Negromancer News Bits and Bites from December 7 to 13, 2014 - Update #9

NEWS:

From GuardianUK:  Did not know that Ava DuVernay and Ryan Coogler were part of this protest.

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From HitFix:  Ava Duvernay talks her Golden Globe nomination.

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From the IndependentUK:  Ridley Scott and "Mohammed So-and-So"

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From TheVerge:  J.J. Abrams is prepping an alien invasion flick, while working on Star Wars.

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From HuffingtonPost:  J.K. Rowling to release 12 new stories set in the world of Harry Potter, one per day until Christmas.

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From Variety:  The winner of the December 5th to 7th, 2014 box office is The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 with an estimated take of $21.6 million.


COMIC BOOKS:

From WSCS:  Shailene Woodley would like to be in a Marvel movie.

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From TheVerge:  The Sony Pictures hack has apparently revealed that Marvel Studios negotiated with Sony to get the use of Spider-Man for their next Captain America film.  Sony owns the film rights to Spider-Man.


STAR WARS:

From YahooGames:  Episode 7 starts to put names to faces.

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From IBTimes:  Rumors about the character(s) Andy Serkis will play in Episode 7.

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From HuffingtonPost:  Someone else tries to explain a "Black storm trooper" to segregationist fanboys and nerds.

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From TheVerge:  A rundown of George Lucas' interview with Page Six about the new Star Wars teaser.


TRAILERS:

From 20th Century Fox: A new trailer for Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Chris Pratt Talks "Guardians of the Galaxy"

Walt Disney Home Entertainment provided the following question-and-answer interview with actor Chris Pratt as a promotion for its Blu-ray and DVD release of Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy.  "Q" is the anonymous questioner and "A" is Chris Pratt:

AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS PRATT (Peter Quill/Star-Lord) FOR THE BLU-RAY AND DVD RELEASE OF GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Q: You’ve been pretty busy lately. Does it feel like your time has come?

A: [Laughs] Man, I am busy! And yes, it does feel like that. But is it overwhelming? Not really. I have the benefit of not over-thinking much in my life. I’m kind of just along for the ride. Also, I learned at a very early stage in my career to always lower my expectations, no matter what. If you don’t, you just get your heart broken. [Laughs] So I’m just expecting that something is going to go horribly wrong.

Q: Amy Poehler from Parks And Recreation says you’re a brilliant improviser. Was there much call for that on Guardians Of The Galaxy?

A: We got to do a little bit but you’ve got to be careful when you’re on a movie that costs, you know, $15,000 a second. You can’t just go blowing takes by trying out some new material. It was less improvisation and more collaboration in terms of the comedy. I would go to James [Gunn, the director and co-writer] and say ‘Hey, this is what we should do in this scene…’ Like having people go ‘Star-Lord who?’ That whole thing was not written that way originally. I said ‘People don’t know who Star-Lord is, you know? It’d be kind of funny if everyone is going “Who?” That was a collaboration, and there were little things like the joke about the legend of Footloose. I came up with that because I was thinking, ‘If this kid was nine years old when he left earth he would have seen Star Wars and he would have seen Footloose, all the movies I loved when I was his age’. We were both born in 1979 and I was nine years old in 1988, just like he was. That kid is the kid I was too. Granted our circumstances were very different; his mom dies and he gets thrown into space and is given the opportunity to be a space adventurer.

Q: You’ve said that your spirit was right for the character of Peter Quill. Can you explain that further?

A: I didn’t have to change all that much. If anyone else had done the movie it would be a different movie. I didn’t pull a Daniel Day-Lewis or anything like that. I just threw on a space jacket and pretended it was me, and I think it works. That’s what I meant by that.

Q: What were the biggest physical challenges?

A: The preparation. That was a big part of it. The first five months of my involvement on this film were spent transforming myself physically. I was in LA working with personal trainers and nutritionists every single day. It became my job. The thing I loved most about comic books as a kid was the imagery: The covers and these super-ripped dudes and mega-sexy women. It was fantasy to me. It’s what I appreciated most as a kid and it was what was most important to me in approaching this role – so I tried to get my body to look as much like those guys as I could. I enjoyed it but it was pain.

