Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) - Child performances stand out in July's fine debut

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+ Best Big Hit Movie of the Year + Best Dramedy of the Year

A number of characters are amassed around in a circle around praise by critic Roger Ebert on a coat of pink on this poster for Miranda July's Me and You and Everyone We Know

A woman artist, who has a day job rolling wheelchair-bound elders around, meets an exciting man, who works in a shoe store and is separated from the mother of his children.

Me and You and Everyone We Know is written and directed by debuting Miranda July (Kajillionaire (2020)). The film is actually just as much about the exciting man's two sons, and a couple of teenage girls in the neighborhood, as it is about the two adults that meet.
July's debut is the definition of a quirky, offbeat little indie debut - in this case thankfully with a large personal investment.
The tinily plotted tale is a different kind of film experience, which instead lives on its director's artistic eye for details and symbolism, - as well as some laughter-inducing lines and chains of events.
July, who plays the lead artist herself, and the two boys, portrayed by Miles Thompson (Thirteen Conversations about One Thing (2001)) and Brandon Ratcliff (Blood Shed (2013)), are best in the cast; the latter two are outstandingly natural in the two parts that among other themes revolve around the sexuality of children. July's invention in this respect, particularly for the younger of the boys, will undoubtedly inspire conversations.  John Hawkes' (Contagion (2011)) salesman character, a man who isn't ideally suited for fatherhood, and who rambles on in overly honest fashion at his job, is a bit galling.
July arrives well with this crackerjack of a movie.

 

Related post:

 

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

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 2 mil. $
Box office: 8 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4 times its cost)
[Me and You and Everyone We Know premiered in January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 91 minutes. Shooting took place in Los Angeles, California from July - August 2004. The film opened #50 to a 30k $ first weekend in 1 theater in North America, where it peaked at #18 and in 160 theaters (different weeks), grossing 3.8 mil. $ (47.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 1 mil. $ (12.5 %) and France with 716k $ (9 %). The film won 4 awards in Cannes, was nominated for 2 Independent Spirit awards and won a prize in Sundance, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to two notches higher than this one. July returned with The Future (2011) as a filmmaker as well as as an actress. Hawkes returned in The Amateurs (2005). Me and You and Everyone We Know is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.38/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Me and You and Everyone We Know?

Winter's Bone (2010) - Lawrence stands out in Granik's melancholic adaptation

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Jennifer Lawrence hovers like an eagle on the poster for Debra Granik's Winter's Bone

A 17 year-old girl, who is caring for her two younger siblings and sick mother, gets a big problem on her hands, when her alienated father doesn't appear in court. To keep their house, she now has to find out what has become of him.

Winter's Bone is an adaptation of Daniel Woodrell's (The Ones You Do (1992)) same-titled 2006 novel, written by Anne Rosellini (My Abandonment (2017)) and co-writer-director Debra Granik (Down to the Bone (2004)). It's a film filled with tristesse, unusual as the piece of outskirts social-realism Americana that it is, taking place in the rural Ozarks, Missouri in central USA, where even food can be a luxury.
Jennifer Lawrence (The Devil You Know (2013)) is a cool heroine as Ree, - likely a performance that locked her for her subsequent Hunger Games (2012; 2013; 2014; 2015) mass-stardom. Winter's Bone is a nuanced, fine and only slightly dreary film.

 

Jennifer Lawrence gives an interview to the BBC about the film in this video

 

Cost: 2 mil. $

Box office: 13.7 mil. $

= Huge hit

[Winter's Bone premiered January 21 (Sundance) and runs 100 minutes. Filming took place on location in Missouri in just 25 days from February - March 2009. The film opened #35 to 84k $ in 4 theaters, peaking at #16 and 141 theaters (different weekends though), playing for an unusually long 45 weeks in North America, where it grossed 6.5 mil. $ (47.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Sweden with 1.3 mil. $ (9.5 %) and the UK with 0.9 mil. $ (6.6 %). Roger Ebert gave the film 4/4 stars, two notches better than this review. The film got nominated for 4 Oscars, winning none: Best Picture (lost to The King's Speech), Actress (Lawrence), lost to Natalie Portman for Black Swan, Supporting Actor (John Hawkes), lost to Christian Bale for The Fighter, and Adapted Screenplay, lost to The Social Network. The film was also nominated for a Golden Globe, won AFI's Movie of the Year award, won 2 Independent Spirit Awards and was nominated for another 5, was chosen by National Board of Review as one of the year's ten best films, won the Grand Jury Prize and the screenwriting award in Sundance, as well as many many other nominations, awards and top 10 listings. Winter's Bone is certified fresh at 94 % with an 8.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Winter's Bone?

