Frozen (2013) - Lee, Buck et al. triumph with fabulous Disney adventure favorite

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+ Best Family Movie of the Year + Best Mega-hit Movie of the Year + Best Musical of the Year + Most Profitable Movie of the Year: 362.32 mil. $ range

An uninformative but beautiful and anticipation-building ice crystal-centered poster for Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee's Frozen

Two beautiful princess sisters in the high north are alienated, because the one of them, Elsa, has to protect the world from her curse, freezing capabilities.

Frozen is written by great debuting Rhode Islander co-writer/director Jennifer Lee (Wreck-It Ralph (2012, screenwriter)), with co-director Chris Buck (Tarzan (1999)) and Shane Morris (The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (2007, TV movie)) supplying story elements, based on fairytale The Snow Queen (1845) by Hans Christian Andersen (The Little Mermaid (1837)).
It is a fabulously good-looking, hyper-detailed, delightfully colorful adventure with fantastical songs, - mega-hit Let It Go is only the biggest and most well-known of them. It is also funny and has enchanting romance and feeling. Frozen is near-perfect Disney-type movie magic.

Related posts:

 

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

Jennifer Lee: Wreck-It Ralph (2012) - Original story gets lost in benign but overly flashy animation (co-writer)

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 150 mil. $
Box office: 1,280.8 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 8.53 times its cost)
[Frozen premiered 10 November (New York International Children's Film Festival) and runs 102 minutes. Development began in the late 1990s, with Megan Mullally first attached as Elsa. Several Norwegian landmarks are shown in the film, and Norway is the biggest inspiration for its look. The film opened #22 to a 243k $ first weekend in 1 theater in North America, where it widened the following week to #2 and 93.5 mil. $ from 3,742 theaters, behind The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, subsequently spending another 13 weeks in the top 5, 2 of which were at #1, grossing 400.7 mil. $ (31.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 249 mil. $ (19.4 %) and South Korea with 76.6 mil. $ (6 %). It became the highest-grossing animation and musical of all time until The Lion King (2019). Bloomberg Business calculated the film's total cost (including production, marketing and distribution expenses) at 323-350 mil. $; Deadline Hollywood calculated the film's profits at over 400 mil. $. The film won 2 Oscars: Best Animation and Best Song (Let It Go). It also won 1/2 Golden Globe nominations, 2/3 BAFTA noms, 2/3 Grammy noms and many other honors. According to Excipio, a copyrights infringement-tracking site, the film was the 2nd most illegally downloaded of 2014, behind The Wolf of Wall Street, with almost 30 mil. downloads. The home video release still broke records: becoming the fastest-selling digital release at the time in North America, where it also sold enormous 18 mil.units, including 7.5 mil. blu-rays, accruing more than 308 mil. $ domestically alone. The success was such that a global merchandise shortage ran through most of 2014: Disney sold more than 3 mil. Frozen costumes in North America alone; more than 8 mil. Frozen books were sold by August 2014. The filmmakers and cast returned for smash hit sequel Frozen II (2019). Lee and Buck returned with Frozen Fever (2015, short) before their theatrical return Frozen II (2019). Kristen Bell (Zootopia (2016)) returned in Parks and Recreation (2013-14)) and theatrically in Veronica Mars (2014); Jonathan Groff (Looking (2016, TV movie)) in 2 shorts and a TV movie before his theatrical return in American Sniper (2014); Idina Menzel (Rent (2005)) in 10 TV, short and video game credits before her theatrical return in Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018). Frozen is certified fresh at 90 % with a 7.69/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Frozen?

Looking: The Movie (2016, TV movie) - A premature but lovely, optimistic goodbye

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+ Best TV Movie of the Year + Best San Francisco Title of the Year

The neat, very California-colored poster for Andrew Haigh's Looking: The Movie

Looking: The Movie is the TV movie conclusion to the great HBO Looking TV-series in two seasons, created by great filmmaker Andrew Haigh (Weekend (2011)) and Michael Lannan (Looking (2014-15), writer). They have co-written the script, and Haigh has directed it.

Patrick returns to San Francisco after a 9-month relocation to Denver, near his birthplace, for the wedding of Augustín and Eddie, catching up with old friends and lovers and contemplating where his future ought to be.

