In the Bedroom (2001) - Field debuts with refined drama

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Fervent critical praise fills up a large part of this erotica and adult themes promising poster for Todd Field's In the Bedroom

A young man in Maine carries on a 'summer flirt' with an older woman who is a mother of three. Her ex-husband is a violent prick, and one day he shoots the young man. Due to a poor witness statement, he is later released on bail.

 

In the Bedroom is written by Robert Festinger (Trust (2010)) and great Californian filmmaker, co-writer/co-producer/director Todd Field (Tár (2022)), whose debut it is. It is an adaptation of the 1979 short story Killings by Andre Dubus (Finding a Girl in America (1980)).

Tom Wilkinson (Denial (2016)) and Sissy Spacek (The Help (2011)) turn in terrific performances as the parents of the young man, who pains and grieve in each their own way. The film's pressurized silence during the first hour is unusual in a modern American film, (or more accurately in any American film.)

The film has strong, finely choreographed domestic spat scenes. The title, which alludes to a lobster-catching contraption and not the room in a house that we will naturally think of, seems poorly selected, and the film is too brightly lit in some scenes. The ending is not as powerful as it might have been, and the film overall may have been a tad overrated at its arrival in 2001.

 

Related posts:

 

Todd Field: 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]

 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 1.7 mil. $

Box office: 44.7 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 26.2 times its cost)

[In the Bedroom premiered 19 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 131 minutes. Shooting took place from June - July 2000 in Maine. The distribution rights were purchased by Miramax, and a reportedly terrified Field followed the advice of his friend Tom Cruise in how to avoid notoriously meddling executive Harvey Weinstein ruining his film: first let Weinstein recut the film, then receive poor test scores, and then remind Weinstein of the great reception the film originally got at Sundance. The strategy worked, and the film was eventually released as Field intended. It opened #37 to a 93k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #12 and in 1,103 theaters, grossing 35.9 mil. $ (80.3 % of the total gross) The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 1.3 mil. $ (2.9 %; here the film was not released until 2005!) and the UK with 945k $ (2.1 %). It was nominated for 5 Oscars, winning none: It lost Best Picture to A Beautiful Mind, Actor (Wilkinson) to Denzel Washington in Training Day, Actress (Spacek) to Halle Berry in Monster's Ball, Supporting Actress (Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler (2008))) to Jennifer Connelly in A Beautiful Mind and Adapted Screenplay to Akiva Goldsman for A Beautiful Mind. It was also nominated for 2 BAFTAs, won 1/3 Golden Globe nominations, 3/4 Independent Spirit award nominations, 3 National Board of Review awards, 1/5 AFI award nominations, among many other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Field returned with Carnivàle (2005, TV-series) and theatrically with Little Children (2006). Wilkinson returned in Another Life (2001); Spacek in Midwives (2001, TV movie), Last Call (2002, TV movie) and theatrically in Tuck Everlasting (2002). In the Bedroom is certified fresh at 93 % with a 7.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of In the Bedroom?

The Old Man & the Gun (2018) - Lowery's lackluster caper career cap for Redford

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Only an impeccably dressed star Robert Redford with his face covered appears on this minimalist poster for David Lowery's The Old Man & the Gun

Forrest Tucker is a veteran career criminal specialized in bank robbery, who in a situation of escape takes interest in a gracious older lady with engine failure, who turns out to become important for him. Almost as important as the bank robberies.

 

The Old Man & the Gun is written and directed by David Lowery (Deadroom (2005)), based on David Grann's (The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (2009)) 2003 article The Old Man and the Gun from The New Yorker, which concerned the real-life story of Forrest Tucker.

Robert Redford's (War Hunt (1962)) star persona as a gentleman outlaw gets a classy ribbon tied around it in the shape of this quietly mulling true-crime picture, with an unimpressed working-man Casey Affleck (Committed (2000)) after him and Sissy Spacek (Badlands (1973)) as the sweet, unexpected new romantic partner.

