Press release:
Hannover House Partners with Illusion Film Studios On 3-D Feature Production of “Dances With Werewolves”
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hannover House, the entertainment distribution division of Target Development Group, Inc. (Pinksheets: TDGI) (Other: www.HannoverHouse.com), has partnered with producer Rohan Ghodsi’s Illusion Film Studios for the production of “Dances With Werewolves,” a thriller by screenwriter David Chirchirillo based on the legendary, supernatural transformative powers of some Native American Indian warriors. The film will be produced in 3-D for theatrical release in 2012 through Hannover House, which will also represent the film for sales and licensing throughout all of North and South America.
Chad Ferrin (“Someone’s Knocking At The Door”) will direct the film, with Nicole Reid and Niklas Larsson sharing producing duties with Ghodsi. Hannover House principals Eric Parkinson and Fred Shefte are Executive Producers.
“The legend of Native American warriors transforming themselves into enormously powerful wolves is centuries old,” said Hannover House C.E.O., Eric Parkinson. “But it’s a concept that for many audiences was only recently re-introduced through the successful ‘Twilight’ series of books and films. We think that screenwriter David Chirchirillo has skillfully crafted a commercial thriller around this legend, and that Rohan, Chad and the entire production team will make a terrific movie from this property.”
The film will commence principal photography on October 24, 2010 in Michigan, with full delivery scheduled for September, 2011 and U.S.A. theatrical release set for February, 2012. Casting is currently underway for principal stars, with key talent to be announced in July.
Other upcoming theatrical releases from Hannover House include the Joel Schumacher thriller “Twelve” on July 30, and the Sundance 2010 Film Festival Audience Award Winner, “HappyThankYouMorePlease” on September 3. Upcoming DVD and Blu-Ray releases from Hannover House include the action-thriller, “Boilermaker,” the critically-praised drama, “Cook County” and director Abel Ferarra’s “Chelsea on the Rocks,” starring Ethan Hawke and the late Dennis Hopper in one of his last film appearances.
SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT
This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Sections 27A & 21E of the amended Securities and Exchange Acts of 1933-34, which are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created thereby. Although the company believes that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements contained herein are reasonable, there can be no assurance that these statements included in this press release will prove accurate.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
"The Pursuit of Happyness" a Sterling Debut for Jaden Smith
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
Running time: 117 minutes (1 hour, 57 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some language
DIRECTOR: Gabriele Muccino
WRITER: Steven Conrad
PRODUCERS: Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch, James Lassiter, and Will Smith
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Phedon Papamichael, ASC
EDITOR: Hughes Winborne, A.C.E.
Academy Award nominee
DRAMA
Starring: Will Smith, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, Thandie Newton, Kurt Fuller, Dan Castellaneta, Brian Howe, James Karen, and Takayo Fischer
If an actor is going to star in an important, inspirational film that is based upon a true story of triumph over adversity, and that film is also bait for an Oscar nomination (or two), then, the least that actor can do is give a knockout performance. Will Smith does just that in his new movie, The Pursuit of Happyness.
In this fictional version of a true story, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) is a family man struggling to make ends meet as a marginally employed salesman. Linda (Thandie Newton), the mother of his five-year old son, Christopher (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith), is struggling to keep the family afloat by earning income in a dry cleaning factory. When Linda finally buckles under the constant financial pressure, she leaves for New York, but Chris won’t let her take their son with her.
Bright, talented, and ambitious, Chris wins a spot as an intern at a prestigious San Francisco stock brokerage firm, but the internship doesn’t come with a salary. However, the internship might land Chris a coveted, high-paying position as a broker at the firm. In the meantime, without a paying job, Chris and Christopher are soon evicted from their apartment and later from a motel. Forced to live and sleep in shelters, bus stations, bathrooms, etc., Chris remains a committed and loving father to his son while working hard to be the one intern out of the six-month program who gets a job.
Will Smith gives a stinging performance in The Pursuit of Happyness (the misspelling of “happiness” is deliberate and relates to a pivotal scene), one that is free of the genial, cocky, smart-mouthed guy that usually shows up in a Smith performance. It’s rare to see a subtle performance that embodies in equal measure hope and despair or confidence and resignation. Smith is clearly as hungry to be taken seriously as an actor as his character Chris is hungry to get a good job, and that’s the obvious hook of the movie.
