Hearts in Atlantis (2001) - Beautiful photography and performances drive Hicks' King adaptation

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A mysterious story teaser and a very popular star in Anthony Hopkins reach for our interest on this poster for Scott Hicks' Hearts in Atlantis

Bobby is a quick-witted 12 year-old boy in 1960. He lives with his inattentive mother, when a strange man named Ted moves into their house, and a series of experiences follow for Bobby.

 

Hearts in Atlantis is written by William Goldman (Chaplin (1992)), adapting the novella Low Men in Yellow Coats from the story collection Hearts in Atlantis (1999) by Stephen King (Roadwork (1981)), and directed by Scott Hicks (The Wanderer (1974)).

Behind the quizzical poster is a surprisingly good film, really beautifully photographed (by Piotr Sobocinski (Ransom (1996))), with customary neat period music. It is a rare King adaptation largely without supernatural/horror elements, (SPOILER except for the fact that Ted has psychic abilities.)

There is eminent acting between Anthony Hopkins (Red Dragon (2002)) as the melancholy-wise Ted and Anton Yelchin (Green Room (2015) as the irrefutably intelligent and charming Bobby. There are also good supporting performances from Hope Davis (Wayward Pines (2015-16)) as the flawed mother, Mika Boorem (House (2007, TV-series)) as the girl, and from Celia Weston (The Intern (2015)) and Alan Tudyk (Playing God (2021)) in single scenes.

A perfect ending is missed, as Hicks insists on an unnecessary, laughable framing story, where good David Morse (Wall Street (2014, TV movie)) as adult Bobby spells it out for us without a shade of subtlety that the events we have just witnessed would become decisive for his later life. That ending is a shame.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 31 mil. $

Box office: 30.9 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.99 times its cost)

[Hearts in Atlantis premiered 7 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 101 minutes. Shooting took place from October 2000 - February 2001 in Virginia. The film opened #3, behind fellow new released Don't Say a Word and Zoolander, to a 9 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its second weekend and grossed 24.1 mil. $ (78 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 1.3 mil. $ (4.2 %) and Australia with 1.1 mil. $ (3.6 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Hicks returned with No Reservations (2007). Hopkins returned in Bad Company (2002). Hearts in Atlantis is rotten at 49 % with a 5.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hearts in Atlantis?

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) - Jarmusch's drowsy vampires, an overrated bore

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+ Most Overrated Movie of the Year 

 

 

Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton lounge around and look like lazy artists on this unexciting poster for Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive

A vampire couple who are several centuries old, and who have long abstained from biting humans, meet up in Detroit, where they dive into their very laid-back and personal rock musician lifestyle.

 

Only Lovers Left Alive is written and directed by Ohioan master filmmaker Jim Jarmusch (Permanent Vacation (1980)), whose 11th feature it is.

It is a relentlessly downbeat and very very quiet slug of a movie; Only Lovers Left Alive snails its way self-indulgently forward. As an audience you'll have to buy into total admiration of the perceived 'hipster coolness' of Tilda Swinton (The Limits of Control (2009)), Tom Hiddleston (The Avengers (2012)) and Mia Wasikowska (September (2007)) with troll-like hair (not so cool in my opinion), and also feel that it is really keen that the film celebrates scientists and apparently proposes that major artistic works such as Hamlet were really made by vampire.

Jarmusch invites us along to some interesting locations (Detroit and Tangier), - but this midnight exercise is a yawning killer, and a slow, yawning killer at that.

 

Related posts:

Jim Jarmusch: 2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

The Limits of Control (2009) - Jarmusch hits career low with idea-bereft embarrassment 
Broken Flowers (2005) - Hip search for son and self with Jarmusch and Murray
Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) - Pleasant, precious vignette sit-down with some wonderful people    
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) - Whitaker serves ancient samurai justice in Jarmusch's cool treat   

1995 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Dead Man (1995) - Jarmusch's bold, poetic, rich Americana masterpiece 
Top 10: The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Down by Law (1986) - Jarmusch's jailbreak movie is an independent character gem 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 7 mil. $

Box office: 7.6 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 1.08 times its cost)

[Only Lovers Left Alive premiered 25 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 123 minutes. Gathering funding for the film reportedly took 7 years. 13 companies and support bodies cooperated in its funding and production. Shooting took place from July - September 2012 in Morocco, Germany and in Michigan. The stars wear wigs made of human, yak and goat hair. The film opened #33 to an 87k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #24 and in 95 theaters (different weeks), grossing 1.8 mil. $ (23.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 1.6 mil. $ (21.1 %) and France with 1.3 mil. $ (17.1 %). The film was nominated for 2 Independent Spirit awards, among many other honors. Jarmusch returned with Paterson (2016). Swinton returned in Snowpiercer (2013); Hiddleston in Exhibition (2013). Only Lovers Left Alive is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Only Lovers Left Alive? 

