The Ice Storm (1997) - Lee makes one of the year's great American films

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Elongated, eye-focused peaks at three of the film's stars make up most of this blue-toned poster for Ang Lee's The Ice Storm

The father in a nice-looking Connecticut family in the bold 1970s has an affair with the neighbor's wife, while their daughter fools around with two brothers from the same neighborhood, and their son goes to New York during an ice storm.

 

The Ice Storm is written by James Schamus (Indignation (2016)), adapting the same-titled 1994 novel by Rick Moody (Garden State (1992)), and directed by Taiwanese-American master filmmaker Ang Lee (Pushing Hands/Tui shou (1991)), whose 5th feature it is.

An intelligent, stealing meditation of family, sexual identity-making and the dangers in the modern world, The Ice Storm stands out as an excellent drama.

In the glorious cast, durable work is turned in by Kevin Kline (Ricki and the Flash (2015)), Joan Allen (Death Race (2008)), Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man 3 (2007)), Christina Ricci (Miranda (2002)), Sigourney Weaver (Madman (1978)) and Elijah Wood (The Good Son (1993)). The Ice Storm ends powerfully and is a beautiful drama.

 

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Ang Lee: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]  
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
Top 10: The best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date   

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
Life of Pi (2012) - Lee's triumphant, stunning faith-builder 

Top 10: Best erotic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

The 2000s in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Lust, Caution/色，戒/Sè, Jiè/Sik1Gaai3 (2007) - Lee's erotic spy thriller is an exquisite, complex masterpiece 

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

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Brokeback Mountain (2005) or, That Place That Weren't Possible  

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

Hulk (2003) - Lee's fantastic comics adaptation drama 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 18 mil. $

Box office: Reportedly 16 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.88 times its cost)

[The Ice Storm premiered 12 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 113 minutes. Shooting took place from April - June 1996 in New York and Connecticut. The film opened #17 to a 75k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it grossed 8 mil. $ (50 % of the total gross). The foreign gross numbers are not made public, but it is ascertained at The-Numbers.com that the film made almost as much internationally, which would rank it as a huge flop. It won 1/2 BAFTA nominations, an award in Cannes, losing the Palme d'Or to Taste of Cherry, and was nominated for a Golden Globe, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Lee returned with Ride with the Devil (1999). Kline returned in In & Out (1997); Allen in Face/Off (1997); and Weaver in Alien: Resurrection (1997). The Ice Storm is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Ice Storm?

Prozac Nation (2001) - Ricci and Lange are stellar in wrongfully discarded depression drama

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Star Christina Ricci lying naked in white sheets make up this poster for Erik Skjoldbjærg's Prozac Nation

The true story of Elizabeth Wurtzel, a young American woman from a torn home, who goes to Harvard to study, which escalates her emotional chaos.

Prozac Nation is written by Frank Deasy (Captives (1994)), Larry Gross (Gunshy (1998)) and co-writer/co-producer Galt Niederhoffer (10 Things We Should Do Before We Break Up (2020)), adapting Elizabeth Wurtzel's (Bitch (1998)) same-titled 1994 memoir, and directed by great Norwegian filmmaker Erik Skjoldbjærg (Insomnia (1997)).

It is an impressively well-written adaptation of the bestselling story of Wurtzel's personal battle with depression and pill addiction, among other things. It lives and breathes due especially to the strong performances of Christina Ricci (Miranda (2002)) and Jessica Lange (Tootsie (1982)) as Wurtzel and her mother, respectively, but also Michelle Williams (Certain Women (2016)) and Jason Biggs (American Pie (1999)) are good in it.

A series of visual finesses are utilized neatly in this very realistic and painful tour of what family-driven depression can look like. Not a light dish or one that will appeal broadly but a great drama nonetheless.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 9 mil. $

Box office: 129k $ (Norway alone)

= Box office disaster (returned 0.02 times its cost)

[Prozac Nation premiered 8 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 95 minutes. Ricci was paid 1 mil. $ for her performance. Shooting took place from May - July 2000 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and in Massachusetts, including in Boston. The film was acquired by Miramax for release following its Toronto premiere, but the company soured at it in the months and years to follow and only released the film in North America in 2005 on the Starz network. The film did have a theatrical release in a handful of other minor markets, including Skjoldbjærg's native Norway, where it made its likely biggest earning, 129k $. A projected total gross of 200k $ would mean that the film returned 0.02 times its cost theatrically. Skjoldbjærg returned with Skolen (2004, TV-series) and theatrically with En Folkefiende (2005). Ricci returned in The Laramie Project (2002, TV movie) and theatrically in Pumpkin (2002); Lange in Normal (2003, TV movie) and theatrically in Masked and Anonymous (2003). Prozac Nation is rotten at 28 % with a 4.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Prozac Nation?