The Pursuit of Happyness is directed by a foreigner, Gabriele Muccino, an Italian who has received good notices for his recent films. Because Muccino is not an American, he probably understands the spirit of the American dream better than many Americans, but he also understands the universal elements of the tale, which Chris Gardner’s wants and desires and he and his son’s plight – homelessness and financial struggles are. Muccino and writer Steven Conrad quietly but decisively compare the way Chris lives to that of the people with whom he starts to associate once he begins his stockbroker internship. Muccino even gets in a few digs at America for being so wealthy, yet having so many homeless people that there aren’t enough shelters for them.
Still, in the end, any claim to greatness that this film has rest on Will Smith. Yes, his real life son Jaden Christopher Syre Smith is very good as Christopher Gardner. Thandie Newton also takes the small, almost throwaway part of Linda and makes it stick for as long as she and the character are in the story. But this is Smith’s show, and he makes the pain of a man trying to crawl out of the nightmarish cracks that riddle the American dream authentic.
If the audience isn’t paying attention, they’ll miss the best part of Smith’s performance – that even a man with nothing in terms of material wealth can still honor his commitment to his children and just be a great dad. Chris Gardener wants to have a really good job so that he can provide his son with the finer things in life. He doesn’t need to love his son any more than he already does, and his son says quite firmly at one point during their homelessness that Chris is a “good papa.” That makes the triumph of The Pursuit of Happyness even sweeter.
7 of 10
A-
Sunday, December 17, 2006
NOTES:
2007 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Will Smith)
2007 Black Reel Awards: 3 nominations: “Best Actor” (Will Smith), “Best Breakthrough Performance” (Jaden Smith), and “Best Film” (Will Smith, Teddy Zee, Steve Tisch, James Lassiter, Todd Black, and Jason Blumenthal)
2007 Golden Globes: 2 nominations: “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (Seal-music/lyrics and Christopher Bruce-music for the song "A Father's Way") and “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Will Smith)
Tom Cruise Takes Les Grossman Back to the Big Screen
Les Grossman, the character that Tom Cruise memorably played in the 2008 film, Tropic Thunder, will be featured in his own movie, according to a press release from Paramount Pictures. Cruise also appeared as Grossman in a dance number with Jennifer Lopez performed at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards this past weekend.
Press release from Paramount Pictures:
Paramount Announces "UNTITLED Les Grossman Project"
Paramount Pictures and MTV Films announced today that they are set to develop a movie around mega-producer Les Grossman. The announcement comes on the heels of Grossman’s groundbreaking and visionary production of the soon-to-be Emmy® award-winning 2010 MTV Movie Awards Sunday night. Tom Cruise, along with Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld of Red Hour Films will produce and have secured the life rights to Grossman.
Grossman, best known as a mega producer, has most recently mentored talents such as Rob Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. In 2008, Grossman was introduced to the masses by Stiller in the comedy “Tropic Thunder” where the famed producer had a cameo playing himself.
Said Ben Stiller: “Les Grossman's life story is an inspiring tale of the classic human struggle to achieve greatness against all odds. He has assured me he plans to quote, ‘F**king kill the sh*t out of this movie and make Citizen f**king Kane look like a piece of crap home movie by the time we are done.’ I am honored to be working with him.”
When asked what the screenplay was about Grossman responded: “To quote my great friend Kirk Lazarus, ‘I don’t read the script, the script reads me.’”
Adam Goodman, Paramount Film Group President said, "Everything I learned in this business, I've learned from Les. I started out as his assistant, and from the first day he threw his desk at me when I got his lunch order wrong, I have loved him like a father. I am forever grateful to Ben and Stuart Cornfeld and their ability to secure his highly-coveted life rights,"
Tom Cruise is said to be in talks to portray Grossman in the film.
Michael Bacall (“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”) will write the script. He is repped by WME.
WME also reps Ben Stiller and Red Hour Films.
