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Scarlett Johansson and a boy look wronged, wearing party hats, on this cute poster for Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini's The Nanny Diaries
Annie is a newly minted bachelor student with New York at her feet, but the possibilities prove too overwhelming, and so she takes on a year as a nanny for a well-off Upper East Side family. And who does she meet in their building but a charming young fella...
The Nanny Diaries is written and directed by married master New-Yorker filmmakers Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini (American Splendor (2003)), whose 2nd film it is. It is an adaptation of the same-titled 2002 novel by Emma McLaughlin (The First Affair (2013)) and Nicola Kraus (Over You (2012)).
Basically too cutesy, The Nanny Diaries also wears the leg iron that our deeply privileged white protagonist's challenge in the film is her well-paid job for the rich New York family. - Hardly 'about life at the top, as seen from the bottom', as the tag-line above suggests.
The plot is served as soft sweetness and a pronounced women's picture. It is nevertheless salvaged by Scarlett Johansson's (The Avengers (2012)) own personal sweetness, a wonderful boy (Nicholas Art (Knight and Day (2010))) as her charge, who manages to be both a pain in the ass and lovable; and Laura Linney (The Details (2011)) and Paul Giamatti (The Last Station (2009)) as the fairly intolerable parents. There's excessive use of voice-over but pretty shots of New York here. The Nanny Diaries is not a great film, but it is highly pleasing company.
[The Nanny Diaries was released 24 August (North America) and runs 106 minutes. Shooting took place from April 2006 - ? in New York, New Jersey and Toronto, Ontario. The film opened #6 to a 7.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it since declined, grossing 25.9 mil. $ (54.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 3.5 mil. $ (7.3 %) and South Korea with 3.4 mil. $ (7.1 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. The-Numbers.com estimate that the film made an additional 38.4 mil. $ on the home video market. Berman & Pulcini returned with The Extra Man (2010). Johansson returned in Will.i.am: Yes We Can (2008, music video) and theatrically in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). The Nanny Diaries is rotten at 34 % with a 5.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
A little boy by his father, back from hunting, holding a dead duck in his hands, make up this evocative poster for Viggo Mortensen's Falling
A middle-aged gay man is taking his old father with him from his primitive farm home back to his own in California, because the old man is suffering from dementia and cancer. But the father's enmity strikes up conflict and old memories.
Falling is written and directed by Viggo Mortensen (Ruby Cairo (1992, actor)), one of the best actors of our time, who debuts with it and also co-stars and has composed the film's unnoticeable score. He dedicated the film to his brothers, and it is somewhat based on dynamics and situations from their own family, and his experiences with both of his parents suffering from dementia.
Mortensen is a graceful, incredibly forgiving and patient good son to his difficult father in the film, played with much verve by Lance Henriksen (Dorothy and the Witches of Oz (2012)), a man whose slipping into dementia also finds him forgetting basic social limits to speech and behavior, but especially his speech which is continuously vulgar, unrestrained and offensive. The film confronts us with the fact that certain prejudices may go out of control and out of the mouth of someone with this sad disease, and Falling makes it both grueling and sometimes funny to witness these intense lashing-outs.
Sverrir Gudnason (Borg vs. McEnroe (2017)) is forceful as the younger version of Henriksen, a compelling, masculine man who is nevertheless twice unsuccessful in his major relationships with women. The film indicates this is due to his tyrannical side and unwillingness to compromise and show care, but it doesn't spell out the marriages and their falls for us. Laura Linney (The Nanny Diaries (2007)) shows up in a long, good scene as Mortensen's sister. Terry Chen (Continuum (2012-15)) is good as Mortensen's husband, and Gabby Velis is very sweet as their adopted daughter Monica.
Though a veteran actor and gifted multi-hyphenate, Mortensen is on new ground here as a director, and he charges a layered and difficult drama with personal stakes and admirable guts. Falling is not a plot-driven film; it goes sideways a little here, a little there, but the performances and material, - and the constant feeling of a thoughtful artist behind it all, - makes it compelling still. It is a far cry from the polished feel that made Mortensen's recent turn in super-success Green Book (2018) a global crowd-pleaser. But it grapples with real life and issues with tenacity and boldness, and it feels incredibly authentic. Don't miss it, if it's in a cinema near you.