Deadwood - season 3 (2006) - The uneven but strangely endearing conclusion to the gritty western show

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+ Best Western Title of the Year + Best TV-series of the Year + Best Fight Scene of the Year (fight in the mud scene, episode 5: A Two-Headed Beast)

A ghoulish blue poster for the last season of David Milch's Deadwood

The third and last season of David Milch's (Luck (2011-12)) fine HBO western show, - which takes place in the real, titular town of Deadwood, South Dakota around the year 1877, and is part-historical, part-fictional, - comes off to a poor start: Everyone speaks the same gutter mouth and mopes around in the same pestilential mood. The show continues to be overly theatrical and dourly obsessed with its own past for a while. The season kicks into speed rather late, but still manages to go out as a unique and strangely endearing series.

Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), Alma Garret (Molly Parker), Trixie (Paula Malcomson) and sheriff Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) on this neat character poster for the third season of David Milch's Deadwood

The details:

The following summary will contain numerous SPOILERS:

The wealthy Hearst is responsible for the first murder of the season, while Mrs. Bullock opens the first school in town. Alma Garret (played very well by Molly Parker (The Playroom (2012))) loses her child, while mayor Farnum conducts a big speech on blatant anti-Semitism. 
Brian Cox's (L.I.E. (2001)) actor character and Hearst's 'Aunt' Lou (Cleo King (Just Before I Go (2014))) are both amusing additions to the town's gallery of characters. The season paddles on with a subplot about the racist drunk Steve and his horse stable, while Garret's bank positions itself, and the town's unofficial boss Al Swearengen battles impotence.
Hearst's anger is feared in town, while Cy Tolliver spreads his gall as per usual. Calamity Jane starts a lesbian flirt with the otherwise vague Joanie Stubbs.
The season continues towards its conclusion mostly in twilight, with often driveling characters, always in fearful anticipation of the grand attack of Hearst. This kind of electricity accelerates with an assassination attempt and a clandestine murder and culminates when Hearst has Garret's husband Elcott murdered, which Trixie, - another often tiringly uniformly cussing character, - becomes so angered by that she shoots Hearst. - Which he survives!
Although Swearengen's alliance with Chinese boss Wu against Hearst is another enjoyable string of the plot, it never really amounts to much, because it all seems to seep out in the last episode, in which Swearengen murders another professional of his own as sacrifice for Trixie's hasty assassination attempt. And Hearst finally leaves camp by his own accord.
Thus the distinctive, uneven show ends with a familiar scrubbing of blood off the floor.

Best episodes:

5. A Two-Headed Beast - written by Milch and Regina Corrado (The Strain (2014-15)); directed by Daniel Minahan (Game of Thrones (2011-13))
The Hearst-loathing in Deadwood climaxes for the time being, as Swearengen's right hand man Dan beats Hearst's goon to death in the town's mud in an epic battle, and sheriff Bullock drags Hearst away by the nose!

6. A Rich Find - written by Milch, Corrado and Alix Lambert (John from Cincinnati (2007), TV-series); directed by Tim Hunter (Hannibal (2013-14))
The series finally gets back to its former, high quality level, and the swearing at times takes on a Mark Twain-like poetry. 

11. The Catbird Seat - written by Milch and Bernadette McNamara (NYPD Blue (1999), TV-series); directed by Gregg Fienberg (True Blood (2014), TV-series)
The animosity between Hearst and Deadwood finally explodes.

