglas Tirola, Susan Bedusa, Robert Greene, producers (The Cinema Guild)

CITIZENFOUR
Laura Poitras, director; Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky, producers (RADiUS, Participant Media, and HBO Documentary Films)

Life Itself
Steve James, director; Zak Piper, Steve James, Garrett Basch, producers (Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films)

Manakamana
Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez, directors; Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel, producers (The Cinema Guild)

Point and Shoot
Marshall Curry, director; Marshall Curry, Elizabeth Martin, Matthew Van Dyke, producers (The Orchard and American Documentary / POV)

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award:
Ana Lily Amirpour for A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Kino Lorber)
James Ward Byrkit for Coherence (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Dan Gilroy for Nightcrawler (Open Road Films)
Eliza Hittman for It Felt Like Love (Variance Films)
Justin Simien for Dear White People (Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions)

Best Actor*
Bill Hader in The Skeleton Twins (Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions)
Ethan Hawke in Boyhood (IFC Films)
Oscar Isaac in A Most Violent Year (A24)
Michael Keaton in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Miles Teller in Whiplash (Sony Pictures Classics)

* The 2014 Best Actor nominating panel also voted to award a special Gotham Jury Award jointly to Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, and Channing Tatum for their ensemble performance in Foxcatcher(Sony Pictures Classics).

Best Actress
Patricia Arquette in Boyhood (IFC Films)
Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Beyond the Lights (Relativity Media)
Julianne Moore in Still Alice (Sony Pictures Classics)
Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin (A24)
Mia Wasikowska in Tracks (The Weinstein Company)

Breakthrough Actor:
Riz Ahmed in Nightcrawler (Open Road Films)
Macon Blair in Blue Ruin (RADiUS)
Ellar Coltrane in Boyhood (IFC Films)
Joey King in Wish I Was Here (Focus Features)
Jenny Slate in Obvious Child (A24)
Tessa Thompson in Dear White People (Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions)

Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ Grant:
For the fourth consecutive year, IFP is proud present the euphoria Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ grant, a $25,000 cash award for an alumna of IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs. This grant aims to further the careers of emerging women directors by supporting the completion, distribution and audience engagement strategies of their first feature film.

The nominees are:
Garrett Bradley, director, Below Dreams
Claire Carré, director, Embers
Chloé Zhao, director, Songs My Brothers Taught Me

Gotham Independent Film Audience Award:
New this year, IFP members will have a voice in determining the 5th Annual Gotham Independent Film Audience Awardwith nominees comprised of the 15 nominated films in the Best Feature, Best Documentary, and Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award categories. All IFP current, active members at the Individual Level and above will be eligible to vote.  Voting will take place online from November 19th at 12:01 AM EST and conclude on November 26th at 5:00 PM EST. In addition, IFP will be scheduling screenings of many of the nominated films for IFP members in the theater at the Made in NY Media Center by IFP in Brooklyn. These screenings will take place from November 5-12. The winner of the Audience Award will be announced at the Gotham Awards Ceremony on December 1, 2014.

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2014 Gotham Award Nominations Announced; "Boyhood" Leads with Four Nominations

Press release:

NOMINEES ANNOUNCED FOR 24TH ANNUAL GOTHAM INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS BY IFP by Erik Luers on October 23, 2014

New York, NY (October 23, 2014) – The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), the nation’s premier member organization of independent storytellers, announced today the nominees for the 24th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards by IFP.  The Gotham Awards is one of the leading awards for independent film and signals the kick-off to the film awards season. For 2014, the seven competitive awards include Best Feature, Best Documentary, Best Actor, Best Actress (presenting sponsor euphoria Calvin Klein), Breakthrough Actor, the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director award, and the Gotham Audience Award. In addition to the competitive awards, Gotham Award Tributes will be given to actor Tilda Swinton, director Bennett Miller and Industry Tribute recipient Netflix’s Ted Sarandos.

As the first major awards ceremony of the film season, the Gotham Independent Film Awards by IFP provide critical early recognition and media attention to worthy independent films. The awards are also unique for their ability to assist in catapulting award recipients prominently into national awards season attention, including recent winners and ultimate Oscar® contenders.

Twenty-four films received nominations this year. In addition, the nominating committee for the Best Actor category voted to award a Special Jury Award jointly to the three leading actors in Foxcatcher – Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, and Channing Tatum – for their ensemble work.

This year the Gotham Audience Award nominees are comprised of the 15 films nominated for Best Feature, Best Documentary, and the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award. The winner will be selected by online voting of IFP members. Voting for that award begins November 19th at 12:01 AM EST and concludes on November 26th at 5:00 PM EST.

“Each year the Gotham Awards honor the best work from our independent storytellers and help new audiences discover their work. We congratulate this year’s nominees, from the master film artists to the talented newcomers, a true representation of the rich and diverse range of today’s independent filmmaking,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in NY Media Center. “We are grateful to our nominating committees of film critics, journalists, programmers and film curators for their dedication to selecting the nominees from so many worthy submissions.”

Nominees are selected by committees of film critics, journalists, festival programmers, and film curators. Separate juries of writers, directors, actors, producers, editors and others directly involved in making films will determine the final Gotham Award recipients.

The Gotham Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, December 1st at Cipriani Wall Street.

Twenty writers, critics and programmers participated in the nomination process, considering 199 eligible submissions. The Nominating Committees for the 2014 Gotham Independent Film Awards were:

Nominating Committee for Best Feature and Breakthrough Director:
Justin Chang, Chief Film Critic, Variety
Eric Kohn, Lead Film Critic, Indiewire
Christy Lemire, Film Critic, ChristyLemire.com and co-host, What the Flick?!
Andrew O’Hehir, Film Critic, Salon.com
Joshua Rothkopf, Film Editor, Time Out New York

Nominating Committee for Best Documentary:
Charlotte Cook, Director of Programming, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival
Bilge Ebiri, Film Critic, New York Magazine and Vulture
Cynthia Fuchs, Film-TV Editor, PopMatters
Tom Hall, Executive Director, Montclair Film Festival
Sky Sitney, Visiting Artist, Georgetown University Film and Media Studies Department

Nominating Committee for Best Actor and Best Actress:
Mark Harris, Editor-at-Large, Entertainment Weekly and columnist, Grantland
Ann Hornaday, Film Critic, The Washington Post
Glenn Kenny, Critic, RogerEbert.com; author, Anatomy of an Actor: Robert De Niro
David Rooney, Film & Theater Critic, The Hollywood Reporter
Elizabeth Weitzman, Film Critic, New York Daily News

Nominating Committee for Breakthrough Actor:
Sam Adams, Editor of Criticwire, Indiewire
A.A. Dowd, Film Editor, The A. V. Club
Sheila O’Malley, Film Critic, RogerEbert.com
Ronnie Scheib, Film Critic, Variety
Stephen Whitty, Film Critic, Newark Star-Ledger

Sponsors
The Premier Sponsor of the 24th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards is The New York Times and the Platinum Sponsor is euphoria Calvin Klein. Additionally, the awards will be promoted nationally in an eight-page special advertising section in The New York Times in November 2014.