[Falling premiered 31 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 112 minutes. Mortensen took up co-starring in the film to secure financing. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, and in Ontario, Canada, including Toronto, from February - April 2019. The film has only released gross numbers from Slovenia and Russia so far, which come to tiny 17k $. The film is set to release in 7 more markets in coming months, including the UK and Germany. It does not have a North-American release set yet, and obviously its release is marred considerably by the China Virus pandemic. Mortensen does not have another project announced as a filmmaker, but he is starring in two projects that are in pre-production. Henriksen returned in 3 TV-series prior to his theatrical return in The Unhealer (2020). Falling is fresh at 65 % with a 5.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
Star Tom Hanks seen from an airplane window in pilot's uniform on this stark poster for Clint Eastwood's Sully
A cold January day captain Sullenberger, a pilot with more than 40 years of experience, flies a passenger carrier, when, shortly after take-off, birds cause the engines to malfunction, and Sullenberger manages to land the plane safely on New York's Hudson River. - But was this the safest option available? Sully is written by Todd Komarnicki (Perfect Stranger (2007)), based on the autobiography Highest Duty (2009) by Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow (The Last Lecture (2008)), and directed by Californian master filmmaker Clint Eastwood (Play Misty for Me (1971)). Sully stands permanently in the shadows of another recent film of an unusual landing of a defect plane, Robert Zemeckis' fictitious and masterful drama Flight (2012). It appears that a riled up miracle atmosphere at the time of the blessed Hudson landing determined that the sensational event must also result in a good film, - but things are just not that simple. Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger is a good man, who suffers some qualms after the landing, but of course he pulls through, although Tom Hanks (Ithaca (2015)) sculpts his face in so many wrinkled, worried folds that one could almost doubt it at times. Laura Linney (Maze (2000)) is the wife, who is exclusively shown in the Sullenberger home, and mostly worried, on the phone. That Sully doesn't contain that much dramatically, except for the landing itself, of course, (which is anxiety-provoking), is only underscored by the film's continually returning to its portrayal of that formidable event, so that we experience it not only from the cockpit but from the passenger seat and the control tower as well. The end credit roll is laced with pictures and video from reality, which are shown in great haste, as if Eastwood himself is also aware and doesn't want to give the wrongful impression that Sully can compare to the quality of his preceding bio-drama, masterpiece American Sniper (2014). Technically and in terms of special effects, Sully is naturally top shelf, which is the best thing about this generally misjudged contraption.
Cost: 60 mil. $ Box office: 240.7 mil. $ = Big hit (returned 4.01 times its cost) [Sully premiered 2 September (Telluride Film Festival, Colorado) and runs 96 minutes. Producers Frank Marshall and Allyn Stewart optioned the rights in 2010. Shooting took place in New York, Charlotte, North Carolina, Georgia, including Atlanta, New Mexico and in California from September 2015 - April 2016. The film opened #1 to a 35 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week at #1 and 2 more in the top 5 (#3-#5) and grossed 125 mil. $ (51.9 % of the total gross). It set a new global IMAX 2D opening record with 5.1 mil. $. A US comScore audience survey showed that 39 % of the film's audience saw it due to Hanks. The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 12 mil. $ (5 %) and Australia with 9.8 mil. (4.1 %). The National Transportation Safety Board objected strongly to its portrayal in the film, which was called 'mean-spirited dishonesty' and 'detrimental to aviation safety' as well as 'unfair'. Real-life Sullenberger agreed and asked that the NTSB investigators' names were changed for the film's characters representing them. The film was nominated for the Best Sound Editing Oscar, lost to Arrival. It won an AFI award, a National Board of Review award and several other honors. Eastwood returned with The 15:17 to Paris (2018). Hanks returned in Inferno (2016). Sully is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.21/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of Sully?
+ Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Best Drama of the Year
The star leads look dead-on at us from a wintry landscape in this carefully drawn and designed poster for Tamara Jenkins' The Savages
When their old father offends his home care worker and turns out to be beginning to suffer from dementia, sister and brother Savage are forced to see their father and try to create a dignified final period for him.
The Savages is written and directed by great Pennsylvanian filmmaker Tamara Jenkins (Slums of Beverly Hills (1998)). It is socially critical and poignant, led by a rich script that seems pitch black over a long stretch but which actually contains humanity and warmth, - and the will to broach difficult topics in a meaningful way. The Savages is in fact almost too well-written. Laura Linney (Frasier (2003-04)) has the abilities that make us want to follow her very imperfect character, and the same goes for Philip Seymour Hoffman (Mission: Impossible III (2006)), - they are both formidable here. Philip Bosco (Wonder Boys (2000)) is additionally very credible and moving as their father. The Savages is directed with great command and extremely well edited. It is a true gem of a picture.
