Meet the free, proud, independent people of Ukraine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzNxLzFfR5w Nothing but reviews. In excess.
From ZERO to 6 ♥s. 100% ad-free. Run on pure love for movies, documentaries and TV-series. June 2025: Countdown to: Top 10: Best horror comedy movies - Upcoming review: There's Still Tomorrow (2023)
Best Lead Actor: Aaron Eckhart (lost to Stephen Dorff for Somewhere) Best Lead Actress: Nicole Kidman (lost to Jennifer Connelly for Virginia/What's Wrong with Virginia) Best Supporting Actress: Dianne Wiest (won) Best Supporting Actress:Sandra Oh Best Director: John Cameron Mitchell (lost to Sofia Coppola for Somewhere)
+ Best Drama of the Year
A mysterious poster for one of the year's truly great films, John Cameron Mitchell's Rabbit Hole
It has been 8 months since marrieds Becca and Howie lost their 4 year-old son.
Rabbit Hole is an adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire's (High Fidelity (2006)) same-titled, Pulitzer-prize winning 2006 play, written by himself and directed by great Texan filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)). It is a fantastic film; serious, sad, - yet managing to be hope-inspiring in the end. - A great achievement.
Aaron Eckhart (The Rum Diary (2011)) and Nicole Kidman (The Bit Part (1987)) both give outstanding performances, and Dianne Wiest (Robots (2005)) and Sandra Oh (The Night Listener (2006)) are excellent in supporting roles.
Rabbit Hole is touching and realistic. A great drama.
[Rabbit Hole premiered September 13 (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 91 minutes. Kidman dropped out of Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger to pursue Rabbit Hole, which she also acted as a producer on. Filming took place over the course of 28 days from June - July 2009 in Queens, New York. The film expands on the play, adding several characters. It opened #38 in 5 theaters to a 53k $ first weekend, peaking in 131 theaters in North America, where it grossed 2.2 mil. $ (43.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 0.5 mil. $ (9.8 %) and Poland with 0.3 mil. $ (5.9 %). Kidman was Oscar-nominated for Best Actress, which she lost to Black Swan's Natalie Portman. She was nominated for the same Golden Globe, and Rabbit Hole also got nominated for 4 Independent Spirit awards, without winning any though. Roger Ebert gave the film 3½ stars, equal to its rating here. Rabbit Hole is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
+ Best Independent Movie of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Ellen Page
A skin-crawling poster for David Slade's Hard Candy
It seems impossible to relate anything from the plot of Hard Candy without giving away some of its unpredictable allure, so I will confine myself to presenting its exposition:
A 32 year-old hermit photographer takes a 14 year-old girl back to his home after flirting with her in an online chat-room and subsequently in a café.
I won't reveal more of the plot but recommend the film for anyone up for an edgy, intense and unnerving ride with formidable performances from the leads, played by a real trooper here, Patrick Wilson (Little Children (2006)) who faces Canadian shooting star Ellen Page (Juno (2007)): Her performance and work in Hard Candy is especially impressive due to her age, - and she stands out as obviously a very, very bright young lady here. The film has some Saw (2004)-like physical uncomfortability to it, - and it was indeed distributed by Saw-handler Lionsgate, - and definitely, if you like hard-edged horror like Saw, then you shouldn't miss Hard Candy. It builds on a gimmick of 'turning tables', as producer David Higgins (The Damned (2013)) also brazenly points out in the DVD's great behind-the-camera-featurette, just asSaw in a way does. More than in that film, though, I believed the gimmick here and didn't notice it as such during the film. - It is too riveting and realistic not to. - The realism of Hard Candy also makes it worse to sit through in my opinion. It is the 2nd feature from great English director David Slade (Motion (1994)), and Slade has made many intelligent choices with this impressively low-budgeted film, and especially its look is original and well-crafted: The coloring is distinctively alive and confusing (in that it throws its audience off morally a few times), the close-ups relentless and very uncomfortable, especially in the first act, and the focus uncommonly sharp throughout. Intense lighting and photography in the action sequences (perhaps filmed at a higher frame rate), - it all makes for a visually vivacious and continually interesting watch. Remarkable as at least 80 % of it takes place within just one single LA-home. Cinematographer Jo Willems (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)) and colorist Jean-Clement Soret (Kon-Tiki (2012) have both done excellent jobs. After watching Hard Candy, I'm sure a lot of people will be debating it with different experiences, and few will be able to forget it quickly. SPOILER Personally, I feel that both protagonists are sick, and that the swifts in sympathy from one to the other certainly make Hard Candy unique and daring. It is written by Brian Nelson (Devil (2010)). For a similarly powerful, stylized and modern, low-budget LA-set thriller with sick twists and great performances, look up Nick Tomnay's The Perfect Host (2010), with David Hyde Pierce in his absolute ace in the title role. If the subject matter makes you want more, I warmly recommend Michael Cuesta's L.I.E. (2001) with Brian Cox and Paul Dano, which is a personal favorite of mine, - and even better than Hard Candy.
Cost: 0.95 mil. $ Box office: 7 mil. $ = Huge hit (returned 7.36 times the cost) [Hard Candy premiered 21 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 104 minutes. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, in just 18 days. It opened #48 in 2 theaters to a strong 58k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #20 and in 152 cinemas, grossing 1 mil. $ (14.3 % of the total gross). Its biggest market by far was (curiously) the UK with 3.3 mil. $ (47.1 %), North America was the 2nd biggest, and the 3rd biggest was Spain with 0.8 mil. $ (11.4 %). The film was nominated for a British Independent Spirit award and other received other honors. Slade returned with 30 Days of Night (2007). Wilson returned in Little Children (2006), Page in Mouth to Mouth (2005). Hard Candy is fresh at 68 % with a 6.4/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