Q: Were you on a strict diet?

A: Definitely. It was like chicken, broccoli and rice; chicken, broccoli and rice; chicken, broccoli and rice.

Q: What was your wife Anna Faris’ reaction to your new physique?

A: She would vacillate between being turned on and happy and like ‘Oh my God honey, look at your body, that’s crazy!’ That was one side but the other side was ‘Oh will you just eat something, you grumpy bastard!’

Q: How did you feel when you looked in the mirror and suddenly saw this amazing body?

A: Well, it wasn’t that short of a process. Maybe to the media it seemed that way, going from Parks And Recreation and Delivery Man to this, but it was about seven months in total, working hard every single day. So I saw the process slowly and I was documenting it as I went. I was taking photos. But for the first three months there was almost no change. I was gaining muscle but my body weight stayed the same, although my body composition changed. I would lose fat and gain muscle, lose fat and gain muscle, but I stayed around 270 lbs. for the longest time. I couldn’t break below 270 and then I couldn’t break below 260. I kept hitting these plateaus where I couldn’t lose any weight, then all of a sudden I’d drop 7 lbs., then there was another plateau. I just kept pushing through. It feels from the outside looking in that it was an instant transformation but it did take a pretty long time. I was probably training for three hours a day and I put in something like 400 or 500 hours in the gym.

Q: You’ve mentioned that Peter is a mix of Han Solo and Marty McFly. Why those two iconic characters in particular?

A: They were two of my favorites growing up. I imagined that for this kid who would have seen Star Wars and Back To The Future they’d be some of his favorite characters too. I wasn’t necessarily aiming for that so as I’ve talked about the movie since it probably seems it was more intentional than it actually was. But it’s a good way to describe Peter Quill… If you’re looking at the taxonomy of it he’s one part that, he’s one part this. [Laughs] But really I didn’t know what I was doing, I was just trying not to get fired every day!

Q: Your son Jack is going to love you when he’s a bit older and he realizes his dad was in The Lego Movie and Guardians Of The Galaxy…

A: He’s too young now, but there’ll be a moment when he figures it out. [Laughs] He’s gonna be completely screwed up.

Q: Is working on a Marvel movie like a dream come true for you?

A: It is, yeah. Of all the roles that are out there, anything that could potentially be a franchise, something that’s different and something that caters to my strengths in a nice way – anything like that would be a dream role. But the fact that it’s commercially successful, that’s an extra bonus. It’s like the full house and I’m feeling pretty good about it.

Q: For a kid, seeing Guardians for the first time must be as exciting as seeing Star Wars for the first time….

A: I just missed seeing Star Wars in the theater but I remember it being this all-consuming thing. I’d be playing in the back yard with a fake light saber and I was either Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader or my brother was like Luke Skywalker and I was Darth Vader. I had Chewbacca toys too. So Star Wars was a big part of my childhood and Guardians does feel like that. Having read about it or seen documentaries about it, I now know what Star Wars was at the time. There was all this mythology around it. The actors had seen it and kind of thought it sucked. Then there was the first screening, after George Lucas had put in the score and added the effects, and it was amazing. There were moments on this film where I was, like, dancing in front of 200 alien extras and they were going ‘Oh my God, this is the movie they’re making?’ There were moments where I too wasn’t fully able to see James’ vision, just as all those guys weren’t able to see George Lucas’s vision. With Star Wars nothing like it had ever come out before and it had pushed technology to its absolute limits. It was an epic space adventure with fabulous music. There were a lot of similarities, so yeah, I think this is going to be something that will last.

Q: How does it feel to think that, just as you pretended to be Luke Skywalker when you were a kid, there are now kids who will pretend to be Peter Quill?