It is all very sweet but also dull in its virtuous cinematic nature, ('a last show for the old champ' sort of thing), a film that drifts ahead nice and easy without much thematic ground to it. Well-produced but slow going.

 

Related post:

 

David Lowery: Pete's Dragon (2016) - Lowery plays Disney remake safe

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 15.8 mil. $

Box office: 17.8 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.12 times its cost)

[The Old Man & the Gun premiered 31 August (Telluride Film Festival) and runs 93 minutes. Shooting took place around April 2017 in Ohio, Michigan, Texas and Kentucky. The film opened #32 to a 142k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #10 and in 1,042 theaters (different weeks), grossing 11.2 mil. $ (62.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Italy with 1.4 mil. $ (7.9 %) and the UK with 791k $ (4.4 %). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Lowery returned with a TV-series, a segment and a short prior to his theatrical return The Green Knight (2021). Redford returned with a voice performance in Buttons, A New Musical Film (2018) and physically in Avengers: Endgame (2019); Affleck in Light of My Life (2019); and Spacek in 3 TV-series and a music video prior to her theatrical return in Sam & Kate (2022). The Old Man & the Gun is certified fresh at 93 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Old Man & the Gun? 

Hot Rod (2007) - Samberg and Schaffer arrive with amiable stunt comedy

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+ Best Huge Flop Movie of the Year

Andy Samberg strikes a fearless pose on this pretty rad poster for Akiva Schaffer's Hot Rod

Rod wants to earn the love of his stepfather - and then beat his ass - by jumping over 15 buses on his motorbike. - The ultimate jump!

Hot Rod is written by Pam Brady (Hamlet 2 (2008)) and directed by theatrically debuting Akiva Schaffer (Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)).
Andy Samberg (Major Lazer (2015), TV-series) isn't as funny as the protagonist as Will Ferrell might have been, (the movie was written with him in mind originally), but he is many times easier on the eye, and he really works for his laughs here. He is teamed up with an enthusiastic cast that includes Bill Hader (The Angry Birds Movie (2016)), Danny McBride (Eastbound & Down (2009-13)), Sissy Spacek (Gray Matters (2006)) and Ian McShane (Columbo (1990), TV-series). They all help make Hot Rod a funny film. It features a lot of stunts and some hysterical comedy.

Related post:

2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 25.3 mil. $
Box office: 14.3 mil. $
= Huge flop (0.56 times the cost)
[Hot Rod was released 3 August (USA) and runs 88 minutes. The film was in development for years at Paramount as a Ferrell vehicle, which never came to fruition. After Samberg's Lonely Island music-comedy group were hired to SNL in 2005, the film changed direction to suit them instead. Shooting took place in British Columbia, Canada, including Vancouver, from July - September 2006. The film opened and peaked #9 to a 5.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 13.9 mil. $ (97.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 163k $ (1.1 %) and United Arab Emirates with 84k $ (0.6 %). Roger Ebert agreed with this review in giving the film a 3/4 star review. Hot Rod sold in excess of 24 mil. $ worth of copies on the North American home video market, which, if added into its theatrical gross, would change its status to that of merely a 'big flop'. Schaffer returned with several episodes of SNL and Lonely Island video shorts en masse before he returned to cinemas with The Watch (2012). Samberg returned theatrically in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008). Hot Rod is rotten at 40 % with a 4.9/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hot Rod?

Get Low (2009) - Great stars caught in not very good period drama about a hermit and his funeral

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Contours of the stars against a dark sky and a Robert Duvall looking wise fill out this poster for Aaron Schneider's Get Low

An odd, old hermit, who has lived alone in his forest house for 40 years, comes out into society with a peculiar wish: To arrange his own funeral, which he wants to attend while still alive.