About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. The company's labels include Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Digital Entertainment, Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., Paramount Studio Group, and Worldwide Television Distribution. [END]
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Review: "A Serious Man" for Serious Coen Fans
A Serious Man (2009)
Running time: 106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – R for language, some sexuality/nudity and brief violence
DIRECTORS: The Coen Brothers
WRITERS/PRODUCERS: Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roger Deakins (director of photography)
EDITORS: Roderick Jaynes (Ethan Coen & Joel Coen)
COMPOSER: Carter Burwell
Academy Award nominee
DRAMA/COMEDY
Starring: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Sari Lennick, Aaron Wolff, Jessica McManus, and Peter Breitmayer
The most recent Academy Award-nominated film from the Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan) is A Serious Man. This drama and black comedy centers on a Midwestern professor whose constant and unchanging life begins to unravel during a series of unfortunate events.
A Serious Man is set in 1967 in an unnamed Midwestern town. Professor Lawrence “Larry” Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university. One day his wife, Judith (Sari Lennick), bluntly informs Larry that she wants a divorce because she has fallen in love with a pompous acquaintance, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed). In truth, Larry seems to be having problems with all his family: his unemployable brother Arthur (Richard Kind), who sleeps on his sofa; his son Danny (Aaron Wolff) a pot-smoking, discipline problem who shirks Hebrew school; and his vain daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus), who steals money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job. With all these torments, Larry struggles to be a righteous man – loyal to his family and his faith – a serious man, so he turns to his Jewish faith for answers… with wildly mixed results.
A Serious Man is an odd comedy; at times bleak and at other times surreal, the narrative is thoughtful and philosophical. With humor, both grim and sparkling, Joel and Ethan tackle life’s big questions about family and morality and also about the role of faith as a place to find answers.
A loose take on the story of Job (the Old Testament figure from the Book of Job). A Serious Man sometimes seems like a torture chamber, contrived by the Coens to allow themselves to experiment. They want to speculate about how a successful middle class man might react when everything goes wrong and it seems as if the world, existence, and God have turned against him. To that end, they get a magnificent performance from Michael Stuhlbarg as Larry Gopnick, who turns what could have been a caricature into a mesmerizing everyman who crosses racial, ethnic, and religious boundaries. If this film has a long life, it will be because of Stuhlbarg who made this Jewish intellectual from another era seem like a universal figure.
Sometimes, this movie can be almost too bleak and too belittling of its characters to sit through. Like most movies from the team of Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, however, A Serious Man is beguiling even when it seems intolerable, but worth seeing.
7 of 10
B+
NOTES:
2010 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen) and “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen” (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen)
2010 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Screenplay – Original” (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen)
2010 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Michael Stuhlbarg)
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
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VIZ Cinema to Screen Four Films by Kenji Mizoguchi
VIZ CINEMA CELEBRATES DIRECTOR KENJI MIZOGUCHI WITH FOUR FILMS IN JUNE AS PART OF UNTOLD LEGENDS SERIES
VIZ Cinema and NEW PEOPLE spotlight another of film’s greatest directors -- Kenji Mizoguchi – with four just-announced films that will screen Saturday, June 19th – Thursday, June 24th as part of the theatre’s Untold Legends series with runs throughout June.
Director Kenji Mizoguchi’s signature is the expression of strength, sorrow, and fragility of women, and his mastery of the long take and mise-en-scène are legendary. His 1953 film, Ugetsu, won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival and his films went on to have a tremendous impact on Western directors including Jean-Luc Godard, Andrei Tarkovsky, Jacques Rivette, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Theo Angelopoulos. VIZ Cinema proudly presents four of Mizoguchi’s greatest works – Sisters of the Gion, Ugetsu, Street of Shame, and Utamaro and His Five Women – in crisp 35mm with English subtitles.
Tickets, screening times and more details are available at: www.vizcinema.com.
Sisters of the Gion, June 19th – June 21st and also June 24th
(1936, 69min, 35mm, with English Subtitles)
Sisters of the Gion follows the parallel paths of the independent, unsentimental Omocha and her sister, the more tradition-minded Umekichi, who are both geishas in the working-class district of Gion. Mizoguchi’s film is a brilliantly shot and provides an uncompromising look at the forces that kept many women at the bottom rung of the social ladder.
