May 3, 2010
Joan Rivers really is a piece of work, and I’m not just referring to the plastic face: the woman is always on. Now that Rivers has made a place for herself as the butt of all our jokes, her long road to fame and fortune, her many accomplishments and her hardworking attitude are often overlooked. She’s not just a raspy voiced woman with her heels firmly planted in the plush of the red carpet, but an active standup comedian and an avid business woman.
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work opens in a very profound way, with several shots of Rivers without makeup. It isn’t as profound as you might imagine, focusing only on small portions of her mug at a time, but it establishes right from the start that Rivers’ guard is down and we’re really about to get an inside look. Director Ricki Stern and Anne Sunberg’s film follows Rivers through an entire year, and from the outset she isn’t ashamed to admit that it’s a rough one, in which her datebook consists primarily of the thing she dreads the most: blank white pages. In fact, Rivers isn’t ashamed much of anything, and she often pokes fun at her own plastic surgery overdose and tosses in a few jokes about her low rung on the fame ladder.
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Filed under Reviews
Tags: Anne Sunberg, Joan Rivers, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Review, Ricki Stern, Tribeca Film Festival
May 3, 2010
The problem with trying to do a write up about a Joan Rivers interview is that she’s always telling jokes. Putting her jokes on paper, or online, strips them of her brilliant comedic timing. I hate to commit such an atrocity, but I’ve got to do my best to relate to you what went down at the Tribeca Talks panel after the screening of Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work.
It’s no surprise that after the film ended, Rivers strutted to the front of the theater drenched in jewels. In fact, that might have been the largest diamond necklace I’ve ever seen in my life. But that’s what’s important to Rivers: money. Rivers lives a lavish lifestyle and isn’t prepared to let that slip away anytime soon. When moderator Rex Reed joked about Rivers not being able to sit down in an easy chair to read a book without imploding, Rivers shot back, “If I ever sat down in an easy chair to read a book, I’d have a very rich husband.”
The cash flow is a significant motivation, but Rivers clearly has other values, otherwise there’s no way she’d be able to accomplish all she has in her career. Reed highlighted her philanthropic work and the fact that she was one of the first to fight AIDS on national television and endorse condoms. Rather than sit back and revel in the compliment, Rivers joked that at the time she didn’t even know what a condom looked like because, “Well, I had never seen one because I wasn’t particularly attractive.”
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Filed under Features
Tags: Anne Sunberg, Joan Rivers, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Rex Reed, Ricki Stern, Tribeca Film Festival
May 3, 2010
Superheroes, maniacal serial killers and historical figures brought back to life are great, but sometimes you just need a good old family drama that feels real and Every Day is just that. Our family of four, played by Liev Schreiber, Helen Hunt, Ezra Miller and Skyler Fortgang, take on a hefty load when grandpa Ernie (Brian Dennehy) comes to live with them. That’s on top of routine troubles, like work frustrations and struggles with sexual identity, all of which send the clan into an amusing and often touching period of confusion and frustration.
You’d never think this type of story would come from the pen of Nip/Tuck writer Richard Levine. Levine does away with the profound happenings at the plastic surgery practice and adopts a far more true-to-life tone. In fact, Every Day is somewhat true-to-life in Levine’s case; much of the piece evolved from his experience with his own family.
While promoting his film at the Tribeca Film Festival, Levine took the time to elaborate on the film’s connection with his personal life as well as the casting process, an unusual method of rehearsal as well as his upcoming ABC show, Scoundrels. Take a look at what he had to say below.
Click here to read the interview.
Filed under Interviews
Tags: Tribeca Film Festival, Helen Hunt, Liev Schreiber, Every Day, Ezra Miller, Skyler Fortgang, Brian Dennehy, Richard Levine, Nip/Tuck
May 3, 2010
Filmmaking is a tough industry, but hard work and perseverance can pay off, and if anyone knows that it’s Jacob Tierney. It’s been seven years since his last film, 2003′s Twist, but only because the coveted green light of moviemaking was just out of the writer-director’s reach. But his time did come and it was certainly worth the wait, because at the Tribeca Film Festival Tierney presented us with The Trotsky.
