Meet the free, proud, independent people of Ukraine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzNxLzFfR5w Nothing but reviews. In excess.
From ZERO to 6 ♥s. 100% ad-free. Run on pure love for movies, documentaries and TV-series. June 2025: Countdown to: Top 10: Best horror comedy movies - Upcoming review: There's Still Tomorrow (2023)
Eagerly anticipating this month ... (6-25)
Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value (2025)
Showing posts with label David Lindsay-Abaire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Lindsay-Abaire. Show all posts
Best Lead Actor: Aaron Eckhart (lost to Stephen Dorff for Somewhere) Best Lead Actress: Nicole Kidman (lost to Jennifer Connelly for Virginia/What's Wrong with Virginia) Best Supporting Actress: Dianne Wiest (won) Best Supporting Actress:Sandra Oh Best Director: John Cameron Mitchell (lost to Sofia Coppola for Somewhere)
+ Best Drama of the Year
A mysterious poster for one of the year's truly great films, John Cameron Mitchell's Rabbit Hole
It has been 8 months since marrieds Becca and Howie lost their 4 year-old son.
Rabbit Hole is an adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire's (High Fidelity (2006)) same-titled, Pulitzer-prize winning 2006 play, written by himself and directed by great Texan filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)). It is a fantastic film; serious, sad, - yet managing to be hope-inspiring in the end. - A great achievement.
Aaron Eckhart (The Rum Diary (2011)) and Nicole Kidman (The Bit Part (1987)) both give outstanding performances, and Dianne Wiest (Robots (2005)) and Sandra Oh (The Night Listener (2006)) are excellent in supporting roles.
Rabbit Hole is touching and realistic. A great drama.
[Rabbit Hole premiered September 13 (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 91 minutes. Kidman dropped out of Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger to pursue Rabbit Hole, which she also acted as a producer on. Filming took place over the course of 28 days from June - July 2009 in Queens, New York. The film expands on the play, adding several characters. It opened #38 in 5 theaters to a 53k $ first weekend, peaking in 131 theaters in North America, where it grossed 2.2 mil. $ (43.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 0.5 mil. $ (9.8 %) and Poland with 0.3 mil. $ (5.9 %). Kidman was Oscar-nominated for Best Actress, which she lost to Black Swan's Natalie Portman. She was nominated for the same Golden Globe, and Rabbit Hole also got nominated for 4 Independent Spirit awards, without winning any though. Roger Ebert gave the film 3½ stars, equal to its rating here. Rabbit Hole is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
A quartet of stars in fantastic costumes are at the center of this fantastically, escapist poster for Sam Raimi's Oz the Great and Powerful
A traveling magician/con artist 'Professor' Oscar 'Oz' gets to the land of Oz during a tornado storm and restores order there.
Oz the Great and Powerful is written by Mitchell Kapner (Romeo Must Die (2000)) and David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole (2010)), based on the Oz novels by L. Frank Baum (The Road to Oz (1909)), and directed by great Michigander filmmaker Sam Raimi (It's Murder! (1977)). It is a 'spiritual prequel' to Victor Fleming's classic musical masterpiece The Wizard of Oz (1939) from Warner Bros.. The film is an adventure that is continually funny and visually impressive, - although, in the unavoidable comparison, the CG VFX which accounts for almost all the wonders of the new Oz cannot compete with the beauty and mystery created in the real sets, costumes and early Technicolor magic of the original film. James Franco (Milk (2008)) is, - contrary to what many have called his turn as Oz, - good as the sly but good-hearted charlatan trickster. The story might (with no less than three of them) have one too many witches, and there definitely isn't enough singing, dancing or Munchkins in my opinion, but Oz the Great and Powerful still is a visually hefty, thoroughly entertaining and adventurous time. I didn't see it in 3D, but I didn't miss it for one second.
Cost: 215 mil. $ Box office: 493.3 mil. $ = Minor flop (returned 2.29 times the cost)
[Oz the Great and Powerful premiered 14 February (Los Angeles) and runs 130 minutes. Franco was paid 7 mil. $ for his performance. Shooting took place from July - December 2011 in Michigan and California. The film opened #1 to a 79.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed #1 for another weekend and then remained in the top 5 for another 2 weekends (#3-#5), grossing 234.9 mil. $ (47.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 27.3 mil. $ (5.5 %) and China with 25.9 mil. $ ( 5.3 %). Approximately 100 mil. $ were spent to market the film. It made in excess of 52 mil. $ on the North-American home video market. Sequel plans were scrapped due to the disappointing commercial performance. Raimi returned with 4 short and TV titles prior to his theatrical return with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). Franco returned in As I Lay Dying (2013). Oz the Great and Powerful is rotten at 56 % with a 6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
