House at the End of the Street (2012) or, The Dull House

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A scarcely dressed co-star Jennifer Lawrence looks caught in a dire situation on this poster for Mark Tonderai's House at the End of the Street

A single mother and her teenage daughter moves into a house. But in the neighboring house, in which a sweet college boy now lives alone, the boy's brain-damaged sister killed their parents. - Or did she?

House at the End of the Street is written by David Loucka (The Dream Team (1989)), with Jonathan Mostow (Breakdown (1997)) contributing story elements, and directed by Mark Tonderai (Hush (2008)).

Elisabeth Shue (Heart and Souls (1993)) seems despondent, and Jennifer Lawrence (Joy (2015)) as the (as usual) very mature high school protagonist actually gives an honest performance, which nevertheless can't salvage the film. In fact perhaps a really bad performance from her might have made it a bit of fun at least. Max Thieriot (My Soul to Take (2010)) is sweet to look at but fatally unbelievable as the standard issue psychopath villain, - whom Lawrence falls in love with.

House at the End of the Street is an awful mess of teen-drama romance and delayed, hopeless horror. Whether it makes any sense is hard to determine, because it is so lethally dull.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 10 mil. $

Box office: 44.2 mil. $ 

= Big hit (returned 4.42 times its cost)

[House at the End of the Street was released 21 September (North America, UK and Ireland) and runs 101 minutes. Shooting took place from August - September 2010 in Ontario. The release was reportedly delayed to cash in on Lawrence's growing fame, - a strategy that paid off: The film opened #2, behind End of Watch, to a 12.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#5) and grossed 31.6 mil. $ (71.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 3.8 mil. $ (8.6 %) and Germany with 1.4 mil. $ (3.2 %). Tonderai returned with 18 TV credits prior to his theatrical return with Spell (2020). Lawrence returned in The Devil You Know (2013); Thieriot in Dark Horse (2012, TV movie), Texas Rising (2015, miniseries) and theatrically in Point Break (2015). House at the End of the Street is rotten at 12 % with a 3.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of House at the End of the Street?

Midnight Special (2016) - Nichols' strange, cool sci-fi curveball

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A mysterious bespectacled boy reads underneath a blanket on the uninformative poster for Jeff Nichols' Midnight Special

A boy whom a Texan sect is centered around has been abducted, and the authorities send their big guns out to locate him, when among other things they learn that he has divulged some of their secrets, which he couldn't possibly have known about naturally.

Midnight Special is written and directed by great Arkansan filmmaker Jeff Nichols (Shotgun Stories (2007)).
It is a strange story about a fantastical boy from a foreign civilization, which is elevated through handsome photography (by Adam Stone (The First (2018, TV-series))), skillful editing, an effective score (by David Wingo (Barry (2018-19))) and an excellent cast.
Jaeden Martell, formerly Lieberher, (St. Vincent (2014)) is tremendously credible as the boy; Adam Driver (Lincoln (2012)) is a delectable NASA scientist; Kirsten Dunst (Luckytown (2000)) finds herself in a very unglamorous maternal crisis in the film; and Michael Shannon (What They Had (2018)) and Joel Edgerton ($9.99 (2008)) are wooden men in the car.
Nichols doesn't miss an occasion to score a facial close-up from anyone in the fine cast, and the father-son dynamic between Shannon and Martell, - when we don't fully know the actual history between the two characters, - is a bit odd. The film remains exciting nevertheless, and it culminates forcefully with a view inside the super-evolved world of the strange boy. Midnight Special is a cool film.

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2012 in films - according to Film Exces [UPDATED I]
Mud (2012) - Career-defining, electric Americana
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Take Shelter (2011) or, Madness in Ohio 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 18 mil. $
Box office: 6.7 mil. $
= Mega-flop (returned 0.37 times its cost)
[Midnight Special premiered 12 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 112 minutes. Nichols wrote the script as a reflection of his becoming a father. It is Nichols first studio production, done so only when he was promised final cut. Shooting took place in Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico and in Mississippi from January - March 2014. Dunst wore no makeup in the film. The film opened #30 to a 190k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #14 and in 521 theaters (different weekends), grossing 3.7 mil. $ (55.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 1.4 mil. $ (20.9 % ) and the UK with 1.3 mil. $ (19.4%). Nichols returned with Loving (2016). Shannon returned in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016); Dunst in Hidden Figures (2016); and Martell in The Confirmation (2016). Midnight Special is certified fresh at 84 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Midnight Special?

Late Night (2019) - Thompson is superb with Kaling's brainy script

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+ Best New York Movie of the Year

Emma Thompson has a different hairstyle than in the actual film, curiously, on the poster for Nisha Ganatra's Late Night

Katherine Newbury is a British talk show institution in American comedy, - but her show's ratings have steadily declined for years, and she is in need of a radical reinvention in order to keep her show. Into her writers' room enters her fan Molly...