The film is about a kid named Leon Bronstein (Jay Baruchel) who genuinely believes he’s the reincarnation of the Bolshevik revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky. Rather than studying or trying to make new friends, Leon sees his new school as an environment with the potential to be unionized. Leon’s other Trotsky-related efforts include marrying an older woman named Alexandra and hunting down his own Vladimir Ulyanov.
The Trotsky is a completely original spin on the typical high school comedy. It’s smart and thoughtful, as is Tierney. Check out what the writer-director told me about his film in this brief interview shot guerilla style in the depths of the Village East Cinema.
Click here to watch the interview.
Filed under Interviews
Tags: Jacob Tierney, Jay Baruchel, The Trotsky, Tribeca Film Festival
May 2, 2010
Most young guys have idols like professional athletes or their father. But no; not Leon Bronstein (Jay Baruchel). In fact, Leon truly believes he’s the reincarnation of the Soviet iconoclast Leon Trotsky. Leon’s to-do list consists of the most notable happenings of Trotsky’s life like being exiled, marrying a woman named Alexandra and, of course, being assassinated.
After organizing a hunger strike at his father’s (Saul Rubinek) factory, Leon’s dad decides it’s time to make his son suffer and enrolls him in public school. Leon approaches the situation with optimism, but immediately ends up in the principal’s crosshairs after opting to attend detention with another student out of solidarity. Soon after, Leon begins his venture to construct a student union, literally. His vehicle? The extracurricular activity of the same name. Leon starts by creating a school dance with a social-justice theme and ultimately goes all the way to the school administration to fight for his cause. But no matter how hard Leon tries, the question always remains, is the student body behind him out of boredom or apathy?
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Filed under Reviews
Tags: Colm Feore, Emily Hampshire, Jacob Tierney, Jay Baruchel, Michael Murphy, Review, Saul Rubinek, The Trotsky, Tribeca Film Festival
May 2, 2010
Thanks to Dog Pound, I began my coverage of the Tribeca Film Festival in an overwhelmingly fantastic way with high hopes for the screenings to come. From there some were fantastic, some were far from it, but throughout one thing remained constant, Dog Pound was at the top. Clearly others thought as highly of the film as I did, namely the 2010 World Narrative Competition jurors including Hope David, Aaron Eckhart and Cheryl Hines. Just the other evening, writer-director Kim Chapiron was awarded $25,000 and the Best New Narrative Filmmaker honor.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Chapiron’s co-writer, Jeremie Delon, who provided the rundown of how Dog Pound came together. “Georges Bermann, the producer of Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, he approached Kim four years ago, literally four years ago, and said, ‘Listen, I was to make this movie on juvenile prison in the US.’” But why Chapiron? During a roundtable interview earlier in the week, Chapiron himself recalled, “[Georges] enjoyed the way the young generation was presented [inSheitan],” Chapiron’s first feature film, which played at Tribeca back in 2006.
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Filed under Interviews
Tags: Adam Butcher, Dog Pound, Jeremie Delon, Kim Chapiron, Taylor Poulin, Tribeca Film Festival
May 1, 2010
Writer Richard Levine’s entire resume consists of work on the small screen, most notably on Nip/Tuck, so it’s no surprise that his first feature film plays out much like a TV show. The unusual thing is that Every Day is as ordinary as they come, whereas Nip/Tuck is far from it. Every Day may be a low-key film about an average family dealing with average problems, but Levine’s more twisted side is still evident; its brainchildren are just kept as theoretical concepts rather than visual ones.
Ned and Jeannie (Liev Schreiber and Helen Hunt) live in a nice home with their two sons Jonah and Ethan (Ezra Miller and Skyler Fortgang). Like just about any family, they’re seemingly happy, but have some issues. Ned writes for a television show and his more restrained ideas clash with his boss’ demand for concepts with extreme shock value. Jeannie is forced to ditch her career when she winds up taking care of her sickly father in addition to her two boys. Making matters worse, her father, Ernie (Brian Dennehy), is a bit of a handful and anything but thankful. Then there are the kids; Jonah has known he’s gay since he was 12, but his father is still having a hard time accepting it. Meanwhile, Ethan is on the paranoid side constantly questioning his folks about the potential of home invaders and if his grandfather will walk into the light soon.
