Review: "House of Sand and Fog" is Filled with Conflict (Happy B'day, Jennifer Connelly)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 101 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux


House of Sand and Fog (2003)
Running time: 126 minutes (2 hour, 6 minutes)
MPAA – R for some violence/disturbing images, language and a scene of sexuality
DIRECTOR: Vadim Perelman
WRITER: Shawn Otto and Vadim Perelman (from a novel by Andre Dubus III)
PRODUCERS: Michael London and Vadim Perelman
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roger Deakins
EDITOR: Lisa Zeno Churgin
COMPOSER: James Horner
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA

Starring: Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, Ron Eldard, Frances Fisher, Kim Dickens, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Jonathan Ahdout

After being abandoned by her husband, Kathy Nicolo (Jennifer Connelly), an alcoholic, discovers that the county has foreclosed her home and put it up for auction. After the county discovers that the foreclosure was an error on their part, they try to buy the home back from the new owner, Colonel Behrani (Ben Kingsley), an Iranian military officer under the Shah (who was deposed by the Islamic revolution in the late 70’s). However, Behrani bought the house with the intention of selling it again at a profit, and he will not sell it back to the county unless he gets his asking price, which is four times what he paid for it. Thus, begins a conflict between Kathy and the colonel that has tragic consequences for all involved.

House of Sand and Fog is a well-acted mega-tragedy that switches from being harrowing and riveting to depressing and boring. The film is a brilliant rumination on how living in the past and failing to move on with one’s life can lead to both a figurative and literal death. However, it is also a painfully obvious, artsy movie drama racing down the slippery slope to film tragedy.

The film received three Academy Award nominations: Ben Kingsley for “Best Actor in a Leading Role,” Shohreh Aghdashloo for “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” for her part as Behrani’s wife, and one for James Horner’s gorgeous score. Although Kingsley and Ms. Aghdashloo did not win, they were clearly robbed. The rest of the cast stands out quite well (even prior Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly), but Kingsley and Ms. Aghdashloo give impeccable performances in this relentlessly morose drama. In fact Kingsley is not only clearly a great film actor; he is also an artist, and when he’s in a film, his filmmaking collaborators’ efforts sometime end of up merely being the canvas upon which he paints his brilliant work.

I’ll recommend House of Sand and Fog to people who love to see good acting, if they can stomach this film’s heartache and misfortune. At least we can give director Vadim Perelman credit for so convincingly making sadness eye candy the way pop directors make action sequences so appealing.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2004 Academy Awards: 3 nominations: “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Ben Kingsley), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Shohreh Aghdashloo), and “Best Music, Original Score” (James Horner)

2004 Golden Globes: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Ben Kingsley)

New York Film Critics Online Love "The Artist"

The New York Film Critics Online is a group of Internet film critics based in New York City that meets once a year, in December, for voting on its annual NYFCO Awards.

A complete list of the 2011 honorees:

FILM
The Artist

DIRECTOR
Michael Hazanavicius, The Artist

ACTOR
Michael Shannon, Take Shelter

ACTRESS
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Albert Brooks, Drive

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Emmanuel Lubezki, The Tree of Life

SCREENPLAY
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, The Descendants

FOREIGN LANGUAGE PICTURE
A Separation

DOCUMENTARY
Cave of Forgotten Dreams

ANIMATED FEATURE
The Adventures of Tintin

USE OF MUSIC
Ludovic Bource, The Artist

BREAKOUT PERFORMER
Jessica Chastain, The Tree of Life, The Help, The Debt, Take Shelter

DEBUT AS DIRECTOR
Joe Cornish, Attack the Block

ENSEMBLE CAST
Bridesmaids

TOP PICTURES OF 2011 (alphabetical)
The Artist (The Weinstein Co.)
The Descendants (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Drive (Film District)
The Help (DreamWorksPictures)
Hugo (Paramount Pictures)
Melancholia (Magnolia Pictures)
Midnight in Paris (Sony Pictures Classics)
Take Shelter (Sony Pictures Classics)
The Tree of Life (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
War Horse (Dreamworks Pictures)

Fifteen 2011 Hopefuls Seek Visual Effects Oscar Nominations

15 Features in Line for VFX Oscar®

Beverly Hills, CA (December 9, 2011) – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films have been selected for consideration for Achievement in Visual Effects for the 84th Academy Awards®.