Ugetsu, June 19th – June 22nd
(1953, 94min, 35mm, with English Subtitles)
Ugetsu is a ghost story like no other and the Japanese director’s supreme achievement. Derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant, this haunting tale of love and loss – with its exquisite blending of the otherworldly and the real – is one of the most beautiful films ever made.
Street of Shame, June 19th – June 20th and June 22nd – 23rd
(1956, 87min, 35mm, with English Subtitles)
For his final film, Mizoguchi brought a lifetime of experience to bear on the heartbreaking tale of a brothel in Tokyo’s red light district, full of women whose dreams are constantly being shattered by the socioeconomic realities that surround them in post-war Japan.
Utamaro and His Five Women, June 19th – June 20th and June 23rd – June 24th
(1946, 106min, 35mm, with English Subtitles)
Inspired by the life and work of the wood block print artist, Utamaro Kitagawa (1753-1806), who revolutionized the medium by capturing human emotion into his artwork, Utamaro and His Five Women is a fascinating study of a man’s dedication to his art and adherence to self-expression in a time of rigid conformity.
VIZ Cinema is the nation’s only movie theatre devoted exclusively to Japanese film and anime. The 143-seat subterranean theatre is located in the basement of the NEW PEOPLE building and features plush seating, digital as well as 35mm projection, and a THX®-certified sound system.
NEW PEOPLE offers the latest films, art, fashion and retail brands from Japan and is the creative vision of the J-Pop Center Project and VIZ Pictures, a distributor and producer of Japanese live action film. Located at 1746 Post Street, the 20,000 square foot structure features a striking 3-floor transparent glass façade that frames a fun and exotic new environment to engage the imagination into the 21st Century. A dedicated web site is also now available at: www.NewPeopleWorld.com.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Review: Scorsese, DiCaprio Revived Old Hollywood Style with "The Aviator"
The Aviator (2004)
Running time: 170 minutes (2 hours, 50 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for thematic elements, sexual content, nudity, language, and a crash sequence
DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese
WRITER: John Logan
PRODUCERS: Sandy Climan, Charles Evans, Jr., Graham King, and Michael Mann
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Richardson
EDITOR: Thelma Schoonmaker
Academy Award winner
DRAMA
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, John C. Reilly, Alec Baldwin, Alan Alda, Ian Holm, Danny Huston, Adam Scott, Matt Ross, Gwen Stefani, Jude Law, Brent Spiner, Willem Dafoe, Kelli Garner, and Frances Conroy
Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator recounts the years of Howard Hughes’ (Leonardo DiCaprio) life from the late 1920’s to the late 1940’s. In that epoch, the eccentric billionaire industrialist was a Hollywood film mogul producing scandalous and infamous films. However, he was best known even in Hollywood as the daring pilot who was test flying innovative aircraft he built and designed. The film begins with Hughes’ four-year odyssey making his war epic film, Hell’s Angels, and ends with him preparing to take the next big steps in aeronautics after the successful flight of his giant wooden plane he called The Hercules, but others derogatorily called the Spruce Goose. In between, the wealthy playboy has passionate but doomed affairs with legendary actress Katherine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) and the no-nonsense, independent starlet, Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale). Hughes, owner of TWA (Trans World Airlines), also has a feud with Juan Trippe (Alec Baldwin), owner of Pan Am Airlines, and Senator Ralph Owen Brewster (Alan Alda), a Maine senator in Trippe’s pocket.
The Aviator has three things going for it. First, it’s a brilliant technical achievement in terms of its special effects and photography (easily the year’s best). Secondly, Martin Scorsese’s directorial effort is spectacular, not in terms of being showy, but because of his choices. For instance, he designed each year in the film to look just like color film from that time period would have looked. The photographic color technique actually drives the film narrative forward. Whereas, his 2002 film Gangs of New York, fell apart by basically tacking on a fourth act, The Aviator almost, but doesn’t fall apart by the end of it’s nearly three-hour running time. The Aviator is lively and energetic, and, at times, seems as if it is actually a film made in the golden age of Hollywood. Only a few moments of weirdness (especially an ending that hints at or suggests Hughes ultimately disintegration) hamper (barely) the film. Still, the good moments, such as the aerial scenes, both flights and crashes, may finally earn Scorsese an Oscar. [It didn't; Clint Eastwood won for Million Dollar Baby.]