Audiences who expect a comedy will be disappointed here. Despite the involvement of Bill Murray (Coming Attractions (1978)) as an undertaker and short moments of some amusing value along the way, Get Low is clearly most of all a drama, and a small, short story-inspired-like one at that, (although it is actually inspired by a true 1938 Tennessee man.)
The overshadowing problem for the film is that for its entire duration it feels unclear, why this story is relayed to us. This is despite good efforts by Sissy Spacek (JFK (1991)) and particularly grand old man lead Robert Duvall (The Detective (1968)), whose character's outlandish, several decades long hermit life remains a claim that is never illuminated.
Get Low is written by Chris Provenzano (Silicon Valley (2017), TV-series) and C. Gaby Mitchell (Blood Diamond (2006), story), with Scott Seeke (Boxes (2013), short, producer) contributing story elements, and directed by debuting Aaron Schneider (Kiss the Girls (1997), cinematographer), who has kept himself to only operating the camera in his few credits since.  
Get Low is set in Tennessee in the 1930s but doesn't present a vivid portrayal of its time or place either. It is a film with some good parts and an interesting premise, which only makes it more of a shame that it simply doesn't work.

Related post:

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Reportedly 7 - 7.5 mil. $
Box office: 10.5 mil. $
= Big flop
[Get Low premiered 12 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 100 minutes. Shooting took place in Georgia, including in Atlanta. The film opened #32 in 4 theaters to a 88k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #16 and in 570 theaters (different weeks), played for a very long 29 weeks and grossed 9.1 mil. $ (86.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 491k $ (4.7 %) and Poland with 407k $ (3.9 %), (the film is a US-German-Polish co-production.) Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to two notches higher than this one. The film was nominated for two Film Independent Spirit Awards, winning for Best First Feature. Get Low is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7.2/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Get Low?

Carrie (1976) or, Don't Bully the Strange Girl!

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Sissy Spacek's transformation from prom queen to avenging angel in Brian De Palma's Carrie

QUICK REVIEW:

Carrie is a young girl with a loony-religious mother. She gets bullied in high school in the crudest ways, and at the prom, she loses control of her telekinetic powers.
Brian De Palma (Obsession (1976)) elbows himself into the American 'big league' with Carrie and shows his visual masterfulness very clearly here. The film is packed with neat and innovative camera-work, (by cinematographer Mario Tosi (Resurrection (1980)).
Carrie is an exceptional youth horror classic, - and a film with some fine women in the leads: Sissy Spacek (The Straight Story (1999)) is a marvel as the fragile, eerily gifted Carrie, Piper Laurie (The Hustler (1961)) is memorable as her zealous mother, (they were both Oscar-nominated for their performances), and Bette Buckley (The Happening (2008)) is sympathetic as the nice gym teacher.
Pino Donaggio's (Passion (2012)) score is co-responsible for the overwhelmingly operatic quality that radiates from Carrie's 2nd half.
Before the finalizing shock (SPOILER with Carrie's hand), De Palma has fired up a tragedy of Biblical proportions, especially with SPOILER the death of the mother. The only slight disappointment with Carrie is to find that behind all the powerful uses of multifarious effects which are at work in it, no real statement or faith rests, besides the belief in these strong scenes. These, however, can't be taken away from De Palma or the film.
Carrie was Stephen King's bestselling first novel and the first to be adapted, (now his writings have resulted in more than 100 films and TV-productions.) The rights were bought for just 2,500 $, and King was thrilled with the finished movie.
The trailer wrongly announced that Carrie sees John Travolta in his first feature role, which is untrue, because he also stars in the phenomenally strange The Devil Rain (1975), in which SPOILER he melts!
De Palma is getting old, but he's still active, with two movies optioned; the Émile Zola-adaptation Therese Raquin and a film called Happy Valley. The same goes for Spacek, who will star in an untitled KZK/Sony TV-series, debuting next year.

