Notes on a Scandal (2006) - Great performances in Eyre's layered drama-thriller

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+ Best Drama-Thriller of the Year + Best Erotic Movie of the Year + Best London Movie of the Year + Best UK Movie of the Year 

 

Gold and shadow-filled red is used on the stars' faces of this poster for Richard Eyre's Notes on a Scandal

A younger woman, Sheba, begins teaching at an ordinary London school, where she attracts a clingy friend in the aging spinster Barbara.

 

Notes on a Scandal is written by Patrick Marber (Asylum (2005)), adapting the same-titled 2003 novel by Zoë Heller (The Believers (2008)), and directed by great English filmmaker Richard Eyre (The Ploughman's Lunch (1983)).

Judi Dench (Four in the Morning (1965)) is formidable as the dried-up, scheming, selfish older woman, and Cate Blanchett (The Aviator (2004)) is just as perfect as the younger Sheba, who lets her life take a free-fall. Their acting in the same dramatic minefield issued by Sheba's affair with an underage student is the film's great attraction. Bill Nighy (Guest House Paradiso (1999)) is also outstanding as Sheba's cuckolded husband, and Eyre gets seductive scenes out of the young Andrew Simpson (Road Games (2015)).

Notes on a Scandal is an intriguing, a bit literary but nevertheless excellent film about the gossipy and self-serving in us all.

 

Related posts:

 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 15 mil. $

Box office: 49.8 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.32 times its cost)

[Notes on a Scandal was released 25 December (USA) and runs 91 minutes. Shooting took place from August - October 2005 in England, including in London. The film opened #66 to a 6k $ first weekend in 1 theater in North America, where it peaked at #13 and in 682 theaters (different weeks), grossing 17.5 mil. $ (35.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 11.5 mil. $ (23.1 %) and Australia with 4.9 mil. $ (9.8 %). The film was nominated for 4 Oscars, winning none: It lost Best Actress (Dench) to Helen Mirren in The Queen, Supporting Actress (Blanchett) to Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls, Adapted Screenplay to William Monahan for The Departed, and Score (Philip Glass (Elena (2011)) to Gustavo Santaolalla for Babel. It was also nominated for 3 BAFTAs, won 2/4 British Independent Film awards, was nominated for a David di Donatello award, 3 Golden Globes and won a National Board of Review award, among many other honors. Eyre returned with The Other Man (2008). Dench returned in Quantum of Solace (2008); and Blanchett in Hot Fuzz (2007) for an uncredited cameo and as a starring actor in I'm Not There (2007). Notes on a Scandal is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Notes on a Scandal?

Happiness (1998) - Solondz's presentation of American dysfunction is a great if bleak work

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+ Best Feel-Bad Movie of the Year 

 

A comics-styled poster of an assortment of the film's anxiety-ridden, secretive, unhappy characters beneath a sun-colored background for Todd Solondz's Happiness

Extreme loneliness and its ramifications, unaddressed pedophilia, substance abuse and permanent identity crisis are some of the problems of modern America that are probed in Happiness.

 

Happiness is written and directed by Todd Solondz (Fear, Anxiety & Depression (1989)).

The dialog in the film, - and in fact the entire script and the handling of suspense in its mostly separate character-centered stories, - are incredibly intelligent and pregnant with meanings and subtext. The film has a bold use of compositions, music, language and issues.

There are also fantastic performances, among others from Dylan Baker (Two Days in New York (2012)) as a child-rapist father, for most people the film's most disturbing character. There appears to be no taboos for Solondz here. My only reservation towards the film is that it leaves its audiences in a radical state of hopelessness and despair about the human condition - and nothing else.