Jonathan Groff (Frozen (2013)) is back as our sensitive, recognizable protagonist Patrick, surrounded by lovely friends Dom (Murray Bartlett (Stubborn (2015))), Doris (Lauren Weedman (Rainbow Time (2016))) and Augustín (Frankie J. Alvarez (Madam Secretary (2015), TV-series)), - the latter probably being the one who has changed the most in the course of Looking.
Also reappearing are Russell Tovey (The Night Manager (2016), TV miniseries), who makes an emotional and touching return as Kevin, and hunky Raúl Castillo (Sweets (2015)), very well-acting and sweet as Richie once again. Tyne Daly (Judging Amy (1999-05)) makes a welcome appearance as a Justice of the Peace; Chris Perfetti (The Night Of (2016), TV miniseries) is good as the unbearable Brady, and Daniel Franzese (Killer Pad (2008)) is charming as Eddie.

Looking: The Movie focuses on tying up all of its stories in a nice way and showing us the directions that they might be heading from here. The coming-back-home-and-meeting-everyone-once-more premise works well in this respect, but it doesn't make the TV movie conclusion stand out as the most innovative in Looking's history. - Nearly no new characters are introduced.
What we do get is more of our beloved 'friends' and a central focus on Patrick, which comes to an appropriately melodramatic highpoint, which I rather enjoyed.
I am still sad and disappointed - mainly aimed at the public for its lack of interest - that Looking got canceled and ends like this. I think it could definitely have lasted several more great seasons on TV, and this bitterness can't stay completely out of my review here.
But damn it if the movie doesn't try its best. It's warm, enthusiastically acted, uplifting and optimistic, a rare piece of contemporary drama and a soft present the LGBT community and the rest of the world should have embraced more during its TV run.

Related posts:

Andrew Haigh: 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
Looking - season 2 (2015) - Patrick, Dom, Augustín and Co. reach the height of their potential
Looking - season 1 (2014) - Look for something real with your new Frisco friends
2011 in films - according to Film Excess 
Weekend (2011) or, The Nottingham Romance Blues

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: None - TV movie
= Unknown
[Looking: The Movie premiered June 2 (Frameline FIlm Festival) and runs 85 minutes. It was shot in San Francisco. At the July TV premiere on HBO, the ratings were 0.28 mil. North Americans, which is very far from impressive, - however, many have shifted to streaming now, which is unaccounted for here and may well counted be in the millions. Looking: The Movie is fresh at 87 % with a 6.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Looking: The Movie?

Looking - season 2 (2015) - Patrick, Dom, Augustín and Co. reach the height of their potential

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+ Best LGBT Movie/TV-series of the Year
+ Best San Francisco Movie/TV-series of the Year
+ Most Under-Appreciated Movie/TV-series of the Year

The sun-glazed, happy poster for the second season of Michael Lannan's Looking

Looking is the probably most exciting and best new TV-series out recently; an original HBO series based on its creator Michael Lannan's 2011 short Lorimer, its first season ran in 2014. The show has build its audience, but, regrettably, HBO still decided to cancel it earlier this year. Fortunately, they will at least round it off with a 2-hour TV movie special, set to shoot later this year, which I can't wait to see, although after 2 great seasons, it already makes me sad to (probably) part ways with the characters of Looking so soon.
The totally reality-based drama/romance/comedy show continues to revolve around the three great gay friends Patrick (Jonathan Groff (Glee (2010-15))), Augustín (Frankie J. Alvarez (The Good Wife (2015), TV-series)) and Dom (Murray Bartlett (Guiding Light (2007-09))), who live their lives in San Francisco, dealing with different aspects of modern life.
Here's an ultra-short recap of the 10 episodes (the second season is two episodes bigger than the first):