A: I guess it’s a bit surreal. There’s not an appropriate feeling to process so I guess I don’t feel anything quite yet. I feel fortunate, I guess. Fortunate and kind of weirded-out! I know it’s a good thing. I don’t want to over-think it but down the line I could have Peter Quill’s wardrobe at home and there is something that Russell Wilson, the quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks, does. I’m from Seattle and I’m a big fan of the Seahawks and he’s a great quarterback. Anyway, every Tuesday he goes to the Seattle Children’s Hospital and he hangs out with the kids. You see these pictures on Twitter and he’s there with these kids who are in various stages of terminal illness or who are really injured or hurt. They have this huge smile on their face and they feel so special because the winner of the Superbowl has come to their room to say hi to them. I’ve thought about that a lot, you know? There’s a possibility that this character could become so iconic that all I’d have to do is throw on this wardrobe, drive down to some hospital or set it up with them, and I could give a kid a memory and a picture that they would never forget. That would be really cool.

Q: Do your friends react differently to you now you’re a big movie star?

A: They make fun of me. Have you ever heard of Flat Stanley? It’s this cultural phenomenon where there’s this little paper doll named Stanley and people take him places and have a picture with him. You take Flat Stanley to the Grand Canyon or you take Flat Stanley to the ocean. Well, my friends are doing that with my Star-Lord doll. They’re going ‘Hey, I’m having lunch with Star-Lord’. The weirdest one? My friend somehow snapped a picture of himself in the toilet with Star-Lord watching. That wasn’t very respectful!

Q: What kind of director is James Gunn? What is it like to work with him?

A: You have to be a maniac to direct a movie like this. [Laughs] There has to be something wrong with you mentally, I think. It requires a type of hyper-focus over the course of many years. Day in and day out you’re thinking about the same thing, which is basically micro-managing and making critical choices when it comes to every single department. He’s somebody who has a strong point of view and he was perfect for this movie. He’s a huge fan of Marvel comic books and of all comic books. He knows all of the comic books, how they go back, how all of the characters were introduced – he’s a fanboy so the audience is in good hands. I remember seeing the animatics for the pod chase sequence – a cartoon that he essentially directed before he even shot the movie. He showed me my character and what he’d be doing, this little animatic Peter Quill, so he knew exactly what he wanted. Then when he shot the movie he matched it to the cartoon he’d already directed. It’s a pretty awesome way to do things. The cartoon of the whole movie probably took six months to direct, then he made the actual movie based on that. I remember watching this cartoon of the pod chase and I was like ‘That’s good enough for me’. I would have paid 12 bucks just to watch the cartoon, it was so good. I was amazed but James was looking at it and going ‘It’s not right, do it again’. At that moment I thought ‘Wow, I could never be a director’. When you have this magnitude of scope and budget you’re seeing the most amazing toys you’ve ever seen and the most amazing sets you’ve ever seen, but James was never blinded by the enthusiasm of seeing all that. It never deterred him from his critical thinking. He knew exactly what he wanted and the reason the movie is as good as it is is because he never settled for anything less than perfect.

Q: On set, how did he direct you personally?

A: He develops techniques for working with each actor. He had to learn how to wear me out. He’d beat me down and wear me out. Two thirds of the way through the movie I was really easy to direct because I was tired. He told me exactly what to do and I did it. There was one time where I was going ‘It doesn’t make any sense to me’ and he said ‘It doesn’t matter what you think or feel’. Was I OK with that? Yes I was because I get neurotic and I get inside my own head, and I don’t have the experience on film that he does. He was right; at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter what I feel. He has an overall vision knowing exactly what this thing is going to look like whereas I, as an actor, assume the entire thing lives or dies by this moment I’m creating. That moment is maybe just three percent of what’s happening. You’ve got everything leading up to that moment, you’ve got all the music surrounding it, you’ve got the camera moves, you’ve got the visual spectacle of it all… Watching that animatic I realized all I had to do was speak as clearly as the words were written at the bottom of the cartoon and it would work. The only way I could screw it up would be by not speaking clearly and you wouldn’t believe how hard it was sometimes because as an actor you don’t always want to speak clearly, you’re like ‘I have to take a moment to act, I have to take a moment to process’. I can’t tell you how many times James was like, ‘Dude, just say it louder and faster’. I’d be like ‘That’s not an actionable direction’ and he’d go, ‘Just shut up, say it louder and say it faster!’ I’d get so furious but when I watched the movie I was going, ‘I wish I’d said it louder and faster’.

