The career of every filmmaker and actor, if they sustain any longevity, is peppered with various levels of success and failure. And while he’s had greater successes in other films and genres, among the films for which Kevin Costner is most warmly remembered are a quartet of sports movies — Bull Durham, For Love of the Game, Tin Cup and of course the iconic Field of Dreams, celebrating its 25th anniversary later this very month.
Affectionate reminiscences of that filmography inform director Ivan Reitman’s new dramedy, Draft Day. But the more recent and germane comparison may be Moneyball, another smart, nuanced and confident sports film that didn’t chase the drama of on-field action, but instead used its sport as a backdrop for a complicated, adult tale of striving and innovation. Draft Day isn’t nearly in the same class, and its aims are a notch or two lower — it’s less a disquisition on beta-masculinity than an engaging extension of the National Football League brand. But it works far more than it doesn’t, connecting with pleasure and heart. For the full, original review, from Paste, click here. (Lionsgate/Summit, PG-13, 110 minutes)
Daily Archives: April 12, 2014
David Gordon Green Talks Joe, Non-Traditional Casting
He’s not yet 40, but director David Gordon Green has successfully juggled an interesting collection of studio comedies like Pineapple Express, The Sitter and Your Highness with more esoteric and independent fare like All the Real Girls and Prince Avalanche. His 10th feature film, Joe, is an adaptation of Larry Brown’s gritty yet lyrical novel of the same name, and stars 17-year-old Tye Sheridan as an impressionable kid who, desperate for some adult guidance and attention, finds an unlikely mentor in the form of Nicolas Cage‘s ex-con title character. I recently had a chance to speak to Green one-on-one, about the film, casting and working with non-professional actors, the keys to a good Terrence Malick impersonation and his next movie, Manglehorn. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here.
Hateship Loveship
In her strikingly humane and thought-provoking debut feature, Return, writer-director Liza Johnson showed the ability to locate illuminating character details in all sorts of quiet moments. With her second film, Hateship Loveship, starring Kristen Wiig, Johnson again proves herself an astute chronicler of human frailty, even if the low-wattage hum of her lightly romantic drama eventually peters out, leaving the hull — more intriguing than emotionally satisfying — of an ensemble character piece.
Adapted by Mark Poirier from a 2001 short story by Alice Munro, the film centers on Johanna Parry (Wiig), an exceedingly mild-mannered live-in caregiver who in the wake of the death of her client, moves to a new town to work as a housekeeper for Bill McCauley (Nick Nolte). Bill’s granddaughter Sabitha (Hailee Steinfeld) lives with him, and has ever since his son-in-law, Ken Gaudette (Guy Pearce), went to prison following a tragic accident that claimed the life of Bill’s daughter and Sabitha’s mother.
After Ken pens Johanna a harmless thank-you note and Johanna responds in kind, Sabitha and her friend Edith (Sami Gayle) take advantage of Johanna’s naivete by posing in correspondence as Ken, fostering a pseudo-relationship between the pair. When Johanna makes a bold leap and acts on what she believes to be a signal from Ken, it elicits greater change for everyone involved.
Though there’s plenty of absorption herein, viewer interest in Wiig’s performance is the main selling point, obviously. Like fellow Saturday Night Live mate Will Ferrell before her, Wiig has a bit of a pensive streak that brings an interesting quality to downbeat characters. Johanna, as rendered by Wiig in a fascinating bit of wallflower portraiture, is a woman who’s simply pressed “pause,” developmentally, in her life, and is surprised to learn she’s in possession of her own remote control. For the full, original review, from ShockYa, click here. (IFC Films, R, 98 minutes)