Late Night is written by writer/co-producer/co-star Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project (2012-17)) and directed by Nisha Ganatra (Chutney Popcorn (1999)).
Kaling is sweet as Molly, whose hiring is a mystifying stroke of luck for her. The job to restart the talkshow and open its host more up to her possible audiences is no small task, and Emma Thompson (Nanny McPhee (2005)) is terrific as the impatient, cynical, tyrannical boss, who is en route to her own career downfall. For someone with love for late night talk shows, the story's course echoes both David Letterman's infidelity scandal and admission on his show and the Conan O'Brien/Jay Leno fight for their respective shows. There is no woman late-night talkshow persona in real life like Newbury in the movie, (the great Ellen DeGeneres reigns daytime comedy with her talkshow), - but there could be.
As part of the role Thompson sports a hairdo and cool garbs and jewelry, which elevate her performance. Late Night doesn't do much cinematically, but Thompson, besides a great actress, is cinematic, and therefore even more crucial to the film. - And so is John Lithgow (Kinsey (2004)), her husband in it, and the two share a genuinely touching scene towards the end.
Late Night also benefits from a strong supporting cast with proven talents Amy Ryan (Kidnapped (2006-07)), Hugh Dancy (Evening (2007)), Reid Scott (The Veil (2016)), Dennis O'Hare (The Proposal (2009)) and Max Casella (The Sopranos (2001-07)).
The film has lines and moments that produce chuckles, although it could certainly be funnier; but it makes a thoughtful dealing with current issues of political correctness, mindless entertainment, minority representation, gender equality and hypocrisy its main priority.

Related post:

Nisha Ganatra: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2019 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Reportedly 4 mil. $
Box office: 21.7 mil. $ and counting
= Big hit (has returned 5.42 times its cost)
[Late Night premiered 25 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 102 minutes. The script was first bought by Fox 2000 in 2016. Paul Feig was originally scheduled to direct but dropped out. Shooting took place in New York from April 2018 - ?. Amazon paid 13 mil. $ for the North American distribution rights at Sundance, - a record. They furthermore spent a whopping 35 mil. $ to market the film. It opened #17 to a 246k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #9 and in 2,220 theaters, grossing 15.4 mil. $ (71 % of the total gross to date). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets have been the UK with 1.7 mil. $ (7.8 %) and Australia with 1.4 mil. $ (6.5 %). It has one more market announced to open in: Mexico on 18 October. Some analysts are calling the film one of the year's biggest flops due to Amazon's great expenses thrown at the film; but if the 4 mil. $ budget is accurate, the film is a big hit, and Amazon's expenses are also a part of their overall strategy, which is mainly about their streaming service, for which the film is likely an important touchstone. Ganatra returned with Black Monday (2019, TV-series) and will return theatrically with Covers (2020). Thompson returned with a voice performance in Missing Link (2019) and in the flesh in Men in Black: International (2019); Kaling does not have her next acting gig announced yet. Late Night is certified fresh at 80 % with a 6.8/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Late Night?

Arrival (2016) - Villeneuve, Heisserer and Adams head sensational sci-fi wonder

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+ Best Adaptation of the Year + Best Science Fiction Movie of the Year

A sharp, excitement-inducing poster for Denis Villeneuve's Arrival

Peoples of the world react with curiosity and fright when twelve mysterious space ships of alien origin arrive in different countries to simply hover and present riddles for us to grapple with. At the US site, a linguistics professor works against the clock to understand the event.

Arrival is the 8th fiction feature by Canadian master filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (Sicario (2015)) and is written by Eric Heisserer (The Thing (2011)), based on Ted Chiang's (Tower of Babylon (1990)) novella Story of Your Life (1998).
It is an intensely exciting ride, which feels extremely real throughout. It presents what can be described as a classic sci-fi story and the dilemmas it spurs: If an alien intelligence landed on earth and didn't make its intent known to us, - how would we react? This The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)-like premise gets heightened through the catch that there's not one or two but 12 alien vessels, which force people of different languages and cultures to try and work together to grasp the intent of the uninvited guests. Appropriately, the story centers on a linguistics professor, and her and her fellow scientists' work gets pitted against the realities of a majorly militarized command with uneasy communications with other arrival nations, and the untrustworthy nature of people in flocks. The fickleness of our unity as a race and our security gets probed effectively in the story's thrilling developments.
Amy Adams (The Ex (2006)) is nothing short of marvelous as professor Hannah, who arrives at the job with a heavy personal trauma gnawing at her soul, which gets illuminated increasingly as the film progresses. The performances of Jeremy Renner (The Bourne Legacy (2012)), Forest Whitaker (Rogue Nation: A Star Wars Story (2016)), Tzi Ma (Million Dollar Arm (2014)) and Michael Stuhlbarg (Seven Psychopaths (2012))) all add to the integrity and believability of the intelligent story, making it extra tense.
Arrival unfolds unexpectedly and is underscored by a terrific score by Jóhann Jóhannsson (The Theory of Everything (2014)). The visual effects, sound design, elegant, complex cinematography (by Bradford Young (Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018))) and production designs are first-rate. Maybe the conclusion is less than the ride that comes before it but that doesn't take much from the impressive work done here.