Q: Are there any scenes that were cut out you’d be happy to see in the DVD and Blu-ray extras?

A: I think the film is perfectly paced and pretty economical. I don’t think it should be any longer than it is. It’s the perfect length. But there were some comedic moments I’d be happy to see on there - things that play up Peter’s penchant for the femaliens.

Guardians Of The Galaxy is available on Blu-ray, Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere December 9, 2014

- ENDS -

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"Fargo," Matthew McConaughey Top HitFix's 2014 TV Critics Poll

"Fargo" Tops HitFix's Third Annual Television Critics Poll

"True Detective"'s Matthew McConaughey named best performance of 2014

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HitFix (http://www.hitfix.com) announced today that "Fargo" has been chosen as the top television series of 2014 in HitFix's Third Annual Television Critics' Poll.  FX and MGM's Emmy winning series follows "Breaking Bad" which won the first two editions of the poll.

    “Breaking Bad' was the obvious winner for the first two years of the poll, but 2014 was such a wide-open year, with so many great series in so many places, that we had no idea what show would get the most support from our voters”

After "Fargo," the rest of this year's list includes (in the following order) "The Good Wife," "Game of Thrones," "Transparent," "True Detective," "The Americans," "Mad Men," "Orange is the New Black," "Louie," and "Broad City." 

Participants were also asked to vote on for the top 10 new television programs and the best performance of 2014. FX's "Fargo" came out on top for best new show and Matthew McConaughey of "True Detective" won the best performance poll.

“Breaking Bad' was the obvious winner for the first two years of the poll, but 2014 was such a wide-open year, with so many great series in so many places, that we had no idea what show would get the most support from our voters," said Alan Sepinwall, HitFix's Sr. Editor and TV Critic. "FX's 'Fargo' was a worthy winner in both the overall and new series polls, and the three polls together present a terrific cross-section of an exciting year in TV, where if you can't find something great to watch, you're just not looking hard enough."

Over 50 critics from outlets such as USA Today, The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, NPR, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed and Vulture participated. The vote totals for each critic as well as every show that received a vote are available at HitFix.com/TVCriticsPoll.

Each critic submitted their top 10 television programs, new shows and performances of the year.  The votes were determined on a ranked system (#1 pick receives 10 votes, #2 pick receives 9 votes, etc.).

A complete list of all this year's critics and programs can be found at HitFix.com/TVCriticsPoll.

About HitFix: HitFix (www.HitFix.com) is the fastest growing multi-screen entertainment news brand, focused on driving consumer choices across movies, TV shows, streaming content, music and events. With top editorial critics and a hard-to-reach millennial audience, HitFix delivers breaking news, expert analysis and engaging original video content to 300 million monthly viewers. Through their 360-degree cross-platform approach, HitFix surrounds consumers throughout their day spanning desktop, mobile, social, in-home devices and out-of-home digital displays, quickly becoming The Entertainment Authority. Everywhere.

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"Mad Max: Fury Road" Trailer Arrives Wed. December 10th, 2014

Worldwide Satellite Trailer Debut Mad Max: Fury Road

From director George Miller, originator of the post-apocalyptic genre and mastermind behind the legendary “Mad Max” franchise, comes “Mad Max: Fury Road,” a return to the world of the Road Warrior, Max Rockatansky.

Haunted by his turbulent past, Mad Max believes the best way to survive is to wander alone. Nevertheless, he becomes swept up with a group fleeing across the Wasteland in a War Rig driven by an elite Imperator, Furiosa. They are escaping a Citadel tyrannized by the Immortan Joe, from whom something irreplaceable has been taken. Enraged, the Warlord marshals all his gangs and pursues the rebels ruthlessly in the high-octane Road War that follows.

