Craig Gillespie Movies
- 2009
Ryan Gosling stars as real-life hero Ron Woodroof, an exuberant AIDS patient who, though illegal channels, was able to make available the same alternative treatments to the public that helped him beat an initial grave diagnosis. Lars and the Real Girl's Craig Gillespie directs the Universal Pictures/Strike Entertainment production from a script by Chase Palmer. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan Gosling
Every junior-high geek's worst nightmare becomes a reality in this comedy. John Farley (Seann William Scott) grew up as a chubby kid with no athletic skills and poor self-esteem, and during his early teenage years his nemesis was Mr. Woodcock (Billy Bob Thornton), his junior-high gym teacher, who took a sadistic glee in tormenting John and others like them. Years later, John has slimmed down, come to terms with his self-image, and become a best-selling author, publishing a self-help book on overcoming the specters of the past. John comes home to visit his widowed mother, Beverly (Susan Sarandon), and discovers she has a surprise for him -- she's getting married again, and her new fiancée is none other than Mr. Woodcock. Horrified, John is determined to keep Beverly from walking down the aisle with Woodcock, and along the way finds himself struggling to settle some old scores. Mr. Woodcock also stars Amy Poehler as John's publicist and Ethan Suplee as John's old friend Needleman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Bob Thornton, Seann William Scott, (more)
Lars (Ryan Gosling) and Gus (Paul Schneider) are the grown children of a father who died recently and a mother who died giving birth to Lars. But as brothers, they couldn't be more different. While Gus lives in the family home and has a loving wife (Emily Mortimer) and a child on the way, Lars leads a more reclusive existence in the family's garage, hiding in plain sight of his small, wintry hometown. Painfully shy and eccentric, Lars fails to recognize that his co-worker Margo (Kelli Garner) has a major crush on him, and he picks up on a casual reference made by his cubicle mate, who mentions a website where you can order life-sized, anatomically correct sex dolls. But instead of seeing a sex object, Lars sees in this doll a potential life partner and the only kind of social "peer" he can relate to. So Lars orders a doll, whom he names Bianca, and begins treating her with utmost gentlemanly respect -- and as though she's his real-life, flesh-and-blood girlfriend. As he begins bringing Bianca with him everywhere he goes, the townspeople have to find just the right balance between supporting Lars' unusual romance and trying to introduce him to a more conventional partner. Lars and the Real Girl was written by Six Feet Under scribe Nancy Oliver and directed by Mr. Woodcock's Craig Gillespie. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, (more)
