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?

Evolution (2001) - Reitman's sci-fi crazy-comedy is thoroughly entertaining

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The game stars are aligned for a visit from space, on this poster for Ivan Reitman's Evolution

 

A meteor lands in Arizona, and freaky aliens start evolving with alarming speed, while a few scientists fight with the military over who is to be in charge and what is to be done.

Evolution, written by David Weissman (The Family Man (2000)), Don Jakoby (Arachnophobia (1990)) and David Diamond (Old Dogs (2009)) and directed by Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters (1984)), is a sometimes funny and wacky special effects-driven sci-fi comedy.

David Duchovny (Playing God (1997)) and Julianne Moore (The English Teacher (2013)) are a pretty nice match as the scientific protagonists who (of course) become romantically entangled during the whole ballyhoo. Seann William Scott (Role Models (2008)) is gung-ho as a wannabe firefighter, and the relatively unknown Orlando Jones (Woo (1998)) as the fourth part of the ragtag team also does well. Dan Aykroyd (The Blues Brothers (1980)) as the governor is the crowning piece of the ensemble that also features several well-known actors and comedians in smaller parts. The characters are to some extent cliched: Jones' black scientist seems oblivious to basic laws of science and only interested in women; Ted Levine's general character is a stiff, unsympathetic macho a-hole; and the two obese students are good-humored imbeciles. But the film retains a strange, light-hearted charm, even if it did seem a bit better at its release than it does today.

The effects, most of which are CGI, are surprisingly successful; the creatures are inventive and only add to the fun. Evolution is a very wacky spectacle, - exactly what you'd expect from Reitman, and also what Hollywood does so well from time to time. It is very silly and quite entertaining.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 80 mil. $

Box office: 98.3 mil. $

= Big flop

[Evolution was released June 8 and runs 101 minutes. Reitman reportedly rewrote most of the script, which had hitherto been a serious sci-fi piece. Shooting took place from October 2000 - February 2001 in Arizona and California, including in Universal Studios and at California State University. Head and Shoulders shampoo plays a part in the film, - but its inclusion is not an act of commercial product placement; instead it is meant to mock the phenomenon, which is very common in especially big-budget features. The film opened #4, behind Swordfish, Shrek and Pearl Harbor, to a 13.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell from the top 5 in its second week and only grossed a weak 38.3 mil. $ (39 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 10.7 mil. $ (10.9 %) and Germany with 7 mil. $ (7.1 %). Evolution is rotten at 42 % with a 4.9 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Evolution?