Tom Hardy (“The Dark Knight Rises”) stars in the title role in “Mad Max: Fury Road”—the fourth in the franchise’s history. Oscar winner Charlize Theron (“Monster,” “Prometheus”) stars as the Imperator, Furiosa. The film also stars Nicholas Hoult (“X-Men: Days of Future Past”) as Nux; Hugh Keays-Byrne (“Mad Max,” “Sleeping Beauty”) as Immortan Joe; Nathan Jones (“Conan the Barbarian”) as Rictus Erectus; Josh Helman (“X-Men: Days of Future Past”) as Slit; collectively known as The Wives, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”) is Splendid, Riley Keough (“Magic Mike”) is Capable, Zoë Kravitz (“Divergent”) plays Toast, Abbey Lee is The Dag, and Courtney Eaton is Fragile. Also featured in the movie are John Howard, Richard Carter, singer/ songwriter/performer iOTA, Angus Sampson, Jennifer Hagan, Megan Gale, Melissa Jaffer, Melita Jurisic, Gillian Jones and Joy Smithers.

Oscar-winning filmmaker George Miller (“Happy Feet”) is directing the film from a screenplay he wrote with Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris. Miller is also producing the film, along with longtime producing partner, Oscar nominee Doug Mitchell (“Babe”, “Happy Feet”), and P.J. Voeten. Iain Smith, Graham Burke and Bruce Berman serve as executive producers.

The behind-the-scenes creative team includes Oscar-winning director of photography John Seale (“The English Patient”), production designer Colin Gibson (“Babe”), editor Margaret Sixel (“Happy Feet”), Oscar-winning costume designer Jenny Beavan (“A Room with a View”), action unit director and stunt coordinator Guy Norris (“Australia”), and makeup designer Lesley Vanderwalt (“Knowing”).

Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, a Kennedy Miller Mitchell production, a George Miller film, “Mad Max: Fury Road.” The film is scheduled for release on May 15, 2015, and will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures.

www.madmaxmovie.com
https://www.facebook.com/MadMaxMovie
https://twitter.com/madmaxmovie
#MadMax

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Review: "The Fault in Our Stars" a Love Story for All Times (Shailene Film Fest)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 54 (of 2014) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Running time: 126 minutes (2 hours, 6 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for thematic elements, some sexuality and brief strong language
DIRECTOR:  Josh Boone
WRITERS:  Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (based on the novel by John Green)
PRODUCERS:  Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Ben Richardson
EDITOR:  Robb Sullivan
COMPOSERS:  Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott

ROMANCE/DRAMA

Starring:  Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Nat Wolff, Laura Dern, Sam Trammell, Willem Dafoe, Lotte Verbeek, Ana Dela Cruz, David Whelan, Milica Govich, and Mike Birbiglia

The Fault in Our Stars is a 2014 teen drama and romance from director Josh Boone.  The film is based on the 2012 novel, The Fault in Our Stars, written by author John Green.  The Fault in Our Stars the movie focuses on the unconventional romance of two teenagers battling cancer.

Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) has terminal thyroid cancer.  Intelligent and sarcastic, she also has no friends.  Believing her to be depressed, Hazel's mother, Frannie (Laura Dern), encourages her daughter to join a cancer patients' support group for teens.  There, Hazel meets Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort), an 18-year-old former basketball player and amputee who lost his right leg to bone cancer.  The teens' unconventional way of looking at life and their illnesses bond them, and a romance blooms, even with the specter of death looming over them.

A movie about children dying young, especially of cancer, would be expected to be difficult to watch.  However, The Fault in Our Stars is beautiful and poignant without being heartbreaking or heart-wrenching.  Perhaps, the film succeeds because it is a tale of star-crossed love about two people who happen to have cancer, rather than being a love story about cancer patients.

Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber's screenplay adapts the novel by focusing on love in bloom.  Of course, that comes at the cost of the supporting characters and also the nuances of the relationships between Hazel and Augustus and their respective parents.  The screenplay treats the parents as visitors, appendages rather than as the mothers and fathers who are obviously, intensely involved in the lives of their critically ill children.  Still, Neustadter and Weber capture the freshness, spark, and enchantment of young love, while making the fact that the young lovers must confront finality seem like a magical and romantic thing rather than a dreadful thing.