Hoffman talks about his work with the character in the film in a video here
Cost: 9 mil. $ Box office: 10.6 mil. $ = Big flop (returned 1.17 times its cost) [The Savages premiered 19 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 113 minutes. Shooting took place in New York and Arizona, including Phoenix. It opened #30 to a 151k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #18 and in 201 theaters (different weeks), grossing 6.6 mil. $ (62.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 0.9 mil. $ (8.5 %) and Australia with 0.6 mil. $ (5.7 %). The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Actress (Linney), lost to Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose, and Original Screenplay, lost to Diablo Cody for Juno. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe, won an AFI award, 2/4 Independent Spirit awards, a National Board of Review award and many other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Jenkins returned with Private Life (2018). Linney returned in Breach (2007); Hoffman in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007). The Savages is certified fresh at 89 % with a 7.46/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of The Savages?
A misty, chilling poster for Scott Derrickson's The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Rose is a possibly possessed young woman who dies during an unsuccessful exorcism. Now her Catholic priest exorcist stands accused of causing her death. - But what really killed her? The Exorcism of Emily Rose is written by Paul Harris Boardman (Deliver Us from Evil (2014)) and co-writer-director Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange (2016)), based on a true story. The story is told through a mix of choppy, flickering flashbacks of Jennifer Carpenter (Battle in Seattle (2007)) as the demonically possessed - or merely psychotic - Emily Rose with the post-death present plane, wherein we get Laura Linney (The Details (2011)) and Tom Wilkinson (Snowden (2016)) injecting integrity into the tale with fine performances. The film surprises as more of a court room drama than the horror we are led to expect from the title and poster. SPOILER The ending is an incomprehensible misfire, as Father Wilkinson is found guilty but still simply gets to walk away. Still, The Exorcism of Emily Rose is fairly entertaining.
Cost: 20 mil. $ Box office: 144.2 mil. $ = Huge hit [The Exorcism of Emily Rose premiered 1 September (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 119 minutes. The film is based on the story of German Anneliese Michel, who passed away in 1976 after 67 exorcisms at a weight of just 68 lbs. Comparisons of film and the real and disturbing story can be found here. Filming took place in Los Angeles and in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from November 2004 onward. The film opened #1 to a stellar 30 mil. $ opening weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top five for another two weeks (#2, #5) and grossed 75 mil. $ (52 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Catholic: Mexico with 7.1 mil. $ (4.9 %) and Spain with 7 mil. $ (4.9 %). Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars, translating to one notch higher than this review. The same story has inspired a much greater German film by Hans-Christian Schmid, Requiem (2006). The Exorcism of Emily Rose is rotten at 45 % with a 5.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of The Exorcism of Emily Rose?
+ Best Crime Drama of the Year + Best Los Angeles Movie of the Year+ Most Stylish Movie of the Year
Amy Adams and the shadowy contours of Jake Gyllenhaal fill out this stylish poster for Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals
Susan is a successful gallery owner in LA but also an insomniac with a cheating husband. She receives in the mail the manuscript for a coming novel sent to her by her ex-husband Tony, dedicated to her. The violent story it contains brings back the facts of their break-up and sheds new light on Susan's life. Nocturnal Animals is the second film from fashion designer turned great filmmaker, Texan writer-director Tom Ford (A Single Man (2009)). It is an adaptation of Austin Wright's (First Persons: A Novel (1973)) novel Tony and Susan (1993). The film opens powerfully with a memorable credit sequence that successfully establishes the alienated situation that our protagonist Susan finds herself in in her life. Amy Adams (Julie & Julia (2009)) is fascinating and full of internal life and mystery in the role, her second great work in 2016, a real Amy Adams year, following Denis Villeneuve's masterpiece Arrival. Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko (2001)) adds another superb performance to his accomplishments, playing both Tony and the fictional male lead of his book, who both struggle with the accusation of being weak. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Godzilla (2014)) is diabolic and sexy here in a psychopath part that's already earned him a Golden Globe. - Michael Shannon (Man of Steel (2013)) is at least as brilliant as a loner lawman who longs for the taste of justice. The spectacular cast includes, in smaller roles, Michael Sheen (Passengers (2016)), Karl Glusman (Love (2015)), Laura Linney (The Mothman Prophecies (2002)), Armie Hammer (J. Edgar (2011)) and Isla Fisher (Bachelorette (2012)). Nocturnal Animals is a plot movie, dissimilar from the more mood-driven A Single Man which it beats. Besides the sophisticated story, the film is stylish, laced with sly humor and with an appealing but restrained appetite for melodrama and glamour, running on the fiction inside it, an unpleasant crime story. But Nocturnal Animals never gets too graphic in its unpleasantness and is in fact also a fairly quiet film, literally, with rare periods of scored beauty by Abel Korzeniowski (A Single Man). It is a thrilling film, an adult drama about the prize of bowing out from love, which makes me hope that it won't be another 7 years before Ford releases another film.