Related reviews:

David Milch: 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]
Deadwood - season 2 (2005) - The dirty frontier West continues to entertain thoroughly
Deadwood - season 1 (2004) - Milch presents a new f-ing take on the old frontier West

In lieu of a trailer for the season, here's the title theme - enjoy

 
Budget: Reportedly 4.5 mil. $ per episode, or 54 mil. $ 
Box office: None - TV-series 
= Unknown
[Deadwood season 3 was first aired in the summer of 2006 on HBO. It runs 12 48-60 min. episodes. According to Metacritic, the third season, with 85 % positive reviews, was nearly as well-reviewed as the second (at 93), which remains the best reviewed of the three. The costly show was canceled after the 3rd season, however a TV movie script has been commissioned by HBO in 2016, after Deadwood has remained a talked-about audience and critical favorite for years. The season won 1 of 6 Emmy nominations, for its outstanding makeup in a single episode. 62,621 IMDb users have given Deadwood an 8.8 rating.]

What do you think of Deadwood and its 3rd season?

Deadwood - season 2 (2005) - Milch's dirty frontier West continues to entertain thorougly

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The not very aesthetically pleasing poster for the second season of David Milch's Deadwood

The second season (out of three) of creator David Milch's (NYPD Blue (1993-05)) lavish, historical HBO series set in the titular town in 1877 begins about 7 months after the first season and spans 12 ca. 45 minute-long episodes.
The show continues to be a joy to watch due to its endearing characters, the general perfidy of the camp and the rare instances of greatness among its tough residents. Mayor Farnum (well-played by William Sanderson (Blade Runner (1982))) and newspaperman Merrick (Jeffrey Jones (Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986))) grow into a couple of really funny characters in season two. But it continues to irritate that the main character, sheriff Bullock, is played so stoically jaw-clenched by Timothy Olyphant (Die Hard 4.0 (2007)).
The minor problem of Deadwood's at times snail-pace plot might be that it seems like it, apart from its general direction, is sort of made up as it rolls along, without any real sense of underlying necessity.

Ian McShane (Cuban Fury (2014)) continues to be a huge part of David Milch's Deadwood's attraction as the boss of the town, Al Swearengen

The details:

The following plot summary contains SPOILERS:

The season's main subject is the annexation of Deadwood into Dakota state territory. Some of the details of this become too muddy as it moves along, and the mistrusted Pinkerton family from the first season send out a snakelike agent by the name of Isringhausen, whose ulterior motives also remain somewhat unknown for the entire season. On the more positive side, the violent town receives an enthusiastic Stephen Tobolowsky (Groundhog Day (1993)) as a Dakota commissary.
Another agent, this one for the wealthy Hearst, Wolcott, turns out to be a perverted killer of women, who in turn lays bare the cynicism of the town's original, secondary power figure Cy Tolliver (Powers Boothe (Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014))).
When Swearengen finally recovers from serious illness, Sol (John Hawkes (The Sessions (2012))), Bullock and Alma Garret (Molly Parker (Hollywoodland (2006))) have opened a bank. Bullock's wife arrives, and his relationship with Garret ends in agonizing silence, while he and his wife's pretty son expire in a tragic horse accident.
Joanie's (Kim Dickens (Gone Girl (2014))) brothel Chez Amis closes following a triple murder. Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert (Mississippi Grind (2015))) receives some much needed help and gives some in return. The town's Chinese boss Wu (Keone Young (Men in Black 3 (2012))) makes a vendetta over a brutal Chinese gangster from San Francisco, and Alma gets engaged to Ellsworth (Jim Beaver (Crimson Peak (2015))).
As the season draws to its end, Wolcott gets a death sentence from Hearst; Deadwood is annexed into Dakota territory for a substantial prize; Farnum's hotel gets sold to Hearst; Tolliver gets stabbed in his stomach by the new priest in town, - a bitter, old acquaintance, - and an election is announced.

At the season's exciting end, one looks greatly forward to the third season.

Best episode:

3: New Money - written by Milch, Elizabeth Sarnoff (Lost (2005-10)), directed by Steve Shill (Rome (2005-07))
Al Swearengen is operated for gallstones, - and rarely has a TV scene been more excruciating to behold!