1. The friends are on a short vacation to Lynn's (Dom's open-relationship boyfriend, played by Scott Bakula (Behind the Candelabra (2013))) summerhouse, where they attend a forest party, and Augustín meets his new love-interest Eddie (Daniel Franzese (Mean Girls (2004))).
2. Patrick's relationship with his British boss Kevin (Russell Tovey (Pride (2014))) develops, while he undergoes an HIV-panic.
3. Doris (Lauren Weedman (Hung (2009-10))) meets her new love-interest Malik (Bashir Salahuddin (Nailed (2006))), and the friends attend Dom's gay rugby game.
4. Dom breaks up with Lynn; Eddie gives Augustín a job at the help center for transsexual teenagers, and Patrick's project of getting Kevin out of his old relationship drags out.
5. Augustín's outlook improves from being with Eddie, while Kevin still can't tell his Jon that it's over. Patrick helps past lover Richie (yummy Raúl Castillo (Bless Me, Ultima (2013))) retrieve an ice-truck, and they patch up their friendship.
6. Patrick makes the horrible decision of throwing a Halloween party and invite his lovers past and present, with partners. Doris and Malik, adorably, dress up as Sonny & Cher.
7. Doris, Dom and Patrick make a trip to Modesto for Doris' father's funeral and SPOILER get into an accident. Home again, Patrick is ready to be with Kevin 100 %.
8. Kevin and Patrick attend the Gaymer X video games conference that shows some less flattering sides of the gay community. Doris decides to help Dom purchase his dream, a 'chicken window' (a Portuguese chicken take-away place.)
9. Dom and Doris' friendship suffers a crisis, while Patrick presents Kevin to his mother, who has shocking news.
10. Patrick and Kevin move in together and are instantly invited to a big party in the building, where a small thing gets them into a big argument. Augustín celebrates an art opening with Eddie at the center, and Dom mends things with Doris and returns to his new business.
 

From left to right, Lauren Weedman, Russell Tovey, Frankie J. Alvarez, Jonathan Groff and Daniel Franzese as Doris, Kevin, Augustín, Patrick and Eddie attending Dom's rugby game in episode 3 of the second season of Michael Lannan's Looking

- What can be so great about that, you might think, if you read the recap above without having seen a minute of the show.
Looking is very real and the friendship, relationship, and sex mechanics it presents are often recognizable and always both well-written and astonishingly played to a fault by the stellar cast, who seem to revel in the chance to shine with the reality-grounded, funny, human, three-dimensional characters that this show gives them.
While the first season successfully established the characters and the dynamics of the show, the second season here elaborates on them all, presents more issues, more funny 'catastrophes', more sex and drama played out in the inviting San Francisco locations with more great music. It grows from an astonishing first season into a colorful, uplifting, poignant rendition of modern life in one of the most exciting cities in the world. A real gift, pulsating with true zeitgeist.
All the more reason to scratch one's head that HBO, supposedly the home for quality TV-series, has decided to pull its plug so soon.

Best episodes:

5: Looking for Truth
Written by Lannan, Tanya Saracho (Devious Maids (2013), TV-series)
Directed by Andrew Haigh (Weekend (2011))

10: Looking for Home
Written by Haigh, Lannan, John Hoffman (Good Boy! (2003))
Directed by Haigh

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Top 10: Best gay-themed titles

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Looking - season 1 (2014) - Look for something real with your new Frisco friends

Stars dressed up for Halloween in Michael Lannan's Looking

Watch the trailer for the second season here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: None
= Unknown
[Looking has been nominated and won countless awards. Its ratings seem to have been in the neighborhood of 300k-700k viewers. It is available with HBO streaming now.]

What do you think of Looking's second season?
How do you feel about its canceling and coming TV movie special?

American Sniper (2014) - Eastwood conveys an American man and myth in electric masterpiece

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+ Best War Movie of the Year

The mythical poster for Clint Eastwood's American Sniper

American Sniper is the grand biopic war movie of real life US sniper Chris Kyle, 'the most lethal sniper in US history', with 255 kills, 160 of which were officially confirmed by the Department of Defense, from 4 tours in Iraq in the 2nd Golf War.

Kyle is an easy-going Texan rodeo cowboy, who has been brought up on some stern values of three types of people and right and wrong, as 9/11 happens and changes his ambitions: He signs up for the US Army and becomes a US Navy Seal.