Sony Pictures Classics Sets "Foxcatcher" For November 14 2014

SONY PICTURES CLASSICS TO RELEASE FOXCATCHER ON NOVEMBER 14

Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they will release Bennett Miller's FOXCATCHER in the United States on November 14. The film will premiere in the In Competition Section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.

Directed by Bennett Miller (MONEYBALL, CAPOTE), FOXCATCHER tells the gripping, true story of Olympic Wrestling Champion brothers Mark Schultz (Tatum) and Dave Schultz (Ruffalo) and their relationship with the eccentric John du Pont (Carell), heir to the du Pont Chemical fortune that led to murder.

The film is produced by Megan Ellison under her company Annapurna Pictures, as well as, Miller, Jon Kilik, and Anthony Bregman. Miller’s prestigious cast includes Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Vanessa Redgrave, Sienna Miller, and Anthony Michael Hall. The film was written by E. Max Frye (SOMETHING WILD, AMOS & ANDREW) and Dan Futterman (CAPOTE), the Cinematographer is Greig Fraser (ZERO DARK THIRTY), and the Production Designer is Jess Gonchor (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, MONEYBALL, TRUE GRIT, CAPOTE).

ABOUT SONY PICTURES CLASSICS
Michael Barker and Tom Bernard serve as co-presidents of Sony Pictures Classics—an autonomous division of Sony Pictures Entertainment they founded with Marcie Bloom in January 1992, which distributes, produces, and acquires independent films from around the world.

Barker and Bernard have released prestigious films that have won 32 Academy Awards® (28 of those at Sony Pictures Classics) and have garnered 140 Academy Award® nominations (114 at Sony Pictures Classics) including Best Picture nominations for AMOUR, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, AN EDUCATION, CAPOTE, HOWARDS END, and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.

ABOUT SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; a global channel network; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of entertainment in more than 142 countries. For additional information, go to http://www.sonypictures.com/.

Review: "Anchorman 2" is Enough... Really

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 19 (of 2014) by Leroy Douresseaux

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013)
Running time:  112 minutes; MPAA – PG-13 for crude and sexual content, drug use, language and comic violence
DIRECTOR:  Adam McKay
WRITERS:  Will Ferrell and Adam McKay (based on characters created by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay)
PRODUCERS:  Judd Apatow, Will Ferrell, and Adam McKay
CINEMATOGRAPHERS:  Patrick Capone and Oliver Wood (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Brent White and Melissa Bretherton
COMPOSERS:  Andrew Feltenstein and John Nau

COMEDY

Starring:  Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Steven Carell, David Koechner, Christina Applegate, Dylan Baker, Meagan Good, Judah Nelson, James Marsden, Greg Kinnear, Josh Lawson, Kristen Wiig, Fred Willard, Chris Parnell, Bill Curtis (narrator) and Harrison Ford with Will Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Kirsten Dunst, Marion Cotillard, and Joe Washington

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is a 2013 comedy directed by Adam McKay and written by McKay and actor Will Ferrell.  The film is a sequel to Anchorman:  The Legend of Ron Burgundy.  Anchorman 2 finds Ron Burgundy putting the 70s behind him and returning to New York City to take a 24-hour news channel by storm.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues begins in New York City where Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) are the husband and wife co-anchors of WBC News.  Then, Veronica is promoted, while Ron is fired.  Ron returns to San Diego, but soon gets an offer to return to NYC.  GNN – Global News Network – is the world’s first 24-hour news network, and they offer Ron a job.

Ron gets to form his own news team, so he reassembles his old gang:  lecherous beat reporter, Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd); Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), the mentally challenged weatherman; and Champ Kind (David Koechner), the chauvinist, racist, and dude-cowboy sports reporter.  Back in NYC, Ron discovers that Veronica has moved on from their relationship, and he struggles to connect with his son, Walter (Judah Nelson).  GNN also proves to be filled with people that don’t like Ron and are determined to keep him from becoming a star in the big city.

However it worked out, having nine years pass between the first Anchorman movie and the sequel, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, is a good thing.  If the sequel had been released even as late as five years after the original, I think it would have been too soon.  Nine years later, audiences are again ready for more of the utterly ridiculous antics of Ron Burgundy and his three clownish amigos plus one chick.  Yes, there are new characters, but the sequel is more of the same.

The noticeable difference is that Will Ferrell and Adam McKay gleefully poke fun at and mock cable news networks and the non-news, infotainment media junk food that these networks have elevated to top story status over the last two decades.  This includes car chases, celebrity scandals, missing white girls, and other lurid news.  Without being named, FOX News takes the biggest hits from Anchorman 2.

A lot of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues made me laugh out loud, but I found that the film was too long at almost two hours of runtime.  I was ready for it to be over, even with all the movie star and celebrity cameos that fill the last act like sparkly roaches.  Do I want more Ron Burgundy?  Ask me in another nine years.

6 of 10
B

Friday, April 11, 2014


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

"Anchorman 2" Re-Released with 763 All-New Jokes

“ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES: SUPER SIZED R RATED VERSION” in Theaters February 28 for One-Week Exclusive Run

For the First Time Ever: Hit Comedy Gets Re-Released with 763 All-New Jokes

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Paramount Pictures and Gary Sanchez Productions today announced an unprecedented theatrical release of an all new cut of the hit film “ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES,” starring Will Ferrell, in theaters in the U.S. and U.K. beginning February 28th for one-week only.

The new version of the film, titled “ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES: SUPER SIZED R RATED VERSION,” will feature 763 entirely new jokes from legendary anchorman Ron Burgundy and America’s favorite 24-hour global news team. The film is now rated R.

“When my editor told me we had a whole different version of the movie that was more than two hours long with nearly 800 new jokes, I was shocked. But when Paramount said they were actually going to put it in theaters, I did an 1950’s spit take. If you’re a hardcore Anchorman fan go see this. If you’re not, stay very far away," said writer / director Adam McKay.

“ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES,” a sequel to 2004’s cult film “ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY,” was released in theaters on December 18, 2013 and has earned more than $170 million at the worldwide box office to date.

For ticketing info, go to www.AnchormanMovie.com

With the 70’s behind him, San Diego’s top rated newsman, Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell), returns to the news desk in "ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES," which opened in theaters everywhere December 18. Also back for more are Ron’s co-anchor and wife, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), weather man Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), man on the street reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) and sports guy Champ Kind (David Koechner) - All of whom won’t make it easy to stay classy… while taking New York and the nation’s first 24-hour news channel by storm. Produced by Judd Apatow, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. Written by Will Ferrell & Adam McKay. Directed by Adam McKay.

About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIAB) (NASDAQ: VIA), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. Paramount controls a collection of some of the most powerful brands in filmed entertainment, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Home Media Distribution, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., and Paramount Studio Group.

"Super-Sized" Return for "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues"

ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES: SUPER-SIZED R RATED VERSION in theaters February 28 for a one-week exclusive run

For the first time ever: hit comedy gets re-released with 763 all-new jokes!