Related posts:

Denis Villeneuve: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess
Incendies (2010) - Villeneuve's dreary and depressing, wildly overrated drama

Watch an official trailer for the film here

Cost: 47 mil. $
Box office: 129.8 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say (but already a box office success)
[Arrival premiered September 1 (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 116 minutes. Filming took place in Canada in and around June 2015. The film opened #3, behind holdover hits Doctor Strange and Trolls, with a 24 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it by now has spent 5 weeks in the top 5. The film has yet to open in big markets Italy and Japan. It looks like a shoo-in for several Oscar nominations and has already conquered the #100 spot on IMDb's user-generated Top 250, as well as two Golden Globe nominations and its place on AFI's Top 10 of the year list. Arrival is certified fresh at 93 % with a 8.4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Arrival?

Café Society (2016) - Allen revisits old turf in okay romcom

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+ Best Romcom of the Year

 

A classy poster for Woody Allen's Café Society

 

When a young man from New York comes to Hollywood to work for his bigshot agent uncle, who is entangled in an extra-marital affair with his much younger secretary, complications arise.  

 

Café Society is New-Yorker master writer-director Woody Allen's (Broadway Danny Rose (1984)) 47th film.

Café Society is set mostly in New York and navigates familiar thematic waters for Allen: The capriciousness and complications of the heart, the realities of crime and enterprise, Los Angeles versus New York, - and religious speculations. It does so with the marvelous intellect and dexterity which we have grown accustomed to expect from him, though it can feel like scraps from familiar, great films of his fixed together and given a fresh coat of paint.

The casting: Steve Carell (Freeheld (2015)) brings such a sincerity to his bigshot agent character, who might easily have looked like a pig in a lesser actor's interpretation, that we like him, - and he successfully couples it with realistic, to-the-point showbiz vernacular. Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland (2009)) inhabits the 'Allen-part', but doesn't play Allen, but the response to his performance will be individual. Kristen Stewart (Panic Room (2002)) is incredibly erotic as the secretary. The depth and length of Eisenberg and Stewart's fickle relation here is stretched thin, though, and becomes hard to believe in. Blake Lively (The Shallows (2016)) is tremendously sweet, and Corey Stoll (Ant-Man (2015)) as the gangster brother and Jeannie Berlin (Bone (1972)) and Ken Stott (One Day (2011)) as the parents are all terrific.

Allen narrates the film himself. It is good-looking and fun and charming mostly, but of little import.

 

Related posts:
 
Woody Allen: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess

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
Fading Gigolo (2013) - Turturro's pleasant turn as a high-end NY prostitute  (as actor)
Blue Jasmine (2013) - Allen presenets Blanchett, a woman under the influence

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
To Rome with Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date  
Midnight in Paris (2011) - Allen's zany (and a little depressing) crowd-pleaser  

2011 in films - according to Film Excess
Cassandra's Dream (2007) - Allen's well-laid but inconsequentiel English cul-de-sac  
Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy  

Top 10: The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date   
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) - Allen's hypnotic, noirish shenanigans 
Celebrity (1998) or, Stars in New York 
Celebrity (1998) or, Beautiful Celebrities Talk About Sex (guest review) 
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) - Sin and guilt up for laughs and rumination in unspectacular Allen work 
Broadyway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart   
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship with Alvie Singer   
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 a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 30 mil. $

Box office:  35 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[Café Society premiered May 11 (opening the Cannes Film Festival) and runs 96 minutes. Bruce Willis was supposed to play the uncle character but bowed out due to his involvement in the Misery stage adaptation on Broadway and was replaced by Carell, who is almost certainly a better fit for the part. Filming took place in California and New York from August 2015. It is Allen's first film shot digitally, using the Sony CineAlta F65 camera. The budget was originally 18 mil. $ but ballooned during production to become the largest in Allen's career, (and a major reason why the film will have a hard time making its money back.) Amazon Studios handled the North American distribution with Lionsgate. The film opened #18 in 5 theaters to a 359k $ first weekend, - the then-biggest theater average of the year, - widening to 631 theaters and #12 in North America, where it has grossed 11.1 mil. $. Café Society is fresh at 69 % with a 6.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Café Society?