Oscar-nominated co-producer/star Bradley Cooper (The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)) has arguably his most difficult role to date here; he has gained lots of muscle weight to portray the singularly minded, strong but human Kyle, who will go to extreme lengths to protect his 'sheep', that is, his co-soldiers and family.
American Sniper hooks you straight away with its heady first scene, or repels you to dislike it throughout and perhaps even to go home and post infuriated critique about it somewhere online, as many seem to have done, and gotten more than their due notice for, I think.
The filmmakers dare to serve Kyle's complex, many-layered story in a straight-forward manner, which drives the viewer to look closer at the man without reducing him to either a patriotic slogan or a block of weeping meat.
A pivotal part of the film, which many people fail to notice and consider, is the mythical quality that Kyle came to carry some time into his soldiering. 84 year-old (!!!) master director Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino (2008)) has worked with this difficult, intangible entity of the American cultural mythical power before, as in his great films Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and J. Edgar (2011), and you could well argue that his own career as an actor is infused with mythical energy and entangled in the organic fabric of US cultural myth as well.  In Sniper, this power gets conveyed through Kyle's rising fame as a US icon in a dark time of despair, as the nation and world backed or opposed the problematic second Iraq war and the war on terror in general. Eastwood or Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jason Hall (Paranoia (2013)), who adapted his lean, to-the-point script from Kyle's autobiographical 2012 book, did not make this status up, and their including it in the film doesn't mean that they cultivate the mythologizing without question, - but it was impossible to tell this story without the side of Kyle's effect on the American culture as a whole, his getting hailed and shaped into a national icon of strength and devotion, a patriot, a war hero, - in the midst of his personal trials.

Sienna Miller in a harrowing scene from Clint Eastwood's American Sniper

The story of Chris Kyle is an extraordinary one, and Eastwood and Hall naturally don't feel any need to add great amounts of storyteller's razzle-dazzle onto it. Perhaps this is the reason why Eastwood isn't Oscar-nominated as director for it, - or perhaps it is because he already has won 4 Oscars. No matter what, he clearly deserved a nomination for American Sniper in my opinion.
Fresh face actress Sienna Miller (Foxcatcher (2014)) gives a strong performance as Kyle's wife, and Jonathan Groff (Looking (2014-)) is good in a short supporting role.
Sniper has an amazing and intense sound and music universe, although surprisingly, it has no credited score. It runs 132 minutes, but is tightly edited and never runs long.
During it development, directors David O. Russell and Steven Spielberg were attached to direct it, before they both departed and Eastwood finally ended up doing it: It is a rich, complex and moving experience, a very masculine and poignant film, very much Eastwood, - at his best, - and I think we should be happy that it ended up being him directing it. 
If this film has somehow escaped you until now, go see it in a cinema immediately, because this one will stand the test of time with the very best.

Related posts:

Clint Eastwood: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

The Changeling (2008) or, The Christine Collins Story
City Heat (1984) - Eastwood and Reynolds wrestle dispassionately in Benjamin's messy period affair 
Tightrope (1984) - An undervalued Clint Eastwood sex killer thriller (actor)
Any Which Way You Can (1980) or, More Monkey Business! (actor)
The Beguiled (1971) - Intense, erotic Civil War kammerspiel thriller (actor)
Coogan's Bluff (1968) or, Dopes and Hippies, Beat It! (actor)
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) or, Killer in a Poncho (actor)

Watch the trailer here

Cost: 58.8 mil. $
Box office: 428.1 mil. $ and counting
= Huge hit
[American Sniper is mostly a US phenomenon, where it has had first a spectacular limited release and then a similarly incredible wide one: Besides being Eastwood's most successful film to date and the 3rd highest-grossing film of 2014, it is also the highest grossing war film in the US ever. (If adjusted for inflation, it is bested by Saving Private Ryan though.) It has made 319 mil. $ in North America currently, which is more than all the other Best Film nominees of this year combined!]

What do you think of American Sniper?

Looking - season 1 (2014-) - Look for something real with your new Frisco friends

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best San Francisco Title of the Year

Jonathan Groff in focus, Murray Bartlett nearer and Frankie J. Alvarez in the back on the poster for Michael Lannan's Looking

Looking is HBO's new spectacular romance-drama series about 3 gay friends in the San Francisco Bay area and their various work, relationship and family situations. It is based on a short by its creator Michael Lannan, Lorimer (2011), and its 1st season runs 8 episodes of approximately 25-30 minutes each.
Although all 3 friends are leads, we spend more time with Patrick (Jonathan Groff (Frozen (2013), voice), the sweet country boy-atheist-computer game designer. The other two are sommelier Dom (Murray Bartlett (August (2011)), who is perhaps 10 years older than the others, and Augustín (Frankie J. Alvarez (Aphasia (2014), short), an artist's assistant, who is the only one of the three who is in a steady relationship.
Since the season only spans 8 episodes, I will present the plot of Looking structured thus:

