Just about the only irony to be found in Paul Weitz’s earnest and tender “Fatherhood” is that its story, about a single father’s extraordinary efforts to overcome his immaturity and selfishness to raise an infant after his wife’s death, plays so effortlessly on screen.
“Fatherhood” may offer pleasing platitudes and uncomplicated life lessons about trying hard, being present, and the healing power of love, but at least the film eschews cloying contrivances on its journey to big smiles and feel-good hugs.
Father-to-be Matt (Kevin Hart) is a well-intentioned and affable man whose tenuous grasp on responsibility doesn’t quite extend far enough to build the crib in time for the birth of his daughter, Maddy. When Matt’s wife, Liz, unexpectedly dies of a pulmonary embolism barely a day after giving birth, Matt has to quickly and simultaneously navigate the exhausting paths of grieving husband and single parent.
“Fatherhood” may offer pleasing platitudes and uncomplicated life lessons about trying hard, being present, and the healing power of love, but at least the film eschews cloying contrivances on its journey to big smiles and feel-good hugs.
Father-to-be Matt (Kevin Hart) is a well-intentioned and affable man whose tenuous grasp on responsibility doesn’t quite extend far enough to build the crib in time for the birth of his daughter, Maddy. When Matt’s wife, Liz, unexpectedly dies of a pulmonary embolism barely a day after giving birth, Matt has to quickly and simultaneously navigate the exhausting paths of grieving husband and single parent.
- 6/16/2021
- by William Bibbiani
- The Wrap
Over the weekend, the Closing Night Selection of the 58th New York Film Festival officially revealed itself in French Exit. One of the only true sight unseen X factors of this very unusual awards season, the movie was looked at as potentially an Oscar player for Michelle Pfeiffer at the very least. Well, having seen it a few days prior, I held my tongue until the embargo lifted. French Exit is not a good flick, and while Pfeiffer is really going for it, her candidacy in Best Actress is probably going to be an uphill battle. More below on the closer to NYFF this year. The film’s plot synopsis is, as follows: “An aging Manhattan socialite living on what’s barely left of her inheritance moves to a small apartment in Paris with her son and cat.” The festival provided a bit of a longer description: “Michelle Pfeiffer is entirely bewitching as Frances Price,...
- 10/12/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Cameras and lenses can make a huge difference on a project, something this year’s Emmy-nominated cinematographers know something about. IndieWire reached out to this year’s nominees for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (Half-Hour), Single-Camera Series (One Hour), and Limited Series or Movie, and asked them which format, camera and lenses they used. But just as important, we asked them why they were the right tools to achieve their show’s unique look.
Outstanding Cinematography For A Single-Camera Series (Half-Hour)
The nominees for outstanding cinematography in this category are Christian Sprenger (“Atlanta” and “Glow”), Paula Huidobro (“Barry”), Justin Brown (“The End Of The F***ing World”), Patrick Cady (“Insecure”), and Tobias Datum (“Mozart In The Jungle”).
Last Year’s Winner: David Miller for “Veep.”
“Atlanta”
Format: 3.2K ProRes4444
Camera: Arri Amira
Lens: Kowa Cine Prominar Spherical Primes, Angenieux 45-120mm, Canon 8-64mm (S16)
Christian Sprenger: “Atlanta” is...
Outstanding Cinematography For A Single-Camera Series (Half-Hour)
The nominees for outstanding cinematography in this category are Christian Sprenger (“Atlanta” and “Glow”), Paula Huidobro (“Barry”), Justin Brown (“The End Of The F***ing World”), Patrick Cady (“Insecure”), and Tobias Datum (“Mozart In The Jungle”).
Last Year’s Winner: David Miller for “Veep.”
“Atlanta”
Format: 3.2K ProRes4444
Camera: Arri Amira
Lens: Kowa Cine Prominar Spherical Primes, Angenieux 45-120mm, Canon 8-64mm (S16)
Christian Sprenger: “Atlanta” is...
- 8/15/2018
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
When a film is labeled as being a marriage drama, it is usually without question that it will contain some aspect of infidelity, and while The Lovers indeed begins with this premise, it presents the rather rare situation of “re-fidelity.” Featuring superb performances from Tracy Letts and Debra Winger, writer-director Azazel Jacobs has assembled an impeccable ensemble, but his script doesn’t quite have the dramatic acumen to make his Terri follow-up much more than an amusing farce.