With this movie, Shailene Woodley gives her best performance in a leading role to date.  She is good from start to finish, and, as usual, she takes female film characters and makes them feel like real girls and young women.  In the film narrative, it takes a while for Ansel Elgort to warm as Augustus, but he eventually makes the boy with the big personality a good fit for the acerbic Hazel.  Director Josh Boone does excellent work by letting his leads grow into the spaces that their characters inhabit.  [Woodley and Elgort also played siblings in the 2014 film, Divergent.]

The Fault in Our Stars became a worldwide hit film.  Why?  This Romeo and Juliet-like film is one of those classic movie love stories in which love triumphs over darkness, with a magic that dispels whatever gloom tries to come over the audience.  Also, this film's musical score, composed by Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott (two members of the indie rock band, Bright Eyes), seems beautiful and uplifting even when it plays over sad moments.  The Fault in Our Stars is like no other recent romantic movie, but it is exceptional and exceptionally good.

8 of 10
A

Tuesday, November 25, 2014


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: Woodley Carries "Divergent" to Victory (Shailene Film Fest)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 53 (of 2014) by Leroy Douresseaux

Divergent (2014)
Running time:  139 minutes (2 hours, 19 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense violence and action, thematic elements and some sensuality
DIRECTOR:  Neil Burger
WRITERS:  Evan Daugherty and Vanessa Taylor (based on the novel by Veronica Roth)
PRODUCERS:  Lucy Fisher, Pouya Shahbazian, and Douglas Wick
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Alwin H. Küchler (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Richard Francis-Bruce and Nancy Richardson
COMPOSER:  Junkie XL

SCI-FI/DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring:  Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoe Kravitz, Miles Teller, Tony Goldwyn, Ansel Elgort, Maggie Q, Mekhi Phifer, Kate Winslet, Ben Lloyd-Hughes, Christian Madsen, Amy Newbold, and Ben Lamb

Divergent is a 2014 science fiction drama from director Neil Burger.  The film is based on the 2011 novel, Divergent, by author Veronica Roth.  Divergent the film is set in a world divided by factions and focuses on a teen girl who does not really fit in with any one faction.

Divergent is set in an indeterminate future and a dystopian Chicago that is a walled city.  There, society is divided into five factions:  Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), and Erudite (the intelligent).  There is also a sixth group, the “Factionless,” in which the members are homeless and shunned by everyone except Abnegation.

Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley) belongs to Abnegation with her mother, Natalie (Ashley Judd); father, Andrew (Tony Goldwyn); and brother, Caleb ( Ansel Elgort).  On her sixteenth birthday, Beatrice will take an aptitude test that is supposed to decide in which faction she would best fit.  She will also learn of a plot to destroy Divergents, people who think independently and do not really fit into any particular faction.  To which faction does Beatrice belong?  Or is she Divergent?

If honesty is the best policy (and often it is), then, I must be honest about my feelings concerning Divergent.  I love it – totally love it.  I enjoyed the hell out of this movie.  There, are two things about Divergent that stand out to me:  (1) the story's themes and messages and (2) Shailene Woodley's performance.

I think that Divergent the film is not literal dystopian science fiction so much as it is metaphorical and thematic.  It is not important that Chicago is a post-apocalyptic city full of survivors trying to both eek out a living and to maintain a social order that is supposed to... well, maintain social order.  In the film, Chicago is important as a setting where creeping individualism meets growing spots of selflessness.  Beatrice wants not only to be “herself,” but to also fit in where she wants.  Being an individual means being able to help people outside of one's caste, even if one's caste-mates frown upon that.  Divergent's story, as I see it, says that the individual and the society are not mutually exclusive.  In fact, the reign of one over the other means disaster for everyone.