The acting more than anything else makes this a special film. It goes without saying that Leonardo DiCaprio gives a great performance. He makes Howard Hughes his own, and turns him into a magnetic presence that stalks the film stage as if he were the king of the world. However, it is Hughes’ mentally unstable side that hamstrings DiCaprio’s performance. That part of the act is more odd and embarrassing than skillful. Although I personally don’t like people imitating Katherine Hepburn, Cate Blanchett does a fine job turning a caricature into an engaging, three-dimensional character. However, Kate Beckinsale’s turn as Ava Gardner is a scene-stealer, and Ms. Beckinsale makes Ms. Gardner an intriguing and appealing figure. Suffice to say, the rest of the supporting cast also go a long way to making this a cinema must-see.
9 of 10
A+
NOTES:
2005 Academy Awards: 5 wins: “Best Achievement in Art Direction” (Dante Ferretti-art director and Francesca Lo Schiavo-set decorator), “Best Achievement in Cinematography” (Robert Richardson), “Best Achievement in Costume Design” (Sandy Powell), “Best Achievement in Editing” (Thelma Schoonmaker), and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Cate Blanchett); 6 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Michael Mann and Graham King), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Martin Scorsese), “Best Achievement in Sound Mixing” (Tom Fleischman and Petur Hliddal), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Leonardo DiCaprio), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Alan Alda), and “Best Writing, Original Screenplay” (John Logan)
2005 BAFTA Awards: 4 wins: “Best Film” (Michael Mann, Sandy Climan, Graham King, and Charles Evans Jr.), “Best Make Up/Hair” (Morag Ross, Kathryn Blondell, and Sian Grigg), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Cate Blanchett), “Best Production Design” (Dante Ferretti); 10 nominations: “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (Howard Shore), “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (Robert Legato, Peter G. Travers, Matthew Gratzner, and R. Bruce Steinheimer), “Best Cinematography” (Robert Richardson), “Best Costume Design” (Sandy Powell), “Best Editing” (Thelma Schoonmaker), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Leonardo DiCaprio), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Alan Alda), “Best Screenplay – Original” (John Logan), “Best Sound” (Philip Stockton, Eugene Gearty, Petur Hliddal, and Tom Fleischman), and “David Lean Award for Direction” (Martin Scorsese)
2005 Golden Globes: 3 wins: “Best Motion Picture – Drama” “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Howard Shore), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Leonardo DiCaprio); 3 nominations: “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Martin Scorsese), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Cate Blanchett), and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (John Logan)
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Review: "Gangs of New York" Was the First Scorsese-DiCaprio Joint
Gangs of New York (2002)
Running time: 167 minutes (2 hours, 47 minutes)
MPAA – R for intense strong violence, sexuality/nudity and language
DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese
WRITERS: Jay Cocks, Steven Zallian, and Kenneth Lonergan; from a story by Jay Cocks
PRODUCERS: Alberto Grimaldi and Harvey Weinstein
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Michael Ballhaus (director of photography)
EDITOR: Thelma Schoonmaker
COMPOSER: Howard Shore
Academy Award nominee
DRAMA
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas, Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson, Gary Lewis, Stephen Graham, Eddie Marsan, and Larry Gilliard, Jr.
Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited Gangs of New York begins in 1846 with a bloody battle between rival New York gangs that Scorsese films with enough majestic splendor and power to rival an epic battle in one of The Lord of the Rings films. This is an auspicious opening to a wonderful film that just happens to run on a little too long.
Young Amsterdam Vallon watches his father Priest (Liam Neeson, K-19: The Widowmaker), leader of the Irish Dead Rabbits, fall under the knife of William “Bill the Butcher” Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis, The Crucible), leader of the Nativists. The Nativists, whose parents and grandparents were Americans and who are white Anglo Saxon New Yorkers, look upon the new immigrants, especially the Irish, as foreign invaders, garbage whom must they must subjugate. Truthfully, they’re all poor folks living in the slums in filth and hunger.