Watch the new trailer: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/anchorman2/

Jonesing for more? Watch an all-new exclusive clip: http://www.break.com/video/ron-burgundy-crack-pipe-anchorman-2-clip-2579635

With the 70's behind him, San Diego's top rated newsman, Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell), returns to the newsdesk in ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES," which opened in theaters everywhere December 18.  Also back for more are Ron’s  co-anchor and wife, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), weather man Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), man on the street reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) and sports guy Champ Kind (David Koechner) - All of whom won’t make it easy to stay classy… while taking New York and the nation’s first 24-hour news channel by storm.  Produced by Judd Apatow, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. Written by Will Ferrell & Adam McKay.  Directed by Adam McKay.

For ticketing info, go to www.AnchormanMovie.com

Official website: http://www.anchormanmovie.com

Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/ronburgundy
Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anchormanmovie

New "Anchorman 2" Poster Revealed

With the 70's behind him, San Diego's top rated newsman, Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell), returns to the news desk in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. Also back for more are Ron’s co-anchor and wife, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), weather man Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), man on the street Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) and sports guy Champ Kind (David Koechner) - All of whom won’t make it easy to stay classy…while taking the country's first 24-hour news channel by storm.

Watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VdGI5-z_hg&feature=share&list=PLVjwdZylAT2nJXngIdTOyyg-Kvm41fime

In theaters December 20th:
Official site: http://www.anchormanmovie.com/
Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/ronburgundy
Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anchormanmovie

Review: "Melinda and Melinda," Good Cast, Average Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 8 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Melinda and Melinda (2004)
Running time:  99 minutes (1 hour, 39 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for adult situations involving sexuality, and some substance material
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Woody Allen
PRODUCER:  Letty Aronson
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Vilmos Zsigmond
EDITOR:  Alisa Lepselter

COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring:  Radha Mitchell, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Will Ferrell, Amanda Peet, Jonny Lee Miller, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Carell, Josh Brolin, Vinessa Shaw, Daniel Sunjata, Geoffrey Nauffts, Wallace Shawn, Larry Pine, Stephanie Roth Haberle, and Neil Pepe

The subject of this movie review is Melinda and Melinda, a 2004 comedy and drama from writer/director Woody Allen.  The film follows two alternating stories about a woman named Melinda’s attempts to straighten out her life.  Fox Searchlight Pictures gave the film a limited release in the United States in March of 2005.  Except for a cameo, Allen does not appear as a significant character in this film.

Over a meal at a restaurant, four friends, two of them playwrights, discuss the essence of life.  Is it comic or tragic?  One of them brings up a story he heard from friends about the unexpected arrival of young woman named Melinda (Radha Mitchell) at a dinner party.  The two playwrights, one who writes tragedies and the other who composes hit comedies, take the incident with Melinda and embellish it, each from his point of view.

Max the Tragedian (Larry Pine) tells a story of doomed love with Melinda as a disturbed young woman who returns to New York City after having several years of misfortune and heartbreak.  She was the bored housewife of a Midwestern doctor, and her affair with a photographer ended the marriage.  Her ex-husband also took the children from Melinda, and her subsequent suicidal depression landed her straight-jacketed in a mental ward.  She arrives at the home of her friend, Laurel (Chloë Sevigny), like Melinda a former Park Avenue princess, and Laurel’s husband, Lee (Jonny Lee Miller), a struggling actor and alcoholic.  Melinda’s arrival hastens the disintegration of Laurel and Lee’s marriage, but Melinda meets Ellis Moonsong (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a smooth talking, handsome, and debonair composer.  They strike up what looks like a promising romance until Ellis notices someone else…

Sy the Comedian (Wallace Shawn) looks at Melinda’s predicament as a romantic comedy.  She is the childless downstairs neighbor of the dinner hosts, an ambitious indie filmmaker named Susan (Amanda Peet) and her husband, Hobie (Will Ferrell) an under-employed actor.  Sy’s Melinda is also coming off a broken relationship, so Hobie befriends Melinda in an attempt to help her find a new love.  However, Hobie falls for Melinda, but he has to suffer in silence when she unexpectedly starts dating an amiable and handsome broker (Daniel Sunjata).  Thus, the film goes back and forth contrasting the fate of each Melinda.

Melinda and Melinda is a decent Woody Allen film, and it’s also a bit different from most of his pictures.  For one thing, he only makes a cameo appearance in the opening sequence that most viewers will probably miss.  However, Will Ferrell’s Hobie of the comedic half of Melinda and Melinda is the stand-in for the neurotic, smart-talking type Allen plays in his films.  The tragic half of the film is quite engaging, but not overly dark and tragic, perhaps because the cast plays it so smoothly and low key.  Mitchell gives a solid performance, and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things) plays Ellis Moonsong as a romantic figure, which lightens up a segment that plays heavily on the notion of doomed relationships.

On the other hand, Ferrell’s performance overwhelms Radha Mitchell’s in the comedic half of the film, and that’s not a bad thing.  The romantic comic angle is mostly flat, and the romance isn’t engaging.  The more Ferrell is on screen the more his comic timing and acting come forward and livens a dull segment into something mildly amusing and somewhat engaging.

Though I’m sad to admit it, I found Melinda and Melinda to be about an average film, sometimes even a chore to watch, and it would be an average film even if someone other than Woody Allen’s name were on it.

5 of 10
C+

Friday, January 13, 2006

Updated:  Wednesday, July 24, 2013

New "Anchorman 2" Teaser Poster - June 18, 2013

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

With the 70's behind him, San Diego's top rated newsman, Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell), returns to the news desk in "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues." Also back for more are Ron’s co-anchor and wife, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), weather man Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), man on the street Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) and sports guy Champ Kind (David Koechner) - All of whom won’t make it easy to stay classy…while taking New York's first 24-hour news channel by storm.

In theaters everywhere December 20, 2013

https://twitter.com/ronburgundy

https://www.facebook.com/anchormanmovie

"Anchorman" Exhibit Opens November 2013

Newseum in Washington, D.C., Announces  ‘Anchorman: The Exhibit’ to Open November 14, 2013

‘Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues’ opens nationwide December 20, 2013

It’s kind of a big deal

WASHINGTON — On November 14, 2013, the Newseum, in partnership with Paramount Pictures, will open “Anchorman: The Exhibit,” featuring props, costumes and footage from the 2004 hit comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, prior to the release of its highly anticipated sequel “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” from Paramount Pictures on December 20.

The original film, written by Will Ferrell & Adam McKay, directed by McKay, and starring Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell and David Koechner, takes a comic look at a 1970s-era television newsroom and the legendary local anchorman who ruled it until a female reporter arrived to challenge the all-male news team. “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” reunites Ferrell and McKay with the original cast.

Included in “Anchorman: The Exhibit” will be costumes worn by the Channel 4 Evening News team and a number of original props from the movie, including Ron Burgundy’s jazz flute and the whip used by rival anchorman Arturo Mendez during the film’s memorable fight scene between rival news teams. The exhibit also includes a re-creation of the KVWN-TV anchor desk and news set where visitors can pose for photo ops.