For many years, the relationship between Mary (Winger) and Michael (Letts) has been going through the motions, to put it kindly. Their dormant union is one where even a moment of eye contact is rare, best exemplified when Michael is in the bathroom, pretending to be brushing his teeth, but he’s actually on the phone, as his wife is doing the same in the bedroom. An evening when they are both...
For many years, the relationship between Mary (Winger) and Michael (Letts) has been going through the motions, to put it kindly. Their dormant union is one where even a moment of eye contact is rare, best exemplified when Michael is in the bathroom, pretending to be brushing his teeth, but he’s actually on the phone, as his wife is doing the same in the bedroom. An evening when they are both...
- 4/27/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Screen Media Films and Starz Digital Media have partnered to acquire all North American rights to Ellie Kanner’s comedy Authors Anonymous, which stars Kaley Cuoco, Chris Klein, Dennis Farina, Jonathan Bennett, Dylan Walsh, and Teri Polo. The film is slated for early Spring 2014 release date across VOD and digital platforms and in select theaters.
Authors Anonymous is about a dysfunctional group of unpublished writers. When they accept Hannah (Kaley Cuoco) into their fold, the last thing they expect is her overnight success. Can these lovable misfits achieve their artistic dreams and avoid killing one another in the process?
Authors Anonymous was directed by Ellie Kanner, written by David Congalton, produced by Hal Schwartz and Ellie Kanner. The film is from Kanner’s Forever Sunny Productions and Schwartz’s Bull Market Entertainment in association with Cynthia and Laine Guidry’s Lainie Productions. The Executive Producers are Cynthia Guidry, Lainie Guidry,...
Authors Anonymous is about a dysfunctional group of unpublished writers. When they accept Hannah (Kaley Cuoco) into their fold, the last thing they expect is her overnight success. Can these lovable misfits achieve their artistic dreams and avoid killing one another in the process?
Authors Anonymous was directed by Ellie Kanner, written by David Congalton, produced by Hal Schwartz and Ellie Kanner. The film is from Kanner’s Forever Sunny Productions and Schwartz’s Bull Market Entertainment in association with Cynthia and Laine Guidry’s Lainie Productions. The Executive Producers are Cynthia Guidry, Lainie Guidry,...
- 11/16/2013
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Xan Cassevetes, daughter to indie icons John Cassevetes and Gena Rowlands, follows in family's footsteps with her feature directorial-writing debut "Kiss of the Damned" (opening this Friday in select theaters and currently available on VOD). A feverish vampire story strictly aimed at the adult set (think more "True Blood" and less "Twilight"), "Kiss of the Damned" doesn't recall the work of her famous father, but that of European masters like Michelangelo Antonioni, Claude Chabrol, Louis Feuillade, and even Dario Argento. Together with cinematographer Tobias Datum ("Smashed," "Terri"), Cassevetes conjures an intoxicating tale that seduces and frights in equal measure. What's Next: "I have four things in the works," Cassevetes told Indiewire. "One is something that I wrote before.The other are things that I’ve written since. They’re all very different, but I don’t know which one is going to be the one I am going to make.
- 5/2/2013
- by Nigel M Smith
- Indiewire
Nothing Human Loves Forever: Cassavetes’ Feature Debut Gloriously Vintage
Xan Cassavetes joins the family directorial legacy with her feature debut, Kiss of the Damned, a deliciously vintage throwback to the erotic horror output of the Hammer studio heyday. Previously, this Cassavetes was responsible for a 2004 documentary Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession, and her fiction debut seems considerably removed both from her own work and that of the familial output. A visual feast with a killer sound design, she manages to invoke Stephanie Rothman and Jean Rollin, where naughty immortal creatures from the dark side explore a bloodlust as inextinguishable as their sexual desires.
Djuna (Josephine de La Baume), a beautiful, lovelorn vampire residing in a remote mansion in the Connecticut countryside spends her nights hunting animals in the surrounding woods and watching vintage cinema. The residence belongs to Xenia (Anna Mougalalis), an actress and older, wiser vampire, but the estate...