 

Related post:

 

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 2.2 mil. $

Box office: Reportedly 5.9 mil. $

= Uncertain but likely a box office success (reportedly returned 2.68 times its cost)

[Happiness premiered 15 May (Cannes Film Festival, out of the main competition) and runs 139 minutes. Shooting took place from August - October 1997 in Florida and New Jersey. The Sundance Film Festival found the film's portrayal of pedophilia "too disagreeable" and refused to accept it. The film's original US distributor dropped the film, which was eventually released unrated, after having gotten an NC-17 rating from the MPAA. It opened #15 to a 130k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it widened to 60 theaters but didn't attain a higher ranking, grossing 2.9 mil. $ (49.2 % of the total gross). The-Numbers.com claim that the film made 3 mil. $ internationally (without any details to back it up), and if true, this makes it a box office success. It won a prize in Cannes, was nominated for 3 Independent Spirit awards and a Golden Globe, and it won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Solondz returned with Storytelling (2001), and later made the semi-sequel to Happiness, Life During Wartime (2009). Baker returned in Oz (1998, TV-series) and theatrically in Celebrity (1998). Happiness is certified fresh at 81 % with a 7.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Happiness?

Girls - season 2 (2013) - Hannah Horvath and Co. still make for fun TV chums

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 + Best Returning TV-series + Best Youth Title of the Year

 

Creator/star Lena Dunham fits in poorly to the conventional symbol of a woman next to a funny tagline on this fine poster for her Girls - season 2

Season 2 of creator/co-director/co-star Lena Dunham's (Creative Nonfiction (2009)) New York-set comedy series of four young female friends trying to find their place in life and relationships in the Big Apple drives on with the established characters and conflicts from the first season.

The following contains SPOILERS:

 

Hannah (Dunham) has moved in with her gay friend Elijah, and the two throw a party, in which Shoshanna (Zozia Mamet (Wiener-Dog (2016))) is awkward after having lost her virginity. Hannah acts as an unofficial nurse for her former flame Adam (Adam Driver (The Meyerowitz Stories (2017))) due to her co-responsibility for his getting hit by a truck one dramatic night, (in the final episode of season 1), while she also has a new sex friend in hot Donald Glover (30 Rock (2006-12)).

But she soon loses him to their differing political views and his lack of praise for her new essay; and Hannah calls the police, when Adam has let himself into her apartment.

Hannah has a one-day affair with a separated doctor (Patrick Wilson (Little Children (2006))) and quits her café job to fully pursue her writing. Soon after she has a gig to write an e-book, but this stresses her to the point that her OCD returns, and she visits psychiatrist Bob Balaban (Gosford Park (2001)).

Adam breaks his AA promise and returns to Hannah; and Marnie (Allison Williams (College Musical (2014))) uses her secret talent of singing at an event, which gets her bastard ex-boyfriend Charlie back to her. Even though he is a weak and very annoying character, she worships him. Adam recognizes Hannah's OCD, runs to her place and kicks the door in to better her.

 

An amusing but somewhat sentimental end to the season, which keeps development afloat for each of the four leads, along with three recurring male characters (Adam, Charlie and Ray), though with focus mostly on Hannah. Jessa (Jemima Kirke (Untogether (2018))) has the least development during season 2, but there is a full episode dedicated to her and Hannah's trip to the country to visit her (terrible) parents, played by Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)) and Rosanna Arquette (Pulp Fiction (1994)) (episode 7: Video Games.)

It is great to have these Girls back on the small screen.

Best episodes:

Episode 3: Bad Friend - written by Dunham, Sarah Heyward (SKAM Austin (2018, TV-series)), Deborah Schoeneman (The Newsroom (2014, TV-series)); directed by Jesse Peretz (Divorce (2016, TV-series))

Hannah interviews at a magazine, whose editor wants stories that come from outside its writer's comfort zone. Hannah tries to give this by scoring cocaine from a neighbor and partying with Elijah, who confesses to having had sex with Marnie. Hannah throws him out and confronts Marnie with being, in Hannah's mind, a bad friend. Hilarious episode.

Episode 4: It's a Shame about Rey - written by Dunham, Heyward, Schoeneman; directed by Peretz

Hannah entertains with too acerbic imitations of her friends at a celebration of her first published article, leading to the evening breaking up. Shosh learns that her boyfriend Ray (Alex Karpovsky (Rosy (2018))) has moved in with her. Jessa meets her new husband's (Chris O'Dowd (Bridesmaids (2011))) parents, leading to a toxic break between the two, and her running off with 11,500 $. Touching, hilarious and original episode.