House of D (2004) - Duchovny crashes as writer/director

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Many elements combine mysteriously on this black and ocher-yellow colored poster for David Duchovny's House of D

A middle-aged man bikes around Paris with his girlfriend. He has realized that he should tell her his story: As a boy in New York with his best friend Pappas and his struggling single mother.

 

House of D is written and directed by feature-debuting David Duchovny (The X-Files (1999-02)), who also co-stars in the film.

Duchovny doesn't show huge potential as a writer/director here, and it doesn't elevate the coming-of-age drama/romance that it may be partly autobiographical, (it is unclear whether that is really the case.)

Anton Yelchin (Fright Night (2011)) is fairly good, but I couldn't help but wonder why he had to have such a haystack of hair on his head in the film. Duchovny's then real-life wife Téa Leoni (Wyatt Earp (1994)) is miscast and never credible as a 1970s mother. (She is somehow much too contemporary.) Robin Williams (A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)) is okay, and so is Erykah Badu (The Land (2016)). SPOILER - However she plays a locked up woman, whom the boy never sees, but whom he nevertheless 20 years later in his life decides that he needs to fly form Paris to New York to try to find...!?!

House of D suffers from an often incredibly weak dramatic push, and perhaps it would have worked better as a musical. Furthermore the framing story, (which involves Duchovny as the grown-up version of Yelchin's character), is a pile of overly sentimental dung.

 

Related post:

 

David Duchovny: Evolution (2001) - Reitman's sci-fi crazy-comedy is thoroughly entertaining (co-star)

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 6 mil. $

Box office: 389k $

= Box office disaster (returned 0.06 times its cost)

[House of D premiered 7 May (Tribeca Film Festival, New York) and runs 97 minutes. Shooting took place from September - November 2003 in Paris, France and in New York. The film opened #53 to a 36k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #22 and in 305 theaters, grossing 389k $. Gross numbers from the film's reported handful of international release markets have not been released. Duchovny (unsurprisingly) hasn't directed a film since; but he has directed TV-series again, beginning with Bones (2006, TV-series). Williams returned in Noel (2004); Yelchin in Fierce People (2005). House of D is rotten at 10 % with a 3.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of House of D?

Fierce People (2005) - Wittenborn and Dunne's savagely under-appreciated coming-of-age gem

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+ Best Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Anton Yelchin + Most Under-Appreciated Movie of the Year + Best Box Office Disaster of the Year + Worst Distribution of the Year + Best Youth Movie of the Year 

Some of the theme and a section of the attractive cast are highlighted on this avocado-colored poster for Griffin Dunne's Fierce People

A substance abuse massage therapist single mother relocates with her unwilling son into the home of a billionaire client, where they alternately charm and stir up problems in high society, as young Finn wins the heart of the old man.

Fierce People is written by Dirk Wittenborn (Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979)), based on his own same-titled 2002 novel, and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker Griffin Dunne (Addicted to Love (1997)). The story seems to have taken definite inspiration from the writings and philosophy of anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon, whether Wittenborn shares any familiar relation to the controversial figure or not. (The film's title reflects Chagnon's most famous and contested works, Yanomamö: The Fierce People (1968), a field study of the indigenous Amazon jungle tribe the Yanomamö, and the protagonist Finn character in the film here states that he prefers to visit his famous South-American Indian-studying anthropologist father, who claims to have found a 'fierce people', but is instead forced to stay with his mother and a strange rich family, whom he experiences and decides are definitely 'fierce people.')
Kristen Stewart (Camp X-Ray (2014)) and particularly Anton Yelchin (The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)), aged 14-15 at the time of shooting, with beautifully curly locks here, are simply adorable as youngsters falling in love in a very well-produced and well-shot (by William Rexer (Ceremony (2010))) coming-of-age drama, which just gets better and better. It also has good performances from Donald Sutherland (Dirty Sexy Money (2007-09)) and Diane Lane (Priceless Beauty (1988)).
SPOILER A rape is dealt with a little conveniently lightly, but the film's ending is thoroughly touching and insightful in its context. Fierce People is a very fine film.