“For millions of viewers, the news anchor represents the authority and credibility of television news. But anchormen and women also are popular targets for pop culture laughs,” said Cathy Trost, vice president of exhibits and programs at the Newseum. “The exhibit explores the reality behind the humor of “Anchorman” and tracks the rise of personality-driven news formats in the 1970s.”

Visitors to the exhibit also will have an opportunity to step in front of the camera and participate in an Anchorman-themed TV spot at one of the Newseum’s Be a TV Reporter stations. With lead anchor Ron Burgundy providing a snappy introduction, budding reporters can find out if they have what it takes to become a member of the Channel 4 News team. The exhibit also will feature clips from the movie and special commentary by Will Ferrell.

“I’m literally trapped in a glass case of emotion,” said Ron Burgundy, commenting on his inclusion in the museum’s exhibit.

“Anchorman: The Exhibit” will be on display at the Newseum through Aug. 31, 2014.


About the Newseum
The mission of the Newseum is to champion the five freedoms of the First Amendment through education, information and entertainment. One of the top attractions in Washington, D.C., the Newseum’s 250,000-square-foot news museum offers visitors a state-of-the-art experience that blends news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits. The Newseum is a 501(c)(3) public charity funded, in part, by the Freedom Forum. The First Amendment Center at the Newseum and in Nashville and the Diversity Institute serve as forums for the study and exploration of the First Amendment. For more information visit newseum.org or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

About “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues”
With the ’70s behind him, San Diego’s top rated newsman, Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell), returns to the news desk in “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.” Also back for more are Ron’s co-anchor and wife, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), weather man Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), man on the street Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) and sports guy Champ Kind (David Koechner) — all of whom won’t make it easy to stay classy … while taking New York’s first 24-hour news channel by storm. Produced by Judd Apatow, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. Written by Will Ferrell & Adam McKay. Directed by Adam McKay.

Review: "Bruce Almighty" Not So Mighty

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 20 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux


Bruce Almighty (2003)
Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for language, sexual content and some crude humor
DIRECTOR: Tom Shadyac
WRITERS: Steve Koren & Mark O’Keefe and Steve Oedekerk; from a story by Steve Koren and Mark O’Keefe
PRODUCERS: Michael Bostick, James D. Brubaker, Jim Carrey, Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe, and Tom Shadyac
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dean Semler (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Scott Hill
COMPOSER: John Debney

COMEDY/FANTASY/ROMANCE

Starring: Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Aniston, Philip Baker Hall, Catherine Baker, Lisa Ann Walter, Steven Carell, Nora Dunn, Eddie Jemison, Paul Satterfield, Mark Kiely, Sally Kirkland, and Tony Bennett

The subject of this movie review is Bruce Almighty, a 2003 comedy and fantasy film from director Tom Shadyac and starring Jim Carrey. The film was a worldwide box office hit and yielded a spin-off film, Evan Almighty, in 2007.

Bruce Almighty isn’t Jim Carrey’s best film, although it was one of his biggest ever at the box office. I wanted to see it for a long time, but never got around to it, and after having finally seen it, I now realize that it would have been perfectly fine, if in my life as a moviegoer, I had never seen it. It’s not bad; it’s just not good Jim Carrey.

Bruce Almighty focuses on Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) an unhappy television reporter who complains about how unfair God is to him. When he doesn’t get the promotion after which he lusted and gets himself fired as a result, he condemns God as a do-nothing. God (Morgan Freeman) decides to make an appearance and see if Bruce can do better a job ruling existence. He gives Bruce his almighty powers just to teach him how difficult the job of being God can be.

First of all the concept is a piece of shit. Granted that the job of watching the universe is, to say the absolute least, difficult, can’t God do the job? He is, after all, God…

Secondly, the script is very smart, for at least half the film. Bruce acts just as you’d think he would – selfishly and carelessly doing whatever it takes to make things easy for him. It turns out he was always a self-obsessed bastard. Even after he gets his way via his newly gained almighty powers, he doesn’t think to make things better not only for himself, but also for his girlfriend, Grace Connelly (Jennifer Anniston). When Bruce does finally at least pay attention to the (presumed) basic duty of God, answering prayers, he takes the easy route and creates a disaster. All this stuff is smart and probably pretty accurate when it comes to describing how someone would handle the situation.

After that, Bruce Almighty becomes a feel good fest of fixing things and doing the right thing. That makes for a pleasant movie, and the story resolves in the way it probably should: life lessons learned, good will towards men, respecting God (but, according to the film, respecting God in a bland and non-evangelical way). However, that’s the problem. Bruce Almighty plays it too safe; it would have really been a funnier film if it had actually went against the grain – maybe be radical.

And as silly and crazy as Jim Carrey has been, he’s rarely done anything dangerous in his career. As a stage comedian, he was a gagman, the Prince of Ass Jokes, really. He does great impersonations and he’s a human sound effects machine, but we’re not talking Lenny Bruce or even Carrey’s idol, Andy Kaufman. His film career has pretty much been the same act, but he’s been so damn good at it. The Ace Ventura films and Dumb and Dumber are priceless.

Since the mid to late 90’s, Jim has been trying to prove to everyone that he’s not a comedian turned actor or just a comic actor, but an actor – one capable doing serious dramatic roles. I think several years of trying to prove that he’s a great actor has dulled the talent that justifies his popularity and humongous paychecks – his talent as the Prince of Ass Jokes, the Duke of Juvenile Humor, and Lord of Rubbery Faces.

You can see it in Bruce Almighty. His silliness, childishness, and zaniness lack the zip they once had. He’s does some really hilarious clowning around in this film, but a lot of it is soft and too much of it strained.

So see Bruce Almighty, if you like Jim Carrey. Sadly, it’s the closest we’ll get to the early to mid-90’s pet detective.

5 of 10
C+

NOTES:
2004 Black Reel Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Supporting Actor” (Morgan Freeman)

2004 Image Awards: 1 win: “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture” (Morgan Freeman)

Review: Streep, Jones Give "Hope Springs" Some Bounce

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 99 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux


Hopes Springs (2012)
Running time: 100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for mature thematic content involving sexuality
DIRECTOR: David Frankel
WRITER: Vanessa Taylor
PRODUCERS: Todd Black and Guymon Casady
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Florian Ballhaus
EDITORS: Matt Maddox and Steven Weisberg
COMPOSER: Theodore Shapiro
Golden Globe nominee

COMEDY

Starring: Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Steve Carell, Jean Smart, Ben Rappaport, Marin Ireland, Patch Darragh, Brett Rice, Elisabeth Shue, and Mimi Rogers

Hope Springs is a 2012 romantic comedy-drama from director David Frankel. The film focuses on a married couple in therapy.

Kay (Meryl Streep) and Arnold Soames (Tommy Lee Jones) have been married for thirty-one years. Kay believes that they are in need of help to put the spark back in their marriage. She enrolls them in an intense, week-long counseling session with Dr. Bernard Feld (Steve Carell). The couple travels to a coastal resort town in Maine where Feld’s Center for Intensive Couples Counseling is located. But Arnold isn’t cooperative, and Kay learns that the couple’s problems aren’t necessarily one-sided.