Related post:

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

Girls - season 1 (2012) - Dunham arrives with refreshing, idiosyncratic NY youth howler

 

 

Watch a 2-minute clip from episode 10 of the season here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: None - TV-series

= Uncertain

[Girls - season 2 premiered 13 January - 17 March on HBO and runs 10 episodes averaging 28 minutes, totaling approximately 280 minutes. Shooting took place in New York. The season had ratings from 484k to 866k viewers in North America, a sizable slip from the first season. The cast returned in season 3 in 2014. The season was nominated for 5 Primetime Emmy awards. Dunham also wrote and directed Best Friends (2013, short) and wrote Choose You (2013, short) during the year of season 2. Kirke did not get more credits before season 3; Mamet acted in The Last Keepers (2013); and Williams in The Mindy Project (2013). Girls - season 2 is certified fresh at 94 % with an 8.03/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Girls - season 2?

Girls - season 1 (2012) - Dunham arrives with refreshing, idiosyncratic NY youth howler

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Characters Jessa, Marnie, Hannah and Shoshanna lounged closely together on a couch on this poster for Lena Dunham's Girls - season 1

 

Girls - season 1 is created by Lena Dunham (Creative Nonfiction (2009)), who also plays protagonist Hannah and directed 5 of the 10 episodes. It is based on her own experiences as a young woman creative working in New York. The following contains SPOILERS.

 

Hannah Horvath, an aspiring twentysomething writer from Michigan, living in New York two years after graduating from college, gets a bomb dropped in her life in the first episode, which also introduces us to her three closest friends, Jessa (Jemima Kirke (The Little Hours (2017)), Marnie (Allison Williams (Get Out (2017)) and Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet (Goldbricks in Bloom (2016)) and her fuck buddy Adam (Adam Driver (BlacKkKlansman (2018))): Her parents have decided to cut her financial umbilical cord, prompting Hannah to quit her unpaid apprenticeship.

Hannah attempts to restart the steady financial, parental support in a visit to them (episode 6: The Return), but she ultimately cannot get herself to ask for it and instead has a random sexual encounter in the very sweet episode, which also has her parents (Peter Scolari (Dean (2016)) and Becky Ann Baker (Gotham (2015, TV-series))) in a sexual accident!

The various couples, affairs and complications, especially in relation to Hannah, make up the bulk of the show. As the season ends, Marnie moves in with Shoshanna, who finally has her virginity taken by musician/café manager Ray (Alex Karpovsky (Being Frank (2018)). Jessa surprises everyone by marrying her recent, well-off lay (Chris O'Dowd (The Double (2013))), and every one 'randomly' meet at the ceremony, letting Hannah 'run into' her former boyfriend Elijah (Andrew Rannells (Bachelorette (2012))), who is now gay, and the two decide to move in together. Marnie hooks up with the cute best man, and Adam is out of it and gets run down in the dramatic night that follows.

Though there are continuity issues (in episode 8: Weirdos Need Girlfriends Too) and some conspicuous use of chance (in episode 10: She Did), Girls - season 1 is a refreshing and very funny new companion with an original sense of realism and diversity in its body images, which Dunham herself leads, unafraid to look like a heavy-set pear in an ugly sweater. There are several terrific performances, and especially Dunham, Driver and Williams are killer actors in Girls.

 

Best episodes:

 

Episode 2: Vagina Panic - written by Dunham, Lesley Arfin (Awkward. (2013, TV-series)), Sarah Heyward (SKAM Austin (2018, TV-series)); directed by Dunham

Hannah has more awkward sex with Adam, and so do Marnie and Charlie (cute Christopher Abbott (Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2010, TV-series))). Jessa fails to show up for her own scheduled abortion, while Hannah gets tested for STDs (due to Adam's perceived frivolity), and Shoshanna admits that she is a virgin. Really funny and fresh episode.

 

Episode 4: Hannah's Diary - written by Dunham; directed by Richard Shepard (The Perfection (2018))

Jessa briefly loses the children she is babysitting in the park. Shoshanna fails to have sex (for her first time) with an old flame. Hannah has started in a secretary job, tries to get used to her new 'handsy' boss and receives a dick pic from Adam. Marnie's boyfriend Charlie and his musician friend Ray conduct a song about what they read in Hannah's diary, which is critical to her friends, predictably causing strife. Really sharp episode; Dunham is fearless and outstanding with painted eyebrows here. 