Related post:

Griffin Dunne: 2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

An American Werewolf in London (1981) - Landis' great, funny, scary werewolf favorite (actor)

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Reportedly 8 mil. $
Box office: 269k $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.03 times its cost)
[Fierce People premiered 24 April (Tribeca Film Festival, New York) and runs 107 minutes. Dunne optioned Wittenborn's unfinished novel in 2002. Shooting took place in British Columbia, including Vancouver, in and around February 2004. The film was only released in relatively few markets, and its release in the US was halted until 2007 for various depressing reasons. It opened #70 to a 19k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #65 and in 25 theaters, grossing just 85k $ (31.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Mexico with 73k $ (27.1 %) and Russia with 56k $ (20.8 %). Dunne returned with Your Product Here (2006, short) and theatrically with The Accidental Husband (2008). Lane returned in Must Love Dogs (2005), Yelchin in Alpha Dog (2006), Sutherland in Pride & Prejudice (2005), and Stewart in Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005). Fierce People is rotten at 24 % with a 4.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Fierce People?

Anton Yelchin, 1989-2016: A tribute

The 27 year-old intelligent, passionate, charismatic young star actor passed away Sunday in what was apparently a freak accident caused by a fault in his Jeep Grand Cherokee, Yelchin's own car. A fault that has apparently been the cause of dozens of other accidents and one of the reasons the maker of the car - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV - have called back 1.1 mil. of their cars in 2015. The outrageous lack of responsibility shown by that company should hopefully become much more expensive for them as well as warn others against purchasing their dangerous vehicles.

Yelchin was born in Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russia) by figure-skating parents, who emigrated with him to the US soon after his birth. Besides the credits listed below, Yelchin also acted in films and TV-series such as:
Along Came a Spider (2001), Hearts in Atlantis (2001), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004, TV-series), House of D (2004), Huff (2004-06), Alpha Dog (2006), New York, I Love You (2008), Star Trek (2009), Terminator Salvation (2009), The Smurfs (2011), The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012), Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), The Smurfs 2 (2013), 5 to 7 (2014) and Broken Horses (2015) and many more.

It is profoundly sad that this spirited and gifted young soul should be taken away so early. My deepest condolences to Yelchin's family and friends.
Rest in peace

Anton Yelchin: Green Room (2015) or, I Was a Punk Band Nazi Killer!
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) or, Star Trek It Before You Wreck It
Odd Thomas (2013) - A troubled teen pic
Fright Night (2011) - A vampire neighbor doesn't equal excitement 
The Beaver (2011) - Odd depression-dramedy with great stars - for the open-minded
Charlie Bartlett (2007) - Charmer Yelchin leads an enjoyable high school movie
15 Minutes (2001) or, Bad Cynics in New York City 

What is your greatest Anton Yelchin memory and favorite performance?

Green Room (2015) or, I Was a Punk Band Nazi Killer!

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The cool, tunnel-like poster for Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room

Green Room is the 3rd feature from writer-director Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin (2013)), who debuted with the low-budgeted horror-comedy Murder Party (2007). 

A passionate but unsuccessful punk band of youths get an offer to finish their ailed tour with a concert that will turn in a wad of cash. Their acceptance is soon regretted when they witness something they shouldn't at the neo-Nazi venue.

Anton Yelchin (Broken Horses (2015)) has grown quite a bit, - from the cute kid of Fierce People (2005)) to the hard-edged, balding guy that meets us in Green Room, in which he acts well yet again. Patrick Stewart (The Game of Their Lives (2005)) is convincing as the inhumane heavy of the pic, though his garbled intonation made me wish I'd had subtitles.
Green Room sets up an interesting premise and turns fast into a survival horror with some effective gross-out moments and awesome effects work. SPOILER The arm chopping scene early on is probably its best.

Real terror didn't creep up on me via the film, simply because the punk band's situation seemed too far removed from any situation I might ever find myself in. What could have been another stupid-youths-caught-in-the-woods-to-die-screaming-one-by-one is lifted here due to the fact that the kids aren't stupid at all, and that the truly rotten predicament seems realistic enough.
SPOILER The film features some neat details like the fire extinguisher turning bad guys into something resembling zombies, and the band, - in true punk kid fashion, - fixing even mutilated limbs with duct tape.
Green Room, while a good ride for fans of the brutal, isn't a perfect film, though. It upholds a solemnity that is a little much, and some of the lines that best represent this don't really stick. It injects a self-ironic touch, but only in the last shot of the film. Some of the characterizations that might have been deepened seem to have been replaced with much talk of cartridges, bullets and guns, which at some point become something  less than interesting. SPOILER Also, the Werm character, intensely portrayed by Brent Werzner (Blue Ruin), who plays an eerie, intense function in the first part of the film, and whom we later feel curious about, has nothing more to do in the film.