Hope Springs is interesting simply because it is a romance about old people will to talk about their lusts and sexual fantasies, or at least struggle with the implications of denying them. Heck, any movie in which Tommy Lee Jones plays a character who admits how much he wants oral sex from his wife is worth watching. Seriously, folks: there is some fine acting here. Streep and Jones create a couple in a deep rut so convincingly that I found myself feeling really sorry for them. Without being explicit, both actors construct sex scenes that are as raw and intimate as they are clumsy and forlorn. Yeah, I was invested in the Soames’ working out their marital issues.

Unfortunately, Steve Carell is reduced to being basically a talking head, although I strangely found him believable as a marriage counselor or therapist. His character always felt restrained, as if Carell was fighting to break free of some invisible bonds forced on him by the narrative. For what little he does, any good actor without Carell’s fame could have delivered the same performance Carell does.

Also, this film has a terrible soundtrack; it almost ruins the movie.

Still, I recommend this film to fans of Streep and Jones. Honestly, you won’t find acting this good, in which both characters have this level of depth, in many romance films. Hope springs that there are more movies like Hope Springs... but with a better soundtrack.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
2013 Golden Globes, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Meryl Streep)

Review: "Over the Hedge" is a Surprising Delight

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 107 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Over the Hedge (2006)
Running time: 90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)
MPAA – PG for some rude humor and mild comic action
DIRECTORS: Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick
WRITERS: Len Blum, Lorne Cameron and David Hoselton, and Karey Kirkpatrick with Chris Poche (based upon characters created by Michael Fry and T. Lewis)
PRODUCER: Bonnie Arnold
EDITOR: John K. Carr
COMPOSER: Rupert Gregson-Williams
SONGS: Ben Folds

ANIMATION/COMEDY/ACTION/FAMILY

Starring: (voices) Bruce Willis, Gary Shandling, Steve Carell, Wanda Sykes, William Shatner, Nick Nolte, Thomas Haden Church, Allison Janney, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Avril Lavigne, Omid Djalili, Sami Kirkpatrick, Shane Baumel, and Madison Davenport

The subject of this movie review is Over the Hedge, a 2006 computer-animated film from DreamWorks Animation. This action comedy is based upon the syndicated newspaper comic strip, Over the Hedge, created by Michael Fry and T. Lewis. The film focuses on a raccoon who uses his friends to help him repay a debt.

RJ (Bruce Willis) is an opportunistic raccoon, and his greed causes him to destroy the treasure trove of a dangerous bear named Vincent (Nick Nolte). Vincent gives RJ less than a week to replace his loot. Fortune leads RJ to a sprawling new suburban neighborhood, where he figures he can replace all of Vincent’s things (such as potato chips, a red wagon, a blue ice cooler, etc.).

Meanwhile, Verne (Gary Shandling), a turtle, and the woodland friends that make up his family: a hyperactive squirrel named Hammy (Steve Carell); a sassy, but low on self esteem skunk named Stella (Wanda Sykes); a melodramatic possum named Ozzie (William Shatner) and his daughter, Heather (Avril Lavigne); Lou & Penny (Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara), a porcupine couple with three little ones, wake up from their long winter’s nap only to discover that a tall green thing has cropped up in the middle of their forest home. RJ arrives just in time to inform Verne and his group that the “thing” is actually a hedge, and over the hedge is the “gateway to the good life” – a neighborhood full of humans. Humans live to eat (where as the animals eat to live), and they have lots of food and lots of stuff, he tells them – stuff they can take for themselves.

Verne is suspicious and a little jealous of RJ’s assertive nature, but Verne’s woodland band is ready to follow the manipulative raccoon into the domain of their over-indulgent human neighbors. Verne believes that they have more to fear than to gain from humans, and he is right. Gladys (Allison Janney), the president of the neighborhood association, hires a murderous pest exterminator, Dwayne (Thomas Haden Church), to get rid or RJ, Verne, and the rest of the animals. Can RJ and Verne put aside their differences in time to save the group? Will RJ be able to replace Vincent’s things before he shows up to kill the poor raccoon?

Although there were times in DreamWorks Animation’s latest computer animated film, Over the Hedge, when I was sure the filmmakers were simply trying to make another middle of the road, easily digestible family film, there were many more times when I was shocked at how genuinely sly, witty, smart, and lightly subversive this cartoon movie is. The narrative takes the side of the group over the individual, in this case because the group survives best as a unit and not on the whims of an individual prone to always look out for number one. There’s lots of clever commentary on American consumerism and also on how much people waste, and class division comes up in the form of the woodland animals being poor people who are conservative and gather to live, while the humans over the hedge in suburbia are more about gathering things for status. The movie also takes several digs at junk food.

The quality of the computer animation in DreamWorks Animation’s films (produced by PDI) continues to improve with each film, and that’s evident in Over the Hedge. The texture of the animals’ fur, the reflective surfaces, and the sets (the neighborhood lawn grass is good enough to call attention to itself) are all quite impressive. The surface consistency looks more real; it’s as if the animals’ skins, fur, quills, etc are authentic and not rubber suits. Character movement, which took a leap forward for DreamWorks in last year’s Madagascar, improved here. RJ, Hammy, Ozzie & Heather, and the porcupine triplets move with such grace and fluidity. There is a subtlety to their facial expressions that gives a sincere feel to their emotional displays, and when combined with smooth physical movement, makes their performances feel genuine.

If Pixar (now officially owned by the Walt Disney Company, just a few weeks prior to this review) is like Disney in that the studio create animated feature films that focus on story and the art of animation, DreamWorks is like Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes in that it emphasizes broad comedy (sketch, slapstick, situation, etc.) of varying appeal to adults, and it stresses caricature and cartoon-style drawing in the design of its characters. PDI also goes for the “squash and stretch” animation that marked the work of cartoon short directors like Tex Avery and Chuck Jones, so in many ways DreamWorks’ computer animated films are like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Road Runner, and Droopy cartoons.

While Over the Hedge occasionally drags in its first half, the voice acting comes together to strengthen both the film’s narrative and its message of family. The acting also makes for some surprisingly strong comedy. Bruce Willis, well known as an action movie hero, first came to fame in the romantic, detective comedy television series, “Moonlighting.” Audiences tend to forget his boyish charm and wit, his sharp sarcasm, and a sense of humor that make him a very good comic actor. It takes a bit of warming up, but he makes a great foil for Gary Shandling’s über-responsible family patriarch. Shandling also takes a bit of warming up to, but that’s true of most of the cast. The film’s writers play well to the actors’ strengths.

Who knew it was possible to get such excellent comedy out of the perception that William Shatner overacted in the original Star Trek TV series and films? Here, his penchant for over dramatizing or melodrama is turned into pure comedy gold. The writers also make good use of Wanda Sykes’ saucy personality and constant sarcasm, as well as her ability create characters that ingratiate themselves to others while still being a smart ass. By the end of the film, my favorite character by far was Steve Carell’s Hammy the squirrel. Carell can do manic, panic, and hyperactivity and can babble with the best. When combined with the superb character animation done on Hammy, Carell creates a memorable cartoon animal character – one worth seeing again.