1: Patrick suffers an unsuccessful date but meets a sweet Latino doorman named Richie (Raúl Castillo (Lorimer) on the Metro. Agustín and his boyfriend Frank have a threesome.
2. Despite his roommate friend Doris' (Lauren Weedman (Date Night (2010)) advice to the contrary, Dom sits down with a former, abusive lover. Patrick makes a bad second impression on Richie.
3. Patrick makes a fool of himself towards his new, British boss Kevin (Russell Tovey (Pride (2014)). Augustín gets fired and picks up his own former identity as an artist. Dom wants to start his own restaurant.
4. Patrick flirts with his boss but goes off and reignites his spark with Richie. Dom pitches his restaurant idea to the older owner of a local flower shop, Lynn (Scott Bakula (The Informant! (2009)), while Augustín's art becomes about a male prostitute he meets, CJ.
5. We stay with Patrick and Richie for the entire episode, as Patrick takes a day off to hang out with Richie. They go to the planetarium, the coast and Richie's 'señora' soothsayer and share sexual and other personal information.
6. Dom turns 40 and finds himself at crossroads between more mature relationships and continuing to lay young guys, as Lynn agrees to finance a pop-up restaurant event. Augustín arranges a three-way with Frank and CJ, filming it for his project, and trashes Richie, when Patrick introduces him as his boyfriend at Dom's birthday.
7. Dom prepares his new venture. Augustín gets dumped by Frank, when the truth of the now dumped art project is revealed. Patrick drags Richie to his cousin's wedding, but radiates so much stress that he alienates Richie and has to go alone.
8. Patrick SPOILER neglects stepping up to Richie's expectations and instead gives in to his boss's advances. Augustín takes drugs and ends up back where he started, as Patrick's roommate. Dom's pop-up restaurant is a success, but he has been unkind to Lynn in the process and, as their professional relationship is brought to an end, he embraces and kisses him.

Looking soon proves an excellent new acquaintance: The first episode provides a sweet introduction to the three great main characters, who are specific in each their own way and hold different, individually relatable personalities. For me it was already in the course of the second episode that I really got hooked to Looking and began to see its ambition:
The series is an honest, deeply relatable celebration of modern, urban gay life. Yet Looking will definitely also resonate with many heterosexuals, because its honest portrayal of its characters' issues concerning careers, identity, love, their families and futures transcend their sexual orientation.
Besides the great writing from the 6-person writing team, this is also due to the spectacular performances that the series' 5 directors have wrung from the cast who have clearly created strong bonds with each other and their characters: Groff is magic as our often very funny hero, who so often says and does the wrong thing, but still has our undiminished support. Bartlett shows us some of the angst of reaching 40 without much to show for it, and Castillo is gold as down-to-earth, sincere hottie Richie. All of them can do breezy, smart dialog scenes as well as show weaknesses and insecurities. Additionally, Weedman has to be singled out for her great performance as Dom's hilarious friend Doris.
Looking's main director with 5 episodes to his name is Andrew Haigh, who also distinguished himself with affinity for gay drama-romance in the great Weekend (2011).
The series contains a fine selection of new, hip music and older classics in the gay scene from Erasure, The Smiths etc. - You can hear a selection of it here. The show is at times incredibly romantic, but ultimately SPOILER it chooses ambiguous, conflicting realism over wide-eyed romance, (even if some of us were cheering for that...)
Looking is an almost perfect series for its time: Its depiction of the conflicts of gay life and concept of 'looking' and framing the younger adults who are trying to 'find something real' are spot on as told through its charming, winning, real characters.
HBO has renewed it for a 10-episode 2nd season, debuting in January. - So if you haven't gotten acquainted with Looking yet, now is the time to get it on DVD or stream it and get ready for the next season!

Best episode:

5: Patrick and Richie share a day of romance and companionship

Related posts:

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

Watch the trailer for the 1st season here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: None
= Unknown

What do you think of Looking?
Any related shows or movies that you want to recommend?