The Man Who Cried (2000) - Potter's forlorn war drama is a clonker for the ages

[ZERO]

Big stars in shadowy sepia tones appear on this poster for Sally Potter's The Man Who Cried

A Jewish girl from Russia moves to the US in the late 1920s but winds up in England and later in Paris in the increasingly wrought now Nazi-era Europe.

The Man Who Cried is written and directed by Sally Potter (The Gold Diggers (1983)). It is a thoroughly awful film.

Christina Ricci (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)) stares blankly and sings (the actual singing not done by her though), looking far from a real singer. Cate Blanchett (Bangers (1999, short)) is dreadful as a Russian glamour girl; John Turturro (The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)) is hideously terrible as an opera-singing fascist; and Johnny Depp (Cannes Man (1997)) is simply ridiculous here as a talking 'porn-stache' gypsy. - All of them don bad accents to boot.

Everything is inauthentic, and every second of the film strikes one as forlorn. Potter's fantasy of war-time Europe, wherein the realities and the sufferings are only a backdrop, is wholly inadmissible.

Everything is grandly produced, which only makes the quizzically titled film worse; that large sums of investment have obviously been injected into it. - Who is the man who cried and what's the point? -  All is bad in The Man Who Cried, and it is a miracle that all its stars - and Potter most of all - worked after this mire of a picture.

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 1.7 mil. $

= Uncertain - but likely a box office disaster

[The Man Who Cried premiered 2 September (Venice Film Festival) and runs 100 minutes. Shooting took place from September - November 1999 in England and France, including in Paris. The film opened #20 to a 93k $ first weekend in 11 theaters in North America, its highest ranking there, where it grossed 747k $ (43.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 232k $ (13.6 % - at a 2003 re-release) and Germany with 154k $ (9.1 %). The 1.7 mil. $ final gross stems from The-Numbers.com without details backing it up. If the film was made on a likely 7 mil. $ budget, which could very well be a low projection, it would therefore rank as a box office disaster, returning 0.24 times its cost. The film won a National Board of Review award. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to four notches over this one. Potter returned with Yes (2004). Depp returned in Before Night Falls (2000); Ricci in All Over the Guy (2001). The Man Who Cried is rotten at 35 % with a 4.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Man Who Cried?

The Gathering (2002) - Everyone loses with Gilbert's thoroughly terrible calamitous horror flop

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+ Worst Movie of the Year

+ Most Deserved Flop of the Year + Worst Dollar Return of the Year: 0.07 Times

Star Christina Ricci looks sultry in a hoodie in a dirty, cross-marked cellar on this sparse poster for Brian Gilbert's The Gathering

An American girl in England gets run down by a car and suffers memory loss. She gets accommodation at the car driver's family home. He is busy digging up a newly discovered ancient church, which was supposedly built by Joseph of Arimathea.

And on goes the utterly foolish plot, SPOILER which gathers together the witnesses to Jesus' crucifixion, the first nuclear detonation and the Kennedy assassination in some kind of bundle tied up in an English hamlet. The Gathering is written by Anthony Horowitz (Midsomer Murders (1997-00)) and directed by Brian Gilbert (The Frog Prince (1985)).
None of this religious horror flick's scenes build up suspense, so the story's pay-offs never gain any weight. The editing is retched. And the otherwise gifted Christina Ricci's (Bel Ami (2012)) acting may be likened to the work of a pair of rusty garden shears here. This Gathering is miserable.

 

Related post:

 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a 3-minute video on Ricci's career here

Cost: Estimated 18 mil. $
Box office: 1.3 mil. $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.07 times its cost)
[The Gathering premiered 17 May (Cannes Film Market at the Cannes Film Festival) and runs 92 minutes. Shooting took place in the UK from September - October 2001. The film was never theatrically released in North America. Its 3 biggest markets were Germany with 727k $ (55.9 % of the total gross), Spain with 397k $ (30.5 %) and Poland with 119k $ (9.2 %). It was released in several more markets than the ones accounted for at the film's Box Office Mojo page, but these gross numbers are not made available. Gilbert returned with Hitler's Irishman: The Story of Lord Haw-Haw (2005, TV documentary) and theatrically with Allegiance (2005), his last film. Ricci returned in Anything Else (2003). 14,589 Rotten Tomatoes users have given The Gathering a 2.92/5 average rating.]

What do you think of The Gathering?

Black Snake Moan (2006) or, The Mississippi Blues

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+ Most Undeserved Flop of the Year + Best Music Movie of the Year + Best Mississippi Movie of the Year

Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci make a sexually charged pair on the poster for Craig Brewer's Black Snake Moan

QUICK REVIEW:

I love Black Snake Moan!
It's not 110 % perfect like some 6-hearted masterpieces are, but it has its heart so strongly in the right place and tells such a fantastic and multi-faceted story that I can't but bow down in the dust before it.
Samuel L. Jackson (Django Unchained (2012)) is brilliant, - although his blues-voice is nowhere near the strength of probable role models like John Lee Hooker or Howlin' Wolf. He plays an aging blues-man, who finds a young, white (!) nymphomaniac in the ditch and decides that he should right on some of the wrong in her life, because it is the will of God.
Christina Ricci (Anything Else (2003)) is equally amazing as Rae, the fiery young woman, and all the supporting parts are accomplished simply phenomenally.
The blues music, the longing and the pain all stream through this sexy, authentic, unique film, making it a soul-filled joy to watch and listen to. Moan is as much a music film about blues as it is a drama with sexual and societal overtones.