Over the Hedge is also a good action comedy. The chase that closes its last act is almost as good as the kind of slam-bam showdowns in the Toy Story franchise and could rival a car chase in a Lethal Weapon movie. It’s this facility for action comedy and funny characters that makes Over the Hedge DreamWorks’ best non-Shrek film to date.

7 of 10
A-

Sunday, May 21, 2006

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Review: "Crazy, Stupid, Love." is Crazy, Stupid, Funny

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 102 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)
Running time: 118 minutes (1 hour, 58 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for coarse humor, sexual content and language
DIRECTORS: Glenn Ficarra and John Requa
WRITER: Dan Fogelman
PRODUCERS: Steve Carell and Denise Di Novi
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Andrew Dunn
EDITOR: Lee Haxall
COMPOSER: Christophe Beck and Nick Urata

COMEDY/ROMANCE/DRAMA

Starring: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Analeigh Tipton, Jonah Bobo, Joey King, Marisa Tomei, Beth Littleford, John Carroll Lynch, Kevin Bacon, Liza Lapira, Josh Groban, and Algerita Lewis

Crazy, Stupid, Love. is a 2011 romantic comedy starring Steve Carell (who is also one of the film’s producers) and Julianne Moore. The film is essentially an ensemble comedy, but the central focus is a couple whose 20-year marriage dissolves. The title fits the film perfectly, and Crazy, Stupid, Love. gets crazy and stupid enough to make me love it, in spite of my best efforts to act as if I were above liking this kind of romantic comedy.

While dining out one night, Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) gets some shocking news from his wife of 20 years, Emily (Julianne Moore). Not only does she want a divorce, but Emily also admits to having sex with one of her coworkers, an accountant named David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon). Cal moves out of their home and begins to frequent a popular bar, where his complaints catch the sympathetic ear of a dashing young womanizer, Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling).

Jacob teaches the fine art of womanizing to Cal, who eventually begins a series of one-night stands. However, Jacob soon meets the one woman that can tame him, Hannah (Emma Stone), a young law student. In the meantime, Jessica Riley (Analeigh Tipton), the 17-year-old girl who baby sits Cal’s children, falls in love with Cal. However, Cal’s 13-year-old son, Robbie Weaver (Jonah Bobo), is madly in love with Jessica. As love goes mad all around him, Cal still can’t stop wanting to reunite with Emily, but does she want the same thing?

Crazy, Stupid, Love. could have the words “awkward” and “misunderstanding,” added to the title, as the film strains credulity with a number of timely coincidences. These lead to set pieces which depict one embarrassing moment after another for one or more characters. By the way, all the characters seem pretty much the same and are shallow; they are lovable, but still shallow. Still, mortification is what makes this movie such a sweet romantic film. Being married and/or being a parent is bittersweet, but you love your loved ones even in those moments when you hate them or when they embarrass and humiliate you.

Crazy, Stupid, Love., for all its contrivances, gets that, and Dan Fogelman’s script weaves the contrived and the coincidental into a lovely tale of committed love. There is a huge and shocking reveal in the movie’s last act and a speech near the end of the film that should both make us cringe. Instead, they exemplify the ability of Crazy, Stupid, Love. to make us stupid, crazy in love with it.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Review: Excellent Cast Keeps "Little Miss Sunshine" Shining (Happy B'day, Alan Arkin)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 186 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
MPAA – R for language, some sex, and drug use
DIRECTORS: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
WRITER: Michael Arndt
PRODUCERS: Albert Berger, David T. Friendly, Peter Saraf, Marc Turtletaub, and Ron Yerxa
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Tim Suhrstedt
EDITOR: Pamela Martin
Academy Award winner

COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring: Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Abigail Breslin, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, and Alan Arkin, Paula Newsome, Dean Norris, and Lauren Shiohama

Seven-year old Olive Hoover’s (Abigail Breslin) deepest wish is to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Redondo Beach, CA. Schedules and financial issues compel her parents: her mother Sheryl (Toni Collette) and her father Richard (Greg Kinnear), who is struggling to take his motivational seminar national, to make the trip from their home in New Mexico to California in a VW bus. The trio won’t be alone, though; the rest of her odd clan is coming along on this stressful road trip. That includes her heroin snorting Grandpa (Alan Arkin), her suicidal, gay uncle, Frank (Steve Carell), and her brother, Dwayne (Paul Dano), who has taken a vow of silence until he attains his dream – the Air Force Academy. Along the way, the Hoovers must learn to deal with their broken dreams, heartaches, and the broken-down VW bus. It’s the only way they’ll learn to accept themselves for who they are and to give each other the support that helps to overcome the challenges on the path of life.

Steve Carell’s hit NBC comedy, “The Office” resonates with audiences not because its portrayal of the working life in a corporate office is necessarily real, but because it captures the spirit of absurdity and idiocy that often thrives in the office space. Carell is also part of the ensemble cast of the film, Little Miss Sunshine, and perhaps, this movie resonates with audiences and critics not because it is a realistic portrayal of the nuclear and extended family (though the script does take verisimilitude to the next level). Little Miss Sunshine captures in its spirit the irritation, aggravation, and disappointments of being in a family while simultaneously capturing the essence of what makes being in a family so damn cool when it works right.

This charming little film gets it right from top to bottom – character, plot, setting, and concept. In fact, the Hoovers’ odyssey on that little VW bus and how they have to work together to make it run long enough to get them to the pageant and back is a metaphor for the hard won teamwork that it takes to keep a family in working order and working together – especially when it often seems that by every right it should be broken into hundreds of little pieces. Little Miss Sunshine doesn’t laugh at the family or their drama. Instead, it reveals the creamy inside of the family’s tough exterior through dry humor – the kind the family uses to deal with itself.

Little Miss Sunshine is also a superbly cast film because it has a superb cast. They hit their marks, and they get their moments right. Each actor knows that he or she has scenes scattered throughout the film when it’s up to the individual to not only sell his or her character, but to also sell this movie. From Steve Carell’s Frank having a run-in with a lover who spurned him to Abigail Breslin’s moment to make Olive shine at the pageant, this cast hits a home run or at least gets an extra base hit. It’s hard to find an ensemble cast that outshines them this year.

Little Miss Sunshine sometimes offers pat resolutions, but those are the sweetest pats of butter around. Sometimes, the actors seem too earnest and overact in making their characters weird and troubled. This flick, however, is filled with black humor, and ultimately, its seeming ease at reaching a resolution is hard fought. They show us the dark side of family, but it’s sweet as dark chocolate, and the aftertaste is one we’ll enjoy. Hooray to directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris who saw the magic in Michael Arndt’s script and spun gold cloth from it, and bravo to the fates for giving us an enchanting cast to bring it all to life.