Related review:

David Milch: Deadwood - season 1 (2004) - Milch presents a new f-ing take on the old frontier West

 In lieu of a trailer for the season, not currently available on Youtube, here is a video with the great opening theme of the show, by David Schwartz (Arrested Development (2003-13))

Budget: Reportedly 4.5 mil. $ per episode, or 54 mil. $
Box office: None - TV-series
= Unknown
[As with the first season, the viewer ratings for the show are not to be found online. Metacritic reports that the 2nd season is the best reviewed of the show's 3, with 93 % good reviews, 'near universal acclaim'. The season was nominated for 11 Emmys, winning 5, which were all technical, episode-specific ones. After several years mull, HBO has as of January 2016 commissioned Milch, who is today reportedly 17 mil. $ in debt due to obsessive gambling, to write scripts for two TV-movies that are to conclude Deadwood, which ended prematurely with season 3. Deadwood is #69 on IMDb's Top 250 TV-shows, where 61k+ users have given it an 8.8 average rating.]

What do you think of the second season of Deadwood?

Deadwood - season 1 (2004) - Milch presents a new f-ing take on the old frontier west

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+ Best New TV-series of the Year + Best Western Title of the Year

Five characters from David Milch's Deadwood stare you down on this poster for the first season

Deadwood is an HBO TV-series in 3 seasons from creator David Milch (NYPD Blue (1993-05)), based on the real town of Deadwood, South Dakota. The season comprises 12 48-60 min. episodes.

Season one takes place within approximately two weeks of 1876 in the raw gold-digger camp, which is more or less run by Al Swearengen (Ian McShane (Sexy Beast (2000))), owner of the brothel and saloon The Gem. Our other protagonist is the former sheriff Seth Bullock (Timothy OIyphant (The Grinder (2015-16))), who founds a lumber store in the town with his business partner Sol (John Hawkes (The Sessions (2012))) and rich New Yorker madam Alma Garret (Molly Parker (House of Cards (2014-15))), whose husband SPOILER gets pushed to his death on the land he bought cheap.Western legend Wild Bill Hickok arrives with his companions; the drunken, miserable Calamity Jane and Charlie Utter, who opens a post office, SPOILER after Hickok gets shot dead by an embittered poker enemy by the name Jack 'the Coward' McCall, who is freed after a mock trial in town.

The details:

Powers Boothe (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2015-16)) is spectacular as Cy Tolliver, the entrepreneur who opens Swearengen's competing brothel, The Bella Union, where he gets into trouble with a young conman couple, SPOILER who he later murders brutally in front of his closest employees, a soft, lesbian prostitute and a gay card shark, who consequently lose sympathy for their employer.
Other festive elements of Deadwood include the priest, who has some kind of brain tumor, which gives him seizures and makes him increasingly pitiful, until Swearengen shows mercy SPOILER and strangles him to death. - And the doctor (splendidly portrayed by Brad Dourif (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975))), a choleric but honest man, who helps and falls for an invalid who works in The Gem.
The last of the town's residents I feel implored to mention is Mister Wu (Keone Young (Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos (1986), TV-series)), who runs the Chinese part of town similarly as Swearengen, whom he respectfully calls 'Swegen!', runs the town general.
McShane is a force to be reckoned with and has one of his career's best parts in Swearengen. The show features raw aesthetics and innovative, refreshing (and very, sometimes even exaggeratedly expletive-laden) dialog. It is refined if psychologically somewhat flat, and not unlike a western soap opera, a good one though, mind you.

Best episode:

12. Sold Under Sin - written by Milch and Ted Man (NYPD Blue (1994-99)), directed by Davis Guggenheim (He Named Me Malala (2015))
The season's last episode is a royal finisher, in which Bullock goes against Garret's vile father and accepts the sheriff's star of Deadwood, while Swearengen cements his power, despite the town getting itself a mayor.

 

Related post:

 

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the first season here 

Cost: Reportedly 4.5 mil. $ per episode, or 54 mil. $
Box office: None (TV-series) 
= Unknown
[Deadwood was an expensive show to produce, and it was finally canceled because of this I suspect. I have not been able to find its viewer ratings, (shoot me a comment with a link, if you do.) The season received 80 % positive reviews, according to Metacritic, based on 26 of them, which is the lowest of the three seasons. It is #69 on IMDb's Top 250 TV-shows where 60k+ users have given it an 8.8 average rating.]