The films are listed below in alphabetical order:

"Captain America: The First Avenger"

"Cowboys & Aliens"

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2"

"Hugo"

"Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol"

"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides"

"Real Steel"

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes"

"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows"

"Sucker Punch"

"Super 8"

"Thor"

"Transformers: Dark of the Moon"

"The Tree of Life"

"X-Men: First Class"

In early January, the members of the Academy's Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee, who selected the 15 films, will narrow the list to 10.

All members of the Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the 10 shortlisted films on Thursday, January 19. Following the screenings, the members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.

The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

Review: "Crazy, Stupid, Love." is Crazy, Stupid, Funny

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 102 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)
Running time: 118 minutes (1 hour, 58 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for coarse humor, sexual content and language
DIRECTORS: Glenn Ficarra and John Requa
WRITER: Dan Fogelman
PRODUCERS: Steve Carell and Denise Di Novi
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Andrew Dunn
EDITOR: Lee Haxall
COMPOSER: Christophe Beck and Nick Urata

COMEDY/ROMANCE/DRAMA

Starring: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Analeigh Tipton, Jonah Bobo, Joey King, Marisa Tomei, Beth Littleford, John Carroll Lynch, Kevin Bacon, Liza Lapira, Josh Groban, and Algerita Lewis

Crazy, Stupid, Love. is a 2011 romantic comedy starring Steve Carell (who is also one of the film’s producers) and Julianne Moore. The film is essentially an ensemble comedy, but the central focus is a couple whose 20-year marriage dissolves. The title fits the film perfectly, and Crazy, Stupid, Love. gets crazy and stupid enough to make me love it, in spite of my best efforts to act as if I were above liking this kind of romantic comedy.

While dining out one night, Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) gets some shocking news from his wife of 20 years, Emily (Julianne Moore). Not only does she want a divorce, but Emily also admits to having sex with one of her coworkers, an accountant named David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon). Cal moves out of their home and begins to frequent a popular bar, where his complaints catch the sympathetic ear of a dashing young womanizer, Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling).

Jacob teaches the fine art of womanizing to Cal, who eventually begins a series of one-night stands. However, Jacob soon meets the one woman that can tame him, Hannah (Emma Stone), a young law student. In the meantime, Jessica Riley (Analeigh Tipton), the 17-year-old girl who baby sits Cal’s children, falls in love with Cal. However, Cal’s 13-year-old son, Robbie Weaver (Jonah Bobo), is madly in love with Jessica. As love goes mad all around him, Cal still can’t stop wanting to reunite with Emily, but does she want the same thing?

Crazy, Stupid, Love. could have the words “awkward” and “misunderstanding,” added to the title, as the film strains credulity with a number of timely coincidences. These lead to set pieces which depict one embarrassing moment after another for one or more characters. By the way, all the characters seem pretty much the same and are shallow; they are lovable, but still shallow. Still, mortification is what makes this movie such a sweet romantic film. Being married and/or being a parent is bittersweet, but you love your loved ones even in those moments when you hate them or when they embarrass and humiliate you.

Crazy, Stupid, Love., for all its contrivances, gets that, and Dan Fogelman’s script weaves the contrived and the coincidental into a lovely tale of committed love. There is a huge and shocking reveal in the movie’s last act and a speech near the end of the film that should both make us cringe. Instead, they exemplify the ability of Crazy, Stupid, Love. to make us stupid, crazy in love with it.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Zimmer and Pharrell to Pump Up the Jams for 2012 Oscar Telecast

Hans Zimmer and Pharrell Williams to Serve as Music Consultants for the 84th Academy Awards®

Oscar® -winning composer Hans Zimmer and Grammy® Award-winning songwriter and producer Pharrell Williams will serve as music consultants for the 84th Academy Awards, telecast producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer announced today. This will be the first time the composers have worked on the Oscar show.

"Hans is one of the most accomplished and creative film composers of our time, and Pharrell is a phenomenal songwriter with an amazing list of credits," said Grazer and Mischer. "This is an exciting and prestigious collaboration that promises to take the audience on a musical journey."

"It is a great privilege to serve the Academy in this role and to help celebrate and honor this year's incredible artistry," stated Zimmer.

"I am honored to work with my mentor and teacher, Hans Zimmer and I have wanted to collaborate with Brian Grazer on something for years," said Williams. "I cannot believe I will be joining them and their teams on the most prestigious show of the year, the Academy Awards."