8 of 10
A

Sunday, August 27, 2006

NOTES:
2007 Academy Awards: 2 wins: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Alan Arkin) and “Best Writing, Original Screenplay” (Michael Arndt); 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (David T. Friendly, Peter Saraf, and Marc Turtletaub) and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Abigail Breslin)

2007 BAFTA Awards: 2 wins: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Alan Arkin) and “Best Screenplay – Original” (Michael Arndt); 4 nominations: “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Abigail Breslin), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Toni Collette), “Best Film” (Albert Berger, David T. Friendly, and Ron Yerxa), and “David Lean Award for Direction” (Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris)

2007 Golden Globes: 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Toni Collette)

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Review: "The 40 Year-Old Virgin" is Still a Steve Carell Showcase

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 133 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)
Running time: 116 minutes (1 hour, 56 minutes)
MPAA – R for pervasive sexual content, language, and some drug use
DIRECTOR: Judd Apatow
WRITERS: Steve Carell and Judd Apatow
PRODUCERS: Shauna Robertson, Clayton Townsend, and Judd Apatow
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jack Green
EDITOR: Brent White

COMEDY/ROMANCE

Starring: Steve Carell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Leslie Mann, Jane Lynch, Gerry Bednob, Shelley Malil, Kat Dennings, Erica Vittina Phillips, Cedric Yarbrough, David Koechner, Lee Weaver, Gloria Helena Jones, and Nancy Walls

Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) has never “done the deed,” or, to put it more plainly, Andy has never had sexual intercourse. That makes the avid toy collector, video gaming enthusiast, and comic book reader a 40 year-old virgin. When his co-workers: the three randy bastards, David (Paul Rudd), Jay (Romany Malco), and Cal (Seth Rogen), accidentally discover Andy’s situation, they immediately want to help him get his cherry popped.

After a series of misadventures, Andy is once again ready to accept that he will never have sexual intercourse, but fate brings him into contact with Trish (Catherine Keener), a single mother of three children and a grandmother of one. Andy and Trish become very close and decide to have a platonic relationship until they get to know each other. However, when the time finally arrives for them to get intimate, Andy is still having reservations…

The 40 Year-Old Virgin could have been nothing more than a shameless excuse to make a tawdry film aimed at teenagers and 20-somethings – full of bad jokes about virginity, loosing one’s virginity and having awkward first-time sex. Instead the film is only half that. Sure, there is plenty of gross humor and embarrassingly frank discussions of sexuality. In fact much of the sex talk is the kind of triple-blue tales guys tell each other when they’re not in polite company because together they aren’t polite company.

Romany Malco and Seth Rogen gamely lead the charge unleashing a barrage of X-rated storytelling that tops the wretched bragging that is a stable on B.E.T.’s “ComicView,” but Malco and Rogen are 10 times funnier. In fact, this is a breakthrough performance for Malco, who deft plays Jay as both comically and as a hypocrite. Both he and Rogen should have long film careers playing “the buddy” to a big name star’s turn as a struggling romantic. However, the third member of the support trio is limply played by Paul Rudd, but it’s not entirely his fault; the script gives him a few good scenes, and then leaves both him and the audience hanging for more of the obviously complicated David.

One thing that The 40 Year-Old Virgin’s screenplay (co-written by the director Judd Apatow and Steve Carell) has going for it is its sense of realness. There is a naturalness to the individual scenes that suggests the truth of real life. What the script lacks is a cohesive sense of honesty. Some things are true; others are just plot contrivances designed to make an outsider tale seem like normal Hollywood fare. In fact, since the writers chose to gloss over the supporting characters, they made the film too long by ten minutes. They could have given those 10 minutes to Catherine Keener so her character, Trish, wouldn’t only come across as a cardboard, sympathetic mother figure and cherry popper – a waste of a powerful actress for sure.

Ultimately, the main reason to see this film is Steve Carell; the seemingly humble actor (at least he comes across that way in interviews) has quietly delivered a number of roles, stunning in how good they are for their smallness, in films such as Bruce Almighty and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Here, he plays a 40 year-old virgin not as a pathetic figure, but a man to be pitied because he has so willingly bought into a life of loneliness. This is especially sad because he’s the proverbial quiet and shy guy who is really a good fellow, and would make a fine pal.

While The 40 Year-Old Virgin’s script is soft, the film’s actors build their roles into characters that the audience wants to like and finally do. Carell, more than anyone else in this film, builds a guy in Andy Stitzer who is so likeable that the audience accepts everything about him, including his many quirks and eccentricities. In the real world, a lot of people wouldn’t recognize or pay attention to a guy like Andy. Carell amazingly turns Andy into an ideal, a perfection of nerd, if you will; Andy is the kind of dork that you could love, root for, cheer, and go out of your way to help.

The 40 Year-Old Virgin has been compared to an earlier 2005 summer hit, Wedding Crashers, but the latter is funnier by far. However, both films make up for crassness with engaging tales of romantic entanglements. Virgin isn’t perfect, and Steve Carell’s performance is more memorable than the film, which in the end may be remembered as a star-making vehicle for him. Although that ending has got to go, the film is daring in so many ways. It’s one of the very few “mainstream” comedies that have almost as many African-American roles as the typical “urban comedy” (comedy with a lot of black characters), and an actress (Catherine Keener) who is older than the male lead (Carell) playing the love interest. That alone makes it a class act.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, August 20, 2005

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Review: Pixar-Like "Despicable Me" is a Pleasant Surprise

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 5 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Despicable Me (2010)
Running time: 95 minutes (1 hour, 35 minutes)
MPAA – PG for rude humor and mild action
DIRECTOR: Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud
WRITERS: Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul; from a story by Sergio Pablos
PRODUCERS: John Cohen, Janet Healy, and Christopher Meledandri
EDITOR: Gregory Perler and Pam Ziegenhagen
COMPOSERS: Heitor Pereira and Pharrell Williams

ANIMATION/FANTASY/SCI-FI/COMEDY/FAMILY with elements of action

Starring: (voice) Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, and Elsie Fisher

Despicable Me is a computer-animated film from Illumination Entertainment, an arm of NBC Universal that creates computer-animated (CGI) animated films. Despicable Me is a sci-fi/fantasy comedy about a criminal mastermind who uses a trio of orphan girls as pawns in his evil plot and then, finds himself profoundly changed by his growing love for them.

Once upon a time Gru (Steve Carell) was the world’s number one supervillain, but a younger supervillain, an egotistical nerd named Vector (Jason Segel), has replaced Gru by pulling off the audacious theft of an Egyptian pyramid. Gru believes that he needs to do something big, really big, to be on top again, so he decides to pull of the heist of the century – steal the Moon. As part of his grand scheme, Gru adopts three orphan girls: Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Elsie Fisher), under false pretenses so that he can use them to steal a shrink ray device. Once, Gru gets to know the girls, however, their innocent love begins to change him.

The animation in Despicable Me is beautiful, at least to me. It was not often that I could take my eyes away from this gorgeous looking film. The art direction, set design, and even some of the character designs are similar to the visual style of early Tim Burton films like Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and the Henry Selick-directed The Nightmare Before Christmas. This dark, but quirky visual design and pop Gothic graphic sensibility, which also recalls Charles Addams macabre cartoons, makes Despicable Me less sci-fi/fantasy and more like a dark fairy tale. The film also has the sensibilities of Looney Tunes cartoons and offers neat slapstick comedy with smartly conceived chase and heist scenes.