Xan Cassavetes joins the family directorial legacy with her feature debut, Kiss of the Damned, a deliciously vintage throwback to the erotic horror output of the Hammer studio heyday. Previously, this Cassavetes was responsible for a 2004 documentary Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession, and her fiction debut seems considerably removed both from her own work and that of the familial output. A visual feast with a killer sound design, she manages to invoke Stephanie Rothman and Jean Rollin, where naughty immortal creatures from the dark side explore a bloodlust as inextinguishable as their sexual desires.
Djuna (Josephine de La Baume), a beautiful, lovelorn vampire residing in a remote mansion in the Connecticut countryside spends her nights hunting animals in the surrounding woods and watching vintage cinema. The residence belongs to Xenia (Anna Mougalalis), an actress and older, wiser vampire, but the estate...
- 5/1/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Why She's On Our Radar: Xan Cassevetes, daughter to indie icons John Cassevetes and Gena Rowlands, follows in family's footsteps with her feature directorial-writing debut "Kiss of the Damned" (playing the SXSW's Midnight section). A feverish vampire story strictly aimed at the adult set (think more "True Blood" and less "Twilight"), "Kiss of the Damned" doesn't recall the work of her famous father, but that of European masters like Michelangelo Antonioni, Claude Chabrol, Louis Feuillade, and even Dario Argento. Together with cinematographer Tobias Datum ("Smashed," "Terri"), Cassevetes conjures an intoxicating tale that seduces and frights in equal measure. What's Next: "I have four things in the works," Cassevetes told Indiewire. "One is something that I wrote before.The other are things that I’ve written since. They’re all very different, but I don’t know which one is going to be the one I am going to make. The...
- 3/10/2013
- by Nigel M Smith
- Indiewire
I believe the only people who truly enjoyed high school are those who breezed through the experience. For the rest of us, those four (or more) years of high school falls somewhere on a sliding scale of misery ranging from an annoying itch to a torturous punishment inflicted by the worst kind of mad scientist.
Stereotypes are common in films about teenagers, especially when set against the backdrop of high school. The truth is, teenagers and stereotypes go hand-in-hand. Without teenagers, there would be no stereotypes, but the burnouts, jocks and preppies of the .80s no longer apply in the new millennium. No, the typical characters of the John Hughes era have evolved along a parallel plane into some not better or worse, but different.
Director Azazel Jacobs (Momma.S Man, The Good Times Kids) delves into the strange world of the high school outsider with Terri, written by first-timer Patrick Dewitt.
Stereotypes are common in films about teenagers, especially when set against the backdrop of high school. The truth is, teenagers and stereotypes go hand-in-hand. Without teenagers, there would be no stereotypes, but the burnouts, jocks and preppies of the .80s no longer apply in the new millennium. No, the typical characters of the John Hughes era have evolved along a parallel plane into some not better or worse, but different.
Director Azazel Jacobs (Momma.S Man, The Good Times Kids) delves into the strange world of the high school outsider with Terri, written by first-timer Patrick Dewitt.
- 7/29/2011
- by Travis Keune
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Chicago – In our latest comedy edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 30 admit-two passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of the new film “Terri” starring John C. Reilly from the producers of “Blue Valentine” and “Half Nelson”!
“Terri” also stars Jacob Wysocki, Bridger Zadina, Creed Bratton, Olivia Crocicchia, Tim Heidecker, Justin Prentice, Mary Anne McGarry, Curtiss Frisle, Tara Karsian, Diane Salinger and Jenna Gavigan from co-writer and director Azazel Jacobs and co-writer Patrick Dewitt. The film opens in Chicago on July 22, 2011.
To win your free pass to the advance Chicago screening of “Terri” courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, just answer our question below. That’s it! This screening is on Monday, July 11, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. in Chicago. Directions to enter this Hookup and win can be found beneath the graphic below.
The movie poster for “Terri” starring John C. Reilly.
Image credit: Ato Pictures
Here is...