What do you think of Deadwood season 1?
Other good western TV-series?

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) - Durkin's chilling psychological thriller debut

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4 Time Film Excess Nominee:


Best Director: Sean Durkin (lost to Agnieszka Holland for In Darkness)
Best Actress: Elizabeth Olsen (lost to Bérénice Bejo for The Artist)
Best Supporting Actor: John Hawkes (lost to Michael Shannon for Boardwalk Empire S2)
Best Cinematography: Jody Lee Lipes (lost to Phedon Papamichael for The Descendants)

+ Best Thriller of the Year
+ Best Debut of the Year
+ Best Shooting Star Actress of the Year (Elizabeth Olsen)
+ Best Low-budget Movie of the Year 

The intense, Spanish poster for Sean Durkin's Martha Marcy May Marlene

Martha is a young woman who escapes through a forest from a cult. She subsequently lives with her sister and husband in their summerhouse by a lake in Connecticut, while she remembers her traumatic experiences.

Beautiful Elizabeth Olsen (Kill Your Darlings (2013)) is fantastic here in what is only her second major movie role. She plays opposite a scary John Hawkes (The Sessions (2012)) as a pathetic lunatic and Sarah Paulson (12 Years a Slave (2013)) as her sister.
Martha impresses with stunning images, (cinematography by Jody Lee Lipes (Trainwreck (2015))), minimalistic effects and intense suspense.
It is the impressive feature debut of NYU graduate Sean Durkin (Southcliffe (2013), TV-miniseries), who has written and directed it, based on a short of his starring Brady Corbet (Force Majeure/Turist (2014)) called Mary Last Seen (2010). Corbet also has a smaller role in Martha.
The film forcefully captures the total detachment from reality of a group cult as well as the profound damage done to Martha by blending very uncomfortable scenes and incredible beauty.
Durkin may have made one of the year's best films here.
He is now working on a Janis Joplin biopic, simply called Janis (announced).

Related posts:
 
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 - according to Film Excess
 

Elizabeth Olsen and Sarah Paulson in Sean Durkin's great Martha Marcy May Marlene

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost. 1 mil. $
Box office: 3.5 mil. $
= Big hit
[Durkin's film won him the Directing Award for Best Drama at Sundance as well as many other nominations and awards and stellar reviews. It made 2.9 mil. $ (83 % of the total gross) in the US. It also helped catapult Olsen's career upwards.]

What do you think of Martha Marcy May Marlene?

The Sessions (2012) - Lewin's personally important true-story dramedy is deeply satisfying - and educational

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A blue-templated, uplifting, fresh and curiosity-striking poster for Ben Lewin's The Sessions

The Sessions is the true story of Mark O'Brien, a poet who is bound to his iron lung due to his debilitating polio condition, who in 1980's California as a middle-aged gentleman gets his sexual debut thanks to a life-savvy sex therapist's generous sessions.

 
John Hawkes (Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)) and Helen Hunt (As Good As It Gets (1997)) are both magnificent, and William H. Macy (Fargo (1996)) has a lovely and very funny part as O'Brien's open-minded, candid priest here in a real gem of a film, in which all the secondary parts are also filled out by wonderful actors across the board. With underplayed, fine photography and music, The Sessions works its magic by totally un-senzationalizing sex with a paralyzed man, and by broadening the human horizon in doing so. It is written and directed by Ben Lewin (Georgia (1988)), who has survived polio himself and who handles the true story here with insightful deftness and a keen sense of common humanity, empathy and not least a warm and liberating sense of humor that makes the rare situation we get confronted with here so very recognizable and palpable. The result is poignant and deeply moving
Full of heart, meaning, fun and tears, The Sessions is a uniquely wonderful film, pushing boundaries and making perfectly natural sense with its inherent agenda of the right for a sexual life for people with disabilities.

Related posts:

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 true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Watch the amazing trailer here and then GO GET THIS MOVIE!!!

Budget: 1 mil. $
Box office: 9.1 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of The Sessions?