The film also offers a lot of cuteness in the form of Gru’s minions, his capsule and pill shaped lab assistants and lackey/employees. The most important elements of cute are the orphan girls. Little Agnes’ cute countenance could melt a planet of icebergs, but the girls aren’t meant just to be cute. The animators make the girls’ faces capable of showing a wide range of emotions that make them more expressive than many live actors. This helps to sell the story’s focus on love and attachment.

But for all the cuteness of the girls and the minions, Despicable Me is about Gru and both the animators and Steve Carell bring the character to life. Between the expressive character animation and Carell’s delicate voice performance, Gru develops as a layered character, one that will perplex and engage the audience. He is despicable as a villain, but not in the sense that he is exceedingly evil and full of hysterical pronouncements about world domination. In many scenes, Carell and the animators tell the story in a way that allows the audience to read how much Gru’s past hurts and disappoints shape his adult optimism and determination. We get to watch Gru grow.

Despicable Me works so well because it is different from standard computer-animated films. Its adorable sweetness, peculiar look, and a quirky turn of the lead character are the heart of this strangely captivating movie. Despicable Me is a thoughtful take on the idea that even a bad guy can find room in his heart for someone else, and though this is a fantasy, the film really sells that idea.

8 of 10
A

Sunday, January 16, 2011

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It Ain't Bragging if it's True, Eh, Warner Bros.?

Warner Bros. Pictures Group Earns Triple Crown for 2010

The Studio Takes This Year’s Top Spots in Domestic Market Share with $1.884 Billion; International Market Share with $2.930 Billion; and Worldwide Market Share for the Second Consecutive Year with $4.814 Billion

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Warner Bros. Pictures Group broke the all-time industry worldwide box office record with a 2010 gross of $4.814 billion, which surpasses the prior record of $4.010 billion (set by Warner Bros. in 2009). The announcement was made today by Jeff Robinov, President, Warner Bros. Pictures Group.

Setting new benchmarks for both the international and global box office grosses in 2010 and retaining the domestic box office number one ranking (after achieving a record gross in 2009), the Studio now holds the industry record in all three categories. Additionally, Warner Bros. surpassed its own worldwide gross from the previous year by $800 million to earn the number one position in worldwide market share for the second consecutive year and for the sixth time in the past 10 years, also an industry record.

“We are so proud of these incredible accomplishments, which were made possible through the global efforts of an exceptional group of people who collaborated to create, produce, market, and distribute more than two dozen films this past year,” said Robinov. “We have a terrific leadership team behind these efforts, including Sue Kroll, Dan Fellman and Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, and, along with Barry Meyer and Alan Horn, I applaud everyone who contributed to this year’s record-breaking success.”

Warner Bros. Pictures’ domestic gross is estimated at $1.884 billion, making it number one in domestic market share for 2010. This is the third year in a row the Studio has held that crown and is the only studio to exceed the $1 billion threshold domestically for 10 consecutive years. Warner Bros. has been ranked either one or two domestically for seven of the last 10 years. The Studio had five films gross over $100 million domestically in 2010 – “Inception,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1,” “Clash of the Titans,” “Valentine’s Day,” and “Due Date.”

“Our tentpole strategy combined with a remarkably diverse overall slate has once again proved enormously profitable at the box office,” said Dan Fellman, President, Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures. “We could not be more proud of the Studio’s achievements this year.”

Warner Bros. Pictures International set a new industry record in overseas box office with an estimated $2.930 billion year-end gross, breaking the previous industry record of $2.450 billion in 2009. This is the tenth consecutive year the Studio has exceeded $1 billion and third time it has surpassed $2 billion in international box office receipts. The Studio has had seven films gross more than $100 million internationally in 2010 – “Sherlock Holmes” ($264 million, for a total of $315 million, including 2009’s take); “Valentine’s Day” ($106 million); “Clash of the Titans” ($330 million); “Sex and the City 2” ($193 million); “Inception” ($531 million); “Due Date” ($100 million); and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1” ($611 million, and still in release).

“We’re elated to reach these incredible numbers internationally,” said Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, President, Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures International. “This achievement is a testament to the company’s strategy to make event films with global appeal, and it would not have been possible without the hard work and innovative thinking from our outstanding marketing and distribution teams around the world.”

Among the Studio’s 2011 releases are “Red Riding Hood,” directed by Catherine Hardwicke; the Zack Snyder-directed action fantasy “Sucker Punch”; “The Hangover Part II,” the sequel to the 2009 breakout hit; “Green Lantern,” the highly anticipated adaptation of the popular DC Comics title, starring Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively; the conclusion of the most successful film franchise of all time, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2”; “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” starring Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling; Steven Soderbergh’s thriller “Contagion,” with an ensemble cast led by Matt Damon; “Happy Feet 2,” the sequel to the 2006 Academy Award®-winning animated musical hit; New Line Cinema’s “New Year’s Eve,” an all-star ensemble romantic comedy from director Garry Marshall; and “Sherlock Holmes II,” Guy Ritchie’s follow up to the 2009 hit, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law.

Steve Carell Comedy, "Crazy, Stupid, Love" Get New Release Date

Press release:

“Crazy, Stupid, Love.” Gets Summer Play Date

The Release of the New Steve Carell Comedy Moves to July 29, 2011

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Responding to overwhelmingly positive test screening results, Warner Bros. Pictures is moving the release date of “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” starring Steve Carell, to July 29, 2011.

The announcement was made today by Dan Fellman, President of Domestic Distribution, who stated, “From our early recruited screenings, we have seen that audiences love ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love.’ From all indications, we feel strongly that the film has a very broad appeal, so we have decided to release it where it will have the widest possible platform. The studio is very excited to include this film in our powerhouse Summer slate, alongside films like ‘The Hangover Part II,’ ‘Green Lantern’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.’”

“Crazy, Stupid, Love.” also stars Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, John Carroll Lynch, Marisa Tomei and Kevin Bacon.

Carell leads the cast as straight-laced, fortysomething Cal Weaver, who is living the dream—good job, nice house, great kids and marriage to his high school sweetheart. But when Cal learns that his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore), has cheated on him and wants a divorce, his perfect life quickly unravels. Worse, in today’s single world, Cal, who hasn’t dated in decades, stands out as the epitome of un-smooth. Now spending his free evenings sulking alone at a local bar, the hapless Cal is taken on as wingman and protégé to handsome, thirtysomething player Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling). In an effort to help Cal get over his wife and start living his life, Jacob opens Cal’s eyes to the many options before him: flirty women, manly drinks and a sense of style that can’t be found at Supercuts or The Gap. But despite Cal’s makeover and his many new conquests, the one thing that can’t be made over is his heart, which seems to keep leading him back to where he began.

Glenn Ficarra and John Requa directed “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” from a screenplay by Dan Fogelman. The film is produced by Carell and Denise Di Novi, with David A. Siegel, Vance DeGeneres and Charlie Hartsock serving as executive producers. Warner Bros. Pictures presents “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” a production of Carousel Productions and DiNovi Pictures. The film will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and has been rated PG-13 for coarse humor, sexual content and language.