In 1863, the adult Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio, Titanic) emerges from a juvenile home ready to avenge his father’s death. He finds that many of his late father’s colleagues have joined ranks with Cutting’s gang and that Cutting now reveres Priest Vallon as the last great man. Amsterdam hides his identity and joins Cutting’s crew, where he becomes like a son to him, until Amsterdam’s identity is revealed and he has his first bloody confrontation with Cutting.
For most of Gangs, one can’t help but be taken in by the breathtaking and dazzling filmmaking, possible Scorsese’s most invigorating work since Goodfellas
. Superb camerawork by Michael Ballhaus and excellent film editing by Thelma Schoonmaker (both long time Scorsese cohorts) combine their talents with the master’s brilliant sense of design, pacing, and storytelling to form a perfect film. Then, it suddenly goes on past the point where it should have ended – the first confrontation between Amsterdam and Bill the Butcher. Their continued rivalry isn’t boring, but some of other subplots that went with it seem extraneous.The script, by former Scorsese collaborator Jay Cocks, the talented Steven Zallian (Academy Award winner for Schindler’s List
), and Kenneth Lonergan (writer/director of the beautiful You Can Count on Me) is Shakespearean in its approach to character, plot, and dramatization. The story, however, tries to cover all the important national issues of 1863: The War Between the States, immigration, conscription, class conflict, ethnic conflict, racism, slavery, political corruption, police corruption, violence, hunger and poverty, religious conflict, and loyalty and how all these issues intermingle into further conflict. Sometimes, it all seems like so much crap thrown against the wall to see what sticks. All these subplots require a longer film, and Gangs is already two hours and 48 minutes long. This obese screen story is the blemish on what could have been a great film.Still Scorsese tackles this beast of a script and turns it into a wonderful movie, in part because he draws some great performances from his cast. Day-Lewis is always a pleasure to watch, and he turns Cutting into a complex man worthy of everything between outright loathing and sincere admiration. DiCaprio is the youthful and seething hero and proves, once again, that the screen loves him; you can’t take your eyes off him. He’s the perfect movie star: dazzling, boyish beauty and talent to burn, but envy will deny him the accolades that Day-Lewis will get for this film. Other stellar performances include Cameron Diaz (stop hatin,’ she can really act), the chameleonic Jim Broadbent (always on his game), and Henry Thomas (all grown up since E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial). Gangs of New York is not to be missed; the only regret one can have is how close they all came to getting making perfect.
7 of 10
A-
NOTES:
2003 Academy Awards: 10 nominations: “Best Picture” (Alberto Grimaldi and Harvey Weinstein), “Best Director” (Martin Scorsese), “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Daniel Day-Lewis), “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” (Dante Ferretti-art director and Francesca Lo Schiavo-set decorator), “Best Cinematography” (Michael Ballhaus), “Best Costume Design” (Sandy Powell), “Best Editing” (Thelma Schoonmaker), “Best Music, Original Song” (Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. for the song "The Hands That Built America"), “Best Sound” (Tom Fleischman, Eugene Gearty, and Ivan Sharrock), “Best Writing, Original Screenplay” (Jay Cocks-screenplay/story, Steven Zaillian-screenplay, and Kenneth Lonergan-screenplay)
2003 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Daniel Day-Lewis); 11 nominations: “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (Howard Shore), “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (R. Bruce Steinheimer, Michael Owens, Edward Hirsh, and Jon Alexander), “Best Cinematography” (Michael Ballhaus), “Best Costume Design” (Sandy Powell), “Best Editing” (Thelma Schoonmaker), “Best Film” (Alberto Grimaldi and Harvey Weinstein), “Best Make Up/Hair” (Manlio Rocchetti and Aldo Signoretti), “Best Production Design” (Dante Ferretti), “Best Screenplay – Original” (Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, and Kenneth Lonergan), “Best Sound” (Tom Fleischman, Ivan Sharrock, Eugene Gearty, and Philip Stockton), and “David Lean Award for Direction” (Martin Scorsese)
2003 Golden Globes: 2 wins: “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Martin Scorsese) and “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. for the song "The Hands That Built America"); 3 nominations “Best Motion Picture – Drama” “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Daniel Day-Lewis), and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Cameron Diaz)
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