Related review:

Brian De Palma: Carlito's Way (1993) - De Palma's best gangster movie

Piper Laurie made a comeback as Carries mother, having been out of film and TV since the mid-sixties, in Brian de Palma's Carrie

Puberty and getting your period for the first time has rarely been scarier than it is for Sissy Spacek's character in Brian De Palma's Carrie

Brian De Palma's Carrie involves a delicious sense of evil that we almost partake in, because we know what will happen to poor Carrie, whereupon most audiences will relish her revenge

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 1.8 mil. $
Box office: 33.8 mil. $
= Huge hit

What do you think of Carrie?
Seen the sequel and/or the TV or feature remake?
If so, sum them up, please

Badlands (1973) or, Kit and Holly in Love

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This original poster for Terrence Malick's Badlands has a provocative tagline that was referred to by the San Francisco Zodiac killer in one of his letters at the time

In late-50s Texas, a 15 year-old, simple-minded girl begins to talk to a local garbage man. He loses his job, they fall in love, and before they know it, the girl's father is shot, and the young couple are outlaws on the run.

 
In my 'book', Badlands beats the topically similar classic Bonnie and Clyde (1967), - and all director Terrence Malick's (The Thin Red Line (1998)) other films, - because it is sharper and more pungent in its social realism, and its characters are more easily recognizable and credible, less iconographic and larger-than-life, and also, the film is simply incredibly enveloping to watch. The moods created in the film and its poetic quality is breathtaking. The story is based on a real couple on a killing spree in Dakota in 1959.
Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now (1979)) could be termed the ultimate American as Kit here, pressed to the edge, fighting his own fight for himself; and Sissy Spacek (The Straight Story (1999)) plays as strongly as the adorable opportunist Holly, whom he sweeps off with. Badlands also portrays American society's mixed feelings of fascination and contempt for the renegades and outlaws with great precision.
SPOILER Especially the scene of Sheen's Kit-character's visit at a job center got to me.
But Badlands has countless strong and incredible scenes.
It is a marvelous, strong, vibrant cinematic masterpiece.

Related post:

Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

 

Watch the film's awesome, original trailer here

Budget: 0.5 mil. $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain

What do you think of Badlands?
Why does America have this infatuation with murderous outlaws?

A Home at the End of the World (2004) or, In Need of Haircuts

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Co-star Colin Farrell looks contemplative in front on this character-focused poster for Michael Mayer's A Home at the End of the World

A Home at the End of the World is debuting filmmaker Michael Mayer's (The Seagull (2018)) film of Michael Cunningham's (The Hours (2002)) same-titled 1990 novel, which he has adapted for the screen himself.

 

The film centers on a about a ménage à trois consisting of a teenaged gay couple and a woman, Clare, who become parents together.

 
The film clearly has good intentions, but they are regrettably not turned into a successful movie. A Home at the End of the World is often pretty awkward and unintentionally funny: Ridiculous hairdos and super-sweetness gets mixed with huge year leaps and a very unsatisfactory ending.
But points go to Colin Farrell (Minority Report (2002)) for doing something entirely new in playing a believable bisexual, and for Sissy Spacek (Carrie (1976)) for being a wonderful mother in the film. On the other hand; huge minus-points for director Mayer for cutting nude scenes of Farrell out, because they "distracted test audiences too much."
A Home at the End of the World is a sweet, very new-age-y drama with some good music, but it is also a very flawed picture.

 

Related post:

 

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

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 6.5 mil. $
Box office: 1.5 mil. $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.23 times its cost)

[A Home at the End of the World premiered 9 June (New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival) and runs 96 minutes. Shooting took place in April 2003 - ? in New York, Arizona, including Phoenix, and in Ontario, including Toronto. The film opened #46 to a 64k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #40 and in 65 theaters (different weeks), grossing 1 mil. $ (66.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 144k $ (9.6 %) and Spain with 95k $ (6.3 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. The film won a National Board of Review award. Mayer returned with Flicka (2006). Farrell returned in Alexander (2004); Dallas Roberts (My Friend Dahmer (2017)) in Walk the Line (2005); Robin Wright (Rampart (2011)) in Nine Lives (2005)), and Spacek also in Nine Lives. A Home at the End of the World is rotten at 50 % with a 5.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 
What do you think of A Home at the End of the World?