Episode 9: Leave Me Alone - written by Dunham, Bruce Eric Kaplan (Seinfeld (1997-98)), Deborah Schoeneman (90210 (2010, TV-series)); directed by Shepard

Hannah struggles with her identity as she fails to sparkle at a reading of her creative material. Jessa gets motherly advice from a terrific Kathryn Hahn (Kroll Show (2013-15)) as the crisis-hit mother she is babysitting for. Hannah's financial mess has been covered by Marnie so far, but it now drives them to a conflict that concludes with Marnie deciding to move out of their shared apartment.

Dunham talks about season 1 for 39 minutes in this video

Cost: Unknown

Box office: None - TV-series

= Uncertain

[Girls - season 1 premiered 12 March (South by Southwest Film Festival, Austin, broadcast first on HBO from April 15 - June 17) and runs 10 episodes averaging 28 minutes, totaling approximately 280 minutes. Shooting took place in New York. The season had ratings from 678k to 1.09 mil. viewers in North America. The cast returned in season 2 in 2013. The season won 2 Golden Globes and 1/5 Primetime Emmy nominations. Dunham also wrote Nobody Walks (2012) around the time of season 1 and had parts in Supporting Characters (2012) and This Is 40 (2012). Kirke did not get more credits before season 2; Mamet acted in Sunset Stories (2012), Mad Men (2010-12)) and Rhymes with Banana (2012); Williams in Jake and Amir (2011-12, TV-series short). Girls - season 1 is certified fresh at 94 % with an 8.35/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Girls - season 1?

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?

Malèna (2000) - Bellucci radiant in Tornatore's under-appreciated ode

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Monica Belucci's head-turning beauty adores the poster for Giuseppe Tornatore's Malèna

In a small Sicilian town in 1940, as Italy enters WWII, a teenage boy is seeing the locally famed beauty Maléna, who changes his life.

Malèna is written and directed by Italian master filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore (The Professor/Il Camorrista (1986)), based on a story by Luciano Vincenzoni (Little Funny Guy/L'Emigrante (1973)). It is Tornatore's 7th feature.
It is a wonderful little film of first love, the rampant horniness of the teenage boy, and the passing from boy into something else. It is also about a woman but mostly as an idolized, more or less mystical, older figure.
Monica Bellucci (She Hate Me (2004)) is incredibly beautiful and erotic as the title character, among the fairest and sexiest women in the history of cinema with Malèna one of the great bullets to prove this, and you can easily watch the film for her scenes alone and enjoy it immensely. But Malèna is also exceptionally shot (cinematographer Lajos Koltai (The Legend of 1900/La Leggenda del Pianista sull'Oceano (1998))), - and the score is pure Ennio Morricone (Porca Vacca (1982)) magic.

Related post:

Giuseppe Tornatore: Cinema Paradiso/Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (1988) - Tornatore's timeless masterpiece

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Reportedly "around" 10 mil. $
Box office: 14.4 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.44 times its cost)
[Malèna premiered 26 October (Italy) and runs 109 minutes/92 min. in the North-American watered down edition. Shooting took place in Morocco and in Sicily, Italy from September 1999 - March 2000. The film opened #37 to a 62k $ first weekend in 32 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #28 and in 117 theaters, grossing 3.4 mil. $ (23.6 % of the total gross). The international gross sheet at Box Office Mojo is not complete, missing among many other markets Italy itself, likely the film's biggest or at least 2nd biggest market, but the 14.4 mil. $ gross is likely accurate. The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: It lost Best Cinematography to Pater Pau for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Score to Dun Tan for the same film. It was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes, a BAFTA, won 1/4 David di Donatello nominations, a National Board of Review award and several other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to 3 notches under this one. Tornatore returned with The Unknown Woman/La Sconosciuta (2006). Bellucci returned in Dear Father (2001, short) and theatrically in Brotherhood of the Wolf/Le Pacte des Loups (2001). Malèna is rotten at 54 % with a 5.58/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Malèna?