As for Ms. Woodley's performance, she does what the best actors do with a character – bring them fully to life.  She makes Beatrice's wants and desires, conflicts and confusion, and her goals and struggles tangible, as if they belong to an actual living person.  When an actor can do this, she makes the audience buy into the character, as if the character were a real person.  I can see why people compare Woodley to fellow millennial actress, Jennifer Lawrence, but they are different from each other.  Lawrence's characters tend to be brash and bold, even when they are vulnerable.  Shailene Woodley is vulnerable and brash and brave in equal measures and at the same time.

Theo James, as the love-interest, Four, is good.  Perhaps, director Neil Burger makes him scowl more than he needs to do for this young male character who must be upfront and hidden.  James, however, has a screen quality that at least serves this film well.

In some ways, Divergent is predictable and follows the hero vs. the system journey so common in films adapted from Young Adult (YA) dystopian science fiction and fantasy books.  However, Divergent is not generic because of Woodley, by both her performance and her engaging screen presence.  She grabbed me and forced me to live in Beatrice's world.  I am glad that this film's box office success has yielded a sequel.

8 of 10
A

Friday, November 14, 2014


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "The Spectacular Now" a Spectacular Love Story (Shailene Film Fest)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 52 (of 2014) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Spectacular Now (2013)
Running time:  95 minutes (1 hour, 35 minutes)
MPAA – R for alcohol use, language and some sexuality - all involving teens
DIRECTOR:  James Ponsoldt
WRITERS:  Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (based on the novel by Tim Tharp)
PRODUCERS:  Michelle Krumm, Andrew Lauren, Shawn Levy, and Tom McNulty
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Jess Hall (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Darrin Navarro
COMPOSER:  Rob Simonsen

DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring:  Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Brie Larson, Masam Holden, Dayo Okeniyi, Kyle Chandler, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nicci Faires, Andre Royo, Bob Odenkirk, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead

The Spectacular Now is a 2013 drama and romantic film from director James Ponsoldt.  The film is based on the 2008 novel, The Spectacular Now, by Tim Tharp.  The film follows a hard-drinking high school senior whose life changes when he meets a nice girl, the kind he previously ignored.

Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) is a high school senior who likes to drink and party.  He is charming and self-possessed, and he lives in “the now.”  He is also a budding alcoholic.  After a night of drinking, he wakes up in someone's yard, and standing over him is Aimee Finecky (Shailene Woodley).  She is the nice girl who reads science fiction and manga (Japanese comics), and does not have a boyfriend.  Sutter and Aimee start dating, but while Aimee dreams of a future with him, Sutter is not sure what he wants, other than to live in the “spectacular now.”

Much of the attention about The Spectacular Now, when it was released last year, focused on rising star, Shailene Woodley.  And she is indeed spectacular here.  She is a natural talent, and she seems like a pure movie star.  Perhaps, the camera does indeed love her, but I am sure that my eye-camera loves her.  Woodley is sincere and refreshing and makes this film sincere and refreshing – different from so many other romantic teen dramas.

However, Miles Teller also gives an exceptional performance.  Sutter Keely has soul, and he makes The Spectacular Now a truly soulful film.  Sutter has substance; there is something inside him.  He is a three-dimensional character, fighting in conflicts and holding motivation, even when it seems as if he does not have any motivation.  Teller is also a rising star, and has been cast as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic in 20th Century Fox's reboot of its Fantastic Four film franchise.  Teller doesn't necessarily look like a leading man, but he has the talent to take him to leading man status.

The Spectacular Now is a surprisingly good film, mainly because of its romantic leads, Teller and Woodley, but there are plenty of good supporting performances – actors that add to this film's wonderful sense of naturalism.  The always-good Kyle Chandler makes the most of his screen time in a small role as Sutter's absentee father.  Chandler is intense and coiled, as if he is ready to explode or to strike.  It isn't a showy performance; rather, it adds to this film's overall quality.  The Spectacular Now is... well, spectacular, but in a subdued and inviting manner.  In the history of American cinema, it will go down as an authentic teen movie.

8 of 10
A

Friday, November 7, 2014


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