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Filed under Reviews
Tags: Carla Gugino, Miranda Richardson, Helen Hunt, Liev Schreiber, Every Day, Ezra Miller, Skyler Fortgang, Eddie Izzard, Brian Dennehy
May 1, 2010
Tribeca Interview: The Disappearance Of Alice Creed’s J Blakeson
After seeing a movie like The Disappearance of Alice Creed, you’d expect the writer-director to be a bit on the peculiar side. That couldn’t be farther from the truth when it comes to J Blakeson. In fact, Blakeson was even able to rationalize the existence of a degree of intimacy in kidnapping.
In the movie, Gemma Arterton is poor Alice Creed, the young lady Vic and Danny (Eddie Marsan and Martin Compston) target in their kidnapping scheme. After they’ve got their victim secured in a supposedly error-proof location, Vic and Danny’s original plan begins to crumble courtesy of a handful of striking revelations.
The film is oozing with suspense and tension from beginning to end. Just when you think you know what’s coming next, Blakeson throws in a curveball forcing the viewer to stay on his or her toes. You’d think a twist-ridden film would grow tiresome or disorderly, but Blakeson demonstrates a masterful level of control and shows off his keen eye behind the lens. I strongly advise you to check out this video interview, not because I enjoy seeing my work attract traffic, but because you should get to know J Blakeson; he’s here to stay.
Click here to watch the interview.
Filed under Interviews
Tags: Eddie Marsan, Gemma Arterton, J Blakeson, Martin Compston, The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Tribeca Film Festival
April 29, 2010
Interview: Harry Brown’s Emily Mortimer
It’s a good thing I really enjoyed Harry Brown, otherwise I would have hounded Emily Mortimer with questions about Transsiberian. Mortimer’s characters in the two are actually somewhat similar; they’re very feminine women, but both have a particularly tough side. In Transsiberian she stars as Jessie, a young woman traveling from Beijing to Moscow via train who gets caught up in a drug smuggling effort. When she’s pegged with the goods she has to go up against an intimidating narcotics officer played by Ben Kingsley.
In Harry Brown, Mortimer is not only on the other side of the law, but she trades Sir Ben for another Sir, Sir Michael Caine. Caine plays the titular character, an older man living on an estate in South London. After his wife passes away and his close friend is murdered, he decides he’s had enough with the violent youths tormenting his neighbors and arms up to takes matters into his own hands. Mortimer steps in as DI Alice Frampton, the officer investigating the case of Harry’s late pal and the only one on the force who suspects Harry of committing a string of noble atrocities.
Frampton spends most of her time keeping a close eye on Harry, but eventually gets in on some of the action herself. Take a look at what Mortimer had to say about her brutal battle scene, omitted details about her character and the excessive on-set giggling.
Click here to read the interview.
Filed under Interviews
Tags: Emily Mortimer, Michael Caine, Harry Brown, Daniel Barber
April 29, 2010
Tribeca Interview: Just Like Us’ Ahmed Ahmed
Say hello to Ahemd Ahemd. No, Microsoft Word Spell Check, that’s not a repeated word; that’s really his name. Okay, Ahmed’s version of that joke – that there’s no echo in the room – is far funnier, but even my version exemplifies some of what you’ll see in Ahmed’s documentary Just Like Us. The film depicts Ahemd’s journey to Arab countries including Dubai, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, all of which the average American assumes is not only devoid of comedy, but doesn’t even have a desire for it. Well, surprise! Arabs do enjoy some stand-up comedy and the chance to have a good laugh, just like us.
While promoting Just Like Us at the Tribeca Film Festival, Ahmed sat down with me for a whopping 30 minutes. He’s packed with great anecdotes, interesting details, a few wisecracks and even some information on a new project he’s working on, so I simply couldn’t bear to cut any of the interview. I’ve divided the interview into two segments, the breakdowns of which you can see blow.
Click here to watch the interview.
Filed under Interviews
Tags: Ahmed Ahmed, Just Like Us, Tribeca Film Festival