Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002) - Good performances in Meadows' warm Nottingham dramedy

10/25/2022

Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002) - Good performances in Meadows' warm Nottingham dramedy

♥♥♥

A simple, good-times promising poster for Shane Meadows' Once Upon a Time in the Midlands

Dek proposes to his girl Shirley and gets a 'no', - even though he does so on live TV, - and Shirley's ex Jimmy then returns home to Shirley and their daughter. - But Dek is not about to give up so easily.

Once Upon a Time in the Midlands is written by Paul Fraser (TwentyFourSeven (1997)) and great English filmmaker, co-writer/director Shane Meadows (Small Time (1996)). The midlands that the title refers to is the East Midlands region of England, as the film is set in Nottingham in that region.

A very English and 1990s kind of ugliness meets the eye in the clothes, hair and locations here in a film with a Quentin Tarantino-inspired western grip that is never really integrally explained in the narrative. The plot pendulates between Shirley's wobbling between partners, and some will undoubtedly lose patience with this going back and forth.

Still I find the film worthwhile, and it has warmth emanating from the strong performances from Shirley Henderson (Filth (2013)), who is lovely, Robert Carlyle (Eragon (2006)), who is ideal as the ego-driven Jimmy, - the type you might jump in the sack with but likely not form a life with, - and Rhys Ifans (Rancid Aluminum (2000)) as the solid but very uncool Dek. Besides these three Finn Watkins (Eden Lake (2008)) is excellent as young Marlene, and Kathy Burke (The Martins (2001)) and Ricky Tomlinson (Safe As Houses (2000, TV movie)) are fine as a loving couple who have quit having sex. Once Upon a Time in the Midlands also has clownish violence and excessively drawn out end credits.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 1.95 mil. £, approximately 2.5 mil. $

Box office: 544k $

= Box office disaster (returned 0.21 times its cost)

[Once Upon a Time in the Midlands premiered 20 May (Cannes Film Festival, out of competition) and runs 104 minutes. Shooting took place in England. The film opened #59 to a 21k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it never attained a higher rank, although it widened to 16 theaters, grossing 172k $ (31.6 % of the total gross). North America was the film's 2nd biggest market, the biggest being the UK with 202k $ (37.1 %). Australia was the 3rd biggest with 86k $ (15.8 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Meadows returned with Dead Man's Shoes (2004). Carlyle returned in Black and White (2002); Henderson in Close Your Eyes (2002); and Ifans in Danny Deckchair (2003). 4.6k+ IMDb users have given Once Upon a Time in the Midlands a 6.1/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Once Upon a Time in the Midlands?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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10/25/2022

Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002) - Good performances in Meadows' warm Nottingham dramedy

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