“Terri” also stars Jacob Wysocki, Bridger Zadina, Creed Bratton, Olivia Crocicchia, Tim Heidecker, Justin Prentice, Mary Anne McGarry, Curtiss Frisle, Tara Karsian, Diane Salinger and Jenna Gavigan from co-writer and director Azazel Jacobs and co-writer Patrick Dewitt. The film opens in Chicago on July 22, 2011.
To win your free pass to the advance Chicago screening of “Terri” courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, just answer our question below. That’s it! This screening is on Monday, July 11, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. in Chicago. Directions to enter this Hookup and win can be found beneath the graphic below.
The movie poster for “Terri” starring John C. Reilly.
Image credit: Ato Pictures
Here is...
- 7/6/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Cherien Dabis’ bittersweet Amreeka (2009) (Arabic for ‘America’) follows the fortunes of Muna (Nisreen Faour), a single, divorced mother, who lives in the West Bank with her teenage son, Fadi (Melkar Muallem). The opening scenes show Muna and her son having to endure regular military checkpoints on her daily commute to work in a bank. Tobias Datum shoots these scenes through the rear view mirror and dusty windscreen of Muna’s car, giving a distancing effect.Read more »...
- 6/5/2011
- by Daniel Gumble
- CineVue
Updated through 5/17.
To follow up on yesterday's "Snapshot" from Marie-Pierre Duhamel, a roundup of what, in this case, we might as well refer to as The Raves of Others.
"Inspired by the true story of a Tijuana beauty queen who got mixed up with the local narco gangsters, Gerardo Naranjo's Miss Bala is a ferociously paced crime thriller, filled with atmospheric detail and exceedingly bleak humor," blogs the Voice's J Hoberman. "Here, even more than with his Godard homage youth film I'm Gonna Explode (the great discovery of the 2008 New York Film Festival), Naranjo demonstrates an impressively fluid camera, a feel for location, and a terrific rapport with actors. Stephanie Sigman, the natural beauty who innocently stumbles through the looking glass to find herself catapulted into a series of increasingly violent gangster transactions, as well as the televised Miss Bala pageant, exhibits tremendous poise in her first major role...
To follow up on yesterday's "Snapshot" from Marie-Pierre Duhamel, a roundup of what, in this case, we might as well refer to as The Raves of Others.
"Inspired by the true story of a Tijuana beauty queen who got mixed up with the local narco gangsters, Gerardo Naranjo's Miss Bala is a ferociously paced crime thriller, filled with atmospheric detail and exceedingly bleak humor," blogs the Voice's J Hoberman. "Here, even more than with his Godard homage youth film I'm Gonna Explode (the great discovery of the 2008 New York Film Festival), Naranjo demonstrates an impressively fluid camera, a feel for location, and a terrific rapport with actors. Stephanie Sigman, the natural beauty who innocently stumbles through the looking glass to find herself catapulted into a series of increasingly violent gangster transactions, as well as the televised Miss Bala pageant, exhibits tremendous poise in her first major role...
- 5/17/2011
- MUBI
by indieWIRE (January 4, 2009) Editors Note: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling dramatic and documentary competition and American Spectrum directors who have films screening at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.
Muna Farah, a Palestinian single mom, struggles to maintain her optimistic spirit in the daily grind of intimidating West Bank checkpoints, the constant nagging of a controlling mother, and the haunting shadows of a failed marriage. Everything changes one day when she receives a letter informing her that her family has been granted a U.S. green card. Reluctant to leave her homeland, but realizing it may be the only way to secure a future for Fadi, her teenage son, Muna decides to quit her job at the bank and visit her relatives in Illinois to see about a new life in a land that gives newcomers a run for their money.
Amreeka
Director: Cherien Dabis...
Muna Farah, a Palestinian single mom, struggles to maintain her optimistic spirit in the daily grind of intimidating West Bank checkpoints, the constant nagging of a controlling mother, and the haunting shadows of a failed marriage. Everything changes one day when she receives a letter informing her that her family has been granted a U.S. green card. Reluctant to leave her homeland, but realizing it may be the only way to secure a future for Fadi, her teenage son, Muna decides to quit her job at the bank and visit her relatives in Illinois to see about a new life in a land that gives newcomers a run for their money.
Amreeka
Director: Cherien Dabis...
- 1/5/2009
- by brian
- indieWIRE - People
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