Dany Wolf
- 2008
Topher Grace and Anna Faris star in It's All Gone Pete Tong screenwriter/director Michael Dowse's coming of age comedy drama concerning a rowdy group of recent college graduates who venture out for one last night of fun before accepting the responsibilities of adulthood. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Faris, Dan Fogler, (more)
Adapted from the best-selling novel, the whimsical, heartwarming comedy The Nanny Diaries concerns Annie Braddock (Scarlett Johansson), a recent college graduate from New Jersey whose nurse mother makes an unsuccessful bid to pressure her into a white-collared business career. Sidetracking this path for more colorful pursuits, Annie accepts a position as nanny and domestic servant for a wealthy couple on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, known only as "The Xs" (Paul Giamatti and a heavily coiffed and accoutred Laura Linney). Annie has her first real taste of servant life when she arrives at the family's residence and promptly sinks into Mrs. X's luxury tub, but is soon shuttled off to her own bare-bones room. Face to face, for the first time in her life, with the vast socioeconomic differences between herself and others, Annie must spend her days catering to Mrs. X's every whim, navigating the emotional land mines set by the domineering Mr. X, and tending to the demands of the couple's mischievous and bratty son, Grayer (Nicholas Art). The situation grows a bit more awkward and sticky when Annie begins to fall for a young man who lives near the Xs, whom she's nicknamed Harvard Hottie (Chris Evans), leading her to seriously reevaluate her career goals and priorities. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, (more)
Filmmaker Gus Van Sant wrote and directed this meditation on stardom and its costs, inspired in part by the life and death of rock musician Kurt Cobain. Blake (Michael Pitt) is the leader of an influential alternative rock band who has unexpectedly won a large degree of fame and fortune. Depressed and unsure of what to do with himself or his success, Blake wanders about the run-down mansion he calls home and the visits the woods nearby. While a handful of friends live with Blake, he prefers to avoid them, as they often seem more interested in money or help with their music than in his friendship; meanwhile, Blake is also confronted by a handful of fans, his agent, and a gentleman who sells advertising space in a telephone directory and has no idea who Blake is. As Blake goes through the motions of his day, he tries to decide what he should do next, and what might finally free him from his ennui. Shot and edited in the same languid, low-key manner as his films Elephant and Gerry, Last Days also stars Lukas Haas, Asia Argento, Scott Green, Ricky Jay, and Harmony Korine. Kim Gordon of the band Sonic Youth also appears in the film, while her husband and bandmate Thurston Moore was a consultant for the musical score; both were friends of Kurt Cobain and toured in tandem with Nirvana on several occasions. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Pitt, Lukas Haas, (more)
Phil Morrison, who collaborated with screenwriter Angus MacLachlan for his acclaimed 1990 short, Tater Tomater, joins forces with MacLachlan again for his feature-film debut, Junebug. Junebug takes place in rural North Carolina. Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz), a sophisticated Chicagoan who owns a gallery devoted to "outsider art," goes south in an effort to woo an eccentric painter (Frank Hoyt Taylor) to her gallery. She brings along her husband, George (Alessandro Nivola), a native of the area, and the couple stays with his family. Peg (Celia Weston), George's mother, gives Madeleine a rather chilly greeting, and seems to think she's a poor match for her eldest son, while his father, Eugene (Scott Wilson), is a bit more welcoming, in his quiet way. George's younger brother, Johnny (Ben McKenzie), is still living at home with his very pregnant wife, Ashley (Amy Adams), and seems to feel nothing but resentment for George. For her part, Ashley is a gregarious young woman, and she's immediately smitten with her "new sister." Junebug was selected by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center for inclusion in the 2005 edition of New Directors/New Films. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amy Adams, Embeth Davidtz, (more)
Director Gus Van Sant returned to the low-key style of his early independent efforts with this semi-improvised exploration of how violence makes its way into a typical American high school. Eric (Eric Deulen) and Alex (Alex Frost) are two close friends who are students in a well-to-do suburb of Portland, OR. Eric and Alex are at once ordinary and misfits; while they seem to be confined to the edges of the clique-oriented social strata of high school, little about their behavior draws attention to itself. Or at least not during a typical school day; on their own time, the two boys are fascinated by Nazi iconography, enjoy violent video games, tentatively explore homoerotic desires, and coolly begin to make plans for an armed ambush of the school, drawing up working diagrams of the lunch room during study hall and buying rifles over the Internet. Drawing an expected degree of controversy, Elephant had its world premiere when it was screened in competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, where it won both Best Director for Van Sant and the Golden Palm award. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, (more)
Gus Van Sant returned to his roots in experimental filmmaking with this offbeat feature, whose dialogue was entirely improvised by its two person cast. Two men named Gerry (played by Matt Damon and Casey Affleck) are driving through the desert regions of Death Valley, traveling towards an unknown destination. They pull over and set out on foot, presuming they're getting close to what they've come to find. Before long, Gerry and Gerry are both lost in an unforgiving desert without food, water, or other provisions, and the harder they try to find their way back to their car, they only dig themselves deeper and deeper into the desert. Gus Van Sant originally began shooting Gerry in Argentina, but was soon dissatisfied with the weather and the terrain, opting to start over in California and Utah; the film premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Casey Affleck, Matt Damon, (more)
In the spirit of his Oscar-winning Good Will Hunting, Gus Van Sant directs this tale of the unlikely bond that develops between an aging, reclusive novelist named Forrester (Sean Connery) -- who hasn't written anything since winning a Pulitzer Prize decades earlier -- and Jamal (Rob Brown), a 16-year-old with a hidden desire to be a writer. When Jamal is cited for his athleticism in basketball by an elite Manhattan prep school, he is forced to adapt to an environment far from his South Bronx upbringing, and a small mishap leads him to the eccentric, uneasy Forrester. After their initial apprehension of each other, they begin to fuel each other's fire for writing, and become unlikely friends despite their ages and backgrounds. Forrester's devotion to Jamal becomes enhanced when he must defend allegations of plagiarism enforced by Professor Crawford (F. Murray Abraham), jeopardizing Jamal's future. The film also features Anna Paquin, Busta Rhymes, and Zane Copeland, Jr.. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Connery, Rob Brown, (more)
Independent film director Gus Van Sant attempts a first in American film history: a shot-by-shot remake of the classic 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho. With a few minor, modern-day changes (including filming it in color), his version is essentially the same film with a different cast and the same Bernard Hermann music. Psycho was and still is the story of Marion Crane (previously played by Janet Leigh and now by Anne Heche), an adulterous woman who steals a stack of money from her boss and hits the road hoping for financial freedom. Pulling over in an old motel for the night, she meets the creepy owner of the Bates Motel, Norman Bates (Vince Vaughn doing his best Anthony Perkins), who lives with his jealous nagging mother. Most people know the film Psycho for what happens next -- the shower scene, where Marion is brutally stabbed in the most over-analyzed scene in movie history. The money, the car, and Marion's remains are quickly sunk in a nearby swamp. As a detective (William H. Macy) and Marion's sister Lila (Julianne Moore) come looking for her, they begin to uncover the dark mysterious secret lurking in Norman Bates' life. ~ Arthur Borman, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche, (more)