Related posts:

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Here's a short trailer for the film

Cost: 5 mil. $
Box office: 3 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Green Room was released May 17 (Cannes) and runs 95 minutes. The film was shot from October 2014 in Oregon. It was shown in the Directors' Fortnight section in Cannes and later shown at the opening night of the Toronto International Film Festival. The film opened wide #16, in 777 theaters, to a 0.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America where it has so far grossed 2.7 mil. $ (90 % of the total gross). It has been shown at a wealth of film festivals, and the gross reported above must rise in time to come. Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets reported yet are France with 0.2 mil. $ (6.7 %) and United Arab Emirates with 66k $ (2.2 %). Green Room is certified fresh at 90 % with a 7.7 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Green Room?

Charlie Bartlett (2007) - Charmer Yelchin leads an enjoyable high school movie

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+ Best High School Movie of the Year

One very red poster for Jon Poll's Charlie Bartlett

QUICK REVIEW:

Bartlett is a rich kid, who after several private schools finally ends up in a public high school. Being the entrepreneur that he is, he starts offering psycho-pharmaceutical drugs and guidance to the fellow students and falls for the principal's daughter.

Without ever becoming anything spectacular, Charlie Bartlett is a charming film that reminded me of some of the better 80's youth fare. The film has its heart in the right place and a brimming Anton Yelchin (Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)) in the title lead. Robert Downey Jr. (Zodiac (2007)), Hope Davis (About Schmidt (2002)) and newcomer Kat Dennings (Thor (2011)) also do well.
The movie may strike you as a bit annoying at first, but it soon wins the heart of the romantically disposed. Russian-born Yelchin looks like an actor with a bright future ahead of him here, which has certainly proven to be the case thus far.
The film is directed by editor Jon Poll (Meet the Parents (2000), editor), who is trying to get his next feature off the ground, the romcom Responsible Adults.

Related posts:

2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch the film's trailer here

Cost: 12 mil. $
Box office: 5.2 mil. $
= Huge flop
[Despite mostly decent reviews, the film fared very poorly in cinemas, perhaps scaring some film-makers away from making traditional youth-films, (youth films today are often eschewed towards other genres like sci-fi or horror, which is perceived to be more popular these days.) Bartlett made 3.9 mil. $ (75 % of its total gross) in the US.]

What do you think of Charlie Bartlett?

The Beaver (2011) - Odd depression-dramedy with great stars - for the open-minded

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Mel Gibson bonds with a hand-puppet beaver to get over his depression in Jodie Foster's The Beaver

QUICK REVIEW:

Walter Black is chronically depressed, and his family can't stand it any longer. But then he starts to cure himself with the Beaver, a hand-puppet...
The Beaver walks the fine balance between absurd comedy, drama and a credible portrait of living with depression at the same time. It is actually a fine little film.
Mel Gibson (Signs (2002)) and Jodie Forster (The Silence of the Lambs (1991)), - who also directed the film, - play the married, struggling couple with the high class that you would expect from them. Anton Yelchin (Fierce People (2005)) is unimpressive as a son, while Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone (2010)) is good as a love interest for him. But the student speech about loss and grief, - a key storyline in the film, - is somewhat unoriginal.
The Beaver has a nice symbolism going for it about amputation and roller coasters.
Unfortunately, this, Foster's third movie as a director (following Little Man Tate (1991) and Home for the Holidays (1995)) was a major flop. - Probably just too odd for most audiences, which is a bit of a shame, since it's not a bad movie, or really all that obscure, at all. Might also have been that many audiences hadn't forgiven Gibson yet for some of the things that had been written about his ugly, personal scandals in the tabloids.

Related review:

Jodie Foster: The Brave One (2007) - Acting in the afterwake of random, deadly violence (actress)

Watch the trailer here

Budget: 21 mil. $
Box office: 6.3 mil. $
= Huge flop

What do you think of The Beaver?
Other unusual cinematic portrayals of depression that you can think of?