Side Effects (2013) - Modern people screw up in excellent thriller

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+ Best Thriller of the Year

Four stars with apprehensive looks are divided by a blood-red medical cross on this poster for Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects

 

Side Effects is Georgian master filmmaker Steven Soderbergh's (Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)) second film in 2013, the other one being Liberace-biopic Behind the Candelabra, which was also favorably reviewed by Film Excess here: Behind the Candelabra (2013) - Restraint and extravagance. It is his 24th feature.
This one is a psychological thriller about psychotropic drugs, their use, over-use and implications in America today. If it sounds like a university lecture for people with glasses, don't worry, it's not. Side Effects is a wildly successful suspense-movie.

 

Following a possible suicide attempt, the young wife of a convicted inside-trading perpetrator is introduced to some experimental drugs, which come with unexpected side effects.

 
Side Effects is also the kind of thriller where you don't want to give away an elaborate plot summary, because it would ruin too much of the ride of seeing the film. Suffice to say, Jude Law (Spy (2015)) is excellent as an over-worked but well-intentioned psychiatrist who finds himself in a serious jam; Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)) is his patient, Catherine Zeta-Jones (The Darling Buds of May (1991-93)) is her old psychiatrist, and Channing Tatum (22 Jump Street (2014)) is her husband.
The exciting script by Scott Z. Burns (The Laundromat (2019)) has more than one unforeseen twist, which impresses along the way. If you have misgivings that Side Effects looks more like well-intended criticism of the pharmaceutical world than an exciting watch, luckily, you're wrong. (And this is perhaps a fault in its marketing.) The film does implicitly say that our over-medicated culture comes with some sick, unwanted side effects, but it goes no further than that, keeping its eye square on the thriller ball.
All the actors are safe in Soderbergh's seasoned direction, and new-comer Mara surprised me positively with her performance in a difficult role. So look out for her.
Otherwise it's a slick and very enjoyable operation: Soderbergh's own photography is as usual über-professional; the editing is sharp, the pacing perfect. And Thomas Newman's (The Judge (2014)) score is right on.

SPOILER A couple of little things annoyed me slightly in the story: There's a scene wherein some people, including Law's doctor character, sit and talk, and they just so happen to shed light on the disagreeable grease that big pharmaceutical companies sometimes use to persuade doctors to use their drugs, (expensive tickets, dinners etc.) This is not really a necessary information for the particular story, and the lines spoken felt out of place. If Burns felt that needed to be in Side Effects, it could have been handled more smoothly elsewhere, I feel.
SPOILER The other little thing is the harsh reaction of the doctor's wife, once he starts to see a tough time. This may very well be a realistic reaction from a modern married woman today, but it is depressing, and we've seen it too much in recent fiction. How about building up relationships via fiction portrayals as well sometimes, instead of always pointing out how weak and easily collapsible the modern nuclear family is? And just to be clear, that path need not compromise the film's suspense. There are multitudes of other ways the wife could have reacted besides leaving her husband immediately.
These are, in any case, minor detractors from Side Effects, which has a top-performing and very good-looking main cast and a smart, pulsating story. Don't miss it.

 

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2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Magic Mike XXL (2015) - Lots of fun and skin but still no gay as Mike goes to the convention (cinematographer, editor) 

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

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess
Behind the Candelabra (2013) - Restraint and extravagance 
Magic Mike (2012) - Soderbergh and Tatum score big with cheeky male strip romp 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2011 in films - according to Film Excess 
Contagion (2011) - Soderbergh's global pandemic creep-out  
Haywire (2011) - Soderbergh's taut, stylish ensemble actioner is a masterpiece

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  
The Informant! (2009) - Soderbergh and Damon's terrific true-crime dramedy  
Che Part One - The Argentine (2008) - Soderbergh's sober depiction of the Cuban revolution 

Ocean's Twelve (2004) - Soderbergh returns with jumbled, glossy heist comedy sequel 
Solaris (2002) - A suffering space question mark  

2000 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Top 10: Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Erin Brockovich (2000) - Roberts, Soderbergh and Grant's triumphant biopic   

Check out the trailer for Side Effects here

Cost: 30 mil. $
Box office: 63.3 mil. $
= Flop (returned 2.11 times its cost)

[Side Effects premiered 31 January (New York) and runs 106 minutes. Shooting took place in New York from April - May 2012. It opened #3, behind fellow new release Identity Thief and hold-over hit Warm Bodies, to a 9.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and grossed 32.1 mil. $ (50.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 7.5 mil. $ (11.8 %) and France with 3.6 mil. $ (5.7 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Soderbergh returned with Behind the Candelabra (2013). Mara returned in Her (2013); Tatum in G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013); Law in Dom Hemingway (2013); and Zeta-Jones in RED 2 (2013). Side Effects is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Side Effects?