Zimmer won an Oscar in 1994 for Original Score for "The Lion King" and has received eight additional nominations for Original Score. His credits include "Rain Man," "Driving Miss Daisy," "Thelma & Louise," "The Preacher's Wife," "As Good as It Gets," "The Thin Red Line," "The Prince of Egypt," "Gladiator," "Black Hawk Down," "Madagascar," "The Da Vinci Code," "The Dark Knight," "Frost/Nixon," "Sherlock Holmes" and "Inception." His most recent credits include "Rango," "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," "Kung Fu Panda 2" and the upcoming "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" and "The Dark Knight Rises." Zimmer has earned 10 Grammy nominations and won four.

Williams is a prolific producer-singer-songwriter who has also written for feature films. He has been nominated for 10 Grammy Awards and has won three. Williams' songs have appeared on the soundtracks of such films as "Any Given Sunday," "Kiss of the Dragon," "Rush Hour 2," "Zoolander," "Bringing down the House," "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," "50 First Dates," "Hitch," "The 40 Year-Old Virgin," "Date Movie" and "Knocked Up." He wrote the original song score for "Despicable Me."

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Review: Judi Dench is Fun in "Mrs. Henderson Presents" (Happy B'day, Judi Dench)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 82 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK
Running time: 103 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)
MPAA – R for nudity and brief language
DIRECTOR: Stephen Frears
WRITER: Martin Sherman
PRODUCER: Norma Heyman
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Andrew Dunn
EDITOR: Lucia Zucchetti
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/DRAMA/MUSIC/HISTORICAL

Starring: Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins, Will Young, Kelly Reilly, Thelma Barlow, Michael Culkin, and Christopher Guest

After her husband Robert dies in 1937, Laura Henderson (Judi Dench) struggles to find a hobby to occupy her time, and one day, chance affords an opportunity when she passes by an old movie theatre on London’s West End. She buys the theatre and rebuilds it as The Windmill, a venue for musical theatre. Mrs. Henderson takes on a salty theatre manager and showman, Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins), and together they make their show, a kind of musical theatre they call “Revudeville,” a hit, even if they are occasionally at odds with one another.

However, other theatres are soon copying The Windmill’s winning formula. It is then that Mrs. Henderson proposes an idea that has been in her heart for a long time – have nude actresses on stage (similar to what the Moulin Rouge in Paris does). That raises eyebrows, but the nude musical revue is an even bigger hit. But all isn’t happiness and sunshine; the show that Mrs. Henderson presents must struggle to go on as World War II arrives and the Germans bomb London.

Mrs. Henderson Presents, based on a true story, is a movie of two minds. The first 50 minutes or so of the film is a delightful comedy of manners, class divisions, creative differences, and musical theatre. The fest of the film is a dour, World War II drama that clunks about as if the filmmakers weren’t sure just what kind of “Masterpiece Theatre” movie this picture should be. Mrs. Henderson Presents is indicative of director Stephen Frears work – when he’s on (High Fidelity and Dirty Pretty Things), he’s really on, but when he stumbles, his films are uneven (The Grifters and Hero), and there’s a bit of both here.

A few things make this a good movie. There is a scene of full frontal nudity featuring Bob Hoskins. Sandy Powell’s colorful costumes are eye-catching, and I found myself always waiting to see what she’d give us next. The musical theatre (the songs more than the acting and dancing, although both are good) is fun and bubbly. Finally, Judi Dench delivers her usual stellar work. She’s witty and delightful and wields screenwriter Martin Sherman’s dialogue and character of Mrs. Henderson with the assurance of a master fencer. She’s just fun to watch, and her fans shouldn’t miss Mrs. Henderson Presents.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Achievement in Costume Design” (Sandy Powell) and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Judi Dench)

2006 BAFTA Awards: 4 nominations: “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (George Fenton), “Best Costume Design” (Sandy Powell), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Judi Dench), and “Best Screenplay – Original” (Martin Sherman)

2006 Golden Globes: 3 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy,” “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Bob Hoskins), and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Judi Dench)

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

New People Screens Three Films for Holiday Season

NEW PEOPLE KICKS OFF THE HOLIDAY FUN JAPANESE STYLE WITH THREE SPECIAL FILM SCREENINGS ON DECEMBER 17th

Japanese Pop Culture Venue Welcomes The Holiday Season And Presents Eatrip, DOCUMENTARY Of AKB48 to be continued, And GANTZ II: Perfect Answer At The Bay Area’s Hottest Movie Theatre