= Too early to say, but looks like it will end up a big flop
[Nocturnal Animals premiered September 2 (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 116 minutes. Focus Features bought the North American distribution rights around 6 months before shooting started for a massive 20 mil. $. Filming took place in California from October - December 2015. The film opened limited in 37 theaters to a 492k $ first weekend at #18 and widened to #8 and 3.1 mil. $ in some 1200 theaters in North America, where it has grossed 10.6 mil. $, - which must be far below Focus Features' initial hopes for the release. The film won the Grand Jury Prize in Venice and is nominated for 9 BAFTAs. It won one Golden Globe out of three nominations. Nocturnal Animals is certified fresh at 72 % with a 6.9 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
+ Best Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Edward Norton
Richard Gere is a defense lawyer caught in the shadows of what he does on the poster for Gregory Hoblit's Primal Fear
Primal Fear is the screen feature debut of Texan filmmaker Gregory Hoblit (Hart's War (2002)), an adaptation of William Diehl's (Sharky's Machine (1978)) same-titled 1993 novel by Steve Shagan (Gotti (1996)) and Ann Biderman (Copycat (1995)). We follow Chicago's leading defense attorney, as he takes a high-stakes case pro bono: A young altar boy who claims amnesia is captured and suspected of the gruesome killing of the city's archbishop. Primal Fear has an air of reality to its plot and characters, and together with the complex protagonist, - who is not at all a good guy, but more of a guy who's trying to justify to himself (and a reporter who follows him around) that the stuff that he does for a living is alright, - this makes for a compelling film. The primal fear of the film's title I take to refer to the lead character's dilemma as a defense lawyer: How can I be certain you're telling me the truth? And in extension of that question; how can I make sure that I am safe from you, and everyone out there? (The primal fear being that we can't, of course, make sure that we get the truth from anyone, or that we're safe, ever.)
The details: While the photography and score is alright craftsmanship but not inspired or memorable in any way, the acting performances are strong, and they heighten the suspense and entertainment value of this rather dark neo-noir treat: Richard Gere (Pretty Woman (1990)) is great as our capable but morally questionable hero, and so is Laura Linney (Mr. Holmes (2015)) as the equally capable prosecutor, whom he has had an affair with. Their chemistry and seriousness are admirable. But for many it is Oscar-nominated Edward Norton (The Score (2001)), in his screen debut, who shines in Primal Fear and steals the movie as the sheepish alter boy. Predicting the outcome of this thriller is a major part of its attraction. And even if you guess right (as I did), it's a good film. The cast is also adorned with such good actors as Frances McDormand (Olive Kitteridge (2014), TV-miniseries) as a psychiatrist, Alfre Woodard (Annabelle (2014)) as the boozing judge, and John Mahoney (Frasier (1993-04)), who, however, is sort of too nice to portray the power-mad character he is given here. SPOILER The dual identity/personality disorder theme was hot in the 1990s: Norton would go on to portray someone who seriously suffers from it in Fight Club (1999), and another of the decade's most memorable thrillers, The Usual Suspects (1995)) also relies on the device.
Cost: 30 mil. $ Box office: 102.6 mil. $ = Box office success [Primal Fear opened #1 to a 9.8 mil. $ opening weekend in North America, where it stayed #1 for a total of three April weeks, before The Quest (1996) took over. It grossed 56.1 mil. $ (54.7 % of the total gross) domestically. Norton lost the supporting actor Oscar to Cuba Gooding Jr. in Jerry Maguire (1996). Primal Fear is fresh at 74 % with a 6.7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of Primal Fear?