Ricci has disappointingly lashed out at the sexy posters for the film, (which, after all, she must have posed for at some point?), calling them exploitative of women and solely aimed at college boys. Both statements couldn't be farther from the truth. In any case, they unfortunately didn't get very many people to see this excellent gem of a movie.
Writer-director Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow (2005)) of Virginia has yet to make anything else of anywhere near the imposing quality of Black Snake Moan, but he is also still just a relatively young director (of 42).

Related posts:

 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

This trailer doesn't look like much, but trust me, this is a hefty, great, great film

Budget: 15 mil. $
Box office: 10.9 mil. $
= Flop

What do you think of Black Snake Moan?
Other blues-movies that need to be seen?

Anything Else (2003) - Allen's perfect, underrated millennial relationship comedy

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+ Best Huge Flop Movie of the Year + Best New York Movie of the Year + Best Romcom of the Year + Most Under-appreciated Movie of the Year

Being romantically involved with a complex, modern woman can be a heavy burden to bear, as this perky, up-beat poster for Woody Allen's Anything Else seems to suggest

Anything Else is the 33rd film from master New-Yorker writer-director Woody Allen (Deconstructing Harry (1997)). Opinions differ wildly on it.

We follow a young New York author, whose relationship with a very difficult young woman taps him of his energy, while he continually seeks advice and consolation from an aging artist, whom he befriends.

Jason Biggs (Orange Is the New Black (2013-17)) plays the young, neurotic 'young Allen'-like figure and does so extremely well, while Allen plays an endlessly quoting, paranoid, ultimately murderous Jew. Christina Ricci (War Flowers (2012)) is the 'eccentric' (read; borderline mad) woman. And in a supporting role as an amateurish literary agent, Danny De Vito (Be Cool (2005)) shines especially brightly. The film is all fantastically humorous fun, mixed with jazz, philosophy and amble doses of keen sarcasm.
And to all the complexities of life and love that the film presents a slice of, the simpler inclined cab driver that Allen quotes simply returns; "Ah well ... - It's like anything else." - Wherefrom the film gets its title.
The hilarious scenes are one after the other here, poignant and absurdly funny at the same time, in what I rank as an under-appreciated relationship comedy gemstone in Allen's late career.

Related posts:

 

Woody Allen: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess

Café Society (2016) - The greatest living American filmmaker hands us another splendid gem

Irrational Man (2015) - Allen's pleasant morality tale divertisement

2014 in films - according to Film Excess

Magic in the Moonlight (2014) - Allen's irresistible French Riviera romance

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Blue Jasmine (2013) - Allen presenets Blanchett, a woman under the influence

Fading Gigolo (2013) - Turturro's pleasant turn as a high-end NY prostitute  (as actor)

To Rome with Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date  

2011 in films - according to Film Excess

Midnight in Paris (2011) - Allen's zany (and a little depressing) crowd-pleaser  

Cassandra's Dream (2007) - Allen's well-laid but inconsequentiel English cul-de-sac  

Top 10: The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date   

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) - Allen's hypnotic, noirish shenanigans 
Celebrity (1998) or, Stars in New York
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) - Sin and guilt up for laughs and rumination in unspectacular Allen work 
Broadyway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart   

Top 10: Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship with Alvie Singer   

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972) - Allen's curious sex comedy is a riot
Bananas (1971) - Woody Allen's South American misadventure is still a barrel of laughs   
Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time (as actor)    

 

Watch one of the priceless scenes from the film here

Cost: 18 mil. $
Box office: 13.5 mil. $
= Huge flop (0.75 times the cost)
[Anything Else premiered 27 August (Venice Film Festival, Italy) and runs 108 minutes. Allen's sister Letty Aronson (Celebrity (1998)) produced the picture. Shooting took place in New York from May - August 2002. The film opened #12 to a 1.6 mil. $ first weekend in 1,033 theaters in North America, where it only dropped from there and only played 4 weeks, grossing a paltry 3.2 mil. $ (17.8 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 3.1 mil. $ (17.2 %) and France with 3 mil. $ (16.7 %). Though many critics lambasted the film, Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs (1992)) has named it as one of his 20 favorites since his filmmaking career began in 1992. Allen returned with Melinda and Melinda (2004). Biggs returned in Jersey Girl (2004), and Ricci in I Love Your Work (2003). Anything Else is rotten at 40 % with a 5.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Anything Else?