NEW PEOPLE, the nation’s only entertainment complex dedicated to Japanese popular culture, has announced a trio of Japanese live-action films to screen on Saturday, December 17th at the venue’s SF Film Society NEW PEOPLE Cinema. The screenings will include the culinary documentary Eatrip, which plays at 1:00pm, the newly released music biopic, DOCUMENTARY of AKB48 to be continued, which plays at 3:00pm and again at 8:30pm, and finally the action-packed conclusion of the celebrated GANTZ sci-fi saga with a showing of GANTZ II: Perfect Answer at 5:00pm. Tickets are $10.00 each per film. Information and advance tickets are available at: http://www.newpeopleworld.com/.

Filmgoers that bring their movie ticket to NEW PEOPLE, The Store, located in the building’s lobby, before or after each show will receive $10.00 off any NEW PEOPLE Entertainment DVD or Blu-ray release that day.

Eatrip - Screens at 1:00pm
The film takes audiences on an intriguing journey throughout Japan and features interviews with interesting personalities from a variety of walks of life to look at how life can be led richly through the daily ritual of eating. To eat is more than a necessity – it’s a universal experience all human beings share. In the film, Yuri Nomura embarks on an insightful journey throughout Japan to examine the daily rituals of eating among people from different walks of life. Actor Tadanobu Asano, singer UA, and fashion designer Jurgen Lehl are among those featured. From the Tsukiji fish market to a farm in Okinawa, Eatrip offers poignant interviews with intriguing personalities including the head monk of a famous Buddhist temple; a distributor of Japanese soup stock (Bonito broth); an Okinawan woman leading a self-sustainable lifestyle devoid of modern conveniences; a tea ceremony master, and a musician and writer who recites poems about food. Eatrip is available now on DVD from NEW PEOPLE Entertainment.

DOCUMENTARY of AKB48 to be continued - Screens at 3:00pm & 8:30pm
The new music biopic follows the unstoppable all-female Japanese pop idol group, AKB48, on their incredible rise to fame. AKB48 was conceived in 2005 by Yasushi Akimoto, one of Japan’s most respected music producers. Beginning as a small all-girl singing group based in the Akihabara district of Tokyo – the city’s bustling electronics and anime/pop culture shopping Mecca – AKB48 has grown to 60 members and topped Japan’s Oricon music charts with the two best-selling pop singles in 2010 as well as another two singles ranking in the Top 10. The film was just released by NEW PEOPLE Entertainment on DVD on December 1st.

GANTZ II: Perfect Answer - Screens at 5:00pm
The GANTZ saga meets its ultimate conclusion in GANTZ II: Perfect Answer, which offers an intensely gripping story-line yet to be known to even readers of the original manga series. Determined to resurrect his friends who have died on previous missions, Kei and other members trapped in the world of GANTZ aim to score the 100 points needed to break through and regain their freedom. But with the emergence of a mysterious man investigating the Gantz members, Gantz begins to act up and the next target shocks the members. Some fight for love, some for justice but what will each member have to sacrifice? GANTZ is based on a popular manga series created by Hiroya Oku and star leading Japanese actors Kazunari Ninomiya (Letters from Iwo Jima) and Kenichi Matsuyama (Death Note, Detroit Metal City). GANTZ II: Perfect Answer will be released by NEW PEOPLE Entertainment on DVD and Blu-ray on January 17th, 2012.


The SF Film Society
NEW PEOPLE Cinema is a 143-seat subterranean theatre located at 1746 Post Street in San Francisco’s Japantown and features plush seating, digital as well as 35mm projection, and a THX®-certified sound system.

About NEW PEOPLE, Inc.
Based in San Francisco, California, NEW PEOPLE, Inc. (http://www.newpeopleworld.com/) offers the latest films, art, fashion and retail brands from Japan through its unique entertainment destination as well as through licensing and distribution of selective Japanese films. NEW PEOPLE Entertainment (www.newpeopleent.com), a film division of NEW PEOPLE, Inc. strives to offer the most entertaining motion pictures straight from the "Kingdom of Pop" for audiences of all ages, especially the manga and anime generation, in North America. Some titles include DEATH NOTE, GANTZ, KAMIKAZE GIRLS, and THE TASTE OF TEA.